Judith, if humans are the problem then perhaps we should forget about environmental reforms and just allow them to destroy themselves. That should solve the planet's problems. By the way, who would a "left conservative" be....someone who doesn't say "old folks" or generalize about "gun ownership" and "your friends?"

Sadly, the charlatan has arrived, supported by the "suckers," and our nation has been "grabbed." The question is, how do we snatch ourselves back from the grasp of this charlatan and his cronies, before the damage is irreversible?

I agree with jim k, where is Pete's reply? And I agree 100% with the quote. Without striving for property, and then caring for it and perpetuating it's existence, there is no drive to succeed and improve. The kind of country the Liberals espouse is one of complete, helpless stagnation of the populace, with all power in the hands of the paternalistic Government. Socialists want everything and everybody reduced to the lowest common denominator, and happy with what the ruling party thinks they need, and with their promises to provide for them. NO EFFORT, NO RESPONSIBILTY.

-- joe berg, anamosa Thanks Nancy. History with history together shows the real facts. -- joe berg, anamosa Glad you agree, Joe. My husband, who's family has been in VA since it was settled, actually opened my eyes to the real facts of that period of history, even though his ancestors fought for the Confederacy and mine for the Union. You have to see beyond the obvious arguments, and open your eyes to the larger picture....in any conflict. Something mankind has always had trouble doing.

Firstly, by "govenment" Lincoln meant the government of the United States of America, not of states and their rights, so Mencken's take on that is skewed from the start. Seconldly, slaverly and States Rights apart, the reason Lincoln and the North fought so hard to preserve the Union was that a divided USA would be a weak USA, and the British, French, Spanish imperialists would have been on us like vultures on a dead cow. Why is it that Americans, north and south, seem to have such a hard time seeing things in global perspective? Then as now it is a dangerous and short-sighted view of the world. Instead of studying the Civil War (and by the way, the South did start it) as a domestic event, it needs to be studied in relationship to the European powers that would have delighted in doing some futher Empire building. Additionally, so many of the soldiers for the South had no conception of State's Rights. They were poor, uneducated, and desperate to find a way to get out of their hardscrabble lives and advance themselves. Did they even realize that they were fighting to preserve the right of the plantation owners to continue to use slave labor; to breed and sell human beings like they would cattle; to live like little kings on their huge holdings, worked by people who couldn't call their lives their own? JUST THINK ABOUT IT!