'Honest Abe' was not racially enlightened, as many people think. The truth is both ugly and unpleasant: Not only was the ghastly, bloody war that he supposedly fought to end slavery unnecessary, Lincoln was a tyrant and an abuser of civil liberties. The "tyrant" part is well-documented. He suspended habeas corpus. He deported a US Congressman who disagreed with the war. He had Federal police impound dissenting newspapers and smash their presses. He authorized Sherman's March to the Sea -a war crime, by any civilized human standard.
"My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery." -- Abraham Lincoln, August 22, 1862, letter to newspaper editor Horace Greeley
"We have decided that the negro must not be a slave within our limits, but we have also decided that the negro shall not be a citizen within our limits; that he shall not vote, hold office, or exercise any political rights." -- Abraham Lincoln, September 15, 1858 [Source: www.nps.gov]
"I will to the very last stand by the law of this State, which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes." -- Abraham Lincoln, September 18, 1858 [Source: www.nps.gov]
"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." -- Abraham Lincoln, September 18, 1858 [Source: www.nps.gov]
It can only be concluded, based upon his own words, that Abraham Lincoln may well have been a slave abolitionist, but he was also clearly a racist who considered African-Americans to be inferior human beings-if indeed he considered them human beings at all....
Most ludicrous and disturbing of all, Lincoln was well-documented as a proponent of a separatist movement dubbed "colonization"-- and in the White House, Lincoln proposed to create colonies to send black people back to Africa in Liberia, to Haiti, or to work in coal mines in Panama....
More here
The above excerpts are from a libertarian site. Most libertarians do abhor Lincoln for his authoritarianism and vast expansion of central government power. I myself have a similar view -- as I set out here. To me "Lincoln the liberator" is perhaps the greatest myth of the 19th century -- not unlike the "Hitler was a Rightist" myth of the 20th century. Politicians do find myths very handy at times.
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ELSEWHERE
There is a big review here of the absurd "600,000 Iraqi deaths" study reported in Lancet. It confirms concerns expressed by myself and others about the lack of basic verification of the raw data and reveals that the "data" was collected by a former Saddam Hussein operative known for large exaggerations! There is in fact no evidence that any survey at all was carried out. The safest assumption is that the whole thing was just made up! A crooked Iraqi simply gave Western Leftists what they wanted.
Media bias against Fred Thompson: "To my best memory, none of the pundits at Fox News Channel had predicted this week that Thompson would rank that high, yet instead of commenting on Thompson doing unexpectedly well, the pundits at Fox -- when they talked about Thompson at all -- joined Mike Allen of Politico in concluding that a third place finish means Thompson's campaign is at death's door. At the same time, Allen and the pundits were very enthused about McCain's possible fourth place finish, stating he was in great position for the future. Say again? As Rush Limbaugh noted today, the media seem to be falling in line behind a "McCain comeback" story, and they're thus shaping the facts to fit that scenario."
Muslims now running the Pentagon? "Stephen Coughlin, the Pentagon specialist on Islamic law and Islamist extremism, has been fired from his position on the military's Joint Staff. The action followed a report in this space last week revealing opposition to his work for the military by pro-Muslim officials within the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England. Mr. Coughlin was notified this week that his contract with the Joint Staff will end in March, effectively halting the career of one of the U.S. government's most important figures in analyzing the nature of extremism and ultimately preparing to wage ideological war against it. He had run afoul of a key aide to Mr. England, Hasham Islam, who confronted Mr. Coughlin during a meeting several weeks ago when Mr. Islam sought to have Mr. Coughlin soften his views on Islamist extremism."
The AP shellacs "Relic" Bill Clinton.: "In a presidential race where the Democratic candidates are competing as agents of change, Hillary Rodham Clinton's most reliable campaign prop is something of a political relic - her husband. The former president was at her side to help put the best face on her third-place finish Thursday in Iowa, and he was beside her again when dawn broke the next day on the final push to Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. "I was never more proud of Hillary in all the days we've been together and all the days of this campaign than when she gave that speech in Iowa," the ex-president told New Hampshire voters. The candidate's husband, meanwhile, tends to ramble on about himself."
Barack Obama wants to end the US "Occupation" of Iraq: "In an 11-minute interview with hometown Chicago radio broadcaster and journalist, Roland Martin, Barack Obama revealed that his first act, if elected president, would be to pull our troops out of Iraq as quickly as possible: "Well, we will call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I will give them a new assignment and that is to bring our troops home in a careful, responsible way, but to end this occupation in Iraq".
Obama races to 10-point lead over Hillary: "Barack Obama the 46-year-old senator aiming to become America's first black president, has stormed into a 10-point lead over Hillary Clinton in this week's critical New Hampshire primary, threatening to send her campaign into meltdown. The Rasmussen survey, which was carried out the day after Obama's victory in last Thursday's Iowa caucuses, put his support at 37% in New Hampshire, compared with 27% for Clinton. The poll of 510 likely Democratic voters signalled a further swing away from the 60-year-old former first lady, whose campaign portrayed her as the "inevitable" victor until she was beaten into third place in Iowa".
For sale: America's nuclear secrets: "A whistleblower has made a series of extraordinary claims about how corrupt government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to steal nuclear weapons secrets. Sibel Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator for the FBI, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency's Washington field office. She approached The Sunday Times last month after reading about an Al-Qaeda terrorist who had revealed his role in training some of the 9/11 hijackers while he was in Turkey. Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions".
For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND.
List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here
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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.
The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".
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2 comments:
Re: Abraham Lincoln
John Jay Ray, you're starting to become like Andrew Bolt, a one time conservative, but who has become so infatuated with notoriety, he will say anything to cause a sensation.
Now, I'm no Lincoln scholar -- I've just read a couple of books on the Civil War and Ken Burns famous documentary -- but I was under the impression Lincoln's opposition to slavery was well known, and in fact it was a major cause of the Civil War.
Namely, that as tensions rose before the outbreak of war, Lincoln expressed a very indulgent policy towards the slave states; that to preserve the Union and prevent war he was apparently willing to allow slavery to be eliminated only progressively. But because of Lincoln's well known opposition to slavery, in the South it was considered he was being disingenuous.
This is the certainly the mainstream view, and a few isolated quotes is not really enough to overturn it, just as the few Hitler quotes so often bandied about can't prove that Hitler was Christian.
If you know of better evidence I would be interested to read it.
Read my own linked essay -- and the links in it
There is nothing sensational in Lincoln criticisms -- in the South, at least
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