DIED THIS WEEK

NATHAN HALE - 21 September 1776 - New York City

Nathan Hale, a Connecticut schoolteacher and captain in the Continental Army, is executed by the British for spying. A graduate of Yale University, Hale joined a Connecticut regiment in 1775 and served in the successful siege of British-occupied Boston. In the summer of 1776, he crossed behind British lines on Long Island in civilian clothes to spy on the British. While returning with the intelligence information, British soldiers captured Hale near the American lines and charged him with espionage. Taken to New York, he was hanged without trial the next day.


Before being executed, legend holds that Hale said:

"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."





He was the first Hero of America.


Honor him.


.

DO NOT BREAK THE WINDOWS

Do not - repeat - DO NOT - break their windows.


The following link on Blogmeister Theo's usually brilliant LAST OF THE FEW has been brought to my attention:




To all modern Sons of Liberty: THIS is your time. Break their windows. Break them NOW.



Do not - repeat - DO NOT - break their windows.


This is Vandalism - the tactics of SEIU, ACORN, Earth Liberation Front, Anarchists, etc.

Throwing rotten eggs I can understand - MAYBE - but property destruction is the kind of crap done by the animal-rights fanatics and other nihilistic, revolutionary movements.

These kind of tactics apparently advocated by Irish Cicero of Washington Rebel would DESTROY, UNDERMINE AND REVERSE the staggering sea-change our side has produced in the electorate. It would be counter productive, it would generate anger against our side, turn people against us and validate everything Leftist "Progressives" and even moderate Republicans have been saying about the Tea Party movement all along. If our side tolerates this kind of crap, we deserve to lose the independents.

We have the great American tradition of open political discourse - our cherished Freeedoms of Speech and Assembly - to fall back on here; the hallmark of the Civil Rights movement was civil disobedience, even in the face of physical violence that often turned lethal. The situation is nowhere near desperate enough for anyone to make a stand a la Lexington & Concord.

The events leading up to Lexington & Concord were the result of years of brutal oppression - to include the quartering of troops and the Boston Massacre - by what had then rightly become viewed as a foreign occupying power.

We cannot claim the same in this case because we have overwhelming support for our cause at the highest levels. The issue they are voting on this weekend - complete government takeover of the healthcare industry - is not even a guaranteed sure thing in the House, at this time.

We are on the verge of 38 STATES challenging the constitutionality of major aspects of this legislation if it passes. Apart from that, passage of this thing will almost certainly enlarge the majorities likely to be attained in favor of our side in the November elections, and will likely have a chilling effect on the non-radical Democrats who will then be in the minority.

If the 38 states' challenges fail, there's no doubt that soon afterward there would be 38 states enacting legislation for either adoption of suitable constitutional amendments or a constitutional convention or both. This will give all the non-radical remnants of the Democratic Party permanent brown spots in the backs of their pants.





RESISTANCE - Yes, by all means; but Resistance within the letter of the Law.


The American Revolution is the only true revolution ever to unfold on the pages of History; this is because unlike the other, savage Revolutions of France, Russia, China, South America, Southeast Asia and Africa, which simply served to replace a former set of masters with a new set of oppressive overlords; our Revolution continues to evolve and change, develop and produce anew freedom from oppressive government.

The Constitution has not failed us in over two hundred years - now is not the time to fail it, out of an illegitimate sense of despair.

Our side is in the right here - WE WILL OVERCOME.






STORMBRINGER SENDS


.

A RARE GLIMPSE

The American Revolution is a remarkable conflict to study, for several reasons. It can be argued that the war should never have been fought; that the British Army should have won hands down; and that once won, the young United States should have failed as a political enterprise and rejoined the British Crown within it's first ten years.




But independence WAS declared, the war WAS fought and won by a handful of poorly trained and equipped amateurs up against the most professional army of the day, and the sentiments that led to the Revolution evolved into the most successful and enduring political philosophy ever devised; as expressed in the the Federalist and anti-Federalist Papers, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address.




I have often wondered about what the American Revolution was like from the British point of view. Specifically; the point of view of the front-line British soldier, far from home fighting people who looked like him, spoke like him, for all intents and purposes WERE him, in a fantastic land that resembled Europe save for the vast, untamed wilderness.



How did THIS . . .







. . . ever defeat . . .





. . . . . . THIS?


Now, a remarkable set of letters have surfaced that shed light on the British point of view during the American War of Independence. The papers were the property of the Strachey family in Britain for about two centuries, later sold to the US newspaperman James Copley, who collected documents relating to American history.

According to the documents, the British military began to despair of victory almost as soon as the conflict began in 1775. A letter from Gen John Burgoyne, dated 25 June 1775 in Boston, gives an early assessment of how bad things looked:

"Our prospects are gloomy," he told an unidentified lord in a letter written after the first two battles of the campaign in Massachusetts – a humiliating defeat to a local band of militiamen followed by a victory but with heavy losses at Bunker Hill.





He describes the British position as "a crisis that my little reading in history cannot parallel," and predicts that the Crown would only be able to subdue the rebellion with the help of German or Russian allies.

"Such a pittance of troops as Great Britain and Ireland can supply will only serve to protract the war, to incur fruitless expense and insure disappointment," he said.

The Burgoyne letter is part of the collection of papers and correspondence of Sir Henry Strachey, chief aide to the Howe brothers who led the British war effort. Strachey later held a similar role at the Paris peace negotiations.

In March 1777, Sir Henry writes that the American revolutionaries are much more "obstinate" than realized by the "short-sighted folks in England".


A sentiment evidenced by the Rattlesnake flag, the first American naval jack flown:





A note to my Commonwealth readers: Here at Blog STORMBRINGER we love Britain and all things British. The Revolution was a terrible conflict that caused much tragedy and suffering, but it produced what we have today and for that I am thankful. I am also truly thankful that America was a product of Britain, versus France or Spain, and I celebrate our two countries special relationship.


When I served alongside the British Army, the "sqaudees" of the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire) explained to me that the red triangle on their beret flashes represented the white cap feathers their predecessors of the famed "Berks and Wilts" regiment dipped into Brandywine Creek, which flowed red with American blood following Washington's defeat there in September of 1777.




I told them two things: "Yeah, well who won in the long run?" and "Thank God we were YOUR colony, and not the French."

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

I love the American Revolution; the only successful revolution in the history of the world. Of the many amazing aspects of the American Revolution is the fact that it was not contained to a time and place in the late eighteenth century, but that it has continued throughout our nation's history - from the War of 1812 (the second American Revolution), through the convoluted legislative struggles that led to the War Between the States (known in the South as the War of Northern Aggression), through to the California Taxpayers Revolt of the Seventies that led in turn to the incredible Reagan Revolution of the eighties.


I have often stated on this blog that generally, I avoid politics; on account that it generates Dark Energy within me. But now we are witnessing a remarkable phenomena. What is playing out before us deserves comment.


The American Revolution continues to this day. Perhaps you didn't see it, perhaps you were not aware that it is playing out right now, before our very eyes. Bear witness:







The powers-that-be and their willing minions in the press may be dismissive of what took place this month in Massachusetts; of course they are - this a sign of desperation, a measure of defense against a remarkable groundswell, a popular uprising against the status quo. All of it; the tea parties, the populist sentiment prevailing time after time in Virginia, in New Jersey and now in Massachusetts - remarkably all scenes of significant events in the FIRST American Revolution - the rise of populist, charismatic leaders like Palin the MooseSlayer, and now truck-driving Scott Brown - represent a political vector that is impossible to ignore.





"Take Due Notice Thereof, and Conduct Yourself Accordingly."



.