{"id":2603,"date":"2011-07-04T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/?p=2603"},"modified":"2011-07-04T07:13:20","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T12:13:20","slug":"happy-birthday-america-and-ramparts-of-civilization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/?p=2603","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday, America!&#8230;and Ramparts of Civilization!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Fife-Drum.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2605\" title=\"FIFE AND DRUM - SPIRIT OF '76\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Fife-Drum-e1309706832180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Fife-Drum-e1309706832180.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Fife-Drum-e1309706832180-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>July 4th is the 235th\u00a0 birthday of that special experiment in liberty known as the United States of America. <em>Kudos<\/em> and <em>Huzzahs<\/em> to this great nation and all she stands for on this special day, of which more is to follow forthwith.\u00a0 There is a more personal reason to celebrate for me , however, as this is the 1st anniversary of the birth of a small outpost defender of that freedom we hold dear, the first birthday of<strong><em>\u00a0 Ramparts of Civilization<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Born on the 4th of July, 2010, as a unapologetic defender of the positive contributions and special characteristics that have defined western civilization development over the past 2600 years, <strong><em>Ramparts<\/em><\/strong> has tried to bring to light the special components of who we are , and the principles worth fighting for.\u00a0 In a year of <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><em>190<\/em><\/span> essay posts, encompassing over <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><em>130,000 <\/em><\/span>written words, we have tried to focus on the current, the controversial, the uplifting, the memorable, and the obscure.\u00a0 I hope that if nothing else, <em><strong>Ramparts<\/strong><\/em> has allowed the reader a relatively painless and hopefully entertaining reminder of the interesting world around us, and a moment, however brief,\u00a0of introspection.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the past year, <strong><em>Ramparts <\/em><\/strong>has reviewed artists such as Gerhartz, Homer, Renoir, and Michelangelo;\u00a0 followed the harrowing and ultimately triumphant story of the Chilean miner rescue; delved into the flashpoints of battle such as Gettysburg, Battle of Britain, and Midway; returned to light such forgotten heroes\u00a0 as Charles &#8220;the Hammer&#8221; Martel, Nikola Tesla, Norman Borlaug, and Christoffa Corumbo;\u00a0 reminded us of the glories of musical genius found in Glenn Gould, Jacqueline Du&#8217;Pre, and Alica De Larrocha; asked us to look closer at civilization&#8217;s\u00a0knights in Friedrich Hayek,\u00a0 Abraham Lincoln, and Winston Churchill; raised to consciousness defenders of the ramparts such as Mark Steyn, Bernard Lewis, and Daniel Hannan; pounded the critical economic factors of the developing debt crisis slowly strangulating western civilization and noted its impact on the evolving political revolution; and revelled in the beautiful musical creativity of stars such as Sinatra, Richard Rogers, Irving Berlin, and Allison Kraus.\u00a0 These stories and so many more fill the vast repository of moments and accomplishments that define the western ideal.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So begins another year of <strong><em>Ramparts of Civilization.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>It will I&#8217;m sure be an interesting journey; \u00a0how can it not?\u00a0 To those who have come along so far, I hope to see you become more involved in the coming year with your comments, to help me better understand your own view, and what you have liked and not liked about the site.\u00a0 To the new visitors,\u00a0welcome aboard,\u00a0 please enjoy reading and thinking, unsheathe your rhetorical swords, and help join, with\u00a0your fellow defenders, at the<em><strong>\u00a0\u00a0Ramparts of Civilization.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 July 4th is the 235th\u00a0 birthday of that special experiment in liberty known as the United States of America. Kudos and Huzzahs to this great nation and all she stands for on this special day, of which more is to follow forthwith.\u00a0 There is a more personal reason to celebrate for me , however, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/?p=2603\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Happy Birthday, America!&#8230;and Ramparts of Civilization!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2603"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2653,"href":"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions\/2653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rampartsofcivilization.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}