bnw wrote:

The spirit in which the 2nd Amendment was written definitely includes the semi-automatic AR-15 as it does the fully automatic weapons of today. When it was written the intent was to allow the citizen to arm himself with the technology of the day. Those militias were comprised of citizens. Some of whom owned cannons and gunships.

If you wish to surrender your 2nd Amendment right that is your personal choice.

The ‘spirit’ in which the 2nd Amendment was written was to defend the institution of slavery and to protect slave owners from uprisings…

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/13890-the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery#

The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery
Tuesday, 15 January 2013 09:35
By Thom Hartmann, Truthout | News Analysis

The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says “State” instead of “Country” (the Framers knew the difference – see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia’s vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that . . . and we all should be too.

In the beginning, there were the militias. In the South, they were also called the “slave patrols,” and they were regulated by the states.

In Georgia, for example, a generation before the American Revolution, laws were passed in 1755 and 1757 that required all plantation owners or their male white employees to be members of the Georgia Militia, and for those armed militia members to make monthly inspections of the quarters of all slaves in the state. The law defined which counties had which armed militias and even required armed militia members to keep a keen eye out for slaves who may be planning uprisings.

As Dr. Carl T. Bogus wrote for the University of California Law Review in 1998, “The Georgia statutes required patrols, under the direction of commissioned militia officers, to examine every plantation each month and authorized them to search ‘all Negro Houses for offensive Weapons and Ammunition’ and to apprehend and give twenty lashes to any slave found outside plantation grounds.”

It’s the answer to the question raised by the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained when he asks, “Why don’t they just rise up and kill the whites?” If the movie were real, it would have been a purely rhetorical question, because every southerner of the era knew the simple answer: Well regulated militias kept the slaves in chains.

Sally E. Haden, in her book Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas, notes that, “Although eligibility for the Militia seemed all-encompassing, not every middle-aged white male Virginian or Carolinian became a slave patroller.” There were exemptions so “men in critical professions” like judges, legislators and students could stay at their work. Generally, though, she documents how most southern men between ages 18 and 45 – including physicians and ministers – had to serve on slave patrol in the militia at one time or another in their lives.

And slave rebellions were keeping the slave patrols busy.

By the time the Constitution was ratified, hundreds of substantial slave uprisings had occurred across the South. Blacks outnumbered whites in large areas, and the state militias were used to both prevent and to put down slave uprisings. As Dr. Bogus points out, slavery can only exist in the context of a police state, and the enforcement of that police state was the explicit job of the militias.

If the anti-slavery folks in the North had figured out a way to disband – or even move out of the state – those southern militias, the police state of the South would collapse. And, similarly, if the North were to invite into military service the slaves of the South, then they could be emancipated, which would collapse the institution of slavery, and the southern economic and social systems, altogether.

These two possibilities worried southerners like James Monroe, George Mason (who owned over 300 slaves) and the southern Christian evangelical, Patrick Henry (who opposed slavery on principle, but also opposed freeing slaves).

Their main concern was that Article 1, Section 8 of the newly-proposed Constitution, which gave the federal government the power to raise and supervise a militia, could also allow that federal militia to subsume their state militias and change them from slavery-enforcing institutions into something that could even, one day, free the slaves.

This was not an imagined threat. Famously, 12 years earlier, during the lead-up to the Revolutionary War, Lord Dunsmore offered freedom to slaves who could escape and join his forces. “Liberty to Slaves” was stitched onto their jacket pocket flaps. During the War, British General Henry Clinton extended the practice in 1779. And numerous freed slaves served in General Washington’s army.

Thus, southern legislators and plantation owners lived not just in fear of their own slaves rebelling, but also in fear that their slaves could be emancipated through military service.

At the ratifying convention in Virginia in 1788, Henry laid it out:

“Let me here call your attention to that part [Article 1, Section 8 of the proposed Constitution] which gives the Congress power to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States. . . .

“By this, sir, you see that their control over our last and best defence is unlimited. If they neglect or refuse to discipline or arm our militia, they will be useless: the states can do neither . . . this power being exclusively given to Congress. The power of appointing officers over men not disciplined or armed is ridiculous; so that this pretended little remains of power left to the states may, at the pleasure of Congress, be rendered nugatory.”

George Mason expressed a similar fear:

“The militia may be here destroyed by that method which has been practised in other parts of the world before; that is, by rendering them useless, by disarming them. Under various pretences, Congress may neglect to provide for arming and disciplining the militia; and the state governments cannot do it, for Congress has an exclusive right to arm them [under this proposed Constitution] . . . ”
Henry then bluntly laid it out:

“If the country be invaded, a state may go to war, but cannot suppress [slave] insurrections [under this new Constitution]. If there should happen an insurrection of slaves, the country cannot be said to be invaded. They cannot, therefore, suppress it without the interposition of Congress . . . . Congress, and Congress only [under this new Constitution], can call forth the militia.”
And why was that such a concern for Patrick Henry?

“In this state,” he said, “there are two hundred and thirty-six thousand blacks, and there are many in several other states. But there are few or none in the Northern States. . . . May Congress not say, that every black man must fight? Did we not see a little of this last war? We were not so hard pushed as to make emancipation general; but acts of Assembly passed that every slave who would go to the army should be free.”

Patrick Henry was also convinced that the power over the various state militias given the federal government in the new Constitution could be used to strip the slave states of their slave-patrol militias. He knew the majority attitude in the North opposed slavery, and he worried they’d use the Constitution to free the South’s slaves (a process then called “Manumission”).

The abolitionists would, he was certain, use that power (and, ironically, this is pretty much what Abraham Lincoln ended up doing):

“[T]hey will search that paper [the Constitution], and see if they have power of manumission,” said Henry. “And have they not, sir? Have they not power to provide for the general defence and welfare? May they not think that these call for the abolition of slavery? May they not pronounce all slaves free, and will they not be warranted by that power?
“This is no ambiguous implication or logical deduction. The paper speaks to the point: they have the power in clear, unequivocal terms, and will clearly and certainly exercise it.”
He added: “This is a local matter, and I can see no propriety in subjecting it to Congress.”

James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution” and a slaveholder himself, basically called Patrick Henry paranoid.

“I was struck with surprise,” Madison said, “when I heard him express himself alarmed with respect to the emancipation of slaves. . . . There is no power to warrant it, in that paper [the Constitution]. If there be, I know it not.”

But the southern fears wouldn’t go away.

Patrick Henry even argued that southerner’s “property” (slaves) would be lost under the new Constitution, and the resulting slave uprising would be less than peaceful or tranquil:

“In this situation,” Henry said to Madison, “I see a great deal of the property of the people of Virginia in jeopardy, and their peace and tranquility gone.”
So Madison, who had (at Jefferson’s insistence) already begun to prepare proposed amendments to the Constitution, changed his first draft of one that addressed the militia issue to make sure it was unambiguous that the southern states could maintain their slave patrol militias.

His first draft for what became the Second Amendment had said: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country [emphasis mine]: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person.”

But Henry, Mason and others wanted southern states to preserve their slave-patrol militias independent of the federal government. So Madison changed the word “country” to the word “state,” and redrafted the Second Amendment into today’s form:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State [emphasis mine], the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Little did Madison realize that one day in the future weapons-manufacturing corporations, newly defined as “persons” by a Supreme Court some have called dysfunctional, would use his slave patrol militia amendment to protect their “right” to manufacture and sell assault weapons used to murder schoolchildren.

Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission of the author.

THOM HARTMANN

Thom Hartmann is a New York Times bestselling Project Censored Award winning author and host of a nationally syndicated progressive radio talk show. You can learn more about Thom Hartmann at his website and find out what stations broadcast his radio program. He also now has a daily independent television program, The Big Picture, syndicated by FreeSpeech TV, RT TV, and 2oo community TV stations. You can also listen or watch Thom over the Internet.

I don’t think the Seahawks would ever overlook the Rams anyhow. The Rams have split with the Seahawks in 3 of the 4 years Fisher has been coach. The one year where the Rams were swept they should have had a win in one of the match-ups but managed to lose a game even though they outplayed Seattle. Even in the games they lose the Rams usually beat up Wilson pretty well so I doubt they’ll be overlooking the Rams anytime soon.

Right now I’m not sure he will have a good year. Whether or not he has a good year is directly tied to the play of his offensive line and right now that is a complete unknown.

Zooey wrote:

Oh, we ALL like that idea, wv.

We are all in LOVE with that idea.

The thing is…as the honorable delegate from New Vermontavania has stated…many of us are not 100% confident that that is what the Rams have.

That’s all.

Exactly.

For all we know, the Rams have received an infusion of Mike Schads, Alex Barrons and Justin Smiths.

I don’t think that’s what the Rams got. I like their draft and the o-linemen they picked up.

But then again, when they drafted Justin Smith I didn’t think his name would eventually be used as a pejorative as it was just two sentences ago, either.

I meant Donald instead if McDonald. I think Donald is knocking on the door of ‘eliteness’ if he’s not already there.

However, I will take McDonald as my longshot. I could see him becoming elite under the right circumstances.

Pound for pound, still our finest Amish poster. Happy Birthday you old Grossdaadi, you.

I was wrong about the o-line. I thought it was going to be a strength. But Long was a shell of his former self, Robinson wasn’t ready, Wells was a turnstile and even steady Barksdale struggled at times.

The added drama surrounding the extra point could be short lived though. Kickers don’t miss from the 15 yard line either.

Mike Sando, ESPN.com @SandoESPN · 51m 51 minutes ago
PATs from the 15-yard line will equate to a FG try of 32-33 yards. #NFL teams made 59-61 of those last season, up from recent years.

Dak wrote:

Agamemnon wrote:

Dak wrote:

I like to spend 5 minutes analyzing things that may or may not be official, and may not mean that much. Cuz I’m mental.

What would your depth chart look like? I keep changing the offensive line on mine.

I don’t really know. I’m very interested in what Jeff Fisher thinks. It would be something else if this O-line started a 2nd-year (and raw by 2nd-year standards) LT, a rookie LG, a raw oft-injured third-year center starting for the first time, and a rookie RT. Wow. Think about that. Then, add in Saffold, the only veteran, who is always good for losing several games to injury.

Makes me a little queasy, to be honest.

Yeah. An LT that struggled mightily last season, a rookie LG, an unknown commodity at center, an injury prone RG and a rookie RT.

The potential for disaster with this oline is staggering.

zn wrote:

The Patriots fired the guys they’re passionately defending today

Darin Gantt on May 14, 2015

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/05/14/the-patriots-fired-the-guys-theyre-passionately-defending-today

you.are.fired.04

The Patriots have launched long-winded defense of themselves today, nearly 20,000 words of defense.

But through all the chapter and verse they’ve cited to explain the true motives of Jim McNally and John Jastremski in this document, one question becomes more and more curious.

If these two guys are so innocent, why did the Patriots fire them?

In the league’s initial release on the Patriots’ punishment, it is made clear who did what to whom.

“Patriots owner Robert Kraft advised commissioner Roger Goodell last week that Patriots employees John Jastremski and James McNally have been indefinitely suspended without pay by the club, effective on May 6th,” the league’s release last week read.

So, these two guys are completely misunderstood, a pair of hapless innocents who didn’t want to get busted for lifting shoes and just wanted to drop a few pounds.

Why then would the Patriots move so quickly and decisively to distance themselves?

Perhaps that can be the next installment of the Patriots’ blog.

Since these guys were fired as a result of doing Tom Brady’s bidding, I hope he at least covers their bills until they find employment.

wv wrote:

nittany ram wrote:

wv wrote:

Well, I dont really know how i feel about all this,
but i do know, that if Brady is suspended a few games
its not going to hurt the Pats. It might actually help
them in the long run cause it will give Garapolo some
experience.

w
v

Yeah, Belichick will spin this to his advantage and create an ‘us vs the world/victim vs oppressor’ mentality in the locker room that will probably propel them to another Superbowl.

Of course, he’s also gonna cheat again somehow so the league has to remain vigilant.

Seriously, when a star becomes as big as Brady,
and makes as much money as Brady, and wins Rings
like Brady — a suspension of a few games
is pretty meaningless.

w
v

Well, it depends. Financially a suspension means nothing. Brady already has more money than he could hope to spend in a lifetime.

Where it might hurt Brady, and I stress “might” because it depends on what kind of person he is, is in how he perceives a suspension could affect his legacy.

Obviously he’s a HOFer. That’s a given. But with their history of cheating in many circles the Patriots’ accomplishments and therefore Brady’s accomplishments already have an asterisk attached. This further tarnishes that legacy. Heck, unlike the other cheating instances, he was directly involved in this case. He may not give a shit about any of that, and part of me wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t care, but he certainly could feel that a suspension would to a small extent at least diminish his legacy and regret that.

Of course, I doubt that he regrets what he did, but he surely regrets being caught.

wv wrote:

Well, I dont really know how i feel about all this,
but i do know, that if Brady is suspended a few games
its not going to hurt the Pats. It might actually help
them in the long run cause it will give Garapolo some
experience.

w
v

Yeah, Belichick will spin this to his advantage and create an ‘us vs the world/victim vs oppressor’ mentality in the locker room that will probably propel them to another Superbowl.

Of course, he’s also gonna cheat again somehow so the league has to remain vigilant.

Sorry to hear the news about Thor. I didn’t know him as a person but if he was as good of a person as he was a poster then the world is truly a lesser place.

Mannion.

Helluva name.

Sounds like a Marvel comics hero.

Just saying the name will increase serum testosterone levels.

I wonder if the Rams drafted him just to offset the effects of Gurley.

3 rounds without addressing the o-line?

• This reply was modified 9 years, 8 months ago by nittany ram.