Tuesday, July 10, 2012
The Far Ambush
Rifle Marksmanship is the basis for fire and maneuver. You can't maneuver freely unless the enemy is pinned down. Secondly, if you are doing fire and maneuver correctly the enemy is dead by the time you get to where the enemy is. John Mosby is a big fan of closing with and destroying the enemy, that is the role of the Infantry and how you decisively win an engagement. Lets take a few lessons from their tactical toolbox.
First lesson in "fire and maneuver" is that fire is the harder part. Anyone can run towards the enemy, not everyone can lay down a good effective base of fire.
I'm a fan of long range marksmanship because is builds the skills necessary for setting up a good base of fire. A lot of people think that you need "volume of fire" to be effective at suppressing the enemy. Ask anyone who was part of a fire team pinned down in an urban area for a while if that sniper put down a volume of fire, or just put accurate fire to keep them pinned in place. Suppression is defined by the effect it has on the enemy, not the volume of fire going out.
Nothing in the tactical toolbox is a silver bullet. Not extreme range rifle marksmanship, not explosives and demolitions, not indirect fire, not fire support, not civil engagement, not propaganda. Everything you do needs to be put into the context of an effective whole. Any single tool in the tool box will be rapidly countered by the enemy. You need a mix of tools so they can't easily predict your next move.
I stress marksmanship over CQB not because CQB is worthless, but because in terms of value added training it is worth less than long range marksmanship. In my experience taking a skilled rifleman and training on CQB will waste less rounds than taking a lesser skilled person and training them on CQB. It is a lot easier to teach someone "ready up" drills on a short range during active conflict than train them in long range marksmanship with facilities that are no longer exist for your side.
If you get caught in a long range ambush you need to be able to accurately return fire and assault through (or break contact from) the ambushing force. If you get a chance to conduct a far ambush accurate rifle fire is the best augmentation for a machine gun that you can get without having an IDF asset of your own. Train to shoot to the maximum effective range of your weapon system first, worry about CQB later.
Attack and Die
American Southerners believed the invader of their land inferior and recalled that Hannibal had destroyed more than 90 percent of a vastly superior Roman army; Frederick the Great defeating an army twice the size of his in 1757; and Zachary Taylor defeating 15,000 Mexicans at Buena Vista in 1847 with 5,000 troops. Historian Bell Wiley noted “Indeed, it is doubtful that any people ever went to war with greater enthusiasm than did Confederates in 1861.”
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Invincible Bravery in Grey:
“General Robert E. Lee had decided to disregard the advice of a division commander [to] assault the strong Federal position [at Malvern Hill]. For the task he selected country boys and men from the Deep South….together with regiments from North Carolina and Virginia. These were proud soldiers, even a bit cocky now because for nearly a week they had been pushing Yankees back….[the enemy general] thought they came on with “a reckless disregard for life….with a determination to capture our army, or destroy it.”
At Sharpsburg a Federal remembered that the advance of his unit was stopped by a “long and steady line of rebel gray….sweeping down through the woods.” Another Northerner recounted the “invincible bravery” of the attacking Confederates and how his regiment “opened a withering, literally withering, fire on the rebels….but they still advanced. A color-bearer came forward within fifteen yards of our line, and with the utmost desperation waved a rebel flag in front of him.
Our men fairly roared, “Shoot the man with the flag! And he went down in a twinkling and the flag was not raised in sight again. Several charges at Sharpsburg cost the Twenty-sixth North Carolina Regiment 62 percent of its 325 men. One company lost all but 5 of its 30 men; two-thirds of the men and all of the officers in another company were killed or wounded.
The South lost 175,000 soldiers in the first twenty-seven months of combat. This number was more than the entire Confederate military service in the summer of 1861 and it far exceeded the strength of any army that Lee ever commanded. More than 80,000 Southerners fell in just five battles. At Gettysburg, 3 out of every 10 Confederates present were hit; one brigade lost 65 percent of its men and 70 percent of its field officers in a single charge.
A North Carolina regiment started the action with some 800 men; only 216 survived unhurt. Another unit lost two-thirds of its men as well as its commander in a brief assault.”
(Attack and Die, Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage, Grady McWhiney and Perry Jamieson, University of Alabama Press, 1982, pp. 3-5)
SPLC — “Fighting Hate” on $106,000 a day
Via CofCC
How much do you earn a day? Well, if you’re the Southern Poverty Law Center it turns out that you make about $106,062 a day, mostly in the form of tax-free donations.
That’s $106k a day, every day, 365 days a year…
Or, $4,419 an hour…
Or, $73.65 a minute, every minute of every day.
Remember that next time you get an e-mail from SPLC founder Morris Dees explaining how desperate his group is for cash and how only your generosity can save the nation’s leading civil rights group from disaster.
As the SPLC’s most recent IRS Form 990 explains, the Center enjoyed revenues of $38, 712,628 last year, a modest 11.7% raise from the previous year, just like the raise you probably received too.
Click image to enlarge
In fact, even after paying more than $14 million in salaries (an average of $61,693 per employee) and another $6.5 million in fundraising costs, the SPLC showed a tidy “non-profit” of $4,147,216, when all the “hate fightin’” was over, or just less than a million more than the “non-profit” it showed the year before.
As Line 22 of the Form 990 shows, the SPLC has less than $240 million in tax-free assets on hand, so get out that checkbook and don’t be stingy.
A one hundred dollar donation will match the SPLC’s revenue stream for about one minute and twenty seconds.
For a cool grand you can boast that you kept the lights on for more than 13 minutes.
With your help, we can take the “poverty” out of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Time is money, people.
Priceless! Re-write of "I'm A Good Old Rebel"
Via Fighting For Liberty
As a child I recited I'm A Good Old Rebel in front of the UDC at the Marshall Baptist Church!:)
A Simple Numbers Game (Phase 3 – Counterarguments and Caveats)
So, as pointed out in my second post, the idea that an uprising of civilians could not possibly win is not a foregone conclusion.
I’ve had more than a few folks try to come back with snide counters:
Counterarguments: Most of the counter arguments I’ve heard can be summed up with: “You still wouldn’t win, you don’t have machine-guns, tanks, APCs, air support, et. al” like somehow all of those are *necessary* for victory.
See, the funny thing about that statement is that it ignores a few fundamental details that the source is obviously ignorant of; on top of outlining the limitations of the box they mentally operate in. So, counters to this counter are not hard to come up with:
More @ Diogenes
Defense – Obstacles Part VI: Using Water To Our Advantage
Over the last few entries we’ve kind of moved back and forth over man-improved and man made obstacles. We’ve covered hills, slopes, roads and trails, and bridges. Now we’re going to examine a few ways to use water as a natural, man-improved, and man made obstacle.
Bodies of water exist in a few different forms in rural communities. Rivers, creeks, streams, and ponds all present a movement challenge to the threat. Not only is it difficult to move through a shallow body of water for dismounts but water in any significant depth will prevent most wheeled vehicles from crossing. It’s not just the depth or speed of the water itself but when coupled with a bottom that is thick mud or a material like loose shale wheeled vehicles loose traction pretty quickly. If the water is deep enough and an engine running at operating temperature hits it there’s a couple of things that happen. Of course steam is produced however water is a lot like air in one aspect – it will seek any opening and fill that opening. So any kind of breather or dipstick without a good check valve is going to get backfilled. And water in a crankcase is death for a running engine. There’s four basic ways water can be enhanced as an obstacle: Speed, depth, width, and clutter. It’s pretty difficult to speed water up so we’re going to skip that one. Depth is a little bit easier. The average pickup truck has an air intake that is approximately 3 feet above ground level – not too hard to achieve. In reality you should go for as much depth as possible – HMMWV air intakes are often rerouted above the cab so six feet is better. Six feet also gives you something else – a higher water level than the air intake on an M113 APC. Rule of thumb – as deep as possible – the deeper the better. If the increased total depth after modification is less than 2 to 3 feet then it may be a waste of effort. More on that in a bit.
More @ The Lizard Farmer
Merrill Lynch: US, Western World No Longer Call Shots for Rest of World
Merrill Lynch is urging investors to embrace a fundamental shift in their investing strategy as U.S. and Western economic domination crumbles.
The company is pressing its clients to revamp their investing strategy — even their basic beliefs about how to choose investments — in the face of world geopolitical change, according to The Financial Times.
In this new investing world, U.S. Treasurys and gold are out, or at least much less important. Investments now considered off-beat, like Australian sovereign debt and Singaporean bank bonds, are in.
More @ Money News
GOA Action Alert
Tomorrow, the House will vote on whether to repeal the anti-gun ObamaCare law.
Yeah. We know, we know. The Senate will throw the House-passed bill into the wastebasket -- and Obama would veto it if the bill ever reached his desk.
But, like the old joke about “12,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean,” it’s a first-start. And it’s a necessary first start.
As you know, ObamaCare gives anti-gun HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the authority to require ANYTHING in connection with the insurance which you will be required to buy, under penalty of law.
One of the things which she will clearly require is that the medical records of all Americans be dumped into a federal medical database.
The ATF and FBI can then troll that database for persons with medical conditions such as PTSD and other problems which would allow the feds to take their guns away. As more than 150,000 veterans have found out, once that medical diagnosis is found, your guns can be stripped from you with the push of a keystroke.
So. We can’t let tomorrow’s vote be the be-all-and-end-all. But, by the same token, we need a strong showing to set the stage for the next step.
ACTION: Click here to contact your Representative and ask him or her to vote for H.R. 6079 -- the ObamaCare repeal bill.
Concerning events in a little country cemetery
GUNRIGHTS4US
VERBATIM POST
Authors note: When I was in the Marines, all the best stories started with some variation of “That ain’t no shit…” Well, this ain’t no shit either!
I parked my truck in front of the old church just as the morning sun was peeking over the treetops along the eastern side of the highway. As quickly as I could, I moved my gear to the rear of the cemetery and staged it in the edge of the woods there. Shovel, arms cache, rake, and a scrap of old carpet were positioned out of sight behind a large oak tree, just in case some other early morning cemetery visitors showed up unexpectedly.
The particular grave I wanted to use for the purpose of hiding some guns and ammo was just a few steps away from the treeline, and I was fairly certain that any cars approaching along the highway could be heard in plenty of time to stash anything incriminating if the sound indicated they were slowing to pull into the cemetery.
Lest my reader think ill of me for disturbing a grave, allow me to explain that I had no intention of disturbing the grave itself, but merely to hide my cache behind rather than in front of the headstone. These are, after all, strange times we live in. And the old man sleeping here had been waiting judgment day for over a hundred years now. Besides – from what I knew of the old fellow I was fairly certain he would understand.
As further camouflage for my activities, I unloaded a weedeater, lawnmower, and other yard tools and positioned them strategically at the rear of my truck.
Once everything was in place, I began to dig. The soil was soft and the shovel was as sharp as I could get it, but the sweat was streaming down my face in no time just the same. This was a task I would be happy to finish quickly and be on my way.
For the next few minutes the only sounds to be heard in this little country graveyard was the sound of a fat old man laboring with a shovel. Then came a sound that made me almost jump out of my skin.
“Ahem”
I whirled around, and nearly fell over in the process. Seated just a few feet away on another headstone was an old man. One leg was crossed over the other as he sat there calmly puffing a pipe. He was dressed in an old-style brown woolen suit, and he had an old wide brim hat on his head that looked like it had seen as many years as he had. His demeanor was thoroughly calm; almost disinterested, and the expression on his face was one mild amusement.
I’m sure I stood there, shovel in hand, huffing and puffing with a surprised look on my speechless face.
“I don’t reckon you ought to be doing that young fellow. Folks don’t take kindly to being disturbed ya know”. His voice was deep and melodious, and the accent was that of a man born and raised in the southern Georgia backwoods.
“I’m sorry” I replied. “I really need to hide something, and this was the very best place I could think of to hide it. I didn’t hear you walk up.”
He eyed me for a moment without speaking, took another puff off his pipe, and then said “Well whatcha hidin that’s so all-fired important that you have hide it in a cemetery?” My comment about not hearing him walk up was ignored.
For a moment I felt a little silly, but clearly there was no turning back now. And the thought occurred to me that the only way out of certain trouble was to make my point to this gentleman sufficient for him to see the wisdom of burying guns and ammo in a cemetery.
“Well sir… this PVC pipe is filled with a couple a rifles and about a thousand rounds of ammo that I am scared to keep at my house. I’m fairly certain that I’ve drawn the attention of this evil federal government that is busy destroying the Republic, and I’m scared of a midnight visit to my home”.
As I spoke I laid my shovel down and then leaned against the headstone I had been digging behind. At my words I saw the first flash of something other than amusement in the old man’s eyes and I was afraid that I’d said something to offend him.
“What’s that you say boy? Government destroying the Republic! Is this still America or what?” he said with a degree of force in his tone that hadn’t been there moment before.
“Let me tell you sump’um boy” and he leaned forward as he spoke, his eyes becoming steely and his brow furrowed “My grandfather was a Lt. in Colonel Anderson’s Company during the Revolution, and him and his men didn’t go off and bury their rifles! They shot King George’s troops with ‘em!”
His ire was clearly up now, and his demeanor no longer that of a kindly old country gent. His pipe now forgotten in his hand, he stood up and hitched up his britches in the manner of someone resolved to action. In a sweeping gesture with his free hand he continued on: “Boy… take a look around yerself here. Ain’t you standin amongst two hundred years of your own family? And don’t you know these folks were made of stern stuff?”
Indeed I did know where I was, and I knew very well that my grandfather, his father, and his father’s father all lay within a few yards of where I now stood being lectured by a man whose identity was beginning to dawn on me.
“I know you who are Boy. I’ve watched you since you wuz a young’un. And I watched your Daddy too. Didn’t he go to war half way around the world back before you wuz born? He damn sure did! Hell… back in 1861 me and all my brothers, and every one of my cousins, and every able-bodied man in these here parts – we all signed up to go fight them sumbitches that come down here from up North. You ought to know Boy… we ain’t never been the sort to run and hide!”
Hearing these words I knew that the man standing before me had departed this world in 1901, and was none other than my own great-grandfather – whose grave it was that I had disturbed. Yet rather than fear my only feeling was one of profound shame. His words struck to my very core. My father had fought the Japs on Okinawa, and this old man had fought against Sherman in his march to the sea. His father (my great-great grandfather) had served in the militia during the War of 1812, and that man’s grandfather had organized a chapter of the Sons of Liberty that was so effective in harassing the British in and around Savannah that he was mentioned by name in the Georgia Governor’s letters to King George.
These things I knew well and the truth of his words had cut me to the quick. I had bowed my head lower and lower with each word from the old man, and now as he seemed to pause, I raised my eyes and looked him full in the face. All the pride I had ever felt in my ancestors now welled up within me, and I spoke to him from the bottom of my heart.
“I hear you Grandpa. And I reckon you’re absolutely right – There’re other things I need to be doing with these”
The old man smiled a smile of love - in a face framed in pride - and slowly faded from view.The Revolution
Via Survival
Fort Ticonderoga
"No one can say when or where the first war for the Revolution began. Ten years before the fight at Lexington, Americans came out of their cabins in the valley of the Conocheague, and stormed and took Fort Louden. One by one, Americans walked the trails of the Green Mountains, and came down to the lake and took the King's fort at Ticonderoga".
-- Rose Wilder Lane (Daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and originator of the term Libertarian.)
Fort Ticonderoga
-- Rose Wilder Lane (Daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and originator of the term Libertarian.)
Authorities give 41 guns and 100,000 rounds of ammunition BACK to militia member after he is cleared of conspiring to overthrow government
Via Survival
How sweet it is! Now what about his years in prison? Gotta' pay, but of course the taxpayer will, not the criminals responsible.
Police in Hammond, Indiana, were forced to returned 41 guns and 100,000 rounds of ammunition to a militia members who was cleared of federal charges he was part of a group planning to murder law enforcement officers and overthrown the government.
Thomas Piatek, a former member of the Hutaree militia, claimed the arsenal, which also included assorted swords, knives and crossbows, on Friday.
His personal cache of weapons was so large, he and his friends were forced to make two trips to the police station to pick it all up.
More @ Mail Online
Why History Still Matters In The Shenandoah
Old Virginia Blog
VERBATIM POST
VERBATIM POST
 |
| Alfred Waud's depiction of Custer's burning of a Valley farm 7 October 1864. |
From Peyton's History of Augusta County, Virginia (1882):
Such was the account given by Sheridan of his operations in Augusta and the Valley. A correspondent, who was with the army, thus describes the scenes of their march:
“The atmosphere, from horizon to horizon has been black with the smoke of a hundred conflagrations, and at night a gleam, brighter and more lurid than sunset, has shot from every verge. The orders have been to destroy all forage in stacks and barns, and to drive the stock before them (the Federal army) for the subsistence of the army. Indiscriminating (for with such swift work discrimination is impracticable), relentless, merciless, the torch has done its terrible business in the Valley. Few barns and stables have escaped. The gardens and corn-fields have been desolated. The cattle, hogs, sheep, cows, oxen, nearly five thousand in all, have been driven from every farm. The wailing of the women and children, mingling with the crackling of flames, has sounded from scores of dwellings. I have seen mothers, weeping over the loss of that which was necessary to their children’s lives—setting aside their own—their last cow, their last bit of flour pilfered by stragglers, the last morsel they had in the world to eat or drink. Young girls, with flushed cheeks, and pale, with tearful, or tearless eyes, have pleaded with and cursed the men whom the necessities of war have forced to burn the dwellings reared by their fathers, and turn them into paupers in a day. The completeness of the desolation is awful. Hundreds of nearly starving people are going North. Our trains are crowded with them. They line the wayside. Hundreds more are coming. Absolute want is in mansions used in other days to extravagant luxury.”
The desolation of the Shenandoah Valley was thus sketched at the time:We have conversed with an intelligent friend, who formerly resided at Edinburg, in Shenandoah county, and who has been compelled to bring his family into a more favored locality, to keep them from starving, and he gives a deplorable picture of the sufferings and privations of these unfortunate people. But a small amount of grain is in possession of the inhabitants, and what little they have it is hardly possible to get ground for want of mills, all having been burned except five or six, in the extent of the country of which we speak. In many instances corn has been pounded, baked, and consumed in a rough state, and our informant states that he is familiar with instances where the people have mixed middlings with bran and baked it into bread, in order to stretch the food. Cattle, hogs and sheep have been swept away, and but few horses remain with which to cultivate the ground and raise a crop the present season. It is hard to realize and believe that such a state of things exist, but it is nevertheless fearfully true.Another says:With the exception of small enclosures of one or two acres, here and there, there is scarcely a fence worthy of the name from the Rapidan to Bull Run; and the fields, once the pride of the farmers’ hearts, and shut in bysystem of labor to contend with, the problem of success seems to be one of difficult solution; but with industry, skill and integrity, the prolific soil will soon supply their wants, and in a few years one will scarcely be able to recognize this as the classic battle-ground of the two celebrated armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia.”ten rails and a rider,are now broad commons, with old landmarks obliterated, ditches filled up, quarters, corn-houses and barns in ruins, while the lone and blackened chimneys of the once happy homestead stand like some grim old sentries on guard until the last. The once majestic forests of oak, hickory, chesnut and pine along the line of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad have disappeared, and given place to the rude huts and cabins improvised by the armies of Lee and Meade; and instead of whortleberries, chinquepins and chestnuts, one kicks upon canteens, worn-out knapsacks, old shoes, bread-boxes, suggestive of the inevitablehard-tack,bayonet-scabbards, with here and there a stand of grape, a ten-pounder Parrott shell, and everywhere almost the hollow-baselittle Minnies,whose whistling tones are so familiar to us all. The village of Raccoonford is a village no longer; Stevensburg is Stevensburg only on the military map; and all along the route, crossing and recrossing the railroad, one sees nothing where man’s agency is concerned but utter desolation. The people are returning to their once happy homes, after such hardships as only refugees can know, and are patching up any out-buildings at hand for a temporary residence until thegreat housecan be rebuilt and former comforts collected around them.
The negroes in Orange county can be hired for their food and quarters; but this does not pertain in Culpepper and Fauquier, where labor is scarce and in demand, as nearly every negro,—man, woman and child, left home early in the war with the hope of an improved condition in the crowded streets of Alexandria and Washington. The supply, however, will be equal, and perhaps more than equal, to the demand, when the farmers are once more prepared to cultivate their lands; but just now there is a feeling of oppressive uncertainty hanging over every man’s head, and until courts are established, magistrates, sheriffs, surveyors, commissioners, etc., are appointed, this feeling will prevail, and then materially to retard the development of the agricultural resources of the country and of that desire to do their duty as good and loyal citizens, which is the sincere and hearty wish of nine-tenths of the people {typo corrected} of Virginia, now that the terrible struggle is over, and which has been decided finally against them. The farmers need nearly every article necessary to a successful cultivation of their lands, and with but very limited means for purchasing them, no credit, and an entirely newI've walked and explored these same woods and fields for close to 50 years. I've walked over the very ground, perhaps the very spot, where my great-great grandfathers shed blood to protect their families, homes, and to defend their state. And I've pulled bullets, buttons, shell fragments, and other relics from that same ground which have not been touched by a human hand since before the smoke cleared on the day of battle. Despite what others may believe, there is a connection to this history which is unique to those who have such experiences and heritage. I consider myself blessed to be among that group.
Surviving Indirect Fire
John Mosby brought up some good points about getting close to an enemy force negates some of their IDF capabilities. This is true, it is a tactic that the PLA used quite effectively in Korea and was used by the NVA/VC to negate American IDF in Vietnam. This isn't a tactic that the insurgents in Afghanistan or Iraq have used very much, although it remains a valid technique, John also pointed out that even with dismal marksmanship training most Americans are good 200 meters and under which may explain why the Iraq/Afghan insurgents don't use this technique.
Indirect fire is the "Big Hammer" on the battlefield. Indirect fire comes from mortars, cannon artillery, rocket artillery, close combat aviation (helicopters), and close air support (fixed wing).
Mortars. Mortars are a "high angle of attack" platform controlled by the ground maneuver commander (Platoon level in the USMC, Company level in the Army). High angle of attack means the tube is angled between 45 and 90 degrees. Mortars are the quickest IDF to respond to enemy contact. The effects of mortars depends on the size of the round, a 60mm mortar is barely better than a hand grenade, an 81/82mm mortar is about 50% again as effective, and a 120mm mortar is about twice as effective with a ground impact fuze. With an airburst proximity fuze they are a bit more effective. Time of flight can be anywhere from a few seconds up towards a minute (or longer for some heavy mortars).
More @ American Mercenary
Should Illegal Aliens Be Allowed to Practice Law in U.S.?
Dumb question, I know.
In 1978, the Garcia family illegally crossed the U.S./Mexico border into California. They have remained in the U.S. ever since. At the time of their illegal crossing, their son Sergio was only 17 months old.
Sergio Garcia has grown up in the United States and taken advantage of the educational system by earning a high school diploma. He went on to attend Chico State University in the beautiful Sacramento Valley in northern California. After graduating from Chico State, Sergio went on to obtain a law degree from Cal Northern School of Law. In 2009, he passed the California state bar exam, but was denied acceptance to the state bar association because he technically was still an illegal alien.
More @ Godfather Politics
Man Arrested After Stealing Gas From A Police Car & posting picture on facebook
Old, but first time I've seen it.
Report: 83 percent of doctors have considered quitting over Obamacare & Storm Coming
Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.
The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide. The survey found that the majority have thought about bailing out of their careers over the legislation, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.
Even if doctors do not quit their jobs over the ruling, America will face a shortage of at least 90,000 doctors by 2020. The new health care law increases demand for physicians by expanding insurance coverage. This change will exacerbate the current shortage as more Americans live past 65.
By 2025 the shortage will balloon to over 130,000, Len Marquez, the director of government relations at the American Association of Medical Colleges, told The Daily Caller.
More @ The Daily Caller
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Obamacare: Storm Coming
There may be a debate over whether Obamacare’s individual mandate is a penalty or a tax, but there is no debate among doctors and their patients about the fact that Obamacare will be bad for America’s health.
The climate in my medical office is changing; my patients sense that a storm is coming. They are worried, and there is little I can do to reassure them. They are used to my office manager getting approvals for the CT scans, mammograms, PSAs, and MRIs I order, and they realize that many of these tests will no longer be covered by insurance once Obamacare’s committees — which look at so-called comparative-effectiveness research and review current guidelines — are through with them.
Last week, with the Fourth of July looming, I was able to get a quick CT scan to rule out appendicitis for one patient, and an ultrasound of the legs to quickly diagnose a blood clot for another. Tests like these — ordered solely on the basis of my medical intuition – may not be possible in a few years. Since in both cases the symptoms weren’t “textbook,” I would probably have had to appeal to some Kafkaesque committee, wasting precious time; in an extreme instance, this could even cost a patient his or her life.
More @ NRO
Brad Pitt's mom in fear after slamming Obama
Jane Pitt, mother of actor Brad Pitt, has been scared into silence by the hate-filled, vulgar and even violent reaction to her public assertion that Barack Obama is “a liberal who supports the killing of unborn babies and same-sex marriage.”
Pitt has even been the subject of death threats following her letter to the editor of Missouri’s Springfield News-Leader in which she asserted failure to vote for Republican presumptive presidential candidate Mitt Romney constituted a vote for Obama.
WND spoke briefly with Pitt and asked about the media assault against her for her comments as a private citizen supporting Romney. With inflections in her voice that conveyed fear and despair, she quietly and politely said she was not interested in talking to anyone in the media about the incident.
When she was told WND supported her right to speak her mind and is appalled by the threats against her life, Pitt expressed gratitude to WND for being one of the few news agencies doing so. Even her thank you, however, was said in a subdued manner laden with heaviness of heart.
Pitt had every reason to be frightened. Following her letter to the editor in her local newspaper, the mainstream media have painted her comments in a vilifying light.
More @ WND
Oops; U.S. “Overpaid” $14 Bil In Jobless Benefits
Following various reports of jailed convicts and illegal immigrants receiving unemployment checks from U.S. taxpayers, the Obama Administration is admitting that in fiscal year 2011 the government “overpaid” around $14 billion in benefits.
That’s a chunk of change for a nation suffering through a painful debt crisis that’s topped $15 trillion. Like most bloated government programs, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) unemployment benefits— paid by state treasuries and the federal government—is rife with fraud and corruption. Various news reports have speculated about this for some time, but now we have the actual DOL figures to prove it.
More @ Judicial Watch
Lake City Florida: The Stars and Bars (Sic) – A heritage that just won't go away
Via Pam
The Chief continued, "The people that I greeted that day were not showing me hatred. What I see in that picture -- The Bible tells me, how can you tell me you love God, who you've never seen and hate your brother that you see every day? When I look at that picture, that's what I see."
The controversy surrounding the Stars and Bars, or the Confederate Flag, is a controversy that has hounded Lake City for decades. The Stars and Bars, emblazoned as part of Lake City's logo, rides on every City vehicle and is part of Lake City stationery. The recent controversies surrounding the City Police Chief and the City Manager have culminated in the Local Branch of the NAACP asking for the Chief and City Manager's resignations. The straw that broke the camel's back, a photo of Lake City's African American Police Chief posing with the Confederate Mechanized Cavalry during the Olustee Festival. The Lake City Branch of the NAACP is being supported in its efforts by the State chapter of the NAACP.
The Chief continued, "The people that I greeted that day were not showing me hatred. What I see in that picture -- The Bible tells me, how can you tell me you love God, who you've never seen and hate your brother that you see every day? When I look at that picture, that's what I see."
The controversy surrounding the Stars and Bars, or the Confederate Flag, is a controversy that has hounded Lake City for decades. The Stars and Bars, emblazoned as part of Lake City's logo, rides on every City vehicle and is part of Lake City stationery. The recent controversies surrounding the City Police Chief and the City Manager have culminated in the Local Branch of the NAACP asking for the Chief and City Manager's resignations. The straw that broke the camel's back, a photo of Lake City's African American Police Chief posing with the Confederate Mechanized Cavalry during the Olustee Festival. The Lake City Branch of the NAACP is being supported in its efforts by the State chapter of the NAACP.
More @ Columbia County Observer
The Proclamation Against Patrick Henry
Early America
VERBATIM POST
Issued By Lord Dunmore on May 6, 1775
VERBATIM POST
Issued By Lord Dunmore on May 6, 1775
On January 19, 1775, the royal governor of Virginia, John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, stood at the pinnacle of his popularity. Fresh from his October 1774 victory over the Shawnee at the Battle of Point Pleasant on the Ohio River, Dunmore opened the Palace in Williamsburg for a grand ball celebrating the queen's birthday and the christening of his newest daughter, Virginia. Within six months of that Thursday-evening gala, however, the movement toward independence and the actions of Patrick Henry would force Dunmore and his family to flee the Palace as the royal government of the Old Dominion collapsed at their heels.
Virginia's second revolutionary convention met in March at St. John's Church in Richmond, safely beyond the governor's reach. On Thursday, March 23, Patrick Henry's eloquent Liberty or Death speech assured the passage of his resolution to place the colonial militia in a posture of defense. Two days later, the convention elected Henry and six others as Virginia's representatives at the Second Continental Congress slated to begin on May 10. Only the 107 ballots cast for Peyton Randolph, Speaker of the House of Burgesses and President of the Continental Congress, and 106 for George Washington surpassed the 105 votes that sent Patrick Henry to Philadelphia. That same day, despite their quarrel with Parliament, the delegates unanimously acclaimed "our worthy Governor Lord Dunmore, for his truly noble, wise and spirited Conduct in the late Expedition against our Indiana Enemy . . . [and] important Services to the People who have the happiness to live under his Administration." Their applause was brief indeed.
Lord Dunmore
The following Tuesday & three days too late & newly arrived instructions from Lord Dartmouth prompted Dunmore to issue a useless proclamation forbidding the election of delegates to the Continental Congress. The governor's next step, even more provocative, brought a confrontation with Patrick Henry that Dunmore's authority did not survive.
The passage of Patrick Henry's resolution "raising a body of armed Men in all the counties," Dunmore reported to Lord Dartmouth, "made me think it prudent to remove some Gunpowder which was in a Magazine in this place." The governor gave a key to the Magazine & the octagonal munitions depot surrounded by a high brick wall in the center of Williamsburg & to Lieutenant Henry Colins, commander of H.M.S. Magdalen, an armed schooner anchored in the James River a few miles from town. Before dawn on Friday, April 21, Colins and a detachment of royal marines slipped into town and entered the Magazine. As they were loading the fifteenth half-barrel gunpowder onto the governor's horse-drawn wagon, their raid was discovered. Shouts and then drums woke the town as the independent militia company scrambled to the scene. Later in the day, Speaker Randolph and others averted bloodshed in the capital, but by evening riders were carrying word of Dunmore's "prudent" raid throughout the colony.
On Sunday the governor raged that he would "declare Freedom to the Slaves, and reduce the City of Williamsburg to Ashes" if he were attacked. "I once fought for the Virginians," Dunmore warned a startled alderman. "By God, I would let them see that I could fight against them."
By Monday news of the powder incident had reached Hanover County and Fredericksburg, where independent militia companies had gathered for a routine drill. Upon advice from George Washington, the Fredericksburg area militia & 600 strong & "held themselves in readiness" to march on Williamsburg. In Hanover, Patrick Henry and the militia stood ready as well. At this critical moment & on April 28 & news reached Virginia of the shots fired at Lexington and Concord nine days earlier.
Five weeks earlier, in his celebrated speech at St. John's Church, Patrick Henry had warned that "the next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!" Events had proved him right. Now Dunmore's "prudent" theft of the colony's powder confirmed the Virginians' worst suspicions of the British ministry and its minions in America. While Peyton Randolph and several other congressional delegates set off for Philadelphia, militia from the piedmont counties of Albemarle and Orange continued their march toward the capital. Henry and the Hanover militia were well ahead of them, camped at Newcastle on the Pamunkey River twenty miles north of Richmond to plan "a rapid and vigorous movement to compel the restoration of the powder."
Dispatching Ensign Parke Goodall and sixteen men to Laneville plantation in King and Queen County, home of the crown's Receiver General Richard Corbin, Patrick Henry marched toward the capitol. By Tuesday, May 3, Henry had between 150 and 500 men bivouacked sixteen miles west of Williamsburg at Doncastle's Ordinary in New Kent County. That same day, as Lady Dunmore and their children slipped aboard H.M.S. Fowey at Yorktown, Governor Dunmore sent urgent messages to Boston asking for reinforcements.
Patrick Henry
A standoff continued for several days as messengers from the town urged Henry to bide his time. Dunmore had moved cannon to the front of the Palace, they said, and was threatening to destroy the Williamsburg at "the very moment one hostile Virginian should enter it." Rumor had it that upon hearing Dunmore's cannon, Captain George Montagu of the Fowey had orders to "perpetrate the same atrocity" at Yorktown. As the war of nerves played out, Carter Braxton, Corbin's son-in-law, arranged for a payment of lb330 compensation for the stolen powder. With receipt in hand, Henry dispersed his troops and prepared to join his colleagues in Philadelphia.
From the safety of his Palace, Lord Dunmore vented his anger in a proclamation against "a certain Patrick Henry, of the County of Hanover, and a Number of his deluded Followers." Issued in Williamsburg on Saturday, May 6, 1775, Dunmore's proclamation called on Virginians to "vindicate the constitutional Authority of Government." Five weeks later, on June 8, Dunmore himself took refuge aboard the warship H.M.S. Fowey anchored off Yorktown. Royal government in Virginia was over.
Twelve months after Lord Dunmore fled the Palace in Williamsburg, the Fifth Virginia Convention on June 29, 1776 elected Patrick Henry as the first governor of the independent Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginia's new state constitution and its Declaration of Rights comprised an eloquent vindication of constitutional government & but not quite what a certain John Murray and his deluded followers had expected.
Virginia's second revolutionary convention met in March at St. John's Church in Richmond, safely beyond the governor's reach. On Thursday, March 23, Patrick Henry's eloquent Liberty or Death speech assured the passage of his resolution to place the colonial militia in a posture of defense. Two days later, the convention elected Henry and six others as Virginia's representatives at the Second Continental Congress slated to begin on May 10. Only the 107 ballots cast for Peyton Randolph, Speaker of the House of Burgesses and President of the Continental Congress, and 106 for George Washington surpassed the 105 votes that sent Patrick Henry to Philadelphia. That same day, despite their quarrel with Parliament, the delegates unanimously acclaimed "our worthy Governor Lord Dunmore, for his truly noble, wise and spirited Conduct in the late Expedition against our Indiana Enemy . . . [and] important Services to the People who have the happiness to live under his Administration." Their applause was brief indeed.
Lord Dunmore
The following Tuesday & three days too late & newly arrived instructions from Lord Dartmouth prompted Dunmore to issue a useless proclamation forbidding the election of delegates to the Continental Congress. The governor's next step, even more provocative, brought a confrontation with Patrick Henry that Dunmore's authority did not survive.
The passage of Patrick Henry's resolution "raising a body of armed Men in all the counties," Dunmore reported to Lord Dartmouth, "made me think it prudent to remove some Gunpowder which was in a Magazine in this place." The governor gave a key to the Magazine & the octagonal munitions depot surrounded by a high brick wall in the center of Williamsburg & to Lieutenant Henry Colins, commander of H.M.S. Magdalen, an armed schooner anchored in the James River a few miles from town. Before dawn on Friday, April 21, Colins and a detachment of royal marines slipped into town and entered the Magazine. As they were loading the fifteenth half-barrel gunpowder onto the governor's horse-drawn wagon, their raid was discovered. Shouts and then drums woke the town as the independent militia company scrambled to the scene. Later in the day, Speaker Randolph and others averted bloodshed in the capital, but by evening riders were carrying word of Dunmore's "prudent" raid throughout the colony.
On Sunday the governor raged that he would "declare Freedom to the Slaves, and reduce the City of Williamsburg to Ashes" if he were attacked. "I once fought for the Virginians," Dunmore warned a startled alderman. "By God, I would let them see that I could fight against them."
By Monday news of the powder incident had reached Hanover County and Fredericksburg, where independent militia companies had gathered for a routine drill. Upon advice from George Washington, the Fredericksburg area militia & 600 strong & "held themselves in readiness" to march on Williamsburg. In Hanover, Patrick Henry and the militia stood ready as well. At this critical moment & on April 28 & news reached Virginia of the shots fired at Lexington and Concord nine days earlier.
Five weeks earlier, in his celebrated speech at St. John's Church, Patrick Henry had warned that "the next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!" Events had proved him right. Now Dunmore's "prudent" theft of the colony's powder confirmed the Virginians' worst suspicions of the British ministry and its minions in America. While Peyton Randolph and several other congressional delegates set off for Philadelphia, militia from the piedmont counties of Albemarle and Orange continued their march toward the capital. Henry and the Hanover militia were well ahead of them, camped at Newcastle on the Pamunkey River twenty miles north of Richmond to plan "a rapid and vigorous movement to compel the restoration of the powder."
Dispatching Ensign Parke Goodall and sixteen men to Laneville plantation in King and Queen County, home of the crown's Receiver General Richard Corbin, Patrick Henry marched toward the capitol. By Tuesday, May 3, Henry had between 150 and 500 men bivouacked sixteen miles west of Williamsburg at Doncastle's Ordinary in New Kent County. That same day, as Lady Dunmore and their children slipped aboard H.M.S. Fowey at Yorktown, Governor Dunmore sent urgent messages to Boston asking for reinforcements.
Patrick Henry
A standoff continued for several days as messengers from the town urged Henry to bide his time. Dunmore had moved cannon to the front of the Palace, they said, and was threatening to destroy the Williamsburg at "the very moment one hostile Virginian should enter it." Rumor had it that upon hearing Dunmore's cannon, Captain George Montagu of the Fowey had orders to "perpetrate the same atrocity" at Yorktown. As the war of nerves played out, Carter Braxton, Corbin's son-in-law, arranged for a payment of lb330 compensation for the stolen powder. With receipt in hand, Henry dispersed his troops and prepared to join his colleagues in Philadelphia.
From the safety of his Palace, Lord Dunmore vented his anger in a proclamation against "a certain Patrick Henry, of the County of Hanover, and a Number of his deluded Followers." Issued in Williamsburg on Saturday, May 6, 1775, Dunmore's proclamation called on Virginians to "vindicate the constitutional Authority of Government." Five weeks later, on June 8, Dunmore himself took refuge aboard the warship H.M.S. Fowey anchored off Yorktown. Royal government in Virginia was over.
Twelve months after Lord Dunmore fled the Palace in Williamsburg, the Fifth Virginia Convention on June 29, 1776 elected Patrick Henry as the first governor of the independent Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginia's new state constitution and its Declaration of Rights comprised an eloquent vindication of constitutional government & but not quite what a certain John Murray and his deluded followers had expected.
An Exhibition In Germany That Southerners will Appreciate September 3-14, 2012
Via Chuck
SHNV
VERBATIM POST
VERBATIM POST
If you are visiting Germany this September, don’t miss this first of its kind exhibition of the life and works of the prolific and very talented artist, Nicola Marschall.
The exhibition is being held in the town of St. Wendel, at the St. Wendeler Volksbank, Bahnhofstr. 20 right at the train station.
Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Tuesday 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Closed on weekends.
An opening ceremony is planned for Monday, Sept. 3rd at 6:30 p.m.
St. Wendel was the birth place of Nicola Marschall, the designer of the First National Confederate flag and the CSA uniforms.
Wolfgang Ulbrich is the sole organizer of this unique exhibition. Wolfgang became aware of Marschall during his career as a teacher in St. Wendel and as a member of the German-American Friendship Club.
Wolfgang will be available to assist foreign visitors with the exhibit by arrangement via his e-mail address: wolfgangulbrich@arcor.de
A 200 page book has been prepared by Wolfgang.
Good Luck and Many Thanks to Wolfgang!
The exhibition is being held in the town of St. Wendel, at the St. Wendeler Volksbank, Bahnhofstr. 20 right at the train station.
Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Tuesday 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Closed on weekends.
An opening ceremony is planned for Monday, Sept. 3rd at 6:30 p.m.
St. Wendel was the birth place of Nicola Marschall, the designer of the First National Confederate flag and the CSA uniforms.
Wolfgang Ulbrich is the sole organizer of this unique exhibition. Wolfgang became aware of Marschall during his career as a teacher in St. Wendel and as a member of the German-American Friendship Club.
Wolfgang will be available to assist foreign visitors with the exhibit by arrangement via his e-mail address: wolfgangulbrich@arcor.de
A 200 page book has been prepared by Wolfgang.
Good Luck and Many Thanks to Wolfgang!
Why Mayberry Resonates in the American Heart
Roundabout via Billy
"Americans loved, and still love, the notion of the small town as a manageable, nonthreatening, friendly, finite community …. The black-and-white world that Andy Griffith shaped so masterfully is there for our perusal from a distance, but it is not coming back – either on television or anywhere else." – Ted Anthony, Associated Press
In an elegant obituary for Andy Griffith, who died on July 3 at age 86, Ted Anthony might be right about the survival of small communities, but perhaps not about what made "The Andy Griffith Show" so successful.
The most important part of the program, of which CBS ran 249 episodes (159 in black and white and 90 in color) from 1960 to 1968, was not the idealized portrayal of small town American life. It is the Christian-inspired warmth and wisdom, which never goes out of style. Most Americans don't live in semi-rural villages anymore, and the communications age has ended isolation, but "The Andy Griffith Show" transcends its venue.
The spirit of Mayberry is evident anytime church members deliver food to the newly widowed, when city dwellers help a struggling single mother, or when neighbors pitch in to clean up after natural or manmade disasters. Although human kindness and openness is more likely in the country than the rougher-edged city, it can and does happen anywhere.
Mayberry, the fictional community based on Andy Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy, North Carolina, leaves its mark on viewers the way it does on its fictional visitors. Outsiders leave Mayberry with the residue of love and good humor clinging to them like dryer sheets.
More @ Christian Post
Heh!:)
********* WARNING ! ! ! *********
This dangerously illegal and immoral subversive underground resistance message is being surreptitiously monitored by the Beaming Internet Government Broadband Radio Oscillation Telecommunications Hearing Electronic Reconnaissance (i.e., B.I.G. B.R.O.T.H.E.R.) as part of a coordinated official clandestine domestic surveillance investigation, in cooperation with the National Administration of Zealous Interrogation (i.e., N.A.Z.I.) and the Commission On Message Monitoring Investigative Electronics (i.e., C.O.M.M.I.E.).
Serious felony criminal charges are pending, with extreme penalties yet to be determined!
Serious felony criminal charges are pending, with extreme penalties yet to be determined!
****************************
Greetings and Salutations to All my Kith and Kin and All the Ships in Outer Space:
It is urgent that you relay this "TOP SECRET" message to our fellow comrades in the Underground immediately!
Those of us incarcerated at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport, Mississippi are planning a mass escape at midnight, when the moon goes behind the clouds.
There are five hundred (500) inmates at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport, Mississippi, and thus, we plan to escape in five hundred (500) different directions, blasting our way through the military police roadblocks and checkpoints.
We desperately need members of the Underground to smuggle into us the components for manufacturing automatic weapons and high explosives.
Members of the Underground can easily do this by concealing those components inside cakes, pies, bread, and sausages that are normally being delivered to the mess hall at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport, Mississippi.
At our woodworking hobby shop, we will assemble the smuggled components for the British Sten guns and the Molotov cocktails.
We plan to coordinate our actions using Underground forces attacking from outside the facility at the same time we are blowing holes in the walls from the insides, while simultaneously, Cuban paratroopers drop from Russian commercial airliners flying clandestinely overhead.
Those inmates who are in cells on the upper floors of the Armed Forces Retirement Home will use ropes to rappel down the sides of the building.
For getaway vehicles, groups of escapees will steal a passing railroad train, any United States Navy ships that may happen to be conveniently moored on our beach, and maybe a couple of United States Air Force B-52 bombers from Keesler Air Force Base.
Remember, "Mum" is the word!
Don't tell anyone about this.
As soon as you've read it, destroy this message, preferably by printing out a hard copy which you must chew up and swallow.
Well - - - , er - - - , that is - - - ,
Chew it up and swallow it AFTER you've passed on the information to our comrades in the Underground.
The secret password for this operation will be:
GARGOYLE
Don't let ANYONE know about that!!!
Remember, this all takes place at exactly midnight, when the moon goes behind the clouds.
"FREE - DOM ! ! ! "
Have you memorized your script?
Have you rehearsed your songs?
Is everything properly choreographed?
Is everything properly choreographed?
Are your costumes and stage props ready?
What is the theme music for this motion picture production?
At Your Service,
Parental Action Alert: Do You Trust the Supreme Court?
According to a Rasmussen poll last Sunday, the popularity of the U.S. Supreme Court has taken quite a hit since their ruling on the Affordable Care Act during the last week of June. While the number of people who rated the Court as “excellent” or “good” dropped from 36% to 33%, the number who rated them as “poor” jumped from 17% to 28%.
It seems we just don’t trust the High Court as much as we used to.
But it is they who currently hold the fate of your parental rights in their hands.
That’s because of the 2000 ruling, Troxel v. Granville, in which a majority of the Court, albeit in separate opinions, held parental rights to be “fundamental” – but not worthy of strict scrutiny protection. ("Strict scrutiny" means the government agent must show a highest order governmental interest that cannot be otherwise served.) This was the first time in nearly 80 years of parental rights cases that the liberty of parents to direct their child’s upbringing was denied this important legal protection.
Perhaps you are among those, or know some who are, who believed that parental rights are safe enough because you can count on the Supreme Court to continue in the tradition of supporting these implied Fourteenth Amendment rights. If so, last month’s ruling may serve to show that we dare not count on the Court to preserve such vital liberties.
Over time, everything can eventually change with the shifting ideologies of the Court – everything, that is, except the actual text of the Constitution.
Which is why parental rights need to be added to those rights already explicitly protected in the U.S. Constitution. Only the proposed Parental Rights Amendment can protect parental rights from the shifting views of a High Court which is increasingly defined by politics and ideology rather than by adherence to the intent of our Founding Fathers.
Please Call to Protect Your Rights
1. The proposed PRA is scheduled for a hearing before the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee next Wednesday, July 18. (This is a change from the original July 19 date.) This is an unprecedented step forward in our efforts.Please take a moment to call your congressman and ask him to sign on as a cosponsor of this important amendment, especially if he is on the subcommittee and not already signed on: Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH-1), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-8), Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL-5), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI-14), and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA-3). You can find your representative’s D.C. office number by clicking on your state at ParentalRights.org/states.
2. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is scheduled for a hearing on Thursday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As discussed yesterday, we oppose this treaty which threatens the right of parents to make decisions for their children without undue government interference.
Please take a moment to call your senators and urge them to oppose its ratification. You can read more about what to say here, and you can find their D.C. office numbers by clicking on your state at ParentalRights.org/states.
3. Finally, I would also urge you to contact the White House switchboard at 202-456-1414 and ask President Obama to withdraw the CRPD from Senate consideration.
These next two weeks will be very exciting for the cause of parental rights – and hopefully much more positive than the “very exciting” week we witnessed in the Supreme Court last month. Together, we can win protection of parental rights for you and for generations to come.
Sincerely,
Michael Ramey
Direct of Communications & Research