17th Amendment: Why State-appointed Senators Were Better For America Than Elected Ones

The Seventeenth Amendment to the US Constitution changed the method by which Senators were selected. Bill Quick provides the simplest, best explanation for why the Founders' original method of populating the Senate was the wisest:

"There is no leash on the Senate.  Originally, it was really supposed to represent the interests of the individual states, but the Wilsonian progressives managed to destroy that aspect of the body so, in fact, it doesn’t represent much of anybody.  Senators serve longer terms than members of any other branch.  Originally, this was intended to make the states, which appointed Senators, the most powerful force in the federal governance.  America, after all, started out to be a union of states, not of people.  And the self-interest of individual states worked to assure that the Senate wouldn’t go too far off the rails, because state pols were much less susceptible to political demagoguery than were individual voters.  Piss off your governor and your statehouse, and you weren’t long for your cushy federal senate sinecure.  All that is gone now.  "

                                                  ~ From his post "History Rhymes".

Yes, Citizenship Still Matters In Political Leaders

Why the Constitution's peculiar insistence on "Natural Born" Citizenship for the President? Because they were tired of being oppressively ruled by Dual-Citizens whose loyalties weren't to one country, but to several.

Today's Globalists see themselves as the kings of empires, like those of old.

Via "English Monarchs": "When Britain's last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne died in 1714, the crown of England passed by the 1701 Act of Setttlement to the Stuart dynasty's German Protestant cousin, House of Hanover's King George I, who was actually 52nd in line to the throne at that time. The Act effectively excluded the hereditary Stuart heir, James II's Catholic son, James Francis Edward Stuart, thereafter referred to as the 'Old Pretender'. "

 Infogalactic shows why German-born King-of-England George 1st's granddaughter Queen Victoria was nicknamed "Grandmother of Europe":

 "The royal descendants of Queen Victoria (Queen of the United Kingdom) and of Christian IX (King of Denmark) currently occupy the thrones of Belgium, Denmark, Luxemburg, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. At the outbreak of the First World War their grandchildren occupied the thrones of Denmark, Greece, Norway, Germany, Romania, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom."

In an off-topic discussion over at Tony Heller's Real Climate Science blog, there's debate about Malik Obama's tweet of a purported Kenyan birth certificate, and some say it's time to drop those unanswered questions.

But the question of President Obama's potential "dual citizenship" is still relevant for future candidates - because the situation above is still a potential danger to US sovereignty. Remember: even the so-called "conservatives" tried to foist a man with dual (or triple) citizenship on the GOP this past election. Ted Cruz - who is our Senator, and we voted for him for the Senate - is supposed to be a champion of the Constitution, but he didn't bother to mention his divided loyalties while running for Senate, and blew it off when he was pushed into running for President.

Our elected offices around the country are peppered with people who hold dual citizenship in other nations, including Mexico. The State Dept in recent history has refused to demand new citizens repudiate their citizenship in their home country, thus leaving it up to the individual to determine their loyalties.

 Even Michelle Bachman didn't mention her dual citizenship during her campaign until after she had dropped out of the race, when it came up in an interview on a Swiss TV station (!) - and the US news media blew it off just like she did, despite the aggression with which they otherwise attacked her. Why? Because the globalists do not want that to enter the radar of consciousness for Americans.

The globalist elites collect passports the way the European royal families of old collected cousins.

 The authors of the US Constitution were tired of having the British government led by people who were also loyal to Berlin or Amsterdam or Paris or Madrid or St Petersburg.

To stop the insanity, Nationalism must also restore the legal value of citizenship in a single nation, and must reject those who divide their house.

A Prayer For This Time, And For President Donald John Trump's "First Hundred Days" In Office

Father God, please protect the "new Cyrus" you have sent us, and guard Donald John Trump, his family, all who voted for him, and everyone who supports him, from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Psalm 83:
"O God, do not remain silent;
do not turn a deaf ear,
do not stand aloof, O God.
2 See how your enemies growl,
how your foes rear their heads.
3 With cunning they conspire against your people;
they plot against those you cherish.
4 “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation,
so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”
....
13 Make them like tumbleweed, my God,
like chaff before the wind.
14 As fire consumes the forest
or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15 so pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your storm.
16 Cover their faces with shame, Lord,
so that they will seek your name.
17 May they ever be ashamed and dismayed;
may they perish in disgrace.
18 Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord—
that you alone are the Most High over all the earth."

Open Letter to the Cast of Hamilton

A theater company is not responsible for what the audience does, but the persons on stage are responsible for how they react to audiences. Twice this week, Nuclear Hillary Clinton's supporters have reacted with unprofessional cowardice to audience disapproval. In both cases, they have abused the power of the stage and microphone to lash out politically at people who only came and paid to see them give a recreational performance. These supporters of Hillary the WarMonger reacted to their own paranoid imaginings and beat up on people who did nothing to them.

Earlier in the week, comedienne Wanda Sykes cursed her audience with obscene language after some of them booed her inappropriate and unfunny political attacks on President Trump and Americans who voted for him. They came to see a comedy show to support a good non-partisan cause, but she wasn't willing to let them do that.

And now, after some audience members at the Broadway play "Hamilton" were so obtuse as to boo  Vice-President-Elect Mike Pence who was in the audience to see the play, the cast ignored their job, teamed up with the mob (power in deranged numbers) and lectured Mr Pence from the stage about how they are "diverse" and have "feelings" and want "protection".

The same kind of "protection" apparently, that they won't offer to people in their audiences who haven't done anything to harm them. The same kind of "feelings" that they ignore when it isn't someone they see in their dressing room mirrors.

We all have feelings. Adulthood is understanding that we are responsible for controlling our feelings, and maturity includes being self reliant enough to no longer need protectors,  nor group-membership for our self esteem. After witnessing the irrational mental breakdown and destruction and riots and violence against President Trump's supporters, perpetrated by deluded abusive bullies who didn't get their globalist way, my own feelings have developed with remarkable clarity:


Dear Cast of Hamilton,


We are Les Deplorables.  We. Don’t. Care.


Signed,

A sole member of the smallest minority on earth, for whom the Constitution was written to defend me against the fashionably violent tyranny of your diverse elitist bullying mob.




11/20/16 Update: "Little Steven" Van Zandt has rightly named this bullying, and used Twitter to call on the cast of Hamilton to apologize, saying, in part:

"Completely inappropriate. Theater should be a safe haven for Art to speak. Not the actors. He needs to apologize to Mike Pence"

"There has never been a more outspoken politically active artist than me. He was their guest. You protect your guests. Don't embarrass them."

"When artists perform the venue becomes your home. The audience are your guests. It is nothing short of the same bullying tactic we rightly> >have criticized Trump for in the past. It's taking unfair advantage of someone who thought they were a protected guest in your home."

"Nobody on this planet disagrees more with everything Pence represents. But I don't tolerate bullying in any form. Even the respectful kind."

"A guy comes to a Broadway show for a relaxing night out. Instead he gets a lecture from the stage! Not a level playing field. It's bullying."

"You don't single out an audience member and embarrass him from the stage. A terrible precedent to set."

"So because he's a public figure we should be rude to him and bully him at public events? I'm not the one who couldn't be more wrong on this."

I first heard of  "Little Steven" Van Zandt when he stood up against South Africa's legal segregation of races called Apartheid, recording the song "I Ain't Gonna Play Sun City". He is not exaggerating when he says he was politically active before most of the Hamilton actors were born.

Thanks to Steven for modelling professional, adult behavior to a group that apparently never learned the basics of their craft, or of how to live in the wide world.  It's obvious they need an elder statesman to guide them into genuine adult self-control.



.

Les Deplorables For Trump

The First Amendment and Hand Cranked Printing Presses

On this Independence Day, a little history lesson. "The Press" did not mean "journalists" when our nation was founded. It did not mean television, radio, or the internet. It did not mean respectable owners of newspapers or members of the White House Press Corps or people with Journalism Degrees or writers who make their living as full time reporters or only respectable bloggers or official licensed anything.

It meant "The Printing Press" of the type seen above, which is what Benjamin Franklin, Printer, used to print newspapers, broadsides, editorials, and -  to make a living - various advertising and other works for hire.  It meant anyone who owned a press or who could pay for something to be printed.

Franklin had a LOT to say about "freedom of the Press" and the right to freely publish things that offended some people.  

Most of the concepts we still apply to "Freedom of the Press" came from Franklin's own experience. His older brother James was a Printer, and was jailed for a month for printing some political outrage and then refusing to divulge the name of his source. Franklin, his apprentice, was 16 at the time and the court tried to force him to share the name as well. He stubbornly refused. He later wrote:

"During my brother's confinement, which I resented a good deal, notwithstanding our private differences, I had the management of the paper; and I made bold to give our rulers some rubs in it, which my brother took very kindly, while others began to consider me in an unfavorable light, as a young genius that had a turn for libelling and satire. My brother's discharge was accompany'd with an order of the House (a very odd one), that 'James Franklin should no longer print the paper called the New England Courant.'" 

James got around that ban by releasing Ben from his apprenticeship (basically "graduating" him), and putting Ben's name on the masthead.

Then, as now, stubborn and recalcitrant "printers" are essential to prevent the never-ending attempts to censor Everyman. "Hate Speech" laws and "Blasphemy" laws are two sides of the same anti-Constitutional coin.  Freedom of the Press means both the right to print things the Printer himself disagrees with, and the right to print things that offend some people or even "all" people.

Just like in Franklin's day, sometimes the *authors* will need to be anonymous. But the Printers need liberty to make their platforms - whether Google or Facebook or Amazon or Wordpress or the New York Times  - available to all viewpoints without any government interference whatsoever.

In 1731, Franklin printed an advertisement from a ship captain who said he would not accept priests from the Church of England as his passengers.  Since America was still a colony of Great Britain, the Church of England was the OFFICIAL government-supported religion, and King George was the head of it. Other denominations were persecuted and "upstanding community leaders" were indignant over the advertisement.

Below is the full text of Franklin's response to the mob of pre-Twitter outrage:


An Apology for Printers by Benjamin Franklin

"Being frequently censured and condemned by different persons for printing things which they say ought not to be printed, I have sometimes thought it might be necessary to make a standing apology for myself, and publish it once a year, to be read upon all occasions of that nature. Much business has hitherto hindered the execution of this design; but having very lately given extraordinary offence by printing an advertisement with a certain N.B. at the end of it, I find an apology more particularly requisite at this juncture, though it happens when I have not yet leisure to write such a thing in the proper form, and can only in a loose manner throw those considerations together which should have been the substance of it. 

I request all who are angry with me on the account of printing things they don't like, calmly to consider these following particulars: 

1 . That the opinions of men are almost as various as their faces; an observation general enough to become a common proverb, "So many men so many minds"; 

2. That the business of printing has chiefly to do with men's opinions; most things that are printed tending to promote some, or oppose others; 

3. That hence arises the peculiar unhappiness of that business, which other callings are no way liable to; they who follow printing being scarce able to do anything in their way of getting a living, which shall not probably give offence to some, and perhaps to many; whereas the smith, the shoemaker, the carpenter, or the man of any other trade,  may work indifferently for people of all persuasions, without offending any of them; and the merchant may buy and sell with Jews, Turks, heretics and infidels of all sorts, and get money by every one of them, without giving offence to the most orthodox, of any sort; or suffering the least censure or ill-will on the account from any man whatever; 

4. That it is as unreasonable in any one man or set of men to expect to be pleased with everything that is printed, as to think that nobody ought to be pleased but themselves; 

5. Printers are educated in the belief, that when men differ in opinion, both sides ought equally to have the advantage of being heard by the public; and that when truth and error have fair play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter. Hence they cheerfully serve all contending writers that pay them well, without regarding on which side they are of the question in dispute; 

6. Being thus continually employed in serving both parties, printers naturally acquire a vast unconcernedness as to the right or wrong opinions contained in what they print; regarding it only as the matter of their daily labor. They print things full of spleen and animosity, with the utmost calmness and indifference, and without the least ill-will to the persons reflected on, who nevertheless unjustly think the printer as much their enemy as the author, and join both together in their resentment; 

7. That it is unreasonable to imagine printers approve of everything they print, and to censure them on any particular thing accordingly; since in the way of their business they print such great variety of things opposite and contradictory. It is likewise as unreasonable what some assert, "That printers ought not to print anything but what they approve;" since if all of that business should make such a resolution, and abide by it, an end would thereby be put to free writing, and the world would afterwards have nothing to read but what happened to be the opinions of printers; 

8. That if all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed; 

9. That if they sometimes print vicious or silly things not worth reading, it may not be because they approve such things themselves, but because the people are so viciously and corruptly educated that good things are not encouraged. I have known a very numerous impression of Robin Hood's songs go off in this province at 2 s. per book, in less than a twelvemonth; when a small quantity of David's Psalms (an excellent version) has lain upon my hands above twice the time; 

10. That notwithstanding what might be urged in behalf of a man's being allowed to do in the way of his business whatever he is paid for, yet printers do continually discourage the printing of great numbers of bad things, and stifle them in the birth. I myself have constantly refused to print anything that might countenance vice, or promote immorality; though by complying in such cases with the corrupt taste of the majority I might have got much money. 

I have also always refused to print such things as might do real injury to any person, how much soever I have been solicited, and tempted with offers of great pay; and how much soever I have by refusing got the ill-will of those who would have employed me. I have hitherto fallen under the resentment of large bodies of men, for refusing absolutely to print any of their party or personal reflections. In this manner I have made myself many enemies, and the constant fatigue of denying is almost insupportable. 

But the public being unacquainted with all this, whenever the poor printer happens either through ignorance or much persuasion, to do anything that is generally thought worthy of blame, he meets with no more friendship or favor on the above account, than if there were no merit in it at all. Thus, as Waller says. "Poets lose half the praise they would have got Were it but known what they discreetly blot;" yet are censured for every bad line found in their works with the utmost severity. 

I come now to the particular case of the N. B. above-mentioned, about which there has been more clamor against me, than ever before on any other account. 

In the hurry of other business an advertisement was brought to me to be printed. It signified that such a ship lying at such a wharf would sail for Barbados in such a time, and that freighters and passengers might agree with the captain at such a place. So far is what's common; but at the bottom this odd thing was added, "N. B. No Sea-hens nor Black Gowns will be admitted on any terms." I printed it, and received my money; and the advertisement was stuck up round the town as usual. I had not so much curiosity at that time as to enquire the meaning of it, nor did I in the least imagine it would give so much offence. 

Several good men are very angry with me on this occasion. They are pleased to say I have too much sense to do such things ignorantly, that if they were printers they would not have done such a thing on any consideration, that it could proceed from nothing but my abundant malice against religion and the clergy. They therefore declare they will not take any more of my papers, nor have any further dealings with me, but will hinder me of all the custom they can. All this is very hard! 

I believe it had been better if I had refused to print the said advertisement. However, it's done, and cannot be revoked. I have only the following few particulars to offer, some of them in my behalf, by way of mitigation, and some not much to the purpose; but I desire none of them may be read when the reader is not in a very good humor: 

1. That I really did it without the least malice, and imagined the N. B was placed there only to make the advertisement stared at, and more generally read; 

2. That I never saw the word Sea-hens before in my life; nor have I yet asked the meaning of it. And though I had certainly known that Black Gowns in that place signified the clergy of the Church of England, yet I have that confidence in the generous good temper of such of them as I know, as to be well satisfied such a trifling mention of their habit gives them no disturbance; 

3. That most of the clergy in this and the neighboring provinces, are my customers, and some of them my very good friends; and I must be very malicious, indeed, or very stupid, to print this thing for a small profit, if I had thought it would have given them just cause of offence ; 

4. That if I had much malice against the clergy, and withal much sense, it's strange I never write or talk against the clergy myself. Some have observed that it's a fruitful topic, and the easiest to be witty upon of all others; yet I appeal to the public that I am never guilty this way, and to all my acquaintances as to my conversation; 

5. That if a man of sense had malice enough to desire to injure the 
clergy, this is the most foolish thing he could possibly contrive for that purpose; 

6. That I got five shillings by it; 

7. That none who are angry with me would have given me so much to 
let it alone; 

8. That if all the people of different opinions in this province would engage to give me as much for not printing things they don't like, as I can get by printing them, I should probably live a very easy life; and if all printers were everywhere so dealt by, there would be very little printed; 

9. That I am obliged to all who take my paper, and am willing to think they do it out of mere friendship. I only desire they would think the same when I deal with them. I thank those who leave off, that they have taken it so long. But I beg they would not endeavor to dissuade others, for that will look like malice; 

10. That it's impossible any man should know what he would do if he were a printer; 

11. That notwithstanding the rashness and inexperience of youth, which is most likely to be prevailed upon to do things that ought not to be done, yet I have avoided printing such things as usually give offence either to church or state, more than any printer that has followed the business in this province before; 

12. And lastly, that I have printed above a thousand advertisements which made not the least mention of Sea-hens or Black Gowns; and this being the first offence, I have the more reason to expect forgiveness. 

I take leave to conclude with an old fable, which some of my readers have heard before, and some have not: 

"A certain well-meaning man and his son were traveling towards a market town with an ass which they had to sell. The road was bad, and the old man therefore rode, but the son went afoot. The first passerby they met asked the father if he was not ashamed to ride by himself, and suffer the poor lad to wade along through the mire; this induced him to take up his son behind him. 

"He had not traveled far, when he met others, who said, they are two unmerciful lubbers to get both on the back of that poor ass in such a deep road. Upon this the old man got off, and let his son ride alone. The next they met called the lad a graceless, rascally young jackanapes, to ride in that manner through the dirt, while his aged father trudged along on foot; and they said the old man was a fool for suffering it. 

"He then bid his son come down, and walk with him, and they traveled on leading the ass by the halter, till they met another company, who called them a couple of senseless blockheads, for going both on foot in such a dirty way, when they had an empty ass with them, which they might ride upon. The old man could bear it no longer. 'My son,' said he, 'it grieves me much that we cannot please all these people. Let me throw the ass over the next bridge, and be no further troubled with him.'" 

Had the old man been seen acting this last resolution, he would probably have been called a fool for troubling himself about the different opinions of all that were pleased to find fault with him. Therefore, though I have a temper almost as complying as his, I intend not to imitate him in this last particular. I consider the variety of humors among men, and despair of pleasing everybody; yet I shall not therefore leave off printing. 

I shall continue my business. I shall not burn my press and melt my letters. "

                                                             ~B. Franklin, 1731, Pennsylvania Gazette

The 2016 Texas Republican Party Platform Reads Like a Declaration of Independence

Texas Republicans held our State Convention this past weekend, and our delegates have written a platform for the ages.  If you have been worried, fearing you were alone in seeing the dangers we face from bad agendas our leaders have secretly put forward the past 25 years, this will encourage you, You can read it all at this link (PDF).

 Because it is based on unchanging and established principles, in large part this platform is almost word for word the same as the 2014 platform (PDF), saving only the defense against the most recent falsehoods being used to attack settled civilization.

But already, it looks like most of the standard media outlets continue their unserious approach to reporting: picking out a few of the hard-left's most violent depredations to tag in the headlines and ignoring the other items of primary importance to real American citizens.

Yes, we oppose child sacrifice and defend biological realism against wholesale distortion by government action, but the issues of abortion and open toileting are ultimately weapons of the hard-left. We do not spend our time "thinking about" those heartless weapons of misrule.

Instead, the ISSUES and principles of importance to us exist without regard to what the hard-left does. The genuinely important things are timeless and immortal, while the entropic manufactures of the hard-left fail without exception.

If the hard-left were healed tomorrow, finally outgrowing their boring obsessions and wasteful destructiveness, the same things would still be important to us (and would finally become important to them as well): Life, Liberty, and those bastions that make up "the pursuit of happiness" faith, family, work, self-reliance.

I've seen appalling results come out of various conventions before, but here is clear proof that the adults in Texas are not under delusion, that moral (and even written!) clarity is still possible.

This platform affirms the sovereignty of God over us and our nation, the primacy of our Judeo-Christian heritage and culture, urges elimination of a dozen Federal agencies, elimination of Congressional pensions and deposit of those funds into the Social Security Trust Fund, calls for elected officials and their staff to have no exemption from laws the rest of us must follow, elimination of gerrymandering, support for covenant marriage and eliminating "no fault divorce", sovereignty of parents to raise and educate their children, stronger penalties for sexual abuse of children by adults (up to and including the death penalty),  a hard line against illegal immigration (including visa overstays) restoration of the filibuster, elimination of "zero tolerance" policies in schools, and much, much, more.

The Platform also calls for allowing the local sale of raw milk, allowing cultivation of industrial hemp, legalizing prescription medical marijana, elimination of civil forfeiture, evicting the UN and opposing adoption of any of its programs, internet freedom, elimination of the draft, and protection of military personnel against liability for reasonable actions taken in the field.

I loved this:

 "Federal Reserve System- We believe Congress should repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 thereby abolishing the Federal Reserve Banking System. In the interim, we call for a complete audit of the Federal Reserve System and its Board of Governors followed by an immediate report to the American people."

"Repeal Dodd-Frank- We support the immediate repeal of Dodd-Frank legislation and replace with the Glass-Steagall Act." [I wrote about this way back in 2010, Glad to see it finally being seriously discussed.] 

"Sound Money- We support the return to the precious metal standard for the United States dollar. "

Some of my favorite planks are those relating to taxation and spending. Here are some of those:

"Bailouts and Subsidies- We encourage government to divest its ownership of all business that should be run in the private sector and allow the free market to prevail. We oppose all bailouts of domestic and foreign government entities, states and all businesses, public and private. We oppose local government handouts to businesses and other private entities in the name of economic development. 

"Tax Burden - "....Furthermore, we believe that the borrower truly is a slave to the lender, and so long as we continue to increase our tax and debt burdens we will never be a truly free people. Towards these ends, we support the reformation of the current systems of taxation at all levels of government: federal, state, and local.
" Examples of these reforms include the following:
1. Eliminating the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
2. The “Fair Tax” system
3. A Flat Tax
4. The 1-2-3 No Federal Tax
5. Abolishing property taxes, but in the interim, property taxes should be paid on the
price of the property when it was initially purchased.
6. Electing appraisal boards
7. Exempting inventories from property taxes
8. Abolishing estate taxes or the “Death Tax” as it’s more commonly known
9. Abolishing capital gains taxes
10. Abolishing franchise and business income taxes
11. Abolishing the gift tax.
12. Discontinuing revenue generating licensing fee "

I have never been more proud of our delegates to the State Convention. All ~8000 of them stood up for scientific clarity, rational thinking, personal liberty, reality-based legal principles, classical education, proven morals and established ethics.

All of these planks are items that Mr Donald Trump supports or can support in his candidacy. Where we will be looking intently is at our representatives, both national and state, expecting them to actually introduce legislation to do these things and aggressively support their enactment (or elimination as the case may be).

Why Texas is Texas QOTD

"I humble myself before God and there the list ends."             

                                             ~  Sam Houston, Governor of Tennessee, leader in the Texas Revolution, first and third President of the Republic of Texas, US Senator, and Governor of the State of Texas 

 The image is a Matthew Brady daguerreotype in the Library of Congress, taken while Houston was serving as US Senator, representing the new State of Texas following annexation.

"In God We Trust" USA's National Motto is 150 Years Old Today!

Via Mostly Cajun's most excellent regular feature "Today in History":

150 years ago today, April 22. 1864 – "The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act which mandates that the inscription “In God We Trust” be placed on all coins minted as United States currency."

This is the only national motto the United States of America has ever had. Its roots go back to the founding of our nation by many disparate - but still Christian - religious groups seeking freedom to practice their religion and teach and preach the Bible as their consciences dictated without interference or persecution from the government.  By virtue of finding this liberty, and firmly upholding it, these Christians graciously also offered the same freedom of religion to Jews and to non-Christian faiths.

1st Amendment Quote of the Day Feb 8, 2014

"He who now talks about the 'freedom of the press' goes backward, and halts our headlong course towards Socialism. " Vladimir Lenin

“The only security of all is in a free press.” Thomas Jefferson

First Amendment Quote of the Day Feb 7, 2014

"In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection is must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people."

              Associate Justice Hugo L. Black, (New York Times Company v. United States, 1971)

Joining the NRA. Because We Don't Have A Marine Sentry Post of Our Own.

This is a picture of the Marine Corps Sentry Post behind the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, where President Franklin Roosevelt spent much of his time. Aside from the "Servants Quarters" and this Marine Sentry post, it is very much a typical example of a modest American home of the era.

What does this have to do with the National Rifle Association? Well, it is like this: we love our Marines (and we are SO PROUD of the two in our family), but unlike the President, Congress and assorted very wealthy actors, we don't have one stationed full time on the property to protect us. And our modest little American home is no one's "servant's quarters".

 I like knowing that if I ever needed or wanted to, I could choose to learn to shoot and purchase the weapon of my own free choice, and have the capacity to protect my ownself and those around me. And I have always felt very safe knowing that any or all of my neighbors may make that choice for themselves as well.

Without having to get permission from anyone. Especially not from people who are supposed to be servants of my freedom, but who seem to have forgotten that I am not their serf (and God bless you, Joshua Boston, for telling the truth so eloquently. Ooorah!) .(PS Dear Veterans, please see this post about how much we need you here now that you are home again)


So, thanks Mark Levin for the link and the nudge to join the NRA. Right now is as good a time as any. No organization is perfect, but the NRA is a more reliable protector of the US Constitution & the liberties it spells out for us as individuals, than most of the people in Washington are.

Talk to your congresspeople (there are links in my sidebar to sites that will help you id who they are and how to contact them).  We are so grateful to have Governor Rick Perry and our State Representative Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, who are faithful to the best purposes of government in promoting genuine liberty for individuals to make our OWN decisions.

But one of the most powerful ways to make our voices heard right now is to join the NRA. Because the news media doesn't report on how many people are writing our Senators. But the media - and Congress - always notice how many new members the NRA has.

Happy Thanksgiving! The Immigrants Holiday Since 1540 AD

Happy Thanksgiving! It is 6:00 am and a beautiful morning. It will be just the three of us today: Paul, me and our granddaughter. I made the pies and cornbread last night, and Paul has the turkey marinating in brine. We added a ham to the menu, as Granddaughter doesn't care for turkey.

We have much to be grateful for.  We are Christians: assured of redemption, and secure in knowing we again will see our loved ones who have gone on before us.

We live in America, free to live, believe, work, think and speak; free to make for ourselves the best life we can on our own, not shackled into some hereditary "class" or trade, not under the thumb of hereditary governance.

We have great wealth, no matter our circumstances. Even the poorest among us have access to warm shelter, sufficient food, hope for a future better than our past.

I have never figured out how to "bump" posts without messing up the timeline, so here are links to Pecan Corner's most "classic" Thanksgiving Day posts. If you like them, please feel free to share. :-)

The Immigrants Holiday: Thanksgiving and The Original Melting Pot 

First Turkey Days! Thanksgiving Feasts in America 1540 - 1640 (or "The Real History of Thanksgiving")

God bless you, and God bless America!

(PS The Photo is of Wild Persimmon Trees on an Oklahoma byway. I took the picture when I went home for a visit last weekend. Mama and I had a lot of fun picking them - this was something she used to take us to do when we were growing up! They ripen in the fall, and are not edible until ripe - usually after the first heavy frost. But don't think just freezing them will work if they are not ripe yet. It won't! So you just have to stake out your tree and try to get there before the possums do! :-)  )

The Texas Primary: Sarah Palin Endorses Ted Cruz for Senate

Josh Painter, posting at Lone Star Conservative and at The Sarah Palin Journal, breaks the good news: Sarah and Todd Palin have endorsed Ted Cruz, Texas Republican candidate for Senator!There are a lot of people interested in this Senate seat, that was held for too long by a woman who finally retired. Ted Cruz is a good candidate, with solid conservative credentials, and will make a good Senator for Texas and for America.

UPDATE 8/3/12: Ted Cruz won the runoff by a whopping 13 points, and is now the Republican candidate for US Senate!

Encouragement!

Today's "Verse of the Day" is worth remembering in this election year:

“Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;” Deuteronomy 7:9 

We benefit from the faith of those who went before us.





.

A Civic Literacy Quiz

Via The Pitty Pat Pages, an interesting Civic Literacy Quiz from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute: Click here to take the test.

While I lived through some of the events used to illustrate the questions (Sputnik went up the year I was born), most of it is basic Civics of the kind we used to learn in school, from elementary through high school. The kind of factual definition & simple history that has not been taught in a long time.

Hate to brag but I scored 100% on it. There were questions among the 60 that gave me pause, though, and required a bit of a shuffle through the old filing system in order to choose the correct answer.

There were also a few that might be worth drumming into a few heads in Congress: such as what our inalienable rights actually are, and how they are guaranteed by the Constitution. Especially since one of the findings was that people who've held elective office scored more poorly on the exam than the general public!

We Occupied Our Own Home For Thanksgiving Dinner

What a nice day. It was a day to be thankful for. God has blessed us so abundantly. I hope we always remember to appreciate the blessings each moment carries for us.

It was just the two of us, but we cooked the full meal. I gathered some shrubbery and weeds for "flowers" for the table. We talked on the phone to all the various family strewn far and wide. Paul watched the Dolphins pull defeat out of the hat again. I took a nap! We cleaned up the kitchen together and the dishwasher is running. We just wrapped up with pumpkin pie and whipped cream.

I have a set of Lenox china. It's a plain pattern with no decoration but a simple platinum rim. So I pick up odd pieces here and there for variety. Since Lenox uses its distinctive "American Beleek" china as the base for all wares, it's easy - and beautiful - to mix & match.

I found (aka bought) this neat set of Bicentennial plates marked "Courtesy of the Delaware Fund", and used them today. There are four of them: one pictures Independence Hall, another Delaware's Old State House, another the Frigate United States "The Old Wagon".

And then there's this one. This plate pictures the New York Stock Exchange, on Wall Street.  Heh.

The irony was delicious, but not as delicious as Paul's turkey!

We are thankful today. Thankful to occupy our own home. Thankful to live in America. Thankful to have family and friends. Thankful that Jesus Christ came and died, and rose again, to give us the only real hope there is: the hope of eternal life with our Father God.

I hope that the sincere remnant who are taking part in the "Occupy" marketing campaign will someday know the kind of appreciation and gratefulness that comes of earning one's way past the debts & unemployment & low wages that young people in all eras struggle with.

It's a beautiful world, and life is worth the effort and work that a good life requires.

May God bless you and yours with grateful hearts this season.

Here's the Bible passage Paul used for today:

"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
... Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.

Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name."
I Chronicles 29:11-13 (NIV)

De-Occupy Wall Street

Speaking of toil, there's a new Facebook group, and even though I have withdrawn from most FB activity, I like it!   

"De-Occupy Wall Street"

My favorite comment so far, from the administrator: 

"Create a job if none are available... that's what we do in the land of the free. There is no crying in freedom...only an open market."


Thanks to my FB pal for sharing it. :-)

Governor Perry's Invitation to "The Response" August 6th, Houston TX

"The Response" Website is here.  The event is free of charge, but registration is required.

The Texas Declaration of Independence: March 2, 1836

I ran across the Texas Declaration of Independence the other day. It is intriguing to compare (especially in its list of grievances) to the earlier United States Declaration on which it was modeled.

Texas history is one of the most addictive areas of personal study there is. The circumstances that resulted in the citizens of Texas finally declaring independence from Mexico were complex and lengthy. If you want to read further about the Republic of Texas, there is a rich set of original primary source material at The Sons of DeWitt Colony Texas website, along with in-depth discussion:


"The majority of DeWitt Colonists were loyal Mexican Federalists, not slave owners and disfavored the institution, attempted to co-exist with the generally warlike nomadic aboriginal populations of the area, respected and learned from the native Mexican-born Tejanos that preceded them and disagreed with adventurous warlike acts against their adopted government as they built homesteads, ranches, families and a society in the wilderness. 

"When a racist centralist dictatorship [Santa Ana] took control of their adopted country[Mexico], threw out their [Mexico's democratic] Constitution and threatened their lives, property and pursuit of happiness as Mexican citizens, DeWitt colonists resisted actively and became participants in the struggle to re-establish the Federalist Constitution of 1824 and to establish an independent state of Texas within the Republic of Mexico.

"When all hope for the latter was destroyed and with it the hope for the United States of Mexico to become a second democratic and multi-racial Republic in America, DeWitt Colonists along with native-born Tejanos fought and won an independent Republic of Texas which later joined the United States of America."

The Introduction is a good place to start, and the links on the Index page will carry you forward from there.
When you've exhausted that, additional source material can be found at the Texas State Historical Association's Lone Star History Links page. The Lone Star Junction website is another treasure trove of Texas History material.


Now, without further ado, here's the Texas Declaration of Independence from 1836,

When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression. 

When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a consolidated central military despotism, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the ever-ready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants. 

When, long after the spirit of the constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those in power, that even the semblance of freedom is removed, and the forms themselves of the constitution discontinued, and so far from their petitions and remonstrances being regarded, the agents who bear them are thrown into dungeons, and mercenary armies sent forth to force a new government upon them at the point of the bayonet. 

When, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abdication on the part of the government, anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved into its original elements. In such a crisis, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable rights of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right towards themselves, and a sacred obligation to their posterity, to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their future welfare and happiness. 

Nations, as well as individuals, are amenable for their acts to the public opinion of mankind. A statement of a part of our grievances is therefore submitted to an impartial world, in justification of the hazardous but unavoidable step now taken, of severing our political connection with the Mexican people, and assuming an independent attitude among the nations of the earth. 

The Mexican government, by its colonization laws, invited and induced the Anglo-American population of Texas to colonize its wilderness under the pledged faith of a written constitution, that they should continue to enjoy that constitutional liberty and republican government to which they had been habituated in the land of their birth, the United States of America. 

In this expectation they have been cruelly disappointed, inasmuch as the Mexican nation has acquiesced in the late changes made in the government by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who having overturned the constitution of his country, now offers us the cruel alternative, either to abandon our homes, acquired by so many privations, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny, the combined despotism of the sword and the priesthood. 

It has sacrificed our welfare to the state of Coahuila, by which our interests have been continually depressed through a jealous and partial course of legislation, carried on at a far distant seat of government, by a hostile majority, in an unknown tongue, and this too, notwithstanding we have petitioned in the humblest terms for the establishment of a separate state government, and have, in accordance with the provisions of the national constitution, presented to the general Congress a republican constitution, which was, without just cause, contemptuously rejected. 

It incarcerated in a dungeon, for a long time, one of our citizens, for no other cause but a zealous endeavor to procure the acceptance of our constitution, and the establishment of a state government. 

It has failed and refused to secure, on a firm basis, the right of trial by jury, that palladium of civil liberty, and only safe guarantee for the life, liberty, and property of the citizen. 

It has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources, (the public domain,) and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self government. 

It has suffered the military commandants, stationed among us, to exercise arbitrary acts of oppression and tyrrany, thus trampling upon the most sacred rights of the citizens, and rendering the military superior to the civil power. 

It has dissolved, by force of arms, the state Congress of Coahuila and Texas, and obliged our representatives to fly for their lives from the seat of government, thus depriving us of the fundamental political right of representation. 

It has demanded the surrender of a number of our citizens, and ordered military detachments to seize and carry them into the Interior for trial, in contempt of the civil authorities, and in defiance of the laws and the constitution. 

It has made piratical attacks upon our commerce, by commissioning foreign desperadoes, and authorizing them to seize our vessels, and convey the property of our citizens to far distant ports for confiscation. 

It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a national religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living God. 

It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defence, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical governments. 

It has invaded our country both by sea and by land, with intent to lay waste our territory, and drive us from our homes; and has now a large mercenary army advancing, to carry on against us a war of extermination. 

It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defenseless frontiers. 

It hath been, during the whole time of our connection with it, the contemptible sport and victim of successive military revolutions, and hath continually exhibited every characteristic of a weak, corrupt, and tyrranical government. 

These, and other grievances, were patiently borne by the people of Texas, untill they reached that point at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. We then took up arms in defence of the national constitution. We appealed to our Mexican brethren for assistance. Our appeal has been made in vain. Though months have elapsed, no sympathetic response has yet been heard from the Interior. We are, therefore, forced to the melancholy conclusion, that the Mexican people have acquiesced in the destruction of their liberty, and the substitution therfor of a military government; that they are unfit to be free, and incapable of self government. 

The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation. 

We, therefore, the delegates with plenary powers of the people of Texas, in solemn convention assembled, appealing to a candid world for the necessities of our condition, do hereby resolve and declare, that our political connection with the Mexican nation has forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations; and, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme arbiter of the destinies of nations."