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Re: "Usefull languages"

From:John Cowan <cowan@...>
Date:Wednesday, February 20, 2002, 3:54
J Y S Czhang scripsit:

> b.> IMHO it is a better constitution than most - including the > American one.
The American constitution is archaic. It is surely the oldest written constitution in the world still substantially in force: in 200+ years it has only been changed 17 times, not counting the Bill of Rights, which is packaged as 10 amendments but is essentially a paper-bag-bug fix. Of these, two are mutually canceling (Prohibition and Repeal), and only 6 by my count actually affected the machinery of government substantially; the rest were about extending civil rights, particularly the right to vote. (A paper-bag-bug is one so obvious and serious that the programmer really ought to wear a paper bag over his head until it's fixed, BTW.) What's surprising is that it's still there. Most countries with written constitutions have changed them over and over (as have most U.S. states), and even the British informal constitution was radically transformed in 1832. A few crufty conventions like the Electoral College seem quite tolerable against that massive record of continuity. -- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all. There are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful. --_The Hobbit_

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Danny Wier <dawier@...>