Scores Killed, Hundreds Injured As Para-Military Extremists Riot

BOSTON, April 19 -  Federal troops, units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned "assault weapons" were ambushed today by elements of a paramilitary extremist faction.  Military and law enforcement sources estimated that 72 were killed and more that 20 injured before government forces were forced to withdraw.

Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist militia, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical tax protest movement.  Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices.

The governor, who described the group's organizers as "criminals," issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government's efforts to secure law and order.

The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed wide-spread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault weapons.  Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week.

The decision followed a meeting in early April between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms.  One government official, speaking on condition of annonymity, pointed out that "none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned their weapons over voluntarily."

Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition.  However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily armed extremists who had been tipped off in the night regarding the government's plans.

During a tense standoff in Lexington's town park, Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes.  The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the extremists.  Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange.

Ironically, locals blamed government forces rather than the extremists for the civilain deaths.  Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the federal units.  Colonel Smith, finding his forces overmatched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat.

Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order.  The governor has also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government troops.  Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, who had been identified as "ringleaders" of the extremist faction remain at large.

LINK

 Link?

quote?

sounds funny

ETA....One cocktail too many to have read the whole thing....

everyone who didn't get it within 10 seconds needs to study more history.  Today is April 19.

By God, where's a redcoat when you need them!

Pretty good, it would also be interesting to read actual accounts of the event.

It's a modern parody of the battles of Lexington and Concord. Geez. It shouldn't take a history major to point that out.

Nice.  This might come in handy as a form of rhetorical response in a debate on the issue.  Worth saving.

Quoted: It's a modern parody of the battles of Lexington and Concord. Geez. It shouldn't take a history major to point that out.

It's been a long day.....two papers down and one to go!  

THE FIRST DAY OF AMERICAN HISTORY
The Shot Heard Round the World

If it makes you feel better, I knew what it was going to say before I even clicked on it. And I didn't even realize that today was 4/19  


My sig line from another board:
...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....


If anyone doesn't know what THAT is, here is a link for that: http://www.nationalcenter.org/PaulRevere'sRide.html

I had a guy on that other board IM me and compliment me for writing that sig. line.   I told him it wasn't me, it was some guy named Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

God Bless those first American Soliders killed in action that day. They had more to lose than we can even imagine. Yet they had the balls to step up to the plate and do the right thing. It is hard to even imagine. As Fred would say, when they left their homes that day they knew they could never return the same man.

"Will we stand here while they burn the city ?"
"There is not a single man among us who is afraid to go".

Quoted:  Link?

Here ya go! LINK

Quoted: Quoted:  Link? Here ya go! LINK

I didn't see the article in the link.

Interesting.

Today is the day our country began to exist.

Hitlers Birthday
Waco
OKC

www.amazon.com/Paul-Reveres-David-Hackett-Fischer/dp/0195098315/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-9163109-6716629?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177029622&sr=8-2

You simply MUST read this book if you want to understand what happened that day. One of the best books I have ever read, it will bring tears to your eyes how brave these guys were.

here's the rest


Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
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."

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,--
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
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.

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.

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.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Quoted: everyone who didn't get it within 10 seconds needs to study more history.  Today is April 19.

+800,000,000

You'd think here, of all places, people would recognize this

This came from my State Representative today.   I do love this guy......


The spring of 1775 was beset in unsettled times, especially in New England and specifically in Massachusetts, where discontent roiled over England’s oppressive manner of governance.  Taxation without representation was about to break the camel’s back and the colonists were prepared throw off the mantle of subservience to England.
Such discontent was not unknown to the British authorities, including the British regular army stationed in Boston.  They had already made treks into the countryside confiscating arms and munitions from colonial magazines, these colonists didn’t have the protection of SB257 forbidding the confiscation of firearms in times of emergency.  Late in the evening of April 18, 1775 another such mission was getting underway.  This time the arms and munitions to be confiscated were in Concord and “rebel” leaders, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, were reported to be in Lexington and also made the list of items to be returned to Boston.

These activities were not unknown to the Committees of Correspondence in Boston.  A silversmith named Paul Revere had arranged for advance warning and was about to embark on the most famous midnight ride in American history.  Despite Revere’s capture, two other riders, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, continued their midnight ride for 22 miles from Boston’s Old North Church to Concord and sounded the call to arms throughout the countryside.

As the night faded into dawn the 700 British Regulars marched onto the Lexington Green and were met by 77 “Minutemen” – farmers and townspeople really, organized into a militia.  Captain John Parker of the Lexington company instructed the Minutemen, “Stand your ground; don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

Before long the British officer extended his sword demanding, “Lay down your arms, you damned rebels, or you are all dead men.  Fire!”  The first volley harmed no one, but the second was a different matter leaving eight dead.

It is unknown who fired the first shot and I’m not sure that it really matters.  What matters is that freemen had the courage to stand for Liberty knowing full well the probable scene that would unfold when the smoke cleared and several would lay dead and wounded.

Later that morning when the British, numbering about 120, arrived at the Old North Bridge they were met by 400 Minutemen who had responded to the call to arms.  Another fight was fought and the British realizing how far they were from the safety of Boston began their long and harrowing march back to the city as the number of Minutemen swelled to 5000.  All along the way the British were fired upon by brave and courageous colonists.  British casualties were high and these untried Minutemen demonstrated their resolve.
John Adams recalled, “the Die was cast, the Rubicon crossed.”  The War for Independence had begun and would continue for eight years as a new America struggled for independence and is honored today as Patriots Day.

On this Patriots Day, please pray for our Patriots in uniform around the globe standing in harm’s way and for their families – never forgetting the families of those fallen soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen, who have died in defense of Liberty.  They do this so that we may echo daily the words of Samuel Adams as he spoke to John Hancock on the morning of April 19, 1775, “What a glorious morning this is!”
Feel free to forward this email to friends and family to promote an informed and active citizenry.

Quoted: Hitlers Birthday Waco OKC

And my birthday.

Better stay the fuck outta my way.

My GF is taking me to Ruth's Chris tomorrow night

Damn you Lobster Backs!!!!!

Today should be just as big as the 4th of July.

+1 - good post

Quoted: Hitlers Birthday Waco OKC

Actually, Hitler's birthday is the 20th.

The real importance is in reading between the lines and seeing the power of media/propaganda for creating an image of good verses evil when the facts taken on their face paints the reverse: the "good" guys are the bad ones, and the "bad" guys the good ones.

We forget that our own revolution was "illegal" from the Brits' point of view and only barely succeeded thanks to God's grace, blind 'luck', the shifting fortunes of France and Spain (allies against England and for us), and the exceptional talent of at least half the wealthiest men in the colonies.

Yes, that's right folks, if not for the involvement of the erstwhile "elites", the rich landowners and others, who had alot of land and men, the war would have lasted scarcely a season. Rebellions and insurgencies cost alot - way more than any middle class "minute man" could afford unless he sold a home or two and poured all the money into just his infantry gear.

Apart from the elite who formed "congress" there were also the spy network formed by Geo. Washington, the relative inability of the Brits to venture far inland unless with overwhelming numbers...and a huge continent to the west that provided free zones for retreat.

If any future American group sought rebellion against the fed without Bill Gates and the top 10 Forbes 400 at their back, they be wiped out and no one would know about it unless it helped advance the socialist agenda.

In a sense, this makes civil war less likely and makes politics as a means of social and legal change "the only game" in town.