BBC Blog Network

User Profile

justcorbly

Listed below are comments made by justcorbly between Friday, 12th December 2008 and Tuesday, 26th May 2009.

«Newer
Older»

Letter from Texas 3:20pm on 26 May 2009 #225 gedguy2:

The issue of federalism versus confederation was resolved by the Constitution.

Beginning almost immediately after voting to accept the Constitution, Southern states began to use the trappings and language of states rights to defend and expand slavery. In fact, few believe those states would have accepted the Constitution if the Framers had banned slavery outright, as a number of them desired. I.e., their agreement to join the U.S. in the first place was always conditional on the federal government's acceptance of slavery.

As opinion turned against slavery, albeit slowly, the south leveraged its inordinate political power in Washington to ensure that institution's survival and expansion. (E.g., Texas.) The south saw the election of Lincoln as evidence that they could no longer preserve slavery via politics. Instead, they went to war.

Absent slavery, hardly any of the issues of federal versus state power would have emerged in the antebellum era. Certainly, a slave-free south would have had no more impetus to raise those issues than did the slave-free North.

It was the compulsion to sustain and expand slavery that drove the states rights, leave us alone attitude of the South, not the other way around. The South merely deployed that rhetoric to defend the institution. Their dependence on, and faith in, slavery was the cause -- not the result -- of the social and political attitudes that drove southerners' indifference and hostility toward industrialization.

The South took the nation into war rather than rid itself of the fundamentally evil institution of slavery. Other choices might have been made.
Letter from Texas 1:44pm on 26 May 2009 The Texas-Scotland comparison is interesting but, I suspect, doesn't bear much examination.

First, as I understand it, a Scotland that votes for independence will become independent, if not with the blessing of Westminster then with its cooperation. If Texas, or any other state, voted for independence it would be seen as secession, illegal and treasonous. That action would not be allowed to stand. Whatever Texas was for a few short years in the past means nothing today.

Also, as has been pointed out, Scotland has a separate and distinct cultural heritage from the rest of the UK that stretches back thousands of years. Texas is not yet 200 years old. Its heritage as a distinct place on the map begins with the Spanish colonial conquests, and its heritage as "Texas" begins in the early 1800's with the influx of thousands of pro-slavery southern Americans. The culture of that Texas has always been thoroughly American.

On a side note, I want to disagree with a few comments asserting that slavery was not the cause, or even a primary cause, of the American Civil War. Without the existence of slavery, there would have been no war. All the Southern trappings of states rights, etc., were created or manipulated to legitimate and defend the wealth and power of the slaveholding aristocracy, both within those states and within the national government in Washington. Even such figures as Virginia's Jefferson and Madison played the states right card explicitly to defend the slave culture and political clout of their region.
Obama's intriguing CIA pick 12:44pm on 07 Jan 2009 #15 Marcus:

... the disliked but very effective policies we've had these last few years ...

Bush's policies remind me of the fool in the Vietnam war who claimed he had to destroy a village to save it. Bush, and presumably you, have no idea what this country is really about. you're willing to destroy it from the inside out so long as we all look the other way at the idoicy and the crimes of our leaders. You and Bush, et al, would have us always obligated to follow orders.

As for the lack of terror attacks, a better way to phrase that would be that there have been no attacks on U.S. soil since Bush's incompetence and inattention allowed the first attack.
All that's happened is that the internal domestic agencies charged with protecting us (think FBI) got a swift kick in the duff. The crimes of Bush and Cheney -- those actions you salute -- have done nothing to make us more secure. You can't be secure when the president is breaking the law.
Obama's intriguing CIA pick 11:54pm on 06 Jan 2009 The CIA director is a manager, not someone who personally participates in the intelligence gathering and analysis process. Much better to have a strong and decisive manager who isn't a product of the inteliigence community than someone who grew up with the spooks but can't manage.
Health care heartbreak 1:26pm on 05 Jan 2009 The purpose of a nation's health care system should be to provide health care to every resident. The health care system in the U.S. fails to provide health care to a significant portion of the population. Assertions, even if true, that the world's best care is available at some facilities are irrelevant.

European-style health care, whatever its problems, does ensure that care is available to everyone. Is anyone in the EU skipping their pills in order to eat, or vice versa? Is anyone in the EU avoiding taking their sick kid to a doctor because they know they can't pay?

I'm glad Obama will attempt to reform our health care system. But, I no longer have faith in a system based on insurance. I have had the experience of seeing seriously ill loved ones discharged from hospital against the expressed wishes of physicians solely because an unknown and invisible and unreachable corporate bureaucrat decreed it otherwise.

Tell me, what are you supposed to do when an insurance company gives you the choice of paying several thousand dollars per day out of pocket to keep your mother alive in a hospital with hope for recovery or taking her home to watch her die?

Who here argues that an insurance company's right to make a profit takes precedence over a patient's right to receive care and to stay alive? Yet the consequences of a system that has, in fact, answered that question in the affirmative face people every minute of evey hour in hospitals across the nation.

Bureaucrats may gum up the works in the UK's heath care system, but they ultimately work for politicians who stand for election. In contrast, corporate-style profit-driven health care in the U.S. has given us Pay-To-Live health care and we patients cannot vote those bastards out.
Why no special election in Illinois? 11:44pm on 17 Dec 2008 Obama is no longer representing the people of Illinois. He has been asked by Fitzgerald to avoid discussing the case and he is complying.

Established procedures exist for filling Senate vacancies in Illinois. Many other states do the same thing. Several Senate vacancies exist and they will all be filled by each respective governor. No reason exists for Illinois to act counter to its own legal requirements.
Republicans vs. unions 11:19pm on 12 Dec 2008 #137 Iglehart:

>>"...yet you want to bail them out....

Why wouldn't I?

The welfare of people takes precedence over the welfare of belief.
Republicans vs. unions 7:32pm on 12 Dec 2008 #111 Iglehart:

>>Why not let "the market" decide? Cars aren't selling, so they mustn't be needed.

Cars arent selling because loans aren't on offer and because people are afraid to spend because they fear losing their jobs.

Concluding that people don't need something based on their ability to buy it is bogus.

Besides, a market dominated by a few powerful corporations, as most American markets are, is far from free.
Republicans vs. unions 5:31pm on 12 Dec 2008 #74 gunsandreligion:

>>"... government which
governs least, governs best."

No. Minimal government enables concentrated wealth and power to exploit and subjegate the people. The government must stand with the people against the wealthy and the powerful, the corporate few.
Republicans vs. unions 5:27pm on 12 Dec 2008 #73 MagicKirin:

How clever of you to simply ignorethe first 6 years of the Bush administration. Pretty typical for the GOP: If you don't like the truth, lie, and then believe your own lies. Like the GOP lies about Fannie/Freddie triggering the housing crisis. GOP culture triggered that by giving dishonest people cover to lie, cheat and steal.

It's about more than politics.

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

justcorbly