Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I’m going to go with The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. Hannibal by Michael Lamb was compelling. Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves was pretty good to. Finally, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
Nemesis:
Are you saying judges should hold a moral component to their decisions? As much as I would like for judges to have morals, it is whose morals they have that worries me since there is no guarantee they will share mine. I think presentation of the law is the only benchmark a judge should weigh his decisions on. He can look to precedent to bail him out, but if it's not there or is murky at best.......the best presenter of facts should win every time. Of course I'm no lawyer or legal expert, but I see no other approach that keeps justice "blind."I was avoiding this subject as long as I could because it’s probably the one I know the most about, and most passionate about. It is hard for me to detach my emotions from the Civil War, but I will try.
I won't answer this as there was one great general.....I suppose that title goes to Lee if I have to choose only one, but even Lee had some help becoming the icon he did.
Best Tactician.........Stonewall Jackson
Most Visionary........James Longstreet
Saw the big picture........Ulysses S. Grant
Best administrator......Kirby Smith
Most brutal.......William T. Sherman
Best defensive......George Thomas (the Rock of Chickamauga)
Covered most ground........John Hunt Morgan
Most gallant........George Pickett
Best offensive......Richard Taylor/Phillip Sheridan (tie)
Most patient.......Gordon Meade
Most underated......Sterling Price
Now the worst categories:
Worst tactician.........Ambrose Burnside
Most wasteful........George MacCllelan
Most foolhearty........John Bell Hood
Most criminal......William Quantrell
Most mediocre......Braxton Bragg
Most passive.......Joseph E. Johnston
Most unlucky......John PembertonThe Germans invaded Russia with four million soldiers and still could not get the job done. The Russians suffered anywhere from 20-30 million casualties (some have said 50!). Whether these counts are inflated or not is immaterial, the Germans pummeled the living bejesus out the Russians for two years on their soil and could not break the Russians of their spirit. Yet, you would have to think that if the Luftwaffe had not been tied down in the Battle of Britain, they could have sealed the deal. Instead, the Germans bled themeselves to death at Stalingrad and Kursk (where over 10,000 tanks squared off) thus ending their hope of winning the overall war. The logistics nightmare that the Germans faced was incredibly complex, but with Albert Speer’s genius, Hitler’s armies never ran out of bullets. They even had more fighters than pilots during the closing months of the war. Hitler had great timing in the beginning, but his logic became increasingly clouded and after the July Plot, he couldn’t trust anyone anymore. In the end, Hitler’s racism and his paranoia defeated what gains his generals had given him in the beginning.
Comengetit:
Glad to see you found your way over here. Your contributions will make this forum lively.
I have to admit I am no fan of the Patriot Act, but as you will recall on that Posse Comitatus thread, I think the government needs modern tools and protocols to deal with the War on Terror and the global threat of terrorism in general. Our free and open society is more vulnerable to freelance attacks, and therefore the need for a security apparatus that is transparent (in the background and unseen) is required. Our Bill of Rights is not a detriment or hindrance to beefing up our security. It is the reason we are targeted....those who hate it are jealous of the freedom it guarantees. Amerians will allow tighter security measures if they are not overtly seen in their everyday lives. I think we can put something like this in place without getting all Orwellian about it. I'll have to think more on this as to how I think it could be done. 😕I voted for Henry VIII because he formalized the Protestant Reformation in England. England’s religious identity took off after the Church of England was established. He also gave us billiards I believe, and I love to shoot a game of stick.
Maybe if Hitler had listened to his generals and waited to invade the Soviet Union in the Spring, they could have had the time to finish their drive for the Urals before the Russian Winter set in. Hitler forgot to study Napoleon’s mistakes and he paid dearly for it.
The Gladiator formula…which is the Braveheart formula….which is The Patriot formula….which is the Gettysburg formula gets me every time. The Passion of the Christ probably tore me up more than the others……sheesh……I tried to sit through Gladiator, Braveheart, and the Passion without crying and I couldn’t do it. I’m so starved for real life heroes to look up to I get mushy when I see a noble man die for his lost cause. Okay, softy mushy speech over. 😀
They acknowledge the contributions of Lord Bolingbroke, Machiavelli, Berkeley, and Montesquieu. For Pocock, he was interested in the Florentine Republic as a source for American republicanism. I believe they wanted Locke pushed to the side because he had been used so prevalently in other histories. Also, Locke did not always fit into their republican synthesis because they argued from a secular point of view rather than acknowledging the contributions religion made to the Revolution. Colonial preachers cited Locke almost as much as they did the Bible. The Neo-Whigs did not like superimposing religion onto the Revolution. Historians like Nathan Hatch and James Hutson have incorporated the Neo-Whig republicanism, but traced its source to colonial religious dissent. I do not agree with the Neo-Whigs in their strategy to limit the role of Locke. He was an intellectual force that cannot be ignored to the degree they have.
Nemesis:
The reason being is that Judges can only weigh the evidence brought before them. If one side argues better than the other, and the Judge knows that they are in the wrong, he must still side with those who presented the best case. Justice is blind and the presentation of law will always prevail if the judge does what he is supposed to do. Some judges will look to foreign law to wriggle out of these predicaments, and that is where I draw the line.Prohibition created a market for organized crime syndicates and crooked cops. Even the high society folks had to take their social activities underground just to have a social drink or party. Prohibition was the pinnacle of the Christian morality movements that began in the 1740’s and again in the 1820’s-1840’s. America has always been a more socially conservative society as compared to the Europeans especially. I believe it has something to do with America being the frontier of human civilization, but my professors would frown at the frontier thesis since they consider Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis outdated these days. 🙄
Nemesis:
The Wehrmacht should have concentrated on finishing England off before it invaded the Soviet Union. Even though the Germans opted to fight a two front war, they still could have beaten the Soviet Union if they had utilized the Ukrainians and other Slavic peoples who wished to be liberated from Stalin. Hitler, however, considered the Slavs to be only one step above the Jews on their racial hierarchy. In the end, the racist policies of the Nazis did them in as the Slavs fought courageously against the Nazis side by side with their Russian masters. Had England been knocked out of the war, Hitler could have moved his Luftwaffe bombers to the Eastern Front to finish off the Soviets who were still reeling from the initial invasion.I suppose that humanism was the only component that Hume and Voltaire would have picked up on. Basically the inquiry via the scholastic approach created the argumentative methodology used by the humanist philosophers who basically reacted against the religous usage. I don’t know, like I say…..I must withold my judgment to further study since it has been a very long times since I dealt with the Scholastic movement. I will say this, Aquinas, Calvin, Augustine, and Kempis form a core theology that really resonates with my Christian beliefs. I’m going to have to dust off my copies of City of God , Providence and Predestination, The Institutues of the Christian Religion, and The Imitation of Christ and chew on them for a while, but not until my thesis is done! 😆
Roe is just bad law. Even if one is for its decision, one must admit that it was conceived in assumptions that are not distinctly present in the Constitution. It set a precedent for legal activism, something I hope Bush’s nominees will not do.
Great post Nomad:
European weaponry really did not begin to make a difference technologically until the flintlock's range surpassed the bow and arrow. In fact, in close combat, the bow and arrow remained on par with the guns because of the speed and ease it could be reloaded compared to clumsy long barrel muskets. At greater distances, the bow and arrow was more accurate which favored the natives. Smallpox did more damage than any European technology ever did.
