Wade Wilson posted:

Saw this making the rounds in response to all of the "The Civil War wasn't about Slavery" responses to stories about the shooting being motivated by racism (because that makes sense somehow).

quote:

The cause of the great War of the Rebellion against the United Status will have to be attributed to slavery. For some years before the war began it was a trite saying among some politicians that "A state half slave and half free cannot exist." All must become slave or all free, or the state will go down. I took no part myself in any such view of the case at the time, but since the war is over, reviewing the whole question, I have come to the conclusion that the saying is quite true.

Slavery was an institution that required unusual guarantees for its security wherever it existed; and in a country like ours where the larger portion of it was free territory inhabited by an intelligent and well-to-do population, the people would naturally have but little sympathy with demands upon them for its protection. Hence the people of the South were dependent upon keeping control of the general government to secure the perpetuation of their favorite institution. They were enabled to maintain this control long after the States where slavery existed had ceased to have the controlling power, through the assistance they received from odd men here and there throughout the Northern States. They saw their power waning, and this led them to encroach upon the prerogatives and independence of the Northern States by enacting such laws as the Fugitive Slave Law. By this law every Northern man was obliged, when properly summoned, to turn out and help apprehend the runaway slave of a Southern man. Northern marshals became slave-catchers, and Northern courts had to contribute to the support and protection of the institution.

This was a degradation which the North would not permit any longer than until they could get the power to expunge such laws from the statute books. Prior to the time of these encroachments the great majority of the people of the North had no particular quarrel with slavery, so long as they were not forced to have it themselves. But they were not willing to play the role of police for the South in the protection of this particular institution.

quote:

Senator Jefferson Davis, who later insisted that the Confederacy fought for the principle of state sovereignty, voted with enthusiasm for the Fugitive Slave Law. When Northern legislatures invoked their states' rights against this federal law, the Supreme Court with its majority of Southern justices reaffirmed the supremacy of national law to protect slavery (Ableman vs. Booth, 1859). Many observers in the 1850s would have predicted that if a rebellion in the name of state's rights were to erupt, it would be the North that would rebel.

quote:

Chomsky:

As for guns being the way to respond to this, that's outlandish. First of all, this is not a weak Third World country. If people have pistols, the government has tanks. If people get tanks, the government has atomic weapons. There's no way to deal with these issues by violent force, even if you think that that's morally legitimate.

Guns in the hands of American citizens are not going to make the country more benign. They're going to make it more brutal, ruthless and destructive. So while one can recognize the motivation that lies behind some of the opposition to gun control, I think it's sadly misguided.

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Sabina, 21, her father lieutenant colonel Sergey "Poet", 50, and her mother Vera, 47. At the HQ of the 1st Slavik Brigade. Sergey started to fight for independence in April in #Slavyansk, his wife joined him in July, and daughter took the oath in September after she finished college as a professional sport shooter.

Dr.Caligari posted:

Hubis posted:

North Korea allows 'first foreign band to perform'



This is so perfect

ekuNNN posted:

Armyman25 posted:

What he made looks similar to a home made bomb though and it's disingenuous the way people are playing it off like it doesn't.

quote:

“I plan to read everything my family has written,” Wilde says. “It’d take me a year. I’d read all of Alexander Cockburn [her firebrand journalist uncle], all of Claud Cockburn [her Irish grandfather]. My uncle Patrick Cockburn just came out with a great book about Iraq called The Occupation.” She grins. “And then they have to watch every episode of The O.C.”

Armyman25 posted:

So, as of October 1 the US Army will no longer wear the green "Class A" dress uniform, in favor of the dress blue uniform. This marks the end of a 61 year era.

Helen Highwater posted:

That's why a lot of European countries (including France), keep a separate militarised police force alongside regular law-enforcement. The Gendarmerie/Carabinieri/Guardia Civil/etc provide high visibility security in busy areas as well as riot control, disaster management and a bunch of other things where having a centralised command structure comes in handy, not just for storming hostage situations.


This is the Spanish Guardia Civil. The symbol they use (the bundle of sticks with the axes) is called the Fascio which is the etymological root of the word 'fascism'.