The Tennessee Nation is not a new concept. We were an independent nation for forty-three days in 1861 – the period between our secession from the United States and our admission into the Confederate States of America.
The Ordinance of Secession ratified by the citizens of Tennessee on 8 June 1861, reads in part,
We, the people of the State of Tennessee, waiving any expression of opinion as to the abstract doctrine of secession, but asserting the right, as a free and independent people, to alter, reform, or abolish our form of government in such manner as we think proper, do ordain and declare that all the laws and ordinances by which the State of Tennessee became a member of the Federal Union of the United States of America are hereby abrogated and annulled,… and do hereby henceforth become a free, sovereign, and independent State.
The abuses and excesses of the current Columbian Empire are cause enough for Tennesseans to exercise their rights as “free and independent people” and cast off the chains of slavery which have so subtly been forged on us. I call it the Columbian Empire because it is most certainly not American. The term American in all its connotations is antithetical to the actions and intentions of the tyrants in the District of Columbia. The district of Columbia is the viper pit from which the Columbian Empire springs.
This blog is to emphasize the legitimate reasons for a free Tennessee Nation.
So glad I woke up this morning in my cabin, rather than a Tennessee hotel. After all, I might be looking at the prospect of having my breakfast taxed!
Yes, according to Nashville’s Tennessean, “the state wants to tax the lodging businesses for the food that they offer as free breakfasts as part of their room rate.”
State officials stress that the businesses would be taxed and not the hungry patrons.
Regan Farr, commissioner of the Department of Revenue, doesn’t believe hotels would pass the tax on to consumers.
The proposal is in a much broader tax provisions bill sponsored by state Sen. Jim Kyle (D) of Memphis and State Rep. Mike Turner (D) of Nashville.
Before anyone comments, think for a moment. All food items already have sales tax computed at the point of consumption. A wholesaler doesn’t pay sales tax, a grocery store doesn’t pay sales tax, but the person (or company) that buys the food to eat it does already pay sales tax.
The lodging businesses are already paying sales tax on those breakfast items when they buy them from the grocery. They have already computed that tax (as well as the cost of the food) into their room rates. Noone really believes that all those free breakfasts are really free. They ain’t lunch, but remember…”They ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” either.
Gentlemen, please consider that sales tax cannot be computed on the same item more than once. If you tax the food as part of the room rate, then the hotel immediately becomes a wholesaler and no longer pays the tax at the grocery.
Possible breakfast cost, $5.00. Tax (@9.25%), 46 cents.
New tax on breakfast = + .46
Tax not paid at grocery = - .46
NET INCREASE IN REVENUE = 0.00
Commissioner Farr, Senator Kyle and Representative Turner are brilliant!!! A new tax that cost the taxpayers nothing! But then again raises no revenue either.
Don’t be too hard on these gentlemen, after all, they were probably schooled in the state’s education system.
But if we are to have a Free Tennessee, we need legislators who can add and subtract and reason better than these idiots.
The “Health Care Debate” continues to dominate the press, the politicians, and the public. We are inundated with opinion polls, charts, and commentaries.
To a crowd of white-coated doctors and nurses in the East Room, Emperor Obama said, “At stake right now is not just our ability to solve this problem, but our ability to solve any problem.” If I have a problem getting health care, if I have a problem getting insurance, it is my problem! Who told him that he had to solve my problem? I didn’t!
To the politicians of his party, the Emperor urged, "I do not know how this plays politically, but I know it's right…Let's get it done." OLD JOKE – How do we know when a politician is lying? ANSWER: Their mouth is moving. Obama knows exactly how everything is playing politically. He doesn’t move without knowing what the opinion polls have said. Secondly, how does he know “it’s right?”
I will repeat the quotation from Bastiat in my last post.
You say: “There are persons who have no money,” and you turn to the law. But the law is not a breast that fills itself with milk. Nor are the lacteal veins of the law supplied with milk from a source outside the society. Nothing can enter the public treasury for the benefit of one citizen or one class unless other citizens and other classes have been forced to send it in. If every person draws from the treasury the amount that he has put in it, it is true that the law then plunders nobody. But this procedure does nothing for the persons who have no money. It does not promote equality of income. The law can be an instrument of equalization only as it takes from some persons and gives to other persons. When the law does this, it is an instrument of plunder.
The U.S. Constitution does not give the federal government any authority over health care. The Constitution gives “enumerated powers,” meaning, “if it doesn’t mention it, it doesn’t exist,” PERIOD. While taking care of the feeble and infirm is commendable, it is not the task of the government. Government can only do it if they first steal the money from you!
When the Republicans mention an alternative, pared down, less expensive version of health care reform, they are violating their oath of office just as much as the Democrats. There are NO innocents in the capitol. They are all minions of the Empire!
Tennessee needs to be free of it all. We need a Tennessee Nation.
I arrived early last evening at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville to attend an “Economic Forum with the Fed. While waiting for the doors to open, I read a few pages of Bastiat’s “The Law.”
You say: “There are persons who have no money,” and you turn to the law. But the law is not a breast that fills itself with milk. Nor are the lacteal veins of the law supplied with milk from a source outside the society. Nothing can enter the public treasury for the benefit of one citizen or one class unless other citizens and other classes have been forced to send it in. If every person draws from the treasury the amount that he has put in it, it is true that the law then plunders nobody. But this procedure does nothing for the persons who have no money. It does not promote equality of income. The law can be an instrument of equalization only as it takes from some persons and gives to other persons. When the law does this, it is an instrument of plunder.
Frederic Bastiat, (1801-1850) was a French economist, statesman, and author. He published “The Law” as a pamphlet in June 1850. Bastiat did most of his writing during the years before and after the 1848 socialist revolutions in throughout Europe.
The 1848 revolutions are largely ignored in history courses in this country, but they had a tremendous impact upon our government and culture. Few people realize that German ex-patriot socialists settled in and around St. Louis in the early 1850s and played an important role in Lincoln’s War against the Republic.
The excerpt quoted above from “The Law” provides such a simple argument for restricting any government largess. Anytime the government pays for something, it has to take that money from someone by force. If that something is outside the limited sphere of protecting the innocent and punishing the lawless, then you and I have been robbed. It’s just that simple.
The thieves are not at Brushy Mountain, they are in Washington, DC and unfortunately their children are in Nashville.
May we all begin to understand our own participation in the theft.
It may be time for you stop appearing on all the fancy national network news shows and come back to Tennessee and live with the common folk for awhile. You have become infected with that most deadly of diseases, Potomac Fever.
The Fever is distinguished by a “tax and spend” mentality. Its most recognizable symptom in those who claim to be “conservative” is the support for legislation which is destructive to local economies and the average household.
If you were to actually spend a day or two drivingslowly through the rural counties of your district, you would be able to see the factories vacated as a result of “free trade” agreements such as NAFTA. Thousands of Tennesseans have been left without employment because their jobs have been shipped across our southern border or to any number of cheap-labour countries overseas.
In the wake of closed factories, Mom & Pop stores on every rural Main Street have been forced to close. And what has appeared in their place? Big-boxes like Super WalMarts are supplying cheaper-than-dime-store merchandise from China while advertizing more things for a better life.
A tremendous bulk of your campaign support comes from Big Business donors and their PACs, so it has become easier for you to listen to their “experts” pontificate, while your constituents suffer. A twenty and fifty dollar donor is not really a voice worth listening to. Obviously, their lack of financial resources is a result of intellectual deficiency and thus an inability to actually view a situation realistically and logically.
NAFTA and its ilk benefit Big Business. These “free trade” agreements are destroying the economic foundations of the county you claim to love. They are also destroying our ability to defend ourselves in the event of a real war, instead of the neo-con adventurism which has plagued the United States and caused the deaths of so many young men and women. Should we actually have a real war, we no longer have the domestic manufacturing capability of defending ourselves.
Your sworn duty in your oath of office is to uphold the Constitution. Have you read it lately? Your obligation Biblically is to be a servant of the people you represent. Have you actually listened to your constituents lately?
I am President of a rural county Chamber of Commerce. Not just the businesses, but the county itself is on “life support” because of the empirical-style policies coming for the District and which have your support. Wake up! Or stay home!
When the rulers of the Empire begin to discuss curtailing the right to bear arms, I waver between concern and laughter.
The right of self-defense is as old as the Mosaic covenant, as is the right to defend one’s property. Guns are the modern means of self-defense. To take them away is to leave the individual at the mercy of any person with an evil purpose.
An important yet oft neglected aspect of self-defense is protection of the individual from the government. The best personal testimony for the right to bear arms was presented by Suzanna Gratia Hupp before a legislative committee. The five and a half minute testimony is presented here.
We are told that laws to control the carrying of firearms and the regulation of the manufacture of firearms is for the purpose of preventing criminals from having them. I recently ran across a series of articles from various which show the fallacy of that argument.
Law enforcement officials are becoming a target for theft of the most sophisticated weapons. Last August, in Orange County California someone stole a “duty belt” which included a gun, tazer and pepper spray from a Sheriff deputy’s vehicle. The equipment was left in plain sight; the thief simply smashed the back window and grabbed it.
In September, Clayton County Georgia police had an MP5 sub-machine gun with a targeting sight, and a Bushmaster XM-15 machine gun with sight taken from the trunk of a police squad car. The thief took a U.S. Army-issue bullet-proof vest and a Kevlar helmet from another car in the same parking lot.
Also in September, an FBI agent in Indianapolis, Indiana had an MP5 sub-machine gun, a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun and an LAR-15 semiautomatic rifle stolen from his vehicle.
In December, a Washington County Tennessee Sheriff’s Investigator had a Remington model 870 12-gauge shotgun and a Bushmaster AR-15 stolen from their unmarked work vehicle.
Earlier this month, a Broward County Florida Deputy had an AR-15 assault rifle, bulletproof vest, and a pair of handcuffs stolen from his marked vehicle.
In case you think it is just the local cops who are supplying criminals with firepower, the U.S. Inspector General reports that in a two year period, the Department of Homeland Security lost 180 weapons and the Customs and Border Patrol, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement folks lost 243 weapons.
The crazies are running the asylum. Law enforcement personnel across the continent are arming the criminals!
I’ll keep my own weapon, thank you. There is no such thing as absolute security, but at least the odds are on my side if I’m the one possessing the weapon.
A Free Tennessee is only possible when its population can feel secure in their persons and in their property.
Why are we so surprised to discover that scientists and politicians have lied? They have lied by falsifying and manipulating data concerning global warming.
Both the scientists and the politicians had and still have a vested (financial) interest in having the facts match their dire warnings. When the facts don’t align with their preconceived conclusions, they just change the facts. Why should we be surprised?
The majority of these scientists and politicians are of the atheist / materialist mindset. As a materialist, they have no basis for moral absolutes, because anything separate from the material does not exist. There is no right or wrong, except as they arbitrarily determine it to be so. Their sense of right and wrong can only be borrowed from Christianity.
It is only the Christian who can believe in absolutes. It is only the Christian who can then have any consistent loyalty to the Truth.
It also follows that only the Christian can build a Free Tennessee.
What happens when a school district pays its faculty over three times the median income ($22,000) of the community? Arrogance!
Central Falls High School in Rhode Island has an abysmal graduation rate of 48 percent. At midyear of this academic year, 50 percent of all the students are failing all of their classes. The school superintendent gave them two options.
Option One: two additional weeks of training in the summer (at $30 per hour), spend one lunch hour per week eating with the students, work an extra 25 minutes per day, and help tutor students for an hour before or after school on a rotating schedule.
Option Two: get fired.
Last week, the teachers, earning $70,000 to $78,000 per year, said “no.” At least their union said “no.” Union leaders felt they should get to negotiate. Already earning exorbitant pay while performing at a substandard level, they have the arrogance to believe they should get to negotiate!
School Superintendent Frances Gallo gave them Option Two. If the teachers don’t change their mind within ten days, 100 teachers, administrators and assistants at Central Falls High School will not have jobs next year.
These people are infected with a special type of arrogance which includes total greed and total laziness. I am sorry to say that they don’t just deserve to be fired they deserve the good old southern practice of being tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail.
No people can be free with attitudes such as these teachers have. I pray we have none such as them in Tennessee.
Let's take some time to escape from the insanity of the Empire. (A tip of the hat to The Rebellion Blog for "The Old Unreconstructed" by Waylon Jennings:
I rode with old Jeb Stuart, and his band of Southern horse,
And there never were no Yankees, who could meet us force to force.
No they never did defeat us, but we never could evade,
Their dirty foreign politics, and cowardly blockade.
Well we hadn't any powder, and we hadn't any shot,
And we hadn't any money to buy what we ain't got.
So we rode our worn-out horses, and we ate on plain cornmeal,
And we licked em where we caught em, with Southern guts and steel.
We sunk the ship at Sumter, and we broke her plumb in two.
We showed them bully Yankees, just what we aimed to do.
At a little creek called Bull Run, we took their starry rag,
To wipe our horses down with, and I ain't here to brag.
Well there aren’t as many left of us as rode out at the start,
And then there are the weary, weak, and body sad of heart.
We fought a fight to tell about and I am here to say,
I’d climb my horse and follow Marse to hell come any day.
We may have not succeeded last time, but remember -- If at first, you don't secede, try, try again!
For the celebration of Presidents' Day, I have decided to give a more lengthy space to a man whose life is most worthy of study.
George Washington was born at Wakefield Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on February 22, 1732. George’s father was an established member of the Virginia gentry, but land poor. He died when George was only eleven, so George went to live at Mount Vernon with his half-brother Lawrence.
Lawrence became George’s teacher and role-model during his adolescent years. Taught at home, he learned mathematics, including geometry, trigonometry, and surveying. At 16, he accompanied Lawrence on a surveying expedition into western Virginia. The following year, he was appointed surveyor for Culpeper County, Virginia. While a surveyor, he learned how to survive on the frontier and how to manage on his own.
Lawrence Washington fell ill with tuberculosis in 1751 and traveled to Barbados in an attempt to recover his health. George accompanied him to the West Indies. This was his only trip away from the colonies. But George contracted smallpox there and became deeply scarred. Lawrence died in Barbados in July 1752, leaving George a reversionary interest in Mount Vernon. He had hoped (as did most of the young men of aristocratic Virginia) for a proper education in England and a regular commission in the British military, but he now (at twenty years of age) had the responsibility of farm and family. He would have no real formal education.
At the age of twenty-two, Washington was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia and sent by the Royal Governor under the command of General Braddock against the French in the Ohio Valley. The defeat of their small force in battle at Fort Necessity was a major cause of the French and Indian War. But it was there that a legend was born. He wrote his brother Jack, “I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound.” During Braddock’s retreat, Washington had three horses shot from under him and bullets pierced almost every item of his clothing. Yet he came from the “inferno” with no mark on him. At one point, while lying on the ground after being thrown from a horse, an Indian brave pointed his musket point-blank at George and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired. The Indians came to believe that he could not be killed. Washington himself acknowledged “the miraculous care of Providence that protected me beyond all human expectation.”
His exploits during the French and Indian War earned him an international reputation. But his expertise and popularity could not overcome British politics. Washington was not able to gain the appropriate promotion in the militia, so he returned to the farm. He had time for hunting, his favorite pastime, and for long political conversations with his learned and thoughtful neighbor, George Mason. He also married Martha Dandridge Custis in January 1759.
As the British suppression of the colonial liberties increased, George Washington was a moderate. But his mood moved gradually from indifference to resentment to hostility and finally to overt antagonism toward the English Parliament and Monarchy with the passage of the Stamp Act. Parliament, said Washington, had “no more right to put their hands into my pocket, without my consent, than I have to put my hands into yours for money.” [This would seem to be the same road travled by many today.]
Washington was a delegate from Virginia to both the First and Second Continental Congresses. At the Second, he was commissioned commander-in-chief of the Continental armies in Philadelphia on June 19,1775. At six foot, four inches tall, and over two hundred pounds, athletic, and with the eye and bearing of a general, he figuratively and literally stood head and shoulders above the rest. Upon his arrival in Cambridge to take command on July 3, 1775, a committee of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress wrote to General Washington: We most fervently implore Almighty God, that the blessings of Divine Providence may rest on you; that your head may be covered in the day of battle; that every necessary assistance may be afforded; and that you may be long continued in life and health, a blessing to mankind. (The Writings of George Washington, Vol.3,p.486)
After the War for Independence, Washington returned again to Mount Vernon, but only temporarily. The turbulence of the government under the Articles of Confederation caused him to be a major influence in encouraging a convention to develop a better instrument of government. Washington could not stand the thought that the colonies might quickly loose the liberty which had just been bought with the blood and fortunes of so many. The delegates of the Constitutional Convention elected him to serve as presiding officer. The respect he was afforded and the leadership he displayed brought the very difficult crisis to a successful conclusion.
An ardent federalist, he remained relatively quiet during the debate over ratification. It was expected by many that Washington must be the first President under this new constitution in order for it to succeed. He also wanted to serve as President for the same reason, thus he thought that any politicking for ratification would appear to be self-serving. When the Constitution was ratified, he was unanimously elected to serve as the first President of these United States.
Though Washington lacked the eloquence of Patrick Henry and the literary flair of Thomas Jefferson, he stood above all his contemporaries as commander and chief executive. There is no major problem of state, internal or external, for which one will not find the answer in his words or acts.
He declined a third term as President. After absences of nine years as a soldier and eight as President, he returned to the management of his plantation which Martha had supervised in his absence. Washington had always been less than comfortable with his level of education. He knew his correspondence contained grammatical and spelling errors, so he spent the last two years of his life correcting and copying his letters. His death came suddenly after an acute attack of laryngitis and high fever following a ride in the snow and rain around his estate. As was the prevailing practice, he was bled by the doctors and died on December 14, 1799.
An Episcopalian, George Washington’s faith can be easily gleaned from the tenor of his own words. I have gathered a few excerpts from his writings.
To Colonel Benedict Arnold, the last of 14 “Instructions” upon Arnold’s advance against Quebec:
As the contempt of the religion of a country by ridiculing any of its ceremonies, or affronting its ministers or votaries, has ever been deeply resented, you are to be particularly careful to restrain every officer and soldier from such imprudence and folly, and to punish every instance of it. On the other hand, as far as lies in your power, you are to protect and support the free exercise of the religion of the country, and the undisturbed enjoyment of the rights of conscience in religious matters, with your utmost influence and authority. (Writings, Vol.3,p.89)
To Joseph Reed (Colonel ?), From Cambridge, 14 January 1776:
How to get furnished I know not. I have applied to this and the neighboring colonies, but with what success time only can tell. The reflection on my situation, and that of this army, produces many an unhappy hour when all around me are wrapped in accounts; fewer still will believe, if any disaster happens to these lines, from what cause it flows. I have often thought how much happier I should have been, if, instead of accepting the command under such circumstances, I had taken my musket on my shoulder and entered the ranks, or, if I could have justified the measure to posterity and my own conscience, had retired to the back country, and lived in a wigwam. If I shall be able to rise superior to these and many other difficulties, which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe, that the finger of Providence is in it, to blind the eyes of our enemies; for surely if we get well through this month, it must be for want of their knowing the disadvantages we labor under. (Writings Vol.3,p.240)
It is the faith and character of George Washington that I celebrate, for they are the foundation of his accomplishments. As Washington loved Virginia, so I am devoted to a Free Tennessee.
Most people today think of government exclusively within the civil realm. In reality, there are a multitude of “governments” which influence our everyday lives. The most common governments beside the state are those of the family and church.
Some other examples are local clubs such as the Elks, Civitans, Rotary, the Quilting Circle, Swim Club, Boy Scouts or the Brownies. Every human association has rules – written or unwritten – which are meant to maintain order within the group, and that is government!
But the most important government of all is self-government. The inability to maintain control of self was Adam’s problem in the Garden. The lack of self-control has provided tremendous profits for the media as they have reported on control failures as varied as sports figures, entertainment idols, political stars and religious icons.
The lack of self-control also caused disharmony at your work or in your family this past week. In every one of these instances of lack of self-control, we find that the lack of self-control tends to require an increase in exterior control.
There are a variety of disciplinary measures which maintain control in families, churches, and clubs. Civil government utilizes physical force and economic manipulation to maintain control.
When people around us exhibit a lack of self-control, the common reaction is “there oughta-be-a-law.” The civil government historically has been all too happy to oblige with a new and more severe form of force.
In order to truly be a free people – in order to have a Free Tennessee – we as a people must develop a greater sense of and use of self-government. Individuals must take the responsibility of maintaining order in our lives and the lives of those closest to us.
We must think of government first in the personal realm.
The center of the Columbian Empire (Washington, D.C.) is entering its fourth day of being closed for business. Snowed in!
I sense this wonderful euphoria sweeping the hills and hollers.
Don't y'all feel safer knowing that all the mindless bureaucrats and duplicitous elected officials and self-serving appointees and witless judges are doing nothing? I do!
The Tennessee Legislature stumbled a bit last week. The road to Tennessee liberty was made a little bumpier.
HB 1916, “The Secret Ballot Protection Act,” failed Wednesday (3 Feb 2010) on a tie vote in the Employee Affairs sub-committee of the House Consumer & Employees Affairs Committee. Sponsored by Rep. Susan Lynn (R-Mt. Juliet), the bill held two significant provisions: 1) employees could not be forced into a union “solely on a stated showing of interest” and that 2) employees have the right to use a secret-ballot.”
The legislation was co-sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats, so it could not be said to be a “partisan” bill, but you wouldn’t know it by the sub-committee vote. Three Democrats voted against the secret ballot, while the three Republicans voted in favour. The tie could have been broken by the Speaker of the House, but he showed his keen interest in the welfare of Tennesseans by allowing the bill to fail with the tie. (All persons involved are listed below. I encourage you to let them know how you feel.)
Most people do not realize that the secret ballot it a relatively new concept. Know as the “Australian ballot,” it was first used on that continent in 1856. The state of Massachusetts was the first to secure the secret ballot for its citizens. The practice of the secret-ballot in the Southern states became inviolate following the Yankee / Republican atrocities of “Reconstruction.”
Rep. Lynn’s bill reads in part, “That employees be given the opportunity to cast a vote in accordance with their conscience in secret-ballot elections free from coercion, intimidation, threats, misinformation, or interference from outside influences.” That is exactly what Southerners desired after the tribulations imposed by the military occupation of their communities.
Since it is Black History Month, I will relate another vignette from my course, A History of the Southern States.
The truth of the right to vote given the former slaves by the occupying Yankees is more humorous than fiction—Levi was the colored servant of Gen. Samuel G. French, a New Jersey-born soldier who had served the United States in the war with Mexico and had served the Confederacy in the Southern War for Independence. He reported to the General how an election was conducted in the Mississippi Delta for a constitutional convention.
At his polling place there were some two hundred men when he went to vote, only two of them white, and those two “inside the house.” Levi, who cast his ballot for what he called “the invention,” handed his “paper,” which was his certificate of registration, to the “two white men inside the room, through a window. They looked at it, handed it back to me, and said ‘open your hand;’ I did so and one of the men then put a little folded paper in my hand, then took it out and put it in a box and said ‘Move on.”
It should be noted that in at least one particular the forms of democracy were observed—Levi was allowed to touch his ballot before it was deposited for him.
We have secret-ballots because we wish to be free. Hopefully ALL Tennesseans desire the same. Perhaps some Tennessee Representatives will suffer this coming November because they don’t desire a Free Tennessee.
The big news in Nashville this weekend is the National Tea Party convention.
The news reports of volunteers quitting, of speakers and sponsors pulling out, of the media being denied access to the event, and the mystery over whether Sarah Palin will get her $100,000 speaking fee or not have all overshadowed the more significant issues surrounding the event.
Has a spontaneous tax-payer revolt, a grass-roots fueled response to big government been co-opted by the profit seekers and the political organizers who benefit from big government?
The danger is definitely there. Former Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich has expressed his alignment with the Tea Party movement. The problem with Gingrich is his record is as an internationalist, not a conservative believer in the US Constitution.
Gingrich voted for the establishment of a national Department of Education. The House vote was 210 to 206. The monstrous attack on the family and on true education was carried by three votes, one of which was Gingrich’s.
Gingrich is an opportunist who will go wherever the wind blows. He voted for “most favored” trade status for Red China. He pushed and claimed responsibility for the approval of the NAFTA and GATT trade agreements which have sent the bulk of American manufacturing jobs across our borders and overseas. The next time you’re in WalMart and buy that cheap item from China, thank Newt. Thank Newt not for the cheap trinket, but for taking the job away from you and/or your neighbour.
The average Tea Party participant is being betrayed by those who would step into leadership. But betrayal is not new to any devotee of liberty.
During the American revolution we had our Benedict Arnold. Today we have all sorts of sell-out leaders who have pledged their allegiance to the George H.W. Bush “New World Order.” The Council on Foreign Relations is filled with sell-outs, Newt Gingrich is only one. And in case you think I only pick on politicians, the best-selling “Christian” author Rick Warren is also a CFR member. (You didn’t really think he gave the Obama Inaugural invocation because he was such a great pastor, did you?)
The only way to prevent to co-opting of any liberty loving movement, is to keep it small. Secession is the only hope for gaining an enduring liberty.
Because February is recognized as Black History Month, I thought I would provide some information which is not generally available. Most of the information provided in schools is politically correct trash.
The selection below is from the FreeTennessee.org website, but does not include a selection of Tennessee Supreme Court decisions which accompany the full article.
SLAVERY IN TENNESSEE
information presented to the
Tennessee House State & Local Government Committee
April 2009.
by Rev. David O. Jones
The language of HJR 7, sponsored by Rep. Brenda Gilmore, in which the Tennessee Legislature is to express a “solemn apology” (or “profound regret”), is both inflammatory and expresses a biased view of Southern history.
Paragraph three (3) states that “Africans forced into slavery were brutalized, humiliated, and dehumanized.” While domestic slavery was and is a humiliating situation which very few would ever want to revive, the laws of Tennessee protected them from being “brutalized” and “dehumanized.” Tennessee law required slave-owners to feed, clothe, house, and provide medical attention to their slaves. The decisions of the Tennessee Supreme Court in upholding the conviction of men who violated those laws is evidence that those laws were taken seriously. (9 Tenn 156-William Fields v. State of Tennessee. Nashville, January 1829; 29 Tenn 268-Lunsford and Davie v. Baynham, Nashville, December, 1849; 30 Tenn 171-Wherley v. The State. Nashville, December, 1850; and many others.)
Later, in paragraph six (6), it is stated, “the system of slavery, having been sanctioned and perpetuated through the laws of Tennessee and the United States, ranks as the most horrendous depredation of human rights in our nation’s history.” I would counter that the forced removal of the Cherokee known as “The Trail of Tears” in which 4,000 of 15,000 Cherokee died takes on all comers as “the most horrendous depredation of human rights in our nation’s history.”
Paragraph seven (7) states, “the Civil War, which was fought over the slavery issue.” Renowned historians do not agree on the cause of that war, therefore the statement cannot be used as a basis in fact for any argument.
A final objection from a specifically Biblical point of view. Paragraph eleven (11) asks government to repent. Government can’t repent, only individual souls can repent.
Positive argument for Tennessee:
In 1860, out of a total white population of 8 million people, only 385,000 were slaveholders (or 4.8%). And according to the 1830 census, more than ten thousand slaves were owned by free-Blacks in the states of South Carolina, Louisiana, Virginia, and Maryland.
Fact #1. Yankees controlled slavery. The center for the slave trade was Newport, Rhode Island. In 1850, the port boasted a fleet of 170 slave ships each of which could carry 60 to 150 slaves across the Atlantic. They carried approximately 20,000 slaves per year.
FACT #2. The earliest activists in abolishing slavery were Southerners. The first paper published exclusively in the interest of freeing slaves was “The Emancipator” published in 1820, in Jonesboro, Tennessee. By 1826, there were 143 emancipation societies in the United States and 103 of those were in the South. In 1817, the American Colonization Society was founded by slave-holders from Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland to provide an opportunity for Africans to return to their native soil.
The only true protection for any citizen is for the lesser magistrates to interpose themselves between the unruly magistrates and the people to whom they have pledged their service.
Only when Tennessee’s legislature takes seriously its responsibility to protect Tennesseans from the run-away tyranny of the Columbian Empire will freedom be possible. Will Tennessee legislators take a stand for liberty?
On 16 December 2009, Emperor Obama signed Executive Order #13524, effectively granting INTERPOL (the International Criminal Police Organization) unlimited license to enforce the decisions of the International Criminal Court upon U.S. citizens. Many conservative pundits on the internet have criticized Obama’s actions, but the criticism is not complete in its scope.
Lest we misunderstand the true significance of Order #13524, let us do a little review. The original International Organizations Immunities Act (59 Stat. 669, 22 U.S.C. 288) was passed by Congress and took effect on 8 September 1945!!!
It was President Ronald Reagan who issued his own Executive Order #12425 on 16 June 1983 which bound INTERPOL to the provisions of the U.S. Constitution.
Obama has only returned us to the democratic socialism (Fascism) days of FDR.
It is CONGRESS who is to blame for this travesty against the Constitution and the American concept of natural rights.
The day of Tennessee’s independence from the Empire cannot come soon enough!
Why is the Empire’s leadership afraid? And why are they afraid of “we the people?”
It has become increasingly apparent to even the casual observer that the Empire is becoming more and more paranoid about being the object of violence.
White House tours used to be a routine ingredient of a visit to Washington, DC, along with visits to the Smithsonian, the National Archives, and the various monuments to dead Presidents. Then they required a ticket from your Congressman, then they required your Social Security number, and now they will even go so far as to make background checks.
In the past, the Empire’s buildings did not have steel and concrete barriers to prevent any vehicle getting too close, because of course any vehicle was presumed to be laden with a bomb. Airlines allowed everyone to board without a strip-search. But now, they (meaning terrorists) are out to get us.
When the events of 11 September 2001 were fresh in our memories, I remember hearing all sorts of reasons why “the terrorists” were out to get us. The most often repeated was that they were envious of our economic freedom.
Please forgive me incredulity! The Heritage Foundation releases an annual Index of Economic Freedom World Ranking. The 2010 rankings place the United States at #8 in overall economic freedom. Ahead of us are Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Switzerland, and Canada. Hong Kong and Singapore haven't been attacked! We were not and are not being attacked because of our freedom and wealth. They are attacking us because the Empire has become the biggest bully in the world.
Our Emperors may talk about the evil empires of North Korea, Iran, and various others, but it is the United States which is the real terror in the world. Do it our way…or we’ll reduce you to “Barney” (rubble that is).
And if that wasn’t enough, the Empire’s leadership wants to direct its ire at its own citizens. Emperor Bush (the second) established USNORTHCOM in 2002. On its website, USNORTHCOM states its “specific mission:”
USNORTHCOM anticipates and conducts Homeland Defense and Civil Support operations within the assigned area of responsibility to defend, protect, and secure the United States and its interests.
USNORTHCOM’s AOR includes air, land and sea approaches and encompasses the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico and the surrounding water out to approximately 500 nautical miles. It also includes the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida, portions of the Caribbean region to include The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In case you have any reservations about the Empire’s military being directed at its own citizens, we are advised on their website that, “Per the Posse Comitatus Act, military forces can provide civil support, but cannot become directly involved in law enforcement.” Doesn’t that ease your mind?
To continue the terrorism, excuse me, defense of the Empire, on 11 January, Emperor Obama signed an Executive Order establishing a “Council of Governors” which will review such things as the “synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activites.”
Throughout history when a nation or empire loses its moral authority over its citizens, it resorts to increasingly oppressive military/police force to maintain its position of authority. This is what is happening before our very eyes with the Columbian Empire.
More on my next blog. Until then, pray for a free Tennessee Nation.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last Friday (22 Jan) that for the first time in the history of the United States economy, government workers make up the majority of union members. Local, state and government workers now represent 51.5 percent of all union members.
It seems that the poor economy has so affected various union dominated industries that overall union membership has declined by 771,000 workers. Before you cry too much for the boys, realize that that decline only represents 0.1 percent of everyone working.
It’s my guess that the largest single group of employees within the government’s union total would be teachers. The TEA (Tennessee Education Association) does a massive task of political “spin” when they continually speak of their every effort lobbying the Tennessee Legislature as labour “for the children.”
The truth is that the TEA is the biggest beneficiary of government largess. The teachers across the state are paid by your and my tax dollars, then the TEA takes a portion of those tax dollars in the form of dues in order to lobby the legislature for more tax dollars.
The teachers’ union is the only lobbying organization in the state which is paid by the state to lobby the state to pay them more money from the state. Talk about a racket!
As long as there is a teachers’ union, there can be no effect state education legislation. The TEA is paid to look out for the teachers, not for the children. Let individual teachers lobby, but outlaw the union.
The Nashville Tennessean yesterday (21 Jan) ran a story headlined, “Global warming report riddled with errors.” The sub-title reads, “Mistakes open door for skeptics.”
Weeks of deafening silence have followed the revelations of the manipulation of statistical research, of the censuring of doubting scientists, of the subversions and of the out-right lies presented by the proponents of global warming. The liberal media have done what they could to make sure that the fewest possible number of people know the truth.
Now comes a correction which is no correction at all. “Five glaring errors were discovered in one paragraph of the world’s most authoritative report on global warming…” Hundreds of emails reveal collusion, but the “admission” is only to FIVE error in ONE paragraph!
“But the mistakes open the door for more attacks from climate change skeptics.” This is spinning the facts as only the arrogant media elite can do. The assumption presented by the Tennessean is that scientists are basically in agreement about global warming. The opposite is actually the truth.
The Oregon Petition is the third, and by far the largest, of three prominent efforts to show that a scientific consensus does not exist on the subject of global warming. The petition site currently lists more than 31,000 signatories, many of whom are legitimate, scientific scholars and researchers.
Dozens of on-line readers of the Tennessean commented, but the comments were focused on the aspect of climate change/global warming. They missed the point! Here is a major metropolitan newspaper admitting an error and with a quick sleight-of-hand, uses the admission as further proof that the lie is the truth. Amazing!
When a newspaper (or any other company) is not owned by local residents, it has no reason to be loyal to, or truthful with its readers. The Gannett Corporation doesn’t feel it owes you anything, so it doesn’t deliver anything.
Bigger is not better, whether it is a newspaper or a government. Bigger is only bigger. It can be a bigger lie. It can be a bigger deception. It can be a bigger tragedy for the people.
Small is where accountability and honesty have their best chances of survival. Forget the Empire, just give me a Tennessee Nation.
Let’s all boycott the airlines until they decide to tell the FEDs to “butt out!”
After everyone had to start taking their shoes off because some idiot, would-be martyr tried to ignite his shoes, I had decided that flying any commercial airline was just too much trouble. Now, everyone is going to be strip-searched via machine because another idiot, would-be martyr tried to ignite his underwear. Actually, I am a little surprised that the Kindergartners running the Department of Homeland Security haven’t issued a security update requiring that all underwear be removed and visibly searched by the minimum-wage employees at the air terminals. (My apologies to all Kindergartners for the above comment. I know you children are smarter than the bureaucrats running Homeland.)
A little review, if you please. In the eight years since the September 2001 incidents, there have been exactly 8 fatal accidents in the United States involving commercial airlines. Those eight accidents resulted in the death of 103 souls. None of these deaths could have been prevented by all the security being paid for by you and I. In fact, all the security that we are paying for has not even produced a would-be martyr for prosecution.
I am aware that country legend Eddy Arnold couldn’t board an airline because he was on the terrorist watch list. There was a recent story in the media about a child that was prevented from boarding an airliner because he was listed as a terrorist. I believe I also remember U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy was once stopped from boarding a plane because he was “on the list.” But the idiot, would-be underwear martyr was able to fly even though his own father was warning the authorities to watch him.
In the year 2008, there were 1,043 traffic fatalities in Tennessee alone. That is ten times the eight-year record of deaths in airliners. Yet Tennessee legislators have not felt it necessary to pass legislation, nor has the Tennessee Department of Transportation felt it necessary to implement regulations to screen your underwear before you drive.
I do not intend to board any airliner in the near future, not because I fear for my safety. Flying is a very safe mode of transportation! I won’t fly because of the stupidity of the Empire, thinking that another restriction is going to make it safer.
Tennesseans will be so much better off when the Columbian Empire finally falls under the stress of its own weight. Tennesseans will then be able to enjoy a Free Tennessee.
I serve as Headmaster of a church-related school. Unlike most of my counter-parts across Tennessee and the rest of America, I refuse to utilize the third Monday of January to celebrate the life of a whore-mongering socialist even though popular opinion says that he contributed to positive social changes. A man who claims to be not only a Christian but also takes the role of a minister of the Gospel should have a more circumspect private life than did M.L. King, Jr. He is not worthy of any adulation in a Christian setting.
By way of contrast are the exemplary Christian lives of Southern heroes Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. Lee was born 19 January 1807 and Jackson was born 21 January 1824, so quite conveniently the King holiday often falls on one of their birthdays. It should be an easy transition for Christian educators to talk about true virtue and true accomplishment.
While several books have been written about both men, my favorites are the two written by Steven Wilkins – Call of Duty, The Sterling Nobility of Robert E. Lee and All Things for Good, The Steadfast Fidelity of Stonewall Jackson. Each book provides a linear biography of the man, then provides biographical sketches which illustrate various character traits.
Each man stood as a pillar of strength and courage and faith to those around them. The criticism which was directed their way was always by someone who did not know them, and if ever they did meet, the opinion quickly changed.
In Call of Duty, Wilkins relates the code of honour which Lee initiated as President at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) after the War. After expressing his opposition to rules which could not be enforced, Lee said, “We have but one rule here, and it is that every student must be a gentleman.”
Wilkins explains that a true gentleman in Lee’s understanding embraced four attributes:
Diligent study
Honorable conduct
Faithful worship of God
Respecting good order
In All Things for Good, Wilkins returns several times to the leadership which Jackson displayed and how it related to his faith.
A report appeared in a publication that offended Ann Jackson by its lack of regard for her husband. When she mentioned it in a letter, Jackson responded, “Don’t trouble yourself about representations that are made of me. These things are earthly & transitory. There are real & glorious blessings, I trust, in reserve for us beyond this life.”
Later, Wilkins writes,
He was the most unlikely leader imaginable. He had none of the qualities that people believe to be essential for leadership. He did not come from a prominent family. He was not intellectually gifted. He did not have impressive physical characteristics or social skills. He did not make friends easily, nor did he have a large number of friends. But Jackson was able to overcome these obstacles, and he became one of the most influential leaders the world has ever seen.
…He was gangly, uncoordinated, and spoke in a high-pitched voice with a western Virginian twang that tended to grate on the ears of those who did not know him. …He was socially awkward and had no natural sense of humor.
Wilkins then concludes,
Far more important than a great smile or a quick tongue is the wisdom to know that you are a nobody in and of yourself and that your sufficiency is in Christ. …If we will but devote ourselves to being faithful, God will ensure that we will be useful.
For those of you who are more inclined to view information via video or would enjoy reviewing the information with others, the lives and faith of Lee and Jackson are also masterfully produced in a DVD entitled Warriors of Honor.
Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson are the kind of men that we should all learn about and learn to emulate the qualities that made them great. With men and women like them, we will have a wonderful Tennessee Nation.
From Solitude, David O Jones
P.S. Normally priced at $20 (plus $4 shipping), I am purchasing a number of copies of the DVD Warriors of Honor for $12 each (no shipping) and am making them available to others. If you want a copy, email me for the details.
