dear historians: "google" is a starting point...

...but you better damn well double-check the potential bias factor of your sources before you go including it in a textbook, dammit...

Loudoun schools remove textbook that claims black soldiers fought for South:

The publisher has said it will provide a sticker to cover the flawed sentence in "Our Virginia." The state Board of Education, which approved the book, said this week that the claim about African Americans fighting for the Confederacy falls "outside of mainstream Civil War scholarship."

The textbook's author, Joy Masoff, who is not a trained historian, told The Washington Post this week that she substantiated her assertion about black Confederate soldiers primarily by doing an Internet search, which led her to the work of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and some other sources. The heritage group disputes the widely accepted conclusion that the struggle over slavery was the main cause of the Civil War.

on "looking forward, not back"

Mike the Mad Biologist rants on yet another instance where the Obama administration is claiming to be fixing the rules moving forward but doing nothing to bring justice to those who broke the rules in the past. The first of these is torture. The latest is on the banks that profited the most by the housing fiasco...

"Looking Back" Is Good Policy : Mike the Mad Biologist:

First, they broke they law, and profited by doing so. Those who didn't commit legal fraud behaved unethically. Yet nothing will happen to them. To call this corrosive is an understatement.

Second, based on their track record, why would anyone think that they wouldn't screw people over again if given a chance. We need banks. We need bankers. We do not need these banks or these bankers.

Third, in the midst of demanding that middle class homeowners play by the rules, it's obscene to then not demand the same of those who have profited by not playing by the rules.

Fourth, I've never understood this false tradeoff between making good policy and justice--it seems to be the cornerstone of Obama's worldview. If nothing else, lowering the boom of the banking industry would cow them long enough to pass good legislation. Besides, the federal government is large: prosecute those who deserve it, and make deals with those left standing.

Finally, the Mandarin class, of which Obama is a card-carrying member, fails to understand that when you've been jobbed but good, the appropriate emotion is anger. And it's normal to want to be able to pick up the paper and, on occasion, read about how bad behavior is not rewarded, but punished. That's not enraged or out of control, that's human. A sane person should be pissed off right now. A perpetual state of anger, even when appropriate, makes even the best of us brutish, mean, and nasty. That's not going to help the needy among us--and thanks to an employment deficit of around ten percent--there are a lot of needy people.

So, Mr. President, now is the time to "look back" and to demand justice for those who deserve it. It's the right thing to do, and it's the right thing politically.

This is why the Tea Party really keeps getting more members among those it shouldn't - people ARE angry, but the silence of the majority party in addressing that anger allowed the Tea Party to redirect it. Rather than having the people angry and the government point the people's anger to the banks, the lobbyists, etc, they sat on it. This allowed the anger to fester and gave the room the Tea Party needed to instead redirect that anger directly to the government itself, only without naming WHY they should be angry at the government. Thus, they controlled and changed the message, finally screwing everybody by making the people think that if the government did anything at all, it would be wrong. The Democrats are stuck in the worst-case government catch-22. If they do nothing, they're screwed by those who are mad at them doing nothing. If they do anything NOW, they're screwed because public opinion has been manipulated into believing that anything the government does must be wrong.

Had they done something REAL and gotten real results, real legitimate scapegoats among the lawbreakers 6 months ago, the Democrats would be riding easy in 2 weeks.

Now, their apathy at all of this has screwed them, and us, for years to come.