Re: CHAT: cultural interpretation [was Re: THEORY: language and the brain]

Quoting Peter Bleackley <Peter.Bleackley@...>:

> Staving Mark J. Reed:
>
> >But seriously, you must admit that the US is at least the prototype of the
> >"free" state, with all that entails - some combination of "gold standard"
> >and "beta release".  We're still working out the bugs, and freedomwise
> >we unfortunately seem to be tending in the direction of less freedom
> >in the interest of (the illusion of) more safety, Ben Franklin be damned,
>
> Large parts of the US constitution were written by a man who flew a kite in
> a thunderstorm. This explains a lot.
In fact, no. Although present, Benjamin Franklin by no means "wrote
large parts". Many other men did, though if we're going to assign much
credit to any single person, that would have to go to James Madison
who is responsible for the general architecture, although many of his
pet projects didn't get into the final draft to be presented to the
States for ratification.

(You must be thinking about the Declaration of Independence, over which
Franklin did have considerable direct influence after Thomas Jefferson
finished the first draft. Notably he excised the line where Jefferson
blames King George for furthering the slave trade.)

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637