{"id":16639,"date":"2014-03-05T07:04:56","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T15:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=16639"},"modified":"2014-03-05T07:04:56","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T15:04:56","slug":"oh-this-is-funny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/05\/oh-this-is-funny\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh, this is funny"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cato Institute has submitted an amicus<\/i> brief to the U.S. Supreme Court written by P.J. O’Rourke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Real brief. Really hysterical. The topic: Whether a state can criminalize (get this!) lying about candidates during political campaigns<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The brief<\/a> opens:<\/p>\n

\n

INTRODUCTION AND
\nSUMMARY OF ARGUMENT<\/b><\/center><\/p>\n

\u201cI am not a crook.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRead my lips: no new taxes!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not have sexual relations with that
\nwoman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMission accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While George Washington may have been
\nincapable of telling a lie, his successors have not had
\nthe same integrity. The campaign promise (and its
\nsubsequent violation), as well as disparaging
\nstatements about one\u2019s opponent (whether true,
\nmostly true, mostly not true, or entirely fantastic),
\nare cornerstones of American democracy. Indeed,
\nmocking and satire are as old as America, and if this
\nCourt doesn\u2019t believe amici, it can ask Thomas
\nJefferson, \u201cthe son of a half-breed squaw, sired by a
\nVirginia mulatto father.\u201d Or perhaps it should ponder, as Grover Cleveland was forced to, \u201cMa, ma,
\nwhere\u2019s my pa?\u201d<\/p>\n

In modern times, \u201ctruthiness\u201d \u2014 a \u201ctruth\u201d asserted
\n\u201cfrom the gut\u201d or because it \u201cfeels right,\u201d without
\nregard to evidence or logic 5 \u2014is also a key part of
\npolitical discourse. It is difficult to imagine life
\nwithout it, and our political discourse is weakened by
\nOrwellian laws that try to prohibit it. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just gets better from there. Even the multitude of footnotes contains funnies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cato Institute has submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court written by P.J. O’Rourke. Real brief. Really hysterical. The topic: Whether a state can criminalize (get this!) lying about candidates during political campaigns. The brief opens: INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT \u201cI am not a crook.\u201d \u201cRead my lips: no new taxes!\u201d \u201cI did not have sexual relations with that woman.\u201d \u201cMission accomplished.\u201d \u201cIf you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it.\u201d While George Washington may have been incapable of telling a lie, his successors have not had the same integrity. The campaign promise (and its…<\/p>\n

Continue readingOh, this is funny<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-thuggery-and-bad-law","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}