Cass Sunstein to get Consent and Approval TODAY?

[dominic]

Sunstein says "animals should be permitted to bring suit, with human beings as their representatives …"

Well then I propose that I should then be able to bring suit against animals. I say lets bring back the animal trials seen in the middle ages where if an animal wronged you you could put it on trial and if its found guilty you could execute it and have a B-B-Q afterward.

Animal trials actually happened too. If you don't believe it read "The law is an ***: The medievel prosecution and capital punishment of animals" http://www.animalsandsociety.org/ass...y/276_s216.pdf

If you are gored by an ox or kicked by a mule, sue it.

[Old Timer]

Ugh, ok... The constitution was written in a different language. How trite.

Well, your mischaracterization of Mike's statement is trite, but Mike is, essentially, correct. He may be a little confused regarding the time frames of Old English, Middle English, and Modern English, but he is correct regarding philological changes in word usage over time.

Just to clarify:

Old English was dominant from 500AD through 1100AD (Norman Conquest, 1066)
Middle English was dominant from 1100 through 1500.
Modern English has been dominant from 1500 to the Present.

As can be seen the US constitution, written in the late 1700s, or the late 18th century, was clearly written in Modern English. However, philology does not slavishly follow time tables. Just look at the 2nd Amendment to see this fact glaringly illustrated. "Well regulated" means something entirely different today than it did in 1787 when it was written or 1788 when it was ratified.

The philology section of the Oxford English Dictionary, as already stated, can be very useful in deciphering the meaning of words as they were used in the late 18th century. Most early 21st century English readers are relatively ignorant of both etymology and philology. Another "triumph" of the American education system!

[JarenC81]

Well, unless I've used that argument over and over my "mischaracterization" as you put it is not trite(triumph). I've heard the argument that words mean something completely different as a way to discredit the 2nd. And truly I've lost interest in that argument as I sincerely believe that any reasonable person can understand it's meaning. Not to mention that the 2nd was not written in a vacuum.

Perhaps my comment was a bit much but he did say English was a different language.

[cousinkix1953]

Excepts from this lunatic's speeches are finding their way to cable TV and the internet.

More power to those college students, who conducted a successful sting operation against ACORN too...