With the recent celestial events of late, including the Christmas Star and the collapse of the radio telescope at Arecibo, featured prominently in this movie, coupled with my wife’s desire to watch things like The Expanse and Ancient Aliens – tonight we bring you “Contact” with the great Snobby Bobby of the Not For Everyone Podcast.
Contact is a think-piece of a movie that straddles the science/faith divide and brings some interesting questions to the fore.
We will have a discussion that certainly calls into question what is peddled as science these days as it seems to be a far cry from what we are presented within this gem from 1997.
We’re also proud to announce that our YouTube video for this episode now features actual video footage of the show, check it out here, and be sure to hit that subscribe button!
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Today I talk with Jennifer Grinwis of Nan’s School of Dance, which was started by Grinwis’ mother Nan in 1975. Jen became director in 2002, and she and her husband Jon have owned the company since 2008. The dance studio has two North Carolina locations: Greensboro and Yadkinville. It’s a family business with deep roots, so Jen, who is also a homeschool mom of 4, talks with us about the NC lockdowns and how the continued covid craziness have affected (and still continue to affect) her and Jon’s livelihood.
The fearless and feisty Jen and I discuss what it means to run a small business, the needless suffering of children under the progressive paradigm, Jen and Jon’s expert handling of the “juggling act” that is Gov. Roy Cooper’s endless executive orders, the difference between mandates and laws, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan’s anonymous snitch list, the culling of the Karen, and more.
Take heed, oligarchs: small biz is essential, and no amount of “public health” propaganda will change that. And if the maskholes would just “stay safe, stay home,” we joyful folks could get back to truly living, not just navigating the dystopian hellscape they’re aiding and abetting. But the malevolent meddlers, both government and private individual, thrive on being busybodies, so I say it’s well past time to take a rebel stand, just like the good folks at Nan’s School of Dance.
“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed.”
Despite all the state has done to “liberate” children from the strictures of the traditional family, as any child will tell you, more than anything, he yearns for a mom and dad like Ralphie’s.
Described by a critic as “one of those rare movies you can say is perfect in every way,” “A Christmas Story,” directed by Bob Clark, debuted in 1983. Set in the 1940s, the film depicts a series of family vignettes through the eyes of 9-year-old Ralphie Parker, who yearns for that gift of all gifts: The Daisy Red Ryder BB gun.
This was boyhood before the Nerf gun and “bang-bang you’re dead” were banned; family life prior to “One Dad Two Dads Brown Dad Blue Dads,” and Christmas before Saint Nicholas was denounced for his whiteness, and “Merry Christmas” condemned for its exclusiveness.
If children could choose the family into which they were born, most would opt for the kind depicted in “A Christmas Story,” where mom is a happy homemaker, dad a devoted working stiff, and between them, they have zero repertoire of progressive psychobabble to rub together.
Although clearly adored, Ralphie is not encouraged to share his feelings at every turn. Nor is he, in the spirit of gender-neutral parenting, circa 2020, urged to act out like a girl if he’s feeling . . . girlie.
Instead, Ralphie is taught restraint and self-control. And horrors: The little boy even has his mouth washed out with soap and water for uttering the “F” expletive. “My personal preference was for Lux,” reveals Ralphie, “but I found Palmolive had a nice piquant, after-dinner flavor—heady but with just a touch of mellow smoothness.” Ralphie is, of course, guilt-tripped with stories about starving Biafrans when he refuses to finish his food.
The parenting practiced so successfully by Mr. and Mrs. Parker fails every progressive commandment. By today’s standards, the delightful, un-precocious protagonist of “A Christmas Story” would be doomed to a lifetime on the therapist’s chaise lounge—and certainly to daily doses of Ritalin, as punishment for unbridled boyishness and daydreaming in class. Yet despite his therapeutically challenged upbringing, Ralphie is a happy little boy. For progressives—for whom it has long been axiomatic that the traditional family is the source of oppression for women and children—this is inexplicable.
Perhaps the first to have conflated the values of the bourgeois family with pathological authoritarianism was philosopher Theodor Adorno. Adorno’s formulations on authoritarianism have informed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In general, the consensus among these rights’ advocates has been that the traditional family’s hierarchical structure disempowers children. The solution: Let the State destabilize the parent-child relationship via policies that would define and limit the power of the parent, while increasing the power of children and political proxies.about:blankabout:blank
While America’s Founders intended for the family to be left untouched as “the major source of an orderly and free society”—Hillsdale College historian Allan Carlson’s words—politicians and jurists have decided to the contrary. What was once the economic and social backbone of American society has been inestimably weakened by both the welfare state and the Supreme Court—what with the latter’s redefinition of family and marriage, and the former’s incremental steps to trounce parents as the child’s primary socialization agent.
Culturally, the family has been demoted to what Charles Sykes once termed a “Therapeutic Family.” Having “adjusted itself to the new demands of the social contract with the Self,” wrote Sykes in A Nation of Victims, “the modern family has ceased to inculcate values.” Instead, it exists exclusively for the ostensible unleashing of “self-expression and creativity” in its members.
Progressives have triumphed. Very little remains of the unit that was once a vector for the transmission of values in American society. Women and children are less likely than ever to have to endure the confines of this bête noire of a family, with its typically “oppressed” mother, old-fashioned father, and contained kids. Nowadays, women are more likely to be divorced, never married, or to bear children out of wedlock.
Unencumbered by marriage, women are also more prone to poverty, addictions, and sexually transmitted diseases. Their children, a third of whom are being raised in households headed by a mother only, are paying the price in a greater propensity for poverty, and higher dropout, addiction, and crime rates. Witness the black family. Having survived the perils of slavery, it was still intact until the 1930s, when the dead hand of the welfare state finished it off. As a social unit, the black American family is near extinct.
Contemporary America’s familial fragmentation—sky-high divorce rates and illegitimacy—has translated into juvenile crime, drug abuse and illiteracy. Yet despite all the state has done to “liberate” children from the strictures of the traditional family, ask any “emancipated” child and he’ll tell you: More than anything, he yearns for a mom and dad like Ralphie’s.about:blank
Indeed, lucky is the little boy who has such a family. Luckier still is the lad who has both such a family … and a BB gun.
We bring you a little Christmas cheer from up north as we review the director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven with our pal, Mike C. because nothing says Christmas likes a move where Legolas saves the people of Jerusalem in the Battle of Helm’s Deep II.
Kingdom of Heaven is a 2005 epic historical drama film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by William Monahan. Kingdom of Heaven is an epic adventure about a common man who finds himself thrust into a decades-long war. A stranger in a strange land, he serves to protect a dying King’s fragile peace in an effort to save the common people.
Mike says this is a righteous flick and a near-masterpiece in its director’s cut version, so I’m sure we will have plenty to talk about.
God wills it.
We’re also proud to announce that our YouTube video for this episode now features actual video footage of the show, check it out here, and be sure to hit that subscribe button!
If you would like to get (occasional) early access to future shows, join us on Patreon and support us at the $3+ per month level at: http://www.actualanarchy.com/patreon
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“The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.” — Jefferson Davis 1st Lt. Col. US Army, US Congressman, US Secretary of War, US Senator, President of the Confederate States of America
Out of 23 Southern senators who voted (Lindsay Graham was conspicuously absent), 18 voted for the legislation, including my two scalawag US senators, Thom Tillis and Richard Burr. Only 5 senators representing the South voted “nay,” although for most of them that had nothing to do with a principled defense of Dixie.
The ironic thing is that you can thank craven Republicans for this unfortunate fact.
Rand Paul was one “resistor,” who many within the Southern-without-apology movement are lauding. But let us not forget what the senator “from Kentucky” said in 2015 when defending Republican governor of SC Nimrata “Nikki” Haley‘s removal of the Confederate Battle Flag from Capitol grounds:
“It’s a symbolism of slavery. And now it’s a symbol of murder for this young man, and so I think it’s time to put it in a museum,” the Pennsylvania-born Paul declared, referencing Dylann Roof.
Canadian-born senator Ted Cruz was another part of this “rebel” quintet. Let us not forget what the senator “from Texas” tweeted in 2019 when slamming TN governor for supporting a day to honor Nathan Bedford Forrest:
“This is WRONG … Forrest was a Confederate general & a delegate to the 1868 Democratic Convention. He was also a slave trader & the 1st Grand Wizard of the KKK.”
A person who “renounces his nation and his homeland … is like one who renounces his parents: he does not have any worth and significance,” said St. Tikhon of Moscow. They’re “like a coin without an image and inscription.” At least US Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri (an Arkansas native) gets that leftists promote anti-Confederate hysteria as a tool in the “culture war.”
By feeding into the uneducated anti-Dixie hate, even Southern Republicans are no friend to my people. Hell, it was 6 Texas Republican congressmen who broke ranks to vote with Democrats to remove statues of Confederates from the US Capitol. We should honor “Americans who worked to … preserve the Republic,” said Texas rep Michael Burgess, a Minnesota native.
And it was a GOP-dominated legislature in Mississippi that changed the state’s flag, which featured an “offensive” Battle Flag. “We’re not moving further away from our Founding Fathers’ visions. We’re moving closer to them. We’re not destroying our heritage; we’re fulfilling it,” said the Mississippi House Speaker, who sounds not a bit different than Nancy Pelosi.
“There’s no room for celebrating the violent bigotry of men of the Confederacy in any place of honor across our country,” said San Fran Nan in her recent floor speech cheering on the NDAA. “The men for whom these [military] bases were named are not heroes.”
They are “white supremacists … [and] traitors who took up arms against America and killed American soldiers in defense of slavery.” This narrative is the same as Elizabeth Warren, the legacy-less poser who proposed the Confederate cleanse.
“For the Trump White House to threaten vetoing a pay raise for our troops over this is downright despicable,” screeched Democrat Tammy Duckworth regarding the NDAA. Fortunately for her and the members of the US Armed Services Committee, she’ll get her cash and her forever-wars since “the Republican-controlled Senate backed the bill by 84 to 13, more than the two-thirds majority needed in the 100-member chamber to override a veto.”
I mean, this puritanical-progressive madness wouldn’t have even gotten out of this GOP-controlled committee if “conservatives” had struck down the measure from the get-go. In typical Benedict Arnold fashion, all but two Republicans supported the sinister stipulation.
Of course Pelosi wants to relegate Robert E. Lee and other dead white men “to the crypt,” so why would Republicans ally with one of the most vitriolic and condescending snakes in politics?
To give credit where credit is due, Trump did try to resist the onslaught and the increasing GOP capitulation, promising for months to veto the $741 billion defense bill if it included removing Confederate base names. “These monumental and very powerful bases have become part of a great American heritage, and a history of winning, victory, and freedom,” the president tweeted.
“We won two world wars … that were vicious and horrible, and we won them out of Fort Bragg, we won out of all of these forts that now they want to throw those names away.” Trump is right.
But the name purge that has most raised my ire is Virginia’s Fort A.P. Hill, named after my highest-ranking Confederate ancestor. In the summer of 1941, the Army training facility was established “pursuant to War Department General Order No. 5,” and by the following year, it served as “the staging area for the headquarters and corps troops of Major General George S. Patton’s Task Force A” which was instrumental in Operation Torch.
Murica pushes for global “gay rights,” yet the Southern man is a second-class citizen in his own home. Land of the free, my ass.
And let us not forget that “Ol’ Blood and Guts” was greatly influenced by Confederate Col. John S. Mosby, who was a friend of the Patton family. “The Gray Ghost,” as Mosby was known for expertly besieging the Yankees in guerrilla attacks and then fading into the countryside, would often play war games with the future WWII icon.
In WWII, “the first flag Marines raised upon taking the [Okinawa] headquarters of the Japanese Imperial Army was the Confederate one. It had been carried into battle in the helmet of a captain from South Carolina.”
Another WWII hero, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, created a Dixie Division of the Army, which proudly displayed the Battle Flag as part of its heritage. In fact, it was Ike who, as part of the Civil War Centennial Commission, played such a vital role in memorializing the valor of the Southern soldier, especially Robert E. Lee.
“The South is the land of Washington, who made our nation, of Jefferson, who shaped its direction, and of Robert E. Lee who, after gallant failure, urged those who had followed him in bravery to reunite America in purpose and courage,” remarked John F. Kennedy. Alas, that unity was fleeting.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all,” opined Dishonest Abe in his second inaugural address. America did have a short-lived reconciliation era in part of the 20th century, but that was a blip in history.
“This is not a political moment to me but a solemn occasion to lead our Mississippi family to come together, to be reconciled and to move on,” prevaricated Republican Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi, a native of the Magnolia State and a supposed Trump ally, at a ceremony celebrating his state’s succumbing to the social-justice struggle session. Sickening.
After invasion, total war, nearly one million lives lost, theft (both economic and spiritual), purposeful widows and fatherless children, the misery that was Reconstruction, and the current cultural genocide, the nation-statists now want more? As Andrew Lytle surmised, “This is like the thief who robs a house the second time and complains that the owners do not eat with silver.”
My ancestor A.P. Hill was murdered by federal troops. You know that libertarian catchphrase, “Don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff”? Well, that happened to my kith and kin back then, and it sure is happening right now. Where are my apologies?
And neither will the Pledge-saying, foreign-war-pushing, self-determination-stealing Republicans of today. Hey, I guess some things never change. It’s time to reassert ourselves.
Even with the Armed Forces’ push to diversify, including their fast track to citizenship for immigrants (read: demographic replacement), “today’s Army is disproportionately dependent upon the South for volunteers,” with 44% of the military stillhailing from Dixie.
“We have been soldiers for 2,000 years,” explained former US senator and Secretary of the Navy Jim Webb of his Southern, Scotch-Irish heritage. “The military virtues have been passed down at the dinner table.”
The social engineers at the Pentagon claim their mission is to unify a rainbow of peoples through the singular goal of “preserving freedom,” but we wide-awake Southerners know that the effeminized military is only satiated when it tears down real men. Southerners, it’s time to stop bearing the burden and getting nothing in return. It’s not like the military even protects our own borders. If only (read: satire).
The NDAA legislation requires the Pentagon to erase the Confederate names of not only bases, but other entities like aircraft, ships, and streets within military installations. There is no value to union with an empire that doesn’t distribute “equally the benefits and burdens.”
US Army Gen. Mark Milley called the Confederacy an “act of treason.” Both the Navy and Marines have banned “all depictions” of the Battle flag on its military bases. This includes “bumper stickers, clothing and posters.”
David Petraeus, former U.S. Army general and CIA director, wrote an article urging for anti-Confederate conformity with such zeal that he called for renaming Fort Jackson, which he mistakenly thought honors Stonewall, not Andrew Jackson. Historical genius he is not.
Thankfully, some military brass have a clue. “The myth of Johnny Reb as the greatest infantryman happens to be true,” stated Retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters. “Not only the courage and combat skill, but the sheer endurance of the Confederate foot soldier may have been equaled in a few other armies over the millennia … the physical toughness, fighting ability and raw determination of those men remains astonishing. The Confederate battle flag is a symbol of bravery, not slavery.”
If you’re a Republican who agrees with Democrat NY governor Andrew Cuomo that the Battle Flag is a “hate symbol” and must be banned, then YOU are the problem. It is your “intolerance” and alliance with tyrants that is the “American cancer.”
If you think anti-Southern bigotry isn’t a big deal, just stop and consider US Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Why would this career deep-stater resign and make it his main mission in life to expunge Confederate history from the military? Hint: it has absolutely nothing to do with Southern chattel slavery, but everything to do with your slavery, right here, right now.
Malign the the archetype as “oppressor,” and every “oppression” can be made whole through his eradication. Since it is white male Christian society that cultural Marxism aims to destroy, and since most white Christian maleslive in the South, and since they happen to be on average the most conservative voting demographic in the US, it’s a synergistic scheme of a sinister magnitude.
“Our Citadel, our inheritance and culture, our very identity and being as a people representing 2,000 years of Western Christian heritage,” as Boyd Cathey describes it, already puts us in the cross hairs of globalists. Then couple that with the Confederacy’s resistance to “the Leviathan and managerial ‘big government’” and the Southern man’s “othering,” and there you have the perfect linchpin.
His castigation or even extinction becomes leverage for every leftist cause, from BLM to the welfare-warfare state. And it’s all based on “the war was about slavery” mythos. It’s all a dirty damn lie.
Originally, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy deemed the renaming of bases as “divisive,” but then changed course after the NYT accused the military of “celebrating white supremacists.” Plus, “the recent uproar over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police drove McCarthy’s reversal,” chirped an Army official.
“White supremacy … [and] ideological-driven racism” are immersed in the military, claimed a military survey. “Overall, troops who responded to the poll cited white nationalists as a greater national security threat than both domestic terrorism with a connection to Islam, as well as immigration.”
And this retarded revelation (as in retarding reality) was reported in The Military Times in February, months before the Floyd flimflam. Of course, the article’s feature photo is an image from Charlottesville, giving legs to what I call “archetype derangement syndrome.” Mission accomplished!
Perhaps these Republican reprobates think virtue signals will give them a pass with the cultural Marxists, or maybe they’re loyal opposition. Or it might just be party politics.
“Republicans won the civil war. That’s our history,” tweeted former Navy SEAL and GOP congressman Dan Crenshaw, who is supposed to represent Texas’ 2nd district and whose traitorous ways I’ve written about before. “Democrats have a long list of segregationists & KKK members. That’s their history. I’m glad to help them confront that racist past.”
“Conservative” Mark Levin and the motley malcontents over at PragerU also push the tedious “Dems the real racists!” narrative. Whatever are their reasons, it’s a big con that undergirds the therapeutic state and the caste system under which Southern folks live.
Not that long ago, America First frontman Nick Fuentes wasn’t all that sympathetic to the the pro-Confederate position. But he now gets that the assault on my people is the springboard from which every dirty tyranny of the culture war is launched. American Firsters and the Southern-proud remnant must ally to “destroy the GOP.”
Raze Southern symbols? Well, that’s just fine. But burn a BLM sign? Lawd, that’s a hate crime! This lunacy is not only a cultural genocide built upon reeducation, but this attack against Southern heritage has been and still is a literal genocide. This isn’t a culture war; it’s an existential war!
This isn’t politics. It’s personal. To me, this isn’t really about the bases themselves. Honestly, I’m no fan of the U.S. military and its war-mongering ways.
Let’s face it, those installations are in no way representative of the Confederate principles of decentralization, human-scale governance, and self-determination, not self-loathing. Rather, they embody the “Yankee empire” which is “aggressive abroad and despotic at home,” as Gen. Lee so aptly prophesied. (The Republicans who didn’t support the NDAA due to its Big Tech “unconditional immunity” scheme and the halting of troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and Germany should take note.)
A smug Military.com writer joked about Sherman’s total-war annihilation of the South, insulted my ancestor’s ailing health, and called honoring Confederate veterans a type of “participation trophy” in an article offering up “10 much better names.” His snarky-to-serious suggestions for base rebranding ranged from NFL wide receivers and unknown abolitionists, to pirates and a bevy of predictable black “firsts.”
At this point, the woke bomber would fully be endorsed by the GOP, as well, especially if the attack was on the South as to reform those hick Rebels, who cling to their guns, religion, and heritage. They’ve done it before, they’ll do it again.
Truly, the empire doesn’t deserve Southern heroes. Replace ’em with “humanitarian” warriors, such as Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, or Madeline “500,000 dead Iraqi children was worth it” Albright, or what about Base Black Panther or Camp Cardi B, or Camp Netflix or Fort OnlyFans? I’ve got it: Fort Floyd. I mean, nothing would be more fitting than commemorating for the ages Murica’s fentanyl-addicted, amateur-porn saint.
Let’s make bashing the South a losing GOP strategy. Like my advice to cops, let’s “walk away.” Let’s personally secede, from the military-industrial complex and from the GOP at the federal level, and take over the party at local and state levels, or both parties. Let’s take down Old Glory, and raise up our Battle Flags because the fight is the same as it ever was. And if you Republicans don’t want us, we sure as hell don’t want or need you.
Be sure to keep an eye out my forthcoming part-personal/part-history essay about A.P. Hill.
Hope you are doing well as we approach the new year!
I just shipped out the stickers-only perks today, so those who only got a sticker perk should see their perk within the next week (maybe a little more with Christmas traffic).
I also have a sneak peek for you of the comic WIP. Check it out below:
Looking forward to updating you with another sneak peek in the near future as the comic progresses!
When I read the news lately, I just want to shout. It’s insane. There is no civility, no normalcy, and really not much in the way of actual news any longer. Even media outlets dedicated to reporting just the weather are polluting the airways with their political agenda. Propagandists of every political strip largely rule the airways today and this is both the symptom and cause of the divided nation we live in.
I would never suggest that free speech be quelled in spite of these issues. In fact, I would hope for the opposite; that we see new news organizations spring up that by virtue of their work on actual reporting of the news they rise to popularity in the marketplace of “news media.”
For now, however, we are left to seeking first-hand accounts of events instead of relying on any reporting of the event. For example, if one wishes to know what news came out of a presidential press conference, we need to watch the press conference ourselves because reporting of that press conference will be politicized by every single group reporting on it. The present media has lost all credibility at this point and the American people realize this.
Corrupted media and contested elections aside, we are left facing the problems presented by living in what is now a hopelessly divided nation. While many groups are even now attempting to erase our Founders and Framers from the national identity of America by unlawfully tearing down statues and defacing memorials, we can still discover what a civilized America should be focused upon through the timeless words given to us by President Thomas Jefferson.
On March 4, 1801, President Thomas Jefferson delivered his first inaugural address to the people. The words of our poignant statesman are equaled by none since. What might we learn from him today?
“Friends & Fellow Citizens, Called upon to undertake the duties of the first Executive office of our country, I … express my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look towards me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness of the charge, and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye; when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honour, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation & humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking.”
Here Jefferson not only expressed his gratitude of the electorate that supported his presidential campaign, but clearly understands the gravity of his duties in the office of the presidency. He approaches the office not as today’s politicians do, filled with a peacock’s pride and political braggadocio – but instead with a sincere sense of humility knowing that while he will use all of his abilities to do his best work, the role may require more than that.
“Utterly indeed should I despair, did not the presence of many, whom I here see, remind me, that, in the other high authorities provided by our constitution, I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal, on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked, amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world.”
Here Jefferson looks not to his own authority as president and executive to accomplish the task before him, but rather looks directly to the Constitution and the offices and processes that it provides. He looks to the legislative branch. Today, in sharp contrast, our political class looks only to themselves and their own power and control. No one even thinks of the Constitution in the manner Jefferson once did any longer, in fact for most politicians the restrictions of government overreach presented in the Constitution are dodged by crafty legislation and endless Executive Orders. The Constitution is something these politicians only hope not to get caught by with a legal challenge in court long after the fact.
“During the contest of opinion through which we have past, the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely, and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the constitution all will of course arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind, let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things.”
Here Jefferson addresses the election outcome directly. The concept of free speech was relatively new in the world where every man was free to speak out without the threat of imprisonment or punishment as was the case in the rest of the civilized world at the time. This free speech of course led to the same heated discussions then as it does today. Jefferson’s wish is that all Americans, regardless of their opinions, will respect the rule of law as a source of unity. He asks for unity “… with one heart and one mind.” He does not demand that the losing party of the election abandon their ideas and conform to his views. The American President is not a dictator. This is a key distinction that must be remembered.
“Let us then, with courage and confidence, pursue our own federal and republican principles; our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high minded to endure the degradations of the others, possessing a chosen country … entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them, enlightened by a benign religion, professed indeed and practised in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude and the love of man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here, and his greater happiness hereafter; with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people?“
“Still one thing more, fellow citizens, a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government; and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.”
Here Jefferson presents his vision of how America generally proceeds; with principled confidence, with the enlightenment of faith and its tenants, with a government focused not on expanding itself but restraining its taxing and spending. This entire paragraph by Jefferson is completely ignored by our political class today as every new policy they foist upon the people is completely opposite of every sentence. Jefferson, however, provides for us an even more descriptive view of the expectations of government under his leadership:
“… it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations.—Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political:—peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none:—the support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies:—the preservation of the General government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home, and safety abroad: a jealous care of the right of election by the people, a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided:—absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of the despotism:—a well disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them:—the supremacy of the civil over the military authority:—economy in the public expence, that labor may be lightly burthened:—the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith:—encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid:—the diffusion of information, and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason:—freedom of religion; freedom of the press; and freedom of person, under the protection of the Habeas Corpus:—and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation, which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages, and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment:—they should be the creed of our political faith; the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust …”
These, then, are the specifics of good government. They are standards which have almost entirely fallen by the wayside and clearly do not exist in today’s America. One could read each principle and ask, ‘are we doing this?” and the answer would be “no” in every case. We are no longer living in the America of or founding; we exist in a bizarre and twisted America reformed by the political class and shaped by a dishonest media. Jefferson foresaw that problems might occur in the adherence to these principles and even provided some direction for us:
“… and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps, and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety.”
Jefferson concludes his message with the same introspective humility that he began his address with.
“I repair then, fellow citizens, to the post you have assigned me … I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation, and the favor, which bring him into it … I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment.“
“When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional; and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts … Relying then on the patronage of your good will, I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choices it is in your power to make.”
It is unlikely that any modern politician could meet or improve upon Jefferson’s approach to the American presidency. Our American culture has so devolved that his words are scarcely read and even less comprehended by a population distracted by so many other “shiny objects” today. Indeed, to the rest of the world, we appear to be little more than a nation of squirrels pausing in the center of the lane, trying to decide whether to cross the road or not.
Portions of Jefferson's address taken from that which was printed in the National Intelligencer, 4 Mch. 1801; “President’s Speech this day At 12 o’clock, THOMAS JEFFERSON, President of the United States, Took the oath of office required by the Constitution, in the Senate Chamber, in the presence of the Senate, the members of the House of Representatives, the public officers, and a large concourse of citizens. Previously to which he delivered the following Address."
If you haven’t checked out my interview with Daniel B. Rundquist from this fall, please do so. It’s a riveting discussion, if I do say so myself.
We welcome back our friend, Jared Wall of Breaking Liberty to talk about one of his favorite movies, which happens to be a Bollywood film with musical numbers and an extremely long run-time called “3 Idiots”.
From the moment Rancho arrives at India’s most prestigious university, his outlandish schemes turn the campus upside down – along with the lives of his two newfound best friends.
This is a cutting critique of the one-size-fits-all top-down educational approach and is a bit of a coming of age story that speaks to the philosophical questions regarding learning and becoming what you would like to be in your life.
All izz well.
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Buck Johnson is the creator of the Death to Tyrants podcast. Johnson describes the show as “anti-warfare, anti-welfare, pro-liberty” and himself as a “hardcore paleo-libertarian/anarcho-capitalist” and a “huge proponent of secession and decentralization.”
The Texas native is a longtime musician and has played drums for many of the roots, rockabilly, punk, and country acts in Austin, including with the great Jimmie Vaughan at many of the Ron Paul rallies back in 2008 and 2012. In normal life, Johnson is a fire department lieutenant, but in dissenter land, he’s a rabble-rousing rebel and an effective interviewer who has built quite a following by hosting an array red-pilled folks from diverse liberty perspectives.
Johnson and I chat his “awakening moment” a la Harry Browne’s classic book “The Great Libertarian Offer,” his time in the League of the South, and the vital role that Southern tradition plays in resisting tyranny and fighting for decentralization. He talks words and action, defines some important terms, tells us the origin of his first name, and even shares some breaking news regarding his popular podcast!
We also discuss the Austin music scene, wu-flu mania and the effect it’s having on live performers and venues, and his friend and one my family’s favorite classic-country troubadours Dale Watson. This podcast was a wild and informative ride, so I hope y’all enjoy getting to know Buck, a true ally for the cause of sanity.
We remember the great Sean Connery in one of his iconic roles as James Bond as we review “From Russia with Love” with the boorish, Professional Asshole.
From Russia with Love is a 1963 British spy film and the second in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, as well as Sean Connery’s second role as MI6 agent James Bond.
A razor-sharp, briskly-paced Cold War thriller that features several electrifying action scenes it establishes many of the James Bond franchise tropes that continue in the series and is parodied in the likes of the Austin Powers series of films.
We hope you’ll be both shaken, and stirred with this one.
We’re also proud to announce that our YouTube video for this episode now features actual video footage of the show, check it out here, and be sure to hit that subscribe button!
If you would like to get (occasional) early access to future shows, join us on Patreon and support us at the $3+ per month level at: http://www.actualanarchy.com/patreon
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