Sovereignty is composed of: 1. The will to rule 2. The ability to subdue all challengers Why is the Creator Sovereign of the universe? He has the Will to rule He has the Power, the strong Right Arm to subdue all challengers

"You can tell a leftist by their desire to take away the properties of others for the common good -- usually because they have no property of their own and have resigned to the fact that to work for it would take too long" Leftists - socialists-communists-fascists are essentially slavers.

"Franklin recognized that great weath is the product of society, not just the individual..." Wealth is the product of the sun, the air, the water, and the soil, plus human ingenuity. The collective (an imaginary - fictitious - entity) cannot produce wealth without the efforts of those individuals who compose it. This "collective" is not the state, which purpose is to take away individuals' lives, liberty and property, but any group of two or more people working together to a common goal. The state is founded upon FORCE, not on voluntary consent. Most wealth is produced by the common efforts of individuals VOLUNTARILY. Some wealth may be produced by slaves under their master's whip, but they have little incentive but avoiding the whip to produce anything more than they consume.

Ole Ben sounds kinds socialistic, huh? Whatever community project a majority of my neighbors (who vote) want they can force me to support by offering to drive me out of my home at gunpoint. Socialist schools, parks, whatever they want, rights be damned. They (or their hired gunmen) outgun me, so they can do as they please, as long as they sing about their wonderful ideals of liberty and just-us.

"The federal government was NEVER supposed to own land except for a FEW small parks and monuments (in Washington DC)" The federal govt. is supposed to possess exclusive jurisdiction over the federal district, "forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards and other needful BUILDINGS" (such as prisons?). Before the fedgov can have exclusive jurisdiction over land within a state it must first PURCHASE (not confiscate) the land, must have said jurisdiction ceded by act of the state legislature, accepted by congress, and it must be EXCLUSIVE (not JOINT) jurisdiction. National forests, parks, grasslands, etc., are held by the fedgov as an "ordinary proprietor," that is, just like any other landowner. Federal kopz on such territory are private guards, not public police, unless they are commissioned by proper authority within each state (deputized by the sheriff, commissioned by the city police or by the state govt.). Many of them work for the Federal Protective Service, a bureau of the GSA. In Idaho (perhaps in other states) the national forests belong to the state of Idaho, not to the fedgov (USDA/Forest Service). The FS merely administrates the land. According to the Act of Admission (1890) of Idaho all lands held by the fedgov were transferred to the state of Idaho EXCEPT such as fell into the category of "forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards and other needful buildings." Jefferson expressed his suspicion that the Louisiana Purchase was unconstitutional but signed the bill anyway. So much for Tom's principles. Too big an opportunity to let the constitution and his oath get in the way!

The state outlives the individuals who purportedly compose it. Unless it collapses. Then usually a new state supplants the old. Don't ever forget that the state is a fictitious entity. A fiction. "It" doesn't exist except as an imagination of those who wrote its formative instrument, or thought its formative thoughts. We are real. We exist. The state does not. How, then, can the state do anything? It can't. Only real, live, human beings can act on behalf of the state. And by what authority? By that which comes forth the muzzle of a gun. It's really all hearts and minds - the hearts and minds of those who hold the guns and act collectively against the individual and weaker collectives.