The Black Republican

I guess Sean "Diddy" Combs, Kym Whitley, Quincy Jones, Nia Long, et al, believe that what is important is not the content of a man's character, but the color of his skin.

So much for that dream.

And another thing... I have seen commenters on some web site referring to Barack Obama as "Obama Luther King." This is very offensive to me because, aside from the color of his skin, there is little about Obama that is like Dr. Martin Luther King. Obama favors and actively promotes abortion, and I think it's safe to say Dr. King would have vehemently apposed it. Dr. King believed in a color-blind society, Barack Obama and his surrogates see nothing but the color of people's skin. Yes, Dr. King was a bit socialist in his approach to economics, but he did not believe it was the job of the government to fix the stumbling blocks to black progress:

When he sought to remove the barriers confronting black America, he did not seek to then describe us as victims. There are two ways that you can prevent someone from competing. One is to deny them the opportunity to compete by law, which laws of segregation and discrimination did. The second way to deny them the opportunity to compete is to tell them they do not have to compete, that they can just sit back and government will do it for them.

What is leadership?
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." - Albert Einstein

What is Racism?
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

What is the Truth?
"The sting in any rebuke is the truth." - Benjamin Franklin

What is Freedom?
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning." - Frederick Douglass

I've sung this tune before, but the time is right to bang the drum again. Let me tell you a story...

There once was a political party that was fighting the Democrats over a series of issues. But the Democrats played the political game better, and kept insisting on compromises that favored their positions. Trying to get along and seem "bipartisan", the political party agreed to these compromises time and again, to the point that eventually their leadership, including the incumbent President, decided to give in and support the Democratic position on these issues altogether. Left without a platform to run on, the political party nominated a war hero to be their presidential candidate, hoping his popularity and personal integrity would be enough to win.

I know this all sounds familiar, but of course since the primaries aren't over, I'm not talking about today.

The political party was the Whig Party, not the Republicans.
They were arguing over states' rights, nullification, and slavery, not immigration, campaign finance, global warming and stem cell research.
The incumbent President was Millard Fillmore, not George W. Bush.
The war hero was Winfield Scott. He lost in a landslide.
And so will John McCain, I predict, if he gets the nomination - which seems all but certain at this point.

Following the election of 1852, without a platform significantly different from the Democrats, the Whig Party fell apart. Some of its members joined the Democrats, others formed a new party with a platform opposing the Democrats on the issues the Whigs compromised over, especially slavery. Thus was the Republican Party born, and the political rise of The Black Republican began. And to such an end as the Whigs experienced I expect the Republicans to come to in the coming years.

UPDATE: Hugh mentions the W-word himself, though more as a warning than pronouncing a doom.

But like any good prognosticator, I'll hedge somewhat.

Continue reading "Meet Winfield Scott" »

As close friends know, there are some subjects that I have a strange affinity for. When it comes to Presidential history and the Founders, my personal favorite - despite this blog and its topic - has always been John Adams. I've memorized most of the play 1776, and despite having no acting skill whatsoever, an intense fear of the stage, and only a fair voice, would jump at any opportunity to play the lead if I had the chance. David McCullough's biography of the man is a cherished gift.

So... as they say at AoSHQ, I'll be in my bunk.

A champion of Liberty has fallen. The world is diminished, and I'm afraid that we will all feel the affects of her passing.

I discovered this awful news from the television in the lunchroom at work. There were several people watching the news with me (mostly 20-something in age and, like many of their cohort, severely deficient when it comes to knowledge of the world) and they were asking those of us who know exactly what this meant and why we considered this an ominous omen. I responded to one young man in particular telling him that Benazir Bhutto was a very courageous woman and brave leader, to which he replied "She should have known better than to have gone back."

I was so incredulous at his statement I couldn't respond. And it's a good thing too, cause if I had he probably would have called the PC police. You see, the young man was black, and while I give him credit for just knowing who Benazir Bhutto was (which NONE of the other 20-somethings in the room did), the only thing I could think to respond with was "Does that mean Dr. King should have known better too?"

Come on people! Dr King, Abraham Lincoln, Mohandas Gandhi, Rafiq Hariri, Benazir Bhutto... these people didn't change the world by hiding in their rooms! They are in the history book precisely because they were leaders - they stood out in front and didn't shy away from danger. Remember when George Bush walked out to the mound at Yankee Stadium just after 9/11?

No matter what your opinion of him as a President, that was a statement by the leader of the free world - "Here I am. You want to get me, then get me, but you are not going to stop our country and her people from being free."

And so it was with Benazir Bhutto. Yes, they got her, but I think that will turn out to be a pyrrhic victory. Ring the bells to mark her passing, but remember...

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." - John Donne

After killing Lupins and collecting coconuts on Florina Beach, I headed over to Fark this evening to get some silly headlines. I'm sure that one of these days they're going to create a whole new website just for the Florida tag in the same manner that they did for another of their famous tags. Headline: "Walton County to alter Nativity scene."

The County Commission decided this week to include secular items such as a snowman to the display after Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent the county a letter in July claiming that the creche is unconstitutional

Happy birthday to me.

...because no one can jump into the arms of God. Oh, no. You have to fall.

Image Credit: Richard Drew, AP

My grandfather was 39 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and turned 40 a few days later. I was 40 on 9/11. He was, like me, too old to actually pick up a weapon and fight those who had attacked us (though he, like me, made every attempt to do so). I wish he was still around, I would like to know how he felt after that day, and if it was anything like what I feel today. I think that for him, like others of his generation, only after decades did the profound feeling caused by Pearl Harbor even begin to recede. It will be at least as long before we should even hope to have the pain of 9/11 ease, if ever does so.

As I watch the videos and listen to the audio of that day, the disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger is still there. Six years later and those images and sounds still make fresh the old cuts and wounds. Perhaps those cuts and wounds do not sting as much as when they were first inflicted, or perhaps I have just become inured, but my mind still reels from the abhorrence of that day, and always will. And I place these images and sounds here to rub raw the wounds we all suffered that day, because only by remembering the pain of our loss can we be sure to fight enough to prevent it from happening again.

Please read what these others have to say about today's anniversary. The words and stories they have written are all so much more elegant and poignant than anything I could ever write...

• Tuesday Morning - Cox & Forkum


• 9/11 - Bryan at Hot Air


• Remembrance and resistance - Michelle Malkin

And be sure to read this from Ace... because it is the most truth I have ever read about 9/11.

John Kerry, who claims to have served in Vietnam, has allowed the statutory limit within which he could file suit against the Swiftboat Veterans for defamation to pass.

Massachusetts' three-year statute of limitations for defamation claims made it the very last feasible venue in which Sen. Kerry conceivably could file suit and gain his public vindication, if the SwiftVets' allegations about him were false.

Of course, he could also have released his military records, as promised, and given the public the proof he insists exists to clear his name. But, he isn't honest enough to sign the SF-180, as he promised to do 940 days ago. So, we know that he can not defend himself from the Swiftee's charges; or he would have taken remedial action by now. The coward.

Wizbang

OK, I've been on vacation the past week and a half and am just now trying to do some catch-up. To that end I have compiled a list of some observations over that time:

Continue reading "A Pseudo Religion, Real Racism, and True Terror." »

I want to share a story published in the July issue of Smithsonian Magazine, 100 Days That Shook The World, a tale of how we almost lost the Revolutionary War and of a seldom remembered General who tilted the balance in our favor.

"Nathanael Greene's meteoric rise could hardly have been predicted. A Quaker whose only formal schooling had been a brief stint with an itinerant tutor, Nathanael was set to work in his teens in the family-owned sawmill and iron forge. In 1770, he took over management of the foundry. In 1774, the last year of peace, Greene, then 32, married Catherine Littlefield, a 19-year-old local beauty, and won a second term to the Rhode Island assembly.

Later that year, Greene enlisted as a private in a Rhode Island militia company. When hostilities between Britain and the Colonies broke out at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775, Greene was suddenly elevated from the rank of private to brigadier general...."

I hope that you enjoy it, and here is wishing you a great 4th of July.

ps- I also recommend that you jump over to Rush's site and listen to Red Skelton read the Pledge of Allegiance, (always a classic this time of year), and Rush also has his father's speech on the travails of our country's founders up there as well.

Many thanks to Rick for posting a reminder that today is Flag Day. But today is special for another reason. It's the US Army's 232nd birthday.

And I'm including this because I just like it so much. GO ARMY!

UPDATE: Well, Chris has rightfully chastised me for posting a video that was not as appropriate as the one below. In my own defense, I knew about the one above and just went looking for it and didn't search to see if there was a better one. Thanks Chris, this one is more appropriate.

I normally find Patrick Buchanan's blather to be unworthy of a link, but the TBR Rule breaks all bets.

While the paleo hero does a good job of comparing the Iowa straw poll to the First Battle of Manassas (a task Steve might remark is normally my style), one has to wonder about the man's sense of humor. After all, he had the perfect opportunity to punningly observe that all attempts to run a presidential campaign are, essentially, a Bull Run.

On the other hand, Andrew Ferguson is apparently daring me to do a book review.

I heard it said, the word "amnesty" crystallized the opposition and forced the end of debate on the so-called immigration bill. That sounds about right to me, the idea that people can enter our country without permission and be rewarded for their brazen defiance of the rule of law is a powerfully unwelcome notion. Amnesty succinctly described the situation, even if the bill's proponents wish us to avoid the "A" word.

But, the word that caused the bill to get so out of bounds is comprehensive. With that one word they admitted that they would insist upon one solution to many problems, problems that were not related to one another. With the use of that word, comprehensive, they were saying, we are going to solve border enforcement, and we are going to eliminate the illegals who are in our country now, and we are going to solve an economic need, and we are going to show the world that we are compassionate.

Well, you don't solve border enforcement with legislation, you solve it with action. You solve it by giving the law enforcers the tools to enforce existing law.

Their way of eliminating the criminals here illegally was to make them legal. A better solution would be to enforce the laws and remove the illegals when you find them, enforce existing disincentives to their presence here (employer verification, etc.), create new disincentives, (remove anchor baby provisions, end welfare for illegals) and generally make it a perpetual campaign to assure ourselves that we know that all who are within our boundaries are here legally.

If it is true that we need more workers, then have them enter legally.

If we wish to have them become Americans, let them pass muster in traditional style, let them earn it the way so many others before them earned it, (learn the language, learn the history, learn the laws and obey them, learn to assimilate).

And let's forget about creating an image for the world to see when we talk about immigration; if the world can not remember all that this country has done for humanity there is little hope that they will recognize our capitulation to those who sneak into our country as grace born of virtue, rather we will be seen as weak, impotent and scared.

So, let's end "comprehensive" immigration reform, tackling each issue on its own merits makes so much more sense, and assures a fairer outcome for the American people.

Sixty-three years ago today, the fate of Europe was decided by a few thousand intrepid young American, British, Canadian and allied soldiers, sailors, and airmen who fought through hell to rescue a continent.

Today we do not grieve for the men that paid the ultimate price on the shores of Normandy that fateful day, but rather celebrate and thank God Almighty that such brave men lived at all.

We pray that those that still carry the wounds from this day and all the days surrounding it, whether they be the physical wounds from action with the enemy or the mental wounds from losing friends and loved ones, find peace in knowing that your pain and sacrifices helped save an entire continent and millions of people from unthinkable suffering. It was a noble and worthy cause.

No less worthy of our praise is the effort our current "Band of Brothers" is engaged in, for they too are helping to save an entire region and millions of people from unthinkable suffering.

The peoples of the Middle East are no less deserving of peace and freedom from the fascist oppression that has enslaved them for millennia than the Europeans from the fascist oppression they faced in 1944, and we must question the ethics and moral quality of anyone who suggests they are.

All images are the outstanding work of Chris at the Military Motivator

(Editors note: Ironic isn't it how the site is called "Military Motivator" and yet it isn't the military that derives motivation from these images, but rather we who derive motivation from our military.)

The following is a partial list of unlikely events whose chances of proving true are greater than are the odds that the current immigration bill will solve the open border situation.

Videotape proves existence of Loch Ness Monster

Sandy Berger tells whole story, wasn't covering up Clinton's mistakes.

Radical Islam is a religion of peace.

Laywer TB patient had greater good in mind.

Valerie Plame tells the truth.

Creationists prove Earth is 6000 years old.

Not making the list is the seemingly impossible news that the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album is forty years old. Where have all those years gone? (A live cover for your listening/viewing enjoyment here)

When the 2008 Presidential election is finally over those colorful maps showing states which voted Republican in red and states which voted Democrat in blue needs an adjustment. Next time red for Republicans, and yellow for Democrats.

The irrepressible Kathy Shaidle marks another anniversary since the death of responsible journalism.

Be careful over there - her commentary is not for the politically correct.

I was going to marvel at the fact that I'd found a story in the San Francisco Chronicle by staff writer Carolyn Jones that didn't just avoid making me want to vomit, but was actually heartwarming, non-partisan, and - amazingly enough - faintly pro-American.

Checking a rumor, retired UC Berkeley Professor Joe Fischer was poking around the cluttered basement of the Richmond Museum of History and uncovered a long-forgotten "gold mine."

Hidden in a metal cabinet against a back wall were 4,000 meticulously preserved children's paintings and collages.

But instead of children's typical renderings of rainbows, cheerful family scenes, animals or make-believe worlds, there were menacing portraits of Hitler, burning airplanes nose-diving into the ocean, a sad-looking girl with long black braids next to a Star of David, empty houses and dozens of intricately detailed battleships -- some with guns blazing, others sinking.

The paintings, done by children in the Kaiser shipyard child care centers, tell the story of World War II with the simplicity and poignancy of a child's perspective. Their public unveiling was celebrated April 14 with a reception for an exhibition of 50 of the works at Oakland's Museum of Children's Art.

These were the children who spent 12 hours a day in day care while their parents were fighting the war. Their moms were models for Rosie the Riveter, toiling long hours in the shipyards, while many of their dads were battling German fascism and Japanese imperialism overseas.

Many of the children came from lower-income families with parents who moved to Richmond to work in the Kaiser shipyards, which in their heyday turned out more Victory and Liberty ships than those in any other U.S. port. The families lived in makeshift trailer camps, tent cities and quickly constructed government housing.

In all, 27,000 of the 90,000 Kaiser shipyard workers were women, so organized child care was imperative.

"This is a remarkably vivid part of the home-front story," said Lucy Lawliss, resource director at Rosie the Riveter National Historic Park in Richmond. "These children were seeing the home front and were able to record it from their perspective."

Martha Lee, park superintendent, called the collection "a national treasure."

"People think kids in child care suffered," Fischer said. "But without child care, this artwork would not have existed, simple as that."

But you were so close, Carolyn! That was the VERY LAST sentence.

Today, April 16th, has always been a very important day, not because of events that happened on this day, but because on this day, at various points throughout history, people awoke to find a world vastly different from the one before.

First off, since April 15th is the official deadline for filing tax return in most areas of the country, April 16 is traditionally a day that people all over the country wake up with either a lot less in their bank accounts or the prospect of a looming tax debt extended for a few weeks, months, or even years. One would hope that this would have by now lead to a re-thinking in regard to the US Tax code - and in some corners it has - but the tax code is so mind-numbing that any momentum for reform seems hard to maintain.

But April 16th is also important because a few of the events of April 15th were so monumental as to change the way an entire nation viewed the world beginning the very next day. Because of those events, I like to think of April 16th as sort of a Renaissance (French for rebirth) day, not a Renaissance in art and literature, but a Renaissance in thinking.

Continue reading "Today in history..." »

A liberal journalist invokes the other "N" word in a column in the LA Times. I think it is an important development, but I am not yet sure why. So, I'll leave it to the reader to witness the remarks of David Ehrenstein.

"But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro."

The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia http://en.-wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro .

He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest."

And I'll also give you access to Rush's take on Ehrenstein's essay.

"So, those of you white people out there who are supporting Barack Obama, you are racists. That is the point that David Ehrenstein is making. You're attempting to assuage all of your white guilt by supporting Obama, is worthless, because you're just exhibiting racism because you know he's not a "real black." "

I will also remind you of what Juan Williams and Brit Hume had to say about how being black affects Obama's chances at election.

Lastly, I must say that I just now learning that the M.N. term exists, and I am not happy to have it as part of the American lexicon.

Valerie Plame finally spoke in public, and while under oath she contradicts the CIA's version of how Plame's husband became involved in WMD discussion.

"Plame said she did not select her husband for a CIA fact-finding trip to Niger. Wilson later wrote in a newspaper column that his trip debunked the administration's prewar intelligence that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Africa.

"I did not recommend him. I did not suggest him. There was no nepotism involved. I did not have the authority," she said.

That conflicts with senior officials at the CIA and State Department, who testified during Libby's trial and told Congress that Plame recommended Wilson for the trip."

One has to wonder what authority is required to make a suggestion. Sounds like doublespeak to me. A family trait perhaps, as it is now known that while Mr. Wilson's op-ed column had purported that his finding in Niger had debunked the pre-war intelligence it had actually contradicted his oral reporting’s to the CIA which had reinforced the prevailing belief that Iraq had been seeking uranium. Wilson's assertion that Vice President Cheney had sent him to Niger has also been shown to be in error. One has to wonder if the truth is ever in these two, Wilson and Plame.

PLAME COVER BLOWN YEARS BEFORE

Wilson has also made a big deal out of his assertion that his wife's cover was blown as a way to punish him, and that such exposure of her CIA employment put her at risk. But, those too are lies, and ones which she must have known as lies. For her cover had been blown twice before Novak reported it, once during the Clinton administration. You can't blame Bush for that one, (though we certainly expect the nut job Bush haters to try.). This revelation, that she was a known spy, may explain one part of this story which always bothered me. Why send the diplomat husband to spy and yet leave the spy wife (and WMD expert) at home when she was decidedly more qualified for the mission? The obvious answer now is that she could no long spy, her cover was already blown!

And, there is no evidence to support his paranoid accusation that the White house was out to get him as retribution. That is just partisan paranoia on his part.

Her exposure as a spy within the intelligence community created far greater danger, to her and the nation, than did her exposure to the public. Keeping her spy status secret from the public is only valuable when it helps to keep it secret from the intelligence community. A spy is in danger from the other spies, not from the public. The other spies already knew about her.

INDICT PLAME ON PERJURY

I don't buy her lame explanation on how her husband was chosen for the mission. Her own bosses say that she was the one who got his name in the mix. So, she just perjured herself. Time for a special prosecutor? No, just have AG Gonzales fire back with an indictment charging her with lying to Congress. I know it is not a crime when a Congressman lies, but surely it is a chargeable offense when a sworn witness lies to Congress.
Her appearance and testimony at this late date is no mistake either. This was a staged event, her testimony a manufactured and no doubt practiced parcel of deceit. Fitzgerald would have her in irons if she was a Republican. Ask Libby. He is convicted and she is walking around free; as long as that is the case don't talk to me about equal justice.

Have you seen this presentation?

Very interesting, no? And not one word about the added effects of illegal immigration either.

It seems to me that if global warming is going to be considered a climatic dysfunction, then there must be a climatic norm which we can compare today's climate against. We know there have been ice ages, times when it was colder worldwide than today, and we know those colder times came to an end and the planet grew warmer. So, here is my reality check; what specific conditions, and at what time did such exist, that we can say, that is the ideal condition for the planet?

Without that benchmark how can we determine if any other time is, or is not normal, climatically speaking?

Well, it has now been more than two years since John Kerry promised to release his military records, and still we wait. My sentiments on the subject have not changed since last year.

Born this day in 1809 and destined to become our 16th President, we honor Abraham Lincoln on this anniversary of his birth.

I chose to pay homage by reading one of his speeches. Today, I chose the final appearance he made with Stephen Douglas. This speech, performed October 15, 1858, took place in the town of my birth, Alton Illinois. And, as I was not there at the time, owning to my having not yet been born, I thought it fitting to review that bit of history which occurred where my own history was established.

I am not capable of delivering a worthy synopsis of this speech, it speaks for itself. But, please allow me to present this snippet to tantalize.

" Allow me while upon this subject briefly to present one other extract from a speech of mine, more than a year ago, at Springfield, in discussing this very same question, soon after Judge Douglas took his ground that negroes were not included in the Declaration of Independence:—
I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal,—equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that equality, or yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit.
They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all,—constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, everywhere."

Lincoln was a realist, and a dreamer. Practical, or, as a Clint Eastwood character might remark, a man who knew his and his fellow man's limitation, yet, visionary and fair.

This speech took place years before he became President, at a time when he believed that slavery had been allowed to continue as a part of our new nation for practical reasons. But, he also believed it was to continue with a wink to a covert understanding that it was a practice which could not, and should not be with us forever. He expected it to die a peaceful death if the constrictions of its growth which he found present in the Constitution were allowed to do their work. In the end we now know that a peaceful death was not in the offing, and a great many Americans died before, and in the cause of, slavery's end.

Way back, when I was in college, I had a professor who exclaimed that freedom does not exist, we are never free. It was a hard concept for me to grasp, but, today I would say that Paul was right, everything has a cost, and nothing is free. The price need not be in blood shed. If Lincoln had been able to educate enough, or the right members of the agitating sides to his vision of how our government works, and of the true nature of the compact our founding fathers made with one another on our behalf, war could have been avoided. Sometimes the price to achieve "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is to listen and comprehend, and then to be willing to play by the rules. More often our greedy impatient natures overwhelm our respect for the greater good, and then somebody has to get their ass kicked. And, God willing, then the right thing gets done anyway.

According to The New York Times, Saddam Hussein seems to have been a casualty of Holy War.

As of late Friday, some Iraqi officials remained engaged in a heated debate about how swiftly to carry out Mr. Hussein’s death sentence.

An Iraqi official close to the negotiations expressed deep disappointment that, after years of forensic investigation, detailed litigation and careful deliberation, the process could be compromised in the final hours by politically driven haste.

“According to the law, no execution can be carried out during the holidays” said another official, “After all the hard work we have done, why would we break the law and ruin what we have built?”

The Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha begins Saturday for Sunnis and Sunday for Shiites, who now control the government.

Iraqi law seemed to indicate that executions were forbidden on the holiday.

But Judge Haddad was dismissive of those concerns, injecting some of the sectarian split that is pervading the country. “The official Id in Iraq is Sunday,” he said.

As for Mr. Hussein’s sect, he said, “Saddam is not Sunni. And he is not Shiite. He is not Muslim.”

Perhaps the War on Terror is a religious fight after all - but not the one most people think.

"A Date Which Will Live in Infamy"

Hat tip to Rick, Henry Payne and Townhall.com

To be part of the 'in' crowd here, I decided that today, my 34th birthday, would be a great time to post my 'lengthy introduction.' Here goes. It all started on November 29, 1972 at Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson, Maryland. Where all the 'clinic babies' were born at the time. However, as I was pondering this, I realized that there are nearly ZERO familial influences on my political philosophy. There are, obviously, other factors that led me to become a conservative.

Continue reading "On The Occasion of My 34th Birthday, an Introduction" »

For those of you who are unaware - or dead! - there is a fairly important college football game tomorrow. The red state versus the blue state, King Kong vs Godzilla, the unstoppable force vs the immovable object, a clash of Titans!

"The Game"

Go Bucks! Beat Michigan!

Adhering to an unofficial rule of this website that any mention of Abraham Lincoln or the Civil War automatically rates it own post, I give you this.

How does it go again...oh, yea. Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Dean

Leo Pusateri over at Psycmeistr's Ice Palace makes a brilliant point. And to help any liberal in his audience to understand his point as well, he even provides pictures!

So? Can anyone answer the question? What would have happened if we had listened to the defeatists back then?

Hat tip to Blogs For Bush

* George Santayana

It was May 6, 1978, and I was a nine-year old whelp who would soon be 10. We had gathered at a relative's home - I'm pretty sure it was my cousin Peggy Ryan's apartment in Flushing - for one of the dozens of family gatherings we would regularly have on the weekends throughout any given year when I was a kid. We were a very close-knit Irish clan scattered around New York and New Jersey, but with the exception of my father's brother Gerald (who lived and worked in El Paso, Texas as an official for the US Border Patrol) we all lived in the greater metropolitan area within an hour of the Big Apple. The idea of gathering together a bunch of us from across a dozen different families once or twice a month was never any harder than figuring out some lame excuse to have a party.

That day, the excuse was actually a fairly good one, hatched by Aunt Nora. Two branches of the extended family spawned by the Four Famous Forkin sisters and their equally rambunctious brothers, the O'Conors and the Kellys spent so much time together, my Dad and "Uncle Bill" were more like brothers than first cousins, and Nora was Bill's bubbly better half. It was Nora's idea that year that we would have a Kentucky Derby party. Of course, it goes without saying that a Kentucky Derby party is pointless unless you follow it up a couple of weeks later with a Preakness party, to see if the Derby winner might take the second jewel. And if the lucky horse had another strong showing, it should follow two weeks later with a Belmont Stakes party, so we could all watch the mile-and-a-half dash for a Triple Crown.

In other words, Nora was betting we'd be fortunate enough to need three parties held at three different homes over the course of five weeks. With my sister getting married in June, and my brother getting married in August, we'd all be spending a good portion of the summer hanging around one another. Again. And we'd expect nothing less.

Nora was sure we were going to have a good show that day. Two horses were so well regarded, it was the first time since 1960 that two different entries were coming in at less than 2-to-1 in the odds. And to make the day especially fun, we'd have a pot luck draw of numbers at a buck each, just to make the race all that much more interesting. I vaguely recall my father allowing me to put his $1 in the bowl and draw our number. Looking back on the details I find on the net, "Believe It" may have been our horse, but I'm not really sure.

But there was a lot I do remember clearly from that day. First are the names of those two chestnut colts that were so highly rated that spring and summer: one was named Alydar. The other was named Affirmed. I remember like it was yesterday the smile on the face of Peggy's husband Tom Ryan - son-in-law of my Dad's sister Agnes Clark - when he pulled the name of Alydar from the bowl. And I remember the cocky, freckle-faced grin as my Aunt Mary Dunn's youngest son picked the name of Affirmed. His name was Patrick, and he was 16.

As the race started, Tommy - ever the kid at heart - jumped in front of the TV and started bouncing up and down on his knees. "COME ON, ALYDAR!"

Patrick, of course, would have none of that. "COME ON, AFFIRMED!"

"COME ON, ALYDAR!" Tommy would yell again.

"COME ON, AFFIRMED!" Pat would screech back.

It went back and forth like that for the entire stretch. And though I sat with a lump in my throat and a losing piece of scratch paper in my hand, I was laughing hysterically as the red-headed kid from Fords, New Jersey was merciless in his torment of big Tom Ryan at the finish. I admired his fearless spunk as Pat waved his newfound cash in the nose of a guy that had to be standing a foot taller than him at the time. Of course, I wasn't even 10, and couldn't fully appreciate that Tom was probably the most gentle creature in the room, and Pat had nothing to fear from him in any case.

Two weeks later, Nora tried in vain to set up another pool like we'd had on Derby Day. But when the bowl started around, Tommy wrestled it away from the little round woman, and wouldn't give it up until he'd found the piece of paper with Alydar's number on it. Patrick, not to be outdone, came up next and did the same until he found Affirmed's number. And so the scene was replayed again on the floor of another house, in front of another TV.

"COME ON, ALYDAR!"

"COME ON, AFFIRMED!"

If you're old enough to remember, you can guess the utter dejection Tommy went through that afternoon. By the time we got to the Belmont, Nora didn't want to waste anyone else's money - or Tommy's sanity - on yet another rigged pool. But there they were again, back on the floor.

"COME ON, ALYDAR!"

"COME ON, AFFIRMED!"

It's getting close to 30 years now, and Affirmed remains the last horse to win the Triple Crown. To this day, I can't meet Tom Ryan at a wedding or a baptism without hearing the echo of hoofbeats in my ears.

And it's that freckle-faced, red-headed teenager with the cash in his fist I think of whenever someone says, "Never forget".

This essay is dedicated to my cousin Cdr. Patrick S. Dunn, for the 2,996 Project. Additional reflections will be added to the extended entry until Patriot Day on Monday.

Continue reading "A Triple Crown" »

With a little bit of help from their mother, two home-schooled kids named Ben and Noah have their own blog, even though they're barely able to write. As if "Tree Fort Enterprises TM, Parent Company of Better Than A Lemonade Stand" isn't cool enough in itself, the two lads have managed a moving tribute to Lester Vincent Marino and his family, which are, together, probably the best eulogy I've ever seen on the net to one of the casualties on September 11th.

As usual, Thomas Sowell is brilliant and unabashedly blunt.

It is hard to think of a time when a nation -- and a whole civilization -- has drifted more futilely toward a bigger catastrophe than that looming over the United States and western civilization today.

As I've written about before, one of my guilty pleasures - okay, it's really a bad habit - is skipping from page to page across the Internet. The worst single site to undulge myself this way, without a doubt, is Wikipedia, where I can refresh my memory of things I know, and learn new things about what I don't. I used to do this for hours when I was a kid using a standard encyclopedia, following the "see also" references at the end of the articles to related articles in other books. Wikipedia's constant hyperlinking throughout an article make this a perpetual pastime if you allow it to burn through your day. Unfortunately, it's quite easy for me to lose track of hours this way, especially in the biographical and history-related articles. Since anyone (with any agenda) can edit articles, it's information is always suspect (such as this manufactured twisting of a simple misstatement by Bill O'Reilly), but damn it's way too interesting, and in my own perverted mind quite fun.

Today's argument at Ace of Spades over the revelation by Nobel prize-winning German author Guenter Grass that he once served in the Waffen-SS, led me to look up the organization's entry. I then clicked the link to compare it to the entry for Wehrmacht. I perused a few of the listings for prominent members of the German military, and found out that while Erich von Manstein eventually reached the rank of Generalfeldmarschall, he was fired by Hitler for insubordination, and sat out the end of the war. I contrasted his refusal to join in the assassination attempt on his boss with the suicide of Erwin Rommel. Rommel (I hadn't known) was a recipient of the Pour le Mérite, an old Prussian military award I've always had a fascination with. Established by Frederick the Great, during WWI it was famously awarded to Max Immelmann, where it got the nickname "The Blue Max". Other recipients included Manfred von Richthofen (the infamous "Red Baron"), and Hermann Göring.

One man also attributed by Wikipedia to be a recipient was Felix von Luckner, but it is doubtful he was, since he was not repatriated to Germany until after the downfall of the Empire.

That should not detract from von Luckner's accomplishments, however. If even half of what Wikipedia says about him is true, he was a remarkable man. Most notably, he captured and sunk a dozen ships during the war, while only losing a single life - on either side - and that death was apparently from a secondary explosion, not from direct fire. At one point, his ship was wrecked on a reef, and he sailed thousands of miles in an open boat in an attempt to capture a new vessel. He was taken prisoner, but tried to escape. After the war, he was awarded honorary citizenship by several American cities. A dedicated Freemason, he would not cooperate with Hitler's Nazi party, and in 1943 he saved the life of a Jewish woman. He negotiated the surrender of the city of Halle, and in 1959 was featured in an episode of This Is Your Life.

Read von Luckner's whole entry and you're left wondering how much of it must be embellished, it reads so much like a tacky novel. But quite often, truth is stranger than fiction, so I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't.

We may soon stop our scouring of the Internet for mentions of our patron, provided Brian Dirck maintains his blog regularly with that new notebook of his. As a bona fide Lincoln scholar, he should be more "plugged in" to what folks are saying about Abe than my news feed ever could be. He also maintains a neat blogroll of historians and Civil War re-enactors.

I've already had an opportunity to comment on a post he put up today discussing habeus corpus and the other civil rights controversies of Lincoln's day. While Professor Dirck seems to suggest he differs with us at least on some issues politically, he also defends Lincoln's interpretations of the constitution - something even I haven't always been inclined to do. I'm very interested in reading more of Brian's blog and discussing The Black Republican with him.

My "Lincoln" search feed found this article at RedBlueChristian linking to two posts that score high on our Lincoln-mention-meter: a series of essays discussing our patron and his Second Inaugural Address, and another entitled When Presidents Theologize.

I haven't had a chance to read any of them yet, but I'm certain Steve will explain why Mark Daniels deserves linkage (in laborious detail, I'm sure).