It was impossible to post this article here. Please go to the website using this url
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14178/venezuela-monroe-doctrine.
We discuss not only the fascinating history of the Monroe Doctrine (Abe Lincoln was the first to invoke it) but why it is applicable to Venezuela. This article was listed as one of the top Google stories.
In an excellent article today entitled "Trump Vows to Fight Democrat Racism, Sexism", Breitbart News reports that Trump intends to expose Democrats' notorious history of racism and sexism. FINALLY!
But, in the article the writer alludes to the misnamed "civil war" and Abraham Lincoln as stellar examples of Republicans' historical purity on this issue.
In the comments section I entered the following:
"Good article, but PLEASE PLEASE get beyond the prevailing and wholly erroneous revisionist belief that 'ole Abraham Lincoln fought the so-called "civil war", aka War of Northern Aggression or War for Southern Independence, to free the blacks.UNMITIGATED HOGWASH!
Like most of his contemporaries in the North, Abe was a shameless white supremacist who tore the country apart for his own political and economic purposes. He ain't no hero of mine, nor should he be to any clear-headed American anywhere.
That said, glad Trump is turning these issues back on the Liberals whose history in these areas has been notorious! About time a GOP candidate is willing to tell it like it is, to tangle with the devil, to fight fire with fire!"
For starters, I urge truth-seekers to read a scholarly and extremely well-documented book entitled "The Real Abe Lincoln". Sobering and educational to say the least, the book should remind us that it is always the victor in war who writes the history of that conflict, calculatingly skewed, tendentious and revisionist though that account may be.
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(“If anybody tries to penetrate the past with the knife of the present will always act in vain. The past is invulnerable. Such attempts can only cause the present or the future to bleed." - Gregor Brand”
― Simon Schwartz)
(“Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”― Chinua Achebe)
Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln.
Remember always that he was the greatest president of the 19th Century, and literally saved the young Union from being inexorably torn in two. Abraham was a great politician. He was a decent, just, humble man, and in the most virtuous sense he was also a great politician. He used the power of his political skill and rhetoric to appeal to a nation, the Union in its entirety, to address the problem of slavery in a way that best preserved the natural rights of all men. He was not like the extreme abolitionist, John Brown, who murdered for the cause. He was not a slave holder who defended the practice as essential.
He was not a racist who saw Whites as superior to Blacks. But he was a great politician who had to appeal to the extremes on both sides; the abolitionists on one side, the slave states on the other. And he had to find common ground so that the Union could be preserved. For, without the United States of America, her Declaration of Independence and its statement of Natural Rights, and the Constitution with its Bill of Rights, slavery would not be eradicated. It would continue to exist in some form within and without the Union indefinitely.
Abraham Lincoln used his expert political skill to maneuver sentiment and popular opinion. He used his debate skills to trap Stephen Douglas and others dedicated to the protection and perpetuation slavery to expose their hypocrisy, and turn their Constitutional arguments against them. Lincoln spoke to a deeply divided America. Racism, superstition, fear, and economic necessity impelled the slave states to fight to the death for the practice upon which they based their culture. Ideology, human freedom, and Christian love impelled those who sought the immediate and unconditional abolition of all slavery. Only when he was unsuccessful in the political realm to heal the rent Union, did Lincoln resort to military action, and with the force of war, called the secessionist states back home. He hated the Civil War. Lincoln's skill as Commander in Chief did not match that of his political skill. Yet he persisted, in the name of freedom, and in the name of the indispensable Union, he persisted. He, at first, refrained from using the full force of the Union against the Southern states. And it was not until Ulysses S. Grant became the Commanding General of the Union Army, that victory over secession, and victory over the practice of slavery became possible.
Abraham Lincoln was a great politician, and a reluctant Commander in Chief. His love of all people is unquestionable. And he knew that for America, and the rest of the world to have a "Last, best hope," that the Union must preserved and its Constitution along with it. Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln. Your memory and legacy blesses us still.
If a politician stood up at the podium, and uttered the following words, he would be viewed as an extremist; or, in the parlance this week, a terrorist. Tea Partiers, always keep your eyes on the Constitution. This is the one thing that the Radical Left fears:
Abraham Lincoln. Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. January 27, 1837
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and laws let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor. Let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts or justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation.
Please read the entire request, Comments after you sign the pledge, they are coming in almost faster than you can read and they're very uplifting.
"If today you hear His voice, harden not your heart" Looking for a strong spiritual weapon?
God is the answer ...GrizzlyMama
Make the Pledge at - 40 Days and 40 Nights: http://bit.ly/bryP7o
Glenn Beck - Make the Pledge - 40 Days and 40 Nights:
July 19, 2010 - 14:59 ET
For the next 40 days and 40 nights, I pledge...I COVENANT to practice faith, hope and charity by doing these things.
First...faith. I will pray on my knees every night for the next 40 nights...starting TONIGHT. Pray for guidance, inspiration, peace...pray for the leaders of our country. Pray for their safety, and that they will receive wisdom. I will re-establish my relationship with God.
Hope...hope comes from truth. You can't have hope based on lies. If you go to the doctor and you're in the early stages of cancer, but the doctor tells you that you just have the sniffles...that's false hope, and it won't help you, in fact, it would kill you. So, we have to have honesty, to have real hope. So, I will stop all lies for the next 40 days. That includes lying to myself. I will establish a pattern of honesty and make it become habitual. I will question with boldness...everything...even the things Glenn Beck tells you every night...I will do my own research...and then pray for my own confirmation on the things I have learned. I will find out what is true in my life.
And third...I will have charity. Charity begins at home. I will do something kind for every member of your family at least once a week. I will write it down, and then do it. Also, I pledge to take notice of how blessed I really am. I live in the greatest country the world has ever known...and even the least prosperous among us, are among the wealthiest people in the world...I will be grateful.
Pledge of Nonviolence
Below is the Pledge of Nonviolence that Martin Luther King, Jr. asked those who believed in his message to abide by as well as his core principles of nonviolence.
I am going to ask you to make the same commitment to nonviolence and give you the opportunity to make that pledge public by having you ‘sign’ these documents below.
-glenn
1. As you prepare to march meditate on the life and teachings of Jesus
2. Remember the nonviolent movement seeks justice and reconciliation - not victory.
3. Walk and talk in the manner of love; for God is love.
4. Pray daily to be used by God that all men and women might be free.
5. Sacrifice personal wishes that all might be free.
6. Observe with friend and foes the ordinary rules of courtesy.
7. Perform regular service for others and the world.
8. Refrain from violence of fist, tongue and heart.
9. Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health.
10. Follow the directions of the movement leaders and of the captains on demonstrations.
The Five Principles of Nonviolence
1. Non-violent resistance is not a method for cowards. It does resist. The nonviolent resister is just as strongly opposed to the evil against which he protests, as is the person who uses violence. His method is passive or nonaggressive in the sense that he is not physically aggressive toward his opponent, but his mind and emotions are always active, constantly seeking to persuade the opponent that he is mistaken. This method is passive physically but strongly active spiritually; it is nonaggressive physically but dynamically aggressive spiritually.
2. Nonviolent resistance does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding. The nonviolent resister must often express his protest through noncooperation but he realizes that noncooperation is not the ends itself; it is merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent.
3. The attack is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who are caught in those forces. It is a struggle between justice and injustice, between the forces of light and the forces of darkness.
4. Nonviolent resistance avoids not only external physical violence, but also internal violence of spirit. At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
5. Nonviolence is based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice. It is the deep faith in the future that allows a nonviolent resister to accept suffering without retaliation. The nonviolent resister knows that in his struggle for justice, he has a cosmic companionship.
Make Your Pledge
Americans Must Stand for Something
Rather Than Falling for Anything
Though NOT believing in astrology, Ol’ Rajjpuut is a Libra, one of those well-balanced people who occasionally like to throw their weight around. Besides a strong preference for cheeseless six-ingredient pizzas and eating the entire apple except for its stem, he has a particular fetish for learning about things that happened on his birthday, October 16, throughout history. For example:
On October 16, 1859, John Brown made his famous raid of “patriotic treason” on Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia’s federal armory; in 1962, President Kennedy was shown the photos of missile silos in Communist Cuba taken a day earlier; in 1964, Red China got nuclear weapons joining England, France, the USSR and USA; in 1793, the beheading of Marie Antoinette by the guillotine; in 1946, the hanging of the original ten Nazi war criminals after the Nuremberg trials; in 1854, the birth of Oscar Wilde; in 1888, the birth of Eugene O’Neill; in 1919, the first popular speech in Munich by Adolf Hitler transforming him overnight into the de facto leader of the Nazi party in Germany; and also in 1919, the publishing of this poem:
The Gods of the Copybook Headings**
by Rudyard Kipling
As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place;
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four—
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man—
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:—
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
Let’s call that poem by Kipling, “Exhibit A” that the popularity of an idea or plan has no necessary relation to its wisdom or factual basis. Truly we human beings have a nasty tendency to “throw the baby out with washwater” and ignore history’s lessons until we repeat them as Kipling emphasized in his poem above. While it’s true that “a certain foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” the operative words in that saying are “certain” and “foolish” not consistency . . . it is the practice of consistently doing the right things and thinking the right thoughts and operating our businesses and our lives with the right “spirit” that leads to true success. If a vital 7-10% of success and a good life is based upon NOT being trapped by the past; perhaps the other crucial 90-93% is knowing what the hell we’re talking about, because we truly understand our own and all history and are somewhat expert in the areas we’re involved in. The next great lesson for our times is this from Ben Franklin, we’ll call it “Exhibit B”:
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
A third great lesson is this from Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich A. Hayek, we’ll consider it “Exhibit C”:
“Man does NOT and canNOT know everything and when he acts as if he does, disaster follows.”
And from the greatest and most tested of our United States’ Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, our “Exhibit D”:
“As I would not be a slave; I would not be a master.”
You well might ask, “What’s all this got to do with the price of Chinese tea?” Exhibit B: When Franklin says, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor safety,” he is talking directly about those who would give away your liberty by promising you that their upcoming “Nanny-State” will take care of you from cradle to grave . . . that is, socialists, communists, various Utopians and all manner of collectivists.
When in Exhibit D: Lincoln says, “As I would not be a slave; I would not be a master,” he is talking about those who would enslave you; would become your master as part of the huge government entity that would have its tentacles reaching into every part of everyone’s lives and emphasizing that both roles master and slave are hideous.
In Kipling’s poem Exhibit A: “The Gods of the Copybook Headings,” we’re reminded that change for change’s sake is a losing proposition now and always has been. Some of our traditions are at least two million years old; our culture and the experiences of the past have value and should NOT be discarded on promises of blue sky and concession rights in Atlantis circa 3000 B.C. An awful lot of grief has been created by Utopians and Utopian movements promising brand new Edens but never delivering.
And Hayek’s quotation, Exhibit C: “Man does NOT and canNOT know everything and when he acts as if he does, disaster follows,” is wisdom aiming to protect us against charismatic hucksters who want to sell us a pig in a poke. Just because someone has an attractive, confident personality and believes something with all their heart, mind and soul doesn’t mean they’re right or their words are true . . . and it doesn’t mean you should drink their kool-aid either. TRUE BELIEVERS -- whether they’re the Jim Jones,’ radical Islamist Jihadists, or Heaven’s Gate leaders or anyone following any of those folks – such TRUE BELIEVERS tend to be wrong about thirty times more often then they’re right and if we’re not circumspect and cautious they can lose us our lives, liberty and sacred honor and perhaps our very souls.
The 2008 election was a referendum on these four exhibits . . . the eclectorate got what they deserved: a charismatic huckster and true believer leading us toward his kool-aid. Unfortunately, 2008’s other offering was a progressive Republican who though he was perhaps one hundred times preferable to Barack Obama, was just Tweedle-dumb running against Tweedle-dumber. The biggest potential virtue of Barack Obama is in reminding all American voters of the four great truths represented by Exhibits A, B, C and D and reminding us how wonderful the United States of America is by threatening us seriously with its loss.
Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
** What in the hell are “copybook headings?” In the old penmanship books they not only taught kids to print and write longhand, but did so with a constant barrage of wise counsel such as: “A penny saved is a penny earned.” “A fool and his money are soon parted.” “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” “Fortune favors the bold.” “Better late than never.” “Never look a gift horse in the mouth.” "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." “If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” Etc., etc.
