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On this day in 1860 the people of my State declared independence, just as they had done in 1776, and SC became a free republic. Sadly, for our trouble, the US invaded and destroyed my State, killing many of my family members and burning fields, churches & towns in South Carolina. The United States tried to burn down my own town, which was thankfully saved by a cavalry unit. Cemeteries all around where I live are full of people killed by the United States in their invasion of South Carolina.
So I say damn the US Empire. It’s an awful regime swollen fat on the blood of my people and others around the world. I hope to live to see the day when it is dead and gone. I will raise a glass and toast its fall, celebrating the liberation of my people.
In this video economist and professor Joseph Salerno speaks on the Federal Reserve and exposes some of the fallacies regarding how the Federal Reserve functions, creates money and controls the monetary system in the United States. The video is from CPAC 2011.
Real money is up to $1410 an ounce today against the US Federal Reserve note. Which means that green pieces of Federal paper are down again, as usual.
Brian Hicks writes for the HaroldOnline about the anniversary of the adoption of South Carolina’s flag, which now for a century and a half has been a symbol of defiance to tyranny and outside rule:
Robert Barnwell Rhett Jr. believed the South Carolina flag should be simple, elegant, perhaps even majestic.
But the banner emerging from legislative compromise carried none of those traits.
It was January 1861, in the weeks between the state’s decision to secede from the Union and the emergence of the Southern Confederacy, and South Carolina needed a national flag. A committee of legislators had been appointed to come up with the design and, on Jan. 21, 1861, the panel presented a proposal that “the National Flag or Ensign of South Carolina shall be white, with a green palmetto tree upright thereon; and the union blue, with a white increscent.”
Over the course of a week, one senator would suggest that instead, the state adopt a red flag sporting a green palmetto with a brown trunk.
Rhett – a House member, son of secessionist Robert Barnwell Rhett, and editor of the Charleston Mercury – used his newspaper to argue against “the calico appearance” of the Senate’s proposed flag. He renewed calls for his design, presented a week earlier, that called for the flag to be “blue, with a white palmetto tree upright thereon, and a white crescent in the upper corner.”
On Jan. 28, 1861, the General Assembly fell in line behind the newspaper editor, and South Carolina had its flag. With minor changes, the flag has represented the state ever since.
Today, 150 years later, the state celebrates the first South Carolina Flag Day. Last May, the Legislature approved a joint resolution establishing the day at the request of the South Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
“Our flag has a rich and fascinating history dating back to the American Revolution and, while adopted after secession, it has continued to be a prominent icon of our state’s heritage and history,” said Mark Simpson, division commander for the state Sons of Confederate Veterans.
“It is a symbol of unity and one that all can equally embrace.”
Fort Moultrie will host a program to honor the flag and the holiday this afternoon. Organizers said it was the logical choice for such an event, since much of the flag’s symbolism can be traced to the fort.
The crescent commemorated those worn on the uniform caps of the Second South Carolina Regiment during the Revolution. The palmetto symbolized the palmetto logs used to build the first Fort Moultrie, which repelled British cannon fire in June 1776, one of the early battles of that war.
For years, South Carolinians have argued about the crescent in the corner of the flag: moon or a gorget? A gorget is a piece of armor shaped like a collar designed to protect the throat.
Rick Hatcher, National Park Service historian at Fort Moultrie, said he can see both arguments, but William Moultrie gets the final say.
“In Moultrie’s memoirs, he calls it a crescent,” Hatcher said. “When the commander of the regiment says he put a crescent on it, that settles it.”
Part of the confusion about the flag’s crescent can be traced to the early years of the 20th century. Originally, the tips of the crescent pointed upward. Eric Emerson, director of the S.C. Department of Archives and History, said that in 1910, Alexander Samuel Salley Jr., secretary of the state’s Historical Commission, angled the crescent, apparently on his own authority.
Emerson will talk about the evolution of the state flag at the Fort Moultrie program at 2:30 p.m. today, along with state Sens. Chip Campsen and Danny Verdin, sponsors of the legislation. Fort Moultrie admission will be free today.
The deteriorating state of language in our society today is something I enjoy pointing out and commenting on from time to time. The most obvious and agregious violations of plain and proper English are committed in Washington, DC – a place where seemingly normal people from across the United States congregate to torture a language most of us use on a daily basis to communicate with others. Of course, the communication that takes place in Washington, DC and between the bureaucrats there and the people they supposedly represent is quite different from the sort of communication we normal folks use. The destruction of our langauge has had a trickle down effect, starting in the major power centers (among them DC, NYC and Hollywood) and slowly but steadily reaching the rest of us via television, printed media and the corporate world where some of us are forced to seek employment. Short words which used to convey simple, concrete ideas have been lengthened into phrases which can more easily be confused and twisted. This represents a step backwards in human communication, of course. For example, talents, skills and abilities are now suddenly your “skill set” – notice that two words have now been substituted where previously one sufficed very nicely. One presumably stores one’s skill set in one’s tool box. This latter phrase was frequently used during the recent financial crisis, with one Federal bureaucrat after another speaking before Congress and the media about the Federal Reserve’s “tool box.” They were simply referring to their powers or abilities – things they could do. But “tool box” made them sound more pro-active, more down-to-Earth and it also slightly confused the issue by introducing a new buzz word that the media could (and did) repeat a billion times. Of course, numerous other examples abound and I’m sure you run into them quite often. Any time you deal with government (and as a general rule, the higher one goes in government the more one has to deal with such language) or the corporate world this sort of language is inevitable.
The late comedian George Carlin was a master at pointing out the destruction of our language. In the below video, he openly mocks the creeps in Washington, DC who claim to be our “public servants” (a term he makes fun of as well). He is especially unforgiving in his condemnation (which is hilarious, as always) of their torturous use of the language to disguise their true actions (or lack thereof). Note that unlike much of Carlin’s stand up material, this has no profanity in it and is fine for all audiences:
Nearly 99 percent of southern Sudanese voters have chosen to split off from northern Sudan and form their own country, according to preliminary results of an independence referendum conducted this month. The commission that ran the referendum said Friday that 98.6 percent voted for secession, and 1.4 percent voted for unity, according to more than 3 million votes cast, which brings the largest country in Africa a step closer to splitting in two…. Voters in nearly every state in the south chose independence by 99 percent; in Eastern Equatoria, only 229 people voted for unity with the north out of 455,466 votes, according to the preliminary results…. Now the wait begins. Southern Sudan will not achieve formal independence until July 9, when the United States-backed peace treaty that put the referendum in motion is set to expire. By then southern Sudan hopes to pick a national anthem and a name; leading contenders are Nile Republic and South Sudan.
Well good for the people of Southern States of Sudan! I’m happy that they were allowed self-determination – something that the people of the Southern States of the USA were not allowed. The US Federal Government is highly supportive of the rights of Southerners in Sudan while violently opposed to the rights of Southerners in the USA.
South Carolinians should easily be able to see the hypocrisy of the US position on secession. The Feds have no principle when it comes to this (or any other) question. They pick and choose in which countries they will happily support or violently oppose secession. Clearly, the Feds do not believe in liberty and self-determination.
The latest example of a bad analogy being used by Federal officials is from US President Obama:
Standing from the floor of the GE plant in Schenectady, New York President Obama said that two years into his presidency, with the economy now growing again, it is time to jump into “overdrive mode.”
“The past two years were about pulling our economy back from the brink,” Obama said surrounded by workers, “The next two years, our job now, is putting our economy into overdrive.”
Notice the mixed analogies here. First, the economy is likened to someone or something on the brink. Perhaps we are to envision a mountain climber who is about to tumble off a peak to his death. Of course, Obama, Bernanke and the US Federal Government in general is the saviour in this analogy. It’s their job to make sure that we all don’t tumble off that cliff. Next, the economy is likened to a car which Obama and the Feds can put into “overdrive.” And how is he going to accomplish this?
The president said his job is to make sure everything that can be done for businesses to take root, jobs to be found, and to make sure that America is once again leading. Just over the two- year anniversary of his inauguration the president said with a new economic mission, comes a new team.
“To help fulfill this new mission, I’m assembling a new group of business leaders and outside advisers,” he said.
Ah! So, the economy/car will be put into overdrive by assembling another economic advisory committee. Presumably, these people will advise Obama on what to do and then he will use the power of the Executive Branch to enact regulations or work with Congress to write legislation which put us into “overdrive” somehow.
It should be obvious that Americans are neither a mountain climber in need of rescue nor a car. We are hundreds of millions individuals who work, save, buy things, enter into contracts with each other and make all the many millions of decisions every day that we collectively and abstractly refer to as “the economy.” Yes, the Feds and people at all levels of government are very concerned about the economy right now. They want things to get better so they will not have to cut government spending and public programs. However, no government official – even the US President – can take any measure which will improve the economy short of leaving the people along. The more Washington, DC leaves us alone the more we are free to get on with our lives and further improve the division of labour in our society which leads to our prosperity. We are not machines which have to be told to buy, sell or work. As social creatures, we do these things with each other naturally. Comparing three hundred million plus people to a car is absurd. But it does have its purpose. If people buy into the analogy that they are a car they might accept the proposition that they are currently in the slow lane and need to put the pedal to the metal through Federal manipulation of the interest rates, monetary supply or some other aspect of the market. Obama and other Federal officials will offer various forms of intervention in our lives to “help” us accomplish this. And this, in the end, is what these analogies are all about – power. They appeal to uniformed, unthinking or trusting people who want quick solutions rather than understanding. And they serve those in Washington, DC and other power centers with excuses for greater power and more control.
The next time some politician uses a lame analogy to disguise his intentions of assuming more control over your life remind him that you are not a car. You are a person. And you want to be left alone.
