At 1:38 AM 7/20/96, Jim Choate wrote:
I disagree. This country fought two wars of liberation (you forgot about 1812) and a civil war to discredit this thesis in relation to a Democracy founded upon individual liberty. It is no coincidence that the Tree of Liberty
Well, to many of us, the wrong side won the War of the Rebellion (aka the Civil War, aka the War Between the States, etc.). A bunch of southern states wanted to seceed, which my reading of the founding documents said was clearly an option if sentiment was strong enough in that direction. Constitutional scholars of course debate this, and I've seen arguments that the documents eventually agreed to in 1789-90 in some ways undercut this "right" to seceed. I think this to be untrue, and that the signers of the Declaration and of the Constitution would be surprised to learn that they were signing a one-way, unreversible, no way out document, binding their communities to be part of the United States of America forever, even if their populace clearly wants out. So, the wrong side won. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."