Arizona Republican Rep. Trent Franks wanted to celebrate the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights on Tuesday with a nice tweet:
Some notes:
It was 1791, not 1971, obviously. The way you can tell this is that the actual Bill of Rights is a piece of paper rather than an eight-minute drum solo (the primary form of communication in the United States in 1971 was eight-minute drum solos).
The Bill of Rights wasn’t “founded.” It was ratified. Now, every time I write a post criticizing a public figure for demonstrating a Neanderthal-level command of written English, people pop up on Twitter to say that I’m being annoying and pedantic. But jiminy Christmas, we’re talking about high-ranking elected officials. Talking and writing about matters of public concern is literally their Only Job. Learn the damn difference between founding and ratifying.
Trent Franks once appeared on a panel (at an event run by extremist anti-Muslim paranoiac David Horowitz) with a lunatic named Robert Spencer who said that President Obama is “likely” a “secret Muslim.” Franks, shaking his head sadly, agreed with Spencer that at the very least Obama acts like a secret Muslim. Hysterically interpreting the existence of non-Christian religions as a threat to the United States equals First Amendment reading comprehension fail.
Just another day in the ol’ USA (est. 1964). Zeppelin rules.