Cockburn on slavery

[Brad De Long]

>Doug Henwood forwarded Alexander Cockburn saying:
>
>> According to Lehman, an ardent promoter of jury nullification, as are we,
>> "the tantalizing question is: Would southern juries have followed the
>> Massachusetts pattern had they been true juries - that is not stacked,
>> fully informed of the evidence and their powers, and not judicially
>> dominated. There is evidence this was happening in some states".
>
>The tantalizing question is, would pigs have flown if they had wings? 
>--
>Paul Rosenberg
>Reason and Democracy
>rad at gte.net
> 

No, they would not have flown.

You would need them to have (i) large keel-like breastbones to anchor the 
muscles to flap the wings, (ii) large wing-flapping muscles (think of three 
times the white meat of a modern turkey), and (iii) a thicker atmosphere 
against which to flap. And only small pigs--pigs are big.

But, yes, give them wings, breastbones, enough white meat, and a thicker 
atmosphere, and small pigs could have flown.

Unfortunately, they would have flown very slowly, and been easy prey for 
raptors.

Brad DeLong