If Thomas Jefferson Were Alive Today

[Franco]

They are the folks who do not condone behavior that does not set a good example for youth - in case you wonder, it is about future generations .

Interesting that you think that the State is responsible for raising children and that it does not ultimately fall on the parents. Libertarians believe that values are taught at home and is the responsibility of the parents and not the government.

It doesn't take a village to raise a child but their parents.

[BonMallari]

I would say that most folks outside the POTUS "echo chamber" would consider your view as Socially Conservative and not moderate. The words "anti' and "ambivalent" aren't exactly positive nor supports Freedom.

You are pro death penalty as I am. However, the Libertarian Party's stance on capital punishment is that it is up to the individual states to decide.

BTW, I think you have every Right to be Socially Conservative.

you give me way too much credit in thinking I am socially conservative...my brother and I got into a heated argument about MJ because I have MANY friends that choose to partake, which is fine by me...well lo and behold one of his former business practice partners has applied for a medical MJ practice which could potentially make it a million dollar bonanza, I say more power to him...

I am all in favor of each state deciding the social issues...its the way it should be, because we can all pick and choose what state we live in

[road kill]

I would say that most folks outside the POTUS "echo chamber" would consider your view as Socially Conservative and not moderate. The words "anti' and "ambivalent" aren't exactly positive nor supports Freedom.

You are pro death penalty as I am. However, the Libertarian Party's stance on capital punishment is that it is up to the individual states to decide.

BTW, I think you have every Right to be Socially Conservative.

Ironically, the only echos on POTUS are YOUR posts.

Over and over and over the same thing.

We get it, you are the "sole possesor of the truth!!"

[Marvin S]

Interesting that you think that the State is responsible for raising children and that it does not ultimately fall on the parents. Libertarians believe that values are taught at home and is the responsibility of the parents and not the government.

It doesn't take a village to raise a child but their parents.

I can now see why you are a Pinochio disciple . Anyone who can make that out of what I posted doesn't have a full deck. But your boy got his 3 lines of fame in Forbes - he was praised for his stance on the Fed, nothing else .

[Franco]

you give me way too much credit in thinking I am socially conservative...my brother and I got into a heated argument about MJ because I have MANY friends that choose to partake, which is fine by me...well lo and behold one of his former business practice partners has applied for a medical MJ practice which could potentially make it a million dollar bonanza, I say more power to him...

I am all in favor of each state deciding the social issues...its the way it should be, because we can all pick and choose what state we live in

I wouldn't suggest he run out and buy that 78ft Bertram anytime soon. The Pharmaceutical Companies are pouring millons into their lobbying efforts to keep it illegal since the Washington and Colorado votes to legalize. Next to Statin drugs, pain killers are their biggest profit makers.

[Gerry Clinchy]

The author of a new book on Jefferson doesn't think much of him. The NY Times headline for this op-ed piece was "The Monster of Monticello".
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/op...it_th_20121201

A sample of what was quoted from the book in this article in the Times:

Rather than encouraging his countrymen to liberate their slaves, he opposed both private manumission and public emancipation. Even at his death, Jefferson failed to fulfill the promise of his rhetoric: his will emancipated only five slaves, all relatives of his mistress Sally Hemings, and condemned nearly 200 others to the auction block. Even Hemings remained a slave, though her children by Jefferson went free.

Nor was Jefferson a particularly kind master. He sometimes punished slaves by selling them away from their families and friends, a retaliation that was incomprehensibly cruel even at the time. A proponent of humane criminal codes for whites, he advocated harsh, almost barbaric, punishments for slaves and free blacks. Known for expansive views of citizenship, he proposed legislation to make emancipated blacks “outlaws” in America, the land of their birth. Opposed to the idea of royal or noble blood, he proposed expelling from Virginia the children of white women and black men.

Jefferson also dodged opportunities to undermine slavery or promote racial equality. As a state legislator he blocked consideration of a law that might have eventually ended slavery in the state.

As president he acquired the Louisiana Territory but did nothing to stop the spread of slavery into that vast “empire of liberty.” Jefferson told his neighbor Edward Coles not to emancipate his own slaves, because free blacks were “pests in society” who were “as incapable as children of taking care of themselves.” And while he wrote a friend that he sold slaves only as punishment or to unite families, he sold at least 85 humans in a 10-year period to raise cash to buy wine, art and other luxury goods.

Destroying families didn’t bother Jefferson, because he believed blacks lacked basic human emotions. “Their griefs are transient,” he wrote, and their love lacked “a tender delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation.”