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Did you just kinda compare yourself to the founding fathers? nossy Send a noteboard - 30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM
The founding of America is simply my favorite time in history. I'm simply in awe of the men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and, heck, even Thomas Paine. Their personal writings are mesmerizing. Nobody writes like that anymore. You could quote just about anything they wrote and apply it to an arguement about politics and blow people away. Their intellect is unmatched nowadays, sadly. Seriously, is there anybody out there right now writing such deep, meaningful things about life and liberty?

These people wrote a document that founded a country and is still, after 200+ years, almost unassailable. How incredibly amazing is that? And also sad, that we haven't managed to improve upon the foundation that was established so many years ago. This country is simply not what it was or how it was suppose to be. Still, for all the cracks in that foundation, it's still something special.

How I wish there was a founding father-type person running for election. What a world that would be.

People writing like that today would find their Wall of Text met by a Wall of TL;DR. Any sentence with more than two clauses is simply too complex for Short Attention Span Theater, as is any document with more than two paragraphs.

While I think you have part of a good point, the intimation and my mental picture totally cracked me up. :D

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

That is ONE SENTENCE, not even an especially long one, by constitutional standards. Look at section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment, almost a century later:

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

People no longer write like that because few can be bothered to read and comprehend it. Ending government by sound bite is as simple as demanding better instead of demanding simplicity. Heaven knows we should; the Constitutions text well demonstrates most government policy is too complex to fully address in five words.
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Anybody here ever studied the founding fathers of America? Dark Knight - 30/08/2012 07:34:28 PM 845 Views
Slave-owning, mysoginist, wig-wearing members of the landed elite? Bored - 30/08/2012 07:51:33 PM 586 Views
Ha! Yeah, all personal faults aside Dark Knight - 30/08/2012 07:54:13 PM 520 Views
Not John Adams or Alexander Hamilton.....fool! *NM* Anonymous2000 - 31/08/2012 05:18:05 AM 310 Views
No, never, not even briefly. Joel - 30/08/2012 07:57:39 PM 603 Views
What? Nooooo way Dark Knight - 30/08/2012 08:06:30 PM 606 Views
My US history class was an hour long and I always got distracted by a butterfly or something. Joel - 30/08/2012 08:50:39 PM 540 Views
Did you just kinda compare yourself to the founding fathers? nossy - 30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM 642 Views
Not positively, but I have often thought they were a bad influence on me. Joel - 30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM 626 Views
Funny, my reaction to sentences like those is nearly the opposite. Legolas - 30/08/2012 08:11:34 PM 579 Views
Fair point; it is revealing that none of the Bill of Rights amendments have multiple sections. Joel - 30/08/2012 08:39:24 PM 617 Views
You're projecting. *NM* Ghavrel - 31/08/2012 12:48:12 AM 274 Views
I am aspiring. Joel - 31/08/2012 01:09:40 AM 731 Views
As a personal aside ... Nate - 31/08/2012 01:43:45 AM 660 Views
Yes. nossy - 31/08/2012 01:49:41 AM 673 Views
Like I say, maybe I invest too much in online posting. Joel - 31/08/2012 02:02:58 AM 700 Views
Re: Nate - 31/08/2012 02:27:00 AM 679 Views
Re: Re: Joel - 31/08/2012 02:37:35 AM 683 Views
Well nossy - 31/08/2012 02:54:25 AM 693 Views
It does get repetitive too often. Joel - 31/08/2012 05:07:41 AM 693 Views
Doesn't really matter. You're gonna keep doing it. nossy - 31/08/2012 05:16:23 AM 639 Views
Maybe.... Joel - 31/08/2012 05:03:11 PM 685 Views
Re: Maybe.... nossy - 31/08/2012 05:15:52 PM 500 Views
Re: Maybe.... Joel - 31/08/2012 06:18:32 PM 645 Views
You aren't Plato, Burke, or Madison. Ghavrel - 31/08/2012 10:34:22 AM 600 Views
That is why it is aspiration rather than equivalence. Joel - 31/08/2012 05:01:20 PM 568 Views
I'm not so sure you're entirely right. nossy - 30/08/2012 11:06:39 PM 727 Views
I did. They smelled of mahogany and death. They looked scabby and skeletal. TaskmasterJack - 31/08/2012 12:35:44 AM 631 Views
Sounds like you have a job to do. Joel - 31/08/2012 01:11:10 AM 632 Views
Don't forget Hamilton! The creator of the American economy..... *NM* Anonymous2000 - 31/08/2012 05:19:50 AM 322 Views
... and big government. Joel - 01/09/2012 01:54:20 PM 520 Views
I don't really buy that..... Anonymous2000 - 01/09/2012 08:33:28 PM 570 Views
Hamilton loudly and often advocated a central bank, national debt and active federal government. Joel - 01/09/2012 08:41:50 PM 766 Views
I think the entire Age of Enlightenment is fascinating random thoughts - 31/08/2012 06:32:23 PM 549 Views
You realize you just made a great argument for intelligentsia rule, right? Joel - 01/09/2012 01:48:58 PM 640 Views
I would want better intelligenstia first random thoughts - 01/09/2012 02:48:28 PM 707 Views
Ah, the old uneducated>miseducated argument. Joel - 01/09/2012 03:39:07 PM 657 Views
*wonders if we could test* Burr - 02/09/2012 02:45:10 PM 543 Views
no there is a better reason why it wouldn't work random thoughts - 02/09/2012 02:58:18 PM 676 Views
No,no, I was wondering if -we- could test it. Burr - 03/09/2012 04:17:11 PM 580 Views
yeah I am a bit of a cynic *NM* random thoughts - 04/09/2012 03:01:28 PM 281 Views
I expect the rankings would be too subjective for credibility. Joel - 02/09/2012 04:27:32 PM 663 Views
I listen to some of supposed intellectuals talk and I am unimpressed random thoughts - 02/09/2012 02:53:21 PM 574 Views
Being well read does not make one smart, but does facilitate it to a great degree. Joel - 02/09/2012 04:32:05 PM 526 Views
I like the Starship Trooper approach random thoughts - 02/09/2012 05:04:17 PM 633 Views
I run very hot and cold on that one. Joel - 02/09/2012 06:28:44 PM 729 Views
The problem I'd have with that draft for votes idea... Burr - 03/09/2012 04:28:34 PM 646 Views
I am not so sure it would. Joel - 03/09/2012 05:45:39 PM 670 Views
What was that again about "you have a right to your own opinion, not your own facts"? Legolas - 03/09/2012 06:39:01 PM 693 Views
Ah, right; I had forgotten our previous discussion of conscriptions termination in the '90s and '00s Joel - 03/09/2012 06:48:28 PM 625 Views
If you worked with more engineers you might change your opinion on the science degree part random thoughts - 04/09/2012 03:00:16 PM 571 Views
Maybe; I would likely just conclude horse sense is uncommon everywhere, but less so in engineers. Joel - 05/09/2012 12:11:58 AM 486 Views
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