Tag Archives: United States of America

State news

Group stains secessionists' name

Texas secessionists have enough of a negative reputation that they don’t need another stain on their soiled reputation.

But by golly, here comes a group that takes the argument a nonsensical step farther.

The “Republic of Texas” says the state, which joined the Union in 1845 after being independent for nine years, never really became part of the United States of America. This group meets monthly in what it calls a joint session of congress. It manufactures its own money.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/secede-%e2%80%98republic%e2%80%99-claims-texas-never-joined-us/ar-AA9yzL9

These yahoos even claim some type of diplomatic immunity by presenting ID cards to police officers who stop them for committing infractions of various natures.

The Republic of Texas went too far, according to the FBI, in ordering a judge in Kerrville to appear in a “court hearing” involving his foreclosure order on a Republic member’s home. The FBI broke into a meeting the group was conducting, didn’t arrest anyone but made it known that the federal agency took a dim view of the stunts the group is trying to pull.

Interestingly, the disruption of the meeting apparently ginned up some support for this fringiest of fringe groups. Amazing, indeed.

Man, I don’t know how to process all of this. We live in crazy times, I suppose. Any group can do just about anything, short of advocating for the violent overthrow of the government — which always has been the case, given our First Amendment rights written into the U.S. Constitution.

However … why this group? And why in Texas, for crying out loud?

Our state has enough public relations issues with which to deal without having to answer for the shenanigans of these loons.

 

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'Secede' from our beloved country?

I keep seeing this bumper sticker on the back end of a pickup.

It’s next to another one. Their juxtaposition means that neither of them makes sense.

One is an American flag, Old Glory, the Stars and Stripes. The fellow who owns the truck is a “proud American,” I’m reckoning.

The other one says a single word: “SECEDE.”

OK, so which is it? Is the guy a patriot who loves this country? Does he want to break up his beloved United States of America?

You see these “SECEDE” bumper stickers and other signage around the Texas Panhandle every so often. I’m unsure — as I haven’t mustered the guts to actually question someone displaying the signs — whether the secede messages are to be taken literally.

I’d ask, except that in Texas we allow people to carry concealed handguns, so I’m afraid of getting shot … OK?

The secession talk ebbs and flows. I think it’s beginning to flow once again with election season coming on and tea party folks in Texas and elsewhere touting their candidates for public office.

The “SECEDE” sign next to Old Glory on the back bumper of the pickup sends a mixed message. I trust the owner of the truck is as proud of his country as I am, but I don’t know it, given the sign calling for Texas to pull out of the country.

I believe that’s called “sedition.”

In this country, though, it’s OK to say you want to secede; it’s quite another to actually do it. Eleven states did that once. It didn’t work out for them.

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Putin’s remarks do matter … a lot

Vladimir Putin’s assertion that the United States of America is not an exceptional nation has drawn fire from both sides of the political aisle in this country.

With good reason, I should add once again.

Yet, some political hounds, such as former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., have dismissed Putin’s remarks as being irrelevant, that they don’t matter.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/09/12/putin_becomes_congress_bipartisan_punching_bag_119926.html

I have to disagree with Gingrich.

Putin wrote — or as Gingrich said correctly, someone wrote it for him — an op-ed column in the New York Times in which he challenged American politicians’ view of this country as being “exceptional.” I won’t rehash the points I made in an earlier blog post about Russia’s relative mediocrity compared to America.

It is folly, though, to dismiss Putin’s remarks simply because he is a former KGB spy, as Gingrich did. He is leader of a significant nation that possesses a huge nuclear arsenal left over from the Cold War and the era when Russia was known as the Soviet Union. Russia is still a significant player on the world stage.

Most of us here in America, yours truly included, do not buy into Putin’s belief that this country is unexceptional. He has made his point and it is still reverberating around the world.

If he were president of, say, Trinidad and Tobago, then we could dismiss his comments as not worth our time or attention. His great big platform as Russian’s head of state gives Putin a very loud bullhorn.