[CLUE-Talk] Bowling for Columbine

[Jed S. Baer]

On Tue, 3 Dec 2002 00:01:14 -0700
"Timothy C. Klein" <teece at silverklein.net> wrote:

> > "Timothy C. Klein" <teece at silverklein.net> wrote:
> > >  It
> > > is not simply enough to point to the Constitution and say 'look see,
> > > it says.'  I am not accusing you of that, but many ardent defenders
> > > of the Second Amendment do nothing more than that.  For their
> > > argument to be effective, at least in my mind, you have argue why
> > > the Constitution is correct.
> > 
> > Ah, but now you're heading of into the pure philosophical territory of
> > what determines whether a govt. and/or a society is fair, just, etc.
> > And,
> 
> Ah, exactly where I wanted to be. :-)
> 
> > far as the Consitution goes. However, within the arena of U.S. law,
> > the Constitution is, by definition,*right*, even if we argue about
> > what a particular clause might mean. And that's a difficult definition
> > of *right*, but it's what we have.
> 
> Sure, in legal terms, the Constitution is by definition right, but that
> is not what I am talking about.  That is very boring.  I mean if we are
> going to debate the merits of the Constipation

ROTFL! (Yes, I know what you meant ;-). But I think the 107th Congress
suffered from the opposite condition, which explains why they left a lot
of legislation unconsidered -- they were just plain pooped out.

> and the protections and
> rules it lays out, one *can't* start form the assumption that it is
> right.  That is begging the question: what, then would be the point of
> the debate?  The Constitution is amendable, and if we want to amend it,
> we must present reasons why.  And if we want to talk among ourselves
> about the quality of the Constitution, we must do the same. :-)

Well, it certainly helps the debate to be on the same footing. But most of
this debate has sprouted from the 2nd Amendment, so that's the context
I've been in.

But if the debate is more general, then put me in Jefferson's camp. I
think these days that means, at a minimum, anti-aircraft defense.

jed
-- 
We're frogs who are getting boiled in a pot full of single-character
morphemes, and we don't notice. - Larry Wall; Perl6, Apocalypse 5