chords

some chords belong together
others are beautiful in their own right
but are in disharmony with others

some chords are so sad
they make you wanna cry
but their melancholy
can lift you from the blues

some chords sing out for joy
and make you wanna dance and sing out
their joy always wants a partner
to share the song and the dance

it is good to be loved

Somewhere along the way I learned what love is

Kurdistan

you said, You shed your blood for us, 
you said, thank-you. 

Is this blood being shed for the remission of sin or the commission of sin? 
Does the blood remain on the slaughtered or is it sprinkled on us all? 

This sin of ours, is it participation, or just willful omission? 
It's just war. Bad things happen in war. It can't be helped.
I'm sorry about your daughter, your wife, your sister, your mother
it couldn't be helped.
it all just part of a bigger strategic decision
i'm sure you understand

thoughts and prayers, 
especially for your loved ones. 
the old ones, and the little ones. 
stay safe

as the bombs fall upon your house, your mosques, your hospital. 
your only true friend is the mountains you flee to

who could have known this would happen, again
your word is your bond
no one trusts you
sold out, and used again
we knew it would happen again

Kurds left to die like Palestinians
no place to play, no place to pray
no home except to die for

will you take us in, after we fought, bled and died beside you? 
you said you were our friend
you bought us your guns
you taught us how to fight 
then you turned your backs 
as the guns were turned on us

who could have known this would happen, again
we knew it would happen again
your only friend is the mountain to run to

This is My Country

We built a wall to keep you out,
didn't you hear?
Go back where you come from.
You come from a shithole country,
too bad for you.
wait there to die.
you can't come here.

Go back where you come from.
you weren't born here.
Go back where you come from.
you don't belong here.

Your English, it ain't no good,
am I misunderstood.
You're no different than any other brown one,
it would be better if there were none.
We killed the red man,
we enslaved the black,
not even the buffaloes roam here.
this is our land.

Go back where you come from.
you weren't born here,
go back where you come from.
you don't belong here.

Your religion isn't ours.
You've got a cross, climb up and die there.
We've got one too, we're saved here.
Even your virgin ain't right, she has dark skin.
you can't come in.
you waved her banner, fought for your freedom,
now die there.
The church bell rings, a song for you to sing,
just go and die there.
you've got no money,
how you gonna pay to get in?
I ain't paying for you to live here.

Go back where you come from.
you weren't born here.
Go back where you come from.
you don't belong here.

- Die Like a Palestinian

did you ever wonder why America imported so many black slaves from Africa when there were so many red men already available here?


In the pre-Colombian period the Nahuati language existed. Gautemala (Quauhtlemalain) means land of trees.

Human nature, cultural diversity and evolutionary theory

Human nature, cultural diversity and evolutionary theory

"If one man in a tribe... invented a new snare or weapon, the tribe would increase in number, spread, and supplant other tribes. In a tribe thus rendered more numerous there would always be a rather better chance of the birth of other superior and inventive members."[3][4]

More than 40 years ago, the ethologist Konrad Lorenz wrote that ‘the stratified structure of the whole world of organisms absolutely forbids the conceptualization of living systems or life processes in terms of ‘disjunctive’—that is to say, mutually exclusive—concepts. It is nonsense to oppose to each other—‘animal’ and ‘man’, ‘nature’ and ‘culture’, ‘innate programming’ and ‘learning’—as if the old logical diagram of alpha and non-alpha were applicable to them…human nature persists in and is the basis of culture; and all learning is very specifically innately programmed’ [1, pp. 20–21].

Human culture, the most complex phenomenon on the planet, comprises many entities, some of which are indeed simple motor behaviours, but others are complex higher order knowledge structures (HOKS) such as the concepts of schools or shops, and yet others embody beliefs and values within social constructions like patriotism and marriage, which only exist because individual humans believe in such things. Belief is a complex set of psychological states caused by currently poorly understood psychological mechanisms and serving as yet unknown evolutionary ends. Nonetheless, social constructions have enormous causal force in human affairs and are one of the most potent engines of human diversity. 

Learning, the process by which behaviour becomes adapted to local environmental circumstances which change faster than evolution acting only on gene pools can adjust to, is one possible solution to Waddington's uncertain futures problem.

Most forms of learning, then, gain knowledge that forms the basis of adaptive behavioural adjustment, which the main evolutionary programme cannot keep up with, even though evolution almost always points the learning processes to what, in general, needs to be learned. The evidence for evolutionary constraints on learning, including human learning, is overwhelming [7] and has given rise to notions such as ‘the instinct to learn’ [8].

There is a causal relationship between the individual gain of knowledge and the wider context of the collective knowledge of a species that exerts constraints on learning by way of the gene pool....Learning places causal explanations for adaptive behaviours as much within the neural network mechanisms that govern learned behaviour as they do within the genetic and developmental mechanisms which constrain that learning.

These are animals of a single species that are acquiring different behaviours common to geographically isolated groups by way of learning mechanisms sited in the neural networks of individual animals. That such learning mechanisms have evolved, presumably from more basic forms of learning, is not in doubt; that they are subject to innate constraints is not in question; that they cannot be explained by some form of genetic reductionism is clear; and that they add to the diversity existing within this species is obvious.

As will be argued below, singling out language as the defining feature of human evolution is probably incorrect. Human language as a form of communication is a uniquely human trait, but it is what is being communicated that is as important as the means of communication, and what is being transmitted from human to human, the heart of human culture, is at once a product of learning and occurs by way of learning. 

Memories are constantly changing as we rework and reinterpret our memories, in part because our goals and wishes reshape our memories as expectations of our past, and partly through the effects of unconscious generic knowledge structures, culturally determined, that form the anchoring points around which memory is structured. 

Money and ideology are examples of social constructions that rule, and often destroy, the lives of almost all living humans.

Evolution is a set of historical processes, which means that the past always constrains the present; this applies in both the phylogenetic and ontogenetic realms. As Gould liked to point out, Darwin taught us that history matters, and it matters in imposing limits on what evolution can give rise to. However, it takes time for constraints and limitations to evolve.

decisions

It seems we are destined to make one poor decision after another until fatefully the culmination ends with our demise and only a poor hope that somehow we might be resurrected from this error in our ways by a judgement at least somewhat less prone to error than our own.

"I write nothing for publication, and last of all things should it be on the subject of religion. on the dogmas of religion as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarrelling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind. were I to enter on that arena, I should only add an unit to the number of Bedlamites." Thomas Jefferson, Poplar Forest near Lynchburg Oct. [Nov.] 11. 1816.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams

Monticello Jan. 11. 17.

one of our fan-colouring biographers , who paints small men as very great, enquired of me lately, with real affection too, whether he might consider as authentic, the change in my religion much spoken of in some circles. now this supposed that they knew what had been my religion before, taking for it the word of their priests, whom I certainly never made the confidants of my creed. my answer was ‘say nothing of my religion. it is known to my god and myself alone. it’s evidence before the world is to be sought in my life. if that has been honest and dutiful to society, the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.’

Monticello May 15. 19
were I to be the founder of a new sect, I would call them Apiarians, and, after the example of the bee, advise them to extract the honey of every sect. my fundamental. principle would be ... that we are to be saved by our good works which are within our power, and not by our faith which is not within our power.

Monticello Apr. 13. 20.
among the sayings & discourses imputed to him by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence: and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being. I separate therefore the gold from the dross; restore to him the former, & leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery of others of his disciples. of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great Coryphaeus, and first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus. these palpable interpolations and falsifications of his doctrines led me to try to sift them apart.

Monticello Apr. 13. 20.
But while this Syllabus is meant to place the character of Jesus in it’s true and high light, as no imposter himself, but a great Reformer of the Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with him in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of spiritualism: he preaches the efficacy of [. . .] repentance towards forgiveness of sin, I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it Etc. Etc. it is the innocence of his character, the purity & sublimity of his moral precepts, the eloquence of his inculcations, the beauty of the apologues in which he conveys them, that I so much admire.

Monticello Aug. 4. 20.
this free exercise of reason is all I ask for the vindication of the character of Jesus. we find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. first a ground work of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms, & fabrications. intermixed with these again are sublime ideas of the supreme being, aphorisms and precepts of the purest morality & benevolence, sanctioned by a life of humility, innocence, and simplicity of manners, neglect of riches, absence of worldly ambition & honors, with an eloquence and persuasiveness which have not been surpassed. these could not be inventions of the grovelling authors who relate them. they are far beyond the powers of their feeble minds. they shew that there was a character, the subject of their history, whose splendid conceptions were above all suspicion of being interpolations from their hands. can we be at a loss in separating such materials, & ascribing each to it’s genuine author? the difference is obvious to the eye and to the understanding, and we may read; as we run, to each his part; and I will venture to affirm that he who, as I have done, will undertake to winnow this grain from it’s chaff, will find it not to require a moment’s consideration. the parts fall asunder of themselves as would those of an image of metal & clay.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor

November 26. 98.
I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution; I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of it’s constitution; I mean an additional article taking from the federal government the power of borrowing. I now deny their power of making paper money or any thing else a legal tender. I know that to pay all proper expenses within the year would, in case of war, be hard on us. but not so hard as ten wars instead of one. for wars would be reduced in that proportion. besides that the state governments would be free to lend their credit in borrowing quotas.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams

Monticello Oct. 28. 13.
a constitution has been acquired which, tho neither of us think perfect, yet both consider as competent to render our fellow-citizens the happiest and the securest on whom the sun has ever shone.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to “Henry Tompkinson” (Samuel Kercheval)

Monticello July 12. 16.
I am not among those who fear the people. they and not the rich, are our dependance for continued freedom. and to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt ... if we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries & our comforts, in our labors & our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor 16. hours in the 24. give the earnings of 15. of these to the government for their debts and daily expences; and the 16th being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal & potatoes.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to “Henry Tompkinson” (Samuel Kercheval)

Monticello July 12. 16.
Some men look at Constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, & deem them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. they ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well: I belonged to it, and labored with it. it deserved well of it’s country. it was very like the present, but without the experience of the present: and 40. years of experience in government is worth a century of book-reading: and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent & untried changes in laws and constitutions ... but I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind ... we might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
Monticello July 12. 16.
each generation is as independant of the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before. it has then, like them, a right to chuse for itself the form of government it believes most promotive of it’s own happiness.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane

Poplar Forest Sep. 6. 19.

But you intimate a wish that my opinion should be known on this subject. no, dear Sir. I withdraw from all contests of opinion, and resign every thing chearfully to the generation now in place. they are wiser than we were, and their successors will be wiser than them, from the progressive advance of science. tranquility is the summum bonum of age. I wish therefore to offend no man’s opinions, nor to draw disquieting animadversions on my own.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Ritchie

Monticello Dec. 25. 20.
if there be anything amiss therefore in the present state of our affairs, as the formidable deficit lately unfolded to us indicates, I ascribe it to the inattention of Congress to it’s duties, to their unwise dissipation & waste of the public contributions. they seemed, some little while ago to be at a loss for objects whereon to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the treasury ... but it is not from this branch of government we have most to fear. taxes & short elections will keep them right. the Judiciary of the US. is the subtle corps of sappers & miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. they are construing our constitution from a coordination of a general and special governments to a general & supreme one alone.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright

Monticello in Virginia. June 5. 24.
the Creator has made the earth for the living, not the dead. rights and powers can only belong to persons, not to things, the dead are not even things. not to mere matter, unendowed with will. the dead are not even things. the particles of matter which composed their bodies, make part now of the bodies of other animals, vegetables, or minerals of a thousand forms. to what then are attached the rights and powers they held while in the form of men? a generation may bind itself, as long as it’s majority continues in life; when that has disappeared, another majority is in place, holds all the rights and powers [. . .] their predecessors once held and may change their laws and institutions to suit themselves. nothing then is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

Thomas Jefferson Quotes

First Inaugural Address The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 33: 17 February to 30 April 1801

All too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind, let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things. And let us reflect that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance, as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. 

We are all republicans: we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. I know indeed that some honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong; that this government is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear, that this government, the world’s best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on earth. I believe it the only one, where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern.—Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels, in the form of kings, to govern him? Let history answer this question.

JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase

For JPMorgan Chase, all things being equal (which they are not), the new lower tax rates added $3.7 billion to net income. For the long term, we expect that some or eventually most of that increase will be erased as companies compete for customers on products, capabilities and prices.

One of the reasons for JPMorgan Chase’s enduring success is we have always recog-nized that long-term business success depends on community success. When everyone has a fair shot at participating in and sharing in the rewards of growth, the economy will be stronger and our society  will be better.

Closing the racial wealth gap is good for Americans, and it makes good business sense. We know employees from diverse backgrounds offering different perspectives drive better corporate outcomes. A recent study showed that businesses with diverse leadership generate 19% more revenue than non-diverse companies.

We have been raising wages for our 22,000 employees at the lower end of the pay range. For those earning between $12 and $16.50 an hour in the United States,  we have been increasing hourly wages to between $15 and $18, depending on the local cost of living. For employees making $40,000 a year or less in the United States, our average pay increases are around $4,800. This is the right thing to do, and  we now offer well above the average hourly wage for most markets.

Good leaders have the humility to know that they don’t know everything. They foster an environment of openness and sharing. They earn trust and respect. There are no “friends of the boss” – everyone gets equal treatment. The door is universally open to everybody

And true leaders don’t just show they care – they actually do care. While they demand hard work and effort, they work as hard as anyone, and they have deep empathy for their employees under any type of stress.

Many people still ask me about the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a government program that provided funding to banks in the midst of the crisis. JPMorgan Chase did not want or need TARP money, but we recognized that if the healthy banks did not take it, no one else could — out of fear that the market would lose confidence in them. And while it helped create the false rallying cry that all the banks needed support, the government, both the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, was trying everything it could in addition to TARP. And the Federal Reserve and the Treasury should be congratulated for the extraordinary actions they took to stave off a far worse crisis. In hindsight, it is easy to criticize any specific action, but, in total, the government succeeded in avoiding a calamity.

Shareholders may be surprised to find out that, fundamentally, we are not a risk-taking but rather a risk-mitigating institution. Risk mitigation is not guessing – it is a thoughtful, detailed analytical process that leads to measured decision making.

I want to be very clear that we do not advocate for the repeal of Dodd-Frank. We believe that the strength and resilience of the U.S. financial system have benefited from the law. Ten years out from the crisis, however, it is appropriate for policymakers to examine areas of our regulatory framework that are excessive, overlapping, inefficient or duplicative. At the same time, they should identify areas where banks can promote economic growth without impacting the very important progress we have made on safety and soundness. In fact, a stronger economy, by definition, is a safer economy. Our goal should be to achieve a rational, calibrated approach to regulation that strikes the right balance. This should be an ongoing and rigorous process that does not require any significant piece of legislation and should not be politicized

While we do not believe that the rise in non-banks and shadow banking has reached the point of systemic risk, the growth in non-bank mortgage lending, student lending, leveraged lending and some consumer lending is accelerating and needs to be assiduously monitored. (We do this monitoring regularly as part of our own business.) Growth in shadow banking has been possible because rules and regulations imposed upon banks are not necessarily imposed upon these non-bank lenders, which exemplifies the risk of not having the new rules prop-erly calibrated. An additional risk is that many of these non-bank lenders will not be able to continue lending in difficult economic times – their borrowers will become stranded.

In fact, contrary to popular belief, capital expenditures as a percentage of GDP are higher today than in the “good old days” of the 1950s and 1960s....The benefit of tax reform is the long-term (multi-year) cumulative effect of capital retained and reinvested in the United States. And third, the capital that was used to buy back stock did not disappear – it was given to share-holders who then put it to a better and higher use of their own choosing.

...large swings seemed to be an overreaction, but they highlight two critical issues. One, which we never forget, is that investor sentiment can veer widely from optimism to pessimism based on little funda-mental change. And second, for the fourth or fifth time in this recovery, there were excessive moves in the market with rapidly increasing volatility accompanied by steep drops in liquidity

The Chinese lack enough food, water and energy; corruption continues to be a problem; state-owned enterprises are often inefficient; corporate and government debt levels are growing rapidly; financial markets lack depth, transparency and adequate rule of law; and Asia is a very complex part of the world geopolitically speaking. Just as important, not enough people participate in the nation’s political system....We should also point out that over the last 30 years, the Chinese have been on a high-speed path that includes increasing transparency and economic reform, and while the momentum slows down periodically, they have continued relentlessly on that path. We believe the odds are high that a fair trade deal will eventually be worked out – but if not, there could be serious repercussions.

China can deal with many serious situations because, unlike developed democratic nations, it can both macromanage and micromanage its economy and move very fast. Government officials can pull, in a coordinated way, fiscal, monetary and industrial policy levers to maintain the growth and employment they want, and they have the control and wherewithal to do it. That being said, the American public should understand that China does not have a straight road to becoming the dominant economic power. The nation simply has too much to overcome in the foreseeable future. If China and the United States can maintain a healthy strategic and economic relationship (and that should be our goal), it could greatly benefit both countries – as well as the rest of the world

America’s debt level is rapidly increasing but is not at the danger level. While America does owe in excess of $6 trillion (essentially 40% of its publicly held debt) to creditors outside the country, U.S. companies and investors hold more than $25 trillion in total claims on foreigners, including more than $12 trillion of foreign portfolio holdings, and the U.S. economy is worth more than $100 trillion. So we earn more on foreign assets than we pay to foreign creditors. This is not a major issue. However, our country’s debt level over the next 30 years will start to increase exponentially, and at a certain point, this could cause concern in global capital markets. We have time to address this problem, but we should start to deal with the issue well
before it becomes a crisis.

... I feel compelled to emphasize an obvious point: Bad public policy is a major risk. It could be central banks and monetary policy, trade snafus or simply deep political gridlock in an increasingly complex  world – but bad policymaking is definitely an increasing risk for the global economy.

70% of today’s youth (ages 17–24) are not eligible for military service, essentially due to poor academic skills (basic reading and writing) or health issues (often obesity or diabetes).

Forty percent of foreign students who receive advanced degrees in science, technology and math (300,000 students annually) have no legal way of staying here, although many would choose to do so. Most students from countries outside the United States pay full freight to attend our universities, but many are forced to take the skills they learned here back home. From my vantage point, that means one of our largest exports is brainpower. We need more thoughtful, merit-based immigration policies. In addition, most Americans would like a permanent solution to DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and a path to legal status for law-abiding, tax-paying undocumented immigrants — this is tearing the body politic apart. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the failure to pass immigration reform earlier this decade is costing us 0.3% of GDP a year.

Irrational student lending, soaring college costs and the burden of student loans have become a significant issue. The impact of student debt is now affecting mortgage credit and household formation — a $1,000 increase in student debt reduces subsequent homeownership rates by 1.8%. Recent research shows that the burdens of student debt are now starting to affect the economy.

Many countries are called social democracies, and they successfully combine market economies with strong social safety nets. This is completely different from traditional socialism. In a traditional socialist system,
 the government controls the means of production and decides what to produce and in what quantities, and, often, how and where the citizens work rather than leaving those decisions in the hands of the private sector.

I am not an advocate for unregulated, unvarnished, free-for-all capitalism. (Few people I know are.) But we shouldn’t forget that true freedom and free enterprise (capitalism) are, at some point, inexorably linked.

We need to set aside partisan politics.

None of these issues is exclusively owned by Democrats or Republicans. To the contrary, it is clear that partisan politics is stopping collaborative policy from being implemented, particularly at the federal level. This is not some special economic malaise we are in. This is about our society. We are unwilling to compromise. We are unwilling or unable to create good policy based on deep analytics. And our government is unable to reorganize and keep pace in the new world. Plain and simple, this is a collective failure to put the needs of society ahead of our personal, parochial and partisan interests. If we do not fix these problems, America’s moral, economic and military dominance may cease to exist.

While it is a constitutional right to petition our government, and many organizations legitimately fight for the interests of their constituents,  we all may have become too self-inter-ested. I fear that this self-interest is part of  what is destroying the glue that holds our society together. We all share a collective responsibility to improve our country

The Making of an Historian - Garry Will's

Between the slave power and states rights there was no necessary connection. The slave power, when in control, was a centralizing influence, and all the most considerable encroachment on states' rights were its acts. The acquisition and admission of Louisiana; The embargo; the War of 1812; the annexation of Texas by "joint resolution" [rather than treaty]; the war with Mexico, declared by the mere announcement of President Polk; the Fugitive Slave Law; the Dred Scott decision - all triumphs of the slave power - did far more than either tariffs or internal improvements, which in their origin were also southern measures, to destroy the very memory of states' rights as they existed in 1789. Whenever a question arose of extending or protecting slavery, the slaveholders became friends of centralized power, and used that dangerous weapon with a kind of frenzy. Slavery in fact required centralization in order to maintain and protect itself, but it required to control the centralized machine; it needed despotic principles of government, but it needed them exclusively for its own use.

This eighteenth-century document is still the law of the land, and it must be construed as such. How can it give us infallible guidance when it is fallible? The answer is obvious, though unacceptable to some. It must be treated as what it is, as a fallible thing. It is a great human achievement, but it reflects a society that was deeply flawed (as all societies must be). The idea of human dignity in that society was very far from ours. It denied basic human rights not only to slaves, but to women, to Native Americans, to recent and propertyless immigrants. Yet some would reimpose the norms of that society on our time - for instance, in the constitutional definition of "cruel and unusual punishment." The eighteenth century routinely practiced things we now consider barbaric - public lashing, for instance, judicial mutilation, punitive treatment of the insane, public execution, capital punishment for minor felonies. Thomas Jefferson proposed the lex talionis for the state of Virginia. Here is his prescription for sexual offenses:

  "Whosoever shall be guilty of Rape, Polygamy, or Sodomy with man or woman shall be punished, if a man, by castration, if a woman, by cutting thro' the cartilage of her nose a hole of one half diameter at the least."

Since he proposed these punishments, he obviously did not think them cruel or unusual. To say that we are bound by the view of his society is to deny all possibility for moral progress.

The idea that Americans can be neatly sorted into Jeffersonians or Hamiltonians brings to mind the W.S. Gilbert lyric in Iolanthe:

I often think it's comical
How Nature always does contrive
That every boy and every gal
That's born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
or else a little Conservative. 

Yet Americans continue to think we must get right with the Founders.

What is it to have that new-old thing, a "revolutionary tradition"? If it is a tradition, it should preclude or evade the need for revolution. If it is still revolutionary, it should be fundamentally remaking itself on a continuing basis...
Some think this problem is solved by the fact that America's basic values are capitalistic, and capitalism is itself a blend of revolutionary mobility and traditional stability. As Joseph Schumpeter demonstrated, there is nothing less rooted in the past - more ready for gambles on the future and risk in the present - than capitalism. It professes to remake anything and everything at the whim of the market. Yet those with the biggest stake in the profits of the system are determined to hold on to the power they wield, resisting at least one kind of change, that which would replace them. There, then, you have a revolutionary tradition.
Yet where is this to be found in the Constitution? The capitalist system is no more present there than is the political party system. Protection of property and trade is there. But that is not the same thing as the capitalist system....

The Jeffersonians helped bring about a country different from the one they had to deal with in 1800. The very terms used to describe it had changed radically  in meaning. "Nation" no longer referred to a collection of states. The new country envisaged things the old one had not - projection of American power abroad, and energetic adoption of the means of western expansion, greater hesitancy to punish "heresy," a governmental patronage of science. These could not be crammed back into the old straitjackets of prior ideology. Attempting to do that is what has made people misread the History, thinking Jefferson, if he stopped acting like a Republican in the John Randolph mode, had to become a Federalist in the Hamilton mode, as if there were no alternatives to the one or the other. This or that. Either-or. Adams says both-neither. History is far more complex than the interplay of two (or many) ideologies. Chance, mistakes, opportunism, progress, reassessments, forgetfulness - all of them and more concatenate something less neat than anyone envisaged.
There was no going back to Jefferson's or Hamilton's "original intent."

"Only the destitute are innocent ...

"Only the destitute are innocent ... Only those without bread are without fault." Jesus of Nazareth, as translated/interpreted by John Dominic Crossan

Embedded within imperfection is perfection.
Before something is everything.

i am a butterfly or a tree. perhaps a mountain stream, or a beam of sunlight early in the morning. i am buddhist, and christian, and muslim and jew and hindu too. my creed is silence. there are no capitals in my name nor capitols where i come from. my flag is weaved from cotton still dotting fields like snow and its pole stands uncut amongst the ponderosa forest. i am brown and red and white and black. i am man and woman, mother and father, son and daughter, sister and brother. i am stranger and friend, never enemy. now you see me and then you don't but i am here with you just the same as you are with me. we are as inseperable as one photon of light is from another. i am on the no way to a land infinitely near and forever present.