These links came up in a recent Facebook discussion. They address points that I've mostly made myself, but they do it rather more elegantly:
Mostly I just wanted them someplace where I could easily find them again, so I can refer people to them.
"The Magna Carta... came about for the same reason so many landmarks of liberty, including the Declaration of Independence, were established in the English-speaking world---because the upper middle class balked at paying taxes." --Sarah Vowell
Posted by blahedo at 12:15pm on 8 Mar 2011