American Heroes (and others too)
1/21/10
1/18/10 LA times
Let us salute this man! :)
The Banker Who Said No
Forbes ^ | 2009-04-03
AuntMinnie founder Phil Berman passes away
2/10/09 Aunt Minnie.com
An inspirational life story.
Posted 8/24/08 (By Travis)
Lone
accountant takes on IRS and wins
Yahoo!
/ AP ^ | August 24, 2008 | CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
Four-month trial
ends with no convictions / Federal income tax
evasion case involved nine defendants
9/20/07 LVRJ
Posted 4/20/07 (By Travis)
4/20/07 The Enquire
She was Miss America 1944 and later a candidate for Cincinnati City Council and worked to save Over-the-Rhine's historic buildings. She performed on Broadway and in movies.
Now, though, she's in the news for another reason.
For some time, thieves had been breaking into the building to steal the machines to sell for scrap. She hadn't been able to catch anyone in the act until last week.
She drove over to the building and blocked the truck sitting there.
When she asked a man what he was doing, he replied "scrapping," and said he would leave.
"I said, 'Oh, no you won't,' and I shot their tires so they couldn't leave," Ramey said.
She had to balance on her walking stick as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun.
Eventually, three people were arrested - one at the scene and two others walking on a nearby road.
"I didn't even think twice. I just went and did it. If they'd even dared come close to me, they'd be 6 feet under by now."
"They've been stealing from me for years. Those good-for-nothing slobs," she said.
"I'm trying to live a quiet, peaceful life and stay out of trouble, and all it is, is one thing after another."
Posted 1/19/07 (By Travis)
1/18/06 Associated Press
"Most Americans would cower and cringe and raise their hands and surrender like a good little slave," he told reporters at his home this week.
"I won't. Under no circumstances. I do not tolerate cowardliness, oppression, bulliness, and I certainly don't tolerate a federal agency that has absolutely zero jurisdiction in my state, never mind in my county, in my town."
This goes nicely with the recently posted story, describing the 2000 Tennessee tax revolt:
At
7:30am, at the instigation of the talk radio hosts, cars, trucks, and virtually every other type of
motor vehicle you could imagine began circling the state capitol blaring their horns. Thousands of
angry citizens swarmed into downtown Nashville and traffic all around town came to a virtual
standstill. By noon that day, with the deafening sound of car horns continuing to blare non-stop (in
fact, I lost part of my hearing that fateful day), legislators supporting the income tax called in
the State Troopers to bar the doors of the state capitol. One pro-tax legislator was carted away by
ambulance with heart problems - threatening the razor-thin majority in support of the tax hike.
By late afternoon, the legislature had abandoned the income tax proposal
entirely, closed the state budget gaps with temporary measures, and ended the legislative session
for the year while they could still get out of town with their lives. Car horns continued to blare
well into the night. In all my years working in public policy in Washington D.C. and several state
capitals, it is the most exhilarating experience I have been privileged to be witness to and be a
part of.
Posted 12/21/06 (By Travis)
Dairy Industry Crushed Innovator Who Bested Price-Control System
12/10/06 Washington Post Hein Hettinga, dairy man.
2/16/05 San Francisco Chronicle Ben Chavis, founder of American Indian Charter. Society "has created a system to make minorities stupid. It's not called prison; it's called middle school," Chavis said. "If you follow our model, you'll be a winner. By the time these kids are in ninth grade, I don't have to call them idiots anymore."
The KIPP founders, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin.
Here are three positive stories on people proactively taking on criminals. What would the crime rate be like if all citizens acted like this: Story 1, Story 2, Story 3. By how much could we cut the police force? (see 'Guns and Crime' for more)
Jack Kilby, inventor of the Integrated Circuit, dies at age 81
6/21/05 Associated Press
Swedish Ex Hostage Hires Bounty Hunters to Kill his Iraqi Captors (not an 'American Hero', but certainly a hero!)
6/27/05 AAP A hostage held alongside Mr Wood has hired bounty hunters to track down his former captors, promising to eliminate them one by one. Ulf Hjertstrom, a Swede who was held for several weeks with Mr Wood, was freed by his kidnappers on May 30. He has since said he shared information with US and Iraqi troops that led to the Australian's release. Now, he wants to find those responsible. "I have now put some people to work to find these bastards," he said yesterday. "I invested about $50,000 so far and we will get them one by one."
Various from Supreme Tyranny
Kelo was no college president, just a nurse, a daughter of two factory workers who had grown up in
the neighborhood. And her vision was that she, her disabled husband and her kids would continue to
live where they wanted to live.
"Nobody ever pushed my mom around," Kelo said. "Nobody ever pushed my grandmother
around. It's a long line. I've never liked being told what to do."
Eight years later, in the shadow of a gleaming new Pfizer research facility,
Kelo's pink Victorian and the houses of six neighbors are still standing with defiant "Not For
Sale" signs in the windows amid the rubble of an otherwise demolished neighborhood.
"It's a little shocking to believe you can lose your home in this country," said resident Bill Von Winkle, who said he would refuse to leave his home, even if bulldozers showed up. "I won't be going anywhere. Not my house. This is definitely not the last word."
Homeschool girl fights for band spot
6/19/05 Lincoln Journal Star
Ron Hasley said he's "a constitution kind of guy," who will pursue the issue, not only for his daughter but for other homeschool students. "I pay taxes," he said. "I'm asking for a service, and I'm not getting it. I hope what happens here sets precedence for the state." A 'constitution kind of guy'? Whadayaknow? I thought these sorts were extinct. :)
Free Stater Jailed for Performing Manicure (Posted 6/4/05)
5/9/05 WMUR-TV Manchester NH A look at some modern day unsung American heroes. Here is the first one. The manicure performed without a license was undertaken right outside the state Board of Barbering, Cosmetology and Esthetics office. "The reason I'm doing this is because it's one of the harmless things I can do to prove that the law is unjust," Fisher said. "Without the government's permission, you can't do nails, hair, lot of other things." Of course the folks that lobbied to pass these laws are the people that do nails, hair, counseling, car repair, medicine, you name it. They lobby government to forcibly stop others from providing, cheaper, as they are probably lower quality, services, in the name of 'public safety'. The populace blindly assumes these lobbiers are the 'experts', without realizing they are just using government to advance their own checkbooks (we saw something similar with social workers and teachers unions).
What
I am
10/20/04 Full page
advertisement in the Washington Post - by George
Esseff Who is George Esseff? He's just an American citizen and I'm sure he'd take that
description as a compliment. (disclaimer: I don't agree with all of what he says, but I like the way
he says it) Keep it coming George!
N.J. Billboard calls state 'Horrible'
6/2/05 Associated Press Rather than simply welcoming drivers to the Garden State, a new billboard greeting people entering New Jersey over the Delaware Memorial Bridge slams the state's business climate. "Welcome to New Jersey. A horrible place to do business," reads the billboard message. The glaring, red capital letters represent the revenge - misguided, according to officials - of a developer upset with the state's environmental regulators.
<.> "They (state officials) are antibusiness," he said. "And the state is run by environmentalists." DEP officials say Juliano's anger is misplaced. The agency, after all, has approved four of Juliano's projects over the last three years - each in under seven months. Only seven months? :) For the man to build something on his own land that he bought with his own money? So far, the state has done nothing about the billboard, and it's unclear whether it could. "At some point, we'll have to consider action against him," Campbell said, implying a potential legal fight. So, the state of NJ is preventing this man from using his own property, making it worthless, in effect - robbing him, and yet, when he, in my opinion, rather mildly uses his first amendment right to publicly state that the state is a 'horrible place to do business' they then threaten him? Apparently, when government robs you you're supposed to sit down, shut up, and take it. Well, Fisher and Juliano didn't. And within a few weeks, Juliano said he plans to put up two more signs along the Turnpike.
5/26/05 Phoenix New Times Detailing how someone finally turned the tables on the environmental groups: That's why Chilton got so mad at the Center for Biological Diversity. The Center tried to make him the bad guy when he, the cowboy, was supposed to be the hero. And that was an attack no cowboy could forgive. (Forgiveness, after all, is for wimps.) And so he sued -- a switch, given that the Center is normally the one filing the lawsuits. Chilton took the case to trial, and won one of the biggest punitive damage awards Arizona is likely to see this year. <.> The Center has filed lawsuits to stop logging, including one in the 1990s that virtually destroyed the timber industry in Arizona and New Mexico. (That suit was to save an owl.) It's also sued to halt the construction of schools (same owl), golf courses (various lizards and squirrels) and even a DreamWorks complex (a bird called the flycatcher). The Center doesn't always get what it wants, but by its estimate, the group has won more than 90 percent of its legal actions -- and it puts the number of such actions at more than 300. We'll return to this owl in a bit. The Forest Service biologist who supervised the chub studies, Stefferud, has donated money to the Center over the years, as he admits. (New Times found records indicating he gave at least $200 in 2002 alone.)
Meanwhile, another Forest Service employee penned a report claiming that the Chiltons' ranching was likely to harm the Lesser Long-Nosed Bat, another endangered species. That employee is married to a biologist who also donated to the Center <.> To the Chiltons, those ties were clear evidence that the government was not a neutral party, simply acting as mediator between their interests and those of the environmentalists. Instead, the government and the environmentalists were one and the same. I'd bet my last nickel this is what happened in NJ as well! Read page 6 here for the lies and distortions the Center used against Chilton. Notice how the government and the environmental group were almost one and the same. Government is not a neutral party, Government is almost never a neutral party.
<SNIP>
We
need more heroes like these four men to step up and take out country back.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
-Edward Abbey
Sanctuary (Posted 5/21/05)
5/18/05 Bill Whittle I sometimes post 'must reads' etc.. on this site, but this is a must, must read. He is an absolutely magnificent writer, in pure literary terms. I've added him to my favorite links and intend to go back and read every one of his archived essays when I get some time. Please consider passing this one on to others. Some people commenting on this, here, here and here, said it was the best thing they had ever read on the Internet.
Ex-NFL player Tillman dies during military action in Afghanistan
4/23/04 USA Today
Tillman has always marched to his own beat. Upon entering Arizona State, he told coach Bruce Snyder that he was not redshirting, that he had a life to pursue after four years of college. He graduated in 3½ years with a degree in marketing and a 3.84 grade-point average.
Tillman made the decision to enlist after returning from his honeymoon in Bora Bora with his wife, Marie.
Tillman's agent, Frank Bauer, has called him a deep and clear thinker who has never valued material things.
In 2001, Tillman turned down a $9 million, five-year offer sheet from the Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams out of loyalty to the Cardinals, and by joining the Army, he passed on millions more from the team.
Tillman turned aside interview requests after joining the Army.
"Where do we get such men as these? Where to we find these people willing to stand up for America?" asked Hayworth.
"He chose action rather than words. He just wanted to serve his country. He was a remarkable person," said Hayworth.
"He lived the American dream, and he fought to preserve the American dream and our way of life."
Also see 'The Best Of Donald Rumsfeld'
And the quote page.