Ukraine, THE Theater and Museum of World War II

For America, the central question of the Ukraine crisis is not whether Russia can be made to disgorge Crimea but whether Europe can be kept allied on issues pertinent to the Middle East or even pertinent to Europe as Americans understand them.  Unfortunately, some of our presumed European 'allies' are completely dependent on Russia for gas.  Is it reasonable to expect them to live in austere conditions like those prevailing during the 19th century for several years (life without fossil fuels was characteristic of the 19th century) to support our agenda in the Middle East or even in Europe?  Would they be 'cowards' to pursue their own interest which now diverges from ours?  Unfortunately, it is probable that the central question of the Ukraine crisis was decided several years ago by United States military and energy policy.  For example, what ever happened to Ukraine's nuclear deterrent?

Abraham Lincoln, Conspiracy Theorist

Contrary to popular media, Abraham Lincoln was not a vampire.  But the historical record will reveal that he was a conspiracy theorist.

"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it", Abraham Lincoln once advised.  Mr. Lincoln cited many curious correlations, he called them "facts.....dark and mysterious" between events then conducing to the extension of slavery.  And then observed, "We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places and by different workmen.....and we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few --not omitting even scaffolding--or, if a single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared to yet bring such a piece in--in such a case, we find it impossible not to believe.....(collaborators) worked upon a common plan or draft drawn up before the first lick was struck."  A House Divided: Speech Delivered by Abraham Lincoln at the Republican State Convention, June 16, 1858

What "timbers" would Mr. Lincoln observe in society today?  For example, would he observe "timbers" a) in judicial contempt for the will of people expressed in redefinitions of marriage in the Union's most conservative states (ie. Utah, Oklahoma, and Texas), b) in a veritable flood of federal verdicts--an unbroken string of victories--in favor of gay marriage (overturning populist laws and constitutions), c) in delayed stays by appeals courts that withdrew legal recognition of gay marriages only after marriage certificates were already issued, d) in the lack of outrage by the now unmarried-married over this legal hinterland created by federal courts, e) in curious appeals by gay-married victors at law (in at least three states) to the Supreme Court to hazard anew their newfound matrimonial bliss for nameless others to renovate marriage in favor of one to two percent of America's population and to redefine law and justice away from Judeo-Christian morality for the other 300 million of us, f) and now in Supreme Court stays that federalize this issue?  These timbers are crooked.  They invert and bend reason.  They don't fit the foundation and structure of America.  So, what is being built?  Why are these being cast upon our common house so hastily and so helter-skelter?  Won't that fell the house that is America?  As an occupant, can you hear the creaking?

For more on this topic, see the post entitled "The Anti-Diversity Agenda" at whoseman.blogspot.com.

The Foremost and First Amendment

The earlier ratification of the First Amendment relative to the Fourteenth Amendment establishes its primacy in the United States Constitution.  The first ten Amendments (the Bill of Rights) became part of the American social contract on December 15, 1791; the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified after the Civil War (on July 9, 1868).  Only an irrational, only an ill-intentioned person or court could be confused and confounded by this native logic: while the equal protection of the laws is essential as enumerated by the Fourteenth Amendment, freedom of religion and speech were first and are foremost..