Auld Lang Syne: 'It's A Wonderful Life'

Bill de Blasio On Horse-Drawn Carriage Industry: "It's Over"

Via Daily Timewaster

Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio vowed to act quickly to abolish horse-drawn carriages in the city.

"We are going to get rid of the horse carriages. Period,” de Blasio said in response to a question at his press conference announcing his schools chancellor pick Monday.

“It’s over,” he said.

More @ New York Daily News

Dem bill would end death penalty for federal law

Dated

Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and seven other Democrats have proposed legislation that would eliminate the possibility of imposing the death penalty for a range of federal offenses, including several categories of murder and crimes against the government like treason and espionage.

The Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act, H.R. 3741, would end the death penalty for assassination or kidnapping that results in the death of the president or vice president, and also ends it for the murder of a member of Congress.

Under the bill, the death penalty could no longer be used to punish people for using a weapon of mass destruction, or murder done via torture, child abuse, war crimes, aircraft hijackings, sexual abuse, bank robberies or the willful wrecking of a train.

More @ The Hill

Police forbid Connecticut gun activist from ‘soliciting’ on DESPP grounds

Via WRSA

An officer of a Constitution State gun rights group says he was ordered Tuesday morning to stop passing out business cards to gun owners waiting in line to register guns and magazines in compliance with a new state law. Lenny Benedetto, a founding member and Vice President of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, says he was threatened with arrest outside the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection in Middletown if he continued inviting those in the queue to learn more about his organization and how they could join and support the group’s lawsuit against the new law.

More @ Examiner

1965 Shelby 427 Competition Cobra CSX3016, 1966 Sebring Class Winner

- 1965 Shelby Cobra CSX3016

- 1 of 23 factory competition Cobra

- Class winner 1966 12 Hours of Sebring
- Driven by Bob Grossman
- Broke track record at Watkins Glen in 1966
- Raced at Lime Rock and Bridgehampton, NY
- Restoration done by Shelby experts Mike McCluskey and Billy Andrews
- Painted in Original Sebring winning colors
- CSX listed in both Shelby Registry and Shelby American Guide 1st edition, pg. 47

More @ MECUM

Why Obamacare Will Only Get Less Popular

 

Lisa Myers has an excellent investigative reporting piece up at NBC News documenting how one small business is dealing with Obamacare. The quotes from the article are just brutal:

The 41 employees of Extreme Dodge in Jackson, Mich., are very familiar with trade-ins, but this year they’re learning about trade-offs as they come face to face with the new realities of health care. A few workers say they’re getting a great deal, but most have a severe case of sticker shock.
“I feel like I’ve been taken to the cleaners,” said Neal Campbell, a salesman.
...
“How is this helping the average American that’s working 40 to 50 hours per week?” said Terry Hardcastle, a salesperson. “How are we supposed to live?”
Cathy Smith, who’d hoped she’d qualify for a subsidy and made just a little too much money, had tears in her eyes. "You don't make that much money to begin with,” she said, “and the prescriptions are going to kill me."
...
"There are some people who do come out ahead, but I would say the overwhelming majority, they’re paying much higher rates and they have lower benefits.”
...

Among the hardest hit is Campbell, a salesman with a wife and three young children, all of whom are active in athletics. The premium payments currently deducted weekly from his paycheck will increase $77, to a total of $221 per week. “That’s a huge part of the budget,” he said. “We feel betrayed, lied to, and we're pissed off.”

More @ Townhall

Va Flaggers: 2013 Year In Review

As we approach the end of 2013, the Virginia Flaggers look back with awe and amazement on what has been a phenomenal year, and with sincerest appreciation for each person whose support and encouragement has made it possible.  Like MANY of you, our folks have been busy, and we want to share just a glimpse of what we have been up to…

For the second year, the Va Flaggers led two days of Flagging in Lexington, VA, in January, to protest the City Council’s discriminatory flag ban, and honor Lee & Jackson on the State holiday.  As in 2012, we sponsored a banner plane, which circled the town during the events on Saturday, and participated in the parade and memorial services.

That same month, Va Flagger TriPp Lewis was arrested for carrying a Confederate Flag on Confederate Memorial Park, on the grounds of the Old Soldiers’ Home in Richmond.  Tripp was carrying the flag as a tribute to his ancestor on the day marking the anniversary of his admittance into the home.  A groundswell of support brought in funds to pay his legal fees, and all criminal charges were dismissed in August.  This laid the groundwork for Civil action, which is currently pending, and will serve to address the ongoing violations of constitutional rights and continued desecration of the Confederate Memorial Chapel and Confederate Memorial Park by the VMFA. 

Throughout the year, our ongoing vigil at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts continued.  EVERY WEEK, TWICE A WEEK, members of the Va Flaggers gathered to forward the colors and protest the forced removal of Confederate Flags from the Confederate Memorial Chapel.  Started in October of 2011, we could never have imagined that what we do there every week would make such a difference.  Each week, we see the fruits of our efforts, as we change hearts and minds, and change the landscape in Richmond.   By our records, our Flaggers logged over 3,000 hours of flagging  at the VMFA alone,  in 2013.  This front, on the sidewalk of the Boulevard, is only one of many which we are pursuing in the battle to RETURN the flags and RESTORE the honor to the Chapel.

In August, news of the sellout of the Museum of the Confederacy meant we added its Richmond location to our flagging schedule, and we have maintained a presence ever since, reminding museum officials that there are those of us who do not take kindly to seeing our heritage and history sold to the highest bidder, and to let visitors and guests know of the shenanigans taking place. 

Susan had the pleasure of speaking at dozens of SCV meetings, and even her first UDC speaking engagement, as she traveled to 9 states during the year, sharing information about heritage defense and encouraging others to take a stand for their ancestors. In April, she was especially honored to speak at the raising of the World’s Largest Third National Flag in Tampa. 

In July, she was pleased to attend the SCV National Reunion in Vicksburg, where she was well received and thrilled to meet so many friends and supporters.  The highlight of the trip was receiving  heritage defense awards on behalf of many of the Va Flaggers, and the news that Susan was awarded the Stephen Dill Lee award, the highest award offered to a non-SCV member by the SCV.

Throughout the year, Flaggers attended dozens of memorial services, including traveling to Point Lookout for the Annual Pilgrimage, and to Sharpsburg for the Memorial Illumination, as well as many, many other local and nearby events.  We saw the formation of other flagging groups across the South, and have assisted with their organization and activities as much as possible, and have lent a hand with other heritage defense issues when help was requested.  We also were and are active in clean-up projects in several local cemeteries, and were proud to facilitate the return of the Robert E. Lee signage to the bridge in Richmond that is named in his honor, which had been missing for some time.

In early August, and in order to raise necessary funds, we announced plans for a Battle Flag Memorial on I-95 near Chester.  Picked up almost immediately by a few liberal news outlets, the intense media publicity and scrutiny that ensued over the next months surprised even the most seasoned heritage defense veterans. 

We unveiled the 15x15 ANV Battle Flag on the steps of the Capitol in Richmond, and the breathtaking photo from that moment, along with the historical information of the birth of the CBF, quickly became viral, and was widely circulated in social media and by news agencies. 

In the end, all of the media attention served to bring us more support than we ever imagined, and on September 28^th, in spite of those who said it would never happen,  a 15x15 ANV Battle Flag was triumphantly raised on I-95 in Chester to a crowd of 300+ with absolutely no protests or problems… and still flies today… a living, breathing memorial to the Confederate Soldier. 

For several months, almost daily, the local paper’s editorial page carried an opinion piece about the flag, one way or the other, and has opened the door for many discussions about our heritage.  There was a GREAT piece published in the Wall Street Journal and we were interviewed by media outlets as far away as Great Britain.  EACH TIME we are able to get such coverage, it is a chance to get OUR MESSAGE out…that of the honor and valor of the Confederate Soldier!  A real, and very unexpected byproduct of this was that with each interview, televised news story, or published  article, the spotlight once again was focused on the VMFA and the desecration of the Confederate Memorial Chapel, giving us new platforms to expose their misconduct,  and new support for our efforts there.

Since the flag was raised, we have been contacted by many people with land adjacent to I-95, and other interstates, who are looking to be a part of future projects.  We are looking forward to seeing these projects continue across Virginia and beyond, as land and funds are made available.

The Va Flaggers look back on 2013 and are overwhelmed at all that was accomplished, and overcome with gratitude for each and every person who gave of their time, talents, and resources to make it happen.  As much as we have to be thankful for, we look forward to 2014 with even more excitement and hope that with the blessings of our Creator, and the cheering on of a great cloud of witnesses, 2014 will be the year that the flags will be returned to the Confederate Memorial Chapel, and that Southerners across Virginia and beyond decided to take a stand for our Confederate Heritage, and push back against those who would desecrate our memorials and dishonor the memory of our Confederate dead. 

We have only just begun to fight…will you join us?


BEST WISHES FOR A SAFE, HAPPY, AND VERY CONFEDERATE NEW YEAR!


Grayson Jennings
Va Flaggers

70-year-old beaten while trying to slow neighborhood cars

A 70-year-old man pushing his wife in a wheelchair with his granddaughter by his side says he was beaten for trying to slow a car down in his neighborhood.

It happened around 6:00 p.m. Friday night along 60^th Ave. Drive West in Bradenton.

All James Gorman wanted was for a car speeding down the road to slow down. That car ended up stopping, and what happened next would end up putting James Gorman in the hospital.

"That's a thumb in the eyeball," says James Gorman, who lives in West Bradenton.

Gorman's black eye is just the start. He has a torn rotator cuff, broken glasses, and pounding headaches.

More @ WTSP

Paramedic races to save child, gets booted

An upstate New York volunteer emergency medical technician has been suspended after breaking the rules to drive a sick four-year-old child to the hospital in an ambulance.

 Stephen Sawyer, 20, was at the rescue squad’s headquarters in Ellenville, N.Y., with another EMT and an ambulance driver, when a call came in about a child having seizures.

 A paramedic already at the child’s home asked for an ambulance, reports New York’s Times Herald-Record.

 Two minutes later, another call came in about an elderly man injured in a fall. Sawyer advised the ambulance at the station to respond to that call, not realizing no other emergency vehicles were available to respond to the child’s home, according to the Daily Freeman.

 Sawyer called four ambulance services over the next 15 minutes, but but all were busy or too far away to respond. Despite squad rules requiring ambulance drivers to be 21 years old or older, Sawyer climbed into the ambulance himself, drove the five miles to the child’s house and took the child, his mother and the paramedic to Ellenville Regional Hospital.

 “I wouldn’t have been able to sleep at night or go to school knowing there’s a four-year-old suffering,” Sawyer told the newspaper.

 The following Monday, he was called in front of the Ellenville squad’s seven-member board of directors and asked to explain himself.

More @ WND

Tante Marie........

........was the aunt of my brother-in-law, a VMI graduate. My sister complied a book which has her correspondence with the Army, government and her brother in Richmond from 1945 until 1949 when she returned to this country.  There are many fascinating letters.

 

v

The Pursuit of Racial Amity

 

 

Pondering the smoking ruins of American racial policy, I wonder whether it isn’t time to say publicly what many, if not most, of both races know: It isn’t working. It isn’t going to work. If it were, it would have. If it were working, we would not need the unending laws to force the races together when they don’t want to be together. If people wanted diversity, it would happen without compulsion..

 

The hope that black and white would mingle amicably if only segregation were dismantled relied on a peculiarly American inattention to life and history, and on a belief that people will behave as we want them to, instead of how they observably do behave. Human nature remains human nature, no matter how hard one holds one’s breath and turns blue.

 

It is not an easy thing that we try to do. Frequently, far smaller disparities than those between black and white lead to bloody conflict. Catholics and Protestants, Shia and Sunni, Jew and Christian are often virtually indistinguishable, yet share a history of internecine butchery of each other.  Is there anywhere an example of two groups so large and utterly different as blacks and whites successfully merging?

 

Despite our best imaginings, race is far more than skin deep. The races differ wildly in culture, appearance, attitudes, views of each other, language, musical taste, dress, attitudes toward law, education, family, and the role of government.

 

Much of what blacks believe about whites is almost psychotic. Exceptions and degrees, yes, but the centerline remains.  

 

More @ Fred On Everything

Sheriff Dart’s Tirade Against Concealed Carry Highlights Antigunner Hypocrisy

 

As many of you readers know, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart recently launched an offensive against Illinois’ newly-passed concealed carry law.

Describing the new law as a “monstrosity,” Dart complained that the law is fraught with loopholes that will allow dangerous individuals to acquire carry permits.

Dart complained further that restrictions limiting access to state and federal crime databases inhibit his office’s ability to object to the issuance of carry permits to Cook County residents.

In the end, Dart threatened to seek an injunction against the issuance of carry permits to anyone in Illinois until such time that the carry law was amended to his liking.

The timing of Dart’s rant against concealed carry is rather interesting. Just days before his tirade, the “Chicago Tribune” ran a feature story exposing the failure of the Cook County Probation Department to keep track of criminals out on probation. The article details the threats posed to society by criminals left unsupervised by Cook County’s broken probation system – the most glaring of which was the murder of young Hadiya Pendleton by three-time loser Micheail Ward.

More @ AmmoLand

Seal Commander Says Special Operations Assault On Obama Has Begun!

Roundabout via avordvet

 

Liberty Digest Last week saw US Military Special Forces be raised to the forefront of the political picture. Retired stepped up and says that the Special Operations Assault on President Obama has just begun.

Last week it seemed like your typical week in the saga of President Obama accusing Republicans of unfairly criticizing him over the Benghazi situation and leaked classified information. Trouble is, it wasn’t the pesky Republicans he should have been blaming for the attack on his presidency. It is not an unfair assessment either, considering the sources.

Ryan Zinke is a retired Navy Seal Commander. He wasn’t the commander of just any Seal Team, he was the commander of Seal Team Six. He is now a Montana State Senator and has launched his own personal finances at starting the new Super Pac, Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc.

Along with the now fired Generals that say they are watching President Obama, his new organization is doing more than saying that President Obama leaked National Security information and unfairly took credit for killing Osama Bin Laden, they intend to prove it.

More @ Gunny G

Businesses brace for 'serious cuts' as city enacts highest-in-nation $15 minimum wage

 

As talk builds on Capitol Hill over hiking the federal minimum wage, one city in Washington state is poised to set the highest rate in the nation.

On Jan. 1, an estimated 1,600 hotel and transportation workers in SeaTac, Wash., will see their pay jump to $15 an hour, a 60 percent increase from the state's $9.32 minimum wage.

While many workers look forward to the higher pay, employers are looking for ways to absorb the big increase in labor costs. Some plan on eliminating jobs.

"We're going to be looking at making some serious cuts," said Cedarbrook Lodge General Manager Scott Ostrander. "We're going to be looking at reducing employee hours, reducing benefits and eliminating some positions."

More @ Fox

Medal of Honor Roll Call: David C. Dolby

 

Rank and organization. Sergeant (then Sp4c.), U.S. Army, Company B, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). Place and date. Republic of Vietnam, 21 May 1966. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Born: 14 May 1946, Norristown, Pa.  G.O. No.: 45, 20 October 1967.

Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty, when his platoon, while advancing tactically, suddenly came under intense fire from the enemy located on a ridge immediately to the front. Six members of the platoon were killed instantly and a number were wounded, including the platoon leader. Sgt. Dolby’s every move brought fire from the enemy. However, aware that the platoon leader was critically wounded, and that the platoon was in a precarious situation, Sgt. Dolby moved the wounded men to safety and deployed the remainder of the platoon to engage the enemy.

Subsequently, his dying platoon leader ordered Sgt. Dolby to withdraw the forward elements to rejoin the platoon. Despite the continuing intense enemy fire and with utter disregard for his own safety, Sgt. Dolby positioned able-bodied men to cover the withdrawal of the forward elements, assisted the wounded to the new position, and he, alone, attacked enemy positions until his ammunition was expended. Replenishing his ammunition, he returned to the area of most intense action, single-handedly killed 3 enemy machine gunners and neutralized the enemy fire, thus enabling friendly elements on the flank to advance on the enemy redoubt.

 He defied the enemy fire to personally carry a seriously wounded soldier to safety where he could be treated and, returning to the forward area, he crawled through withering fire to within 50 meters of the enemy bunkers and threw smoke grenades to mark them for air strikes. Although repeatedly under fire at close range from enemy snipers and automatic weapons, Sgt. Dolby directed artillery fire on the enemy and succeeded in silencing several enemy weapons.

He remained in his exposed location until his comrades had displaced to more secure positions. His actions of unsurpassed valor during 4 hours of intense combat were a source of inspiration to his entire company, contributed significantly to the success of the overall assault on the enemy position, and were directly responsible for saving the lives of a number of his fellow soldiers. Sgt. Dolby’s heroism was in the highest tradition of the U.S. Army.

How About Nullification In 2014?

Via Billy

As we approach the year 2014 there are dire predictions all around about what’s coming. One I recently read said, of 2014, “More of the same, only worse.” I can understand the rationale for that. Comrade Obama will only be through half of his last (so we are told) term in office by 2014 and he has lots of damage left to do yet. His handlers over at the Council on Foreign Relations expect him to have our economy and most of the middle class totally incapacitated before he leaves office to be replaced by Ms. Hitlery Clinton in 2016. If he accomplishes that then Comrade Klinton will not have to work too hard to preside over the ruins of what was once America but has now become Amerika—The United Socialist States of Amerika—the “People’s Republic.”

Congress, for the most part, with a few exceptions, is bought and paid for by the same crowd that pulls Comrade Obama’s puppet strings, so you can’t expect much help there. The Supreme Court justices, most of which are so concerned how future generations of socialists will view them, will be no help to ordinary Americans (remember their vote on Obamacare?).

The whole thing has been set up so that most Americans will be so beset by the futility of what they see around them that they will just cave in and offer no resistance to the One World government crowd.

More @ Revised History

MSNBC Panel Mocks Photo of Romney Holding Adopted Black Grandson

An MSNBC panel cruelly ridiculed a Mitt Romney family photo showing the former Republican presidential candidate holding his adopted black grandson Kieran, conservative blogger Caleb Howe says.

The mockery came during Sunday's Melissa Harris-Perry show, on which she hosted a panel of entertainers commenting on photos of the year.

More with video @ Newsmax

Always complaining :)

 Via Dashing

 

Free gun lubricant

Via Daily Timewaster

Arab Six-Year-Old Girl Robs Jewellery Store Saudi Arabia

Via It Ain't Holy Water