Happy 267th, Tom.

[Felix]

If you have a two-dollar bill, spend it today. Thomas Jefferson is on the bill, and his birthday is today.

I am sure that all of Mr. Jefferson's descendants, Randolphs, Hemings etal. are remembering their great progenitor today.

"We shall fear no error, as long as reason is free to combat it."

[Tsavodiner]

So, does it make him a "R" that he HAD Sally et. al. ? Or inclusive, like you'd have it be?

[reference to golf deleted as gratuitous]

Seems his "descendants" have more or less FORGOTTEN the Great Man's teachings with their election of the "New" Great One.

[Felix]

Thomas Jefferson's views on race and slavery are a thicket of contradictions.

Early in his career, Jefferson worked for laws to prohibit slavery and abolish it altogether. After the 1780s he did not pursue these goals. In 1814, Jefferson had this to say about the mental capacity of blacks:

...brought up from their infancy without necessity for thought or forecast, [they] are by their habits rendered as incapable as children of taking care of themselves.

Jefferson had a number of slaves, without whom he could not have maintained his plantation Monticello, nor continuously re-built the house over thirty years. Chronically short of money, he only freed a couple of slaves during his lifetime, and two others in his will. All four were children of Sally Hemings. One those, Eston Hemings, was determined by DNA research a few years ago to almost certainly the descendant of either Thomas Jefferson, or his brother.

Not exactly consistent with the words of the Declaration of Independence.

By the way, I am always interested in gratuitous references; what is the connection between golf and Jefferson's slave habit?

[Tsavodiner]

Had I less respect for you than I do, and did we not share the social acquaintances of near family that bind us, I would have opined:

"If Tiger Woods, similarly situated, had done the same, you'd take up Golf".

But as usual, decency and comity prevented me from such scurrilous rejoinders.

[LimitedRecourse]

Cheers.