Excellent point Bambi. I always get tangled up with people when I say that Lincoln was the first American tyrant; and that the Civil War had little to do with slavery and everything to do with States rights.
Government support is a major reason why we HAVE stupid lazy people.
Or, as Stefan Molyneux would put it, "The government is a transfer payment system from us to single mothers". And oh, by the way, 80% of rapists are the offspring of single mothers.
Government support is a major reason why we HAVE stupid lazy people.
Or, as Stefan Molyneux would put it, "The government is a transfer payment system from us to single mothers". And oh, by the way, 80% of rapists are the offspring of single mothers.
Government support is a major reason why we HAVE stupid lazy people.
Or, as Stefan Molyneux would put it, "The government is a transfer payment system from us to single mothers". And oh, by the way, 80% of rapists are the offspring of single mothers.
The same argument can be made with regard to almost any freedom. Some speech hurts others. Some religions are antithetical to other religions. Some guns are used to kill innocents.
But today, we don't even hold people accountable when they're caught, and there's a sliding scale standard depending on who the defendant is. (Take the recent drag-racing arrest of Justin Bieber… puh-lease!)
As for drunk drivers/meth tweakers killing others… in many cases it's after multiple arrests.
Even more surprising (given the Obama administrations' "war on guns") is the fact that over 70,000 people a year lie on the background check forms to buy guns. That's a crime. How many prosecutions are there? Fewer than 20.
I suspect that the process of drunk/tweaker killing someone generally includes many prior arrests for related crimes where trivial sentences were imposed.
Lincoln's only interest in slavery was as it affected his ability to enslave the South ("Save the Union").
In his own words... "If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views." - Lincoln
Of course, the reason for the War was not to free anyone initially. It was only when it looked like Lincoln might lose the war that he tried to foment a "fifth column" by "freeing" slaves in the South. Of course, he did not free any slaves in any of the areas under Northern control. The Emancipation proclamation is quite clear about that. IIRC, two entire slave-holding states were under Northern control. Lincoln freed those slaves? NOT!
We think of WWI, WWII and Vietnam as huge wastes of lives, and yet none of them come close to Lincoln's carnage. Sherman was of course ordered to burn and sack everything in his march to the sea, but what is not generally recorded in the Yankee history books is the fact that all the other Yankee generals were under similar orders to destroy the lives of civilians. These war crimes extended to looting towns of everything the Northern armies could use and carry away - food, livestock, valuables. What could not be stolen was destroyed. Things like mirrors and pianos were routinely hauled out into the town squares and smashed for the pure meanness of it. More critically, any livestock not stolen was usually killed. Fields were burned. Mill stones were smashed. (Modern people can scarcely appreciate the importance of this, but without the millstone, there was no mill. Without the mill, no bread.) Even fence posts were ripped up and fences destroyed and when entire towns were burned to the ground, the only thing left was "Sherman's Sentinels", the naked fireplaces standing in silhouette looking a bit like soldiers on guard duty.
Lincoln routinely ordered his generals to commit war crimes. And he waged a form of war on the people of the North as well, suppressing free speech, suspending habeas corpus, even driving elected legislators out of the Country.
Lincoln was evil. But if you can imagine Stalin or Hitler winning out, and their supporters crafting history for the next 50 years, you can see how such a POS was canonized in an age where data flowed at a trickle compared to today.
Make no mistake - the man responsible for killing more than 1 in every 50 people was a monster with nothing whatsoever to recommend him. (Killing on a proportional scale today would involved the deaths of more than 7 MILLION people.)
It seems that we have the same view. The original comment was basically that regardless of governmental action there will always be problems. To which I responded that "Life's not fair." Which is a shorter way of saying that if you believe that life IS fair, you are going to be in for a whole lot of disappointment as you will find that that isn't true. And the sooner one comes to that realization, the sooner that they will understand that they shouldn't be looking for someone to "make it fair" and deal with the world as it is. I'm no leftie socialist, rather a Constitutional Libertarian.
Not a southerner nor American but I have read Churchill: History of the English speaking Peoples. What BambiB says, well here anyway, is correct. It is the old story- altruism. Slavery is aweful-yes, it must be abolished-yes, so ignore the constitution, the public generally agreed, the court and legal system was bamboozled into concurrence. The result, 750,000 casualties, economy ruined, yes there was greater equality in the south after as poor whites were brought down to the economic level of the blacks. That level stayed down for decades. The reason given for the war was to abolish slavery but that was for the naive public influenced by (false) altruism, the driver was the economic power grab, enabled by the federal government, by the northern industries imposing tariffs to be paid by the south. The slogan was preserving the union - the statist power grab. If I may continue off topic- many members here would benefit by study of the role of religion in slavery. Lincoln was an even worse military commander than JD his opponent, the real hero was Robert E Lee who was opposed to slavery. Lincoln did have good qualities, great speeches. Churchill says that without those two or three the outcome of the war would have been the same but faster, and with a casualty figure far lower.
I do apologize for my sharp retort, but I also believe that one makes how "far" their life is. I don't buy into a victim mentality - I've been dealt sone s#!tty cards over the past 6 deades, and ya know what? I made the best of it. Fair? If I wanted everything absolutely easy and fair, I'd have held onto my old socilaist left wing beliefs.
So I do apologize for the "hateful language", but that's why your comment drew such a negative reaction from me...
'I'm just unpleasant to be around.' Whatever - but wash your hands before touching the keyboard wil ya' soes not to spread it here. ;<| If you cannot afford a doc, try hot chicken soup, add curry.
Lincoln made all the others abuses possible. And he killed more than 750,000 people in his quest for control of the South.
He stands as the single most rapacious and despotic president in the history of America.
As for "letting it go" - you are perfectly welcome to carve a hole in your brain and forget history. I choose otherwise. Much of what is wrong with America today is a direct result of Lincoln's War.
Even more to the point, if secession wasn't mentioned, then it was retained, under the 9th and 10th Amendments, to the States or the People.
Here's what the average American today seems to miss: It's not that the Feral Government has powers only limited by the prohibitions in the Constitution, rather, the Feral Government ONLY legitimately exercises those powers specifically granted in the Constitution. Waging war to prevent states from secession? Not in the Constitution, therefore, not a legitimate power of the Feral Government.
The Federal Government was formed by the states. What state would join a union if one of the terms was that, no matter how abused they may be by the Feds, they could not leave? The States and the People are superior to the Federal Government and have determined those specific areas of where the Feds may legitimately exercise power. The fact that the Feds routinely go well beyond this grant of authority is one of the best arguments available for a Second American Revolution.
No offense, but you sound like some of the communist non-absolutes I once knew, and now despise... So, like your leftie socialist comrades, grip yourself and grow up.
Thinking like that leads to big government. Tragedies will always happen, and humans have a poor sense of relative value. Every hear of first world problems? In the third world you could find kids who don't flinch when they see someone get shot.
Even if the government could reduce the amount of drug violence, it would never be enough. Further more, the fewer the incidents, the more shocking it is to see it, and the more people demand an immediate solution that the government is glad to offer.
Trying to prevent tragedy through government action will always be a greater tragedy.
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Link, please.
Or, as Stefan Molyneux would put it, "The government is a transfer payment system from us to single mothers". And oh, by the way, 80% of rapists are the offspring of single mothers.
Or, as Stefan Molyneux would put it, "The government is a transfer payment system from us to single mothers". And oh, by the way, 80% of rapists are the offspring of single mothers.
Or, as Stefan Molyneux would put it, "The government is a transfer payment system from us to single mothers". And oh, by the way, 80% of rapists are the offspring of single mothers.
But today, we don't even hold people accountable when they're caught, and there's a sliding scale standard depending on who the defendant is. (Take the recent drag-racing arrest of Justin Bieber… puh-lease!)
As for drunk drivers/meth tweakers killing others… in many cases it's after multiple arrests.
Even more surprising (given the Obama administrations' "war on guns") is the fact that over 70,000 people a year lie on the background check forms to buy guns. That's a crime. How many prosecutions are there? Fewer than 20.
I suspect that the process of drunk/tweaker killing someone generally includes many prior arrests for related crimes where trivial sentences were imposed.
Lincoln did.
In his own words...
"If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views." - Lincoln
We think of WWI, WWII and Vietnam as huge wastes of lives, and yet none of them come close to Lincoln's carnage. Sherman was of course ordered to burn and sack everything in his march to the sea, but what is not generally recorded in the Yankee history books is the fact that all the other Yankee generals were under similar orders to destroy the lives of civilians. These war crimes extended to looting towns of everything the Northern armies could use and carry away - food, livestock, valuables. What could not be stolen was destroyed. Things like mirrors and pianos were routinely hauled out into the town squares and smashed for the pure meanness of it. More critically, any livestock not stolen was usually killed. Fields were burned. Mill stones were smashed. (Modern people can scarcely appreciate the importance of this, but without the millstone, there was no mill. Without the mill, no bread.) Even fence posts were ripped up and fences destroyed and when entire towns were burned to the ground, the only thing left was "Sherman's Sentinels", the naked fireplaces standing in silhouette looking a bit like soldiers on guard duty.
Lincoln routinely ordered his generals to commit war crimes. And he waged a form of war on the people of the North as well, suppressing free speech, suspending habeas corpus, even driving elected legislators out of the Country.
Lincoln was evil. But if you can imagine Stalin or Hitler winning out, and their supporters crafting history for the next 50 years, you can see how such a POS was canonized in an age where data flowed at a trickle compared to today.
Make no mistake - the man responsible for killing more than 1 in every 50 people was a monster with nothing whatsoever to recommend him. (Killing on a proportional scale today would involved the deaths of more than 7 MILLION people.)
I'm no leftie socialist, rather a Constitutional Libertarian.
If I may continue off topic- many members here would benefit by study of the role of religion in slavery.
Lincoln was an even worse military commander than JD his opponent, the real hero was Robert E Lee who was opposed to slavery. Lincoln did have good qualities, great speeches. Churchill says that without those two or three the outcome of the war would have been the same but faster, and with a casualty figure far lower.
So I do apologize for the "hateful language", but that's why your comment drew such a negative reaction from me...
Whatever - but wash your hands before touching the keyboard wil ya' soes not to spread it here. ;<|
If you cannot afford a doc, try hot chicken soup, add curry.
Lincoln made all the others abuses possible. And he killed more than 750,000 people in his quest for control of the South.
He stands as the single most rapacious and despotic president in the history of America.
As for "letting it go" - you are perfectly welcome to carve a hole in your brain and forget history. I choose otherwise. Much of what is wrong with America today is a direct result of Lincoln's War.
Here's what the average American today seems to miss: It's not that the Feral Government has powers only limited by the prohibitions in the Constitution, rather, the Feral Government ONLY legitimately exercises those powers specifically granted in the Constitution. Waging war to prevent states from secession? Not in the Constitution, therefore, not a legitimate power of the Feral Government.
The Federal Government was formed by the states. What state would join a union if one of the terms was that, no matter how abused they may be by the Feds, they could not leave? The States and the People are superior to the Federal Government and have determined those specific areas of where the Feds may legitimately exercise power. The fact that the Feds routinely go well beyond this grant of authority is one of the best arguments available for a Second American Revolution.
Even if the government could reduce the amount of drug violence, it would never be enough. Further more, the fewer the incidents, the more shocking it is to see it, and the more people demand an immediate solution that the government is glad to offer.
Trying to prevent tragedy through government action will always be a greater tragedy.
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