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The 1793 “Liberty Cap” large cent

Ms. Annette Lert, a roused reader from the Willamette Valley of far-away and mysterious Oregon writes (names and addresses changed to protect anonymity):

Dear Sword Which Is Vorpal:

I received this email today:

Subject: FW: Call for Constitutional Convention
[headers stripped out to protect privacy]

This needs to be addressed by Americans that understand.

I wonder if Oregon and Washington are among the 35 states?

Governors of 35 states have already filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38 (of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention.

This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you agree, please pass it on.

An idea whose time has come!

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest was to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform … in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn’t seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don’t care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop.

A Constitutional Convention – this is a good way to do that. It is an idea whose time has come.

I’m asking each addressee to forward this Email to a minimum of twenty people on their Address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one proposal that really should be passed around.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution -

“Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States .”

Please send this out to twenty people that you know.

You are one of my 20+. Keep it going

What do you know about this? Are they trying to rouse me to action or is this just a hoax?

Sincerely yours,

Annette Lert,
faithful reader

Dear A. Lert, reader:

We here at his  vorpal sword have put our crack investigative team on it, and this was what we came up with after about thirty seconds’ Google-Binging the matter.

Evidently this is a viral internet “hit.”

The key misthinking provision is given right up front: Governors of 35 states! … We only need 38 for a constitutional convention!

Royalist thinking, actually.

You see it would be the LEGISLATURES of 38 states. Not the fictive 35 governors “filing suit”.

Takes 38 state legislatures to amend the Constitution after a 2/3rds vote in the U.S Congress. The Constitution can’t be amended via the initiative process, with 38 governors somehow putting their imprimatur on their “Congress has to follow its own laws” amendment.

An inaccurate viral chain-email letter making the rounds:

Q. Governors of 35 states have filed suit against the Federal Government?

A. No, it’s the text of a wildy inaccurate chain email.

Markers that should have been red flags

- Republicans control only 14 state legislatures
- The Attorney General of a State files lawsuits, not the Governor
- State Legislatures call for a Convention, not the Governor
- It takes 2/3 of the States to call the Convention, not 3/4
- The proposed amendment has nothing to do with the ficticious lawsuit
- The email says “Send this to 20 friends”

But it makes the point that Congress are all a buncha hypocrites shoving gay marriage down our throats.

Good timing for something like this to be circulating, of course. But that’s obviously a total coincidence.

Sincerely,

FRC

Scribe F.R.C.
Correspondence Secretary,
His Vorpal Sword

It’s one thing to believe in imaginary lines;
quite another to stand in them.

Courage.