Court order seeks email of Wikileaks volunteer Jake Appelbaum

For bonus points, be sure to pay attention to the American political response to the French Revolution and the XYZ affair, and to the relationship early America had with Britain[1].

Note: George Washington himself didn't belong to any political party (and he has famously spoken out against their existence). But, a lot of his policies were aligned with the Federalist party ideals.

1. If the words "Special Relationship" don't mean much to you, thats another fun topic to explore — and this is where it all started. But that's only marginally related to the question you asked.

Slavery becomes out competed by the market and in areas where it is not out competed guerrilla armies of abolitionists attack plantations/slave owners in the night and smuggle out their newly freed comrades.

Start here:

http://www.bigheadpress.com/tpbtgn?page=55

Its a graphic novel, bur whatever. It will give you an idea of what gets my libertarian boner going in regards to revising history.

While I'm not yet that well educated in Germany politics and policies, my initial vague impression is that while they're not as big on certain civil rights as people ostensibly are in the States (open government censorship and sometimes discriminatory hiring practices, for example), neither do they have any illusions about those policies. If you do cross the law, punishments appear reasonable--not $3 million and a lifetime of bankruptcy and lawyers if you share 5 songs on Kazaa.

Lots of other countries like to poke fun and point out the flaws in many of Germany's policies, and they certainly may be right, but Germany as viewed from the lens of a self-employed American engineer unable to get even basic health insurance is, at times, seemingly a progressive paradise.