Offended?? Well, TS!

       I have ordered a Confederate flag! When it arrives this coming week, it's going on my flag pole out front along with my Gadsden flag and upside down American flag. The upside down American flag is a signal of distress, and this country is in a great deal of stress with what's going on today! It will remain upside down until our government gets back to the Constitution, and how this country was founded. The Confederate flag is a part of our history, and is NOT a symbol of racism or hate. I do not have a racist bone in my body, never have, and never will!
       I will not be a party to the erasure of American history! That is what is going on. You can erase history, by removing it from textbooks, or you can rewrite it by writing an false narrative of what actually occurred, but history CANNOT be changed. History must always be looked at through the eyes of what was happening in society at the time that history occurred. Did we do some horrible things throughout our history? Of course we did, but is ignoring it, or saying something else happened, going to change it? What we know today, cannot be used to judge what happened back then. You must look at it from the viewpoint of the time it occurred.
         I have had it up to here with Political Correctness. You can't open your mouth anymore without fear of offending someone. That is exactly what these Leftist/Progressive/Communists want. They want people to be afraid to say anything. Basically the silencing of free speech! I will not be a party to that. I will speak my mind, and if someone gets offended? Deal with it! Political Correctness offends me! Does that count for anything? No, it doesn't, because I'm on the wrong side of the argument!
        When the Constitution was being debated, one agreement that led to the adoption of it, was that slaves in the southern states would be counted as 3/5 of a person for representative purposes. Was this right? Of course not, looking at it through today's eyes, but where would our "country" be today if that had not occurred. No agreement may have been reached, and I have no idea what we would look like today, but I will guarantee that the leftists would be complaining about something they view as wrong, and must be changed. 
         These people got what they wanted with the Supreme Court case on same sex marriage. The Confederate flag has been successfully demonized. Are they happy? Not a chance! There are other things that they want to do that they haven't even thought up yet! The Memphis, TN City Council voted unanimously to dig up a Confederate general and his wife, and a monument in his honor and remove them from a public park, a talking head at CNN suggested that the Jefferson Memorial should be taken down or moved. It has been suggested that the Washington Monument should be taken down, and even the name of Washington, D.C. should be changed. Why? Because Jefferson and Washington owned slaves. Well, back then, while some people were opposed to it, it was considered OK to own slaves. If we do all those things suggested, today, how exactly would that benefit Jefferson's and Washington's slaves. Jefferson and Washington did a lot more FOR this country, than owning a few slaves was bad for it.
        The night of the same sex Supreme Court decision, the White House was bathed in Rainbow colors. I wonder why it was not bathed in Red, White, and Blue on the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That answer is simple. The administration in Washington today hates this country, and is trying to do everything it possibly can to destroy it, through executive decrees, a foreign policy that reeks of cowardice, and a total disregard for the "rule of law".

       
       

Something to think about.

 Let's assume that you can buy "food" insurance. Food (Healthcare) is as necessary to living as health care. You would pay a premium each month, go to the supermarket (doctor) anytime, buy anything you want, and after paying a copay at the register, you're on your way. Now to do this, insurance companies would have to be involved and probably the government. Right now, supermarkets (but not doctors) compete with each other (do you even ask the doctor how much the charge is for that procedure). To stay in business, supermarkets have to provide the best product for the least cost. Where do you think food prices would go if you didn't care how much they cost? Doctors, hospitals, etc. don't have to care about prices, because they are told by the government what they must cover, and how much they can charge (Medicare and Medicaid), so they can't compete with each other. The way to truly get health care costs under control is to get the Federal and State governments out of it entirely. Give people a medical savings account (a certain amount of money - from the government as a tax credit or direct payment), no strings attached, which can be rolled over from year to year. Amount to be determined. From this account people can pay the doctor, hospital, etc. directly, or they can buy coverage from an insurance company on their own, and decide for themselves what coverage they want. Does a 70 year old woman, really need to have birth control coverage, or the 25 year old man prostate coverage. In other words, allow doctors, hospitals, medical labs, insurance companies, etc. to compete in the FREE market, and costs will plummet, and quality will rise, just like supermarkets, or they won't be in business very long. Just think how much money those entities will save just in bureaucratic costs of not having to deal with the government or the insurance companies (as much) anymore? The free market is the way to go. It works every time it's tried.

What to do? Here's what you do!!

To all you "moderate" Republicans out there (AKA RINOs), who think the way to win elections is to be Democrat "lite". Yeah, you, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, John Boehner, John McKinney, Larry Cafero, et al, The ones who don't support the Second Amendment, vote to increase taxes, vote for more government spending, and just go along to get along, I suggest you check this link out. It shows what happens when you run on conservative principles and stick to them. Exactly what Reagan did in 1980, and he won a landslide, and was reelected four years later by an even bigger landslide. Just look "down under"!

http://news.yahoo.com/conservatives-sweep-australia-election-victory-120331850--finance.html

Suggestions?

To all you anti gun nut jobs out there! How do you propose we handle stuff like this? Require a background check before anyone can register a car or get a driver's license,? How about limiting the amount of gas you can buy at one time? Maybe we can ban "assault" cars like Dodge chargers. Can't use Prius' either, because they are so quiet they could be considered "stealth" vehicles. Everyone will be required to drive a "Smart Car". People who want to hurt people will find a way! I don’t care how many restrictive laws you pass, but that’s OK, let's just take away freedoms of people who would never do something like this, and do nothing to prevent this crap!

 

http://my.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20130804%2F60472c4e-39c3-48e8-83cf-72d25282a0f7 

Happy Birthday, America!

Paul Harvey and the Declaration of Independence

A Note From History, I Wonder if it's Still Read?

I figured since I had not watched it when it was on TV, that today would be a good day to start watching "John Adams", the HBO miniseries. I had bought the DVD set. As I was watching the first episode, I remembered a poem I had to memorize in the 5th grade. I can still recite the first five lines from memory. It describes what led up to the battle at the bridge between the towns of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts on April 19th 1775, and as they say 'the shot heard round the world". It started on the night of April 18, and about 15 months later the Declaration of Independence was signed. I wonder how many kids in school today (up through college) have even read it, never mind memorized it!

Here it is-

Paul Revere's Ride

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Listen my children and you shall hear
 Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
 On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
 Hardly a man is now alive
 Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march
 By land or sea from the town to-night,
 Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
 Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
 One if by land, and two if by sea;
 And I on the opposite shore will be,
 Ready to ride and spread the alarm
 Through every Middlesex village and farm,
 For the country folk to be up and to arm."

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
 Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
 Just as the moon rose over the bay,
 Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
 The Somerset, British man-of-war;
 A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
 Across the moon like a prison bar,
 And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
 By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
 Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
 Till in the silence around him he hears
 The muster of men at the barrack door,
 The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
 And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
 Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
 By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
 To the belfry chamber overhead,
 And startled the pigeons from their perch
 On the sombre rafters, that round him made
 Masses and moving shapes of shade,--
 By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
 To the highest window in the wall,
 Where he paused to listen and look down
 A moment on the roofs of the town
 And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
 In their night encampment on the hill,
 Wrapped in silence so deep and still
 That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
 The watchful night-wind, as it went
 Creeping along from tent to tent,
 And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
 A moment only he feels the spell
 Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
 Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
 For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
 On a shadowy something far away,
 Where the river widens to meet the bay,--
 A line of black that bends and floats
 On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
 Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
 On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
 Now he patted his horse's side,
 Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
 Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
 And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
 But mostly he watched with eager search
 The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
 As it rose above the graves on the hill,
 Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
 And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
 A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
 He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
 But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
 A second lamp in the belfry burns.

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
 A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
 And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
 Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
 That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
 The fate of a nation was riding that night;
 And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
 Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
 He has left the village and mounted the steep,
 And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
 Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
 And under the alders that skirt its edge,
 Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
 Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
 When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
 He heard the crowing of the cock,
 And the barking of the farmer's dog,
 And felt the damp of the river fog,
 That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,
 When he galloped into Lexington.
 He saw the gilded weathercock
 Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
 And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
 Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
 As if they already stood aghast
 At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,
 When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
 He heard the bleating of the flock,
 And the twitter of birds among the trees,
 And felt the breath of the morning breeze
 Blowing over the meadow brown.
 And one was safe and asleep in his bed
 Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
 Who that day would be lying dead,
 Pierced by a British musket ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read
 How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
 How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
 From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
 Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
 Then crossing the fields to emerge again
 Under the trees at the turn of the road,
 And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
 And so through the night went his cry of alarm
 To every Middlesex village and farm,---
 A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
 A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
 And a word that shall echo for evermore!
 For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
 Through all our history, to the last,
 In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
 The people will waken and listen to hear
 The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
 And the midnight message of Paul Revere.