Has anyone else noticed how grammatically fucked up the second amendment is?

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

WTF? What is it trying to say?

Okay, so a well regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state. So far, so good. But then it comes to the second comma and it all goes to hell. It's not "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed", it's "the right of the people to keep and bear arms COMMA shall not be infringed". Which makes it make no sense. And it's also not "AND the right of the people to bear arms", which would separate bearing arms and a militia as two things that "shall not be infringed". It's as if that clause was just thrown in there randomly and has no connection to the rest of the sentence. Or is it that the right of the people to bear arms IS a well-regulated militia? The commas, the commas!

No wonder no one can agree on the right amount of gun laws. Maybe James Madison wrote this when he was hung over after a night of drinking and wild speechifying on Federalism with Hamilton. I really don't know. One weird comma and thousands of people die. <--- the importance of punctuation!!

*crawls back into little hole of geekery*

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Yeah TJ. ♥ Say what you will about him, but the guy knew how to write a document.

The "required watching" for the screenwriting class is "Wings of Desire" (German movie with Bruno Ganz about an angel who becomes mortal). Saw it a while ago. Very pretentious, with lots of bombastic inner monologue. Couldn't pay attention to it. It's supposed to be a classic or something but... not such a good sign. :/

Ye gods. This has to be the most hilarious thing I've seen... ever.

John Kerry does look a lot like Andrew Jackson...

Some completely unnecessary "historical" fiction involving Theodosia Burr and Meriwether Lewis. Written in math a while ago and kind of unfinished... I could take it a lot further, but its unnecessariness discourages me. I wanted to see what would happen if they met, so I sent her and her husband to St. Louis (which doesn't make sense at all, because he was a planter and really had no interest in the fur trade), right after the Burr Conspiracy, when people were apparently accusing Governor Lewis of being a mini-Burr because of his interest in the West. Aww, Lewis, I love you! <3

They are complete soulmates, though, disregarding the fact that she's slightly smarter than him. :P Poor Alston. And... I forget what else needs explanation, besides my state of mind, which is EXCELLENT, I tell you, EXCELLENT!

( Theo is starved for information and Lewis is slightly straight )

Okay, so this one deserves some explanation. It sprung from my inaccurate memory of something Clark wrote – I thought he said he liked the taste of the water of the Missouri River more than the Mississippi, when they were staying in St. Louis before the expedition, and that reminded me of a bio paper my friend (hi, Becca) wrote about taste, and how some people are "supertasters" and some are "non-tasters". And preferring the taste of a certain kind of water (not necessarily just being able to taste the difference between different kinds, but actually preferring one to another? I think?) is a supertastery thing to do. So I thought it would be really amusing if Clark was a supertaster and Lewis was a non-taster.

In actuality, of course (head, meet desk), the line is "I send to the Missouries water for drinking water, it being much Cooler than the Mississippi." I relocated the line after having written half the fic and was like, um, not getting rid of this. So the premise is now officially Made Up.

But still. It's kind of absurd, to counterbalance that last angsty one. :) It's also Clark POV.

Historical-Inaccuracies Disclaimer: There were a lot of details I wasn't sure of, like exactly what their sleeping arrangements actually were, so This Is Not History. The author is not responsible for any embarrassment or gory fatal injury that may occur if you take it as such.

....oh yeah, and they probably weren't gay, either. :D

( Clark can't spell 'mosquitoes', and Nature is a slasher )

EDIT: Found some evidence! Okay, so the expeditions bought all these dogs, to eat, from the Indians on October 14, 1805. And Clark wrote:
All the Party have greatly the advantage of me in as much as they all relish the flesh of the dogs.
So everyone else loved the dog meat (eeeuuwww. they were also fond of beaver tail), and Clark refused to eat it. Supertaster-esque, no? Plus, he's always describing the way things tasted, whereas Lewis doesn't really mention that very often.

PS – merry_lewis and capt_clark. OMGWTF. I don't know who these people are, and they're not even attached to an RPG or anything. hahahaha. ♥

Lewis/Clark drabble, featuring Clark's future wife (and, um, cousin). Lewis POV. Very angsty. (And from such a fluff couple!)

(  Clark's straight. :(  )

Was very painful to get this down to 100 words. I'll have to write something happy for them now. Depressed!Lewis has all my posthumous love. :/

Continued from this entry. Theodosia Burr and Joseph Alston take a walk, get their feet dirty, and discuss Theodosia's ambitions (that is, that she will probably not be president, but would be a better one than John Adams. Poor Adams. He's obnoxious and disliked).

This might be less-than-productive, but it's not actually fanfic! :P

( The legendary mustaches of the gentlemen of South Carolina )

I need to include Lewis and Clark in this somehow. Or maybe they'll get their own fic! :D

Side note: Joseph Alston is becoming weirdly similar to Quentin H. Radmore III, only Southern, heterosexual, and slightly less crazy.

Other side note: Isn't Theo unconventionally pretty? Picture, other picture, other other picture, and my icon. <3

Historical HET?? Hell just froze over!

'Tis Theodosia Burr and her lovely South Carolinian Joseph Alston, about whom the internets know NOTHING. Seriously, there is no information about him. Which gives me complete artistic license. :) Wrote this to get myself out of an extreme state of writer's block, and because Theo is fangirl-worthy. It was a lot of fun.

(So this is the year 1800, right after that hyper-nasty election where Hamilton used his influence to swing the House against Burr. Who, by the way, wanted Theodosia to eventually be president or something, and marrying some random rice planter would probably not help her.)

( In which there is ye olde UST, more than passing mention of Alexander Hamilton, and observant!Aaron Burr )

"Talk slow to me, baby!" XD