Happy July 4th
July 4, 2008 | Filed Under Constitution, Education, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
As we take a day off, please do take advantage of the day to look over our archives, or go to the PatriotPost.us and read the Declaration of Independence.
Have a great and safe holiday!
The Mike Bates Independence Day Quiz
July 3, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Education, History, Michael Bates, News, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety | No Comments
-By Michael M. Bates
Happy Birthday, America. It’s been 232 years since the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed. Take a quick quiz to see how much you know about this statement that changed the world.
- From what country did the American colonies declare their independence?
- In what city was the Declaration written?
- What colony did George Washington represent when he signed the Declaration?
- What two signers died on an anniversary of the Declaration?
- How many of the 13 colonies approved the Declaration?
- Who signed the Declaration on July 4, 1776?
- Whose authorship of the Declaration was treated as a state secret for 24 years?
- What U.S. bill depicts the Declaration?
- In what year was July 4 declared a federal holiday?
10. Which signer included where he lived on the Declaration?
That was fun, wasn’t it? Here are the answers. - Great Britain. You might think everyone knows that, but they don’t. One Gallup poll found that only 76 percent of Americans answered the question correctly.
- Philadelphia.
- Sorry, that was a trick question. George Washington didn’t sign the Declaration of Independence. He was busy commanding the Continental army.
- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration. Political adversaries at times, and friends at others, these two remarkable men were vital to the creation of the United States. In his wonderful biography of Adams, David McCullough writes that, when told it was the Fourth, Mr. Adams answered “It is a great day. It is a good day.” Among his last words were, “Thomas Jefferson survives.” Mr. Jefferson had died several hours earlier.
- Only 12 colonies approved the document. New York abstained.
- On the great day itself, just two men signed the Declaration. They were John Hancock, the Continental Congress’s president, and Charles Thomson, its secretary. Most of the delegates signed the document on August 2.
- Thomas Jefferson. It wasn’t until he ran for president in 1800 that his authorship of the Declaration became widely known. In his later years, John Adams recounted the arguments he used to persuade Mr. Jefferson to write the Declaration: “Reason first: You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second: I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third: You can write ten times better than I can.” That wasn’t Tom’s recollection, but it still makes a good anecdote.
- The $2 Federal Reserve Note. Thomas Jefferson’s portrait has been on the front of the note since 1869. Observing our bicentennial in 1976, the back of note was changed to feature an engraving of John Trumbull’s painting “The Signing of the Declaration of Independence.”
- If you knew the answer to this one, you need to get out more. It was in 1870 and, according to the Congressional Research Service, Independence Day, Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Thanksgiving were the first four days thus recognized.
- Maryland’s Charles Carroll added “of Carrollton” after his signature. It’s believed that was done so relatives with the same name weren’t confused for him. Signing the Declaration was treason pure and simple, and the courageous men who affixed their names to it were risking everything. Mr. Carroll was also the only Catholic to sign, a not inconsequential deed at a time when people of his faith weren’t even permitted to vote. He was the last signer to die, passing away in 1832.
If your score is 9 or 10: You sure know how to use Google.
If your score is 6-8: Someone was paying attention in high school.
If your score is 4 or 5: Someone wasn’t paying attention in high school.
If your score is 3 or less: Been a Democrat long?
I’ll spend Independence Day trying not to remember it’s my birthday and dwelling on what a blessing it is to have been born in these United States of America.
Have a terrific Fourth!
(This Michael Bates column appeared in the July 3, 2008 Reporter Newspapers.)
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Michael M. Bates has written a weekly column of opinion - or nonsense, depending on your viewpoint - since 1985 for the (southwest suburban Chicago) Reporter Newspapers. Additionally, his articles have appeared in the Congressional Record, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Mensa Journal. He has been a guest on Milt Rosenberg’s program on WGN Radio Chicago, the Bruce Elliott show on Baltimore’s WBAL, the Jim Sumpter show on the USA Radio Network and the New Media Journal’s Blog Radio. As a lad, Mike distributed Goldwater campaign literature and since then has steadily moved further to the Right. He is the author of “Right Angles and Other Obstinate Truths.” In 2007, he won an Illinois Press Association award for Original Column.
His presence on the web can be viewed at www.michaelmbates.com And he can be reached at mikembates-at-gmail.com
Update on NY School Bus Union Mob Ties
July 3, 2008 | Filed Under Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
We’ve reported on this story several times in the past and we have a conclusion for at least one of the mobbed-up participants in this case. The former president of the union representing 15,000 New York school bus drivers, Salvatore Battaglia, has been sentenced to four years and nine months in Federal prison after he leaded guilty to extortion and receiving bribes from mobsters under the control of Matthew Ianniello, the former acting boss of the Genovese crime family.
Mr. Battaglia was the president of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union from 2002 to 2006, when he lost the job because of his indictment in the case. In that indictment, he was accused of being a member of the Genovese family.
Two other union officials have pleaded guilty to charges in the case. Julius Bernstein, an employee and officer of Local 1181 for more than 30 years, pleaded guilty in August 2006 to working with the Genovese family since the 1950s and admitted crimes including labor racketeering, extortion, bribery, gambling and obstruction of justice. Ann Chiarovano, an employee of the union for more than 40 years, also pleaded guilty in August 2006 to charges of obstruction of justice.
Despite constant claims to the contrary by union supporters, the Mob has never been very far away from any union. At least these mob controlled union thugs were apprehended and kudos to the investigators for doing so.
The Unsinkable Father Pfleger
July 3, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, Michael Bates, News, President, Publius Contributor, Religion, Society/Culture | No Comments
-By Michael M. Bates
Chicago’s Father Michael Pfleger made a triumphant appearance Sunday at St. Sabina’s Catholic Church. Returning from a two-week suspension, the priest delivered his “Ain’t nothing like a comeback” sermon to an adoring congregation.
He could as aptly have used “I will survive” as his theme. Like him or love him, Father Pfleger is the definitive survivor. Cardinals come and cardinals go, but the activist pastor does as he pleases and prevails.
It’s always been that way. Declining enrollments forced some Chicago Catholic schools to close in the 1970s. Pfleger, still a seminarian at the time, picketed then-Cardinal John Cody’s home in protest.
Read more
CBS’ Steve Hartman Has an Ugly Baby
July 2, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
**Video Below the Fold**
Last week, with an “Assignment America” report on the CBS Evening News, Steve Hartman perpetrated a perfect example of why the media simply has no credibility on any subject, even humor. Hatrman’s report was not only dishonest, but missed the main point by a fair margin.
To set his report up, Hartman claims that before his son was born he had wondered why parents universally felt their own children were be so darn cute? He wondered how it could be that every parent thought theirs was the cutest child ever born? So, after Hartman himself recently had a son, George, he thought that he might go out and explore his curiosity on the subject.
The result was Is My Baby Cute? Really? where Hartman went out on the street to ask parents if they thought their own babies were cute. CBS had also previously asked parents to send in to them photos of babies, ugly and cute, in preparation for the story.
More Hypocrisy
July 2, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Thomas Brewton | No Comments
-By Thomas E. Brewton
Senator Obama expresses pious sentiments about family integrity, but actively supports abortion, the practice that is most destructive to families.
Senator Obama has been lauded by the media for his Fathers’ Day speech about family and fatherhood, a pale shadow of Bill Cosby’s earlier and more courageous exhortations. Given the Senator’s consistent advocacy of liberal-progressive-socialist immorality and of even the most gruesome forms of abortion, his speech was the equivalent of an illegal arms dealer praising the virtues of international peace.
But such hypocrisy is not uncommon for Senator Obama, who, like Senator John Kerry, regularly backs away from supposedly firm positions he had earlier espoused. For example, his support for, then backing away from, Rev. Wright’s anti-American, white-hatred preaching, along with his early declaration of intent to hold unconditional talks with Iran’s Ahmadinijad, then beating a hasty retreat when foreign policy experts revealed the idiocy of that tactic.
Read more
Philly Inquirer Says No 4th For You, America is Evil, WOT is a ‘Scam’
July 1, 2008 | Filed Under Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Founders, Islam, Islamofascism, Media Bias, News, Patriotism, President, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
You know, I was wondering when this was going to happen, when someone in the MSM would say Bush has ruined July Fourth? The Philadelphia Inquirer didn’t disappoint by wallowing in the worst example of blame-America-above-all as well as the most extreme case of BDS that I’ve seen outside the kind of nutroot sites like Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground. A mainstream paper has now gone that extra mile to let us all know that America does not deserve a July Fourth celebration this year because of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, CIA secret prisons, and, lest you imagine otherwise, the fact that we have made George W. Bush our president. “Cancel the parade” because America is evil. It’s all there in all it’s anti-American splendor in A not-so-glorious Fourth, U.S. atrocities are unworthy of our heritage.
Inquirer columnist Chris Satullo thinks that America is fraught with sin and that we don’t deserve a Fourth celebration. “This year, America doesn’t deserve to celebrate its birthday,” he whines. “This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement.”
We have failed to pay attention. We’ve settled for lame excuses. We’ve spit on the memory of those who did that brave, brave thing in Philadelphia 232 years ago.
We’ve “spit on the memory” of the Founders? Does he mean when the Democratic Party helped us lose Vietnam? How about when liberals somehow divined in the Founder’s name a “right to privacy” in the Constitution? Were either of those times when we spit in their faces? How about when the American left destroyed religion in America, or when they invented a “right” to abortion, or when they turned our various systems of education into places where fringe, wackos reign supreme and American history, civics and… well, anything actually educational… is banished into the mists of the past? Does Our pal Chris Satullo mean those times when the Founders saw the spittle fly?
You can guess that no is the answer to my questions.
No, to Chris Satullo, the only time we’ve “spit on the memory” of the founders is when we reacted to the time when 3,000 of our own were killed in New York City by Islamic terrorists. He is all upset that we’ve tortured prisoners, illegally imprisoned people “for years,” and practiced “rendition.”