Civil War

OK, Jed.  I’m a little surprised at you.  In an earlier post I asked for book recommendations for the Civil War.  You recommended The Longest Night, by David J. Eicher.

Trusting my ol’ lady not to lead me astray, I ordered the book.  It arrived today and I began reading it.  In the introduction is this:

After the war hundreds of thousands of veterans knew how to use guns, and millions of weapons made their way into society.  The postwar era of violence, played out largely in the western states and territories, inaugurated a tradition we still pay for today.  As Michael Bellesiles has shown in his book Arming America: The Origins of the National Gun Culture, it was in the wake of the Civil War that the “right to own and use weapons” became an assumed constitutional guarantee”

Am I to trust an author that lauds such a discredited “historian” as Bellesiles?

*sigh*

Canadian Snipers

The Canadian government has blocked an attempt by the US to award Bronze Stars to four Canadian snipers for their actions in Afghanistan (including a kill from 2,430 meters—that’s just short of 1.4 miles).  Apparently, the Canadian government suffers from one or more of the following:

They can’t decide whether to give a medal of their own, and don’t want the snipers getting a US medal w/o a comparable Canadian one

Canada has become so averse to violence that they don’t want to reward it

 

It’s a shame to see the Canadian government fall so far so fast.  Just a few years ago they were good allies.  Now they’re not good for much.

Tax Freeze

The Wisconsin State Budget is on the Governor’s desk awaiting his signature.  If you live in Wisconsin, please go here to sign a petition asking Governor Doyle to NOT VETO the property tax freeze that is included in the budget. 

Also feel free to call Governor Doyle at (608) 266-1212 and express your opinion.

Dean

Please, oh pleeeaaaase nominate Howard Dean.

BRAUN 7021 2.21%
DEAN 139360 43.87%
EDWARDS 10146 3.19%
GRAHAM 7113 2.24%
KERRY 49973 15.73%
KUCINICH 76000 23.93%
GEPHARDT 7755 2.44%
LIEBERMAN 6095 1.92%
SHARPTON 1677 0.53%
OTHER 6121 1.93%
UNDECIDED 6378 2.01%

I do find it interesting that MoveOn.org will endorse whichever Democratic candidate polls above 50%.  Basically, it says that MoveOn.org doesn’t really stand for anything.  What does that make its endorsement worth?

You think our reality TV is bad?

Check this out:

      When he arrived at the apartment, he was shown a stand full of magazines, a huge pile of postcards, and told to strip naked. The room was empty except for a cushion, a table, a small radio, a telephone, some notebooks, and a few pens.  There was not a crumb of food, a square of toilet paper, or any form of entertainment.  Whatever he needed, he was to win by sending thousands of postcards into contests.  The producers left and Nasubi was on his own in his unique survival challenge.

Yikes

Greens

Yee ha!  The Green party is going to hold its national convention in Milwaukee. 

Well, I suppose the Communists like Milwaukee so it should be good enough for the Greens.

This Day In History

The Battle of Dettingen in 1743.  This battle was part of King George’s War, or the French and Indian War in America.  It is notable because the battle was generaled by King George II of England, who was the last reigning British monarch to lead English troops into battle. 

Charles XII of Sweden in born in 1682.  He would later grapple with Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, for control of the Baltic. 

In 1978, in a boon for late night commercials and yellow pages everywhere, the SCotUS allowed lawyers to advertise.

Kerry

Things like this contribute to my ever-increasing feeling that John Kerry is an absolute idiot:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry regularly scorches the management of Enron, the scandal-ridden, bankrupt energy company founded by Kenneth Lay…

Yesterday, self-styled muckraker Bernardo Issel of NonprofitWatch.org told us that the much-maligned Lay has been a longtime member of the board of trustees of the Heinz Center, an environmental group founded by the candidate’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. She’s the group’s vice chairman, and Lay left the small board earlier this year after serving for nearly a decade.

Regardless of what you think about Enron and all that, for a Democratic candidate, this mistake is just politically stupid.

The NY Times and Strom

The NY Times just can’t help themselves.  Here is the title of their obituary for Strom Thurmond:

Strom Thurmond, Foe of Integration, Dies at 100

This obituary dismisses Strom’s assertion that he wasn’t racist but opposed Federal intervention, even though the notion of States’ rights versus Federal rights is a well-known battle.  Apparently, the NY Times can’t make the distinction.  The obituary even goes on to highlight that Strom aboloshied the poll tax as Governor and was the first to hire a black legislative employee. 

Liberal East coast news organizations have never understood, or even attempted to understand, the South.

Strom Thurmond Has Died

More to come…

UPDATE:  Here’s the story.

Teacher, lawyer, Senator, Governor, Normandy Invader, Major General, Democrat, Dixiecrat, Republican, presidential candidate, record holder for the longest filibuster, father, husband, son.  Love him or hate him, Strom Thurmond embodies the America of the 20th century. 

May he rest in peace.

The Jackal

Uh oh, Osama has got the Jackal on his side now. 

Carlos the Jackal, whose real name is Illich Ramirez Sanchez, praises Osama Bin Laden’s “shining” example in a selection of writings from his prison cell in France which went on sale on Thursday.

A convert to Islam since his imprisonment for three murders, Sanchez preaches “revolutionary Islam” - which is the title of his book - as the new, post-Communist answer to what he calls US “totalitarianism”.

From one terrorist to another, with love.

Comical Ali

I just love this quote from a CENTCOM spokeswoman regarding Comical Ali.

“He is an interesting story teller and we look forward to hearing what he has got to say,”

Who says CENTCOM folks don’t have a sense of humor?

This Day In History

Richard III usurps the English throne in 1483.

JFK gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in 1963.

Sodomy Ruling Reaction

Here is an article about the sodomy ruling titled:

Gays overjoyed, conservatives despair over sodomy ruling

I just want to bicker with their characterization of the two groups here.  Do you notice how the headline has 2 false assumptions?  The first is that all gays are non-conservative.  I think that Andrew Sullivan would disagree as well as the Log Cabin Republicans.  Second is that it assumes that all Conservatives oppose the ruling.  The article is littered with quotes from a few select Conservative organizations.  Personally, I have found a much more diverse range of opinions and a much broader scope of argument among the Conservative community than among the leftys.  If fact, this article proves it:

“82 percent of Americans have already expressed the view that these kinds of laws are inappropriate. State after state have repealed them,”

You don’t get to 82% without a great many Conservatives agreeing with you.

To Be an American

Today I stumbled across a favorite quote of mine which I hadn’t seen in years.

“It is my right to be uncommon if I can…

I seek opportunity, not security. 

I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. 

I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and build, to fail and to succeed. 

I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. 

I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the tranquility of utopia. 

I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. 

I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. 

It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid; to think and act for myself; enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, ‘This I have done,’ and this is what it means to be an American.”

                                                                     - Dean Alfrange