[x]

I don’t see any “secret conspiracy.” I just don’t think politicians and bureaucrats are to be taken at their word. They will always give you a lawyerly phrase that minimizes their own liability. There doesn’t have to be a secret agenda behind it, but the phrases they use shouldn’t simply be trusted. Haven’t we already learned how much governments justify under “national defense” and other high-sounding rubrics?

[rustbucket]

I don’t see any “secret conspiracy.” I just don’t think politicians and bureaucrats are to be taken at their word. They will always give you a lawyerly phrase that minimizes their own liability.

Trust but Verify comes to mind. I gather from Davis's April 29, 1861, speech to the Confederate Congress that he was busy after Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops, asking for the volunteers previously authorized by the Confederate Congress for the defense of the Confederacy.