December 5, 2011
December 3, 2011
At Long Last...
In my time on Planet Earth, I have had many experiences – failures, successes, surprises, “here it comes” moments, “Why did I think THAT was a good idea?” moments. I’ve learned much, forgotten more, and done things I would never have believed possible when I was growing up. But in all my 53 years, I’ve never really known “what I want to be when I grow up.” I think I may have the answer to that question at long last – I want to be a gunsmith.
!?!?!?! Yeah, I know, I never really owned any guns worth mentioning until 2008 and I never went hunting more than a dozen times in my entire life. But I think that had more to do with opportunity than desire.
For the first 20 years of my adult life, I was a member of the U.S. Air Force. For 17 of those years, my wife and I thought it best that we live in military housing. There are so many restrictions on when and where you are allowed to possess firearms on a military installation, it just didn’t seem to be worth the hassle. For example, all guns have to remain unloaded at all times, even in your house. And God help you if you get caught with one in your car if you aren’t headed directly to or from the gate, the range or the armory. Combine that with the chronic shortage of money during those years; I did not see the point in owning guns. [SIDE NOTE: These restrictions and the mindset that created them explain why a lone jihadist in an auditorium full of skilled soldiers was able to kill 13 and wound 29 at Ft. Hood. The military doesn’t trust the adults they have spent years training to be disciplined to actually discipline themselves when it comes to private gun ownership. All that the Ft. Hood victims had available to try and defend themselves with when Hasan opened fire were chairs and tables. Outrageous.]
Upon retirement in 1997, I spent $125 and bought a 12-gauge pump shotgun for home defense/varmint control and a pitiful .22 Short revolver (which has been retired indefinitely until I can figure out how to get more flame out of the muzzle than at the cylinder gap…quite the light show with dusk coming on). It was another 11 years before I bought any more guns and became comfortable calling myself a gun owner. Thank you, President Obama.
Over the last few years of owning and using both rifles and handguns, I’ve revived the fascination I felt for them as I was growing up. One of the most vivid memories I have of my childhood was Christmas 1963. I was five-years-old and my parents gave me the most awesome toy any boy growing up in pre-politically correct America could want: a Mattel Shootin’ Shell Winchester lever-action cap gun – a cap gun that actually shot bullets! When you pulled the trigger, the cap popped and shook the spring-loaded “case” it was attached to, which launched a plastic bullet out of the barrel and across the room! SWEET!!! All you had to do was find the bullet (not always easy), mash it back into the case, stick on another cap and it was ready to go again! I’ll never forget that gun. (Want to see it in action? Check out this TV ad from 1962!)
Anyway, now that I have guns readily available, I’ve realized I want to be able to work on them when the need arises. It was a short step from there to realizing I would enjoy working on other people’s guns as well. My first four years in the Air Force were spent maintaining the intercept radar and missile launch circuitry of the F-4E Phantom II (still my favorite aircraft), so I know I have the aptitude and skills for intricate work and troubleshooting malfunctions. The next step is to learn how different guns are designed and how they function. That means getting training. And while I have decided which training I want to take, getting the funds to do so is going to take a little time – it’s not cheap and I wouldn’t trust it if it were.
In the meantime, I intend to go on leaning about my own guns. I may even go so far as to video my efforts and post them here…at least the successes. Wish me luck. This doesn't feel like a passing fad.
!?!?!?! Yeah, I know, I never really owned any guns worth mentioning until 2008 and I never went hunting more than a dozen times in my entire life. But I think that had more to do with opportunity than desire.
For the first 20 years of my adult life, I was a member of the U.S. Air Force. For 17 of those years, my wife and I thought it best that we live in military housing. There are so many restrictions on when and where you are allowed to possess firearms on a military installation, it just didn’t seem to be worth the hassle. For example, all guns have to remain unloaded at all times, even in your house. And God help you if you get caught with one in your car if you aren’t headed directly to or from the gate, the range or the armory. Combine that with the chronic shortage of money during those years; I did not see the point in owning guns. [SIDE NOTE: These restrictions and the mindset that created them explain why a lone jihadist in an auditorium full of skilled soldiers was able to kill 13 and wound 29 at Ft. Hood. The military doesn’t trust the adults they have spent years training to be disciplined to actually discipline themselves when it comes to private gun ownership. All that the Ft. Hood victims had available to try and defend themselves with when Hasan opened fire were chairs and tables. Outrageous.]
Upon retirement in 1997, I spent $125 and bought a 12-gauge pump shotgun for home defense/varmint control and a pitiful .22 Short revolver (which has been retired indefinitely until I can figure out how to get more flame out of the muzzle than at the cylinder gap…quite the light show with dusk coming on). It was another 11 years before I bought any more guns and became comfortable calling myself a gun owner. Thank you, President Obama.
Over the last few years of owning and using both rifles and handguns, I’ve revived the fascination I felt for them as I was growing up. One of the most vivid memories I have of my childhood was Christmas 1963. I was five-years-old and my parents gave me the most awesome toy any boy growing up in pre-politically correct America could want: a Mattel Shootin’ Shell Winchester lever-action cap gun – a cap gun that actually shot bullets! When you pulled the trigger, the cap popped and shook the spring-loaded “case” it was attached to, which launched a plastic bullet out of the barrel and across the room! SWEET!!! All you had to do was find the bullet (not always easy), mash it back into the case, stick on another cap and it was ready to go again! I’ll never forget that gun. (Want to see it in action? Check out this TV ad from 1962!)
Anyway, now that I have guns readily available, I’ve realized I want to be able to work on them when the need arises. It was a short step from there to realizing I would enjoy working on other people’s guns as well. My first four years in the Air Force were spent maintaining the intercept radar and missile launch circuitry of the F-4E Phantom II (still my favorite aircraft), so I know I have the aptitude and skills for intricate work and troubleshooting malfunctions. The next step is to learn how different guns are designed and how they function. That means getting training. And while I have decided which training I want to take, getting the funds to do so is going to take a little time – it’s not cheap and I wouldn’t trust it if it were.
In the meantime, I intend to go on leaning about my own guns. I may even go so far as to video my efforts and post them here…at least the successes. Wish me luck. This doesn't feel like a passing fad.
October 31, 2011
My Candidates
OK, it’s time to make a commitment. I have already decided who my candidate is for U.S. Senate from Texas — Ted Cruz, the only proven conservative in the race. Time to take a stand for President in 2012.
As a conservative, it is a foregone conclusion that I will NOT be voting for a Democrat…the last Democrat that I might have voted for was Harry Truman…MAYBE. Of course, that race was 10 years before I was born. Having voted for Debra Medina in the Republican Gubernatorial Primary, I’m not prepared to put Rick Perry in the Oval Office. Mitt Romney? Well, let’s just say I’m not going to vote for someone who lost a primary to John McCain. Ditto for Huckabee, Giuliani, and the rest from 2008. (The sole exception to this would be Fred Thompson…if he ever finds the fire-in-the-belly again, I’d vote for him.)
Of all the remaining candidates currently declared, I have seen three that I could happily call “Commander-In-Chief.” And while there is no perfect candidate available (and probably never will be), there is one that has the fewest negatives and the best positives based on what I want from a candidate: Herman Cain.
I can already hear the groans from some (and cheers from others). I reiterate: there is no perfect candidate! While there may be some nuts-and-bolts stances I don’t completely agree with, Herman Cain is focused on the correct issues—economy, invasion (AKA illegal immigration), overspending, over regulation—and has viable solutions for them.
How do I know he is on the right track? What makes me think he has a chance to win? Simple: liberals don’t waste time and effort trashing candidates that they aren’t afraid of. They are petrified by the thought of a Cain candidacy. [For those of you new here, I use “liberal,” “progressive,” “Marxist,” and “utopian” interchangeably.]
Most of it has to do with the fact that, by liberal definition, he is an oxymoron—a black conservative. As far as liberals are concerned, they “own” the black vote…and you thought slavery was dead! Any black who dares cross the line and consider himself conservative challenges the left’s claim as the sole voice for minorities in America…and instantly becomes an “Uncle Tom,” or worse. And heaven forbid that conservatives could ever vote for a black man because of his policies! Think I’m joking? Listen to what MSNBC contributor Karen Finney has to say about the Cain candidacy:
Notice the assumptions here: 1) all white Republicans are racist, 2) all white Republicans are racist, and 3) all white Republicans are racist.
Worse yet, Herman Cain has the support of the Tea Party. This makes Cain the ultimate “Uncle Tom”; to liberal minds, there’s no way a group of “racists” could ever support an “authentic” black candidate…he must be shuckin’ and jivin’ for the masters.
Uncomfortable with that last sentence? GOOD! It means you understand how disgusting this whole line of reasoning is. That it is coming from the LEFT should tell you a little about how they really think about life in general.
Liberals are colorblind…as long as you’re talking about liberal blacks, or liberal Hispanics, or liberal Asians. But as soon as a “minority” candidate speaks out for conservatism or against liberalism (not necessarily the same thing), which voices are the first to question the authenticity of that person’s racial credentials? If you want to win that bet, put your money on the liberals.
[The last five paragraphs were a bit of a rabbit trail, but it needed to be said.]
Anyway, unless new valid information comes along that trumps all of the positives in Cain’s column, I am supporting him for President of the United States in 2012. The stakes are too high and the task ahead too immense for us to put our trust in a traditional politician.
Herman Cain and Ted Cruz have the skills to bring us back from the brink of catastrophe. I ask that you give them each a serious look as you make up your minds about who can best reverse four years of disastrous policies.
As a conservative, it is a foregone conclusion that I will NOT be voting for a Democrat…the last Democrat that I might have voted for was Harry Truman…MAYBE. Of course, that race was 10 years before I was born. Having voted for Debra Medina in the Republican Gubernatorial Primary, I’m not prepared to put Rick Perry in the Oval Office. Mitt Romney? Well, let’s just say I’m not going to vote for someone who lost a primary to John McCain. Ditto for Huckabee, Giuliani, and the rest from 2008. (The sole exception to this would be Fred Thompson…if he ever finds the fire-in-the-belly again, I’d vote for him.)
Of all the remaining candidates currently declared, I have seen three that I could happily call “Commander-In-Chief.” And while there is no perfect candidate available (and probably never will be), there is one that has the fewest negatives and the best positives based on what I want from a candidate: Herman Cain.
I can already hear the groans from some (and cheers from others). I reiterate: there is no perfect candidate! While there may be some nuts-and-bolts stances I don’t completely agree with, Herman Cain is focused on the correct issues—economy, invasion (AKA illegal immigration), overspending, over regulation—and has viable solutions for them.
How do I know he is on the right track? What makes me think he has a chance to win? Simple: liberals don’t waste time and effort trashing candidates that they aren’t afraid of. They are petrified by the thought of a Cain candidacy. [For those of you new here, I use “liberal,” “progressive,” “Marxist,” and “utopian” interchangeably.]
Most of it has to do with the fact that, by liberal definition, he is an oxymoron—a black conservative. As far as liberals are concerned, they “own” the black vote…and you thought slavery was dead! Any black who dares cross the line and consider himself conservative challenges the left’s claim as the sole voice for minorities in America…and instantly becomes an “Uncle Tom,” or worse. And heaven forbid that conservatives could ever vote for a black man because of his policies! Think I’m joking? Listen to what MSNBC contributor Karen Finney has to say about the Cain candidacy:
Notice the assumptions here: 1) all white Republicans are racist, 2) all white Republicans are racist, and 3) all white Republicans are racist.
Worse yet, Herman Cain has the support of the Tea Party. This makes Cain the ultimate “Uncle Tom”; to liberal minds, there’s no way a group of “racists” could ever support an “authentic” black candidate…he must be shuckin’ and jivin’ for the masters.
Uncomfortable with that last sentence? GOOD! It means you understand how disgusting this whole line of reasoning is. That it is coming from the LEFT should tell you a little about how they really think about life in general.
Liberals are colorblind…as long as you’re talking about liberal blacks, or liberal Hispanics, or liberal Asians. But as soon as a “minority” candidate speaks out for conservatism or against liberalism (not necessarily the same thing), which voices are the first to question the authenticity of that person’s racial credentials? If you want to win that bet, put your money on the liberals.
[The last five paragraphs were a bit of a rabbit trail, but it needed to be said.]
Anyway, unless new valid information comes along that trumps all of the positives in Cain’s column, I am supporting him for President of the United States in 2012. The stakes are too high and the task ahead too immense for us to put our trust in a traditional politician.
Herman Cain and Ted Cruz have the skills to bring us back from the brink of catastrophe. I ask that you give them each a serious look as you make up your minds about who can best reverse four years of disastrous policies.
October 27, 2011
Cruz Campaign Rolls On
Here is a television interview from Beaumont of U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz. The entire interview is good, but to me, the strongest portion comes at time mark 7:22, where Ted reminds us that of all the candidates for Senate nation-wide, he is the only one to receive endorsements from the four strongest conservatives serving today: Senators Jim DeMint, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Pat Toomey.
For the full list of endorsements (including former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese and radio host Mark Levin), go to the Ted Cruz Website.
For the full list of endorsements (including former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese and radio host Mark Levin), go to the Ted Cruz Website.
October 24, 2011
New Ad
I normally use my Facebook page to post videos and other similar items, but this one deserves space here as well. Enjoy.
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October 10, 2011
The Next Senator From The Great State of Texas? I Sure Hope So!
The following is a video of former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz’s speech to the Family Research Council’s 2011 Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC on October 7th.
Mr. Cruz is running for the U.S. Senate and I can think of no one I’d rather have representing me. With luck, there will be other Senate candidates from around the country that have the same passion for liberty and the Constitution that Ted has. We can only hope.
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Mr. Cruz is running for the U.S. Senate and I can think of no one I’d rather have representing me. With luck, there will be other Senate candidates from around the country that have the same passion for liberty and the Constitution that Ted has. We can only hope.
October 9, 2011
Is This Obama’s “Watergate?”
Most who weren’t alive during the early 1970s (and many who were) could not tell you what Watergate was all about, just that it had something to do with the President of the United States of America resigning his office, something that had never happened (before or since).
Without going into great detail (Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s All The President’s Men is the gold-standard), “Watergate” refers to the Watergate Hotel and Office Building in Washington D.C., which among other things, housed the offices of the Democratic National Committee. One night in 1972, a hotel security guard caught a group of burglars inside those offices. As the story unfolded, it was learned that the burglars were there at the behest of President Richard M. Nixon’s reelection committee — in fact, one of the burglars worked directly for the committee. In this case, ca-ca flowed uphill and President Nixon sealed his own fate by getting directly involved in trying to cover up the connection after he learned of it (Catch-phrase of the day: “What did the President know and when did he know it?”).
Two years after the burglary and facing certain impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate, Nixon resigned. What is unfolding now has many wondering if history is repeating itself.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE, or more commonly, ATF) has more or less been caught red-handed intentionally sending weapons across the border into Mexico, weapons that they were supposed to be stopping. Known variously as “Gunwalker” or “Gunrunner,” the official ATF name for the project appears to be “Fast and Furious”…having never seen the movie(s) of the same name, the connection is lost on me.
Without getting into the details, insiders are blowing whistles and a Congressional investigation has ATF and other Justice Department honchos stonewalling and circling the wagons. It now appears that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder may have at least known about the project and did nothing to stop it. The only step up the ladder from there goes directly to the Oval Office.
There is more to discuss on this subject (including the possibility of a much more sinister motive for the project than catching druggies), but for now I just wonder how long it will be before we hear people in positions of power channeling Senator Sam Ervin — “What did the President know and when did he know it?”
Without going into great detail (Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s All The President’s Men is the gold-standard), “Watergate” refers to the Watergate Hotel and Office Building in Washington D.C., which among other things, housed the offices of the Democratic National Committee. One night in 1972, a hotel security guard caught a group of burglars inside those offices. As the story unfolded, it was learned that the burglars were there at the behest of President Richard M. Nixon’s reelection committee — in fact, one of the burglars worked directly for the committee. In this case, ca-ca flowed uphill and President Nixon sealed his own fate by getting directly involved in trying to cover up the connection after he learned of it (Catch-phrase of the day: “What did the President know and when did he know it?”).
Two years after the burglary and facing certain impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate, Nixon resigned. What is unfolding now has many wondering if history is repeating itself.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE, or more commonly, ATF) has more or less been caught red-handed intentionally sending weapons across the border into Mexico, weapons that they were supposed to be stopping. Known variously as “Gunwalker” or “Gunrunner,” the official ATF name for the project appears to be “Fast and Furious”…having never seen the movie(s) of the same name, the connection is lost on me.
Without getting into the details, insiders are blowing whistles and a Congressional investigation has ATF and other Justice Department honchos stonewalling and circling the wagons. It now appears that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder may have at least known about the project and did nothing to stop it. The only step up the ladder from there goes directly to the Oval Office.
There is more to discuss on this subject (including the possibility of a much more sinister motive for the project than catching druggies), but for now I just wonder how long it will be before we hear people in positions of power channeling Senator Sam Ervin — “What did the President know and when did he know it?”
October 7, 2011
“…Where Men Were Free.”
Okay, I’ve officially given up on pretending this is going to be a traditional “blog”…I just don’t have the time to sit down and vent every time something pushes my buttons and short, pithy paragraphs only tease my appetite for writing. For those of you who have checked back here over the last three months expecting to see something new, I apologize.
I always try to wait until I have something profound to relate before sitting down to make an entry here…maybe that’s why nothing has been posted for so long. Perhaps I should just let the words flow and not worry so much about how insightful or cutting-edge they might be. Read that as: “Don’t be so full of yourself, Nathan—just write.”
I have been on the “off-cycle” lately when it comes to listening to the voices on conservative radio. I’ve learned that if I don’t back off every so often, I let the state of affairs in our country twist me up in knots to the point I can’t function clearly. Not that I would for a minute waste time listening to liberal radio…if I want the state-sanctioned view of life, all I have to do is watch NBC, ABC, CBS or any of their “news” off-shoots languishing in the ratings cellar on cable. My “male bovine excrement” meter works just fine, thank you very much.
What I have noticed more and more is that nothing much has really changed over the last 40 years. We still have left-wing ideologues (masquerading as educators) indoctrinating our children in universities and colleges around the country, with very few standout institutions left (Hillsdale College being a prime example of the latter).
Democrats (Liberals/Progressives/Marxists/Utopians/take-your-pick) always say that more money—yours, not theirs—is the answer to every problem and that government is the be-all-end-all solution to mankind’s shortcomings.
Moderates are constantly basing their positions and actions on what Liberals will think about them…more interested in being liked by the establishment media than in being right, more interested in compromise than in standing on principle.
Those Republicans that don’t identify themselves as Moderates still delineate themselves as Social-Conservatives or Fiscal-Conservatives, each often eyeing the other with ill-concealed loathing and opening the door for Moderate candidates to “bridge the gap” in a brotherly expression of compromise that usually results in the Democrat candidate winning the race — why vote for “Liberal Lite” when you can have the real thing?
But something changed slightly over the last few election cycles: real Conservatives started winning…and winning BIG. What often goes unreported about the 2010 election is that not only the U.S. House of Representatives, but a majority of state legislatures went Republican…and for the most part, those candidates were Conservatives, not Moderates.
Don’t believe the disinformation spread by the Democratic Party and the liberal media: ours is not a liberal society, it is predominately conservative. According to Gallop polling, 2011 is the third straight year that those identifying themselves as “conservative” (41%) outnumber “moderates” (36%) and “liberals” (21%)…with conservatives outnumbering liberals by almost 2:1! Just try to prove that by listening to the nightly news.
We have to quit listening to those who say we have to go along to get along; that ship sailed with John McCain. [I heard someone from the McCain campaign complain that if someone other than Sarah Palin had been on the ticket, the race would have been too close to call. What a moron! Palin on the ticket is what prevented it from being a 49-state landslide for Obama!]
“OK, Nathan, you’ve been rambling on for awhile now…what’s your point?” My point is, we are reaching a tipping point in our history. For the last hundred years, those who detest our capitalist way of life, our societal exceptionalism, our status as the world’s last superpower have been firmly ensconced in the halls of academia. But now, they are firmly ensconced in the halls of power and running the country!
We are rapidly running out of time to turn the tide…some say it’s already too late. It’s time for us to wake up, for each of us to make a difference in whatever way we can—voting, campaigning, speaking, writing, praying—to reclaim our country before it is lost forever.
President Ronald Reagan made many profound statements over his lifetime, but one in particular rings even truer today than when he originally said it:
I always try to wait until I have something profound to relate before sitting down to make an entry here…maybe that’s why nothing has been posted for so long. Perhaps I should just let the words flow and not worry so much about how insightful or cutting-edge they might be. Read that as: “Don’t be so full of yourself, Nathan—just write.”
I have been on the “off-cycle” lately when it comes to listening to the voices on conservative radio. I’ve learned that if I don’t back off every so often, I let the state of affairs in our country twist me up in knots to the point I can’t function clearly. Not that I would for a minute waste time listening to liberal radio…if I want the state-sanctioned view of life, all I have to do is watch NBC, ABC, CBS or any of their “news” off-shoots languishing in the ratings cellar on cable. My “male bovine excrement” meter works just fine, thank you very much.
What I have noticed more and more is that nothing much has really changed over the last 40 years. We still have left-wing ideologues (masquerading as educators) indoctrinating our children in universities and colleges around the country, with very few standout institutions left (Hillsdale College being a prime example of the latter).
Democrats (Liberals/Progressives/Marxists/Utopians/take-your-pick) always say that more money—yours, not theirs—is the answer to every problem and that government is the be-all-end-all solution to mankind’s shortcomings.
Moderates are constantly basing their positions and actions on what Liberals will think about them…more interested in being liked by the establishment media than in being right, more interested in compromise than in standing on principle.
Those Republicans that don’t identify themselves as Moderates still delineate themselves as Social-Conservatives or Fiscal-Conservatives, each often eyeing the other with ill-concealed loathing and opening the door for Moderate candidates to “bridge the gap” in a brotherly expression of compromise that usually results in the Democrat candidate winning the race — why vote for “Liberal Lite” when you can have the real thing?
But something changed slightly over the last few election cycles: real Conservatives started winning…and winning BIG. What often goes unreported about the 2010 election is that not only the U.S. House of Representatives, but a majority of state legislatures went Republican…and for the most part, those candidates were Conservatives, not Moderates.
Don’t believe the disinformation spread by the Democratic Party and the liberal media: ours is not a liberal society, it is predominately conservative. According to Gallop polling, 2011 is the third straight year that those identifying themselves as “conservative” (41%) outnumber “moderates” (36%) and “liberals” (21%)…with conservatives outnumbering liberals by almost 2:1! Just try to prove that by listening to the nightly news.
We have to quit listening to those who say we have to go along to get along; that ship sailed with John McCain. [I heard someone from the McCain campaign complain that if someone other than Sarah Palin had been on the ticket, the race would have been too close to call. What a moron! Palin on the ticket is what prevented it from being a 49-state landslide for Obama!]
“OK, Nathan, you’ve been rambling on for awhile now…what’s your point?” My point is, we are reaching a tipping point in our history. For the last hundred years, those who detest our capitalist way of life, our societal exceptionalism, our status as the world’s last superpower have been firmly ensconced in the halls of academia. But now, they are firmly ensconced in the halls of power and running the country!
We are rapidly running out of time to turn the tide…some say it’s already too late. It’s time for us to wake up, for each of us to make a difference in whatever way we can—voting, campaigning, speaking, writing, praying—to reclaim our country before it is lost forever.
President Ronald Reagan made many profound statements over his lifetime, but one in particular rings even truer today than when he originally said it:
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States, where men were free.”
July 4, 2011
Why Did You Fight?
Around 1843, historian Mellen Chamberlain interviewed one of the last surviving Minutemen present at the Battle of Concord in 1775, 91-year-old Captain Levi Preston. This was like interviewing a World War II veteran today:
Something to remember as we celebrate Independence Day.
Captain Preston, what made you go to the Concord Fight?“We always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to.” That was the bottom line for the entire Revolutionary War. They were not going to let an increasingly oppressive authority in some distant capitol that was not responsive to the will of the people dictate to them how they were going to live their lives.
What did I go for?
Were you oppressed by the Stamp Act?
I never saw any stamps, and I always understood that none were ever sold.
Well, what about the tea tax?
Tea tax? I never drank a drop of the stuff; the boys threw it all overboard.
But I suppose you had been reading Harrington, Sidney, and Locke about the eternal principle of liberty?
I never heard of these men. The only books we had were the Bible, the Catechism, Watts’ psalms and hymns and the almanacs.
Well, then, what was the matter?
Young man, what we meant in going for those Redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves and we always meant to. They didn’t mean we should.
Something to remember as we celebrate Independence Day.
June 2, 2011
Where are the REAL men in the Texas Senate?
I’m still trying to understand why our supposed-Republican Lt.Gov. David Dewhurst would lobby against a Republican bill that would protect our women and children from repeated molestation by agents of the Transportation Security Administration.
According to Dewhurst himself (as reported in the Austin American-Statesman), his activity on the Senate floor that night was about the Sanctuary Cities bill, not the TSA bill (also known as the Anti-Groping Bill)...but that doesn’t seem to match up with what state senators are saying. They accuse him of lobbying against legislation that would make it a state-jail felony to perform the sexual-assault searches now being used in airport security checks...with federal lawyers in tow as he wandered the Senate floor. I’m not going to get into whether or not that constituted a violation of lobbying practices according to Texas law, but David Dewhurst has received his last vote for any office from yours-truly. And we definitely don’t need someone like him in the US Senate!
But what I am really irritated over is the federal government’s threat to turn the entire state of Texas into a no-fly-zone if the bill became law! Apparently, more than a few of our state senators can’t read a bluff and should never play poker for the rest of their lives. Shutting down all air traffic in and out of Texas (even if the Feds had the huevos to try it) would in all likelihood be the spark for a full-blown revolt against an overreaching Federal government...a government that is now reaching into areas we teach our children to scream loudly for help when touched there! [I know, Miss D: bad grammar.]
We have got to get people to understand that Washington is NOT the heart of the USA...our state capitols are. I can’t remember who to cite as the author, but someone stated it very plainly:
According to Dewhurst himself (as reported in the Austin American-Statesman), his activity on the Senate floor that night was about the Sanctuary Cities bill, not the TSA bill (also known as the Anti-Groping Bill)...but that doesn’t seem to match up with what state senators are saying. They accuse him of lobbying against legislation that would make it a state-jail felony to perform the sexual-assault searches now being used in airport security checks...with federal lawyers in tow as he wandered the Senate floor. I’m not going to get into whether or not that constituted a violation of lobbying practices according to Texas law, but David Dewhurst has received his last vote for any office from yours-truly. And we definitely don’t need someone like him in the US Senate!
But what I am really irritated over is the federal government’s threat to turn the entire state of Texas into a no-fly-zone if the bill became law! Apparently, more than a few of our state senators can’t read a bluff and should never play poker for the rest of their lives. Shutting down all air traffic in and out of Texas (even if the Feds had the huevos to try it) would in all likelihood be the spark for a full-blown revolt against an overreaching Federal government...a government that is now reaching into areas we teach our children to scream loudly for help when touched there! [I know, Miss D: bad grammar.]
We have got to get people to understand that Washington is NOT the heart of the USA...our state capitols are. I can’t remember who to cite as the author, but someone stated it very plainly:
“The states are not creatures of the Federal government, the Federal government is a creature of the states....States: get your creature on a leash!”But like the fictional Dr. Frankenstein, I fear our monster has become uncontrollable.
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