Southland in the Springtime

Re-post 2012

Maybe we'll make Texas by the morning
Light the bayou with our tail lights in the night
800 miles to El Paso from the state line
And we never have the money for the flight

I'm in the back seat sleepy from the travel
Played our hearts out all night long in New Orleans
I'm dirty from the diesel fumes, drinking coffee black
When the first breath of Texas comes in clean

And there's something 'bout the Southland in the springtime
Where the waters flow with confidence and reason
Though I miss her when I'm gone it won't ever be too long
Till I'm home again to spend my favorite season
When God made me born a yankee he was teasin'
There's no place like home and none more pleasin'
Than the Southland in the springtime

In Georgia nights are softer than a whisper
Beneath a quilt somebody's mother made by hand
With the farmland like a tapestry passed down through generations
And the peach trees stitched across the land

There'll be cider up near Helen off the roadside
And boiled peanuts in a bag to warm your fingers
And the smoke from the chimneys meets its maker in the sky
With a song that winter wrote whose melody lingers

And there's something 'bout the Southland in the springtime
Where the waters flow with confidence and reason
Though I miss her when I'm gone it won't ever be too long
Till I'm home again to spend my favorite season
When God made me born a yankee he was teasin'
There's no place like home and none more pleasin'
Than the Southland in the springtime

Drivelapse USA - 5 Minute Roadtrip Timelapse Tour Around America

Robert E. Lee the Matchless American Hero

 

A venerated American hero whose birth date we celebrate on 19 January, General Lee’s abilities are legendary and even his adversaries would praise him. General Granville Dodge of the Northern military said that Lee’s “unfailing equipoise and sturdy courage prolonged the life of the Confederacy from month to month [and a] dispassionate judgment places Robert E. Lee among the greatest generals of modern times.”

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" 

Robert E. Lee the Matchless American Hero:

“In discussing Pompey’s greatness on the field of battle, Cicero, a master of ordered thought, asserts that four qualities are united in supreme military chieftains. These, as he thinks, are . . . Military knowledge . . . Valor . . . Authority . . . [and] Good fortune. No soldiers will long fight whole-heartedly for an unlucky chief.

Did Lee possess these traits? Knowledge?  How otherwise, with an army necessarily diminishing, did he compel President Lincoln to try McClellan, Halleck, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, Grant in an effort to match him in the field, and this, too, when these capable officers excelled him in every material equipment of war? 

Valor? It is needed only to recall how, with McClellan still lying at the doors of Richmond, Lee sent off Jackson to jar Pope’s complacency and then followed himself with the larger part of his army to complete Jackson’s task, or how, when fighting in the ratio of only two to five, he divided his army at Chancellorsville and overthrew the self-sufficient Hooker. The last quality mentioned by Cicero, good fortune, is a relative term. Although Lee was fought to a standstill at Sharpsburg, and baffled at Gettysburg, the admiration, even veneration, of his soldiers was undiminished. They still believed that, while circumstances might prove too much for him, no skill of an antagonist would ever surpass his battlefield strategy.  

Such was the chieftain the North Carolina troops, in common with the soldiers of the South, were henceforth to follow until Appomattox came. Bomb-proof critics might assail him with shallow criticisms, but the “hardiest troops that ever laughed at hunger, cold or danger,” never wavered in their conviction that their leader was matchless.”

(The History of the War Between the States, Volume II, Bethel to Sharpsburg, Daniel H. Hill, Edwards & Broughton, 1926, pp. 91-92)

GRNC Alert: Ashe County Attorney Urges Park Ban

 

Ashe County is back in the news once again, being urged by its attorney, John Kilby, to push park gun bans to the point of breaking state law.

According to reports, Kilby has advised Commissioners that expansion of carry rights provided by GRNC-backed legislation (now Session Law 2013-369) still has “gray areas” subject to interpretation about where bans can be enacted in “athletic facilities”.

What is it about the illegality of gun bans in parks that apparently makes municipalities want to pass them? Wouldn't a responsible civic leader avoid taking any action that might break the law? 

Politicians who support violating the Second Amendment rights of their constituents don't appear too worried about violating state law either.

When asked what the consequences of not enacting any ban at all would be, Kilby reportedly answered, “Wild West, I guess.”

Commissioners will next meet Tuesday, January 21^st. The issue may be raised again. We should be there to remind them “less is more” when restricting rights of citizens. 

Action, please.

North Carolina Doesn't Track Where Work First Money Is Spent

Via Cousin John

When you hand over your money to the government, you want it to be used wisely. And you expect auditors to keep track of how the money is spent. 2 Wants To Know found North Carolina has no way to know were some of your tax money goes. And it's not by accident. It's on purpose! The state does not track certain funds they give to people in the Work First program, or welfare program.
 
Across the country, our Gannett news partners broke stories exposing people buying alcohol, tobacco, and adult entertainment with welfare. Here in North Carolina it's illegal to buy those items with our version of welfare called Work First. But North Carolina doesn't track the funds? 

The system gives a check to low income parents. On average someone with one child gets about $200 per month. But once cashed the state can't follow up to see to where they spent the money. Instead North Carolina trusts people will use your tax money wisely on things they're supposed to, like rent, gas, and clothes.

More with video @ WFMY

Don’t Blame Government Workers For Government Failures

Duck Dynasty and the Secular Theocracy, Part II

By David J. Theroux

 

Duck Dynasty and the Secular Theocracy, Part I

 

Phil Robertson himself is certainly no lightweight. The Los Angeles Times has called him “a man of legendary individuality, who once passed up an opportunity to sign with the NFL because it might interfere with his hunting.” One of seven children raised in a log cabin in northern Louisiana with no electricity, bathtub, or toilet, Robertson grew up in a poor family living off garden fruits and vegetables; deer, squirrels, fish, and other animals that they hunted and fished; and the pigs, chickens, and cattle that they raised. Nevertheless, in high school he became All-State in football, baseball, and track and received a football scholarship to Louisiana Tech University. At Tech, later football legend Terry Bradshaw was at the time benched as second-string to Robertson, who was star quarterback. And although Robertson chose to quit football in college for the freedom to hunt during duck season, he went on to receive a master’s degree in education, taught school, and became a commercial fisherman.

In 1972, the young enterprising Robertson patented his first duck call and created the Duck Commander Company, which has been leveraged into today’s vast fortune and cultural phenomenon that includes Duck Dynasty. His autobiography Happy, Happy, Happy became a number one New York Times bestseller, and his new book for 2014, Phil-osophy, will share his philosophy of life, as he outlined in an interview before the release of his autobiography:

More @ Patheos

Battling Cancer, Senate Conservative Stalwart to Step Down

 

Senator Tom Coburn, a Republican of Oklahoma, has been a conservative titan in Congress since his arrival in 1995. Throughout his career, Coburn has combated runaway spending -- at times running afoul of his own party's leadership -- while championing the pro-life cause (as a medical doctor, Coburn has delivered more than 4,000 babies over his career) and other conservative issues.

Nicknamed "Dr. No" for opposing a raft of legislation he'd determined to be unconstitutional, Coburn is perhaps best known for producing his annual "waste book" list of wasteful government spending.

He's also been an advocate for term limits -- a principle he'll live out by curtailing his current Senate term:

More @ Townhall

U.S. military begins testing ‘smart’ rifles

 

The U.S. military has begun testing several so-called smart rifles made by the applied technology start-up TrackingPoint Inc., company officials said.

The Army is rumored to have acquired six of the precision-guided firearms, which cost as much as $27,000 apiece. Oren Schauble, a marketing official with the Austin, Texas-based company, confirmed the military bought a handful of them in recent months for evaluation. A spokeswoman for the service didn’t immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

“The military has purchased several units for testing and evaluation purposes,” Schauble said during an interview with Military​.com Tuesday here at the annual SHOT Show, the country’s largest gun show with some 60,000 attendees.

More @ Fox

Cop Beats 4 Year-Old, Puts Him In Critical Condition

 

No punishment can be too harsh for the abusive police officer that has reportedly beaten a 4 year-old to the point where he put him in critical condition.

Deputies from the Yamhill County sheriff’s department were called to home on December 31, 2013, where a reserve Yamhill police officer, Michael Shane Abo, had beaten his girlfriends 4 year-old child, who had to be flown by LifeFlight helicopter to OHSU in Portland, Oregon and where he remains in critical condition, according to police investigators.

Abo was arrested and charged with assault (first degree) and criminal mistreatment (first degree).

More with videos @ Red Flag News

Jessie Vetter's Team USA goalie mask required to remove Constitution rendering

When Team USA women’s hockey goalie Jessie Vetter takes to the ice next month at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, her mask will be missing something.

Namely, the U.S. Constitution.

The International Olympic Committee, citing regulation, has required the 28-year-old goalie to remove an inscription bearing “We the People” on a custom mask made for her.

The mask’s artist, Ron Slater, told FoxNews.com that he believes the IOC sees it as “propaganda” promoting the United States over other countries – aanathema to an event in which all athletes are regarded equally.

More @ Fox

U.S. House GOP To Introduce Shortly New Immigration Plan, Including Path To Legal Status

Roundabout via avordvet

 

House Republicans are working on an immigration plan that would give potentially millions of undocumented immigrants a chance to permanently live and work in the United States.

The plan, which is reportedly days away from being released to the public, will cover ideas on how the U.S. border should be protected, how immigration laws should be enforced inside the United States, the expansion of visas for certain foreign workers, and how many of the country’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants can embark on a path to legalize their status, according to published reports, such as one in online news publication Politico.

More @ Fox

Feds Drop Bombshell On Veterans!

Via Michael

 

If Pat Kirby has his guns taken away by the federal government, then everyone else is probably going to eventually face the same thing. The clock is ticking. Pat Kirby is a decorated Oregon Vietnam Veteran with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). He never imagined he would receive a letter telling him he will have to turn over his guns, or face imprisonment.

He is the ultimate expression of a law abiding American citizen. He served his country, worked hard to raise a family, and created a nice life in spite of his PTSD. But his comfort zone was jerked away when he was told he had to give up one of his most basic rights for the most unbelievable reasons.

His crime?

More with video @ Red Flag News

Neighbors: Shooter lucky to have been armed.

Via Bearing Arms

An Allentown man shot and killed one of three young men who tried to rob him in front of his home Wednesday night, witnesses said.

Five to seven shots rang out about 10:35 p.m. in the 600 block of Westminster Street, a block south of Hanover Avenue. Two of the males ran off and the third was shot and killed.

Witnesses and neighbors said the shooter, a man in his 50s, had a license to carry a firearm and the would-be robbers appeared to be in their teens.

Abi Torres said the shooter was his father-in-law, and police initially placed him handcuffs while they sorted out what happened.

More @ The Morning Call

19 January Birthdate of General Robert Edward Lee a Legal Holiday in North Carolina

Via Bernhard

North Carolina in 1892 made the birthdate of Robert E. Lee a legal holiday in the State. Like Washington before him, he led Americans, including North Carolinians, in battle in their second War of Independence in defense of their homes, inalienable rights and liberty.  He considered his State of Virginia as his country, and the South as his home.

Explaining his actions in a postwar letter to R.S. McCulloch Lee wrote:

”Every brave people who considered their rights attacked and their constitutional liberties invaded,” it ran, “would have done as we did. Our conduct was not caused by any insurrectional spirit, nor can it be termed a rebellion; for our construction of the Constitution under which we lived and acted was the same from its adoption, and for eighty years we had been taught and educated by the founders of the Republic, and their written declarations, which controlled our consciences and actions. The epithets that have been heaped upon us of “rebels” and “traitors” have no just meaning, nor are they believed in by those who understand the subject, even at the North…” 

General Dwight Eisenhower said of him in 1960: 

“General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause….he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. 

Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his belief in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history. From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul.”

British Field Marshal Garnet Joseph Wolseley said of Lee:

“I believe he will be regarded not only as the most prominent figure of the Confederacy, but as the Great American of the nineteenth century, whose statue is well worthy to stand on an equal pedestal with that of Washington, and whose memory is equally worthy to be enshrined in the hearts of all his countrymen.” This estimate is based upon a criticism of his character as a man, a soldier, and a Christian citizen. As a thinker and man of intellectual powers little has been said of him, and yet, intellectual power, associated with moral purity, are the true spring of greatness.”

After Virginia and other Southern States had made Lee’s birthday a legal holiday:

“The anniversary of the birth of Robert Edward Lee was again observed throughout Virginia on January 19^th, 1892. In many of the cities and towns there were military parades, and the banks and public offices in all were closed. The Confederate Veterans Corps of the city of New York, and the Confederate Army and Navy Association of Baltimore, Maryland, each commemorated the occasion by a banquet with reverential exercises. The day is now by statute, a legal holiday in the States of North Carolina and Georgia as well as Virginia, and the day was observed in Raleigh and Atlanta, and doubtless in other Southern cities…

Business in the Richmond city offices was at a standstill yesterday and matters at the Capitol yesterday were dull. Many wholesale houses closed their establishments at noon and the freight depots of the railroads were also closed after that hour. The scholars of the public schools had half holiday, and the banks were closed throughout the day. Although the intensely discomforting weather materially interfered with the proposed open air demonstration, it could not dampen the ardent regard in which the memory of the glorious leader is held.

In Richmond, Mayor Ellyson spoke:

"Ladies, Comrades, and Fellow-Citizens: We have met today under the auspices of Lee and Pickett Camps to do honor to the memory of one of Virginia's noble sons. Robert E. Lee is forever enshrined in the hearts of his countrymen, and as we contemplate his virtues and heroism we are made better and purer men, and I trust the time will never come when Virginians shall fail on this, his natal day, to recount the valor and patriotism of their greatest chieftain, whose noblest aspiration in life found its completest realization in the doing of his duty to his God, and his fellow man.

There is no danger, comrades, that the men who wore the grey will ever prove recreant to the principles that actuated them in time of war, but there is danger that our children may, and so we wish on these recurring anniversaries to tell of the chivalrous deeds of such leaders as Lee, Jackson, Stuart and Pickett, and to teach coming generations that the soldiers of the Southern Confederacy were not rebels, but were Americans who loved liberty as something dearer than life itself."

Man gives change to homeless person, is handcuffed and held by police for an hour

Via WiscoDave

Greg Snider was in a Houston, Texas parking lot, on the phone making a business call. While in the lot, a homeless man approached his car and asked forchange. Snider gave him 75 cents and then drove off. KPRC Local 2 News reported on the shocking thing that happened next.

When Snider pulled onto a nearby freeway, a police car pulled him to the side. Greg was surprised by how aggressive the officer was, telling KPRC, “He's screaming. He's yelling. He's telling me to get out of the car. He's telling me to put my hands on the hood…They're like, 'We saw you downtown. We saw what you did.’ And I was like, 'Are you kidding me? I gave a homeless man 75 cents.'"

He was dragged out of his car and handcuffed. So what was it that police insisted Mr. Snider had done? Give that homeless man drugs. Again, he didn’t. Snider only gave the man some money.

More with video @ Yahoo

The largest archive of German WWII images

Via T

Women in men's uniforms

Assault gunner

More @ Glory

Russia wil have huge security force for Olympics

Informed sources say there is growing concern that even with a security force of 100,000 that is four times that of the 2012 Olympics in London – bolstered by drones, anti-aircraft missiles and submarine patrols nearby – athletes, spectators and visitors to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games Sochi, Russia, will be in danger.

With the games scheduled to begin Feb. 7, Russia has decided to send an additional 30,000 police and interior ministry troops to Sochi.

The terror threats have been issued by Islamic militants from the North Caucasus region, which borders the city.

More @ WND

Shot Show

Image via WiscoDave

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

All 4 Shooters

Republican leaders push bill to update Voting Rights Act

Roundabout via Carl

 

Key lawmakers announced a rewrite of the Voting Rights Act on Thursday, creating a test to judge which states are still so discriminatory that they need federal scrutiny of their voting decisions — moving to revive the iconic law just months after the Supreme Court declared part of it unconstitutional.

In their June decision, the justices said Congress couldn’t use discrimination from four decades ago to single out states for special federal scrutiny, so the proposal would update the test to look at recent federal court rulings that found a state or municipality violated voting laws.

“This bill modernizes the Voting Rights Act and will restore those protections that were gutted by the court,” said Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Wisconsin Republican who oversaw the last bipartisan approval of the law in 2006.

More @ The Washington Times

WH caught red-handed lying about ObamaCare numbers

 Via NC Renegade

Duh: Rockets Fired In Chem Attack Could Not Possibly Have Been Fired From Syrian Government Position That Obama Regime Claimed

Via NC Renegade

 

As in, no shit Sherlock.

Whoa baby. I’ve been saying this from the beginning, but now the science shows it too.
Obama wanted to take us to war, based on his claims that the attack was launched from Syrian Government positions. While the analysis did not involve all the rockets involved in the attack, it concluded that the rockets analyzed could not have been fired from the area the Obama regime claimed.

More @ Weasel Zippers

"Boehner gets an earful when he brandishes the constitution on his facebook page in response to Obama's threat to rule by fiat."

Via Daily Timewaster

The comments are priceless.  Do you now know, which side your bread is buttered upon, traitor?

 @ Useful Idiot.com

Hedge Laying

Via Bonnie Gadsden

Over two thousand years older than chain link.

 A hedge with summer foliage. A living hedge not only keeps livestock fenced but also prevents soil erosion and water runoff. Living hedges are good wind blocks and snow collectors as well as habitat to birds, insects and small mammals. And they sequester carbon, rather than produce it, such as during the manufacture of chain link or plastic.

More @ Inspiration Green