On Government…

Despite his many faults throughout the
campaign, John McCain said in thirty seconds what Barack Obama failed to say in
thirty minutes: “Education is the civil rights issue of this century. Equal
access to public education has been gained. But what is the value of access to a
failing school? We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with
competition, empower parents with choice, remove barriers to qualified
instructors, attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find
another line of work.”
– Carl Paulus

While listening to two guys
discuss Constitutional theory, I was struck by how odd the phrase “original
intent” is. Original intent is just intent. What other intention is there? How
can a text intend anything other than what its author did? How can a text even
be anything except what its author intended? What is there to “being authored”
except being what the author intends? To think a text can take on an intent
apart from its author is yet another instance of the odd and absurd belief that
Contemporary men have about tools being able to take on a life of their own
(like when we fret or crow about how computers technology will improve to the
point where computers will think- which is about as reasonable as thinking that
towel making will improve to the point that towels will become chinchillas, or
airplanes will become so graceful that they will turn into swans and
pelicans.)
– James Chastek