Any flag with gold trim is a military flag. Most press conferences hosted by governors and mayors have had a gold-trimmed flag in the background. From what I have read, this means they are acting in a military capacity and possibly as an extension of the federal government, not a state government. They are acting […]
Bill Turner Video – Learning Contract
Bill Turner Video – Rule of Law
United Kingdom described as “four countries”
Well someone let this slip past the editors. A CNN headline described the United Kingdom as four countries: The United Kingdom’s four countries take a divided approach to coronavirus crisis I’m waiting for someone to describe the United States of America as a group of 50 countries. Because each state in the union is a country or […]
Is the United Nations a country? Is the EU? How about the USA?
Is the United Nations a country? Of course not, thou says. It’s an association. Is the European Union a country? Nope, is thy response. It’s a union. Is the United States of America a country? Wait a moment. The USofA is a union. It’s right there in the name. It’s the United States of America. It’s […]
Supreme Court affirms that BOTH states and USA are sovereign, separately
The United States Supreme Court recently affirmed the theory that “federal and state governments are separate constitutional actors with their own sovereign authority,” wrote Robert Barnes for the Washington Post. This involved a case where the court ruled that people can be tried for the same crime by both federal and state governments. A man […]
The film is called ‘The Accused’ not ‘The Defendants’
The ‘accused’ is the man or woman charged with a crime. It’s not the defendant. Something I read recently made me realize this distinction. I don’t know etymology of the word ‘defendant’ or why it’s something to be avoided, but I do know the ‘accused’ seems like the more appropriate label. And the old movie […]
Banks on a river, not for money
Nautical or maritime words are everywhere. Even the word ‘bank’ literally means a river bank. Ships pull up to the bank. They assume I’m a master/mister of a vessel and banked at the river. I expect I need to find a ‘savings and loan’ or a ‘safe deposit’ company, though even the word deposit/depose is […]
Traffic means movement of goods, as in the movie Traffic, about drug trafficking
The movie Traffic tells me that ‘traffic’ means to trade or deal in a commodity or service (definition). Did the police man make a ‘traffic’ stop? Not if I’m not trading or dealing in goods. They call it a traffic stop to convert traveling into a commercial activity, called trafficking, they can then regulate. Trafficking […]
An odd part of the tax code and how Alaska and Texas were states before they were states
Before Alaska and Texas were States in the Union, they were considered states in the area under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government. That the word ‘state’ can mean two different things shows how the federal tax code can be confusing. When people read the word ‘state’, they think of the 50 states in […]