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Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Oh fer God's sake
Posted by Jill | 7:55 PM
And you thought that we'd have a break from Teh Crayzee now that the GOP has left Iowa for New Hampshire.

Screw the Constitution: Long live the Magna Carta!
New Hampshire Republicans are taking textual originalism to a whole new level: three lawmakers have proposed a bill that requires that all legislation find its origin not in the U.S. constitution, but an English document crafted in 1215.


When the legislature reconvenes this month, Republicans want their colleagues to justify many new bills with a direct quote from the 800-year-old Magna Carta:


House Bill 1580 is the product of such a brainstorming session this summer between three freshman House Republicans: Bob Kingsbury of Laconia, Tim Twombly of Nashua and Lucien Vita of Middleton. The eyebrow-raiser, set to be introduced when the Legislature reconvenes next month, requires legislation to find its origin in an English document crafted in 1215.


“All members of the general court proposing bills and resolutions addressing individual rights or liberties shall include a direct quote from the Magna Carta which sets forth the article from which the individual right or liberty is derived,” is the bill’s one sentence.


The Magna Carta, while famed as the first major declaration of rights under English monarchy, is a bit outdated in its actual prose.


The Magna Carta is indisputably an important historical document, with ideas about liberty that inspired America’s founders. But as the Concord Monitor points out, the substance of the document is fixated on the tedium of feudal times, and has little if any relevance to modern American life.



Maybe now it doesn't. But once the Republicans get through with us, it will be perfectly relevant.

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3 Comments:
Blogger Phil said...
I would like to thank them for finally coming out and saying out loud that they want to drag everyone of us back to the thirteenth fucking century.

I have been accusing them of exactly that for years now.

The cat is out of the bag now.
1/4/12, 8:43 PM  
Blogger PurpleGirl said...
Have those three guys read the Magna Carta?

This is really absurd.
1/4/12, 9:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
"...fixated on the tedium of feudal times..."

Well it makes perfect sense to me that these genetically challenged throwbacks would want to go back to the Magna Carta. Feudal times are exactly what they'd like to take us back to--with corporations (they're people!) and Wall Street as Our Lords and Masters....and with the Church regulating every aspect of our lives, just like the good old days....

But don't worry--at some point, even the Magna Carta won't be good enough for them. Soon they'll be demanding a quote from the Code of Hammurabai...
1/5/12, 2:18 PM  
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