I am halfway through watching the excellent Ken Burns documentary on the US Civil War

[Pokster]

Could you two take your homosexualist semaphore to a private board. I'm sure the damage his 'sword' would have done to your a'hole would have been considerable b.

Probably not now... b's ring has been severely damaged from constant buggerings while at private all boys school... and Sir C can't even get it up anymore

[Pokster]

Really? I have no memory of such a growth. Surely a stick on one would have been easier.

The impetuosity of youth, I suppose.

"Youth"

[Ash]

Hmmm. That argument is effectively countered by the Industrial Revolution, though, a.

We were unprecedentedly inventive whilst also paying the workers fúck all.

I expect the difference is the net/option of welfare.

[SWv2]

Was there? I don't remember a moustache. It was over 10 years ago, I believe. The sword was good.

Fancy dress?

Blimey.

[Sir C]

Fancy dress?

Blimey.

Yes, my only experience of the genre, I think.

It was poor.

[Burney]

Yes, my only experience of the genre, I think.

It was poor.

I felt - and I hope that you don't take this the wrong way - that your uniform might have been a smidgeon better cut.

[Peter]

I expect the difference is the net/option of welfare.

That and the trade union movement.

[eastgermanautos]

A fact that seems obvious to us now but wouldn't have to them. Its the root cause of the civil war in the sense that slavery permitted the two parts of the country to grow so far apart economically over a century that so many areas of policy would divide them.

I read a rather hilarious piece about changing the name of a school from washington-Lee to just Washington. THe argument seemed to be that although Washington had owned slaves he had fought a war that wasnt treason and forged a democracy. Lee had fought a war of treason and had owned slaves.

Kind of stepped over the fact that the revolutionary war WAS an act of treason, and that the difference between revolution and treason is victory. He also forged a democracy that allowed slavery. Funnier still, almost all the slaves that Lee owned were acquired through marriage to.....Martha Washington's great grand daughter. He inherited the descendants of the same slaves Washington had owned....

But yeah, the first one is a hero and the second a slave-owning racist....

Well, don't you know a lot!

[Ash]

That and the trade union movement.

Yes, absolutely. I was going to say that as part of a longer post but suddenly got busy.

[eastgermanautos]

Yes, but look what they've ended up with. They fought a war for that?

No, the whole continent is best ignored, I would say.

I have a soft spot for Quebec. Quebeqoise girls are not bad. French, mind, and yet physically robust because they live on the frontier.