It's a Republic, as it should be

.

People ask us to defend Romney. We won't. It's just an election, after all. One in a, hopefully, long-running series of such events where we can judge at some point down the road whether or not we made the right decision in the relative comfort of a safe and free Republic.


Here, however, is someone who will:

Romney is a decent business manager. He’s a decent man. He likes America. He wants America to like him. He’s not going to actively dismantle our way of life, as will the one now in power. There will be no attacks on freedom of religion, no wild power grabs for the Internet, no executive orders that violate the laws of the land. He will not hanker for more “flexibility” so he can give more to Putin. And — this is petty but important for how the world sees us — he will neither apologize nor bow to foreign leaders.

Is he perfect? Oh, goodness, no. Is he exactly what we need? Probably not. Who is? Do you know the trouble we’ve got ourselves into by trusting presidents for this long? It’s a big hole. No one man can get us out of it. Only we can. And it will take time.

But that’s fine. He won’t be anointed by any gods. There will be no halos and no Greek columns. Instead, he’ll be the elected by the people and the people — the sovereign people of this free land — who are now awake will stand ready to make sure he knows it.

Perhaps we will once more save our democratic republic for another generation. Perhaps we’ll turn the tiller and start the long way back from deep blue statism.

In the end, as someone said, perhaps we’re the ones we’ve been waiting for. No hero will ride to the rescue — we will.

Go to the link and read the whole thing. It's good - real good.


The linked piece represents more of a defense of the American ideal than a defense of Romney.

It's totally healthy and totally American to be skeptical of our leaders. Hell, it's even healthy and American to be skeptical of the person we will be pulling the lever for come November. It's who we are and it's in our DNA as Americans.

We don't need a Reagan - we don't need a saviour. We need us. We need an informed, enlightened and engaged people which, in our opinion, has been missing for a while. That is the backbone of a strong republic, not its leaders.

We don't need school children singing songs in praise of the President. We don't need creepy, insipid fan boy/girl pledge videos to the President. That really hasn't solved anything, now has it?

During the Republican National Convention, we were tweeting during Governor Chris Christie's keynote address and something he said triggered this response from us:

Christie nailed it. If Romney won't lead, we'll show him the way.

Now, get your asses to the polls in November.

.

Video clip of the day

.

From FreeMarketAmerica.org:

If I wanted America to fail I would never tell them that...

.

...the free market is the only force in human history to uplift the poor, establish the middle class and create lasting prosperity.

... I would empower unaccountable bureaucrats in a distant capitol to bully Americans out of their dreams and their property rights.

... for every concern, I'd invent a crisis and for every crisis, I'd invent the cause.

And a nice little populist shout-out to us little folk out here in the hustings:

...and I would praise those who preach environmental austerity in public while indulging a lavish lifestyle in private.

... I would convince them that all of this is for the "greater good".

If I wanted America to fail... I suppose I wouldn't change a thing.

.



This message of "shared sacrifice" we keep hearing from our minders is never accompanied by a message of "shared prosperity" whereby there is an actual pro-growth economic strategy for all Americans. Small wonder then, when it is the jerk of statist redistributionism in which you have been marinating your entire adult life, that concept is an entirely foreign one.

The career political class in D.C. has no interest in any of this other than accruing more power in which to sap the American public. Let's remember that in November and act accordingly.

Video clip of the day

.

We're a bit tardy in getting to this but Monday marked the 101st anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth and AFP celebrates it thusly:


.





We know two decades separate their presidencies but hearing them back-to-back in this manner - it's kind of like following Hendrix at Monterey or John Wooden at UCLA - a nigh impossible task especially since the latter does himself no favors by sounding so small-minded, pessimistic and wholly lacking in any imagination and confidence in this country as compared to the former.

.

More good July 4th stuff

Here's Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe:

If Nature and Nature's God intended human beings to be free and equal, then the only legitimate government must be self-government. For if none of us is naturally subordinate or superior to anyone else, no one has the right to rule us without first obtaining our approval. Political power, Locke had written, stems only from compact and agreement, and the mutual consent of those who make up the community.

The Declaration of Independence emphasized the point. Not only are all persons endowed by nature with the unalienable rights of equality and freedom, it avowed, but “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

And from the Dreyfuss Initiative website:

We start with no apologies, devoted to the country that declared war on the curse that the world thought eternal:

“You and yours will never rise. You are a serf, you will always be serfs and our heel will always be on your neck.”

Until America said, "Wait a minute. If you can get here, if you are strong and lucky willing to work and can take what life throws at you, you might rise.”

That is the most important political message in the history of civilization. The whole world heard it. That is why they came here, why they come here and why they will always come here.

And Richard Dreyfuss, himself, on our shared cultural mythology:

...that somewhere in their family someone fled oppression in the form of caste and class designed by wealth... to America that was announcing a declaration of war on that situation. The only people in the world that have not yet heard about this literal political miracle is our own kids because we don't teach it (to them).

Help spread the word.

July 4, 2011

Think about it: free and independent states.

Think about it: a period piece of sorts without that damn Irish flute.

Hope everyone is enjoying their 4th of July with family and friends.



P.S. Why HBO doesn't have their outstanding John Adams mini-series on this weekend is one of life's great mysteries.

Rejoice...

*


... because it's America here every day of the year.

He argues that America is uniquely positioned to be the dominant nation of the 21st century. I couldn't agree more. This might surprise some of my readers who have read my analysis on the depths of our problems. They are in fact deep, but many other competitor nations face similar problems. Americans have a history of overcoming every adversity. We were the principle force in the world that defeated slavery, fascism and communism, all of which threatened to halt the spread of global freedom. Each victory took its toll in blood and national treasure, but our ideals, which most accord with the innate God-given spirit that resides in mankind, have prevailed. Further, when faced with a government that has obviously spent too much and made promises it could not keep, America spawned a movement that demanded less, not more government spending; that demanded less, not more government intervention in the economy. Meanwhile, in Europe, proposed cuts have been greeted with mass protests and violence. Our determination to deal with our problems head on, along with our dedication to freedom, including free markets, separates us from the rest of the world.

Seriously, gang, what's with the long faces? Check out the rest of B-Daddy's excellent piece, here.




* Off of US 191 just north of Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

Rejoice...

*



... because it's America here every day of the year.




More than 100 men and women from around the world gathered Friday at the Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Chula Vista to complete the process of securing their citizenship by taking the naturalization oath.


Remember, gang, despite the drivel you have been told over the years, our greatness does not lie in our diversity rather our diversity is because of our greatness and goodness as a nation.








* Not the actual picture of the ceremony as the San Diego Union-Tribune possesses the absolute worst website search engine known to mankind. The verbage and a picture of the ceremony appeared in the print edition but does not exist anywhere in the interwebs so you'll have to take our word for it on this one. We believe we have earned that concession.

Rejoice...

... because it's America here every day of the year including that one 67 years ago today.

June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. The D-Day cost was high -more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded — but more than 100,000 Soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler. — US Army.mil

At our blog buddy Harrison's D-Day post, commenter Jack C. offered up the following:

When you stop to think that 5,000 men gave their lives on an operation that took only a few days, and then compare that to the 8,000 men and women who’ve given their lives over the span of a 10 year campaign, it should give you pause as to what sacrifice meant then and now.

I don’t think that any of us who didn’t live WWII can imagine what it would be like to wake up the next morning to hear that thousands had died in a campaign that lasted 3 days. We wake up at the end of the month to hear that 30 people died that month.

We responded:

Jack, you’re right. Our perspective on what constitutes acceptable levels of loss has changed over the years.

Sir Edmund Burke said: “Life is nasty, brutish and short”. Modern technology and medical advancements are betraying that statement but those same advancements also contribute to an aversion to discomfort and the harsh realities of life our forebearers faced on a daily basis.

God bless the men and women of our armed forces who are not so averse as the rest of us.

Memorial Day 2011

Here's hoping that everyone has a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day with family and friends as this nation honors the men and women of our armed forces both past and present.

Rejoice...

... because it's America here every day of the year.

"The moment the Soviet Union broke up, I decided America was the place for me to be," said Spec. Rima Rusnac, 33, of the former Soviet republic of Moldova, just after taking her oath of citizenship recently. "In America, I can exercise my full potential and be free."

Both the Army and the Navy are streamlining the citizenship process for legal residents so that citizenship can be obtained by about the time the enlistees are graduating from boot camp.

There is a ceremony staged annually here in San Diego on the flight deck of the USS MIDWAY to recognize the newly-minted citizenship status of service members.

Lesson (hopefully) Learned

Rich Lowry from NRO:

If bin Laden truly believed we’d curl up in a fetal position after September 11, or we’d ever stop hunting him, he profoundly misjudged our national character. Our manhunt for him was relentless and meticulous, building rather than winding down over the years, as we slowly put together the pieces to track down his courier and then him.

The effort stretched across two administrations, with both George W. Bush and Obama making contributions. The much-reviled interrogation program at Guantanamo Bay turned up crucial information, and to his credit, Obama ordered a risky, honest-to-goodness raid of bin Laden’s compound for the sake of definitiveness.

Its success was met with spontaneous celebrations recalling the sense of unity we briefly had after 9/11. President Bush eventually regretted saying he wanted bin Laden “dead or alive.” In the relief and joy at the terror mastermind’s dispatch, though, it seemed Bush had gotten American sentiment about right. There’s enough Jacksonianism left in this country that we can relish some old-fashioned score-settling. As one jubilant handmade sign said outside the White House, “Osama bin gotten.”

(Italics, ours)

We cannot emphasize enough why this is so important: Don't (mess) with us. Do. not. (mess). with. us. Because if you do, you saw what is going to happen. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next month and maybe not even next year. It will eventually happen. Whether it's a Republican or Democrat in the Oval Office or whether he is a community organizer from Chicago or a drawlin' son of priviledge from Texas, they are going to see through to a rather unseemly end to your existence whereby a group of the roughest, glass-chewing, steel-spitting SOBs on the face of the planet are literally going to drop from out of the sky, pop smoke, Ninja-style in the middle of your bedroom and pump enough lead into your soon-to-be bullet-ravaged corpse to open us strip mining operations and then spirit you out with them only to be dumped unceremoniously in the middle of the ocean to sleep with the fish.

You think al-Zawahiri has got much sleep, lately? We don't.

Rejoice...! (UPDATED)

"I heard a thundering sound, followed by heavy firing. Then firing suddenly stopped. Then more thundering, then a big blast,"

September 11, 2001 0600 PDT Clock radio comes on. Local sports-talk hacks on 1090 far too subdued. Something's wrong.




10 years on...

For those in the know, we're thinking that raising a pint at Mc P's in Coronado this evening might be entirely appropriate.



(UPDATE #1):

Awwwww: Bin Laden’s burial at sea questioned by Islamic scholars.

Muslim clerics said Monday that Osama bin Laden’s burial at sea was a violation of Islamic tradition that may further provoke militant calls for revenge attacks against American targets.

Although there appears to be some room for debate over the burial — as with many issues within the faith — a wide range of Islamic scholars interpreted it as a humiliating disregard for the standard Muslim practice of placing the body in a grave with the head pointed toward the holy city of Mecca.

Sea burials can be allowed, they said, but only in special cases where the death occurred aboard a ship.

“The Americans want to humiliate Muslims through this burial, and I don’t think this is in the interest of the U.S. administration,” said Omar Bakri Mohammed, a radical cleric in Lebanon.

We'd be fascinated to know just how it was that those SEALs "prepped" OBL's body prior to his burial.



Awwww Pt. II: Pervez Musharraf Upset About US Violation of Pakistan’s Sovereignty




The Taiwanese take a crack at depicting how it all went down.






And about that SEAL Team 6...

When a former Navy SEAL was called for a comment about this article all he could say was: "You know I'd love to help you man, but I can't say a word about Team 6. There is no Team 6."

What a testament to the fact that we will never... never
give up our pursuit of scum like bin Laden. Terrorist kingpins cannot be sleeping very well of late.




Oh, and please feel free to blame Bush:

Officials say CIA interrogators in secret overseas prisons developed the first strands of information that ultimately led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Current and former U.S. officials say that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, provided the nom de guerre of one of bin Laden’s most trusted aides. The CIA got similar information from Mohammed’s successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi. Both were subjected to harsh interrogation tactics inside CIA prisons in Poland and Romania.

And finally...

"Uh oh, now I'm the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it."

'Cause if it didn't happen on Twitter, did it really happen?

You were expecting...?

From The Feed:

In a fashion statement only the French would make, a Parisian designer is selling a $1,395 tank top made to look like a tattered American flag marred by cigarette-burn holes and held together by safety pins. And it’s turning into one of spring’s hottest sellers.

The top, part of Balmain’s spring collection, sold out in minutes on luxury-fashion Web site Net-a-Porter.

Forever 21 and Topshop designed knockoffs of the protest-chic tank, which model Gisele Bundchen wore in a Chinese Vogue spread. But neither tear up Old Glory as much as Balmain’s original, designed by Christophe DeCarnin, who recently left the fashion house after reportedly checking into a mental hospital for exhaustion and depression. .

Two intitial thoughts: 1) Frankly, we'd be a little worried if the French weren't pulling something asinine like this, and 2) just one more reason to hate Tom Brady.

Greatest play in baseball history*

We're a little late to the party but better late than never especially when it's something this cool. Monday marked the 35th anniversary of the greatest play in baseball history when at Dodger Stadium, Chicago Cub outfielder, Rick Monday, saved the American flag from getting set on fire by William Thomas and his 11 year-old son.

Growing up as Dodger fans, we have a vague recollection of this incident. Ironically enough, Monday was traded to the Dodgers following the '76 season. Monday currently handles play-by-play duties for the Dodgers on the radio. On August 25, 2008, Monday was presented with an American flag flown over Valley Forge National Historical Park in honor of his 1976 rescue.




Here's the story:








* We essentially recycle this post every year. Deal with it.

Rejoice...

... because it's America here, every day of the year.

Rejoice...!

... because it's America here, every day of the year.

Quote of the day

For as much bitching and complaining we do around here from time to time, it's important to remember...

“Whatever else has happened to you, wake up happy every morning that you are in the United States of America,” said Stein, an actor, lawyer and celebrity commentator on political and economic issues.

“We are still the light of the world,” he said. “We are an amazing magnet for hardworking, energetic people. You don’t see too many people leaving Encinitas to drive taxis in Cairo or Bangladesh.”

And the winner is....

A recent poll by Gallup put Ronald Reagan at the top of the heap of greatest American presidents. Here's the top 10:

Ronald Reagan -- 19%

Abraham Lincoln -- 14%

Bill Clinton -- 13%

John F. Kennedy -- 11%

George Washington -- 10%

Franklin Roosevelt -- 8%

Barack Obama -- 5%

Theodore Roosevelt -- 3%

Harry Truman -- 3%

George W. Bush -- 2%


As shameless Reagan acolytes, even we were more than a little embarrassed by the fact that our boy bested both Washington and Lincoln.

Sarah Palin took some very undeserved grief for naming Washington as the greatest/most important President as she was entirely correct. "Pedestrian" was the general charge levied at her if we remember correctly. Because, you know, we all get enough Washington in grade school, right? As if an emphasis on the foundations of this nation and the men responsible for it in the 5th grade is evidence of a lack of intellectual rigor. As if cherry trees and crossing the Delaware are but part of an American mythology... if kids these days are even learning about cherry trees and crossing the Delaware.

Without Washington, the President and
the general, none of this happens. None of it. With respect to who is your own greatest president, you are entitled to think otherwise but you would be wrong*.

Recall perhaps the most important thing Washington ever did for this country and indeed for the advancement of democracy was what he did not do: he did not seek a third term, stepping down after his second thus ensuring that Western civilization's grand experiment would not start off with a third world-like President-for-life.



* Needlessly confrontational but confrontational just the same.

Airbrushing

Book-burning righties on the march again?

Um, not exactly.

Allow us to get our righteous indignation on.

A new edition of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is missing something.

Throughout the book — 219 times in all — the word “nigger” is replaced by “slave,” a substitution that was made by NewSouth Books, a publisher based in Alabama, which plans to release the edition in February.

Alan Gribben, a professor of English at Auburn University at Montgomery, approached the publisher with the idea in July. Mr. Gribben said Tuesday that he had been teaching Mark Twain for decades and always hesitated before reading aloud the common racial epithet, which is used liberally in the book, a reflection of social attitudes in the mid-19th century.

“I found myself right out of graduate school at Berkeley not wanting to pronounce that word when I was teaching either ‘Huckleberry Finn’ or ‘Tom Sawyer,’ ” he said. “And I don’t think I’m alone.”

Mr. Gribben, who combined “Huckleberry Finn” with “Tom Sawyer” in a single volume and also supplied an introduction, said he worried that “Huckleberry Finn” had fallen off reading lists, and wanted to offer an edition that is not for scholars, but for younger people and general readers.

“I’m by no means sanitizing Mark Twain,” Mr. Gribben said. “The sharp social critiques are in there. The humor is intact. I just had the idea to get us away from obsessing about this one word, and just let the stories stand alone.” (The book also substitutes “Indian” for “injun.”)

Yes, you are. Yes, you are sanitizing Mark Twain. How can "cleaning-up" any unsavory language be considered anything but? And so noble of this guy, Gribben, to take it upon himself to unburden the unwashed masses our obsession with this word.

Mr. Gribben said no schools had expressed interest yet in teaching the book — nor did he say what ages he thought the edition appropriate for. In his introduction, however, he writes that “even at the level of college and graduate school, students are capable of resenting textual encounters with this racial appellative.”

If that last sentence means what we think it means, that was precisely Twain's intent: to inform the reader of the ugliness of slavery and racial prejudice. Doesn't anyone think things through anymore?

But hey, why stop there? Why not scrub the books of any and all unpleasantness and unseemly situations? (Because white washing fences really sucks) And we'll label it the McDonaldization of American literature because it really is the bland, predictable sameness that you get at every single franchise that has been the key to McDonald's success.

Part of the reason the NFL is so successful is because of its rigid consistency. On any given Sunday during the fall, you can turn on the T.V. at 10 A.M. Pacific and again at 1:15 P.M. Pacific and be assured that you will be witnessing a professional football game kickoff. Same for Sunday and Monday evenings. You can bank on these things happening.

So let's gut the American classics in the same manner in order to make sure everyone is reading the same thing to ensure, in part, that no one is resenting any textual encounters with racial appellatives.

We remember reading both Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn back in the 5th or 6th grade but do you know what we don't remember? We don't remember being traumatized by the word "nigger". And do you know what else we don't remember? Thinking that the usage of the term in these American classics somehow constituted an implicit approval of the term.

It's a crazy notion, we realize, but we do remember that a grade-schooler could read these books and come away from the books with the distinct notion that the "offending" term was vile and dehumanizing which, of course, was the very intention of the author.

How can this guy Gribbin call himself a professor of English and not realize this?

It's madness and it's got to stop.

Christianity in America

Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not violated but with his wrath?

- Thomas Jefferson, 1781


Bill Whittle provides an outstanding summation of morality, Christianity, self-governance and how they are woven into the fabric of America in the 8-minute Firewall video below.

If you are of a non-Christian faith or no faith at all, don't be alarmed. Give it a view and let us know what you think.





We dig the fact that he brings up good citizenship and upright behavior as the bulwark against government intrusion.

When we don't govern ourselves internally, there is always someone else who will do it for us.

See also: the myriad of social programs that have attempted to clean-up the mess caused by anti-social behavior to little or no effect.