About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

21 Replies to “Happy Birthday, United States of America”

  1. Speaking for the Great White Father in Washington and all of the American people, allow me express gratitude, Eeyore, that someone in the Great White North is keeping alive the near-flat lined Special Relationship that once existed amongst all British colonies, the Empire, and various departed possessions (e.g., the U. S. of A.).

    Here’s a bit about what I consider to be amongst one of the very finest pieces of modern classical music ever written. It epitomizes the exuberant, raucous joy of American Liberty and Freedom like few others. Kinda like fireworks on sheet music.

    LINER NOTES FROM WHEREVER: – This fanfare was written on request from Eugene Goossens, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, in response to the US entry into the Second World War.

    During the First World War, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra had asked British composers for a fanfare to begin each orchestral concert. It had been so successful that he thought to repeat the procedure in World War II with American composers.

    Goossens suggested titles like Fanfare for Soldiers, but Copland gave it the much better title Fanfare for the Common Man. The piece was premiered 12 March 1943 at income tax time, as a homage to the common man. –

  2. “Why do I complain?

    It was the War of 1812, not the Revolutionary War — there were 15 states, not 13 colonies.
    There was no ultimatum to to Baltimore, nor to the U.S., as this fellow describes it.
    Key negotiated for the release of one man, Dr. Beanes. There was no brig full of U.S. prisoners.
    It’s Fort McHenry, not “Henry.” The fort was named after James McHenry, a physician who was one of the foreign-born signers of the Constitution, who had assisted Generals Washington and Lafayette during the American Revolution, and who had served as Secretary of War to Presidents Washington and Adams.
    Fort McHenry was a military institution, a fort defending Baltimore Harbor. It was not a refuge for women and children.
    The nation would not have reverted to British rule had Fort McHenry fallen.
    There were 50 ships, not hundreds. Most of them were rafts with guns on them. Baltimore Harbor is an arm of Chesapeake Bay, more than 150 miles from the ocean; Fort McHenry is not on the ocean, but across the harbor from the Orioles’ Camden Yards ballpark.
    The battle started in daylight. Bombardment continued for 25 hours.
    Bogus quote: George Washington never said “What sets the American Christian apart from all other people in this world is he will die on his feet before he will live on his knees.” Tough words. Spanish Civil War. Not George Washington. I particularly hate it when people make up stuff to put in the mouths of great men. Washington left his diaries and considerably more — we don’t have to make up inspiring stuff, and when we do, we get it wrong.
    The battle was not over the flag; the British were trying to take Baltimore, one of America’s great ports. At this point, they rather needed to since the Baltimore militia had stunned and stopped the ground troops east of the city. There’s enough American bravery and pluck in this part of the story to merit no exaggerations.
    To the best of our knowledge, the British did not specifically target the flag.
    There were about 25 American casualties. Bodies of the dead were not used to hold up the flag pole — a 42 by 30 foot flag has to be on a well-anchored pole, not held up by a few dead bodies stacked around it.
    You can probably find even more inaccuracies (please note them in comments if you do).

    The entire enterprise is voodoo history. The name of Francis Scott Key is right; the flag is right; almost everything else is wrong.

    Please help: Can you find who wrote this piece of crap? Can you learn who the narrator is, and where it was recorded?”
    https://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/dont-fall-for-the-star-spangled-voodoo-history/

    • Exageration’s seductive lie.
      ‘Pon foundations flags will fly.
      Then they stand to each deny
      The Trinity betwixt each eye.

    • “Faced with the reality that his video presentation was inaccurate, Rutherford apologized. And he did it boldly. He stared again into a camera, but this time he said that he was “deeply, deeply sorry for any misrepresentation of the original story” and admitted that he had lifted the story, without checking its accuracy, from an unnamed speaker who specialized in presenting Christian views of early American history.

      Watch Rutherford’s apology for yourself. It is sincere. He comes across as a man of integrity, character, and humility. He appears as a model of Christian civility and reconciliation.”
      https://www.patheos.com/resources/additional-resources/2011/01/evangelical-pastor-gets-a-history-lesson-john-fea-01-12-2011

      “First, let me say how refreshing it is to see somebody who is sincerely interested in historical integrity. Pastor Rutherford, who is not a professional historian, has more “True Grit” (an excellent movie that you should see, BTW) than many professionals in the historical community. I personally know several historians who could NEVER admit when they had made a mistake because their pride, ego and Ph.D. get in the way. I hope that I can follow Pastor Rutherford’s example when I get my history wrong in the future.”
      http://americanrevolutionblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/pastor-rutherford-apologizes.html?m=1

      Happy (and grateful) 4th of July to Americans and the world.

    • Thank you PC I was wondering if I should correct the BS, one you missed, the Flag was shot down once and a man climbed the flag pole to secure the top of the flag so it sill flew.

      You are right there is enough inspiration and glory in the real story people don’t need to make up BS to make it stronger..

      If any of you ever visit Fort McHenry you will marvel at the fact that it held so long under such a bombardment. There are cannon (laying on the ground that are the type used during that battle (I don’t know if they were used in the battle) one of them has a cannon ball welded into the barrel from letting the hot shot set in the forge too long. (Hot Shot was a red hot cannon ball that was used to set attacking ships on fire letting it get too hot caused the ball to semi melt and as it cooled weld itself to the barrel causing the breach to blow back and kill crew). The cannon that are still on the ramparts are from the Civil War and have been plugged with cement rendering them useless.

      After the battle and the Brits withdrew the US repaired the damage and started strengthening the defenses in case the Brits came back.

      The a battle flag is on display inside one of the buildings that is the same size as the one flown in the battle as are other artifacts from the War of 1812 and a few from the Revolutionary War.

      If you visit Fort McHenry please go down to the harbor and visit the Constellation, it is a sister ship to the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides, the only sailing ship still in commission as a US Naval Vessel) it is well worth the time that it takes for both tours.

      • I forgot to put in why they were wondering if the flag was still flying. At that time Forts and Ships in combat flew their “Battle Flags” there were flags much larger then normal so they could be easily seen, lowering aka striking the flag said that you had surrendered. As long as the flag was flying the fort was still in American hands.

        In the battle where John Paul Jones made his famous “I have not yet begun to fight” his Battle Flag was shot down and the British Captain ask if he had struck (lowered) his flag.

      • If any of you ever visit Fort McHenry you will marvel at the fact that it held so long under such a bombardment.

        Thank you, Richard. Fort McHenry makes the SF Bay Area’s Fort Cronkite look like Gibralter. Few people have seen the Great Garrison Flag that inspired America’s national anthem. The following clip details a showing of this priceless national icon at Ft. McHenry.

        The sheer dimensions of our country’s colors gives an inkling of Francis Scott Key’s own awe to have seen them endure until “the dawn’s early light”; after more than a solid day of rockets and shelling by British forces.

  3. My father loves, and has always loved the U.S.A. He has always been a political animal, just as Richard Nixon was, a man he admired greatly. If not for fate I would be American, because that was my father’s destination when he sailed the Atlantic, but…

    Certainly, Canada used to be a great country. There have even been a few times when the Canadian dollar was worth more than the greenback. It is a stealth policy of the Bank of Canada to suppress the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar. Artificially maintaining it at roughly 3/4 value has been the way since Trudeau Sr. arrived 50 years ago. This is good political policy because it promotes exports south and makes some jobs, but lowers the overall standard of living for all citizens. No one questions this policy here even though our manufacturing sector is gutted. Only President Trump questions why his dollar should be used as a punching bag. Truly. PT fights against his normalcy biases. We all want to be comfortable, but perhaps at our own expense. PT wants none of this. He fearlessly questions weary status quos, pulling them up by their roots, tossing them aside. He got this from a life in business, I think. Being too comfortable is very, very dangerous. He is about to show the world what monetary revolution looks like. Chinese, Russians, Canadians, Pakis and all the rest will have to kiss his arse whence the greenback is dropped. It is a currency war that they started and he will finish. Where the hell is it written that the U.S.A can’t punch back? Keep an eye on gold and silver now. Buy those crosses before Vlad has to raise the price!

    Canada was built on risk taking, work, and the natural law of freedom. –Much the same as her southern sister. Indeed, for me, risk taking and constant productivity is liberating. Many in my sphere think this is strange.

    Canada was not built on suffocating ideologies that try to bend minds to their will. The disease within the Leftist disease is wanting to tell others what to think. This propensity walks hand-in-hand with it’s other affliction of trying to tell others what not to say.

    Only the U.S.A gives it’s people the written right to have a big mouth. What more can freedom ever hope for?

    God bless you.

      • It takes a businessman to understand what he is saying, he is about to show the world what a patriot who understands international commerce can do when put in charge of the US. His fighting back against the currency attacks by other nations are the only chance we (North America) has of entering the coming war with all of our enemies weak and bankrupt. I pray that when his 2 terms are over we find another patriotic businessman who can take his place to continue restoring the US and keeping us free.

        I forgot to add that we deliberately put the right to have a big mouth in writing because we knew you couldn’t shut our people up so lets make sure it is legal.

    • Thank you Johnnyu, the difference between a Yank and a Canuk are visible only to the citizens of our two nations, the rest of the world thinks we are the same in just about every respect. Yanks in trouble will turn to the Canadian diplomatic corp if the US doesn’t have an embassy there and the Canuks will turn to the Yanks when they need help. We cross the border and enlists in the others military when one of us is in a war and the other isn’t. (Illegally on our part, we need Congressional approval to serve in a foreign military) We squabble and argue but we are close cousins and we have each others back.

      This is why your prediction that we will have to liberate Canada bothers me so much, I don’t want our nations to fight, I like having a friendly cousin on our Northern border.

  4. That’s the great thing about America. We can celebrate the courageous accomplishments of our military – our citizen soldiers, who are not an alien force among us but who are us – and not be coopted by a spirit of militarism.

    It’s the great thing about America that we can start our life as a nation with a tragic if humanly universal flaw – slavery – and yet defy the fate of tragedy and overcome it.

    It’s the great thing about America that we always have something better to think about than one faction’s political characterization of another as “fascist” – or “racist,” or any other weaponized political curse deployed not to illuminate but to condemn and silence.

    It’s the great thing about America that we can just tune shrieking and scolding out, because we know we’re not whatever some hysterically angry people are calling us, and we have no need to justify ourselves to them.

    t’s the great thing about America that we still have an accurate memory of what the rule of law is, even if it has lost a lot of steam as a current reality. Every day we look up and discover that some judge, some city councilwoman, some mayor or governor somewhere has reaffirmed the rule of law, and we know that today is not the awful day when we have to take arms to reestablish it.

    It’s the great thing about America that truth gets its day in court; that lies can’t rule over us, even if they can, for a time, entrap the minds of noisy factions; that ordinary people can go about their business even when lies are chasing each other around the public square so sweatily that no one wants to be out there with them.

    It’s the great thing about America that our Founders agreed government should never be big enough to enforce lies on the public, or demand rent from us for merely breathing the air.

    It’s the great thing about America that we can get to the next dawning day and turn a new page, rather than reliving a past that will never be changed.

    It’s the great thing about America that whatever we believe about God, it is not the state’s business to inquire into that, or to settle our disputes on matters of faith. The blessing of this aspect of America is inexpressibly colossal. It means, quite literally, everything in life to both the faithful and the doubters.

    It’s the great thing about America that the founding words we have to remember are so uniquely fundamental and concise: “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.” There you go: Creation and endowment; the context of men’s moral standing – before the Creator, above all else; the purpose of government; the consent of the governed as the basis of justice.

    Yet we have more. We are the people for whom liberty is truly about hoping beyond today. Liberty isn’t a pie to be carved up. Liberty is about not having to squabble over the pie, because with liberty, there will always be more. Liberty is about genuinely being able to understand Hosea 6:6: “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”

    It’s the great thing about America that we can dare to live by a different code: not by the terrible, deadly, pie-carving, backward-looking math of collectivism, or even by the strictures of “justice,” which is either a death knell that tolls for all of us, or a great lie. The truth of justice is that it cannot apply differently to categories of people – some but not others – and also be just.

    Justice in law, justice about the occasional deed, is a fine tool, but “justice” as a concept of social ordering, “justice” aimed at people like a cosmic howitzer, is a death sentence for everything good and decent.

    In America, the blessing of liberty allows us to understand and live by this incredible truth: that the highest good under Heaven – for Christians, we might say “What Jesus would do” – is not “social justice,” but social mercy.

    It’s the great thing about America that the gates of Hell are raided and broken down, and within our precincts, whatever noise and clamor and naysaying surround us, we may live with social mercy as a permanent hope. We are free to be good to each other, not obligated to practice an economy and politics of retribution, indignation, and outrage.

    End part 1

    • Beginning part 2

      The gateway to hope is bolted open. This nation, under God, shall ever have a new birth of freedom, and government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
      Independence Day celebration in Philadelphia, 4 July 1819. John Lewis Krimmel. Wikimedia Commons

      The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America

      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 harrass 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 benefits 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 Brittish 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.

      — John Hancock

      New Hampshire:

      Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

      Massachusetts:

      John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

      Rhode Island:

      Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

      Connecticut:

      Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

      New York:

      William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

      New Jersey:

      Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

      Pennsylvania:

      Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

      Delaware:

      Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

      Maryland:

      Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

      Virginia:

      George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

      North Carolina:

      William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

      South Carolina:

      Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

      Georgia:

      Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

      https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/07/04/whats-great-about-america-on-independence-day-2019/

      • Richard, your appreciation of history is admirable.

        Few living Americans realize that British navies seizing American colonists off of boats on the high seas amounted to Crown-sanctioned slavery (or indentured servitude). King George arrogantly mismanaged the Empire’s crown jewel whose place even Maharaja India could never hope to usurp.

  5. PBS – The American Revolution
    Playlist – 6 Videos
    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdKeqdXHJ-Xu7xw1M90aqNdMxlWNyh1TF

    Episode 2 – 13 Clocks Strike As One

    @ 3:42 ~ “In many ways, the First Continental Congress is a delayed reaction. It’s… what do you do when you have to respond to something you don’t know how to respond? You call a committee meeting.” Ron Hoffman, Historian

    @ 3:57 ~ “… let the colonies unite in one spirit; in one cause.” ~ John Dickinson of Philadelphia

    @ 8:58 “I am discovering that this continent is a vast unwieldy machine. We are 13 colonies, strangers, largely unacquainted with each other, now rushing together in one great mass. It’s not surprising that we are jealous of each other’s desires: fearful, timid, skittish. ” John Adams

    @ 9:48 ~ “What happens at 1774 is that thirteen clocks suddenly begin to strike as one. That’s what John Adams said. That’s the most important fact of the First Continental Congress. Up to 1774, you have 13 different movements, very different, independent, but we wouldn’t even call them independence movements, we will call them protest movements to British authority. But in 1774, 13 different countries; that’s the way they thought of themselves; suddenly come together and begin to speak or attempt to speak with one voice.” ~ Ron Hoffman, Historian

    The Thirteen Colonies thought of themselves as citizens of different countries and chained to the king’s land (feudalism). Breaking the chains that separated each colony, the Free Men united by taking the Oath of Allegiance and passed on their fruit to their offspring ~ NBC.