Swagman

The man on the middle cross said I could come.

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

@_InfoGram_ @JohnCleese All sides of politics do this. Dems could have changed the law any time they wanted. Not sticking up for Trump, but all the complaints sound like sour grapes.

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

This Aussie had teary eyes. Happy birthday, and many more of ‘em.

[James Lindsay, anti-Communist @ConceptualJames]

You've probably heard this before, but it's always worth repeating. Something extremely cool about the "Star-spangled Banner," the American national anthem, is that it asks a question, and it's the question at the heart of everything in the American worldview.

"Oh, say, can you see
By the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight's last gleaming..."

So the anthem begins with a question and a scene. One man, a patriot, is asking another man, another patriot, "can you see it?" at sunrise after a long, dangerous night.

The "it" in question is going to be revealed to be the flag, our "star-spangled banner," which they had last fully recognized and honored as the sun set, daylight failed, and night crept over them the evening before.

Can you see it? Say! Can you see it?!

IS IT STILL THERE?!

"Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming..."

Here we find that the "it" is in fact the flag, our star-spangled banner, and we learn why the question is being asked.

The flag is described as having flown and streamed gallantly over ramparts of war through a perilous fight. All could have been lost. The flag, and even the fledgling country for which it stands, one nation under God and indivisible.

Say! Can you see it? Now that the light is back?

IS IT STILL THERE?!

"--And the rockets' red glare,
The bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there!--"

They could see it through the battle in the light of the rockets and bombs that threatened them, here and there in quick glimpses. But it was still there throughout! But now? At dawn?

Say! Can you see?

IS IT STILL THERE?!

"Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave?"

The urgency is palpable with every refrain. They have to know. It's the first thing they must know as the sun begins to light the sky, even before it rises.

IS IT STILL THERE?!

Say! Say!! Can you see? Can you see it?!

At the heart of every American beats the fundamental truth and reality that what we have here is precious, that it's worth fighting for, to the death if necessary, and that it's fragile. That at any moment it can be lost. That we have to remember to look for it because last night might have been the night in which it failed.

Every day, every year, every generation.

The American fight for freedom, to live in self-governance within ordered liberty, is ongoing and never-ending. The price of the land of the free is that it must be the home of the brave. We have to defend it, defend it, and defend it again, against all enemies foreign and domestic, because what we have is amazing, rare, fragile, and worth every cent of treasure, every drop of blood, and every risk to our sacred honor to protect it.

Our anthem is not a declaration. It is not a proclamation. It is not a statement.

It is a question.

Every time we sing our wholly unique national anthem, we as American ask the question again. IS IT STILL THERE?! Are we still America? Does that star-spangled banner yet wave?

Because it's a question, the answer is not known. It is not a guarantee. It cannot be taken for granted and isn't. And what an honor to ask and take up our part in the story, in the American Experiment, in the greatest country the world has ever known.

For tonight, the last night of our first 250 years, as the sun gave way to twilight's last gleaming and darkness overtook our land once again, the answer was still yes. We can see it even tonight in the red glare of rockets, with small bombs bursting in air, fill the sky with the noble tribute of fireworks once again.

And we all ask ourselves, will it still be flying at dawn?

This is what it means to be an American.

Happy 250th, America! Now for many happy returns!
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

@BIG_PARMENIDES @ConceptualJames Yes

[Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @DrewPavlou]

America saved Australia in World War II.

Real Australians love America.

Happy 250th, patriots.

God bless the United States of America!

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

@BIG_PARMENIDES @ConceptualJames Heinlein always made sense to me. I would add, people who do not own land (I’m thinking of young people normally pushed into the military) should not be conscripted into fighting wars to preserve the land of the wealthy. We have to learn from the World Wars.

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

@BaronBurleigh2 @OMGTheMess They add 10,000years each time they tell the story. Because trust me, bro.

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

@farmingandJesus These two are an act.

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

@Smokahontas2024 And at big sporting venues.

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

@Smokahontas2024 This has been my experience at airports (in France) and in shops in Australia (Bunnings, Woolworths) for years. “For our protection”.

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

Not bragging, but I bought a 10mm socket today.

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

@megbasham The photo on the right is a patio umbrella cover.

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

@johnkonrad Can’t watch

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

Why did the US space agency not call their space people “NAStronauts”?

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

The parasites have squandered all your tax money and mismanaged the very tasks they were mandated to deliver.

And somehow it’s the taxpayer’s fault.

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

New York: it's hot out there, and the power grid is working overtime to keep us cool.

Set your AC to 78 degrees, turn off lights/electronics you're not using, and unplug what you can.

Our City is doing its part too: maintaining the 78 degrees rule in our buildings, dimming/turning off our lights during peak electricity demand, asking private partners to do the same, and powering down non-essential equipment.

A stable grid means the AC stays on, and lives are saved. Let's ease demand — and get through the heat — together.

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

Men. Watch and listen. Pay heed to this Man.

Now go and face today’s issues bravely so your family doesn’t have to fight them for you.

[Allie Beth Stuckey @conservmillen]

Consider the generational impact one can have through the simple decision to not be a coward

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

@garonnevik I was thinking, logically this defeats the purpose of highlighting.

But then I thought, hang on, what is the purpose of highlighting?

Keep buying that young man more highlighters, and praise God that he is enjoying reading God‘s Word.

[Hold Fast @I_Mak_Sikkar]

@OMGTheMess In that case we should sell the government, cost too much to maintain!

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

@OMGTheMess I’d prefer a $5 charge to a $5 insult.

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

@JoshEakle Let me help. Amish don’t ram raid their carts into crowds of people, nor do they go on demonic killing sprees with a garden fork, nor so their veiled women spontaneously explode.

[Swagman @OneTrueSwagman]

“…they will not find themselves enlightened, but bewildered; not free, but enslaved; not rational, but confused”

This is now.

[Humble Flow @HumbleFlow]

This is what forgetting Christianity does to a civilization:

“The modern world imagines that it has outgrown religion. It has done nothing of the kind. It has merely forgotten it. And because it has forgotten it, it no longer understands itself.

Men do not realize that the whole framework of their moral judgments, their political habits, and even their intellectual methods were formed within a Christian society and cannot exist long outside it. When that framework breaks, they will not find themselves enlightened, but bewildered; not free, but enslaved; not rational, but confused.”

— Hilaire Belloc, Europe and the Faith