General Matt W. Ransom, North Carolina Unionist

 His great grandson, Matt Ransom Johnson, was my playmate in Littleton as a child.  We used to go to Mosby Hall and dig for whatever we could find.  He still lives in Littleton and comes to pick up some of my pecans each year at Dixieland.

General Matt W. Ransom of North Carolina was among the prewar unionists in the South abandoned by Lincoln and his purely sectional party.  They counseled Lincoln to let Fort Sumter go and allow a cooling-off period to restore harmony to the country, rather than precipitate an unnecessary crisis and war.  This former Unionist bravely led his men at Seven Pines, Malvern Hill [wounded], Sharpsburg, Boone’s Hill, Suffolk, Plymouth, Drewry’s Bluff [desperately wounded], Fort Steadman, Five Forks, and many other Petersburg-area battles. 

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 North Carolina’s War Between the States Sesquicentennial

General Matt W. Ransom, North Carolina Unionist

“Union men in the South have ever been of the opinion that [Lincoln’s call for troops after Sumter] was a great blunder, and that it solidified the entire South, driving Virginia and North Carolina into the new Confederacy . . . the fall of Fort Sumter and the call for North Carolina to furnish her quota of troops to invade South Carolina totally changed the aspect of affairs.

All over the State courageous and patriotic men had been loudly pleading the cause of the Union.  At that very time a union and peace assemblage had gathered in Wilkesboro and earnest men were making stirring appeals for the old flag.

[Zebulon] Vance, now fast growing into a popular idol, was in the very act of imploring the God of Nations to avert the awful catastrophe of civil war, and had both hands uplifted to High Heaven, when suddenly someone in the crowd read the telegram announcing the capture of Fort Sumter and Lincoln’s call for troops. In describing the scene thereafter, Governor Vance said, “When these hands of mine were lowered, they fell by the side of a secessionist.”

In his heart he despised the extremists of both sides.  The appeal to a higher law than the Constitution to abolish slavery smote on his ear like a fire bell in the night. The assertion that the Constitution of our country was a league with the devil and a covenant with hell he resented with all the bitterness of his nature . . . [though] above all Ransom and other old line Whigs, and some Democrats as well, knew that sooner or later slavery had to go.  The civilized world was against it.

One of the finest spectacles this world has seen, or will see, is the conduct of Robert E. Lee, Matt W. Ransom, and other men who loved the union with all the intensity of their nature, when the time for fighting was at hand. It was not their war. They were against it.

But when war actually came, Ransom and the other peace men went to the front, fought bravely and made no complaints. “If we must fight,” they said, “we will fight strangers. We will not fight our brothers and neighbors.”

Such conduct is an attribute of very high virtue, and it is the foundation stone upon which the men of the South are this day laying broad and deep a civilization most attractive and enduring.

Ransom was opposed to slavery and favored its gradual abolition.  Our Constitution might have guaranteed slavery in its every line, but this would not have prevented its downfall.  He thought that the war was useless and a crime.  Vainly he hoped to avert civil war and its horrors . . . as member of the Legislature from Northampton County in 1861 he was most active in securing the passage of a bill creating a [Montgomery] Peace Commission, with instructions to repair to the capital of the new Confederacy and to restore the relations of the seceding States to the Union . . . but their task was a vain one.

[Ransom] resigned his seat [and] volunteered as a private soldier in the ranks, bade farewell to these historic halls [of the Legislature] and went forth to defend his native State. On the 8^th of May, 1861, he was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the First Regiment of Infantry, and from this date until April 9, 1865, when Appomattox put an end to Southern hopes, whenever duty called, or danger was the thickest, this brave man could always be found.”

(Unveiling of the Bust of Matt Whitaker Ransom, Address of Robert W. Winston, January 21, 1911; North Carolina Historical Commission, 1911, pp. 10; 16-19) 

Health care spending spikes by a staggering 9.9% 1st 1/4, fastest since 1980

Via Angry Mike

 Ding-dong

Just three months ago, President Obama was trying to claim that his signature domestic accomplishment, Obamacare, was responsible for slowing health care spending in the United States.

 That claim was widely debunked by fact checkers at the time since health care spending began to fall long before Obamacare was passed, and has since began to rise.

But now all pretense that Obamacare would lower health care costs has been destroyed.

More @ Townhall

Subway removes ham and bacon from nearly 200 stores and offers halal meat only after 'strong demand' from Muslims

Via Susan

Fast food giant Subway has removed ham and bacon from almost 200 outlets, and switched to halal meat alternatives in an attempt to please its Muslim customers.

It has confirmed turkey ham and turkey rashers will be used instead in 185 of its stores, where all the meat will now be prepared according to halal rules.

The chain, which has around 1,500 outlets across the UK, explained its decision by saying it had to balance animal welfare concerns with 'the views of religious communities'. 

More @ Daily Mail

The Heat Death of Democracy

 

 

 

"In a Closed System, Stupidity Tends to Increase Until It Reaches a Maximum"

Long-time readers, if there is one, will notice that I have written of much of this before. I thought it worth another take.

In something called Upshot, apparently the love child of the New York Times, I find a piece by a negligible robot happily chronicling the failures of boys in school. This has become a ritual for feminists and pussy-whipped male Sonderkommandos.  If smugness and condescension were oil, these tali-wagging unmen would be gushers, maybe a gas fielñd.

This particular dropping rattles on (if droppings rattle) about the superior “social skills” of girls, which in fact they have. (“Social skills” is illiterate sociobabble. It is plural, so I ask, what are these skills? Bright smile? Curtsey? Subtle flattery? “Sally has a really good bright smile, but her subtle flattery needs work.”)

After running on about the superior social skills of girls (meaning that they are docile, obedient, easily managed, and seek approval from teachers), the author, David Leonhardt, points out that girls are getting far more four-year college degrees, etc. All true.

He does not point out is that schools at all levels have been made (deliberately, I think) so hostile to males (the endless sexual-harassment propaganda), with so heavy an emphasis on procedure complied with instead of material mastered (neat homework, pretty pictures pasted into projects), and so much emphasis on socialization to feminine norms and on inculcation of Appropriate Values, that boys are asphyxiated. It is intellectual water-boarding. And has produced the desired result.

More @ Fred On Everything

CCW permit experience so far in Orange County California

 

Imagine the amount of taxpayer's money wasted. 

From a fire fighter son-in-law who lives in San Clemente

*******************************

Halfway through the process, had two interviews, a visit from a deputy to my neighbors and I go in for Livescan fingerprinting in a few weeks.

Mid July I take my Orange County approved CCW course ( even though I have taken numerous firearm courses and have a CCW in Utah and Nevada )

Pay my $186 and I should have it by August unless something gets reversed.

Todd

Black Bear Sightings Becoming More Common in North Carolina

Black bear sightings throughout North Carolina are becoming more common as the bear population increases and bears expand their home range. While black bears are not inherently dangerous and are rarely aggressive toward people, the Wildlife Commission provides guidelines the public can follow to avoid potential conflicts.

More @ NC Wildlife

Race Relations

Via Billy

Did Illegals Misusing SSNs Earn More on Average Than US Women?

 

If you simultaneously accept estimates published by the Census Bureau and the Chief Actuary of Social Security, then illegal aliens who misused Social Security numbers to work illegally in the United States in 2010 earned more on average than American women did.

The Office of the Chief Actuary published an analysis in April 2013 entitled, "Effects of Unauthorized Immigration on the Actuarial Status of the Social Security Trust Funds." It included this question and answer:

More @ Townhall

Differences Don’t Necessarily Equal Discrimination

Via Susan

 

Well, another Equal Pay Day has come and gone. This year it came on April 8th to represent how long into 2014 a woman would have to work to make what a man did in 2013. The highlight this year was when White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tried to explain away the pay gap between men and women in the White House by saying that when men and women hold similar positions, they are paid the same. And while the federally commissioned CONSAD report from a few years back found virtually the same thing nationwide, the Obama administration still pushed forward its executive order to end the gender wage gap.

This is nothing new of course. Equal Pay Day and other things of that sort have always required a large degree of cognitive dissonance. Back in 2012, the adult actress Sasha Grey made a PSA (a very explicit one at that) for the Belgium version of Equal Pay Day saying “porn is about the only way to make more than men.” In its analysis of the PSA Jezebel accuses the ad of sending “mixed messages.”[1] The first mixed message one might wonder about is why, if women are discriminated against, is such discrimination not relatively uniform? After all, not only do adult actresses make more than their male colleagues, but the same goes for models. Indeed, in 2013, the top ten male models made only about one tenth of what the top ten female models made. Why is this?

More @ Mises

Letter To Washington & Lee University

Via Virginia Flaggers 

202 Washington Hall
Lexington, VA 24450

Re: Demands of "The Committee"

Dear Sirs and Madam:

I, like many others, have been following the media accounts of the demands made by a small group of W&L Law students who refer to themselves as “The Committee”. I feel that it is incumbent upon me, and others who feel as I do, to write and urge you, in the strongest terms possible, to resist any inclination to capitulate to these specious demands, whose sole intent is to disparage the memory of General Lee, defile his final resting place and besmirch the reputation of the institution whose very existence he is largely responsible for securing.

These students should be reminded that had it not been for the courage and foresight of the trustees of Washington College to appeal to General Lee, in the late summer of 1865, to accept the presidency of that destitute school, and had he not accepted that position and begun to raise the funds required to maintain and improve that facility with alacrity, their latter-day condemnation of the man and the institution would be moot.

Now to address the specifics of the "demands" themselves:

1. This has already been addressed by the university.

2. The term "Neo-Confederate" is sometimes employed as a pejorative description, or ad hominem slur, for people who take a sympathetic view of southern history and for southerners in general, even when they do not belong to or espouse the ideas of a "Neo-Confederate" organization. That is the case here. The people who gather in Lexington for the Lee-Jackson Day parade and memorial service in Lee Chapel do so solely to honor the memory and service of two great Virginians, not to espouse or advance any agenda. Even a casual observer cannot help but note the solemnity and reverence displayed during the memorial service. Whether "The Committee" likes it or not, Lee Chapel is an icon, a beacon that draws people from all walks of life and from all parts of the country for this one hour service, once a year. For the demands of seven individuals to deny hundreds the right to assemble for an annual, peaceful event would be an injustice of significant magnitude.

3. To the best of my knowledge, the only Confederate flags displayed on campus, at least publicly, are those around the recumbent statue of Lee in the Chapel. Those are regimental battle flags representing some of the regiments that Lee commanded in the Army of Northern Virginia. They are soldiers' flags, not, as many would have you believe, symbolic of anything other than the brotherhood of valor that comprised that gallant body of men, Lee's "boys". Those flags are there representing the devotion and respect of those veterans for their old commander, "Marse Robert". To remove them, for any reason, would border on sacrilege.

4. I am unaware of just what "The Committee" means by the participation of the University in chattel slavery. I do know that many people and institutions, including some of the oldest and most prominent families in New England and any number of great financial institutions, carry a far greater burden of guilt for chattel slavery than does Washington and Lee University, yet I hear no hue and cry for apologies from them. I do know, that like many other Virginians, slaveholding and non-slaveholding, the faculty and students of Washington College rallied to the call to defend Virginia from a pending Northern invasion. Co. I, the Liberty Hall Volunteers of the 4th Virginia Infantry Regiment of the famed Stonewall Brigade was made up almost exclusively of those students and their professors. And they sacrificed mightily; only a pitiful remnant of nine men from that company remained standing at Appomattox.

So far as denouncing Lee for his participation in chattel slavery, it is apparent that these students know little of nothing of General Lee's involvement with the "peculiar institution". If they were conversant with it, they would know that Lee, owning no slaves himself, had, as the executor of his father-in-law's estate, manumitted all of the Custis slaves by 1863. As far as the University "denouncing Lee", one cannot escape the irony inherent in that "demand". Indeed! Denounce the man, who more than any other single individual, is responsible for these young people having this institution to attend.

In closing, I urge you not to surrender to the emotion-charged and misleading rhetoric of a tiny minority of the student body, .4 of 1% of the total enrollment. I also ask you to ponder why, in the case of several individuals who are second and third year law students, it took them so long to become "offended". To cave in to their outrageous "demands", couched in the most divisive, disrespectful and racially evocative terms imaginable, would do a disservice to the University, the majority of the enrolled students and the Commonwealth of Virginia."

W. A. Dennison, Bristol, VA

Supreme Court green lights detention of Americans

Via Cousin John

 

 Traitors, all.

 A decision from the U.S. Supreme Court means the federal government now has an open door to “detain as a threat to national security anyone viewed as a troublemaker,” critics of the high court’s ruling said.

The high court by its own order this week refused to review an appellate-level decision that says the president and U.S. military can arrest and indefinitely detain individuals.

Officials with William J. Olson, P.C., a firm that filed an amicus brief asking the court to step in, noted that not a single justice dissented from the denial of certiorari.

“The court ducked, having no appetite to confront both political parties in order to protect the citizens from military detention,” the legal team told WND. “The government has won, creating a tragic moment for the people – and what will someday be viewed as an embarrassment for the court.”

More @ WND

The Fall Of Saigon April 30, 1975: 39th Remembrance

 

More @ FNC

New Benghazi Emails Mean Obama Impeachment Trial Must Be Launched

Via Daily Timewaster

I didn’t know how right I was when I wrote on September 29, 2012 “Benghazi Worse then Watergate.”

With the release of new emails it is spectacularly worse — so bad in fact that it has made a full investigation with an impeachment trial necessary for the protection of our republic.

From the Washington Free Beacon:

Previously unreleased internal Obama administration emails show that a coordinated effort was made in the days following the Benghazi terror attacks to portray the incident as “rooted in [an] Internet video, and not [in] a broader failure or policy.”

Emails sent by senior White House adviser Ben Rhodes to other top administration officials reveal an effort to insulate President Barack Obama from the attacks that killed four Americans.

Rhodes sent this email to top White House officials such as David Plouffe and Jay Carney just a day before National Security Adviser Susan Rice made her infamous Sunday news show appearances to discuss the attack.

The “goal,” according to these emails, was “to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy.”

The levels of criminality involved in this are mind-boggling.  Everyone from Ben Rhodes to Hillary Clinton to Jay Carney to Susan Rice to Mike Morell to Barack Obama and on and on must explain themselves minute-by-minute. American “liberals” and their media consorts should search their souls. People died here.

More @ PJ Media

III Citadel PatCon & Brock's NC PATCON

NC PatCon: We are now fewer than two weeks from gathering once again at Brock's place in North Carolina.  Holly and I are eager to be back among fellow Patriots in such a wonderful environment. 

We will be teaching Fight to your Weapon on Friday the 9th, and are pleased so many class alumni will be there.  Two of our III 300 Patriots have offered to share some of their Krav techniques with us as well, so be ready to train!  After CQB Holly and I will be joining Grenadier for his Georgia Force-on-Force introductory class.  He'll be introducing Patriots to using AirSoft guns as training aids - we are really looking forward to this class.  H & I are looking forward to meeting G1.  Saturday Brock has a full day planned, including speeches and discussions.  Of course nightly campfires will certainly again be highlights.

More @ III Percent Patriots

The Incredibly Stupid One at the Hanoi Hilton

Via WRSA

SN HEGDAHL, USS CANBERRA – PRISONER OF WAR

 By Dick “Beak” Stratton, Captain, USN (Ret.)

It was a warmer than usual summer day in Clark, South Dakota when a rather large and ungainly young man, a recent high school graduate, set about finding his way in the world. The salivating Navy recruiter asked the youngster what it would take to have him sign up: “why, I’d like to go to Australia .” It was as good as done. After all, in 1966, if you were lucky enough to ship out on the USS Canberra, more likely than not, during the course of your hitch, there will be a port call to the ship’s namesake— Canberra , Australia . 

 More @ Cherries Writer

The "choking cop" gets fired

Via Angry Mike

A Tennessee Sheriff’s office has fired a deputy whose excessive actions against a compliant detainee were photographed and circulated on the Internet over the weekend. The pictures appear to show the deputy methodically choking a handcuffed University of Tennessee student until the young man drops unconscious to his knees.

Knox County, Tenn. Sheriff J.J. Jones fired deputy Frank Phillips, a 24-year veteran of the department, after British publication the Daily Mail published pictures that freelance photographer John Messner had taken of the incident.

More with video @ Personal Liberty Digest

Russia offers to deliver American astronauts to ISS using trampoline after U.S. strengthens sanctions :)

Via u_96 
 

 More @ Ria.ru

OK to sell widow's home over $6 bill, judge rules

 

A widow was given ample notice before her $280,000 house was sold at a tax auction three years ago over $6.30 in unpaid interest, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled.

The decision last week turned down Eileen Battisti's request to reverse the September 2011 sale of her home outside Aliquippa in western Pennsylvania.

"I paid everything, and didn't know about the $6.30," Battisti said. "For the house to be sold just because of $6.30 is crazy."

Battisti, who still lives in the house, said Monday that she plans to appeal to Commonwealth Court. That court earlier ordered an evidentiary hearing, which led to last week's ruling.

More @ Fox

Major Victory for Student Safety and Privacy: inBloom National Database Shuts Down

 

On Monday, April 21, inBloom, the controversial company formed with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to create a national database of student-specific data, announced that it is closing its doors. This is a huge victory for student privacy advocates.

Home School Legal Defense Association has long opposed such Orwellian attempts to track students from preschool through graduation from college and entry into the workforce. We believe that a national database would not only threaten the privacy of students, but would also be susceptible to abuse by government officials or corporate representatives and could jeopardize student safety.

Detailed national data systems are unnecessary to educate young people.

More @ HSLDA

Violence flares in Ukraine, deepening 'Iron Curtain' crisis

 

Fresh violence erupted in eastern Ukraine Tuesday as thousands of pro-Russian protesters stormed key buildings, escalating the crisis after Moscow hit back at "Iron Curtain"-style Western sanctions.

A mob spearheaded by around 30 men carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles and grenade-launchers attacked the regional police headquarters in Lugansk, raising the heat in the worst East-West confrontation since the Cold War.

They had earlier seized the regional prosecutors' office, tearing down the Ukrainian flag and replacing it with that of Russia, which the West blames for stoking the violence in the ex-Soviet Republic.

More than a dozen towns and cities in the east have now fallen to pro-Russian rebels, who see the Western-backed leaders in Kiev as illegitimate "fascists" and want either independence or outright accession to Russia.

"It's good what the young people are doing. We don't want this Nazi junta that has seized power in Kiev. We don't recognise them. I want my children and grand-children to grow up in Russia," one retired engineer told AFP as he surveyed the violence in Lugansk.

More @ Yahoo

NC: Lawsuit: Unusual approach against gay marriage ban

Via Carl

A coalition of clergy members filed a novel federal lawsuit Monday against North Carolina's constitutional ban on gay marriage, saying it violates their religious freedom.

The clergy members said that they'd like to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies in their congregations, but that they can't because of the "unjust law." Their attorney, Jake Sussman, says it's the only case to bring the First Amendment religious freedom claims among the more than 60 marriage equality cases pending in the nation's state and federal courts.

"North Carolina's marriage laws are a direct affront to freedom of religion," said the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, executive minister with the Cleveland-based United Church of Christ, which is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. "We feel that it is important that any person that comes into community life of a United Church of Christ congregation be afforded equal pastoral care and equal opportunity to religious services that clergy provide."

More @ News & Observer

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/04/28/3817959/lawsuit-seeks-to-overturn-nc-same.html#storylink=cpy

“God” Replaced With “Peace” In Pledge of Allegiance at Madison, Wisconsin High School

 

One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

For the past few years, this line in the Pledge of Allegiance has caused an increasing amount of debate among Americans. Despite this debate, 85% of Americans still believe that “under God” should be kept in the Pledge, while only 8% do not. Forget the lawsuits, conflict, and uproar, saying that controversial line at schools daily is still part of the law.


Unfortunately, a Madison, Wisconsin high school has decided to go against that law over the past couple months.

More @ Red State

Republican coastal elite would take Hillary over Ted Cruz or Rand Paul in 2016

Via LH

 All the more reason to pick one.

The biggest parlor game on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms these days is guessing whether former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will run for president and save the GOP’s old establishment base from its rising populist wing.

The second most popular game is guessing what happens if Jeb says no.

More @ Politico

Ukraine: March to mark Waffen SS division anniversary

Via Nancy

 

A “vyshivanka” parade of activists wearing brightly embroidered Ukrainian folk shirts and blouses has been held in Lvov to mark the 71st anniversary of the Waffen SS Galizien (Halychyna) division.

The marchers, holding SS Halychyna banners, representing a yellow lion with three crowns standing on the hind legs against the blue background, walked from the monument to Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera to the monument for victims of the Bolshevik regime and political reprisals, an Interfax correspondent reported.

The organizers wanted to unfurl a banner at the front of the column showing soldiers of the SS Halychyna division and heroes of the “Heavenly Hundred,” killed in central Kiev, but several Maidan self-defense activists and relatives of those killed on Independence Square in Kiev protested and the banner was removed.

More with video @ InSerbia

Looks like fun and I'll drink to it!

More @ foto6x7

Voting

Via Ninety Miles From Tyranny

Chinese Slaves in Peru

Nearly forgotten and overlooked in history is the fate of Chinese slaves in Cuba, and Peru. English Captain F. Trench Townsend reported: “Though the fate of the poor African slave in Cuba is horrible, that of the unfortunate Asiatic . . . struck me as more pitiful.” New England-captained slave ships were being caught off Cuba in 1859 by future Confederate Capt. John Newland Maffitt.

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"

Chinese Slaves in Peru

“No words can describe the lot of the Chinese in Peru.  The system commenced in 1849, between which year and 1869, it appears that ninety-thousand Chinese have perished in Peru. What are the causes which have produced this fearful mortality?

The truest causes may probably be found in an important paper submitted by Mr. Murrow, to a meeting of the Association for the Promotion of Social Science, in the latter year [1869].

Mr. Murrow states that the rate of mortality on the passage from China to Peru in immigrant ships has certainly been twenty-five per cent.  The principal mortality takes place after arrival in Peru.  The coolies in guano work are goaded to their labour under the lash.  

The taskmasters are tall, African Negroes, “who are armed with a lash of four plaits of cow-hide, five feet in length, and an inch and a half thick, tapering to a point.”

This weapon is little used during the early part of the day, but about four o’clock in the afternoon it is put into constant requisition, for the purpose of compelling the coolies, who, from weakness or other cause, fall short in the completion of their allotted task.

“The slightest resistance is punished by a flogging, little short of murder, the first six or twelve cuts stifling the agonizing cries of which ring through the fleet.  There is no tying-up, the nearest Chinaman being compelled, by a cut of the lash, to lay hold of an arm or leg, and stretch the miserable sufferer on his stomach on the guano.

The mere weight alone of the lash makes the bodies shake, blackening their flesh at every blow, besides cutting into it like a sabre, and when a convulsive movement takes place a subordinate places his boots on the shoulders to keep the quivering body down.”

On this subject, in commenting on the able speech of Sir Charles Wingfield, in the House of Commons in 1873, the [London] Times says:

“In Peru the fate of the imported coolies is even more abominable.  They are sent to work in the guano pits on the islands which produce that unsavory wealth; they are beaten and chained and passed by bargain and sale from master to master . . . There is a military force to guard them, and to crush any violence to which despair may drive even the most timid of men.  Hope of escape, save by death, there is none; and hence suicide is a common practice, regularly estimated in the probable cost of the labour supply . . . “

To recruit free men in China, imprison them in barracoons, guard them with soldiers, induce them to sign contracts, convey them to Peru and on arrival compel them by force to labour in the guano pits, is that which it might have been supposed no man could have been found to defend . . . [but] shows that a man may be blinded with guano [profits] as effectually as with gold.

A new Treaty has just been negotiated between the Empress of China and Peru, providing for the continuance or renewal of Chinese coolie traffic.  The British envoy at [Peking] has had a hand in the negotiation . . . [but] it is deeply regretted that if called in at all, he did not enter his emphatic protest against the whole affair.”

(The Lost Continent; or, Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa, 1875.  Joseph Cooper, Longmans, Green & Company, 1875, excerpts, pp. 43-47)

The Stainless Banner: Night Has Fallen! Lee Has Surrendered!

March, 2014

I don't know what she said, but enjoyed every minute of it.......:)

Alexander Viktorov interviews Natalia Poklonskaya. Recorded on the day of appointment as Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crime in early March 2014. Natalia was worried, but everything turned out OK. Good luck to you, Natalia!

Bear Charges Bow Hunters In Their Raft

Fred Eichler of Easton Bowhunting TV and his hunting party were travelling down a remote river by raft when they were charged by a huge mother grizzly bear.

The hunters had startled the mother’s cubs while rounding a bend in the river. Eichler tried to scare the cubs away, but he drew the attention of their mother.

Ready to defend her cubs, the huge grizzly charged into the river after the raft. With only eight feet between them, Eichler made a quick move to stop the momma grizz from coming any closer. Watch what he did.

More @ Wide Open Spaces

Pentagon to destroy $1B in ammunition

 

The Pentagon plans to destroy more than $1 billion worth of ammunition although some of those bullets and missiles could still be used by troops, according to the Pentagon and congressional sources.

It's impossible to know what portion of the arsenal slated for destruction — valued at $1.2 billion by the Pentagon — remains viable because the Defense Department's inventory systems can't share data effectively, according to a Government Accountability Office report obtained by USA TODAY.

The result: potential waste of unknown value.

More @ USA Today

BEAUVOIR

Via SHNV

From: twbailey@live.com

Dear Compatriots and Friends,
  
I spent this past weekend [4-26-14] at Beauvoir.  We arrived on Thursday and set up our camps as well as a flag display for our weekend festivities.  On Friday we shared the Confederate Heritage with over three hundred local school children as well as other visitors at Beauvoir.
  
On Saturday morning we had a troop of Cub Scouts to come in and camp near us.  We entertained them as we shared our Heritage with them.  Our camp cook prepared Saturday supper and Sunday breakfast for them.  On Saturday night we took them to the cemetery and I shared Samuel Hankins' "Simple Story of a Soldier" with the scouts.  As we walked out of the cemetery some of our reenactors charged out of the dark firing their pistols.  The scouts got a real surprise from this.  When we got them back to camp we loaded our muskets and gave them a night fire demonstration.  The kids loved this.
  
Saturday was also Confederate Memorial Day at Beauvoir.  We participated in this ceremony as well.  It was good to see so many of our Mississippi SCV friends and compatriots.
 
I would also like to take this moment to commend Greg Stewart on what he has accomplished over the past seven weeks.  Through his leadership and with the devoted help of some volunteers the Presidential Library and the surrounding grounds are making some remarkable improvements.
  
While at Beauvoir this weekend I came across some information that proves without any doubt that Bertram Hayes-Davis and anyone who supports or associates with him should be exiled from Dixie!  At the very least Hayes-Davis and his cohorts should never ever be allowed to set foot on Beauvoir again.  Let me make myself perfectly clear.  It is wonderful that we have Beauvoir as the "Last Home of Jefferson Davis".  But, there are over 700 reasons asleep in the ground on the Beauvoir property that demands that scalawags, carpetbaggers, or anyone else who attempts to destroy the Confederate Heritage never be allowed to have anything to do with Beauvoir.
  
The following quotation comes from page 169, 170 and 171 of "Winnie Davis, Daughter of the Lost Cause" by Heath Hardage Lee.  The information in this quote was available when Hayes-Davis was appointed as a director at Beauvoir.
  
"Now the generations have come full circle, with Bertram and Carol returning willingly to the South to preserve--and perhaps to change--the perception of the Davis Legacy.  They are custodians with a western-Midwestern viewpoint and a commonsense approach to history.

  Bertram and Carol enthusiastically explain their new vision of the historic site.  Beauvoir will no longer be a monument to the Confederate soldier:   it will be revamped according to Varina's stated wish that the property become monument to Jefferson Davis.  Carol confesses that she struggled with this concept until she began to understand that Varina wanted the public to be educated about her husband and all his achievements, not just the legacy of the Confederacy.  Since moving to Mississippi, Carol reveals that she has been having dreams in which Varina visits her--perhaps the Davis matriarch is trying to give her advice on the direction Beauvoir needs to go post-Katrina.  

Perhaps the Davis family's southern mythology will be rejuvenated by the no-nonsense, can-do attitude of Beauvoir's newest director and his wife, who plan to cut through the crusty layers of the "Lost Cause" mythology and examine Jefferson's life and career in its entirety.  They feel the focus on his tenure as president of the Confederacy during the Civil War does not do justice to his other achievements.  Within this process Bertram and Carol will examine the Davis women as well:  Winnie, Varina, Margret, and Margret's descendants.  It is not just the physical structure of Beauvoir they are aiming to renovate.  Understanding the spiritual, social, and personal structure of this most southern of families is integral to their vision for Beauvoir.  Under their leadership the next chapter of the Davis and Hayes-Davis saga may prove to be its most revealing and its most exciting story yet."
 
We do not need a western-Midwestern viewpoint on our Heritage.  If it is not a Southern viewpoint we do not need it!  Beauvoir has always tried to present the ENTIRE story of Jefferson Davis.  "Will no longer be a monument to the Confederate soldier":   there are Confederate graves on the property, give me a break!  The property was always intended to be a monument to Jefferson Davis and the Confederate soldier.  It is amazing how the politically correct crowd will use only what they want and not the whole TRUTH!  A "common-sense approach to history" is a way to exclude our Confederate Heritage.  This "no-nonsense, can-do attitude" is a vehicle to destroy the Confederate Heritage at Beauvoir.  People like Hayes-Davis are incapable of "understanding the spiritual, social and personal structure" of Southern families.  It sounds to me like Carol has spent more time studying Mary Todd Lincoln than she has Varina or Winne Davis.

Best Regards,

Terry W. Bailey
Sons of Confederate Veterans
Mobile. Alabama

The Geography of American Nerddom

Via Way Up North

More @ KTUU

One-off Carolina Blue '69 Z28

 

Ain't no way its got only 290 flywheel HP.

 

Generations of Camaro faithful point to the 1969 Camaro Z28 as the ultimate rendition of Chevrolet’s pony car. While that contention can – and will – be argued in the years to come, one thing is absolutely certain: this generously optioned special order example is quite literally one of a kind, as unique as any vintage Z28 could possibly be. Unrestored and original but for a single repaint, its original purchaser, Mr. Lyle Mader of Madison, South Dakota, was not only a knowledgeable buyer but a quite particular one as well. He specified the car to reach the Z28 package’s maximum potential, ordering the full-out combination of dual cross ram induction system complete with two Holley 4-barrel carburetors, two-piece aluminum intake manifold and special hood, a Muncie M22 “Rock Crusher” 4-speed manual transmission, 4.10:1 Positraction rear end and power-assisted JL8 4-wheel disc brakes.

More @ MECUM

Uncle Sam's Plantation

Via Sam

 

@ Amazon

Global Warming Alert: Alaskan Polar Bears Threatened…By Too Much Spring Ice

Five meters of ice– about 16 feet thick - is threatening the survival of polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea region along Alaska’s Arctic coast, according to Dr. Susan J. Crockford, an evolutionary biologist in British Columbia who has studied polar bears for most of her 35-year career.
 
That’s because the thick ice ridges could prevent ringed seals, the bears’ major prey, from creating breathing holes they need to survive in the frigid waters, Crockford told CNS News.com.

More @ CNS News

George Will: “Global warming is socialism by the back door.”

 

George Will doesn’t think much of his global warming critics.

Will recently sat down with The Daily Caller for an extensive interview about politics, culture and his new book, “A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred.” TheDC will be featuring segments from the interview over the next several weeks.

More with video @ The Daily Caller

Gov. Perry Lures Toyota Sales HQ to Texas from California

 

Gov. Rick Perry has scored another good jobs get for Texas, luring Toyota Motor Corp.'s U.S. sales headquarters to suburban Dallas from its current location in southern California.

The relocation likely will bring much of the Japanese automaker's far-flung U.S. operations under one roof, including sales, service, marketing, advertising, manufacturing and quality, the people said.
Toyota is not the first company to announce plans to leave California for Texas. In February, Occidental Petroleum Corp. said it would move from Los Angeles to Houston.

More @ Newsmax

State Rights in the Confederacy: NC Governor Vance Versus the Government

 Vance Birthplace State Historic Site

North Carolina entered the importing business in the later part of 1862, an idea promoted by Adjutant General James G. Martin and supported by Governor Zebulon Vance.  The State purchased the “Ad-Vance” for the purpose of blockade running and the ship soon paid for itself by carrying cotton bales to Europe and using the profits to bring in millions of dollars’ worth of supplies.  Within a year Governor Vance reported to his legislature that he had enough supplies on hand, along with those obtainable at home, to supply North Carolina’s forces through 1865 even if he did not get another dollar from abroad. 

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"

Governor Vance Versus the Confederate Government

“In North Carolina the Confederate government stirred up a hornet’s nest when it attempted to enforce its contracts with the steamship companies.  Governor Vance flatly refused to allow any of the steamers in which North Carolina had acquired a share to put on board a bale of Confederate [government] cotton. 

Two days after this, January 6, 1864, [Secretary of War James A.] Seddon remonstrated against the Governor’s obstructiveness, telling him that “the necessities of the [Confederate] government really require adherence to this regulation,” and that he hoped he would not encourage or allow the infringement of the contract requiring the ship owners to carry one-third on government account. 

The next day the Governor replied that North Carolina had 40,000 blankets, 40,000 pairs of shoes, large quantities of clothing, leather and other supplies at Bermuda, and that he must have all the steamers in which North Carolina had an interest to carry these goods. “It is a little remarkable . . . ,” he said, “that the entire importing operations of this State, which have been so successful . . . seem to have met with little else than downright opposition rather than encouragement from the Confederate government . . . “

Then came delays of his ships at Wilmington, and the impressments of his coal by the Confederate government to furnish the privateers.  Now, he said, the climax had been reached in the attempt of the government to force private blockade runners . . . to carry a third of their cargoes on government account. He felt sure that the [private blockade-running] companies would stop all their vessels, since there would be no profit left . . . if the regulations were enforced he would countermand their sailing.

On January 14 [1864] Seddon replied that the steamship companies whom Vance had taken under his special protection were all foreigners, solely interested in getting as much cotton . . . out of the country in return for as little service and sacrifice as possible . . .   

Soon afterward, on February 17, 1864, the law . . . empowered the President [to regulate] all private import and export trade, leaving the States free to carry on their own trade in vessels owned entirely by the State.  Immediately . . .  all ships going out and coming in must carry one-half of their cargoes on Confederate account.” 

(State Rights in the Confederacy, Frank L. Owsley, Peter Smith, 1961, pp. 133-137)

First Video Evidence of Volunteer Russians Among Ukrainian Separatists

Via u_96

A Call to Collective Resistance

Via Michael 

 

All Germans shall have the right to resist any person seeking to abolish this constitutional order, if no other remedy is available. [Official English translation of the German Bundestag]

More @ Gates of Vienna

BLM Siege At Bunkerville - The Real Story

Via LH

  Undeveloped BLM grazing land near Bunkerville, April 2014

 

 Developed former BLM land near Bunkerville, May 2013

Neil Kornze joined the Bureau of Land Management in 2011. He has been leading the BLM as Deputy Director for the past year.  Before his appointment, Kornze worked as a Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
 
In 2013, following a five year recession, business in Mesquite, Nevada, five miles north of Bunkerville and 80 miles north of Las Vegas, began a miraculous recovery. Millions of dollars began to be invested in the area, and tired resort properties were lavishly refurbished. Retirement communities such as Sun City Mesquite sprung back to life and realtors began to again find buyers for expensive riverside or golf course frontage homes.
 
However, unbeknownst to the public, several miles down the Virgin River from the City of Mesquite, a lone hold out Mormon rancher named Cliven Bundy was about to throw a wrench in the works and bring anticipated development in the Riverside Road and Gold Butte area to a sudden stop because his cattle were "trespassing" on some of the most desirable real estate in Clark County.  He was to act alone because all his fellow ranchers had sold their spreads earlier.
 
Enter United States Senator Harry Reid.

More @ American Mafia

Cliven Bundy

Via Sioux

 

Screw them, he ought to double down. Ain't no way this makes a hill of beans as to what is necessary to bring this country to it's senses and there is no way an honorable man can converse with commies anyway.

It has become clear that Cliven Bundy was transgressed by the New York Times, his words taken out of context and retailed in such a way as to mean something they were not. Bundy is no racist, and the attempt to make him look like one is another step downward in the collapse of American national media.

But conservatives still have a right -- in fact, a responsibility -- to be annoyed with Bundy.

More @ American Thinker

Stuart's Horse Artillery

Brock,

I saw the Medal of Honor story on your site. Confederate heroes have their own medal of honor

 

As Maj. Breathed was an officer in Stuart's Horse Artillery & since I a reenact in a battery named for Stuart's Horse Artillery, one of Breathed's descendants invited us to the ceremony. 

 

We marched through Hancock, provided an Honor Guard and fired canon after the ceremony. I have attached some pictures.

 

The canon on the right in the picture was an actual original federal tube that was captured and used by Stuart's Horse Artillery. 

 

Since I had at least seven ancestors in SHA, it was an honor to fire that gun. In the picture, I am in the #3 position just to the right of the obelisk.

I thought you might enjoy!

Shawn

"You have to be kidding me" Tow Truck Fail Original Video

Via Michel

 Dated

Little Washington NC: Tornado report from my cousin

 

 @ WNCT

 

On Friday Evening around 710 PM, a tornado E3 touched down about about 300 to 400 yards from the front of my home.  I had no damage to my home or property, just some twigs and pine cones in my yard and deck.  It did take out a building in a field across from me and several trees at the beginning of my street.  Prior to getting to my area, it came across my brother’s home and did extensive damage to it and it will probably be condemned.  

 

My brother’s home is about 3 miles or less as the crow flies from me.  The following video shows some of the damage to his home.  The video also reports a 94 year old lady being thrown from her mobile home into a field.  She lives about 1/2 mile to the east of me right off of 264.  She suffered only a broken arm or leg (I believe).  The power went off immediately and came back around noon on Saturday.  We are so thankful my brother and his wife were not injured or others seriously injured.  My house did shake as it went by.  More chances for severe weather is forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, with today and Friday having less of a chance for it.

 

Cousin Colby