“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
The preceding 28 words are the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution. From Cornell Law School,
“The Tenth Amendment helps to define the concept of federalism, the relationship between Federal and state governments…
Federalism is a system of government in which the same territory is controlled by two levels of government. Generally, an overarching national government is responsible for broader governance of larger territorial areas, while the smaller subdivisions, states, and cities govern the issues of local concern.
Both the national government and the smaller political subdivisions have the power to make laws and both have a certain level of autonomy from each other.” [emphasis mine]
Far too many Americans do not understand that the US is a FEDERAL republic and NOT a unitary one. The Founding Fathers did not want power concentrated in a central government. I could cite Supreme Court rulings that referred to the Tenth Amendment, but I’ll spare you the legal lesson.
I see a key meaning of the Tenth Amendment as being no state or group of states can use the federal government as a hammer to force other states to adopt the same laws. Utah and California do NOT have to have exactly the same set of state laws.
I will refrain from writing about manifestations of federalism, but I believe the Tenth Amendment is far more important than the general public understands. If you don’t like how the state in which you live governs, then you can always move.
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Last Friday, I received cortisone injections in my big toes for the second time, the first time being last December. Now that I am wearing a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) I can tell you that the shots negatively affected my blood glucose (BG). (Wearing a CGM has enabled me to lower my HbA1c, a measure of average BG over a period of time.)
I can also tell you that the post-procedure pain was much worse this time than the first. Late Friday afternoon, the pain in my right toe was a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale. This morning, almost three days later, the pain has subsided but is still too severe for me to resume my treadmill workouts.
I have written about the state of my feet–I think I have even shown a picture of them, but will refrain from ever doing so again–that really make it impossible for me to drive a standard manual transmission. I HAVE to exercise, but do NOT have to drive a stick.
Once again I will note that in my many years in the car hobby the only truly unpleasant people I have met are the manual transmission fascists who insist that all car aficionados must drive a stick. I guess they don’t understand the “Tenth Amendment” of driving.
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So many cars just one life can also mean too many cars just one life for an OCD- and ADD-addled car nut. While I would still assess the probability that I buy an F-Type companion at 95% and the probability that car is a Toyota Supra at 95%, the latter is not 100%. Lately, my very flawed brain has been thinking about a car like this.
This is a 2017 Nissan GT-R. Given the cost of used GT-Rs (this one is listed at just under $100,000) I am certainly not going to buy one, but sure wish it could be a real possibility. The 2014-18 GT-R listed on Autotrader within 50 miles of where I live with the lowest list price is a 2014 model with almost 45,000 miles; the dealer is asking $77,500. Six of the eleven cars meeting my criteria have an asking price in six figures.
I am not a multi-millionaire and I am not getting rid of my F-Type. Any F-Type companion cannot and will not cost me as much as the most I have ever paid for a car, which was the $61,000 I spent on the 2016 Corvette Z06 I bought in March, 2019. (Where did that time go?!) The least expensive GT-Rs within 50 miles of me are a pair of 2009 models listed at just under $70,000. I’m not buying a 15-year old car, even if it is a Nissan. Cars farther away that might have a lower asking price will probably incur shipping costs that will negate any price “advantage.”
I can rationalize my car obsession by saying it’s much better than having a gambling problem (a rough estimate is that between one million and five million American adults have a gambling addiction) and I really don’t have an automobile addiction as I do not pull the trigger on a car purchase compulsively or impulsively. Still, I think about cars I could buy almost every day.
Do any of you have something that you think about every day, but something that is not a part of your daily life? Sorry, but have to show this reminder again:
PLEASE click on the tiny “Read on blog” link or the post title itself in the email notifying you of a new post. Thanks.
This would probably be more effective at the beginning of a post. I’ll “fix” that in the future.
#TheTenthAmendment
#NissanGT-R