Who do you think :p

One of the best known pieces of American popular art in this century is the New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg presenting a map of the United States as seen by a New Yorker, As most readers can no doubt recall, Manhattan dominates the map; everything west of the Hudson is more or less collapsed together and minimally displayed to the viewer. Steinberg's great cover depends for its force on the reality of what social psychologists call "cognitive maps." If one asks inhabitants ostensibly of the same cities to draw maps of that city, one will quickly discover that the images carried around in people's minds will vary by race, social class, and the like. What is true of maps of places --that they differ according to the perspectives of the mapmakers--is certainly true of all conceptual maps.

To continue the map analogy, consider in this context the Bill of Rights; is there an agreed upon "projection" of the concept? Is there even a canonical text of the Bill of Rights? Does it include the first eight, nine, or ten Amendments to the Constitution? [1] Imagine two individuals who are asked to draw a "map" of the Bill of Rights. One is a (stereo-) typical member of the American Civil Liberties Union (of which I am a card-carrying member); the other is an equally (stereo-) typical member of the "New Right." The first, I suggest, would feature the First Amendment [2] as Main Street, dominating the map, though more, one suspects, in its role as protector of speech and prohibitor of established religion than as guardian of the rights of religious believers. The other principal avenues would be the criminal procedures aspects of the Constitution drawn from the Fourth, [3] Fifth, [4] Sixth, [5] and Eighth [6] Amendments. Also depicted prominently would be the Ninth Amendment, [7] although perhaps as in the process of construction. I am confident that the ACLU map would exclude any display of the just compensation clause of the Fifth Amendment [8] or of the Tenth Amendment. [9]

The second map, drawn by the New Rightist, would highlight the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, [10] the just compensation clause of the Fifth Amendment, [11] and the Tenth Amendment. [12] Perhaps the most notable difference between the two maps, though, would be in regard to the Second Amendment: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed." What would be at most a blind alley for the ACLU mapmaker would, I am confident, be a major boulevard in the map drawn by the New Right adherent. It is this last anomaly that I want to explore in this essay.

As an aside, that idiot knows nothing about making maps.

You should, perhaps, read more thoroughly before making such judgments.

DE, the 'map', see above, is a social obsevation/statement, not a true map.

It is a purposeful distortion, a technique frequently used in marketing and social commentary, used to make a point.

Your earlier statements indicated that you did not know the picture or understand the purpose of it. Khross was commenting on that and that you had appeared to comment without knowing the subject matter. While the Professor can be a bit annoying at times, the comment was more along the lines of familiarize yourself with the material referenced than go back to school.

Chill dude, you are taking offense where none was intended.

Diamondeye, those can, indeed, be valid maps. Are you aware of the differences in standard map projections? The New Yorker cover is simply a very un-standard, non-geometric projection. Any point in the US can be plotted there; it is simply not to scale in either distance, nor direction.

Diamondeye:

That's nice and all, but perhaps you should click the link ... I mean, if the compound term merits a wikipedia entry, it might, just might refer to a specifical morphological construct that has nothing to do with your pedantry.

Main Entry: map
Pronunciation: \ˈmap\
Function: noun
Etymology: Medieval Latin mappa, from Latin, napkin, towel
Date: 1527

1 a : a representation usually on a flat surface of the whole or a part of an area b : a representation of the celestial sphere or a part of it
2 : something that represents with a clarity suggestive of a map <the Freudian map of the mind — Harold Bloom>
3 : the arrangement of genes on a chromosome —called also genetic map

The ordinance, which Daley urged the City Council to pass, also would :

_ Limit the number of handguns residents can register to one per month and prohibit residents from having more than one handgun in operating order at any given time.

_ Require residents in homes with children to keep them in lock boxes or equipped with trigger locks.

_ Require prospective gun owners to take a four-hour class and one-hour training at a gun range. They would have to leave the city for training because Chicago prohibits new gun ranges and limits the use of existing ranges to police officers. Those restrictions were similar to those in an ordinance passed in Washington, D.C., after the high court struck down its ban two years ago.

_ Prohibit people from owning a gun if they were convicted of a violent crime, domestic violence or two or more convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Residents convicted of a gun offense would have to register with the police department.

_ Calls for the police department to maintain a registry of every handgun owner in the city, with the names and addresses to be made available to police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders.

Those who already have handguns in the city—which has been illegal since the city's ban was approved 28 years ago—would have 90 days to register those weapons, according to the proposed ordinance.

Residents convicted of violating the city's ordinance can face a fine up to $5,000 and be locked up for as long as 90 days for a first offense and a fine of up to $10,000 and as long as six months behind bars for subsequent convictions.