When we moved into these digs last year, our discoveries included a basement shelf lined with empty glass jars -- three dozen vintage Ball, Kerr and Atlas canning jars, hinting that the previous occupant was typical of her generation.
This afternoon I put up the season's first refrigerator pickles. And although I have plenty of my own jars, I went down to the basement and cast my eyes over the old ones, ultimately choosing a quart-size Ball "Perfect Mason" in blue glass.
It seemed fitting.
We're carrying on a tradition of preserving food grown on this modest patch of land, using a vessel first employed perhaps four decades ago.
If I have to explain why that feels just right, you wouldn't understand.
I'll get right to the point: Congress should not raise the debt ceiling. All opposing arguments are grounded in short-sighted self-interest.
Our inability to live within our means is sabotaging our nation's future. The consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling, according to credible economists with no ideological axe to grind, would be catastrophic. No Congress and no President wants to be remembered for initiating a catastrophe, so our elected officials are dithering around the edges of the matter.
The only thing they're accomplishing is postponing the inevitable. Increasing the federal government's borrowing limit beyond the currently unfathomable $14.3 trillion only prevents a problem from becoming a crisis -- and to save our country, we need a crisis.
In other words, bring on the catastrophe.
I don't say that lightly. If the debt ceiling isn't raised within the next few weeks, American commerce will spasm and change quickly and, to be blunt about it, things will absolutely suck for the foreseeable future. Life, as this generation has known it, will end.
That, of course, would be a good thing.
This country is worth saving but its government is broken -- we must tear it down to build it up again. We'll decide what We, the People, truly need from a smaller government and what we're willing to pay for it. We'll learn what we can (and should) do for ourselves.
But for now, right now, we must contact our elected officials and demand that they vote against raising the debt ceiling.
Well, that's not quite accurate. Although there's been lots happening around the KintlaLake household, more than once over the last six weeks I made a conscious decision to walk past my computer in favor of doing something productive. Often I went two or three days without logging on.
A much-anticipated visit from out-of-town family over the July 4th weekend never materialized, but we spent the months of May and June throwing ourselves into getting our place ready -- light fixtures to landscaping, painting interior walls to preparing the tiny guest room. It was all-consuming and ultimately, visitors or not, rewarding.
When it comes to greenery, my wife is in charge of ornamentals. I manage the edibles, and my carefully tended vegetable garden has started to offer its bounty.
This morning's "harvest" was eight cucumbers, a pepper and a bowl of peas. That does it for our first crop of peas; likewise, the early-summer radishes are in. Carrots will be next to mature, I think.
My plum-tomato plants have grown to over five feet tall and the "garden salsa" peppers -- I swear, I thought they were jalapeños -- are producing nicely. The habanero plants, as usual, are making me cranky, but I remain optimistic about a late-summer harvest. All of our herbs are ridiculously healthy, save one dill plant lost to parsley worms. And after picking cukes today, I counted fifty more blossoms.
Either I need to come up with more cucumber recipes, or we're gonna have enough refrigerator pickles to last us 'til next Christmas.
A week ago we celebrated Independence Day, perhaps my favorite holiday. As is my custom, I began this Fourth of July by reading the Declaration of Independence -- aloud, alone -- to remind myself of my great good fortune to have been born an American. Later my family and I, along with a half-dozen friends, set up folding chairs along the curb in front of our house for the village parade.
For us, this parade is much more than a procession. We take the opportunity to shout our gratitude to each and every firefighter, law-enforcement officer and military veteran who passes by. Last Monday we stepped into the street to shake hands with the county sheriff, and we personally thanked our state senator for sponsoring pro-Second Amendment legislation recently signed into law by Ohio's governor.
Afterward the group returned to the patio for a cookout -- pot luck, good eats -- and as darkness fell we carted our chairs to the edge of our back yard to enjoy the traditional fireworks display.
Unlike thousands of revelers who pack the village's festival grounds for the show, we have a front-row seat. See, the shells launch from the city park behind our house, so we pull our chairs right up to the line of yellow police tape marking the edge of the safety zone and watch the fireworks explode almost directly over our heads.
I mean, it's like having our very own personal show.
When this year's display was over -- it was absolutely spectacular, by the way -- we cheered, brushed ash from our hair and, smiling out loud, walked back to the house. We love our humble home, but we love it most on Independence Day.
So all's well here. And after an unannounced hiatus, KintlaLake Blog is back. Stay tuned.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Our pound puppy, seen here in her Memorial Day getup, gets more awesome every day. She hasn't turned out to be the "substantial" girl we thought she'd be, but we've decided that's just fine with us.
"His integrity was one of the great myths of college football." (Sports Illustrated)
Jim Tressel did the right thing yesterday morning, resigning as Ohio State's head football coach. The news dominated beer-fueled conversations at Memorial Day cookouts throughout Buckeye Nation, no doubt, but Mrs. KintlaLake and I virtually ignored the subject and concentrated on our third straight day of yard work.
We weren't engaged in denial, mind you, simply overwhelmed with disappointment.
Regular readers know well my passion for OSU football -- I've referred to it as "the longest continuous thread in the fabric of my life." Now, ten years into what seemed to be a return to glory, the program is mired in shame.
Things will get worse from here, of course. The NCAA is expected to throw the book at Ohio State, probably involving scholarships and post-season play, maybe more. No matter who takes the Scarlet-and-Gray reins, the process of restoring luster to the Buckeyes will be long and excruciating.
I have a long view, both retrospectively and prospectively. I suspect that after the present dust clears -- which will take many years, to be sure -- Jim Tressel ultimately will be recognized more for his honor than for his failings.
Scoff if you like, but consider that there's a Woody Hayes Drive and a Woody Hayes Athletic Center -- both named for the irascible OSU football coach who was fired after he punched an opposing player. In Columbus, hell, anything is possible.
Wetter-than-usual weather has played hell with spring planting in this part of the country. Farmers haven't been able to get into sodden fields to till the earth, never mind sow their seeds. Yields will be down and prices are sure to rise, even if the first frost comes late.
I finally fenced our vegetable garden last weekend and (optimistically) began putting in our own "crops" late Sunday and Monday afternoon. First I set a variety of nursery-grown plants -- jalapeño and habanero peppers, Roma tomatoes, basil, Italian and curly parsley, oregano, dill, rosemary, cilantro, and chives. Next I sowed rows of peas, radishes, carrots and spinach from seed.
Last I planted several bushes -- raspberry, blackberry and blueberry -- in a new bed behind the garage, just a few steps from our vegetables-and-herbs plot. The soil in that area is wretched, pudding-like clay, and it took some serious work (plus quite a bit of "borrowing" from the vegetable garden) to make it usable.
Everything appears to be doing well so far. This morning I was greeted by radish seedlings, the first sprouts to break the surface.
Ours is a garden of favorites -- that is, we grow what we like. And while it's not a sustenance garden, per se, it allows us to hone our senses and practice the skills required for true sustenance gardening.
That's the big payoff.
We expect to double the size of our garden next year and experiment with other crops. Part of our garage will become a "hothouse" for starting saved and store-bought seeds well before the last frost.
That's a long way off, though. Right now, I think I'll go pick up a few cucumber plants and put 'em in later today.
Mr. Editor: -- The long and bitter winter is past.
"H'it mos' killed me. But it has gone down the back entry of time."
Summer has come. It always does. I have been here sixty-two years, and there has been a summer every year. Sometimes I thought it wouldn't, but it always did come. I have grown to have faith in it. My last and most beautiful canoe rests in the cool, dry cellar right under where I am writing. I spend about an hour daily sparking her. I lift her by her handsome stems, and whisper of the long summer outing we are to have on the prattling, rattling waters of the Tiadatton, and she quivers and squirms like a trout; or, is it my imagination?
Yes, summer has come, and the wood-thrush, the cat-bird, the oriole, the song-sparrow, the waltz-bird (the naturalists miss him), they are here. I said I would leave when the maples did. They are leaved, and I am left; but not for long. I shall go next week. Good-by, debts, duns, taxes, and deviltries. "Life is short, art is long." Just so. Nature is longer than either, or both, and a great sight better.
I rather think Outing has come to stay. I think it ought. I read indefatigably during the off-season, but never in the woods. And so, away for the woods!
Yours for Outing, Nessmuk.
P.S. The same meaning wood-duck in the obsolete Narragansett tongue; more correctly wood-drake. See?
(From Outing, August 1884. To view it as it appeared in the magazine, clickhere or here.)
Predictions that the world will end at 6pm tomorrow didn't deter the CDC from launching Zombie Apocalypse. (Ok, let's face it, those warnings of an imminent doomsday almost certainly played into the announcement.) The new campaign recycles familiar messages with a dose of fresh spin:
"You may laugh now, but when [a Zombie attack] happens you'll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you'll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency."
Think about it -- this is coming from the federal agency that virtually wrote the book on gravitas. While it isn't aimed at the masses -- that job belongs to the Ready America joint initiative -- Zombie Apocalypse has a shot at reaching more citizens about the need to prepare.
I mean, if comic books are good enough for the U.S. Army, raising the whimsical prospect of reckoning with the Living Dead might just wake a few civilians from contented slumber. If it does, that's a good thing.
Ted Nugent's music, admittedly an acquired taste, assaults the senses and seems to defy sense -- mercilessly blunt and yet expressed with undeniable precision. The same can be said of his views on politics, society and life.
Here in the KintlaLake household, we're quite fond of the ageless "Motor City Madman." We've traveled to see his live performances, and when we heard that Piers Morgan's interview with Nugent would air on CNN last night, well, we made a date to watch it.
Now we don't embrace all things Ted (he swings uncomfortably close to Caribou Barbie, for example), and we cringe when he squibs an easy shot (which happened more than once during his interview with Morgan). Still, we appreciate his unapologetic patriotism and love of liberty -- take this clip from last night's show:
Ok, so he's a passionate defender of an individual citizen's right to keep and bear arms. But for those who think he's a one-issue, suck-on-my-machine-gun guy, check out this segment from AC360° in January:
Notice, especially in that brief debate with Paul Begala, that "Terrible Ted" isn't so terrible. He articulates his views with intelligence and good humor -- always the entertainer, sure, but one who's not allergic to facts or common cordiality.
"I'm 63. I've been clean and sober my whole life. I was raised in a hard-core disciplined environment. To be the best that I can be. And not guess at things but to study evidence. Study conditions. Be aware of my cause and effect.
"And make a decision not based on what felt good or what was comfortable for me but rather what lessons of life taught me. So when I put forth what people call an opinion...I don't project opinions as much as I do share observations of life's realities and the evidence that brings either a quality of life when adhered [to] and learned from, or [destroys] life when ignored and not learned."
In that way he distinguishes himself from the demagogues dominating talk radio and populating our politics. He knows the difference between populism and principle, and he holds fast to the latter -- and that's why, around here, we like Ted Nugent.
Just in case you've been living under a rock, last week former House Speaker Newt Gingrich formally announced his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination. Aside from being an undisciplined intellectual who resigned his seat in 1998 after being re-elected, his three marriages and multiple extramarital affairs -- one of which was in full song while he was leading the charge to impeach Pres. Bill Clinton -- will be tough to overcome with evangelical Christians and similarly self-righteous Republicans.
The newly minted candidate's first interview after launching his run was with -- wait for it -- Sean Hannity on Fox News. Reminded of press reports about his personal life, Gingrich responded,
"Well, if you are a conservative, you have to start with the assumption that you are not going to get an even break from the elite media. And that's just reality."
On today's edition of CNN's "Reliable Sources," host Howard Kurtz asked Debra Saunders of the San Francisco Chronicle if the media are, in fact, "trying to tarnish Republicans." Her take:
"Well, you can't help it with Newt Gingrich. I mean, it's like Cyrano de Bergerac expecting you to not look at his nose."
For this independent citizen, that captures the problem with neo-conservative ideology in general and Newt in particular.
I couldn't possibly care less about his marriages and affairs. Sure, I recognize the perception of hypocrisy and I know poetic justice when I see it, but I'm far more interested in a candidate's demonstrated ability to makecritically sound choices, to lead and, most especially, to govern. Most Americans don't approach elections that way, of course -- I know that and so does Newt.
His are self-inflicted wounds. He has every reason to expect (if not welcome) scrutiny, but what does he do? He blames the media for calling attention to (you should pardon the expression) his pickle.
It's too early for me to say that his failure to take complete responsibility for his actions -- including their consequences -- is a deal-breaker. But if I voted tomorrow, Newt Gingrich wouldn't pass the laugh test.
When we moved here a year ago, the garden plot in our back yard was piled high with cut brush, yard debris and some trash. It looked like it hadn't been planted in ten years, maybe more.
While it would've been nice to put in a vegetable garden back then, we had plenty of other to-dos on our plate. (For evidence, note how many times I posted here last May.) So rather than rush things, we took a full 12 months to prepare the soil.
We've had a very rainy spring around here, and it wasn't dry enough to get gardening until last week. First, using our electric tiller, I turned autumn's mulched leaves, which had broken down nicely. Next I harvested the "black gold" from our compost bins and worked that rich organic matter into the soil as well.
Today I was back at it again, beginning with the tiller and finishing the job with an iron rake and my dad's old shovel. I worked the 200-square-foot plot for a good two hours, ultimately building five raised beds.
I'm thrilled with the way our garden-to-be is shaping up. Right now the aroma is absolutely amazing and the soil is full of big, fat, happy earthworms.
If I were green, this is where I'd want to live.
Some folks probably would screen this soil -- it's fluffy, still with recognizable chunks that haven't broken down completely -- but I've never been much for screening. We'll choose our veggies and seeds and move straight to planting, probably over the next week or two.
"There's going to be a huge earthquake. It will be an earthquake far greater than any earthquake that has ever happened before."
Exactly five months later, Camping says,
"The whole world will be completely annihilated. It will completely disappear."
I have a question: If the world is gonna end in October, why the hell did I bother paying my income taxes?
Those of us who check "other" when asked to identify our religious affiliation aren't buying the snake oil Camping is selling, of course. It's amusingly fascinating nonetheless.
I wasn't surprised to learn that at least one enterprising atheist has turned Christian prophecy to his financial advantage. It's more than a little disturbing, however, that Eternal Earth-Bound Pets USA claims more than 250 customers on its books.
Unfortunately, it's a little late now to come up with my own Judgment Day money-making scheme. I'm just relieved that I didn't buy the extended warranty on this computer.
I don't waste time fretting about any dreaded "liberal bias" in the mainstream news media. Ideological slants abound, of course -- MSNBC on the left and Fox News on the right come to mind -- but they're poseurs, not credible news networks.
I'm fully capable of digging past headlines and sound bites, thank you very much, and I can form my own opinions.
That said, CNN is my primary source for TV news. Over 31 years it's developed the horsepower to be present, relevant, agile and useful. It's not 100% accurate every time but, in my experience, it gets its facts straight far more often than do most other outlets. When it screws up, it takes responsibility.
One thing that continues to annoy me about CNN, however, is the outright clumsiness of many of its anchors. Carol Costello, for example, clearly is better suited to early-morning duty at a small-market affiliate. Wolf Blitzer, though well-traveled and smart, is such a company man that his reports often become interminably awkward infomercials for the network.
The unsophisticated Brooke Baldwin took over the mid-afternoon slot last fall when CNN fired The Crazy Cuban. Late in yesterday's program, she preceded a commercial break with the following tease:
"More and more members of Congress [are] getting a look at those pictures of a dead Osama bin Laden, and those who have been invited to see these photographs sit on the House and Senate committees on intelligence and the military.
"Coming up next, I will speak with Congressman Doug Lamborn about what he saw and why one Senator suggestedbin Laden was still alive in some of those pictures.I wonder what he saw. Stay right here."
The implication: Our guys photographed bin Laden before they shot him. Intrigued, I stuck around for the interview. Here's how it began:
BALDWIN: "Congressman Lamborn, thank you for coming on. And sir, let's just start with, how many photos did you see today at Langley?"
LAMBORN: "Well, when I went over to the CIA headquarters this morning, there were about six or eight photos. And some have a side-by-side showing him living, but from at roughly the same angle, so you can use that for identification and comparison purposes. He is, indeed, dead."
Ok, at that point I felt foolish for biting on the hype -- that is, I got it and laughed (at myself) out loud. Baldwin, alas, did neither.
BALDWIN: "You bring up -- and this is what we [heard] from Senator [Jim] Inhofe last night, talking to my colleague, Eliot Spitzer. So,several of these photos were of him living. Can you explain more specifically how --how those photos were shot?"
LAMBORN: "Oh, they just had on-file photos of him over the years, and they only do a side-by-side to show the same angle and for ID purposes for, like, the forensic people.... He is dead."
There was a brief-but-delicious pause.
BALDWIN: "I see. So the living photos werenot shot in the [Abbottabad, Pakistan] compound...."
Behind every inept anchor is a whole team of doofuses -- the detached producer, the clueless director and an army of wet-behind-the-ears interns. Take a look at what Sen. Inhofe said on Spitzer's program the night before, words that formed the basis for Baldwin's on-air idiocy:
"Three of the first 12 pictures were of [bin Laden] when he was alive. And they did this for the purpose of being able to look at those and seeing the nose, the eyes and [their] relationship for positive identification purposes."
Sen. Inhofe's description seems crystal-clear to me. It didn't send host Spitzer careening into the ditch, either, but it exposed the gulf between Baldwin and common sense.
For me, this won't prompt a rant about incompetence in the media -- there's incompetence in every profession -- but I was glad for a chance to chuckle at chuckleheads.
"Why does everyone think I'm paranoid? Do you discuss this behind my back?" (incurably neurotic Danny Zimmer, as played by Jack Weston, in The Four Seasons)
March 30th of this year marked three decades since the attempted assassination of Pres. Ronald Reagan. The round-number anniversary reminded thinking Americans that even the most protected man in the world isn't safe from a determined lunatic.
White House press secretary Jim Brady was seriously wounded in the shooting, and his wife, Sarah, exploited their personal tragedy for a national cause. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence engineered the 1994 "assault weapons" ban, plus countless other federal laws, state statutes and local ordinances that disarmed tens of millions of law-abiding citizens.
Every one of those laws was ill-conceived and unconstitutional. None could be credited, at least not plausibly, with reducing violent crime.
Since those dark days, we've managed to reclaim some of the ground lost to Brady. In 2004, Pres. George W. Bush allowed the Clinton-era ban to expire without reauthorizing it. The concealed-carry pendulum has swung in our favor. We've won two landmark cases -- Heller in 2008 and McDonald last year -- in the U.S. Supreme Court. And Pres. Barack Obama, whose election greatly concerned Second Amendment advocates, has been largely silent on gun control.
Despite that momentum, the National Rifle Association and other RKBA organizations continue to implore us not to let our guard down. That's caused some to call American gun owners "paranoid," accusing us of fighting an enemy that exists now only in fearful minds.
On the 30th anniversary of the Reagan shooting, Sarah and Jim Brady went to Capitol Hill to press lawmakers to resume their undermining of the Constitution, notably by banning "high-capacity" magazines. Guess who else showed up at the meeting?
The President of The United States, Barack Obama.
According to Sarah Brady, as reported by The Washington Post, the president assured her that gun control is "very much on his agenda" and that he's "committed to regulation." From the Post article:
"I just want you to know that we are working on it,' Brady recalled the president telling them. 'We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.'"
So we're just paranoid, eh?
Sarah Brady, supported by a disturbing number of like-minded enemies of the People, envisions "an America free of gun violence." She calls on "men and women of high morals and conscience to join [Pres. Obama]" in making her naive dream come true.
(Presumably, anyone who supports the Second Amendment and believes in the right to armed self-defense is, by her definition, amoral and lacks a conscience. Our "radar" works just fine, though.)
And consider this: A second-term Obama-Biden-Holder-Clinton-Brady administration would have little to lose, politically, by engaging in a full frontal assault on our right to keep and bear arms.
So the gun-grabbers aren't resting and neither should we. The 2012 election is crucial, too, at all levels -- but it's not enough simply to vote against this president's reelection. We need to vote forindependent-minded candidates who think critically and place the Constitution above party and polls.
Since Sunday night, naturally we've been getting more information -- I hesitate to say details -- about the assault that resulted in the assassination of Osama bin Laden.
There was a firefight; um, there really wasn't a firefight. The target was unarmed; he was reaching for a weapon; well, he might've been reaching for a weapon. He didn't indicate his wish to surrender; actually, he wasn't given an opportunity to surrender.
None of that matters -- not to me. With apologies to Ghostbusters:
We came, we saw, we kicked his ass.
In the analysis that's followed, we've heard the sort of second-guessing we've come to expect from pundits and elected officials who have neither the standing nor the experience to offer intelligent comment. Ideologues from the left quote Yoda or misquote MLK, suggesting either that we shouldn't celebrate the death of the butcherous bin Laden or that he should've been captured and tried. Right-wingers misquote Samuel Clemens or George Orwell while (at best) damning the Commander-in-Chief with faint praise.
Neither extreme strays far from unfiltered ignorance. And both, ultimately, pile insult on the men and women -- from commanders to warriors to those "who only stand and wait" -- who sacrifice much and risk all to defend our freedom.
Over a century ago, Kipling gave voice to the warfighter's bitterness at ungrateful countrymen. I'll close with the classic tribute.
Tommy
by Rudyard Kipling (1892)
I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer, The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here." The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die, I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.
I went into a theatre as sober as could be, They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me; They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls, But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.
Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap; An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.
We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too, But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you; An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints, Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.
You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all: We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational. Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!
...playing with a toy shovel, heaping beach sand into a small plastic bucket. That's what a boy of (almost) four years old does when he's vacationing in Florida with his family.
My father kept interrupting my shoveling that day, repeatedly calling my attention to the ocean and the eastern sky. I seem to recall two large ships visible near the horizon. I have a very clear memory of a U.S. Navy B-17 making several low-altitude passes just offshore.
What I remember most, though, is my dad hoisting me up and pointing excitedly at a wispy trail of smoke arcing over the Atlantic to our southeast. Leading that trail was a bright orange speck.
On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space. I was there -- albeit at a tender age and from a distance of 50 miles -- to see that Mercury-Redstone 3 propel Freedom 7 into history, and I remember.
I've digested a fair amount of news, analysis and commentary since Sunday night, and I've managed to collect some of my thoughts.
Osama bin Laden is dead. He died on May 2, 2011 at the barrel of a gun wielded by a member of DEVGRU (f.k.a. SEAL Team Six). Theories to the contrary have no basis beyond anti-government paranoia.
I celebrate, without apology, both the death of Osama bin Laden and the manner in which he met justice. 'Nuff said.
This was a "kill mission" from the get-go. All the soft-pedaling we've heard over the last few days is intended to soothe the squeamish. I'm not squeamish and I don't buy it.
Releasing photos of a dead Osama bin Laden won't make a bad thing worse. In other words, the fresh threat posed by his pissed-off followers isn't appreciably greater if we show the world what he looks like after taking one Black Hills round to the chest and another bullet to the head. I don't have a pressing emotional or intellectual need to see the photos myself, but I can't argue against their release.
Radical Islamist terrorism and al-Qaeda are not dead, nor are they mortally wounded.David Morris summarized it simply and well:
"As to the statements that we 'cut the head off of al-Qaeda and radical Islam'...they completely miss the point. That would almost be like saying that when Elvis died, rock-and-roll died with it. Rock-and-roll and al-Qaeda are movements. Both have the equivalent of highly public, well-funded, organized groups as well as garage bands, and solo acts anonymously practicing at home every night -- hoping to someday get to play on the big stage and get famous. Just like rock-and-roll continued after Elvis died, misguided people will continue to try to kill us, disrupt our way of life, and terrorize us after bin Laden's death."
The trail that led to Osama bin Laden began during the second term of Pres. George W. Bush. U.S. intelligence operations unraveled a network of couriers, ultimately tracing one promising thread to the compound in Abbottabad. Pres. Barack Obama missed an opportunity to be magnanimous on Sunday night, however -- he should've expressly highlighted an effort that originated in the previous administration. In my opinion, he should've explicitly thanked his predecessor, but (uncharacteristically) he didn't.
Much of the "heavy lifting" -- developing intelligence that made possible the assassination of Osama bin Laden -- was done by career and long-serving federal employees. Many were around before 9/11 and will be there after Pres. Obama leaves office. That's the nature of (our) government. Though it's great sport to disparage bureaucracy and bureaucrats, these folks deserve our respect.
Pres. Obama made a command decision -- deal with it. Just as Sunday's address was missing a particular expression of gratitude so, too, are statements from the President's political opponents. They thank "the troops" and Pres. Bush but fail to give Pres. Obama his due for making a correct and yes, a gutsy call. Typically, right-wingers don't seem able to distinguish national unity from policy agreement, so they can't bring themselves to say a heartfelt American thank-you. It's a symptom of the grade-school mentality infecting our politics.
The death of Osama bin Laden doesn't put a lock on Pres. Obama's re-election. Far from it, I'm glad to say. Truth is, the expected post-assassination "bump" probably won't help that much or last very long -- and November 2012 is a long way off. (See also Operation Desert Storm and Pres. George H.W. Bush.) In a week or two we'll turn our full attention back to the floundering U.S. economy, this president's weakness and the biggest roadblock to a second term.
The kind of scene captured in the White House photo of the national-security team gathered in the "Situation Room" isn't as rare as most people think it is. I'll leave it at that.
Pakistan is an unreliable ally. We were right to leave Pakistani officials in the dark about the assault on the Abbottabad compound until our DEVGRU team was airborne and outbound -- we couldn't risk jeopardizing OPSEC by informing a regime that's untrustworthy (to put it kindly). That said, maintaining good relations with Pakistan -- without continuing to throw away billions in aid -- will prove useful in the future, as it has in the past. Only simple-minded zero-summers are proposing that we sever ties completely with this (unreliable) ally.
I've lost count of the heroes. Our culture invokes "hero" so often that the word has lost much of its impact. When it truly fills the bill -- ordinary Americans who resisted terrorists on United Flight 93, NYFD firefighters who ran toward near-certain death on 9/11 -- we should use it. And anyone who wants to apply the same label to the real-deal team that assaulted Osama bin Laden's compound on Sunday, well, that's fine by me.
"If [Pres. Barack Obama] was a shoo-in for re-election, Osama bin Laden would still be alive today. There would have been no need to undertake the mission."(Rush Limbaugh, to his poodles-- er, fans)
"I am sorry, but if you believe the newest death of [Osama bin Laden], you’re stupid. Just think to yourself -- they paraded [Saddam Hussein's] dead sons around to prove they were dead -- why do you suppose they hastily buried this version of [Osama bin Laden] at sea? This lying, murderous [U.S.] Empire can only exist with your brainwashed consent -- just put your flags away and THINK!"(Cindy Sheehan, who really is "sorry" -- just not the way she meant it)
"Of course, [Pres. Obama] made his announcement right in the middle of Donald Trump's 'Celebrity Apprentice' show. Of course, that was just a coincidence."(Judson Phillips, Tea Party Nation, who has yet to meet a conspiracy theory he doesn't love)
"The free world, particularly the United States, has a right to make sure Osama bin Laden is really dead. Every American has a right to walk right up to bin Laden’s corpse and view it. We are entitled to know for a fact that the witch is dead. No shroud for dignity’s sake, please -- bin Laden’s naked, bullet-riddled corpse should be put on display in lower Manhattan for all the world to see. The entire body should be digitally scanned, inside and out -- and made available for everyone to take his or her own picture."(J. Michael Walker, via Andrew Breitbart's Big Peace, giving fuel to the "deathers" movement)
"So why did [Pres. Obama] announce the [assassination of Osama bin Laden] like he was reading the dictionary? You know the answer. It’s because his speech wasn’t so much aimed at Americans. He was being careful of how the 'Arab Street' would interpret his remarks. Any hint of gloating or happiness might be rubbing it in the face of some of the crazies in the Arab World and heaven forbid we get them upset! How dare we Americans look like we’re celebrating his death! The travesty of it all! Give me a break. Isn’t it time to stop catering to thugs?"(David Brody, Christian Broadcasting Network)
"Maybe I should have read Proverbs 24:17 before I wrote that.
"Proverbs 24:17 says: 'Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice.'
President Obama actually lived by that important biblical verse by the words and tone he used. I did not and for that I apologize. While I do believe that his remarks were measured so as not to cause more commotion in the Arab World, I got a little caught up in the euphoric celebrations of the evening. The Book of Proverbs got it right and therefore so did President Obama. Pulling out the Bible is the best thing you can do and I wish I had done it sooner." (Brody again -- yet another right-wing ideologue caught with his politics wedged uncomfortably between his religious beliefs)
"Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body." (Pres. Barack Obama, May 1, 2011)
Mrs. KintlaLake and I had just settled in for the night when CNN reported that Pres. Obama would be addressing the American People at 10:30pm. We sat up, switched on the bedside light and traded theories until we learned that the subject of the President's remarks would be "national security."
"Bin Laden," I whispered, scarcely able to believe what I was saying. "Killed or captured, it's gotta be bin Laden."
CNN confirmed my speculation a few minutes later. We got out of bed and woke our 16-year-old, and the three of us gathered around the TV in the kitchen to await the President's remarks.
I pulled a fresh bottle of Jack Daniels from the cabinet, broke the seal and poured two shots. My wife and I raised our glasses to bin Laden's demise -- accompanied by the toast, "Vengeance ismine, dammit!" -- as Pres. Obama began to speak around 11:35pm.
The spawn returned to bed when it was over. Mrs. KintlaLake and I adjourned to the front porch, lit cigarettes and sat quietly, listening to the rain. A pair of whitetail deer grazed nearby.
This morning, of course, Americans are swelling with patriotic pride and celebrating the long-awaited assassination of an infamous Islamist butcher. Beyond that, for practical purposes, little has changed.
(Well, actually, I do need to find a new rifle target.)
The so-called "War on Terror," at least as we've known it, may be over, but the threat of terrorist attacks remains. In fact, the threat is greater now than it was yesterday -- we can expect bin Laden's disciples to see him as a martyr and seek retribution.
Perhaps that danger will ease over time, but it'll never, ever go away. Terrorism is not a specter -- it real and it's here to stay.
We will be attacked again.
The American populace soon will resume its trademark complacency, retreating into the arrogant illusion of safety. Our nation again will become an easy target.
Some of us, on the other hand, will never forget. We know that vigilance is Liberty's guardian, and we will never forget.
This afternoon I put up the season's first refrigerator pickles. And although I have plenty of my own jars, I went down to the basement and cast my eyes over the old ones, ultimately choosing a quart-size Ball "Perfect Mason" in blue glass.
Unlike thousands of revelers who pack the village's festival grounds for the show, we have a front-row seat. See, the shells launch from the city park behind our house, so we pull our chairs right up to the line of yellow police tape marking the edge of the safety zone and watch the fireworks explode almost directly over our heads.
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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
We weren't engaged in denial, mind you, simply overwhelmed with disappointment.
Summer has come. It always does. I have been here sixty-two years, and there has been a summer every year. Sometimes I thought it wouldn't, but it always did come. I have grown to have faith in it. My last and most beautiful canoe rests in the cool, dry cellar right under where I am writing. I spend about an hour daily sparking her. I lift her by her handsome stems, and whisper of the long summer outing we are to have on the prattling, rattling waters of the Tiadatton, and she quivers and squirms like a trout; or, is it my imagination?
...but the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention is using tongue-in-cheek humor to educate a complacent public about preparedness.
Today I was back at it again, beginning with the tiller and finishing the job with an iron rake and my dad's old shovel. I worked the 200-square-foot plot for a good two hours, ultimately building five raised beds.
What I remember most, though, is my dad hoisting me up and pointing excitedly at a wispy trail of smoke arcing over the Atlantic to our southeast. Leading that trail was a bright orange speck.
(Well, actually, I do need to find a new rifle target.)
