Park Service: Dissing Christians Just Dandy

........a guide who "mimicked and mocked [a Christian] carrying and swinging an oversized Bible ... ."

"Even if I said the founders were Christians, how could we really know? Just because people carry a big ol' Bible in their hand, they can still be atheists!" said the guide.

Senator Rand Paul: From A Different Mold

Rand Paul Speaks At Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot Kentucky 2009
"Rand Paul reflects a different age when professionals lent their expertise to government; when our officials were successful privately and applied their skills publicly as a civic virtue. Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and many afterward have died, but left their example by which we should gauge our current and future officials. Rand Paul fits the mold. Ted Kennedy and many others in the Senate, break it"

Secret US Embassy Cables

Wikileaks began on Sunday November 28th publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into US Government foreign activities.

The cables, which date from 1966 up until the end of February this year, contain confidential communications between 274 embassies in countries throughout the world and the State Department in Washington DC. 15,652 of the cables are classified Secret.

The embassy cables will be released in stages over the next few months. The subject matter of these cables is of such importance, and the geographical spread so broad, that to do otherwise would not do this material justice.

The cables show the extent of US spying on its allies and the UN; turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuse in "client states"; backroom deals with supposedly neutral countries; lobbying for US corporations; and the measures US diplomats take to advance those who have access to them.

This document release reveals the contradictions between the US’s public persona and what it says behind closed doors – and shows that if citizens in a democracy want their governments to reflect their wishes, they should ask to see what’s going on behind the scenes.

Every American schoolchild is taught that George Washington – the country’s first President – could not tell a lie. If the administrations of his successors lived up to the same principle, today’s document flood would be a mere embarrassment. Instead, the US Government has been warning governments -- even the most corrupt -- around the world about the coming leaks and is bracing itself for the exposures.

The full set consists of 251,287 documents, comprising 261,276,536 words (seven times the size of "The Iraq War Logs", the world's previously largest classified information release).

The cables cover from 28th December 1966 to 28th February 2010 and originate from 274 embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions.

Constitution Day Essay

I asked the author if he had second thoughts concerning the conclusion considering what has transpired since 2005 when he penned this. His appropriate answer was "I haven't given it much thought. Perhaps fitting our politicians with explosive collars for the purpose of implementing recall elections would make some difference" :-)
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"Seems that the Feds have a sense of humor. They want students to write about the very document which they ignore so well. So I decided to write something, just to exercise my brain and my typing fingers a bit.

Amending the Constitution: the issue of eligibility for Presidency.

The perfection of the US Constitution or, at least, its superiority to the alternatives has been debated ever since its drafting in 1787. While the conservative view upholds the document as the best of all available alternatives, the challenges to it come from both the authoritarians who wish for expanded state control and from libertarians who wish for the opposite. It is telling that only six of the original fifty-six signatories to the Declaration of Independence put their names of the ratified Constitution. The anti-Federalists who opposed the Constitution in its ultimate form were concerned, with good reasons, that the document curbed the central federal authority but insufficiently. They had hoped for a union closer to the original Articles of Confederation, something modeled more on the Swiss and the United Provinces (Netherlands), rather than the more centralized British model. The amendment protocol added to the Constitution was a bone thrown to those who opposed it. The first ten amendments were incorporated to safeguard the individual liberties by limiting the authority of the federal government. Similarly, state Constitutions were drafted to protect individuals, with varying success, from the excesses of their local governments. The possibility of amending the Constitution, along with the provision for law nullification by jury, was the fine-tuning mechanism provided to allay the concerns about the likely trend towards centralization of federal power. As the Great Divorce Proceedings of 1861-65 demonstrated, the safeguards failed quite soon, both on the state and the federal levels.

The amendment process has always been viewed with concern because of the possibility and even the likelihood of unintended consequences. For example, the Prohibition on alcohol, enacted by an Amendment in 1919, was a horrid failure. Fortunately, it was repealed by a subsequent Amendment, though the damage from it is still with us in the form of similar prohibitions on other goods and services, enacted under the guise of interstate commerce regulation. On the other hand, an 1865 amendment effectively ended slavery in the country, except as provided by law, such as the Selective Service. With history as our guide, we can approach the process with cautious optimism.

One of the current proposals is to allow a non-natural born citizen to become President if he has been a citizen for 20 years. The original restriction was to ensure that the first loyalty of the candidate is to the United States, not to any foreign government or culture. Ironically, none of the original American Presidents, from George Washington through William Harrison, qualified under this restriction, since all were born before 1776 as British colonial subjects. Their loyalty to their own country over the Crown was not in question.

In further consideration, let us consider whose loyalty would be more conscious and constant, that of a citizen born to that privilege, or that of an immigrant who may have risked life and limb to come to the US from elsewhere, who qualified himself deliberately for the rights and the obligations of citizenship and who is likely to be a stout patriot as a result? The original expectation of the overriding importance of nationalism to an individual can hardly stand in the light of countless counter-examples provided by immigrants throughout our history.

That this issue has risen to the importance of a proposed Constitutional Amendment, illustrated starkly how much power the Presidency has gained since its inception. That noted, the issue here is both fairness and our own self-interest. America imports many of its brightest minds and most dedicated patriots, to mutual advantage. Constraining some of the elected positions to those born in America denies us the benefit of the experience and the willing commitment of many who were not fortunate enough to be born here in body, yet always American in spirit.

Would this Amendment make a great practical difference? That is unlikely. The electorate at large is quite ignorant of both the Constitution and of the reasons behind it. Yet we can hope to place at least a small obstacle in the path of the increasing federal domination by making it possible to elect those who have experience tyranny first-hand in the countries of their birth, and who would endeavor to save their chosen homeland from the like fate.

Please urge your elected representatives to support the Amendment to extend eligibility for Presidency to foreign-born naturalized citizens with twenty years of residency."

Oleg Volk, September 2005

"T" On His Teachers

I'm not sure how many here on the forum are aware of just how much I value Brock's friendship and guidance. However, I believe there are enough here that are aware of such that might find this post slightly interesting.
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About three days ago, Brock and I were talking after he was kind enough to post a recount of my 8th grade English teacher, Mrs. Finch.............may God rest her soul, cause only He could. Anyway, I asked Brock to remind me to recount my top three favorite all-time teachers, and I use the word teacher in a white man's connotation, meaning "educator". I make this distinction to separate the difference between those who influenced me in the red world.

The teacher who comes in at #3 on my list would be Miss Bass, although she was actually Mrs. Bass. I believe the "Miss Bass" was a carry-over that went hand-in-hand with her very strong Virginia accent. Miss Bass was my first grade teacher. She was also my little brother John's first grade teacher. The funny thing is, she was our mama's fourth grade teacher. Twenty three years separated when she taught my mom to when she taught my brother. Miss Bass was 67 years old when she taught me. Today you would be hard pressed to find a teacher that made 20 years of a career. Miss Bass made 50 years of teaching young people, as my brother's class was the year that she retired.

In her room at Cherry Street Grade School, Miss Bass had two photographs on the wall............one was George Washington, the other was Marse Robert (there is a theme developing here. You will have to read farther to discover the theme.)

Miss Bass was the consummate Southern lady, by that I mean quiet spoken, gentle to a fault, but if you were stupid enough to disrespect her, she was the first to march you to the principal's office for a paddling. (What happened to paddling in school?)

My fondest memory of Miss Bass was the lessons taught, and the little plays and skits that she would produce for the entire school population to view. These always started with the American Revolution, and ended with the War of Northern Aggression.

In the classroom, Miss Bass made it crystal clear that that war of 61-65 was totally avoidable. She referred to it as "Mr. Lincoln's War", and each time today when I see 'Mr. Lincoln's War' in print, I cannot help but think most fondly of a lady from Virginia who made learning interesting.

Selecting teacher #2 has posed a great challenge. I am faced with trying to resolve the influence of a teacher that I had for the fifth and sixth grades, or for one that I was only privileged to study under for one semester my senior year in high school. I have just at this moment made that decision.

Mr. Earl Holtz was a giant of a man in stature. I believe him to be the largest teddy bear God ever created. When I first walked into his class in the fifth grade at Cherry Street Grade School, I freaked at his stature; that fear went away when I heard the first word he uttered. A kinder voice, for a male, I've never heard.

Being raised Southern, despite being born above the line, I walked up to his desk, extended my hand, and introduced myself. He graciously took my hand, and said "Mr. Warren, is it your intention to merely pass this grade, or would you like to really learn?" Thinking for some 20-30 seconds before answering, I replied, "Mr. Holtz, I am here to learn." He assigned me the first desk in front of his (remember when you lifted up the top of your desk and it has a hole in them for an ink jar? And they had 40 years of names carved into them? That was my desk for two years.) And inquiring minds might wonder...........did I scratch MY name into that desk? And the answer would be.........YES, I did, with my caramel-color handled Barlow.

Back to the story....Mr. Holtz was the only teacher at Cherry School that taught fifth and sixth grades simultaneously. I feel totally blessed in this, as it is the closest thing, except when I taught on the reservation, to a one room school. Hopefully someone on this forum actually attended a one room school, and would be kind enough to recount that experience. I found it marvelous.

Fifth grade always received the daily instruction first. I should interject this occurred just after Mr. Holtz lead us in the Lord's Prayer......and what happened to that? Oh yeah, some atheist got her way. I digress.

Mr. Holtz was seen as somewhat an outsider in my hometown. If memory serves me correct, he came from Maryland. He was teaching high school, at the time that my mother was a freshman. I know this because I have seen photos in her freshman yearbook........he was her coach on the rifle team (and what the hell happened with that?). Tell me what is wrong with schooling young adults in the safety and skills of marksmanship............totally unheard of today. Proudly, I was also on the rifle club team through high school. Again, I digress.

In two years of Mr. Holtz's lessons, I remember most clearly two things: #1, him saying most adamantly that the war for Southern independence (his words not mine) was constitutionally appropriate and that "that war" was avoidable and was most definitely a war over tariffs, not slavery (find me an educator today who will make that statement....I want to shake his/her hand). #2 most memorable influence was when Mr. Holtz showed us, on 16mm film, the Nuremberg Trials. That was a lesson I have never forgotten, and it laid the groundwork for my love of learning of anything WWII related. I stayed in contact with Mr. Holtz, working on his farm on occasion, up until his death. I could not force myself to attend his funeral. I loved him that much. I have regretted not attending his final services ever since.

"The finest teacher I ever had" was Ronald Berkshire, a mere pencil of a man, an overwhelmingly strict military disciplinarian, who has just recently passed over the river.

Mr.Berkshire taught me, in one semester, more history than I had learned from grade one through eleven combined. I must also say that in four years of university, I never had a professor that was so well-versed in history, as was Mr. Berkshire.

I believe it was in 1939 that he left the United States and became a fighter pilot for the RAF. I believe he received his flight training in Canada. I know that he met and married his first wife in England during WWII. On a personal note, I played music with his eldest child, who is still living, and I dated his middle child, now deceased for nearly two years, and my little brother dated his youngest daughter.

Mr. Berkshire never used film, maps, overhead projectors, or a pointer stick. He merely painted pictures in words. That is a trait, that has been on several occasions, applied to me. I believe those that have said such do me great honor, but an honor of which I am not worthy.

I wish that I could say that my fondest memories of lessons taught by Ron were of the war of 61-65. In all truth, I cannot make that statement; in fact, I believe we spent one day on the so-called Civil War. The reason behind that, and I can hear his voice at this moment saying, "there wasn't a damn thing civil about that war, the term civil war had no application in regards to that conflict". To loosely quote that day's lesson, simply would be to say 'it was a war of greed, waged by the Northern industrialized sector of New England; to which the Midwest fell in line like dominoes'. I believe he was right in not only his take on the war, but for not wasting any more time on the subject.

Ron Berkshire could tell you stories, first-hand accounts, of being in an underpowered, over weighted Spit Fire, and having two or three Messerschmidt's on your backside. When he taught our class about WWII, everyone, excepting the two farm boys who had worked all night, and the one cheerleader who had spent all night with the football team, lived what he taught. Though we were too young, and lucky enough to have missed it, we lived it through him. That is a teacher. That is a real educator.

Pam, Mayme and I moved to Lawrence County, Illannoy, in 1995. I believe that it was in the first week we lived here, that Pam asked "can you find me a real newspaper in this one cow town?"....no offense intended to the local papers published here, just a "city girl's" way of asking for a national paper. I left our home on Refinery Row, the baddest neighborhood there was in town, and made my way to Ada Lee's (great name, ain't it?) Candy Shop and Newsstand. I walked in the door on a Saturday morning, saw about 6-10 people sitting at vintage ice cream tables having coffee, smoking cigars and cigarettes (and what happened with that?) and reading the national papers which I had gone to find. Among those sitting was Mr. Ron Berkshire. I went to the counter, purchased a Wall Street Journal and an Evansville Courier, and on my way out stopped at the table where Ron was sitting and said "Mr. Berkshire, do you find yourself residing in Lawrence County, too?". He looked up, smiled, and said "Gentlemen, may I introduce you to Mr. Terry Warren, the finest history student I ever had the privilege to teach".

As I previously noted, Mr. Berkshire is now gone, as well as his first wife and daughter Gina. Mayme is privileged at her work, to see Mr. Berkshire's son, Allan, almost daily. I believe they have become friends, generations apart, yet Mayme is bright enough to know when she is in the presence of genius; though it pales (no disrespect Allan) to his father's.

This is undoubtedly the longest post I have ever put forth on this forum. I will not, however, apologize for its length. To do so would be an injustice to three human beings who most definitely shaped the positive side of this old half-breed. So to Miss Bass, Mr. Holtz and Mr. Berkshire, I send my highest regards, as well as the strongest salute I can muster at age 60. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and soul for giving me the best shot at making something of myself, that a person of minority, from the wrong side of the tracks in a small town, in the land of ape, could hope for.

Warmest Confederate Regards to anyone who took the time to read this far.

Brock, I kept my word. I hope neither you nor anyone else was bored.

T

Are Republican Senators Lying Already?

"It will not at all be surprising if, given the great people’s victory in November, the elected torch bearers find their flame profoundly diminished very soon after they move into their DC offices. I say to Limbaugh, civil wars and revolutions don’t begin in the senate, but in the street"

Do Southerners Have the Right to be Described as "Native Americans"?

"Southerners who celebrate their cultural heritage, are among the most misunderstood people in America. Italians who celebrate Colombus Day, and Irishmen who celebrate St. Patricks Day, never have to suffer the grief that Southerners who want to celebrate Robert E. Lee's Birthday have to endure."

Thia Day In History II - “The Baylor Massacre”

September 28, 1778
Late one night in 1778, the woods you are standing in suddenly echoed with the sounds of battle. A surprise attack by British soldiers nearly destroyed an American regiment, Baylor’s 3rd Continental Light Dragoons.

Via The War On Guns

"Subordination And Obedience To Government"

"I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation."
--George Washington, circular letter of farewell to the Army, 1783
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No, George what were you drinking when you wrote this? After all, you just fought a war against a government and no man is subordinate to any government.