Born On This Day In 1939

Mavis Staples, the last surviving member of  The Staple Singers, an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group. Roebuck "Pops" Staples (December 28, 1914 – December 19, 2000), the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha (April 11, 1934 – February 21, 2013),^[1] Pervis (November 18, 1935 – May 6, 2021), and Mavis (b. July 10, 1939). Yvonne (October 23, 1937 – April 10, 2018) replaced her brother when he was drafted into the U.S. Army, and again in 1970.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1999

Happy 246th Birthday America: We Will Make You Great Again!

Like your favorite radio hosts I’m doing a “best of” today. Happy Birthday America!

From 2010: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

These founding documents were designed and declared with full knowledge of human nature and complete understanding of the soul’s tendencies. The result was the formation of a more perfect union which has stood the test of time in no small part due to the wisdom of these founders who crafted a near sacred separation of powers within the government they created.  Let us honor their courage, their genius and their foresight.

And for our part, let us be ever vigilant against those who would impinge on that greatness by opening the very gates that hold tyranny at bay.

From 2011: a pre-4th post from Camp David, Home For the Holiday: Feliz Quarto De Julio

Anyway, the long and short of it is Lady M decided to send me and Little Mo back to the Big White to weed and water the Big White Organic Garden of Versus in order to give our illegal Mexicans the rest of the Quarto de Julio weekend off.

From 2012:  Happy Birthday America! July 4, 2012 , in which we quote from Abraham Lincoln:

“The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one.  Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty.”

Although I think we all know a “destroyer of liberty” when we see one.

annotated portrait courtesy of Cripes Suzette

And a  sort-of-recipe for some 4th of July s’mores that have been kicked up to notches unknown – something that I think PDJT will make America famous for again:

Warning: do not eat more than a baker’s dozen (one for each original state)

From 2013, As it Turns Out, We Were the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For, we have Paul Harvey’s video essay on the fate of the 56 men who believed liberty was so important that they pledged “…our lives, our fortune, our sacred honor” to ensure it.

From 2014, “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it” which includes an eerily prescient observation about Joan Rivers, may she rest in peace.

From 2015, Weiners on Parade, a tiny  BBQ for tiny hamsters (h/t Blonde Gator). Creeper, if you’re out there, it’s the perfect meal for your new little buddy.

And from last year’s The 4th of July in Neverland, we witness the result of top ranked universities dropping the requirement that history majors study U.S. history:

To counter that sad state of affairs I leave you with this, excerpted from Thomas Jefferson’s 1826 letter from Thomas Jefferson to Roger Chew Weightman on the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It reminds us what American Independence is really all about:

…our fellow citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made. may it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self-government. that form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. all eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. the general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view. the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god. these are grounds of hope for others. for ourselves, let the annual return of this day .forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them…

So get those baked beans in the oven, the potato salad in the frig, the burgers, dogs and ribs on the grill and party like it’s 1776! We’re Making America Great Again. We intend to make Jefferson proud.

Happy Birthday America – Long May You Run!

Bumped and Updated from 7/4/2017

Something to Celebrate This Year

Thank you President Donald J. Trump for giving us a Supreme Court that is restoring the Constitution’s and Bill of Rights’ original intent.

Thank You VSPGPDJT

The Thomas/Alito/Trump Court

Attention John Roberts: Who’s your daddy?

Sunday, June 26, 2020

 

The untold want by life and land ne'er granted,

Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find. – Walt Whitman

 

       Not a bad week, all told.

Bumped from 2021: Happy Father’s Day

People make fun of Hollywood’s idealized family of the 50s.

But I would point out that every single episode of every one of those shows taught a life lesson geared to values that - at the time – consisted of a universal moral code: the value of telling the truth, the virtue of hard work, patriotism, what it means to be honorable, why loyalty matters, what personal responsibility consists of. In other words bedrock American values that are often looked down on, snickered at and scorned by today’s cultural elites in Hollywood, education and Washington.

Ever since that era Hollywood has been offering so-called family shows showcasing escalating Socialist/Marxist propaganda and the demise of the nuclear family: single moms struggling to survive in a sexist/classist world, two mommies/daddies struggling to raise their children in a homophobe world, People of Color struggling – with everything, everywhere. In the process the values on display in pop culture morphed to relativism so gradually few noticed.

From the raunchy Two and A Half Men in which two ostensibly straight brothers try to raise the son/nephew to Modern Family  where you get a bit of everything,

Modern Family is genuinely funny in large measure because they have fun with stereotypes of all ilk

to The Fosters – (full disclosure: I’ve never seen an episode) a multi-racial Lesbian couple raising 1 bio son and 4 adopted teenagers.

Hollywood can’t kill the traditional  family soon enough it seems. The nuclear family if not dead is on life support, struggling under the weight of an anachronistic paternalistic world. Instead we end up with True Crimes shows of sex trafficking, child abuse and sexual identity confusion. We’ve come a long way baby and the Left would have us believe that’s a good thing. Bio Mom, Bio Dad and their two bio kids is no longer valid. “Family” has been co-opted to mean whatever they say it means. If society moves any further along the alternate lifestyle continuum Bio Family might turn out to be downright subversive.

Well here’s to good old fashioned, subversive Bio Dads everywhere:

If more kids had more of these “subversive” Dads instead of the likes of self-centered “Pops”

I wonder if Pops gets 10% of Hunter’s painting sales?

we might not be in the mess we’re in now. I do hope that history doesn’t have to report of our time that for the want of a few good Dads the world was lost.

Happy Fathers’ Day to all the good ones out there!

More Flowers: Thank You MOTI Edition!

 

Beautiful. This Photo Does Not do Them Justice

Again, all I can say is “Thank You!!” This is too much…

Flashback: Holy Cow! How Will You Celebrate Father’s Day?

Still haven’t decided what to serve Pop for your Father’s Day cookout? Why not try your hand at a homemade version of Lady M’s new favorite burger: The Holy Cow!

The “Holy Cow” includes an insouciant “wink” at the NSA’s “ICU”  program

Brought to my attention by Gerard at American Digest and 'splained by Sploid, the “Holy Cow” was engineered by Red’s True Barbecue and is,“basically like sandwiching an entire cow” between the bun. Here’s what you’ll need.

• Carpaccio beef and olive (that’s the eyeball “winking” at you)
• 21-hour Texas-smoked brisket
• Juicy Lucy (melted cheese hidden inside a 100% steak burger)
• A Parmesan and Jacob's cracker-crusted pattie made of pulled oxtail and pulled ox cheek with diced slow-smoked ox heart and ox liver
• Jalapeño and dill pickle relish
• Thickly sliced mustard-pickled tongue
• Unholy sticky beef jus
• Pulled 12hr smoked beef rib
• Blackened Wagyu rib eye steak
• Beef bacon
• Red's Dirty sauce
• Chargrilled red onion ring

What red blooded American dad wouldn’t love to scarf down this bovine collection? Ok, it’s got that creepy eyeball thingy on top, butt that will be dispatched with extreme prejudice with the first chomp.

I C U! And raise my flag in salute.

However, if you’re not in the mood for a cookout, can’t find good quality mustard-pickled tongue or pulled ox cheek, or if globull warming has kiboshed your cookout plans with colder and/or wetter than normal weather, you could drop in for the Father’s Day special being offered at Big Red’s. And if whole cow burgers aren’t your thing you could get one of their other great all-American BBQ dinners available at all 3 of their big locations:

• Leeds, Cloth Hall Street (nr Corn Exchange)
• Manchester, 22 Lloyd Street, Albert Square
• Headingley, 6a Otley Road

Well yes, they are in England, butt that shouldn’t surprise anyone; in the Age of Obama just about everyone seems to be more American than America. Butt I must say, the Brits seem to have captured the zeitgeist of pre-Obama America: bigger is better and there’s no such thing as too much. Insatiable, unstoppable, irrational exuberance for all things beef:

The burger is served with fries that are "thrice cooked" in beef drippings and served with a pulled beef Ragu sauce for dipping. Just in case that wasn't enough cow, the burger also comes with a Bloody Mary made with a beef tomato consommé and "jerky shards." According to Metro UK, the burger is priced at £25 ($41.88 USD) and contains 2,500 calories. A limited number of the burgers will only be available on Father's Day

All I can say is “Holy Cow!” (I’m referring to the burger, not…well, you-know-who.)

“All this..for a damn flag!?!”

This isn’t exactly Father’s Day music, butt I think it’s Big Red’s theme song:

Holy Cow

I can’t weep and I can’t eat
Since you walked out on me
Holy smoke, what you doin to me, yeah
I can’t eat and I can’t sleep, yeah
Since you walked out on me, yeah
Holy cow, whatcha doin, child, child

Maybe there’s something about having your father “walk out on you” that permanently messes with a man’s heart - and his soul. All I know is that fathers are very important; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Happy Fathers Day to all the many truly great fathers out there. And if you have, or had, a great father consider yourself one of the very, very fortunate souls who need not wander the earth in search of your significance.

Updated and Reposted from the Wayback Files!

#ThrowbackThursday: 1 Year Ago - We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby

On this day in history:

Edward H. White II became the first American to step outside his spacecraft and let go,

On June 3, 1965, 120 miles above the Earth, Major Edward H. White II opens the hatch of the Gemini 4 and steps out of the capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to walk in space. Attached to the craft by a 25-foot tether and controlling his movements with a hand-held oxygen jet-propulsion gun, White remained outside the capsule for just over 20 minutes.

Thanks to all the research and development in space, 56 years later we find ourselves able to wander about while still being able to communicate with each other untethered by phone cords…

only to find ourselves tethered to our phones in more insidious ways?

Finding ourselves more alone together than ever

My 1965 teenaged self somehow thought our 21st century problems would be more interesting than our cellphones not being able to recognize our faces whilst they were swaddled in a face diaper.

“Face Obstructed – Try removing anything that may be covering your face.” Always good advice.

We’ve come a long way, baby, but sometimes it just doesn’t seem like it.