STAY CRAZY, COW HAMPSHIRE

[rmd]

Apparently, some legislators in NH are bored, or at least craving the yoke of monarchic rule.

Ladies, gentlemen, and assorted LJ readers, I present New Hampshire bill HB1580:

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twelve

AN ACT requiring a reference to the Magna Carta on certain legislation.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 New Section; Magna Carta References. Amend RSA 14 by inserting after section 39-a the following new section:

14:39-b Magna Carta Reference. All members of the general court proposing bills and resolutions addressing individual rights or liberties shall include a direct quote from the Magna Carta which sets forth the article from which the individual right or liberty is derived.

2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect November 1, 2012.

Does it have to be quoted in Latin?

Comments

This is actually a meta-joke

[drwex]

There was (and probably still is) a bill circulating in the US House that requires legislation to reference the US Constitution on rights and so forth. I forget the details of the House bill but this is clearly a satirical poke at that idiocy.

Re: This is actually a meta-joke

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Are you sure? They're also trying to outlaw teaching that gravity is real.

Re: This is actually a meta-joke

[drwex]

See http://thedailyreview.com/opinion/they-ve-got-to-be-kidding-right-1.1253985

Relevant passage: "Soon after the 2010 election, some U.S. House Republicans proposed that all new legislation include a direct reference to the U.S. Constitution"

Re: This is actually a meta-joke

[drwex]

And the joke is apparently growing: http://www.concordmonitor.com/blogentry/302461/how-the-world-sees-new-hampshire

I love the idea of requiring a reference back to Hammurabi. My guess is that most legislators wouldn't know who he was if his mummified remains fell on them.

Re: This is actually a meta-joke

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Um... Where's the joke? I see some snarky commentary about it from people online, but nothing to indicate anything beyond serious intent from the actual folks sponsoring the bill.

Yeah, tea-party congressfolks are trying to get things to quote the constitution. Those are the same folks who spent a bunch of time reading it out loud at the beginning of the session, like some shibboleth.

Looking around a little, one of the sponsors has made a point, in a post linked from the front page of his website (link title "war is peace" (http://www.bobkingsbury.org/concord/2010/07/31/war-is-peace/)), of explaining that there have been no "US" wars since 1950, that it's all because of the UN. One of them is a birther (http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/295958/lawmakers-actions-shamed-the-state). The third, I couldn't find much about, but the first two don't seem like they're particularly prone to metajokes.