Wish we could steal him. :)
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
NC: HB 786 (Capital Special Interest BS)
Notes on Thom Tillis email on NCHB 786, driver permits for illegal immigrants
Tillis says that illegal immigrant drivers permits "do not equate to a driving license"? Say what? But illegal immigrant workers would have a NC issued document allowing them to drive! Fortunately, this part of the so-called "enforcement" bill did not pass the General Assembly. But a provision in the bill to essentially nullify any requirement for E-Verify did pass and leaves a gaping hole in illegal entry and illegal alien employment opportunities. Gov. McCrory tried to veto it, but Tillis and his special interest backers, e.g. the NC Farm Bureau and other high illegal use lobbying associations, were able to override his veto.
Do law enforcement officials and organizations in NC back this? Give me their names and let their recommendation stand the public gaze. Let them publicly state their positions and arguments for all to see. Rolling out a red carpet for illegal immigrants is; highly unlikely to have anything but a negative impact on public safety. It might benefit employers of illegal immigrants, but no one outside of a madhouse believes it would be good for public safety.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out where Tillis would stand on illegal immigrant amnesty and importing more cheap foreign labor for the benefit of his special interest backers. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that he cares more about them than American workers or taxpayers or national security or public safety.
Does North Carolina need a Lindsey Graham or John McCain representing us in the Senate? We do not want Obamacare or Kay Hagan, but massive importation of cheap foreign labor--legal or illegal--will destroy the nation even more quickly.
We need to get rid of Obamacare and Kay Hagan, but we need to elect a conservative to the Senate. If you back massive amnesties and massive importation of cheap foreign labor under whatever name, you are not a conservative. You are certainly not a fiscal conservative, and you have abysmally little loyalty to American workers and a peculiarly lax attitude about national security, preventing terrorism, etc.
And don't insult our intelligence by claiming giving illegal immigrant workers driver permits is much different than a drivers license by more than a few technical details. If you issue state documents to illegal immigrants that allow them to drive a vehicle in NC, you have little respect for law or the people of North Carolina.
Mike Scruggs
Gun re-registration begins in D.C., may lead to arrest and confiscation
Via WRSA
For the first time in the United States, a citizen who has legally registered a gun will have to submit to a renewal process. The consequences of not knowing about this new law or missing the specific 60-day window are dire.
Starting on Jan. 2, every single D.C. resident who has registered a firearm since 1976 must go to police headquarters to pay a $48 fee and be photographed and fingerprinted.
The Metropolitan Police Department estimates there are at least 30,000 registered gun owners.
If the registrant does not go to the police station within three months after a set time frame, the registration is revoked. That citizen is then in possession of an unregistered firearm, which is a felony that carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.
The gun itself is put into a category of weapons that can never be registered, just as though it were a machine gun or a sawed-off shotgun.
The city has not made clear how it will enforce the law, but the police are in possession of all registrants’ home addresses so confiscation and arrests would be simple.
Dated
1st law in U.S. to require renewal with fingerprints and fees
For the first time in the United States, a citizen who has legally registered a gun will have to submit to a renewal process. The consequences of not knowing about this new law or missing the specific 60-day window are dire.
Starting on Jan. 2, every single D.C. resident who has registered a firearm since 1976 must go to police headquarters to pay a $48 fee and be photographed and fingerprinted.
The Metropolitan Police Department estimates there are at least 30,000 registered gun owners.
If the registrant does not go to the police station within three months after a set time frame, the registration is revoked. That citizen is then in possession of an unregistered firearm, which is a felony that carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.
The gun itself is put into a category of weapons that can never be registered, just as though it were a machine gun or a sawed-off shotgun.
The city has not made clear how it will enforce the law, but the police are in possession of all registrants’ home addresses so confiscation and arrests would be simple.
More @ The Washington Times
Oklahoma’s Marriage Amendment Struck Down By Federal Judge
A federal judge declared yesterday that Oklahoma’s law defining marriage as being between a man and a woman was unconstitutional.
“The Court holds that Oklahoma’s constitutional amendment limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Terence Kern.
“Yesterday’s decision from a federal district judge gets marriage and the Constitution wrong, and, if upheld on appeal, would force that state to act contrary to the meaning and purpose of marriage,” responds Ryan T. Anderson, William E. Simon Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. “The U.S. Constitution does not require redefining marriage.”
More @ The Foundry
Timothy's latest Confederate excursion
Arlington
Front Steps of Arlington House
One of the parlors at Arlington House
Robert Edward Lee's bedroom.
.JPG)
Government Itself Still Cited as Top U.S. Problem
Americans start the new year with a variety of national concerns on their minds. Although none is dominant, the government, at 21%, leads the list of what Americans consider the most important problem facing the country. The economy closely follows at 18%, and then unemployment/jobs and healthcare, each at 16%. No other issue is mentioned by as much as 10% of the public; however, the federal budget deficit or debt comes close, at 8%.
More @ Gallup
Aussie Beauty Amira Karroum Killed Waging Jihad in Syria after Becoming more Religious
Via Freedom Outpost
Both Ms Karroum and Mr Ali were worshippers at the mosque before Mr Ali moved to Syria mid-last year.
Relatives today said arrangements were still being made to fly the couples' bodies back to Australia for burial.
Pictured clad in a black burqa, Karroum bore no resemblance to the fresh-faced student from one of the country's most prestigious Anglican schools when she died in a bullet-ridden house in Syria last week.
The religion of stupidity.
- 22-year-old told parents she was going to Denmark
- Mother informed she had died alongside husband
- Had Anglican education at all girls school
- Father runs kebab shop on Gold Coast
A memorial service has been held at a western Sydney mosque for slain Muslim woman Amira Karroum, and her husband Yusuf Ali.
Ms Karroum's sister Rose requested the Masjid Noor mosque in
Granville hold the service, last night, for worshippers to mourn the
couple who were killed in Syria late last week.Both Ms Karroum and Mr Ali were worshippers at the mosque before Mr Ali moved to Syria mid-last year.
Relatives today said arrangements were still being made to fly the couples' bodies back to Australia for burial.
Pictured clad in a black burqa, Karroum bore no resemblance to the fresh-faced student from one of the country's most prestigious Anglican schools when she died in a bullet-ridden house in Syria last week.
More @ Daily Telegraph
Government Retaliates Against Navy Chaplain who Sued over Government Shutdown of Catholic Mass
Via avordvet
Father Ray Leonard, the Catholic Navy Chaplain who sued the Department of Defense and the Navy after he was barred from celebrating Mass at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia during the recent the Government shutdown, is now the target of Government retaliation even though the Department of Justice indicated the day after the lawsuit was filed that he could resume his duties as a Navy Chaplain.
The retaliation involves repeated Government assertions that the employment contract under which Father Leonard was working is no longer “valid”, demands that he must sign a new contract containing several pages of onerous new terms if he wants to be paid and refusals to pay for services he had already performed.
As a result, the Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, MI, on January 6, 2014 filed an amended complaint in their original federal lawsuit to prevent further retaliation against Father Leonard for exercising his constitutional rights. The amended complaint added a claim against the government for its retaliation toward Father Leonard which occurred after the filing of the initial complaint.
Father Leonard just returned to America after spending ten years ministering to impoverished Tibetans in China. Consequently, withholding Father Leonard’s earnings for approximately two months left Father Leonard himself in an impoverished condition. Yet, he continued to minister to his congregation by scraping up enough money for food and rent payments for housing near the Naval Base which he serves.
Father Leonard has stated in an affidavit;
Father Ray Leonard, the Catholic Navy Chaplain who sued the Department of Defense and the Navy after he was barred from celebrating Mass at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia during the recent the Government shutdown, is now the target of Government retaliation even though the Department of Justice indicated the day after the lawsuit was filed that he could resume his duties as a Navy Chaplain.
The retaliation involves repeated Government assertions that the employment contract under which Father Leonard was working is no longer “valid”, demands that he must sign a new contract containing several pages of onerous new terms if he wants to be paid and refusals to pay for services he had already performed.
As a result, the Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, MI, on January 6, 2014 filed an amended complaint in their original federal lawsuit to prevent further retaliation against Father Leonard for exercising his constitutional rights. The amended complaint added a claim against the government for its retaliation toward Father Leonard which occurred after the filing of the initial complaint.
Father Leonard just returned to America after spending ten years ministering to impoverished Tibetans in China. Consequently, withholding Father Leonard’s earnings for approximately two months left Father Leonard himself in an impoverished condition. Yet, he continued to minister to his congregation by scraping up enough money for food and rent payments for housing near the Naval Base which he serves.
Father Leonard has stated in an affidavit;
More @ Thomas Moore
Senate Spending ‘Deal’ Stiffs Wounded Veterans, Rewards Illegal Aliens
Via avordvet
The budget “deal” is a raw deal for our wounded veterans, thanks to Sen. Harry Reid & Co.
But illegal invaders claiming fraudulent tax credits have nothing to worry about.
-
America’s bravest were betrayed yet again today, while illegal aliens got to keep their ill-gotten loot. Just another day in Harry Reid’s circus of shame.
Millions of men and women who put their lives on the line for this country are going to see reductions in their pensions, while illegal aliens still have access to a tax credit loophole, in the Budget “fix” announced by the Senate today.
That’s right, despite a promise to “fix” those cuts to those veteran pensions, the “deal” would still leave 90 percent of those cuts in place, according Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL).
The budget “deal” is a raw deal for our wounded veterans, thanks to Sen. Harry Reid & Co.
But illegal invaders claiming fraudulent tax credits have nothing to worry about.
-
America’s bravest were betrayed yet again today, while illegal aliens got to keep their ill-gotten loot. Just another day in Harry Reid’s circus of shame.
Millions of men and women who put their lives on the line for this country are going to see reductions in their pensions, while illegal aliens still have access to a tax credit loophole, in the Budget “fix” announced by the Senate today.
That’s right, despite a promise to “fix” those cuts to those veteran pensions, the “deal” would still leave 90 percent of those cuts in place, according Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL).
More @ Top Right News
NY Town spends $2,984 per deer in sterilization program
Emerald Isle deer hunt starts quietly
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We have written before about the deer sterilization program in Cayuga Heights, which borders the Cornell campus (most people think of it as Ithaca, but it’s actually a separate municipality).
Because Reproductive Health Care Is A Cervine Right:
I have written before about the moral angst sweeping the upscale Village of Cayuga Heights, bordering the Cornell campus and home to a large number of professors and staff, over how to control the out-of-control deer population.How did it work out?
After years of debate, which tore the community apart, Cayuga Heights has come up with a solution:
The board of trustees passed a resolution Monday night to begin implementation of the phased options approach to deer management. The village will begin with the surgical sterilization of 20-60 does within a two-year period, followed by the culling of the remainder of the herd.The cost per sterilization? Don’t ask:
The first phase of sterilization is estimated to take two years at an average cost of $1,200 per doe, according to the statement.If they do for our health care system what they’ve done for the deer of Cayuga Heights, we’re sunk.
More @ Legal Insurrection
Omnibus Prevents Implementation of U.N. Arms Trade Treaty
U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) today announced that the Omnibus appropriations bill prevents the implementation of the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) by prohibiting any funding of the treaty unless it is ratified by the U.S. Senate, which opposes the treaty. In October 2013, Sen. Moran led a bipartisan group of 50 U.S. Senators in reiterating to President Obama that the Senate overwhelmingly opposes ratification and will not be bound by its obligations.
More @ Moran
The Gallant Hood
Via Nancy
Link
Link
During the Battle of Chickamauga
Hood received his second serious wound of the war, resulting in the
amputation of his right leg. He was transported to the Clisby-Austin
house in nearby Tunnel Hill for recuperation. Hood was so severely
wounded that his amputated leg was sent with him so that it could be
buried with the him in the result of his death. Hood ultimately recuperated and his leg was buried at this location.
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John Bell Hood lost the use of his left arm at Gettysburg and had his right leg amputated
due to being wounded at Chickamauga He was one of the very few amputees to recover from
such a severe loss of bone near the hip.
General Hood stated that he was able to ride a horse and did not require an ambulance. WOW!!!
He has been much maligned, but he was undoubtedly a courageous individual.
Nancy
Yes,
General Hood used a special saddle with leather straps holding him in
position while mounted. Really heroic: mounting a horse in battle with
one leg and only able to use one arm, that's well worth a WOW!
Raphael
1967 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible 427/435 HP Tri-Power Formerly Owned by Astronaut Gus Grissom
Astronauts are by their very nature a breed apart, none more so than the seven pioneering men of the Mercury space program launched by NASA in 1959. Among the most famous of them was Lt. Colonel Virgil “Gus” Grissom, who on July 21, 1961, became the second American – after Alan Shepard – to travel to outer space, and in March 1965 the first NASA astronaut to repeat that monumental feat. Grissom perished with his Apollo 1 colleagues Roger Chaffee and Edward White in a launch pad fire on January 27th, 1967, their heroic efforts paving the way to the historic 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, fulfilling the goal set forth by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.
Like his fellow astronauts Grissom was also adventurous on Terra Firma, and in 1967 he took delivery of this L71 427/435 HP Tri-Power convertible from Jim Rathmann Chevrolet in Melbourne, Florida. Rathmann, himself an adventurer who raced in the Indianapolis 500 14 times and won in 1960, witnessed many a race at the expansive Cape Canaveral NASA complex between Grissom and Shepard, who drove an identically-equipped Corvette.
More @ MECUM
Dear CRM 381 Students:
From 2008: My Two Cent Check Is Returned
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Welcome back! I just wanted to write and let you know that the syllabus is up and running on the departmental web page. I have been instructed to direct you to the link rather than distribute individual copies. The university needs to save money on paper so the LGBTQIA Office can continue to offer orgasm awareness seminars and so the Women's Resource Center can continue to promote abortion. Remember kids, the more trees we save, the more babies we can kill!
In addition to going over the syllabus on day one, I plan to introduce each one of you to my somewhat informal teaching philosophy. Actually, this will be the first time I ever make a statement of teaching philosophy, despite the fact that it is my twenty-first year to teach here at UNC-Wilmington. In a nutshell, that philosophy can be summarized in the phrase "twenty-seventy-ten." I'll explain it briefly, although I do plan to elaborate in class on Monday.
Despite what Karl Marx says, there really are not just two kinds of people in this world. That's an oversimplification, although there are two types of communists - a) the ones who live off their more productive comrades and b) the dead ones. But when it comes to students, there are at least three distinct groups. They follow in order from the least pleasant to the most pleasant among you.
More @ Townhall
NC: Poll: Kay Hagan Trails All Republican Challengers
No wonder she’s avoiding the president’s speech today. A new left-leaning PPP poll -- which had, by the way, a D+10 sample -- shows embattled Sen. Kay Kagan (D-NC) losing to every single Republican challenger vying for her job in 2014. All of these candidates are relatively unknown, and all of them are polling slightly ahead of her.
Time to start panicking?
More @ Townhall
Crye Precision SIX12 Modular Revolver Shotgun
Via moonkan
Our first stop was at the Crye Precision Booth and they definitely have a lot of great products this year. To start out they have the SIX12 Modular Revolver Shotgun, which is their key show piece and is in the scope for future production. The standalone SIX12 Revolver Shotgun has a short barrel and is all Crye Precision except for the Magpul Handguard and fires Six 12 Gauge rounds utilizing a revolver style magazine.
Our first stop was at the Crye Precision Booth and they definitely have a lot of great products this year. To start out they have the SIX12 Modular Revolver Shotgun, which is their key show piece and is in the scope for future production. The standalone SIX12 Revolver Shotgun has a short barrel and is all Crye Precision except for the Magpul Handguard and fires Six 12 Gauge rounds utilizing a revolver style magazine.
More @ Predator Intelligence
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Crye Precision Six12 breaching shotgun
More @ Gear ScoutOmnibus Spending Bill Continues Funding Food Stamp Ads in Mexico
The omnibus spending bill before Congress continues to fund U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) advertising programs for food stamps in foreign countries like Mexico, Breitbart News has learned.
The bill was hashed out between House Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Senate Appropriations Committee chairwoman Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD).The funding will continue despite claims in a document the House Appropriations Committee published that the bill contains a “prohibition” on such programs. Page three of this press document states regarding food stamps that the omnibus spending bill contains a "prohibition on advertisements or outreach with foreign governments."
The entire paragraph that contains that statement reads:
Requirements for the Secretary of Agriculture to help weed out and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in the SNAP program – including a directive to ban fraudulent vendors, and a prohibition on advertisements or outreach with foreign governments.
However, upon reading through the text of the bill and the bill summary explanatory document, there is no such “prohibition” included in it. Instead, the explanatory document that Rogers published just states that USDA is “strongly discouraged” from advertising food stamps programs with foreign governments.
More @ Breitbart
This Ain’t Your Granddaddy’s BAR
Designed by John Moses Browning, the M1918 Browning automatic rifle came late in World War I, but didn’t see widespread deployment until World War II and the Korean War. It served until the early years of the Vietnam War, where it was superseded by the M60 GPMG.
Ohio Ordnance Works has made a name for itself reproducing a high-quality semi-automatic 1918A3 variant that is a near-ringer for the old war veteran designed by Browning.
This, however, isn’t your granddaddy’s BAR.
Robert Landies III (above) is a Marine Sgt. and the Special Projects Manager at Ohio Ordnance Works who decided that the BAR needed a 21st Century upgrade, and the result is something that looks like a heavily-modded AK from a distance, but which is a beast all it’s own… and I do mean it is a beast.
More @ Bearing Arms
Concealed carry permit holder stops shooting rampage in Portland.
A man denied entrance into a gentleman’s club in Portland, Oregon returned with a weapon and opened fire on a bouncer and the clientele. A bouncer who is a military veteran with a concealed carry permit pulled his own weapon and put the thug down:
Police on Sunday afternoon said they believe the gunman went in and started shooting, hitting the three victims. As he was on his way out, somebody at the bar shot him. Police are not identifying that person because they have not been charged with a crime.
More @ Bearing Arms
First-grader told to stop talking about Bible
The parents of a 6-year-old girl said their daughter was humiliated when a teacher interrupted the child’s one-minute speech and told her to sit down because she’s “not allowed to talk about the Bible in school,” attorneys for the California family allege.
The incident occurred Dec. 19 inside a first grade classroom at Helen Hunt-Jackson Elementary School in Temecula, Calif. The previous day the teacher instructed boys and girls to find something at home that represented a family Christmas tradition. They were supposed to bring the item to school and share the item in a classroom presentation.
Brynn Williams decided to bring the Star of Bethlehem that adorned the top of her family’s Christmas tree. She also worked on a one minute presentation to explain that her family’s tradition is to remember the birth of Jesus at Christmas time.
“Our Christmas tradition is to put a star on top of our tree,” the little girl said. “The star is named the Star of Bethlehem. The three kings followed the star to find baby Jesus, the Savior of the world.”
Before the child could utter another word, the teacher intervened, according to Robert Tyler, the general counsel for Advocates for Faith & Freedom – the law firm representing the Williams family.
More @ Fox
More racial protectionism from Holder, and a message to white Americans
This is my clear and succinct message to white Americans. How long will it be before “you people” realize you have elevated someone to the office of president who abjectly despises you — not to mention his henchman Holder. Combined they are the most vile and disgusting racists — not you.
More @ Allen B West
Spending bill strips funding for White House climate czar, handicaps EPA
The recently released spending bill would strip the salary of the White House’s
climate adviser, stop the Environmental Protection Agency from
implementing carbon dioxide emissions limits and clamp down on funding
to fight global warming.The bill bars the White House from using any appropriated funds to pay for the salary and any expenses for the “Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change.” The office was recently vacated by former climate adviser Heather Zichal, who helped President Obama
craft his new climate plan which bans coal-fired power and was
instrumental in promoting other environmental efforts from the White
House.
More @ The Daily Caller
‘Sham’? DOJ under fire amid claims IRS probe unlikely to yield criminal charges
The Justice Department is facing mounting criticism after officials said they've turned up no evidence that would warrant criminal charges in the IRS targeting scandal, with conservatives now calling the investigation a "sham."
Officials said earlier this week that, while the FBI investigation into IRS targeting of Tea Party and other groups is still ongoing, criminal charges are not expected at this point.
Jenny Beth Martin, the co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, called the news "absolutely outrageous."
"It only leads us to the point where we can make guesses about their motives," she said. "Why are they protecting the IRS? Why aren't they getting to the bottom of it? If they don't truly do a real investigation of this there are always going to be doubts and it is not good for the trust between the governors and the governed."
Martin said she believes the Obama administration is attempting to sweep the scandal under the rug, and it appears there is a cover-up.
More @ Fox
FREE eBook of Abortion: The Ultimate Exploitation of Women.
For decades, Americans have believed countless lies about abortion: It’s a political cause; it’s a women’s issue; it’s a constitutional right.
Although you may think you’ve heard every argument to be made for or against abortion, the truth is you’ve only heard part of the story.
In his new book, Abortion: The Ultimate Exploitation of Women, Brian Fisher, co-founder and president of Online for Life, reveals the untold history of abortion and dispels the myths surrounding this important issue.
Perhaps the most surprising fact is that legalized abortion is not a product of the women’s rights movement. In fact, many pioneering suffragists called it “infanticide.”
Fisher provides a never-before-seen look at the real issues behind abortion and then offers a five-point plan to bring it to an end. Abortion: The Ultimate Exploitation of Women is essential reading for anyone who wants to find practical ways to end abortion in the United States.
So don’t miss this incredible offer. Get your FREE copy of Abortion: The Ultimate Exploitation of Women today.
More @ Online For Life
When can police search your car?
Via Nancy
A calmer approach.
In other words, an officer’s hunch without evidence of illegal activity is not enough to legally search your car. Before searching, he must observe something real. Common examples of probable cause include the sight or smell of contraband in plain view or plain smell, or an admission of guilt for a specific crime. The presentation of any of these facts would allow an officer to perform a search and make an arrest.
Be aware that minor traffic violations (e.g. speeding, broken tail-light, or expired registration) arenot considered probable cause.
More @ LRC
The walls of the citadel have been breached........
Via WRSA
The above scene was painted by Norman Rockwell in late 1945, just after the end of World War Two. It depicts the homecoming of a U.S. Marine, who has returned from the Pacific with a captured Japanese flag and now commands the rapt attention of his listeners in a local garage.
The painting represents a time — within living memory, although just barely — when there was still a commonly understood ideal of what it meant to be an American. More honored in the breach than in the observance, perhaps, but nevertheless a generally accepted cultural norm of civic obligation.
The moment was before my time, but only by a decade or so. In my early childhood that view of America remained predominant. Those little boys in the picture were the young men of my time, and the returning servicemen were the fathers of kids like me. What Norman Rockwell presented in that painting and innumerable others was American normalcy, as we all understood it. Yet it might as well have been the time of the Peloponnesian War, for all the relevance it holds in what passes for today’s civic culture.
By the 1970s Norman Rockwell was discredited in the eyes of cultural arbiters in the media and academia. He was dismissed as a hackneyed, jingoistic nostalgia-peddler, an archaic throwback in a time when the most respected artists included Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock.
Centuries from now, when the foolish political and social fads of our time are long forgotten, Mr. Rockwell will be regarded with the respect he deserves. Like Rembrandt, he had an uncanny genius for depicting the human form and face in a way that conveyed a reality that the camera could not capture. He will be recognized as one of the great painters of our age — assuming, of course, that we have not by then become an American Emirate in the new Universal Caliphate, with all the graven images of our wretched jahiliyyah faithfully destroyed.
The cultural norms and ideals represented in Mr. Rockwell’s paintings were discarded along with his art. But this was true only within the lofty eyries of our cultural mandarins — he remains perennially popular among ordinary Americans, who revere his work as a reminder of what once was, but is now gone. The memory of the old culture still lingers in flyover country, even as it is deprecated, despised, and destroyed by the post-modern managers of the country formerly known as the United States of America.
For decades after most of the rest of the culture fell, the U.S. military remained a staunch bastion of the old ways. As the battering rams and siege engines of the long march broke down the walls of successive institutions — the media, academia, the public schools, commercial enterprises, the government — the military retained the spirit that was so lovingly chronicled by Norman Rockwell fifty years previously. The armed services functioned as a repository for our civic virtues.
All that has changed, thanks to deliberate, cynical policies implemented by the Obama administration. The top brass in all three services are now more concerned with putting women into combat and salving the feelings of their Muslim enemies than they are with their country’s ability to win a war.
The above scene was painted by Norman Rockwell in late 1945, just after the end of World War Two. It depicts the homecoming of a U.S. Marine, who has returned from the Pacific with a captured Japanese flag and now commands the rapt attention of his listeners in a local garage.
The painting represents a time — within living memory, although just barely — when there was still a commonly understood ideal of what it meant to be an American. More honored in the breach than in the observance, perhaps, but nevertheless a generally accepted cultural norm of civic obligation.
The moment was before my time, but only by a decade or so. In my early childhood that view of America remained predominant. Those little boys in the picture were the young men of my time, and the returning servicemen were the fathers of kids like me. What Norman Rockwell presented in that painting and innumerable others was American normalcy, as we all understood it. Yet it might as well have been the time of the Peloponnesian War, for all the relevance it holds in what passes for today’s civic culture.
By the 1970s Norman Rockwell was discredited in the eyes of cultural arbiters in the media and academia. He was dismissed as a hackneyed, jingoistic nostalgia-peddler, an archaic throwback in a time when the most respected artists included Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock.
Centuries from now, when the foolish political and social fads of our time are long forgotten, Mr. Rockwell will be regarded with the respect he deserves. Like Rembrandt, he had an uncanny genius for depicting the human form and face in a way that conveyed a reality that the camera could not capture. He will be recognized as one of the great painters of our age — assuming, of course, that we have not by then become an American Emirate in the new Universal Caliphate, with all the graven images of our wretched jahiliyyah faithfully destroyed.
The cultural norms and ideals represented in Mr. Rockwell’s paintings were discarded along with his art. But this was true only within the lofty eyries of our cultural mandarins — he remains perennially popular among ordinary Americans, who revere his work as a reminder of what once was, but is now gone. The memory of the old culture still lingers in flyover country, even as it is deprecated, despised, and destroyed by the post-modern managers of the country formerly known as the United States of America.
For decades after most of the rest of the culture fell, the U.S. military remained a staunch bastion of the old ways. As the battering rams and siege engines of the long march broke down the walls of successive institutions — the media, academia, the public schools, commercial enterprises, the government — the military retained the spirit that was so lovingly chronicled by Norman Rockwell fifty years previously. The armed services functioned as a repository for our civic virtues.
All that has changed, thanks to deliberate, cynical policies implemented by the Obama administration. The top brass in all three services are now more concerned with putting women into combat and salving the feelings of their Muslim enemies than they are with their country’s ability to win a war.
More @ Gates of Vienna
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Don't miss False Portrait as posted by commenter JeanJean
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