🚀 go-pugleaf

I was going to mail a reply to this, but decided that it might be of some
interest to foreign readers.

This doesn't have that much to do with sci.crypt anymore. Stop reading now if
you're not interested in the politics behind why so many here are opposed to
key registration.

In <BxFF18.1oA@constant.demon.co.uk> slangley@constant.demon.co.uk (Simon Langley) writes:

>However, our constitution is, as you imply, not written, and for this reason,
>the final say on our laws belongs to the elected representatives of the
>people rather than a group of unelected Supreme Court judges.  Our system
>has served us well for 350 years, how is the US system "safer"?

First of all, if your system worked all that well in the 1770's, my email
address today would also end in ".uk". But it doesn't. So, "well" is quite
relative. In my opinion the US is the older republic.

Just in case you aren't aware of it, a lot of people over here didn't think
the system was working well at all 216 years ago. We wrote down some of
our complaints against your leader, in another great document titled the
Declaration of Independence. A direct quote:

	The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of
	repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the
	establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this,
	let facts be submitted to a candid world.

It doesn't sound like your "elected representatives" were limiting the King's
power all that much at the time. I won't type most of the rest in, but here
are some really juicy parts:

	He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with
	manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

	He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of
	their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

	He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms
	of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

	He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns,
	and destroyed the lives of our people.

This is great stuff. It's what epics are written about. The guys who signed it
took it all pretty seriously, since they ended with:

	And for the support of this Declaration [...]
	we mutually pledge to each other our lives,
	our fortunes and our sacred honor.

-----

It's easy for a legislature to change laws. It's MUCH harder to change our
written Constitution. Our system is safer because it has more "checks and
balances". In order to take away a fundamental right (without passing a
Constitutional amendment), first the Congress would have to pass an
unconstitutional law, and then the President would have to sign the law,
and then the Supreme Court would have to uphold the law.