Evacuation Day: A holiday of the Republic, killed by Lincoln

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When the British lowered the Grand Union flag of their 13 Colonies at Fort George in New York City, 215 years ago, General Washington proclaimed that the new flag of the United States of America be raised, to end the American Revolution. Congress in its' wisdom had retained the original 13 Red and White stripes with the British Union Jack replaced by a field of Blue containing 13 White Stars. The fighting had ended with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in Virginia, on 19 October 1781 but it took over 2+ years for the last British soldier to leave our shores. Washington had not returned to New York since his retreat in 1776. Now he would attend a Public Dinner at Fraunces Tavern on Pearl Street where he would propose 13 Toasts of Hot Butter'd Rum.'


The 13 Official Toasts: To the United States of America, To His Most Christian Majesty Louis XVI of France; To the United Netherlands; To the King of Sweden; To the American Army; To the Fleet and Armies of France which have served in America; To the memory of those heroes who have fallen for our freedom; May our country be grateful to her military children; May justice support what courage has gained; To the indicators of the rights of mankind in every quarter of the globe, May America be an asylum to the persecuted of the Earth; May a close union of states guard the temple they have erected to Liberty; May the remembrances of the day be a lesson to princes.


Let all of us drink a toast to Washingtons' 13 Official Toasts. However, I do not recommend Hot Butter'd Rum unless visiting Fraunces Tavern. Amen!


link

Southern Music break: JMC "Where I'm From"

On a three hour flight from Memphis to LA
I was silently celebrating my first class upgrade
Laughing at my jeans and my boots
Beside those high dollar shoes and Armani suits
When the gentleman next to me said the drinks up here are free
So if you'd like the first one can be on me
He said i'm headin back from business in New York and Rome
Tell me son, Where do you call home


I said I'm from the front pew of a wooden white church
The courthouse clock that still dont work
Where a man's word means everything
Where moms and dads were high school flames
Gave their children grandmothers maiden name
Yes it may not sound like much
But its where I'm from


So we drank that round and then another
There wasn't a topic in this world we did not cover
He said I headed out west when I was barely 19
Just a kid chasing my dreams
I said I'm flying out here to pick up my big brother
He's been fighting the cancer they discovered
But he called last night and said I think this is the end
So come take me home to my family and my friends


Where the quarterback dates the homecoming queen
The truck's a ford and the tractor's green
And Amazing Grace is what we sing
Well there's a county fair every fall
And your friends are there no matter when you call
Yeah It may not sound like much but it's
Where I'm from


And as we stood to claim the bags we checked
He said I'll pray for your brother and did I mention that
Italian suits haven't always been my style
See I was quarterback of my high school team
We took state back in '63
And my wife, she's still my homecoming queen


Cause I'm from the front pew of a wooden white church
A courthouse clock that still don't work
Where a man's word means everything
Where moms and dads were high school flames
Gave their children grandmothers maiden name
Yes it may not sound like much
I said it may not sound like much but it's where I'm from
it's where I'm from
Where I'm from
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound......On a three hour flight from Memphis to LA
I was silently celebrating my first class upgrade
Laughing at my jeans and my boots
Beside those high dollar shoes and Armani suits
When the gentleman next to me said the drinks up here are free
So if you'd like the first one can be on me
He said i'm headin back from business in New York and Rome
Tell me son, Where do you call home


I said I'm from the front pew of a wooden white church
The courthouse clock that still dont work
Where a man's word means everything
Where moms and dads were high school flames
Gave their children grandmothers maiden name
Yes it may not sound like much
But its where I'm from


So we drank that round and then another
There wasn't a topic in this world we did not cover
He said I headed out west when I was barely 19
Just a kid chasing my dreams
I said I'm flying out here to pick up my big brother
He's been fighting the cancer they discovered
But he called last night and said I think this is the end
So come take me home to my family and my friends


Where the quarterback dates the homecoming queen
The truck's a ford and the tractor's green
And Amazing Grace is what we sing
Well there's a county fair every fall
And your friends are there no matter when you call
Yeah It may not sound like much but it's
Where I'm from


And as we stood to claim the bags we checked
He said I'll pray for your brother and did I mention that
Italian suits haven't always been my style
See I was quarterback of my high school team
We took state back in '63
And my wife, she's still my homecoming queen


Cause I'm from the front pew of a wooden white church
A courthouse clock that still don't work
Where a man's word means everything
Where moms and dads were high school flames
Gave their children grandmothers maiden name
Yes it may not sound like much
I said it may not sound like much but it's where I'm from
it's where I'm from
Where I'm from
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound......

Southern sanity: Senator Rand Paul proposes resolution to end Iraq war

Sen. Paul Introduces Resolution to End War in Iraq


Nov 17, 2011
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Rand Paul introduced an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill to formally end the war in Iraq.


The war in Iraq cannot be considered definitively concluded if Congress does not reclaim its constitutional power to declare war by repealing the underlying authorization. Until Congress takes this action, the President would still possess the legal authority to move troops into Iraq or to conduct kinetic operations within its borders, agreements with the Iraqi government notwithstanding.


"On several occasions this year, Congress has been ignored or remained silent while the President committed our forces to combat. It is my intention to urge Congress to reclaim its constitutional authority over the decision to go to war, or to end a war - it is one of the body's most important powers," Sen. Paul said. "It is right that we wrest it back from a President who has shown he cannot be trusted to obey the Constitution or powers prescribed to Congress in it."


The President has ordered withdrawal of most forces by the end of the year, and Sen. Paul's amendment continues the spirit of that decision by formally ending the war. Sen. Paul will push for a vote on this measure during consideration of the Defense bill. Under existing laws, necessary actions to protect U.S. personnel in Iraq (such as at the embassy) will still be allowed.


"Americans should celebrate the safe return of our soldiers, thank those who served, and mourn those we lost. We should honor them by committing to a return to a more rational and constitutional foreign policy," Sen. Paul added.


Paul.senate.gov

Best way to support the troops: balance of power between Congress and Executive; clearly defined mission. Constant cost benefit analysis.


Bravo, Rand Paul, Constitutional conservative

UKIP's Nigel Farage hits the unelected heads of the European Parliament with both barrels

Wow.  This guy has a pair.  
This video's going viral for sure.

Hat tip to zerohedge.com

Watching Herman Cain implode through the eyes of Jon Stewart

This.Is.Hilarious.

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Ron Paul, baby.

The US Dollar and your prosperity threatened by the European Crisis

What say you? 


Shall we sacrifice our prosperity for the people's republic of the Eurozone and the NWO?


What's that you say? Oh, I forgot, you don't have a say!


----------------------------


The global economic situation is becoming more dire every day. Approximately half of all US banks have significant exposure to the debt crisis in Europe. 


Much more dangerous for the US taxpayer is the dollar's status as reserve currency for the world, and the US Federal Reserve's status as the lender of last resort. As we've learned in recent disclosures, this has not only benefitted companies like AIG, the auto industry and various US banks, but multiple foreign central banks as they have run into trouble. Nothing has been solved, however, by offering up the productivity of Americans as a sacrificial lamb. Greece is set to be the first domino to fall in the string of European economies at risk. Rather than learning from Greece's terrible example of an over-consuming public sector and drowning private sector, what is more likely from our politicians is an eventual bailout of European investors.

The US has a relatively small exposure to overwhelmed Greek banks, but much larger economies in Europe are set to follow and that will have serious implications for US banks. Greece is technically small enough to bail out. Italy is not. Germany is not. France is not. It is estimated that US banks have over a trillion dollars tied up in at-risk German and French banks. Because the urge to paper over the debt with more credit is so strong, the collapse of the Euro is imminent. Will the Fed be held responsible if the Euro brings the US dollar down with it?

via Ron Paul's page at the House of Representatives.

-------------------------------------------

“Sacrifice” does not mean the rejection of the worthless, but of the precious. “Sacrifice” does not mean the rejection of the evil for the sake of the good, but of the good for the sake of the evil. “Sacrifice” is the surrender of that which you value in favor of that which you don’t.


If you exchange a penny for a dollar, it is not a sacrifice; if you exchange a dollar for a penny, it is. If you achieve the career you wanted, after years of struggle, it is not a sacrifice; if you then renounce it for the sake of a rival, it is. If you own a bottle of milk and give it to your starving child, it is not a sacrifice; if you give it to your neighbor’s child and let your own die, it is.


If you give money to help a friend, it is not a sacrifice; if you give it to a worthless stranger, it is. If you give your friend a sum you can afford, it is not a sacrifice; if you give him money at the cost of your own discomfort, it is only a partial virtue, according to this sort of moral standard; if you give him money at the cost of disaster to yourself—that is the virtue of sacrifice in full. 


--excerpt of John Galt's speech in Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, 1957 (emphasis added)

----------------------------------------------

It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.

--Ayn Rand

Fox guarding the henhouse: Supreme Court to hear arguments on Obamacare mandate

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide the fate of President Barack Obama's healthcare law, with an election-year ruling due by July on the U.S. healthcare system's biggest overhaul in nearly 50 years.


The decision had been widely expected since late September, when the Obama administration asked the nation's highest court to uphold the centerpiece insurance provision and 26 states and a business group separately asked that the entire law be struck down.


The justices in a brief order agreed to hear the appeals.


At the heart of the legal battle is whether Congress overstepped its powers by requiring that all Americans buy health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty, a provision known as the individual mandate.


The law, aiming to provide more than 30 million uninsured Americans with medical coverage, has wide ramifications for company costs and for the health sector, affecting health insurers, drugmakers, device companies and hospitals.


No matter what they rule, why do I keep feeling that we will all lose?

Congressmen allowed to make millions through LEGAL insider trading

Public servants, my Aunt Fannie!


Legal for them, and not for any of us mundanes:




via Zerohedge.com

Update: we have learned that the current iteration of HR 682 is HR 1148, it's purpose is "To prohibit commodities and securities trading based on nonpublic information relating to Congress, to require additional reporting by Members and employees of Congress of securities transactions, and for other purposes" sponsored by Tim Waltz, and as of June 1 was... referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution.


Following yesterday's 60 Minutes grotesque special which finally exposed to the general public what most experts in the industry have known for many years, namely that the bulk of "profits" for Congressmen (at a fixed $174,000 salary for the current year) and Senators are made courtesy of perfectly legal insider trading, it is time to ask the logical next question: how is it possible that the US system of checks and balances has failed so spectacularly, as to allow a glaringly illegal activity for everyone else to proceed and to generate multi-million dollar windfalls for congressional and senatorial critters?


After careful thought, my solution to this issue would include the use of tar, feathers, torches, pitchforks, and a fence rail with lots of splinters.


Anyone disagree?