The Misinterpretation of Historical Events

[Adios]

Unfortunately idiots in some places are in charge of the cirriculum, it is true.

That said, you can still pick up The Peloponnesian War and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for pretty cheap (the former you can actually download for free), so there is really no excuse.

True, i guess it was a comment on revisionist history.

[Don Coyote]

Unfortunately idiots in some places are in charge of the cirriculum, it is true.

That said, you can still pick up The Peloponnesian War and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for pretty cheap (the former you can actually download for free), so there is really no excuse.

I read this ages ago because I had a report on Nazis or WWII or some school reason.

[Adios]

Unfortunately idiots in some places are in charge of the cirriculum, it is true.

That said, you can still pick up The Peloponnesian War and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for pretty cheap (the former you can actually download for free), so there is really no excuse.

I read this ages ago because I had a report on Nazis or WWII or some school reason.

Damn solid read.

[Cain]

Yeah.  Shirer's analysis has some flaws to it, but as a piece of primary evidence, it's pretty fine.

[Don Coyote]

Every time I see it on a shelf in a bookstore I feel compelled to buy it. I think I may when I move out the barracks and have room for shelves.

[Juana]

What Cain said and I think I'll check out those books.

I'd be happy if they'd just look at the context. Ignorance, willful or otherwise, is not an excuse.


Of course, I'd also be happy if they'd all get over the idea that taxation is always theft.

I'm aware there are certain people who consider all taxation theft, but my interpretation from people I've spoken with who think along these lines is that taxation under threat of violence and imprisonment with noncompliance is theft, no less than robbing someone at gunpoint is theft.  And these people are almost always talking about the income tax, not taxes on products and services, be they necessary or voluntarily used.

incidentally, what are your thoughts on employers paying people under the table, i.e. not withholding income tax and paying it in to the system? 

That's how my last job was. I was paid sort-of under the table by a public school district for what I did as a coach...but the amount was so piddling that they might not have even felt it was worth the time to put me in the system, though ($200 for over $2k worth of work!). I would have preferred to be on record; that said, I know why people don't. In some cases, I don't necessarily mind (illegal immigrants can, and some DO, pay taxes iirc, but most don't because they're scared to).

For your other point: people don't voluntarily pay for anything if they can get away with it. Income tax I consider valid, because, well, it's where almost all of the money the government has comes from. People like their services; public schools, public roads, unnecessarily large armies, etc. Don't you?

I'd really love to see my tea bagger and libertarian neighbors try to send their kids to private schools.   The cheapest one here is $20k per year, per student and that's the Catholic one. That won't go down well with some of them.

didn't the colonies have some folks in parliament that were assigned to represent them?
if i am not mistaken in that, then the founding fellows also didn't feel represented....
so perhaps that is the important part.

No. If there'd been a warm body hanging around Parliament with the right to vote on the colonies' behalf, there might not have been a revolution, or so my history teacher said the other day. The issue was virtual representation (which they had) versus actual representation (which they didn't and wanted)

[Adios]

Yeah.  Shirer's analysis has some flaws to it, but as a piece of primary evidence, it's pretty fine.

I would love to see a synopsis on the Battle of Little Big Horn done as honestly.