Words of Wisdom
Here. Have a cogent, well-informed piece on firearms and their place in our society. Me? I'm gonna be out back, practicing.
Showing posts with label SHOW ME YOUR THUMBS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SHOW ME YOUR THUMBS. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Further Truth-Bombs of T.R. Fehrenbach
From the same book as the previous entry:
"Americans, who cannot understand or even communicate with peasantry, are growing lonelier in a world where the great majority of men are peasants."
"Americans, he found, tend to take pride in doing things in a big way. But they had no interest in fighting a half-ass war like this one."
"It is admittedly terrible to force men to suffer during training, or even sometimes, through accident, to kill them. But there is no other way to prepare them for the immensely greater horror of combat."
"As Americans discovered during 1861-1865, sustained land warfare is extremely costly in blood, and there has been a pronounced American distaste for such since."
"If war is to have any meaning at all, its purpose must be to establish control over peoples and territories, and ultimately, this can be done only as Alexander the Great did it, on the ground. But because after the Civil War America's Allies again and again took the terrible losses required to bleed the enemy, Americans gradually developed a belief in cheap victory."
"Thus, again, it cannot be considered accident that in 1950 the dominant power of the world was barely able to contain the ground attack of an almost illiterate nation of nine million- nor could it have done so without the enormous manpower sacrifices of its Korean ally."
"Under the Constitution of the United States, Congress holds the power of life and death over the military, and no one would have it otherwise. History has shown very clearly that for democracy to continue, the people and not the generals or even the executive authority, must have control over the military. The people must dictate its size, composition and its use- above all, its use."
(Commentary by Your Humble Blogger- Yeah, funny how that little proviso has pretty much evaporated, no?)
"And with victory, as it had always come to Americans after a war, came the determination to force their will on the enemy, to punish them for the crime of aggression, for starting the war. If the fighting, with its resultant death and destruction, its loss of American lives, resulted only in the return of the status quo, then almost all Americans would feel cheated."
"Americans have always accepted checks and balances within their own system of government, but never without, in the world. Because in the world such checks have never been achieved with votes or constitutions but with guns, and Americans have never admitted that guns may serve a moral purpose as well as votes. They have never failed to resort to guns, however, when other means fail."
"Actually, the Communist world had not broken the law, for one of the continuing tragedies of mankind is that there is no international law."
"Military intelligence, quite competently, can determine the number of divisions a nation has deployed. Military men can never wholly competently decide, from military evidence alone, whether such a nation will use them. Such a decision is not, and will never be, within the competence of military intelligence."
"It is obvious the MacArthur's reliance on air power was almost absolute. Whatever the weaknesses of his ground forces, whatever their difficult and exposed positions, U.N. mastery of the skies was complete, and air would be the decisive arm. It was a typically American viewpoint. MacArthur and the men around him had a great deal to learn about Chinese Communist armies."
"Americans, who cannot understand or even communicate with peasantry, are growing lonelier in a world where the great majority of men are peasants."
"Americans, he found, tend to take pride in doing things in a big way. But they had no interest in fighting a half-ass war like this one."
"It is admittedly terrible to force men to suffer during training, or even sometimes, through accident, to kill them. But there is no other way to prepare them for the immensely greater horror of combat."
"As Americans discovered during 1861-1865, sustained land warfare is extremely costly in blood, and there has been a pronounced American distaste for such since."
"If war is to have any meaning at all, its purpose must be to establish control over peoples and territories, and ultimately, this can be done only as Alexander the Great did it, on the ground. But because after the Civil War America's Allies again and again took the terrible losses required to bleed the enemy, Americans gradually developed a belief in cheap victory."
"Thus, again, it cannot be considered accident that in 1950 the dominant power of the world was barely able to contain the ground attack of an almost illiterate nation of nine million- nor could it have done so without the enormous manpower sacrifices of its Korean ally."
"Under the Constitution of the United States, Congress holds the power of life and death over the military, and no one would have it otherwise. History has shown very clearly that for democracy to continue, the people and not the generals or even the executive authority, must have control over the military. The people must dictate its size, composition and its use- above all, its use."
(Commentary by Your Humble Blogger- Yeah, funny how that little proviso has pretty much evaporated, no?)
"And with victory, as it had always come to Americans after a war, came the determination to force their will on the enemy, to punish them for the crime of aggression, for starting the war. If the fighting, with its resultant death and destruction, its loss of American lives, resulted only in the return of the status quo, then almost all Americans would feel cheated."
"Americans have always accepted checks and balances within their own system of government, but never without, in the world. Because in the world such checks have never been achieved with votes or constitutions but with guns, and Americans have never admitted that guns may serve a moral purpose as well as votes. They have never failed to resort to guns, however, when other means fail."
"Actually, the Communist world had not broken the law, for one of the continuing tragedies of mankind is that there is no international law."
"Military intelligence, quite competently, can determine the number of divisions a nation has deployed. Military men can never wholly competently decide, from military evidence alone, whether such a nation will use them. Such a decision is not, and will never be, within the competence of military intelligence."
"It is obvious the MacArthur's reliance on air power was almost absolute. Whatever the weaknesses of his ground forces, whatever their difficult and exposed positions, U.N. mastery of the skies was complete, and air would be the decisive arm. It was a typically American viewpoint. MacArthur and the men around him had a great deal to learn about Chinese Communist armies."
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Home Truths from 1963
T.R. Fehrenbach, writing a history of the Korean War in 1963, saw clearly some crap that we are a long, long way from grasping as a nation- mostly because the truth is unpleasant. Suck it up, people. The universe owes you nothing, least of all truths that are pleasant.
"The problem was that America had fought the war- as she had most of her wars- as a crusade, while Russia had fought first for survival, then for power. Crusades are usually inconclusive; it was no wonder Russia won the peace."
"It was hard for a nation and a people who had never accepted the idea of power, not as something immoral in itself, but as a tool to whatever ends they sought, to fight and die for limited goals. In short, it was hard to grow up."
"The United States could not be bought, or even intimidated, but it had a long history of looking the other way if not immediately threatened."
"Citizens fly to defend the homeland, or to crusade. But a frontier cannot be held by citizens, because citizens, in a republic, have better things to do."
"Korea was an infantry war, essentially no different from any infantry war of the twentieth century. This was one of the factors, along with the political, that made the fighting so distasteful to a people who had subconsciously come to regard infantry warfare as obsolete."
"Revolution and terror are synonymous; only with the passage of time does any revolution become respectable."
Fehrenbach wrote these words as Vietnam started to suck in more and more men. It is nearly half a century since he wrote them, and the lessons have not been internalized.
History. Read it and weep.
"The problem was that America had fought the war- as she had most of her wars- as a crusade, while Russia had fought first for survival, then for power. Crusades are usually inconclusive; it was no wonder Russia won the peace."
"It was hard for a nation and a people who had never accepted the idea of power, not as something immoral in itself, but as a tool to whatever ends they sought, to fight and die for limited goals. In short, it was hard to grow up."
"The United States could not be bought, or even intimidated, but it had a long history of looking the other way if not immediately threatened."
"Citizens fly to defend the homeland, or to crusade. But a frontier cannot be held by citizens, because citizens, in a republic, have better things to do."
"Korea was an infantry war, essentially no different from any infantry war of the twentieth century. This was one of the factors, along with the political, that made the fighting so distasteful to a people who had subconsciously come to regard infantry warfare as obsolete."
"Revolution and terror are synonymous; only with the passage of time does any revolution become respectable."
Fehrenbach wrote these words as Vietnam started to suck in more and more men. It is nearly half a century since he wrote them, and the lessons have not been internalized.
History. Read it and weep.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
For London Youth, Down and Out is a Way of Life
It ain't just London, and it ain't just 18-24 year olds.
Indeed, the problem isn't even confined to people who haven't finished college- BAs are a dime a dozen these days.
Worst of all, a lot of people have no idea how many jobs actually exist out there- there are entire fields of work that go basically undetected.
It ain't just London, and it ain't just 18-24 year olds.
Indeed, the problem isn't even confined to people who haven't finished college- BAs are a dime a dozen these days.
Worst of all, a lot of people have no idea how many jobs actually exist out there- there are entire fields of work that go basically undetected.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Dune-isms For Our Times
In honor of the general state of affairs, I present the following:
From Dune Messiah:
"Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual."
From Children of Dune, that paean to collapsed empires and failed dreams:
"A large populace held in check by a small but powerful force is quite a common situation in our universe. And we know the major conditions wherein this large populace may turn upon its keepers--
One: When they find a leader. This is the most volatile threat to the powerful; they must retain control of leaders.
Two: When the populace recognizes its chains. Keep the populace blind and unquestioning.
Three: When the populace perceives a hope of escape from bondage. They must never even believe that escape is possible!"
"Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class-- whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs or financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy."
"In all major socializing forces you will find an underlying movement to gain and maintain power through the use of words. From witch doctor to priest to bureaucrat it is all the same. A governed populace must be conditioned to accept power-words as actual things, to confuse the symbolized system with the tangible universe. In the maintenance of such a power structure, certain symbols are kept out of the reach of the common understanding-- symbols such as those dealing with economic manipulation or those which define the local interpretation of sanity. Symbol-secrecy of this form leads to the development of fragmented sub-languages, each being a signal that its users are accumulating some form of power."
"People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work. Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatess-- they cannot work and their civilization collapses."
From Dune Messiah:
"Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual."
From Children of Dune, that paean to collapsed empires and failed dreams:
"A large populace held in check by a small but powerful force is quite a common situation in our universe. And we know the major conditions wherein this large populace may turn upon its keepers--
One: When they find a leader. This is the most volatile threat to the powerful; they must retain control of leaders.
Two: When the populace recognizes its chains. Keep the populace blind and unquestioning.
Three: When the populace perceives a hope of escape from bondage. They must never even believe that escape is possible!"
"Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class-- whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs or financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy."
"In all major socializing forces you will find an underlying movement to gain and maintain power through the use of words. From witch doctor to priest to bureaucrat it is all the same. A governed populace must be conditioned to accept power-words as actual things, to confuse the symbolized system with the tangible universe. In the maintenance of such a power structure, certain symbols are kept out of the reach of the common understanding-- symbols such as those dealing with economic manipulation or those which define the local interpretation of sanity. Symbol-secrecy of this form leads to the development of fragmented sub-languages, each being a signal that its users are accumulating some form of power."
"People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work. Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatess-- they cannot work and their civilization collapses."
Monday, January 9, 2012
The Holy Books Of A Northern Jackass
All right, as anyone with the capacity to read and the colossal poor judgment to be wasting it on this should know, I've got Dune and Art of War quotations liberally slapped all over this bastard.
There is a perfectly sound reason for this- As a somewhat irritable agnostic, I haven't got a sacred text to refer to for either philosophical underpinning or obnoxious evangelism.
But damned if I'm going to be left out of getting my worldview from books!
What follows is a list of books from which I derive either philosophical insight or basic guidance I can apply to my life-
The Art of War- Sun Tzu. I favor the Samuel B. Griffith translation because the man is a Marine. A linguist might translate the classic Chinese correctly, but a fighting man is more likely to grasp what Sun Tzu (Or Sun Zi for you latter-day pedants). As a basic "how-to" manual, it's something of a mixed bag- yes, it has profound wisdom, such as the advisability of living upon the enemy's supplies as much as possible, but it also has detailed advice in how many chariots you should deploy to take out a rival warlord. Fortunately, the chaff is pretty easy to sift out. I refer to this badboy a lot when confronted by a stressful situation or an opponent in any sphere.
Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God-Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, Chapterhouse: Dune, all by Frank Herbert. Yes, it's a science fiction. Yes, Herbert was clearly out his damn mind (God-Emperor is AWFUL as fiction- as a study in tyranny, of course, it's great), but a lot of his observations on human behavior and the nature of hydraulic despotism are spot-on. The cynical political creeds of the Bene Gesserit are infinitely more applicable to what you're going to experience than anything a talking head on CNN will have to say. Also has some nifty ecological pointers.
Watership Down by Richard Adams. The actual story of the rabbits founding their new warren is, at best, okay. But the underpinnings of the rabbits' mythology are phenomenal. Frith's advice to El-ahrairah is a must for anyone who isn't the strongest, deadliest, or best-defended- and let's be honest people, that's most of us. Be cunning and full of tricks, motherfucker, because you will die in a straight-up fight.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Mowgli of the Seeonee Wolf Pack becomes a model worthy of emulation by the end of the tales, and even his youthful follies are instructive. He also leads a damn nasty guerilla war against the dhole.
So there you have it. I draw most of my guidance from stories about talking animals, far-future posthuman badasses, and the martial code of ancient China.
Not too bad in the grand scheme of things.
There is a perfectly sound reason for this- As a somewhat irritable agnostic, I haven't got a sacred text to refer to for either philosophical underpinning or obnoxious evangelism.
But damned if I'm going to be left out of getting my worldview from books!
What follows is a list of books from which I derive either philosophical insight or basic guidance I can apply to my life-
The Art of War- Sun Tzu. I favor the Samuel B. Griffith translation because the man is a Marine. A linguist might translate the classic Chinese correctly, but a fighting man is more likely to grasp what Sun Tzu (Or Sun Zi for you latter-day pedants). As a basic "how-to" manual, it's something of a mixed bag- yes, it has profound wisdom, such as the advisability of living upon the enemy's supplies as much as possible, but it also has detailed advice in how many chariots you should deploy to take out a rival warlord. Fortunately, the chaff is pretty easy to sift out. I refer to this badboy a lot when confronted by a stressful situation or an opponent in any sphere.
Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God-Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, Chapterhouse: Dune, all by Frank Herbert. Yes, it's a science fiction. Yes, Herbert was clearly out his damn mind (God-Emperor is AWFUL as fiction- as a study in tyranny, of course, it's great), but a lot of his observations on human behavior and the nature of hydraulic despotism are spot-on. The cynical political creeds of the Bene Gesserit are infinitely more applicable to what you're going to experience than anything a talking head on CNN will have to say. Also has some nifty ecological pointers.
Watership Down by Richard Adams. The actual story of the rabbits founding their new warren is, at best, okay. But the underpinnings of the rabbits' mythology are phenomenal. Frith's advice to El-ahrairah is a must for anyone who isn't the strongest, deadliest, or best-defended- and let's be honest people, that's most of us. Be cunning and full of tricks, motherfucker, because you will die in a straight-up fight.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Mowgli of the Seeonee Wolf Pack becomes a model worthy of emulation by the end of the tales, and even his youthful follies are instructive. He also leads a damn nasty guerilla war against the dhole.
So there you have it. I draw most of my guidance from stories about talking animals, far-future posthuman badasses, and the martial code of ancient China.
Not too bad in the grand scheme of things.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
On Libya. (And Iraq. And Afghanistan. And so on.)
"There is a Great Beast loose in the world of men.
It awoke in dark times, to fight a terrible enemy. It stormed through Europe, across the far Pacific, and crushed the evil that it found there underfoot.
But when it was victorious, when the crooked cross and the rising sun were done with, the Great Beast’s keepers found that it would not go back to sleep.
The Beast has many heads, and on its heads are written names: Lockheed. Bell. Monsanto. Dow. Grumman. Colt. And many more.
And they are very, very hungry.
So the Great Beast must be fed: and every generation, our country goes to war to do just that. A war for war’s sake, usually. And one that could have been avoided. But there must be blood in extraordinary quantities, and whether it is foreign or American is of no consequence at all."
- Garth Ennis, Punisher: Born, Issue #4- The Last Day
It awoke in dark times, to fight a terrible enemy. It stormed through Europe, across the far Pacific, and crushed the evil that it found there underfoot.
But when it was victorious, when the crooked cross and the rising sun were done with, the Great Beast’s keepers found that it would not go back to sleep.
The Beast has many heads, and on its heads are written names: Lockheed. Bell. Monsanto. Dow. Grumman. Colt. And many more.
And they are very, very hungry.
So the Great Beast must be fed: and every generation, our country goes to war to do just that. A war for war’s sake, usually. And one that could have been avoided. But there must be blood in extraordinary quantities, and whether it is foreign or American is of no consequence at all."
- Garth Ennis, Punisher: Born, Issue #4- The Last Day
Friday, April 9, 2010
Scraps From a Geek Bible.
Some of my closest friends know that I've put a little effort into making a sort of "agnostic bible."
Which is to say, I collect quotes from any source that fit my undefined and scattershot approach to a worldview... And no source has been quite as rich as the universe of Dune. Which is funny and kind of sad, given the Dune-verse's take on religion in general and rote litany in particular... with that said, here are a few excerpts from my latest cullings...
Dune
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
- The Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear
"Bless the Maker and all His Water. Bless the coming and going of Him, May His passing cleanse the world. May He keep the world for his people."
- While I'm not even a Deist, as such, I've always found Shai-Hulud a more credible notion of a Deity than anyone who gave a damn about the fate of an individual human. And this quotation expresses an attitude toward the unknown that I can support.
"Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them."
- From Duke Leto, rather than any of the weird ideologies in the novels, but a useful aphorism.
"Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place."
- Nothing sums up what the last few years have taught me quite so well.
Dune Messiah
"You do not take from this universe. It grants you what it will."
Children of Dune
"This is the fallacy of power: ultimately it is effective only in an absolute, a limited universe. But the basic lesson of our relativistic universe is that things change. Any power must always meet a greater power."
God-Emperor of Dune
"You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die."
- If ever my view on socializing were summed up.
Chapterhouse: Dune
"Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security."
"Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you a cover up. Real boats rock."
A Game of Thrones"The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are."
The Fellowship of the Ring
"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."
"The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out."
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
The Return of the King"If we all got angry together something might be done."
Which is to say, I collect quotes from any source that fit my undefined and scattershot approach to a worldview... And no source has been quite as rich as the universe of Dune. Which is funny and kind of sad, given the Dune-verse's take on religion in general and rote litany in particular... with that said, here are a few excerpts from my latest cullings...
Dune
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
- The Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear
"Bless the Maker and all His Water. Bless the coming and going of Him, May His passing cleanse the world. May He keep the world for his people."
- While I'm not even a Deist, as such, I've always found Shai-Hulud a more credible notion of a Deity than anyone who gave a damn about the fate of an individual human. And this quotation expresses an attitude toward the unknown that I can support.
"Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them."
- From Duke Leto, rather than any of the weird ideologies in the novels, but a useful aphorism.
"Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place."
- Nothing sums up what the last few years have taught me quite so well.
Dune Messiah
"You do not take from this universe. It grants you what it will."
Children of Dune
"This is the fallacy of power: ultimately it is effective only in an absolute, a limited universe. But the basic lesson of our relativistic universe is that things change. Any power must always meet a greater power."
God-Emperor of Dune
"You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die."
- If ever my view on socializing were summed up.
Chapterhouse: Dune
"Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security."
"Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you a cover up. Real boats rock."
A Game of Thrones"The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are."
The Fellowship of the Ring
"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."
"The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out."
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
The Return of the King"If we all got angry together something might be done."
Monday, March 8, 2010
My country, 'tis of thee.
"America makes me very angry at times. It's the closest to being right- but it could be out of sight."
-Stevie Wonder
"People have been going off and doing their thing since time began. But it's important that they remember themselves and who they are. They've got to stay in touch with the earth."
-Curtis Mayfield
"[F]or the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
-If you don't know, shame on you.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
"No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law."
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
"No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense."
"In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."
"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
-Once again, if you don't know, shame on you.
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
-Seriously, if you don't know...
-Stevie Wonder
"People have been going off and doing their thing since time began. But it's important that they remember themselves and who they are. They've got to stay in touch with the earth."
-Curtis Mayfield
"[F]or the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
-If you don't know, shame on you.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
"No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law."
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
"No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense."
"In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."
"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
-Once again, if you don't know, shame on you.
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
-Seriously, if you don't know...
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