Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers

Amazon.com

The Texas Rangers have alternately been described as "fearless men of sterling character" and "ruthless, brutal, and more lawless than the criminals they pursued." The truth, says Robert M. Utley in Lone Star Justice, "lies somewhere in between the extremes." The Rangers got their start in 1823, and for half a century they were "citizen soldiers periodically mobilized to fight Indians or Mexicans." They were professionalized in 1874, when they became lawmen employed by the state of Texas. Utley summarizes their colorful history under the leadership of figures like Jack Hays and Ben McCulloch. They came to national attention during the Mexican War, when they fought with distinction under Zachary Taylor at Monterey and also served as scouts throughout northern Mexico. As lawmen, they were noted for apprehending fugitives (the murdering outlaw John Wesley Hardin fell to one of their bullets) and controlling mobs, but they were less successful at putting bad guys behind bars (a problem that the author blames on "a defective criminal justice system"). At bottom, Lone Star Justice is a sober-minded but generally admiring assessment of a unique group of men. --John Miller

Book Description

From The Lone Ranger to Lonesome Dove, the Texas Rangers have been celebrated in fact and fiction for their daring exploits in bringing justice to the Old West. In Lone Star Justice, best-selling author Robert M. Utley captures the first hundred years of Ranger history, in a narrative packed with adventures worthy of Zane Grey or Larry McMurtry. The Rangers began in the 1820s as loose groups of citizen soldiers, banding together to chase Indians and Mexicans on the raw Texas frontier. Utley shows how, under the leadership of men like Jack Hays and Ben McCulloch, these fiercely independent fighters were transformed into a well-trained, cohesive team. Armed with a revolutionary new weapon, Samuel Colt's repeating revolver, they became a deadly fighting force, whether battling Comanches on the plains or storming the city of Monterey in the Mexican-American War. As the Rangers evolved from part-time warriors to full-time lawmen by 1874, they learned to face new dangers, including homicidal feuds, labor strikes, and vigilantes turned mobs. They battled train robbers, cattle thieves and other outlaws--it was Rangers, for example, who captured John Wesley Hardin, the most feared gunman in the West. Based on exhaustive research in Texas archives, this is the most authoritative history of the Texas Rangers in over half a century. It will stand alongside other classics of Western history by Robert M. Utley--a vivid portrait of the Old West and of the legendary men who kept the law on the lawless frontier.

Customer Reviews:

Justice for Texas Justice.......2007-09-16

Until this book the best book on the Texas Rangers was he Webb book. Utley is a modern historian and those who prefer to live in the past in their culture will be disappointed in this book. It is a modern rendition for modern readers. That is not to say it is weak in research or in bringing the past to life. What I mean is this book is written in the now and doesn't adhere to the old rules of whitewash.

A major benfit of this work is the ointroduction to many of Edmund J. Davis, cast as the worst governor in Texas history. A Reconstruction governor responsible for the formation of the Texas Rangers as a force to enforce Reconstruction policy as he saw it and fight the elements that became the Ku Klux Klan.

This is a refreshing and interesting work on the taming of the old west.

Justice Done.......2007-08-02

The book is not only quite detailed in the description of the exploits of the early Texas Ranges, it maintains the air of education without the normally associated dullness or boredom found in many textbooks.
Mr. Utley paints a straight-forward, no-holds approach to telling the facts as he has found them. Gone are the visions that our hero's of old are without fault, quite the opposite, you find that our hero's from this era are simply common men with some interesting virtues and a belief that right is right. It would be rather refreshing to find some of this level or morals in today's society.
The book is an excellent read. One any Texican-file will find quite interesting.

Best Book Ever on the Early History of the Texas Rangers.......2007-02-18

Having just read Utley's second volume on the rangers, Lone Star Lawmen (I read this book when it came out), and found it a worthy sequel to this one, excellent in every way, I decided to see what Amazon readers had said about the first volume, Lone Star Justice. It appears that some folks don't like giving up cherished myth and folklore in favor of real history. And there are one or two who have well-formed PC prejudices against the Rangers, and are equally unhappy when presented with real history; they are like those who condemn an actor for portraying a villain (so to those I say, if you don't like the Rangers, don't take it out on Utley; he's not one, he just tells their story, and it is unfortunate that the truth does not conform to your suppositions). Those readers who appreciate accurate history, well written and meticulously documented, have given Lone Star Justice five stars. So do I. This is an excellent book, rigorously accurate, always interesting, full of dramatic incidents and memorable characters arrayed in their context. If you are interested in the history of Texas, the West, law enforcement, or just a good read, you'll enjoy this book. Better yet, get the set--Lone Star Justice and Lone Star Lawmen, and follow the history from beginning to the present.

Quite imbalanced.......2005-04-26

The problem with this book, aside from the fact that it's just a rehash of the last dozen or so Ranger histories, is Utley's bizarre fascination with racism: namely, all Texas Rangers are evil racists whose actions can only be explained by racism. Case in point:

Rangers are after a Mexican bandit who killed a Ranger. They find two mexicans and try to halt them, whereupon the two take off, then ambush and kill a Ranger. Utley breaks in and says, Oh that's okay. They were scared that the racist rangers would have hung them.

The Brownsville incident, where the black Army troops shoot up the town? Utley concurs that they probably did it--but, the town was full of racists, so they were justified.

Every single event involving the Rangers in this book is written off as racist fervor. This PC attitude, frankly, is just sickening.

Only in the last few pages does Utley mention that we should keep an open mind about the subject; but by then, the reader has probably thrown the book away in disgust, or come out of it thinking the Texas Rangers were the militant wing of the KKK.

A rip roaring account.......2005-01-18

For those who know little of the rangers but are western enthusiasts or simply interested in the American West, this is a wonderful action packed rip roaring account of the Texas rangers. The volume spands the time frame from Texas independence in 1836 through to the 1900s. The Mexican war is covered as are conflcits with Mexican bandits, and the Comanches, as well as the norms of frontier justice. This reads like a novel, but brought to you by famed historian Utley its all true and what more the writing is fantastic. This makes a wonderful present.

Seth J. Frantzman

Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership (The Tanner Lectures on Human Values)

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Instructive insights on applied ethics
disappointingly spread out
What Constitutes A Life Worthy of Human Dignity?

Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership (The Tanner Lectures on Human Values)
Martha C. Nussbaum
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0674019172

Book Description

Theories of social justice are necessarily abstract, reaching beyond the particular and the immediate to the general and the timeless. Yet such theories, addressing the world and its problems, must respond to the real and changing dilemmas of the day. A brilliant work of practical philosophy, Frontiers of Justice is dedicated to this proposition. Taking up three urgent problems of social justice neglected by current theories and thus harder to tackle in practical terms and everyday life, Martha Nussbaum seeks a theory of social justice that can guide us to a richer, more responsive approach to social cooperation.

The idea of the social contract--especially as developed in the work of John Rawls--is one of the most powerful approaches to social justice in the Western tradition. But as Nussbaum demonstrates, even Rawls's theory, suggesting a contract for mutual advantage among approximate equals, cannot address questions of social justice posed by unequal parties. How, for instance, can we extend the equal rights of citizenship--education, health care, political rights and liberties--to those with physical and mental disabilities? How can we extend justice and dignified life conditions to all citizens of the world? And how, finally, can we bring our treatment of nonhuman animals into our notions of social justice? Exploring the limitations of the social contract in these three areas, Nussbaum devises an alternative theory based on the idea of "capabilities." She helps us to think more clearly about the purposes of political cooperation and the nature of political principles--and to look to a future of greater justice for all.

Customer Reviews:

Instructive insights on applied ethics.......2007-08-27

Martha Nussbaum has delivered another thought-provoking book, this time applying her "capabilities" approach to questions on disability, national identity, and obligations to non-humans. As always, her writing is clear and forceful, and her insights are provocative, if not always completely convincing. As a follow-up to her earlier works, this book is likely to become a key resource for discussions of philosophical ethics, human rights, and the continued effort to interpret and modify the work of John Rawls.

disappointingly spread out.......2007-05-04

There is substance to Nussbaum's account here -- the most interesting material is a consideration of how intuitive ethical duties towards the disabled, and towards members of other countries and species, conflict with a Rawlsian contractualism. Her notion of capability duties/outcomes, while nothing particularly innovative to my eye, is interesting, and the failures of contractualism are examined fairly and in detail.

The main problem with the book is that it is very diluted (it is also repetitious -- actually the stapling together of separate essays, and if I had had to read how GDP per capita does not take into account internal inequality one more time I would have gone mad.) A book of equivalent perceptivity could be a hundred pages or less.

The remainder of the book is taken up by Nussbaum's rather long winded examinations of different ways to be nice (indeed, very very nice) to other people and to animals (to give a sense, there is more than one paragraph devoted to whether we should put gazelles into protective custody to save them from lions.)

Quite a bit of the material -- especially the animal material, but also the nationality material -- is both philosophically uninteresting (the conceptual point has been made, and there is no more refined analysis presented) and practically naieve or vague (for example, if Nussbaum is aware of the ongoing debates in the NGO world over the nature of foreign aid, it doesn't show here.)

Worth a read in many ways, but also in many ways an indulgent performance.

What Constitutes A Life Worthy of Human Dignity?.......2006-03-25

Martha Nussbaum is a promoter of the capabilities approach, a school of thought that seeks to delineate the conditions for a just and decent world based on what people are actually able to be and to do (their "capabilities") in order to lead a life worthy of human dignity. Amartya Sen has pioneered this approach in the realm of economics where he has proposed to analyze development as consisting of freedom as much as of material progress. Nussbaum's approach differs from Sen in subtle ways: she is more interested in philosophical debates than economic reasoning, and (whereas Sen remains in the vague as to what constitutes basic human functionnings) she provides a list of ten capabilities that must be fulfilled beyond a certain threshold in a fully just society.

Nussbaum applies this approach to three unsolved problems of social justice: how to treat people with physical and mental impairments so that they can live up to their human potential; how to extend justice to all world citizen regardless of the place they live in; and what are the issues of justice involved in our treatment of nonhuman animals. In doing so, she engages in a detailed discussion of the social contract theory proposed by John Rawls which, all its merits notwithstanding, cannot provide a satisfying answer to these three pressing social problems.

Take people with disabilities. Social contract theorists imagine the contracting agents who design the basic structure of society as "free, equal and independent," and usually conceive the social contract as providing mutual advantages to its members. But how to include people who may have a limited ability to take part in the deliberations establishing the contract, or whose special needs often contradict the assumption that social justice should provide all members of society with roughly equal endowments? Nussbaum shows that a conception of the person more akin to Aristotle than to Kant helps frame the idea of a life in accordance with human dignity, while countries like Sweden or Germany show examples of practical arrangements that allow people with disabilities to participate actively in all the major spheres of life.

The contract model also typically constructs a single society, which is imagined as self-sufficient and not interdependent with any other society. In a second step, these societies establish relations to regulate their dealings with one another based on a set of core principles embodied in international law. This model leaves many issues unanswered, such as the unequal distribution of wealth and power across countries and the universal validity of human right principles. Based on Grotius and the natural law tradition, Nussbaum develops a theory of transnational justice that includes respect for human rights and the need for economic redistribution.

Likewise, moral philosophers typically hold either that we have no direct moral duties to animals or that, if we do, they are duties of charity and compassion rather than justice. But nonhuman animals are also capable of a dignified existence, and our theories of justice should recognize that right. Nussbaum mentions a court ruling in India that goes into this direction; she could also have referred to the European Union, which has enshrined the protection of farm animals' welfare in its constitutional treaties.

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Frontier Justice
E. Fuller Torrey
Manufacturer: North Country Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0932052916

Book Description

A new and definitive history of the Loomis Gang who terrorized central New York in the 1800's. Well-educated and from aristocratic New England families, George and Rhoda Loomis raised their children to be outlaws. Robbery, horse thieving, bribery, arson, counterfeiting, kidnapping, rape and murder-the Loomis Gang did it all until they were brought down by Constable Jim Filkins and United States Senator Roscoe Conkling.

Getting Away With Murder on the Texas Frontier: Notorious Killings & Celebrated Trials

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Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier by Bill Neal
Early days justice in Texas

Getting Away With Murder on the Texas Frontier: Notorious Killings & Celebrated Trials
Bill Neal
Manufacturer: Texas Tech University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Murder & Mayhem | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0896725790

Book Description

In 1916, in the tiny West Texas town of Benjamin, a gunman slips into a courtroom and murders the defendant. In 1912, in Fort Worth's finest hotel, a young man kills an old gentleman in cold blood in the middle of the lobby. The verdict in both of these murderers' trials? Not guilty. The explanation? "This is Texas."

Laws passed by politicians in far-off Austin meant little to Westerners living on the Texas frontier. Sagebrush justice relied less on written statutes than on common sense, grass-roots fairness, and vague notions of folk law drawn from the Old South's Victorian code of chivalry and honor. In this very different time and place, a murderer might go free based on the following reasoning: "The son-of-a-gun is guilty all right, but we must turn him loose. He owes me for a pair of boots, and if we convict him I'll never get my money." Inexperienced prosecutors, a lack of modern crime-detection methods, unavailability of witnesses, an acceptance of violence in society, and a laissez-faire attitude toward trial tactics all conspired to make guilty verdicts a rarity.

Customer Reviews:

Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier by Bill Neal.......2007-04-09

Bill Neal did a great job writing this novel. With his background in the legal system and "top-notch" research, his book was excellent in both reading and historical accuracy. When I found out that one of the novel's character's was my grandfather, I was intrigued even further! I hope that Bill Neal will write other books similar to this one. The WILD Frontier is truly an understatement!

I recommend Amazon.com highly. They are fast with delivery, and I have never been disapointed with their service. Keep up the good work.

Early days justice in Texas.......2007-02-23

The book was a very interesting read and gave much insight into how justice was in the early days of Texas.

Vigilante Days: Frontier Justice Along the Niobrara

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Vigilante avtivities in northern Nebraska

Vigilante Days: Frontier Justice Along the Niobrara
Harold Hutton
Manufacturer: Ohio Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0804007381

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Vigilante avtivities in northern Nebraska .......2006-03-29

Vigilante organizations were a popular phenomena in the West before "official" law agencies could be established (and often continued to exist long afterward). Although they dated back to pre-Revolutionary days, they seemed to manifest themselves best in the wide-open rural areas of the quickly expanding trans-Mississippi West. They existed for many different purposes - enforcing laws, overriding unpopular laws, controlling or eliminating "undesired" factions or developments (the KKK, opposing cattle interests, for example) - and as is often the case when groups take the law into their own hands, they committed as much chaos and crime as they hoped to prevent. In this book, Harold Hutton takes a microscopic look at vigilante activity as it appeared in the restricted area of Nebraska along the Niobrara River during the 1870s-1880s.

His primary focus is mainly on the activities of outlaw Kid Wade, a horse thief of the region. The canyons along the Niobrara offered excellent hiding places for such activity, and local law enforcement officials had a difficult time subduing this illegal activity. The vigilante committees took up the slack. Wade was eventually caught and hanged by the vigilantes. Hutton goes on to recount additional work by the vigilantes to bring other cattle thieves to justice. All told, 15 thieves lost their lives to the vigilantes; many others fled the country or were arrested and tried under normal means. Hutton remains nonjudgmental throughout his account and gathers much of his information from contemporary local newspaper stories, which for the most part supported the activities of the vigilantes. As with everything, some vigilante groups were honorable and decent, while others were not. The last incident of horse thievery along the Niobrara occurred in 1906, and Hutton says the man was brought to justice "according to law," and served four years in the penitentiary. The need for a vigilance committee had long passed. Though extremely narrow in scope, Hutton's history is interesting and informative. The book also contains many illustrations.

The Political Economy of Inequality (Frontier Issues in Economic Thought)

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The Political Economy of Inequality (Frontier Issues in Economic Thought)

Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic Conditions | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1559637986

Book Description

The disparity in wealth both within and between nations has grown rapidly in recent years, and is becoming an increasingly significant issue in attempts to deal with environmental problems - from international negotiations over climate change to local concerns about environmental justice.

The Political Economy of Inequality offers an in-depth examination of the economic theory behind the causes, consequences, and cures for inequality. The volume brings together disparate analyses of inequality in economic and related fields, identifies areas where more work is most needed, and lays the groundwork for an integrated understanding of the causes and consequences of inequality in the United States and the world.

Sections cover:

the distribution of earnings
the distribution of wealth
celebrity and CEO incomes
the effects of corporate power
poverty, inequality, and power
household roles and family structure
skills, technology, and education
categorical inequalities, such as those based on race, gender, or ethnicity
inequality on a global scale
the welfare state

The book is the fifth in the six-volume Frontier Issues in Economic Thought series. Each volume offers two- to three-page summaries of the most notable articles and chapters in a "frontier" area where important new work is being done but has not yet been incorporated into the standard definition of economics. Introductory essays by the editors review the field, cite other literature that was not summarized, and situate the summarized articles within an overview of the subject.

As with the other volumes in the series, The Political Economy of Inequality offers an invaluable overview of an emerging field of economics and is a unique reference for students and scholars concerned with economic policy, social economics, work and labor issues, international and sustainable development, or related topics.

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Colorado Rascals, Scoundrels, and No Goods of Breckenrdige, Frisco, Dillion, Keystone and Silverthorne
Mary Ellen Gilliand
Manufacturer: Alpenrose
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Colorado | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1889385085

Product Description

Immensely readable, informative and entertaining. Who is better than Mary Ellen Gilliland to write a humourous yet fact-filled treatise on Summit County's coloful and somewhat off-color characters of the past.

Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America

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Was Ritter lying then or now?
Great content but bad on style
A Compelling Book by an American Hero
More Detail Needed
Excellent book - Ritter understands what defines patriotism

Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America
Scott Ritter
Manufacturer: Context Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Iraq | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1893956474

Book Description

Frontier Justice exposes the fraudulent manner in which President Bush and Company's new scheme of world domination has been sold to Congress and the American people, especially through the "Big Lie" about the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. A former Marine intelligence officer who served in the 1991 Gulf War and led U.N. weapons inspection efforts in Iraq until his resignation in 1998, Ritter dissects this myth and reveals how Bush carried out the international equivalent of a west Texas lynch mob, forcing his own brand of frontier justice in the Middle East.

Customer Reviews:

Was Ritter lying then or now?.......2005-10-13

"Even today, Iraq is not nearly disarmed. Based on highly credible intelligence, UNSCOM [the U.N. weapons inspectors] suspects that Iraq still has biological agents like anthrax, botulinum toxin, and clostridium perfringens in sufficient quantity to fill several dozen bombs and ballistic missile warheads, as well as the means to continue manufacturing these deadly agents. Iraq probably retains several tons of the highly toxic VX substance, as well as sarin nerve gas and mustard gas. This agent is stored in artillery shells, bombs, and ballistic missile warheads. And Iraq retains significant dual-use industrial infrastructure that can be used to rapidly reconstitute large-scale chemical weapons production." -- Ex-Un Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter in 1998

As you can see Ritter's story has changed 180 degrees, could it be that pedophilia indictment? This man tells 2 completly different stories, he has no credibility.

Great content but bad on style.......2005-08-02

This book is a first-hand account of US - Iraq relations from the end of the first Gulf War in 1991 to the beginning of the second Gulf War in 2003. The book is told from the point of view of Scott Ritter, a US military officer who served as a weapons inspector for the UN to look for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He served in this role until his resignation during Clinton's 2nd term as president.

In this book, the author shows how the weapons inspections did not achieve what they were supposed to, how and why they failed, and who was responsible. He lays blame all around, on both European, American, and the Iraqi governments, along with the UN. Several key points that the author highlight are:

1. The weapons inspectors did not work impartially under UN supervision, even though in name they were a UN weapons inspection team. Each inspector had a home country, and often times different inspectors would do what their home government told them, instead of what their UN supervisors directed. This sometimes led to conflicts between different inspectors on the ground, and conflicts between different governments within diplomatic channels.

2. Contrary to American press reports, Saddam did allow weapons inspectors into most of the suspected weapons sites. The problem was that the US government wanted to inspect suspected hiding places of Saddam and other Iraqi government officials. These latter sites had little miitary value and played minimal roles in Iraq's WMD program. Saddam tried to keep these places hidden knowing that they were crucial hiding places for his safety, and their exposure might lead to his capture and death. The US, European and Iraqi governments knew this, but the public at large did not. Therefore, when Saddam refused inspectors from entering these sites, the public at large saw an image of Saddam as hiding weapons, when in fact he was only hiding his safehouses.

3. The Clinton and Bush II administrations continuously put out a stream of lies about what Saddam was and was not doing. Clinton did it to keep the Republican Right at bay, and Bush did it for less nuanced reasons; he hated Saddam, his followers wanted Iraqi oil, etc... The problem was that the American press went along with both presidents until really after the invasion of 2003, and this book's publication.

All in all, the book covers a lot of history in quite a short text. The problem is the style. The author is clearly anti-Bush, and his sentences are often filled with as much opinion as fact. This takes away from the effectiveness of the book's arguments. In all, I still recommend reading it considering its content and short length.

A Compelling Book by an American Hero.......2004-05-22

This is a fine book--I just reread it now that there has been some time to give the run-up to Iraq some perspective. Ritter articulately makes the case that Iraq had long ago lost its ability to manufacture WMD's, and details his efforts to stop Bush's illegal war of aggression. This he does in a compelling, readable style, and potentially tedious technical information is handled in a clear, understandable way.

Certainly, the lack of WMD's found in Iraq has proven Ritter entirely correct in virtally all of his assertions, and he has been utterly vindicated. The sad, ignorant war-supporters who ignored him--or worse, questioned his patriotism--have been exposed as un-American idiots who understood nothing of WMD's. If America had done a better job of listening to Mr. Ritter, our young people would not have died in vain, and we would not be stuck in a quagmire today. Scott Ritter is an American hero.

More Detail Needed.......2003-11-26

I have read two other books by this author and a number of other articles and have enjoyed them. I have always liked his sharply focused line of attack. He does not deviate from his message. I have also seen him on TV and for the most part he holds his own. Therefore, I was excited to read this book. What I figured I was going to get was a break down of what Bush jr. and company said to get the country to go to war and then the outcome at least in regard to Ritter's area of expertise, WMD's. To my surprise and disappointment this area of the book only covered maybe 50% and it was really not that well documented. I wanted a blow-by-blow account, really getting into the details of each misstatement and speech. I wanted almost a well-detailed time line of events I could use in endless arguments with people who supported the war.

The rest of the book was a number of rather lightly detailed attack lines aimed at Bush. Don't get me wrong, I am all for giving Bush jr. a well deserved hard time, but I want some meat on the bones. Pointless or unsubstantiated attacks do nothing but provide critics ammunition to discount the authors other well thought out comments. Overall I would say the book was ok, the author sticks to his usual writing style, some would say no style, but overall the book is average.

Excellent book - Ritter understands what defines patriotism.......2003-10-28

Despite the attempts at assasinate his character during 2003-2003, Scott Ritter has been proven correct about Iraq and its lack of WMD. He is correct that we the citizens and the Congress are culpable for beleiving the Big Lie. Right-wingers will certainly try to disparage this book, but in today's climate loyalty to political party seems to take precedence over loyalty to country and to the U.S. Constitution. IMO, Scott Ritter is trying to stand up for the enlightend ideas and principles that founded our nation, and his book was a refreshing read of what has gone wrong, and what we need to do to fix things in 2004. Regime change at home, no more Big Lies.

Not only does Ritter painfully point out that the details showing that the Iraq invasion was a war of aggression, and as such illegal under International Law, but he successfully articulates that the US under this administration is looking very much like the earlier periods of fascism in Germany and Italy (mid-late 1930s). As an American I find these parallels repugnant, but an objective analysis of the facts suggest we are in fact following in those same footsteps.

Indeed, the neoconservative quest for "global dominance" will never happen, and may ultimately lead to economic failure of the US. The founding fathers were absolutely adamant that the US reject the temptation of Empire - as the histories of Empires all end the same way: Military overextension and subsequent economic decline. It's time to revisit the real meaning of the Constitution, the wisdom of the founding fathers, and the ideas and principles that founded our great nation.

As Ritter points out, simply waving the American flag and loving America is not enough - democracy requires active participation of the citizenry. Regrettably, Ritter is right 'America is going through a crisis of gigantic proportions. It is a struggle for the ideological soul of the nation. Bush and his posse have set a course for the future that dramatically departs, in words and in action, from the values and ideals set forth by our nation's founders." (page 201)

FYI to the media: During WWI, Teddy Roosevelt - a true conservative, and a species of politicians that is now all but extinct once said - "To annouce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." (page 8)

As pointed out by Ritter, Bush and the radical neoconservatives are the real traitors to both the American public and the ideas for which our country has stood for since the 1770s. Indeed, the US will quickly become an internaitonal isolated, bankrupt, and Authoritarian nation if this group of ideologues is not removed during next year's elections. Thank you Mr. Scott Ritter, for helping others understand that patriotism means - to protect the ideas espoused in our Constitution, from enemies both foreign and domestic - you are an American patriot.

Book Description

Policing the Elephant, the companion volume to Law for the Elephant, examines criminal activity and its consequences among travelers on the overland trail in the early nineteenth century. Reid consulted hundreds of primary sources to discover how justice was meted out--without police, attorneys, or courts. Separating fact from fiction, he explores how emigrants dealt with spousal abuse, homicide, robbery, organized crime, and larceny. He also looks into famous episodes of executions. Introducing real people and real incidents, his book shows that Americans have been far more law abiding than television, the movies, and pulp fiction would often have us believe.

The Bellevue War: Mandate of Justice or Murder by Mob

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The Bellevue War: Mandate of Justice or Murder by Mob
Susan K. Lucke
Manufacturer: McMillen Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Democracy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1888223383

Book Description

This history shows Iowa and adjacent areas as the early American Wild West, circa 1833-1850. Based on historical writings, documents, and records, it offers the definitive account of a gunfight between approximately 100 vigilantes and outlaws that occurred in Bellevue, Iowa Territory, on April 1, 1840, along the Mississippi River--the fate of the prisoners decided by a vote of colored beans. The book also explores settlement patterns and daily life on the trans-Mississippi frontier; organized crime as it moved with settlement across America; the coexistence of vigilantism and statute law in early America; more than 150 years of controversy surrounding the Bellevue War; and the lives of major people involved, including men who influenced the territory, state, and nation.

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