“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.'” -- Sen. Barack Obama, March 2006
House Dems serve up panic, hysteria, silliness over...cafeteria forks
 |
| Choose or die. |
Some Democrat congressional staffers are threatening to boycott the House cafeteria and Democrat congressmembers are in full mental meltdown after Republicans have instructed managers to resume the use of traditional disposable cups and plastic utensils over the fragile, flimsy, "green" spoons, knives and forks ordered under former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The changes come after most House staffers, Republicans and Democrats, demanded the change. The "green" utensils routinely shattered in staffers' hands and even melted in soup, leading staffers to begin bringing utensils from home.
Switching back to affordable, reliable utensils will also save taxpayers half a million dollars, as "green" works and spoons are also considerably more expensive.
As they tend to do with most everything, environmentalists have come completely mentally unhinged and begun estimating the body count.
"Democrats see the cafeteria changes as symbolic of Republican hostility toward the environment," the San Francisco Chronicle reports of the decision to use utensils that can't even cut meatloaf.
"This seems like a small thing, but it sends a terrible message," wailed Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine.
"I can hardly wait for the lead paint," Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., plaintively whined through Twitter.
The move is actually good for the environment, as well. Pelosi's attempt to collect and recycle all the utensils increased total energy use, and the constant breakage and melting led to staffers using even more disposable utensils.
I'm not sure which environmentalist belief is crazier.
Thinking that using sturdier, more reliable spoons that don't shatter in your eye is "Republican hostility toward the environment" or believing that using the wrong spoon will literally destroy the planet.
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, another forest has to be clear-cut and bulldozed so wind turbines can be erected.
Markey: Super-villain GOP has plan to destroy 'the whole wide world'
You know your party is in trouble when your plan to win back the majority is to insist comic book plots are real.
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, the voices in Ed Markey's head break into lively song.
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, the voices in Ed Markey's head break into lively song.
LaFollette: You voters are 'brainwashed' idiots. Oh, and don't forget to vote for me in November.
Wisconsin's liberal Secretary of State, Doug LaFollette, tells a rally of liberal activists, all of whom are holding the same mass-produced signs and chanting the same four words, that "approximately 50 percent of the voters in our state" are "brainwashed."
LaFollette is an elected official. He got 52 percent of the vote.
Also, none of the activists, who defensively insisted it was their opponents who are "brainwashed," could exactly explain how employers destroy jobs or how jobs are created.
Everytime you Tweet or share this by clicking below, a union activist has to put down his mass-printed sign and stop chanting the same four words over and over again to explain how Tea Partiers are incapable of independent thought.
LaFollette is an elected official. He got 52 percent of the vote.
Also, none of the activists, who defensively insisted it was their opponents who are "brainwashed," could exactly explain how employers destroy jobs or how jobs are created.
Everytime you Tweet or share this by clicking below, a union activist has to put down his mass-printed sign and stop chanting the same four words over and over again to explain how Tea Partiers are incapable of independent thought.
Norman LeBoon, and those who cry 'arrest my political opponents for...something'
The same liberals who demanded Sarah Palin be arrested for inciting violence seem to be silent about the conviction of Norman LeBoon, a Philadelphia man who posted an online video in which he threatened to kill Rep. Eric Cantor.
LeBoon donated to Barack Obama after Obama traveled to Phildelphia and told local Dems assembled at a June 14, 2008 rally "If they (Republicans) bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun...Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl."
Six days later LeBoon donated $250 to Obama, followed by a $255 contribution the next day.
Did Obama incite LeBoon to violence?
No. Obama is in no way responsible or related. Additionally free speech is unalienable in this country, a protection from government aggression with its roots in political expression.
But the connection is notable, as liberals exploited the tragic shooting of Rep. Danielle Giffords to demand those with differing political opinions be rounded up and arrested. They could at least be intellectually honest and consistent.
LeBoon donated to Barack Obama after Obama traveled to Phildelphia and told local Dems assembled at a June 14, 2008 rally "If they (Republicans) bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun...Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl."
Six days later LeBoon donated $250 to Obama, followed by a $255 contribution the next day.
Did Obama incite LeBoon to violence?
No. Obama is in no way responsible or related. Additionally free speech is unalienable in this country, a protection from government aggression with its roots in political expression.
But the connection is notable, as liberals exploited the tragic shooting of Rep. Danielle Giffords to demand those with differing political opinions be rounded up and arrested. They could at least be intellectually honest and consistent.
MSNBC to host special. "Black America, And What We Think It Might Look Like."
Not only does MSNBC lecture you on race using an all-white prime time lineup, tomorrow's special on "Black America" is hosted by a white guy.
At this point I'm convinced GE has mastered time travel and MSNBC is produced from a 1950s country club.
And which white guy was tapped by MSNBC to lecture black Americans? Bill Clinton? Author adn Jackie Robinson teammate Carl Erskine?
Ed Schultz.
The guy who said "Hogan's Heros" character Sargent Schultz was racist against Germans and defiantly, pointedly defined racism as asking someone to pay five percent into their retirement investment portfolio.
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, Keith Olbermann has to stop production on his show because Mom needs to use the basement to do laundry.
At this point I'm convinced GE has mastered time travel and MSNBC is produced from a 1950s country club.
And which white guy was tapped by MSNBC to lecture black Americans? Bill Clinton? Author adn Jackie Robinson teammate Carl Erskine?
Ed Schultz.
The guy who said "Hogan's Heros" character Sargent Schultz was racist against Germans and defiantly, pointedly defined racism as asking someone to pay five percent into their retirement investment portfolio.
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, Keith Olbermann has to stop production on his show because Mom needs to use the basement to do laundry.
Wash. Post writer claims taxpayer-funded abortions provide important service -- exterminating the poor
Lori Ziganto at RedState points us to a shameful, disgusting article in The Washington Post by Ezra Klein, in which Klein actually claims a government program of eugenics against the poor is of compelling national interest.
In a tirade defending taxpayer-funded abortion liberal Klein writes:
"The services Planned Parenthood provides save the federal government a lot of money. It’s somewhat cold to put it in these terms, but taxpayers end up bearing a lot of the expense for unintended pregnancies among people without the means to care for their children."
Yes, the same liberals who claim on Election Day to be compassionate advocates of the poor publicly write in national papers the government should support a national program focusing on exterminating the poor.
And who are primarily the "people without the means to care for their children?" An audit of New York's clinics, for example, finds 49.8 percent are black. Other pro-aborts have dropped the euphemisms entirely and openly (and falsely) credited the long-term decline seen in violent crime to Planned Parenthood's strategy of focusing on performing abortions in inner cities.
So, Klein believes the federal government should engage in a campaign of targeted eugenics against people who consume lots of services.
Keep that in mind next time Klein writes government-run health care in the United States won't do what it does in every other country -- terminate care to demographic populations who consume a lot of health care (usually the elderly and minorities,) threatening access to care for larger numbers of voters.
In a tirade defending taxpayer-funded abortion liberal Klein writes:
"The services Planned Parenthood provides save the federal government a lot of money. It’s somewhat cold to put it in these terms, but taxpayers end up bearing a lot of the expense for unintended pregnancies among people without the means to care for their children."
Yes, the same liberals who claim on Election Day to be compassionate advocates of the poor publicly write in national papers the government should support a national program focusing on exterminating the poor.
And who are primarily the "people without the means to care for their children?" An audit of New York's clinics, for example, finds 49.8 percent are black. Other pro-aborts have dropped the euphemisms entirely and openly (and falsely) credited the long-term decline seen in violent crime to Planned Parenthood's strategy of focusing on performing abortions in inner cities.
So, Klein believes the federal government should engage in a campaign of targeted eugenics against people who consume lots of services.
Keep that in mind next time Klein writes government-run health care in the United States won't do what it does in every other country -- terminate care to demographic populations who consume a lot of health care (usually the elderly and minorities,) threatening access to care for larger numbers of voters.
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Pelosi blows off budget negotiations to deliver a speech. About herself.
For some Democrats, keeping the government spending pipeline gushing was so important they were willing to go on national television and claim millions of seniors, children and women would die in the streets if non-essential government workers had to turn in their BlackBerrys during a temporary paid furlough.
But former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to focus all her attention on a far more important issue.
Pelosi skipped town Friday and blew off budget negotiations so as not to distract her from the momentous task of flying to Boston to give a speech.
About herself.
"House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is delivering the inaugural Alan D. Solomont Lecture at Tufts University today. The California Democrat, who served as the first female speaker of the House, planned to reflect on her career and the importance of public service during a 2 p.m. address in the school's Cohen Auditorium," The Boston Globe reports.
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, a cowboy poetry festival gets canceled.
But former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to focus all her attention on a far more important issue.
Pelosi skipped town Friday and blew off budget negotiations so as not to distract her from the momentous task of flying to Boston to give a speech.
About herself.
"House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is delivering the inaugural Alan D. Solomont Lecture at Tufts University today. The California Democrat, who served as the first female speaker of the House, planned to reflect on her career and the importance of public service during a 2 p.m. address in the school's Cohen Auditorium," The Boston Globe reports.
Sharpen the saw.
The Big 12 and ESPN have reached an agreement that will feature Texas A&M in its traditional annual matchup against a little-known hippie commune from Austin in prime time. The game will be nationally broadcast from Austin 7:00 p.m. C.T. on Thanksgiving night.
Texas A&M leads the series in the past 25 contests played, 13-12, including a 24-17 victory in Austin last Thanksgiving.
Texas A&M comes off a 9-4 season, including six straight regular season wins in the nation's toughest conference, and features some of the state's best young talent.
Their opponent comes off a season in which Tony, the guy who drives that blue car, successfully converted an old fire extinguisher into a bong.
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, Garrett Gilbert throws an interception.
Texas A&M leads the series in the past 25 contests played, 13-12, including a 24-17 victory in Austin last Thanksgiving.
Texas A&M comes off a 9-4 season, including six straight regular season wins in the nation's toughest conference, and features some of the state's best young talent.
Their opponent comes off a season in which Tony, the guy who drives that blue car, successfully converted an old fire extinguisher into a bong.
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, Garrett Gilbert throws an interception.
Liberals 'get bloody' for Wisconsin, Part 13: SEIU thugs pounce on Wash. state troopers
Once again, liberalism makes itself synonymous with animalistic violence.
SEIU thugs, the same group who had several members arrested for savagely stomping down black conservative activist in St. Louis while hurling racist slurs at him, smash their way through the Washington state capitol on their way to invade the governor's office.
Stopped at the door by state troopers, the SEIU thugs begin screaming like animals, hoping to intimidate the troopers. Finally, they begin trying to bulldoze over the troopers and eventually physically assault them. Thirteen were arrested.
The intended message is clear. Unions consider assault, invasion, violence and intimidation to be legitimate tools of political discourse.
It's also the latest in a new wave of instances where union bosses have people smash their way into state capitols where they intimidate and assault citizens and officers. Said union bosses then tell officials they can make the problem go away if they get some money.
Remember back when that was called "racketeering?" I guess they don't prosecute because purple and yellow clash with blaze orange.
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, Shepherd Smith loses his place reading a teleprompter.
Obama spending $20 million on Pakistani 'Sesame Street'
Barack Obama won't sign paychecks for soldiers, but he will sign off on a $20 million plan to spend U.S. tax dollars so Pakistanis can watch 'Sesame Street.'
"In a $20m (£12m) remake of the classic American children's programme, the setting for the show has moved from the streets of New York to a lively village in Pakistan...The financing for the series comes from USAid, the economic assistance arm of the US government...," the Guardian reported Thursday.
"Under Barack Obama, US civilian assistance to Pakistan has tripled to $1.5bn a year but the money does not seem to have made much obvious impact," the Guardian reports.
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, Rahm Emanuel loses a pair of brass knuckles.
"In a $20m (£12m) remake of the classic American children's programme, the setting for the show has moved from the streets of New York to a lively village in Pakistan...The financing for the series comes from USAid, the economic assistance arm of the US government...," the Guardian reported Thursday.
"Under Barack Obama, US civilian assistance to Pakistan has tripled to $1.5bn a year but the money does not seem to have made much obvious impact," the Guardian reports.
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, Rahm Emanuel loses a pair of brass knuckles.
Planned Parenthood asks: Is your baby sexy enough?
So what services is Obama protecting by vetoing soldiers' paychecks to preserve $300 million in corporate welfare for Planned Parenthood?
For one, the organization, wants to use its taxpayer-funded services to make sure the nation's babies are sexy enough.
In this document, titled "Meeting Your Children's Basic Needs," Planned Parenthood tells parents, "We need to give babies a sense of themselves, their sexuality, and their bodies from birth."
Planned Parenthood also instructs parents to "acknowledge that my child is a sexual being."
That would certainly explain Planned Parenthood's new publicity campaign:
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, another staffer escapes from Sheila Jackson Lee's basement.
For one, the organization, wants to use its taxpayer-funded services to make sure the nation's babies are sexy enough.
In this document, titled "Meeting Your Children's Basic Needs," Planned Parenthood tells parents, "We need to give babies a sense of themselves, their sexuality, and their bodies from birth."
Planned Parenthood also instructs parents to "acknowledge that my child is a sexual being."
That would certainly explain Planned Parenthood's new publicity campaign:
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, another staffer escapes from Sheila Jackson Lee's basement.
'Captain Insano shows no mercy'
Watch as a sputtering, squirming, screaming, wild-eyed Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton rants that a temporary furlough of non-essential government employees is "the functional equivalent of bombing innocent civilians."
She then goes on to literally bellow that not spending taxpayer money on "abortions for low-income women" is part of "the ultimate attack on any American."
Every time you Tweet or share this by clicking below, an ACORN protester breaks his giant papier mache puppet.
For Obama, cash for abortions more important than paying troops
By vetoing the budget and ordering a government shutdown, Obama declares taxpayer funding for abortions is more important than paying soldiers.
Rand Paul: Powered by the truth
Every time you tweet this or share this by clicking below, a CFL light bulb burns out.
Learn to speak liberal
"stolen election" (n.) - An election in which all votes are counted, reported, double-checked by a bipartisan panel and then verified.
50 senators vote to jack up energy prices, ship out jobs
The Senate voted Wednesday on an amendment stopping a scheme by EPA activists to regulate carbon dioxide as a toxic pollutant. The bill failed to get 60 votes needed to protect jobs.
Below are the senators who voted against the amendment and in favor of the EPA plan, which is projected to kill hundreds of thousands of jobs and send your utility bill skyrocketing as it is implemented.
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Begich (D-AK)
Bennet (D-CO)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Coons (D-DE)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
Tweet this or share this by clicking below, and an environmentalist's hackeysack will go down a storm drain.
National Tartan Day and the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath
I was so buried in work all day and evening yesterday I didn't even notice the highlighted notice on my calendar it was National Tartan Day, a celebration of our national Scottish heritage coinciding with the annual anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath.
Not familiar with the Declaration of Arbroath? An appeal from Scottish noblemen to the Pope signed on April 6, 1320, asking him to intervene on their behalf in their war against England, it is one of the first declarations that the rights of the individual exist and trump any supposed "rights" of the state.
In other words, Scotland's Declaration of Arbroath is the birth mother of our own Declaration of Independence, and the very concept of individual sovereignty.
Like your freedom? Thank a Scot.
Here is the text of the Declaration translated from the original Latin.
To the most Holy Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord John, by divine providence Supreme Pontiff of the Holy Roman and Universal Church, his humble and devout sons Duncan, Earl of Fife, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, Lord of Man and of Annandale, Patrick Dunbar, Earl of March, Malise, Earl of Strathearn, Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, William, Earl of Ross, Magnus, Earl of Caithness and Orkney, and William, Earl of Sutherland; Walter, Steward of Scotland, William Soules, Butler of Scotland, James, Lord of Douglas, Roger Mowbray, David, Lord of Brechin, David Graham, Ingram Umfraville, John Menteith, guardian of the earldom of Menteith, Alexander Fraser, Gilbert Hay, Constable of Scotland, Robert Keith, Marischal of Scotland, Henry St Clair, John Graham, David Lindsay, William Oliphant, Patrick Graham, John Fenton, William Abernethy, David Wemyss, William Mushet, Fergus of Ardrossan, Eustace Maxwell, William Ramsay, William Mowat, Alan Murray, Donald Campbell, John Cameron, Reginald Cheyne, Alexander Seton, Andrew Leslie, and Alexander Straiton, and the other barons and freeholders and the whole community of the realm of Scotland send all manner of filial reverence, with devout kisses of his blessed feet.
Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today. The Britons they first drove out, the Picts they utterly destroyed, and, even though very often assailed by the Norwegians, the Danes and the English, they took possession of that home with many victories and untold efforts; and, as the historians of old time bear witness, they have held it free of all bondage ever since. In their kingdom there have reigned one hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock, the line unbroken a single foreigner. The high qualities and deserts of these people, were they not otherwise manifest, gain glory enough from this: that the King of kings and Lord of lords, our Lord Jesus Christ, after His Passion and Resurrection, called them, even though settled in the uttermost parts of the earth, almost the first to His most holy faith. Nor would He have them confirmed in that faith by merely anyone but by the first of His Apostles by calling, though second or third in rank the most gentle Saint Andrew, the Blessed Peter's brother, and desired him to keep them under his protection as their patron forever.
The Most Holy Fathers your predecessors gave careful heed to these things and bestowed many favours and numerous privileges on this same kingdom and people, as being the special charge of the Blessed Peter's brother. Thus our nation under their protection did indeed live in freedom and peace up to the time when that mighty prince the King of the English, Edward, the father of the one who reigns today, when our kingdom had no head and our people harboured no malice or treachery and were then unused to wars or invasions, came in the guise of a friend and ally to harass them as an enemy. The deeds of cruelty, massacre, violence, pillage, arson, imprisoning prelates, burning down monasteries, robbing and killing monks and nuns, and yet other outrages without number which he committed against our people, sparing neither age nor sex, religion nor rank, no one could describe nor fully imagine unless he had seen them with his own eyes.
But from these countless evils we have been set free, by the help of Him Who though He afflicts yet heals and restores, by our most tireless Prince, King and Lord, the Lord Robert. He, that his people and his heritage might be delivered out of the hands of our enemies, met toil and fatigue, hunger and peril, like another Macabaeus or Joshua and bore them cheerfully. Him, too, divine providence, his right of succession according to or laws and customs which we shall maintain to the death, and the due consent and assent of us all have made our Prince and King. To him, as to the man by whom salvation has been wrought unto our people, we are bound both by law and by his merits that our freedom may be still maintained, and by him, come what may, we mean to stand. Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.
Therefore it is, Reverend Father and Lord, that we beseech your Holiness with our most earnest prayers and suppliant hearts, inasmuch as you will in your sincerity and goodness consider all this, that, since with Him Whose vice-gerent on earth you are there is neither weighing nor distinction of Jew and Greek, Scotsman or Englishman, you will look with the eyes of a father on the troubles and privation brought by the English upon us and upon the Church of God. May it please you to admonish and exhort the King of the English, who ought to be satisfied with what belongs to him since England used once to be enough for seven kings or more, to leave us Scots in peace, who live in this poor little Scotland, beyond which there is no dwelling-place at all, and covet nothing but our own. We are sincerely willing to do anything for him, having regard to our condition, that we can, to win peace for ourselves. This truly concerns you, Holy Father, since you see the savagery of the heathen raging against the Christians, as the sins of Christians have indeed deserved, and the frontiers of Christendom being pressed inward every day; and how much it will tarnish your Holiness's memory if (which God forbid) the Church suffers eclipse or scandal in any branch of it during your time, you must perceive. Then rouse the Christian princes who for false reasons pretend that they cannot go to help of the Holy Land because of wars they have on hand with their neighbours. The real reason that prevents them is that in making war on their smaller neighbours they find quicker profit and weaker resistance. But how cheerfully our Lord the King and we too would go there if the King of the English would leave us in peace, He from Whom nothing is hidden well knows; and we profess and declare it to you as the Vicar of Christ and to all Christendom. But if your Holiness puts too much faith in the tales the English tell and will not give sincere belief to all this, nor refrain from favouring them to our prejudice, then the slaughter of bodies, the perdition of souls, and all the other misfortunes that will follow, inflicted by them on us and by us on them, will, we believe, be surely laid by the Most High to your charge.
To conclude, we are and shall ever be, as far as duty calls us, ready to do your will in all things, as obedient sons to you as His Vicar; and to Him as the Supreme King and Judge we commit the maintenance of our cause, casting our cares upon Him and firmly trusting that He will inspire us with courage and bring our enemies to nought. May the Most High preserve you to his Holy Church in holiness and health and grant you length of days.
Given at the monastery of Arbroath in Scotland on the sixth day of the month of April in the year of grace thirteen hundred and twenty and the fifteenth year of the reign of our King aforesaid.
Endorsed: Letter directed to our Lord the Supreme Pontiff by the community of Scotland.
Not familiar with the Declaration of Arbroath? An appeal from Scottish noblemen to the Pope signed on April 6, 1320, asking him to intervene on their behalf in their war against England, it is one of the first declarations that the rights of the individual exist and trump any supposed "rights" of the state.
In other words, Scotland's Declaration of Arbroath is the birth mother of our own Declaration of Independence, and the very concept of individual sovereignty.
Like your freedom? Thank a Scot.
Here is the text of the Declaration translated from the original Latin.
The Declaration of Arbroath; April 6, 1320
To the most Holy Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord John, by divine providence Supreme Pontiff of the Holy Roman and Universal Church, his humble and devout sons Duncan, Earl of Fife, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, Lord of Man and of Annandale, Patrick Dunbar, Earl of March, Malise, Earl of Strathearn, Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, William, Earl of Ross, Magnus, Earl of Caithness and Orkney, and William, Earl of Sutherland; Walter, Steward of Scotland, William Soules, Butler of Scotland, James, Lord of Douglas, Roger Mowbray, David, Lord of Brechin, David Graham, Ingram Umfraville, John Menteith, guardian of the earldom of Menteith, Alexander Fraser, Gilbert Hay, Constable of Scotland, Robert Keith, Marischal of Scotland, Henry St Clair, John Graham, David Lindsay, William Oliphant, Patrick Graham, John Fenton, William Abernethy, David Wemyss, William Mushet, Fergus of Ardrossan, Eustace Maxwell, William Ramsay, William Mowat, Alan Murray, Donald Campbell, John Cameron, Reginald Cheyne, Alexander Seton, Andrew Leslie, and Alexander Straiton, and the other barons and freeholders and the whole community of the realm of Scotland send all manner of filial reverence, with devout kisses of his blessed feet.
Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today. The Britons they first drove out, the Picts they utterly destroyed, and, even though very often assailed by the Norwegians, the Danes and the English, they took possession of that home with many victories and untold efforts; and, as the historians of old time bear witness, they have held it free of all bondage ever since. In their kingdom there have reigned one hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock, the line unbroken a single foreigner. The high qualities and deserts of these people, were they not otherwise manifest, gain glory enough from this: that the King of kings and Lord of lords, our Lord Jesus Christ, after His Passion and Resurrection, called them, even though settled in the uttermost parts of the earth, almost the first to His most holy faith. Nor would He have them confirmed in that faith by merely anyone but by the first of His Apostles by calling, though second or third in rank the most gentle Saint Andrew, the Blessed Peter's brother, and desired him to keep them under his protection as their patron forever.
The Most Holy Fathers your predecessors gave careful heed to these things and bestowed many favours and numerous privileges on this same kingdom and people, as being the special charge of the Blessed Peter's brother. Thus our nation under their protection did indeed live in freedom and peace up to the time when that mighty prince the King of the English, Edward, the father of the one who reigns today, when our kingdom had no head and our people harboured no malice or treachery and were then unused to wars or invasions, came in the guise of a friend and ally to harass them as an enemy. The deeds of cruelty, massacre, violence, pillage, arson, imprisoning prelates, burning down monasteries, robbing and killing monks and nuns, and yet other outrages without number which he committed against our people, sparing neither age nor sex, religion nor rank, no one could describe nor fully imagine unless he had seen them with his own eyes.
But from these countless evils we have been set free, by the help of Him Who though He afflicts yet heals and restores, by our most tireless Prince, King and Lord, the Lord Robert. He, that his people and his heritage might be delivered out of the hands of our enemies, met toil and fatigue, hunger and peril, like another Macabaeus or Joshua and bore them cheerfully. Him, too, divine providence, his right of succession according to or laws and customs which we shall maintain to the death, and the due consent and assent of us all have made our Prince and King. To him, as to the man by whom salvation has been wrought unto our people, we are bound both by law and by his merits that our freedom may be still maintained, and by him, come what may, we mean to stand. Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.
Therefore it is, Reverend Father and Lord, that we beseech your Holiness with our most earnest prayers and suppliant hearts, inasmuch as you will in your sincerity and goodness consider all this, that, since with Him Whose vice-gerent on earth you are there is neither weighing nor distinction of Jew and Greek, Scotsman or Englishman, you will look with the eyes of a father on the troubles and privation brought by the English upon us and upon the Church of God. May it please you to admonish and exhort the King of the English, who ought to be satisfied with what belongs to him since England used once to be enough for seven kings or more, to leave us Scots in peace, who live in this poor little Scotland, beyond which there is no dwelling-place at all, and covet nothing but our own. We are sincerely willing to do anything for him, having regard to our condition, that we can, to win peace for ourselves. This truly concerns you, Holy Father, since you see the savagery of the heathen raging against the Christians, as the sins of Christians have indeed deserved, and the frontiers of Christendom being pressed inward every day; and how much it will tarnish your Holiness's memory if (which God forbid) the Church suffers eclipse or scandal in any branch of it during your time, you must perceive. Then rouse the Christian princes who for false reasons pretend that they cannot go to help of the Holy Land because of wars they have on hand with their neighbours. The real reason that prevents them is that in making war on their smaller neighbours they find quicker profit and weaker resistance. But how cheerfully our Lord the King and we too would go there if the King of the English would leave us in peace, He from Whom nothing is hidden well knows; and we profess and declare it to you as the Vicar of Christ and to all Christendom. But if your Holiness puts too much faith in the tales the English tell and will not give sincere belief to all this, nor refrain from favouring them to our prejudice, then the slaughter of bodies, the perdition of souls, and all the other misfortunes that will follow, inflicted by them on us and by us on them, will, we believe, be surely laid by the Most High to your charge.
To conclude, we are and shall ever be, as far as duty calls us, ready to do your will in all things, as obedient sons to you as His Vicar; and to Him as the Supreme King and Judge we commit the maintenance of our cause, casting our cares upon Him and firmly trusting that He will inspire us with courage and bring our enemies to nought. May the Most High preserve you to his Holy Church in holiness and health and grant you length of days.
Given at the monastery of Arbroath in Scotland on the sixth day of the month of April in the year of grace thirteen hundred and twenty and the fifteenth year of the reign of our King aforesaid.
Endorsed: Letter directed to our Lord the Supreme Pontiff by the community of Scotland.
Alec Baldwin: Financial crisis means Obama isn't ‘doing any new spending’
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| You may remember Baldwin as the actor who launched the successful 'Shadow' franchise. |
"(W)hat’s crippled Obama's administration, as far as I’m concerned, is the financial crisis and it’s prevented him from doing any new spending," said Baldwin in a Capitol Hill interview.
Apparently no one's told Obama.
Learn to speak liberal
Eliminate (v.) -- Increase spending on. Ex.: Democrats claim Rep. Paul Ryan's proposed budget, which calls for increasing amounts of Medicare spending, "eliminates Medicare."
Death Trap (n.) -- A program that spends increasing amounts of money on entitlement benefits. Ex.: Democrats claim the Ryan budget, which expands Medicare benefits, "is a death trap for seniors."
"Defend Seniors" (phrase) -- Exploit for votes and cash by literally telling them they will die unless they take a prescribed action. A liberal tradition celebrated each election year.
Death Trap (n.) -- A program that spends increasing amounts of money on entitlement benefits. Ex.: Democrats claim the Ryan budget, which expands Medicare benefits, "is a death trap for seniors."
"Defend Seniors" (phrase) -- Exploit for votes and cash by literally telling them they will die unless they take a prescribed action. A liberal tradition celebrated each election year.
Florida Dem blows off fiscal emergency to address fashion emergency
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| Thanks to a little-known provision in the health care reform bill, health insurance companies must offer coverage to those who struggle with shopaholism. |
While some members of Congress work to avert a government shutdown, and millions of Americans worry over which bills to not pay so they can keep food on the table, The Hill reports Florida Democrat Rep. Corrine Brown informed members of Congress they were invited to join her in taking the rest of the day off for an upscale boutique shopping trip in Crystal City.
Dubbed as an "Outing with Congresswoman Corrine Brown," members of Brown's entourage could treat themselves to "wardrobe consulting and custom tailoring" and were even offered personal shopper services so they wouldn't have to engage in the back-breaking ordeal of picking out dresses.
This would be the same Corrine Brown who claims small business owners who work seven long days a week without taking time off are getting off easy and need to be taxed more.
Tweet of the day
RT @jaketapper It is remarkable to hear Dems slam GOPers for not passing....last year's budget when Dems ruled the roost.
Dems: Give us your money so we can continue to overspend your money
"A fundraising appeal from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee warns supporters that 'Tea Party Republicans are threatening to shut down the government on Friday unless we surrender to their outrageous demands,'" The Hill reports.
I had no idea that not spending taxpayer money on "cowboy poetry festivals" and $600,000.00 sculptures was "outrageous," much less "blackmail," as Democrats wail.
I had no idea that not spending taxpayer money on "cowboy poetry festivals" and $600,000.00 sculptures was "outrageous," much less "blackmail," as Democrats wail.
Your daily definition of irony
After refusing to pass a budget for all of 2010, Harry Reid accuses the GOP of "stalling" and "procrastinating" after they send him a budget.
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