Not true. Lincoln invaded for one reason: to stop the South from seceding. And the agricultural South did so because it felt exploited within the industrialized Union, which was shedding its Jeffersonianism for Hamiltonian mercantilism. Rather than submit to subsidizing the growing power of the big-business/big-government alliance, the South withdrew its consent.

The Nullification Crisis of 1832 illustrated the growing political and economic tensions between North and South, none of which were based on slavery.

"Apostles of Disunion: southern secession commissioners and the causes of the Civil War" by Charles B. Dew, University Press of Virginia, 2001 examines what the men who debated and voted on secession actually said at the time (rather than in self justifying memoirs written decades later to glorify "The Lost Cause").

Dew documents that the men who voted for secession did so because they feared that a Republican Federal government would free their slaves. That, they believed, would destroy the economy of the South, lead to race war and (worst of all) miscegenation!

Or, to put it another way, yes the Civil War was about slavery.

Webb, OTOH, simply appears to think that a lot of honorable men died, on the Confederate side, defending their homes. Which they did.

Slavery was a monstrous evil. The Civil War, OTOH, was just a monstrous screw-up due to that evil.(1) There were plenty of people on both sides who didn't care at all about slavery.

But that's the way it always is, in war. People get sent off to war. It is the leaders who have a just or unjust cause, the soldiers just fight and die. I have sympathy for any soldier in any war, unless they run around doing things like targeting civilians or torturing people. (Which, even in wars where that happened, most of the soldiers on that side wouldn't have anything to do with it.)

1) I place the blame for part of this evil in the founding fathers, which not only didn't recognize that slave were incompatible with a free nation, but deliberately set up a system that attempted to balance slavery and non-slavery. Which resulted in slavery lasting much longer than it should have here. (Erm, not that it 'should' have lasted any time, but it lasted longer than in comparable nations.)

Michael, you are being very selective in your definition of "macaca". Why don't you want to talk about the Spanish definition, since Spanish is at least as widely spoken in the US as Portuguese is? You want to ignore evidence that contradicts what you claim - that Allen knowingly used a racial slur. What you are doing is called cherry-picking.

Given Allen's ancestry, I would say that only the French African derived meanings would have any relevance, wouldn't you?

Again I repeat: 99.99% of the people of America had never even heard of the word "macaca" before the Virginia race in 2006. Are you seriously arguing otherwise?

Not at all, it was a very underrepresented slur prior to Allen elevating it to the national spotlight.

Ask yourself this: do you really want someone monitoring your words by rummaging through foreign-language dictionaries looking for evidence of “racism”? Could you withstand such scrutiny?

Do you really believe that Allen had never heard the word "macaca" before, and they he just happened to invent a word to refer to a dark-skinned man, and that word just happened to be a racial slur against dark-skinned people in his grandmother's native Tunisia? Anybody can parse my words however they want, and if I say something racist, in any language, they can call it that. If I can make a case that it was a misunderstanding, then I'll make it. Allen couldn't make that case.

And it’s not true that Senator Allen was not censored. His career and reputation were destroyed by false accusations of racism.

Yeah, that's not actually censorship. Politician's have their careers and reputations destroyed for saying stupid things all the time, it's still not censorship.

His opponent took an obscure word no one had ever heard of before and rode the phony outrage it generated into the US Senate.

I'm pretty sure George Allen had heard that word before, and ultimately that's all that matters.

Again I repeat: 99.99% of the people of America had never even heard of the word "macaca" before the Virginia race in 2006. Are you seriously arguing otherwise? To elevate “macaca” into an English-language racial epitaph requires suspension of disbelief - not to mention common sense. Ask yourself this: do you really want someone monitoring your words by rummaging through foreign-language dictionaries looking for evidence of “racism”? Could you withstand such scrutiny?

Your response - non-response, actually - reminds me of a scene from 1984. The hero, who had just been arrested by the Thought Police, unexpectedly encounters a co-worker who has also been arrested. The co-worker frantically tries to think of why he was arrested, and comes to the conclusion that he once used the word "god" in a poem. Shades of "macaca"! Orwell was a prophet.

And it’s not true that Senator Allen was not censored. His career and reputation were destroyed by false accusations of racism. His opponent took an obscure word no one had ever heard of before and rode the phony outrage it generated into the US Senate. For some reason I am not as comfortable with that as you seem to be.

Already Obama is very likely to win, toss in the Man Vote, and the Southern Vote, divide the Christian vote between Webb, McCain, and staying home in general disgust....

Obama has the elites in general. He has the blacks. The feminists will probably decide to support him after they get over their anger about Hillary (and receive some nice gifts too). Most Dems are likely to line up for him, but he's a tad weak among the Normal Unracist Dem Male group....Webb will win that for him.

Obama/Webb looks very, very strong.

And no, I'm not an Obama supporter. I voted for W twice. What I am is a conservative, and thus I have a choice between the Handsome Socialist and the Tortured Hero Liberal.

I'm voting for Duncan Hunter, but I'm telling you Obama/Webb will absolutely crush Senator McCain. It won't even be close.

What's difficult is for Southern politicians to separate themselves from caricatures of ideological reaction. Webb himself argued previously that woman should not serve in the military in combat positions, so perhaps he's got some work to do in polit...

You are kidding, right? This sound like something from the Knights Who Say "Nee" scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Talk about an open invitation to censorship!

Macaca wasn't censored. You have the right to say whatever stupid thing you want, but that doesn't guarantee that people won't disapprove of you for saying it.

BTW: You are wrong about the meaning of "macaca". It actually has the following meanings:

How is it that you passed the English and Portuguese definitions from the very page you linked to, that were actually above the Spanish ones you quoted, and actually confirmed the definition I gave? Where you just hoping nobody would follow the link?

Using a racial slur most people haven't heard before doesn't make it any less offensive.

You are kidding, right? This sound like something from the Knights Who Say "Nee" scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Talk about an open invitation to censorship!

BTW: You are wrong about the meaning of "macaca". It actually has the following meanings:

1. female macaque monkey; see macaco.
2. binge, drunken spree, drunk, jag.
3. female hobgoblin.
4. (South America, pejorative) Brazilian woman
5. (Honduras) macaca, a small coin equal to one peso

Michael, I have a huge problem with the grievance industry that manufactures fake outrage like this - and demagogues like Webb who exploit it.

It is true that most rebel soldiers did not own slaves. It is also true that they saw blacks as inferior beings; that they were deathly afraid of blacks being liberated, and that (especially free whites in heavily slave states) they feared a loss of status if the blacks should have equal rights (or any rights at all). Whites in western Virginia and the Carolinas, eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, and numerous other areas where slavery was not prevalent tended to be pro-Union and joined the Union army in the tens of thousands.
I agree that the rebel soldiers were a courageous and resourceful bunch. So what? No one would argue that the Japanese kamikazes and the Waffen SS fought with a suicidal determination rarely seen in history, and these soldiers by and large believed in their causes; should they be
honored? (Ronald Reagan accidently paid homage to some dead SS men, and look what it got him.)
(If you don't like that comparison, then try the crusaders, or the conquistadores, or the roman legionaries. Courage is a virtue, but it doesn't ennoble the cause one fights for.)
I've lived in the south and have myself flown the stars and bars on occasion. If Mr. Webb wants to do that, fine; its a cool-looking flag, and it does have a generalized "rebel" feel about it. But he should leave it at that. The southern cause was, as Ulysses Grant put it, one of the worse causes that men ever fought for. Dredging up the old states rights bullshit doesn't help us any.

Like you I generally view Deep South pro-Confederates as racists and traitors, and as hypocrites too when they claim Lee's flag as their own. Virginians, though, have an honourable claim to that flag.

BTW: Did anyone ever figure out what "macaca" means - a word 99.99% of the people of America had never even heard of before the Virginia race? One wonders what other "offensive" words no one has ever heard of are lurking around just waiting to emerge in this year’s elections.....

It essentially means "monkey", and is used as a racial slur in French African nations. George Allen's grandmother grew up in Tunisia, a former French African colony. Using a racial slur most people haven't heard before doesn't make it any less offensive.