Friday, June 10, 2011

2011 Pippen Reunion & So Forth


Gladys' collards and fatback. I mentioned to her, "Don't you cook collards the best, to which she replied "I's cooks everything the best!" And indeed she does.

Gladys and friend

Dixie, Cousin Carolyn, Christine and Mykah

Akai, Dixie and Tabatha

Evan and Dixie, best friends from many years at TEA (Tarborough Edgecombe Academy) until it unfortunately closed it's doors.

Deborah, Evan's mom and a true gem.

A present from Deborah!



Cousin John

Cousin John's daughter, Stephanie

Dixie is hugging the sweetest little thing you ever did see, Stephanie's daughter, Kennedy.

Dixie and Akai at Tom Cat's grave. He was my grandfather's favorite.

Virginia and Paul

"Take me out to the ball game......."

Cousin Jill with Marvin and Emma Pippen from Scotland Neck, once the home of the best barbecue around.



Cousin John is having his Betsy Ross retrieved, as I had forgotten mine along with the Cavalry Battle Flag in Cape Carteret.

Cousin Cora with eldest daughter and Dixie.
Cora, G,G, Granddaughter Of My G,G, Grandfather's Master Servant


Virginia making sure the spicy chicken is hot enough!

Dixie and our bestest' friend Cowboy. You couldn't find a better man.


Will and friend on far left with Anne, Virginia, Paul, Dixie, Akai, Christine and Mykah.


Anne's license plate. She went to Chapel Hill and Billy to VMI.



My brother-in-law, Billy at VMI. He graduated without a single demerit as did Robert E. Lee from West Point.


Mykah, Christine and Dixie.

Dixie and Tabatha

Happy Christine!

Dixie, Mykah and Akai

Mykah!

Dixie and Mykah

Good to the last drop!

Christine and Mykah

Akai and Christine

Mykah playing in the surf.

Dixie

Christine and Mykah

Dixie at our Blackeyes' II grave

Jerry, who replaces Black Eyes II. Dixie wants to rename him either Yuri or Zhivago.

Nuff' said.

"The mind of a Democrat"

Via A TRAINWRECK IN MAXWELL


Stop the Confirmation of Leon E. Panetta for Secretary of Defense

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On Thursday, April 28, 2011 President Obama announced changes to his National Security team, which included the announcement that he would appoint former California U.S. Congressman and current CIA Director Leon E. Panetta to replace Bush-appointee Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense.

The appointment of Panetta for such a critical leadership position of our nation’s national security and armed forces is all too reminiscent of past nefarious appointments to strategic positions such as the elevation to positions of trust of Alger Hiss by the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. The President and Congress then, like the current Panetta hearings conducted on Thursday, June 9, ignored the nominee’s past record concerning national security.

Upon careful observation of former Rep. Panetta’s record in the U.S. House of Representatives, it becomes evident that he is not only unfit for the nomination of Secretary of Defense but that his appointment carries the possibility of severely debilitating and compromising U.S. national defense.

As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Panetta voted in the following manner on Defense issues:
  • NAY on the reaffirmation of the Mutual Defense Treaty with Taiwan
  • YES on continuing foreign aid to the Sandinista government of Communist Nicaragua
  • YES on extending most favored nation status to the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact states
  • YES on ceding control of the Panama Canal to the pro-Soviet Panamanian government
In addition to his voting record, in 1986, Rep. Panetta publically opposed President Ronald Reagan’s “illegal and extraordinary vicious wars against the poor of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala.” This Panetta said, as he pledged his support for the Soviet satellite government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua as well as other KGB and DGI (Cuban intelligence) backed Marxist paramilitary groups throughout the Western Hemisphere in Latin America.

Panetta’s solidarity with international communism may have been in part due to his intimate affiliations with the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a Marxist think-tank in Washington D.C. that served as one of the premier outlets for KGB operations in the United States, founded in the late 1960s to shift the American political spectrum of the Left closer to that of the Soviet orbit, essentially bridging the gap between the extreme Left and the mainstream Left. The IPS has consistently served as the primary defender of foreign Marxist governments and communist terror organizations within public policy circles.

In an article published in the November 1983 issue of the American Opinion magazine, entitled “Moscow’s Friends at The Institute for Policy Studies,” the author writes that:

The congressional supporters for the Institute for Policy Studies included many of those who biennially commission I.P.S. to produce an “Alternative” Budget that dramatically cuts defense spending while increasing the spending for social welfare to levels only dreamed of by Karl Marx. In this pact of I.P.S. intimates such luminaries as: …. Leon Panetta (D.-California), Chairman of the Budget Process Task Force...

Earlier that year, on June 5, 1983, the IPS gave a video presentation of a film entitled “Target Nicaragua,” accusing the CIA and American-backed anti-Sandinista freedom fighters, or “Contras,” of committing atrocities against innocent Nicaraguan citizens. The one-sided propaganda film omitted any mentions of the atrocities committed by the communist Sandinista government and neglected to inform the viewer of the government’s role as a Soviet proxy in the Western Hemisphere receiving the full backing of Moscow and Havana. The film was presented to the IPS liberal allies in Congress.

The following month, on July 19, 1983, on the floor of the House, Rep. Panetta condemned the “U.S.-sponsored covert action against Nicaragua,” stating that it was “among the most dangerous aspects of the [Reagan] administration’s policy in Central America.” Panetta complained that “the U.S.-backed anti-Sandinista guerrillas now outnumber the Communist rebels in El Salvador by almost 2-to-1.”

Saying nothing of the Soviet Union’s imperialist interventions to communize Latin America, Rep. Panetta went on to urge his colleagues to join him in supporting H.R. 2760, the Boland-Zablocki bill, which would terminate U.S. efforts to resist communism in Nicaragua. It should be noted that the Boland-Zablocki bill was also supported by the IPS.

Panetta was also a key supporter of the IPS. According to pages 249-250 of the book Covert Cadre: Inside the Institute for Policy Studies (1987), written by S. Steven Powell, it is stated that on “April 5, 1983, IPS threw a large twentieth-anniversary celebration to raise funds.” On the fundraising committee for the event were fourteen then-current members of the U.S. House of Representatives, among which included “Leon E. Panetta (D-Calif.), chairman of Budget Process Task Force of the House Committee on Budget (chairman of Subcommittee on Police and Personnel, Ninety-ninth Congress).”

In addition to the IPS, in 1984, Panetta inserted into the Congressional Record a statement of praise for Lucy Haessler, a veteran member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), which along with the IPS was another Soviet front organization, which unsurprisingly defended the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and was opposed to installation of U.S. intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Western Europe to counteract the imbalance of Soviet missile strength in Eastern Europe.

The State Department has cited the WILPF as a Soviet “front,” which it describes as a “nominally independent organization controlled by the Soviets, usually through the International Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU [Communist Party of the Soviet Union].” When asked by Human Events about his praise for a leading member of this organization Panetta said that although he had not “done a check on that league [WILPF]” that Haessler’s activism in it was of no consequence in his decision to praise her and mention her involvement in the organization.

Lacking knowledge or discernment on the nature of subversive organizations, such as the WILPF or IPS, may be of little or no importance to Panetta, but it is of grave importance when it comes to being the Secretary of Defense.

An individual with a consistent record of siding with Soviet-backed elements is unfit for the responsibilities expected of a Secretary of Defense and his nomination may have grave implications with regards to the defense of our country and the very policies that affect the brave men and women of our nation’s armed forces serving in the military.

Contact your U.S. Senators and urge them to vote No on the appointment of Leon Panetta as Secretary of Defense.

Thanks.

From Your Friends at The John Birch Society

Sweet Home Alabama: A Southern man don't need him around anyhow



Big wheels keep on turning
Carry me home to see my kin
Singing songs about the Southland
I miss Alabamy once again
And I think its a sin, yes

Well I heard mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ole Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don't need him around anyhow

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you

In Birmingham they love the governor
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you
Here I come Alabama

Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers
And they've been known to pick a song or two
Lord they get me off so much
They pick me up when I'm feeling blue
Now how about you?

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you

Sweet home Alabama
Oh sweet home baby
Where the skies are so blue
And the governor's true
Sweet Home Alabama
Lordy
Lord, I'm coming home to you
Yea, yea Montgomery's got the answer

GOA Alert: Project Gunrunner needs to be defunded IMMEDIATELY!

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Official Corruption in the Obama Administration
About to Take Center Stage
-- It's now time to defund Project Gunrunner!

A story that Gun Owners of America has been following over the past several months is ready to explode next week in the news
.
If you have been reading our newsletter, The Gun Owners, or watching our videos on the GOA website, you know what Project Gunrunner is all about. It refers to an operation where the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearm and Explosives (ATF) was working with gun shops, approving firearms purchases to buyers who were suspected smugglers.

While this scandalous activity remained hidden for some time, it really went viral in the news media after one of the guns sold to a smuggler was later used to murder Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in December.

Since then, GOA has been lobbying the Congress to hold Congressional hearings to investigate the corruption in the Obama administration, specifically in relation to Project Gunrunner. GOA has corresponded with President Obama on this issue and has asked it members several times to urge their legislators to call for hearings themselves.

Well, there is good news to report. Beginning next week, the House of Representatives is set to commence hearings into Project Gunrunner -- which also goes by the names of Project Gunwalker or Fast and Furious.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) is the point man leading the investigation on the House side. His hearings are sure to reveal much new information, but even so, he has already discovered quite a bit.

Project Gunrunner “was authorized at the highest level,” Issa told a radio audience this past Tuesday. “This decision was made at least by people in the Office of Attorney General Holder.”
This underscores the tremendous hypocrisy and antagonism against gun owners on part of the Obama Administration. After all, officials (like the President) were blaming American gun stores for letting firearms slip into gun smugglers’ hands and, thus, fueling much of Mexico’s violence.
But all the while, the administration was quietly approving the sales of those firearms to those very same gun smugglers.

“[The ATF] apparently did this,” said GOA Executive Director Larry Pratt in his letter to the President, “in part, so it could push gun control in Congress by demonstrating that guns used in Mexican violence came from the United States.”

ACTION: Please urge your Representative to closely follow the upcoming hearings into Project Gunrunner. Tell them that it is unconscionable for Congress to be funding a program that allows the Obama Administration:

1. To put guns into the hands of suspected gun smugglers; and then,
2. To turn around and blame law-abiding gun owners for the problem!
Project Gunrunner needs to be defunded IMMEDIATELY!

Dear Arne Of The Jack-Booted Door Kickers

I realize you are not used to being addressed so informally by one of the "bitter clingers," but I figure that someone who is stupid enough to send a militarized federal SWAT team to enforce the student loan laws doesn't deserve a whole lot of deference and respect that words like "the Honorable" or "Mr. Secretary" imply. In any case, this is not a letter about policy arguments about why the Department of Education should even have a SWAT team nor is it a call for justice on behalf of Mr. Wright and his three terrified children. My intention is to bring home to you some down-home truths about the dangerous situation you have created by having your paramilitary jack-boots muck around with "dynamic" raids on innocent citizens.

I note from your bios here and here that you are from Chicago, got a sociology degree from Harvard, and completely lack any military education or experience.


Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. (Apparently as stupid as he looks.)

This is unfortunate, because having troops, you are now a general (ad hoc) whose little army of federal freebooters is flying the banner of the Department of Education -- surely the first time the direct application of violence has been offered under the rubric of "education." These ersatz troops of yours are playing on a potential battleground of civil war and they, and the people who send them, are in some danger of having their heads blown off as a result.

Bike Lanes:)

Via The Feral Irishman

Thai Counter-Jihad - Buddhists Fight Back!

Via Garden Serf

National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 06-09-11

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Here are the 20 reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this Thursday, June 9, 2011:

Anti-tank cannon

Just the item for discouraging armored vehicles from going through your church walls. RPGs are more portable but lack stand-off range. TOW and similar guided missiles harder to come by.

Oleg Volk

The Battle of Bethel: 10 June 1861


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North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
=======
“This battle [Bethel]…was fought on the 10th of June, 1861. Being the first serious fight of the war…Col. D.H. Hill had, with the First North Carolina regiment, thrown up an enclosed earthwork on the bank of Marsh creek. The Confederate position was held by the following forces: Three companies of the Third Virginia, under Lieu.-Col. W.D. Stuart…three companies of the Virginia battalion, under Maj. E.B. Montague; five pieces of artillery, under Maj. (afterward secretary of war) G.W. Randolph, of the Richmond Howitzers; and the First North Carolina, under Colonel Hill.

The companies composing the North Carolina regiment, which had the envied distinction of being the initial troops to enter organized battle, were: Edgecombe Guards, Capt. J.L. Bridgers; Hornet’s Nest Riflemen [Mecklenburg], Capt. L.S. Williams; Charlotte Grays, Capt. E.A. Ross; Orange Light Infantry, Capt. R.J. Ashe; Buncombe Rifles, Capt. William McDowell; Lafayette Light Infantry [Cumberland], Capt. J.B. Starr; Burke Rifles, Capt. C.M. Avery; Fayetteville Light Infantry, Capt. Wright Huske; Enfield Blues, Capt. D.B. Bell; Southern Stars [Lincoln], Capt. W.J. Hoke. The whole force was nominally under the command of Col. J.B. Magruder, and numbered between 1,200 and 1,400 men.

[The Northern attack] was repelled mainly by [Major] Randolph’s accurate fire, aided by the gallant conduct of the Burke Rifles under Captain Avery and by the Hornet’s Nest Rifles. A little late in the action the Edgecombe Guards, Captain Bridgers, gallantly retook a redoubt that had, on the accidental disabling of a gun, been abandoned by the Confederates.

In front of this redoubt the Federals had found shelter behind and in a house. Colonel Hill called for volunteers from the Edgecombe guards to burn this house. Sergt. George H. Williams, Thomas Fallon, John H. Thorpe, H.L. Wyatt, and R.H. Bradley promptly offered their services and made a brave rush for the house. On the way a shot from the enemy’s rear guard struck Wyatt down. The determined spirit of this heroic young soldier led to a premature death, but by dying he won the undying fame of being the first Confederate soldier killed in action.

An attempt to turn the Confederate left having failed, [the Northern] forces retreated toward Fortress Monroe. The Confederate loss in this precursor of many bloody fields was 1 killed and 11 wounded; the Federal loss was 18 killed and 53 wounded. In the South this little victory over a vastly superior force awakened the wildest enthusiasm, for it was thought to indicate the future and final success of the cause for which its people were battling.”

(Confederate Military History, D.H. Hill, Jr., Blue & Grey Press, pp. 17-20)

Baltimore Cop Guilty in Marine Vet’s Shooting Death

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Baltimore police Officer Gahiji Tshamba was found guilty of manslaughter Thursday in the shooting death one year ago of Tyrone Brown, a Marine veteran and father of two.

"The defendant overreacted and in fact exacerbated this whole tragic" set of event, said Baltimore Circuit Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon.

More than 21 witnesses appeared over six days, offering varied accounts of what happened -- or was likely to have happened -- the morning of June 5, 2010, when Tshamba, who was off duty, shot Tyrone Brown a dozen times in a Mount Vernon alley way, as bars were letting out.

"What happened in that alley dealt with male ego, alcohol, women and a gun," Assistant State's Attorney Kevin Wiggins said during his final arguments Thursday morning. "Anywhere you put that, that's a bad combination."

Homeschoolers Hate Us For Our Public Schools

Via California Tree of Liberty

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Verbatim post

I remain consistent in my condemnation of public schools as the infection point for our zombie society that consists of malleable, non-thinking drones who are held captive by perpetual entertainment needs, sound bites, politically-correct patter, endless pursuits of self-esteem, and a yearning to be accepted by the crowd. Being just like everyone else has become the new “individualism.” Perhaps Young Person A has a nose ring, frosted tips, and ankle tattoo, as compared to Young Person B’s eyebrow jewelry and biceps chain tattoo, but each individual’s frenzied attempt at individualizing himself ends up in a laughable, collective failure.

So many young people, who have been held captive by the public penal institutions for America’s youth, are turned from happy-go-lucky, lovely children into obnoxious, brooding, angst-filled, bored, young individuals who apparently have more critical issues and unmanageable problems by age eighteen than I have had in my almost half-century of life. Willpower and resilience are lost traits – folks now call the psychologist, publicly broadcast their deepest feelings to the world (online, or on the back windows of their car), blame society/racism/sexism, diagnose bad days as some ungovernable disorder, take a pill, and claim they are depressed/bipolar/obsessive-compulsive and whatever else fits into the it’s-not-my-fault, self-acquittal program.

No homeschooled child/person that I have ever known/met (and that is many) has ever functioned in such an unfortunate manner. They read books, use their imagination, play piano, speak foreign languages, win spelling and geography bees, go to college at age 15, make eye contact and hold conversations with adults, and generally, they are superior young adults who live exceptional lives.

Now here’s a wonderful interview with a homeschooling Mom, Molly Balint, who says:

I also homeschool because I love having the freedom to craft and design my children’s learning. I’m able to guide them in the direction of experience and knowledge that we, as a family, feel is important. There are countless things I want my children to know that aren’t covered in most standard school curricula. I like having the flexibility to explore new discoveries and capitalize on their curiosities.

…I feel like I’ve got great kids. I’m proud of them. I love the way they communicate with each other, with other adults, with their peers. I’m proud of who they are becoming and I’d like to think that homeschooling has something to do with that.

Scotland to split from UK and 'be a nation again'?

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Scottish nationalist aspirations are hijacked by the political Left and secession would only pull the nation in a more socialistic direction in orbit around the European Union, accordingly I hope the Union helmed by Westminster remains in effect. Because Scottish left-wing nationalists merely want to supplant the European Union over London, it seems like a sham nationalist agenda. Such a move would not bode well for the fate of Ulster (northern Ireland) either, which could eventually end up as some European Union protectorate administered by Strausbourg.
Ryan
=======

It is the nation that once ran the largest empire the world has ever known, a country so powerful that it claimed to "rule the waves" in a patriotic anthem.

But last month a "political tsunami" struck the United Kingdom and this once-mighty state faces being broken up.

An astonishing victory for nationalists in the Scottish parliamentary elections means it is almost certain that a referendum will be held within five years on whether Scotland should leave the U.K. and become an independent country.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) won 69 out of 129 seats in Edinburgh's Holyrood parliament, with about 45 percent of the vote, up by more than 12 percentage points. Their three main rival parties — Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats — all lost ground.

How Healthy is Rabbit Meat?

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We are all concerned about our health (or at least we should be!) and one great thing about raising your own rabbit meat is not only that you’ll know exactly what has gone into your rabbit, but you’ll also be eating a leaner protein-rich diet. Pound-for-pound, rabbit meat has FAR MORE protein and LESS fat than other meats. This means you’ll not only be spending less for food, but you’ll have the extra health benefit too!

Take a look at this chart on the nutritional values of rabbit meat and other popular meats:

Calories, Protein & Fat Values for Meat per 100 grams (3.5 oz)

Calories Protein Fat (g)
RABBIT 187 27 8
Beef (lean) 275 25 20
Pork chops (grilled) 340 28 24
Pork leg (roast) 290 27 20
Lamb breast (roast) 398 22 30
Lamb chops (grilled) 368 21 28
Lamb cutlets (grilled) 375 23 31
Venison 200 34 6.5
Chicken 140 26 12
Turkey (roast) 165 28 6
Duck (roast) 330 20 30
Goose (roast) 350 30 25
Pheasant (roast) 250 30 9

Rabbit meat is so healthy and lean that some doctors actually prescribe a rabbit meat diet to people who are overweight and obese. Because the fat and calorie levels are so low, but protein so high, one can radically change their life by eating a rabbit meat diet and exercising.

Does that mean that it would be healthy to eat only rabbit meat all the time with no additional other foods? Actually no. Because rabbit meat is so lean, your body can actually suffer if you eat nothing but rabbit meat all the time because it does not contain enough fat. So the good news is, you’re encouraged to eat other foods that you might not otherwise get to eat because of their fat content — thanks to rabbit meat!

Click here to read about raising rabbits for meat.