NC folk musician Doc Watson dies in hospital at 89

Via Rebellion

Doc Watson, the Grammy-award winning folk musician whose lightning-fast style of flatpicking influenced guitarists around the world for more than a half-century, died Tuesday at a hospital in Winston-Salem, according to a hospital spokeswoman and his manager. He was 89.

Watson, who was blind from age 1, recently had abdominal surgery that resulted in his hospitalization.

Arthel "Doc" Watson's mastery of flatpicking helped make the case for the guitar as a lead instrument in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was often considered a backup for the mandolin, fiddle or banjo. His fast playing could intimidate other musicians, even his own grandson, who performed with him.

Gov. Beverly Perdue called him a "worldwide ambassador of North Carolina's culture and heritage."

"Over his long and brilliant career, Doc Watson traveled the world playing the music he loved, but his heart never strayed far from his home in Deep Gap, North Carolina," Perdue said in a statement. "He will be missed."

More @ WRAL

8 Reasons Why The Great Depression Is The Best Case Scenario

Via Bonnie Gadsen

Old, but first time I've seen it.

We are on the verge a collapse far greater than the Great Depression and we are far less capable of taking care of ourselves. Our way of life is dangerously dependent upon the ability for us to create unlimited amount of debt and the willingness of others to buy that debt. This way of life has a mathematically inevitable end and things that cannot go on forever, won’t.

Let us look a 8 reasons why the Great Depression is the best case scenario and also look at how difficult the Depression was for people who were far more prepared to deal with a harsh world.

1. Back during the Depression most of America could feed themselves with farming, now we only know corporate frankenfood.
2. Back then people only knew of real wealth, now we think the digits in our brokerage account in wealth.
3. Back then people had a strong family on community support systems, now we live little lives of narcissism.
4. Back then people had a strong spiritual strength, now we have chemically induced denial.
5. Back then people were of fit body and strong mind, now we are obese and willfully ignorant.
6. Back then people had a classical education to help them figure things out, now we wait for answers.
7. Back then people had a real economy, now we have a consumer/debt economy.
8. Back then people did physical activity for fun, now we have entertainment that turns us in to mental and physical mush.

I would like you to take a few seconds to look at the faces of shame in these photos from the Great Depression.

More @ Don't Tread on Me

Expedient Stove

FYI. There WAS abnormal smoking at the first-time start, but I think that was just the painted label burning off the ousides of the big interior Heinz tomato juice can.

Ignition + 5 minutes to smokeless ‘rocket effect’ + 3 more minutes to hard rolling boil of COLD tap water enough for two mugs of coffee. The windscreen helped with the draft although there was hardly any breeze blowing. Pulling out the fuel shelf stopped everything almost immediately, and there was no smoke, a useful point.

More @ Western Rifle Shooters Association

So why is "White Culture" dominant? Because we fought for it.

So John Scalzi wrote a piece that said being "straight white male" is the easiest setting in the RPG of life.

Others have much more eloquently explained why that is, how our culture proved superior to other cultures and became THE CULTURE to emulate. Marko wrote about his experience as a "straight white male" from one country where "straight white males" dominate the culture to getting citizenship in another country where "straight white males" dominate the culture. That's right kids. Nobody wants war with the US, Germany, or Great Britain.

Because below all the things that make us a superior culture; rule of law, property rights, equality of individuals, etc, is our ability to subjugate inferior cultures by the use of superior military might. Don't forget the abysmal hygiene conditions that allowed us to wipe out entire cultures just by showing carrying smallpox or a novel strain of influenza. The very best that any culture could give back? Syphilis.

My ancestors prowled the seas of Europe on Viking longships and gave rise to the continents greatest warriors, from the Normans to the Russians. Generations later their descendents would practice their love of war against their cousins almost as a reflex action. White man sparked the industrial revolution by trying to make the logistics of musket repair simpler with interchangeable parts. Screw handcrafted artisan work of the Samurai, the M1 Garand produced by the millions firing 30-byGod-06 and in the hands of drafted farm boys and city slickers alike the hot blood of barbarian ancestors roared down through history and eclipsed the Empire of the Rising Sun.

More @ American Mercenary

The Last Duel

Recommended by T, though I haven't had a chance to view it.

James Landale retraces the steps of his ancestor, a well respected merchant who met his adversary at dawn in a field just outside of Kirkcaldy in southern Fife on August 23, 1826. The challenge was made over a bank loan and against a soldier-turned-banker that spread malicious rumours and lies. James takes us on a journey as he uncovers what really happened and delves in and investigates the deadly Code of the Duel.

Twoo goodies from Ol' Remus

Via Ol' Remus

Huffpo loses sight of shore - A devout Muslim who has praised Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and publicly branded all non-believers as mentally ill “animals” was recently hired to serve as the Huffington Post's political director in the U.K.
--Adam Kredo at freebeacon.com

Obama comes very much from the hard left. Obama is as far to the left as you can go without being Fidel Castro. He may not carry a card … but it's very difficult to tell the difference between him and a Marxist.
--Christopher Monckton, interview at Article 2 Superpac via wnd.com

Why SpotterRF saves lives

Via Ol' Remus

The world’s first complete Compact Surveillance Radar kit

Ultra-portable and cost-effective for small force situational awareness. This breakthrough compact surveillance radar system provides wide area intrusion detection of more than 150 acres in all weather conditions. The kit takes only three minutes to set up from “pack to track” and weighs less than 20 lbs.

More @ Spotter RF

SpotterRF Tracking Through Fog

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

A Danger to Homeschool Families

Michael P. Farris, Esq., LL.M.
Founder and Chairman

Introduction

HSLDA has written about the threats posed to homeschool freedom by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

However, there is a third dangerous United Nations convention. This is the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).¹ President Obama sent it to the U.S. Senate for ratification on May 18, 2012.

CRPD was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 13, 2006, and entered into force on May 3, 2008, after it received its 20th ratification. The Optional Protocol to the Convention went into force on the same day after it received its 10th ratification. The CRPD was signed by President Obama on July 30, 2009. Since it has been sent to the U.S. Senate for ratification by President Obama, the U.S. Senate could vote to ratify this treaty at any time.

CRPD calls for numerous protections for people with disabilities. Many of these protections are included in U.S. law as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). However, CRPD also includes numerous provisions drafted by the United Nations which would concern many U.S. citizens. Like the CRC and CEDAW, if ratified, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would become the supreme law of the land under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause in Article VI, would trump state laws, and would be used as binding precedent by state and federal judges. Since it is a treaty, the U.S. Constitution requires that it must be ratified by two-thirds of the U.S. senators present at the time of the vote, or 67 senators if all 100 U.S. senators were present.

Ten Specific Problems with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

More @ HSLDA

“Is there no Christian who will take my head?”

In memory of the loss of Constantinople to the Christian world
May 29^th 1453

by Anestos Canelides

Prologue: Constantinople! O Constantinople!

“How lonely is the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The Princess among Provinces has become a slave!” — Lamentations 1:1

The battle raged within the gates, on the high towers; the trenches swam deep in blood.^[1]

A lone refugee, who had taken flight on a Venetian galleon wept at the unfortunate sight of Constantinople, shrouded in flames. A reflection in her teardrop captured the black smoke rising like the dark hand of death over the city’s blood-drenched streets.

These Hellenized Romans were forced to flee from their ancient capital just as during the Trojan War the innocents of the house of Priam had fled the proud city built by Neptune.

Smoke arose from the ruined ground while the city’s inhabitants fled in different directions ^[1] from the pursuing Turkish hoard.

Her teardrop, in slow motion, gently struck the salty waters of the Marmara Sea causing tiny ripples to form in the still water, moving towards the four corners of the Earth. Like the ripples the refugees of the vanquished city fled with winged feet to foreign lands. In those last hours of the siege, the valorous right arm of the Emperor Constantine Palaeologus XI held his sword high in defiance of the Turks, who were swarming through the city’s broken walls.

His very soul crushed within, and feeling abandoned, Constantine XI uttered his final words:

More @ Gates of Vienna

Global warming skeptics as knowledgeable about science as climate change believers, study says

Via Northern Blogger

"As respondents’ science literacy scores increased, their concern with climate change decreased," the paper, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, notes.

********

Are global warming skeptics anti-science? Or just ignorant about science?

Maybe neither. A study published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change finds that people who are not that worried about the effects of global warming tend to have a slightly higher level of scientific knowledge than those who are worried, as determined by their answers to questions like:

More @ Fox