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April 22, 2008
Guns and God? Hell, yes
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we’ll all stay free
Praise the Lord and swing into position
Can’t afford to be a politician
Praise the Lord, we’re all between perdition
And the deep blue sea
Yes the sky pilot said it
Ya gotta give him credit
For a sonofagun of a gunner was he
Shouting Praise the Lord, we’re on a mighty mission
All aboard, we ain’t a-goin’ fishin’
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we’ll all stay free
Praise the Lord (Praise the Lord) and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord (Praise the Lord) and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord (Praise the Lord) and pass the ammunition
And we’ll all stay free
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we’ll all stay free
.
Mark Steyn: Guns and God? Hell, yes
Obama attacks two of the things that elevate the U.S. above places like Europe
Our lesson today comes from the songwriter Frank Loesser:
"Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition."
Or as Barack Obama and his San Francisco pals would put it: God and guns. Loesser got the phrase from Howell Forgy, a naval chaplain at Pearl Harbor, who walked the decks of the USS New Orleans under Japanese bombardment, exhorting his comrades. When the line came to Loesser's ears, he turned it into a big hit song of the Second World War:
"Praise the Lord and swing into position
Can't afford to sit around a-wishin'…" – which some folks sang as "Can't afford to be a politician." Indeed. Sen. Obama's remarks about poor dumb, bitter rural losers "clinging to" guns and God certainly testify to the instinctive snobbery of a big segment of the political class. But we shouldn't let it go by merely deploring coastal condescension toward the knuckledraggers. No, what Michelle Malkin calls Crackerquiddick (quite rightly – it's more than just another dreary "-gate") is not just snobbish nor even merely wrongheaded.
It's an attack on two of the critical advantages the United States holds over most of the rest of the Western world.
In the other G7 developed nations, nobody clings to God 'n' guns. The guns got taken away, and the Europeans gave up on churchgoing once they embraced Big Government as the new religion.
How's that working out? Compared with America, France and Germany have been more or less economically stagnant for the past quarter-century, living permanently with unemployment rates significantly higher than in the United States.
Has it made them any less "bitter," as Obama characterizes those Pennsylvanian crackers? No. In my book "America Alone," just out in paperback and available in all good bookstores – you'll find it in Borders propping up the wonky rear leg of the display table for the smash new CD "Michelle Obama And The San Francisco Macchiato Chorus Sing "I Pinned My Pink Slip To The Gun Rack Of My Pick-Up,' 'My Dog Done Died, My Wife Jus' Left Me, And Michael Dukakis Is Strangely Reluctant To Run Again,' Plus 'I Swung By The Economic Development Zone Business Park But The Only Two Occupied Rental Units Were Both Evangelical Churches' And Other Embittered Appalachian Favorites."
Where was I? Oh, yes. In my book "America Alone," I note a global survey on optimism: 61 percent of Americans were optimistic about the future, 29 percent of the French, 15 percent of Germans. Take it from a foreigner: In my experience, Americans are the least "bitter" people in the developed world. Secular, gun-free big-government Europe doesn't seem to have done anything for people's happiness. Consider by way of example the words of Keith Reade. He's not an Obama speechwriter, he's a writer for the London Daily Mirror. And the day after the 2004 presidential election he expressed his frustration in an alarmingly Obamaesque way:
"Were I a Kerry voter, though, I'd feel deep anger, not only at them returning Bush to power, but for allowing the outside world to lump us all into the same category of moronic muppets. The self-righteous, gun-totin', military-lovin', sister-marryin', abortion-hatin', gay-loathin', foreigner-despisin', nonpassport ownin' rednecks, who believe God gave America the biggest d*** in the world so it could urinate on the rest of us and make their land 'free and strong.'"
Well, that's certainly why I supported Bush, but I'm not sure it entirely accounts for the other 62,039,073 incontinent rednecks. Reade, though, does usefully enumerate some of the distinctive features that separate America from the rest of the West. "Self-righteous"? If you want a public culture that reeks of indestructible faith in its own righteousness, try Europe – especially when they're talking about America: If you disagree with Eutopian wisdom, you must be an idiot.
Obama and far too many Democrats have bought into this delusion, most thoroughly distilled in Thomas Frank's book "What's The Matter With Kansas?", whose argument is that heartland voters are too dumb (i.e., "moronic muppets") to vote for their own best interests.
Europeans did "vote for their own best interests" – i.e., cradle-to-grave welfare, 35-hour workweeks, six weeks of paid vacation, etc. – and as a result they now face a perfect storm of unsustainable entitlements, economic stagnation and declining human capital that's left them so demographically beholden to unassimilable levels of immigration that they're being remorselessly Islamized with every passing day. We should thank God (forgive the expression) that America's loser gun nuts don't share the same sophisticated rational calculation of "their best interests" as do Thomas Frank, Obama, too many Democrats and the European political establishment.
As for "gun-totin'," large numbers of Americans tote guns because they're assertive, self-reliant citizens, not docile subjects of a permanent governing class. The Second Amendment is philosophically consistent with the First Amendment, for which I've become more grateful since the Canadian Islamic Congress decided to sue me for "hate speech" up north. Both amendments embody the American view that liberty is not the gift of the state, and its defense cannot be outsourced exclusively to the government.
I think a healthy society needs both God and guns: It benefits from a belief in some kind of higher purpose to life on Earth, and it requires a self-reliant citizenry. If you lack either of those twin props, you wind up with today's Europe – a present-tense Eutopia mired in fatalism.
A while back, I was struck by the words of Oscar van den Boogaard, a Dutch gay humanist (which is pretty much the trifecta of Eurocool). Reflecting on the Continent's accelerating Islamification, he concluded that the jig was up for the Europe he loved, but what could he do? "I am not a warrior, but who is?" he shrugged. "I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it."
Sorry, it doesn't work like that. If you don't understand that there are times when you'll have to fight for it, you won't enjoy it for long. That's what a lot of Reade's laundry list – "gun-totin'," "military-lovin'" – boils down to. As for "gay-loathin'," it's Oscar van den Boogaard's famously tolerant Amsterdam where gay-bashing is resurgent: The editor of the American gay paper the Washington Blade got beaten up in the streets on his last visit to the Netherlands.
God and guns. Maybe one day a viable society will find a magic cure-all that can do without both, but Big Government isn't it. And even complacent liberal Democrats ought to be able to look across the ocean and see that. But, then, Obama did give the speech in San Francisco, a city demographically declining at a rate that qualifies it for EU membership. When it comes to parochial simpletons, you don't need to go to Kansas.
Wild Thing's comment.......
Bravo, Mr. Steyn! Mark is a gifted wordsmith and he nailed it!
I certainly hope America proves to be faithful to the Founders and not the wicked men in our government who aren’t.
It's so hard to pick a favorite quote out of this typical Steyn all-you-can-eat buffet, but I'll go with this one:
"Liberty is not the gift of the state, and its defense cannot be outsourced exclusively to the government."
...a perfect storm of unsustainable entitlements, economic stagnation and declining human capital that's left them so demographically beholden to unassimilable levels of immigration that they're being remorselessly Islamized with every passing day.
And, still, the left doesn't get it.
This song is a older that all of us on here, but it is a classic from WW11. Mary Steyn's article is excellent and since he mentioned the song I thought it would be fun to hear it.
I remember one of my Uncles singing this song sometimes.
Posted by Wild Thing at April 22, 2008 01:45 AM
Comments
Couldn't sing that song nowadays--you might get beat up or killed. Isn't that just sad?
I guess Obamanation didn't read up on places where guns were outlawed, crime actually went up instead of down. That's because criminals ALWAYS find a way to do their dirty deeds. Heck, they even make their own "guns" in prisons!
And what will they outlaw after guns? Butter knives? Baseball bats? Cordless drills? I know! Cars! All of those can be used to kill someone too!
So can my hands and feet.
It's so sad when a presidential nominee reads the amendments and misinterprets them for his own pleasure. He wouldn't know the truth if it bit him on the butt!
Posted by: Lynn at April 22, 2008 05:14 AM
When the Pilgrims stepped on Plymouth Rock, they had a gun in one had and a bible in the other.
Posted by: BobF at April 22, 2008 07:10 AM
What I liked best is "I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it."
This will be the prevailing attitude of the liberals if America goes down the tubes like Europe.
Thank God that we still have men & women that have the courage to fight for this country so that these disgusting liberals can still live the "good life" that they've always known.
Posted by: RAC at April 22, 2008 07:23 AM
"Can't afford to be a politician". Second best line next to the title.
I wonder how Obama will define the killing spree in his "gunfree" Chicago last week.
Liberals want to force the utopian idea of socialism on us, even though most of us don't want it. The rapid decline of Europe is a living example of socialism. Europeans have lost their will to think for themselves or defend what little individual rights they have left.
I say my prayers and I buy ammo. Guess that makes me a bitter rural rube in Obama's circle. I prefer the company of Charlie Daniels.
Posted by: TomR at April 22, 2008 09:28 AM
I copied Steyn's article and emailed it to all my old friends with this foreword of mine:
In 1956 I swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and to obey the orders of its President. For 52 years I have been true to that oath, even through Carter, Clinton, and Bush, none of whom would I hire in my business. If Obama is elected, the oath is discarded. I will never do anything that this piece of human manure says to do and I will resist his jack-booted thugs with all my might when they come for me. And be assured they will come for me. It is time for all old men who have lived in the world’s best country and enjoyed the fruits of individual freedom to speak out against the Muslim theft of the American dream. If you read you know that Europe is fast becoming a Muslim stronghold. Obama was born to a Muslim father. That makes him forever a Muslim in their definition. In his book he admits that he only became a Christian (in a pseudo-church with a pastor who publicly calls on God to damn America) to gain “street creds” for his political work. He is Anti-American, Anti-Christian, Anti-Christian-Spin-Off-Quasi-Religions like Alcoholics Anonymous and Universal Unitarianism, Anti-Feminist, Anti-Jewish, and anti-freedom. He is a crypto-muslim. If he’s elected we will get what America as a whole deserves. If I remain quiet it will be what I also deserve. The young people of the generations after mine did not learn that it is necessary to fight for their freedom, only to enjoy it (to quote Mark Steyn). They think our freedoms can be negotiated into continuance by just talking to our enemies. It may be too late to save it with what little patriotism America has left. I’ll go down with two guns firing, no concentration camp for me. HWS
Posted by: Horace at April 22, 2008 10:57 AM
So many people are unwilling to stand up and defend themselves, their neighbors and their freedom. The Obama crowd need to understand history: Muslims take over nations once they are in the majority. Often times they use great violence and slay anyone who opposes them or who may become the seed of an uprising. Many Turkish Christians died at the hands of their Muslim neighbors at the beginning of the 20th century simply because a Muslim leader said it was the necessary thing to do. No guns = defensless target.
Posted by: PeteSuj at April 22, 2008 11:15 AM
I have that song and one named "On A Wing And A Prayer" some where in my mess of tunes. Yeah I'm a sentimental old fool who happens to love this country. That one quote says it all.
"I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it."
Posted by: Jack at April 22, 2008 01:32 PM
Lynn yes that song would not be PC for sure in today's world.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 22, 2008 05:20 PM
Bob, yes and thank God for those that did what they did so we could have this great country.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 22, 2008 05:22 PM
RAC, yes that quote describes the liberals perfectly. Well there are some words I can add to describe them too. heh heh but that quote says a lot.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 22, 2008 05:28 PM
Tom me too, prayers and ammo.
Yes, I wish someone would ask Obama about what happened in Chicago.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 22, 2008 05:30 PM
Horace that is great!
And thank you for what you said too!!!! I agree 100%.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 22, 2008 05:33 PM
PeteSuj, all of that is so true, history the true hisitory does not lie and people should know history better so it is not repeated or also so lessons can be learned from it.
Many have fought these people off and we cannot stop now.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 22, 2008 05:36 PM
Jack, oh wow, I love that one too "On A Wing And A Prayer". I have a lot of these WW11 songs on the old audio tapes. I used to play them so much I got concerned I would wear out the tape. hahaha
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 22, 2008 05:38 PM
The quote Jack highlighted says it all and too many Americans have adopted that attitude, they are too busy enjoying their freedom while other are dying for that freedom.
Posted by: Mark at April 22, 2008 05:58 PM
Well done! In Moscow Russia (1993) we were drinking vodka shots with 'comrades' at the Sheretmeyevo Hotel, and they said, "WE were concerned with Americans that owned guns and other weaponry if WE invaded your country in a WW III..." Obama wants his blue state inner city 'gangstas' to have guns but not LE or the red state patriots that support our blessed SECOND AMENDMENT!!!
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at April 23, 2008 01:18 AM
Mark, it does and I am ashamed to say I have met people like that. They are blunt with their attitude about it too.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 23, 2008 03:21 AM
Darth he sure does want that and he will work to have that happen if he gets elected. Very scary.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 23, 2008 03:23 AM
