You would not believe how many people give me the stink eye when I tell them this. I can not understand why Lincoln is held in such a high regard.

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Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a sacrifice on their altars. ... I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask no one to live for me, nor do I live for others. I covet no mans soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.

Ayn Rand, Anthem.

Simple. Lincoln is regarded as the hero that freed the slaves, and that romanticized notion of him overrides everything else, including the real reasons he did it.

Good point. The old saying, "follow the money" could be revised to, "follow the energy." The rise of every empire and nation in history has coincided with a concurrent increase in available energy. Money is really a surrogate for the real power of a nation; its abiity to tap and control energy. The U.S. and other industrialized countries base their economies and political systems on an ever increasing consumption of energy. Without relatively cheap and abundant sources of energy, particularly oil, economies must contract. The contraction may be attributed to other factors, but if energy supplies are declining it is inevitable that affected economies will begin to fail.

That is b/c the school systems fail in their educational curriculm. They teach the Civil War was about slavery but in all factual accounts, states rights were what were being fought over. Slavery didnt enter into it until like the 4th year.

I get the same kind of stuff when I say this too. Was Lincoln a good President? Sure he was, they all in their own rights are good to one extent or another. But the government run schools hide the truth when it comes to teaching the actual Constiution and its beginnings and what the Civil War was really brought on for.

Bingo! Couldnt have said it better myself.