American Exceptionalism

I have just finished watching a video on American Exceptionalism by Bill Whittle. Far too often I hear the Left make the argument that there is nothing special about the United States, that we are just one of what will soon be 196 nations. (Man, I remember thinking that 156 was a large number when I was doing M.U.N. in high school)

The Right knows that in fact the United States is exceptional, and has been for most of its history. Everything from the peaceful transfer of power from President Washington to President Adams, (and more importantly and more impressively from President Adams to President Jefferson) to the Berlin airlift to America's efforts to help Japan after the recent earthquake and tsunami. It is a simple, easily understood fact...we are exceptional. History will judge us so too, for many of the reasons that Whittle discusses in his video.

The Left cannot acknowledge that America is exceptional, because their whole ideology is based on fundamentally changing America, which would be idiotic if indeed America was exceptional. A few might attempt to argue that they are trying to make America more exceptional than it already is. My response is to ask them why they are trying to make the United States more like Europe? There are places in Europe that still don't have peaceful transfers of power, especially among political enemies. How many European planes flew into Berlin during that crisis? How many European aircraft carriers or helicopter carriers are off the coast of Japan providing relief?

The simple fact is, our goal should be to transform the rest of the world to more closely resemble the United States rather than transform the United States to look like the rest of the world.

And for those of you who lived in the United Kingdom with me back in the 80's...which UK would you rather live in? The one of the 1980's or the one that exists today?

T.D.I.H. - Mar 11

On this date in 1888, the East Coast of the United States was hit by a massive blizzard, one of the largest in US history. The Great Blizzard of 1888 produced snowdrifts higher than fifty feet. people were trapped in their homes for a week, and at least 400 people lost their lives. Earlier that year, the midwest had been hit by a terrible blizzard in which hundreds of people died, many of them children. There is no word on whether anyone tried to blame this on global warming or climate change.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 27

On this date in 1952, the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. This Amendment became neccessary when President Franklin Roosevelt broke the unwritten rule that you only served two terms as president of the United States. George Washington began this tradition when he refused to run for a third term. Everyone else managed to respect this tradition until FDR. The 22nd Amendment mandates that you may only serve two four year terms of office as president. (or one four year term if you have previously served two or more years as president)

T.D.I.H. Feb 22

On this date in 1847, The United States Army defeated a Mexican Army at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican-American War. Gen. Santa Anna of Mexico had a much larger force, but was unable to defeat the American forces under the command of Gen. Zachary Taylor. Taylor would become President of the United States the next year, and this battle featured prominently in his campaign. A key factor in the victory was determined artillery fire by the Americans.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 20

On this date in history The Saturday Evening Post published the first of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms. These paintings were inspired by a speech by President Franklin Roosevelt. They were widely used as propaganda during World war II and were effective as tools for raising war bonds. The first cover was Freedom of Speech. The other three were Freedom from Fear, Freedom to Worship, and Freedom from Want.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 19

On this date in history, the insanity defense is used successfully for the first time. It helped that the man who used it was a member of the Tammany Hall political machine and a Congressman. His name was Daniel Sickles. He murdered the man having an affair with his wife, but was found innocent due to temporary insanity. He later served as a general in the Civil War. His conduct in the army was questionable, both his military decisions and his personal behavior. His insubordinate actions at Gettysburg have been described both as nearly disastrous and as the key to Union victory. During the battle he lost a leg due to cannonfire. (The bones are still in a museum in Washington D.C.) Over thirty years after the battle, he was able to use his poltical ties to convince Congress to award him the Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 17

On this date in history, the House of Representatives finally decided the outcome of the election of 1800. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied for the most number of votes, even though they both belonged to the Democratic-Republican Party. So the House was forced to break the tie, eventually giving Jefferson the presidency. Could you imagine the chaos if the 2000 election had gone to the House? It easily could have.

While reading up on this incident I was struck by something. Jefferson's cabinet consisted of five (and really four) Departments. There was a Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy. (these last two were later combined into the Secretary of Defense) The only other two were the President and Vice- President. The Obama administration has twenty cabinet officials besides the President and Vice-President! And I'm sure President Jefferson had no Czars...President Obama has thirty-seven.

For those wondering if a similar tie could happen again, the answer is no. The Twelfth Amendment was written to keep it from happening, and was ratified four years later in 1804.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 16

On this date in 1804, Stephen Decatur led a raid into Tripoli harbor to destroy the captured frigate Philadelphia during the First Barbary War. The picture is a famous painting of the USS Philadelphia burning while Decatur and his crew flee on a ship in the foreground. Decatur became the first American post-Revolutionary War war hero. His brother, and fellow naval officer, James was killed during this war. While we Americans were successful militarily, we did end up ransoming our captives, and were forced to return and fight a Second Barbary War after the War of 1812 was finished.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 12

On this date in 1809, President Abraham Lincoln was born in a one room log cabin in Kentucky. President Lincoln is considered to be one of our greatest presidents. Given his appearance and height, I question the possibility that he could win a presidential election today. He preserved the Union during the Civil War and finally brought about the end of slavery in the United States. His birthday is a holiday still in 10 States, including California. Lincoln has a unique place in American culture.....witness this very funny Geico commercial featuring him.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 10

On this date in history the 25th Amendment, dealing with presidential succession, is ratified by the States in 1967. This Amendment replaces Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the US Constitution. Under the provisions of this Amendment, Gerald Ford became the first man to hold the office of Vice-President and the first man to hold the office of President without being elected to either. It has most often been invoked to temporary transfer power to the Vice President while the president is undergoing a medical procedure that involves anesthesia.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 5

On this date in 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted for the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers. It was the third trial for this murder, the first two trials in 1964 ending in mistrials by all male and all white juries. The third trial was the subject of the movie Ghosts of Mississippi.

Egypt and Wheat

There is an article today discussing the fact that one of the causes of the current unrest in Egypt is the scarcity and price of food in that country. As I once noted, at one point Egypt was a huge exporter of wheat, and now it is the world's largest importer of wheat. Egypt basically imports half the wheat it consumes. This is exasperated by the fact that Egypt has one of the world's highest levels of per capita wheat consumption. By all accounts, Egypt has boosted domestic production, tripling production in the 80's and 90's. However production can't keep up with the population increase. The population of Egypt was estimated at 3 million people at the beginning of the 19th century, and it was over 70 million at the beginning of the 21 century.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 4

On this date in 1913, Rosa Parks was born in Alabama. Her arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the emergence of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. onto the civil rights scene. Rosa did not have an easy life, and was never wealthy.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 3

February 3 is officially Four Chaplains Day in the United States by an act of Congress. On this date in 1943, four US Army chaplains died while helping to save lives and calm fears after the ship they were on was torpedoed in the Northern Atlantic. Below is a clip of Michelle Bachman commerating the day on the floor of Congress last year.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 1

On this date in 1968, General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan summarily executed a Viet Cong terrorist named Nguyễn Văn Lém during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. The general was filmed and photographed as he shot the prisoner with his personal weapon. This image was widely used by the Left and the anti-war forces to discredit our South Vietnamese allies . No one ever mentioned that the terrorist and his death squad had just murdered the entire families of several policemen. The terrorist was not in uniform, and did not fight according to the articles of war, so he was not a POW. The execution was both legal and justified.

A deeper question is the fact that the photo was printed at all in a time of war. Could you possible imagine a US newspaper in 1944 or 1918 printing a similar picture? Because there were plenty of summary executions by our allies in both of those wars.

T.D.I.H. - Jan 25

On this day in 1627, Robert Boyle was born. Boyle is considered to the first of the modern chemists, and has a scientific law named after him, although it was not his theory. He was a founding member of the Royal Society . Most of his work dealt with air and gases. Despite having thirteen brothers and sisters, Boyle inherited a fortune that guaranteed him a life of luxury at the age of sixteen. His fortune was primarily based on land his father received in Ireland in the service of Cromwell. Even though he was born in Ireland, Boyle certainly considered himself English and not Irish, and only returned to Ireland briefly after he left at the age of eight.

T.D.I.H. - Jan 22

On this day in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the decision in Roe V Wade making abortion a "fundamental right". One day this decision will be viewed with even more disgust and disbelief than we now view the Dredd Scott case. In Roe, the Burger Court simply created an entirely new "fundamental right" by relying on the "emanations of a penumbra*". Even prominent Leftist Constitutional scholars will admit that Roe is bad law. I personally believe that abortion is murder, and I also believe that our descendants will see it that way also, and will view the last forty years as a holocaust.


* I was disappointed to see that Merriam-Webster actually lists: a body of rights held to be guaranteed by implication in a civil constitution as a definition of penumbra. Can anyone cite me any other example in the history of mankind in which this excuse was used besides the Burger Court?

T.D.I.H. - Jan 18

Keep an eye on the skies today. For some reason, things keep hitting the Earth on this date. In 2000, Canada was hit by the Tagish Lake Meteorite. In 1994, residents of Cando, Spain reported seeing a fireball and finding a gouge in a hillside. Some people posit that instead of something hitting the Earth, the fireball and gouge were caused by natural gas. In 1981, Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield became the first people to complete all four B.A.S.E. jumps. (buildings, antennae, spans, and earth) There were plane crashes in 1969 and 1960. In 1916 a meteorite hit a house in Baxter, Missouri. In 1911, an airplane lands on a ship for the first time in San Francisco harbor.

T.D.I.H. - Jan 16

Today was the birthday of Garth Ennis, a comic book writer, in 1970. He's British, and was born in Northern Ireland. His most famous series, Preacher, (written for DC's Vertigo line) is my favorite comic series of all time. His usual artist is Steve Dillon. The combination of Garth's stories and Dillon's art is unmistakable. Ennis is definitely not your typical kiddie book author. His books deal with adult subject matter and very graphic images. Below is an episode of iFanboy that is all about Preacher. (Note: the video has some swearing in it, and they discuss some of the adult themes contained within the book.)

A Second Civil War?

Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds is hosting a conversation that is discussing the similarities between Sarah Palin's recent facebook speech and one of President Lincoln's speeches. This led to speculation about whether some (Democratic) States would secede if Palin (Republican) was elected president as some (Democratic) States seceded when Lincoln (Republican) was elected president. One reader asked:

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Joe Pompeo writes: “Based upon the Lincoln quote it would appear that Sarah Palin, rather than acting ‘unpresidential’ in her response this week as her critics claim, was acting quite presidential after all. Even Lincoln-esque.” Does this mean that if we elect Sarah Palin President, New York, Massachusetts and California will secede?

My immediate response was to wonder: If New York, Massachusetts and California seceded - would the rest of the United States fight to get them back?