I just finished reading 1776, by David McCullough. It follows George Washington and the Continental Army through the years 1775 and 1776, up to the battle of Trenton.

I am a big history buff, and am especially interested in the founding fathers and the revolutionary period, so I was very excited about this book. McCullough must have done an extraordinary amount of research to put together the details that he presents here. The story is presented very well, is an excellent read, and kept me entertained.

1776 covers all of the battles and skirmishes of these first years of the war. Everyone is probably familiar with Bunker Hill and Trenton, but the information provided on the lesser known aspects of the war, such as the siege of Dorchester Heights, helps put Washington’s strategy and the troop’s moral in perspective.

Also intriguing is the attention given to the British perspective. We get to read excerpts of King George III’s speech to parliament declaring the colonies in rebellion, along with the opinions of members of parliament who were opposed to the war.

Lots of coverage is given to Washington, and his generals Nathanial Greene and Henry Knox. Along with Washington’s brilliance, we also see several of his mistakes and instances of indecisiveness.

I am sure that anyone who, like me, takes an interest in the Revolution would love 1776. If you’ve read it, leave a comment and let me know what you thought!

The US government detained innocent filmmaker, Cyrus Kar, from Los Angeles in an Iraqi prison for 54 days. Mr. Kar and his cameraman were in Iraq filming a documentary on Cyrus the Great. They were detained after a taxi in which they were riding passed through a check point, and was found to contain around 35 washing machine timers. These timers could be used by insurgents to make bombs.

The driver of the taxi, who was also detained, admitted that the timers were his, but Kar and his cameraman were still detained. Kar, who happens to be a US veteran, was left in solitary confinement for 54 days and released Sunday, after the ACLU threatened a lawsuit.

Kar seems to have taken it well, saying he has “the highest regard for our men in uniform,” but he also says that “they knew from the get-go that we were nothing more than filmmakers.” He alleges that “they put us in a cell and forgot us.”

I don’t believe that this innocent citizen was intentionally left in prison for almost two months. This is just an example of one unacceptable side effect that occurs due to inefficiencies that naturally happen with huge bureaucracies, like our government. Every soldier stationed at this prison probably knew that Mr. Kar was innocent, yet he wasn’t released. Why? There is certainly paperwork involved, approvals from higher ranking officials required, and numerous other bottlenecks in the process.

This instance proves that the system for processing detainees does not work, or at the very least that processing and releasing the innocent is not a priority. This gentleman was only released Sunday because the ACLU and newspapers started talking about it. How many Iraqi’s, who are known to be innocent, have been detained for longer than this?

This process is clearly broken and has got to be fixed. There is simply no excuse for holding a person for one minute after his innocence has been proven. I’m sure anyone would agree with that statement, regardless of their party affiliation.

Why, then, do we not see a priority being placed on fixing it? This has been an ongoing problem, in Iraq as well as in Guantanamo. Again, I fear the answer lies in bureaucracy. How many people have to discuss what needs to be changed? Who has to approve the changes? How many people have to be involved to discuss how to implement the changes? Because of the sheer size of this government, it could take years to put in place a change that everyone agrees should happen.

It’s important to note that this is not just a problem with Iraq and the defense department, it is a problem throughout our government. During the Jefferson admistration, secretary of state James Madison negotiated the Louisiana Purchase with a core of less than a dozen employees in the state department. How long would it have taken them to fix this problem?

I apologize for the lack of posts over the last few days. I’ve been in Orlando on vacation with my family, and didn’t have as much free time as I expected. I’m leaving again tomorrow for the Virgin Islands, but as that will be a more relaxing (and hopefully hurricane free) vacation, I expect to have more time to update the site.

This seems like a good time to mention that I am looking for more contributors to LibertyNow.com. If you are pro-Liberty and would be interested in contributing articles or just general posts to this site, I would love to hear from you. If you are interested, please email me directly at danny[at]libertynow.com.