Quote:
Originally posted by Sidd Finch
(Note to the Repubs who will now chime in to call me a commie traitor -- do you support paying the government of Cuba for property that it seized from US companies?)
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Still, what would you do? Many Zimbabweans would compare the suggestion that the country should buy land from white farmers to the suggestion that the US should have compensated slaveowners in 1865.
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Hi Sidd. I promise I'm still looking for the right quotes to show you in response to your "cite please" from last week. Yesterday, an article in the Chicago Suntimes stated, without attribution, that most homicides in Chicago originate from gangs fighting over drug turf. I've seen it, with attribution to knowledgeable authorities, before. Bottom line, lots of places will say the majority are caused by gangs, and a few will tie it more directly into gangs fighting over drug turf.
Anyway, re: your first question above, I'd answer: it depends. There have been excesses by friends of the U.S. government that we would not support except under limited circumstances, like Pakistan. In cases where the gains derive from things like corporate bribes, colonial decree, etc..., (and I think this describes some of what Cuba took back), I wouldn't give the American losers a dime in compensation (in the moral sense). Ditto, the Mugabe thing. The problem for Mugabe is the way this works. I'm not against retaking Africa for Africans, at least not in those cases where Africa was taken away by Colonial decree, but (as you noted), there has got to be a better way than what this guy is doing. And there should probably be some civil procedure for the government to justify each and every taken. Something like, uhm, Mr. Johnson, we can't find any record of your ancestors or the preceding titleholders ever getting this land from anybody but (ahem), the British crown or something like that. And (ahem) we don't have a record of the British crown buying it from anyone.
Basically, some justification, and a (much) more efficient process, would at least satisfy my rational thought process. Surprising? I'd like to see if other Repubs disagree.
As for your point about slaveholders, I basically agree.
Hello
