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 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.
Two weeks ago, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman did an about-face on marriage. He decided that instead of supporting traditional (Biblical) marriage, he would support same-sex marriage.
"I've come to the conclusion that for me, personally, I think this is something that we should allow people to do, to get married, and to have the joy and stability of marriage that I've had for over 26 years.”
Described in the media as “certainly a social conservative,” Portman has landed himself in the muddy water of the middle.
The problem with Mr. Portman is the same problem we face with the Empire, with local and state government and in our businesses and churches. People have forgotten that there are eternal absolutes which must govern us in order for there to be true “joy and stability” (as the senator put it).
There must be a return to an understanding the absolutes do exist, that they are born of the mind of God, and that they are delivered to us in the Scripture. What “I feel” does not make an ounce of difference for eternity nor for the present either.
We must be able to learn and hold on to Truth. Only then can we be a truly independent and self-governing people.
In respect of your time, I shall make this note short and to the point.
There has been a great amount of debate and demonstration expended concerning the issue of “gun rights,” but I would like to add a couple of comments which have not been raised.
With all due respect to my friends who go on at length in support of “gun rights,” there is no such thing.
Our Constitutions and legal system are based in English common law which in turn takes its genesis from the Mosaic covenant. Two of the Ten Commandments which speak to the various proposed legislation and should concern us at this juncture are numbers five and seven.
The 5th commandment is “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13) and the 7th, “Thou shalt not steal” (20:15).
“Thou shalt not kill” is the force behind the right-to-life and our understanding of the right of self-defence. “Thou shalt not steal” provides our understanding of the importance of private property.
By attention to the penalties proscribed for disobedience to these two commandments we can resolve an important principle – the right-to-life always supersedes property rights.
When considering the current raft of legislation, please compare the arguments against this principle – the right-to-life always supersedes property rights. The failure to do so places you under the same judgment as the U.S. Supreme Court when it decided in Roe v. Wade that a woman’s “property rights” in her body were more important than the right-to-life of her prenatal child.
Christ’s servant,
David O Jones
Chairman
Tennessee League of the South www.FreeTennessee.org
In The Rights of Rulers, Theodore Beza wrote, “if the magistrate connives or in some way refuses to perform his duty, then let each private citizen bestir himself with all his power to defend the lawful constitution of his county, to whom after God he owes his entire existence…”
When our leaders in government go outside of their authority to impress us with onerous mandates, too many – especially Christians – will satisfy themselves with complaints to their friends, but will not “bestir” themselves to actually communicate their grievances to the specific leaders who need to hear from them.
Whether by email or postal mail, everyone needs to “with all his power … defend the lawful constitution.” It is your duty before the Lord Jesus Himself.
Tennessee legislators need to hear from you about every issue with which you have a concern. Go to http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/ to search for specific legislation AND to find the phone number and email address of your representative and your senator.
Beza wrote in 1574. We need to follow his advice in 2013.
All Empire and State offices are closed today to honor the birthday of a great Christian husband, father, teacher and general.
On 21 January 1824, Thomas Jonathan Jackson was born in Clarksburg, Virginia. When he was two, both his older sister and father die of typhoid. A day after his father’s death, another sister was born. At six, his mother remarried, Thomas and his younger sister were sent to live with relatives. His mother died a year later.
At eighteen, Thomas Jackson entered West Point. Through extreme effort and endless study, he graduated 17th out of 59 students. He served in the Mexican War, earning three promotions. In 1851, he resigned from the army to accept a teaching position at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. There he taught artillery tactics and a mix of physics, astronomy, acoustics, optics, and other scientific courses. While at VMI, he conducted a Sunday School class for slaves in Lexington. Later, while serving in Confederacy, he sent his tithe back to the church for the support of that same Sunday School class.
Two years after arriving at VMI he married. A year later, his wife died in childbirth, their son was stillborn. Thomas Jackson was heartbroken, but as a devout Presbyterian, his faith in Christ was resolute. He had an abiding confidence that “all things work together for good” for the faithful believer. He remarried three years later, but their first child died a month after its birth.
He called war, “the sum of all evils,” but quickly responded to the call to defend Virginia. When Virginia seceded, VMI’s cadets were ordered to Richmond and Jackson was placed in command of the cadets.
The first great battle of the War was at Manassas Junction in July 1861. Northerners thought the whole war would be a picnic. In fact, residents of Washington, D.C., traveled by carriage and horseback with their picnic baskets to the hills around the site of the battlefield in order to watch and have lunch. At one point during the battle, Confederate troops were beginning to flee from a sustained federal onslaught, when Gen. Barnard E. Bee, attempting to rally the troops, shouted, “There is Jackson standing like a stone wall.” The men in Jackson’s command had maintained discipline and they became known as the “Stonewall Brigade.” Thomas Jackson earned his nickname, he will forever be remembered as “Stonewall” Jackson. He and his men turned the tide of battle and won a decisive victory for the South. The observers left blankets, picnic baskets and more as they fled in terror back across the Potomac River into Washington.
Jackson’s tactics and maneuvers were nothing short of brilliant. His conduct under fire was the substance of legend. His exploits were followed by Northern newspapers and the northern public. He was Robert E. Lee’s most versatile, successful, and clairvoyant lieutenant in the Army of Northern Virginia. By clairvoyant, I mean that he understood Lee’s mind and intent so well it seemed that he could read his mind. His faith and concern for those around him is well documented in the film “Of Gods and Generals.”
In the mysterious Providence and grace of God, Jackson was shot mistakenly by his own men at the moment of his greatest victory in the battle of Chancellorsville, having turned and routed the entire Yankee army under the arrogant Hooker. When news of the amputation of Jackson’s arm reached General Lee, he responded, “He had lost his left arm; but I have lost my right arm.” Jackson died a week later 10 May 1862, and as he had wished it was a Sunday. Lee said, “I know not how to replace him.” The army of Northern Virginia was never the same after his death. In any list of a half-dozen greatest American soldiers, Stonewall Jackson is listed by all critics.
His death was received with sadness around the world. One northerner eulogized that the Almighty had sent angels to earth to recover Jackson’s body, but they could not find him. When they returned to Heaven, they discovered that Jackson had made a flanking maneuver and was already there to meet them.
It isn't possible to understand Jackson apart from his Christian faith. He struggled to come to faith, but once there he applied to its development the same dogged labor that he showed in the rest of his life. When his pastor became reluctant to call on him for public prayer because he performed with such embarrassment, Jackson went to him & insisted that he call on him anyway because it was his duty to learn to pray publicly.
And learn he did. During the War he became famous for his private prayer. In his tent or in the woods, he would pace and pray aloud vehemently. Once one of his subordinate generals, an unbeliever who mocked him privately, burst into his tent one night. A kneeling Jackson was loudly praying, and never stopped or looked up. The man backed out in embarrassment, & later remarked, “If that is religion, then I must have it.”
Jackson also said, “My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. . . . That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave."
I must admit to quite a bit of concern over the recent enthusiasm toward secession. I support secession because the government smallest and closest to the people is that which is most admirable. The Columbian Empire is too unwieldy to be either efficient or responsive to legitimate human needs.
My first concern is that should Tennessee or any other State secede, not only the general population but political leaders as well have no concept of the origins of civil government, nor understanding of the necessity to take extreme care in the formation of a new government.
Many think that our forms are fine, our problem is simply that we must replace the people. But the forms have given evil men the ability to advance their agendas. For confirmation, just refer to the anti-federalists and their writings of the late 1700s.
My second concern is that we have neither the citizenry nor the leadership virtuous enough to establish any new forms. Most (not all) of those who advocate immediate secession are doing so out of passion and hatred of the current regime. We need to “get our act together” before we even consider secession.
In 1574, Theodore Beza wrote Concerning the Rights of Rulers Over Their Subjects and the Duty of Subjects Towards Their Rulers. This little book, with the addition of Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos (A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants, 1579) were Biblical guides to government familiar to our founders but neither have been read by many today. Beza wrote,
I most strongly approve of Christian patience as laudable beyond all the other virtues and never sufficiently commended…In affliction especially I am of opinion that we should depend upon God alone; prayer accompanied by a serious recognition of our error I recognize as the true and necessary remedies for the overthrow of tyranny since this evil is rightly counted among the scourges sent by God for the chastisement of the people. But I deny that all these considerations deprive nations crushed by manifest tyranny of their right to safeguard themselves against it by means of prayers and repentance as well as other just remedies; and this I corroborate whilst I reply on the following powerful arguments.
Beza advocates a variety of resolutions to tyranny including the taking up of arms in defense of liberty. But here he admonishes us to the first step: repentance and prayer. I seldom hear or see an advocate of secession exhorting citizens to repent. The direction of their righteousness is usually pointed toward the tyrants and their need to repent. The prophets of old called the people to repent in order to see the salvation of God.
In every civil action, let us start at the Throne of God, asking for His forgiveness, then His mercy and deliverance.
On Thursday, 12 July 2012, Governor Haslam showed up in Linden with the mayors of Perry County to announce a payoff to our community.
We know that the United States government is spending more than it has. The deficit can only be made up by one of two ways: either Congress extracts more from us through higher taxes, or they “borrow” the money. Of course, their borrowing comes in the form of having the FED increase the supply of currency. This is a backdoor approach to taxing the public which is more palatable to Congress.
The increase of the supply of currency creates inflation, which actually means the “dollar” is worth less on the market. We then take our dollars to the store and must pay more to get less.
In all of this, our mayors (bless ‘em) accept over a million dollars of federal money to pay for landscaping. By doing this our local officials join in as the thieves who have stolen your and my productivity.
The next time the prices at the grocery store go up, don’t blame the grocer or the farmer or the trucker who got the food there—they are not at fault. Blame our mayors, then go suck on one of the lovely trees or bushes as your meal-replacement.
The report comes from the Empire's HQ across the Potomac that the u.s. Defence Department has classified the Fort Hood shooting as "workplace violence." The fact that the shooter/MURDERER is a radical MUSLIM seems to have escaped their understanding.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine called them on the carpet today for their stupidiy (that's my word, not hers). See the news article here.
One wonders who the "Defence Department" is defending.
With an Empire that works as well as this one, it won't be long before we will have a Free Tennessee.
Was just reviewing some of the figures in S.1867, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.”
From my reading it appears to authorize an active and reserve personnel strength of the Empire’s military at approximately two and a half million.
According to the Census Bureau, there are 234.5 million of us aged 18 and older. With a little simple math, that breaks down to one soldier for every 94 people living in the 50 States (both legals and illegals).
That number of paid military personnel seems to be unusually large, especially since every able bodied man eighteen and older is by definition a member of the militia. The militia is unpaid and nearby, in order to protect the average citizen. The Empire’s paid forces are scattered across the globe protecting our “vital” corporate interests.
Let’s bring our men and women home and give them honourable service here.
I was interviewed last summer while attending the national conference of the League of the South in Abbeville, South Carolina. Had forgotten about it, until a couple of days ago. Here it is.
According to a report in Nashville’s Tennessean yesterday, the Hutton Hotel in Nashville has cancelled its contract to host a “Preserving Freedom conference” organized by the Tennessee Freedom Coalition.
The conference planned for 11 November was to highlight the dangers of Shariah law. Apparently the hotel had received “complaints” which a hotel spokesman said indicated a Muslim response which might endanger their staff and patrons.
The “peaceful” religion of Islam is doing its mighty work again. Any right of the public to hear a less than favourable opinion (make that truth) about Islam cannot be tolerated.
The organizers of the event vow that it will happen. Already knowing what I do about Islam, I probably would not have attended, but now I will make every effort to support them. I don’t like blatant intimidation of a legitimate group attempting to raise legitimate concerns about a dangerous “religion.”
The Tennessean reported, “Amir Arain, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Nashville, said the hotel made the right decision. He said the conference was promoting bigotry and had no place in Nashville.” The conference is to offer the message that Islam is a religion of hate and death, pure and simple. It does not intend to intimidate or harass anyone. Only the Muslims have done that!
It is sad to see people like those at the Hutton cower under intimidation. Where are real men and women who will stand against such.
I hope no one expects me to attend any function at the Hutton in the future. I will politely decline.
Once again, the nations of the West have followed a path of self-destruction. By means of the NATO alliance, Libya has fallen into the hands of dedicated Muslims.
From today’s London Telegraph, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council and de fact president, had already declared that Libyan laws in future would have Sharia, the Islamic code, as its "basic source".
It is interesting that the first Gadhafi era law which Abdul-Jalil immediately lifted was the prohibition of polygamy. (Sharia law allows up to four wives.)
As the elite in Washington have done for over two decades, they continue to side with Muslims against any stable regime which has protected Christians. They did it in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and now in Africa.
As a Christian, my first allegiance is to Christ and my citizenship is in heaven. It is becoming more and more difficult to have any appreciation for the united States when the Empire’s leaders (while professing to be Christians) actively destroy the Church.
Give me a Free Tennessee, away from such hatred of Christ.
I am impressed. The Obama administration was unusually restrained in their hunt for and assignation of Muammar el-Qaddafi. According to vice-chancellor Joseph “the plagiarizer” Biden the Columbian Empire only “spent $2 billion total and didn’t lose a single life.”
This is a tremendous value to those who enjoy seeing one dictator toppled in favour of another. Playing chess with third world countries is such fun for the mad-men in Washington.
I say Qaddafi’s demise is a value in comparison to how much the Empire has spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. Emperor George “W is for win at any cost” Bush’s war on Hussein’s Iraq has cost the taxpayer over 800 BILLION dollars and 4400+ lives of our sons and daughters, fathers and mothers. All with the result of crushing the Christian Church in Iraq and providing for the eventual rise of a more virulent Muslim dictator (can anyone say Iran?).
In Afghanistan, the Empire’s cost has been 1665+ lives and 466 BILLION dollars. The end isn’t even in sight there! But our hopes are raised with the fact that getting embroiled in war in Afghanistan led to the end of the British Empire and the Soviet Empire.
Sweet ending to a sad song…the Columbian Empire may very soon see its demise.
The Associated Press has reported that the 11th u.s. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has blocked a portion of Alabama's strick immigration law.
The Court decreed that Alabama state schools cannot ask for verification of citizenship status of students wishing to use their free services. Thomas Perez, head of Obama's Justice Department's civil rights division believes that attempting to discover if a person is violating the law is a violation of their civil rights. If that is the case, why are prisons over-crowded? ...shouldn't the inmates be released because their civil rights were violated when they were arrested and indicted?
Better yet, let's just get rid of the free-services magnets which are drawing the illegals into our States. We could start by dispensing with free Statist education! The State schools haven't been doing a good job of educating kids for some time now, so why continue their funding? (I do have a perverse sense of pleasure seeing that the illegals will have their children dumbed down with the rest.)
The Empire has asked an appeals court to stop enactment of the new Alabama immigration law.
Their argument is that it discriminates against foreign-born citizens and legal immigrants. By that argument, all criminal law should be abolished because it discriminates against law-abiding citizens.
The Department of Justice has lawyers who live in "Never-Land." We need to be free of them.
The problem as reported? Too many evaluations of teachers cause the teachers to be more focused on evaluations rather than teaching students.
The real problem? The statist educational system is a bureaucratic monster. It consumes an inordinate amount of every person’s labour through excessive taxation. It is managed primarily by bureaucrats more interested in showing they are invaluable to the system. The management is accomplished through constant evaluation of the mechanism rather than the supposed purpose which is producing educated men and women.
Which thought leads us to another truth – government does not produce anything. Government merely uses the productive efforts of others (again through taxation). Evaluating teachers via bureaucratic methods will never provide for better education. Government cannot and never will produce an educated man or woman. It is against its very nature to do so.
The only true education is one which is motivated by and thoroughly immersed in the Christian faith.
The [District of] Columbian Empire has finally morphed into the worst of Empires by employing terror as a chief means to its ends – total control of the world.
On Friday, 30 September 2011, two citizens were executed without indictments and without trial as they were traveling in Yemen. Anwar Awlaki and Samir Khan were murdered in a “drone attack” as they traveled with others. Government sources use the word “convoy” when reporting how the two men were traveling to imply military purposes. Please understand that a “convoy” is any three or more vehicles traveling together. I have traveled in many a “convoy” to business and church events that had nothing to do with any military purpose.
I would like to accuse Obama of the crime, but I must remind myself that he is only following the philosophy and methodology of his predecessor GW Bush. Bush, too, was not the author of using his office as a means to control those who disagreed with him. I was recently reminded that LBJ utilized new IRS rules to silence his critics in Christian pulpits. We can go all the way back to the Master of American-born Emperors, one Abraham Lincoln.
Last Friday was a sad day for those who adhere to constitutional government. Paul Craig Roberts has called it “The Day America Died.” I will disagree with him, for I believe it died years ago. 30 September 2011 is the day that the Constitution was buried.
Great article in the Tennessean this morning about CAFOs (concentrated/confinement animal feeding operations) which points out some of the problems inherent in the attempt to side-step the rules of nature and nature's God.
While CAFOs seem to have lowered the relative expense of meat, eggs and milk in the Empire, the hidden costs are beginning to reveal themselves.
But the system also has created disasters such as the August recall of half a billion salmonella-tainted eggs. Critics say the consolidation of food production has led to environmental damage, the loss of millions of small independent farms, rising health-care expenditures and billions in tax-funded subsidies to produce cheap animal feed.
Read the whole article (click here) then join the Tennessee League of the South (click here) in its efforts to restore the viability of small family farms in Tennessee. When you know your farmer, you can know your food is safe.
Last week, on 21 September, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Federal Reserve System issued a press release. The second paragraph reads,
Measures of underlying inflation are currently at levels somewhat below those the Committee judges most consistent, over the longer run, with its mandate to promote maximum employment and price stability. With substantial resource slack continuing to restrain cost pressures and longer-term inflation expectations stable, inflation is likely to remain subdued for some time before rising to levels the Committee considers consistent with its mandate.
Just a couple of hours later, I attended a seminar hosted by the Nashville Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The speaker was Michael F. Bryan, vice president and senior economist in the research department of the FRB Atlanta. He explained the FOMC statement, but I never got past the double-speak.
The Fed believes that it has a "mandate" to encourage inflation and thereby promoting "maximum employment and price stability." The question raised in my mind is, How does inflation equal price stability?
Reference was made to a speech given before the National Economists Club on 11 November 2002 by Ben Bernanke entitled, "Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here." (full text here)
Apparently the only thing the FED fears worse than prices that don't go up, is prices that go down. The solution to all our problems according to Bernanke is...print more money.
It would be wonderful if we all had a printing press to solve our every desire both great and small, but we are bound to live by the productivity of our own hands. The Empire operates on a different system-it creates the means to spend out of thin air.
More of the green paper available for the same amount of goods means that the price of the goods goes up - that is inflation! More paper means the paper is worth less.
How does inflation equal price stability? Sorry, but I just can't find the answer. Maybe I'm just not sound enough in my reasoning...or perhaps, it just ain't so!
