The Bill of Things They Thought Were Important in 1791

The United States has an odd relationship with its Bill of Rights. One might say a fetishistic, nigh-sexual obsession with it. Not everyone's obsessed with the same amendments, sure. Hell, you almost never find a hardcore third amendment supporter. Except us. NO SOLDIERS QUARTERED! GET OUTTA MY HOUSE, YOU SOLDIER!

Aww...

But that ol' Bill of Rights, what a thing! What an important thing to wave around! So important that we need to constantly argue about the intent of the Framers! What they thought about these ten sacred amendments should determine what we do now, in the 21st century! Their thoughts were so important!

I guess we just need to ignore the fact that the great majority of them just didn't even want the damn thing in the first place.

No, really. At first only George Mason and Elbridge Gerry (the guy they named Gerrymandering after) wanted a Bill of Rights. Everyone else wanted them to shut up so they could get this damn Constitution thing over with.

You're Not Alone

"No man is an island" is a common, if somewhat sexist, truism.

(Come on, those ladies? All islands. The lot of 'em. Can't stop 'em from shopping or being islands, amirite, fellas?)

Ahem.

As a truism, most of us kind of just take it for granted. Of course we're not islands. There are people everywhere, and we have friends and families and social interactions all the time. And yet the very fabric of our society (and when we say "our" we mean "American," cause that's where we live) seems to belie this fundamental and obviously empirical truth about humanity.

We'll explain.