Sherman Says

"I am now satisfied that Slavery is not the Cause but the pretext, and that when these important defections take place, what will be the new Combinations?"
~ General William Tecumseh Sherman
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Slavery Was Not The Cause - According To Sherman

Via Old Virginia Blog

Black Recruits Unwelcome in Philadelphia

The use of generous bounties for paid volunteers (an oxymoron) and the resort to using black slaves as troops was an admission that popular support for the war against Americans in the South was nearly extinct in the North. And once Lincoln’s administration allowed dislocated and captured slaves to be counted against States troop quotas, Northern State agents swarmed into the occupied South in search of (and fighting over) black recruits who would be counted toward that quota and leave white Northern men safe from Lincoln’s conscription net.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
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Black Recruits Unwelcome in Philadelphia:

“In spite of announcements assuring blacks of pay equal to that of the white soldier, actual practice belied this promise. White enlisted men received thirteen dollars a month with a clothing allowance of an additional three dollars and fifty cents. Black soldiers, however, were paid only ten dollars per month, three dollars of which might be deducted for clothing.

Blacks were also generally denied bounties. Bounties were cash bonuses paid to volunteers by federal, State, or local authorities as an incentive to enlist. These bounties often totaled more than five hundred dollars or more, a generous amount exceeding the average annual wages for a Northern worker. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania eventually contributed a token bounty of ten dollars to each black recruit.

The War Department had also refused to commission black officers. A manyfold rationale stood behind this decision. First, the concept of black troops would be more acceptable [in the North] if white men exclusively were permitted to become officers in such units. Organizing “colored” regiments would create thousands of new positions for regimental officers. The awarding of these commissions to whites could create more support for the program and could reward those who had already shown support.

The [black recruits] of Camp William Penn constantly experienced another reminder of their inferior status through the discriminatory policy of the streetcars of Philadelphia. Of the nineteen streetcar and suburban railroad companies that operated in and around Philadelphia, eleven outright refused to permit blacks to ride. The other eight tolerated black riders but required them to stand on the front platform with the driver.”

The “Grand Review” and battalion drills had all been executed in the friendly confines of the training camp itself. Colonel Wagner and the other [white] commanders recognized the risks they would face when their units left their camp. Earlier in the year, on September 18, the 3rd Regiment of US Colored Infantry marched through Philadelphia on its way to war. At that time the mayor and concerned officials compelled them to march unarmed and in civilian clothes.

[An] underlying tension still simmered because of the many residents who harbored deep prejudices. This threatening situation had caused the mayor to delay an earlier planned parade of the 3rd US Colored Troops even after it had been publicly advertised. During the 6th’s [US Colored Regiment] parade the fear of violence prompted marching officers to carry loaded revolvers to be used in an emergency. The [black] enlisted men, carrying musket and bayonet, “were not trusted with any ammunition.”

(Strike the Blow for Freedom, The 6th US Colored Infantry in the Civil War, James M. Paradis, White Mane Books, 1998, pp. 17-29)
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Black Recruits Unwelcome in Philadelphia

6 NC immigration enforcement bills advance in General Assembly

NCFIRE is delighted to announce that the North Carolina General Assembly has advanced the following immigration enforcement related legislation:

HB33 - Consular Documents Not Acceptable as ID - passed by the House (now goes to Senate)

HB36 - E-Verify - passed by the House (now goes to Senate)

HB351 - Restore Confidence in Government "Voter ID" - passed by the House (now goes to Senate)

HB744 - Safe Students Act - passed by the House (now goes to Senate) *tracks the number of non-permanent resident status students for Federal reimbursement monies.

S205 - No Benefits For Illegal Aliens - passed by the Senate (now goes to House)

S303 - Real ID Act Compliance/ Non-Permanent Resident Status Border on Drivers License- passed by the Senate (now goes to House)

NCFIRE wishes to recognize and thank its' membership for all of their hard work on these very important issues. We would also like to extend a special thanks to Ron Woodard w/ NCListen,William Gheen w/ ALIPAC, Dee Park (including the members of Moore Tea Citizens), Donna Yowell (including the members of Feet To The Fire), NumbersUSA, Curtis Wright of the "Curtis Wright On the Beat" radio show, numerous NC Tea Party groups and our Facebook friends for their help and support with this effort.

Our success at the General Assembly would not have been possible without the assistance of these dedicated patriots and we are truly grateful. We would encourage everyone to participate in all of the above mentioned organizations.

(There are many, many more so please forgive me if I neglected to mention your group specifically. Just know that your assistance was invaluable and appreciated)

James Johnson
President-NCFIRE
North Carolinians For Immigration Reform and Enforcement
www.NCFIRE.info
www.Facebook.com/NCFIRE
NCFIRE@ncfire.info
NCFIRE Hotline: 1-888-885-0879

cell # 910-286-3022

Stephen Jay Gould: incompetent or biased?

Razib points me to a new article which re-examines Stephen Jay Gould's perceived bias in the study of human cranial volume by the 19th century scientist Samuel George Morton. Gould asserted that Morton:

Physically mismeasured skulls so that their cranial volumes would match his expectations about racial differences in cranial volume
Statistically manipulated population means by taking averages of individual skulls rather than averages of population averages, hence biasing his "Indian" means to be lower

Lewis et al. pretty much demolish both claims. By remeasuring almost half the original skulls studied by Morton, they show that Morton did not inflate "Caucasian" cranial volumes at the expense of non-"Caucasians". Indeed, most of his measurements deviated only a little from those done today, and, in the few cases where large discrepancies were discovered, they were in the opposite direction of Morton's perceived bias.

Furthermore, they show that Morton's supposed statistical manipulation had very little effect: the difference was only 0.3 cubic inches. Not only this, but Gould fudged his own measurements which were supposed to proved that different populations did not differ in cranial capacity:

Via Matthew
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Stephen Jay Gould: The Misrepresentation of Science

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, my cousin, 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

Dixie is hugging the sweetest little thing you ever did see!

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

Virginia and Paul

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

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.

National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 06-08-11

Here are the 18 reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this Wednesday, June 8, 2011:

Soldier cited for holding off up to 30 Taliban by himself

Via Sipsey Street Irregulars

Acting Sgt. Dipprasad Pun of the Royal Gurkha Rifles displays his Conspicuous Gallantry Cross.
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"There were many Taliban around me," Pun said in an interview with British Forces News. "I thought they are definitely going to kill me. ... I thought before they kill me I have to kill some of them."

During the 15-minute battle, Pun fired more than 400 rounds of ammunition, detonated 17 grenades and a mine and even threw his gun tripod at a Taliban fighter climbing toward his position, according to British Forces News.

"He was just about to climb up there and I hit (him) with my tripod and he fell down again," Pun told British Forces News.

Pun's actions saved the lives of three fellow soldiers at the checkpoint and were the "bravest seen in his battalion over two hard tours in Afghanistan," according to his medal citation.

Pun was not wounded in the firefight.

“That he survived unscathed is simply incredible," his medal citation says. “Throughout Dip’s actions he was under almost constant intense fire. Dip’s courage and gallantry were simply astonishing."

Why We Chose The Flathead Valley Of Montana

Montana just might be the most gun friendly State in the entire country. Consider: the average home in Montana has 27 firearms in it. 27!

==================================

Last weekend, we had people visit us here in the Flathead Valley of Montana from at least eight states: Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. And since my family and I moved here last October, people have moved here from at least a dozen states. And many more are in the process of moving or trying to move.

As I was speaking with an out-of-State guest last Sunday, he asked me, what was it that made you decide to move to Montana’s Flathead Valley, as opposed to Idaho or some other State? Of course, that is a very fair question. I will attempt to answer that question in today’s column. As a Christian, I believe that “the steps of a trusting man are ordered by the Lord.” So, ultimately, I believe that the superintending hand of God guides and directs those who put their trust in Him. Accordingly, I believe that our move from Florida to Montana was directed by divine providence. What follows are the reasons, factors, and philosophies that guided us to this wonderful valley.

West Point Stands by Punishment in LaBelle Incident

Last week, King's attorney filed a civil suit against LaBelle, three of her employees, an airport taxi dispatcher and the city of Houston to obtain actual and punitive damages in connection with the incident.

A Houston police incident report quoted LaBelle's limousine driver, Zuri Edwards, who contended a verbally abusive King punched him in the face when asked to move away from the singer's vehicle. Edwards told police he did not desire to press charges, and, after completing their investigation, police posed for photos with the singer.

King, however, asserted in his legal petition that he was pushed and punched for no apparent reason as he talked to a relative on his cell telephone. The incident occurred in the passenger pickup area of Terminal C.

King had arrived in Houston to visit his family during spring break.

Police said King told them he could not remember incidents regarding the attack and smelled of alcohol. King said he consumed "a few" drinks on his flight to Houston but was not impaired.

A security video of the incident showed King being pushed and punched by two men and a women. His head then was pushed into a concrete pillar. The tape did not show him returning blows.

Houston police have launched a review of the incident to determine whether officers at the scene conducted themselves in a professional manner.

Lincoln Has No Right to a Soldier in Fort Sumter

The right of Americans to change their government with the consent of the governed is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, and even the abolitionists of the 1850’s admitted the right of the South to depart the fraternal union and govern itself. But war would come after a newly-elected sectional president did nothing to peacefully settle national differences, and seized control of the military.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
=======
Lincoln Has No Right to a Soldier in Fort Sumter:

“The house of every man is his castle, and he may defend it to the death against all aggressors. When a hostile hand is raised to strike a blow, he who is assaulted need not wait until the blow falls, but on the instant may protect himself as best he can. And where constitutional rights of a people are in jeopardy, a kindred right of self-defense belongs to them. Although revolutionary in its character, it is not the less a right.

Wendell Phillips, abolitionist as he was, in a speech made at New Bedford on the 9th of April, 1861, three days before the bombardment of Fort Sumter, fully recognized this right. He said:

“Here are a series of States girding the Gulf, who think that their peculiar institutions require that they should have a separate government. They have a right to decide that question without appealing to you or me. A large body of the people, sufficient to make a nation, have come to the conclusion that they will have a government of a certain form. Who denies them the right?

Standing with the principles of ’76 behind us, who can deny them the right? What is a matter of a few millions of dollars or a few forts? It is a mere drop in the bucket of the great national question. It is theirs as much as ours. I maintain, on the principles of ’76, that Abraham Lincoln has no right to a soldier in Fort Sumter.”

Neither were the Southern men of ’61 fighting for money. And they too were deeply embittered, not against a mother country, but against a brother country. The Northern people had published invectives of the most exasperating character broadcast against the South in their speeches, sermons, newspapers and books. The abolitionists had proceeded from words to deeds and were unwearied in tampering with the slaves and carrying them off. The Southern people…could get no security that the provisions of the Constitution would be kept either in letter or in spirit, and this they demanded as their right.

Devotion to their State first of all, a conviction of that paramount obligation – in case of any conflict of allegiance – was due not to the Union but to the State, has been part of the political creed of very many in the South ever since the adoption of the Constitution.

(Baltimore and the 19th of April, 1861, George William Brown, Johns Hopkins Press, 2001, pp. 26-28)
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Lincoln Has No Right to a Soldier in Fort Sumter

Memories Evoked by the Old South’s New Flag III

More on The Retaliation Program

The beautiful new Confederate POW-MIA flag is dedicated to all Confederates who fought, all who were imprisoned, all who died and all civilians who died/suffered/or were imprisoned. These brave Southerners continue to cry out from their graves that the truth about that war against them be told, that the real perpetrators of horrors be revealed and their motives and actions be made known to all Americans. This, then, is the purpose of the following commentary:

Beginning in the mid eighteen hundreds, there was a major influence on the U.S. government by Marxist-Republican-Radicals. It becomes obvious, when one learns the identities of the major Marxists/Communists in the U.S. in that time, that some of them were initially responsible for the creation of the RETALIATION PROGRAM the U.S. Congress put into place in all Union prisons for Confederates.

The creators of the Retaliation Program were sadistic monsters and masters of propaganda. Their propaganda not only motivated the creation and installation of the Program, but convinced the north's citizens to want it as a justified treatment for decadent, despicable, depraved, fiendish Southerners. Some of the Radicals' propaganda then crept into the minds of nearly ALL Americans and sits there still, occasionally spilling out in books or from professors’ mouths.

The First 13th Amendment Ratified by Three States

The American Iliad: The Political Mythology of the Un-Civil War

The Un-Civil War in Middle Tennessee

Mike Scruggs

Ludwell Johnson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the College of William and Mary, rightly referred to the “Civil War” as the American Iliad. First, the war was a defining influence on the American nation. Second, much of the war's political history has been shaped into a pious mythology. My hope is that the Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the war will result in a more accurate and realistic understanding of its issues. Truth is the only certain foundation for freedom.

I am hopeful but not overly optimistic. Political correctness, which is an enemy of both truth and reason, grips American educational and media institutions more tightly than at any time in our history since the Reconstruction era of 1865-1877.

A recent study showed that the average American college senior knows no more about a range of academic subjects than high school seniors of 50 years ago. On history, they know less.

Most Americans have accepted the government approved mythology that the “Civil War” was a morality play in which a noble Union Army marched south to crush the evil slave power and free the slaves. Other economic and constitutional issues are swept under the rug as irrelevant or rejected as racist distortions.
A famous axiom sometimes attributed to Winston Churchill is:


“History is written by the victors.”

Actually, no one has ever confirmed that Churchill ever said this. Judging from other similar quotes in history, however, it surely predates Churchill. It has the terse and penetrating style of an ancient Latin proverb, but no one can confirm that origin either. It is a cynical truism that is often true but can be proven wrong in many instances.

A more hopeful perspective came from the pen of New England poet William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878):

“Truth crushed to the earth shall rise again; the eternal years of God are hers.”

In 1882, Robert L. Dabney, Presbyterian theologian and former Chief of Staff for Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, urged the graduating seniors of Hampden Sidney College in Virginia to retain all that was true and ennobling in their Southern Heritage. He continued with a rhetorical question:

“Take care that you do not bury…the inspiring memories of great patriots, whose actions, whether successful or not, are the eternal glory of your race and section; the influence of their virtues, the guiding precedents of their histories. Will you bury the names and memories of a Jackson and Lee, and their noble army of martyrs? Will you bury true history whose years are those of the God of Truth?”

In our modern era, these quotes could easily be paraphrased into something like: The political correctness of the times will not last forever. Truth will ultimately triumph.

The immediate consequences of Confederate defeat, however, were realistically anticipated by Irish-born Confederate Major General Patrick Cleburne shortly before his death at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30, 1864:

“Surrender means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the War; will be impressed by all the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed Veterans as fit subjects for derision.”

The Reverend James Power Smith, the last surviving member of Stonewall Jackson's staff said this in 1907:

“No cowardice on any battlefield could be as base and shameful as the silent acquiescence in the scheme which was teaching the children in their homes and schools that the commercial value of slavery was the cause of the war, that prisoners of war held in the South were starved and treated with barbarous inhumanity, that Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee were traitors to their country and false to their oaths, that the young men who left everything to resist invasion, and climbed the

slopes of Gettysburg and died willingly on a hundred fields were rebels against a righteous government.”

Two days before Lincoln's election in November of 1860, an editorial in the Charleston Mercury summed up the feeling of South Carolina on the impending national crisis:

“The real causes of dissatisfaction in the South with the North, are in the unjust taxation and expenditure of the taxes by the Government of the United States, and in the revolution the North has effected in this government, from a confederated republic, to a national sectional despotism.”

Asked how the issue of slavery came to be so overblown as a cause of the “Civil War,”

President Woodrow Wilson said:

“It was necessary to put the South at a moral disadvantage by transforming the contest from a war waged against states fighting for their independence into a war waged against states fighting for the maintenance and extension of slavery…”

This was also the opinion of English author Charles Dickens, published in December 1861:

“The Northern onslaught upon slavery is no more than a piece of specious humbug disguised to conceal its desire for economic control of the United States.”

Five years after the end of the War, prominent Northern abolitionist, attorney and legal scholar, Lysander Spooner, said:

“All these cries of having 'abolished slavery,' of having 'saved the country,' of having 'preserved the Union,' of establishing a 'government of consent,' and of 'maintaining the national honor' are all gross, shameless, transparent cheats--so transparent that they ought to deceive no one.”

Unfortunately, this propaganda is now deeply entrenched in American mythology.

Mike Scruggs is the author of a recently published book: The Un-Civil War: Shattering

The Historical Myths, published by Universal Media.ordernow@universalmediainc.org

Defend the castle!

OLEG VOLK

Recently, police have been involved in what looks like murder in the course of home invasion and murder with intimidation of witnesses and press. At this rate, I expect the distinction between the ordinary Ordnungspolizei and Einsatzgruppen to become insignificant.

As the experience with Minneapolis home invaders indicates, birdshot is not sufficient against armored opponents. At least two good hits were scored by the defender with minimal effect. The perpetrators were decorated by the police department even though they wrongdoing and settled the case at the cost to the taxpayers of over $600K. At least in this case the victims were not injured.

Jose Guerena’s example suggests also that holding fire is the wrong thing to do if attacked by either freelance or government thugs. A lawful person who has no cause to expect a police raid is more likely to face regular criminals impersonating police than uniformed criminals representing themselves. In any case, return fire at least spoils the aim of the invaders. Just kneeling before the intruders while they take aim or kill your pets is not the way to go.

Amen

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If we fight, we would likely lose
For the foes are strong today
But no matter how bad the odds
A chance of success remains

If we don’t fight but submit
Trusting promises, bowing to threats
No chance remains anymore
We can’t win if we place no bets

So bet every shred of strength
And resist no matter the cost!
Those who try have a chance
Those who give up are lost

“The end result, which we want to avoid, is the concentration camp. The gulag. The gas chamber. The Spanish Inquisition. All of those things. If you are in a death camp, no one would fault you for resisting. But when you’re being herded towards the gas chamber, naked and seventy pounds below your healthy weight, it’s too late. You have no chance. On the other hand, no one would support you if you started an armed rebellion because the government posts speed limits on open roads and arrests people for speeding. So when was it not too late, but also not too early?”
(John Ross, Unintended Consequences)