Black-eyed peas and greens: Why we eat special foods on New Year's Day

Via Billy

 

For as long as I can remember, I was taught that on Jan. 1, it was important to eat certain foods for good luck and prosperity. It was a tradition that my family never omitted on the first day of any year.

First in importance, tradition says, is the inclusion of black-eyed peas in your New Year's Day menu.

The most widely told story says that during the Civil War, black-eyed peas were a prevalent crop in the South. The peas were primarily grown as food for livestock, and they did well in the soil and climate of the Southern states.

More @ KLTA

1957 Ford Thunderbird F-Code

 

When Ford introduced the new Thunderbird to the world in 1955, company press releases positioned it as a “high performance personal car…a result of public demand for a distinctly different American made vehicle combining all-weather passenger car comfort, convenience and safety with top maneuverability.” But Ford was already planning an assault on the Thunderbird’s main target, Chevrolet’s Corvette. Hinting at the horsepower wars to come, both cars went from strength to strength. In 1957 Ford countered the new Corvette 283/283 HP fuel-injected small-block with a supercharged version of the Thunderbird 312 CI V-8. Dubbed the “F-code,” the supercharged 312 engine featured a single four-barrel carburetor directly force-fed by a Paxton-built McCulloch centrifugal supercharger and was rated at 300 HP.

More @ MECUM

Liberals’ use of black people

Via Billy

Back in the day, when hunting was the major source of food, hunters often used stalking horses as a means of sneaking up on their quarry. They would walk on the opposite side of the horse until they were close enough to place a good shot on whatever they were hunting. A stalking horse not only concealed them but also, if their target was an armed man and they were discovered, would take the first shot. That’s what blacks are to liberals and progressives in their efforts to transform America -- stalking horses.

More @ The Daily Home

Ferry catastrophe: Muslims beat women and children to save themselves

Via Joe

The media and Western elites will explain this away by saying, It’s a cultural thing. Like honor killing, female genital mutilation, etc. What culture is it? The Islamic culture. So forgive me for not embracing multiculturalism. The West is best.

Under Islam, women are chattel, less than men. Their response was not quite what we saw on, say …. the Titanic.

“Ferry catastrophe: Muslims beat women and children to save themselves,” December 29, 2014 , by Nicolai Sennels, News 10.DK

More @ Pamela Geller

No Sacrifice Too Great for Independence

 

"I will never be taken alive."
Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of State, CSA
to Dr. Moses Hoge 

Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin was one of the most vocal advocates of arming the slaves to fight the North and offering freedom in return for defending their country. He said in February 1865, “Let us say to every Negro who wishes to go into the ranks on condition of being made free, “Go and fight – you are free.” Let us imitate [the Yankees] in this. I would imitate them in nothing else.”
Bernhard Thuersam, www.Circa1865.com

No Sacrifice Too Great for Independence

“On 12 October [1864] a radical editorial appeared in the [Richmond] Sentinel. Probably influenced by [Judah P.] Benjamin, it wrote that the South “would sooner sacrifice slavery a thousand times than to be conquered by the Yankees and have it sacrificed by them. If it becomes necessary we can enlist the Negro element on our side. We can make all the offers that the Yankees can, and some they cannot.”

Other editorials in somewhat similar vein followed on 14 and 24 November – after Lincoln had been re-elected and Sherman was marching to the sea. In the latter editorial the Sentinel flatly advocated the arming of the slaves in case General Lee and the other military authorities felt it was necessary for Southern success.

The Negroes who fought in the ranks were to be given their freedom at the end of the war. For it was not a case, the Sentinel said, where the Confederate people could cling to pre-conceived notions and prejudices about slavery. If they did not arm the Negroes to fill their depleted ranks, they were likely to lose their independence, and no sacrifice was too great to keep them from getting under the Yankee yoke.

Simultaneously with the appearance of these editorials the Confederate Congress had assembled on 7 November, and Jefferson Davis, reputedly on Benjamin’s suggestion, recommended the employment of 40,000 slaves in the army but not to be used as soldiers except in the last extremity; after the war they were to be emancipated.

It was an opening wedge for the use of large numbers of Negro troops in the Confederate ranks . . . [and] General Lee, Governor Smith of Virginia, Senator Brown and Benjamin argued ably for the measure on the ground of military necessity. In a letter on 21 December to his old college-mate Frederick Porcher of Charleston, who had written him primarily to urge the arming of the slaves, Benjamin indicated that President Davis was only waiting for public opinion to ripen on the subject.

Early in February, 1865, the Confederate peace commissioners, Judge Campbell, Alexander H. Stephens, and R.M.T. Hunter, returned from their unsuccessful meeting with Lincoln and Seward at Fortress Monroe. A mass meeting was then held in the African Church at Richmond on 9 February to rally the people for a further desperate effort. The African Church, then the largest auditorium in Richmond, was frequently borrowed from its Negro members for such assemblies.

{Judah Benjamin spoke] “I want all the bacon, everything which can feed soldiers, and I want it as a free gift to the country. Talk of rights! What rights do the arrogant invaders leave you? Look to the trenches below Richmond. Is it not a shame that men who have sacrificed all in our defence should not be reinforced with all the means in our power? Is it any time now for antiquated patriotism to argue refusal to send them aid, be it white or black?

I wish to call your attention to some figures, which I wish you to seriously ponder. In 1860 the South had 1,664,000 arms-bearing men. How many men have the Yankees send against us? In 1861, 654,000; in 1862, 740,000; in 1863, 700,000; in 1864 they called out 1,500,000.

Here you have the figures that they brought out 3,000,000 men against 1,664,000 Confederates., who lived at the beginning of the war to draw sword in their country’s service. Our resources of white population have greatly diminished, but you had 680,000 black men of the same ages, and could Divine prophesy have told us of the fierceness of the enemy’s death grapple at our throats, could we have known what we now know, that Lincoln has confessed, that without 200,000 Negroes which he stole from us, he would be compelled to give up the contest, should we have entertained any doubts upon the subject?”

Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Statesman, Robert Douthat Meade, Oxford University Press, 1943, pp. 305-307)

Race War? Andrew Klavan & Bill Whittle: Excellent As Usual.

Solving the Police Problem: If They Don't Want to be Policed, Don't Police Them

 

It may well come to this.

It is obvious, is it not, that all of the recent problems with the police have occurred because cops keep meddling with people. If the fuzz had left Rodney King alone, Los Angeles would not have burned. If the cop in Ferguson had not stopped Michael Brown after he robbed the store, the town would not have burned. If a New York cop had not tried to keep from selling illegal cigarettes, there would be no protests. If OJ Simpson had not been prosecuted for murdering his wife, racial tension would have been less. On and on.

It is blindingly clear that nothing but trouble results when cops interact with criminals in places of high diversity. It makes no sense to meddle. It is racism. It is irresponsible. It leads to arson. It needs to stop.

And it can.

If you were a young white cop just out of the academy, and asked my advice, I would say, "When on the street, mind your own business." For example, if you see a drug dealer on the corner peddling rock, what should you do? Nothing. Doing nothing protects you, protects the dealer, and keeps the locals from burning the neighborhood. As a police officer, it is your duty to protect.
 

More @ Fred On Everything

Kiwi jihadist mistakenly broadcasts his location

Via Joe

 Smart guy.......:)

A Kiwi jihadist who claims to be fighting in Syria with the Islamic State has been mistakenly broadcasting his exact location after forgetting to turn off a tracking function on his phone.

Mohammad Daniel, also known as Abu Abdul Rahman, and formerly known as Mark John Taylor, has now deleted 45 posts from Twitter after discovering that he had been revealing his location to intelligence agencies and enemies keeping tabs on him.

More @ The New Zealand Herald

Homeowner beaten with ax handle shoots/kills one of two men trying to break in

A homeowner in Washington County shot and killed one of two masked men who were attempting to break into his house late Sunday night.

Investigators said the 74-year-old victim was beaten with an ax handle before he opened fire.

Police said the incident happened around 9 p.m. on McGirts Road in West Pike Run Township.

The Washington County coroner identified the man shot and killed as 42-year-old Robert West.

More @ WPXI

Oliver Stone on Ukraine Protests: "The Truth Is Not Being Aired in the West"

Via Terry

Oliver Stone has harsh words for the CIA's Ukraine policy.

The Savages director wrote on Facebook on Tuesday that the Central Intelligence Agency contributed to the ouster of former president Viktor Yanukovych, whom Stone recently interviewed for the documentary he's directing about Russian president Vladimir Putin.

More @ The Hollywood Reporter

NC: Shot fired at Durham officer's home

 

A Durham police officer’s home was damaged after it was shot at Monday afternoon, the department said.

The officer, who was not identified, was inside his home at the Atrium Apartments on Meriwether Drive at about 2 p.m. when the outer pane of his dining room sliding glass door was shattered, police said. The projectile did not enter the apartment.

More @ WRAL

Confessions of a Public Defender

Via Allen B West

 

Dated

Still liberal after all these years.

I am a public defender in a large southern metropolitan area. Fewer than ten percent of the people in the area I serve are black but over 90 per cent of my clients are black. The remaining ten percent are mainly Hispanics but there are a few whites.

I have no explanation for why this is, but crime has racial patterns. Hispanics usually commit two kinds of crime: sexual assault on children and driving under the influence. Blacks commit many violent crimes but very few sex crimes. The handful of whites I see commit all kinds of crimes. In my many years as a public defender I have represented only three Asians, and one was half black.
As a young lawyer, I believed the official story that blacks are law abiding, intelligent, family-oriented people, but are so poor they must turn to crime to survive. Actual black behavior was a shock to me.

The media invariably sugarcoat black behavior. Even the news reports of the very crimes I dealt with in court were slanted. Television news intentionally leaves out unflattering facts about the accused, and sometimes omits names that are obviously black. All this rocked my liberal, tolerant beliefs, but it took me years to set aside my illusions and accept the reality of what I see every day. I have now served thousands of blacks and their families, protecting their rights and defending them in court. What follow are my observations.

More @ American Renaissance

Nine Killed With Stolen Gun – In Gun Free Canada!

Seven adults and two children have died in a mass shooting in the Gun-Free Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta.

Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht said the gunman used a stolen 9mm handgun which he used to kill all eight victims and later turned on himself. He said it was the worst mass killing in Edmonton since six people were killed in 1956 calling it a “senseless mass murder” linked to “extreme domestic violence.”

More @ Viral Buzz

Toddler fatally shoots mom inside Walmart with her carry gun

 

A 29-year-old mother was shot and killed after her two-year-old son accidentally shot with her with her own gun Tuesday morning, local authorities said.

Veronica Rutledge was shopping inside a Walmart Tuesday morning when her toddler accessed the gun concealed inside her purse and discharged it, striking her, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s office said in a statement. The child was seated inside the shopping cart next to the purse.

More @ Guns

The Battle of Huertgen Forest. Germany: September 19 to December 16, 1944

 

 Part 2 of 4

 Mike Scruggs

 Part 1 of this series related the story of how my friend, Howd Mosher (1922-2005) was badly wounded by German machine-gun fire in the battle for Lucherberg, near the northern fringe of the Huertgen Forest area.  Howd was saved from bleeding to death by a German medic. The Battle of Huertgen Forest was really a series of small but fierce high-casualty battles that occurred between September 19 and December 16, 1944. The principal American objectives were (1) to protect the right flank of Lt. General Courtney Hodges’ First U.S. Army (approximately 150,000 troops) as they advanced past the Inde and Roer Rivers as an intermediate objective before advancing to the Rhine and its major industrial cities and (2) to prevent the Germans from using the major dams on the Roer River to flood the areas west of the Inde and Roer. The Huertgen Forest Battle included an area of about 50 to 70 square miles both in the forest itself, the bordering towns, and the flatter and less thickly forested areas along the Inde and Roer rivers.

 General Eisenhower also believed the battles would help grind down the dwindling German Army by attrition, but the Germans turned out to be much stronger than Allied Intelligence believed.
 On October 2, the First Army made the first major American penetration of the Siegfried Line at Aachen, a city of 160,000 near the Belgian border. The Siegfried Line was a highly fortified series of tank obstacles, pill boxes, and natural water obstacles along the Dutch, Belgian, Luxembourg, and French borders of Germany. The Siegfried Line went right through the center of Aachen and other German cities on the border, because the larger buildings and narrow streets near the center of German cities and towns made them difficult for Allied offensive armored maneuver and warfare. The Germans evacuated the civilian population of Aachen as the battle commenced. The Germans finally surrendered the city on October 21, allowing the First Army to advance east to the Inde River and then the Roer River.

The U.S 104th Infantry Division, commanded by Major General Terry Allen, had been assisting the British in the southeastern Netherlands until November 15. They officially rejoined the First Army and crossed from Belgium into to Germany south of Aachen on that day. The 104th “Timberwolves,” as they were called, were the first U.S. Army division specifically trained for night fighting.  Their training area in Eastern Oregon also equipped them to operate in heavily forested areas. They captured Stolberg (population now, 56,000), 10 miles east of Aachen, on the 16th.  On November 21, they took the town of Eschweller. By December 1, they had already been engaged against the 246th German Infantry Division at Inden (population now, 7,000) on the Inde River. The 246th Volksgrenadiers were heavily armed with mobile assault guns, hunter-tanks, and anti-tank weapons on the east side of the Inde.  On the night of December 2, Timberwolf assault troops crossed the frigid and fast-flowing waist deep waters of the 25-foot wide Inde with fixed bayonets. They surprised the Germans and captured 50 “very frightened” young German soldiers near the center of town. Within 24 hours, they had cleared the Germans from Inden and the west side of the Inde River. The German artillery bombardment on Inde and its environs was said to be the heaviest of the war—a sure sign the Germans had no intention of letting the Americans get past the Roer.

 I-Company of the 415th Regiment, which I believe was Howd Mosher’s company, immediately carried the momentum southeast to Lucherberg with German artillery still raining down on them but causing no casualties in the dark night. Lucherberg was situated on a hill rising about 500 feet above the Inde River on its west side. The Roer River could also be seen to the east from the hill.
The population of Lucherberg was only about 500, but it played an important part in the German defense of the area. The north side of the hill upon which Lucherberg rested was very steep. Most of Lucherberg’s buildings were built of large, heavy bricks.

I-Company started up this steep north incline in the very early hours of December 3. A German: Panzer tank fired at them from the top of the hill but hit nothing in the darkness. A few bazooka rounds hastened its withdrawal. I-Company had been reduced to about 100 men because of attrition from both combat and non-combat casualties. Normal strength would have been about 170 men.
Northwest Germany and the Northern Rhineland are normally rainy, damp, muddy, and cold in autumn, but the autumn and early winter months of 1944 were the wettest in two decades. Infantry troops were frequently covered with mud and cold slime for days or weeks. Serious respiratory conditions including bronchitis and pneumonia were common, taking men out of combat for weeks. Frostbite and especially “trench foot” caused many casualties. Dysentery and bowel problems were a continuous plague, making infantry life miserable and depressing. Fear was a frequent visitor. Combat troops often got little sleep or real rest for long periods. Combine these with the helpless feeling and uncertainties of frequent artillery bombardment, and you have a perfect formula for high rates of combat fatigue or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 

 At the same time I-Company was entering the north side of town and engaging in building to building infantry battle, the remaining 421 troops of the 3rd Battalion of the 9th Regiment of the German 3rd Parachute Division was entering Lucherberg on the opposite side. I-Company was able to capture four buildings and 15 prisoners, but Lieutenant John Olsen, the company commander, received fatal wounds. More German infantry from the 246th Division’s 404th Regiment began to arrive, and a confused situation soon developed with American held houses divided from one another by German troops or German fire.

 Emil Weiss, a grenadier in company 6 of the 404th recorded that: “Combat was very tough, especially the hand-to-hand fighting.” As the battle progressed, the German paratroopers were able to set up three machine-gun positions that blocked American advance with devastating crossfire. Meanwhile, Hitler's favorite "fireman" and most aggressive Field Marshall, Walter Model, took an interest in keeping Lucherberg..