Chief Wallace Fox, January 11, 2013

The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery

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.

Please click the link below to read the full article at Truthout (original source)
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13890-the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery

Noam Chomsky Slams America’s Selfish Ayn Randian Elites

Noam Chomsky Slams America’s Selfish Ayn Randian Elites
Chomsky explains how elites’ obsession with short-term personal gain threatens humanity.
January 14, 2013 |

(go to original story on Alternet at the link below)
http://www.alternet.org/noam-chomsky-slams-americas-selfish-ayn-randian-elites

In an interview broadcast on Al Jazeera English, Noam Chomsky argues that people who have the most privilege owe the most to society. “The more privilege you have the more responsibility you have,” says Chomsky, “It’s elementary.”

Asked why the opposite seems to be true in America, where many wealthy people refuse to give up their time or money to help those in need, Chomsky replies that the lack of public responsibility among many elites makes sense; after all, if you’ve devoted your life to enriching yourself and wealth is what you value the most, you don’t care as much about other people. But it goes beyond that, argues Chomsky. “It’s also institutional. In its more pathological form, it’s Ayn Rand ideology: ‘I just don’t care about anyone else. I’m only interested in benefiting myself. That’s good and noble.”

“It’s responsibility to yourself. You’re maximizing your own short-term gain.”

Beyond the financial crash brought on by Wall Street greed, another area where short-term gain presents a dire threat to humanity is climate change. “It’s imminent that global warming will cause a major catastrophe … if you don’t pay attention to it because it’s an externality: ‘I’m interested in gain, not what happens to my grandchildren’ — then you’re going to accelerate the disaster.”

Watch the rest of the video below. (h/t Raw Story).