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PaperclipPerfector  9d ago (text post)   26158 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 28, 2025

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If the government can fund an army and a navy, then when the Air Force is invented, we decide whether it's more like an army or navy for the purposes of being able to fund it. Fortunately, the government is permitted to fund both, so this is easy: the government can fund one.

It is not a question of "being able to fund it". It's a question of whether it's authorized in the first place. So, is it an Army or a Navy?

Same answer. We decide whether it's more like the army or navy for the purpose of being authorized. As both of them are authorized, the answer is easy: it's authorized either way.

You're not giving me an answer. Is it an Army or a Navy? Saying "we decide" isn't an answer. What is your hypothetical decision? What are the reasons?

It is trivially an army: it was originally the Army Air Force and was only separated from the Army for bureaucratic convenience.

Do you think it also satisfies the clauses that describe "land and naval Forces"? Is it a land Force or a naval Force?

It is obviously a land force as demonstrated by its fixed assets (bases, airfields, etc). That some of its units are temporarily airborne doesn't change this fact anymore than the fact that a person who is running temporarily loses all contact with the ground would make running soldiers no longer part of an army.

Do ports and shipyards make it so that the US Navy is a land Force, since it probably doesn't matter whether some of its units are temporarily waterborne, in the same way that a US Army soldier swimming across a river wouldn't make it a naval Force?

Does the fact that the US Army maintains its own fleet of ships make it a navy? Are the aircraft that are still directly under the US Army unconstitutional? What about the aircraft that are part of the US Navy?

Good questions! You're the one who tried to make this the way we make the determination, so I'll be interested to hear your answers.

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