Making the Rounds

Spot-on editorial in today's Union-Leader, taking President Bush to task for being a domestic spending drunken sailor. Is this the party of Goldwater and Reagan, or Ford and Nixon? Looks the latter. Speaking of Ford, celebrating his 90th birthday, this marks the first time in American history that two presidents over 90 are among us. The other 90+ presidents? John Adams and Herbert Hoover.

A book review of yet another Lincoln book. The reviewer is half-right -- Lincoln did transform the understanding and implementation of the Constitution, but the Rebellion was hardly so simple as being limited government (CSA) versus unlimited government (USA). In fact, the Confederacy was America's first "total government," to an extent not seen again until the progressive and New Deal eras. If the USA was an unlimited government, why did so many northern states rights/anti-secession Democrats like Franklin Pierce back the war in 1861?

Which reminds me, my southern friends out there, the 1861-1865 war was not the "War between the States"; Illinois was not warring against Texas. Nor was it the "War of Northern Aggression"; last I looked Beauragard and assorted other rebels fired on Fort Sumter, not the other way around -- "War of Southern Aggression" would be more accurate. If you must, use "Civil War," but even better use the "Rebellion." Certain southerners lost patience with normal political methods like elections (isn't secession a kind of poor sportsmanship?) and decided to rebel against the Philadelphia Constitution and the 1788 Union.

Memo to self: if ever my compatriots come to visit, don't serve goopy lasagna.