NC: White 17 year-old killed in Kannapolis. Police believe three black males responsible

Via CofCC

Daniel Lee Cooper

Darius Smotherson

Family and friends mourned Tuesday as investigators continued searching for answers in the shooting death of a 17-year-old A.L. Brown High School student.

Dozens of friends gathered around the school rock Tuesday morning to honor the memory of Daniel Lee Cooper, who was shot in the neck Monday afternoon while a passenger in a car on Snow Street.

Kannapolis Police investigators have obtained a murder warrant for Darius Jamal Smotherson, who they believe to be one of three involved in the shooting. He had not been arrested Tuesday evening.

More @ Salisbury Post

Lord Acton and General Lee

Via The Confederate Colonel

There was no greater mind in the 19th century than the British philosopher and historian, Lord Acton. Acton, famous for the quote, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” was not only a great mind, but a great spirit. He rejected tyranny however “patriotic” and refused the spoils of war however enticing. Acton watched closely as the crisis built up between the old Union and the states of the South in America. He was aware of the various economic, political and moral issues—including slavery—but nonetheless, cast his lot with the South. After the war, he wrote the following to General Robert E. Lee:
“I saw in States’ rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy…Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization, and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.”
Acton saw in the South’s struggle for independence, not an attempt to save slavery or even an effort to throw off the economic yoke of the North with its American System of crony capitalism which has become so familiar to us today. Rather, he saw an effort to hold fast to the Founding Principles upon which the original Union was established and which had long since been abandoned by the ever increasing statism and centralization embraced by the North. Acton saw States’ rights as “the only availing check” on that statism and centralization. Today see the ultimate victory of the Union in the overwhelming power of Washington, D. C. Acton believed that the Confederacy was fighting for more than its own liberty, progress and civilization; it was fighting for all mankind. Indeed, in another place, he states that had the Confederacy been victorious, it would have “blessed all the races of mankind by establishing true freedom…” As Lord Acton was contemporary to the struggle, it would be ludicrous to suggest the he had been duped, elevating the cause of the South into something greater than it was.
Yet, today no such vision of that struggle or definition of that cause is even permitted to be entertained. We are told that the South fought for slavery and tyranny and that her heroes were wicked or corrupt or lacking in sufficient wit to understand the nature of the cause for which they fought. The Grand Bargain—which for so many years allowed Americans on both sides to embrace the heroes in Blue and Gray—has been repudiated and now, all things Confederate are held in contempt. Southern heritage and history including her symbols, monuments and heroes are pronounced as unfit for anything but the ash heap of history. Yet, one of the greatest minds of the time, Lord Acton, clearly thought otherwise. Furthermore, most of what people are told about the South and its cause are myths, mistakes, half-truths and outright lies. Efforts to disseminate the truth and well documented facts are shouted down by the politically correct revisionists of academia, government and the media. No attempt is made to disprove the facts. Rather the truth is simply kept from the people. A great mind of the 18th century, the Scottish poet Robert Burns, had this to say about those who feared to advance the truth:
Here’s freedom to him who would speak,
Here’s freedom to him who would write,
For there’s none ever feared that the truth should be heard,
Except he who the truth would indict.
For those who would reject the right of Southerners to celebrate their great and noble heritage, I say that you are among those whom the poet rightly condemns. You fear that the truth would be heard because it is you and your position that the truth would indict.

Lady Val
New York

Using the young as a shield for hitting the deficit spending wall – the bill will come due for the young. Government spending prioritizes old American

Via Survival

The level of government spending is mind boggling but has taken a backseat to the issues being experienced over in Europe. We are running trillion dollar deficits as if this was somehow customary in our history. For each dollar spent we are seeing less of a result in the real economy. Part of the issue with the stimulus funding mechanism is that it disproportionately favors the financial industry. The rhetoric being pushed out ignores the two-tier system in the US where older Americans have safety nets while the young are battling the fierce tiger of hungry capitalism. Money knows no boundaries and has no national ties. Just look at Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin renouncing his US citizenship in line with the IPO and his big payday. The 2012 elections should be centered on the health and future of our economy. Do we still feel that a middle class is central to the prosperity of the nation? The fact that so much money is being spent with so little results is troubling on many fronts.

Increase in debt and GDP

The increase in government debt has not necessarily coincided with a proportionate increase in GDP:

Source: TrimTabs

A chart like the above would resemble a world war yet that is not our current situation. The massive spending is yielding weak results for the amount that is being funneled into the system. The Federal Reserve has done an excellent job bailing out its member banks by shifting toxic assets onto their own balance sheet:

More @ My Budget 360

UPDATE on the The Other McCain story

Brett Kimberlin Saga Takes a Bizarre Turn, Forcing Me to Leave Maryland

********

Via Conservative Hideout 2.0

Who Is Brett Kimberlin? Part 1

NC unconstitutional gun ban pulled from calendar for ‘more time to review the issue’

Your voice is being heard: Now you must deliver a ‘no compromise’ message!

As you recall, House Bill 489, formerly dealing with mechanics’ liens, was stripped to replace its guts with “Dangerous Weapons Restrictions in Emergencies.” The bill is ostensibly intended to replace North Carolina’s ban on transportation of firearms and ammunition outside the home during declared states of emergency – which was declared unconstitutional under the Second Amendment in Bateman v. Perdue – with a law which would pass constitutional muster.

Unfortunately, the current proposal is worse than the original law, offering no significant protections but instead new restrictions which reach into your very home. Because the “Proposed Committee Substitute” won’t appear on the legislature’s web site until it is heard, you can see it at: http://grnc.org/documents/H489-CSSA-71.pdf

WHO IS BEHIND HB 489?

What is becoming clearer, however, is that this might be a case of inadequately supervised staffers running amok. When emergency management bill HB 843 went to the Senate Judiciary I Committee, it still contained the language found unconstitutional in Bateman. Committee chair Sen. Pete Brunstetter then reportedly gave it to staff to “fix.” But instead of simply repealing the now-unconstitutional gun ban, they apparently took it upon themselves to draft new gun bans. Equally clear is that although HB 489 was Rep. “Skip” Stam’s bill, Stam wasn’t even informed that his bill would be gutted before it was attempted.

What remains to be seen is whether Brunstetter and other Republicans will do the right thing and simply repeal the old ban. Right now, too many are still making noises about using gun bans to combat looting during natural or manmade disasters – once again falling for the old trap of targeting lawful guns instead of unlawful behavior.

Thanks to overwhelming input to the committee, it has been pulled from the calendar pending further review. Now it’s time to contact YOUR state senator and let them know that you will tolerate nothing less than the repeal of the unconstitutional gun ban, and that you will accept NO NEW BANS.

THE FLAWS IN HB 489

To give you the flavor of the bill, consider part of its long title: “An Act to Authorize the Possession, Storage, and Use of Dangerous Weapons During a State of Emergency for Self-Defense in a Person’s Home…” [Emphasis added]

You read it right: Bureaucrats would “authorize” keeping firearms in the home, leading us to ask what other fundamental rights they might someday feel the need to “authorize.” Freedom of speech, perhaps? Of religion?

Fundamental flaws in HB 489:

• The bill still restricts firearms outside the home during emergencies: Although new language in G.S. 14-288.12(b)(4) purports to let cities restrict outside-the-home carry only “when necessary to preserve the public peace where there is an imminent risk of damage, injury, or loss of life or property,” that language is so vague as to be meaningless. Virtually every state of emergency – be it hurricane, riot or snowstorm – carries these “imminent risks.
• 
  
• Regulations now reach into your home: Although the bill purports to forbid cities from regulating guns and ammunition in the home during emergencies, neither cities nor the state ever had the power to apply in-home bans during states of emergency. Translated, by stipulating what lawful gun-related activities you may do in the home, the bill tries to replace your unequivocal right to arms in the home with a restricted “right” to arms in the home.
• 
  
• HB 489 replaces an unconstitutional statute with another unconstitutional statute: But because laws are constitutional until proven otherwise, you’ll have to go back to court to prove it.

Immediate Action Required

• CALL & EMAIL YOUR NC STATE SENATOR: Find out who he or she is by going to: http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/representation/WhoRepresentsMe.html
• 
  The easiest way is to go to the bottom of the page and insert your 9-digit zip code (which can be found on your driver’s license). The site will give you links to the state senator in question, including email and phone information.
• 
  
• HELP GRNC KILL THIS & OTHER GUN BANS: By joining or, if you are already a member, contributing at: https://ssl4.westserver.net/grnc.org/join.html

Deliver This Message

It is suggested you use the subject line: “No new ‘State of Emergency’ gun ban”

Dear Senator:

I strongly urge you to oppose the Proposed Committee Substitute for House Bill 489: “Dangerous Weapons Restrictions in Emergencies” (H489-CSSA-71 [v.4]). The bill would be more accurately titled: “Gun Rights Authorized by Bureaucrats.”

North Carolina’s existing ban on bearing arms outside the home was recently declared unconstitutional under the Second Amendment by a federal court in the case Bateman v. Perdue. But instead of simply repealing what is now a largely unenforceable statute, HB 489 would replace it with an even more insidious ban.

That HB 489’s long title describes “authorizing” arms and ammunition in the home speaks volumes about the bill. Language purporting to restrict cities from banning guns outside the home is vague to the point of being useless; the bill is sloppily drafted; and worst of all, it stipulates for the first time which lawful firearm-related activities I may or may not exercise IN MY OWN HOME.

Understand that I will accept NO NEW GUN BANS, but only the repeal of the state of emergency gun ban found unconstitutional in Bateman.

Please advise me of your position on this issue. I will be monitoring it via Grass Roots North Carolina legislative alerts.

Respectfully,

America's Second Revolution?

Via Cousin John

Ron Paul just pulled off what one analyst dubbed a "bloodless coup" in Minnesota. The Republican presidential hopeful swept the state's GOP primary, taking 12 of the 13 delegates up for grabs. This came just days after Paul announced he would no longer campaign in primary states, effectively ending his bid for the Republican nomination. But, a lack of funds and campaigning clearly hasn't stopped the momentum Ron Paul has ignited across the nation.

Now, some are saying that a "Paul Revolution" has ignited what has become even larger than the candidate himself, while others are adamant that Paul's delegate strategy will ultimately get him the nomination.

What do you think?

Will Ron Paul capture enough delegates to win the GOP nomination?

More @ American Breaking Point

Sebasta has a request:)

Via Val

Cherokee Confederates reunion in New Orleans, 1903.

I qualify for Sims and Farley, so someone please nominate me for an award.........

I belong on a ACW list and received this today – I have decided to send it far and wide in hopes of a very large response to Mr. Sebasta. I'm sure I don't have to tell you about Ed Sebasta but I thought you might find his request to the people on the list of interest. Of course, the moderator wishes I would go away. He doesn't even forward my replies when I am providing requested information that cannot be invalidated. He seems to think that I call him names. Quite the opposite, in fact.

In any event, maybe some of you might like to "help" Mr. Sebasta in his quest for infamous neo-Confederates who pick on helpless academics:

From: Edward H. Sebesta [mailto:esebesta@tx.rr.com]
Subject: Seeking information about neo-Confederate harrassment of persons at a university.

As part of a larger book I am writing a chapter about professors, students others who were harassed or targeted by neo-Confederates. I already have the following cases.

1. Gregory Urwin when he was teaching in Arkansas.

2. John Sims at Gettysburg College

3. A student at East Carolina Univ.

4. The Civil War Center at LSU.

5. Bermudez at Gainesville State University.

6. Jonathan Farley at Vanderbilt University.

It doesn't have to be just an instructor, professor, student or administrator. Visiting speakers, exhibiting artists or any other case which takes place on a campus, whether university, college, community college, or other institute of higher education is of interest.

Please reply to me personally at esebesta@tx.rr.com and not on H-net.

Regards,

Ed Sebesta

150th Anniversary of Stonewall Jackson’s Victory in the Battle of Front Royal

Via Dave

Good piece and I was pleased to see a comment by Tom DiLorenzo.

Painting by Mort Kunstler, “On to the Shenandoah” May 23, 1862 - Full size at his website

Today is the 150th anniversary of the battle of Front Royal, Virginia (the town near where I was raised). On May 23, 1862, almost all the Yankee soldiers in Front Royal were captured, killed or wounded during a surprise attack by Jackson’s “foot calvary.” Both sides fought valiantly, but the northerners were greatly outnumbered. Their commander, Col. John Kenly, was a shirt-tail ancestor of my father and the source of the first name Dad hated. Col. Kenly was badly wounded and captured; after he was exchanged for a Confederate POW, he rose to the rank of Major General and spawned a few great-great aunts and uncles (not certain on that pedigree).

Jackson’s victory may have saved Richmond, since it spooked Lincoln into canceling plans to send 40,000 reinforcements to the Army of the Potomac, which had penetrated to the outskirts of the Confederate capital.

The best thumbnail summary of the battle I found was on Wikipedia. (Most other accounts were tangled or semi-obscure).

More @ BOVARD

American Third Position

Via Matthew

Figures don't lie – Democrats do

calumny, deceit, deception, dishonesty, disinformation, distortion,fabrication, falsehood, falsification, falsity, fiction, fraudulence, invention, libel, mendacity, myth, obloquy, perjury, prevarication, revilement, reviling, slander, subterfuge, vilification.

It’s been breaking news all over MSNBC, liberal blogs, newspapers and even the Wall Street Journal: “Federal spending under Obama at historic lows … It’s clear that Obama has been the most fiscally moderate president we’ve had in 60 years.” There’s even a chart!

I’ll pause here to give you a moment to mop up the coffee on your keyboard. Good? OK, moving on …

This shocker led to around-the-clock smirk fests on MSNBC. As with all bogus social science from the left, liberals hide the numbers and proclaim: It’s “science”! This is black and white, inarguable, and why do Republicans refuse to believe facts?

Ed Schultz claimed the chart exposed “the big myth” about Obama’s spending: “This chart – the truth – very clearly shows the truth undoubtedly.” And the truth was, the “growth in spending under President Obama is the slowest out of the last five presidents.”

Note that Schultz also said that the “part of the chart representing President Obama’s term includes a stimulus package, too.” As we shall see, that is a big, fat lie.

Schultz’s guest, Reuters columnist David Cay Johnston confirmed: “And clearly, Obama has been incredibly tight-fisted as a president.”

Everybody’s keyboard OK?

On her show, Rachel Maddow proclaimed: “Factually speaking, spending has leveled off under President Obama. Spending is not skyrocketing under President Obama. Spending is flattening out under President Obama.”

In response, three writers from “The Daily Show” said, “We’ll never top that line,” and quit.

Inasmuch as this is obviously preposterous, I checked with John Lott, one of the nation’s premier economists and author of the magnificent new book with Grover Norquist: “Debacle: Obama’s War on Jobs and Growth and What We Can Do Now to Regain Our Future.” (I’m reviewing it soon, but you should start without me.)

It turns out Rex Nutting, author of the phony Marketwatch chart, attributes all spending during Obama’s entire first year, up to Oct. 1, to President Bush.

That’s not a joke.

That means, for example, the $825 billion stimulus bill, proposed, lobbied for, signed and spent by Obama, goes in … Bush’s column. (And if we attribute all of Bush’s spending for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and No Child Left Behind to William Howard Taft, Bush didn’t spend much either.)

Nutting’s “analysis” is so dishonest, even the New York Times has ignored it.

More @ WND

'U.N. Me' Movie Gives Reasons to Get US out! of the UN

'U.N. Me,' a movie about widespread corruption within the United Nations, opens in theatres in 11 major markets and on major cable outlets on June 1, 2012. The major markets are: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, DC, Houston, Phoenix, Denver, San Diego, West Palm (Florida), and Colorado Springs. Click here for a listing of the theatres.

You can view a 2-minute trailer for the movie below.

This movie exposes deep-seated problems within the UN through major segments within the film about a peacekeeping force stationed in Cote d'Ivoire that fired into a crowd of unarmed protesters, about the Oil for Food Program scam, about how the UN still can't agree on a definition of "terrorism," about how the U.N.'s Human Rights Council prolonged the genocide in Darfur by attempting to discredit the urgent recommendations of its own investigative team, and much more.

We at the JBS believe that this movie is beneficial for viewing by large numbers of people because it is so effective in revealing some of the appalling problems within the UN. However, we strongly disagree with the movie's implicit premise that the UN was founded on noble ideals and that it should be reformed. In contrast, we have maintained for 50 years that the UN was created by global power elites as their main vehicle for establishing, step by step, a socialistic global government controlled by themselves. We believe that the only solution to the widespread problems with the UN is to Get US out! of the United Nations. You have probably seen some of our numerous "Get US out!" signs scattered across America.

You can read more about the true origins and purposes of the United Nations in our books, Inside the United Nations and The United Nations Exposed.

Returning to the present day, we are faced with two major threats to our personal freedom and national sovereignty emanating from the United Nations: (1) The Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST); and (2) Agenda 21.

What we need is for Congress to get our nation out of the United Nations. It turns out that Ron Paul has for many years now been introducing a resolution in each new Congress calling for an end to U.S. membership in the UN, "The American Sovereignty Restoration Act," H.R. 1146.

This bill, H.R. 1146, would Get US out! of the United Nations.

Please contact your Representative and Senators and urge them to cosponsor and pass H.R. 1146.

Defense: Applying Logical Processes In Planning and Execution of Homestead Defense

Before I start getting neck deep into physical and procedural measures we can take to defend the old homestead I feel that a brief overview of tactical thinking in probably in order. At this point we are primarily concerned with defensive theory so I’m going to introduce you to a few things that will help you understand and use basic processes a little easier. Note I’m not a fan of the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP). It’s not simple nor probably realistic for our purposes. Due to those facts I’m going to present some easier tools to work with.

The first concept I refer to is known as the “OODA Loop“. It’s a brilliant little model developed in the late 50s by an Air Force Colonel named Boyd to depict combat processes. It’s very simplicity is it’s brilliance. The simplified OODA loop we’re going to use consists of four logical stages that occur in almost any action. Those four stages are:

More @ The Lizard Farmer

MORE THAN 30 BLOCKS OF GREY & DECAY

Via Billy

It happened again yesterday morning. There was an accident on the Schuykill Expressway so I had the pleasure of navigating through the 30 Blocks of Squalor, again. After having made at least 25 posts about the 30 Blocks of Squalor over the years, I keep thinking I’ve run out of things to say. But it seems to be a never ending treasure trove of insights about our society and the people who live in this country. It was a particularly grey day in Philadelphia with a dreary overcast and intermittent rain. It seemed fitting for this trek through the slowly decaying landscape leading to my workplace in West Philly.

I’ve talked previously about the stretch of highway leading to the 30 Blocks of Squalor. It’s called West Chester Pike (Route 3) and it cuts through Delaware County where I grew up. It cuts through Havertown, Haverford, Drexel Hill, and Upper Darby and eventually spits you out at 69th Street, where I’ve previously detailed the flash mob of savages rampaging through the Sears stealing everything in sight (all caught on surveillance cameras to be shown on a future reality TV show). In a shocking turn of events, Sears decided to later close this retail establishment.

Much more @ The Burning Platform

Explosive Part 2 on Trayvon™ coming up

Trayvon began following this subscription in July of 2011 according to his U-Tube account.

Purple Lean (Drank) is an intoxicating beverage also known by the names lean, sizzurp, and liquid codeine. It is commonly abused by southern rappers and wannabe suburban teenagers. It is a mixture of Promethazine/Codeine cough syrup and sprite, with a few jolly ranchers and/or skittles thrown in.

Promethazine with codeine, consumed in such large amounts as is popular with such southern rappers as lil wayne, slim thug, and Big Moe, produces an opiate-like high that is potentiated by the Promethazine.

Promethazine by itself will not produce a high. The beverage must be sipped slowly, and not guzzled, in order to avoid unconsciousness and/or life threatening overdose.

Some of you right about now are saying HOLY SMOKE….. Well I promise you, this ain’t nothing yet. Consider this post just a precursor, or warm-up for something that is going to explain a lot about the events surrounding the night of February 26th.

We are finishing up some exhaustive research, that will shed a new light into the “state of mind” for Trayvon Martin on that Sunday night, and will most certainly raise the demand for the release of the so far withheld toxicology report.

Go back and look at the 7-11 video’s again. And Stay Tuned for an explosive Part 2

More @ The Last Refuge

Cop Driving Impaired at 143 mph Could Keep Job

CATO Institute

VERBATIM POST

Denver Police Chief Robert White says the ruling “compromises the integrity of the police officer. It really compromises and is a credibility issue for the many officers that are out there doing their job right and doing the right thing every single day. And it’s a black eye that we just simply don’t need.”

Father Shoots 1 of 3 Armed Home Invaders Who Were Holding His Son Hostage

Via Guns Save Lives

A northwest Harris County family was terrorized Thursday morning by three home invasion suspects. One of the suspects was shot by the homeowner.

It happened around 8 a.m. at a home in the 10000 block of Waving Field.

"My wife was leaving for school, and my son was on the couch. And he was looking out the window for the school bus," Max Cruz said.

Cruz’s wife had just walked out the door, but she forgot something. Seconds after she came back inside, the three suspects – armed and wearing ski masks—barged in.

"My wife was in the house and said there was a guy with a gun in the house. She handed me my gun," Cruz, who was sleeping when the suspects came in, said.

Meanwhile, Cruz said the suspects grabbed his 12-year-old son and held him hostage in the kitchen.

That’s when Cruz walked up and pulled the trigger.

"As soon as I got to my door, he rushed me, and I shot him," Cruz said.

The suspect was hit in the chest. They all took off running, but the wounded suspect showed up later at Methodist Hospital.

More @ KHOU

Global Warming Author Says Everyone Should Be Involuntarily “Bar-Coded At Birth”…

Via Pitsnipes Gripes

Weasel Zippers
VERBATIM POST

Libs are insane.

Via HTL:

In a fascinating insight into the mentality of those who espouse the mantra of catastrophic global warming, writer Elizabeth Moon has a short piece for the BBC in which she argues that everyone should be involuntarily implanted with a microchip at birth so that “anonymity would be impossible”.

Moon, who has published essays warning of the dire effects of global warming and even made catastrophic global warming part of the background to her novels, made the stunning revelation in a BBC Radio programme on possible futures. Asked for her vision for the future of humanity, Moon stunned and “terrified” the other guests with this vision.

Keep reading…

From her BBC essay:

“If I were empress of the Universe I would insist on every individual having a unique ID permanently attached — a barcode if you will; an implanted chip to provide an easy, fast inexpensive way to identify individuals.

It would be imprinted on everyone at birth. Point the scanner at someone and there it is.

Having such a unique barcode would have many advantages. In war soldiers could easily differentiate legitimate targets in a population from non combatants.

$PLC linked to left-wing terrorists

Rebellion
VERBATIM POST

This is interesting. The cowardly Marxist organization that attacked diners in a Chicago-area restaurant this weekend, injuring ten people, hosted radical bomber and unrepentant communist Bill Ayers at its national conference last September.

Turns out the SPLC has praised Bill Ayers in its "Teaching Tolerance" periodical. And since Ayers still advocates violent revolution, it seems the SPLC has some explaining to do.

By its own standards of guilt by association, that makes the SPLC a pro-communist organization. And since the SPLC has cozied up to Marxists in the past, I'd say we have a pretty strong case against it.

William Brock Koonce, Jr. v. Donald Brock Koonce, Jr.

Via Bernhard

The title is very interesting to me as my birth name was William Brock Koonce, Jr. Need to check the connection.

Doctor To The Front: Confederate Surgeon Thomas Fanning Wood
Donald Brock Koonce, Jr. (Author)


$30.00

"Filled with perceptive observations about military leaders, morale in the Confederacy, life in the Southern capital of Richmond, and a range of medical topics including the treatment of wounded, . . . Confederate surgeon Thomas Fanning Wood’s wartime letters and postwar reminiscences constitute a fine addition to the roster of published firsthand testimony about the Civil War."—Gary W. Gallagher

The Civil War was a tragic conflict that destroyed many lives, but for those trying to save lives the tragedy was often compounded. Military doctors labored through the smoke of battle where impossible conditions and fear of infection often forced them to resort to amputation, and most operations were performed without painkillers. Thomas Fanning Wood recorded his wartime experiences as a Confederate Army surgeon, and his recollections of those events allow us to hear a distinct voice of the Civil War.

As a young soldier recovering from fever at a Richmond hospital, Wood developed an interest in medicine that was encouraged by a doctor who steered him toward medical training. After only eight months of study he was made an assistant surgeon in the Third North Carolina Regiment. His narrative—drawn from his memoirs, letters from the front, and articles written for his hometown newspaper—presents a poignant and sometimes horrifying picture of what the Civil War physician had to face both under battlefield conditions and in urban hospitals.

Wood himself spent much of his time at the front, and his vivid narrative describes both a doctor’s daily activities and the campaigns he witnessed. He was present at many of the war’s major engagements: he was near Stonewall Jackson when the general fell at Chancellorsville, manned a field dressing station at the foot of Culp’s Hill at Gettysburg, and was one of the few survivors of the Union attack on the "mule shoe" at Spotsylvania when his entire division was wiped out. Wood’s account also lends new insight into Jubal Early’s 1864 campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley and against Washington.

With its observations of medical care and training not found in standard histories of the war—including a description of the examination required to become an assistant surgeon—Doctor to the Front offers a unique human perspective on the Civil War. With their additional descriptions of key figures and events, Wood’s recollections combine historical significance and human interest to show us another side of that terrible conflict.

The Author: Donald B. Koonce is the great-grandson of Thomas Fanning Wood and has served on the Board of Directors of the South Carolina Historical Society and the Historic Greenville Foundation. He is president of the Koonce Group, Inc., an award-winning communications company whose productions include Daybreak at the Cowpens, a documentary for the National Park Service.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A GUN NUT WHEN?

Via Borepatch

Our Time for Choosing

NC store clerk shoots, kills robbers

He gets two gold medals!:)

Via Guns Save Lives

Two men are dead after they tried to rob a convenience store and a store clerk fought back.

It happened in Gates County Tuesday night where deputies say two armed men went into the store to try to rob and beat up the store clerk.

The clerk was able to grab a gun that was hidden under the cash register and shot the suspects, killing them.

More @ WNCT

Another assault: Shoplifter Beats 17 Year Old Clerk At Mall

Via CofCC

Open Carry Teen Optimistic About his Day in Court

Via Don

A Michigan teen is optimistic about his chances in court after being charged with brandishing a firearm, disorderly conduct and obstructing an officer.

Eighteen-year-old Sean Combs (not 'Puffy') was arrested last April by police because he was walking around town with a rifle slung over his shoulder. He'd just received his M1 Garand for his birthday and he was showing the gun to several other teenagers. Cops showed up on the scene and asked to see his ID. Combs declined, but after a few more police showed up Combs decided to give in. The police moved to arrest him the moment he reached for his ID.

According to Patch.com, Lia Grabowski, a friend of Combs who was with him during the arrest, said, "We were just walking around Birmingham. We weren't doing anything." And she added that the event was "terrifying."

As scary as it may have been for the teens, it may end up being even scarier for the police. Combs was not violating any laws (the open carry of rifles is legal in Michigan), so the police might land in hot water for violating Combs' rights. Combs' attorney, Jim Makowski, said he that he believes that the police simply "didn't like what [Combs] was doing," so they decided to arrest him.

More @ GUNS

Woman Attacks Gunman with Purse

Via grossfater_m

Old, but I've never seen it.

Ohio Defense Force Building Fund Raise: Deuce and a half

Via trap115

1985 AM General M35A2
2 1/2 ton 6x6
6 cylinder Multifuel/diesel engine
5 speed transmission
2 speed air shift transfer case
West coast mirrors
Does NOT require a CDL to drive

PHOTO

Rules for the drawing

• Tickets are $20.00 each. Use the contact page to find someone in your area selling tickets.
• Winner must be a US Citizen and be 18 years of age or older.
• Only 1000 tickets will be sold.
• Drawing date 7-21-2012.
• Minimum of 500 tickets will be sold. If 500 tickets are not sold by the drawing date, the drawing will be extended for 28 days and the drawing will be held on 08-28-2012 regardless of the number of tickets sold. (We will post on this page when 500 tickets have been sold)
• Winner will be responsible for all taxes (sales and income tax on truck's value)
• Winner will be responsible for title transfer within 30 days, and before picking up the truck, due to insurance reasons.
• Need not be present to win. Name, address, and phone number must be printed legibly on ticket for us to contact the winner. Driver's license with name and address matching the ticket drawn, or the ticket stub with matching number must be presented to claim the prize.
• Winners name will be posted on the sodf.org website for a period of 30 days after the drawing.
• All unsold tickets (if any) will be brought to the drawing to show the total of 1000 tickets. If there are any tickets left, they will be offered as a last chance to enter 30 minutes before the drawing.
• SODF members are eligible to purchase tickets and win a prize, but will not draw the winning ticket. Ticket will be drawn at Sharp's Shooters Supply, 1312 Aida Dr., Reynoldsburg, OH 43068 on 7-21-2012 at 1pm. Facebook page

Sharp's Shooters Supply will hold a Customer Appreciation Day on the date of our drawing (7-21-2012) from 11am to 4pm with plenty of activities and food.

If you would like to donate funds, please use the following address.

SODF
PO box 951
Zanesville, OH
43702-0951

Donations of building materials or the use of construction equipment can be directed to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Poll: Record low are 'pro-choice'

The percentage of Americans who identify themselves as “pro-choice” is at the lowest point ever measured by Gallup, according to a new survey released Wednesday.

A record-low 41 percent now identify themselves as “pro-choice,” down from 47 percent last July and 1 percentage point down from the previous record low of 42 percent, set in May 2009. As recently as 2006, 51 percent of Americans described themselves as “pro-choice.”

Meanwhile, 50 percent of Americans now consider themselves “pro-life,” one point below Gallup’s record high on the measure

More @ Politico

By 2-to-1 Americans say worse off under Obama .

Americans are nearly twice as likely to say they've gotten financially worse off as better off since Obama became president, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll.

Only 16 percent of adult respondents say they are better off today then they were four years ago, while 30 percent say they are not as well off. Fifty-three say they are about the same. When ABC News/Washington Post asked the same question in June of 1992, 19 percent of Americans said they were better off under President George H.W. Bush compared to 32 percent who said they were worse off. Bush went on to lose to President Clinton that November.

By contrast, when asked if they would be better off if Romney had been president since 2009, only 22 percent said they would be not as well off and 19 percent say they would be better off. The poll also showed Romney with a narrow lead over Obama on who is better trusted to handle the economy, 47 percent to 46 percent.

Obama did edge out Romney on job creation, however, 47 percent to 44 percent. And in a head-to-head match-up, registered voters chose Obama over Romney 47 percent to 44 percent.

More @ The Washington Examiner

Dad saves boy before car plunges down cliff -- and gets pair of traffic tickets

The cop was a blithering idiot.

A New Jersey dad got the scare of his life when his 5-year-old son almost ran off a steep embankment, and though the man saved the boy from falling, he couldn't stop his Jeep from going over the precipice and into a river below.

The reward for his ordeal? Two traffic tickets from local police.

Frank Roder, a construction worker from the town of Winfield Park, had taken his son, Aidan, down to the Rahway River to feed ducks Thursday. But when he stopped briefly before settling on a parking space, the impatient boy jumped out and took off -- straight toward a ledge 35 feet above the river, Roder recalled.

"He hopped out, and I thought that was OK, I was just going to park," Roder, 38, said, but "he just took off, made a beeline for the edge."

"Um, Daddy ..."

- Aidan, as he watched his dad's Jeep roll off an embankment.

The panic-stricken father jumped out of the cab of his 2006 Jeep Commander and raced after the errant boy, catching him just feet from the edge.

That's when Aidan, eyes as big as saucers, looked behind Roder and said, "Um, Daddy ..."

Roder turned in time to see the Jeep nosedive down the embankment and land in the muddy water.

Roder hugged the boy and waited as Union County police converged on the scene over the next few hours. A crane pulled the Jeep out, and amazingly, it started right up, though Roder is pretty sure his insurance company will count it as totaled.

He was counting his blessings when a young cop approached him and handed him two tickets. One was for failure to produce the insurance card, which was somewhere in the waterlogged cab. The other was for failing to use his emergency brake.

"I couldn't believe it," Roder said. "He said, 'If you would have taken the five seconds to apply the brake, this never would have happened!'

"I say, 'Really? And if I did and my boy stepped over the edge and fell instead of the Jeep, then were would I be?' He says, 'Jail, for child endangerment.'"

More @ Fox

'Uncommitted' Gives Obama a Run in Kentucky

'Uncommitted' is keeping it closer than expected in the Kentucky Democratic presidential primary. With 104 of 120 counties counted, President Barack Obama leads 'Uncommitted' by only 20 percentage points. The tally so far: Obama with 105,487 votes (or 60.04 percent of the vote), while 'Uncommitted' claims 70,211 votes (or 39.96 percent).

(UPDATE: With 99.8 percent reporting, Barack Obama has 119,245 votes, while 'Uncommitted' has 86,789 votes. That is, Obama has 57.9 percent of the vote, while 'Uncommitted' has 42.1 percent.)

More @ The Weekly Standard

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Obama Embarrassed in Kentucky, Arkansas Primaries

Four in ten Democratic voters chose someone other than President Obama on Tuesday in primaries in Arkansas and Kentucky.

In Arkansas, John Wolfe — a perennial, long-shot candidate — took 41 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, with 71 percent of precincts reporting. Obama came in just under 60 percent. The Associated Press did not call the race for Obama until close to midnight.

And in Kentucky, 42 percent of Democrats chose "uncommitted" rather than cast a vote for the incumbent president. Obama took 58 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

With turnout low, Obama did get more total votes than presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who won his primary with almost 67 percent of the vote. Obama had more than 118,600 votes to about 117,100 for Romney.

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

When you have a failed president on your hands and a re-election just a little over five months away, it's easy to panic and rationalize and do everything you can to convince yourself the problem isn't your candidate but instead anything and everyone else. After a Texas inmate took close to 42% of the primary vote against Obama in West Virginia a couple weeks ago, desperate Democrats screamed racism at their own. Last night, Obama was humiliated by similar numbers in both Arkansas and Kentucky, a trend so troubling that even the Washington Post is looking beyond race but not at the President's real problem: a lack of enthusiasm in his own party:

More @ Fox

Gentlemen and Religious Zealots

The cultural and societal differences between North and South led to a union of various compromises by 1787, a political revolution in 1800, and territorial crisis’s which by 1850 were leading the way toward two separate countries.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Gentlemen and Religious Zealots:

“The difference between the Southern civilization and the Northern,” says Thomas Nelson Page, “was the result of the difference between their origins and subsequent surroundings.” Then he tells the familiar story of how the Northern colonies “were the asylums of religious zealots” who came in search of freedom and became themselves “proscriptors of the most tyrannical type.”

To the Southern colonies, on the other hand, came “soldiers of fortune and gentlemen in misfortune….In the first ship-load of [Virginia] colonists there were “four carpenters, twelve laborers and fifty-four gentlemen.” The Southern settlers “came with the consent of the crown, the blessings of the Church, and under the auspices and favor of men of high-standing in the kingdom.”

With the best blood of England in their veins and the best of the Old World traditions in their cultural equipment, they produced a civilization “as distinctive as that of Greece, Carthage, Rome or Venice”; one that “made men noble, gentle and brave, and women tender, pure and true…..It was, I believe, the purest, sweetest life ever lived.”

Page acknowledges, as many other traditionalists do, that the Southern planters were not wholly of Cavalier blood. They represented, he says, “the strongest strains of many stocks – Saxon, Celts, and Teuton; Cavalier and Puritan.”

(The South Looks at its Past, Benjamin Burks Kendrick and Arnett Alex Mathews, UNC Press, 1935, pp. 17-18)

Gentlemen and Religious Zealots

No real recovery

After everything ended, after guns went silent and after roads opened again city started to live “normal” again.

But it was “normal” only for the people who have not lived through what happened. For the folks who gone trough all of that and survived nothing was and will be like before.

Whenever you watch TV or read newspapers about people or places or whole countries that have gone trough some shocking events, periods like war, earthquakes, famines or something similar, media folks gonna try to hook you with numbers of dead, cost of recovery in millions, amount of food that world is sending to the area, or number of troops that were needed to force opposite side to sign a peace treaty.

Most of the time it is gonna be news about facts, numbers, without too many pictures. I mean real pictures. Nobody wants to see the really bad / ugly real pictures.

Rarely some of the reporters gonna try to describe you stench of gangrene, or to show you kid who is eating macaroni with worms who is happy because it is a real treat compared to what the kid is eating most of the time.

Or even some small and simple things like “how bad it is to be completely wet in very cold weather, shiver and try to stay low for 3 hours because you need to hide”.

More @ SHTF School

CBO: Ending Bush Tax Cuts Will Send US Off 'Fiscal Cliff'

A new government study says that allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire and a scheduled round of automatic spending cuts to take effect would probably throw the economy into a recession.

The Congressional Budget Office report says that the economy would shrink by 1.3 percent in the first half of next year if the government is allowed to fall off this so-called "fiscal cliff" on Jan. 1. The cliff is what experts call the combination of higher tax rates and more than $100 billion in automatic cuts to the Pentagon and domestic agencies.

It's a point that Republican leaders have hammered at again and again in an effort to move President Obama into responsible negotiations over keeping the Bush tax cuts.

More @ Newsmax

Walter E. Williams cites statistics showing intra-race violence more dangerous than war

Via Billy

Each year, roughly 7,000 blacks are murdered. Ninety-four percent of the time, the murderer is another black person. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, between 1976 and 2011, there were 279,384 black murder victims. Using the 94 percent figure means that 262,621 were murdered by other blacks. Though blacks are 13 percent of the nation’s population, they account for more than 50 percent of homicide victims. Nationally, the black homicide victimization rate is six times that of whites, and in some cities, it’s 22 times that of whites. Coupled with being most of the nation’s homicide victims, blacks are most of the victims of violent personal crimes, such as assault and robbery.

The magnitude of this tragic mayhem can be viewed in another light. According to a Tuskegee Institute study, between the years 1882 and 1968, 3,446 blacks were lynched at the hands of whites. Black fatalities during the Korean War (3,075), Vietnam War (7,243) and all wars since 1980 (8,197) come to 18,515, a number that pales in comparison with black loss of life at home. It’s a tragic commentary to be able to say that young black males have a greater chance of reaching maturity on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan than on the streets of Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, Newark and other cities.

A much larger issue is how might we interpret the deafening silence about the day-to-day murder in black communities compared with the national uproar over the killing of Trayvon Martin.

More @ WND

Show My Street

Via Cousin Colby

Better than Goggle. I typed an outlying street address in Saigon and it zoomed right on the spot.

Notre Dame Cathedral, Saigon. The portion in front was named John F. Kennedy Square until the Communists took over.

Show My Street

55 years later, 'On the Road' is finally a movie

Fifty-five years after its publication, Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" is finally burning on the big screen.

Everyone from Marlon Brando to Jean-Luc Godard to Brad Pitt has circled the classic 1957 novel over the last six decades, but Walter Salles' adaptation is the first to actually get made. The wait isn't for lack of desire: Kerouac passionately wanted to see his book made a film, even writing Brando a letter promising that he could turn the book's lyrical road trips into a "movie-type structure."

"On the Road" premiered Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival, far away from the American roads crisscrossed by Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, the characters modeled on Kerouac and Neal Cassady, respectively.

"Unless you revive it by rereading it, re-imagining it, performing it, it's a dead thing," said Viggo Mortensen, who plays the William S. Burroughs character in the film. "You have to reread it to make it live again."

The pun is inevitable: It has been a long road for "On the Road." Though there was interest in a Hollywood adaptation as soon as it was published, nothing came of various negotiations and attempted screenplays. Francis Ford Coppola purchased the novel's rights in 1979, and he, too, failed to grasp an interpretation.

It's his son, the director Roman Coppola, who's producing "On the Road," which is being released in various international countries over the next few months, with a U.S. release prepared for late fall by IFC Films and Sundance Selects.

More @ Yahoo News