We are taking this grand holiday off from blogging to celebrate the birth of our wonderful country and the freedoms from which we’ve all benefited. And around here it’s Independence Day NOT “July 4th.” We don’t celebrate a number we celebrate an event, one of the most glorious events in human history: the birth of our nation.
Have a wonderful holiday, thanks for being a loyal Publius Forum reader and God Bless America.
Warner Todd Huston
-By Warner Todd Huston
A new report from Fox News on the trend among liberal arts colleges to drop any requirement that students take U.S. history classes to earn a degree is to me a mixed bag. Sure it is outrageous that our schools are telling students that U.S. history isn’t important, yet, it’s probably good kids aren’t learning the skewed version of U.S. history they’ll likely get from our extremist, left-wing professors who hate this country.
For Fox News, Joshua Rhett Miller notes that U.S. history “doesn’t make the grade” at most of America’s liberal arts colleges. One school even allows students to replace U.S. history with a class called “The Rhetoric of Alien Abduction.”
Of the 29 top-ranked liberal arts colleges, only the United States Air Force Academy, the United States Military Academy, and the United States Naval Academy requires a survey course in American history. One school, Claremont McKenna in California, requires U.S. history or economics but not both. Just two of those institutions require an economics course, and five require a survey course in literature, according to the report.
The report also pointed out that a poll of Americans found that 70 percent feel that colleges should require basic courses in math, science, economics, and U.S. history, yet many don’t.
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America’s Top Colleges Have Done Away With Teaching U.S. History”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Today America enjoys the celebration of 237 years of existence as a nation by noting the day we declared our independence from our Mother nation, England. Sadly, that celebration has, for too many, become the “July Fourth” holiday, a day of picnics, rote parades, “white sales,” and for some a day off work. Of course, we should not and don’t celebrate any “July Fourth.” We celebrate Independence Day, the day we formally separated from our parent nation and took those first unsure steps into the world as a nation of our own.
So, what is this Independence Day all about? Well, for one thing we celebrate the gifts that our Creator has given us. That’s right, our Founding Fathers started this nation celebrating the gifts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and those natural rights given to us by God, rights that no man can tax away from us, rights no man can legitimately take by force.
Contrary to the God averse America we have stumbled into, the Declaration mentions God, the Creator, or the divine multiple times and the Founders rested their entire claim of liberty and freedom on the claim that no government can legitimately take away the natural rights that mankind should and must enjoy.
The fact is the Founders did not want a nation free from religion (there is no such founding principle as a “wall of separation” as many think of it today, but that is another story for another day). This is not a Godless nation, but a nation based on Christian ideals.
Secondly, the Declaration of Independence is also a list of the wrongs and slights that England perpetrated against us. In the list of crimes against us that the English Crown and Parliament perpetrated against us is detailed many of the rights that free men must enjoy to truly be free men. This list of slights is not just stuffy old history but are timeless principles which should guide all men even today.
And lastly, to that “all men” point just noted. Our Founders did not write a Declaration that only pertained to their situation in their focused pint in history. Instead they wrote a document to inspire every people to take up freedom and liberty as their own. The Declaration of Independence is not just a document for America. It is one that should inspire all men everywhere to throw off the shackles of government-imposed slavery. It is a document that is not just for the nascent American people, but one that insists, “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.”
The Declaration of Independence is for humanity. Not just America.
And so that is also our charge. Freedom is a cause for all men, not just Americans. The United States should not shrink from the charge to aid and encourage freedom and liberty for all men.
Please take a minute to read the entire Declaration below and re-famliarize yourself with our founding ideals.
Continue reading “
237 Independence Days and Counting, But What Does it all Mean?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
California Democrat, Representative Nancy Pelosi recently informed the nation that July Fourth isn’t just for fireworks and dissing the Brits any more. It is also the day we should “celebrate” Obamacare.
Sure July Fourth is traditionally celebrated as the day we declared independence from Great Britain, an action that preceded the Revolutionary War and set the tone for our nascent nation. But now it has another significance. As far as Pelosi is concerned it is “health independence” day, too.
“Next week, when we celebrate Independence Day we’ll also be observing health independence,” Pelosi said during a press briefing recorded by CSPAN. She goes on to say that, “this week marks one year since the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. It captures the spirit of our founders. The spirit they wrote in the Declaration of Independence… So, we’ve had Social Security, Medicare, and now health independence, and that’s something our members will take home to celebrate over this Independence Day.”
Pelosi also bent history to chide the GOP saying that if Paul Revere was a Republican, today he would be running through the streets shouting “sequester is coming!”
You must read her full “health independence” statement to get the full effect…
Continue reading “
Nancy Pelosi Recommends We ‘Celebrate’ Obamacare on July 4th”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In the Declaration of Independence our forefathers wrote of King George the III that, “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”
This was posed as one of the many reasons that we separated ourselves from Great Britain and became the United States of America.
Does this complaint not sound like what King Obama is doing now?
Remember, this sort of government oppression of freemen once sparked a revolution for our founders. What might it do for us?
____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Illinois State Representative Sara Feigenholtz thinks her job is to “give rights” to people. Feigenholtz recently blurted that out in an interview giving us a perfect example of the key difference between those interested in preserving the American system, its morals, and traditions, and those that have no interest in such niceties and instead what to wholly remake the relationship between government and citizen giving government more and more power over everyone.
In the interview, Feigenholtz, a Chicago Democrat in the 12th District, announced her intention to “give rights” to the gay community in Illinois and felt that this “giving” of rights was one of the most important jobs of elected officials.
“For me, the most precious thing I do as a lawmaker is giving people rights,” Feigenholtz said. “We have a powerful opportunity as elected officials to do this.”
As an aside, Feigenholtz then went on to disgustingly exploit the Holocaust in WWII as a means to push her “gay rights” issues.
Of course, this little admission shows there is a monumental chasm here between progressives and left-wingers like Feigenholtz and the rest of us that hew closer to American tradition.
Continue reading “
Useful Idiot: Illinois Democrat Says Govt’s Job is to ‘Give Rights’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Question:
The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, 1789: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
We talk about the “right of the people” to “bear arms” all the time. But we don’t often talk about the “well regulated militia” part that precedes it. So, what is it about? Is this militia still relevant to us today? Can we just ignore it? If unnecessary, does the lack of a need for the militia make the whole Second Amendment null and void?
Background:
Our founders had just fought a war with one of the greatest powers in the world. In the mid 1780s, British forces were considered the best of the best. But our founders hadn’t joined a war with a “foreign power.” They had fought a war with their own government in order to separate from it and start anew. This was because we Americans felt England had violated our very rights as Englishmen.
As our Declaration of Independence notes:
“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.”
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What Is This ‘Well Regulated Militia’ Business, Anyway?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
It is February 22nd, the birthday of our first President, George Washington.
I don’t celebrate “President’s Day.” I celebrate the presidents individually, not the whole gaggle of them at once. But I most certainly don’t celebrate George Washington, the father of our country, as just another president. These days, George Washington has been relegated to that “truth telling guy” to be seen on the one dollar bill and on TV commercials at the end of February or that guy lumped in with Lincoln on “President’s Day.” And that is a shame, indeed, for, without George Washington, our presidency and nation might have become a far different place.
What made Washington such a giant for our times as well as his? For one thing, he knew how to act in public.
Back in the 1700’s
In the year 1759 a man named William Robertson wrote a book called The History of Emperor Charles V. It was a book that some claim was the standard after which modern historical study and writing has come to be patterned. Mr. Robertson, who became Principle of the University of Edinburgh in later years, introduced a salient point into the era of the Scottish Enlightenment. That idea was that “Politeness” in society would result in becoming a civilized nation. And it was a politeness perpetuated and spread through capitalism that was the best avenue to achieving that civilized level.
Continue reading “
Birthday of a Giant: Where Have you Gone George Washington?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Actor and hardcore progressive Danny Glover should add revisionist historian to his growing resume of left-wing activism after a recent visit to Texas A&M University where he told students that the Second Amendment was mainly meant to keep African Americans in slavery and to kill Native American peoples.
During his January 17 appearance at the university, Glover thought to teach the students attending about the real purpose of the Second Amendment.
I don’t know if people know the genesis of the right to bear arms. The Second Amendment comes from the right to protect, for settlers to protect themselves from slave revolts and from uprisings by Native Americans. So, a revolt from people who were stolen from their lands or revolts from people whose land was stolen from. That was the genesis of the Second Amendment.
This is simple historical revisionism. Slave revolts had yet to become the constant, nagging fear it was later to become for southern slaveholders. There was no such preoccupation in the late 1780s during the debate over the Constitution or in the decades previous to that and it certainly wasn’t a cause for northerners to worry.
Glover is completely wrong in every respect.
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Danny Glover’s Revisionist History: 2nd Amendment Was for Protecting Slavery”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Like most conservatives, I felt Election Day was the end of the United States of America. I am not convinced going forward that it isn’t, either. But on this day of giving thanks for what we do have, it would be a mistake not to be grateful for the things with which we have, in our good fortune, been blessed. There are things that we should and must be thankful for.
What are those things? What should we be thankful for? Well, certainly there are all manner of things we should be thankful for as individuals. Our loved ones, friends, perhaps our health and good fortunes. But, as a nation, there are many things to be thankful for, even if those things seem fleeting. Granted, there are many things other than what I list below that we should be thankful for. I have no intention of claiming this list is comprehensive.
So, first and foremost, as a nation we should be thankful for our founders’ vision of a nation created on the premise of self-government, freedom and liberty.
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What We Are Thankful For”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On Friday, October 26, I attended Freepac, Chicago held at the Schaumburg Convention Center. The event, sponsored by Freedomworks, had many fine speakers including Judge Andrew Napolitano, former President of Poland Lech Walesa, John Fund, CL Bryant, Deneen Borelli, John Tillman, Congressman Joe Walsh, and Adam Andrzejewski, hosted by Freedmworks CEO Matt Kibbe.
Here is the video I took of Judge Andrew Napolitano.
VIDEO: FreePac Speech of Judge Andrew Napolitano”
I’d love to see this…
Let it Begin Here is an epic short film projected on an innovative and unique screen system in a specially designed theater equipped with multi-sensory audio & special effects that put you in the action of the moment. Experience “Let it Begin Here” in person at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum in Boston, Mass. Or visit us online at www.bostonteapartyship.com
-By Warner Todd Huston
Today America enjoys the celebration of 236 years of existence as a nation by noting the day we declared our independence from our Mother nation, England. Sadly, that celebration has, for too many, become the “July Fourth” holiday, a day of picnics, rote parades, “white sales,” and for some a day off work. Of course, we should not and don’t celebrate any “July Fourth.” We celebrate Independence Day, the day we formally separated from our parent nation and took those first unsure steps into the world as a nation of our own.
So, what is this Independence Day all about? Well, for one thing we celebrate the gifts that our Creator have given us. That’s right, our Founding Fathers started this nation celebrating the gifts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and those natural rights given to us by God, rights that no man can tax away from us, rights no man can legitimately take by force.
Contrary to the God averse America we have stumbled into, the Declaration mentions God, the Creator, or the divine multiple times and the Founders rested their entire claim of liberty and freedom on the claim that no government can legitimately take away the natural rights that mankind should and must enjoy.
The fact is the Founders did not want a nation free from religion (there is no such founding principle as a “wall of separation” as many think of it today, but that is another story for another day). This is not a Godless nation, but a nation based on Christian ideals.
Secondly, the Declaration of Independence is also a list of the wrongs and slights that England perpetrated against us. In the list of crimes against us that the English Crown and Parliament perpetrated against us is detailed many of the rights that free men must enjoy to truly be free men. This list of slights is not just stuffy old history but are timeless principles which should guide all men even today.
And lastly, to that “all men” point just noted. Our Founders did not write a Declaration that only pertained to their situation in their focused pint in history. Instead they wrote a document to inspire every people to take up freedom and liberty as their own. The Declaration of Independence is not just a document for America. It is one that should inspire all men everywhere to throw off the shackles of government imposed slavery. It is a document that is not just for the nascent American people, but one that insists, “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.”
The Declaration of Independence is for humanity. Not just America.
And so that is also our charge. Freedom is a cause for all men, not just Americans. The United States should not shrink from the charge to aid and encourage freedom and liberty for all men.
Please take a minute to read the entire Declaration below and re-famliarize yourself with our founding ideals.
Continue reading “
236 Independence Days and Counting, But What Does it all Mean?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Note: I wrote this in 2008, but it is so far back in the archives that it isn’t properly showing in searches, so I am updating it.
Secularists today have a catch phrase that they use like a club against religion in America. That club is named “the separation of church and state.”
So many Americans have heard the phrase that they think it is one actually written right into the Constitution of the United States itself. Those who are more learned on the subject realize it is not. Those who are learned on the subject also know that it wasn’t mentioned in any law, or even in the halls of Congress, until long after the Constitution was written. In fact, there was not much attention paid to the phrase at all until after Thomas Jefferson, the originator of the phrase, was long dead.
Not even the Supreme Court paid it much attention until the 1940s. So this “wall of separation” issue is not one that hails from the early Republic with the same meaning as it does today. Our Founders had very different ideas about religion and government, ideas that were not nearly as simple as the stark black or white assumptions of the activists of today.
The Danbury Letter
The man who initially conjured the “wall of separation” phrase, President Thomas Jefferson (1800-1808), wrote it in an 1802 letter to a congregation of Baptist churchmen from Danbury, Connecticut. Only elected president of the United States but two years previously, Jefferson was responding to a letter sent him by the Danbury church members who were attempting to get his support for their struggle against the state’s somewhat oppressive religious requirements for certain rights — not an unusual practice in the states at that time. While Jefferson’s letter only obliquely addressed the Baptist’s concerns, more importantly it addressed the Federal position on establishing a national religion. Jefferson’s reply, in reality, was focused on the Federal issue, not that of the states.
Does ‘Separation of Church and State’ Really Exist?”
Veterans understand that they must bring that knowledge and that perspective to bear in a much wider fight, one that will require a commitment, focus, and sustained effort unlike any seen previously. They must carry with on the same mission they accepted while in uniform — defending freedom.
Video courtesy of Concerned Veterans for America.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Georgia Governor, Republican Nathan Deal has signed an amended “historical display” law that will allow America’s founding documents as well as the Ten Commandments and the Magna Carta to be posted at schools and other government buildings in addition to the courthouses as the original bill allowed.
The amended law introduced by State Rep. Tommy Benton (R, Jefferson, Dist. 31) allows the “Foundations of American Law & Government Display” to be publicly displayed in “all public buildings.”
The display includes the following documents:
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Georgia Gov. Signs Bill Allowing 10 Commandments Posted at all Public Bldgs”
-By Nancy Salvato
Thomas Jefferson outlined the philosophy of our nation’s government in the Declaration of Independence with the words,
“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.”
Make no mistake; this is the philosophy on which our fundamental law is based. The goals for our government, which are listed in the preamble to our constitution, are intended to secure these unalienable rights.
“In Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,…”
If the electors and elected officials of our country do not honor our covenant
“We the People…[who] do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America…”
And if they choose not to uphold the blessings of liberty, then
“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 a new Government.”
What happens if the electorate and elected officials of our country do not understand the covenant, or what if they choose not to subscribe to the mission? What if the goals of our electorate are not aligned with the fundamental law set down by the Founders and Framers? What if the policy on which our representatives vote and implement is at odds with the philosophy on which our government was founded?
Contrasting World Views”
-By Kevin Roeten
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has told the Obama Administration they’ve found enough oil under US territory that estimates 163 billion barrels of recoverable oil and enough natural gas to meet the country’s demand for 90 years. [Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/10/new-report-says-u-s-has-largest-fossil-fuel-reserves-in-world/#ixzz1ZAKRYXDD.]
Back in 2006, the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Mineral Management Service (MMS) both revealed the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) had enough oil to last at least another 50 years [Assessment of Undiscovered Technically Recoverable Oil and Gas Resources of the Nation’s Outer Continental Shelf, 2006 (Summary Brochure)].
The map above is from a 2006 MMS titled “Assessment of Undiscovered Technically Recoverable Oil and Gas Resources of the Nation’s Outer Continental Shelf”. Additional details are here.
That was well before the CRS report. In fact, the CRS report shows how the US leads all nations in World Fossil Fuel Resources. That includes Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran–everyone.
Continue reading “
Oil is There. Obama Doesn’t Care.”
Click Here >>236 Independence Days and Counting, But What Does it all Mean?, is my 2012 Independence Day post. Thanks for stopping by.
We are taking this grand holiday off from blogging to celebrate the birth of our wonderful country and the freedoms from which we’ve all benefited. And around here it’s Independence Day NOT “July 4th.” We don’t celebrate a number we celebrate an event, one of the most glorious events in human history: the birth of our nation.
Have a wonderful holiday, thanks for being a loyal Publius Forum reader and God Bless America.
The Publius management
-By Warner Todd Huston
The L.A. Times recently reported something that has been conventional wisdom with conservatives for close to 30 years, now. Democrats hate patriotism. It’s been a matter of faith for quite a while but now comes Harvard to help substantiate that little factoid.
For the L.A. Times, Andrew Malcolm sarcastically makes his way through the Harvard study pointing out that it seems that only conservatives, Republicans, or people that lean toward those views find the celebration of Independence Day a joyous occasion. Democrats and leftists, on the other hand, are not too fired up about all that “July Fourth red-white-and-blue stuff.”
Apparently the study finds…
If you’re into the national holiday by age 18, you are 2% more likely to identify as a Republican, 4% more likely to vote that way and 3% more likely to make political donations.
The study found a lot of other things, of course, but the upshot is that if you are a Democrat or you lean left of center then you aren’t too likely to attend patriotic celebrations. It also finds that people that do attend patriotic events will be more likely to vote against left-wingism.
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Harvard Study: Patriotism Doesn’t Appeal to Democrats”
-By Warner Todd Huston
John Adams was one of the truly indispensable men among our founding fathers. He was the man that wrote one of the first fully written out Constitutions in human history when he wrote the Constitution of Massachusetts. He wrote a seminal book on government that helped inform the founders of our nation, he was an ambassador to France and other European nations, he was our first vice president, our second president, and more.
In fact, Adams was at the center of one of the incidents that set the tone for our national character. When the Redcoats responsible for the Boston Massacre were put under arrest, John Adams stepped forward to represent the Redcoats in court. Many of his fellow patriots were amazed at this offer, some even incensed at Adams for doing so. But Adams said that the rule of law was far more important than merely making points with the home crowd and the Redcoats deserved to have competent representation…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Apparently, when no one was looking, the Jaycees became a pro-Infanticide group. I wonder about this because the United States Junior Chamber Jaycees has thrown the Palatine Area Catholics Respect Life Group out of the Palatine, Illinois July Fourth parade, preventing them from participating in this year’s celebration.
The Jaycees claim that they have done so because the pro-life group has an “offensive” photo on the banner they planned to carry in the procession. Following is a photo of the banner as seen on the local Patch story:
“They decided that an unborn baby is too offensive,” said Martin Kelley, co-founder of Palatine Area Catholics Respect Life. “It’s an ultrasound photo. It’s not a picture of an aborted baby.”
So, how is an ultrasound photo of an in utero infant “offensive”? This isn’t a gruesome photo of an aborted fetus like many pro-life groups use to shock viewers — if it were I might agree with the claim that it is an offensive display. This is simply a live baby in the womb captured through the wonders of modern technology.
Continue reading “
Pro-Life Group Thrown Out of Illinois July 4th Parade By Jaycees”
…To be self evident.
The Heritage Foundation produced a worthy little video expounding America’s true first principles. It is a sort of companion video to Matthew Spalding’s great book, “We Still Hold These Truths.”
-By Kevin Roeten
In only 34 days, Obama has managed to eliminate any reference to “Creator” from any recitation made of the Declaration of Independence. America’s framers designed a concept, that all men have been “endowed by their Creator” with “certain unalienable rights,” including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But in 3 separate occasions in that period, Obama eliminated any reference to a “Creator”.
The real answer may be a little difficult to determine. Odds are that using a teleprompter, which Obama uses very frequently during speeches, may give a hint. He reads over them carefully before each speech. The same kind of omission of the key statement of the Declaration is just not done. It was willful, and it was deliberate.
Even the American Thinker believes it probably was that Obama intentionally ignored his teleprompter, which he was told to do several times. His speech—issued in both Spanish and English—had neither version mentioning the Creator.
Continue reading “
Obama Eliminates Creator from his Speeches”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Constitution of the United States of America. Journalist Mary Dejevsky wrote about it, but she sure hasn’t the first clue about what it does, what it means, or why American politics seem to have gone awry. She did get some things correct in her article in Britain’s Independent newspaper but over all she proved that she neither understands, nor even has a general feel for the greatest governing document ever written by man.
Further Mary Dejevsky reveals herself to be a typical left-winger that not only doesn’t “get” the USA but actively hates her and wants her destroyed and replaced with a pale copy of any particular European nation. In this she differs little from the goals of the current Democrat Party and she certainly represents a typical journalist.
One of the things the Independent’s Washington correspondent got right, though, was contained in the subhead, a pull quote from further down in the article. “The ignorance, bickering and sheer incompetence the present system fosters in a new administration is not worthy of a world power in the modern age.” Couldn’t agree more.
Continue reading “
When a Journalist Hasn’t a Clue About the Constitution”
-By Nancy Morgan
The question on the minds of millions of Americans this morning: How many people attended Glenn Beck’s ‘Restoring Honor’ rally yesterday in our nations’ capitol?
The answer to this question has ramifications far beyond mere crowd size. It is one of the few concrete indicators of the popularity and viability of the Tea Party and their message of traditional values, less government and a return to our Founders’ vision of America.
The New York Times described the crowd merely as “enormous and impassioned.” ABC was more specific, estimating the attendance at Beck’s Restoring Honor Rally in the “hundreds of thousands.” AP chimed in at “tens of thousands.”
Continue reading “
For your consideration: How Many Attended The Glenn Beck Rally?”
Yep, this one’ll get the lib’s panties all in a twist. “He’s calling for Revolution,” they’ll whine.
I even added some nice fife and drum Yankee Doodle music to this. Enjoy!
-By The Heritage Foundation
Happy Birthday America! America is 234 years old. She was born on July 4, 1776, with the passage of the Declaration of Independence. Since then, America has grown from thirteen colonies on the east coast to fill a vast continent. Her economic and military power is envied around the world. And the American people are hardworking, churchgoing, affluent, and generous.
Independence Day is an opportunity each year to remember the root of our success — our founding principles as set forth in the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence serves as a philosophical statement of America’s first principles. As Matthew Spalding describes, the Declaration affirms that all men are created equal. By nature, men have a right to liberty that is inalienable, meaning it cannot be given up or taken away. And because individuals equally possess such inalienable rights, governments derive their just powers from the consent of those governed. The purpose of government is to secure these fundamental rights, and the people retain the right to alter or abolish a government that fails to do so.
These principles have made America the great nation it is today. But, since the early 20th century, these principles have been under attack in the academy, the media, and popular culture. So-called progressives have rejected the existence of self-evident truths in the Declaration of Independence and elsewhere. Instead, they embrace the notion of “Progress”that is constant change towards an unspecified end. From these faulty principles, it follows that, all men are not created equal; some people are further along in the historical process than others. There are not permanent rights with which man is endowed. Government creates rights, and these rights evolve according to the demands of the time. There is no need for consent of the governed, just experts who will tell us how to live and how to progress.
This is a serious attack on our principles, but not an insurmountable one.
Continue reading “
Reclaiming Our Founding Principles”
-By Thomas E. Brewton
The events triggered by the Declaration of Independence were not a revolution. They were a struggle to gain independence from arbitrary exercise of government power.
Few people ever read beyond the stirring opening sentences of the Declaration. The meat of the document is in the bottom part of the second paragraph:
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.
This to a considerable extent the situation we the voters have fashioned for ourselves since Franklin Roosevelt’s imposition of welfare-state socialism in the 1930s. The Obama administration openly and proudly proclaims its intention to impose a New New Deal, the final socialist nails our coffin.
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July 4, 2010: Rededicate Ourselves To The Declaration”