''We seek him here, we seek him there, Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven? —Is he in hell? That demmed, elusive Pimpernel.''
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
by Rudyard Kipling
(Artwork "The Accolade" by Edmund B. Leighton)
COLUMBIA — Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell is calling for a national constitutional convention that would give states the right to deny benefits to illegal immigrants and have them forced out of the country. [ ht Gamecock]Let us not forget that the first Constitutional Convention was called to do nothing more than deliberate on matters related to modifying the Articles of Confederation. What did they do? They completely abolished the "perpetual union" created by that document and created a completely new form of government. It is interesting to note that Rhode Island remained outside of the new union created by the Constitution for a year, existing as a free nation-state as all the 13 original states had done until 1783. (I wrote a piece a while back concerning these events if you are interested)
A modern conservative appropriation of Lincoln seems mistaken to me since, obviously, I think Lincoln’s politics are the antithesis of the decentralist, distributist-cum-populist tradition that properly makes up what best approximates a native conservative tradition in America. If judged according to Burkean hostility to Jacobinism and “armed doctrines” generally, Lincoln would have to be classified as an enemy of the permanent things....Lincoln represents the tendency to uproot, level or destroy pretty much everything that a great many traditional conservatives believe that we should be conserving.This is of course a nice way of saying what most of us already know - Lincoln was a murderous, lying, tyrant; he was certainly not a conservative however the neocon's probably find him and his actions as something to be admired. That of course is more a commentary on their own flaws than anything remarkable about Lincoln himself.
..."natural law is a true guarantee for everyone to live freely and with respect for their dignity, protected from all ideological manipulation and from all arbitrary abuses of the powerful"─God’s law, not majority rule, guarantees democracy and rights, says Pope.
Belgium, created by the European powers in 1831, is the likely next nation in Europe to break up – into a Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north, tied to Holland by language and culture, and a Francophone south, Wallonia, tied to France by language and culture.What puts the breakup of Belgium on the front burner is that this nation of 10 million has been without a government for three months. In June, Yves Leterme, the leader of the Flemish Christian Democrats, won the general election, but was blocked from forming a government by Wallonia, which fears Leterme is a closet nationalist bent on secession.
One can only wonder how many years or decades will pass before the peoples of the now sovereign nations of Europe will dream of regaining their independence from the ever more repressive and inept EU. I hope the land of my ancestors (Bonnie Scotland) escapes Great Britain and the EU before it is "too late".
“To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the citizen militia. The civic purpose was also a political expedient for the Federalists in the First Congress as it served, in part, to placate their Antifederalist opponents. The individual right facilitated militia service by ensuring that citizens would not be barred from keeping the arms they would need when called forth for militia duty. Despite the importance of the Second Amendment’s civic purpose, however, the activities it protects are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual’s enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia.”It is amazing but it seems that in this opinion they did get it just right.
Chris Ortiz and Jerri Ward discuss the recent Value Voters Debate where Congressman Ron Paul was booed by the Conservative Christian audience. Also, great information on the universal healthcare proposals of Democratic candidates.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions — New England and the South — are sitting down to talk.Seems the Second Annual Secession Convention made the Drudge Report.
MORRISVILLE - When Morrisville police officer Chris Gill handed him a ticket, Kent Kauffman coughed. Next thing Kauffman knew, Gill was charging him with assault on a government official.
When the South Carolina audience applauded Giuliani’s tantrum I was not surprised at all, but felt a sting of shame. How far Calhoun’s "gallant little State" has fallen. There is no excuse for my State, but I can perhaps offer some explanation in expiation.
