Before I launched into posts about tracing a family connection to the Revolutionary War, I mentioned that Deb and her cousin were chasing their own ties. It’s not my intent to spill all the beans about what they’ve uncovered, but I want to hit the highlights.
Their ancestor, like mine, was of German descent and born in southeastern Pennsylvania. One of the earliest Associators, he attended the Second Continental Congress and raised troops for the Pennsylvania Line, serving as a lieutenant colonel in the First Battalion, Lancaster County Militia. Among his prominent positions during the Revolution was paymaster for the Continental Army.
He and George Washington became friends and were business associates for many years, and some of their correspondence is preserved in the National Archives. Some years after serving as mayor of Alexandria, Virginia, in 1799 he helped arrange and attended Washington’s last birthday party at Wise Tavern.
Yeah, that’s pretty cool — but it’s not the best part.
At Washington’s funeral on December 18th, 1799, which was both an Anglican service and a Masonic ceremony, six Continental Army colonels served as honorary pallbearers. Only one of those men was not a Mason — Col. Philip Marsteller, requested specifically and personally by Martha Washington.
Deb and her cousin are descended from that Patriot. I think it’s a pretty great story.
One year ago today we followed a route that one day we’d be able to drive blindfolded, and we landed at a campground where we’d end up spending more time than anywhere else. It’s intriguing now to look back at firsts that eventually became familiar.
The weather turned damp and miserable here at Second Chance Ranch — rain overnight, thunderstorms this morning. Nothing we’re doing gets too terribly sidetracked by those conditions. We continue to wade toward the exit, plowing through the work.
We drove over to the local Home Depot yesterday to pick up an order of boxes and packing materials. We brought home a commercial-grade hand truck, too, to ease the task of moving stuff around and out of the house, and I laid eyes on a couple of rolling storage systems I’ve been considering for moving my hand tools, power tools and other shop gear.
I decided to go with the three-box Ridgid setup, two of them. My DeWalt shooting-range tote, which I’ve had for years, is the foundation of a similar system, so I also ordered two compatible tool boxes that’ll sit on top of its wheeled base.
All that stuff will land on our doorstep over the next several days.
We’ve been pretty much consumed with work here at The Ranch, so the Thursday-afternoon trip to the store was a rare outing for us. I took the time to look at the people around me. Y’know what I saw?
Masks.
It’s technically voluntary at this point, of course. I’d put the masking yesterday at 10%.
That’s a high number, I think, considering what we know now about the effectiveness (or not) of face diapers and the gross exaggeration of the threat we faced (or didn’t). Still, some people remain addicted to irrational caution. And yes, I still see people driving alone in their car, masked.
Stupidity has been normalized.
We live in The Land of Backwards, The Kingdom of Upside-Down. The White House Spokesginger was replaced last week by a black lesbian chosen for the job solely because she’s a black lesbian who sleeps with a black lesbian who works for CNN. A nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States, put forward by a political party that doesn’t know which bathroom to use, can’t tell the U.S. Senate what a “woman” is because she’s “not a biologist.”
Boys pretending to be girls are competing in women’s sports and kicking ass, and no one has the balls [sic] to stop the idiocy. Our national security relies on an obsolete public-health policy to prevent invading illegals from completely overrunning our southern border.
In a congressional hearing the Secretary of the Interior refused to say that gas prices are too high. The day before, a pro-abortion witness, after declining to define “woman,” was asked by a congressman, “Do you believe that men can become pregnant and have abortions?”
“Yes,” she declared without hesitation.
And speaking of the abortion horde, nothing captures just how far America has fallen like The Cult of Death prancing and chanting on the National Mall, celebrating the murder of infants and vowing to keep killing them no matter what. But as reprehensible as these homicidal bitches are, there’s something we can learn from them.
“Ungovernable!” they shout. “Ungovernable!”
That’s a good word, the equivalent of “I will not comply.” Liberty-loving Americans need not adopt the lingo, and we’ll certainly keep fighting to protect the inalienable right to Life, but when we practice “patriotic disobedience” we’re telling the State that we, the People, are “ungovernable.”
In related news, plans to launch that un-American “Disinformation Governance Board” have been paused. Truth is, that doesn’t matter much — this entire regime is a Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
Putin price hike. Inflation is transitory. We’re still coming out of the pandemic. Racism. The ultra-MAGA crowd. White supremacy and domestic terrorism. We’re all in this together. Unity. Democracy is under attack. Ya-da-ya-da-ya-da.
Complaining about that won’t change a thing.
Resisting it will.
A friend of mine closed his businesses a couple of weeks ago. He posted this sign on the door.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB