Sunday, September 11, 2022

Contest: How Often Do The Words Man (Men) and Woman (Women) Appear In The US Constitution?

The first contest on this blog was in July 2009.  That was a pretty passive contest.  The winner was the person who was listed as visitor #123,456.  We had one winner and some that were close.  The winner, BonzaiJay, later sent me a picture of his prizes.

The second contest was in May 2012.  That person had to guess how many dandelions were in the bag I'd collected in my front lawn.  She won a dinner at the Thai Kitchen.  But she'd moved to Juneau and I don't recall she ever collected her prize.  

So it's been ten years since I've had a contest.  This one requires more work.  Here's an intro:


The Supreme Court's majority has made a lot of noise about strictly following the original text of the US Constitution.  So I pulled up an online version of the Constitution  and searched it for some key  words.  

Reviewing the Constitution this way, it's clear that all USians should read the Constitution at least every six months, if not more frequently. [I saw someone use that term and I'm trying it out as a substitute for Americans when I only mean people in the US and not all of North, South, and Central America.  I've been using US residents, but USians is so much easier]

So to encourage you, here's the CONTEST.  

Make a copy [take a screen shot or a photo] of the chart below and fill it out.  You can just guess.  Or you can go to an online copy of the Constitution and search the terms.  There will be prizes for the top three submissions.*  You can email your answers my email address: whatdoino (at) alaska (dot) net. You can try this link but I can't make it work in my draft -  Email me



In Constittuion? 

How often?


YES

NO


MAN (MEN)




WOMAN (WOMEN)




CORPORATION




INDUSTRY




PERSON




CITIZEN




LIFE




LIBERTY




ECONOMY




CAPITAL




CAPITALISM




MARKET




MARRIAGE




DOMESTIC VIOLENCE




BUSINESS




TAX




VOTE




COMMERCE




BANKRUPTCY




SECURITIES




SEX




RELIGION




CHRISTIAN




WELFARE




THE PEOPLE




GOD






The more I've read about originalism or textualism, the more I'm convinced I was right from the beginning:  It's basically no more, probably less, objective than living constitutional theories. 

Meanwhile, you might want to read (or reread) my posts on Originalism:

Thursday, February 25, 2016   I Think Scalia's Originalism Is Like Intelligent Design Of Constitutional Theories


Monday, March 20, 2017    As Neil Gorsuch Takes Center Stage, What Exactly Is Originalism About?


Monday, October 12, 2020     Revisiting Originalism




*Since this contest requires some work, I'm not sure there will be that many submissions. So, the odds for those who do submit would seem pretty good.  Prizes will be determined by interests of the winner and my imagination and geography.  (Mail v. local pickup may affect size.)  

I have no idea how many people will submit, if any.  But I'll start with people who get the most correct answers.  But since you can look these answers up, there's the possibility of more than three with the same correct answers.  In that case, if someone chooses to write a few comments about what they learned from the exercise, I'll evaluate those comments. (And post them with your permission.)  If it''s a draw and there are no comments, I'll choose randomly.  

Deadline for submission:  September 21, 2022


1 comment:

  1. The word gun(s) was an obvious omission, in my humble opinion. Interesting idea, Steve. Breaking in a different computer. Last one died a horrible death.

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