Click here to view the embedded video.

You might have to be a bit of a History nerd to appreciate it, but… well I plead the fifth.

Here is the site to get the lyrics, download the mp3, and see other stuff by the same group.

“I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who has a grounding in my faith,” the GOP presidential hopeful told the Web site in an interview published Saturday.

McCain also said he agreed with a recent poll that 55 percent of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution establishes a Christian nation. “I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation.”

Now, I’ve got nothing against the man for stating his opinion and wanting a president with similar interests as his own. Who doesn’t? My issue is that someone who thinks they should be President… should know a bit more about our nation’s founding.

Yes, quite a few of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Christian… but an awful lot weren’t. In fact, it could easily argued that four of the first five Presidents were Deists. And saying that the nation was founded on Christian principles… well you could also argue that the nation was founded on Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or any number of religious ideals.

There is nothing specifically Christian in any of the nation’s early documents. If you look in the Declaration of Independence, nowhere in that entire document does religion play a major role, Christian or otherwise. You would think that if America was started as a Christian nation, then we’d have some semblance of it in one of our most important founding documents.

The Founding Fathers were actually for the most part wary of religion; this due in large part to the chaos of the governments of Europe that was based in religious context. They wanted no part of that in the new nation they were founding and was a major motivating factor in the inclusion of freedom of religion in the first amendment. Thomas Jefferson went on to elaborate about the ‘wall of separation’ between Church and State created by the first amendment and was one of it’s largest proponents.

And finally, from the mouth of a large equine, specifically the Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Tripoli of 1797,

As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion – as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, – and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

It doesn’t make me angry that people have differing views or that they want to promote themselves as religious folks to gain the vote… but it’s an inaccurate view of our nation’s history. And somebody who wants to be in charge of our country should know better.

A delegate is bound to represent the true local interest of his constituents – to state it in its true light to the whole body – but when each provincial interest is thus stated, every member should act for the aggregate interest of the whole confederacy. The design of representation is to bring this collective interest into view – a delegate is not the legislator of a single state – he is as much the legislator of the whole confederacy as of the particular state where he is chosen; and if he ives his vote for a law which he believes to be beneficial to his own state only, and pernicious to the rest, he betrays his trust and violates his oath. It is indeed difficult for a man to divest himself of local attachments and act from an impartial regar to the general good; but he who cannot for the most part do this, is not a good legislator.

Noah Webster brought up a good point. If a legislator cannot hold the values of the people above his own local interests, or self gain, he’s not a good person to be in congress (Examples in point). Sadly, there seems little we can do about it, the irrational mob votes, not the rational individual.

The American people are so thirsty for whatever is shoved at them that they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage and drink the sand. And the mob drinks the sand because they don’t know the difference between it and water. (Thank you Michael Douglas.)

From “A Citizen of America,” An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution. Noah Webster. Philadelphia, October 17, 1787.

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…

While reading that document can certainly make one reminisce about why we live in the country that we do, it sometimes takes somebody like Jeff to remind us to think about and appreciate the place we call home.

That, therefore, is the irony of this present moment. At a time when our government is in crisis upon crisis, when our faith in the occupants of those great marble buildings is at its lowest, when our national debate is filled with rage and despair, that’s when our country is at its strongest.

The mere fact that we weather such turbulent times as these — and far more turbulent times in our past, and surely still more turbulent times in the decades and centuries to come — stands as testament to the strength of our Republic.

That is our legacy, and that is our greatest monument. Not the gleaming façades or the scraps of slowly fading parchment. Those are just things. What we leave behind for our children will be what our forefathers left behind for us: a nation divided in every way in which people can be divided, and yet united in our dedication and our perseverance.

That’s what we should be celebrating tomorrow. Not bickering over our challenges or regretting our mistakes, but remembering that that which brings us together is that which keeps us strong.

My love is on the ocean;
I think I’ll let him swim,
For in my heart I feel it,
I’m just as good as him;
His love is in his pocket’
It’s a little in his heart;
The way he divides it,
He gives each girl a part.

REFRAIN
Adieu to cold weather,
Away with the frost;
I’ll sing and be as merry
For the old beau that I lost;
I’ll sing and be as merry
As the nightingale in the tree;
There’s rest for the weary
Since he went back on me.

Many a pleasant evening
Together we have walked;
Many a pleasant evening
Together we have talked;
His talk was always pleasant;
His watch was always slow;
And many a time I’ve told him
To take his hat and go.

REFRAIN

The last time I met him
Was in a shady grove;
He smiled on me so sweetly,
He offered me a rose
Thinking I’d accept it;
I quickly let him see
That I could get another
That was just as good as he.

REFRAIN

Via Alice Ridgeway Tucker, Davidsonville, MD

Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Leiper, Washington, January 21, 1809.

Booga booga booga boo!  I’m an Athiest!

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt – “Citizenship in a Republic,” Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Ignorance of historical context is inexcusable. The Second Amendment has absolutely nothing to do with hunting. It’s about owning guns for the purpose of killing people. It was written during a time when the idea of peaceful political change was laughable; just a few years after its ratification, the good people of Paris effected their political change through repeated applications of short, sharp shocks on a thoroughly modern assembly line of death that for sheer efficiency would go unmatched until the rise of the Third Reich a century and a half later. The Second Amendment was put in place as a protection of last resort against tyranny ever again setting its booted foot on the North American continent.

True enough. And like Jeff, “Seeing a guy in the middle of the woods with a long rifle with a scope on it makes me think I should go make a new friend so I can find a reliable and generous source of venison. Seeing a guy carrying a pistol in the middle of a city makes me nervous as hell.”

Specter: Now wait a minute, wait a minute. The Constitution says you can’t take it away except in the case of invasion or rebellion. Doesn’t that mean you have the right of habeas corpus?

Gonzales: I meant by that comment that the Constitution doesn’t say that every individual in the United States or every citizen has or is assured the right of habeas corpus. It doesn’t say that. It simply says that the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended.

Habeas Corpus was a part of British common law in 1679; which became part of U.S. law when the constitution was written. Almost every state’s existing common law, except for Louisiana which was derived mostly from the French, is based off of British common law at the time of the nations founding. (To summarize common law, statutes, or formal written laws, are generally understood always to be interpreted in light of the common law tradition, and so may leave a number of things unsaid because they are already understood from the point of view of pre-existing case law and custom.)

Many people, see above, will say that the constitution doesn’t expressly grant the writ of habeas corpus; that’s because it was considered to be a part of common law; and didn’t need to be expressly stated.

Eisenhower,

Why are we proud? We are proud, first of all, because from the beginning of this Nation, a man can walk upright, no matter who he is, or who she is. He can walk upright and meet his friend–or his enemy; and he does not fear that because that enemy may be in a position of great power that he can be suddenly thrown in jail to rot there without charges and with no recourse to justice. We have the habeas corpus act, and we respect it.

Churchill,

Nevertheless, this short-lived legislature left behind it a monument. It passed a Habeas Corpus Act which confirmed and strengthened the freedom of the individual against arbitrary arrest by the executive Government. No Englishman, however great or however humble, could be imprisoned for more than a few days without grounds being shown against him in open court, according to the settled law of the land. Wherever the English language is spoken in any part of the world, wherever the authority of the British Imperial Crown or of the Government of the United States prevails, all law-abiding men breathe freely. The descent into despotism which has engulfed so many leading nations in the present age has made the virtue of this enactment, sprung from English political genius, apparent even to the most thoughtless, the most ignorant, the most base.

Jefferson,

Let him say what the government is, if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on our President, and the President of our choice has assented to that the men of our choice have more respected the bare suspicion of the President, than the solid right of innocence, the claims of justification, the sacred force of truth, and the forms and substance of law and justice. In questions of powers, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

And yes, habeas corpus has been suspended in the past. That doesn’t mean it was right then, or is right now.

This all coming from the man who is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. What did we do to deserve this?

Via

It’s late, but I’ll leave you with this note from Lincoln on the Emancipation Proclamation and responsibility.

I do not forget the gravity which should characterize a paper addressed to the Congress of the nation by the Chief Magistrate of the nation. Nor do I forget that some of you are my seniors, nor that many of you have more experience than I, in the conduct of public affairs. Yet I trust that in view of the great responsibility resting upon me, you will perceive no want of respect yourselves, in any undue earnestness I may seem to display.

Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood? Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national prosperity, and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it doubted that we here–Congress and Executive–can secure its adoption? Will not the good people respond to a united, and earnest appeal from us? Can we, can they, by any other means, so certainly, or so speedily, assure these vital objects? We can succeed only by concert. It is not “can any of us imagine better?” but, “can we all do better?” The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.

Via

Remember, “We – even we here – hold the power, and bear the responsibility.”

Sometimes it has seemed to me that I would give worlds if I could retain my facts; but it cannot be. The more I calk up the sources, and the tighter I get, the more I leak wisdom. Therefore, I can only claim indulgence at the hands of the reader, not justification.

The Mysterious Stranger is another good read.

I was going to write tonight about privacy and how it’s been effected by the post-9/11 decisions, hence the constant attack on civil liberties of Americans by Americans.

While I was doing my rounds however, I ran across this. Excerpt below.

The sad fact is VJ Day (sic; Author means Pearl Harbor Day, corrected here), rightly or wrongly, had about as much bearing on our daily lives as what our neighbors had for breakfast that morning. That is to say that it seemed to have none at all.

Via silentrequiem.

1. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
3. Never spend money before you have it.
4. Never buy what you do not want, becasue it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.
6. We never repent of having eaten too little.
7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
9. Take things always by their smooth handle.
10. When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.

~ Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Jefferson Smith, Monticello,
February 21, 1825.

“On a sweltering June afternoon on the Hampton, Virginia, waterfront, a crowd gathers around a makeshift surgery where a hapless sailor dressed in 18th-century rags is about to get his leg sawed off. Held down by four brawny mates, he screams and squirms to the onlookers’ delight until the offending limb is gone and a neat wooden peg is strapped in its place. Suddenly all eyes turn to a big man with a blood-red sash and wild black beard boldly sauntering across the lawn. His bulging eyes lock on a young mother with a stroller, and one bushy eyebrow rises to the sky. ‘Arrrhh, what a cute one!’ he bellows in a voice like a cannon shot. ‘And the kid ain’t bad, either!’”

Indeed.

• Two people were more or less out at work; one on vacation and one sick. This translates to a lot more work for yours truly. Not too bad, but it was chaotic to say the least.
• Tristan hit a rock with the lawnmower, bending one of the blades. Ordered a replacement, turns out to be the wrong one. My dad went out, found one that fits, I put it on today, works like a charm. Too bad the grass is to wet to mow.
• It’s been raining here like crazy the past few days. Torrential downpours et.al. Was all fine and dandy until I went into the basement to switch my laundry, slipped and almost killed myself in the very large puddles of water on the floor. Turns out that the window wells for the basement, the kind that sink halfway into the ground, filled up with water and were proceeding to drain into the basement. Luckly, the basement has a drain and there isn’t anything on the floor that will/could be damaged.
• On a related note, we’ve been trying to fix up the house a bit so it doesn’t appear so sketchy, strightened the mailbox, pulled weeds, planted new flowers, etc. Problems though: haven’t mowed for two weeks cause lawnmower broke-d, massive amounts of rain are probably going to kill many of the new plants.
• Landlord Mark is going to come tomorrow, meet us and get a list of stuff that needs to be fixed around the house. Note to self, bring up covers for the window wells when we talk to him.

I’ve been in a pirate mood lately, as a side note. Watched Pirates of the Carrabiean on Saturday night, twas fun, though there wasn’t enough rum. Went to a lecture today at the Calvert Marine Museum for a lecture on pirates in the chesepeake, was pretty good too.

Can’t seem to escape being a techie though, the presenter was having trouble with his laptop… and someone from the museum recongized me from when I used to volunteer there, so I was enlisted. Sigh. Will I ever be able to escape?