Happy 4th of July!
Here are some quotes to get this patriotic weekend started...
A free people claim their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
-- Thomas Jefferson, Rights of British America, 1774
But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
-- John Adams
I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.
-- Abraham Lincoln
Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.
-- Ronald Reagan
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
-- Ronald Reagan
Enjoy the long weekend, but please pause to remember those who fought and died to make that enjoyment possible. Also, say a prayer for the over 100,000 Americans celebrating this Independence Day far from our shores. Many of them are voluntarily in harms way. Freedom is never free.
It Has Always Been The Soldier
It is the soldier,
not the President who gives us democracy.
It is the soldier,
not the Congress who takes care of us.
It is the soldier,
not the Reporter who has given us Freedom of Press.
It is the soldier,
not the Poet who has given us Freedom of Speech.
It is the soldier,
not the campus Organizer who has given us the
Freedom to Demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
who salutes the flag;
who serves beneath the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
that allows the protester to burn the flag.
(Father Dennis O'Brien, US Marine Corp. Chaplain)
http://www.foundingfathers.info/not the President who gives us democracy.
It is the soldier,
not the Congress who takes care of us.
It is the soldier,
not the Reporter who has given us Freedom of Press.
It is the soldier,
not the Poet who has given us Freedom of Speech.
It is the soldier,
not the campus Organizer who has given us the
Freedom to Demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
who salutes the flag;
who serves beneath the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
that allows the protester to burn the flag.
(Father Dennis O'Brien, US Marine Corp. Chaplain)
http://www.vfwpost1503.org/it's_the_soldier.html
Yes, that poem says in all.
ReplyDeleteMay Americans not forget the soldier this Independence Day.
God Bless them all!
ReplyDeleteGreat thoughts for this years celebration of our Independence. What would our country be were it not for our soldiers? Have a great week end, my friend.
ReplyDeleteI've seen that verse "It is the soldier" many times and ,well, it's terribly flawed.
ReplyDeleteA good discussion is Akira Kurasowa's "Seven Samurai", probably;y the greatest film ever made and a brilliant analysis of the warrior class.
The samurai are in a bind. They indeed to protect the populace but they do NOTHING to create the culture. It's a strained relationship and that pithy little verse doesn't help understand it.
Ducky: Well stated from a guy sitting on his ass in the cushy confines bought and paid for by others.
ReplyDeleteI would call you a weaselly POS,
but it's Sunday so I'll just wish you a happy Independence Day, although people of your political strip are much more into dependence. Maybe that's your problem with the sentiments expressed in this poem.
Ducky, you and all the others might want to reflect on this venerable piece of wisdom and truth:
ReplyDelete"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
~ John Adams (1735 - 1826)
Without the explorers, the adventurers, the risk takers, the pioneers -- those rough men willing to do battle to gain and hold territory and those with the strength of will and body to develop it and learn to prosper -- you and i would not be in a position to sit in comfort tapping out messages to one another while we carp, cavil, complain, contemplate and bitterly lament -- not the crimes and failures of our forebears -- but the realization of our own hopeless inability to summon up the courage and the drive necessary to emulate their enormous, awe-inspiring successes.
The flaw in John Adams' statement is revealed when we are forced to realize the sacrifice and suffering of those who made it possible for us to study Philosophy, Art, Poetry, Music and Drama led to the development of a generation of effete, self-absorbed, indolent, self-indulgent ingrates.
~ FreeThinke
FIREWORKS
ReplyDeleteThe fountains in the sky in brilliance burst
Over throngs who thrill as patterns spread
In radiant arms of glowing hues disbursed
Natant in the blackness overhead.
Deafening as any cannonade
Explosions follow soon the hiss and squeal --
Preliminaries to the star brigade
Erupting floridly, yet quite unreal.
Naumachia was naught compare to this
Delirium. Decorum’s cast aside.
Enraptured like Narcissus we know bliss,
Non sequitur to what’s seen nationwide.
Could joy we take in heaven’s fireworks
Earthbound hold us, while the Devil smirks?
~ FreeThinke - The Sandpiper - Summer 1996
Nice honor here, Silver.
ReplyDeleteIMO, no one has been braver then the founding fathers, and since that day 235 years ago, our men and woman of our armed forces have backed them up with their commitment of Independence & Liberty forever!
"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
-- John Adams"
I don't always agree with my ancestors... I would have ended it like this "Liberty, once lost, is worth fighting for again."
"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion."
ReplyDelete~ Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
"Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever afterward resumes its liberty."
~ Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Submitted by FreeThinke
Thanks for remembering our soldiers who gave and are giving us our freedoms. Have a good one.
ReplyDelete"Again we are defeated. The Farmer's have won. Not us." -Kambei Shimada, Leader of the Seven Samurai
ReplyDeleteDucky wrote "they do NOTHING to create the culture"
One might counter that argument that the farmers in the movie do "NOTHING to defend the culture".
The farmers of the village hire the Samurai to defend the village from raiding bandits. When the Samurai arrive, the villagers all hide in their homes in fear of the 'dangerous warriors'. Suddenly an alarm is raised and the villagers all run from their homes, thinking the bandits have returned, begging the Samurai for protection. One of the Samurai has raised a false alarm, rebuking the villagers for begging for protection after failing to welcome their defenders to the village.
Yeah Ducky, you certainly are a farmer.
For those of you not familiar with The Seven Samurai, the Hollywood remake was The Magnificant Seven.
Where is that patriotic sacrifice now?
ReplyDeleteWhat we need now is a financial sacrifice (14 trillion dollar debt) not a military one.
Who are we (this generation) to leave America worse off than it was left to us?
This debt was built in less than 30 years. That's our responsibility, not something handed to us from a previous generation.
Who is willing to pay more taxes to remain the best country in the World, I am. To stave of becoming a third World country, with debt so high we are worthless.
TOM: The US Treasury will take your money anytime. You are free give till it hurts.
ReplyDeleteYou do realize that if we taxed the top 20% of earners at 100% we still would not raise enough taxes to pay for Obama's budgets, right?
So the problem must be spending. I think we can both agree that ending the futile practice of throwing money at corrupt Middle Eastern and South Asian governments would be a good start.
High Plains Drifter, Mr. Ducky. Put THAT in you pipe and smoke it.
ReplyDelete-FJ, The Pennsylvania Farmer.
Should the Founding Fathers be Classified as Activists?
ReplyDeleteI’ve often heard liberals assert that our Founders were nothing more or less than the radical activists of their day. Therefore, as liberal logicians would have it, we who revere the Founders ought to show similar respect and pay equal obeisance to the grubby, uncouth, rudely aggressive political activists who surfaced with a vengeance in the heady days of the nineteen sick-sties.
It occurred to me just today that there is a significant difference between The Spirit of ’76 and the Spirit of Sickness that marked the staged demonstrations, choreographed civil unrest, and violent, self-destructive rioting spurred by “Community Organizers” that characterized much of the 1960’s.
The difference?
The Founders were motivated to take tremendous risks for the sake of religious and philosophical principles. The Founders were for the most part learned, thoughtful men of property and proven capability who enjoyed high standing in their communities. They had a great deal to lose -- in their own words “their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor” -- to say nothing of the comfort and security of their wives and children and possible future generations.
The college kids who staged disruptive, destructive, seditious, “demonstrations” on college campuses were for the most past a bunch of spoiled brats who’d had everything handed to them on a silver platter and resented it, though they weren’t aware that such was the case.
These sensation-hungry adolescents, who were bored out of their minds with the vapid, virulently valueless TV, Teen Idol, Rock‘n Roll culture in which they’d been steeped, had never had to earn a dime, never found anything worthwhile to love, admire or emulate, and were just itching for anything that looked like a good excuse to rebel -- to thumb their noses at society -- at convention -- at their teachers -- their religion -- their parents -- their government -- at anything that smacked of Authority and Tradition.
Civil Rights for the Poor Downtrodden Negro was just the ticket -- the perfect excuse to take out all that pent up anti-social, sexually-charged adolescent discontent and legitimize it by cloaking it in a grave, deep purple aura of smugly violent Moral Superiority. The arrogant SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS in these spoiled, suburban brat thugs hung in the air so thick you could have cut it with a knife.
The murderous, drug-induced antics of the Manson Family was the logical end of the sort of savage, mindlessly destructive mentality that swept across the country derailing and destroying millions of young lives in its wake. Symbolically, what started at Woodstock ended with Helter Skelter.
The Founders were far better motivated, far more principled, far less self-indulgent and had a far greater, far nobler, far broader, far more constructive vision for the future than the brats who’d been brainwashed by liberal professors and the fuckitall message imbued in the music of the era -- the Siren Song that seduced an entire generation and persuaded it to discard everything we’d held dear up till then, and exchange it for Discord, Dissension, Depravity, Destruction and Despair.
The Founding Fathers may have been activists, but they were BUILDERS. The Rebellious Brats of the Sick-sties were DESTROYERS.
~ FreeThinke
Silver, to your argument above - if we taxes them just a few percentage points more, we could end the deficit in a few years.
ReplyDeleteIf we taxed them just a few more percentage points, we could service the debt in such a way as to lower it.
If we simply took the cap off FICA, and merged SS and Medicare, we could pay for those programs in theoretical perpetuity.
Don't be so ideological.
And that folks is why we celebrate the Fourth of July!!!
As for all you warriors: hang in there, regular guys like me all over the country want to bring you home and end these crazy "foreign entanglements." If my taxes had to go up to help you, I wouldn't complain at all. That's what a responsible person - or government - should do.
Happy 4th!!!!!!
JMJ
Jersey: Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. Three strikes and you're out.
ReplyDeleteYou can't just roll in here and make wild claims and unfounded assertions.
Show us the math or shut up.
Happy Independence Day.
>They indeed to protect the populace but they do NOTHING to create the culture.
ReplyDeleteTwo problems with that assertion. First, by protecting the populace, the warrior class made it possible for the rest of society to "create" and maintain their contributions to the culture. Second, a significant portion of Japan's culture (whether in the general sense of all of the non-genetic, learned elements of Japanese society or the more specific sense of the artistic heritage) finds its source in warrior culture.
Whether it was Kurosawa's intention or not, "Seven Samurai" illustrates very clearly how those outside the warrior class tend to overlook those facts, as they selfishly outsource their own defense to others, then turn around and stab those same warriors in the back.
>if we taxes them just a few percentage points more, we could end the deficit in a few years.
ReplyDeleteTranslation:
Since we're already taking far too much of your money to pay for moronic adventures that others foisted on you against your will, if we steal even more of your money we could pay for those moronic adventures faster and go on to further moronic adventures, that we pay for with your money, against your will.
Oh for God's sake! Let's just say it straight out:
ReplyDeleteWhy the hell should we taxpayers be expected to bankrupt ourselves -- and the nation -- to finance hare-brained Marxian schemes designed to redistribute OUR wealth in order to achieve some Communist-Internationalist-Progressive notion of "Social Justice?"
And why in God's name should we continue to shell out big bucks for equally hare-brained military adventures in countries that do not appreciate the great sacrifices we are making ostensibly on their behalf, because a bunch of neocons with a hidden agenda caught the ear of our last hare-brained Doofus-in-Chief, George W. Bush, and pushed him into making an ass of himself?
If we are governed only "by the consent of the governed," I withdrew my consent the day prissy old George I failed to press our advantage, move into Iraq, depose Sadaam Hussein and claim the oil fields for the United States of America.
The Middle East would be far better off, it's people would be treated more equitably and would live peacably at a much higher standard if the USA got rid of all those stinkin,' barbaric, tinpot dictators and ran the show.
But oh no! We have to pay obeisance to the monster the leftists among us created at the end of WWII -- the monster that born at Nuremberg -- the monster we call the UN. We meekly bow before the fictiitous authority of something we ludicrously call The World Court.
Internationalism is our truest enemy, and the bastards that promote it should be held accountable for their misdeeds and brought low.
What the HELL is the point of serving honorably in the promotion of a DISHONORABLE, essentially TREASONOUS cause?
Anything that pushes us closer to the dissolution of our sovereignty in favor of One World Government is TREASON, and anyone who favors the internationalist agenda is a TRAITOR.
The Spirit of '76 stands for INDEPENDENCE not INTER-DEPENDENCE.
~ FreeThinke
Silver it's not my fault that you haven't looked up the math. I'm right. I dare you to prove me wrong. By the way - you can't. If you could, you would.
ReplyDeleteHappy Fourth! And remember, our founders would not abide runaway deficits - they would raise taxes if they had to. And they did. Especially in times of war. They were responsible, something today's conservatives and libertarians are not.
JMJ
Freethinke -
ReplyDelete"The Spirit of '76 stands for INDEPENDENCE not INTER-DEPENDENCE."
That's the dumbest, wrongest, stupidest thing I've ever heard said of a civilization. Had not the revolutionaries been able to count on one another, we'd be a commonwealth nation along the northeastern coast of North America today. Take off your Red Coat and get with the program man!
JMJ
Silver,
ReplyDeleteYou ASSume that I follow the talking points of the Dems. Wrong.
Everyone should pay higher taxes. We have an obligation to pay off our selfish "free lunch" government we have enjoyed for the last 30 years.
Why didn't the Republicans cut spending, while they were cutting taxes?
We have always had a progressive tax structure. The rich pay more than the poor. That is NOT a new, or unfair idea.
History proves raising taxes does NOT inhibit growth
Jersey and TOM:
ReplyDeleteIn an earlier post, I showed the math to back up my point.
I now ask you both to do the same. Put up or shut up. I'm not going to allow people spreading BS here.
Show me the math or shut up.
>Everyone should pay higher taxes.
ReplyDeleteOppressive taxation is already making it hard for me to live and take care of my family. Any income tax rate over 1 or 2 percent is outrageous (of course, the very concept of income tax is highly problematic), and if the federal government can't survive on that, it shouldn't survive.
>We have an obligation to pay off our selfish "free lunch" government we have enjoyed for the last 30 years.
I haven't gotten that "free lunch." I don't want that "free lunch." I haven't enjoyed any of it. To the contrary, MY money has been consistently taken from me to give other people a free lunch.
I didn't create the problem. I've consistently told the state and DC thugs to stop spending money, especially money that they didn't have. I didn't create the problem.
Why should I be punished for the bad choices that others make? I'll take responsibility for my own mistakes. Not yours.
>The rich pay more than the poor.
ReplyDeleteTranslation:
The people who take chances, make good choices, and work hard are punished for their success.
You are not an island alone as an American. We all have to live by and pay for laws the majority have passed, even though we disagree with them. The rule of law.
ReplyDeleteWhat figures do you want Silver?
I'm talking about paying off the debt. Do you disagree that the national debt is over 14 trillion? And whatever it is, it should be paid.
To not be concerned about passing that debt to future Americans, is (to me) unpatriotic.
Quite a conversation going on here Silver.Thanks for a heartfelt tribute to the troops.
ReplyDeleteTOM: You've constructed quite a strawman. I don't know who you are arguing with. It certainly isn't me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the rule of law, and I rail constantly against our burgeoning debt that threatens to destroy us.
Here is what I am talking about. We can tax everyone who makes over $114K/year at 100% and it will yield $3.4 trillion.
Not enough to cover Obama's deficits, seeing that they are already paying some percentage, and no one will stand still and be taxed at that rate.
We can't get there from here. Spending must be cut, 17% of GDP would be ideal, since that is historically what our government has collected in good times and bad, through both high and low tax rates.
In that post I link to the original article. The author admits this is a back of the cocktail napkin calculation, but it illustrates the magnitude of our problem.
So what I would like is for you or Jersey to explain how we overcome this gulf.
I'm well aware that we cannot tax the rich enough to pay the debt, and that would not be fair. I said raise taxes on everybody.
ReplyDelete"I haven't gotten that "free lunch." I don't want that "free lunch." I haven't enjoyed any of it. To the contrary, MY money has been consistently taken from me to give other people a free lunch."
My response to the above comment by "B" was:
"You are not an island alone as an American. We all have to live by and pay for laws the majority have passed, even though we disagree with them. The rule of law."
It's communal taxation. We all pay for that which none of could alone afford. What a concept.
I've never had kids, but my largest local tax bill, is for schools. Why should I have to pay a tax like that?
Now you're singing my song, Tom. I believe public education should be abolished. All education should be privatized.
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of this quote from Rousseau (1712-1778):
ReplyDelete"Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse. As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State, 'What does it matter to me?' the State may be given up for lost."
We've passed an awful lot of bad, bad laws. Just as the Germans should have disobeyed the Nazis when it came to the attempted extermination of the Jews, so should we Americans rise up and resist obeying laws we know have been designed to ruin us. Civil Disobedience is not merely RIGHT, it is a DUTY to anyone of good conscience.
We are supposed to be governed by our CONSENT. I never have consented to the barge-load of ess-aitch-eye-tea dumped on my head by the government, and neither have you, I'll bet, so why should we knuckle under to the outrageous conduct of these demonic imbeciles who are supposed to represent us and don't?
We need to stage another REVOLUTION.
~ FreeThinke