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Saturday, December 4, 2010

Basic Operating Instructions

When things malfunction, the thing to do is to pull out the operating instructions. Something might be functioning pretty good for years, but then the works gum up. Going back to the manual often reveals the problem. Basic maintenance might have been neglected, operating short cuts taken, or features added that hurt reliability.

That's why I like to occasionally read the United States Constitution. It's our country's operating manual. If nothing else, focus on the Bill of Rights. It's surprisingly easy to read and makes sense. One can't but help wonder how the works have been so messed up with such straight forward instructions.

Reasonable people can disagree and interpret things differently. The Supreme Court is supposed to sort such things out. How good are they doing? How often do they do a complete 180 on earlier decisions? Does what they do make sense to the the average reasonably intelligent person?

You know how some people just can't read or understand a basic manual? Perhaps more care should be taken on who gets on the court. In my humble opinion, a background in law should be a disqualifying factor. Lawyers don't use plain English. It looks a bit like English, but over time legal language acquired meanings different from plain English. Since the Constitution was written in plain English, we should appoint people who know what English is. Beware those who corrupt the meanings of plain words.

When all else fails, go back to the basic operation instructions.

-Sixbears

5 comments:

  1. most "smart geniuses" pride themselves on not reading the instruction manual first,which then leads to people like me whom use the same instructions to debug the foulup.

    clueless forgets; batteries required; plug in power supply; add fuel to tank; warm up engine before racing; ectra and so fort.

    aS A RESULT THE EMERGENCY WARD IS BUSY POST CHRISTMASS DAY..

    fun goes on///

    Wildflower

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  2. Sixbears,that is the smartest thing I have read all week! lawyers can take up three pages to say what we could say in one sentence.Judges,Govt,everything that deals with America and/or her citizens are post that should be filled by her citizens.Regular citizens not just the rich who can by their way into the club!

    China
    III

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  3. Heh, it all depends on what your definition of "IS" is... The only use I have in mind for lawyers is to line the pit we throw the bankers and politicians into...

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  4. ...to mirror China,best post i've seen in a while,got a couple 'pocket constitutions',in various locales,just to trump stupid people...

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  5. You touch on something that more people really need to know. "It looks a bit like English" is no accident. They redefine words in law so only they know what it really means. A big part of my path to freedom is studying the constitution and the law. Did you know that they define person as a corporation? (you are not a person, you have a person) Using law dictionaries and looking up words like person, driver, building, etc has presented some huge surprises. Once the legal meaning of a word is understood, the laws and statutes become even more frightening. However, it is an ability to be fluent in legal terms that provides us with the keys to our freedom.

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