First Principles: In Short, Is Not Liberty the Freedom of Every Person To Make Full Use of His Faculties, So Long As He Does Not Harm Other Persons While Doing So?

“In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person to make full use of his faculties, so long as he does not harm other persons while doing so? Is not liberty the destruction of all despotism — including, of course, legal despotism? Finally, is not liberty the restricting of the law only to its rational sphere of organizing the right of the individual to lawful self-defense; of punishing injustice?” – Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

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Firefighter 54 (In Memoriam for the Death of My Sister)

Barddeco - Sharpened Cross Inside A Void
For those who remember Michele, I offer in her memory on this anniversary of her death:
 
Firefighter 54
by Michael Doyle
 
..Firefighter 54, firefighter 54
This is Ashland Fire Department
Firefighter 54, Firefighter 54
This is Ashland Fire Department
Please respond….
 
Firefighter 54, Firefighter 54
This is Ashland Fire Department
The speaker squawked in the background
Firefighter 54, Firefighter 54
 
Firefighter 54 is no longer responding
Thank you for your service Firefighter 54
We pray that your final journey is peaceful
And we ask Our Father in Heaven to prepare you a place
 
The early morning drizzle came down slowly
Like angel tears saddened at this moment
Funny, my brother in law and I had joked at the wake
That Michele would love it to rain just a little
All of this so much to take in, all of this moving me
I kept waiting for this to be a joke just for a moment
Trying to be strong sometimes it’s harder than others to fake
This part, the hard part, laying you in the ground.. the middle part
 
I drove 14 hours to say goodbye to my greatest hero
My sister, my best friend, the one who knew me best of all
Into a community of sincere small town people
I learned in an instant how much they had brought to her
All the big town-ness she had left behind was zero
Compared to the warmth and truth, it was nothing at all
Of these people I suddenly met gathered under this steeple
They had sincerely embraced her in love, they had loved her
 
..Firefighter 54, firefighter 54
This is Ashland Fire Department
Firefighter 54, Firefighter 54
This is Ashland Fire Department
Please respond….
 
Firefighter 54, Firefighter 54
This is Ashland Fire Department
The speaker squawked in the background
Firefighter 54, Firefighter 54
 
Firefighter 54 is no longer responding
Thank you for your service Firefighter 54
Thank you for your service
We pray our Father in Heaven to prepare your final place
 
Old Blue stood there quietly taking it all in
Where was his buddy, it was long since the last ride
I patted his long face and stared nose to nose
You miss her too don’t you old guy, I know
He had rode with her on many a trail until the very end
All that cattle cutting and barrel racing was a joyful pride
I wonder old guy do you .. do you know?
Someday I know you’ll be in heaven riding again, soul to soul
 
She had started a brilliantly moving modeling career
But as time went on she found it was not what she wanted
She chose to move to the middle of the middle of nowhere
And it was there that she found herself to the fullest degree
The love she had needed was mysteriously found there
Trading in the high life and Gucci for a distinct prairie bonnet
From the tales of admiration I heard, hers was a life without fear
What she could she always found a way to share with me
 
..Firefighter 54, firefighter 54
This is Ashland Fire Department
Firefighter 54, Firefighter 54
This is Ashland Fire Department
Please respond….
 
Firefighter 54, Firefighter 54
This is Ashland Fire Department
The speaker squawked in the background
Firefighter 54, Firefighter 54
 
Firefighter 54 is no longer responding
Thank you for your service Firefighter 54
Thank you for your service
 
We pray our Father in Heaven to prepare your final place
I left town in a muddled haze of happiness marbled in sadness
Doing my best cowboy, too tough to cry or even whimper why
I had 14 hours more set before me and drive it I must
With a mind distracted and lost up in photographic memories
The irony of it all felt like only so much jaded madness
How it is that I with my fatal flaws live while she had to die
Sadly true, those sweet photos had brought diamonds and rust
Such are the feelings stirred up with a lifetime of memories
 
I thought of the streets lined with people peering from doorway
Firemen from the neighboring counties saluting as we drove by
The few stories shared by the people who loved and cared
And I knew at least that my sister had lived just as she wanted
There is little more that a brother could want in any way
And it is selfish of me, so selfish, to hang my head and cry
When I know that she is out of pain and lived as she’d dared
Except for more life, this was all I should have ever wanted
 
..Firefighter 54, firefighter 54
This is Ashland Fire Department
Firefighter 54, Firefighter 54
This is Ashland Fire Department
Please respond….
 
Firefighter 54, Firefighter 54
This is Ashland Fire Department
The speaker squawked in the background
Firefighter 54, Firefighter 54
 
Firefighter 54 is no longer responding
Thank you for your service Firefighter 54
Thank you for your service
Go ahead cowgirl, ride your ride to rest in your final peace
 
(c) August 10, 2014 Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved
The Path to Buchhaim, Zamonia - Counting Every Feather of the Head

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Thought For the Day: To Be A Socialist Is To Submit the I To the Thou; Socialism Is Sacrificing the Individual to the Whole

“To be a socialist is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole.” – Joseph Gobbels

Who is there that really still doubts that the National Socialistic Workers Party (NAZIs) were not socialists? Now look at the contemporary brown shirts, Antifa and BLM, tell me please that we have not seen this sort of street thuggery before?

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First Principles: It Should Be Your Care…and Mine, To Elevate the Minds of Our Children and Exalt Their Courage…and Virtue

“It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.” – John Adams, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1756

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Thought For the Day: If America Is Not Strong, the World Will Be At the Mercy of Tyrants and Enter An Era We Dare Not Imagine

“If America is not strong, the world will be at the mercy of tyrants and enter an era we dare not imagine.” – Mike Pompeo

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First Principles: The Natural Cure For an Ill-Administration…Is A Change of Men

“The natural cure for an ill-administration … is a change of men.” – Alexander Hamilton (1787)

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First Principles: The Virtues of Men Are of More Consequence To Society Than Their Abilities; and For This Reason, the Heart Should Be Cultivated With More Assiduity Than the Head

“The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.” – Noah Webster, On the Education of Youth in America, 1788

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Thought For the Day: Children Have Never Been Very Good At Listening To Their Elders, But They Have Never Failed To Imitate Them

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” -James Baldwin

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Thought For the Day: No Matter Which Party Is In Power, the Government Cannot Be Trusted To Label ‘Truth’ or ‘Fiction’ Any More Than Facebook or Twitter Can

“No matter which party is in power, the government cannot be trusted to label ‘truth’ or ‘fiction’ any more than Facebook or Twitter can.” – ACLU

Maybe they really mean it now? They have stood up against the Trump bans and now make the above pronouncement against the Left’s move toward silencing conservative voices. If so, this is a very good thing.

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First Principles: Public Opinion Sets Bounds To Every Government and Is the Real Sovereign In Every Free One

“Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.” – James Madison (1791)

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