David D.W. Downey wrote:
Steve Schear wrote:
In short, the Constitution itself was a casualty of >Lincoln's war. A Pyrrhic victory indeed.
For the first time in a long time, I've read a post that actually make me seriously consider rethinking what I have been taught. I've studied quite a bit in regards to US law and the Consitution, (made necessary by my being Pro-PGP), and never looked in that direction. Your post adds a very different light to things. Thank you for the push.
I also thought that it was one of the more thought-provoking posts in a while, but I would certainly never send a polite, thankful post to the list, saying so. My "CypherPissing" mail folder turned out to be genetically related to the plant in "Little Shop of Horrors" and, the larger it gets, the more it demands to be fed. In order to provide it with enough of the sewage-supplement it needs to keep from eating my "cat" command, I may have to send a post to the list praising Sandy Sandfort, Chris Lewis, and blessing Armenians everywhere. (I have tried remailing old ASCII-art spams to myself, but it refuses to eat left-overs.) (Perhaps I can get my "CypherPissing" folder a few snacks to munch on, in the meantime, by seeing if praising Tim McVeigh is still good enough bait to get a few nibbles. "Suckers" taste pretty good, if you "smoke" 'em.) Anyway... There are some concepts and arguments that "chip away" at an assumed belief or a train of logic, and there are those that knock down a load- bearing support column. The Joseph Sobran piece which Steve posted to the list could, with a proper "primer," do the kind of damage to our view of Civil War history as the OKC bomb did to the Murrah Federal Building. Come to think of it, maybe McVeigh _was_ the primer for explosive new views of why Federalism is quickly becoming indistinguishable from Fascism. The advantage that literature has over black powder is that it is reusable and doesn't leave as big a mess to clean up. The advantage that black powder has over literature is that it makes enough noise to get the message to the blind, as well, and sometimes even restores the sight of the blind. {Warning: Since the side-effects of Black Powder can be substantial, it should only be used in cases where the physician has determined that the benefits of "treatment" outweigh the risks. Dr. McVeigh's surgery in OKC falls into the category of private research (even if he did receive some government funding). However, follow-up research by others may lead to McVeigh's technique being improved and perhaps gaining enough recognition to make it standard paramedical procedure.} TruthMonger