Great post; I will be following along! I appreciate both the lucidity of your explanation and the Johnsonian prose which is something I only ever dream of producing myself. In your opinion, what are some negative externalities that are NOT widely agreed upon? I would offer industrial-scale meat production and consumption and maybe excess incarceration (especially along the lines of drug criminalization). 

Thanks for the guidance. I suppose I am interested in the boring parts of the constitution and would welcome any suggestions on where to start. As for methodology, can you offer any advice on how to set out on a course of self-study for someone not attending school? (i.e. What are your habits for teaching yourself new material? Do you simply read, or do you annotate? How do you reinforce what you learn without external forces like examination? What does your scheme of work look like?)