The Roof Korean Option: A Response to Rod Dreher

Via Ol' Remus

  

As the delightful giggles on crunchy-con Twitter indicate, Rod Dreher is very pleased that the forthcoming French translation of his most popular and lucrative work, The Benedict Option, was at least temporarily trending this week as the No. 1 book on Amazon.fr.

Having made the rounds in the American press this year, it was apparent to all that Dreher’s Benedict Option is a white flag in the culture wars. Dreher’s main point in the book is that “serious Christian conservatives” are no longer able to live “business-as-usual lives in America.” After making a rally during the reign of George W. Bush, Christians and other social conservatives have suffered defeat after defeat in the Obama era.

More @ TAKI

All The Statues Must Go

Via Ol' Remus

 

Back in May, a New Orleans statue of Joan of Arc was tagged with “Tear it Down” graffiti.

Why Joan of Arc? Any famous historical figure is by definition controversial. Joan is a French
national symbol, but Shakespeare depicted her as a malicious witch. The French Quarter where the statue stands is a mostly white neighborhood. France was dealing with a controversial election.

This is what happens when you open a can of historical, religious and nationalistic worms.

The war on Confederate memorials quickly escalated into attacks on Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln Memorial was vandalized in Washington D.C. and in Chicago, a statue of Lincoln was burned.

Abraham Lincoln fought the Confederacy. But from a black nationalist perspective, Lincoln and Lee were both racist white devils. And to the left, they both embody white supremacy.

More @ Sultan Knish

Lost secrets of the first Roman legionaries to fight northern barbarians are uncovered at Hadrian's Wall including swords, lances and hair combs

Via Ol' Remus

 

When archaeologists lifted up a piece of concrete floor at a site near Hadrian's Wall, they never expected to discover one of the earliest Roman cavalry barracks and a treasure-trove of artefacts in a remarkable state of preservation.

A layer of black, sweet-smelling anaerobic soil led them to unearth eight rooms with stables for horses and living accommodation filled with extraordinary military and personal possessions left behind by cavalry men and their families 2,000 years ago.

Roman cavalry swords are extremely rare anywhere, but two were lying on the barrack floor. 

More @ Daily Mail

The Original Confederacy

The original governing document after the British colonies seceded from England was titled the Articles of Confederation, adopted on November 15, 1777, but not formally ratified by all thirteen States until March, 1781. Hence, the original American government was “Confederated,” the people (and their military arm) referred to as “Confederates,” and the flag they flew was a Confederate flag.

Interestingly, many of the Revolutionary leaders who formed this confederated government were not advocates of what they then knew as “democracy,” and they were unwilling to accept the idea that the Articles of Confederation were an expression of any eighteenth century democratic philosophy.

These leaders and creators of the Articles created a “separation of powers” which is often equated with today’s view of democracy and liberty. To James Madison and John Adams the purpose of such an instrument was to give both men of property and those without a voice in government as well as a check upon one another. Their fear was, that without this check, society could not prevent the exploitation which would probably ensue if either one got control of the government.

Also, the Articles were considered to be the constitutional expression of the philosophy of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, and what was considered to be “democracy” was written into the revolutionary State constitutions regarding legislative supremacy, governors and the judiciary subservient to legislatures, and churches losing their past privileges.

John Adams wrote in 1817 of those romanticizing the Revolution and forgetting the mighty political battles that took place then and afterward. “There is,” he wrote, “an overweening fondness for representing this country as the scene of liberty, equality, fraternity, union, harmony and benevolence. But let not your sons or mine deceive themselves. This country, like all others, has been a theater of parties and feuds for near two hundred years.”

That Revolutionary generation of English colonists had experienced the rule of the Mother Country for all their lives, and the newspapers of 1775-76 were rife with essays distrusting office-holders, insisting on annual elections, rotation in office and constitutional restrictions on holding political office. Americans of that time were lectured upon that men in power naturally lusted for more power and that restraints were needed on officeholders lest the peoples’ liberties be put in danger.

In 1787’s convention Edmund Randolph pointed out that the authors of the Articles of Confederation were wise and great men, but that “human rights were the chief knowledge of the time.” He followed this by stating that our chief danger arises from the democratic parts of our constitutions . . . that the powers of government exercised by the people swallows up the other branches . . . [and that none] of the [State] constitutions have provided sufficient checks against the democracy.”

As the governing document, or “constitution” of the United States from 1781 to 1789, the Articles simply dissolved (though deemed “perpetual” when ratified) in the latter year as 11 States then bound to it voluntarily seceded and formed a more perfect union – but initially without Rhode Island and North Carolina whose people were suspicious of the new constitution’s grant of additional power to the central government in Washington.

After those two States withdrew from the Articles and joined the other eleven, this new Constitution passed through serious ruptures such as New England’s threats of secession in 1814 and serious tariff crises, until finally collapsing in war between North and South in 1861.”

Poll: Americans Peg Gun Policy as a Top Issue, Fear Government Will Go Too Far in Restricting Gun Rights

Via Billy

 

A poll released on Thursday found Americans rate gun policy as a top issue in elections and fear the potential for the government to overreach with new gun-control measures.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey of 1,200 adults conducted between August 5 and 9 found 35 percent of respondents listed gun rights or gun control as the top issue they considered important enough to have an impact on their voting. That's more than environmental issues at 30 percent, immigration at 28 percent, or abortion at 17 percent. Respondents picked gun policy as important to their vote more often than any other issue surveyed, though issues like foreign policy, the economy, and national defense were purposefully left out of the question.

More @ The Washington Free Beacon

Genocide: The Collectivist Answer

 

The Washington Times published an article about the effort to hold "climate change deniers" legally culpable for their views. It is just another case of never let truth or science get in the way of the religion of anthropogenic global warming.

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were going to incite the collectivists in the global warming cult; that was a given. But it illuminates the current state of collectivism in the liberal solar system, which is: it is okay to attack someone they consider a "Nazi" and the definition of Nazi might be anything they find contrary to the collectivist mantra; Ben Shapiro, by his very existence, is guilty of rhetorical thuggery whenever he speaks against the collectivist agenda and those who find enough science to doubt the anthropogenic source of global warming can be jailed.

What we see is that the collectivist liberals are in the process of criminalizing opposition to the tenets of their death cult, paving the way for them to engage in genocide. As drastic or sensationalized as that seems, it is verifiable from the origins of every genocide ever committed.

More @ Christian Mercenary

9/11: "At the time I really believed this would be my last take off," she said.

Via Antoine Thang

 

VN E Express 

 (Translated imperfectly from Vietnamese)

 On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, Heather "Lucky" Penney was on the runway of Andrews Air Force Base and was poised to direct the F-16 fighters with the intent of stabbing United Airlines Flight 93, hijacked, according to the Washington Post .
 

Penney was the first F-16 female pilot of the 121st Armored Infantry Division of the DC P Air Defense Corps to complete two weeks of aerial training in Nevada. When the terrorist attacks occurred, there were no armed aircraft at the base. Fighter jets are still equipped with counterfeit bullets from the training mission. (After 9/11, they deployed two fully armed aircraft, ready to be launched all the time.)

 The al-Qaeda terrorist group hijacked control of four planes. They drove two planes straight into the World Trade Center Tower Towers in Manhattan, New York. The third aircraft crashed into the Pentagon in Virginia.

 

When it is reported that a fourth plane may be on the way to Washington, Colonel Marc Sasseville has asked Penney to deploy the aircraft to stop it. Their shots did not carry live ammunition or missiles.

 

"Lucky, you come with me," said Colonel Marc Sasseville.

 

"I'm going to crash into the cockpit," Sasseville said.

 

"I'm going to crash into the tail," Penny replied without hesitation.

 

"We dashed into the plane," recalls Penney. "I will be a suicide pilot pilot."

 

They fly over the burning Pentagon, heading northwest at a speed of over 650 km / h at low altitudes.

"We were not trained to crash down the passenger aircraft," Sasseville said. "If I hit the engine, the plane would still be able to glide, and I thought I had to aim at the cockpit or wing."

 

He also thought about whether to use the launcher just before the crash. "I hope I can do both at the same time," he said.

 

Penney worries that if she uses the launcher to escape first, the fighter will miss the target. For her, worrying about failure is worse than worrying about death.

 

But in the end Penney is not dead. You do not have to crash a plane full of passengers. The passengers did it themselves.

 

United 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. The hostages resisted the hijackers and did what the two fighters were ready to do: sacrificing to prevent the plane from causing heavy casualties on the ground.

 

The fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after the hostage fought off the hijackers. Photo: alchetron .

"The passengers on United Airlines 93 are real heroes, they are ready to sacrifice themselves," Penney said. "I'm just a historical witness."

 

She and Sasseville then transferred the task of escorting the president and reviewing the airspace.

Penney's father is a United Airlines pilot. Penney was not sure whether his father was the driver of United Airlines 93.

 

"It sounds heartless but frankly, I have no way of knowing and that does not change what I need to do," Penney said. In fact, her father was not present on the fateful flight.

 

Penney is currently a director in the US F-35 program. Although she is no longer a fighter pilot, she still likes to fly and often recalls her special departure more than a decade ago.

 

"At the time I really believed this would be my last take off," she said.

Phuong Vu

The 'Laffer Curve': Why we know Reagan's tax reforms worked

Via Billy

Given the frenzied shouting that is going to accompany the current calls for tax reform we need to remind ourselves of one rather important thing – the Reagan tax reforms worked.

By this I don't mean that Art Laffer is always and everywhere right, that tax cuts pay for themselves, not that that's what he actually said anyway. Rather, they succeeded in bringing our tax rates roughly to where any further increases will not do much to increase government revenue, and they forced much of the compensation that high-earners were receiving in the form of untaxed perks back into being reported and taxed as personal income.

More @ Washington Examiner

94.9% of The Association of Mature American Citizens Believe The Media Wish Trump To Fail

 

 Respondents also agreed that congressional Republicans want Trump to fail.

Senior citizens make up the the largest voting block in America. For that reason, the liberal media isn’t going to be happy that many older Americans see their coverage for the biased nonsense that it is.

The Association of Mature American Citizens, an alternative to AARP boasting 1.3 million members, held a poll among 65,000 senior citizen voters. The survey asked members 10 questions and found wide support among respondents for President Trump and his policies. The survey also found that most aren’t buying the media’s narrative regarding the Trump Administration, which has been overwhelmingly negative thus far.

In response to the first question on Trump’s job performance, nearly six in ten seniors approve of the president’s actions so far. That’s far above the reported average in the media of 35-40 percent.

More @ The Political Insider

SCV members are asked not to attend rally in Richmond this weekend

Via Billy

A reminder from the Commander and all S.C.V leadership that WE ARE NOT INVOLVED IN THIS IN ANY WAY.  OUR MEMBERS ARE NOT TO ATTEND. We had an event that was set the same day that was CANCELLED  a while back. At the direction of the Division command I have been in contact with this group ,New CSA 2 out of Tennessee( that before now no one here has ever heard of) and can tell you that even after hearing all of the information that any demonstration has the potential for being another Charlottesville and in any case will damage our efforts to save our monuments.

They state that the demonstration with them openly armed and carrying the battle flag will go on. Their is no telling the damage they will do to our efforts , but they do not care because they will go back to Tennessee. My opinion from information I have uncovered about these people that run this organization is that they just want notoriety and the publicity.

If you were going or know anyone that is,  please advise them of this information immediately

Why the Liberal Bubble Got Charlottesville Wrong

Via Billy

To understand the small difference between the two ultimate big-government parties let’s go to a little old Lithuanian woman who had survived being conquered by both Nazis and Communists. She said that she preferred Nazis because if you did what they told you to do, they’d leave you alone, while Communists wanted you to think the way they thought; modern liberalism's roots are clearly found in Communism.

Since the founding of the Soviet Union, modern leftists have been trying to portray Communism as a great thing.  We know they’ve succeeded because calling anyone a Nazi is viewed as a heinous charge while calling someone a Communist is no big deal and can even be considered a compliment by some leftists.

Walter Duranty, a NYT reporter, got a Pulitzer prize for lying about the mass starvation in the Ukraine in the 1930s. Now that we know the truth, neither the Pulitzer committee nor the NYT want to retract the award.

Leftists are so eager to support Communism that they say that a reporter who covered up Communism’s mass murder of millions of people deserves an award for journalism.

On the other hand, leftists and the MSM are so eager to condemn Nazis that they call people who aren’t Nazis, Nazis just so they can condemn Nazis.

More @ American Thinker

White House: Tax reform hinges on Democratic support

Via Billy

White House legislative affairs director Marc Short on Tuesday emphasized the need for President Trump and Democrats to work together on tax reform, citing Republican lawmakers' past failures to fulfill their campaign promises.

“We learned this summer that keeping 50 or 52 Republicans [in the Senate] is not something that’s reliable,” Short said at a roundtable hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “Despite promises and commitments they’ve made to the American voters since 2010, we don’t feel like we can assume we can get tax reform done strictly on a partisan basis, so it would be wise for us … to try and reach out and earn the support from Democrats as well.”

More @ The Hill

Republicans will introduce last-ditch Obamacare repeal effort Wednesday

Via Billy

Four Senate Republicans will introduce legislation Wednesday that would provide the Senate with a last-ditch opportunity to repeal and replace Obamacare before a Sept. 30 deadline.

Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Dean Heller of Nevada have attracted a fourth GOP sponsor, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, to a measure that would allow states to decide the fate of Obamacare.

The bill would provide the $1.2 trillion for Obamacare's Medicaid expansion and tax credits to states in an attempt to get the states to develop their own healthcare programs. The four lawmakers announced they will introduce the legislation on Wednesday and will be joined by former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.

More @ Washington Examiner