Tag Archives: Rule of Law

Happy Independence Day 2013!

The Stars and Stripes
The Stars and Stripes

The Declaration of Independence

Here’s the complete text of the Declaration of Independence here.

The best book to read about the Revolutionary War is David McCullough’s “1776”, which I highly recommend. The audio book version is awesome.

George Washington and the American Revolution

Washington Crossing the Delaware
Washington Crossing the Delaware

To really understand the founding of the United States, you should read about the story of Washington crossing the Delaware. At this point in the Revolutionary War, the British commanders had achieved a stunning series of victories against the Americans. They had even sent word home to the King that the war was over, and that the Americans would be forced to surrender. But Washington did not give up. He attacked the British forces and took them by surprise – and he won the Battle of Trenton! That was the turning point of the war. There almost never was a United States of America – that’s how close the revolution came to failing.

Ronald Reagan vision of America

Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan

Here is a portion of Ronald Reagan’s farewell speech:

Excerpt:

I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.

And how stand the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that; after two hundred years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.

This is no ordinary nation.

Songs of America

Whenever I drive on long trips, I always practice singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “America the Beautiful”.

Even if you are not an American, you can be an honorary American, just for today, if you sing the songs below. God knows that there are other people in the world that love freedom and look to the United States as the model.

If we fall now, then you other freedom-loving people abroad must be ready to pick up the torch!

United States Air Force
United States Air Force

The Star Spangled Banner

Lyrics:

“Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”

America the Beautiful

Lyrics:

“O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man’s avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!”

Here is my favorite version of America the Beautiful, sung by Ray Charles. This is the same version you hear on the Mark Levin show on Friday. Perfection.

Remember to be grateful for the Founding Fathers, and other patriots, who risked everything for liberty in the Revolutionary war. Be grateful to those men and women still fighting abroad to keep those freedoms safe from evil. And most of all, be grateful to God that America is still the beacon of liberty.

Happy Independence Day!

72-year-old grandmother uses gun to defend her home from intruder

This is a really well-written news article by Fox News.

Full text:

A 72-year-old Southern California grandmother who shot at — and narrowly missed — a man trying to break into her home said Tuesday she was shocked at the attention her action was getting but does not regret defending herself and her husband, an 85-year-old World War II veteran who uses a wheelchair.

Jan Cooper, of Anaheim, fired one shot from her .357-magnum Smith & Wesson revolver around 12:30 a.m. Sunday as a man attempted to break into her home. During a 911 call of the incident, Cooper can be heard begging with the dispatcher to send deputies and warns that she has a gun at the ready as her Rottweiler barks furiously in the background.

Minutes later, a breathless Cooper says the man has come to the back porch and is trying to get in the house through a sliding door. Through the vertical blinds, Cooper saw his silhouette just inches away through the glass as he began to slide open the door.

“I’m firing!” Cooper shouts to the dispatcher as a loud band goes off.

Cooper then curses at the suspect, shouting at him to “back up.”

“You’d better get the police here. I don’t know whether I hit him or not. I’m not sure. He’s standing at my door, my back door. He’s in my yard,” she said.

The suspect, 31-year-old Brandon Alexander Perez, was not hit and was arrested a short while later by responding deputies, who heard the gunshot, said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Perez has pleaded not guilty to a burglary charge and has a court date later this month. The Associated Press was unable to leave an after-hours message for his attorney.

Perez had a rap sheet that included other burglary and narcotics charges and was on parole and staying at a halfway house not far from the Coopers’ address, Amormino said.

Cooper’s gun, which she has owned for about 20 years, was legally purchased and properly registered, he said.

“Even though that dog was barking, he still was desperate to get in. So who knows what may have happened if she didn’t fire that round,” Amormino said.

On Tuesday, Cooper was soft-spoken and composed, with her gray hair pulled back neatly in a hairband and her husband at her side during a news conference at a sheriff’s substation.

Cooper said she is amazed by the anger in her voice — and the curse word she let fly — after she fired the shot.

“I am a Christian woman and I’m very proud of it and I don’t curse but after I shot, rage took hold and I just blasted away,” she said. “And, in fact, afterwards my husband said, `I’ve never heard you talk like that!”‘

The stunned intruder apologized to Cooper after she fired, she recalled, telling her, “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m leaving. Please don’t shoot.”

The grandmother of a 15-year-old grandson said she doesn’t regret firing her weapon, although she has considered how she would have reacted if she had hit or killed the man. Deputies have told her that, based on his height and the bullet hole, the shot that she fired through a narrow gap in the sliding door passed within inches of his left cheek.

“I don’t mean to shoot anybody,” said Cooper, a self-described tomboy who has also tried archery and knife-throwing and has owned guns since her teens. “But whatever’s necessary to literally stop them — he was not going to come into my home.”

Her husband, Bob Cooper, chuckled when asked if his wife had learned her aggression from him and his military service. Cooper worked gathering intelligence in Italy and France in the build-up to D-Day and spent years going to the shooting range with his wife after the war, he said.

“I’m not surprised at all, not one bit,” he said. “I know her capabilities and what she can do if she has to.”

This is a great story because it really explains what it is like to have a crazy criminal trying to break into your house, and the police are basically incapable of helping you. It’s you and the criminal, and that’s why Americans believe in legal firearm ownership for law-abiding citizens.

I really liked this article and the way it was written. Please consider forwarding it on to your friends who may not understand what being a victim of a crime is really like. And husbands, teach your wives how to use firearms. The life you save may be your own!

Related posts

Woman opens fire on gang of thugs trying to get into her home

The Pearcey Report linked to this news story from The Blaze.

Excerpt: (links removed)

A group of thugs figured it would be easy to overpower one Kansas City woman. After all, her husband had just left to run an errand, leaving her all alone in the home.

They couldn’t have been more wrong.

The woman, later identified as Shirley Roberts, 52, immediately retrieved her gun after she heard someone jiggle the knob of the front door. She also witnessed two additional men heading to the back door.

Looking through the blinds, Roberts saw the men putting on gloves and preparing to force their way into her home. So she trained her firearm on the men and opened fire.

The criminals, scared silly, reportedly took off running. However, they also fired shots toward the house they attempted to break into.

Robert’s husband, Oscar Roberts, later said he and his wife have been going to the gun range to prepare for just that type of situation. “You’ve got to protect yourself,” he told KMBC-TV.

“I told her she’d done the right thing. We practiced that. She’s shook up, though. That’s the only thing about it, she’s very shook up,” Oscar added.

The practice at the shooting range seemingly paid off as police later arrested three men who went to the Research Medical Center, one of which was treated for a gunshot wound to the chest.

Police said the shooting seems to be justifiable self-defense.

“If you’re in fear for your life, most definitely we want you to protect yourself. We don’t want any harm to come to anyone,” Sgt. Marisa Barnes of the Kansas City Police Department told KMBC-TV.

So, a few points about this.

First, a leftist has no help to offer this woman. She can call the police if she has time and then wait 20 minutes for them to arrive. Leftists are more concerned with the safety and well-being of criminals than they are with allowing law-abiding property owners to deter criminals with weapons. It’s very important to see that leftists have nothing to offer this woman except to say “be raped and killed”.

Second, I think it was a good thing for the husband that he trained his wife to use firearms. I have tried to get two women I courted in a row to go to the range with me, and both said no. I hope that more women will reconsider about that, because it sure is great for husbands to know that their wives are able to defend themselves.

Third, it’s a great thing that the police aren’t giving her any trouble about self-defense. In the UK, which is very feminized and socialist, this woman would have been challenged by the police if she had so much as brandished a kitchen knife at her attackers. If she actually owned a firearm, she would be arrested. And if she fired at them, she would be sent to prison.