But He Swore...
After my lame effort to point out the silliness of thinking that a cop swearing to tell the truth means he won't take the stand and lie, Ed at Blawg Review sent me a link to George Carlin who, of course, says it better and funnier than I possibly could. Enjoy.
Why nobody put Carlin on the Supreme Court during his life is beyond me. He is the only one that seems to understand the Constitution and the criminal justice system.
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They never would have made it through oral argument with Carlin on the bench. Everybody would have been laughing too hard.
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I have to challenge you on that statement. See my other comment below demonstrating Carlin's horrible misrepresentation (if not misunderstanding) of the Constitution.
But I do generally like his libertarian spirit.
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There have been many comedians on the Court, but at least Carlin's humor was intentional. Like all great art, sometimes the literal meaning is less important than the metaphor.
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Off topic, but elsewhere in the same show he does a bit about religion and hats that is absolutely killer.
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You know I really like Carlin's comedy, but there's a bit of ignorance in this one that gets me worked up.
He talks about the rights in our Constitution as being limited to ten (which is ignorant itself in that he implies that the ten amendments are each outlining a right). But of course our rights aren't limited to those specifically mentioned in the Bill of Rights; as the 9th amendment states.
And there was lots of argument among the "founders" about whether to specify any rights because of this danger of being limited to those enumerated - thus the 9th amendment.
And yes, I realize it's just humor. But he did a great disservice by propagating this fundamental ignorance of our Constitution and our rights. An ignorance that has plagued us for a long time; among those on the "left" and "right", unfortunately.
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Just yesterday, I was chatting with a guy who was complaining about how the Zoning Board of Appeals blew him off and ignored his arguments. He showed me an extensive list of points, each with a detailed list of supporting data, that he felt completely supported his position.
I asked him what his three best arguments were. He told me. I told him to throw out the rest of the list. If he couldn't win on his three best arguments, he wasn't winning on his seven worst arguments. Sometimes, it's necessary to play into people's common, even if mistaken, perceptions to make a point. Trying to shake them off the perceptions is a point in itself. Expecting someone to accomplish everything in one shot usually means failure, so it's usually more persuasive to hit the point you want to make and leave other issues for another day. Or maybe for never, because they just aren't as important.
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I think the fact that our rights are not limited to those enumerated in the BoR is much more important than whatever other point he was trying to make. It's fundamental to our Constitution, along with the fact that govt powers are limited to those enumerated.
Whatever, it's not worth arguing about. Just a comedian, after all. It's just a sore spot with me as our Constitution continues to be eroded before our eyes.
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