"What follows are my own opinions … about conservatism and, conversely, non-conservatism — that is, liberty and tyranny in modern America," deadpans Mark R. Levin in his instant Amazon #1 hit, On Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, just out this week. We love "The Great One's" calling a spade a spade [Are you still allowed to say that in this "post-racial" error era?], naming non-conservatism the tyranny it is. As we were so disagreeably reminded the other day — when the Obama "I won" Administration recast terrorism as the morally ambiguous "man-caused disasters" and robbed the "War on Terror" of its poetic fire by dubbing it the bloodless "Overseas Contingency Operation" — words matter. Levin's book will be just the thing to read on our way to the Essex County Tea Party Rally at City Hall in Newburyport midday tomorrow.
Other action steps in preparation for shaking our fists "Just say no!" signs before the powers that be who would spread hard-working Americans' wealth around:
1. Spread the word:
Blog post linked by the estimable Maggie's Farm.
"Yes we can" RSVPs from friends, virtual and real-world, so far: Our sis (local resident who put us up to this), Amy Kane of Atlantic Ave, Miss Kelly, Neo-neocon, Jill of The Business of Life. An army of women?
Hats off to event organizer Paul Breau and Newburyport's Voice blogger Larry Giunta, who is Chairman of the Newburyport GOP, for their efforts. "The democrats in town started their own blog and have been reeling against the tea party," emails Larry, adding "This can only be a good thing."
Update: Notified local media kahunas Jules Crittenden, Boston Herald editor and columnist, and Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe columnist. Kind of short notice, but who knows? Maybe it's a slow news day.
2. Prepare signs:
Good buddy Carol Ward had emailed with "two things": 1. Will I be seeing you and Tuck at the Tax Day Boston Tea Party? [Yes] 2. I have been racking my brain over something clever for a sign, but everything I come up with is waaaaaay too long — more like an essay than a pithy headline. Oh mistress of pithy headlines, got any other ideas?
As we blogged a couple of years back regarding "Don't mess with my Dick," linked by Instapundit at the time, "Well, I always try to be provocative with my headlines." We suggested for Carol the slogan we're using for our own signs, "Just say no," plus another one that's sort of like Newt Gingrich's slogan. Ours is "Tea'd off." Newt's version, a little too wordy for our taste, goes "Americans are TEA'd," where TEA is an acronym for "Taxed Enough Already."
Then we remembered "Spread opportunity, not other people's wealth" from the primary days of yore. Too bad we never ordered one of our own T shirts.
In the works for the Boston Tea Party, a shortened version of Benjamin Franklin's timeless "A republic, if you can keep it." "If you can keep it." Sounds like a keeper
Update II: Amy Kane can't make up her mind between Benjamin Franklin's "He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing" and her own "More govt = Less freedom." We like 'em both and suggest she carry one and ask the dog to wear the other. Check out her excellent related post with more quotable quotes pulled out of "The American Form of Government" YouTube video (See #3 below) and other good stuff.
It's a sign. Three, actually. The prototype right, and the new, improved model with Tuck's wooden handles left. As we've said early and often, he's a keeper.
3. Listen to "The American Form of Government," a quickie video Pierre Legrand of Pink Flamingo Bar calls "The Best Ten-Minute Lesson on Our Government I Have Seen." If only they were teaching such things to the kids ta-day.
Let us hope that your demonstration of "the land of the free" inspires us to be "the home of the brave".
Posted by: goomp | March 27, 2009 at 06:42 PM
Sissy, thanks for letting me know about the Tea Party. I'm deciding if this saying by Ben Franklin is too long for a sign: "He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing."
The estimated federal debt per U.S. household in Obama's 2010 budget is projected to be $81,000.
Love that video and I posted it on my blog. Makes me think of another possible sign: "More govt. = less freedom."
I can't believe we are asking American servicemen and women to fight and die in an "Overseas Contigency Operation."
Speaking of Jacoby, this was a great piece on something I've wondered about for a long time, which is why Massachusetts is a "wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party": Cradle of democracy.
Posted by: Account Deleted | March 28, 2009 at 08:17 AM
Sissy! Hope you have a great Tea Party! I will be watching for the photos! I love the photos of Tiny and Tuck!
Posted by: Laura Lee Donoho | March 28, 2009 at 12:43 PM
I love the idea of a dog wearing a sign. I think my husband can make a leash wide enough to write: More Government = Less Freedom on... and maybe we would hang teabags around the 100 lb puppy's neck.
Oh, I do believe our Great Pyr is going to our local tea party with us!
I was leaning toward "Stop the Pre$$e$" but I've got a few weeks to plan.
Posted by: Donna B. | March 28, 2009 at 12:43 PM
I've been collecting my favorite poster quotes. These are the best I've seen so far:
Chains We Can Believe In
Socialism: Trickle Up Poverty
Representation Not Confiscation
Keep your change—I’ll keep mine
Liberty is All the Stimulus We Need
No Legislation Without Deliberation!
Give Me Liberty, Not a Bailout
Don’t Spread My Wealth, Spread My Work Ethic
I can’t afford your mortgage
Obama — he’s robbin US not Robin Hood
Repeal the pork or our bacon is cooked
Obama lied, liberty died
You can’t fix stupid, but you can vote it out
This one won't work on a poster, but it makes its point and sounds lascivious:
You cannot carry on forever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit. – Daniel Hannan
Posted by: BAP | March 28, 2009 at 01:32 PM
Here's another sign I saw:
Proud Member of Sam Adams's Club
Posted by: Connecticut Yankee | March 28, 2009 at 03:37 PM