Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Tim Lynch: Pot Shots at Prop 19 Fall Flat – The War on Marijuana has done little to reduce drug use, has cost tremendous amount of time and money in the law enforcement arena, and has crammed our jails with folks accused of possession or sale. It’s also been a huge money-maker for drug cartels. Will decriminalizing marijuana solve drug problems in the state of California? I doubt it — but it will certainly not make them worse.
- The problem we’re not supposed to talk about: Steve Benen
- What populism isn’t – “The Chamber didn’t even have to lift a finger — a deranged media personality told his audience, many of whom are middle-class and having a tough time in a struggling economy, to start throwing money at one of the nation’s wealthiest lobbying groups. And these folks did as they were told, voluntarily handing over donations to some of the country’s richest corporations. Why? So these corporations could elect candidates who will, in turn, favor policies that hurt the middle class, undermine workers and consumers, and boost these businesses’ profits.”
- Quote of the Day – And in thirty years, Americans will be asking themselves, “How did we stop being the most important country on the planet?”
- Limbaugh plays constitutional scholar – The “Left” has not been excluding religious people from government. It has been arguing, successfully, that using religion as the rule of law is unconstitutional. Ironically, the folks screaming the loudest about this (because it’s denying them the “right” to impose Christianity as the law of the land) also scream the loudest about how awful the prospect of Islamic “sharia” law becoming the law of the land is … even as they try to dismantle the constitutional provisions that would prevent that from happening.
- SBA: It Is Unconstitutional To Not Let Us Lie About Democratic Candidates – Don’t you dare stop us from speaking stuff that’s demonstrably wrong! Especially if you can’t demonstrate that we’re doing it maliciously!
- ‘This Isn’t The Lotto’: Sheriff Halting All Foreclosures Until Banks Prove Evictions Are Legal And Legitimate – “Cook County, Illinois Sheriff Tom Dart recently assembled a team to investigate the foreclosures in his area. His team found that out of 350 cases reviewed, ‘only 17 of them had the proper paperwork.’ Following the investigation, Dart announced Monday that he would be halting all evictions of homeowners — a step he took two years ago at the height of the financial crisis — and would not take part in any foreclosures unless the banks could provide the documentation to prove that the evictions were legitimate and legal.” Good for him. The sheriff should not be enforcing illegitimate and illegal requests.
- The Long Road to Not Making The Hobbit Continues – Yeah, that sure doesn’t sound good …
- Harry Potter and the Naked Cash-Grab – Not at all surprising … but I hope Warners’ earlier decision indicates they will make an effort to take the time to do it right. (For the record, I have no intention of picking up any HP3D flicks, but more power to those who do.)
- Why Do Americans Have Yards? « Gambler’s House – I enjoy having a yard, to at least some degree — I could probably live easily with one half the size we have, but I do enjoy growing green things and adding some sparks of color to the neighborhood.
- Virginia textbook claims blacks fought for Confederacy – Education – Salon.com – “Writers: Verify, verify, verify. Then verify some more. The Internet is not the ultimate source of human knowledge. Parents: Read through your kid’s textbooks and give them the old smell test. If something seems to stink, follow it like a bloodhound back to its source. And if it’s foul, raise hell.”
- Did Sarah Palin desecrate the American flag? – Sarah Palin – Salon.com – Noted only because y’gotta know that if it were a Dem who’d done this, certain factions on the Right would be having conniptions.
- Fuzzy Critters’ Crystallized Pee Changes Climate Record?
- Pictures: Dead Sea Scrolls Being Digitized for Web – It’s about damn time.
- George Soros’ “foreign” money – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com – He’s been a US citizen for almost as long as I have been — wonder if that makes my donations somehow “foreign” to their perception of the body politic?
- What Role Have Scalia And Thomas Played In The Koch Money Machine?: Ian Millhiser
- MEMO: Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries Met With Koch, Chamber, Glenn Beck To Plot 2010 Election – There’s nothing wrong per se with people opposing governmental policies they feel hurt them, and pursuing that opposition through the ballot box. But it’s very worth-while for all of those “Hey, it’s us grass-roots Tea Party folk who are tired of Washington business as usual who are leading the charge against Obama and his crowd” crowd to consider whose deep pockets are helping fund all of this … and how … and why.
- YouTube – Otter Pups Swim Lesson – TEH CUTE!!!!
66 view(s)
Blacks in the CSA
Yes there were, If I could find the reference material on my book shelf I would be able to give you the regimental number. When you are outnumbered 3:1, and 1/4 of your population is black, eventually you try anything.
The ACW doesn’t fall neatly into a catagory of “free the slaves” vs “States rights”.
Many of the Confederacy would be Tea Baggers today, resenting interference from the North. The fact that the right they sort of formed around happened to be slavery obscures the facts of history – this was a division that did not happen overnight or on one issue.
The racist president (Lincoln) abolished slavery to keep Britain and France out of the war; the fact that it did not affect the north was a bonus. The north fought the war to preserve the union- it had all the important industries, but relied on the south for cotton exports.
In the film ‘Gettysburg’ a sergeant gives a speech about why can’t folks just get along. Ironically they put this into the mouth of an Irishman – one of the white underclasses that were not abolitionist, as although they were the bottom of the pile, at least they were above the blacks, and they didn’t need the competition.
Additionally little is written of the fact that non ‘WASP’ officers were sometimes forced out of command by their men, especially at the beginning of the war, who believed that if they were fighting for American Values they should be allowed to pick their own officers, and they should not be Jewish.
While state legislatures who do not understand why it is wrong to have the ‘Stars and Bars’ as part of their flag are obviously arses, do not reduce the most destructive conflict of your country’s history to oversimplifications of “Slaves=Bad”.
There was certainly more to the American Civil War than just slaves, but slavery was an emotional (and righteous) flash-point and focus of the conflict and its political antecedents dating back to the Revolution.
It would not surprise me if there were a handful of willing blacks fighting for the CSA, but I would be very surprised if there were a large number of black volunteers.
That Lincoln used slavery as a political tool during the war is hardly surprising. At the same time, while he displayed the racism one would expect from most whites at the time, he also seems to have been emotionally and philosophically opposed to slavery, though he considered the unity of the Union to be a higher cause.
I agree that most Confederates would be Tea Partiers today (indeed, many are).