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Europe
You are destroying Germany! 16 y/o girl sheds light upon the refugee crisis
[YouTube] This girl's message is a cry for help. Yet, there is no one to help. Those who are in a position to help are delusional, mentally ill, and working in opposition to the people. The men cannot properly protect their women and children without a means for self-defense. Many men can overpower one man. Escorting of one woman by one man is not feasible.
20 minutes of the thoughts on the current situation by a very articulate young lady. At the link it is noted that Facebook censored this under their new hate speech guidelines.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/24/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I have a feeling she won't be the last German woman crying for help.
Posted by: jvalentour || 01/24/2016 1:54 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
My vision for a culture of life
By Donald J. Trump

[WashingtonExaminer] Let me be clear — I am pro-life. I support that position with exceptions allowed for rape, incest or the life of the mother being at risk. I did not always hold this position, but I had a significant personal experience that brought the precious gift of life into perspective for me. My story is well documented, so I will not retell it here. However, what I will do with the remaining space is express my feelings about life, and the culture of life, as we just marked the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

I build things. There is a process involved in building things. We tap into a lot of disciplines with engineering being one of the most important. The rules for putting structures together are as strict as are the rules of physics. These rules have stood the test of time and have become the path to putting together structures that endure and are beautiful. America, when it is at its best, follows a set of rules that have worked since our Founding. One of those rules is that we, as Americans, revere life and have done so since our Founders made it the first, and most important, of our "unalienable" rights.

Over time, our culture of life in this country has started sliding toward a culture of death. Perhaps the most significant piece of evidence to support this assertion is that since Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Count 43 years ago, over 50 million Americans never had the chance to enjoy the opportunities offered by this country. They never had the chance to become doctors, musicians, farmers, teachers, husbands, fathers, sons or daughters. They never had the chance to enrich the culture of this nation or to bring their skills, lives, loves or passions into the fabric of this country. They are missing, and they are missed.

The Supreme Court in 1973 based its decision on imagining rights and liberties in the Constitution that are nowhere to be found. Even if we take the court at its word, that abortion is a matter of privacy, we should then extend the argument to the logical conclusion that private funds, then, should subsidize this choice rather than the half billion dollars given to abortion providers every year by Congress. Public funding of abortion providers is an insult to people of conscience at the least and an affront to good governance at best.

If using taxpayer money to facilitate our slide to a culture of death were not enough, the 1973 decision became a landmark decision demonstrating the utter contempt the court had for federalism and the 10th Amendment. Roe v. Wade gave the court an excuse to dismantle the decisions of state legislatures and the votes of the people. This is a pattern that the court has repeated over and over again since that decision. Roe v. Wade became yet another incidence of disconnect between the people and their government.

We are in the middle of a presidential political cycle and votes will be cast in just days. The citizens of this nation will have the chance to vote for candidates who are aligned with their individual worldviews. It is my hope that they will choose the builder, the man who has the ability to imagine the greatness of this nation. The next president must follow those principles that work best and that reinforce the reverence Americans hold for life. A culture of life is too important to let slip away for convenience or political correctness. It is by preserving our culture of life that we will Make America Great Again.

Donald J. Trump is a candidate for president of the United States.
Posted by: badanov || 01/24/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Pro tip to National Review: Start buying more ammo
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

I won't vote for Trump because of his "bombastic style."

I won't vote if Trump becomes the Republican nominee.

I won't vote unless Cruz becomes the candidate.

Have you heard that recently? I know I have often, by folks I would consider far more erudite than myself.

From my own perspective, let me start out by saying that, considering the list of writers and pundits who combined their talents into one tight, lovable ball of garbage, you get the idea that no matter who leads the next group that goes to Washington D.C, individual rights under the Constitution will be ever more and ever further diminished. Despite the past 85 years of ever expanding government and offers of more from both sides, this group seems convinced that the idea of anyone other than Trump becoming president is a clear call for conservative principles in the selection of a presidential candidate.

Worse than that, the collection of writers are considered to be among the most intelligent, insightful beings on the right. Yet they have missed the point of opposing the evil that the left represents so completely, you have to wonder if they don't quietly question the provenance of their very paychecks and compensation.

This opposition comes from a magazine that hounded a distinguished conservative writer from their ranks for something he said as a quip, a bad habit that was carefully nursed from birth and now has morphed into electoral political opposition. I have been told that the solution to objectionable speech is more speech, but with the crowd at National Review, the solution to objectionable speech is to depose whoever said whatever they don't like.

The people at National Review don't want to hear it. They just want their way. They sound just like their opposition, silver spoons, juice boxes and all. This ain't no way to run a movement.

Conservatism didn't lose in 2008 and 2012 exclusively. It has been an ongoing, steady beat of brutal beatings, first at the hands of a hostile press establishment, then at the hands of social media egged on by the providers of the technology, and finally, the end goal and the golden dream of fascists everywhere, at the hands and offices of government itself. High technology delivered the means of mass destruction, but it took the government to deliver the actual blow.

There is no need to oppose Trump, or Cruz, or Bush. The left now can use the government itself to kill advocacy groups, destroy their opponents and destroy free speech, a final goal so complete, I am truly surprised that this government under Barak Obama has not been considered more than just a few runaway bureaucrats.

So, when a brash, wealthy, New York liberal, private businessman starts talking about all the obvious, but unspoken ills that have been visited on people, by people who love government and all the power that is associated with that love, using the raw power of government, the obvious answer is to say you won't support him? There seems to be a disconnect here, but it is all visited to one side. The left doesn't have any problems now that the government can be used to destroy whatever is left of Constitutional rights, all on the Holy Altar of tax collecting, all neatly endorsed by the United State Supreme Court, you know, the "Rule of Law", the entity that until recently conservatives have supported unflinchingly and without reservation.

You can kiss the Heller decision goodbye, all because the courts have seen to it that no matter what, resources gets transferred to government and to bureaucrats, and to hell what the Constitution says, or even means. Think it won't happen? It is happening now with the gun permits. Just wait until a challenge comes which juxtaposes Heller against the government's absolute and inviolable right, as granted by the courts, to tax and to spend. Guess which will go and which will stay?

What will the writers at National Review say when thousands of people get their gun permits stripped from them for failing to pay their heath care tax, or from a retroactive change in the tax laws, and this after 10 or 20 years of bragging about their "right" to carry a concealed firearm as granted by a then benevolent government?

And with the group at National Review in the ten or so years that that will happen, their only opposition being to the way, and the manner in which their rights have been taken from them; Nothing said about the ills; Only about the way those ills have come.

For a long time I have heard about how this election will overturn Washington, we will sweep this evil, or that evil from Washington DC. On and on and on, and all the time the power, size and scope of government has increased steadily, ever more encroaching on individuals rights and lives. So when Donald Trump says he will make America great again, I can easily assume I can start counting my dollar bills, lovingly and admiringly, because I will never see them again. They will be like children who are all grown up, ready to go out into the world and be used to further destroy my fundamental rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and all those who threaten it, like an ever expanding government.

It brings a tear to my eye. Really.

That is what Donald Trump will lead to. And the main basis of opposition from the writers at National Review?

The Donald said something they didn't like.

Chris Covert writes for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter
Posted by: badanov || 01/24/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Buying more ammo is a waste of money unless you're willing to use it when they come to take it away.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/24/2016 9:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Well-said, Chris.

When it comes to this Presidential election, any Republican is better than any Democrat.

I'm old enough to remember when (some) Democrats loved America and had actually read (and would follow) the Constitution. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 01/24/2016 12:08 Comments || Top||

#3  The Donald said something they didn't like.

Perhaps, there's a different take from the NR commentary. It's not what Trump has said it's what he's not saying - a call for limited goverment. For instance, on gun control he's never explained why in 2000 he promoted a ban on "assault weapons" and waiting period for purchase. There's pleanty of people that have outgrown their liberal leanings but The Donald has yet to explain his pivot. Absent that it's completly reasonable to not only question but to outright doubt his sincerity.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 01/24/2016 13:06 Comments || Top||

#4  National Review did make some valid points amidst the hyperbole. Be interesting to see if someone acknowledges it...
Posted by: Pappy || 01/24/2016 13:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Barbara, I'm old enough to remember when some Republicans would actually follow the Constitution.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/24/2016 15:48 Comments || Top||

#6  I stopped reading National Review after they fired Derb.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/24/2016 16:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Bernie Sanders admitted today he doesn't know how the Supreme Court works. Bernie doesn't seem to know how anything works.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 01/24/2016 19:57 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Talks after Pathankot
[DAWN] AFTER days of official comment and frenzied speculation, the India-Pakistain relationship appears to have gone quiet once again, at least officially and publicly. That is an unwelcome lapse into old habits. There are two things that the two countries need immediately: one, an expedited investigation into the full contours of the Pathankot air force base attack; and two, the initiation of the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue. Three weeks from the Pathankot attack, India ought to have completed its initial investigations and Pakistain ought to have done the same. This, then, is the time for the two countries to try and jointly piece together the details of the attack -- and find the collaborators who exist on both sides of the border. In Pakistain, the symbolic closure of some centres and madressahs affiliated with the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammad
...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat...
is simply not enough. Had the Pathankot attackers been able to kill or injure more individuals or had aircraft been damaged, the crisis would have been of far greater magnitude. It is evident that spectacular carnage was the myrmidons' real intention. For precisely that reason, the Pathankot investigations, both in India and Pakistain, should not be allowed to drift towards inconclusiveness.

As for the CBD, what is the point to dialogue when an episode like Pathankot cannot be dealt with inside the proposed framework? The broadened CBD, which has added two issues to the eight baskets in the Composite Dialogue, covers counterterrorism, peace and security and even confidence-building measures. The Pathankot investigations and India-Pakistain cooperation regarding them could surely fit into one of those categories. Initiating the CBD would also set an important precedent. If dialogue is to be uninterruptible, it must be seen to be uninterruptible. The national security adviser channel or secret communications between the Pak establishment and Indian intelligence cannot and should not become a replacement for true dialogue. The very premise of the CBD is that Pakistain and India have disputes and issues to resolve that, no matter how important and urgent the terrorism challenge may be, go far beyond one, near-term incident.

Just as it is necessary to carry the Pathankot investigations to a swift conclusion and initiate the CBD, inside Pakistain there should be urgent attention paid to spoilers who have emerged in recent days. Syed Salahuddin, the head of the United Jihad Council, for example, appears determined to make a comeback in the public eye. This week, he condemned the partial crackdown on JeM -- a condemnation that followed the UJC's claim of responsibility for the Pathankot attack. What is the state doing to address the trouble that Syed Salahuddin is seeking to stir up? Surely, the time has come when public assertions of responsibility for terrorist attacks in another country can no longer be tolerated. Dialogue between Pakistain and India should be able to proceed in a climate free of intimidation and fear.
Posted by: Fred || 01/24/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies

#1  cookie reset
Posted by: ryuge || 01/24/2016 19:49 Comments || Top||


The Afghan connection
[DAWN] All lives may be equal, but terrorism knows the difference. A small hit on a hard target in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
equals a big hit on a soft target in Charsadda.

An attack that takes out a large number of soldiers equals an attack that takes out a few kids. And there's nothing -- nothing -- like a fidayeen attack on children.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/24/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies


Who wants peace in Pakistan?
[DAWN] IN his final State of the Union address, US President B.O. predicted a decade of instability in Afghanistan and Pakistain. Af-Pak was always a bad construct for policy formulation. There are obvious security linkages between Afghanistan and Pakistain. But the circumstances and prospects of the two countries are significantly different.

Predicting continued instability in Afghanistan is an easy call. The Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
government is beset by internal division and an insurgency that has momentum.
...thanks to the love-filled generals in Pakistan's ISI...
Given the preconditions posed by Kabul, the recently created quadrilateral forum will find it difficult to get the Afghan Taliban to the table let alone secure an agreement for peace. A turbulent and fractured Afghanistan is the most likely prospect for the foreseeable future.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/24/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Charsadda and our history of doublespeak
[DAWN] In the year following the barbaric Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
army-run school massacre that left 132 children dead, Pakistain endeavored to make some important strides.

The government began to enforce hate speech regulations and monitoring the misuse of public fora that could cause incite people to violence. Efforts were made to expose and disable domestic financing of terrorism. And unregistered seminaries spreading suspect education were forced to close.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/24/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Beware of Hezbollah, prepare for Hamas
[Ynet] The real story of the current wave is the reawakening of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,' terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank to carry out attacks within the Green Line. The group feels that it has reached a sufficient level of preparedness to get through another war with Israel.

Institutionalized terrorism - namely shooting, bombs, boom-mobiles and suicide kabooms backed by terrorist organizations and supported by regimes such as Iran -- is returning to the West Bank and from there to within the Green Line. This is the true face of the wave of terror that is now being organized behind the scenes which threatens to take the place of the spontaneous and popular wave of lone murderers, the knife-wielders and vehicular attackers.

Senior defense officials have been closely following the decision Hamas's military leadership in Gazoo took in recent months to resume attacks in the West Bank and mainly inside the Green Line, even at the price of total confrontation with Israel.

According to the same sources, Hamas, a year and a half after Operation Protective Edge, feels that it has reached a sufficient level of preparedness to get through another war against the IDF. For Israel, this is a strategic warning: in the coming year it is likely to find itself in another war in the Gazoo Strip.

Hezbollah, as of now, is a marginal factor in terms of institutionalized terror infrastructure in the West Bank. The discovery of the Hezbollah terrorist cell in Tulkarm is indicative of the terrorist organization's efforts to get back into the picture regarding the Paleostinian conflict, just as it did during the second intifada when approximately 70 percent of Fatah cells operating against Israel did so under the auspices of Nasrallah. For him, the Paleostinian front is the primary one from which he can operate against Israel without igniting the northern border. But the depth of his penetration on the ground is still far from his capabilities.

The real story here is Hamas. A few weeks ago the Shin Bet revealed Hamas's organization in the West Bank, which included explosives laboratories and the preparation of a jacket wallah to carry out an attack in Jerusalem. Hamas' military wing in Gazoo, which commanded the cell, operated under the assumption that Israel cannot show restraint in the wake of a major attack in the heart of the capital. It believes that Israel would act aggressively in the West Bank -- including damaging the Paleostinian Authority - and simultaneously carry out widespread reprisals in Gazoo.

The warning signs have been clear to Israel for several months now: Israel believes that Hamas is allowing itself to carry out large-scale attacks in the West Bank as it has completed basic preparation for delivering a surprise attack which it failed to do just before Operation Protective Edge. It is not impossible that it will penetrate into Israel, simultaneously and via a number of points -- from the air, sea and tunnels - accompanied by a mortar fire and a massive blitz of rockets to cause the maximum amount of deaths.

Hamas has also developed a suitable ideology that would include an opening attack that would pummel and shock Israel and serve as a kind of Paleostinian Dire Revenge for Israel's opening attack of Operation Pillar of Defense which killed dozens of police in Gazoo.

It seems that at least part of the process of rebuilding the Gazoo Strip has been completed: booby-trapped tunnels penetrating inside the Green Line have apparently been newly dug, including, if past experience is any indication, several openings for each tunnel. In addition, their special forces ("hanuchba") and divers continue their intensive training, their UAV strength was rebuilt and their rocket arsenal has been partially restocked.
.
The cell that planned an attack in Jerusalem was indeed captured - but is not the only one. The commander of the PA's security services, General Faraj, told American media that his men incarcerated
You have the right to remain silent...
about 300 Hamas members recently.

At the beginning of the current terror wave, four months ago, Hamas in the Gazoo Strip and Hamas headquarters in Istanbul urged Paleostinians to commit violent attacks and praised the stabbers and car rammers. Hamas, at the time, encouraged the wave of terror - but had not yet crossed the line by activating cells that it set up in the West Bank out of fear of Israeli retaliation.

Hamas's strategy was to try to destabilize Abbas's regime by creating unrest in the Paleostinian street. On the other hand, Israel believed that Hamas was busy strengthening itself, was in financial distress due to the loss of support from Iran and had received a serious blow from the Egyptians who wiped out a large part of their smuggling tunnels. In addition, it still believed that Hamas still didn't have the ability nor the interest to risk a confrontation with the IDF.

Israel changed this estimation when it became clear that Hamas was instructing its people in the West Bank to once again carry out terrorist attacks inside the Green Line. And indeed, the cells were reawakened and several explosives laboratories were discovered. Simultaneously, money began to pour into those cells, messengers came from and went to the West Bank, and today it is clear that Hamas - led by Mohammed Deif -- is changing direction and raising the stakes against Israel.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/24/2016 11:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  a cutoff of water, power, and food in Gazoo should happen every so often to remind them what their seething hate gets them
Posted by: Frank G || 01/24/2016 12:01 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Great News -€“ Reparations demand causing Dem fissure
[Legal Insurrection] Author Ta-Nehisi Coates
...son of a former Black Panther by one of his four wives (some of whom appear to be baby mamas -- Wikipedia is vague about this). Mr. Coates is a one-note writer about the institutional racism which led him to a senior editorship at The Atlantic, a visiting professorship at MIT, and status as a public intellectual. He would no doubt want us to know that he is an atheist and a feminist, though whether the latter is related to growing up in a close-knit family with five half-siblings and their mothers is not to be asked...
is hot, hot, hot in progressive circles.

His demand for Reparations published in The Atlantic pushed him into the stratosphere. But it was an empty, amateurish effort, as I wrote at the time, The dead-end Case for Reparations:

Coates never gives the answer as to who gets what and how.

And that's ultimately the problem with reparations arguments that are not based upon the people causing the harm paying the people directly harmed by specific conduct soon after the conduct is remedied.

If you can't answer the question of why a Vietnamese boat person has to pay reparations for the conduct of white plantation owners more than a century earlier, then you can't make the argument.

If you can't answer the question of why two successful black doctors living in a fashionable suburb should get reparations paid for by the white children of Appalachia, then you can't make the argument.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/24/2016 06:22 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Add to that descendents of a Pennsylvania farmer who fought in the Civil War to free slaves....
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/24/2016 9:02 Comments || Top||

#2  ...over 250,000 white Northerners died to put the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments on the Constitution, in a world where slavery was and had been common in all of history. That was in a population one tenth the size of today. Can you even comprehend let alone image something to sacrifice for that would cost 2 and a half million lives today? Debt was paid in blood and body.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/24/2016 9:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Time to make popcorn!
Posted by: Nguard || 01/24/2016 11:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Kiss my White Irish Ass Ta-Nihisi
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 01/24/2016 12:09 Comments || Top||

#5  My father's family emigrated here from Moravia in the 1880's.

Slavery was ended in 1865.

Even I can do that math. I don't owe anyone a damned dime.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/24/2016 12:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Let's do no more on this issue unless & until we hear from the Union dead at Andersonville.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/24/2016 13:48 Comments || Top||

#7  My family was landed gentry in Northern Virginia.

The head of the family freed all of the family slaves shortly before the Revolutionary War because he developed a belief slavery was immoral.

Do I have to pay reparations even though my family freed slaves, educated them, fed and clothed them until they could find employment?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 01/24/2016 14:12 Comments || Top||

#8  by all records my ancestors immigrted (legally) from Sweden and Norway in the late 1800's. Always lived in the north anyway.

Do I have to pay reparations? And why?

I
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/24/2016 14:21 Comments || Top||

#9  Asking questions about reparations is racccccissssst.

It's Rape-a-Nation, not reparation.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/24/2016 14:49 Comments || Top||

#10  ALL whites have to pay for slavery. Because by the very fact of their whiteness they have benefitted from racism for at least the last 150 years. Or so my daughter says.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/24/2016 15:47 Comments || Top||

#11  ...actually they've benefited from something called democracy or a republic, governing for the benefit of the majority (who just happen to be white) rather than an oligarchy, monarchy, aristocracy...et al. "Diversity" is modern progressive term for anti-democratic institutions and programs. Something socialists hold dear.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/24/2016 16:36 Comments || Top||

#12  Are you saying my daughter is wrong? But she's got college degrees and stuff!
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/24/2016 16:40 Comments || Top||

#13  We owe you a debt; great! We have a 20 trillion dollar debt that you can have, take it quick while interest rates are still historically low. You have 30 years to pay it off and we can finally shake hands and call it even.
Posted by: Airandee || 01/24/2016 17:24 Comments || Top||

#14  Just say "No".
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 01/24/2016 20:24 Comments || Top||

#15  Since Obama's ancestors were never slaves i n America, is he entitled to reparations just because of the color of his skin?

How about a recent immigrant from Ghana?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 01/24/2016 20:49 Comments || Top||

#16  I kinda feel like I'm starting to identify as black . . . .
Posted by: gorb || 01/24/2016 22:34 Comments || Top||

#17  They want money, fine. Here's the deal, you take the money, you renounce US citizenship and you LEAVE. You may never come to the US again. You want to stay, no money for you.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 01/24/2016 22:54 Comments || Top||


This Week in Books 1/24/2016
Paul Revere's Ride
David Hackett Fischer
Oxford University Press, 1994

As to his style, Mr. Fischer begins his book with an accounting of the cover art which would make Sister Wendy take notice.

I have to admit, when I opened this book I had no expectations. Now I wish I had read Albion's Seed beforehand. Not that I know what it covers, but because the author is so good at story writing and the topic's place in time that I know I missed something. Concerning: (page XIV, introduction)

But one genre is strangely missing from this list. Professional historians have shown so little interest in the subject that in two centuries no scholar has published a full-scale history of Paul Revere's ride. During the 1970's, the event disappeared so completely from academic scholarship that several leading college textbooks in American history made no reference to it at all. One of them could barely bring itself to mention the battles of Lexington and Concord.

The cause of the neglect is complex. One factor is a mutual antipathy that has long existed between professional history and popular memory. another of more recent vintage is a broad prejudice in American universities against patriotic events of every kind, especially since the troubled years of Vietnam and Watergate. A third or fourth are the popular movements called multiculturalism and political correctness. As this volume goes to press, the only creature less fashionable in academe than the stereotypical "dead white male," is a dead white male on horseback.

Having read Washington's Crossing I thought this book would have an interesting tale of Paul Revere and his associates.

Furthermore, Mr. Fischer dispels many myths and legends, noting and essentially beginning with "The British are coming!" As the colonials still considered themselves British, it was more likely, "The Regulars are coming!" as a call to alert. With much detail about their departure plan and tactics he notes the flower of the British: (page 238)

Behind him came three regiments of British infantry. Pride of the place went to the 4th (King's Own) Foot, proudly bearing the monarch's cipher on its color, and the dark blue facings of a Royal regiment on its faded red tunics. Nobody trifled with the King's Own. Even their nickname in the army connoted high respect. They were called the Lions after their badge, which was the lion rampant of England. That emblem had been awarded for gallantry by William III and was proudly embroidered on all four corners of their regimental colors. In 1773, an inspector described the King's Own as "a very fine body of men, well dressed and fit." As it marched from Boston, an expert observer would have noticed that it was also exceptionally well equipped. The 4th had recently been rearmed with a new musket, two inches shorter and two pounds lighter than the previous issue, and so closely bored to the caliber of its ammunition that the regiment was among the first in Gage's army to be issued steel ramrods.

Mr. Fischer recounts the battles of Lexington and Concord in an easy yet thorough way, both readable and detailed enough to give the sense of gunpowder and sweat. He follows up well: (Page 283)

Lord Hugh Percy also fought at New York, with the same skill and courage that he had shown on the retreat from Lexington. He was instrumental in the capture of Fort Washington, the largest surrender of American troops up to that moment, and was promoted to Lieutenant General. But he grew so disgusted with the conduct of the war that he resigned his command and returned to Britain in 1777. Later he inherited the title of Duke of Northumberland. In his mature years he became one of the richest men in England, and also (it was said) one of the most irascible. His ill-temper was attributed to gout; perhaps his experiences in America played a role. Percy dies on July 10, 1817.

Mr. Fischer draws a direct correlation between the experiences of the militia during the French and Indian War and the readiness, drills, and morale of those who fought at Lexington and Concord and eventually the War for Independence. It was the French and Indian War which put combatants against civil targets, a raid on commerce, which spurred the already embedded concept of a right to self defense. As it was said last week, "When seconds count, the king's soldiers are weeks/months away."

It is a good read, and what a reading person wants: raw with a gulp of water or steeped and seasoned, imagining a new recruit to the King's Own, foot on the chair, comrades at arms pounding the table.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/24/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ya made me look.

My local library has this and other David Hackett Fischer books.
Posted by: badanov || 01/24/2016 16:18 Comments || Top||

#2  I quite liked 'Albion's Seed.'
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/24/2016 16:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Amazon used to carry Albion's Seed for Kindle. For some reason they don't anymore, and don't offer the usual option of asking the publisher to provide it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/24/2016 23:44 Comments || Top||



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