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Meta
Category Archives: history
first principles
Dan Kohn writes: “It is shocking that there is not more of an outcry over the unlawful detainment of radioactive ‘dirty bomb’ suspect Jose Padilla.” The old bleat that “the Constitution is not a suicide pact” is brought up, and … Continue reading
Posted in constitution, history
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separation of powers
Vin Suprynowicz often complains about decay in the separation of state powers, particularly about public school teachers (and other employees of the executive branch) holding part-time legislative office; today’s column is on that subject, and the link ought to be … Continue reading
Posted in constitution, history
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Iceland
For three centuries beginning in 930, the Norse settlers of Iceland enjoyed the literate world’s nearest thing to a stateless society; possibly the largest non-nomadic society ever to lack territorial monopolies in government. Competition between the goðar (customarily and poorly … Continue reading
Posted in constitution, history
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necessary and sufficient conditions
Tibor Machan misreads the Declaration of Independence: It requires “a long train of abuses and usurpations,” which reduce a government to “absolute despotism,” before secession is justified. On the contrary, the sentence containing that phrase states a sufficient condition. The … Continue reading
successful turns of phrase
The phrase “Iron Curtain” was coined by Churchill in a speech in Missouri, if memory serves. Is there a known source for “Cold War”? Update: Dan Kohn did the legwork and got the goods: Cold War This term for a … Continue reading
Posted in history, language
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sovereignty ≠ liberty
USS Clueless defends American unilateralism again: [quoting a British paper] “a disdain for any treaty that might, even marginally, tie the administration’s hands”. We in the US refer to that as “liberty”. I know it’s a foreign notion in Europe, … Continue reading
Posted in history, politics
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what family doesn’t have its ups and downs?
If we persons of pallor are all descended from Charlemagne, we could still one-up each other on what fraction of our ancestry is royal, or how few of the links in the chain are female. If a genie offered me … Continue reading