This year, 2015, is the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta

[malaise]

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/02/magna-carta-800th-anniversary-relevance-david-carpenter
<snip>

Yet there are also chapters which still have a very clear contemporary relevance. Chapters 12 and 14 prevented the king from levying taxation without the common consent of the kingdom. Chapter 39 laid down that “No free man is to be arrested, or imprisoned, or diseised [dispossessed], or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go against him, nor will we send against him, save by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.”

In chapter 40 the king declared that “To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice.”

In these ways, the Charter asserted a fundamental principle – the rule of law. The king was beneath the law, the law the Charter itself was making. He could no longer treat his subjects in an arbitrary fashion. It was for asserting this principle that the Charter was cherished by opponents of Charles I, and called in aid by the founding fathers of the United States. When on trial for his life in 1964, Nelson Mandela appealed to Magna Carta, alongside the Petition of Rights and the Bill of Rights, “documents which are held in veneration by democrats throughout the world”. Chapters 39 and 40 are still on the statute book of the UK today. The headline of a Guardian piece in 2007 opposing the 90-day detention period for suspected terrorists was “Protecting Magna Carta”.
--------------------------
Oh and Fuck Cheney and his boss Bush!

[OnyxCollie]

1. It was nice while it lasted.

[lunasun]

2. Good read . I know one of my kids is studying this period - will pass on the link and your post

to read wise one ...
..oh yeah I will drop the last line out which I agree with although I think it the reverse
bush and his boss Cheney yeah f'em but I will let my kid learn that later in life no need to curse yet

[malaise]

3. Good idea

Just give your kid the Guardian link

[panader0]

4. Kick

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. Hallmark probably has a card for that, too.

[malaise]

10. Don't rule that out

Too good

[DiverDave]

6. Saw a copy at the National archives

I sought it out, couldn't read it, its in old English?
Just stood there and stared at it for 20 minutes or so, thinking
"This was the first time men could get justice"
Still gives me shivers thinking about it.
Same feeling I got wondering the Redwoods.

[treestar]

7. It was a step forward

A big one.

[Recursion]

15. Not if you were a peasant. It was a power grab by barons

John had allowed peasants to sue in front of the King's court if the nobles oppressed them beyond what was customary. The Magna Carta guaranteed that the King couldn't step in and get between a noble and "his" peasants.

[treestar]

16. True. But overall, philosophically

the idea the king was not all powerful over somebody at all would lead to the peasants eventually getting out from under, too.

It was like the idea of the law rather than men ruling starting to glimmer.

Of course there were backslides. The Divine Right of Kings. It took the English Revolution to undo the concept more.

The Americans were able to take it a step further with no inherited power and a Constitution with the rule of law and no rule of men (at least ideally).

[1step]

8. No

Fuck Bush and his boss Cheney!

[malaise]

13. Who made Cheney Vice President

Never forget that Bush was his boss.

[OnyxCollie]

17. Actually, Cheney made himself Vice President.

I pick me!
http://www.salon.com/2000/07/26/nominee/

That is not to say, however, that Keating was pleased with the oddness of this selection process and that, in the end, Cheney essentially picked himself. According to a source familiar with the process Keating went through, the Oklahoma governor did find that process somewhat “baffling.”

In the job interview of all job interviews, Keating, after all, turned over his most sensitive personal, financial and professional information about himself to the very man who would end up applying for — and winning — the same job.

~snip~

From Keating’s perspective, Cheney’s moves were odd for other reasons as well. As head of the selection committee, Cheney was the intermediary between the prospective running mates and Bush. He had promised Keating that he’d get at least one more meeting with Bush before any decision was made; that didn’t happen.

Nor was Keating aware that Cheney was a competitor. Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes told reporters Tuesday that she “assumed” that Cheney was open with other candidates about the fact that, since July 3, Cheney was a leading choice in the process he was supervising. She assumed that, she said, since he had been so forthcoming about so many other issues with her boss. But such does not seem to be the case with those he was interviewing, at least with Keating.

[malaise]

18. You don't think he had Poppy Bush's approval?

I would bet money on that

[OnyxCollie]

19. Poppy's approval, Rupert's approval, Ray L. Hunt's approval,

and many others, I'd guess.

[jtuck004]

9. “To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice.”

Boy, that didn't last long.

[malaise]

11. The only question is which one was violated first

sell, delay or deny?

[hobbit709]

12. And a primary reason the Brits haven't had a King John since then.

[Recursion]

14. The Magna Carta was England's 1% taking down the King for siding with "their" peasants

I don't exactly consider it a great document, though it's obviously historically important. The MC guaranteed the nobility the freedom to exploit the peasants on their land at will, since it removed John's circuit courts that he had established to hear requests for relief from commoners.

As a side note, it also introduced the phrase "a jury of his peers", which was a provision that guaranteed nobles could only be tried by other nobles. (It's, thankfully, nowhere in the Constitution, though people seem to think it is.)