A Quiet Man

Chronicles
VERBATIM POST

by Tom Piatak

I recently had the chance to visit the village of Annascaul on the stunningly beautiful Dingle Peninsula in Ireland. The attraction in Annascaul was the South Pole Inn, opened by Annascaul native Tom Crean after his retirement from the Royal Navy. Crean was, by all accounts, a modest man reluctant to draw attention to himself, but he was one of the heroes of the golden age of Antarctic exploration. Crean was a member of two of Robert Scott's Antarctic expeditions, and on Scott's final expedition he saved the life of one of his comrades by volunteering to walk 35 miles across the Ross Ice Shelf to get help.

I first became aware of Crean because of his involvement in Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914, which failed in its goal of traversing Antarctica but which justly became famous as one of the most amazing survival stories in history. (The best account of that expedition remains, in my view, Alfred Lansing's 1958 classic, Endurance). Crean played an important role in helping Shackleton rescue all of his men after the expedition's ship was trapped and crushed in the pack ice.

Shackleton chose Crean to be on the of the five men to accompany him on the 800 mile journey in a small boat through some of the roughest seas on the planet from Elephant Island to South Georgia, and Crean was one of the three men to cross the South Georgia Alps without a map or proper mountaineering gear to get help at the whaling station on the other side of South Georgia. Tom Crean was tough, brave, and self-reliant, but also kindly, cheerful, and loyal. He was a fitting representative of an age that vauled duty over pleasure, discipline over self-indulgence, and achievement over celebrity. Today's values are far different, which helps explain why we no longer have many men like Tom Crean.

Mission triple shooting not being classified as attempted “honor killing”

Via Gates Of Vienna

PRIDE.........?

Moonbattery
VERBATIM POST

Seen at a Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in The Villages, Florida:

All people are created equal, therefore all behavior is equal, therefore a flag representing sexual depravity deserves equal standing with the flag of our nation — at a facility serving those who risked life and limb for the latter.

The rot is eating our country right down to the marrow.

N.C. Democrats choose first transgender in diverse DNC delegation

Via What Would The Founders Think?

What a sweetie..........

Democrats on Saturday selected the remainder of the party’s 158-member delegation to September’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. And they did it with an emphasis on diversity.

Among those picked Saturday: Janice Covington of Charlotte, the first openly transgender person to serve as a Democratic delegate from the state.“It’s important to my community – to the whole LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community” – to be a part of the convention, Covington, 64, said. “We’ve always been left off the bus. Transgenders have always been the redheaded stepchildren.”

More @ Charlotte Observer

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/06/17/3323232/nc-democrats-choose-first-transgender.html#storylink=cpy

More Flash “Black” Mob Violence – This Time Nordstroms In Portlandistan Oregon

Apparently the flash mob robbery concept has moved into the more, well, upscale, venues. The latest high visibility No_Limit_Hoodie_Crowd flash robbery/violent shopping enterprise is a local Nordstroms in Oregon. And the media continues to ignore and reflect their entrenched “Cultural Marxism”.

Portlandistan, Oregon - Black mob violence has taken on a new note in Portland, Ore. It’s not the unsuspecting passersby or the corner convenience store that’s the target here.

It’s Nordstroms.

Just weeks ago, a group of 10-15 hoodie-wearing blacks allegedly stole clothing and raced out of the store. Their actions were captured on video.

More @ The Last Refuge

Wilmington, NC – Five Facing Charges in Death of 60 Year Old Delivery Driver

Via NC Renegade

Clockwise from top left, Manije Daneek Johnson-Martin, Marvin Lee White, Rasheed Ramone Thompson and Cornell Dwayne Haugabook Jr. were charged in connection the the shooting death of Zhen Bo Liu.

After shooting Zhen Bo Liu on a dark Wilmington street, the gunmen stole his food delivery of chicken wings and shrimp fried rice and shared the meal among their accomplices at a nearby house. After eating, they returned to view Liu's body and rummage through his car.

When police arrived on South 13th Street to begin their investigation into Liu's June 14 death, the only things missing from the 60-year-old delivery driver's vehicle was the order of food and $48 in cash.

As emerging details shed light on events investigators believe unfolded last week, Wilmington police on Friday announced the arrest of a sixth person accused of playing a role in planning the robbery that led to Liu's murder.

The new suspect, 16-year-old Nathaniel Lawrence, brings to six the number of people charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery for allegedly concocting a scheme to hold up a delivery driver. Two of those, 15-year-old Mustafaa Friend and 20-year-old Cornell Haugabook Jr., also face first-degree murder charges.

Friend and Haugabook made separate appearances in New Hanover County courtrooms on Friday. Friend was ordered to remain in custody until another hearing July 3. Haugabook was denied bond, meaning he will stay in the New Hanover County jail pending trial.

The other four suspects – Lawrence, Rasheed Thompson, Manije Johnson-Martin, all 16 years old, and 18-year-old Marvin White – also remained in jail Friday.

During Friend's appearance Friday morning in juvenile court, Assistant District Attorney Jason Smith said Friend and a group of accomplices hatched a plan on June 14 to rob a delivery driver.

More @ Star News

W.H.: Ex-staffer can't be questioned on Fast and Furious

Via Don

he White House said a former National Security staffer who communicated with ATF's Special Agent in charge of "Fast and Furious" cannot be interviewed by Congressional investigators.

The ATF Special Agent, Bill Newell, testified to Congress in July 2011 that he's a longtime friend with then-White House National Security Staffer Kevin O'Reilly. The two emailed and talked on the phone during the controversial Fast and Furious gunwalking operation, according to documents and Newell's testimony to Congress.

In one email exchange about Fast and Furious on Feb. 11, 2011 O'Reilly asked Newell, "Would ATF be willing to put you or others in front of US media that gets pickup in Mexico (CNN en Espanol, perhaps) to tell this story?"

At the time, the Justice Department and ATF were denying any gunwalking had occurred, and were looking for ways to promote stories about gun traffickers buying weapons in the U.S. and taking them to Mexico.

"Kevin as we discussed last night," answered Newell, "these are some examples of what we could get translated and use in the Mexican media . . . The 'Fast and Furious' indictment is listed under 'U.S. v Avila.'"

The two also emailed about the case in July 2010, exchanging anecdotes and photographs of gun seizures in the case.

Kevin O'Reilly emails (pdf)

"This is great; very informative," O'Reilly told Newell. "OK to share with Sr Director Dan Restropo and with CT/CN Director Greg Gatjanis? Would not leave NSS I assure you."

More @ CBS News

President Obama Can’t Be in the Same Room As Forks Anymore?

Via Don

Just a few days after announcing that his administration would no longer deport about 800,000 young illegal immigrants, you would think that President Obama would be received as something of a hero by NALEO, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, before whom Obama is giving a speech this afternoon in Orlando. But the Secret Service wasn't taking any chances. As hundreds of Latino elected officials were enjoying their lunch at Disney's Contemporary Resort earlier today, it was announced that forks would be collected before Obama took the stage. It was also mentioned that knives, too, were entirely absent from the lunch for "a reason."

More @ NY Mag

Charlotte-Mecklenburg NC Police chaplains told not to invoke name of Jesus

Via Moonbattery

Volunteer chaplains in North Carolina's Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department have been told not to use Jesus' name in prayers at public events held on government property.

Pastor Terry Sartain of Horizon Christian Fellowship told FOX News Radio he was informed of the change by his superior major just before he was about to give a invocation at a promotion ceremony.

'I was told chaplains can no longer invoke the name of Jesus on government property,' Mr Sartain said.

'[He said] if I could refrain from that during the invocation he would appreciate that.'

Mr Sartain said he was upset by the new rules.

'I'm very sad about it,' he continued.

More @ Mail Online

All too true

Via Slogging Towards Liberty

Gay Activists Take Out Frustration on ... Ronald Reagan

Via NC Renegade

Classy as always.........

Victor Fiorillo reports for Phillymag.com:

Last Friday, an attaché of important gay people from Philadelphia made a trip to Washington D.C. as invited guests of President Barack Obama for the White House’s first-ever gay pride reception. There, they danced to the sounds of a Marine Corps band; they dined on crab cakes and canapés; they hand-delivered letters from concerned citizens like this 18-year old who has had four people close to him gunned down, and noted rhyming raconteur CA Conrad; and some of them took advantage of photo opportunities to give the late President Ronald Reagan the middle finger.

More @ The Weekly Standard

House Could Send Holder to Jail Without Approval of Senate or U.S. Attorney

Godfather Politics
VERBATIM POST

I’ve been watching all of the media reporting on the Contempt of Congress charges being made against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. As usual, you can tell that the main stream media are right there in Holder’s camp and reporting that the measure will either die in the Democratic controlled Senate or when it goes before U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who just happens to work for Holder.

However, if Rep. Darrell Issa really wants to get his point across with Holder, he can bypass the Senate and the U.S. Attorney by making the charge against Holder to be ‘inherent contempt.’ Inherent contempt is a rarely used charge these days. In fact, the last time it was used was by the Senate in 1934 in a case that involved William P. MacCracken Jr. and the U.S. Postmaster.

In an inherent contempt proceeding, the Senate or in today’s case the House, brings the contempt charges against the individual, in this case Eric Holder. The Sergeant-at-Arms for the House then arrests the person charged and brings them to the floor of the House. The charges are read, discussed and then voted upon. If the House votes in favor of the charges, the guilty party is then subject to the appropriate punishment, which may include imprisonment. The House will decide if they want to send Holder to prison for his actions or just give him a slap on the wrist, like they often do.

In the 1934 case, MacCracken was charged with inherent contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before Congress and allowing his clients to destroy documents that Congress had subpoenaed. The Senate voted to hold MacCracken in inherent contempt and promptly sentenced him to 10 days in jail. MacCracken appealed in federal court and the case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court who ruled that the Senate had acted constitutionally and that MacCracken would indeed have to serve his 10 days in jail.

If Issa really wanted to show the Obama administration that the House and the American people are not going to put up with their above the law ways, then he should make the charges against Holder inherent contempt charges so that it doesn’t get held up by the Senate Democrats or the U.S. Attorney. Besides, I can’t think of a better place for Eric Holder, who as the nation’s top cop has broken more laws than Bill Clinton ever did.

A Fortnight of Freedom

In response to the HHS mandate that Christian schools, hospitals, universities and other institutions must provide abortions, sterilizations and contraceptives to their employees through their insurance programs, Catholic bishops in the U.S. have declared a Fortnight of Freedom yesterday through the Fourth of July.

They describe the two-week period as “a great national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty,” and ”a great hymn of prayer for our country.”

But I’m not Catholic. So what do I care?

If I think women ought to have access to contraception–and maybe like the government providing it–I should be rooting for the government anyway. The Catholic Church is just trying to cram its beliefs down everyone else’s throats. Right?

Wrong.

This isn’t about whether women should have access to contraceptives. It’s not even about whether the government should provide them. The issue here is whether religious organizations should be forced to violate fundamental teachings of their faith at the pleasure of the government.

This isn’t the Catholic Church trying to impose its values on others. This is the State trying to impose its values on the Church.

Remember the First Amendment?

More @ Cry Beloved Country

North Dakota’s Oil Boom in Pictures: 1% Unemployment

Via What BUbba Knows

The combination of energy production and job creation is potent force. It’s one reason a bipartisan majority in the U.S. House today approved the Domestic Energy and Jobs Act, legislation that would increase access to America’s resources and spur job creation.

More @ Heritage

The Trainer's Encounter

Some folks have made it clear they'd have handled the situation differently than did Trainer when he was approached by LEO.

Fair enough. But, consider this: Would you really rather they came heavy at 0430 when you are in bed with your wife and the kids are scattered around the house in different bedrooms?

Do not be afraid to look your enemies in the eye at CQB range, folks. If they simply want to talk, why not talk? Why remove that option from the table and force them into tactical gear when all they really want to do at this time is talk to you?

I have direct experience that may be relevant.

It has been my direct experience that when FedGov (especially) comes to you in such a manner, with empty hands and in a sport coat, they are truly offering you a warning and an opportunity to avoid something that may be worse.

The Feds are not in the habit of telling you that they are going to sneak up on you.

If you run a group, or are part of a "Patriot Group" and you are peacefully approached by LEO, it would be my immediate suspicion that FedGov has “something” on someone in your sphere of influence. It may be aggressive rhetoric, it may be Google searches for bad things on the net, it could be an attempt to buy something prohibited, it could even be so severe as one of your men (or someone they hold dear) has been pinched and is flipping to earn a plea, and will say almost anything to get that plea.

While it could also simply be a Psyop from FedGov to start dissension in your ranks, I tend to dismiss this option.

As I say: I have personal experience that when they come to you and talk, it is because they have taken the decision to try to avoid a confrontation. There “are” some folks on the “Other Side” with a conscience, or at least with an agenda that does not include flashbangs.

Look hard at your people and the people about whom they care. If you get a whiff, a simple tingle of doubt whispering to your brain about anyone, cut them out or at least compartmentalize them.

Not that you haven’t already played these realities over in your mind a thousand times, but I also know that as Humans we tend to over-ride our instincts when it comes to people who are close to us. We try to explain away “little things” that in retrospect you may recognize as warning signs.

Never forget: As easily as they coordinated "Interviews" with Trainer and his crew, they could have coordinated tactical raids at each location at 0430. If that is what they wanted, they'd have done it.

More @ III Percent Patriots

tic ... toc ... tic ... toc ...

To:
Austin.Allran@ncleg.net,
Tom.Apodaca@ncleg.net,
Phil.Berger@ncleg.net,
Stan.Bingham@ncleg.net,
Harris.Blake@ncleg.net,
Andrew.Brock@ncleg.net,
Harry.Brown@ncleg.net,
Peter.Brunstetter@ncleg.net,
Chris.Carney@ncleg.net,
Warren.Daniel@ncleg.net,
Jim.Davis@ncleg.net,
Don.East@ncleg.net,
Thom.Goolsby@ncleg.net,
Rick.Gunn@ncleg.net,
Kathy.Harrington@ncleg.net,
Fletcher.Hartsell@ncleg.net,
Ralph.Hise@ncleg.net,
Neal.Hunt@ncleg.net,
Brent.Jackson@ncleg.net,
Wesley.Meredith@ncleg.net,
Buck.Newton@ncleg.net,
Louis.Pate@ncleg.net,
Jean.Preston@ncleg.net,
Bill.Rabon@ncleg.net,
David.Rouzer@ncleg.net,
Bob.Rucho@ncleg.net,
Dan.Soucek@ncleg.net,
Richard.Stevens@ncleg.net,
Jerry.Tillman@ncleg.net,
Tommy.Tucker@ncleg.net,
Wes.Westmoreland@ncleg.net

It's 11am ... Is HB 111 out of committee, been on the floor, and passed by the full Senate ???

Gentlemen and ladies of the NC legislature, you have delivered an important message via this one-sided conversation.

You are unwilling to act as honorable and moral individuals to remove unlawful infringements to the fundamental right of self-defense. In so doing you have classified yourselves as 'something other than honorable and moral individuals'.

Logic dictates that you cannot be "A" and "not-A" at the same time. Therefore you render yourselves irrelevant to anyone who respects the rights of man and champions individual Liberty.

Because you are unwilling or unable to act honorably on this most basic element of law, ALL actions by you are subject to detailed examination and potential nullification by any sentient individual.

Am I advocating a "lawless" society? Absolutely not. An honorable and moral individual would never tolerate purposeful injury to another. The vast bulk of North Carolina Statutes and Ordinances, however, define crimes "malum prohibitum" ... bad because we forbid it.

You have clearly demonstrated you are not honorable and, as a consequence, your Statutes "malum prohibitum" are irrelevant.

Through your actions and inactions you have surrendered your moral authority.

Hans Mentha

STATISM and LIBERTY cannot coexist ...One must perish !

~ Kerodin, III To Liberty

Warmonger McCain Urges Air Strikes in Syria

Senator John McCain urged military air strikes on Syria Thursday, saying the U.S. can’t afford to be “standing by, watching a massacre.”

While opposing the use of U.S. ground troops, the Arizona senator said the U.S. should give weapons to the Syrian rebels and establish “sanctuaries” in the war-torn country that would be protected by allied air power.

“For the United States to stand by and for the president of the United States not to say a word on behalf of these people is shameful,” McCain said at a Bloomberg Government conference in Washington on defense strategy.

With Iran aiding the Syrian government and Russia providing weapons to the regime, “it’s not a fair fight,” McCain, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said. “Here we are, standing by, watching a massacre go on.”

More than 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has flared for months as rebels seek to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. A Syrian air force colonel flew a fighter jet into neighboring Jordan today and was granted political asylum, according to U.S. and Jordanian officials.

Other lawmakers at the forum urged a more cautious approach.

Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the Democratic chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said military action risks triggering a wider conflict in Syria.

Safe Zone

“Assuming the bad guys win, what do we do then?” Levin said. “Up the ante?”

More @ Newsmax

Obama & The Titanic

Via The Feral Irishman

'The People Have Gotten Dumber'

Via A Trainwreck In Maxwell

The Weekly Standard
VERBATIM POST

Retiring congressman Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York, reflects on his time in Congress.

"Congressman Ackerman, you’ve been here 30 years. Can you define comity as it existed when you arrived versus how it exists now?," Bloomberg Businessweek asks.

Ackerman responds: " Your premise is that comity exists now. It may not be entirely accurate. It used to be you had real friends on the other side of the aisle. It’s not like that anymore. Society has changed. The public is to blame as well. I think the people have gotten dumber. I don’t know that I would’ve said that out loud pre-my announcement that I was going to be leaving. [Laughter] But I think that’s true. I mean everything has changed. The media has changed. We now give broadcast licenses to philosophies instead of people. People get confused and think there is no difference between news and entertainment. People who project themselves as journalists on television don’t know the first thing about journalism. They are just there stirring up a hockey game."

Equal Rights

Via A Trainwreck In Maxwell

“Portrayed Islam almost entirely in a negative way”

Is there a positive way?

The US military said on Wednesday “poor judgement” allowed an instructor to present inflammatory anti-Islamic material in a course for senior officers.

The instructor has been removed from his teaching job at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, and the elective course will be redesigned, officials said, citing the results of a review ordered by the US military's top officer, General Martin Dempsey.

More @ IOL

America: Born in men’s hearts by the time of Lexington & Concord in 1775

Tuscaroras And (My Family)

==========

Behind the Crack-up of the Right

by Patrick J. Buchanan

In introducing his new book, Leo Strauss and the Conservative Movement in America, Paul Gottfried identifies a fundamental divide between neoconservatives and the traditional right. The divide is over the question: What is this nation, America?

Straussians, writes Gottfried, “wish to present the construction of government as an open-ended rationalist process. All children of the Enlightenment, once properly instructed, should be able to carry out this ... task.”

For traditional conservatives, before the nation is born, “ethnic and cultural preconditions” must exist. All “successful constitutional orders,” he writes, “are the expressions of already formed nations and cultures.”

To the old right, America as a nation and a people already existed by 1789. The Constitution was the birth certificate the nation wrote for itself, the charter by which it chose to govern itself. The real America had been born in men’s hearts by the time of Lexington and Concord in 1775.

In a recent issue of Modern Age, Jack Kerwick deals with this divide.

Irving Kristol, he writes, and quotes that founding father of modern neoconservatism, saw America as “a ‘creedal’ nation, a nation to which anyone can belong irrespective of ‘ethnicity or blood ties of any kind, or lineage, or length of residence even.’”

More @ Taki's

4,000 years ago, climate change caused massive civilization collapse

Via Survival

• A simple map of the Indus Civilization (or Harappa civilization) with important archeological sites noted. (Wikipedia)

The mysterious fall of the largest of the world's earliest urban civilizations nearly 4,000 years ago in what is now India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh now appears to have a key culprit — ancient climate change, researchers say.

Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia may be the best known of the first great urban cultures, but the largest was the Indus or Harappan civilization. This culture once extended over more than 386,000 square miles (1 million square kilometers) across the plains of the Indus River from the Arabian Sea to the Ganges, and at its peak may have accounted for 10 percent of the world population. The civilization developed about 5,200 years ago, and slowly disintegrated between 3,900 and 3,000 years ago — populations largely abandoned cities, migrating toward the east.

"Antiquity knew about Egypt and Mesopotamia, but the Indus civilization, which was bigger than these two, was completely forgotten until the 1920s," said researcher Liviu Giosan, a geologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. "There are still many things we don't know about them."

'The Indus civilization ... was completely forgotten until the 1920s.'
-- Researcher Liviu Giosan

Nearly a century ago, researchers began discovering numerous remains of Harappan settlements along the Indus River and its tributaries, as well as in a vast desert region at the border of India and Pakistan. Evidence was uncovered for sophisticated cities, sea links with Mesopotamia, internal trade routes, arts and crafts, and as-yet undeciphered writing.

"They had cities ordered into grids, with exquisite plumbing, which was not encountered again until the Romans," Giosan told LiveScience. "They seem to have been a more democratic society than Mesopotamia and Egypt — no large structures were built for important personalitiess like kings or pharaohs."

More @ Fox News