Amen on the Second Amendment, Keith. Since the Feds never accepted that the Confederacy was a legitimate government, it would not have been proper in their view to have accepted a formal surrender. They accepted the surrender of and paroled those in armed conflict. The sovereignty resolutions are in response to the US gevernment ignoring the provisions of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.

BTW, whatever you may think about the AIG folks being paid bonuses under a legal contract and provisions in the stimulous law, a ninety percent tax on these individuals constitutes a bill of attainder. Of course, they've done it before, taking property during Reconstruction for exhorbitant taxes the owners could not pay. The current Administration has no love for Wal Mart. Will they next go after the two billon dollars the company recently paid their employees? Of course, it wasn't technically federal money, but many in government think ALL the money is theirs; they just let us keep a little. Sorry, Jim, but there are parallels. Stan