Text 21867, 83 rader
Skriven 2015-03-21 20:00:38 av Lee Lofaso (2:203/2)
  Kommentar till text 21690 av Björn Felten (2:203/2)
Ärende: Revisionist History
===========================
Hello Björn,

 ml>> two were printed about my son at no charge.

 BF> And that goes for the entire US of A?

Most newspapers are independent newspapers, whether owned
by one individual, a group of individuals, or a corporation.
Each newspaper sets its own policy, in accordance to the
wishes of its publisher.

Let's look at the Fidonews as an example.  You (Björn Felten)
are the editor, the international community of fidonet sysops
being the publisher.  The original editor of the Fidonews was
Tom Jennings, who got the job by virtue of having been
appointed by his fellow fidonet sysops.  The next editor got
the job by virtue of having been appointed by Tom Jennings,
who represented the entire international community of fidonet
sysops in that regard.  And so on and so on, with one exception,
until you got the job, thanks to Frank Vest.

The editor, having been hired by the publisher, acts in due
accordance to the wishes of the publisher, whatever those
wishes might be, as failure to do so would undoubtedly result
in the publisher relieving the editor from his/her duties.

See there?  In the world of Fidonet, the editor of the Fidonews
works for us!  For free!  Hahahahaha!  Thank you, Frank, for conning
Björn into taking the job!  :)

 BF> I thought that USA was a union of 50 more or less independent states, with
 BF> very diverging "rules"...?

You've got it all wrong.  The USA has only 46 states.  Along with
4 commonwealths.  And one municipality that serves as our nation's
capital.  No state (or commonwealth) is truly independent, as some
of those states (11 of them) found out the hard way during the mid
1800s.

Have you ever read the official document concerning The
Louisiana Purchase?  It is a fascinating read.  US President
Thomas Jefferson sent two emissaries to Louisiana in order
to meet with French officials to buy the city of New Orleans.
The French told his diplomats that France no longer owned
the property, having sold it to Spain.  But not wanting to
return to Washington DC empty-handed, the two Americans
asked the French if they had anything else they would be
willing to sell.  Looking a gift horse in the mouth, the
French knew what to do.  "Sure, we'll sell you all the
properties we have in America, for the right price."  The
agreed amount came out to be $3 million USD - which was
quite a sizeable sum in those days.  Especially since
it was a price based in gold, not paper currency.

You have to keep in mind a few things.
The USA was a poor country, and the two diplomats
had no real money of their own.  So how did the
USA get the money in order to pay the French for
the properties it had bought?  They borrowed it!
From England!  Through Lloyd's of London!

I am not making this up.

When it came time to pay the notes, the Americans defaulted
on the loan.  Lloyd's wanted to collect, so asked His Majesty
to take action.  British war ships were then sent to raid and
plunder American merchant ships.  The idea was to collect as
many valuables as could be found so as to be sold at auction
in order to make Lloyd's of London (and His Majesty) happy.

This was all working out quite well for the British, until
they met John Paul Jones, who did not like the idea of paying
tribute - or taxes - to anybody.

And then there was Andy Jackson, who rode his horse into
the city of New Orleans, hired a pirate by tha name of
Jean Lafitte, and had a field day shooting red coats whom
he mistook for turkeys.

--Lee

--- MesNews/1.08.05.00-gb
 * Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2)