Seriously?    It’s come to this…..

MARYLANDISTAN –  7-year-old Maryland boy was suspended from school for two days for shaping a breakfast pastry into what his teacher thought looked like a gun, according to his father.

FoxBaltimore.com reports that Josh Welch, a second-grader at Park Elementary School in Baltimore, was eating a strawberry tart when he decided to shape it into a mountain.

“All I was trying to do was turn it into a mountain but, it didn’t look like a mountain really and it turned out to be a gun [kind of],” Josh told the station. (more…)

 (AP) — The head of Chad’s military has announced on state television that Chadian troops deployed in northern Mali killed Moktar Belmoktar, the international terrorist responsible for the attack on a natural gas plant in Algeria that resulted in the death of dozens of foreigners.

The French military, which is leading the offensive in northern Mali, says it cannot confirm the information.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Zakaria Ngobongue read a statement saying Chadian soldiers on Saturday had destroyed a jihadist base in the Adrar and Ifoghas mountains of North Mali, killing Belmoktar.

Presidential pardons always represent somewhat of a conundrum.   While I actually agree with the pardon in this case because it is a freedom principle, this one seems particularly odd against the backdrop of Obama’s current gun restriction proposals. In essence he’s now pardoning a man who was convicted of the same crimes he’s proclaiming need to be more strictly enforced?

WASHINGTON DC – President Obama issued his first series of presidential pardons today, including one for a man who was convicted of possession of an unregistered firearm.

Larry Wayne Thornton of Forsyth, Ga., was sentenced to four years of probation for “possession of an unregistered firearm” and “possession of a firearm without a serial number.”

He is one of 17 people pardoned today.

The pardon comes as Obama is emphasizing, as part of his gun control push, the need to know who is buying weapons. (more…)

We are all aware of frightening and profoundly unsettling events that are happening in our world.   We discuss these matters often here at the Tree House.  These past months we have been voicing our beliefs, and learning from one another and, I hope, each of us has been reading and studying as much as we can do about the events of the day, about the founding of our country, the causes of The American Revolution, what our Founding Fathers thought and did, and the basic documents – The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.  History is important, because it frames our perspective of current events.  It also reminds us why the United States of America is unique and great, and why it is important for us to do whatever we can to preserve it.

(more…)

Texas Independence Day

March 2, 1836

    By Elvis Chupacabra

.

When I was a mere lad, Texas Independence Day was celebrated in schools with patriotic songs, readings of the Declaration by schoolkids and grave lectures on our role as Texans by our teachers. Even the Mexican kids participated, because anyone who’d read the  hallowed rolls of the Alamo and Goliad dead knew that there were plenty of martyrs with Spanish surnames. We also knew of Lorenzo de Zavala and Juan Seguin, both Texian heroes of the Revolution.

It was understood by the youngest of us that Texas went from being just the mostly empty northern part of the Mexican state of Cohuila-Texas to the independent Republic of Texas with the signing of this document. Like the beloved United States, from whence the spirit -and some would say impetus – of revolution had come, we won our right to be free through the force of arms, wielded by brave and bold men. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the despot which our Texas Forefathers overthrew was ever bit as evil and prone to predations as Britain’s George III. His one saving grace, that he invented that most American of oral fixations, chewing gum, was more than off-set by his cruelty and duplicitous nature. The self-proclaimed Napoleon of the North, he boasted an army well-officered and well-equipped that had spent the past couple of years putting down rebellions in Mexico. It wasn’t just the Texians who longed for the return to a government who respected the liberal Constitution of 1824.  (more…)

Dear Friends,

Last year, I wrote a small piece about what it means to me to be a Texan. My friends know it means about damned near everything. Anyway, this fella asked me to reprint what I’d wrote and I didn’t have it. So I set out to think about rewriting something. I considered writing about all the great things I love about Texas. There are way too many things to list. I can’t even begin to do it justice. Lemme let you in on my short list.  (more…)

Use this thread as an open thread just for Zimmerman Case stuff. A place to just dump, collect, or discuss general information about the Trayvon Martin VS George Zimmerman Case.

“The sensationalized, fact-deficient coverage of this case has achieved the
desired results. The networks got their ratings. The politicians got their
talking points. And if it means innocent people get caught in the middle of the
racial enmity they’ve fomented, obviously it’s considered acceptable collateral
damage. Congratulations, geniuses. Job well done.” Jim Treacher, The DC Trawler

REMINDER – Please WATCH THE TONE and CONTENT of Commentary. Please be respectful, courteous and considerate of other readers and contributors. Please avoid hatespeak, angry rhetoric, vulgarity, personal attacks and condescension. If you wish to engage in vitriolic, racist, or bitter angry rhetoric, there are alternative sites on the internet more than welcoming to such considerations. But not here. Thank You.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Heartbreaking interview with brother below (more…)

Y’all are smart enough to understand what is being discussed about here.

(more…)