Tag Archives: American Revolution

The American Revolution Began Today In 1776!

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This painting depicts the forces of British Ma...

This painting depicts the forces of British Major General Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (1738-1805) (who was not himself present at the surrender), surrendering to French and American forces after the Siege of Yorktown (September 28 – October 19, 1781) during the American Revolutionary War. The United States government commissioned Trumbull to paint patriotic paintings, including this piece, for them in 1817, paying for the piece in 1820. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Date:  April 19, 2013

Subject:  Armed Minutemen Confront British Troops At Lexington.

Political Opinion by John Liming

Eight Americans died – - – 10 others were wounded – - – one British soldier was wounded as gunfire erupted on a common area at Lexington, Mass., on this day – - – April 19 – - – in the Year of Our Lord, 1776 – - – and the American Revolutionary War was underway.

The battle was brief and came about as a result of ever-increasing tensions between the fledgling American Colonies and their British masters – - – and, in a development that may come as a surprise to many people – - – there wasn’t a single Republican present anywhere during the skirmish and there would be none anywhere near the Revolutionary War.

In fact, in those days America was getting along quite nicely without the lies and political tensions often endured because of the Radical Right in our own day and time.

The first “Republican” would not enter the political stage in America until just a few years before the beginning of The American Civil War.

Strangely enough – - – but maybe to be expected – - – England had ordered its resident big wig General in Chief – - – Thomas Gage – - – to seize all the guns and gunpowder from the upstart American insurgency in 1775 – - – but apparently they weren’t able to seize enough of them.

I think it would be the same today if for some reason, there might be some kind of government attempt to seize all the guns like some of the Radical Rightie paranoids seem to think may happen someday.

Imagine the horrific logistics of trying to visit each home in this great country with the purpose of gun collection – - – I think it would be a logistical nightmare because there are more than 300 million people in The United States and there are reported to be more than 200 million privately owned guns.  I think such a task would be virtually impossible to achieve and that is the reason I think many of the gun-tards are off their paranoid rockers when they predict even the remotest possibility of such an incursion.

The American Revolutionary War lasted for something like 7 years – - – and like I said, it all began on this date in History – - April 19, 1776 – - - and there wasn’t a single Republican to be found anywhere.

Posted by John at 4:36 am

Are assault weapons going to be the new guard dogs now?

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guns_jesus_poster

Assault weapons bark louder than dogs, eat more money than dog food, aren’t as much fun to tame and pet, do not doo-doo on the living room rug, but may be becoming the fanatical obsession of a portion of a paranoid crowd that is growing and growing and growing and . . .

My opinion – -

by John Liming – -

A very small minority of Americans are reported to have come to the conclusion that the biggest enemy they face every day is – - their own elected government.

There are conspiracy theories galore on the Internet about how some small minority views the government as an imminent potentially lethal threat and that the day will surely come (In the vast recesses of their mostly arid minds)  when the “average” citizen will have to re-enact some of the scenes from the original American Revolution to “defend liberty.”

It looks to me like some people may have run short on their psychoactive medication prescription or something or they suddenly cannot afford the visits to their therapists any more.  Personally, I believe a lot of people who harbor what I perceive to be these un-natural, un-warranted and over blown fears about the government are more than likely “rubber room” potential but, as we all know, a previous right wing administration cut out the funding for a lot of our treatment facilities for delusionals and now many of them are loose – - – on their own – - – unsupervised – - – on the streets. Of course I am no psychiatrist or anything but that is my personal opinion.

It seems there is some increase in the popularity of this  ”Tyrannical Government” theme as it has been reported that more such conspiracy writers have recently added their own two cents to the fire but I see no indication that it has all caught on with the mainstream as yet. (Which, in my estimation, is a good thing.)

One reported development in connection with the “The government is gonna get me if I don’t get ready to defend my rights” syndrome is exponentially increased sales of guns – - all kinds of guns . . . guns, guns, and ever more guns . . and ammunition.  In my view, this explosion of gun-mania is nutzoid and based on total fallacy but if that is what pops their cork, then more power to them as long as they don’t go off the deep end about it all and as long as there are some guarantees that only sane and responsible people can get their hands on this proliferation of lethality.

I think this is a good place for responsible government to get involved but not in a way that mitigates any of the rights of Citizens under that section of The Holy Scriptures known as “The Secund ‘Menment.”

I hate to think that John 3:16 might have competition for popularity these days but it looks to me like it might have and that competition might come from The First Book of Gun, Chapter One, Verse One where we read – - -”Secund ‘Menment!  Jesus died so’s I can have guns.” Amen!

It is a sad proposition but alas, I fear that it may have a ring of truth to it!

I fear that Holy Smoke is being fast displaced by gunsmoke in this country and that is not a comfy feeling for an old bird like me.

Well, like a favorite TV character of mine used to ask of people, “What’cha gonna do?”

I guess it should be noted here that it is my understanding that everything I have read about this – - fear-laden  perception – - – has been fostered, promulgated, advanced, propagandized and spread courtesy of one form or another of some kind of Right Wing ideological anomaly and is not so much a leftist or “Liberal” obsession. (Not yet anyway.)

In my estimation, it does not take all that much functioning intellect to start rattling off about the government of the freest, most liberty-loving nation on the face of God’s green earth being easily comparable to such horrors as nazis and communists, but according to what I am reading on some of the rightist conspiracy sites – - the ones that seem to be spreading the most fear, the most hate and bitterness about our government, our president and especially “Liberals, democrats and progressives, that is exactly what many of them seem to me to be  intent on doing.

I guess that level of what I see as mindless paranoia might also be the driving force behind some of the perps’ annoying insistence on the truth of some of these anti-government fantasies and may also be having a more than positive effect on the exploding sales of lethal weapons – - a level of such activity I believe may be unprecedented in our nation’s history.

The holes in conspiracy arguments appear almost at once when one takes a closer look at some of the theories and those who seem to be behind spreading them.

The most obvious hole that I can see is that the conspiracists are always talking in terms of the future.  They seem to be always and forever reminding us that these Orwellian things are going to happen “someday” and not that they have already transpired or are actually in the midst of happening.  There is no evidence they can find for such a blatant claim as immediacy so all their horror stories are set in a future time frame… it is always something that “will” happen, “Could happen,” or “Might happen” someday and “We all need to get prepared.”

In a crazy sort of way it looks to me like some of them have substituted their preparations for the Second Coming with an imagined First Coming of something else.

Whatever is happening, I am glad this morning that I sit on the side of reason and common sense and that the only evidence I can see of any of that paranoid bull s**t is the flimsy fabrications that I find here and there on the Internet and I sincerely hope those who are doing this kind of stuff are getting off on it or something because I don’t think anybody but their own mindset is even listening to them.

I think I am aware of one or possibly two such sites that reportedly may get probably as many as 40 to 90 or so hits on a good day and which might have at least 4 or 5 regular readers and commenters to soothe their overgrown egos with – - – I hope that is the norm for this kind of garbage.

Why am I bringing this up today?

I just want my readers to recognize what it is in case they accidentally step into a pile of it while surfing the web.

Read More:

http://hnn.us/blogs/crazy-right-wing-conspiracy-theories-gone-mainstream

Posted by John Liming on 3/19/2013

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Picture Credit:  I am so grateful to MARIO PIPERNI for permission to use the posted featured in the headline of this blog post.

They Who Have The Guns!

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Emanuel Leutze's depiction of Washington's att...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1/30/2013

Opinion Editorial

By John Liming

My friend, Eddie, and I had been talking about guns – - of course!  Who doesn’t talk about guns these days?

Eddie is a staunch really right wing Republican who is almost as set in his ways as I am in mine, but somehow, despite our political differences and our often heated disagreements on issues, we manage to keep up a welcome cordiality.

How I wish sometimes that members of congress could remember the days – - a long time ago – - – when they could disagree with each other – - sometimes venomously – yet still sit down over a table and hammer out agreements that worked out to be good for both sides… even if everybody didn’t get all they had hoped for.  Back then the attitude was, “Oh well . . there’s always the next time.”

As Ed was putting the mustard and catsup on his hamburger, he mentioned, ” I was reading that little bumpkin newspaper from down in the sticks this morning and you know what the editor wrote in his column?”

I couldn’t begin to imagine so I pushed it a little, “No, Eddie – what did he write?”

Ed flashed a toothy grin betraying a mouth filled with perfect, shiny and blindingly white teeth and replied, ” He said that all you Liberals should remember who it is that has all the guns in The United States.”

I thought silently, “Well that’s kind of a dumb-assed  thing to say! “

“Do you suppose the Bubba meant that as some kind of threat or something?” I asked adjusting my weight on the booth seat where we were eating.

At that moment, this swarthy-looking overweight guy leaned over the booth in front of us and said, “I couldn’t help but hear what you were talking about and I got something to put in if it’s alright with you all.”

I heard that distinctive “You All” drawl so Eddie and I agreed to listen and we focused all our attention on the – - new guy in the conversation.

“You gotta remember,” he began looking all self-confident and knowledgeable and everything – - “You gotta remember that the reason the American Revolution started in the first place was because the King had sent some Red Coats to Concord to confiscate all the guns from the settlers who were living there.  But them settlers weren’t having any of it so they lit up some Red Coat ass and that is how The Revolution got started.”

The guy finished his little speech and looked all self-satisfied as he awaited a reaction from either Ed or myself.

Being careful and trying not to sound too offensive or argumentative, I said to the guy, “I thought it was all about the King trying to hold the settlers in the colonies up for more money on tea taxes.”

“Nah!” the other guy said, “It was the guns!  It’s always the guns when the Gubmint gets ready to grab the guns and put everybody under some kind of socialist tyranny or something – - just like Obummer is trying to do to us these days.”

I glanced at Eddie who seemed enraptured with this line of BS and then I blurted out, “Hey! I haven’t seen any evidence of the president or the administration trying to grab anyone’s guns and this president has been in office for more than four years now and I am just as free as I was the day he first took office so what is all this “Tyranny” crap about?  If the government was going to make any tyrannical moves, surely they would have done something by this time – - they’ve had long enough to get something like that  going if they were going to.

That seemed to be kind of like a lit match falling onto a pile of oil-soaked rags.

The fat guy stammered and cursed softly and said, “You must be one of them there commie liberals or something talking like that.  Just because something hasn’t happened yet is no sign that nothing ever will.  You better get your head out of the sand and start smelling the roses.”

It occurred to me at that point that I had heard some of this paranoid bull manure somewhere before – - from some of the so-called “Modern Patriots” who were always seeming to be screeching about how we are losing all our freedoms because of Liberals and especially because of the president that so many of them seem to me to literally despise so much.

I felt like a little fun at that point so I said to the dude, “I bet you believe that Jesus Christ died so you can be free to go out and buy yourself all the automatic military-style weapons you can cram into a pick up truck too, don’t you?”

The guy swallowed hard, ripped off a really loud  report of flatulence and replied, “Yeah! He died so’s I could be free to buy guns – - and to get drunk whenever I feel like it too….and to do what the Hell ever I feel like doing whenever I feel like doing’ it so how’s that, commie?  How’s that Comrade?”

I wasn’t about to get into a fight with  what I considered to be a super-arrogant ignorant pile of apparently much-too-far-to-the-right crap so I nudged Eddie and we walked out the door.

“There isn’t anything some of those A-wads would like better than to get another civil war started,” I told Eddie, “so they can see the good ole boy days come again when they can all live in their dominionist ante-bellum-style little aristocracy – -  a world that once was but can never be again.”

Eddie looked a little puzzled as he asked, “What is ‘Dominionism?”

I said, you wanna know what Dominionism is?  Read This:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionism

Posted by John at 7:55 AM (EST) (USA)

When The Radical Right Yells “Tyranny!”

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Old Kenneth was yammering at me over the internet the other day – - (we spend a lot of time arguing back and forth about politics) and he kept telling me all about how President Obama was just on the verge of instituting some kind of “Tyranny” in the United States and that if I wanted to be prepared to “defend liberty” I had better dig a hole underneath my swimming pool, build a concrete room with a steel door and put all my guns inside because . . . “They are going to come door to door one of these days and confiscate all the guns.”

After I got off the computer with Old Kenneth, I went out to feed my pet Australian Finch birds and I thought to myself, “When Old Kenneth talks about “Government Tyranny” just what in the heck is he actually referring to?

Old Kenneth, as you might have guessed ( or maybe not) is a staunch right wing radical republican who also claims to be a member of a local tea party.

After thinking about it for a while, it dawned on me like a load of bricks falling out of the sky – - – “When Old Kenneth talks about “Government Tyranny” he is referring to anything the government says or does that does not agree with the way he sees things.”

A simple but adequate revelation in my opinion.

Define “Tyranny?”

O.K. – - – “Tyranny” = “Anything that the right wing does not want to accept or to believe in.”

It can’t get any simpler than that, can it?

Posted by John Liming