Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Rand Paul slams NDAA as bill passes US Senate
The libertarian Republican voiced his concerns to a conference committee following the decision to give the present version of National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) the go-ahead. Paul cited the committee’s decision to scrap an amendment that would have prohibited the indefinite detention of US citizens suspected of terrorist activities.
“It’s [the amendment] been removed because they want the ability to hold American citizens without trial in our country. This is so fundamentally wrong and goes against everything we stand for as a country that it can’t go unnoticed,” Paul told the committee. He went on to condemn the bill as an “abomination” that deprives US citizens of the right to a fair trial.
“When you’re accused of a crime in our country you get a trial, you get a trial by a jury of your peers, no matter how heinous your crime is, no matter how awful you are, we give you a trial,” he said.
More @ EU Times
CA Homeowner Shoots and Kills Armed Home Invader, Wounds 2 Others as Children Have Sleepover
Via Cousin John
A homeowner in Sacramento is being treated for non life threatening
wounds after successfully fighting off 3 armed home invaders who tried
to attack his home last night.
The homeowner grabbed a weapon after 3 armed men tried to break into the home, and opened fire.
The homeowner was shot by one of the suspects, but he managed to shoot all 3 suspects. One of the shot suspects died at the scene and the other 2 are being detained by police as they try to figure out exactly what happened.
Residents say there were children in the home at the time of the attempted home invasion. There may have been a children’s slumber party going on at the time of the attack.
Editor’s note: We are thankful that the homeowner was fast acting and armed or we could be talking about a mass murder of children at a slumber party today.
The homeowner grabbed a weapon after 3 armed men tried to break into the home, and opened fire.
The homeowner was shot by one of the suspects, but he managed to shoot all 3 suspects. One of the shot suspects died at the scene and the other 2 are being detained by police as they try to figure out exactly what happened.
Residents say there were children in the home at the time of the attempted home invasion. There may have been a children’s slumber party going on at the time of the attack.
Editor’s note: We are thankful that the homeowner was fast acting and armed or we could be talking about a mass murder of children at a slumber party today.
More @ Guns Save Lives
Christmas Vandals in Georgia
Mrs. Mary S. Mallard in Her Journal [1864, Liberty County, Georgia]
“Monday, December 19th.
Squads of Yankees came all day, so that the servants scarcely had a
moment to do anything for us out of the house. The women, finding it
unsafe for them to be out of the house at all, would run in and conceal
themselves in our dwelling. The few remaining chickens and some sheep
were killed. These men were so outrageous at the Negro houses that the
Negro men were obliged to stay at their houses for the protection of
their wives; and in some instances, they rescued them from the hands of
these infamous creatures.
Tuesday, December 20th.
A squad of Yankees came soon after breakfast. Hearing there was one
yoke of oxen left, they rode into the pasture and drove them up…needing a
chain…they went to the well and took it from the well bucket. Mother
went out and entreated them not to take it from the well, as it was our
means of getting water. They replied: “You have no right to have even
wood or water,” and immediately took it away.
Wednesday, December 21st.
10 A.M. Six of Kilpatrick’s cavalry rode up, one of them mounted on
Mrs. Mallard’s valuable gray named Jim. They looked into the dairy and
empty smokehouse, every lock having been broken and doors wide open day
and night. They searched the servants’ houses; then the thundered at the
door of the dwelling. Mother opened it, when one of them presented a
pistol to her breast and demanded why she dared keep her house closed,
and that “he be damned if he would not come into it.”
She
replied, “I prefer to keep my house closed because we are a helpless
and defenseless family of women and children.” He replied, “I’ll be
damned if I don’t just take what I want. Some of the men got wine here,
and we must have some.” She told them her house had been four times
searched in every part, and everything taken from it. And recognizing
one who had been of the party that had robbed us, she said: “You know my
meal and everything has been taken.”
He said, “We left you a sack of meal and that rice.”
Mother
said, “You left us some rice; but out of twelve bushels of meal you
poured out a quart or so upon the floor---as you said, to keep us from
starving.”
Upon
one occasion one of the men as he sat on the bench in the piazza had
his coat buttoned top and bottom, and inside we could plainly see a long
row of stolen breast jewelry---gallant trophies, won from defenseless
women and children at the South to adorn the persons of their mothers,
wives, sisters, and friends in Yankeeland!”
(The War the Women Lived, Walter Sullivan, J.S. Sanders & Company, 1995, pp. 238-239)
The North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
“Christmas in Wartime -- 1861-1865”
The Verbal Black Flag
VERBATIM
Advocates of citizen disarmament really DO NOT like being referred to as emasculated cowards who are projecting their own cowardice onto others.
They also do not like being referred to as yellow, infantile, effeminate, or hysterical. Liberals cannot handle these things (words), hence their never-ending efforts at PC censorship.
It also throws them for a loop when they call you an "NRA person" (or something similar) and you respond with indignation, saying something like "I'd never support such a soft, compromising organization."
They also do not like being asked if they would pick up a gun themselves to kill you if you refused to disarm.
This is not the time to take the traditional conservative position of "calm rationality", or retreating in the face of name calling, ad hominem, or emotional hysteria.
Will our individual efforts count in this?
I don't know.
I do know that this is, as a friend said, the high water mark of citizen disarmament extremists.
They have never been in a better position to push their extremism.
If they can't win here, they will never succeed. However, if they successfully push home their agenda now, it will be irreversible.
Refuse to play nice.
Not one inch.
Raise the black flag in your verbal dealings with these people.
Use the principles outlined in this piece.
The flag we raise in our interactions now will dictate the ones that will inevitably be raised later.
No quarter to the violators of our homes and firesides.
No quarter to the blood dancers who would use the recent deaths of children to ensure the deaths of more.
Resist.
They also do not like being referred to as yellow, infantile, effeminate, or hysterical. Liberals cannot handle these things (words), hence their never-ending efforts at PC censorship.
It also throws them for a loop when they call you an "NRA person" (or something similar) and you respond with indignation, saying something like "I'd never support such a soft, compromising organization."
They also do not like being asked if they would pick up a gun themselves to kill you if you refused to disarm.
This is not the time to take the traditional conservative position of "calm rationality", or retreating in the face of name calling, ad hominem, or emotional hysteria.
Will our individual efforts count in this?
I don't know.
I do know that this is, as a friend said, the high water mark of citizen disarmament extremists.
They have never been in a better position to push their extremism.
If they can't win here, they will never succeed. However, if they successfully push home their agenda now, it will be irreversible.
Refuse to play nice.
Not one inch.
Raise the black flag in your verbal dealings with these people.
Use the principles outlined in this piece.
The flag we raise in our interactions now will dictate the ones that will inevitably be raised later.
No quarter to the violators of our homes and firesides.
No quarter to the blood dancers who would use the recent deaths of children to ensure the deaths of more.
Resist.
Police: NY gunman set 'trap' for firefighters
An ex-con gunned down two firefighters after luring them to his neighborhood by setting a car and a house ablaze early Monday, then took shots at police and committed suicide while several homes burned.
Authorities used an armored vehicle to help residents flee dozens of homes on the shore of Lake Ontario a day before Christmas. Police restricted access to the neighborhood, and officials said it was unclear whether there were other bodies in the seven houses left to burn.
The gunman's sister, who lived with him, was unaccounted for. The gunman's motive was unknown.
William Spengler fired at the four firefighters when they arrived shortly after 5:30 a.m. at the blaze in Webster, a suburb of Rochester, town police Chief Gerald Pickering said. The first police officer who arrived chased the gunman and exchanged shots.
Spengler lay in wait outdoors for the firefighters' arrival, then opened fire probably with a rifle and from atop an earthen berm, Pickering said.
"It does appear it was a trap," he said.
Spengler had served more than 17 years in prison for beating his 92-year-old paternal grandmother to death with a hammer in 1980 at the house next to where Monday's attack happened, Pickering said. Spengler, 62, was paroled in 1998 and had led a quiet life since, authorities said. Convicted felons are not allowed to possess weapons.
More @ Townhall
Christmas Cheer on the Plantation
“The
great fete of the people was Christmas. [All] times and seasons paled
and dimmed before the festive joys of Christmas. It had been handed down
for generations…it had come over with their forefathers. It had a
peculiar significance. It was a title. Religion had given it its
benediction. It was the time to “Shout the glad tidings.” It was The
Holidays.
There
were other holidays for the slaves, both of the school-room and the
plantation, such as Easter and Whit-Monday; but Christmas was
distinctively “The Holidays.”
Then
the boys came home from college with their friends; the members of the
family who moved away returned; pretty cousins came for the festivities;
the neighborhood grew merry; the negroes were all to have a holiday,
the house-servants taking turn and turn about, and the plantation made
ready for Christmas cheer.
The
corn was got in; the hogs were killed; the lard “tried”; sausage-meat
made; mince-meat prepared; the turkeys fattened, with “the big old
gobbler” specially devoted to the “Christmas dinner”; the servants new
shoes and winter clothes stored away ready for distribution; and the
plantation began to be ready to prepare for Christmas.
In
the first place, there was generally a cold spell which froze up
everything and enabled the ice-houses to be filled. The wagons all were
put to hauling wood – hickory; nothing but hickory now; other wood might
do for other times, but at Christmas only hickory was used; and the
wood-pile was heaped high with the logs…
In
the midst of it came the wagon or ox-cart from “the depot,” with the
big white boxes of Christmas things, the black driver feigning
hypocritical indifference as he drove through the choppers to the
storeroom. Then came the rush of all the wood-cutters to help him
unload…as they pretended to strain in lifting, of what “master” or
“mistis” was going to give them out of those boxes, uttered just loud
enough to reach their master’s or mistress’s ears where they stood
looking on, while the driver took due advantage of his temporary
prestige to give many pompous cautions and directions.
The
getting the evergreens and mistletoe was the sign that Christmas had
come, was really here. There were the parlor and hall and dining-room,
and, above all, the old church, to be “dressed.” The last was a
neighborhood work; all united in it, and it was one of the events of the
year.
Then
by “Christmas Eve’s eve” the wood was all cut and stacked high in the
wood-house and on and under the back porticos, so as to be handy, and
secure from the snow which was almost certain to come. The excitement
increased; the boxes were unpacked, some of them openly, to the general
delight, others with a mysterious secrecy which stimulated the curiosity
to its highest point and added to the charm of the occasion.
The
kitchen filled up with assistants famed for special skill in particular
branches of the cook’s art, who bustled about with glistening faces and
shining teeth, proud of their elevation and eager to add to the general
cheer.
It
was now Christmas Eve. From time to time the “hired out” servants came
home from Richmond where they had been hired or had hired out
themselves, their terms having been common custom framed, with due
regard to their rights to the holiday, to expire in time for them to
spend the Christmas at home. There was much hilarity over their
arrival, with their new winter clothes donned a little ahead of time,
they came to pay their “bespecs” to master and mistis.
Later
on the children were got to bed, scarce able to keep in their pallets
for excitement; the stockings were all hung up over the big fireplace;
and the grown people grew gay in the crowded parlors. Next morning
before light the stir began. White-clad little figures stole about in
the gloom, with bulging stockings clasped to their bosoms, opening
doors, shouting “Christmas gift!” into dark rooms at sleeping elders,
and then scurrying away like so many white mice, squeaking with delight,
to rake open the embers and inspect their treasures. At prayers, “Shout
the glad tidings” was sung by fresh young voices with due fervor.
How
gay the scene was at breakfast! What pranks had been performed in the
name of Santa Claus! The larger part of the day was spend in going to
and coming from the beautifully dressed church, where the service was
read, and the anthems and hymns were sung by everybody, for every one
was happy.
Dinner
was the great event. It was the test of the mistress and the cook, or,
rather, the cooks; for the kitchen now was full of them. The old
mahogany table, stretched diagonally across the ding room, groaned; the
big gobbler filled the pace of honor; a great round of beef held the
second place; an old ham, with every other dish that ingenuity, backed
by long experience, could devise, was at the side, and the shining
sideboard, gleaming with glass, scarcely held the dessert. After dinner
there were apple-toddy and egg-nogg, as there had been before.
There
were negro parties, where the ladies and gentlemen went to look on, the
suppers having been superintended by the mistresses, and the tables
being decorated by their own white hands. There was almost sure to be a
negro wedding during the holidays. The ceremony might be performed in
the dining-room or in the hall by the master, or in a quarter by a
colored preacher; but it was a gay occasion, and the dusky bride’s
trousseau had been arranged by her young mistress, and the family was on
hand to get fun out of the entertainment.”
(The Old South, Essays Social and Political, Charles Scribner’s & Sons, 1892, pp. 174-183)
The North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
“Christmas in the Old South”
Wheel of Fortune’s anti-Southern bias costs contestant
VERBATIM
The television show Wheel of Fortune has punished a contestant over her use of Southern English, causing her to lose thousands of dollars and handing victory on the game show to another contestant (see video below). This is just the most recent reminder of the broad anti-Southern bias in the United States. The host of the show, Pat Sajak, is from Chicago. ABC news reports:
Contestant Renee Durette was on a roll toward thousands of dollars on the game show “Wheel of Fortune.”
She had the winning answer to the word puzzle – “Seven Swans a Swimming” – or so she thought.
Durette, a Navy Intel Specialist from Merritt Island, Fla., dropped the “g” – pronouncing “swimming” as “swimmin’.”
Host Pat Sajak had to backtrack and said he couldn’t accept her answer, costing her the $3,850 she had accumulated.
“That’s kind of how I speak, you know, being from Florida and I asked for the ‘g’ so I knew it was there,” Durette said.
Judges said the answer violated the rules because it was spoken in vernacular.
The decision sparked outrage on Twitter and even the other contestant who was handed the win couldn’t believe it.
Click here for the full articleOne of the features of the Southern dialect is that the ‘g’ at the end of present progressive verbs is generally not pronounced, much as Bostonians tend not to pronounce the ‘h’ in ‘human’ or the ‘r’ in ‘car.’ This leads one to wonder if someone with a regional dialect other than Southern would have been treated in this manner? It seems doubtful. A recent study showed that non-Southern children in the US acquire from their surroundings a strong anti-Southern bias at a young age. National Public Radio has reported on how the Southern accent is in decline, with some Southerners purposely attempting to drop this marker of their identity and culture due to the anti-Southern attitude pervasive in US society.
Wheel of Fortune may be contacted via the ‘Feedback’ page on their website at this link. Please let them know that their anti-Southern bias is not appreciated.
Also see: Mocking rural people while opposing the Empire, The US war on the Texas accent and Study: US bias against Southern accent starts early
Feinstein suggests national buyback of guns
Ain't going to happen here.
I guess Clinton doesn't remember what happened in the 1994 elections after
his gun ban and even he attributed the Democratic loss to it.
VERBATIM
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said that she and other gun
control advocates are considering a law that would create a program to
purchase weapons from gun owners, a proposal that could be compulsory.
“We are also looking at a buy-back program,” Feinstein said today in a press conference. “Now, again, this is a work in progress so these are ideas in the development.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., already discussed the possibility of a buy-back law for his state, but he made clear it would be a forced buyback.
“Confiscation could be an option,” Cuomo told The New York Times yesterday when discussing semiautomatic weapons. “Mandatory sale to the state could be an option. Permitting could be an option — keep your gun but permit it.”
Australia implemented a mandatory buyback program in 1996 following a mass shooting. “The law banned semiautomatic and automatic rifles and shotguns and put in place a mandatory buy-back program for newly banned weapons,” USA Today recalls. “The buyback led to the destruction of 650,000 gun.”
Some liberal activists want the policy imitated here. “That would be like destroying 50 million guns in America today,” the Center for American Progress’ Matt Miller wrote after noting that Australia eliminated 20 percent of the weapons in the country. “The Australian ‘outlaw and repurchase’ option is one approach. But if Congress balks at banning certain weapons entirely, it could make gun owners an offer they can’t refuse. Instead of $200 a gun, Uncle Sam might offer $500.”
Feinstein also said that that former President Bill Clinton had volunteered, on a phone call, to help her get a new gun law passed.
“[Clinton] was talking about the battle back in 1993 with the bill that, interestingly enough, was introduced and passed within the year fo 1993 and went into effect in 1994,” she said. “And, of course, he was president and the White House came alive and was very very helpful in enabling the passage of that bill both in the senate and in the House. So, to have him part of the team again is really quote special for us.”
“We are also looking at a buy-back program,” Feinstein said today in a press conference. “Now, again, this is a work in progress so these are ideas in the development.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., already discussed the possibility of a buy-back law for his state, but he made clear it would be a forced buyback.
“Confiscation could be an option,” Cuomo told The New York Times yesterday when discussing semiautomatic weapons. “Mandatory sale to the state could be an option. Permitting could be an option — keep your gun but permit it.”
Australia implemented a mandatory buyback program in 1996 following a mass shooting. “The law banned semiautomatic and automatic rifles and shotguns and put in place a mandatory buy-back program for newly banned weapons,” USA Today recalls. “The buyback led to the destruction of 650,000 gun.”
Some liberal activists want the policy imitated here. “That would be like destroying 50 million guns in America today,” the Center for American Progress’ Matt Miller wrote after noting that Australia eliminated 20 percent of the weapons in the country. “The Australian ‘outlaw and repurchase’ option is one approach. But if Congress balks at banning certain weapons entirely, it could make gun owners an offer they can’t refuse. Instead of $200 a gun, Uncle Sam might offer $500.”
Feinstein also said that that former President Bill Clinton had volunteered, on a phone call, to help her get a new gun law passed.
“[Clinton] was talking about the battle back in 1993 with the bill that, interestingly enough, was introduced and passed within the year fo 1993 and went into effect in 1994,” she said. “And, of course, he was president and the White House came alive and was very very helpful in enabling the passage of that bill both in the senate and in the House. So, to have him part of the team again is really quote special for us.”
