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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (110285)	12/25/2007 7:16:31 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

We lost piano great Oscar Peterson last night. canadianpress.google.com I had a lot of respect for his skill and improvisational genius. That being said, I don't listen to a lot of his music. The trio format in jazz doesn't appeal to me that much. I like more tonal layers and prefer combos of 5 to 7. I listen to his music for about 10 minutes and I will admit it is terrific. But then, I think, you know, a trumpet or guitar would fit nicely here. Also, I believe that one likes either Oscar or Thelonius Monk, but not both, and I liked Monk. Still, jazz musicians have a term for someone who is balls to the wall on piano, and they call it being "fleet." Oscar was definitely fleet.

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (110285)	12/27/2007 5:49:40 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

Ron Paul was ambushed (politically, not literally) on Morning Joe today. My reaction was, at first, to feel sorry for him, as the attacks were not fair or rational. Then, to say, "Shut up, Ron, you're making this disaster worse." And, believe it or not, the argument was about Abraham Lincoln. The only one defending him was Mika Bryzhenski (sp on both names), daughter of the former Secretary of State. And, just last week, she had called him a crackpot for some other statement. First, the crux of the fight. Paul had said that 1. Lincoln started the Civil War and killed 600,000 Americans. 2. That the Civil War was not about slavery and that Lincoln was pro slavery. 3. The Civil War was about destroying the Republic that our founding fathers had envisioned. As usual, Paul was very weak in his understanding of history. But, he was not outlandishly offbase in his arguments. To hear the other side, you would think he was questioning The Halocaust. The other side seemed to worship Lincoln and didn't want to admit that he'd done several unsavory things. But Paul was incorrect is saying that Lincoln had started the Civil War. South Carolina had demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter even before Lincoln was inaugurated. And, of course, the South fired the first shots and took the first American lives. Lincoln had said that he would rather have slavery in America than have the US dissolve. That is NOT the same thing as saying he was not against slavery. Just as saying you believe in abortion to save a mother's life is not the same as saying you are pro abortion. As far as Lincoln killing 600,000 Americans, does anyone think the hotheads on either side were going to settle this question with political debates, after several decades of such debates had gone nowhere? The heat was too high on both sides. The garbage about destroying the Constitution was weird, as there are as many interpretations of that document as there are of the Bible. Just because not everyone reads it as Ron Paul does does not make them evil or traitorous. Anyway, the argument went back and forth and Paul lost his cool, calling Colonel Jack Jacobs a coward. Jacobs, for his part, kept his cool and smiled, saying, "I think you are talking to the wrong guy." I agree that a Medal of Honor for valor and the heroic rescue of 13 wounded soldiers under fire in Vietnam makes Jacobs a very unlikely coward. However, it is obvious that Paul's word choice was bad and he didn't really mean it the way it will be used by his enemies. All in all, it was a bad morning for Ron Paul. But he is not the only one who takes this view of Lincoln. True, it is a minority view, but it has some historical reality to it. Lincoln was a man, not a god, and he made mistakes, was petty and did some pretty ugly things to American Freedom during the Civil War. IMHO, he was still a great President, but we don't know how he would have acted during his second term. Mika B. tried to change the subject to the current campaign, but her sidekicks wouldn't let Paul off the hook. BTW, Joe Scarbourough, the star of the show, was not there today. Joe is a right wing nut job, but after leaving Congress, he has been pretty fair in allowing others to present their side of a question. Jacobs seems more pragmatic and way too certain of his courage to be upset by somebody calling him a coward. Especially when he knew that Ron Paul was not trying to Swift Boat him. All in all, a fun debate. But Ron Paul did not come off the least bit Presidential.