Forks of Cypress Mansion: It was 50 years ago today

Via Jeffery

 

The fire that destroyed the historic Forks of Cypress mansion was so intense, it melted the lights and peeled the paint on firetrucks.

Harry Wallace, whose family owned the antebellum plantation house, said a lightning strike on the house blasted a hole through the roof and started a fire that consumed the structure in half an hour.

It was 50 years ago today that the Forks of Cypress, built in 1821, burned to the ground, leaving only the now-iconic brick columns.

"There was a thunderstorm, and there was a direct hit of lightning," Wallace said.

He had just graduated from high school and was living with his parents near the Forks of Cypress. He said his great-uncle owned the property at the time, and his mother was the curator.

"My dad and I were the first ones there," he said. "There was a hole in the roof where the lightning hit. We could see flames in all the rooms. In 30 minutes, it was gone."

More @ Times Daily

Insane: 'We are afraid'' - Swedish schoolchildren's desperate letter to the principal

Via David

 

Swedish school children's desperate letter to the principal, after being beaten at school.

More and more parents keep their children home from school, after children have been abused by newly arrived immigrant students who attend the Central School in Kristianstad.

Children who are beaten, kicked, choked and suffer other degrading treatment - It has now become everyday life at the Central School in Kristianstad. The school has received a large number of new students from the recent asylum chaos, and has two preparatory classes for newly arrived immigrants.

And it is the newly arrived immigrant children who create the problems.

More @ SPEISA

Liberty or Laws? – “nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself”

The principle element in this discussion is the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

The provision that is of concern is, “No person… shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.”  And, we must begin by understanding that, as the Preamble to the Bill of Rights says,

The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

Clearly, the Fifth Amendment, then, is a prohibition against the government, “to prevent misconstruction or abuse of [the federal government’s] powers”

To understand the role of the Supreme Court, at least for nearly the past century, we need to review what Justice Brandeis explained in Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority (1936), in which he explained the “rules” that the Court had adopted to avoid “passing upon a large part of all constitutional questions pressed upon it for decision.”  (See About Ashwander v. TVA)

The pertinent rules from that decision are:

More @ Outpost of Freedom

Surprise! :) State Department Blocks Release Of Hillary Clinton-Era TPP Emails Until After The Election

Via Billy

 The wicked witch of the North

Update, 4:35pm ET, June 6: Following IBT's story, Donald Trump's campaign demanded that the State Department release Clinton's TPP-related emails. The Trump campaign referred to Clinton as "the outsourcing candidate" and said she was intent on "ramming TPP down the throats of the American people." Read IBT's story about Trump's statement here.

Original story: Trade is a hot issue in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. But correspondence from Hillary Clinton and her top State Department aides about a controversial 12-nation trade deal will not be available for public review — at least not until after the election. The Obama administration abruptly blocked the release of Clinton’s State Department correspondence about the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), after first saying it expected to produce the emails this spring.

The decision came in response to International Business Times' open records request for correspondence between Clinton’s State Department office and the United States Trade Representative. The request, which was submitted in July 2015, specifically asked for all such correspondence that made reference to the TPP.

More @ IBT

ISIS burns 19 Yezidi girls to death in Mosul for not having sex with their fighters

Via cscitizen

 

Extremist jihadis of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Thursday executed 19 Yezidi girls by burning them to death, activists and eyewitnesses reported.

The victims, who had been taken by ISIS jihadis as sex slaves, were placed in iron cages in central Mosul and burned to death in front of hundreds of people.

“They were punished for refusing to have sex with ISIS militants,” local media activist Abdullah al-Malla told ARA News.

More @ ARA News

Woman Destroys Store After Her EBT Card Is Denied

Via Billy

Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard: Black Privilege

Via comment by Quartermain on Useful idiots

 

Living as a white guy in America after having grown up elsewhere, I must say, I don’t see much ill-will towards blacks among my fellow whites. There are traces of it, I know; I read the comment threads. The vast majority of white Americans, however, wish no harm to blacks, nor any restriction of their civil rights. I never hear that from people I mix with, and I mix with all sorts. What I do hear is a constant, steady, undercurrent of resentment, expressed in guarded tones for fear of the t aboo enforcers — resentment of what you can only call black privilege.

You know what I mean: the Affirmative Action slots and set-asides, the excuses and free passes, the mealy-mouthed newspaper reports about “the robber was a tall man in his thirties,” all that.

You don’t file your taxes, you end up in jail; Al Sharpton doesn’t file his taxes, he’s invite d to the White House. Black privilege.

More @ The Unz Review

Entitled Refugees Destroy Camp & Demand Welfare, Get Deported

Via comment by Quartermain on Useful idiots

 

After demanding more welfare and immediate access to the country, dozens of angry migrant decided to destroy their own refugee camp in order to force their hosts to give them what they wanted.

However, as soon as the massive riot dissipated and the destruction was complete, the entitled migrants got slapped with a response they weren’t expecting.

The Greek Island of Lesbos was once a thriving tourist attraction that depended on travelers for its economy. Because of the refugee crisis, the beautiful island is now overrun with hordes of brawling migrants and their scattered waste and debris. The area has become so dangerous that even locals fear leaving their homes. Of course, this intimidation has afforded many migrants entitlement to taxpayer benefits — but that’s not the case any longer.

More @ Mad World News

'Rent-a-mob' zealot caught red-handed at Trump riot

Via comment by ToneDeaf on Useful idiots

 

A woman who appears to be a professional protester appeared in the middle of the violent rally against Donald Trump in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday evening. Given the previous appearance of paid protesters at anti-Trump events, it raises the question of whether the violent mobs have been rented – hence the term “rent-a-mob.”

An ABC News producer tweeted a photo (above) of protesters burning a “Make America Great Again” hat, stolen off the head of a Trump supporter. It turns out, the woman on the right, Maile Hampton, was profiled as someone who appears to be professional protester, in a story published in WND two weeks ago.

Hampton, who goes by the name KwameKahlo on Twitter, is a self-described “Marxist Leninist.” She has been seen and photographed at protests all over California recently, and even in Mexico.

More @ WND

Dumbed Down Schools

Comment by Anonymous on Yale Students Tell English Profs: Too Many White M...

 

Dumbing Down SAT Tests So More Hapless Students Go To Colleges, More Money For Schools, More Debt For Students

"Two thoughts here; The reason why they find it hostile, is that Western/English Literature forces them to perform what is an unnatural and very painful act for these special snowflakes, namely thinking! 

They like many of their peers are operating under the belief that any thing that happened before they were born is not worth bothering with since there is absolutely nothing those dead white males can teach them. To acknowledge the classical greats is to also acknowledge that some writers are better than others, hence this is unequal and by extension "unfair".

Lest I forget, to fully understand and appreciate the great writers of the past, requires work, effort and time by the reader. This is very unwelcome in the age of short attention spans, instant every thing and a culture that focused on mass appeal at the basest of appeal.

Once again a great poet was overlooked; Kipling!

If this is the best that a student attending Yale can propose and the faculty condones and would give consideration to, then, attending Yale is a waste of time and money. It is possible to "graduate" from a university such as the once great Yale and still be an uncivilized, mal-educated barbarian. My apologies to barbarians of the past, if I have offended and insulted you by comparing you to a current Yale student."

State leader quits ACLU after daughters were ‘visibly frightened’ by men using women’s restroom

Via Billy

The African-American woman who leads a state chapter of the ACLU has resigned, citing her own daughters' “frightened” reaction to biological males using the women's restroom.

The organization's increasing focus on legislating the transgender lobby's concerns pushed Maya Dillard Smith, interim director of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, to tender her resignation.

“I have shared my personal experience of having taken my elementary school age daughters into a women’s restroom when shortly after three transgender young adults, over six feet [tall] with deep voices, entered,” she wrote.

“My children were visibly frightened, concerned about their safety and left asking lots of questions for which I, like many parents, was ill-prepared to answer,” she continued.

More @ Life Site

Culture War Victory? " The Left had to destroy the nation in order to save it."

Via Billy

If one is conservative, a recent Washington Post article by Barton Swaim should raise one’s hackles on two counts. First, Swaim asserts the Left has won the culture war. Second, while some conservatives will resist that assertion, Swaim contends “many do not.” He argues, “Many have finally given up on the whole idea of a culture war or are willing to admit they lost it. They are determined only to remain who they are and to live as amiably and productively as they can in a culture that doesn’t look like them and doesn’t belong to them.” Perhaps the surrenderists should reconsider for the simplest of reasons: If the Left has won the culture war, it is the epitome of a Pyrrhic victory.

More @ The Patriot Post

New rule would let VA provide sex reassignment surgery to transgender vets

Via Cousin John

Veterans Affairs doctors could begin providing sex reassignment surgery in coming years under a new rule proposed by the department.

The move would remove a long-held ban on the surgery and likely provide another cultural point of controversy in the wake of federal rules, issued last month, that mandate public schools allow transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender they choose.

More @ Military Times

Useful idiots

Via Billy

‘Under the Gun’ Director, Stephanie Soechtig, Confesses to Federal Gun Crimes

Via Cousin John

A story AmmoLand News recently broke, left Katie Couric facing a firestorm of criticism for the deceptive editing tactics used in her latest anti-gun documentary, Under the Gun.

Tactics that falsely attempted to portray gun rights supporters as being dumbstruck by a question about background checks.

The biased editing led to EPIX pulling the documentary and Ms. Couric issuing a statement acknowledging the deception. Unfortunately, the controversy with this sham documentary may only be just beginning, as now it appears that criminal activity was committed by makers of the film in the process of making it.

More@ Ammoland

Dalai Lama: Germany must not become an Arab country

Via Nancy

 

He gets it!

These Buddhists are smarter and braver than your average Christian or Jew.  We saw that in Burma where the Buddhist monks had the courage to carry protest banners opposing Islam and the arrival of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) in Burma.

Now here is arguably the most important Buddhist world leader, the Dalai Lama saying Germany must take in fewer Muslim migrants and only keep them temporarily.

More @ Refugee Resettlement Watch