See, It Can be Done

A couple of week's ago, in New Haven, CT, there was an event held called "Mission of Mercy". It was held on a Friday and Saturday from early morning till evening. There were volunteer doctors, dentists, and nurses there. What was going on? They were there to provide free, I repeat "FREE" dental care to needy people and people without insurance. Isn't that absolutely amazing!! I mean how did they ever arrange that? The Federal Government wasn't involved at all! "The people" arranged something like that all by themselves and Uncle Barack wasn't there holding anyone's hand!!! That is incredible. How was anybody smart enough to do that without the "Nanny State's" help.?

Reponse to the Response to my Letter to the Editor

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a letter to the Editor that I published here, along with a response from a Mr. Finn in Middlebury who apparently is a member of the "Food Police". Here is my answer to him, which was in yesterday's paper.

Liberals can keep their collectivism

Wow, I never realized little ol' me could have such an impact on everyone else (April 14 letter by James E. Finn, "In modern economy, one person's diet matters to everyone").

I guess I'd better start reporting to Mr. Finn what I drive, how I heat my home, what kind of light bulbs I use, how I treat my dogs and cats, whether I should have the toys I buy for my grandchildren tested for lead, etc. Should I send Mr. Finn a copy of my typical weekly menu so he can approve it? I forgot that liberals of today have started advocating "groupthink" so we are all on the "same page" and we all should do the same thing for the "good of society."

I was brought up to believe in the Founding Fathers' approach to this country: rugged individualism, and freedom to do as one pleases within the law. If I wanted to live in a collective society, I would move to a communist country.

As I said in my April 10 letter, "It is none of your business what I or anyone else eats, and I will not listen." I suggest Mr. Finn pay attention to what he does and keep his nose out of other people's business.

Jon Quint

Woodbury

Abe

This falls into the "Duh" category! Why do so many people think otherwise? They obviously are totally clueless, or have an agenda to destroy the country as we know it!!!

Stop Breathing

As I have said before you can't make this stuff up!!!!

The EPA has just announced that greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide) endanger public health. A quote from the article said:

"The agency said in its finding that "in both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem" and that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases "that are responsible for it endanger public health and welfare within the meaning of the Clean Air Act."

You know what this means? If I remember my high school biology correctly, human beings breath in Oxygen and exhale Carbon Dioxide. My, God, we're killing ourselves by breathing. If we don't all stop breathing, we are going to die!!!! AAAARRRRGGGHH!!

Right Wing Extremist

As most of you know, I am pro-life, I believe in the Second Amendment, small government, vastly reduced taxes, and very little intrusion by government in our lives. Well, guess what? According to the report (see picture on the right), issued earlier this week by the Department of Homeland Security, I am a Right Wing Extremist. I, along with millions of other Americans have been marginalized. Why? Because we disagree with the policies of the current Administration in Washington. Once again the U.S. Constitution is being trashed! Whatever happened to the First Amendment - "Congress shall make no law.....abridging the Freedom of Speech"?????
This country is rapidly going down the tubes, while a large number of people are sitting on the sidelines and watching. It is disgraceful and very discouraging. I will continue to speak out and hope I can get more people involved, but be put on notice, if you don't hear from me for awhile, it probably means I have been dragged off to a re-education camp.

P.S. If you would like to look at the report or read it, it can be found at http://wnd.com/images/dhs-rightwing-extremism.pdf

A Few Quotes About Freedom

"The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us". - Thomas Jefferson, March 28, 1811

"If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves". - Ronald Reagan, Oct. 27, 1964

"Don't be silly, Mr. Gorbachev. You can't even feed your own people". - Margaret Thatcher to Mikhail Gorbachev during their first meeting, as he "attempted to argue the superiority of communism" - 1985

The Americans Who Risked Everything

Feeling a little depressed during the recession, feel like the government owes you something. Well, here is a speech that was given by Rush Limbaugh's father about 60 years ago. Here is a great example of what it means to be dedicated to your country. Kind of a long read, but well worth it. Could or would you do this for your country or would you just curl up in a fetal position and say "I'll take whatever happens, I don't really care"? They did this so they could be free, are we going to let it all go away? "Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor"

It was a glorious morning. The sun was shining and the wind was from the southeast. Up especially early, a tall bony, redheaded young Virginian found time to buy a new thermometer, for which he paid three pounds, fifteen shillings. He also bought gloves for Martha, his wife, who was ill at home. Thomas Jefferson arrived early at the statehouse. The temperature was 72.5 degrees and the horseflies weren't nearly so bad at that hour. It was a lovely room, very large, with gleaming white walls. The chairs were comfortable. Facing the single door were two brass fireplaces, but they would not be used today. The moment the door was shut, and it was always kept locked, the room became an oven. The tall windows were shut, so that loud quarreling voices could not be heard by passersby. Small openings atop the windows allowed a slight stir of air, and also a large number of horseflies. Jefferson records that "the horseflies were dexterous in finding necks, and the silk of stockings was nothing to them." All discussing was punctuated by the slap of hands on necks. On the wall at the back, facing the president's desk, was a panoply -- consisting of a drum, swords, and banners seized from Fort Ticonderoga the previous year. Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured the place, shouting that they were taking it "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!" Now Congress got to work, promptly taking up an emergency measure about which there was discussion but no dissension. "Resolved: That an application be made to the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania for a supply of flints for the troops at New York." Then Congress transformed itself into a committee of the whole. The Declaration of Independence was read aloud once more, and debate resumed. Though Jefferson was the best writer of all of them, he had been somewhat verbose. Congress hacked the excess away. They did a good job, as a side-by-side comparison of the rough draft and the final text shows. They cut the phrase "by a self-assumed power." "Climb" was replaced by "must read," then "must" was eliminated, then the whole sentence, and soon the whole paragraph was cut. Jefferson groaned as they continued what he later called "their depredations." "Inherent and inalienable rights" came out "certain unalienable rights," and to this day no one knows who suggested the elegant change. A total of 86 alterations were made. Almost 500 words were eliminated, leaving 1,337. At last, after three days of wrangling, the document was put to a vote. Here in this hall Patrick Henry had once thundered: "I am no longer a Virginian, sir, but an American." But today the loud, sometimes bitter argument stilled, and without fanfare the vote was taken from north to south by colonies, as was the custom. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted. There were no trumpets blown. No one stood on his chair and cheered. The afternoon was waning and Congress had no thought of delaying the full calendar of routine business on its hands. For several hours they worked on many other problems before adjourning for the day.

Much To Lose What kind of men were the 56 signers who adopted the Declaration of Independence and who, by their signing, committed an act of treason against the crown? To each of you, the names Franklin, Adams, Hancock and Jefferson are almost as familiar as household words. Most of us, however, know nothing of the other signers. Who were they? What happened to them? I imagine that many of you are somewhat surprised at the names not there: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry. All were elsewhere. Ben Franklin was the only really old man. Eighteen were under 40; three were in their 20s. Of the 56 almost half - 24 - were judges and lawyers. Eleven were merchants, nine were landowners and farmers, and the remaining 12 were doctors, ministers, and politicians. With only a few exceptions, such as Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, these were men of substantial property. All but two had families. The vast majority were men of education and standing in their communities. They had economic security as few men had in the 18th Century. Each had more to lose from revolution than he had to gain by it. John Hancock, one of the richest men in America, already had a price of 500 pounds on his head. He signed in enormous letters so that his Majesty could now read his name without glasses and could now double the reward. Ben Franklin wryly noted: "Indeed we must all hang together, otherwise we shall most assuredly hang separately." Fat Benjamin Harrison of Virginia told tiny Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: "With me it will all be over in a minute, but you, you will be dancing on air an hour after I am gone." These men knew what they risked. The penalty for treason was death by hanging. And remember, a great British fleet was already at anchor in New York Harbor. They were sober men. There were no dreamy-eyed intellectuals or draft card burners here. They were far from hot-eyed fanatics yammering for an explosion. They simply asked for the status quo. It was change they resisted. It was equality with the mother country they desired. It was taxation with representation they sought. They were all conservatives, yet they rebelled. It was principle, not property, that had brought these men to Philadelphia. Two of them became presidents of the United States. Seven of them became state governors. One died in office as vice president of the United States. Several would go on to be U.S. Senators. One, the richest man in America, in 1828 founded the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. One, a delegate from Philadelphia, was the only real poet, musician and philosopher of the signers. (It was he, Francis Hopkinson not Betsy Ross who designed the United States flag.) Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, had introduced the resolution to adopt the Declaration of Independence in June of 1776. He was prophetic in his concluding remarks: "Why then sir, why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American Republic. Let her arise not to devastate and to conquer but to reestablish the reign of peace and law. "The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us. She demands of us a living example of freedom that may exhibit a contrast in the felicity of the citizen to the ever-increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repost. "If we are not this day wanting in our duty, the names of the American Legislatures of 1776 will be placed by posterity at the side of all of those whose memory has been and ever will be dear to virtuous men and good citizens." Though the resolution was formally adopted July 4, it was not until July 8 that two of the states authorized their delegates to sign, and it was not until August 2 that the signers met at Philadelphia to actually put their names to the Declaration. William Ellery, delegate from Rhode Island, was curious to see the signers' faces as they committed this supreme act of personal courage. He saw some men sign quickly, "but in no face was he able to discern real fear." Stephan Hopkins, Ellery's colleague from Rhode Island, was a man past 60. As he signed with a shaking pen, he declared: "My hand trembles, but my heart does not."

Most Glorious Service Even before the list was published, the British marked down every member of Congress suspected of having put his name to treason. All of them became the objects of vicious manhunts. Some were taken. Some, like Jefferson, had narrow escapes. All who had property or families near British strongholds suffered. · Francis Lewis, New York delegate saw his home plundered -- and his estates in what is now Harlem -- completely destroyed by British Soldiers. Mrs. Lewis was captured and treated with great brutality. Though she was later exchanged for two British prisoners through the efforts of Congress, she died from the effects of her abuse. · William Floyd, another New York delegate, was able to escape with his wife and children across Long Island Sound to Connecticut, where they lived as refugees without income for seven years. When they came home they found a devastated ruin. · Philips Livingstone had all his great holdings in New York confiscated and his family driven out of their home. Livingstone died in 1778 still working in Congress for the cause. · Louis Morris, the fourth New York delegate, saw all his timber, crops, and livestock taken. For seven years he was barred from his home and family. · John Hart of Trenton, New Jersey, risked his life to return home to see his dying wife. Hessian soldiers rode after him, and he escaped in the woods. While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined his farm and wrecked his homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods as he was hunted across the countryside. When at long last, emaciated by hardship, he was able to sneak home, he found his wife had already been buried, and his 13 children taken away. He never saw them again. He died a broken man in 1779, without ever finding his family. · Dr. John Witherspoon, signer, was president of the College of New Jersey, later called Princeton. The British occupied the town of Princeton, and billeted troops in the college. They trampled and burned the finest college library in the country. · Thomas Lynch, Jr., South Carolina delegate, had his health broken from privation and exposures while serving as a company commander in the military. His doctors ordered him to seek a cure in the West Indies and on the voyage, he and his young bride were drowned at sea. · Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward, Jr., the other three South Carolina signers, were taken by the British in the siege of Charleston. They were carried as prisoners of war to St. Augustine, Florida, where they were singled out for indignities. They were exchanged at the end of the war, the British in the meantime having completely devastated their large landholdings and estates. · Thomas Nelson, signer of Virginia, was at the front in command of the Virginia military forces. With British General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown, fire from 70 heavy American guns began to destroy Yorktown piece by piece. Lord Cornwallis and his staff moved their headquarters into Nelson's palatial home. While American cannonballs were making a shambles of the town, the house of Governor Nelson remained untouched. Nelson turned in rage to the American gunners and asked, "Why do you spare my home?" They replied, "Sir, out of respect to you." Nelson cried, "Give me the cannon!" and fired on his magnificent home himself, smashing it to bits. But Nelson's sacrifice was not quite over. He had raised $2 million for the Revolutionary cause by pledging his own estates. When the loans came due, a newer peacetime Congress refused to honor them, and Nelson's property was forfeited. He was never reimbursed. He died, impoverished, a few years later at the age of 50.

Lives, Fortunes, Honor Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create is still intact. And, finally, there is the New Jersey signer, Abraham Clark. He gave two sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary Army. They were captured and sent to that infamous British prison hulk afloat in New York Harbor known as the hell ship Jersey, where 11,000 American captives were to die. The younger Clarks were treated with a special brutality because of their father. One was put in solitary and given no food. With the end almost in sight, with the war almost won, no one could have blamed Abraham Clark for acceding to the British request when they offered him his sons' lives if he would recant and come out for the King and Parliament. The utter despair in this man's heart, the anguish in his very soul, must reach out to each one of us down through 200 years with his answer: "No." The 56 signers of the Declaration Of Independence proved by their every deed that they made no idle boast when they composed the most magnificent curtain line in history. "And for the support of this Declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

Tea Party

Went to the "Tea Party" at the State Capital in Hartford yesterday as you can see from the above picture. There was a great turnout (about 3000 people). Young and old, rich and poor, and a mix politically across the board. Everyone there is fed up with government taxation and intrusion in our lives. Basically the message was that if you are an incumbent, regardless of your party, "watch out". The theme of the day was "Throw the bums out". I have a feeling that this movement is just getting started. I sure hope so!!

Response to My Letter to the Editor

Here is a response to my letter to the the Editor of the Waterbury paper from a Mr. James Finn, who apparently thinks he has the right to sign off on my menu. Stay tuned for my response to him!!!

In modern economy, one person's diet matters to everyone

In his April 10 letter, "Given the choice, he would much rather die than diet," Jon Quint says of those who advocate generally accepted principles of healthy eating, "It is none of your business what I or anyone else eats, and I will not listen to you."

In fact, it is very much the business of us all.

If Jon develops a medical condition as a result of poor eating habits, he will be more likely to run up high medical bills that will be charged to an insurance company and tend to increase premiums paid by the rest of us.

If he becomes obese, he may be more likely to suffer a work injury, increasing his employer's workers' compensation premiums, and decreasing the amount of money available for distribution to workers as salary.

If he is totally unable to work he may have to be supported through public assistance, increasing our taxes. If he becomes a financial burden to his family, they will have less money to spend on goods and services, adding to the burden on the economy.

So, Jon, we are all connected. If you have an unhealthy lifestyle, it hurts us all, not just you.

James E. Finn

Middlebury

Oh! All That Horrible Pollution!!!

If you sit and watch the Evening News you see stories that make you feel like the earth is in it's last throes because of all the pollution. The air is horrible, the water is terrible, every where you look the environment is in terrible shape!

Stop right there!!!!!

Let's really take a look at this. A lot of the environmental wackos preaching their causes today were born after the real pollution had been cleaned up. During the late 1960's and early 1970's, when the Federal Government was debating the first Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, I can remember Walter Cronkite bemoaning the fact on one newscast that "it might already be too late to save the planet".
I graduated from college in 1965 and took a job working for the Uniroyal Footwear plant in Naugatuck, CT. Uniroyal also had a Chemical plant in Naugatuck. Now, a part of my job involved an occasional trip to one of our warehouses in Beacon Falls, which was the next town south of Naugatuck. The Naugatuck river ran through both towns and the road to Beacon Falls (Route 8) ran alongside the river. I never saw that river the same color twice. It could be any color under the rainbow and I'm talking red, yellow, green, brown, etc. Do you know what lived in that river? Maybe some bacteria! I'm sure, if you had waded across it, your feet would have fallen off. The Naugatuck river originated up around Winsted, CT and all the industries along the river dumped their industrial wastes and sewage directly into the river. To say the least it was a biological wasteland. Well, what's it look like today? It runs clear. The State is stocking salmon and trout in it. Now for those of you who don't know, trout and salmon require clear, cool, almost pristine water in order to survive. The river is very clean now.
While I was working in Naugatuck, the entire town would sometimes reek of ammonia, urea, or hydrogen sulfide (rotten eggs) depending on what they were working on at the Chemical plant. As we went through the 70's and 80's those smells were cleaned up as pollution controls were put in place. The story was pretty much the same across the country. Coal fired power plants in the midwest spewed smoke into the air and the smog held heavy over many of the cities. As pollution controls in the form of scrubbers were added to these plants, the majority of that pollution went away, along with the "acid rain" it produced. The Cuyahoga river which runs through Cleveland was so polluted that once it actually caught fire.
The first Clean Air and Clean Water acts improved environmental conditions immensely in this country, the air is much cleaner, rivers are clean again, pesticides are not used as indiscriminately as they once were, and trash no longer litters the countryside the way it used to. So, when you hear these young Gung Ho environmentalists say that the environment is more polluted now than it has ever been, tell them to "shut up and do some research before they go spouting off again". Tell them to start telling the truth, and not spinning the stories to fit their agenda.
The environment today is practically pristine compared to where it was in the early '70's.

One of My Letters to the Editor

Given the choice, he would much rather die than diet.

One of the evening news shows reported last week that red meat is not good for me. I've heard this before. I don't like sprouts; lettuce is OK, but I wouldn't want to make a career out of it. I'm not crazy for most fish, either.
I have a serious question: How did the human race survive to this point by having everything that is bad for you taste so good while the stuff that is good for you for the most part tastes terrible? I eat a lot of red meat and animal fat, and don't eat a lot of fruit, and have one helping of vegetables with my dinner. I also love real gooey sweets. Occasionally, I'll have some lettuce and tomato on my sandwich for lunch, but it usually goes with roast beef, ham, spam or something similar.
I go to my doctor once a year for a physical. I'm in my 60's and in great health. I've had a stress test, and my heart is fine. As I tell my doctor, "I'll be darned if I'm going to start eating stuff I don't like, so I can live 10 years longer eating stuff I don't like."
I'll eat what I want, and to you media elites and liberal do-gooders, just shut up and leave me alone. It is none of your business what I or anyone else eats, and I will not listen to you. I will continue to eat stuff I like. If I die a few years early, how will anyone know whether my diet had anything to do with it?

Jon Quint

Woodbury

Ed Freeman

Got this from my buddy, Ray You're an 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8-1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in. You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day. Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it. Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway. And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses. And, he kept coming back.... 13 more times..... And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out. Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise, ID ......May God rest his soul..... I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we sure were told a whole bunch about some Hip-Hop Coward beating the crap out of his "girlfriend" Shame on the American Media

Sundown at Coffin Rock

This has been around before, but I really think it needs another look.

Wake up America!!!

Sundown at Coffin Rock

by Raymond K. Paden

The old man walked slowly through the dry, fallen leaves of autumn, his practiced eye automatically choosing the bare and stony places in the trail for his feet. There was scarcely a sound as he passed, though his left knee was stiff with scar tissue. He grunted occasionally as the tight sinews pulled. Damn chainsaw, he thought. Behind him, the boy shuffled along, trying to imitate his grandfather, but unable to mimic the silent motion that the old man had learned during countless winter days upon this wooded mountain in pursuit of game. He's fifteen years old, the old man thought. Plenty old enough to be learning. But that was another time, another America. His mind drifted, and he saw himself, a fifteen-year-old boy following in the footsteps of his own grandfather, clutching a twelve gauge in his trembling hands as they tracked a wounded whitetail.

The leg was hurting worse now, and he slowed his pace a bit. Plenty of time. It should have been my own son here with me now, the old man thought sadly. But Jason had no interest, no understanding. He cared for nothing but pounding on the keys of that damned computer terminal. He knew nothing about the woods, or where food came from...or freedom. And that's my fault, isn't it?

The old man stopped and held up his hand, motioning for the boy to look. In the small clearing ahead, the deer stood motionless, watching them. It was a scraggly buck, underfed and sickly, but the boy's eyes lit up with excitement. It had been many years since they had seen even a single whitetail here on the mountain. After the hunting had stopped, the population had exploded. The deer had eaten the mountain almost bare until erosion had become a serious problem in some places. That following winter, three starving does had wandered into the old man's yard, trying to eat the bark off of his pecan trees, and he had wished the "animal rights" fanatics could have been there then. It was against the law, but old man knew a higher law, and he took an axe into the yard and killed the starving beasts. They did not have the strength to run.

The buck finally turned and loped away, and they continued down the trail to the river. When they came to the "Big Oak," the old man turned and pushed through the heavy brush beside the trail and the boy followed, wordlessly. The old man knew that Thomas was curious about their leaving the trail, but the boy had learned to move silently (well, almost) and that meant no talking. When they came to "Coffin Rock," the old man sat down upon it and motioned for the boy to join him.

"You see this rock, shaped like a casket?" the old man asked. "Yes sir." The old man smiled. The boy was respectful and polite. He loved the outdoors, too. Everything a man could ask in a grandson ...or a son.

"I want you to remember this place, and what I'm about to tell you. A lot of it isn't going to make any sense to you, but it's important and one day you'll understand it well enough. The old man paused. Now that he was here, he didn't really know where to start.

"Before you were born," he began at last, "this country was different.I've told you about hunting, about how everybody who obeyed the law could own guns. A man could speak out, anywhere, without worrying about whether he'd get back home or not. School was different, too. A man could send his kids to a church school, or a private school, or even teach them at home. But even in the public schools, they didn't spend all their time trying to brainwash you like they do at yours now." The old man paused, and was silent for many minutes. The boy was still, watching a chipmunk scavenging beside a fallen tree below them.

"Things don't ever happen all at once, boy. They just sort of sneak up on you. Sure, we knew guns were important; we just didn't think it would ever happen in America. But we had to do something about crime, they said. It was a crisis. Everything was a crisis! It was a drug crisis, or a terrorism crisis, or street crime, or gang crime. Even a 'health care' crisis was an excuse to take away a little more of our rights." The old man turned to look at his grandson.

"They ever let you read a thing called the Constitution down there at your school?" The boy solemnly shook his head. "Well, the Fourth Amendment's still in there. It says there won't be any unreasonable searches and seizures. It says you're safe in your own home." The old man shrugged. "That had to go. It was a crisis! They could kick your door open any time, day or night, and come in with guns blazing if they thought you had drugs ...or later, guns. Oh, at first it was just registration -- to keep the guns out of the hands of criminals! But that didn't work, of course, and then later when they wanted to take 'em they knew where to look. They banned 'assault rifles', and then 'sniper rifles', and 'Saturday night specials.' Everything you saw on the TV or in the movies was against us. God knows the news people were! And the schools were teaching our kids that nobody needed guns anymore. We tried to take a stand, but we felt like the whole face of our country had changed and we were left outside."

"Me and a friend of mine, when we saw what was happening, we came and built a secret place up here on the mountain. A place where we could put our guns until we needed them. We figured some day Americans would remember what it was like to be free, and what kind of price we had to pay for that freedom. So we hid our guns instead of losing them."

"One fellow I knew disagreed. He said we ought to use our guns now and stand up to the government. Said that the colonists had fought for their freedom when the British tried to disarm them at Lexington and Concord. Well, he and a lot of others died in what your history books call the 'Tax Revolt of 1998,' but son, it wasn't the revolt that caused the repeal of the Second Amendment like your history book says. The Second Amendment was already gone long before they ever repealed it. The rest of us thought we were doing the right thing by waiting. I hope to God we were right."

" You see, Thomas. It isn't government that makes a man free. In the end, governments always do just the opposite. They gobble up freedom like hungry pigs. You have to have laws to keep the worst in men under control, but at the same time the people have to have guns, too, in order to keep the government itself under control. In our country, the people were supposed to be the final authority of the law, but that was a long time ago. Once the guns were gone, there was no reason for those who run the government to give a damn about laws and constitutional rights and such. They just did what they pleased and anyone who spoke out...well, I'm getting ahead of myself." "It took a long time to collect up all the millions of firearms that were in private hands. The government created a whole new agency to see to it. There were rewards for turning your friends in, too. Drug dealers and murderers were set free after two or three years in prison, but possession of a gun would get you mandatory life behind bars with no parole.

"I don't know how they found out about me, probably knew I'd been a hunter all those years, or maybe somebody turned me in. They picked me up on suspicion and took me down to the federal building."

"Son, those guys did everything they could think of to me. Kept me locked up in this little room for hours, no food, no water. They kept coming in, asking me where the guns were. 'What guns?' I said. Whenever I'd doze off, they'd come crashing in, yelling and hollering. I got to where I didn't know which end was up. I'd say I wanted my lawyer and they'd laugh. 'Lawyers are for criminals', they said. 'You'll get a lawyer after we get the guns.' What's so funny is, I know they thought they were doing the right thing. They were fighting crime!" "When I got home I found Ruth sitting in the middle of the living room floor, crying her eyes out. The house was a shambles. While I was down there, they'd come out and took our house apart. Didn't need a search warrant, they said. National emergency! Gun crisis! Your grandma tried to call our preacher and they ripped the phone off the wall. Told her that they'd go easy on me if she just told them where I kept my guns." The old man laughed. "She told them to go to hell." He stared into the distance for a moment as his laughter faded.

"They wouldn't tell her about me, where I was or anything, that whole time. She said that she'd thought I was dead. She never got over that day, and she died the next December."

"They've been watching me ever since, off and on. I guess there's not much for them to do anymore, now that all the guns are gone. Plenty of time to watch one foolish old man." He paused. Beside him, the boy stared at the stone beneath his feet. "Anyway, I figure that, one day, America will come to her senses. Our men will need those guns and they'll be ready. We cleaned them and sealed them up good; they'll last for years. Maybe it won't be in your lifetime, Thomas. Maybe one day you'll be sitting here with your son or grandson. Tell him about me, boy. Tell him about the way I said America used to be." The old man stood, his bad leg shaking unsteadily beneath him.

"You see the way this stone points? You follow that line one hundred feet down the hill and you'll find a big round rock. It looks like it's buried solid, but one man with a good pry bar can lift it, and there's a concrete tunnel right under there that goes back into the hill."

The old man stood, watching as the sun eased toward the ridge, coloring the sky and the world red. Below them, the river still splashed among the stones, as it had for a million years. It's still going, the old man thought. There'll be someone left to carry on for me when I'm gone. It was harder to walk back. He felt old and purposeless now, and it would be easier, he knew, to give in to that aching heaviness in his left lung that had begun to trouble him more and more. Damn cigarettes, he thought. His leg hurt, and the boy silently came up beside him and supported him as they started down the last mile toward the house. How quiet he walks, the old man thought. He's learned well. It was almost dark when the boy walked in. His father looked up from his paper. "Did you and your grand dad have a nice walk?"

"Yes," the boy answered, opening the refrigerator. "You can call Agent Goodwin tomorrow. Gramps finally showed me where it is."

******************************

Editor's note: "Sundown at Coffin Rock" is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual events or to actual people, living or dead, REMAINS TO BE SEEN.

This is How Academia Thinks About our Vets - Unbelievable!!

This video was on Penn State's web site. It has been pulled because of the outrage it caused. These are the people teaching our kids!!

http://radioviceonline.com/penn-state-warns-watch-out-for-those-crazy-veterans/

There's No Bias in the Media!

This would have made Joseph Goebbels proud. Ever hear of him. He was Hitler's Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. How long do you think it will be before Obama establishes a Department such as this?

YouTube - CNN Rick Sanchez 'SLAMS' FOX News's Gun Fear Mongering

Diet

As I sat watching the Evening News last week, they did a story telling me that red meat is not good for me. Now we've all heard this before. Personally, I don't like sprouts, lettuce is OK , but I wouldn't want to make a career out of it. I'm not crazy for most fish, either. Now, I have a question, a serious one. How did the human race survive to this point by having everything that is bad for you taste so good, and the stuff that is good for you for the most part tastes terrible? I eat a lot of red meat and animal fat and don't eat a lot of fruit and have one helping of vegetables with my dinner. I also love real gooey sweets. Occasionally, I'll have some lettuce and tomato on my sandwich for lunch, but it usually goes along with roast beef, ham, spam, or something similar. I go to my doctor once a year for a physical. I'm in my 60's, am in great health, have had a stress test, and my heart is fine. Now, as I tell my doctor, "I'll be darned if I'm going to start eating stuff I don't like, so I can live 10 years longer eating stuff I don't like". I'll eat what I want, and to you Media Elites and Liberal do-gooders out there, just "shut the h*** up and leave me alone". It is none of your business what I or anyone else eats and I will not listen to you!! I will continue to eat stuff I like. If I die a few years early, how will anyone know whether my diet had anything to do with it or not ?

P.S. If you're a tea drinker, make sure you let it cool off a little. If you drink it too hot it can cause cancer. (That was another story they did a couple of nights later).

Norman Thomas

Got this from my cousin Ray. I've heard the quote before but never knew who said it.

Norman Thomas (November 20, 1884 - December 19, 1968) actually ran for President many times. He was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. His statement made in 1944, yes, at the height of World War ll, was true then without a lot of following and now it seems ………. more true today – 2009 – than ever.

Norman Thomas said this in a 1944 speech:
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of "liberalism", they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." He went on to say: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform."

Here Piggy, Piggy, Piggy

Last Tuesday, as President Obama got off the helicopter in front of the
White House, he was carrying a baby piglet under each arm.
The squared-away Marine guard snaps to attention, salutes and says:
"Nice pigs, sir."
The President replies "These are not pigs...these are authentic
Arkansas Razorback Hogs. I got one for Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and I got one for Speaker of The House Nancy Pelosi."
The squared-away Marine again snaps to attention, salutes and says,

"Excellent trade, sir."

This Week's Gun Myth

Myth: Only police should have guns

Fact: “...most criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about
running into the police.”

Fact: 11% of police shootings kill an innocent person - about 2% of shootings by citizens kill an
innocent person.

Fact: Police have trouble keeping their own guns. Hundreds of firearms are missing from the
FBI and 449 of them have been involved in crimes.

Fact: People who saw the helplessness of the L.A. Police Department during the 1992 King
Riots or the looting and violence in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina know that citizens need
guns to defend themselves.

Breaking News from ESPN

This is the way it should be. Why should some teams be better than others!
Got this "Steve", who works at the same company as my wife.

Steelers to Lose Super Bowl Trophies
Pittsburgh, PA.

The Super Bowl XLIII Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, the only team to win six titles, will soon be losing half of those trophies. After a meeting between NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell and President Barack Hussein Obama, Obama decided to redistribute half of their Steeler Super Bowl victories and trophies to less fortunate teams in the league. “We live everyday in the country that invented the Super Bowl.” said Obama “We are not about to lose this Great American tradition in the wake of these difficult times.” Obama’s plan calls for the Steelers, who are a successful NFL team, to give half of their Super Bowl trophies to teams that are not successful or have not been as successful as the Steelers. “The Detroit Loins are just as much a part of the same fiber of the NFL as the Steelers and they should, no rather will, be entitled to a Super Bowl Trophy as well.” Obama explains in his plan that he has imposed on Goodell and the NFL. The Pittsburgh Steelers, who by virtue of hard work, excellent team play, stellar draft choices, responsible investing of free agents, careful hiring of coaches and excellent community service and commitment to their fans, has prospered greatly during the past 30 years and have won six Super Bowl Trophies, but President Barack Hussein Obama’s plan calls for the Pittsburgh Steelers to carry the larger burden of the NFL’s less successful teams. Obama went on to further proclaim, “In these difficult times we are all in this to together. We must reclaim the NFL Championship Dream for every team, for every city and for every fan.”
“My plan will not affect 31 of the 32 teams in the league.” Obama assures. That’s over 95 percent of the teams in the NFL will not have to worry about loosing any Super Bowl Trophies. “The worst teams in the NFL and the teams that can’t seem to get a break and win a championship will no longer have to worry about going without a title.” Obama promises. “We are a country and league of hope. We all need to make a change. It does not matter the color of the teams uniforms, the personnel decisions that the teams make, or their performance, but rather if they are a member of this great American league.”
The Super Bowl XLIII trophy will be redistributed to the 0-16 Detroit Lions. Through no fault of their own incompetence, the Lions could not manage a victory all season and this trophy will help ease the pain of their lack of performance and give them hope once again. The redistribution of Super Bowl XL trophy will go directly to the Steeler’s division rival the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals who also have fallen on hard times have never won a Super Bowl. This victory will bring a smile to hundreds of Bengal fans all over the world as they can now celebrate. Finally, one of the Steeler’s two Super Bowl victories over the Dallas Cowboys will go back to the Cowboys since the league needs to provide hope in the face of difficulty and provide hope in the face of uncertainty. This is a heavy burden for the Steelers, but together we can all prosper.
All hope is not lost for Pittsburgh fans, Barack Hussein Obama has another plan in place. Obama has meet with MLB and commissioner Bud Selig on a similar plan. The New York Yankees will redistribute two of their world series trophies to the Pittsburgh Pirates as a supplement to their 16 straight losing seasons and counting. This plan will help stimulate the Pirates and enable them to regain the American Dream. Barack Hussein Obama will be meeting with the NHL and Michael Phelps in the upcoming weeks as this issue is high on his agenda for “Hope and Change.”
Obama provides hope to NFL teams.
Steelers must now share their wealth and fruits of their success and hard work.

Pam Geller

I found out about Pam Geller from my buddy, Ray. She has a blog called "Atlas Shrugged". She wrote the following column which I agree with entirely and I am sure we are headed in that direction. I'll tell ya "I told you so" later (if I haven't been sent away for re-education), after everyone stops laughing at me. I hope I am totally wrong, because if I am, I will gladly take all the ridicule you can heap on me.

"Something of Historic Proportion is Happening"
by Pam Geller

I am a student of history. Professionally. I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied it all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes, these exist but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus. Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about 10 - 15 years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two. We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people whom we know can never pay back. (Carter/Clinton - The Community Reinvestment Act) Why? We learn just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine, and that is three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of "We the People," who lent our powers to our elected leaders.. Apparently not. We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why? We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, and school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why? We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?). We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, Social Security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about.) The list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x 10, and we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same religion who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so, and now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more important.)
Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change. Why? I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now. This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again, and that is only the beginning. I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930's. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory and promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker, and he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully them into submission, and then he was duly elected to office, with full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world. He did it with a compliant media - Did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and .. . . change. And the people surely got what they voted for. (Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.) Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930's while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. Don't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities,and in less than six years - a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency - it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them. As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong, close my eyes, have another latte and ignore what is transpiring around me. Some people scoff at me; others laugh or think I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have exactly what I believe - and why I believe it. I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am.