Heroes

In my 44, ok 45, years on this planet, there have been those folks that have inspired me. When i was younger, admittedly, it did not take much. Prowess at acting, playing football or baseball would elevate someone to, if not god hood, at least demi-god status. As i aged my tastes evolved, or at least i hope that they have. In my mind, a parade of politicians, pundits and pastors have been elevated to that of hero. Thing is, I have noticed that no one is perfect. Time and again I have been disappointed in the integrity, or lack thereof, of those that we hold up as role models. There is not a week that goes by that we hear of Lance Armstrong doping to win Bike races or Roger Clemens using steroids. Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire may have been on steroids when they broke records. That does not mean that there are not athletes out there that do not deserve our respect. It seems that there is a concerted effort to bring them low and relegate them to mediocrity. Tim Tebow is one of these folks. (He should have never been sent to New York.)

I would bring to your attention that Soldier, Marine, Airman and Sailor are not on that list. This is not a slight by any means. There are acts of bravery and heroism every day in the Armed forces of any country. These men and women deserve the respect of the nation for the sacrifice they make whether or not our nation is at war.
For all the hardship and difficulty that the era was rife with, I almost wish I could have lived in the late 1700 to early 1800’s. Life was hard then but there were events that were in play that were historic in scope. Tomorrow is the 4^th of july. On this day in 1776 these words were penned;

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. (Copyright ©1999-2012 by the Independence Hall Association)

There was a lot of discussion and debate leading up to the signing of the constitution. To sign this document meant treason against Great Britton and the Crown. If there were ever a set of heroes that deserve our respect and honor, the 56 men that signed this document deserve our respect and honor, twenty-four lawyers and jurists, 11 merchants and tradesmen, and nine farmers. Ben Franklin was the only really old man. Eighteen were under 40; three were in their 20s.These were not agitators or community organizers. Most of these men were wealthy, with a couple of notable exceptions, such as Samuel Adams. John Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in the colonies. These were well educated men that had made their fortunes in the new world, but their desire for freedom was greater than their lust for wealth. They pledged their Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor all the while with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence. Did you ever wonder about what happened to those that signed the declaration? If you look here (http://www.baxtercountyrepublicans.com/founding_fathers.html) you will see an account of the fate of these men. Here are some examples;

Francis Lewis, New York delegate, saw his home plundered and his estates, in what is now Harlem, completely destroyed by British soldiers. Mrs. Lewis was captured and treated with great brutality. Though she was later exchanged for two British prisoners through the efforts of Congress, she died from the effects of her abuse.

John Hart of Trenton, New Jersey, risked his life to return home to see his dying wife. Hessian soldiers rode after him, and he escaped in the woods. While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined his farm and wrecked his Homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods as he was hunted across the countryside. When at long last, emaciated by hardship, he was able to sneak home, he found his wife had already been buried, and his 13 children taken away. He never saw them again. He died a broken man in 1779, without ever finding his family.

Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward, Jr., the other three South Carolina signers, were taken by the British in the siege of Charleston. They were carried as prisoners of war to St. Augustine, Florida, where they were singled out for indignities. They were exchanged at the end of the war, the British in the meantime having completely devastated their large land holdings and estates.

These men Pledged everything they had, Everything they were to the fight to free this country from oppression, and just the presence of their name on a document enough to send them to meet the hangman. These men and all those that sacrificed to win our freedom are the heroes we should place on pedestals, and anyone else that we seek to place on that pedestal should be compared to these.

December 7th 'A Date Which Will Live in Infamy'

Today we remember the lives lost on this day in 1941. Well, some of us do. I have yet to see a blurb on the news, Google did nothing with their cutesy banner like they do on world earth day. In that day the Japanese were locked in a struggle with China and as thier conquests and brutality grew the west slowly choked off the oil and mineral supplies it desprately needed to continue their war. In July of 1941 The west shut off the spigot and cut the Japanese from the raw matireials that it needed. This caused the Japanese to begin to look to the conquest of the East Indys and South East Aisia to gain the resources it needed. In November of 1941 peace negotiations were clearly approaching an end, U.S. officials fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines. The prospect that Japan would attack east was unanticipated.

8AM on December 7, 1941 saw A Japanese task force attack the Island of Oahu and specificly Pearl Harbor. in the three hours that followed 2400 US servicemen and women were killed, 5 of 8 Battleships were sunk or sinking and the rest were damaged. Several othe ships were damaged and the bulk of the aircraft on the island were destroyed or damaged to the point where they could not fly.

The Japanese launched this attack to keep us out of the war. Ironically it was the deciding factor that galvanized us as a nation and gave us the backbone to keep fighting to the end. Even when the Japanese were defeated in the Coral Sea, the memory of this attack kept American spirit high and we pushed until we had erased the territorial gains they had made and forced them to surrender

Seems like everyone has forgotten this day. Like another day a little more recently in our history. but that is another post.

Amil Imani - Telling the Truth is Islam Bashing?

You have got to read this piece from Amil imani exile in Persia. He is lone voice in the lion's den speaking truth about islam here is an exerpt.

Question: Does Islam get a pass because it is a religion? Who says Islam is
a religion? Millions do? What is the evidence? The words of masses of
brainwashed carriers of the Islamic virus, transmitted to them by their parents,
are worthless as evidence. What counts is the irrefutable fact that this creed,
claimed to be the one and only religion of Allah, has been and continues to be a
source of great suffering for non-Muslims as well as the ignorant masses of
Muslims themselves.

I will share with you just a few of thousands of
horrific things that Muslims do to people of other religions or those without
any religion at all. In model Islamic states such as Saudi
Arabia and Iran, for instance, women don’t dare complain about their
Allah-decreed chattel status. If they protest in the least, they are beaten by
their husbands. And if they dare to demonstrate in public for equal family
rights with men, they get severe beatings by the police and hauled to jails for
additional indignities and violence.

Please read the rest of this here and pass this on.
http://www.amilimani.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=112&Itemid=2

The OBAMASSIAH

Have you seen the cover of New Yorker Magazine? It is hillarious!

But wait!!! Obama is out raged! he does not like this depiction of his extreamest views. Well Phooey. He needs to lighten up and learn how to laugh at himself. This is quickly becoming the public perception of him and his wife. and i am sure there will be more of this in the future. One can only hope that Democrats do not take to the streets and riot as the Islamists have done when their Profit has been depicted in Satire. I would not think they would, to become violent at protesets and destroy the personal property of others is to.... umm... never mind, what was i thinking?

Of Men and Mice

Ok… ok… OK….

You cannot even call the inactivity on this blog a lapse since there is no track record. That and the folks that I have tapped to write for us have dropped the ball. Pete has a GREAT article in the development stages. Course it has been for 3 weeks now.

EVERY one is talking about oil prices and generally the cost of getting by. Ok so it is expensive. Every thing else will catch up at some point. Yes we need to drill for more oil and find more efficient ways of using it. We also need to find alternative forms of energy and, when they are economically feasible, they should come to the market and then the free market will decide if they are worthy. With one candidate advocating the policies that got us to this point(not encouraging local energy exploration) and the other flip, flopping on the same issue (McCain now would like to open the outer continental shelf to drilling but still opposes drilling in ANWR) the choice is getting clearer in the POTUS race. I REALLY wish Rush Limbaugh would run but he has said many times he does not want the pay cut. Sean Hanity I am not sure would run and Newt has turned into a tree hugger. ‘Our list of allies grows thin’

The supreme’s (SCOTUS) has confirmed an individual’s right to own a fire arm to protect them selves and their families. That is a good thing though the margin was a little closer that I would have liked. It is like the left in this country has decided that we peons deserve only the rights they say we can have. We should eat what they tell us, believe what they tell us, possess what they tell us we can possess. When the reality is, the Bill of Rights is a list of rights the Government has no right to limit or take away. Justice Joseph Story(Appointed to the supreme court in 1811 at the age of 32) said – Consider the right to keep and bear arms “the palladium of the liberties of the republic,” which enables the citizenry to deter tyranny.

Lets see what else happened since my last post… Rush Limbaugh has signed a contract through 2012 for $400Mill everyone is jealous and many want to shut him up just for his beliefs and his audience base. The FCC looks at the fairness doctrine again. So now we are looking at officials that are not elected, curtailing our freedom of speech. Just like the bureaucrats at the EPA can tell you what you can and cannot do with your private property. NICE....

Common Sense

I think I have a good title for posts on this Blog. THINK. If there is anything I would have you take away from reading these few words on this piece of the net it would be that I made you think. I do not necessarily mean you thinking hmm... he’s right on the money but, maybe also to challenge you to dig deeper. Such as there has been a series of posts over on 7.62mm justice called Kyoto – A Perspective (Hat Tip TonyfromOz) about how we in the USA generate electricity and how, if we were to adopt the principals of the Kyoto treaty, our nation would be drug, rather quickly, back into the 1800’s. That has made me think about how we as a nation use energy and what we could do different and that has lead to MANY ideas about energy efficiency and alternative fuels.

Ideas will always lead to discussion and discussions will always lead to some type of discourse and THAT my friend is one of many things that have made this nation great. The 56 original members of congress did not sit down on July 4th, 1776 and write out and sign the document that has shaped our nation. This did not just happen! We all know or, rather, should know the story of our fight for independence. There were years of subjugation to the crown in England. There were unjust searches and seizures, Taxes levied with out the input of the Americans (Taxation with out Representation), forced billeting of troops in private homes. When the fighting actually started in April of 1775, the shadow governments that had been in place in all of the 13 colonies took control of their colonies and deposed the royal officials. The desire for full independence grew and in January 1776, Thomas Pain published his well known pamphlet ‘Common Sense’. The second Continental Congress appointed 5 men to draft what would become our founding document those men included Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and Samuel Adams. Many changes and additions were made to this document, for example Franklin himself made at least 48 corrections, including changing the slogan "Life, Liberty and Property" to "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness before it was presented to the main body of the Congress on June 28th 1776. I was not until July 4th 1776 that the document was approved and sent to a printer. John Hancock was the first to sign as the elected President of the Congress. It was not till August of that same year that the rest of the delegates signed the Declaration of Independence.

I went through that short history lesson to show you that the idea that all men were created to be free created a discourse and that discourse led to the birth, with all the pain and suffering I cannot call it created, of the United States of America. But to have that discourse, you have to have ideas, to have ideas you have to be able to think. Now there are those that say that thinking should be left to the experts. Some say I am not paid to think, I am paid to follow instructions. Anyone that has a brain can think. I believe it is a sad state of affairs when someone in TV or radio studio has to tell us what a speech just made by this politician or that world leader means and how mad or happy we should be because of it. Think for yourselves! I believe there is a nefarious scheme behind the decline in our ability to think for ourselves but that is for another post. Think! Read! Learn! This is how we will retain our freedom. This is how we come up with ideas that make us money and keep our economy strong. This is how we keep informed and know when to stand in support of or against ideologies that threaten our liberties or our way of life. In America we live in the greatest secular country on earth. There are few that even compare.

Thanks to all the veterans for the sacrifice they have made, God Bless you everyone!