posted
Americans often think that they were the first to come up with a Bill of Rights. They're wrong.
For one, our British cousins came up with one in 1689, which contains most of the elements found in the US Bill of Rights, with a few exceptions, mostly having to deal with the King. (and apparently didn't apply to the colonies)
Oddly, only Protestants have the right to keep and bear firearms, 'as the law allows.' Of course, this was at the tail end of vicious Catholic/Protestant infighting, so I suppose that's the reason.
------------------ "Ed Gruberman, you fail to grasp Ty Kwan Leap. Approach me, that you might see." -- The Master
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Well, hell...if we wanna play history, we could probably run all the way back to 1215 & the Magna Carta...or even farther to the Codex Justinian as well as the Coda Hammurabi...
------------------ "My dear, I used to think that I was serving humanity... and I pleasured in the thought. Then I discovered that humanity does not want to be served; on the contrary it resents any attempt to serve it. So now I do what pleases Jubal Harshaw." ---Jubal Harshaw, Stranger In A Strange Land
posted
Yes, what exactly defines a "bill of rights"? A title at the top of the page saying "Bill of Rights"? Most people in this country probably don't even realize that the bill of rights isn't the first ten rights granted by the Constitution. It's the first ten rights they forgot to put into it the first time around, and had to add on, post facto. That's why they call them "amendments"...
------------------ "It's like the Star of David or something. But without the whole Judaism thing." -Frank Gerratana, 17-Aug-2000
posted
I'd say it's more about the first 10 things the government does NOT have the right to do. The first 10 INDIVIDUAL rights held by (not 'given to') every citizen.
What surprised me was that the old English Bill of Rights took the individual right to bear arms seriously enough to put it down in writing, but now...
Still, it was a good history lesson. I only learned about the thing this morning (new kid's book series called "A History of US", of which the last volume details the text of certain important historical documents, letters, speeches, etc. That have had an impact on the United States, from the Magna Carta to Reagan's speech at the University of Moscow.
------------------ "Ed Gruberman, you fail to grasp Ty Kwan Leap. Approach me, that you might see." -- The Master
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Is that the one where he called them the "Evil Empire" to their faces?
------------------ "My dear, I used to think that I was serving humanity... and I pleasured in the thought. Then I discovered that humanity does not want to be served; on the contrary it resents any attempt to serve it. So now I do what pleases Jubal Harshaw." ---Jubal Harshaw, Stranger In A Strange Land
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