The Difference

Via Ninety Miles From Tyranny

Rediscovering Old Perspectives: North Carolina’s WBTS Sesquicentennial

North Carolina History Explorations (NCHE) in late November 2013 interviewed Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman of the North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission, and editor of the Commission’s official North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial website: www.ncwbts150.com.  Mr. Thuersam’s remarks are below and are transcribed as spoken (BT):

NCHE:  With almost three years of the war’s observance behind us, what would you say the North Carolina Sesquicentennial Commission has accomplished to date?  

BT: “First, I need to thank the fine North Carolinians who volunteered to serve on the Commission and all those who have donated their time, research and ideas to help record the people, events and places of 150 years ago – without them all that we have done would not be possible as it is a voluntary endeavor and we receive no public funding.  Our Commission rightfully represented people from all over North Carolina, all interested in their heritage and history. 

By the way, you are using the Northern term for the war and I must correct you as gently as I can – ours is a North Carolinian view of that conflict and it was no civil war.  Many make this mistake, but of course this is one of the reasons the Sesquicentennial effort is so important – to offer an accurate view of the past.  The most common explanation of the use of “civil war” is its brevity – though “War Between the States” easily rolls off the tongue if one is willing to use it.  Small point, but important as we must use our language correctly.  

Our website is not a simple chronological listing of battles, generals and important dates, but an overview of the War as it affected North Carolinians including their heroism, valor and sacrifices – and very often in their own words.  Most importantly, we are rediscovering the old perspectives on the war as told by those who lived it – through their diaries, recollections and authors who were close to the experiences and used primary sources.  Authors we highlight bring much lost history and understanding to light today, and hopefully we make people think.

Unfortunately, many contemporary accounts of the war utilize perspectives and authors too far removed, who lack a sense of intellectual context with what and who they write about, and simply have a modern ideological bias built into their comments. One learns little or nothing of our shared history from this narrow point of view, and we wanted to offer a better source. 

My feeling too is that we have well-accomplished our goal of providing a proper observance of North Carolina’s role in that period, and related those people, places and events to those living today so that they can appreciate and honor those that fought for North Carolina’s independence a second time.  Our title “Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty” says it all,” and we can better understand our history when viewed through a clear lens.”

NCHE:  Who are your Commission members and how are they appointed?

BT: “We simply began with a small group of historians interested in this effort and website project, led by Dr. Clyde Wilson who is an eminent historian, author and well-recognized authority on Southern history. Not to mention a native Tarheel as well.  We then invited, gathered and constructed the Commission as it stands today, virtually from Currituck to Cherokee and we wanted to properly represent as much of the State as possible.  

We are still adding to that today and I am very proud to announce that several prominent North Carolinians have recently joined the Commission to include past North Carolina Division SCV Commanders Bruce Tyson and Frank Powell.  Having the leadership of the North Carolina SCV on the Commission was very important to me as we are telling the story of their ancestors, and the ancestors of the many member they lead today across North Carolina.

Also joining the Commission is author Brenda Chambers McKean whose two-volume “Blood and War at My Doorstep” is a deeply-researched and timely look at the experiences of civilians during the War, and Kelly Atkins Hinson whose vivid living history portrayals of Mrs. Stonewall Jackson has brought the grief and human losses of the War to many in North Carolina.  I have witnessed her program several times and note nary a dry-eye in the audiences.  We appreciate them being part of this effort.”  

NCHE:  No public funding for such an impressive effort? Was this offered to the Commission?

BT:  “No public money or grants were pursued, and today I am not sure if we would accept any public funding due to the constraints it may entail.  We are free to determine our editorial direction, what research we include and do not include, and most importantly, we want to keep this a North Carolina-focused endeavor.  And quite frankly, I don’t think this is something public funds should be expended for as there is no official story of our history – it is a something handed down from past generations and much of it in written form.  Without this, the primary sources, we would have nothing to include on our website to tell this story.”

NCHE:  Any surprises or unique developments so far?

BT:  “Not really, but the unexpected outpouring of support from not just North Carolina, but the entire country and from as far away as Europe has surprised me in a way.  But not really, as we on the Commission sensed that there was a hunger for the information we have placed on the website to date.  

Also, the generous financial support many have provided to this Sesquicentennial website effort has been surprising; this has enabled us to hire a part-time transcriptionist who assists me in the daily research and updating on the website.  It must be remembered that ours is an all-volunteer effort and we receive no State of federal funding – it is all privately supported and “grassroots” you might say.  As to developments, I can say that we have developed an interesting following across the globe and this make it a rewarding experience when we receive kind and supportive emails and donations. 

NCHE:  What new information since the last update several months ago?

BT: “We have added two significant web pages of information, one entitled “Running the Blockade,” and just added recently is “The Confederate Framers and Their Constitution.” The former includes wonderful and insightful passages regarding the need for foreign supplies to the Confederacy, the amount of success of the blockade-running, and the individual efforts, courage and heroism of the blockade-running captains and crews.  We of course focus mostly on Wilmington as it was a major, if not most important, port of entry and export.  

The “Confederate Constitution” page recently added we thought was needed to better explain something little mentioned in our history books – what was this new constitution -- actually the fourth if you count the Continental Congress, Articles of Confederation and Union of 1787 – that North Carolina ratified and joined in 1861?  We have used Professor Marshall DeRosa’s excellent “Confederate Constitution of 1861” (University of Missouri, 1991) for dispassionate and clearly analyzed commentary on how the Confederate framers altered the US Constitution as the basis of their new nation, and why certain changes were made after the experiences of 1787 through 1860.
 

Of course North Carolina joined the American Confederacy after this was adopted, but it was the “law of the land” in this State until 1865 and needed to be part of our narrative.  There is no question too that Dr. DeRosa’s fine book on this topic should be required reading in our educational institutions. 

NCHE:  Any public outreach programs regarding North Carolina’s Sesquicentennial?

BT:  Actually, quite often – I have addressed groups all over the State about our Sesquicentennial efforts and website information, including South Carolina and most recently, Savannah, Georgia.  Usually this includes a Powerpoint overview of our website content and individual webpages, and how we tell the story of the War and how it affected North Carolinians – men, women and children.  My schedule of talks will take me to Wake, Duplin Forsyth and Hoke counties soon, and often address Lee-Jackson and Memorial Day audiences across the State.  Every stop is an opportunity to talk about the Sesquicentennial and distribute our handouts to all – especially young people hungry for a sense of people, place and history.”

NCHE:  What programs are planned for 2014?

BT:  “We will continue to research, transcribe and add appropriate pages and content which continue to tell the story through the eyes of North Carolinians, that is our charge.  I can state now that we will have an interesting program in late 2014 with a unique living history featuring portrayals of Generals William H.C. Whiting, Robert F. Hoke, Johnson Hagood, William J. Hardee, and Colonel William Lamb.  Our plans include several programs featuring these men and their roles in the Fort Fisher through Bentonville Campaign.  The details and locations are being worked out, watch for further information.”

NCHE:  A final question – this effort must be time consuming and you have a full-time design practice that commands your attention? 

BT:  “Indeed, very time-consuming but very rewarding.  I am busy daily working for a living but what motivates me most as an historian is two things: one, the Sesquicentennial will occur only once in my lifetime; and two, the Sesquicentennial will be over in early 2015 – and not much time is left.  The Commission anticipated, and anticipated correctly, that the North Carolina’s War Between the States participation would be compromised and revised by our public institutions and decided upon this path to give our citizens a more comprehensive and North Carolina-focused source for information, research and suggested further reading.  I think we made the right decision.

The Commission is blessed to have many dedicated historians aboard who have helped provide direction, support and ideas for telling this story.  I am truly fortunate to work with these fine people and appreciate all that they have done to help make this effort a reality. Time-consuming, yes, rewarding, very much so.  I know we’ll all be able to look back at the efforts and smile contentedly.”

White Students File Complaint Against Anti-White Professor; Professor Calls It Racist

 

Justice is a glorious thing, especially when it comes down hard on a social Marxist.

Minneapolis Community and Technical College professor Shannon Gibney, a black woman, has received a formal reprimand from her supervisor for being racist against white students. (She blames her reprimand on racism, by the way.)

Here’s what happened, according to Gibney:

[One of the white students asked,] ‘Why do we have to talk about this in every class? Why do we have to talk about this?’ I was shocked….His whole demeanor was very defensive.

It probably really was a shock that a white college male would stand up in defense of his whiteness, being that most college males have been castrated and are expected to take professors’ mental abuse.

He was taking it personally. I tried to explain, of course, in a reasonable manner—as reasonable as I could, given the fact that I was being interrupted and put on the spot in the middle of class—that this is unfortunately the context of 21st-century America.

Poor professor, not wanting to be put on the spot in class. It’s not as if being confronted and answering students’ questions is part of her job description or anything.

More @ Last Resistance

Inconceivable.

A Retired Mathematician Found A Rotting Cabin From 1830. What He Did With It Is Perfection.

Via Kirk 

 

This is the original cabin from the 1830s. A lot of it was rotting, but he labeled and transferred as much of it as possible to the family’s land.

More @ Viral Nova

Issa: FBI impeding inquiry into IRS targeting of conservative groups

Via avordvet

 

The House’s chief investigator says the FBI is stonewalling his inquiry into whether the agency and the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative group True the Vote for special scrutiny, and Rep. Darrell E. Issa is now threatening subpoenas to pry loose the information from FBI Director James B. Comey Jr.

Mr. Issa, California Republican, and Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, are leading the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s IRS inquiry. They also said the FBI is refusing to turn over any documents related to its own investigation into the IRS, which began in the days after an auditor’s report revealed the tax agency had improperly targeted tea party groups for special scrutiny.

More @ The Washington Times

New product shuts car engines off with a radio pulse

Via watchful

 

The company E2V has developed a prototype device that uses a radio-frequency pulse to shut down a car’s engine at range, according to a report from the BBC. While the range of the device is fairly short, it worked on a handful of cars and motorbikes and could also potentially be used on boats.

The product, named the RF Safe-stop, works by sending an RF pulse to a car at up to 50 meters (164 feet) away. The pulse “confuses” the car’s electronic systems, which the BBC said made the “dashboard warning lights and dial [behave] erratically.” The engine then stalls, and the car comes to a stop. How safely and quickly the vehicle would stop depends on the vehicle, and this technique would not work on older vehicles.

More @ ARS Technica

NC: Pope, Barber exchange words over money, politics

Via Cousin John

 

State budget chief Art Pope came face to face with one of his most vocal critics Monday morning while responding to a planned picketing campaign targeting his family's chain of discount stores.

The state chapter of the NAACP and several left-leaning groups held a news conference outside the state budget office to announce the campaign targeting Variety Wholesalers, which includes Roses, Maxway and other stores.

Pope is chief executive of Variety Wholesalers, and he also is a major political donor to conservative causes, both on his own and through third-party groups such as Americans for Prosperity and Civitas Institute.

More @ WRAL

$1,000.00 Finders Fee: Rail job in Transportation

 

For a  friend of ours.

NC SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS FUNDS CONSERVATION OF BATTLE FLAGS AT MUSEUM OF HISTORY

Via Carl

 

  

An exhibit highlight features a battle flag associated with the death of Lt. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. The banner was carried by the 18th Regiment North Carolina Troops, which accidentally shot the Confederate general at Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863.

On Nov. 9, 2013, the N.C. Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans unveiled four newly conserved Civil War flags during a rededication ceremony at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh. These historic banners, the colors of the 24th, 34th, 38th and 39th N.C. Troops, are part of the museum’s Confederate flag collection, one of the largest in the nation.

  

The N.C. Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, with 90 camps (chapters) across the state, spent years raising funds for the expensive textile treatment required to conserve the banners. This specialized treatment ranges from $7,000 to $30,000 per item. The group also helped the museum purchase a much-needed storage unit that holds 10 conserved flags.  

“The Museum of History owes a debt of gratitude to the North Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans for its generous contribution to conserve these important artifacts,” said Jackson Marshall, Associate Director at the N.C. Museum of History. “Without the support of individual citizens and private organizations, few, if any, of the museum’s Civil War flags would be preserved for future generations to see and appreciate.”

    John Campbell, the museum’s Collections Section Chief, is grateful for the new storage unit. “Each banner is mounted on a pressure mount inside a sturdy metal frame, so the heavy-duty shelving system allows us to safely store the flags flat when they are not on exhibit.” 

 A brief description of the conserved flags follows.  

            ● The 24th Regiment N.C. Troops was originally mustered into service as the 14th Regiment N.C. Volunteers in July 1861. The regiment’s third bunting Army of Northern Virginia-pattern battle flag was captured at Five Forks, Va., on April 1, 1865.

● The 34th Regiment N.C. Troops was one of many Tar Heel regiments in the Army of Northern Virginia that fought under Gen. Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg. The regiment’s third bunting Army of Northern Virginia-pattern battle flag was captured at Cemetery Ridge during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863.

● The 38th Regiment N.C. Troops carried this third bunting Army of Northern Virginia-pattern battle flag at the end of the Civil War. It was surrendered at Appomattox on April 12, 1865, and then sent to the U.S. War Department.

● The 39th Regiment N.C. Troops, unlike most Tar Heel regiments, did not serve in the Army of Northern Virginia. It fought in the western theater and earned fame during the September 1863 battle at Chickamauga in Georgia with it capture of Federal artillery. This banner’s pattern is a variant of the McCown battle flag, which is modeled after the Scottish national flag, and is distinctive of other flags flown by the Confederate Army. 

            The Sons of Confederate Veterans is not a group to rest on its laurels. It has already raised funds to begin conservation of two more artifacts: a third bunting Army of Northern Virginia-pattern infantry battle flag attributed as the headquarters flag of Brig. Gen. Rufus C. Barringer and the frock coat of Lt. Col. Francis Wilder Bird of Bertie County. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Reams Station in Virginia on Aug. 25, 1864.  

            “The North Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is honored to help the Museum of History preserve artifacts from our Confederate heritage and ancestry,” adds Craig Pippen, Communications Officer, N.C. Division of the Sons of Confederate 

Veterans. “Our organization is proud to work with the museum to preserve and educate others about the history of our great state. We will continue to support and grow our relationship with the museum and its staff whenever possible.”  

  For details about the Museum of History, call 919-807-7900 or access www.ncmuseumofhistory.org or Facebook. For information about the N.C. Civil War Sesquicentennial, access www.ncculture.com.

New England’s Wage Slaves

 

New England sold its slaves southward while developing a new factory labor system more efficient and practical.  For workers at the Lowell, Massachusetts mill it was reported that “there is no privacy, no retirements here; it is almost impossible to read or write alone.” Another contemporary hinted that some of the girls eventually moved from mill work into prostitution; and few of the mill girls would return to their native towns with reputations unimpaired.  That “she has worked in a factory” was almost enough to damn to infamy the most worthy and virtuous girl.”

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission

"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"

www.ncwbts150.com

"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

New England’s Wage Slaves

“Chapter XII:  In Which is Explained Why Yankees Discarded Negro Chattel Slavery and Recalled the Plight of the White Wage Slaves and a Comment by Abraham Lincoln.

Negro slavery was a flop in the North. 

The accent up there was on manufacturing and the Negro was at his best when teamed up with a hoe and a cotton-patch. The thrifty manufacturers of New England had a cheaper and more efficient labor supply readily at hand in the white wage slaves already there and the immigrants from Europe who came flooding in.

A healthy Negro field hand in 1860 cost $1,000 in Virginia and as much as $1,500 in New Orleans.  A new-born slave baby was worth $200.  The chattel slave had to be fed and clothed and taken care of in sickness and in health. When he got too old to work he had to be provided for.

Some States made it illegal for slaves to be worked on Sundays under pain of a fine of five pounds. It was against the law to work a slave more than fifteen hours a day in the summer and fourteen hours a day in winter. The average work day was about eleven hours. The slave was given a holiday between Christmas and New Year’s.  Louisiana prescribed by law that every slave had be given a minimum of 200 pounds of pork a year.

The New England white wage slave wasn’t nearly as expensive and a lot more efficient. He represented no capital outlay. He worked for starvation wages.  Laborers in the North in 1860 were earning 60 cents a day, and a day was often 14 to 16 hours. 

The plight of women workers was even more appalling. In New York City, during the Civil War, women umbrella workers, after laboring 18 hours from six in the morning to midnight, earned three dollars a week.  Seamstresses in the underwear crafts got seventeen cents for a twelve-hour day.

When the wage-slave got sick he went off the pay-roll. When worn out by age and hard work, he [or she] was discarded like an old shoe.

Bells rang at daybreak in most factory towns. The wage slaves – men and women – had to report at the factory gates in fifteen minutes. An hour later they were allowed twenty-five minutes for whatever breakfast they had brought.  They got another twenty-five minutes at mid-day.  The gates opened again at 8 o’clock that night to let the wage slaves go home. 

In the Eagle Mill at Griswold, [Connecticut], the work day lasted fifteen hours and ten minutes. At Paterson, New Jersey, women and children began the day’s work at 4:30 o’clock in the morning.  Overseers in some textile mills cracked a cowhide whip over the backs of women and children.

That isn’t to say that chattel slavery was to be preferred to wage slavery. There were folks who used to say that back in the middle of the past century but whenever Abraham Lincoln heard them Old Abe would sort of hunch those bony shoulders of his and cock his head to one side and burn them down with a single sentence.   

“They’ve written volume after volume to prove slavery a good thing,” he’d say, “but I never heard of a man who wishes to take the good of it by being a slave himself.”

(Then My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night!, W.E. Debnam, The Graphic Press, 1955, pp. 30-32)

Saudi Offers “Castrated African Slave” for Sale on Facebook

Via Carl

 

Our AFDI ad that ran in NYC and DC subway and transit stations

Where are racist demagogues Reverend Al and Jesse Jackson? No corporation to blackmail? No way to gin up the locals? No way to wet their beaks or line their corrupt and race-baiting pockets?

Where are Sharpton's calls for reparations from the Muslim world? Where are the calls from Black leadership to free the black slaves in the Muslim world? The left condemned our ads (above) highlighting Muslims' vicious and savage slavery of blacks, but are dead silent on slavery. All of those self-righteous left-wing organizations say nothing.

The word for black(s) in Arabic is slave (abeed).

Saudi Offers “Castrated African Slave” for Sale on Facebook Daniel Greenfield, FPM, December 1, 2013

Who says that the Muslim world isn’t modern? Sure they could hold old-fashioned auctions for African slaves. But instead they’re leveraging the power of social media for their slave auctions.

Peace be upon you …

I have a [male] slave I bought from an African country and arranged for his visa and stay till I got him to Saudi [Arabia]

His description:

1 – Black skin. Tall 172 sm. Weight 60 kilos.

2 – Castrated (excellent for working with a family) you can check him with a doctor our yourself if you have experience in the matter.

3 – [His] health is quite undamaged and has no imperfections.

4 – Age 26 years.

5 – Religion muslim and [he is] obedient and will not disobey you except in what displeases God. Please, the matter is very serious and is not a joke.

More @ Atlas Shrugs

Rottweiler Empire: Stand and Fight!

Via avordvet

 

Whenever LC HempRopeAndStreetlight over at the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler says something, it tends to be a mini-novel of fire-breathing righteousness. Over the weekend, his latest diatribe was no exception:

“Here be my opinion, based on a lifetime wasted trying to “fix the system from within – and failing:”
There is no political solution to any of this. The system itself, the bureaucratic machine,
unaccountable in any election, is the real enemy. Not Juggears, not McWeenie, not the sycophantic dick-suckers in the media. They are symptoms of the disease. This labyrinthine “system” is the true plague, and it has been crafted to operate and push the statist agenda regardless of which temporary political muppet stands as the figurehead.

No, Emperor Dog-Eater didn’t tell the IRS to go after the Tea Party. The IRS is a federal appendage attacking threats to itself by reflex. The same with the FBI, TSA, and NSA. Nobody has to tell them to spy on or harass their foes. They automatically abuse their positions and authority to destroy, malign, and marginalize any “legitimate” dangers to their entrenchment.

More @ The Deth Guild

Fast and Furious details revealed in new book

Via avordvet

  

Sharyl Attkisson reports on the new book, "The Unarmed Truth," that reveals new details about the ATF gunwalking scandal known as Fast and Furious. The book is published by Threshold Editions, under Simon & Schuster, a division of CBS.

Blue States Turning on Controversial 'Common Core' School Standards

 

As controversy intensifies over new the Common Core educational standards, two Democrat-led states are showing signs of distancing themselves from the curriculum that the Obama administration has supported.

North Country Public Radio reported last week that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) has appeared to remove himself from the controversial Common Core.

“In recent days, Cuomo seems to have cooled from his initial endorsement of the rapid transition to the adoption of the national education standards,” wrote Karen DeWitt.

Asked by a reporter about the Common Core standards, Cuomo removed himself from the discontent that has generated boisterous meetings with state education officials, parents, and teachers.

More @ Breitbart

Josie The Outlaw: Why Good People Should Be Armed

Via Bearing Arms

A Textbook That Should Live in Infamy: The Common Core Assaults World War II

 

Saturday the 7th of December will mark the seventy-second anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The commemoration of that “date which will live in infamy” brings up memories of more than Pearl Harbor but of the entire American effort in World War II:

of the phenomenal production of planes and tanks and munitions by American industry; of millions of young men enlisting (with thousands lying about their age to get into the service); of the men who led the war, then and now seeming larger than life—Churchill and F.D.R., Eisenhower and MacArthur, Monty and Patton; and of the battles themselves in which uncommon valor was a common virtue:

Midway, D-Day, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima, to name only a few. Most of us today do not know those events directly but have encountered them in history books. And when we think of World War II, the people who come to mind first are our grandparents: the men and women of the Greatest Generation who are our surest link to the past.

More @ Townhall

Dissent Is the Highest Form of Tax Bracket

Via WiscoDave

 

In Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger, the eponymous Auric Goldfinger observes:

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times, it’s enemy action.

That may be overly generous.

A couple of weeks back, cancer patient Bill Elliot, in a defiant appearance on Fox News, discussed the cancelation of his insurance and what he intended to do about it. He’s now being audited.

Insurance agent C Steven Tucker, who quaintly insists that the whimsies of the hyper-regulatory bureaucracy do not trump your legal rights, saw the interview and reached out to Mr Elliot to help him. And he’s now being audited.

As the Instapundit likes to remind us, Barack Obama has “joked” publicly about siccing the IRS on his enemies. With all this coincidence about, we should be grateful the president is not (yet) doing prison-rape gags.

More @ NRO

War on Democracy: Spain and Japan Move to Criminalize Protests

Via WiscoDave

As might be expected as political and economic policy failures pile up and citizens become increasingly mad, the status quo is becoming increasingly authoritarian (recall blogger “Mish” was just fined 8,000 euros for a blog post).

In the latest disturbing news from a desperate power structure, the conservative government in Spain has passed an Orwellian bill titled the Citizens’ Security Law, which allows for fines of up to 600,000 euros ($816,000) for “unauthorized” street protests, and a 30,000 fine for merely having signs with “offensive” slogans against Spain or for wearing a mask.

This law is a perfect example of the increasing neo-feudalism being implemented across the globe by a corrupt, decadent and depraved status quo.

More @ Liberty Blitzkrieg

Legislative Time Bomb Could Retroactively Outlaw the Possession of Virtually all Guns with Non-Metal parts Wood stocks could be prohibited

“We look at [the plastic gun ban] as an infringement,” said GOA’s Erich Pratt.  “The law does nothing to keep undetectable guns out of the hands of criminals [who have] no regard for the law in the first place.” 

-- The Hill, November 28, 2013

URGENT ACTION:  The House did not take up the plastic gun ban yesterday.   So please continue contacting your legislators -- especially your Representative -- with today’s new message.  The House will most certainly vote today.  If you can, please call your Rep. at 202-225-3121.

Gun ban would be mischief for an anti-gun administration.

Sometimes it takes decades for a poorly-drafted anti-gun law to rise up and bite you. The 1968 gun ban for "mental defectives" sat around for 25 years before an anti-gun Clinton administration decided to use it to disarm more than 150,000 law-abiding veterans who had never been before a court.

The "plastic gun ban" is another massive time bomb sitting in federal law. And it will be reauthorized (for as much as a decade) in the next two weeks -- if we don't stop it.

Unless it existed before December 10, 1988, the plastic gun ban absolutely bans any gun that is not as detectable in a "walk-through metal detector" as a Security Exemplar [18 U.S.C. 922(p)(1)(A) and (6)].

The “Security Exemplar” is a piece of metal that the ATF uses to calibrate how much steel a manufacturer needs to put in the gun to make it beep in the metal detector.  Other than the fact that it has to contain 3.7 ounces of steel and look sort of like a gun, anti-gun Attorney General Eric Holder can determine, by regulatory fiat, the characteristics of the Exemplar.

He can determine whether you test guns with a "top flight" metal detector -- or a crummy one. He can determine how many times (or thousands of times) a gun has to pass in order not to be banned.

In addition, every "major component" of every firearm has to pass through an airport x-ray in such a way that its shape is "accurately" depicted [18 U.S.C. 922(p)(1)(B)].

The statute contains a list of parts of guns which are definitely "major components."  But is that list exclusive?  If we didn't have a President and an Attorney General who have violated and perverted the law again and again and again, we might be able to conclude that it was exclusive.  But the language is not so definitive as to protect us against an administration intent on destroying us.

So what if Holder determines that a wooden stock is a “major component”?

According to an expert we consulted, a wooden stock would produce an x-ray image which is "fuzzier" (less "accurate") than a metal gun would produce.  Interestingly, a wholly plastic gun would also produce an x-ray image, according to this expert, although it would be "fuzzier" (less "accurate") than that of a metal gun.

So, for those Republicans who are talking about locking us into an extension of this statute that could ban lots of guns ... tell them, “please don't.”

A couple of more points:

* It is simply not true that, if this statute is allowed to lapse, "killers can freely go into airports, courthouses, and schools to commit mass murder and mayhem."

X-ray machines will pick up the images of plastic guns.  And, unfortunately for the safety of the inhabitants, guns in airports, courthouses, and schools will remain illegal under 18 U.S.C. 922(q) and 930.

* And it is foolish to assume that the Jared Loughners and Adam Lanzas of the world -- intent on committing mass murder -- would somehow be deterred by a plastic gun ban.  That genie is already out of the bottle.

* Finally, it appears that New York Senator Chuck Schumer would like to take the potentially significant gun ban and expand it even further.

Thursday, November 21, Schumer tried to pass an expansion though the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent without even usual a standard Senate procedure for notifying other senators, called hot-lining. Almost two weeks AFTER HE TRIED TO PASS IT, the text of the Schumer bill was still not available.

But we do know that Schumer has been working all year to expand the plastic gun ban to shut down every gun manufacturer in America who makes guns using a mold.  We also know that Schumer has been trying to extend it even more explicitly to gun parts and magazines -- although it's hard to see what danger a plastic magazine would pose.

ACTION:   Click here to contact your senators and representative.  Tell them to oppose this effort to ban guns with wooden stocks. Call him or her at 202-225-3121.L

Goodies from Ol' Remus

Ol' Remus

1936. A kitchen in the Missouri Ozarks 

America came within a razor's edge of debt default, which many people rightly fear.  What some do not yet grasp, though, is that debt default of the U.S. was NOT avoided last month, it is INEVITABLE.  Debt default will ultimately result in the death of the dollar as the world reserve currency, and the petro-currency.  This final gasp will lead to hyperstagflation within our financial system, and third world status for most of the citizenry.  It is only a matter of time.
Brandon Smith at alt-market.com  

 How would you feel tomorrow if you read in the paper that a couple million spear-chucking cannibal savages had appeared in the south of your country and were marching north, killing and raping and eating everything in their path, regimented like zombies, attacking by ambush in overwhelming hordes? ... What would you do? Probably try to move to some remote caves high in the mountains where these creatures lack the endurance and toughness to reach. That's exactly what Neanderthals did.
Texas Arcane at vault-co.blogspot.com

The dirty little secret - When it comes to black mob violence, the same reporters who every day write about black caucuses, black colleges, black TV, and other race-based institutions, turn away. "We're color blind," they say. Many of these reporters are members of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Marlin Newburn at frontpagemag.com

Sharpton Blames Racism for 3/4 Killers and Victims Being Black - Black people are shooting other black people because of the NYPD's focus on black communities? So that must mean there are a whole lot of white people shooting other white people in New York that the NYPD doesn’t even know about because it’s too busy stopping and frisking project dwellers in Brownsville. If the NYPD were to focus on protecting white neighborhoods. It would be racist. When it focuses on protecting black neighborhoods, it’s racist and somehow responsible for all the shootings.
Daniel Greenfield at frontpagemag.com 

The cost of "diversity" in universities - It is personally unfair, passes over better-qualified students, and sets a disturbing legal, political, and moral precedent in allowing racial discrimination; it creates resentment; it stigmatizes the so-called beneficiaries in the eyes of their classmates, teachers, and themselves, as well as future employers, clients, and patients; it mismatches African Americans and Latinos with the school, setting them up for failure; it fosters a victim mindset, removes the incentive for academic excellence, and encourages separatism; it compromises the academic mission of the university and lowers the overall academic quality of the student body; it creates pressure to discriminate in grading and graduation.
Roger Clegg at ceousa.org

 Obama is an empty construct of what the future was supposed to be; young charismatic, post-racial, post-partisan and solution-oriented. Now he's already becoming old and outdated, a future that was, a future that might have been, a poster on an aging Occupier's wall, a fading magazine cover, another progressive dead end for a movement always dreaming of a tomorrow that never comes.
Daniel Greenfield at sultanknish.blogspot.com.au

Everyday

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