Slashdot Mirror
Spectral Imaging Reveals Jefferson Nixed 'Subjects' for 'Citizens'
Jamie points out this excellent piece, well timed for America's Independence Day, that says spectrographic evidence has established that the one word Thomas Jefferson fully blotted out from an early draft of the Declaration of Independence was not "resident," or "patriot," but rather "subject." This, he replaced with "citizen."
That redacting documents by simply putting a opaque block over them dosn't removing the unlaying data?
they have correct that correction some time ago now, you are not citizens, you are consumers - inmates - terrorists - child molesters - unique serial numbers - organ donors.
You can't handle the truth.
Considering the mindset of the era, this actually is a good indicator of how Jefferson and other founding fathers understood that there was something wrong with the status quo and managed to change it.
Figures. The government has been trying to do that for years ...
Since the actual ability within the populace to write went missing years ago (image the Constitution as a tweet), and since today's culture may not know this, let me be reiterate that the document was 'drafted', meaning the author wrote and thought at the same time. It used to be a common practice to write a statement, and then to consider it in context with the expectation that changes were likely to occur. This doesn't mean he f'd up or someone was holding a gun to his head forcing him to change his mind.
Thinking about what you write and why and how it should be cached for your audience used to be a worthwhile goal.
Yeah, in that era "citizen" had strong republican (i.e. anti-monarchist) connotations, which would be made even clearer in the revolution a few years later in France, where "Citizen so-and-so" became the common mode of greeting (to emphasize that all titles were abolished, replaced by a single title, "Citizen", that everyone possessed), and was featured prominently in such texts as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
I don't believe it had quite as radical a connotation in 1776, but it was still a clear shift from "grievances of subjects who feel their king is unjust" (which was the sentiment of some of the colonists) to a more explicit declaration of anti-monarchism.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
If he kept in the paragraph banning slavery, we probably would have 13 independent countries rather than any sort of union, especially for the southern states which required the extra labor for agriculture. The founding fathers all had to make compromises in order to get the thing passed, otherwise we would still be a confederacy of independent states. (No, I'm not talking about the CSA, I'm talking about having 13 independent nations with a loose affiliation)
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
LOL, really? When has a "Federal Officer" ever stopped you as you were travelling within the state and asserted his authority to make you turn around and go home?
What the hell does that have to do with a "Federal empire"? Christ, that's *specifically* a state-level law, enacted by a state, on behalf of the state's people. It's literally the antithesis of federalism (as the term is typically used in the US).
Right, because we all know how the north loved their Africans right? Everyone thought that the African race was inferior to the European races whether in the north, south, in Europe, etc. for quite some time.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Look at the US Code, says the same thing (except it's just not enforced.)
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode08/usc_sec_08_00001304----000-.html
1304. Forms for registration and fingerprinting
(e) Personal possession of registration or receipt card; penalties
Every alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him pursuant to subsection (d) of this section.
If you're referring to welfare states, they are a lot closer to financial solvency than the US, which prides itself on its can-do, American dream, pull-youself-up-with-your-own-bootstraps anti-welfare spirit, but is saddled with debt unimaginable in a place like Finland or Sweden.
ROFL, wow, interesting take... the south favoured slavery, not because they were filthy bigots who felt Africans were inferior, but simply because the poor bastards "required the extra labor for agriculture".
The abolition of slavery moved very slowly even in the North.
The percentage of colonists - all races and both sexes - who arrived as slaves, prisoners, or more or less voluntarily indentured servants, was around 1/3.
1777 Vermont Republic (constitution)
1780 Pennsylvania "An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery" Frees adult children of slaves born after 1780.
1783 Massachusetts (judicial decision - state constitutional law)
1783 -1784 New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island (children of slaves) (statute)
1799 -1804 New York, New Jersey (children of slaves) (statute)
1817 New York - emancipation for all slaves on July 4, 1827
1827 New York Children born of slaves between 1799 and 1827 are indentured until age 25 (females) or age 28 (males)
1847 Slavery ends in Pennsylvania. Those born before 1780 are freed - perhaps 100 surviving.
Abolition of slavery timeline
From the beginning, the plantation South was raising labor-intensive, non-edible, non-perishable, crops for the export trade. It was one of the few sources of hard currency - gold and silver - the colonies possessed. Which matters if you are seriously bent on waging a war against Great Britain.
Norse? What is this, the 12th century?
The problem of Greece has a lot to do with corruption in the minority of people who work in administration and very little to do with a welfare state, which is pretty negligible, actually. And taxation is fairly low there as well. Looks like you haven't read any more about the problem than the stereotypes posted around news sites recently, which blamed a generally mythical lazy, non-working, early-retiring Greek people for everything.
The Norse countries
Norse? What is this, the 12th century?
Old Norse:
Ráðumk, ér Loddfáfnir, en ú ráð nemir, -
njóta mundu, ef ú nemr, ér munu góð, ef ú getr -:
rimr orðum senna skal-at-tu ér við verra mann
oft inn betri bilar,
á er inn verri vegr.
Shakespeare Era Translation:
I rede thee, Loddfafnir! | and hear thou my rede,--
Profit thou hast if thou hearest,
Great thy gain if thou learnest:
With a worse man speak not | three words in dispute,
Ill fares the better oft
When the worse man wields a sword.
20th Century Translation:
Even three words of quarrelling you shouldn't have with an inferior.
21st Century Translation:
Don't feed trolls.
Some things never change.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.