Thursday, June 29, 2017

Ancient Pots and Dugout Canoes, Lake Phelps, NC

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https://ncstateparks.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/canoe22.jpg
 
Each year in September, Pettigrew State Park celebrates Indian Heritage Week with a series of displays of Native American artifacts and demonstrations of their customs in honor of the original inhabitants of our state. This celebration at the park is possible because of the recovery of a remarkable set of Indian artifacts at Lake Phelps. 

In the spring of 1985, an extensive forest fire in the vicinity of Lake Phelps was fought with water pumped from the lake, resulting in a lowered water level - much below what had been the normal level for some time. Dry weather during the remainder of that year and in succeeding years kept the lake level below normal. 
 
In the fall of 1985, fishermen began reporting artifacts that were now visible on the lake bottom through the shallow, crystal clear water. A number of these, including partial and whole clay pots and stone objects, were collected and deposited at Pettigrew State Park. Artifact collection continued and in November of 1985, the first of a number of dugout canoes was discovered by park personnel. It was that discovery, along with the unusually well preserved artifacts, that focused attention on the archaeological potential of Lake Phelps and initiated a cooperative research project with the goal of understanding the secrets of Lake Phelps' past cultures. The on-going research program is a joint effort by the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation, East Carolina University, and the North Carolina Division of Archives and History.

More @ Roots Web

US to sell $1.4B in weapons systems to Taiwan

Via Billy

US to sell $1.4B in weapons systems to Taiwan 

The State Department on Thursday approved several weapons sales -- estimated to be worth more than $1.4 billion -- to Taiwan.

The seven approved foreign military sales are the first to the country under the Trump administration. The move is likely to provoke China, which does not accept Taiwan as a separate nation, but instead considers it part of its territory.

The deals include sales of Early Warning Radar Surveillance systems, the Joint Stand-off Weapon, torpedoes, missiles, electronic upgrades, and related parts, according to a State Department official.

“These sales primarily represent upgrades to existing defense capabilities aimed at converting current legacy systems from analog to digital,” the official said.

The official said the State Department has notified Congress of the intended deals, which comply with the Taiwan Relations Act.

More @ The Hill

Ancient Native American canoe hundreds of years old found in Louisiana

Via Billy


Jenna Bradley and Robert Cornett found a canoe believed to be made by the Caddo Nation that has been excavated from the bank of the Red River. 



An ancient Native American canoe that is between 800 to 1,500 years old was unearthed recently in the bank of the Red River in Louisiana.

The canoe was found half-buried on a steep riverbank and was carved from a single tree trunk. It is 33-and-a-half feet long, about two-feet wide, and two-feet high. It’s likely made of Cypress, although the wood hasn’t been identified yet, WGNO reported.

More @ Fox

Italy’s EU Ambassador Says No To More Migrants

Via Billy

Shutterstock/ https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lampedusa-italy-march-27-2011-clandestine-635814893?src=PU_z6g3-_Sc1vo0gdLtaVA-1-10

Due to the recent onslaught in migrants in Italy, Italian government officials stated Wednesday that the Italian government might start preventing NGO ships from bringing migrants to Italy.

“Italy has reached saturation point,” an Italian official requesting anonymity told Reuters.

The EU Observer reported that more than 12,000 people arrived to Italy in the past five days, causing difficulties with accommodating the large portion of refugees.

EU’s Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos wrote on Twitter that the other EU states “must deliver” help to Italy based on the large amount of migrants coming through the country. U.N. figures noted that approximately 82,000 migrants have arrived to Italy in the past year.

Mnuchin: ‘Obamacare Was Just A Giant Tax On The Economy’

Via Billy

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin discusses the Trump administration's tax reform proposal in the White House briefing room in Washington, U.S, April 26, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Thursday that Obamacare was really nothing more than a giant tax burden placed on the U.S. economy.

“I think everyone knows that Obamacare was just a giant tax on the economy,” Mnuchin said at a White House press briefing Thursday afternoon.

Hungarian PM: Soros Threatens The Peace In Europe With His ‘Mafia Network’

Via Billy

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during a news conference following the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban slammed billionaire George Soros Wednesday for running a “mafia network” of NGOs that threatens Europe’s future.

Orban is facing legal action from the EU after imposing education reforms that could force Soros’ Central European University to shut down. The move led to a bitter dispute, and Orban has no intention of letting Soros “get the last laugh.”


“Unfortunately for us he happens to be Hungarian, and his name is George Soros,” Orban said at the final event of a “National Consultation” series. “This is unfortunate, because it could also be seen as an internal Hungarian dispute. But in fact, we are standing waist-deep in the turbulent waters of a dispute about the future of Europe.”

Judge blocks California’s high-capacity magazine ban

Via Billy

FILE - This Oct. 3, 2013 file photo shows a custom-made semi-automatic hunting rifle with a high-capacity detachable magazine is displayed at a gun store in Rockin, Calif. California voters are considering expanding some of the nation's toughest gun control measures nearly a year after the terrorist shootings in San Bernardino. Proposition 63 on the November ballot would outlaw possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines, require permits to buy ammunition and extend California's unique program that allows authorities to seize firearms from owners who bought guns legally but are no longer allowed to own them. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

A federal judge is blocking a California law set to go into effect Saturday that would have barred gun owners from possessing high-capacity ammunition magazines.

San Diego-based U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez said in ruling Thursday that the law banning possession of magazines containing more than 10 bullets would have made criminals of thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens who now own the magazines.

He issued a preliminary injunction backing the legal challenge by the National Rifle Association-affiliated California Rifle & Pistol Association.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (HAH-vee-air Bah-sehr’-ah), who is defending the state law, did not immediately comment.

The judge says the law approved by voters in November takes away gun owners’ Second Amendment rights and amounts to the government taking people’s private property without compensation.

Dixie-cide


Modern progressives are just as evil in their bloodlust against the South as were William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip Sheridan. Today’s leftists may not yet be waging the shock-and-awe total warfare that the Union generals inflicted upon Southern civilians (whites and blacks alike) and their dwellings, businesses, churches, infrastructure, and food supply, but their aim is still the same: to have the Southern tradition and her people “annihilated and destroyed.”

“The government of the U.S. has any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war – to take their lives, their homes, their land, their everything,” Sherman wrote in 1864. “War is simply power unrestrained by the Constitution or compact … to the petulant and persistent secessionists, why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better.”

NYT Finally Retracts Russia-gate Canard

Via Billy

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The New York Times has finally admitted that one of the favorite Russia-gate canards – that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies concurred on the assessment of Russian hacking of Democratic emails – is false.

On Thursday, the Times appended a correction to a June 25 article that had repeated the false claim, which has been used by Democrats and the mainstream media for months to brush aside any doubts about the foundation of the Russia-gate scandal and portray President Trump as delusional for doubting what all 17 intelligence agencies supposedly knew to be true.

In the Times’ White House Memo of June 25, correspondent Maggie Haberman mocked Trump for “still refus[ing] to acknowledge a basic fact agreed upon by 17 American intelligence agencies that he now oversees: Russia orchestrated the attacks, and did it to help get him elected.”

However, on Thursday, the Times – while leaving most of Haberman’s ridicule of Trump in place – noted in a correction that the relevant intelligence “assessment was made by four intelligence agencies — the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency. The assessment was not approved by all 17 organizations in the American intelligence community.”

DHS chief says members of Congress ‘threaten’ him over immigration enforcement

Via Billy

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 6, 2017. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly said Thursday that members of Congress have tried to “threaten” him over his department’s stepped up enforcement of the immigration laws they wrote, and called for even stiffer laws to punish sanctuary cities and repeat-illegal immigrants.

Mr. Kelly said he was “offended” by those lawmakers — who he didn’t name — who he said “often threaten me and my officers” when they try to enforce laws that call for the deportation of illegal immigrants.

It’s the latest blunt criticism from the retired Marine general, who has previously told members of Congress to “shut up” rather than criticize him over the laws they wrote.

Mark Steyn And Tucker Carlson Mock CNN

Via Iver

 Image result for Mark Steyn And Tucker Carlson Mocking CNN Is My New Favorite Thing

One of my absolute favorite guest hosts for Rush Limbaugh is Mark Steyn (America’s “Undocumented Anchorman,” as he calls himself). Unlike most of Rush’s sit-in hosts, Steyn is the only one that I will keep listening to if I turn on the radio and Rush isn’t in. I just dig his style and his dry British sense of humor. It’s always a win.

So when I heard that Steyn was on with Tucker Carlson last night, I HAD to track down a clip of the segment online (we don’t have cable TV in our house – we’re definitely a cord-cutting family. It’s not a morally superior “TV is going to rot your brain” thing. It’s a “we don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars every month to only watch the two decent channels we have” thing. That’s what the internet is for). And I was NOT disappointed.

The whole segment was basically just one big rip on CNN, which makes it all the more hilarious.

Oregon sheriff blasts FBI team after agent pleads not guilty to lying in Bundy standoff

Via Billy

FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2016 file photo, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, left, a rancher from Arizona, talks to reporters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore. FBI Special Agent W. Joseph Astarita has been indicted in Portland Ore., Wednesday, June 28, 2017, on accusations that he lied about firing at Finicum when officers arrested leaders of an armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in rural Oregon.(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

The FBI agent charged Wednesday with lying about firing his gun during a deadly confrontation during the 2016 Oregon-Bundy standoff may be only the tip of the iceberg.

Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson had harsh criticism Wednesday for multiple members of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, saying that their actions during the 41-day siege with supporters of the anti-federal Bundy family had “damaged the integrity of the entire law enforcement profession, which makes me both disappointed and angry.”

His comments came during a press conference after FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita pleaded not guilty to three counts of making false statements and two counts of obstruction of justice in federal court in Portland.

But the sheriff didn’t stop with Mr. Astarita.

Roanoke: The Persistent Mystery of a Lost Colony


Last fall, North Carolina’s lost colony of Roanoke was brought back to the nation’s attention as the setting of a TV series, “American Horror Story.” The show’s sixth season loosely followed the 16th century history of the first attempt by the English to colonize the new world, though portrayed it as a bizarre ghost story. That version of the story is news as far as locals know. Those interviewed don’t know of any such legend. (What’s more, it was filmed in Los Angeles, rather than the Carolina coast, showing mountains in the background.) In spite of those drawbacks, the series received good ratings. 
 
For those of us who’d like to let folks know the real story of the Lost Colony, well, that can be a little tricky. No one is sure what happened to the first English settlement in the New World, which is what makes the story so intriguing.

What we know.

More @ Carolina Country

Death Spiral: Along With Its Credibility, CNN Ratings Collapse

Via Billy

Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin host 'New Year's Eve Live' on CNN during New Year's Eve 2017 in Times Square on December 31, 2016 in New York City.

Over the past month, CNN's three-year credibility collapse went from a slow-motion trainwreck to something that is now completely out of the left-wing network's control. Because there is obviously something very wrong with the climate fostered by CNN chief Jeff Zucker, no fewer than five CNN staffers (in as many weeks) have had to be terminated over various strains of Trump derangement syndrome. These terminations include CNN star Kathy Griffin, host Reza Aslan, a Pulitzer finalist, and an outright Pulitzer winner. The Least Trusted Name In News now has another serious problem: its ratings are in the toilet.

As Arlington Cemetery's fills up, should Confederates make room?

Via Carl

Graves of Confederate soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery, it seems, is running out of space. A bugler might need to play taps for the holiest and most visited of the nation's military resting places sometime around midcentury if the burial ground isn't further expanded.

But oh yes, I forgot.

Some space could be made in Section 16, where one can find buried Confederate dead and a memorial to those who fell trying to form a separate union. With today's full-out mania to wipe away visible Civil War history, at least the tributes to the South's heroes, perhaps some plots could be freed up by removing what some see as symbols of treason.

More with video @ Orlando Sentinel

CNN's Jeff Zucker Runs From O'Keefe–Afraid of the Truth?

Via Billy


JUST IN TIME FOR BARBECUE SEASON! BBQ & Drink Cooler

Via Cousin Bill

Once ice melts, pull handle to extinguish fire.

NC: The Secret Lives of Pig Farmers: The War Hero

Via Cousin John


Walter Marm Jr. isn’t your average 76-year-old. He’s got a cat named Lady Gaga, for one. But he also has a Medal of Honor.

Marm joined the U.S. Army five days after graduating college with a business degree in 1964. By the following fall, he was serving in South Vietnam.

NC House GOP seeks to impeach secretary of state

Via John

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North Carolina legislative Republicans are taking aim once again at Democrats in the executive branch of state government.

Just hours after enacting a budget that slashes the budgets of Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein, both Democrats, a key House committee signed off on a resolution to begin the impeachment process against Democratic Secretary of State Elaine Marshall.

The vote was strictly party-line, with all 20 Republicans in attendance voting aye, and all 10 Democrats voting no.

"Impeachment is a process. The first step will be a formal investigation of the matter" by a House select committee, sponsor Rep.Chris Millis, R-Pender, said. Millis claimed he has "clear evidence of malfeasance" by Marshall involving "hundreds of unqualified aliens being illegally granted the public benefit of a notary commission."

More @ WRAL

Because You Asked: What's the Difference Between Taqiyya and Tawriya?

Via Mike


Sh%t Southern Women Say, Episode 9