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1. 

   slavetofashion69 said, about 1 month ago

   Ah, if only it were true. They still have capital punishment in some states, right? I’d love to see the corporate sector get the full “personhood” treatment for poisoning people and producing harmful defective products. If punishment for murder is death for a person, it should be the complete destruction of the corporate entity as well.

2. 

   Ripit said, about 1 month ago

   Hmm. Good subject, but the execution here doesn’t work. You’ve bored the choir, Rev. Rall.

   3/10

3. 

   believecommonsense said, about 1 month ago

   ^ funny!

4. 

   scottfreitas said, about 1 month ago

   I definitely am 100% opposed to corporations being treated as “persons” under the Constitution.

   Look, normally I love Thomas, Scalia, etc–this goes without saying. Usually they are the only ones throwing our drowning Constitution a much-needed life preserver.

   I’ve even read their reasonings behind treating corporations as persons, and sympathize with their logic IN SPIRIT.

   But knowing how flawed human nature is, and watching how corporations behave as “persons”, I recognize that they cannot–MUST not–be granted the same rights as actual, individual human beings. They are too fundamentally flawed in concept. They are concerned only with money, and have no loyalty to either the US or its Constitution.

   Actual “persons” are typically not so one-dimensional as that, nor as inherently self-destructive…

5. 

   cdward said, about 1 month ago

   scott, for once I agree with you. Other than the “normally I love Thomas, Scalia” part.

6. 

   rikoshayrabbit said, about 1 month ago

   The biggest, most evil corporation of them all is the Federal Reserve. It is not a government office but a private… and I mean PRIVATE, corporation of bankster shareholders that print our money, decide what the inflation rate will be, and who have been forever bending us over the fence rail since 1913. It is a living breathing monster which has usurped all of our rights, so what difference does it make if it’s officially a “person?” In the first 100 days of Franklin Roosevelt’s first term, some true evil came down. He declared the United States bankrupt, on March 9, 1933. The bankrupt United States is held in receivership by the Federal Reserve. On April 24, 1933 Congress adopted Senate Resolution No. 62 which declares… “The ultimate ownership of all property is in the State; individual so-called “ownership” is only by virtue of Government, i.e., law, amounting to mere user; and use must be in accordance with law and subordinate to the necessities of the State.” At this point, in the year 2009, the Supreme Court might as well make it official that ONLY corporations have rights, and so-called “human beings” are now slaves.

7. 

   HOWGOZIT said, about 1 month ago

   Let’s give same status to Congress.

8. 

   rikoshayrabbit said, about 1 month ago

   Actually, we should always refer to ourselves as human beings. Not persons. The original 1828 Wester’s dictionary was primarily created so that the understanding of words, by people who were still alive at the time of the Constitution, should be preserved for ever. The Declaration of Independence talks about the “Course of Human Events”… not person events. The original Webster’s defines this…

   PERSON - a Latin word signifying primarily a mask used by actors on the stage.

   
   
   1. An individual human being consisting of body and soul. We apply the word to living beings only, possessed of a rational nature.
   
   

   If you visit Black’s Law Dictionary, the word person goes on for several pages. It can mean just about anything. I always refer to myself as a human being. Corporations are not living, breathing beings and thus, by the understanding of our founding fathers, cannot be granted rights.

9. 

   motivemagus said, about 1 month ago

   Surprising agreement on the list today. I’ll just add the following:
   “Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.” - Ambrose Bierce
   “[Corporations] cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed nor excommunicated, for they have no souls.” - Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of England, 1628

10. 

    blutbiest said, about 1 month ago

    Ah, good to find another Ambrose Bierce fan. Ive misplaced my Devil’s Dictionary. Hope Dover is still selling them.

11. 

    audieholland said, about 1 month ago

    Spot on, Rikoshayrabbit.

    The Federal Reserve is about as federal as Federal Express.
    Not only do they print money, they lend it to the US government with interest. And the US government uses it to bail out other banks.

    And yes, the common US people are little more than slaves, laboring to pay just the interest over their loaned money. Not unlike those Third World countries who can only pay the interest on their international loans.

    If it’s any comfort, it’s the same thing in Europe as well.

12. 

    edmondd said, about 1 month ago

    And probably nascent companies would be aborted without any chance at seeing if they’d do well…..

13. 

    Ronshua said, about 1 month ago

    The hope is they steal enough filling their piggy banks and stop raping us . Yes , zero hope .

14. 

    deadheadzan said, about 1 month ago

    This concept is a hoot! ricoshay, really good point about human versus “person”. scott, I agree with you concerning the concept of coorporations having the rights of “persons”. It makes for disaster as we are already observing.

15. 

    rikoshayrabbit said, about 1 month ago

    Just one of the many creepy deceitful things our government does… it DEFINES us. And when you sign a government document that says… “U.S. Person sign here X” then you are completing the contract. When I get documents like that I always white out that part, write in “All Rights Reserved” then sign my name. I don’t know if it helps or not, but I feel safer doing it. The government elevated corporations to the status of “person” and demoted We The People to the status of “person.”

16. 

    DrCanuck said, about 1 month ago

    motivemagus said: ““[Corporations] cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed nor excommunicated, for they have no souls.”

    By that reasoning, Cheney and Rumsfelt can’t be tried for treason either.

17. 

    motivemagus said, about 1 month ago

    blutbiest: yes, indeed, and for a mere $3.50! (http://store.doverpublications.com/0486275426.html)

18. 

    believecommonsense said, about 1 month ago

    Canookie; you just mentioned one of my biggest fantasies … Cheney and Rumsfeld in shackles

19. 

    DrCanuck said, about 1 month ago

    Pant, drool…..

20. 

    ahab said, about 1 month ago

    A Robber who had plundered a merchant of one thousand pieces of gold was taken before the Cadi,who asked him if he had anything to say why he should not be decapitated. ‘Your Honor, said the Robber,’I could do no otherwise than take the money, for Allah made me that way.’ The Honest Cadi by Ambrose Bierce.*(Fantastic Fables)

21. 

    ahab said, about 1 month ago

    and…An eminent Justice of the Supreme Court of Gowk was accused of having obtained his appointment by fraud. ’ You wander,’ he said to the Accuser; ‘it is of little importance how I obtained my power; it is only important how I have used it.’ ‘I confess,’ said the Accuser,’ that in comparison with the rascally way in which you have conducted yourself on the Bench the rascally way in which you got there does seem rather a trifle.’ Ambrose Bierce.

22. 

    d_legendary1 said, about 1 month ago

    I don’t see how you can grant personhood to something that does not need food, does not sleep, can live forever, and most certainly does not care about the lives of human beings.

    But then again its the right wingers who think this is the Amerian F-ing way!

23. 

    Ken Warren said, about 1 month ago

    To use a very old, but still relevent line: If a corporation is a person we have to remember that all persons are equal, but some are more equal then others!

24. 

    Ira Nayman said, about 1 month ago

    Hey, Ted,

    I got there a bit before you. A couple of weeks ago on my Web site, Les Pages aux Folles, I published an article called “Explosive Testimony At GM Love Child Trial [ARNS].” It’s about a woman suing General Motors for child support, arguing that since corporations are people, they can father children.

    I don’t get to scoop the professionals that often, so I hope you don’t mind my mentioning it. :-)