Monday, July 4, 2011
The Sorrowful Trek Homeward
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial Commission"
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The Sorrowful Trek Homeward:
“General [Joseph E.] Johnston broke camp near Smithfield on April 10, and on April 12 reached Raleigh. There it was learned that Lee had surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. President Davis and his cabinet had abandoned the Confederate capital at Richmond and arrived at Greensboro on April 11. While not officially advised that the Army of [Northern] Virginia was no more…[Johnston] did not surrender…until April 26. On May 2, 1865, at Bush Hill, near High Point, [nineteen year-old] Major [Walter M.] Clark and what remained of the Third Junior Reserves [North Carolina Troops] were paroled and turned their faces sorrowfully homeward.
The next day Major Clark and his faithful Neverson began their weary horseback ride one hundred and fifty miles to Ventosa [plantation on the Roanoke river]. On their way home they passed through Hillsboro and in sight of the military academy from which Little Clark had gone so ambitiously and hopefully four years before. He knew that [academy headmaster] Colonel [C.C.] Tew had been killed at Sharpsburg, but did not know until afterward that every one of his instructors in the academy had gone to the war and either had been wounded or captured. The lonely trek of these two boys, their minds numbed by harrowing memories, was enough to chill their hearts, but there was worse to come.
When home was finally reached, there was no home – nothing but the land was there, and that covered with a tangled growth of bushes and briars. The once great cultivated fields of cotton and corn were now a wilderness of weeds. The slaves were wandering aimlessly through the neighborhood, and raiding Federal soldiers had stolen the livestock. The invading armies had burned to the ground the spacious Ventosa mansion, and its beautiful gardens had disappeared. All the happy memories of Walter’s childhood here lay waste in ashes before his eyes. With an almost broken heart he turned to seek elsewhere for his father and mother, his sisters and brothers, in the hope that he would find them alive.”
(Walter Clark, Fighting Judge, Aubrey Lee Brooks, UNC Press, 1944, pp. 21-22)
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The Sorrowful Trek Homeward
Our Founding Fathers Would Not Have Recited the Pledge
Another patriotic tradition that gets a lot of attention, particularly around this time of the year, is the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge did not exist during our Founders' lifetimes -- something that is very clear when looking at its text. The Pledge was written over a century after America's founding in 1892.
It was also written by a socialist -- Francis Bellamy, whose original text was: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
According to our Founders, the states are not indivisible, but very much the opposite. In fact, when ratifying the U.S. Constitution, some states, such as Virginia among others, specifically declared the right to secede from the Union should they feel it necessary just as an extra precaution to make sure that that state right was understood. Our Founders took their states rights very seriously and considered the U.S. Constitution to be a compact amongst the sovereign states so that any state could secede if it felt the federal government had become oppressive. So, if not with a pledge, how would our Founding Fathers begin meetings and celebrations? The answer: most likely with a prayer. In fact, the very first resolution brought before the First Continental Congress, and immediately passed, was the declaration that they would open every meeting with a prayer.
"Semi automatic machine gun."
Via Sipsey Street Irregulars
NEWARK — Nearly a month since city police began a crime abatement program, the department has seized 16 weapons, including a semi-automatic machine gun, officials said.MORE
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A few comments below.
Semi automatic machine gun. Sort of like a giant midget I guess. LOL!!
Maybe it was in the same room as a unicorn because they both only exist in liberals no nothing about guns fantasyland.
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How can there be any guns in Newark??? The gun laws are so tight. This story must be a mistake. I would imagine when considering buying a gun, a criminal would conclude, "nah, I better not. They are illegal."
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You have got to be the most gullible, ignorant "journalist" to have ever written a story. Come on, a "semi-automatic machine gun?!?!?" Grow some integrity.
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First, the term "machine gun" is an undefined colloquialism, so, you wouldn't use it if you were a real journalist. But, just for you, it is commonly meant to mean a firearm capable of firing more than one round for each pull of the trigger. Second, a semi-automatic firearm is one which fires just one round for each pull of of the trigger. So, which is it? A fully-automatic firearm, or a semi-automatic firearm?It's bad enough that firearms (rather than the miscreants that misuse them) are demonized. But add to the fact that we have ignorant people like you "reporting the news" about such firearms and NJ is destined to remain in the Dark Ages of "common sense gun control."
Do a little research, then think, THEN write your article. The public would benefit greatly
"Semi-automatic machine gun"?
Isn't that an oxymoron? A machine gun, by definition, cannot possibly be semi-automatic.
Sorry to nitpick, but this simply highlights how ignorant people are (especially the media) about weapons in general.
US Ignores Vet Graves in Philippines
I went there numerous times TDY from Vietnam for different schools. It looked like a golf course. Angeles City was right beside it and so was Nanette, the most beautiful girl I ever did see, at 275 Laguna Street. It's strange how you remember a specific detail like a street address from so long ago, but do not more recent ones.
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CLARK, Philippines -- Walking along the rows of tombstones here offers a glimpse of the wars America has fought and the men and women who waged them. But most of the grave markers have been half-buried for 20 years, and there is little hope that the volcanic ash obscuring names, dates and epitaphs will be cleared any time soon.
Clark Veterans Cemetery was consigned to oblivion in 1991, when Mount Pinatubo's gigantic eruption forced the U.S. to abandon the sprawling air base surrounding it. Retired U.S.Soldiers, Marines and Sailors volunteer to keep watch, relying on donations to try to maintain the grounds, but they lament that they're helplessly short on funds to fix things, and that Washington is unwilling to help.
"It's the veterans' cemetery that America forgot," Vietnam War veteran and ex-Navy officer Robert Chesko said.
Workers at the cemetery north of Manila recently dug to fully expose a gravestone for an Army sergeant who died in World War II in the Philippines. They discovered his wife's name engraved under his and a long-hidden tribute: "Daughter, sister, wife and mother of veterans."
It's impossible to say what else remains hidden at the 17-acre (seven-hectare) cemetery.“What if there were no white people?”
I hope black people will learn a lesson from the earthquake that hit Haiti.
If they don’t learn anything from it, then I throw up my hands in despair and give up.Let’s start with a few basic facts.
Until the earthquake, I never knew there was a place called Haiti. I was taught geography at school but I cannot remember a time when the mistress told us about Haiti. It must have been one of those insignificant countries that we had no reason to know about.I was fairly good at geography because I knew which country was on which continent. I also knew many capital cities. But as for Haiti I was clueless.
Now the whole world, including myself, knows about Haiti. I heard news of the earthquake on the radio. I wondered where Haiti was and what sort of people lived there.
Finally, when I switched on the television, I was informed that Haiti is an island out in the Caribbean. Television pictures revealed a place populated by black people.
From the non-stop television coverage of the earthquake, I got to learn about the history of Haiti. It was not a good history lesson. It would seem throughout its existence Haiti has suffered a series of natural calamities. In the process it has sunk even deeper into poverty and deprivation.
Like all places populated by black people, Haiti is poor. As I watched the television images, I felt very sorry for that forsaken place. Then I was hit by a thunderbolt.
I wondered what if there were no white people. You see, when the earthquake hit Haiti somebody had to come to its assistance. There had to be a rescue effort. The Haitians who survived of course did their fair bit by digging out their families from the collapsed ramshackle buildings.
But such was the scale of the devastation and the loss of human life that a bigger effort was needed. For that sort of work, you need heavy lifting gear and other sophisticated rescue equipment. I have been following the story of the earthquake keenly. I can attest to the fact that the first people to arrive with sniffer dogs were white crews from all over the world.
The aero planes that set off carrying water and food were from white countries. Not only that, the teams of volunteer doctors that I saw on television comprised white people from across the world. As the sniffer dogs went into action, the organized rescue teams that carried the stretchers were made up of white people.
It was announced that a mobile hospital was on the way. It was coming from a white country. For all intents and purposes in the aftermath of the earthquake, Haiti was literally swarming with white people. They had all arrived to save the poor blacks. And the locals were so happy to see them. Granted there were teams from the Orient such as the Chinese and Japanese. They too had quickly left their homes and families to go and assist the stricken people of Haiti.
It is obvious to everyone that this was a devastating earthquake and the work to repair Haiti and return it to a modicum of normalcy will take many years. Somebody had to commit funds to this effort. Most of the countries that have committed funds to aid the recovery are white. In fact, it would seem the whites are running the show in Haiti.
What is my point?
Via Ryan
Neo-cons attack Oathkeeper's Jose Guerena's defender
Innocent Blood
Jose Guerena's Rifle and Blood
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Do not miss this video.
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"It is not an America worth defending."
"It is not an America worth defending."
I suppose that one perception exists as the prevalent mindset within the Republican Party there in Brian’s County, and that perception is characterized by a tenacious embrace of blind acceptance of any policy laid down by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, for in the minds of the committee people it would be political suicide to question “the law” in Pima County. This mindset is prevalent all across America, and we see it in some of our Counties here in Montana. The mindset assumes that Federal, State, and Local level policy be accepted as the Word of God, and the mindset does not include any capability for questioning the lawfulness of any official policy.So the Republican Party of Pima County, Arizona, is living and breathing and seeing reality through a veil of “Party belief” which forces the committee’s allegiance to the corruption which is strangling their Party and permitting the infrastructure for a military-police-state to be brought ever closer to the beck and call of any sitting President.
Hard headed Republicans across the nation, not just in Pima County, are doing this unwittingly by refusing to admit certain unsavory truths about the nature of the Federal government and some of its effects in the governments of the several sovereign States. It is a form of willful spiritual blindness, self-administered by fearful folks who have hardened their minds because they have been too negligent about reading into the truth of 20th Century American history, too negligent to have investigated the Federal Reserve System, Inc., too negligent to have looked at the obvious influence of the CFR and ilk, too negligent to have even known how to ask such questions. They do not know any other alternative way of seeing what’s going down in America today, so they’re fore sworn to help Federal, State, and County enforcement entrench itself into their own communities.
It is unfortunate, and we must find some way to forgive that in them, for soon enough they shall see the military-police-state in the form of government soup lines, curfews, rations, government-directed work assignment and housing changes, troops at shopping malls demanding “your papers please” and worse – I’ll spare readers the more despicable aspects - and when these very hard-headed people are face to face with that much of a police-state manifestation, they’ll initially crow about those damned terrorists and especially those home-grown lone-wolf extremist anti-government terrorists who’re hiding behind every rock and bush across America (as we’re told daily by DHS and ilk), who have made all this military-police-state precautionary intrusion necessary, and they shall pronounce people like you and me and Brian Miller, who see it coming and are trying to speak out and warn our good neighbors, to be responsible for having encouraged those extremists and anti-government “threats to law enforcement” to commit so much violence that our trustworthy Government had no choice but to drop the iron net of totalitarianism upon us all, to protect us!
That is the ironic pity in this whole situation, and I note that the mainstream media/press is helping promote that sort of meme in the public mind, and government actors and Wall Street moguls rely upon the public’s reception of this hypnotic fruit of the tree of tyranny.
We know better.
Salute!
Elias
The Pig State
-- Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, 1787
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The video below is from a Rochester, New York, neighborhood meeting in support of Emily Good, the woman arrested for videotaping a traffic stop from her front yard. So Rochester police sent four squad cars to ticket the cars of meeting attendees who parked more than 12 inches from the curb. Yes, they even brought a ruler.
That’s some staggering vindictiveness, officers.
By the way, due to a $50 million budget shortfall, the city of Rochester is considering cutting 27 full-time police positions. If the the cops in Rochester have time to carry out petty grudges against citizens who dare to show support for a woman who was illegally arrested, maybe the city ought to consider cutting 40 or 50 positions instead. They could start with the cops in this video.
MORE: Local news writeup here, with the obligatory, transparently ridiculous defense from the local police union rep.
Happy Fourth of July: A Declaration of Separation
Publisher’s Note: I want something a bit more definitive than independence. I grew up associating the 4th of July with freedom and liberty *and then I grew up. Not only was this the day in 1863 when the Confederacy lost both Gettysburg and Vicksburg and therefore the war but it is now associated with the celebration more so of the Constitution than the brilliant Declaration of Independence.
*Damn, if that ain't right on the money.
The DI was drafted a full generation before the political coup known as the Constitution cemented and wedded all our fates to big government. The Fourth is certainly a day to celebrate the DI but the flag waving and celebration of patriotic gore both here and abroad is, in truth, a macabre glorification and salute to Gulag State. America is no longer the land of the free and home of the brave, it is instead the land of the caged and home of the collaborator. Most Americans not only are scared witless of liberty and freedom but endlessly cheer-lead the depredations of the state on their neighbors through taxation, regulation and the maintenance of a ferocious police state.
Michael Collins had it right: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechmichaelcollins1.html
Truth be told, the Fourth of July has become the twisted celebration of the inmates lauding the accomplishments of their jailers. Please enjoy the Declaration of Separation. –BB