The American Revolution? Now how did the US Citizens manage to kick the butts of the

[BaalsTears]

Sorry - this time I cannot honestly say BLAME CLINTON or BLAME OBAMA as history shows it was very anti-British.

The old Democratic party was founded in 1791 by Jefferson & Madison. I believe James Monroe was the last president from the old party. Thereafter it splintered.

We can blame Clinton & Obama for the Great London fire of 1666 and the Great Chicago Fire (hell, we can even add blaming them for the Great San Francisco earthquake!). But not for siding with the Pommies.

The modern Democratic Party is called the party of Jefferson and Jackson. You remember Jackson don't you? He was famous for the Trail of Tears for so many First Peoples in the Southeast.

I blame Obama for the bubonic plague, Pearl Harbor, and My Lai.

BL,

There is a statue of George Washington in London isn't there? Isn't it in Trafalgar Square?

George Washington Statue outside The National Gallery at Trafalgar Square London

 

[Blackleaf]

Oh, so what happened to your right to keep arms for your defense??

Where does it say in the Bill of Rights that we should all keep arms for "our defence"? Us Brits aren't uni-brain-celled gun-toting Yanks or Canucks, you know. And the last time I checked, the vast majority of British people WANT tough gun laws in this country, and we have got them. That's democracy for you.

You see, a REAL Bill of Rights is a limitation on gov't power, a protection of the people from their gov't.

So, it's just like our Bill of Rights, then. So that's that.

When gov't has the legal ability to ignore a Bill of Rights, then it is useless.

Have you got proof of your silly claim that the British Government ignores the Bill of Rights? Or are you just spouting waffle?

BTW, I'd STFU about North American schools were I you...
World education rankings: which country does best at reading, maths and science? | News | theguardian.com

No I won't shut up about your dire educational system. I ignore such rankings. It is completely impossible to compare one educational system to another completely different one, however hard such rankings try.

 

[EagleSmack]

No I won't shut up about your dire educational system. I ignore such rankings. It is completely impossible to compare one educational system to another completely different one, however hard such rankings try.

You're a prime example of how accurate the rankings are!

 

[petros]

Us Brits aren't uni-brain-celled gun-toting Yanks or Canucks, you know.


is that why you always need our help?

 

[Blackleaf]

Blackleaf, I hate to tell you, but YOU really need to go back to school.

I hate to tell (no, I dont. In fact, I love to tell you) that I don't need to go back to school. I benefit from a BRITISH education in a BRITISH school.

Virtually none of this was actually in place before the American Revolution, and it did not apply to ANY colony for many years after it DID come into force for the average British citizen.

I never said it did. I said the 1689 Bill of Rights - the greatest Bill of Rights in the world - influenced the US Constitution.

The "Right's" that you enumerate applied to the Nobility, the wealthy and to those with political influence, but NOT to the common people.

Any of those provisions were subject to being denied, at any time, and there was absolutely NOTHING that the citizenry could do about it.

Yeah? Prove it then. It's no good saying such bizarre claims like that without backing them up. How can you seriously believe (North American education, probably) that a Bill of Rights would be drawn up which could then just be ignored at will? What would be the point?

It was precisely because the British Government could enact taxes,

How unusual, eh?

Every country has a right to tax its citizens and enforce its laws on its citizens. Therefore, the colonials were wrong to rebel against their government for taxing them.

And it's a shame those Britons in Britain's North American colonies didn't live in Britain. Otherwise they WOULD have had a good reason to complain about taxes, which were much higher than they were in the colonies.

In fact, Hessian (German) mercenaries - allies of the British - often commented on the amazing amount of prosperity in the 13 colonies. They couldn't believe it when the colonials protested. Of course I've been taught by my superior British education that only a small minority - just a quarter or so - of the colonials were in favour of the rebellion. The vast majority of them were proud Britons who had no problems paying the miniscule amount of taxes that their fellow Britons back home had to pay.

Not surprisingly, none of this is ever taught in a North American school. As I've said before - no American today, not one, can justify a small minority of colonials being anti-democratic by leading the pro-British majority into a rebellion that that majority didn't want to, ironically "fight for democracy". Well, these rebels were being undemocratic whilst "fighting for democracy".

Because of this reason mainly, the American rebels were the bad guys, I'm afraid.

and withhold basic rights at will,

People could be, and were, locked up for life for debts.

So what? Again, it was only Britain enforcing Britain's laws onto Britons on British territory. Do you know how many hundreds of thousands of debtors and bankrupts were locked up in Fleet Prison in London? William Penn, the Englishman was founded Philadelphia and the US state which bears his names, is just one of the thousands of debtors who were locked up in the Fleet Prison.

People could be sentenced, for petty crimes,

Again, same as above. In Britain you could be hanged for stealing a hat, for cutting down a tree, for destroying turnpike roads, for being an unmarried mother concealing a stillborn child or for being out at night with a blackened face. Again, the colonials were not treated any differently or any more harshly than the Britons in Britain.

and sold as effective slaves. That is a pretty cruel and unusual punishment.

Slavery in those days was normal and was not looked down upon or frowned at as it is today.

As for slavery, which country was it who abolished it in 1807, and which country was it who didn't abolish until a civil war in the 1860s?

And is it or is in not the case that many of the signatories to the American Declaration of Independence were themselves slaveowners? I think it's a bit hypocritical to single out "the Brits" here.

If you were brought into court, for ANYTHING, you essentially had no rights at all.

You could be executed for stealing bread. But that wasn't "cruel"?

They were hard time, you know. That was in the days before the Yuman Rites Brigade and PC do-gooders.

You could be hanged for stealing a loaf of bread in Britain, so the Yanks were treated no differently.

Newspapers could be shuttered, and the editors of them imprisoned without a trial, for printing anything that the government did not approve of.

If you were a Catholic Priest, you had to be completely underground, or you WOULD be executed.

A lot more Protestant were executed for their faith under the Catholic queen Bloody Mary than the number of filthy papists that were ever executed.

And Elizabeth I didn't execute Catholics for being Catholic. She only executed those Catholics who plotted against her. Catholics were free to practise their religion.

REAL religious persecution was perpetrated against the Protestants by Bloody Mary.

People were tortured to gain confessions, and this was a VERY common practice.

So?

Personal weapons could be, and sometimes were, confiscated by the government without notice or any form of court hearing.

The government could, and frequently did, force homeowners to house several soldiers, and feed them, at the homeowners expense.

Bull****. The British only housed their soldiers in unoccupied homes or barns.

Any British soldiers in American homes were allowed in by the homeowners, and the homeowners often used to charge British soldiers for this.

Quite rightly, the British didn't appreciate a bunch of colonials who wrongly didn't want to pay taxes for wars we fought and won for them suddenly charging British soldiers for bed and board (though, as I've said, it was only a small percentage of colonials who opposed paying taxes, not almost all of them as most yanks believe).

Your home could be searched, at any time, by any level of government servant. You had absolutely NO right to resist, and if you did, you could be imprisoned.

And those searches only took place if they had warrants. How is it any different to today?

Children as young as 3-4 were locked up in prisons, sometimes for years, for the most petty of crimes.

Again, that's also what happened back in Britain. As I've said, the colonials were not somehow being treated any harshly than Britons in Britain.

 

[petros]

The inbreeding is really evident.

 

[Blackleaf]

The inbreeding is really evident.

I'm only dishing out inconvenient truths that you don't find in any American history school textbook.

is that why you always need our help?

What? You mean like the Falklands War in 1982? Or the Crimean War? Or the Opium War? Or Agincourt?

 

[petros]

Whatever, you're still inbred.

 

[EagleSmack]

I think BL popped!

All that and the Brits are still not known for being intelligent.

The US assisted the Brits in the Malvinas.

 

[petros]

All that and the Brits are still not known for being intelligent.

And never will be unless they stop inbreeding.

 

[Colpy]

George Washington’s Picture in British Outhouses: an honor? After a long struggle, the American Colonists defeated the mighty British Empire. The world was shocked. The British, obviously were embarrassed and angry.
To show their disdain for the American Military General - George Washington - someone began the custom of hanging Washington’s picture in their “Out-House”
Ethan Allen, the Great American Military Hero went to England to see. When he found this was true GUESS WHAT HE SAID?
“It is most appropriately hung, as nothing ever made the British sh*t like the sight of George Washington.”
Washington, upon hearing what his loyal officer had said, simply smiled!

 

[EagleSmack]

Lovely... LOVELY!

 

[Zipperfish]

Yeah, reminds of that time in 1812 when a ragtag group of Canadians managed to kick the *** of the American empire.

 

[EagleSmack]

Get your award hung yet?

 

[taxslave]

BL seemed to have missed that.

WHen you depend on bridish history books you miss a lot.

 

[BaalsTears]

...I won't shut up about your dire educational system. I ignore such rankings...

Anyone else notice the contradiction?

Yeah, reminds of that time in 1812 when a ragtag group of Canadians managed to kick the *** of the American empire.

Was there a Canadian identity and consciousness in 1812?

 

[Retired_Can_Soldier]

Okay pay attention, here are the rules.

We get to hide behind trees and ambush and dress in anything we want.

You guys, the ones with the bad teeth, you have to wear red and march in a straight line.

 

[taxslave]

Anyone else notice the contradiction?



Was there a Canadian identity and consciousness in 1812?

Actually it was expected.

 

[EagleSmack]

Yeah, reminds of that time in 1812 when a ragtag group of Canadians managed to kick the *** of the American empire.

Was there a Canadian identity and consciousness in 1812?

Please don't Feed the fish...

 

[Zipperfish]

Anyone else notice the contradiction?



Was there a Canadian identity and consciousness in 1812?

Definitely, but it was certainly enhanced by the drubbing we handed the Americans.