The VERY last word on the Stars & Bars

Publicola's rejoinder to the Anarchangel.  Another long one...

Now that you've presumably read it, I disagree with Mr. Byrne's base assertion - that the confederate battle flag is a symbol of hatred towards black folks. I agree that some if not many black people have this view, but in general it's not quite what it seems.

When a person sees the flag that once flew over the Army of Northern Virginia, they don't see it a as symbol of hatred. They see it as a symbol of The South. They view The South as something that represents hatred. They're gravely mistaken, but that's what they see.


What was missed in that very well thought out post is what southerners see, specifically southerners that grew up in the 1960's through 1990's.

 Lots of things to think about on both sides.  Make up your own mind.

A prayer

Dear Lord, please bless and keep this young man and his family.  Please watch over them, keep them safe from harm, and let young Mr. Pearson's message be spread far and wide in a spirit of peace and unity.  If this divided nation can be healed, it will be through the efforts of courageous people like this.

I ask this in the name of Your living Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

I'll just leave this right here...

(To be fair, Che killed anyone who got in his way, whatever their age, gender or color.)

The Last Word on the Stars & Bars

The Anarchangel gives us an exceedingly well-thought analysis on the whole Confederate Flag debacle, and how both sides are simultaneously right and wrong.  Grab a beverage, it's long...

Yup, this is going to piss EVERYONE off... Which is OK, because hard to hear but important stuff does that.

Stay with me here... Don't just turn your outrage on and your brain off... Actually read and think about what I'm writing here OK?

"Both sides" of this issue, please, just read all the way through,  don't just react... because I'm going to piss EVERYONE off on this one... and I really mean that... Black, white, southern, northern, liberal, conservative... whatever... This post is probably going to piss you off at some point.

...but well worth reading and thinking about, if you honestly want to help put this issue to bed.  Of course, if your sole delight lies in "Being Right" and you don't actually give a damn about anything except shoving your own opinion down peoples' throats, well, as the man says, it's probably going to piss you off.

Three-fer: The natural progression...

What's going on?

Democrats win election by stoking resentments, scapegoating productive people for the failures of unproductive people, looting the public treasury, and making monsters out of their opponents. These policies win elections very effectively particularly where voters are uneducated and ill-informed (i.e. dependent on Democrat-run schools and Democrat-run media), but as a strategy of governance, they are inherently dysfunctional. The resentments become hatred and violence, the productive people abandon the dysfunction until the dysfunctional are a voting majority, the public treasury is robbed bare, and you end up with… Detroit, Newark, Baltimore, St. Louis, Providence, Bridgeport, Camden, and all the other one-party urban hellholes, basically.

Democrats think that the dysfunction can be papered over by spending more of other people’s money. But that only works while there is money to spend.  The country is broke, which is why I think Baltimore is just the prelude of what’s to come.

What's behind it?

Let’s assume, for the moment, that Jade Helm 15 is not a thinly veiled military plot to take over the country lifted straight out of director John Frankenheimer’s 1964 political thriller Seven Days in May, as some fear, but is merely a “routine” exercise for troops, albeit a blatantly intimidating flexing of the military’s muscles.

The problem arises when you start to add Jade Helm onto the list of other troubling developments that have taken place over the past 30 years or more: the expansion of the military industrial complex and its influence in Washington DC, the rampant surveillance, the corporate-funded elections and revolving door between lobbyists and elected officials, the militarized police, the loss of our freedoms, the injustice of the courts, the privatized prisons, the school lockdowns, the roadside strip searches, the military drills on domestic soil, the fusion centers and the simultaneous fusing of every branch of law enforcement (federal, state and local), the stockpiling of ammunition by various government agencies, the active shooter drills that are indistinguishable from actual crises, the economy flirting with near collapse, etc.

Suddenly, the overall picture seems that much more sinister...

Where will it lead? 

But I am a soldier, and I know what must be done; and so I shall put away my sadness and I shall harness up the bitter steed of war, and gird myself up for the battle; and I shall ride out to meet the enemies of Liberty; not in rage, not for anger sake or the hope of vengeance; but because I swore an oath before God, to jealously guard our Republic and its Constitution against all enemies; Him I shall not disappoint, for He is my Hope and my Trust.

Therefore, as much as my soul laments against the harsh truth before me, I make this declaration to my enemies who press me into this battle, that none shall be able to afterwards say “I did not know, you did not warn me”;

I do not care why you took that job with the government, or why you continue to hold it. I only know that you have become Judas and sold yourself to an oppressive state – your government office buildings and vehicles are part of the battlefield, and as a soldier I shall act accordingly.

This is not good.  But, as LT points out above:   between myself, Ann Barnhardt, Mike, Kerodin and countless others...

...you can't say you weren't warned.

"And a little child shall lead them."

Young Mr. Pearson is back, and gaining fame by the hour.  The truth tends to do that.

Peter Grant opens a case of whoopass

With minor contextual variations, this is what every single Social Justice Warrior member of the Butthurt Brigade needs to have shoved into their brains--or whatever lukewarm tapioca passes for said organ.

You have not earned the right to criticize one who achieved so much in his lifetime - particularly not one who, even in the context of imperialist racism that every single European nation practiced in the 19th century, could say things like, "I could never accept the position that we should disqualify a human being on account of his color".

You have not earned that right because you have not achieved anything to set against, and be measured against, his achievements.  His example inspired more than one generation, and was remembered long after his death by both black and white Africans.  What example have you set by which to be remembered?  Flinging excrement at statues?

It doesn't matter what color your skin is, or what your background might be, or what your aspirations are.  What matters is what you achieve - and don't tell me that the lack of things of which you feel 'deprived' holds you back from achieving.  That's politically correct claptrap.  Good men and women in every nation, of every tribe, ethnicity, language, creed and color, have achieved great things after beginning in absolute poverty with nothing and no-one to help them.  They earned the right to criticize others on the basis that they proved themselves by their deeds.  You have not - at least, not yet.  When you have, come and talk to me again.  Until then, shut up.

The Rhodes Scholarships that Cecil John Rhodes founded have educated many of the world's leaders, including US Presidents.  His philanthropy is visible in the grounds on which your university stands, which he donated, and in Rhodes University in Grahamstown.  You apparently see no contradiction between deriving personal benefit from his generosity, and throwing excrement at his statue.  Shame on you.

You, my brother, speak the truth.  God bless you.

Good news/bad news

First, the bad news:  Universities, once institutions of intelligence and maturity, are literally nothing more than day-care centers for over-aged children.

The safe space, Ms. Byron explained, was intended to give people who might find comments “troubling” or “triggering,” a place to recuperate. The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies, as well as students and staff members trained to deal with trauma.

Emphasis mine.  Congratulations, parents; you've just paid hideous amounts of money to send your supposedly adult children back to kindergarten.  Don't it make ya proud?

(HT Gay Patriot)

The good news is that even in Minnesota The Land of 10,000 Leftists, normal people have finally had enough of the Butthurt Brigade:

“Just left a very hostile moment at Maynard’s in Excelsior. Owners physically pushing us and snatching signs. #BlackBrunchMN”

“The whole restaurant yelled and swore at us. A man followed us outside to keep yelling asking us if white lives matter too. #BlackBrunchMN”

Black Brunch protesters in Excelsior, Minnesota were run out of Maynard’s restaurant Sunday morning by angry customers and staff. The reaction was so swift one protester said they did not have time to take photos.

Be grateful that's all that happened, you race-baiting punks.  It'll keep getting worse until you learn to act like civilized human beings.

(HT Daley Gator)

So, it's kind of even today.  I'll call it a win.

Obviously a racist.

This young man is twelve years old, and he lifts my heart and spirit with the fire of Truth and Justice.

“When they [ISIS] kill innocent Americans that have done no wrong except report on what is their constitutional right as journalists and you do nothing about it, you don’t care about their lives. You could care less!” 

“But here’s what you need to realize: here in America, we don’t back down to terrorists. We fight them on their own battleground and we annihilate them till the very end.” 

“Here in America, we don’t allow the government to take away what we work for but we continue to work harder so that we may continue to succeed.”

Twelve.  God be with us, there may be hope for this nation yet.  Mr. Pearson, I salute you.




(HT Cold Fury)

I heard it from an Angel.

OK, Angel at Lonely Libertarian.  But this is some heavenly awesome:

It's the details, people.

Christopher Cantwell isn't a guy I agree with 100% of the time, but when he's right, he's right.  Consider these three Black folks killed by the cops this year, and where the similarities in their cases end:

Michael Brown was a violent criminal. He committed a strong armed robbery, and when he feared being apprehended, he attacked a police officer. He got shot. If he was white, nobody would care. He is a non-story outside of liberal race hysteria. I am not going to care about Michael Brown just because he’s black, and if you do, then you’re a racist. Case closed.

Tamir Rice was shot for having what police believed was a gun. If he was white, liberals would not care, but I would. Whether the gun was real or fake is a non-issue. I live in New Hampshire, I openly carry a .38 revolver. People see my gun all the time. By the standards of the Cleveland PD, I should be gunned down in the street for this. Thus, if you care about the death of Tamir Rice, you should be complaining about gun control.


Eric Garner was seized upon by police for selling untaxed cigarettes. If he was white, liberals would not care, but I would. Executing people in the street for tax evasion is something people are rightfully upset about, but it’s not all that far off from what happens in tax courts every single day. I would not personally feel any better about this case, had Eric Garner been taken into custody without incident, locked in a cage, and stripped of his property. I don’t feel any better about it when hard working people try to keep their own money and are seized upon by the IRS and locked in cages and stripped of their property. Thus, if you care about the death of Eric Garner, you should be complaining about taxation.

Exactly.  If you're simply focusing on 'Black' and 'killed by cops,' you're too damn ignorant for me to take anything you say seriously.  And if you're looting and burning your own neighborhood, harming innocent people, you suck as a human being.

All that need be said on Ferguson

All this proves the cop was justified.


Amen.

Happy now, you lying bastards?

Gun grabbers are driven absolutely insane with fear and rage at the sight of an armed citizen peacefully going about their lives.  Many of them have suggested that they or their fellow hoplophobes should call the police and claim that they felt threatened, a practice known as "SWATting."




On August 5th, someone appears to have followed that advice, and now an innocent man lies dead.  I'm not going to go into the shoot-first-forget-the-questions tactics that seem to be all too common in today's law enforcement.  Instead, I'll point you to the gun-grabbers' utter lack of shame over an incident that they may well--wittingly or not--have instigated.

I would not be surprised it is damage control. The focus on the killing of John Crawford is now targeted towards Ronald Ritchie who made what seems to be a highly exaggerated in danger 911 call that set up the kill chain that took John Crawford’s life. 

All of the sudden, all those tweets and Facebook posts from their followers telling others to call police and lie about what a peaceful gun owner  is doing have become political poison. And if charges are ever brought against Ritchie, CSGV and other gun groups are gonna take a wrecking ball to the chin with so many examples of their hate-filled posts screen captured and kept by gun bloggers everywhere. 

And they won’t be able to hide about not keeping track of what is going on since they are damned good at blocking and banning anybody who is pro-Second Amendment  from their timelines. Basically they are condemned to admit they allowed and maybe even encouraged Hate Speech DeLuxe.

This is what they wanted, what they encouraged, what they practically demanded.  Upon learning of the results, any sane human being capable of the slightest shred of remorse would be doing whatever they could to try to make things right for Mr. Crawford's family.  At the very least, they ought to sit down, shut up and go find something productive to do with their wretched lives.


Instead, they throw the Race Card and the Anti-Government card, even though neither of these have the slightest application in this instance, except in the minds of racists and collectivists.  (Although I'll proudly pick up that Anti-Government card.  Whaddya mean, "our own government?"  I didn't vote for these assholes, and they sure don't represent me, or America in general.)  Anything to deflect any trace of responsibility from themselves and their paranoid hate-mongering.


Well, I hope it doesn't work.  I hope every single one of you cowardly, lying scum who called for this type of action are tracked down and brought up on charges and/or sued into oblivion for contributing to the wrongful death of John Crawford.  And I pray that Almighty God has mercy on your shriveled, blackened souls, because you're going to need it on your Last Day.


RIP, Mr. Crawford.  May the Lord bless and keep you, and may He help comfort your loved ones in this their time of trial.

The race-baiters ain't touching this one. Go figure.

You'd think Sharpton, Jackson and the Usual Gang of Idiots would be all over the Shaneen Allen case like bikers on a keg.  Especially now that this has come to light:

Whatever we eventually learn about what happened in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, Michael Brown is beyond mortal help. The same is not true of Shaneen Allen, a 27-year-old working mother of two and robbery victim who faces an eleven-year prison term for the supposed offense of carrying a legally licensed firearm.


Like the late Mr. Brown, Allen – a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -- is an African-American. She has no criminal record, and her case is untainted by allegations that she had committed a violent crime.


In planning to take the case to trial this October, Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain is committing what could be construed as a race-specific violation of due process by seeking prison time: As we will shortly see, a white Pennsylvania resident who committed the same “offense” was given a pre-indictment plea deal involving two years of non-supervised probation. McClain’s proposed “deal” for Allen would have included a mandatory three and a half year prison sentence.

(Emphasis mine)  And yet, they're nowhere in sight.  What's up with that?  Are they more concerned about defending Black thugs than Black citizens?  If so, why?


Well, screw those guys anyway.  Ms. Allen's legal defense fund is already 193% met as of this writing.  May the Good Lord bless each and every one of you who kicked in...and I doubt He cares what color you are.


As for prosecutor James P. McClain((609) 909-7800 if you want to give him an earful), may God have mercy on your eternal soul.  Attempting to destroy an innocent woman's life under color of "law" for doing nothing more than exercising her God-given human right, is not the stuff heroes are made of, regardless of what you may believe.  Your 'law' is not just, and your 'authority' is as nothing before the Truth.

Preach it!!!

Via Gunslinger, Mr. Johnathan Gentry speaks out on Ferguson.





AMEN.

The suicide of open borders

Unlike many of my libertarian brethren, I support a seriously restrictive immigration policy and strong border defense.  I've expounded upon this before, but Nelson Hultberg attacks the subject point by point and you should all go read it now.

The illegals streaming into our country today have no grasp as to what freedom and its requisites are. To make matters worse, many of them are brazenly anti-American with an arrogant sense of entitlement already built into their personalities. They are bringing with them the political and cultural assumptions of their country of origin. And those assumptions are that the state is meant to take care of them. Unlike earlier America, we now have a state that will cater to those assumptions. This is the flaw in the rationale of open border advocates. The quality of immigrants that flows to a welfare state country will not be the same as that which flows to a laissez-faire country. For this reason alone, any influx of immigrants to our nation must be severely restricted.

But as the Founders knew, even in a laissez-faire country immigration must always be restricted. Today’s unbridled welfare state merely makes restriction all the more mandatory. In fact it makes restriction a matter of national survival.

The flippant libertarian retort to this dilemma, that “all we need to do then is just get rid of the welfare state,” is naïve and irresponsible. Open borders is not a rational policy even for a free, laissez-faire country. Moreover, the welfare state will require 50-100 years to phase out. If present immigration trends continue, in a half-century Mexicans and Central Americans (and their socialist assumptions) will have overrun the entire southwest and much of the midwest. They will be the majority voting block in the country. Thus all libertarians do with their flippant advocacy is confuse the populace, which allows collectivist bureaucrats and corporatists to continue bringing in larger and larger swarms of illegals. Rationality is needed here, not flippancy.

Seriously, if you still don't get the point, you really have no grasp of what liberty requires.  Put your dogma on a shelf and start using some of that logic stuff.

Amen.

Actually I’m sick of “race,” period.

Yep, me too.  I don't want to think about race.  I don't give a chrome-plated crap about race.  I resent people pushing it in my face and blaming everything bad that's ever happened to anyone on RAAAAAACIIISSM!!

I am color-blind.   I do not care.  When I first read Dr. King's proposal of judging people by character over color, I was all like, "DUH."  Why would you judge someone by what they are, rather than who they are?

I'm not keeping anyone down.  I don't want to keep anyone down.  I want every single individual human being on Earth to be the best they can possibly be, for their own benefit, the benefit of the human race as a whole, and the glory of our Creator God.  Of course, there will be honest competition, and that's a good thing.  But the only thing keeping any of us down--regardless of color, gender or hairstyle--is ourselves.  We can all be better than we are today.  We can all improve ourselves and our station in life.  We can all overcome our personal trials and setbacks.  All of us.

And the best way to do that is to focus on changing ourselves, not blaming everyone else for our own mistakes.  That goes for everybody.

Welcome Theolitics to TIPB.  Because this.

From a guy who knows...

Doug Giles, like myself, also knows what it's like to be a thug...and the consequences that face you when you are.

During my time of gleefully following el Diablo’s lead, I shot at people and had guns drawn on me. One summer night back in 1978, my buddies and I were ripping off a boat and were busted red-handed by the home owner who pulled out a pump shotgun, racked a round, but was unable to get off a shot because the direction in which I ran blocked his sight picture and I was able to get away.

If I would have been shot and killed that evening it would have sucked, but would have been a just punishment because my life choices put me in a direct path of destruction.

If I would have died of an overdose or from a crime that I had committed, I would hope to God that no one would stand over my casket and blame other people, or culture, or lack of education, or my neighborhood, or some other people group because that stuff was all on me. I would hope my life would have become a proverb, a veritable deterrent to aberrant behavior.

RTWT.  If this is the path you choose to walk, then the only one responsible for your incarceration, overdose or untimely demise is you.  "Society" didn't fail you--you failed yourself.

(HT CTH)

Props to Sheriff Mike Scott

Now, this is how you call hypocrites out.

I have been invited to the NAACP Freedom Fund Awards Banquet and
have been asked to sponsor the event financially. I will not be doing
either but wanted to explain my concerns and the reasons for my
decision. Frankly, I believe the NAACP locally and nationally loses
credibility when it picks and chooses which issues it rallies around and
embraces what often appears to be a double standard relative to race and
ethnicity. I am citing two (2) local and recent examples of my concern.

Tragically, record numbers of young, black males have been gunned down
in the streets of Fort Myers in an epidemic of alarming proportions over
the last few years. In virtually every instance the killer was also black
and the majority of those cases remain open. Many more black citizens
have been injured and were lucky to survive similar circumstances. To
date, I am unaware of any appreciable attention or public outcry the
NAACP locally­ or nationally have afforded these issues in our own,
proverbial backyard. '

Conversely, you immediately inserted yourself and the Lee County Branch
in the matter of Trayvon Martin’s tragic death in a city hours from ours
and publically declared that matter to have been mishandled by the police
while expressing your intention to travel to Sanford sporting a “hoodie.”

Well done, Sir.

UPDATE:  I'm not going to say the response was predictable, but there are as-yet-undiscovered tribes in the heart of the Amazon jungle who could have seen this coming.

“The feedback I’m receiving via email, phone calls texts and what we’ve all seen on [NBC2] Facebook posting, your Facebook postings right now are running about 75%-25% in my favor,” Scott said.

The NAACP says this debate is far from over. They are sending the letter to Governor Rick Scott’s office and the national office of the NAACP.

As for having Scott removed from office – Scott won his last re-election in 2012 with 66% of the vote. He also noted in an email Thursday evening that he’s been awarded the local NAACP’s top honor twice in his eight years in office.

All together now:  "WAAAAAAAAHHH!!!  RAAAACIISST!!!"  Guess the petulant children at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Race Baiters need a time-out.

Motivated by hate

That description seems to apply more to Zimmerman's persecutors than the man himself.

Zimmerman was one of two men who came to the aid of a family of four — two parents and two children — trapped inside a blue Ford Explorer SUV that had rolled over after traveling off the highway in Sanford, Fla. at approximately 5:45 p.m. Thursday, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The crash occurred at the intersection of I-4 and route Route 46, police said. The crash site is less than a mile from where Zimmerman shot Martin.

By the time police arrived, two people – including Zimmerman – had already helped the family get out of the overturned car, the sheriff’s office said. No one was reported to be injured.

So, all you people screaming death threats, rioting and looting "fo' Trayvon..."

...what have YOU done for your fellow man lately?