@ Shooterman: I was just coming to think about this as i was hitting "send" on my previous comment. I am sorry (and i apologize to you) that i didn't pay more attention to what you'd already said. Kudos to you, friend.

Brilliant. It's so easy to get caught up in the "bigger is better/more powerful" and forget that the states (or, more to the point, each and every state) is more powerful than the Federal government. "Federal laws" do *not* supercede state laws! (Although many government agents may want you to believe otherwise.)

Very interesting! I had never considered where the "value" went when it fled due to inflation on money in peoples' savings, for instance.

Hear, hear! Well said. I wish more people would pay attention to this idea. Most people these days seem to feel they have rights and *other* people have obligations.