You left out comment on the below. Such is not comprehensive and not competent in rational discussion.
Originally Posted by Christopher A. Brown 
The constitution is mechanistic legal structure and it has at least prevented its own extinguishment for quite a long time.
Obviously structure and semantics are strong enough to last 226 years
despite the act of 1871. You are wrong.
But in a very real sense they have
not lasted that long. To have "The Constitution" as we currently do, is to have it more in name than anything else. The Constitution is not an all-or-nothing monobloc. It is a composite structure, as I am sure you will agree. Given that, how much of "The Constitution" does one still
really have in the deepest spirit of the original? Given that most of the rights to which the document refers are now crushed under the heel of the government boot, please tell me the significance of paying some marginal lip-service to some scrawl on nearing-ancient parchment. When we no longer abide by the most singularly important aspects of the Constitution, does its technical status as the "law of the land" really matter?
Seriously now Christopher - why should be give the least damn about the Senate, House of Representatives, courts, and so on and so forth when the Bill of Rights, by FAR the most important section of the document, is all but ignored in toto? Ask yourself what it means when you say that it has lasted "226 years". It has been gutted in point of practice, has it not? Well now, you can still go and vote vote vote... whoopdee doo... Has voting restored your liberties? It surely has done nothing to help mine. So please, if you can articulate how and why the Constitution is relevant when the key players no longer pay it all that much mind, please do so.
In the past I have written what I shall now repeat: it is not the Constitution that has failed, but rather we, the "People" to whom it refers and for whom it was ostensibly drafted. The bottom line is that any constitution is only as good as the people over whom it purports to serve as Law. That said, it remains true that ours is weakly written, for had it been better constructed, then legislation such as the Act of 1871 would have been either impossible to enact or vastly more difficult.
I will again repeat myself: the jewels enshrined in our Constitution are imperiled by the dangerous structural elements and declarations also contained therein. The "power to lay taxes", without specific and strict delimitation, opened the door to what we have today. The absence of an explicitly expressed and properly designed, irrefutable mechanism for each individual human being to defeat legislative violations of their inherent rights has lead to heaps of such violations and the rise of the instruments to those ends - mainly police. As we have learned in the intervening years, especially since 9/11, the Constitution enshrined both the rights of man and the mechanisms for defeating them in a "law abiding" and peaceable population, which would be us.
Originally Posted by osan 
And in such contexts, "compromise" is perhaps the most vile of all the words.
Are you saying that violence is better?
In some cases, it becomes the only solution that does not include capitulation to tyrants. Without violence, we'd be subjects of the Crown... that is, if any of us would even be alive.
In the right circumstances, it most certainly is. Ref. the Second Amendment. As some say, "it ain't about duck hunting."
Are you constitutional by suggesting such a thing, or the effect of your ambiguity?
Not following your reference to my "ambiguity". I do not see where my words have been ambiguous. Can you point it out so I may respond clearly?
And you have not defined which compromise is "vile".
Any compromise on the fundamental and inherent rights of men is vile. No man may lay claim to the authority to deny any right of a free man to act in accord with the dictates of his will. This stands in contrast to one's authority to circumscribe the rights of men who stand under debt for the crimes of which they have been duly and rightly convicted or are in the process of committing.
Cherry picking in ambiguous obfuscation.
I may be guilty of some faults, flaws, and errors, but cherry picking is one of those things that I NEVER do for the sake of "winning". Therefore, you have somewhere misconstrued my intended meaning, perhaps through my flawed constructions or your poor eyesight, I cannot tell which. But cherry picking has not occurred. I will point out that there is a fundamental difference between cherry picking and unintentional omission, and that difference in
intent.
If I cannot prevail with a clean argument, I will not argue and will, in fact, admit my inferior position and have the point in question settled. I am nothing, if not honorable in that regard.
No wonder AF is slamming you.
Can you show me?
Oh, now your vague ambiguity is "shorthand"
Your tone and the very content of this last statement seem to indicate that you are looking to pick a fight, which I do not grok in the least. I am attempting to have an adult discussion here, making points, asking questions, and so forth. You appear to be seeking to interpret my words as being somehow confrontational and disingenuous, which they are not. Furthermore, you appear to be reading into my words that which is not present. Here I am unable to help you, save to say that I am engaging in no chicanery whatsoever. I seek to learn and perhaps on occasion to illuminate, that is all. I have no agenda beyond this. Were it otherwise, I would have to assess my last five years on this site as a miserable failure... which it may be anyway, but not for that reason.
Originally Posted by osan 
Here, my use of "states" might more precisely have been taken to mean that the PEOPLE of each of the states would have convened with each other to work out these irrelevant details of structure and procedure by which the functions of governance would be carried out and carried forth.
But you have NO DESCRIPTION of how the people would have convened.
So? I was not intending to speak of those mechanisms. I'd not even given it consideration because in the context of the discussion it was not relevant. If you are interested in my thoughts on it, just ask. I see no need to adopt a tone that takes on an accusatory quality. You appear to believe me ot be of nefarious intent, or are otherwise attempting to paint me in such a light. There is not much I can say about that.
Again, not comprehensive enough to be competent in this discussion BECAUSE I am defining HOW the people are to convene by describing how social unity can be created around "referenced principles [that] are universally applicable to all [resonable, honest] men".
Once again, your tone. Perhaps we should simply ignore one another because at this point I see no way that I am going to please you, save to agree fully with everything you write.
Prime constitutional intent relating to the ultimate purpose of free speech is what Americans can unify around.
They could also unify around my kitchen sink - all well and good, but to what effect? You accuse me of vagaries, then turn around and commit the self-same sin. You are becoming difficult to follow. Perhaps I am simply not smart enough?
Unity is convening in a social sense. When that escalates it becomes officially "convening". Accordingly, with your argument you are refusing to convene, to unify, to agree with "referenced principles [that] are universally applicable to all men" or at least those that are honest.
The
hell? I can divine no rational sense of this at all. Apparently I was correct in assessing myself intellectually insufficient.
Originally Posted by osan 
With the proper expression, understanding, and holding of the fundamental principles of human sovereignty and human relations, this potential would have remained vanishingly small. Smart people, imbued with the attitude of intolerant vigilance pursuant to their love and desire to be free, would flay and slay anyone who would date so much as suggest the adoption or imposition of anything that would diminish the Individual Prerogative. A nation of such übermenschen would be indomitable by would-be tyrants.
We have said almost exactly the same thing, except I have been specific and you have been vague.
OK, now I have to call "bullshit". I do not need to be epsilon-specific to make a valid argument that is generalized in order to express the point without writing a tome 3x the length of War and Peace. For heaven's sake man, have you no sense of proportion in terms of a given discussion? We can have that other discussion, but it requires you come at me with proper questions and not vaguely expressed quasi-accusations of disingenuousness, dishonesty, and general incompetence.
I specifically have stated that unity creates the power to defeat tyranny and I've defined that such statement IS constitutional intent but that one of the deficiencies of the constitution is that IT DOES NOT DIRECTLY state that fact.
OK... and?
It is by implication and inference. Both of which can be logically and competently made in this case.
IF the framers stated we have the right to alter or abolish government destructive to unalienable rights, THEN they intended for us to have power adequate to do so.
WHERE would that power come from?
Ultimately, the muzzles of their rifles. Therefore, the 2A.
Our unity is the only logical answer.
It is an
element of the answer, not the entirety of it. As history shows, people can be convinced to rally around almost anything. Just look at sporting events.
Freedom of speech is the only possible logical answer.
You appear to conflate the necessary with the sufficient.
CONCLUSION-Free speech has the ultimate purpose of enabling unity adequate to alter or abolish government destructive to unalienable rights.
Non sequitur.
Now, if you cannot compromise at this point, you will forever be the bitch of the infiltrated government that you hate so much you've developed intellectual myopia.
Oh BULLSHIT. You have your opinion, which you make clear, and I have mine. Let us leave it at that.
Originally Posted by osan 
Those principles have been worked out right here in the past few weeks. I'd begun work on them years ago and finally put them forth to the rest and we came up with this. From these principles, the entire body of objectively correct and complete Law may be derived, which I will add would manifest the compact elegance that appears to have charmed so many about our Constitution. With that in hand, the nation would right itself in short order, were it to be recognized as the supreme and immutable law of the land.
Okay, I've read some of your blog and find it quite good relating to the united nations which I do not trust anymore than you. However, the same deficiency exist here where you skip over the social mechanism that enables unity.
What does my treatment of the UN have to do with the issue at hand?
You assume that definition of the positive and negative aspects completes your analysis.
I have assumed no such thing. I made an analytic statement and nothing more. I am afraid I can no longer trust what you write or the purpose behind it.
Honesty in discussion is required too.
And here you make yourself almost plain in your accusations.
You have a good day. Believe what you will, and I shall do the same.
End of discussion.