Redstate

Posted at 8:33am on Jul. 4, 2008 What July Fourth Means to Me By Ronald Reagan

By ICRJCalvin

For one who was born and grew up in the small towns of the Midwest, there is a special kind of nostalgia about the Fourth of July.

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Posted at 11:59pm on Jul. 3, 2008 "We're All Gonna Die!!!!!!!!!!!"

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Historian Thomas Madden explores the reasons for the spate of declinist literature concerning the future of American power:

Here's my theory: Prosperity and security are boring. Nobody wants to read about them. The same phenomenon occurred in ancient Rome, the last state to acquire such a firm hegemony. By the second century B.C., Roman citizens were affluent and their empire no longer had any serious rivals. With the dangers past and the money rolling in, they developed a taste for jeremiads. If you had a stylus, ink and scroll you could hardly go broke telling the Romans their empire, culture and way of life were yesterday's news.

Polybius blamed pandering politicians, who, he predicted, would transform the noble Republic into mob rule. Sallust claimed that Rome's vicious political parties had "torn the Republic asunder." Livy wrote his entire "History of Rome" just so that his fellow citizens could "follow the decay of the national character . . . until it reaches these days in which we can bear neither our diseases nor their remedies."

The Romans may have been unquestioned masters of their world, but they sure didn't like reading about it. And when the empire actually did start its decline in the third century A.D., criticisms and predictions of collapse became noticeably thinner on the ground.

The military dictators who seized power in Rome and led the empire on its downward spiral did not much like reading about their own shortcomings, and they had ways of making sure that they didn't have to. These were the days of the panegyric - an obsequious form of literature that praised the emperor and empire to the skies. When you start seeing those, it's time to worry.

We're certainly not seeing that yet. Of course, I remember back in the 1980s and 1990s when a previous spate of declinist literature hit the bookstores. We've done fine since then. I suppose that there is a certain cache in looking at a crystal ball, seeing doom and spreading the message of doom to the masses. It makes you look really far-sighted in the eyes of some, as opposed to people like Madden who actually resist trendiness and keep some semblance of nerve as they cast a prophetic eye to divine the true state of America's destiny.

But thus far, in America's story, the optimists have been right far, far, far more often than the pessimists have.

Or as Ben Franklin put it after the Constitutional Convention:

I have often and often in the course of the Session, and the vicisitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting Sun.

It still is.

Posted in America | History — Comments (44)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:35am on Jul. 3, 2008 Americans Must Never Forget The Divine Author Of Our Independance

By ICRJCalvin

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Posted at 1:28pm on Jul. 2, 2008 Independence Declared

By RollingThunder

. . . The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

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Posted at 12:14pm on Jun. 30, 2008 Alaska's 50th Birthday Today.

By Achance

On June 30, 1958, the US Senate by a vote of 64 yeas and 20 nays enacted the Alaska Statehood Act, which was signed into law a few days later by President Eisenhower. Thus ended an almost century long battle to achieve some measure of self-determination for the sparsely populated but fabulously resource rich territory acquired from the Russians in 1867.

From the 1840s, Alaska had been the province of New England's otter fur traders and whalers. The Russians could barely maintain their colony and the Chinese, the primary market for sea otter fur, then the most valuable produce of Alaska, would only trade with the Russians at one port far up the Amur River. The Americans, who enjoyed good relations with the Chinese, filled the void trading with both the coastal Indians and the Russians for the valuable sea otter fur which in turn they traded with the Chinese for tea, porcelain, textiles, and other products desired by the burgeoning European and American markets. Voyages were typically four years or more and profits were often over 4000%!

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Posted at 12:53pm on Jun. 29, 2008 Freedom And Liberty Worth The Cost

By Ken Taylor

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that 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

With these words Thomas Jefferson embodied the heart of freedom and liberty. As the signers of the Declaration Of Independence placed their very lives on the line for these principles of freedom to gain independence on that summers day in 1776 they gave birth to a new idea. An idea that had never before found its equal or better in a government by man. An idea that encompassed the most basic of human rights but had never before been allowed to flourish in any country.

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Posted at 12:48am on Jun. 24, 2008 Quotes That Catch My Fancy

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

In the end, more than freedom, they [the ancient Athenians] wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all - security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.

--Edward Gibbon. Thanks to the Smithians for the most timely reminder of an excellent observation.

Posted at 10:27am on Jun. 17, 2008 Book Review--War and Decision

for those interested in grappling with serious issues

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

If there was any justice, Douglas Feith's book would get a great deal more attention from the press than would Scott McClellan's opportunistic tell-all. Unlike McClellan, who confines himself to reciting the words and arguments of others and who does not present any kind of original or interesting analysis, Feith presents genuine scholarship, an interesting and original argument concerning 9/11, American actions in Afghanistan and Iraq and the general war on terror and a valuable behind-the-scenes look at the way in which foreign policy, defense and national security policy was made during the course of the Bush Administration.

Read on...

Posted in Afghanistan | Donald Rumsfeld | Doug Feith | History | Iraq | Pentagon | War and Decision — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:01pm on Jun. 12, 2008 Freefalling into the Abyss

By jestanton2

Here we are in the 2008 Presidential election cycle, and once again we freefall into the Abyss of History. Once upon a time ago it was stated "He who forgets the past is doomed to repeat its mistakes." Truer words were never spoken, Our forefathers when creating our wonderful new nation looked forward from their time and tried to guide us with their thoughts.

They wrote in a style both beautiful and straight forward, "WE THE PEOPLE" not we the congress, we the pac, we the bussiness etc. We the people were to be in charge of our government, Thomas Jefferson saw the need to tell us, Their decendants, that we alone should control our destinies.

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Posted at 11:21pm on Jun. 9, 2008 Politics As Warfare: Lessons From History The GOP Must Learn! Part I

By aceintx

This is the first of a series of Articles as inspired by E Pluribus Unum at RS and at TMR comparing Politics to war.

Wars are made up of many battles. Wars can be dominated by one side over another yet lost in the long run if there is not a proper respect for strategy and tactics and/or a proper respect for the lessons taught by the enemy. Most importantly one battle can decide the whole war in positive and/or negative ways!

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Posted at 11:59pm on Jun. 6, 2008 Quote Of The Day

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

--General Dwight David Eisenhower, June 6, 1944.

Posted in D-Day | History — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:49am on Jun. 6, 2008 Ronald Reagan’s D-Day Anniversary Speech

By ICRJCalvin

Ronald Reagan always appreciated the dedication of our men and women in uniform. He often spoke eloquently of their service and sacrifice. On the 40th anniversary of the D-Day invasion he stood on the beaches of Normandy to commemorate that anniversary with a speech at Pointe du Hoc, France. This was the site where U.S. Rangers battled to reclaim Europe from fascism.

“Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love.

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Posted at 2:29pm on May 28, 2008 Why Obama's Auschwitz "gaffe" is a lie that matters

By spainishirish

It is one thing to fabricate a family member's war experiences.

It is quite another to exploit the Holocaust, and particularly the hell that was Auschwitz, for political purposes.

Barack Obama has done both.

As reported by the Associated Press, Sen. Obama said on Memorial Day:

"And the story in our family was is that when he came home, he (Obama's uncle) just went up into the attic and he didn't leave the house for six months," he said.

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Posted at 1:26pm on May 25, 2008 The Last Full Measure - A Memorial Tribute

By Ken Taylor

They came from every corner of our nation representing our best and bravest. They fought in places whose names have become familiar to us not because the field had any great significance but because of what they so bravely did there.

Places like Trenton, Valley Forge, Antietam, Gettysburg, Gallipoli, Iwo Jima, Normandy, Porkchop Hill, Inchon, Hamburger Hill, Basra, Kuwait City, Asadabad, Baghdad, Falllujah. Each of these locations and many more where brave Americans gave the lives defending freedom and fighting for liberty in defense of this nation.

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