ah.... the indentured servants -- about half the population prior to 1740- were indentured servants. Also the term was typically 7 years - an amazing large number were accused of some minor offense at about 6.9 years and their term was extended another 7 years. Some made it and made it in the new country - most didn't and died young. Lots of bad stuff in the past, slavery was just one of the bad things. This black slavery thing is bad because we lose perspective of what life was like and there were many that had it much worst than the slaves. Get a life - it is behind us.

read some history -- you are a little short of being correct as usual. There were lots of reasons for the civil war, slavery was not a major reason. It only became the major reason when the northern winners started to write the history. Slavery was a lot better reason than the north wanting the south to pay for the gov't and keep the price of cotton low for the benefit of the northern factory owners. We are closer today to many of the problems of the 1850's and the outcome may not be pretty. But slavery wasn't the issue then or now.

The VA benefits are like all gov't benefits -- they make the rules and surprise, surprise some will take advantage of the loopholes. The agency doesn't want to turn down too many claims or it will be accused of being hard on those that need help and the media will obviously a case of someone being screwed. The real problem is that gov't is just too big -- it the words of Bonnie and Clyde group - why do you rob banks? It is where the money is.

look at this way - this helps the resume of the student gov't president. This will land them a good job down the road with one of their fellow travelers. This kids (really children) will never grow up to the real world - there will always be a bubble for them in universities, government, and large cities.

reminds me when after 9/11 the gov't was going to hollywood for some creative insight about the bad guys. -- Very little creativity comes out of big companies or big government. The old saying of history is just a collection of what individuals did is so true. The current situation could be made much better by cutting things down - small is beautiful and that is where creativity will be found.

while what you say maybe correct - there are a couple of issues that will have to be addressed somewhere down the road. -- we have so dumb down the education that it will take generations to get rid of the current mindset -- we have probably half the population that don't pay taxes - they have no skin in the game - how do you get them on board? -- we have a pension bomb that is going to go off -- all these fat gov't pensions and SS will have to be paid for - have a hard time thinking that the young folks are going to loving the old folks -- we have a system where those that saved, lived within their means and accumulated some cash for retirement are being bleed dry -- it won't be pretty when they get pi-ssed off.

There something in the water with the commerce dept. They never have had a real head of the department, most last less than a year, it is run by an 'acting' sec. -- What does this dept do? If it can exist with only an acting head for so long - it may be time kill the whole dept. It is worth a try - it the world ends without the dept of commerce then we can put it back, otherwise kill it. Same was true when I was working - those that took long vacations quickly found out the company could live without them and in many cases it did exactly that.

good article - Some of the comments don't see the dangers of Iran. I wish they would really understand what happen at the bay of pigs. Our military is trained to act rationally and we assumed the other side would do the same. Problem was we had a nut case with Fidel and a crazy general in LeMay. Folks don't know how close we came to a really bad war. The only rational folks were the Russians and they pulled the plug on Fidel. There is a lot of myth about great JFK was, in truth it is a myth. Iran is not rational and we need to understand that and act accordingly. There are some really crazy folks in control over there - they need to be stopped or they will continue until they find a way.

This the same Moran that has been involved in many scandals - money related. Sad we get what we elect,

Lots of interesting comments - what I take away is the reason kids are failing in school is their parents don't have any respect for eduction. There are hundreds of stories from all over the world of poor parents sending their kids to private schools or home schooling them. The poor in most of the world makes our poor look like middle class -- Bottom line kids live up to the expectation of their parents in about 99% of the time. We have a culture problem not an education problem.

assuming they even relearn or learn for the first time - what does a degree in (fill in blank) studies do for anyone or for the society they so often has to pay for the degree,