jefferson amy so, awhile ago, i picked up a book about the radical politics of Thomas Jefferson in the discount bin at the bookstore. about how he didn't believe in inheritance at all, thought we should remake our constitution every 20 yrs...so, i started talking about it to my mom on the phone, and she interrupted me. Oh, god. I'm so tired of Thomas Jefferson! Dad and I got into this big argument the other day about him. Let's talk about this later, Amy. what a funny conversation that was! 000211 ... Q Anytime. Anywhere. :-) Nobody who has been US President has not had his faults (and I wish I could use "his/her" instead). TJ had 'em too. But other than possibly Franklin Roosevelt, he was the greatest political leader the US has ever had. He was first elected President in the Presidential Election of 200 years ago. This election was one of two in our history decided in the House of Representatives (in a procedure where each state delegation has 1 vote, and a majority of the delegations is required to elect). It required 104 ballots there to elect Jefferson. One of the most amazing political speeches I've heard is Robert Kennedy's in 1964, in which he decribed Jefferson and Madison's trip up the Hudson River in 1800 starting Jefferson's campaign for the Presidency. On that trip the two decided to eatablish what is now the Democratic Party. Already when Bobby gave that speech, that Party was the longest lasting political party in the history of the world. Is my enthusiasm too gushing? 000211 ... lokkust J.J. Jefferson sported an afro back in '75. With his brown clogs and his funkadelic attitude he managed to do something with his life. I was there and I remember, so don't you go calling me a liar... goodfornothing sonofabitch jesus christ i'm on fire ah. And then along came Jones... 000219 ... screwing for virginity I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just. “…we should be made one nation in every case involving foreign affairs, and separate ones in whatever is merely domestic...” (N)ever borrow a dollar without laying a tax at the same instant for paying the interest annually and the principal within a given term... Jefferson We can pay off his [Hamilton's] debt in fifteen years, but we can never get rid of his financial system. The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all. On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or intended against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's natural manure. The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore. Its a small mind that can think of only one way to spell a word i found all of these quotes by him on a web page, but i cant remember which one. 021210 ... . by_today's_standards would be on a watchlist. possibly then also. 100926 what's it to you? who go blather from