Lincoln's Birthday 2001

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 12 Feb 2001 13:00:00 GMT
L. Neil Smith - The American Lenin: in honor of his birthday, I recommend that you read this essay about the real Abe Lincoln. An oldie, but still a goodie, from L. Neil. [jpfo]
Suppose a woman -- with plenty of personal faults herself, let that be stipulated -- desired to leave her husband: partly because he made a regular practice, in order to go out and get drunk, of stealing money she had earned herself by raising chickens or taking in laundry; and partly because he'd already demonstrated a proclivity for domestic violence the first time she'd complained about his stealing.

Now, when he stood in the doorway and beat her to a bloody pulp to keep her home, would we memorialize him as a hero? Or would we treat him like a dangerous lunatic who should be locked up, if for no other reason, then for trying to maintain the appearance of a relationship where there wasn't a relationship any more? What value, we would ask, does he find in continuing to possess her in an involuntary association, when her heart and mind had left him long ago?

...

In the end, Lincoln didn't unite this country -- that can't be done by force -- he divided it along lines of an unspeakably ugly hatred and resentment that continue to exist almost a century and a half after they were drawn. If Lincoln could have been put on trial in Nuremburg for war crimes, he'd have received the same sentence as the highest-ranking Nazis.

If libertarians ran things, they'd melt all the Lincoln pennies, shred all the Lincoln fives, take a wrecking ball to the Lincoln Memorial, and consider erecting monuments to John Wilkes Booth. Libertarians know Lincoln as the worst President America has ever had to suffer, with Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson running a distant second, third, and fourth.

Brian's got a great Clinton/Gore/Bush joke over at Nothing Doing today. You might like "History of the World", too, but the joke I'm talking about is after that, at the bottom of the February 11 entry. [brianf]

Cryptome - Enquiry: The Killing Years in Ireland: after John Young posted the identity of Captain M, also known as Mags, the British Ministry of Defense has been trying to get it pulled from his web site and is forbidding British newspapers from printing it, though the Sunday Herald and the Sunday Times have articles containing enough information to find the cryptome story containing the name. Repeat after me: Captain Margaret Walshaw. Give it up guys. The news is out. [grabbe]

The Massachusetts News - Reformer of the Month, February 2001: Gregory Hession, Linda Hamilton's attorney, is the MassNews reformer of the month. One of few remaining lawyers who actually think the constitution means what it says. His web site is www.massoutrage.com. Mr. Hession, I salute you.

In certain cases, the political issues overshadow the legal issues. "It's very frustrating when there should be a clearly established principle and a law under the Constitution," Hession said.

A good example of this is how DSS will go into a home and take a child out without a warrant. "They can't go in your home and take drugs out without a warrant or anything else out without a warrant. But they can take your child without a warrant. The child is not protected from being taken from a family."

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