Dog who served on both sides of the American Revolution | Hacker News Reader

Dog who served on both sides of the American Revolution

smithsonianmag.com

57 pointssamclemens24 comments

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Two timing SOB

Why did they glorify a traitor? Nowadays we'll throw anyone a bone if they can garner clicks.

Smart dog, they should have appointed him to the reserve bank.

Dogs obviously know nothing about human warfare. At least not enough to consciously pick a side.

This is now my favorite Hacker News comment ever.

dril level

A cat would never. I'm just saying.

A cat would look at both sides in a battle, yawn, and wander off while the stupid humans kill each other.

And then feast ravenously on the remains when the battle is over.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsinkable_Sam

I’ve always thought the word Revolution was the wrong word for this war. Other revolutions have focused on destroying monarchy, the church, landowners, etc. but this was none of that. It was a war for independence.

there was a revolution to "overthrow" the monarchy - just a local overthrow instead of a empire wide revolution

There is a big difference between throw off and overthrow.

The founders called it the War for Independence.

I’m not surprised, it wouldn’t have made sense to call it a revolution. I do wonder when the less accurate phrase was first applied and who was responsible.

I don't think the incumbent government ever calls an insurrection a revolution, does it? That's the word the victors use for it after they gain power.

Colonial independence wars often have multiple factions where some are advocating a nationalist approach that mostly preserves the existing institutions, and others want to radically redesign government at the same time.

If the latter groups get the upper hand, it’s called a revolution. And the Americans certainly fit the bill because they set out to write a federal constitution and bill of rights that bore no resemblance to the English system.

> bore no resemblance to the English system.

Except the Bill of Rights being based on it’s English equivalent and multiple other documents and customs in the English constitution.

Article wasn't about benedict arnold's dog.

I'm sure some anti war hippie would make a joke here.

In any case, it's fascinating how horses, dogs, pigeons, and various other animals were only recently (less than 100 years) replaced by machines. Horses were precious and highly exploited in both world wars.

Was thinking recently about how close we came to pigeon-guided missiles.

We had them, but they didn't work well.

Or the somewhat similar concept of bombs attached to bats, which was similarly very successful at doing damage, just not very directed damage.

What better period than a revolution for dogs to practice free love of owners and open loyalty relationships?

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