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We still have time to mess this up!

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Democrats are back in array!

I really should read my own blog.

T R E 4 5 O N

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Motown is Joe-Town!

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Magna Carta to Go On Display at National Archives

Reader Interactions

43Comments

  1. 1.

    gypsy howell

    “David Rubenstein, co-founder of private equity firm The Carlyle Group…”

    Uh oh. It’s hard not to think that every silver lining has a dark cloud when you find out that the Carlyle Group just bought the Magna Carta.

  2. 2.

    Equal Opportunity Cynic

    It’s charming that medieval English people had quaint notions of the king being subject to the law. Fortunately we 21st-century people aren’t so naive. Unlike our ancestors we really do what we can to support the divine right of kings.

  3. 3.

    myiq2xu

    Ah, yes! One of those “quaint” documents that talks about outmoded concepts like habeas corpus.

  4. 4.

    Jake

    In other news, Dick Cheney, George Bush barred from National Archives.

    Yeah, my first thought on reading this: No one tell Dick and George!

    My second thought: The dollar/pound exchange rate is brutal.

  5. 5.

    r€nato

    John Cole: belated sympathies for the enormous douche that is WVA’s ex-football coach. Not even coaching his team in the bowl game after such a great season? What a fucking asshole.

  6. 6.

    pharniel

    r€nato Says:

    John Cole: belated sympathies for the enormous douche that is WVA’s ex-football coach. Not even coaching his team in the bowl game after such a great season? What a fucking asshole.

    welcome to the backstabbign bullshit world of college sports, football in particular.

    wonder if this jackoff will be any more of a cockmonkey than good old Bo, who’s hits include things like preventing the satdium during re-contrction from being able to be used for anything other than football (“soccor is fine for boys until they reach 14 or so, then they need to play a real game”) and other such wonderful influences upon my local community.

  7. 7.

    El Cid

    Well, I thought it was sort of good news — I didn’t know any rich or powerful people in the U.S. gave the slightest damn about the Magna Charta any more.

  9. 9.

    myiq2xu

    Well, I thought it was sort of good news—I didn’t know any rich or powerful people in the U.S. gave the slightest damn about the Magna Charta any more.

    When does the bidding start for the Declaration of Independence? Shrub and Darth Cheney already shredded the Constitution.

  10. 10.

    gypsy howell

    When does the bidding start for the Declaration of Independence? Shrub and Darth Cheney already shredded the Constitution.

    Honey, you are WAY behind. Haven’t you ever heard of K Street?

  11. 11.

    Zifnab

    Now for a movie where Nicholas Cage steals it because of the Egyptians. Or something.

    National Treasure was an oddly awesome movie. I didn’t believe it was going to be any good until I actually saw it.

  12. 12.

    Cindrella Ferret

    Habeas Corpus? Oh please, if you’re not guilty of anything then whaddya worried about? You want terrorists to have the same rights as us? Onward Christian (when its convenient) Soldiers!

    Ooops … sorry! I thought this was Red State. Never mind.

  13. 13.

    Jackmormon

    My first thought: how the fuck is it that this thousand-year-old foundational document is in private hands?

  14. 14.

    calipygian

    Magna Carta? That’s so OLD Europe.

    If you pay attention to things like Habeas Corpus and go see another dreary, old cathedral, you’re in old Europe.

    If you snort coke off the taut stomachs of 6′ tall Hungarian hookers on the set of All Anal Eight, you’re in New Europe.

    Guess which Europe Dubya prefers.

  16. 16.

    qwerty42

    Maybe this is just a plan to acquire and later destroy as many copies as possible so there will be no evidence of such a writ. Then the king (unitary executive) may rule as god wanted.

  17. 17.

    PeterJ

    There will be a great party on New Years Eve 2008. First the Carlyle Group will present George Bush with the Magna Carta that he then will shred. Then Dick Cheney will shred the democratic president-elect.

    Also, the Carlyle Group now controls both the Magna Carta and Dunkin’ Donuts. That is surely one of the signs that rapture is soon upon us.

  19. 19.

    Ned Raggett

    My first thought: how the fuck is it that this thousand-year-old foundational document is in private hands?

    Kinda noted by another comment already but: this isn’t the *only* copy. There are a number that have survived, most of which are in the hands of the UK government.

  20. 20.

    Davebo

    pharniel,

    Why be mad at the coach? Be mad at the AD and all the other AD’s who allow coaches to violate their contracts.

  22. 22.

    horatius

    We’ve got to find the document, steal it and shred it. It’s got some really dangerous ideas like telling the accuser what he’s accused of. The survival of our very nation is at stake.

  24. 24.

    Incertus (Brian)

    Why be mad at the coach? Be mad at the AD and all the other AD’s who allow coaches to violate their contracts.

    If schools want to have the ability to fire coaches who still have time on their contracts, they have to give up the ability to hold them to their contracts if they want to leave.

    And I still don’t understand the anger here. WVU fans are pissed because Rodriguez is leaving, but are pissed because he’s not going to stay for the bowl game. What the hell? If you’re mad that he’s leaving, why on earth don’t you want to cut ties with him immediately?

  25. 25.

    Abe Froman

    Greg Easterbrook has some great thoughts on Coach Hopping.

    Consider Rodriguez, the latest high-profile walkout. The Charleston, W.Va., Gazette reports that after Rodriguez decided to walk out on West Virginia, he spoke to his players for a mere 10 minutes — no questions, please! — before exiting through a side door and heading to the airport for a flight to Michigan. These are players to whom Rodriguez surely made elaborate promises during recruiting. In December 2006, when some recruits were hesitant to sign letters of intent with the Mountaineers owing to rumors that Rodriguez would leave, he reassured them by publicly declaring he would stay at West Virginia “for a very, very long time.” The moment there was something in it for him — a pay increase from $1.9 million at West Virginia to a reported $3 million annual salary at Michigan — Rodriguez shafted his players. The Detroit Free Press asserts that even before Rodriguez announced he was leaving for Michigan, he called Terrelle Pryor, this fall’s most sought-after high school player, and urged Pryor to enroll at Michigan rather than at West Virginia. Immediately after there was something in it for him, Rodriguez shafted his former employer.

    And this is the coach Michigan wants! Someone whose word is not bond; someone who, if the Free Press account is accurate, actively tried to double-cross his previous school. Wolverines: If Rodriguez is a fiasco at Michigan, don’t say you weren’t warned. And the history of selfish coaches suggests that fiasco will come calling. Petrino, Saban, Price, Franchione, Fairbanks, Parcells — which of these guys did really well after walking out on a commitment for self-serving reasons?

  26. 26.

    Salmon of Trout

    There will be a great party on New Years Eve 2008. First the Carlyle Group will present George Bush with the Magna Carta that he then will shred. Then Dick Cheney will shred the democratic president-elect.

    I know Cheney likes doing things the hard way, but a wood chipper is much more efficient.

  27. 27.

    r€nato

    What the hell? If you’re mad that he’s leaving, why on earth don’t you want to cut ties with him immediately?

    finishing the season would have been the decent thing to do. Would that have been so hard for him? It’s a lot like getting stood up. UWV had a great season, and the bowl game is the reward… and the douche just walks on them. It’s kind of like quitting your job right before a big deadline.

  28. 28.

    Mike

    If schools want to have the ability to fire coaches who still have time on their contracts, they have to give up the ability to hold them to their contracts if they want to leave.

    When a coach is fired, the school doesn’t default on the contract; the fired coach is still paid for its duration or negotiates a buyout. A coach who quits does default on his promise to coach at that school for the duration, as well as on whatever promises he’s made to the kids he’s recruited.

    And I still don’t understand the anger here. WVU fans are pissed because Rodriguez is leaving, but are pissed because he’s not going to stay for the bowl game. What the hell? If you’re mad that he’s leaving, why on earth don’t you want to cut ties with him immediately?

    WVU fans would like to win that game, and that’s more likely with a head coach present.

    Why is it that the NCAA, which regulates athletes’ conduct down to not letting them call their parents from a coach’s office, doesn’t require coaches to honor their signed agreements. Because it’s almost always the powerful programs stealing coaches away from the smaller ones? Never mind.

  29. 29.

    Paul L.

    In other news, Dick Cheney, George Bush barred from National Archives.

    Afraid they will stuff the Magna Carta in their socks.
    Maybe they will send their White House national security adviser like the Clintons did.

  30. 30.

    myiq2xu

    A coach who quits does default on his promise to coach at that school for the duration, as well as on whatever promises he’s made to the kids he’s recruited.

    Maybe WVU should sue Michigan for tortious interference with a contract.

  31. 31.

    myiq2xu

    Maybe they will send their White House national security adviser like the Clintons did.

    Wingnut rationalization #2 – Clinton did it too!

  34. 34.

    Paul L.

    Wingnut rationalization #2 – Clinton did it too!

    Moonbat response #1: Clinton was one of our greatest Presidents. How dare you bring up anything that he did wrong. Praise Bill Clinton (and Al Gore).

  35. 35.

    myiq2xu

    Moonbat response #1: Clinton was one of our greatest Presidents. How dare you bring up anything that he did wrong. Praise Bill Clinton (and Al Gore).

    Amen brother!

  36. 36.

    Chris Johnson

    Well, they sure look nice in hindsight. Which is pretty sad, really.

    I would prefer a world in which I could sneer at the Clintons to the one in which they’re more likely to save my ass. Because I don’t think they’re great people, I just need them to do their softland-the-economy, softsoap-the-diplomacy thing before we’re all destitute AND bombed for our own good.

  38. 38.

    horatius

    Wingnut rationalization #2 1 – ∞ – Clinton did it too!

    Fixed for reality.

    And Reality as we all know has a well-known liberal bias.

  39. 39.

    Mike

    Afraid they will stuff the Magna Carta in their socks.

    Or maybe Ted Kennedy will drive off a bridge and drown it. Or Robert Byrd will use it to light a cross. Or FDR will ignore it and lock up a bunch of people just because they’re of Japanese ancestry.

    Or did Malkin say that last one was a good thing? It’s so hard to keep up.

  40. 40.

    BIRDZILLA

    The MAGNA CARTA the predisesor to our own CONSTITUTION and and many of these young people look at the constitution as say WHATS IT MEAN

  41. 41.

    binzinerator

    A Sotheby’s spokeswoman said the Magna Carta had been “saved for America” by Mr Rubenstein, who intends to place the document back on view at the National Archives in Washington, DC.

    Too bad America hadn’t been saved for the Magna Carta.

    If the Magna Carta was a precursor to the Constitution, and the Constitution is just “a goddamned piece of paper”, then the Magna Carta must be merely a damned piece of paper.

    Those damned pieces of paper — it’s the ideas of liberty contained therein that the Bushies consider worthless and too much of America place little value upon. But as a commodity? Fuckin-ay, they’re worth tens of millions, baby!

    What does this say about America where the real value of these pieces of paper are deemed worthless or unimportant, but the physical artifact is vied for by millionaires? It is as if we have substituted the value of the message with that of the messenger. The bathwater is prized, the baby ignored.

    The free market has spoken.

    Amazing. For $21 million you can claim ownership of the paper that established a core liberty of Western Civilization, but you no longer can claim you have the liberty itself.

  42. 42.

    Wildthumb

    I thought so. I looked it up and the first Magna Carta was signed in 1215. This copy was a later reissue or revision. Little historical factoid.

  43. 43.

    Chuck Butcher

    With regard to coaches, player, stadiums and the whole college nonsense – if you didn’t turn an institution of higher learning into a goddam pro-sports training camp…

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