After the surrender of Confederate forces under Confederate General Richard Taylor in Citronelle, Alabama, on May 4, 1865, the respective staffs of both sides met at a social luncheon. Union General Peter Joseph Osterhaus, a recent "German 48er" immigrant, approached General Taylor and spoke in broken English. Osterhaus told Taylor that Southerners would now be instructed in the true American principles to learn to become good Americans.
Taylor, the son of a President and the grandson of a Revolutionary War soldier, responded with biting, witty sarcasm.
From Taylor's memoirs,
"I apologized meekly for my ignorance, on the ground that my ancestors had come from England to Virginia in 1608, and, in the short intervening period of two hundred and fifty-odd years, had found no time to transmit to me correct ideas of the duties of American citizenship. Moreover, my grandfather, commanding the 9th Virginia regiment in our Revolutionary army, had assisted in the defeat and capture of the Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, and I lamented that he had not, by association with these worthies, enlightened his understanding. My friend smiled blandly and assured me of his willingness to instruct me. Happily for the world, since the days of Huss and Luther, neither tyranny nor taste can repress the Teutonic intellect in search of truth or exposure of error. A kindly, worthy people, the Germans, but wearing on occasions."
The absurdity of an immigrant Union officer, ignorant of American Founding principles, political history, and culture, lecturing an old-stock Southerner, whose family had been here from the very beginning, on Americanism.
@johnntremain 2Para guys are always a blast though. Met one who played American football in the UK. He said every time they come to America to train they go to New Orleans to drink and shoot rental guns.
@PNACstreetgang “I’m not fucking dying for Israel” is the new “I would have joined but I’d have punched the drill sergeant”
It’s an insane victim mentality when we have an all-volunteer force that does not struggle to meet its recruiting goals.
Bloomberg reports a stark reversal in North Texas: the H-1B-fueled housing boom that turned Dallas suburbs like Frisco and Prosper into “Dallaspuram” is collapsing.
For years, Indian software engineers on H-1B visas powered a luxury-home surge …buying up to 70% of new builds, snapping up $800k+ houses with puja rooms and spice kitchens. Collin County’s Indian population exploded. Builders couldn’t keep up.
Now? That pipeline has slammed shut.
The Trump administration’s new $100,000 “expedited review” fee for overseas H-1B petitions, combined with stricter wage rules, AI-driven tech layoffs, and state-level crackdowns in Texas, has sent Indian buyers fleeing. One builder saw Indian sales drop from 70% to under 30%. Luxury inventory is piling up. Home prices in key suburbs fell nearly 9% year-over-year in February.
Families who transformed the region are now facing exile:
homes underwater, foreclosures looming, some returning to India after sudden job losses.
One realtor called it a “bloodbath” for the high-end market.
The human cost is brutal …skilled professionals who helped build the boom now watching it evaporate.
Bloomberg asks: Is the H-1B crackdown protecting American jobs… or hollowing out the very growth it once created?
https://t.co/D7GxavpZ0f
The draft thing really gets me. I remember signing up for the selective service at 18 and feeling a sense of pride that I would defend my country if called upon. I later enlisted. Lots of the people now crying about the draft are too old or physically incapable for military service.
When a slave was freed in Anglo-Saxon England, the legal ritual often involved placing a weapon, frequently a seax or a spear, into their hands.
By physically giving them the blade, they were being handed their status as a free person under the law.
Do you understand yet?