Sarah Palin Right On Paul Revere's Ride?

Could Sarah Palin have been right on when she described her idea of the famous midnight ride of Paul Revere?

Say what? Yep, I read it on, of all places, the MSNBC website. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43285196/ns/politics/ [Scroll to the bottom and click on "Show more text"]

WHAT DID YOU (AND I) LEARN ABOUT PAUL REVERE'S RIDE?

Pretty much the story as told by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, http://poetry.eserver.org/paul-revere.html

Listen my children and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, ...

"..Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

... And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height

A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.

... It was twelve by the village clock

When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.

... It was one by the village clock,

When he galloped into Lexington.

... It was two by the village clock,

When he came to the bridge in Concord town.

... So through the night rode Paul Revere;

And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---...

Do you remember anything else?

SARAH PALIN'S VERSION

The MSNBC site linked above quotes her as saying:

"He who warned the British that they weren't gonna be takin' away our arms by ringing those bells, and makin' sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed."

Say what? Did you ever hear that Paul Revere WARNED the BRITISH ??? And RINGING THOSE BELLS ??? And, we were going to be FREE and ARMED ???

Where did she get that from?

OK, if you go to that linked MSNBC site, scroll to the bottom and then click on "Show more text", you will read:

... Revere did give up some details of the plan to the British that night, but after he had notified other colonists, and under questioning by British soldiers ... Revere revealed "there would be five hundred Americans there in a short time, for I had alarmed the Country all the way up," ...

So, Paul Revere, in essence WARNED the British soldiers who questioned him after his ride, that there would soon be FIVE HUNDRED AMERICANS, ARMED and ready to protect our freedom.

And, during his ride through all those towns and villages, how did Paul Revere alert all those sleeping Americans? Did he go from house to house and wake them all up?

Of course not, he went to each Church, roused the keeper, and, by the sound of the Church bells, awoke and alerted everybody, informing them of the message he had received via the two signal lanterns hung in the Bell Tower of the Old North Church.

And, what was the main purpose of the British advance up through Medford and Lexington towards Concord? Well, it was to attempt to confiscate the stash of arms hidden there.

That explains this stanza in Longfellow's poem:

You know the rest. In the books you have read

How the British Regulars fired and fled---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

Ira Glickstein

PS: Sarah Palin is mocked for the slightest error or apparent error. At the same time, our President, arguably the most academically intelligent leader we have ever had, can write "24 May 2008" (a couple weeks ago in Westminster Abbey) as the date and year when it was actually 2011. The President forgets the YEAR, which is certainly more important for anyone to know than the story of Paul Revere, and Sarah Palin gets busted for her short-hand answer about the REAL story of Paul Revere warning the British and sounding the bells. Media bias? You Betcha! Amazing! http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=302953

...

Independence Day for Sarah Palin

Happy July 4th! Of course the photo to the left is photo-shopped. It appeared during the 2008 presidential campaign and mocks Gov. Sarah Palin as a gun-toting, barefoot and pregnant "trailer-trash" woman with a cigarette-smoking son.

Even now, with the campaign over for months, Palin and even her children continue to be the butt of disgusting "humor".

• Just last month Palin and her 14-year old daughter attended a Yankee's baseball game. A major talk-show host joked that the girl has been "knocked up" by one of the players.
• A crude hit piece in the current Vanity Fair, headlined "It Came from Wasilla" caricatures her (or "It" as the headline calls her) as "casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency".
• The photo to the right is of Palin with her husband Todd and their "special needs" child Trig. This innocent baby was mocked by photo-shopping an ugly adult's face over a similar photo of him being carried by his mother. (I've included that photo at the end of this posting with an appropriate warning so don't scroll down there if you don't want to see it.)

Alaska has a law that allows any resident to inexpensively file an ethics complaint in writing against any government official. However frivolous, such accusations must be investigated by state authorities and defended by the accused government official.

So far, about a dozen and a half such ethics complaints have been filed and all have been rejected, at a reported cost of about $2M to the taxpayers of Alaska and $500K by Palin and her supporters. It appears these ethics complaints have no merit and have been filed for the purpose of generating negative publicity and harrassing the accused officials. Perhaps we need a law that requires anyone who files such a complaint to share the legal expenses of the state and the accused if and when the complaint fails to pan out.

PALIN DECLARES HER INDEPENDENCE

Palin's July 4th weekend decision not to seek re-election, and hand her office over to her Lt. Governor, has generated howls of phony anguish from opponents who hypocritically term her resignation a "betrayal to Alaska" and "leaving the people of Alaska high and dry". These are the same people who call for Governor Mark Sanford to resign because of his stimulus package visit to Argentina to bone up on foreign affairs :^) Where's the worry about the people of South Carolina being left leaderless if Sanford resigns? (For the record, I and a majority of members of his own party want him to resign immediately.)

There is speculation Palin resigned ahead of some coming revelation of a political scandal. Perhaps she has been to Argentina lately? Her college degree is in journalism and Sanford's love interest in Argentina is a journalist! :^) A scandal of some sort is certainly possible - the major media would love that, and are scrambling over each other searching for something that would take her out of the picture for good.

For now, I take her at her word that, having decided not to run again, she did not want to draw a paycheck while travelling the country and the world and giving speeches as so many 'lame duck' politicos have done before her. That is so refreshing that virtually none of the political 'talking heads' on cable news could imagine it could be true.


POLITICS OF PERSONAL DESTRUCTION

It is perfectly fine to criticize her views on important issues. For example, I do not share her religious beliefs and I disagree with some of her views on abortion. If one of my loved ones learned she was carrying a seriously handicapped baby and chose to terminate the pregnancy in the first or second trimester for that reason, I would fully support her decision. The key point, as the pro-abortion woman's "choice" side correctly points out, is that it is the WOMAN's decision to make.

But, Palin's opponents don't stop at criticizing her opinions, they practiced "politics of personal destruction" during the campaign, and well afterwards. They lampoon her upbringing in the wilds of Alaska and her social and religious beliefs. Worst of all, they belittle her children, even her youngest and most innocent, Trig. Well, some of them say, she invited that criticism by dragging her children throughout the campaign. Had she left them behind, they would have criticized her for abandoning her young children. (A male candidate with young children generally leaves his wife at home to care for the children during a political campaign, and features them only at a few political events. Palin campaigned with her husband, and, as a female candidate she naturally wanted her young children to be with her as much as possible. That, again, is a WOMAN's choice.)

FEMINIST HYPOCRACY

"Sometimes the 'best man' for the job is a WOMAN" is what the self-proclaimed feminists tell us (and they are correct). Palin has shown herself to be capable of doing a 'man's job' in commercial fishing, in hunting moose for her family's larder, and as a hard-charging "barracuda" in sports. In politics she aggressively 'skinned' more than one man who got in her way, working her way up from the PTA to local government to the highest position in state government.

Unlike most other women who inherit their political offices from their prominent husbands or politically-connected families, or who buy their way in with support from their rich families, she did it all on her own. She is the very model of a modern woman: strong-willed yet feminine and fertile, smart yet not effete or elite, and capable of combining her family with her career. She can both shoot and butcher a moose and prepare moose stew and serve it with home-baked cookies.

So, why does the feminist establishment hate her so much? Well, truth be told, a woman is free to choose her opinions so long as they are the politically correct opinions! "All animals are equal" is the rule adopted in George Orwell's Animal Farm, - it is later changed by the ruling pigs to "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others".

Yes, indeed, EVERYONE IS EQUAL! When standardized tests show some identifiable group is not equal to some other identifiable group, we need to throw out the test results! But, some are "more equal" than others. That is, those who have graduated from an Ivy League college and who are part of the New York and east coast, Hollywood and west coast and Chicago midwest elite are more equal than the common people who cling to their guns and religion. You can tell who these "more equal" people are. They have politically correct opinions and read and write for the politically correct newspapers and watch and appear on the politically correct talk shows. All others are fodder for rude humor.

PALIN'S FUTURE

Unlike many other politicians, Palin doesn't need an official position, or a great deal of income, to live a satisfying life. Her husband earns good money in the oil fields of Alaska, and that, plus a few moose in the freezer, could support her lifestyle adequately.

Her legal expenses defending frivolous lawsuits will most likely be paid off by contribution from her many supporters. She reportedly has a seven-figure book deal and could earn tens of thousands of dollars for public appearances. She could probably host a talk show on any of the cable news networks (her college degree is in journalism, after all :^)

I do not think she plans to run for President (or even VP) in the 2012 election. If the economy recovers, as I predicted it will, President Obama will be secure to win a second term. She could run for Senator from Alaska to build up her national knowledge and reputation. She has six years to build up her political and international knowledge and reputation if she wants to run for President (or VP) in 2016. At her age, she has the time to wait. I hope we have not seen the last of her in public affairs.

Ira Glickstein

WARNING - DISTURBING PHOTO BELOW

The photo below originated on a fringe Blog and I would not normally run it on this Blog. However, I am showing part of the detail on this Blog only because the photo-shopped photo was posted on a major online site last month.

The base photo appears to be genuine, but the photo-shopper has superimposed the face of a talk show host over Trig's face, making him look ugly.

Our Three Minutes of FAME

Vi and I are the "stars" of a three-minute Associated Press video and a number of AP still photos. Please click on this video link and hold tight for the unavoidable commercial that comes before our grand debut on national TV. The photo above is one of those taken by the AP photographer. IN THE LIMELIGHT We spent part of Monday and most of Tuesday morning with an AP videographer and a photographer. The story line was that we were on opposite sides in the recent Presidential election. How did the press find us? Well, about a month ago, Vi's name was given to a Miami AP reporter (by a friend at The Villages Democratic Party) as a former Republican now supporting Sen. Obama. Vi was interviewed by phone and her name appeared in one paragraph of a story that ran in the Miami Herald and many other newspapers (To get links please Google: "Violet Glickstein" Obama). About a week and a half ago we were asked if we'd like to be interviewed prior to the election for a more detailed version of her story. We agreed enthusiastically. Lynne, from AP Miami, came to our home Monday afternoon. She wired us up and video-interviewed us in a very professional manner. The last scene of the AP video shows us behind our house, arm-in-arm, gazing at the pond, as I wonder where I'll sleep if the McCain-Palin ticket wins :^) Lynne came back early Tuesday morning, along with John, an AP Orlando photographer. We had our morning coffee and some discussions as he and she took some more video and photos. We then headed, by golf cart, to vote at the Mulberry Recreation Center. Lynne took more video at Mulberry and then departed because she had to compose her video report by a 2PM deadline. John stayed with us and composed captions and uploaded his photos from his laptop to the AP from our living room. Both Lynne and John were delightful to have in our home and very professional. We are very pleased with the results of our experience with a national press organization. THIS ELECTION AS CULMINATION OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE Of course, Vi is more pleased with our new President-Elect Obama than I am :^) In the photo above she is wearing a button with "Barack Obama" in Hebrew letters. She remembers the civil rights struggle with great emotion, as do I. It was a heroic effort by many people, black and white - not a few Jewish - to achieve racial equality. In Martin Luther King's stirring words from 1963, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." As a young child I had an aunt who lived in Washington DC. I remember taking the Greyhound bus from New York City to DC with my parents to visit her. When the bus was about to cross the state border into Maryland it pulled over and the driver announced that "negroes" had to move to the rear because the State Troopers would stop the bus otherwise. They all complied without any fuss. I remember being angry but powerless to do anything about it. In DC we took public transportation and observed as blacks moved obediently to the rear. At that time, blacks could buy food at the snack bar at Peoples Drug Stores and most other restaurants in our Nation's Capitol, but they were not allowed to sit at the tables to eat it. How far we've come in our lifetimes! Although I was on the other political side in this election - hoping to elect our first female VP - I am very happy we have finally elected a black man to the highest office in the land. It is an historic event to have witnessed. President-Elect Obama is a wonderful speaker and writer and clearly a very smart guy who ran a brilliant campaign. I wish him the best and hope he has a very successful Presidency. On the other hand, if you look closely at the photo above, I am wearing a "Sarah Palin 2012" button! I can hardly wait for the elections four years from now. We saw the appointment of a Republican as the first female Supreme Court Justice and as the first black Secretay of State. How historic it will be to see a female President, and I hope she will be a Republican!

Ira Glickstein PS: In a previous posting to this Blog, I complained that the major media often show their bias by doing extreme close-ups of conservatives, making them look bald and more angry than necessary, while they generally show liberals full-face. Well, if you look at the AP video, sure enough, Vi is always shown full-face while the close-ups of me are extreme.

Here is part of what I wrote: "... have you noticed how conservatives are often shown on TV with tight focus on their eyes, mouths, and chins, making them look mean and even bald? Liberals seem to get a much kinder camera." [Guardians at the Gates are Gone See my Comment posted 14 Aug 2008]