Fundamental Concepts - Birthright [Weirddave]

Birthright: ( burth-rahyt )
noun
1. any right or privilege to which a person is entitled by birth:

Last week, I wrote one of these columns entitled “Game Over”. In it I lamented what the latest SCOTUS rulings have done to our country. I focused on King, but it easily could have been Obergefell or another SCOTUS decision. Or executive action, or Congressional surrender. There is almost literally no end to the examples of my country being killed that I could have chosen from to illustrate the point: America, as founded, is dead. There is really no argument about it, the fundamental principles upon which this nation was formed have been eroded or eclipsed to the point where the greatest Democratic Republic in history, a model for the world and a beacon for freedom, is now nothing more than another damned dirty Oligarchy, impoverished peons subservient to a greedy ruling class. In short, we've reverted to the norm. American exceptionalism is dead because America isn't exceptional anymore, we're just like all the rest of the countries in the world, just like all the rest of the countries throughout history. We are no longer sovereign citizens, we're are subjects of a ruling elite.

I thought this would be the perfect subject for a Fourth of July weekend post. The Fourth of July holiday celebrates the Declaration of Independence, the document where America declared it's freedom and boldly stated it's grievances against an out of touch ruling elite. We'll have fireworks, fellowship, celebration, and community. Flags will be raised, rockets shot, anthems sung and BBQ eaten. It's all one great big orgy of Americana, and although most people aren't even aware of it, they are celebrating a dead letter, an antiquated concept, an ideal that has been killed by an unelected cadre of black robed tyrants, cowardly legislators more interested in power than oaths and an executive drunk on the power to destroy everything that he is honor bound to safeguard. It's Independence Day! Time to celebrate our independence from the values that made us great! Who cares? It sure feels good, don't it? That's what our betters tell us anyway. WHOO HOO! PARTY TIME! 'MERICA! F*** YEA!, right?

No.

Just that: No.

I say no. I am an American, and I have a birthright. What is that birthright? Well, to start with, I suggest that we read the text of the Declaration of Independence in its entirety. Really read it. Read it, and try to understand what it MEANS. I'm reprinting it below, and I know its a wall of text, TL;DR, etc, but please, I urge you, if you do nothing else this holiday weekend, READ THIS:

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

That document was written 239 years ago by an assembly of the brightest human minds ever joined for one purpose in the history of mankind. Those men accepted the challenge presented by an uncontrolled aristocracy seeking to rule over all people, as had been the case throughout history, and calmly and clearly destroyed the idea of an oligarchy. What a brilliant victory for mankind, for liberty, for freedom for self expression.

Unfortunately you and I are living in the era of Revolution 2: The Oligarchy Strikes Back. Make no mistake, the oligarchy has struck back, hard. Most of the freedoms guaranteed to We The People by the follow up document to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, have been abandoned or overturned. King kills rule of law. Obergefell killed the 1st Amendment. Roe invented imaginary new “rights” somehow magically hidden in “penumbras and emanations". Wickard basically gives the Federal Government leave to do anything it wants under the guise of “regulating commerce”. Plyler v. Doe dilutes the birthright of Americans, rendering it meaningless. The list goes on. A small cadre of elites, both elected and unelected, has managed to almost completely gut the rights that we are born with. They have succeeded because we have been too busy to notice, or too lazy, or too afraid. The majority of us, Nock's “Mass Man” (what we call LIVs today), have been complicit in their own enslavement. All of this has already come to pass. It is done. Over. Finished.

Except for one tiny thing......

The birthright. Your birthright. My birthright. OUR BIRTHRIGHT.

They. Can. Not. Take. Our. Birthright. Away.

They've done their bit. Now the question is what do we do? Scroll up and re-read the Facts that our Forefathers submitted to a candid world. Are there any that don't apply today? Appallingly few. We stand metaphorically on a dusty battlefield of American history. Around us lie the tattered remains of various flags that other Americans have held high as they did their bit to establish or preserve the birthright; Gadsden. Goliad. Gonzalez. Culpeper. 1st Naval Jack. Appeal to Heaven. Behind us the dark eyes of those who came before us watch, in each eye a silent question burns: “What are you made of?”. The time has come. We must answer that question with our Lives, our Fortune and our sacred Honor.

The Birthright.

Do you deny it? If so, may your chains lie lightly. If not, then I repeat the eternal American question: “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Posted by: Open Blogger at 11:43 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 You right wing nuts and your 'birtherright'. Geesh!

Posted by: MSNBC at July 03, 2015 10:56 AM (gwG9s)

2 Is today Saturday?

Posted by: HH at July 03, 2015 10:57 AM (Qia1Z)

3 All of your rights are granted by the government.

Posted by: Chris Cuomo at July 03, 2015 10:57 AM (NjiZL)

4 I have a right to be left alone. The yankee government has been bothering me for nigh on 67 years.

Posted by: Eromero at July 03, 2015 10:57 AM (go5uR)

5 Feliz cuatro de julio!

Posted by: SpongeBobSaget at July 03, 2015 11:01 AM (zauWW)

6 Is today Saturday?

I have plans tomorrow. Since Ace said today was a holiday and thus available for open blogging, I went a day early.

Posted by: Weirddave at July 03, 2015 11:01 AM (WvS3w)

7 Newsmax is running a bunch of programs all weekend on the founding documents.

Posted by: Hadoop at July 03, 2015 11:01 AM (2X7pN)

8 I have the right to marry Bill Shatner.

Posted by: George Ticky Tacky at July 03, 2015 11:02 AM (W5DcG)

9 e pleb nista,

Posted by: admiral marcus at July 03, 2015 11:02 AM (0u/CC)

10 With rights come responsibilities.
Can't have one without the other.

Posted by: Thor's feather duster at July 03, 2015 11:03 AM (JgC5a)

11 You poor, poor deluded man.

That birthright of which you speak -

It's gone. Long gone.

Posted by: Semper In Stercus at July 03, 2015 11:03 AM (BZAd3)

12 That birthright of which you speak -

Is bestowed on anyone who crawls across Our "borders" as if there is one...

Posted by: donna at July 03, 2015 11:04 AM (Bn6aD)

13 I'm thinking about going to the Jeff memorial today to reread the Declaration of Independence. Any DC area morons free today?

Posted by: Sobek at July 03, 2015 11:07 AM (/Xs68)

14 STOMPED.

Posted by: ConservativeMonster at July 03, 2015 11:08 AM (+2//H)

15 "NASCAR can kiss my ass. There, now I have said it."

I want to see them ban any form of that hate filled rainbow flag.
You know, the flag which supporters march under while they spit on Clergy, and yell profanities.
Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at July 03, 2015 10:45 AM (VPLuQ)

And they've been given a new birthright. The birthright of not being constrained by the same laws we, the beneficiaries of the original birthright, are constrained.

Posted by: Semper In Stercus at July 03, 2015 11:08 AM (BZAd3)

16 King George III was thousands of miles away in an era where news traveled over the course of weeks and months. We are now occupied by friends, neighbors and relatives that don't even know they're an occupying force. A third revolution will result in the utter destruction of this country in both a physical and moral sense. We are past saving this country by the efforts of men.

Posted by: RLTW at July 03, 2015 11:09 AM (mJLvJ)

17 Let the enstompening begin!

Posted by: Hadoop at July 03, 2015 11:09 AM (2X7pN)

18 Dave,

Might want to put this one back in draft for a bit, now that Ace has stomped it.

It's worth taking the time to read, and the stomping is going to reduce that likelihood

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at July 03, 2015 11:09 AM (VPLuQ)

19
The last time I gave the with rights come great responsibilities was to a 6 year old girl who misused the power of the triple dog dare to get a little boy to pull down his pants.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at July 03, 2015 11:09 AM (iQIUe)

20 So very, very thirsty.

Posted by: Tree of Liberty at July 03, 2015 11:10 AM (Ztfnl)

21 Oops! Ace is up. Let me put this away for a bit. Back soon!

Posted by: Weirddave at July 03, 2015 11:10 AM (WvS3w)

22 Countries seem to have two organizing principals: Ideas or blood and soil nationalism.

The idea phase of the American experiment seems to be over. Despite the public service announcements about our diversity being our strength, without an idea that overrides the natural human tendency to associate with people who are more like you and view everybody else as The Other will rise to the surface.

We have seen what tends to happen in other diverse places.

Posted by: Obnoxious A-Hole at July 03, 2015 11:12 AM (QHgTq)

23 I love posting comments to a thread that's in draft.

It feels....almost magical.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at July 03, 2015 11:12 AM (VPLuQ)

24 *sneaks in*

o.O

*sneaks out*

Posted by: 98ZJUSMC Staring at the Lake in the rain at July 03, 2015 11:13 AM (CFcIt)

25 I have a panacea for fixing the government. Eliminate the power agencies have to promulgate punative rules and regulations. If the government wants to force your toilet paper to be at a certain height, let congress pass the law and the president sign. That will encumber them enough they won't be able to micromanage our lives.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at July 03, 2015 11:13 AM (hKMJy)

26 A one man assault on a fixed position with bayonet would only result in my own useless death on the steps of the Capitol Building.

I need atomic artillery and air cover.

Posted by: Jump Boot Jimmy at July 03, 2015 11:16 AM (zuBg2)

27 One of the important things we can do is not to actually rush to condemn the first Conservative who just says to HELL WITH IT and actually goes out and ki#lls a Judge or Member of Congress for doing something we all know is fundamentally wrong.

We simply adopt the same method as the left. Feel bad that someone had to die "we're all so sad for their families loss" and so on, but never come right out and personally condemn the guy who did the actual shooting.

We need to go to great lengths to focus on what was wrong with the politician or Judge who was targeted and not waste time on the shooter.

It has been stated that the political class needs to be made afraid in order to do the right thing. Elections are one part of that equation. The other part needs to be that no one is going to feel to bad if a politician or judge gets whacked for straying to far from their duty.

Posted by: southdakotaboy at July 03, 2015 11:17 AM (yh4lQ)

28 NASCAR is dead to me. Of course, they've been dead to me for the past twenty years or so.

First, they went the "pro wrasslin' route, with dramas, fueds and intrigues, rather than just plain, simple, pure racing.

And they screwed the racing up when they stepped away from actual "stock car" based platforms, into the tube-framed clonemobiles. Which, they made worse by having a standardized platform and profile, differentiated by not much more than paint and decals.

Finally, they, along with pro wrasslin and the NFL, succumbed to marketing to the lowest common denominator, with loud announcers, clownish "stars", appeals to boorish behavior from the fans and, well..... everything but good straight-up racing between cars actually differentiated by make, technology, design, execution and skill.

They turn their back on the Rebel Flag, they're also turning their back on the fan base who made 'em a success.

Good luck filling the stands with teh gays, France.

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at July 03, 2015 11:22 AM (RzZOc)

29 I have a panacea for fixing the government. Eliminate the power agencies
have to promulgate punative rules and regulations. If the government
wants to force your toilet paper to be at a certain height, let congress
pass the law and the president sign. That will encumber them enough
they won't be able to micromanage our lives.

You should talk to Alex the Chick. I think she's had maybe one or two tiny thoughts along these lines.

Posted by: Weirddave at July 03, 2015 11:47 AM (WvS3w)

30 Thanks for the list. As for "...has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country", don't think I've done that one yet. brb...

Posted by: Barky McDouche at July 03, 2015 11:50 AM (FcR7P)

31 Politician: Would you like me to take stuff from that person over there and give it to you?

Voter: Hey, sure!

Thus ends America.

Posted by: Bat Chain Puller at July 03, 2015 11:57 AM (SCcgT)

32

The birthright. Your birthright. My birthright. OUR BIRTHRIGHT.

They. Can. Not. Take. Our. Birthright. Away.

Liberal Ruling Elite: ummm..yeah sure, tell that to the commissar at the gate of your reeducation camp

Posted by: TheQuietMan at July 03, 2015 11:57 AM (DiZBp)

33 Hey anyone who skipped out of the last thread. Richard has a history lesson for us, very well written.

Posted by: JohnnyBoy at July 03, 2015 11:58 AM (KG0mU)

34 Liberal Ruling Elite: ummm..yeah sure, tell that to the commissar at the gate of your reeducation camp

It's still your birthright.

Posted by: Weirddave at July 03, 2015 11:58 AM (WvS3w)

35 Well, to start with, I suggest that we read the text of the Declaration of Independence in its entirety.

LIV: Dude, like, that's like really long and stuff. Can't you just tweet something really simple like, lovewins?

Posted by: TheQuietMan at July 03, 2015 12:00 PM (DiZBp)

36 Demand your Congressman and Senator return home.

Hit the Empire in the testicles of its pretend legitimacy.

Posted by: eman at July 03, 2015 12:00 PM (MQEz6)

37 So if we elect Trump that'll fix this, right?

Posted by: blaster at July 03, 2015 12:00 PM (2Ocf1)

38 When my grandfather died, my father's father, I got his broken Bulova watch. That was my inheritance.

I think my father's last girl friend took it.

Posted by: Tommy Linkbetter at July 03, 2015 12:00 PM (264d5)

39 In short, we've reverted to the norm. American exceptionalism is dead because America isn't exceptional anymore, we're just like all the rest of the countries in the world, just like all the rest of the countries throughout history. We are no longer sovereign citizens, we're are subjects of a ruling elite.

That is exactly correct, and there's no debate about it.

Posted by: rickl at July 03, 2015 12:00 PM (sdi6R)

40 What can't continue won't.

Our elected representative have traded their responsibilities to represent us and traded them for titles of nobility.

Our nations capital and the many cities have decided to vote themselves the property of others, thus taking under the guise of democracy what should be untakable.

I pray to God that the coming divorce can be done with redrawn maps and new constitutions. I fear for worse.

Posted by: James at July 03, 2015 12:00 PM (9ui3c)

41 29 I have a panacea for fixing the government. Eliminate the power agencies
have to promulgate punative rules and regulations. If the government
wants to force your toilet paper to be at a certain height, let congress
pass the law and the president sign. That will encumber them enough
they won't be able to micromanage our lives.

You should talk to Alex the Chick. I think she's had maybe one or two tiny thoughts along these lines.
Posted by: Weirddave at July 03, 2015 11:47 AM (WvS3w)

If you had that kind of power, why would you use it so weakly?

Posted by: eman at July 03, 2015 12:02 PM (MQEz6)

42 however much i might agree with the substance of your post, the thought does arise: haven't there been other times the same might have been said such as the 19th century with its robber barons and politicians who wear "GOV" on their coats?

Posted by: steinmetz at July 03, 2015 12:03 PM (CrYC8)

43
No worries, dude. We'll save you.

Posted by: GOP at July 03, 2015 12:04 PM (1Y+hH)

44 36 Demand your Congressman and Senator return home.

Hit the Empire in the testicles of its pretend legitimacy.�

Posted by: eman
----------------------------

and then give them each a copy of the Constitution. Make them read it. Take the time to explain it to them, if necessary.

Posted by: Chi at July 03, 2015 12:07 PM (LbjC3)

45 The DOI was signed about a year after the Rebellion started.

So far our farts have not been heard 'round the World.

Posted by: eman at July 03, 2015 12:07 PM (MQEz6)

46 When my father died, my sister got his Army Air Corp medals from WWII. She gave them to her oldest daughter, and she pawned them for drug money.

Posted by: Tommy Linkbetter at July 03, 2015 12:07 PM (264d5)

47 What do you need?

"Guns. Lots of guns."

When the Left destroys America at least you'll have a "vote" in what comes next.

Posted by: doesky2 at July 03, 2015 12:08 PM (haVve)

48 however much i might agree with the substance of your post, the thought does arise: haven't there been other times the same might have been said such as the 19th century with its robber barons and politicians who wear "GOV" on their coats?

The so called "robber barons" weren't anything of the kind. They were, in fact, the exact thing that the American system was set up to produce, and they benefited the entire country immeasurably. I suggest this book for more reading on the subject:

http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/0963020315

The Myth of the Robber Barons: A New Look at the Rise of Big Business in America

Posted by: Weirddave at July 03, 2015 12:08 PM (WvS3w)

49 They. Can. Not. Take. Our. Birthright. Away.

They DID.

The only way we can take it back is to kill them.

Full stop.

The only way for rational and civilized men to deal with tyrants is to kill them in cold blood. Nothing else will suffice.

Posted by: rickl at July 03, 2015 12:08 PM (sdi6R)

50 I agree about the birthright, but this past week didn't change anything. The USSC has been rewriting the constitution, bit by bit, since at least FDR. See the history of the commerce clause in the New Deal.

The answer is a convention of states.

Happy 4th!

Posted by: meh at July 03, 2015 12:09 PM (bxe9a)

51 See the history of the commerce clause in the New Deal.

Would that be Wickard v Filburn, which I mentioned in the OP?

Posted by: Weirddave at July 03, 2015 12:11 PM (WvS3w)

52 The Constitution has been turned into a weapon against Liberty.

No solution can be found in it.

Posted by: eman at July 03, 2015 12:12 PM (MQEz6)

53 Alea Jacta Est.

Posted by: Country Singer at July 03, 2015 12:12 PM (nL0sw)

54
Beyond birthright, they're also good at taking away millions of births outright.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at July 03, 2015 12:12 PM (St6BJ)

55 Weird Dave enstompened the Boss. Do I do the post-round-of-layoffs eyes-to-the-floor shuffle in the break room? Like the wildebeests do after the lions come?

Posted by: Bob's House of Flannel Shirts and Wallet Chains at July 03, 2015 12:13 PM (yxw0r)

56 Posted by: Chi at July 03, 2015 12:07 PM (LbjC3)

No.

That would be useless.

Every day they stay in D.C. they serve the Empire.

Posted by: eman at July 03, 2015 12:14 PM (MQEz6)

57 This will surely appeal to ovo-lacto libertarians.

Posted by: Dr. Varno at July 03, 2015 12:14 PM (TF10X)

58 Birthright=Cuban with a dry foot.

Posted by: Boss Moss at July 03, 2015 12:15 PM (wvq55)

59 The final nail was the USSC ruling that states can not ask for proof of citizenship from voters.

Fucked we are, fuck them, last fucking straw for me. I'm going native.

Posted by: Gmac- 'all politics in this country now is dress-rehearsal for civil war' at July 03, 2015 12:18 PM (4CRfK)

60 Birth right, that would be what Chelsea Clinton has, right? The inherited right to be President of the United States?

Posted by: Tommy Linkbetter at July 03, 2015 12:18 PM (264d5)

61 Birthright? Oregon to Christian bakery, an officially and "legally" binding:
STFU, XIANS!!

Posted by: OK, Thanks, Bye at July 03, 2015 12:18 PM (ucB75)

62 The so called "robber barons" weren't anything of the kind. They were, in fact, the exact thing that the American system was set up to produce, and they benefited the entire country immeasurably. I suggest this book for more reading on the subject:

http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/0963020315

The Myth of the Robber Barons: A New Look at the Rise of Big Business in America
Posted by: Weirddave at July 03, 2015 12:08 PM (WvS3w)

The aging hippies, in all of their early onset technicolor senility, still pound that drum.

Millennials think you're talking about a pizza.

*facepalm*

Posted by: 98ZJUSMC Staring at the Lake in the rain at July 03, 2015 12:18 PM (CFcIt)

63 Coolidge cut Imperial spending in half.

Posted by: Boss Moss at July 03, 2015 12:20 PM (wvq55)

64 Let's see if I can mishmash this one up bad enough.

WD writes very eloquently about the concept of birthright.
Birthright is not too far from the concept of God Given inalienable Rights.

Which then takes us to the Second Amendment.

Which then brings us to me finding Fiocci 9mm FMJ at less then .20 per rd....shipped.

If I did it right, and I have never done it before, the link should be in my Nic

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at July 03, 2015 12:22 PM (VPLuQ)

65
The Court has spoken. Setteled law.

Now is the time to move on to more important issues, like renewing the Import-Export Bank.

Posted by: The GOP

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at July 03, 2015 12:24 PM (kdS6q)

66 OT Bleg: if any of you morons has a Barnes and Noble account, are you able to sign in? I have tried IE, Chrome, and PM and am unable to do so. Every time I click on the 'Sign In' link, the entire page goes dark, as if it is waiting for another window, but then nothing else happens.

Help? Thanks.

Posted by: OregonMuse at July 03, 2015 12:24 PM (u07AL)

67 I wonder how the camps will start. Will they sweep in with voter registration lists, internet logs, and firearms background check lists, neighborhood by neighborhood? Or will it be snatch-and grabs? Will they just tell us where to go, and we'll line up like good sheep? Happy fourth everybody.

Posted by: Agent J at July 03, 2015 12:24 PM (VPncT)

68 Remember what happens when you sell your birthright, yo.

Posted by: Brother Cavil, by the Pale Moon light at July 03, 2015 12:24 PM (m9V0o)

69 Coolidge cut Imperial spending in half.

With all due respect to Reagan, I think Coolidge was our last kick-ass Republican president.

Posted by: OregonMuse at July 03, 2015 12:26 PM (u07AL)

70 In honor of our national holiday tomorrow, a cautionary miscellany on liberty and freedom:

Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car or another television set. - Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) ("Putting First Things First," in Foreign Affairs, January 1960)

The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations. - Edmund Burke (1729-1797) (Reflections on the Revolution in France)

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) (Man and Superman, "Maxims for Revolutionists:Liberty and Equality")

The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do. It is freedom to refrain, withdraw, and abstain which makes a totalitarian regime impossible. - Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) (The Passionate State of Mind, aph. 176)

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

When liberty is mentioned, we must always be careful to observe whether it is not the assertion of private interests which is thereby designated. - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

I sometimes think that the price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt.- George Orwell (1903-1950)

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. - Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) (Inaugural Address, 20 January 1953)

The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.- Walt Whitman (1819-1897)

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at July 03, 2015 12:27 PM (9mTYi)

71 " I wonder how the camps will start."

It will start with one guy accused of a crime. He will be arrested and his known associates will be investigated. The known associates will be accused of crimes and their known associates will be investigated.

It will spread, like ink blots, until everyone not a reliable party member has been arrested. That is how you create a utopia.

At least, that is the historical model.

Posted by: Tommy Linkbetter at July 03, 2015 12:28 PM (264d5)

72 Good luck filling the stands with teh gays, France.

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Posted by: Jim at July 03, 2015 11:22 AM (RzZOc)

Jim, you forgot Digger, the cartoon gopher that Nascar broadcast in 10 minute cartoon segments during pre race coverage. And who was inserted into racing coverage as a cartoon gopher who popped out of the track and then jumped back in when the cars ran over him.....

That lasted only one or two season due to the incredible amounts of complaints. But it demonstrated the 1. overwhelming commericalism priority Nascar has 2. infantilism of it's corporate designers.

Posted by: Jen the original at July 03, 2015 12:30 PM (WV80V)

73 " I wonder how the camps will start."
-------------------------

* scribbles down names *

Posted by: Bob, at NSA at July 03, 2015 12:30 PM (9mTYi)

74 The smoker is covered. There won't be hotdogs or apple pie. The fireworks won't be bought. The flag is still up, but then it always is. For now.

Posted by: Mr. Mxyzptlk at July 03, 2015 12:31 PM (kHJ3a)

75 Gotta look at the bright side look at how much happier corporations now are since they have been virtually included as citizens
Hurrah for 'merica
Home of the brave land of the corporations

Posted by: Righter at July 03, 2015 12:32 PM (r6HrP)

76 "The time has come. We must answer that question with our Lives, our Fortune and our sacred Honor."

Just keep voting Republican and everything will be fine. After they have the Presidency and the Congress for 30 years or so, they'll have the Supreme Court back, and then they'll fight the Second American Revolution for us.

/sarc

WD's right - the time for choosing has come and gone, and America, like Europe, chose statism and security over freedom and prosperity. Too many of us were willing to trade "a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage." Too many wanted Free Stuff, many more didn't care enough to get informed or vote. We're already in the American Principate. Our Republic died by "pennies and smiles" rather than Rome's civil wars - penstrokes and handshakes in corridors of power by men beyond accountability or scrutiny. We did this to ourselves.

This is the first 4th of July that I'm going to lament rather than celebrate because that truth needs to sink in.

Starting in 2016, I'd like to celebrate it as a birthday. I'd like to hear the angry voice of a newborn third party that dares to say these things out loud, like a child that has yet to learn its "manners." A third party that asks impertinent questions like a child, that demands answers as to why things are they way they are like a child. That wants to change things for the better, like a child, not accepting that "that's the way things are" without a damned good reason. That childish enthusiasm and naivete has to be tempered, though. Conservatives in particular need to be the guiding parents of that child - to keep the third party from making mistakes of impatience and over-enthusiasm, to keep it in the right company and keep disreputable "friends" away.

It will take many years, a whole childhood's worth, to raise that party up to take on the world. We won't be winning elections in 2018, maybe local and state in 2020, but by 2028, we might shoot for holding Congressional seats.

It's a thankless task for which we'll be ridiculed, hated and smeared by both Democrats and Republicans. Christians know the drill already. Those in the Tea Party know the drill already. After this weekend's lament, time to get to it.

Posted by: SocietyIs2Blame at July 03, 2015 12:33 PM (WIOql)

77 I didn't mean to destroy the constitution. I was just buzzed.

Posted by: Just buzzed PSA at July 03, 2015 12:33 PM (W5DcG)

78 I was in a small tourist community in Idaho this last week, set above a lake. The town is named after its founders--a farming couple who were pictured in stoic pioneer garb on a plaque. It said, "the so-and-so couple were model citizens". Model citizens. We don't even know what that is anymore. We only know that a model citizen twitches and jerks with every electric prod of Progressivism.

Posted by: Beanerschnitzel at July 03, 2015 12:33 PM (8d63Z)

79 Bad Luck.

Posted by: Robert Heinlein at July 03, 2015 12:33 PM (b0Fva)

80
Youre already in a camp, bro.

We're all being "home-reeducated" and most people dont even realize it.

Posted by: Soothsayer at July 03, 2015 12:34 PM (0lw2Y)

81 Buy your guns, ammo, reloading gear, and supplies while you can.

Posted by: OCBill at July 03, 2015 12:34 PM (VCCXE)

82 "* scribbles down names *
Posted by: Bob, at NSA"

Hello, Bob!

Posted by: Billy the Kid at July 03, 2015 12:35 PM (VXYfi)

83
66 OT Bleg: if any of you morons has a Barnes and Noble account, are you able to sign in? I have tried IE, Chrome, and PM and am unable to do so. Every time I click on the 'Sign In' link, the entire page goes dark, as if it is waiting for another window, but then nothing else happens.

Help? Thanks.

Posted by: OregonMuse at July 03, 2015 12:24 PM (u07AL)

************

OM, I tried to get on the regular Barnes and Nobel dot com site several times earlier this week to look for store location information using IE on a PC and Safari on a Mac and couldn't get on.

Thought it seemed strange. Now it seems stranger.

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at July 03, 2015 12:35 PM (NqQAS)

84 "We are no longer sovereign citizens, we're are subjects of a ruling elite."

Yup. And they don't like you. In fact, they are importing millions of semi-literate parasites in to replace you and yours as they devour the rest of your assets and liberties.

Tree of liberty needs watering.

Posted by: Buckeye Abroad at July 03, 2015 12:35 PM (R0zw4)

85 So to get the conversation started, we put a coffin on a horse drawn cart with the sign "USA-RIP" tacked to the coffin and march in the local 4th of July parade. Undoubtedly, we shall be arrested for not having submitted a master remediation plan to the EPA for any and all horse emissions. Oh, we shoveled and mopped up just fine. It's the lack of an officially sanctioned plan.

Posted by: Man from Wazzustan at July 03, 2015 12:37 PM (uPxUo)

86 About birthright, I'll be re-posting this from time to time.

"Was Du Erebt von Deinen Vaetern hast, erwirb es, um es zu besitzen" - Goethe

"What you have inherited from your forefathers you must earn before possessing."

Duties, responsibilities..., stuff like that.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at July 03, 2015 12:38 PM (9mTYi)

87 @67
They will not come for you in the dead of night.

They will cancel your car insurance if you have been convicted of Hate Thought and DMV will send you a notice for return of your plates.

If you have not checked off parental participation the Transgender Studies Pre-K program, your daughter cannot remain enrolled in school.

You will be taxed by the mile in your GPS equipped vegetable-oil/ethanol hybrid, in which exceeding the speed limit by 3 mph will result in an automatically generated ticket.

You will have to disclose any mental health treatment or marriage counseling in your new Federal Health History form, on which omitting information will be a Federal offense.

Your physician will of course have to report any mental health treatment or marriage counseling to the ATF, which will result in automatic suspension of your federal firearms permit for at least two years, subject to judicial review after that period.

Begin to get the picture?

Posted by: NYC Parent packing for the burbs at July 03, 2015 12:39 PM (jLTYI)

88 I've said for a long time that you have no rights but those which you have the means to defend.

We can enumerate them, we can describe them, we can wax philosophical about them; but unless we have the means - and use those means - to defend them, they do not practically exist.

Posted by: Fishie at July 03, 2015 12:39 PM (iy2lM)

89 The problem we face right now is that after demolishing the basic shared traditional ethical and religious structure of the United States, the left put us in a situation where there was no such shared structure. They de-boned the United States and expect it to stand.

So now they're imposing their faith system, their ethical structure by government command. They have a system of virtues and values that they believe are best; we all do. But instead of persuasion and winning people over, they're just forcing their religion on all of us. Its a perpetual violation of the 1st amendment protections from a state religion, backdoored in because they pretend its not a faith based issue at all.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at July 03, 2015 12:39 PM (39g3+)

90 OM, I tried to get on the regular Barnes and Nobel dot com site several times earlier this week to look for store location information using IE on a PC and Safari on a Mac and couldn't get on.
Thought it seemed strange. Now it seems stranger.

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at July 03, 2015 12:35 PM (NqQAS)

Thank you, Elinor, I tried it again just now and it appears to be working fine, I was able to sign on OK. You should try it now.

Maybe there's some site issues they're trying to resolve.

Posted by: OregonMuse at July 03, 2015 12:41 PM (u07AL)

91 The process began in the Sixties. All things American was denigrated. It started in the school system primarily. The Democrat party furthered things by being taken over by far Leftists. The people became comfortable with Socialism.
We are a Socialist country now, and personal liberty is defined by the central government. The judicial system makes our laws. Dave is right. The old America is dead. If you are not on board with the new Socialist America, you are a minority, marginalized, and there will be hell to pay in you get too far out of line.

Posted by: kraken at July 03, 2015 12:42 PM (sdxPm)

92 The Detroit Lions are having a Buttfuck Mafia Pride event this year. And it isn't even the week they play the Chicago Bears this year.

Posted by: Boss Moss at July 03, 2015 12:44 PM (wvq55)

93 I've got a birthright here. Who has a bowl of porridge?

Posted by: The Great White Snark at July 03, 2015 12:44 PM (K7U8V)

94 there is a difference between statism and being "subjects of a ruling elite" and oligarchs.

otherwise, are you telling me "blazing saddles" wasn't a documentary?

Posted by: steinmetz at July 03, 2015 12:44 PM (CrYC8)

95 And appropriately, this just arrived at my house (glad I was off work today to be here when it showed up):

http://tinyurl.com/pqf9o5p

Posted by: Country Singer at July 03, 2015 12:45 PM (nL0sw)

96
The Left already runs your life. The way you talk. The car you drive. The products you buy. Your health care. The bullshit in your homes such as little toilets and CO detectors. They way you think.

Independence, my ass.

Posted by: Soothsayer at July 03, 2015 12:49 PM (0lw2Y)

97 I may remember the America That Was this weekend. I cannot in good conscience celebrate the America That Is.

Posted by: Captain Whitebread (Face For Radio, Voice For Print) at July 03, 2015 12:49 PM (rJUlF)

98 The Detroit Lions are having a Buttfuck Mafia Pride
event this year. And it isn't even the week they play the Chicago Bears
this year.

Posted by: Boss Moss at July 03, 2015 12:44 PM (wvq55)

Are they going to hire Michael Sam?

Posted by: TheQuietMan at July 03, 2015 12:50 PM (DiZBp)

99 "What you have inherited from your forefathers you must earn before possessing."

Exactly. Liberty and the benefits of the nation we were given by the founding fathers, that's not something we get for free or inherit without effort. Its something we have to cultivate, nurture, and even fight for.

And for generations, we haven't. We've taken it for granted, not learned what is important about liberty, understood what it takes to have it, and we're paying the price.

Yes, even the "greatest generation." They didn't learn the basic truths of the founders, they didn't study or understand liberty and the principles of it all. That's why when the boomers grew up they asked questions about it all that their leftist teachers were filling them full of... and their parents had no answers.

We need to know and understand these truths, this idea of life, these concepts, and be ready to pass them on, and more than that pass on the need to know and understand so that they can be taught to another generation. That's why we lost it all.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at July 03, 2015 12:50 PM (39g3+)

100 i95 And appropriately, this just arrived at my house (glad I was off work today to be here when it showed up):

http://tinyurl.com/pqf9o5p

That's a dangerously subversive book, citizen.

Posted by: OregonMuse at July 03, 2015 12:51 PM (u07AL)

101
....the candidates you support. To wit, Donald Trump.

The leftist-fascist media TOLD YOU Trump was no good, and implicitly warned you that if support or agree with Trump then youre also no good and must be cast out.

Posted by: Soothsayer at July 03, 2015 12:51 PM (0lw2Y)

102 Are they going to hire Michael Sam?

Posted by: TheQuietMan at July 03, 2015 12:50 PM (DiZBp)
He's the queen of the parade.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at July 03, 2015 12:51 PM (oKE6c)

103 100 Never heard of that one.

Posted by: Boss Moss at July 03, 2015 12:52 PM (wvq55)

104 The Mariners do these events regularly: don't be mean to homosexuals, stop child abuse, yadda yadda. Just play the game guys. Stop with the BS community events and activist trash. Your team sucks. Focus on that, not the latest Seattle trendy cause.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at July 03, 2015 12:52 PM (39g3+)

105 Since we now know that voting won't change anything, what should we do?

Posted by: Cloyd Freud, Unemployed at July 03, 2015 12:53 PM (YFw5T)

106 The process began in the Sixties. All things
American was denigrated. It started in the school system primarily. The
Democrat party furthered things by being taken over by far Leftists. The
people became comfortable with Socialism.

We are a Socialist country now, and personal liberty is defined by
the central government. The judicial system makes our laws. Dave is
right. The old America is dead. If you are not on board with the new
Socialist America, you are a minority, marginalized, and there will be
hell to pay in you get too far out of line.

Posted by: kraken at July 03, 2015 12:42 PM (sdxPm)

It started well before that. The commies were in the government with FDR in the 1930s and had been infiltrating schools mostly universities around then too. William F. Buckley's book God, Man and Yale. He was calling out the commie professors in the 40s and early 50s.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at July 03, 2015 12:53 PM (DiZBp)

107
96
The Left already runs your life. The way you talk. The car you drive. The products you buy. Your health care. The bullshit in your homes such as little toilets and CO detectors. They way you think.

Independence, my ass.
Posted by: Soothsayer at July 03, 2015 12:49 PM (0lw2Y)

Yep. The brainwashing that 50 years of Leftist "education" achieved made the masses compliant and ready for Hard core Socialism.

Posted by: kraken at July 03, 2015 12:53 PM (sdxPm)

108 26 A one man assault on a fixed position with bayonet would only result in my own useless death on the steps of the Capitol Building.
I need atomic artillery and air cover.
Posted by: Jump Boot Jimmy at July 03, 2015 11:16 AM (zuBg2)

Pussy.

Posted by: Brian "Blood'n'Guts" Williams at July 03, 2015 12:54 PM (oKE6c)

109 Toilets with enough water flow and lightbulbs that actually give off enough light were banned.

Posted by: Boss Moss at July 03, 2015 12:55 PM (wvq55)

110 I've got a birthright here. Who has a bowl of porridge?

Posted by: The Great White Snark at July 03, 2015 12:44 PM

Starting roughly two weeks ago, I no longer believe we have any sort of "birthright," at least not as the Founders envisioned.

We have the right to march in lockstep in favor of the latest politically correct fad, but woe betide the fool who has a differing view. If you're in Oregon and oppose SSM, for example, you have no right to say so. Hell, you no longer have the right to think the way you do.

We have the right to put our safety in the hands of an America-hating, Muzzie-loving traitor. We have the right to do what he commands, too. We have the right to surrender our possessions and labor to Oppressed Minorities, but of course no right to criticize them when they want to steal even more.

Sorry, Weirddave. Your heart's in the right place, but you are not facing the reality of 21st-Century America. The savages have won, and are legally free -- the highest Court in the land says so -- to impose their will on you. I expect they will be free to take our lives next. All in the name of "fairness."

Posted by: MrScribbler at July 03, 2015 12:56 PM (P8YHq)

111 I went to Yahoo Canada and they nicely tied two AoS threads together with a link to VOX: "Canada is better than America in at least 7 ways."

They left out the human rights tribunals and all of the ways I could potentially get in trouble trying to defend myself or my property.

Posted by: Stateless Infidel at July 03, 2015 12:56 PM (AC0lD)

112 Speaking of Birthrights I lost my lucky comb.

Posted by: Boss Moss at July 03, 2015 12:57 PM (wvq55)

113 @110
Next?

Posted by: Officer Wilson at July 03, 2015 12:57 PM (jLTYI)

114
105 Since we now know that voting won't change anything, what should we do?
Posted by: Cloyd Freud, Unemployed at July 03, 2015 12:53 PM (YFw5T)

There are still too many people who think they can use the system to fix the system.

When a critical number of them realize they have been wrong then your question can be answered.

Posted by: eman at July 03, 2015 12:58 PM (MQEz6)

115 "ACLU: not allowing serious sex offenders to attend churches with attached schools is an undue burden on religious rights."

http://tinyurl.com/pufowjg

Common-sense, universal, mandatory sodomy for the kids!

(and you think I've been kidding about this Modest Proposal lurking around the corner?)

Posted by: OK, Thanks, Bye at July 03, 2015 12:58 PM (ucB75)

116 No Child Left Alone.

Posted by: Boss Moss at July 03, 2015 01:00 PM (wvq55)

117 Leave no child's behind.

Posted by: OK, Thanks, Bye at July 03, 2015 01:01 PM (ucB75)

118
Wait, I thought Jacob got Esau's birthright for a bowl of lentil soup?

Where's my rabbi?

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at July 03, 2015 01:01 PM (St6BJ)

119 Since we now know that voting won't change anything, what should we do?

Teach your children well. Live a virtuous, proper life of working hard. Try to influence your neighbors, local councils, local government. Be self reliant and avoid the left's dictates wherever possible.

And if, God forbid, this nation ever gets to the point where the jackboots kick on your door to take you away; resist. Immediately, violently, and constantly. Everyone. Don't go quietly assuming the worst will not happen. Assume the worst and never go quietly.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at July 03, 2015 01:01 PM (39g3+)

120 87 Bingo.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone.

Posted by: Weasel at July 03, 2015 01:02 PM (e3bId)

121 118 Ask Alice.

Posted by: Boss Moss at July 03, 2015 01:02 PM (wvq55)

122 @111
Have you ever seen the video of Ezra Levant being questioned at deposition by the Canadian Human Rights Commissar?
Absolutely mandatory, blood chilling and sack contracting viewing.

Posted by: NYC Parent packing for the burbs at July 03, 2015 01:03 PM (jLTYI)

123 Next?

Posted by: Officer Wilson at July 03, 2015 12:57 PM

I posted earlier in the week about someone else's post I saw on Facebook. It was a photo of Choom Boy, under which (paraphrasing) it said: "Anyone who opposes the President and wants him to fail is a TRAITOR."

It would come as no surprise to me to see this appear in public places, in post offices and on PSAs in the near future. I would further be unsurprised to see its command being enforced by bands of baseball-bat-wielding thugs.

Posted by: MrScribbler at July 03, 2015 01:03 PM (P8YHq)

124 123 Posted by: MrScribbler at July 03, 2015 01:03 PM (P8YHq)

If it means opposing this madness, then I'll gladly wear the moniker of "traitor" and proudly.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at July 03, 2015 01:04 PM (St6BJ)

125
OBEY.

Posted by: Soothsayer at July 03, 2015 01:05 PM (0lw2Y)

126 114 Yep. I suspect in large part many cling to the notion of voting our way out of this mess because for them the alternative - that this will get worse - is simply too unpleasant to contemplate.

Posted by: Weasel at July 03, 2015 01:05 PM (e3bId)

127 "Gadson"

It's "Gadsden", WD. Typos happen.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 03, 2015 01:05 PM (bUcRA)

128 I posted earlier in the week about someone else's
post I saw on Facebook. It was a photo of Choom Boy, under which
(paraphrasing) it said: "Anyone who opposes the President and wants him
to fail is a TRAITOR."

It would come as no surprise to me to see
this appear in public places, in post offices and on PSAs in the near
future. I would further be unsurprised to see its command being enforced
by bands of baseball-bat-wielding thugs.

Posted by: MrScribbler at July 03, 2015 01:03 PM (P8YHq)

Dissent is the highest form of ...

Posted by: TheQuietMan at July 03, 2015 01:05 PM (DiZBp)

129 125
OBEY.
Posted by: Soothsayer at July 03, 2015 01:05 PM (0lw2Y)

I like Obay seasoning on my corn. Or is that Old Bay?

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at July 03, 2015 01:06 PM (St6BJ)

130 "Wait, I thought Jacob got Esau's birthright for a bowl of lentil soup? "

The Christian Camps taught us children that Joseph was [sotto voce] sold into slavery by his brothers.

[normal happy happy joy joy voice]
And Joseph went to Egypt where he became famous and led his people out of slavery back to the promised land where Joseph did the Christian Thing and forgave his brothers, and they all lived happily ever after.

(It was a long time ago, and I'm working from memory here.)

Posted by: Tommy Linkbetter at July 03, 2015 01:06 PM (264d5)

131 I posted earlier in the week about someone else's

post I saw on Facebook. It was a photo of Choom Boy, under which

(paraphrasing) it said: "Anyone who opposes the President and wants him

to fail is a TRAITOR."

Replace Choom Boy with a photo of W and post that.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at July 03, 2015 01:06 PM (oKE6c)

132 A few years ago folks here discussed how to take the House and Senate and all the mighty things that would get done.

Ha! times 100.

Still, the ember of silliness has not fully died out.

Posted by: eman at July 03, 2015 01:07 PM (MQEz6)

133 LIV: Dude, like, that's like really long and stuff. Can't you just tweet something really simple like, lovewins?

If it doesn't fit on my phone screen, it's really not important.../s

Posted by: Colin at July 03, 2015 01:07 PM (WQLtV)

134 I expect they will be free to take our lives next.

Will you go quietly into that good night?

You imagine I see some route back to the America that once was*. I do not. I'm expecting dissolution and hope that in some fragment of what was once the USA we can recreate what made it great in the first place.

*Short term. Long term I actually can see a faint possibility, far beyond my lifetime. Simply put, if the US splits into two ideological blocks, our will be successful while theirs will be an utter disaster. I can see parts of theirs eventually breaking off to join ours. 500 years from now we might be back in the USA.

Posted by: Weirddave at July 03, 2015 01:07 PM (WvS3w)

135 Isn't that what the matador says?

Posted by: Boss Moss at July 03, 2015 01:07 PM (wvq55)

136 "The 22-year-old was part of a team that was setting up the stationary robot when it grabbed and crushed him against a metal plate."

"Initial conclusions indicate that human error was to blame, rather than a problem with the robot, which can be programmed to perform various tasks in the assembly process. He said it normally operates within a confined area at the plant, grabbing auto parts and manipulating them."

Industrial Park Rangers were called in to put the robot down.

Posted by: Brethren of the Common Life at July 03, 2015 01:07 PM (/dbGi)

137
Butter goes on corn.

Posted by: Soothsayer at July 03, 2015 01:08 PM (0lw2Y)

138 If it means opposing this madness, then I'll gladly wear the moniker of "traitor" and proudly.
Posted by: J.J. Sefton at July 03, 2015 01:04 PM

The victors are apparently allowed to define words as they see fit.

If you are a "traitor," JJ, so am I, and so were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Barry Goldwater and Georgie Patton.

Posted by: MrScribbler at July 03, 2015 01:08 PM (P8YHq)

139 Since we now know that voting won't change anything, what should we do?

-----

Teach your children well.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at July 03, 2015 01:01 PM (39g3+)

https://youtu.be/sxfkD8UxhEU

Posted by: Country Singer at July 03, 2015 01:08 PM (nL0sw)

140 *Short term. Long term I actually can see a faint
possibility, far beyond my lifetime. Simply put, if the US splits into
two ideological blocks, our will be successful while theirs will be an
utter disaster. I can see parts of theirs eventually breaking off to
join ours. 500 years from now we might be back in the USA.

Posted by: Weirddave at July 03, 2015 01:07 PM (WvS3w)
Increasingly I think we're living in 1935 Spain.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at July 03, 2015 01:08 PM (oKE6c)

141 Recycled from last night's thread and obviously not mine, but these are thoughts worth revisiting!

And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to
make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!

If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more, we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.

~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Posted by: Hrothgar at July 03, 2015 01:08 PM (ftVQq)

142
Buttah.

Posted by: Soothsayer at July 03, 2015 01:08 PM (0lw2Y)

143 136 Industrial Park Rangers were called in to put the robot down.
Posted by: Brethren of the Common Life at July 03, 2015 01:07 PM (/dbGi)

Looks like he had a bad motivator.

(**sings "Daisy" at a slower and slower pace**)

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at July 03, 2015 01:09 PM (St6BJ)

144 If it means opposing this madness, then I'll gladly wear the moniker of "traitor" and proudly.
Posted by: J.J. Sefton at July 03, 2015 01:04 PM

The fascinating thing is that the leftists DO recognize the concept of treason.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at July 03, 2015 01:10 PM (oKE6c)

145 138 If you are a "traitor," JJ, so am I, and so were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Barry Goldwater and Georgie Patton.
Posted by: MrScribbler at July 03, 2015 01:08 PM (P8YHq)

"Welcome to the camp,
I guess you know why we're here. . ."

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at July 03, 2015 01:10 PM (St6BJ)

146 Don't they have restraining bolts yet?

Posted by: Boss Moss at July 03, 2015 01:10 PM (wvq55)

147 It's "Gadsden", WD. Typos happen.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 03, 2015 01:05 PM (bUcRA)

Fixed, thx

Posted by: Weirddave at July 03, 2015 01:10 PM (WvS3w)

148 The new, abbreviated Constitution:

Oh, you're gonna HATE Thursdays.

Posted by: Cloyd Freud, Unemployed at July 03, 2015 01:11 PM (YFw5T)

149 The Declaration didn't say that the republic is over when it is threatened by an abominable manifestation of government. It even says what you need to do in the event this happens. Its times of threat that people rise to the occasion. I'm a Canadian but I have confidence that the necessary American leaders will arise, and that more so, some of them already have. Some of them may even be reading this.

If you don't mind my saying, some systems definitely need a reset. Even some Supreme Court Justices admit its messed up.

Posted by: Dirks Strewn at July 03, 2015 01:13 PM (QdAXQ)

150 Just got back from running errands and saw a women in a large honda pilot hit 2 cars trying to park. I was amazed. Even drunk I would only hit one

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 03, 2015 01:13 PM (/tNwW)

151 Simply put, if the US splits into two ideological
blocks, our will be successful while theirs will be an utter disaster. I
can see parts of theirs eventually breaking off to join ours. 500 years
from now we might be back in the USA.

Posted by: Weirddave at July 03, 2015 01:07 PM

The split has occurred, just not yet on paper. The only major difference is that "their" side has taken for itself the right to govern "our" side as well as their own. Which, in essence, means we are protecting them from the consequences of their self-created disaster.

Other than that, you're right on, Wd.

Posted by: MrScribbler at July 03, 2015 01:13 PM (P8YHq)

152 Industrial Park Rangers were called in to put the robot down.
Posted by: Brethren
------------

Well, I hope that they are careful. Two weeks ago, the local National Park Rangers killed the wrong bear after an attack.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at July 03, 2015 01:14 PM (9mTYi)

153 "We are no longer sovereign citizens, we're are subjects of a ruling elite."

The corollary to which being Kevin Williamson's observation that "we are ruled by criminals".

It would be one thing if the elite were competent and personally disinterested. Elites of that sort have built and maintained great countries. Instead, we have an elite who are incompetent and focused on personal gain. And who have wrecked the country.

Posted by: torquewrench at July 03, 2015 01:15 PM (noWW6)

154 152-

Rangers:"Ooops"

The bear was unavailable for comment.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at July 03, 2015 01:15 PM (9mTYi)

155 Stop being afraid.

Posted by: eman at July 03, 2015 01:15 PM (MQEz6)

156 128 unaccompanied illegal immigrant children apprehended daily.

Posted by: Boss Moss at July 03, 2015 01:16 PM (wvq55)

157 "It started well before that. The commies were in the government with FDR
in the 1930s and had been infiltrating schools mostly universities
around then too."

Charles Murray's latest book covers this in detail. From what I've learned from numerous sources, it started in the late 1800's with the Progressive movement in Germany which jumped the pond and infected our schools. Wilson usually gets the nod from Beck et al as the first Progressive President, but Teddy Roosevelt was the first who saw a domestically activist, foreign interventionist government as a good thing and didn't much care for rules restricting his authority. Wilson got the ball rolling but his project stalled until FDR. Murray does a great job covering how FDR's SCOTUS, under threat of being packed with double its membership*, kicked out most of the stops on government power, allowing FDR to found the welfare state and leaving the 1950's - 1960's Progs an open playing field of precedent on which to erect the Great Society, Affirmative Action/Reparations, Inc. etc....

Breitbart's Righteous Indignation covers the 1930's "Cultural Marxism" which came once again from Germany and re-infected our schools.

Academia has always fed this beast first, whose students then filter into the media and Thought Leader positions, then the pols cash in. That's why schools are the first head on this hydra I'd look to deal with.

* BTW - if FDR could pack the court in the 1930's why can't a GOP Prez threaten to do so now? It would point out the farcical extra-Constitutional nature of judicial review as constituted. On his way out in 2024, President Walker appoints 9 more conservatives. Then President Transexual on inauguration appoints 36 more liberals, ad absurdum. It would force a constitutional crisis, shred the phony legitimacy of the Supreme Court, and leave the door open to an amendment dealing with SCOTUS and judicial review.

Posted by: SocietyIs2Blame at July 03, 2015 01:16 PM (WIOql)

158 150 Just got back from running errands and saw a women in a large honda pilot hit 2 cars trying to park. I was amazed. Even drunk I would only hit one
Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 03, 2015 01:13 PM (/tNwW)

Sexist!

Posted by: Jay Guevara at July 03, 2015 01:17 PM (oKE6c)

159 And Obama said, "Suffer the little brown children to come unto me, and I shall give them sanctuary."

Posted by: Tommy Linkbetter at July 03, 2015 01:18 PM (264d5)

160 Toilets with enough water flow and lightbulbs that actually give off enough light were banned.

So rather than flush a toilet once and waste 7 gallons after that burrito, I have to flush a 1.5 gallon toilet about 7 times at least, in between plunging and pouring all kinds of TSP and shit in with it.

So, the commies don't want me eating burritos?

Posted by: Clutch Cargo at July 03, 2015 01:18 PM (sH832)

161
The 'news' told me that NC beaches will remain open despite the recent shark attacks.

Sharks are new to the open waters??
Who believes this bullshit?

Posted by: Soothsayer at July 03, 2015 01:18 PM (0lw2Y)

162 The split has occurred, just not yet on paper. The only major difference is that "their" side has taken for itself the right to govern "our" side as well as their own. Which, in essence, means we are protecting them from the consequences of their self-created disaster.

Posted by: MrScribbler at July 03, 2015 01:13 PM (P8YHq)
I say again: we are living in the world's largest homeowner's association.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at July 03, 2015 01:19 PM (oKE6c)

163 I can imagine that we will want to make the Constitution with a more update look someday. Besides the old one is almost unreadable. Maybe along the lines of an English instruction manual written by a Chinese worker.

Posted by: Colin at July 03, 2015 01:19 PM (WQLtV)

164 I'm of the mind that the secession is the only hope that a percentage of current Americans will regain their liberties put forth in the DoI. And the window for that will grow smaller the longer it takes to happen. Newer generations will likely be more accepting of the infringements to their natural rights, while those who remember the small measure of liberty that remained in America will die with the love of it.

Posted by: holygoat at July 03, 2015 01:19 PM (t3wLW)

165 "Just got back from running errands and saw a women in a large honda
pilot hit 2 cars trying to park. I was amazed. Even drunk I would only
hit one"

Eleanor Holmes Norton?

For those of you who haven't seen it:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cbb_1427325506

The mandarins of D.C. are quite literally are so dumb that they *cannot park a car in an angled space* and yet presume to arrogate to themselves immense power over the smallest details of life for all of the rest of us.

Note also that EHN apparently hit and damaged one of the neighboring vehicles and regally flounced away without leaving a note.

Posted by: torquewrench at July 03, 2015 01:20 PM (noWW6)

166 Posted by: SocietyIs2Blame at July 03, 2015 01:16 PM (WIOql)

Don't omit the contribution of the Frankfurt School, which deserves explicit mention.

We should've let Adolf sort them out.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at July 03, 2015 01:20 PM (oKE6c)

167 Well, I hope that they are careful. Two weeks ago, the local National Park Rangers killed the wrong bear after an attack.

Hey Boo-Boo!
Boo-Boo? Boo-Boo!

Where are you Boo-Boo?

Posted by: Yogi at July 03, 2015 01:21 PM (sH832)

168
People went into the ocean without a care in the world, is the takeaway here.

Idiots, the oceans are LOADED with large predators. Always have been.

Posted by: Soothsayer at July 03, 2015 01:21 PM (0lw2Y)

169 "On his way out in 2024, President Walker appoints 9 more conservatives."

I guess that hypothetical Walker who is appointing conservatives is going to be a different Walker from the one who is currently staffing up with anti-conservative establishment party hacks like Brad Dayspring.

Posted by: torquewrench at July 03, 2015 01:22 PM (noWW6)

170 Sharks are new to the open waters??
Who believes this bullshit?

Posted by: Soothsayer at July 03, 2015 01:18 PM

With all the outcry, you'd think an SJW had been attacked, not just an Old White Guy from MA....

What the hell. It's almost "Shark Week," amirite?

For teh sheets and geegles, go to YooToob and type in "Snuffy the Seal" to see my favorite teevee commercial evah!

Posted by: MrScribbler at July 03, 2015 01:23 PM (P8YHq)

171

Noodt

Posted by: Soothsayer at July 03, 2015 01:23 PM (0lw2Y)

172 And so we have an art thread to calm the unruly. On this ancient, emergency backup monitor, it looks like...uh....sliced fruit on black velvet.

Posted by: Tommy Linkbetter at July 03, 2015 01:23 PM (264d5)

173 Just got back from running errands and saw a women in a large honda pilot hit 2 cars trying to park. I was amazed. Even drunk I would only hit one

Posted by: Nevergiveup at July 03, 2015 01:13 PM (/tNwW)

I hoped you rushed over and held up a large cardboard sign with "9.5" scrawled on it.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 03, 2015 01:24 PM (bUcRA)

174 https://youtu.be/sxfkD8UxhEU

I had forgotten about this song. Holy crap, the 80s are alive again!

Posted by: OregonMuse at July 03, 2015 01:24 PM (u07AL)

175 "Don't omit the contribution of the Frankfurt School, which deserves explicit mention."

Those are Breitbart's cultural Marxists - Marcuse, Horkheimer, et al. He discusses how they came to America, living in his sunny paradise of Los Angeles and glooming and emo-ing the place up with their rubbish while dressed like undertakers at a January funeral in Moscow.

Posted by: SocietyIs2Blame at July 03, 2015 01:25 PM (WIOql)

176 @ Jay Guevara

"Increasingly I think we're living in 1935 Spain."

I came tothe same conclusion 5 years ago.

Posted by: Buckeye Abroad at July 03, 2015 01:25 PM (R0zw4)

177 I have a panacea for fixing the government. Eliminate the power agencies

have to promulgate punative rules and regulations. If the government

wants to force your toilet paper to be at a certain height, let congress

pass the law and the president sign. That will encumber them enough

they won't be able to micromanage our lives.

Legally agencies don't have any power to issue rules and regulations that control anyone outside of the agency in question. For example: NASA can't pass a rule or regulation that effects the employees of the FBI. If they can't have rules about other agencies, they certainly can't have rules and regulations that affect citizens outside of government service. You see - rules and regulations that effect all people in a country have a name: they are called laws and they must be passed by both houses of Congress before they can be signed by the President to take effect.

Posted by: An Observation at July 03, 2015 01:27 PM (O9PHi)

178 "I guess that hypothetical Walker who is appointing conservatives is
going to be a different Walker from the one who is currently staffing up
with anti-conservative establishment party hacks like Brad Dayspring.'

Just fishing for a name to use. I'm not voting for anyone in the GOP next election. Not one is a game-changer - they can't be when tied to that party. The best you'll get is more competent management of the welfare state, which will only breed further complacency and can-kicking down the road.

Posted by: SocietyIs2Blame at July 03, 2015 01:29 PM (WIOql)

179 "Just got back from running errands and saw a women in a large honda pilot hit 2 cars trying to park. I was amazed. Even drunk I would only hit one"

Several weeks ago, I was at one of our larger Liquor stores, which totally sells wine, and such.

While in the parking lot, I happened to watch an older vehicle with PA plates back out of a spot, pull forward while turning, and damn near take the back bumper off the car originally parked next to it.
Driver backed up, cleared the other bumper, and drove away.

I waited for the owner of the damaged car, introduced my self, and the drivers first question was if I got the license number.

My response was to ask if my video of the event, including the license plate of the offending vehicle would work as well.

Half an hour later, Baltimore County police were contacting me as well.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at July 03, 2015 01:29 PM (VPLuQ)

180 "Legally agencies don't have any power to issue rules and regulations that control anyone outside of the agency in question."

Unless Congress grants them that authority - Hayek's "government by experts" via Parliamentary decree. Congress no longer passes laws in the traditional sense - it passes enabling acts which grant unconstitutionally broad discretion and punitive authority to the executive brance to write the laws or ignore them as the executive branch sees fit.

Posted by: SocietyIs2Blame at July 03, 2015 01:33 PM (WIOql)

181 Posted by: SocietyIs2Blame at July 03, 2015 01:16 PM (WIOql)

I get funny looks when I tell people that the path this world is upon was established in the mid-1800s. When the 'deep thinkers' (generally drunk on absinthe) started with their ideas for utopia.

Posted by: AZ Hi Desert (All my hate cannot be found) at July 03, 2015 01:34 PM (l7Kbv)

182 Queen Elizabeth II strikes me as a very nice lady, maybe we could ask nicely if they'll take us back into the fold. We're headed that way anyway.

Posted by: Burn the Witch at July 03, 2015 01:36 PM (xSCb6)

183 Posted by: SocietyIs2Blame at July 03, 2015 01:33 PM (WIOql)

And the scheme works in part, because the enabling acts are always interpreted so that they do not in any way whatsoever impact Congress' never ending pursuit of perks, privileges, and power.

Posted by: Hrothgar at July 03, 2015 01:36 PM (ftVQq)

184 Country Singer @ 95- Geneva Bible.
That's the same one I use now. I still have my old King James version with all my notes from the past 30 years, but the one I 'carry' (heh) is the Geneva Bible. It is preferred by many Presbyterians of the PCA variety.

Posted by: Eromero at July 03, 2015 01:36 PM (go5uR)

185 ***"When the 'deep thinkers' (generally drunk on absinthe) started with their ideas for utopia."***

See? All we gotta do is legalize weed and we're there dude!

Posted by: Liberturdian at July 03, 2015 01:37 PM (xSCb6)

186 Posted by: Liberturdian at July 03, 2015 01:37 PM (xSCb6)

Heh. "Dude, that was my skull!" isn't a deep thought. But that's about as far as the dopers get.

Posted by: AZ Hi Desert (All my hate cannot be found) at July 03, 2015 01:39 PM (l7Kbv)

187 Obergefell sounds eerily close to Fuhrerbefehl - "The Leader's Orders" or "The Fuhrer's Orders".
I fell more and more every day that we are being ruled.

Posted by: LGoPs at July 03, 2015 01:41 PM (LHsWS)

188 47 What do you need?

"Guns. Lots of guns."
81 Buy your guns, ammo, reloading gear, and supplies while you can.
The 2nd Amendment has been broken up by little fiefdoms, try to take a firearm across a state or county border

Posted by: skip at July 03, 2015 01:41 PM (CTHrd)

189
I hoped you rushed over and held up a large cardboard sign with "9.5" scrawled on it.

Did she have a winning smile? 9.4 if not.

Posted by: Arbalest at July 03, 2015 01:42 PM (FlRtG)

190 Those are Breitbart's cultural Marxists - Marcuse, Horkheimer, et al. He discusses how they came to America, living in his sunny paradise of Los Angeles and glooming and emo-ing the place up with their rubbish while dressed like undertakers at a January funeral in Moscow.

Well of course they had a big ol' sad, having every day to look at wealth, prosperity and good living even for lower classes, all thanks to capitalism. I'm surprised they didn't all go out and shoot themselves in despair.

Posted by: OregonMuse at July 03, 2015 01:45 PM (u07AL)

191 " I'm surprised they didn't all go out and shoot themselves in despair."

They managed to kill us from the grave, however.

We took the USSR out with strategic muscle but not before they'd injected us with a viral cultural "Pax" toxin that's turned most of our population into complacent dullards amusing themselves to death, 20% into rabid Progs, and forced the dwindling numbers of uninfected into the bunkers.

Posted by: SocietyIs2Blame at July 03, 2015 02:01 PM (WIOql)

192 Here is a poll question I would like to see run at the Democratic Underground and the Daily Kos:

Are we at the point where we need Auschwitz style camps for conservatives?

1. Yes - open them now.
2. No - Martial law needs to be declared first and the trains aren't ready.
3. Perhaps later.
4. Not sure.

Posted by: An Observation at July 03, 2015 02:01 PM (O9PHi)

193 Bernie Sanders was appalled by "the mass of hot dazed humanity heading uptown" for another day of "moron work, monotonous work."

"'The years come and go,' Mr. Sanders wrote, in all apparent seriousness. 'Suicide, nervous breakdown, cancer, sexual deadness, heart attack, alcoholism, senility at 50. Slow death, fast death. DEATH.'"

Posted by: Brethren of the Common Life at July 03, 2015 02:06 PM (QreAh)

194 179 should have gone upstairs and bought some furniture.

Posted by: weirddave at July 03, 2015 02:07 PM (3KcdH)

195 I have heard it said that the 2016 election will be a clear choice between continuing down the road toward socialism or clearing the path to a more free and representative society with the ideal being equal opportunity to seek one's fortune.

Weird Dave, I respectfully think you are mistaken when you say: The so called "robber barons" weren't anything of the kind. They were, in fact, the exact thing that the American system was set up to produce, and they benefited the entire country immeasurably," recommending the book
The Myth of the Robber Barons: A New Look at the Rise of Big Business in America

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, no matter who takes that power -- business, government, religion, military, media. We humans are ALL ultimately fallible and therefore need Madison's prescription of of competing, countervailing powers -- that is what a representative democracy-republic is supposed to ensure.

Those businessmen were very corrupt, buying every local and state and government body with payola. They also moved inevitably toward monopoly and oligopoly and financial controls. It has ever been thus. But so far this country has found ways to maintain competing powers -- and government regulation (a nation of laws) is one of those.

When we turn to paranoid process -- ideal businessmen, evil government -- good "conservatives", evil "liberals" -- we cannot keep our minds truly notice that the enemy today is anyone who acts fraudulently in order to augment and cement their power. Today, we have three forces in a pincer movement to destroy American exceptionalism and we will not be able to fight back if we do not keep our heads -- Marxism in all its forms (social justice fraud); fascism in all its forms (crony corporation corruption); and Islamism (religious totalitarianism). Everyone of those is out to destroy the individual, the family, the entrepreneur, the capitalist (for true profit), the dedicated worker, American representative government. I don't know if we can beat this back or not, but we must be more thoughtful about the fighting process. Accurate history can be a guide.

Stop demonizing "progressivism" without knowing the need for a movement for representation of "the American people from all classes. Unimpeded immigration (demanded by big business -- and do you want to go and check out the conditions in those factories -- would you want your kids or wife or husband to work there -- take a look at Chicago stock yards, etc., etc.) brought in those committed to Marx and Marxism. They might have operated under the rubric of "progressivism", but they were not fighting against the corruption of absolute power; they were after complete destruction of America so it could be ruled by an elite. Period.

Posted by: pyromancer76 at July 03, 2015 02:08 PM (zvcr8)

196 A very long time ago one of my teachers required the class to read the Declaration of Independence and MEMORIZE the opening paragraph. Over the intervening decades I have from time to time had the opportunity to quote it in its rich fullness to what would today be called progressives. NOT ONE has failed to respond with denial and consternation and some have reacted with foaming rage. Especially the section (which I always emphasized) "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." They universally recognized the inherent threat to themselves. It is time again.

Posted by: Gordon at July 03, 2015 02:13 PM (ABC3M)

197 Annoying : "literally", "it is what it is", "my bad" and...One. Word. Sentences.

Posted by: ed gibbon at July 03, 2015 02:16 PM (5DdVJ)

198 Unless Congress grants them that authority - Hayek's "government by
experts" via Parliamentary decree. Congress no longer passes laws in the
traditional sense - it passes enabling acts which grant
unconstitutionally broad discretion and punitive authority to the
executive brance to write the laws or ignore them as the executive
branch sees fit.

The Constitution does not grant to Congress the ability to abdicate its exclusive legal power to write laws. Sorry, what you suggest is not legal. Can they get away with it? Sure, particularly with our current DOJ. Look at all the extra legal crap they are getting away with.

Posted by: An Observation at July 03, 2015 02:20 PM (tXsFH)

199
I agree that tremendous damage has been done to our nation. Ugly damage has been done to the beautiful principles of freedom upon which our great nation was founded, and great damage has been to the future prospects for stanching the bleeding-out of yet even more our our freedoms. The overall situation is bad and will probably get at least somewhat worse.

The biggest long term worry is demographics. - That massive voting blocks are emerging that will make it implausible to _democratically_ reverse the reach and scope of a Leviathan government. And nobody would savor a bloody revolution whose outcome - given modern military weaponry - would be uncertain at best.

However, a _limited_ saving grace will probably eventually come into play.
America has a longstanding tradition and deeply ingrained culture of prosperity. It's part and parcel of our national character. A super majority of Americans automatically (subconsciously even) expect for the American economy to - sooner or later - flourish. Left of center Americans can put up with a mediocre to fairly crappy economy for several years. But I seriously doubt they'd put up with a quasi-collapsed economy for even six months.
We all know (because it's all to obvious) that the massive and growing welfare state combined with elite crony-'capitalism' (aka, corporate welfare) is catastrophically unsustainable. At some point, the piper will call the tune and a horrible economic price will be ineluctably extracted. At that point, Americans of all stripes will by and large demand that serious and reliable measures be taken to restore the country's economic structure and prospects. And that will necessarily require that the size and reach of government (regarding taxes, the economy, and capitalism) be harshly diminished.

If conservatism as a movement becomes well organized and prepared: when the piper finally calls, there will be a major opportunity to democratically right the listing ship that is America.
And yes, properly exploiting this opportunity would involve Constitutional amendment.But the country would be _eager_ at that horrible point to make sure that government never did that to them or their children or their children's children again.

Posted by: _Dave_ at July 03, 2015 02:29 PM (l2dSQ)

200 Re: cultural Marxist emos.

Something I've noticed with today's SJW collective is they are almost to a person miserable as hell. A while back, I ran across a bunch of emo pages on a social media site, one of those "here are people you might like to follow". The posts were predictably stereotypical, like something people at 4chan would've done for "lulz" a decade ago. What else struck me was the amount of gender/sexual identity stuff, the usual rejection of anything deemed normal or traditional and best of all, a good amount of overt Marxism-Communism-Leftism.
Totally anecdotal of course but it was hard NOT to draw some conclusions from that.

Posted by: Commissar M at July 03, 2015 02:36 PM (KSF9t)

201

196 Gordon

Are you the Gordon of "Nodrog" fame?

Posted by: Arbalest at July 03, 2015 02:48 PM (FlRtG)

202 That was beautiful. Thank you OB.

Posted by: YourMomKeepsTexting at July 03, 2015 03:02 PM (vexAN)

203 The few the proud the transgendered !

Posted by: gene kelly at July 03, 2015 03:02 PM (RF62P)

204 Over at Godfather Politics, Matthew Trewhella has an interesting article on the Duty of the Lower Magistrates.

He essentially argues that if State and local officials simply refuse to obey edicts handed down from the feds, this country may be able to cause the collapse of the oligarchy through peaceful means.

But we'd better do it fast!

Posted by: PPs43 at July 03, 2015 04:18 PM (gs8t9)

205 Fuck that! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! We say when it's over.

Senator Blutarsky

Posted by: Caitlin Jenner at July 03, 2015 05:05 PM (U936r)

206 Love this Dave. Our birthright may have been stolen from us, but it is still ours.

As Clarence Thomas so beautifully stayed in his rebuttal, all people are born with dignity, no government or oppressor can take that fact away. Same with our birthright: only God has given us the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Only God can take it away. As much as enemies try to remove it from us, and as much as they seem to be succeeding now, the inconvenient truth is that in the long run, the long history of mankind, their attempts shall ultimately be in vain.

If the 4th is not an appropriate time to start planning how to take back outrbirthright, I don't know when is.

Posted by: LizLem at July 03, 2015 07:12 PM (R1r/y)

207 Our birthright not outrbuthright or whatever. Stupid phone.

Posted by: LizLem at July 03, 2015 07:15 PM (R1r/y)

208 Sorry, I don't consider myself an American, nor a citizen of the United States, I am a citizen of my home state where I was born, it is not a Nation but it is my State, one of fifty or fifty nine if you listen to some folks.
I back My state the rest of the Nation can go doodle all they want but for me I am from the state I live in.
The people forgot we are a collection of States, supposedly United and all happy together while in reality most States hate the other forty nine or fifty eight which ever parties leader says.
I have no use for many states and their loopy ideas on climate, sex, gender and the second amendment.
We are not united except as forced by the federal government.

Posted by: obsidian at July 03, 2015 07:51 PM (ARK2U)

209 LizLem: "As Clarence Thomas so beautifully stayed in his rebuttal, all people are born with dignity, no government or oppressor can take that fact away. Same with our birthright: only God has given us the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Only God can take it away. As much as enemies try to remove it from us, and as much as they seem to be succeeding now, the inconvenient truth is that in the long run, the long history of mankind, their attempts shall ultimately be in vain. "

Amen.

Posted by: Rose at T9 at July 03, 2015 11:59 PM (gin9j)

210 I am the immigrant - as so many before me - who felt blessed to come to a country allowing 'freedoms' as no other.
America has been the 'jealousy' of the world because of its constitution.

It saddens me that American voters allow those who have contempt for their own country into office to destroy all that was 'good' about America.
My hope is that many awaken and take back a country that was blessed in every sense of the word.
Without America - there is no freedom!

Posted by: cali at July 04, 2015 09:24 AM (ndEwo)

211 "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom,
go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.
May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
-- Samuel Adams

Posted by: mojo at July 04, 2015 10:28 PM (OmBeX)

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