Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxq.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!floyd!harpo!ihnp4!ihuxq!ken From: ken@ihuxq.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: A New Constitutional Amendment Message-ID: <603@ihuxq.UUCP> Date: Tue, 7-Feb-84 14:39:37 EST Article-I.D.: ihuxq.603 Posted: Tue Feb 7 14:39:37 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 9-Feb-84 22:23:56 EST Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 43 -- >>> 2. Heinlein's "Semantic Amendment", also known as the "Plain English >>> Amendment." It specifies that any law or regulation of the federal >>> government may be ruled unconstitutional on the grounds that it is too >>> complicated to understand. The testing and sampling technique is >>> specified in the amendment. Lawyers, judges, law professors, etc. are >>> to be excluded from the sample. >>> Wouldn't YOU like to challenge the U.S. Tax Code on the grounds that >>> nobody can understand it? I sure would... >>> Scott Renner >>> {ihnp4,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!renner No, No!!! You silly person! The LAST thing we need is a "Plain English" amendment. What we really need is a public education system that can turn out even marginally literate citizens--folks who can read and write well enough to see that so-called bureaucratese is by its very nature semantically meaningless, but that so-called legalese is merely ugly. If you are literate, you can read and understand the Tax Code--in fact, you can even figure out exactly what fine points of distinction are being made in its sundrie high- falutin' phrases. Now, the Tax Code may be unwieldy, unfair, or even ambiguous, but it is perfectly understandable. To a literate person, anyway, and certainly to any judge. Sure, "Plain English" is a political plum. A sure safe issue. After all, who's for obfuscation? Landlords, bankers, and lawyers, that's who--and nobody likes the likes of them. But it's a ludicrous solution to the growing cancer of American illiteracy. To quote Richard Mitchell ("Less Than Words Can Say"): "It's as though you went to the hospital with a broken arm and the people in the emergency room, instead of setting the thing, got busy on the telephone trying to find you some other line of work, something that requires only one arm." -- *** *** JE MAINTIENDRAI ***** ***** ****** ****** 07 Feb 84 [18 Pluviose An CXCII] ken perlow ***** ***** (312)979-7261 ** ** ** ** ..ihnp4!ihuxq!ken *** ***