Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!margo.ots.utexas.edu!jah From: jah@margo.ots.utexas.edu (Jeff Hayward) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Amendments Message-ID: <48131@ut-emx.uucp> Date: 30 Apr 91 01:34:40 GMT References: <4364.2816d635@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <1991Apr26.141044.7544@alphalpha.com> <1991Apr28.061119.18402@eecs.nwu.edu> Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp Organization: The University of Texas Lines: 26 In article <1991Apr28.061119.18402@eecs.nwu.edu> ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu (Patrick A. Townson) writes: > [...] >No, it should *really* be noted that this option is only avoided like >the plague by lawyers, ACLU-types, and other stupid liberals who want >to save us from ourselves ... No, it's opposed only by those who impose the requirement that the delegates be of the same high quality as those in the last convention, a condition that can be qualitatively judged not likely to be met in today's (and possibly no future day's) climate. Tell me, Patrick, where you would find such statesmen as Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin today. There seems to be no one among the politically powerful today who is interested in liberty as a social goal. The original convention met under circumstances and conditions that were unique. That we obtained the constitution we did, and the body of statute and common law that has flowed from it, was the result of a series of monumentally serendipitous events. Many of us would not like to roll the dice and see what we would get another time. -- Jeff Hayward The University of Texas System +1 512 471 2444 Office of Telecommunication Services jeff@nic.the.net