Merry Christmas to all.Jason
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Have you ever....
I was focused full on what I thought was a positive, singular goal for my family and I. In one brief phone call it came to a stop, and fast. I would love to put the blame anywhere but here, but I cannot. I have made no apologies for my life, nor excuses for my life. Over the past 18 years I have been adding tattoos to my body as I felt the need. No regrets until today. For the past few months unbeknown to most, other than my wife, I have been working with a recruiter for the US Army. All my life I have had an excuse for one reason or another to not fulfill my "dream" of service. Most were superficial at worst, genuine at best, but excuses none the less. Today as I was told I am not eligible for service due to my tattoos, I felt crushed. Failure first reached is a bitter pill to swallow. I post here only because my family, other than my wife, will not understand and my "friends" are mostly co-workers. Thank you to all who serve, I wish I could have called you brother. Maybe in another time, in another way.
Jason
III
Jason
III
Monday, November 30, 2009
1,000 Cranes for Krista **Update**
Received mine in the mail this weekend! I also got an e-mail from Frank:"I am thankful and completely humbled. I have been making crane pics for two weeks and have finished 100. Only 900 more to go! Thank you all so much for listening , reading and forwarding our story. Back to the studio--"
If you can, please get one of your own HERE
Read the whole story from my earlier post HERE
This is a truly inspirational tale, that is sadly true. I asked earlier for you to pray for Life, Liberty and Love...that request continues. Help, if and when you can.
Jason
Friday, November 27, 2009
Redemption
Bob Marley sang about it in Redemption Song
"But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs."
I was reflecting on this lately, and stumbled upon "Seven Pounds" which also deals with redemption, in a new and interesting way to tell the story.
Western Rifle Shooters has an important re-post HERE where he lists his "what to do list" with the number one point under emotional preparation as: "Get square with God as you understand Him. Even if atheist or agnostic, one needs a Larger Context in which to place the upcoming suffering and struggle."
Now I am not a religious man, but I am a man of great faith. Someday I, in-fact all of us, am going to need to come to grips with what I have done, or not done. I will need either redemption, atonement or acceptance of my life by me or "He." I tend to follow my impulses to speak when I am "spoken to" and for whatever reason, by whatever faith I am compelled to ask you, all of you to pray... pray for life, liberty and love for it is an all or nothing deal. Do not be shy, do not ask why, but make sure you are at the ready for the fight that is coming. A fight to everyone of us in many different ways. I often describe myself by quoting myself:
I am a husband and father, first and always.
I am a jack of all trades and master of some.
I am self taught, and defy institutions.
I will refuse to relent.
Failure is not an option.
Success is not an accident.
I am lost and sometimes confused, I will find the way.
Period.
Redemption is calling, may I be the man I need to be at this time.
Jason
"But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs."
I was reflecting on this lately, and stumbled upon "Seven Pounds" which also deals with redemption, in a new and interesting way to tell the story.
Western Rifle Shooters has an important re-post HERE where he lists his "what to do list" with the number one point under emotional preparation as: "Get square with God as you understand Him. Even if atheist or agnostic, one needs a Larger Context in which to place the upcoming suffering and struggle."
Now I am not a religious man, but I am a man of great faith. Someday I, in-fact all of us, am going to need to come to grips with what I have done, or not done. I will need either redemption, atonement or acceptance of my life by me or "He." I tend to follow my impulses to speak when I am "spoken to" and for whatever reason, by whatever faith I am compelled to ask you, all of you to pray... pray for life, liberty and love for it is an all or nothing deal. Do not be shy, do not ask why, but make sure you are at the ready for the fight that is coming. A fight to everyone of us in many different ways. I often describe myself by quoting myself:
I am a husband and father, first and always.
I am a jack of all trades and master of some.
I am self taught, and defy institutions.
I will refuse to relent.
Failure is not an option.
Success is not an accident.
I am lost and sometimes confused, I will find the way.
Period.
Redemption is calling, may I be the man I need to be at this time.
Jason
III
The 23rd Psalm:
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
The 23rd Psalm:
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
1,000 Cranes For Krista
Thankfully this not my story, this is an email I received today...Frank is a friend from some 15 years ago I recently regained contact with. This is his brother on laws plea. I know in todays world money is not given lightly, neither is this request. Please read and feel no guilt if you cannot help, but if you can please do what you can. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this simple, yet powerful story.
Dear Friends,
Before this story begins, I just want to explain that this is written to all of you from a very deep need. It is a story of greed, of cancer confronted and overcome, of big medical bills, and of the creative power of love, and hope, and friendship. It is also a very true story about my beautiful sister, Krista, her husband Frank, and their 4 year old daughter Maya, who are now in a very difficult circumstance.
I hope you can take the time to read this letter. It is not meant to be political. It is simply a real illustration of what can happen when a family falls through the cracks of the health care system in this country. With your help, one family, Krista and Frank’s family, will not fall through those cracks.
It is my hope that Krista and Frank’s story will cut across political party lines, positions, and unexamined prejudices, and remind us of how fragile we are, how fragile our lives are, and how dependent we are upon each other when things go wrong.
But why are Krista, Frank, and Maya confronting a possible medical bankruptcy? Here is their story.
Krista’s Story
Just a few months ago, Krista, Frank, and Maya were a pretty typical, hard-working, middle-class American family with the feeling that their health was good and their future secure. Today however, they are on the verge of bankruptcy due to overwhelming medical bills - Medical Bankruptcy- as it is now called. On December 1st, they will be about 5,000 dollars short of their monthly bills. A recent study estimates that medical-caused bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans each year, including 700,000 children. Many people are suffering with this problem- and like many others, Krista and Frank never thought anything like this would happen to them. Now they are another family added to this statistic.
How did this happen?
A few months ago, in late July, Krista, was struck, out of the blue, with a crippling pain in her abdomen. The pain was so severe she felt she might be dying. She went immediately to an urgent care facility to find out what was wrong. After an exam, blood work, and an ultrasound, she went home to await the results of the tests. Later that night her doctor called to tell her there was a cyst on her ovary. It was 8 cm in circumference, a little bigger than a tennis ball.
She was concerned, of course, about the cyst, but she had health insurance, and was hopeful that the cyst was nothing serious.The next day she went to see her doctor. After a brief exam, the doctor said that her ovary would have to be surgically removed, and that a biopsy would be needed. So she went to the surgery center, scheduled an appointment for surgery, and then went home to call her health insurance broker to make sure the surgery would be covered. That phone call turned her life upside down.
Her insurance broker told her that her health insurance had lapsed at the end of May and stated that the company would not honor any claims made after May 31, 2009. This could not be true. Krista, whose insurance was supposed to be covered by State Continuation, explained to her broker that she had been sending her premium payments to her previous employer. Her broker said “I’m sorry, but we have not received your premiums and your surgery will not be covered.” Her next statement seemed impossible to believe. Krista was told that her employer had stolen her payments. He had kept the money she had sent for her premium payments and and diverted them into his own account. And now he was bankrupt as well. Turns out he had stolen millions of dollars from his investors as well. At this point Krista faced surgery without any insurance. But it was not an option to forego surgery, in spite of the out of pocket expense. The cyst might be serious and had to be removed.
At the time of the surgery, the doctor believed it was a benign cyst. But after her surgery, the news was bad. I came across my mother listening over the phone as Krista told her the results. My mother was crying and I had never seen her look so scared and sad. “Krista has cancer,” she said, “the tumor is cancerous.” Cancer. Besides the seeming death penalty and the uncertainty and fear of being diagnosed with cancer, there was now the issue of trying to pay for major surgery without any health insurance. Her parents would help to pay for the costs of the surgery from their retirement funds, but they could not cover the total cost of the surgery without great financial risk to their security.
Now, in addition to the bills and recovery from the first surgery for the removal of the tumor, Krista’s second surgery would mean a total hysterectomy, appendectomy, omentomectomy, and lymphadenectomy, followed by biopsies of the small and large intestine, and colon. The surgery was invasive, extreme, and would mean the end of her ability to bear children. And of course, without insurance, it would be extremely expensive and far beyond their means to pay.
***************************
Today it has been over a month since Krista’s second surgery. In the end, she was very lucky. The cancer was caught in a very early stage. She is recovering well and her prognosis is good. There was no metastasis of the tumor and she is cancer free. She will need to go in every 3 months of this first year post-op for blood work and exams. She will need to go back every 6 months for the next five years. She is very grateful that the worst part of the journey is over. And she knows that there are others who go through much worse.
The lasting blow is not the cancer, but the medical bills, which have run close to 15,000.00 dollars. This is a figure that they were not prepared to pay. And of course, because of our current system, there is no health insurance company that will cover her. She and Frank have sold everything they can to raise money for their bills, but they get a bill almost everyday, a reminder that they fought cancer and now have to pay dearly for it.
How You Can Help
With your help, this story could have a very happy ending. But you will need to do something generous at the end. It isn’t much, but it is very important, and will be a great help. The only thing you will need to do is to buy one paper crane: Frank’s original painting of one paper crane. The price you can afford to pay for the paper crane painting will be yours to decide. The crane painting is an original piece of Frank Stanley artwork-1 in a series of 1,000- and it will be sent to you as a symbol of your caring and your generosity. Your purchase of one paper crane painting will help to save Krista, Frank, and Maya from medical bankruptcy.
Why One Paper Crane?
There is an ancient Japanese legend which promises that anyone who folds 1,000 origami cranes will be granted the fulfillment of a wish, such as long life, or recovery from illness, or injury. In Asia, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes will make a person's wish come true. As an artist, Frank was looking for a way to use his creativity to help raise funds for his family’s medical bills. And he wanted to do something beautiful for his wife. In his search, he came across the legend of the 1,000 paper cranes. And he decided that since he was a painter, and not so great at origami, he would paint 1,000 origami cranes as a way to raise funds, and to use the proceeds of the sale to help stave off medical bankruptcy.
If you are in any position to help Krista and Frank by buying one painting of a paper crane, it would be a great help to their family. Frank’s goal is to paint and sell 1,000 Cranes for Krista, and hopes to raise enough money to pay their medical bills and hopefully be able to help others in similar situations. http://playgroundartstudios.com
How To Get Your Paper Crane Painting
At the end of this story, there is a link to Frank’s website. There you can choose one of the crane paintings he has already created, or you can request a custom painting.
How Much Should I Donate for the Crane?
Krista and Frank’s medical bills are approaching 15,000 dollars. To make it through December, they will need at least 5,000 dollars. There is no set price for a painting. We simply ask you to give as much as you feel you can. Anything you can do will be of help.
Krista and Frank’s Story- In their Own Words
If you would like to read more details of Krista and Frank’s story in their own words, the rest of the story is right here.
http://playgroundartstudios.com
Dear Friends,
Before this story begins, I just want to explain that this is written to all of you from a very deep need. It is a story of greed, of cancer confronted and overcome, of big medical bills, and of the creative power of love, and hope, and friendship. It is also a very true story about my beautiful sister, Krista, her husband Frank, and their 4 year old daughter Maya, who are now in a very difficult circumstance.
I hope you can take the time to read this letter. It is not meant to be political. It is simply a real illustration of what can happen when a family falls through the cracks of the health care system in this country. With your help, one family, Krista and Frank’s family, will not fall through those cracks.
It is my hope that Krista and Frank’s story will cut across political party lines, positions, and unexamined prejudices, and remind us of how fragile we are, how fragile our lives are, and how dependent we are upon each other when things go wrong.
But why are Krista, Frank, and Maya confronting a possible medical bankruptcy? Here is their story.
Krista’s Story
Just a few months ago, Krista, Frank, and Maya were a pretty typical, hard-working, middle-class American family with the feeling that their health was good and their future secure. Today however, they are on the verge of bankruptcy due to overwhelming medical bills - Medical Bankruptcy- as it is now called. On December 1st, they will be about 5,000 dollars short of their monthly bills. A recent study estimates that medical-caused bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans each year, including 700,000 children. Many people are suffering with this problem- and like many others, Krista and Frank never thought anything like this would happen to them. Now they are another family added to this statistic.
How did this happen?
A few months ago, in late July, Krista, was struck, out of the blue, with a crippling pain in her abdomen. The pain was so severe she felt she might be dying. She went immediately to an urgent care facility to find out what was wrong. After an exam, blood work, and an ultrasound, she went home to await the results of the tests. Later that night her doctor called to tell her there was a cyst on her ovary. It was 8 cm in circumference, a little bigger than a tennis ball.
She was concerned, of course, about the cyst, but she had health insurance, and was hopeful that the cyst was nothing serious.The next day she went to see her doctor. After a brief exam, the doctor said that her ovary would have to be surgically removed, and that a biopsy would be needed. So she went to the surgery center, scheduled an appointment for surgery, and then went home to call her health insurance broker to make sure the surgery would be covered. That phone call turned her life upside down.
Her insurance broker told her that her health insurance had lapsed at the end of May and stated that the company would not honor any claims made after May 31, 2009. This could not be true. Krista, whose insurance was supposed to be covered by State Continuation, explained to her broker that she had been sending her premium payments to her previous employer. Her broker said “I’m sorry, but we have not received your premiums and your surgery will not be covered.” Her next statement seemed impossible to believe. Krista was told that her employer had stolen her payments. He had kept the money she had sent for her premium payments and and diverted them into his own account. And now he was bankrupt as well. Turns out he had stolen millions of dollars from his investors as well. At this point Krista faced surgery without any insurance. But it was not an option to forego surgery, in spite of the out of pocket expense. The cyst might be serious and had to be removed.
At the time of the surgery, the doctor believed it was a benign cyst. But after her surgery, the news was bad. I came across my mother listening over the phone as Krista told her the results. My mother was crying and I had never seen her look so scared and sad. “Krista has cancer,” she said, “the tumor is cancerous.” Cancer. Besides the seeming death penalty and the uncertainty and fear of being diagnosed with cancer, there was now the issue of trying to pay for major surgery without any health insurance. Her parents would help to pay for the costs of the surgery from their retirement funds, but they could not cover the total cost of the surgery without great financial risk to their security.
Now, in addition to the bills and recovery from the first surgery for the removal of the tumor, Krista’s second surgery would mean a total hysterectomy, appendectomy, omentomectomy, and lymphadenectomy, followed by biopsies of the small and large intestine, and colon. The surgery was invasive, extreme, and would mean the end of her ability to bear children. And of course, without insurance, it would be extremely expensive and far beyond their means to pay.
***************************
Today it has been over a month since Krista’s second surgery. In the end, she was very lucky. The cancer was caught in a very early stage. She is recovering well and her prognosis is good. There was no metastasis of the tumor and she is cancer free. She will need to go in every 3 months of this first year post-op for blood work and exams. She will need to go back every 6 months for the next five years. She is very grateful that the worst part of the journey is over. And she knows that there are others who go through much worse.
The lasting blow is not the cancer, but the medical bills, which have run close to 15,000.00 dollars. This is a figure that they were not prepared to pay. And of course, because of our current system, there is no health insurance company that will cover her. She and Frank have sold everything they can to raise money for their bills, but they get a bill almost everyday, a reminder that they fought cancer and now have to pay dearly for it.
How You Can Help
With your help, this story could have a very happy ending. But you will need to do something generous at the end. It isn’t much, but it is very important, and will be a great help. The only thing you will need to do is to buy one paper crane: Frank’s original painting of one paper crane. The price you can afford to pay for the paper crane painting will be yours to decide. The crane painting is an original piece of Frank Stanley artwork-1 in a series of 1,000- and it will be sent to you as a symbol of your caring and your generosity. Your purchase of one paper crane painting will help to save Krista, Frank, and Maya from medical bankruptcy.
Why One Paper Crane?
There is an ancient Japanese legend which promises that anyone who folds 1,000 origami cranes will be granted the fulfillment of a wish, such as long life, or recovery from illness, or injury. In Asia, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes will make a person's wish come true. As an artist, Frank was looking for a way to use his creativity to help raise funds for his family’s medical bills. And he wanted to do something beautiful for his wife. In his search, he came across the legend of the 1,000 paper cranes. And he decided that since he was a painter, and not so great at origami, he would paint 1,000 origami cranes as a way to raise funds, and to use the proceeds of the sale to help stave off medical bankruptcy.
If you are in any position to help Krista and Frank by buying one painting of a paper crane, it would be a great help to their family. Frank’s goal is to paint and sell 1,000 Cranes for Krista, and hopes to raise enough money to pay their medical bills and hopefully be able to help others in similar situations. http://playgroundartstudios.com
How To Get Your Paper Crane Painting
At the end of this story, there is a link to Frank’s website. There you can choose one of the crane paintings he has already created, or you can request a custom painting.
How Much Should I Donate for the Crane?
Krista and Frank’s medical bills are approaching 15,000 dollars. To make it through December, they will need at least 5,000 dollars. There is no set price for a painting. We simply ask you to give as much as you feel you can. Anything you can do will be of help.
Krista and Frank’s Story- In their Own Words
If you would like to read more details of Krista and Frank’s story in their own words, the rest of the story is right here.
http://playgroundartstudios.com
Friday, November 13, 2009
My only comments on Fort Hood
Remember the slain, not who did the slaying. In so many times throughout history we have made household names instead of pariahs of the perpetrators of similar instances. I will reserve personal thoughts on this other than a solemn, somber memory of a horrible day in our history by a coward, may he find the end of a very short rope very quickly.
Read memories of the slain HERE
Jason
III
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Revolutionary Suicide
Revolutionary Suicide
Huey P Newton is at first glance a polarizing and amazing man that has done more for the people of this country in about a 6 year period than most will in 2 lifetimes. Even though he was illiterate as a high school graduate, he argued and won criminal cases against him. Revolutionary Suicide has been out of print for a while, but it is back. While I do not agree with much of the Black Panthers politics, or their founders, I find their tactics bold and their methods pure. I use bold and pure on purpose. They argued that our rights, well specifically the "Black mans rights," were just as stated in the Declaration of Independence, endowed by our Creator. These could not be granted, or taken... simply they were our rights. They studied and obeyed the laws, while carrying shotguns dressed in black "uniforms", making sure others did the same. Pure and bold are the only to words I believe convey my feelings on that issue. I could not possibly in a few short words even hint at the impact the events of this story had on America and the world. Sadly due to either me being too excited to finally read a book I had been waiting years for, or because it really did just suck, I felt the book came up short, VERY short. The first 20% or so gives you a pretty good grasp of the mindset of Mr. Newton, at least bringing me up to the speed of his perceptions. Since I was not alive at that time, nor am I black, some of his descriptions were taken at face value as best as I could. The next 60% he came off as a narcissistic, megalomaniac that reminded me a lot of Alex Jones and his ilk. He would be in the middle of an amazing observation about humanity, then either retreat to quoting the most obscure text he could, or drop off topic to say it is the "white racist power structure" out to get him. Didn't matter if it was America, Africa, or Albania it was all the same New World Order (or in this case Old World Order) out to crush this one man. In the last 20% he narrates his 3 trials (same charges), his time in prison, and finally dismissal of charges. This was by far the most interesting part of the book. When he writes about finding himself in the darkness of solitary, of wanting more of it rather than give up an inch I finally saw what he brought out in people. Huey P Newton is some one I can never meet, will probably never agree with politically, and can never truly identify with...yet he inspires me to be a better man and I am for reading his book. There are certain parts I will have on my mind the day I reach my grave, and every day up til then. It might be strange after I just spent time telling you the majority of it is shit, but YOU should read this book, the story as they say must be told. Power to the People.
R.I.P. Huey, you have earned it.
Jason
III
P.S.- Yes the 10 point plan is f'd up, yes he had many short comings, yes his character was challenged and tarnished in later years. But does anyone give a rats ass trying to bring you down to tarnish all you have done? Even flawed he is still a better man than many I know today, that is not a stab at the people I know, but Huey P Newton was tested and he came out intact more times than most.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Sheriff, A moment of your time please....
Below is the text of an e-mail I wrote to my local sheriff. It was inspired by an article HERE
To whom it may concern,
I would like to direct your attention to a recent web article that I found, and thought would be a great event for the Sheriff to look at. This would be a great opportunity for both Sheriff Babeu, and us citizens of Pinal County. (I also believe this could be done without any county funds?) Anyway here is a link to the article (LINK)and a link to the event co-ordination group Appleseed. I am a local small business owner who deals with the ideals of the Second Amendment daily, and feel that this event would be greatly accepted in Pinal County. I have been watching recent events in the Sheriffs Department this year and have been happy with the change and accountability that have resulted with the election of Sheriff Babeu, maybe this would be a way for us all to say thank you to each other. From the citizens to the department thank you for your service, from the department to the citizens thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Jay 21(Real name in real message)
Do me, and your community, a favor and write a similar message to your local law enforcement. This is a great way to build a strong community relationship with local LEOs.
To whom it may concern,
I would like to direct your attention to a recent web article that I found, and thought would be a great event for the Sheriff to look at. This would be a great opportunity for both Sheriff Babeu, and us citizens of Pinal County. (I also believe this could be done without any county funds?) Anyway here is a link to the article (LINK)and a link to the event co-ordination group Appleseed. I am a local small business owner who deals with the ideals of the Second Amendment daily, and feel that this event would be greatly accepted in Pinal County. I have been watching recent events in the Sheriffs Department this year and have been happy with the change and accountability that have resulted with the election of Sheriff Babeu, maybe this would be a way for us all to say thank you to each other. From the citizens to the department thank you for your service, from the department to the citizens thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Jay 21(Real name in real message)
Do me, and your community, a favor and write a similar message to your local law enforcement. This is a great way to build a strong community relationship with local LEOs.
Monday, October 5, 2009
PLANTIFFS request such other and further relief as...
Montana Ready to go to court. For an older story if you're not familiar, read here. Read the brief below. Special note on page 9
lll
Kinda of makes you go hummmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Jason
III
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Hugh Kealer? AZ Governor wanna be...
To be honset I don't know this guy from Moses, however I like what I have heard so far. Take a look at him here
It is good to be seeing people, regular people, start going after these seats. Jan Brewer is a joke, and Janet N, god I cannot even say. After Symington, Mofford, Mecham.... Man do we deserve a break in this state. Give him a look, at least lets get a couple of horses in this race.
Thanks to David Codrea for spreading the word. Read his stuff here and here...
My favorite part...
"HK: I oppose registration of weapons. This ends up being an infringement of the 2nd Amendment. There is no reason for registration, besides knowing who owns a weapon, how many they own, and what kind; which, I can not see one reason the government needs this information."
Don't forget about Jim Deakin, Candidate for US Senate, Arizona either boys and girls.
It is good to be seeing people, regular people, start going after these seats. Jan Brewer is a joke, and Janet N, god I cannot even say. After Symington, Mofford, Mecham.... Man do we deserve a break in this state. Give him a look, at least lets get a couple of horses in this race.
Thanks to David Codrea for spreading the word. Read his stuff here and here...
My favorite part...
"HK: I oppose registration of weapons. This ends up being an infringement of the 2nd Amendment. There is no reason for registration, besides knowing who owns a weapon, how many they own, and what kind; which, I can not see one reason the government needs this information."
Don't forget about Jim Deakin, Candidate for US Senate, Arizona either boys and girls.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Gilbert Constitution Fair - AZ 2009
I spent Saturday evening out with my family at a local fair celebrating "Constitution Week." It is billed as the largest celebration of the Constitution in the country. I highly encourage EVERYONE to follow this link http://www.constitutionweekusa.com/ and either come out and join us next year or get your local community to organize one. The entire event is put on WITHOUT tax funds of any kind. Representatives from every kind of patriot you can imagine were present. Pocket Constitutions were everywhere, as were games and events to keep the kids involved and educated. (Including Guy Fawkes masks for the kid in all of us) The event was touching as an American, and sobering as father. You walked in through a touching tribute to EVERY Arizonan who has died in Iraq/Afghanistan, all of them a son, brother, father or mother. With actors re-enacting some great speeches of the time including a reading of the Declaration of Independence, and an amazing performance of Francis Scott Key, coming up with the "Star Spangled Banner." I was touched and renewed in my faith of the American people in ways I cannot explain, almost to the point of tears as I recall the evening. A truly memorable event.
Children sign the Declaration wall, Pledging "Our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor" to liberty's ideas. A replica of the Liberty Bell was on display and was even rung. The evening ended with a fireworks display to Americana themed music played live by a full orchestra. I could not have been happier to be anywhere else, or with anyone else on this fantastic evening for a wonderful cause. The teaching of history, our history, and spreading the ideals of liberty. Please take a moment and remember those who came before us, and the prices they paid to give us a place that truly is the shining city Ronald Reagan spoke of. (Read a speech that is as relevant today as ever HERE) I wish I had taken more photos.
Jason
III
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Friday Night "Semper Fi"
Spent Friday saying welcome home to a friend and a Marine, and good luck and god bless to his brothers in arms that will be going back to the sandbox next month. Once again I was touched by the support of total strangers and genuine gratitutude towards these young men who are laying it all on the line. My personal highlight was when I witnessed a very personal "passing of the torch." A man who was introduced only as "a Marine from Vietnam," went around to each of these young Marines gave them a small token and had a private conversation with each of them. I would not dare to ask the content of those words, but as he finished his "thanks" all of these Marines went out of their way to let HIM know he "was their hero" for doing what he did at a time there were no parades, and very few happy home-comings. After many drinks, stories, and tributes we said good night, and a good night it was. Thanks to the American Legion, Patriot Riders, and the USMC 3/4. Please take a minute and have a thought for these boys and all of our soliders.
Jason
III
Sunday, August 9, 2009
At Least SOMEBODY Tried to "Proof Read"
BELOW IS THE DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE 1000 PAGE HEALTH CARE PLAN BY MAT STAVER, DEAN OF LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW:
Obama Health Care Plan Details
HR 3200 currently under consideration in the House of Representatives
*HC = "Health Care"
Pg 22 of the HC Bill MANDATES the Government will audit the books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self insure!!
Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC Bill - YOUR HEALTH CARE IS RATIONED!!!
Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC Bill - THERE WILL BE A GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get
Pg 42 of HC Bill - The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your benefits for you. You have no choice!
Pg 50 Section 152 in HC Bill - HC will be provided to ALL non-U.S. citizens, illegal or otherwise
Pg 58 HC Bill - Government will have real-time access to individual's finances and a National ID Health Care Card will be issued!
Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Government will have direct access to your banks accounts for electronic funds transfer.
Pg 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in unions and community organizations (ACORN).
Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Government is creating a Health Care Exchange to bring private health care plans under government control.
Pg 84 Sec 203 HC Bill - Government mandates ALL benefit packages for private health care plans in the Exchange
Pg 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs for of Benefit Levels for Plans = The government will ration your health care!
Pg 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill - Government mandates linguistic appropriate services.
Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The government will use groups i.e., ACORN & AmeriCorps to sign up individuals for government Health Care Plan
Pg 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs of Ben Levels 4 Plans. #AARP members - Your health care WILL be rationed
Pg 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill - Medicaid Eligible Individual will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. No choice.
Pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue the government on price fixing. No "judicial review" against this government monopoly.
Pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill - Doctors/ #AMA - The government will tell YOU what you can make.
Pg 145 Line 15-17 An employer MUST auto enroll employees into public option plan. NO CHOICE
Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay for health care for part-time employees AND their families.
Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Employer w/ payroll 400k and above who does not prov. pub opt. pays 8% tax on all payroll
Pg 150 Lines 9-13 Businesses with payroll between 251k and 400k who do not provide public opt pays 2-6% tax on all payroll
Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesn't have acceptable health care according to government will be taxed 2.5% of income.
Pg 170 Lines 1-3 Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay).
Pg 195 Officers & employees of HC Administration (GOVT) will have access to ALL Americans' financial and personal records.
Pg 203 Line 14-15 HC - "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it says that.
Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Government will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected.
Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill - Doctors, it does not matter what specialty you have, you'll all be paid the same.
Pg 253 Line 10-18 Government sets value of doctors' time, prof judg, etc. Literally value of humans.
Pg 265 Sec 1131Government mandates and controls productivity for private health care industries.
Pg 268 Sec 1141 Federal Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
Pg 272 SEC. 1145. Treatment of certain cancer hospitals - Cancer patients - welcome to rationing!
Page 280 Sec 1151 The government will penalize hospitals for what government deems preventable readmissions. (Incentives for hospital to not treat and release.)
Pg 298 Lines 9-11 Doctors that treat a patient during initial admission that results in a readmission-Government will penalize you.
Pg 317 L 13-20 PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Government tells Doctors what/how much they can own.
Pg 317-318 lines 21-25, 1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion- Government is mandating hospitals cannot expand.
pg 321 2-13 Hospitals have opportunity to apply for exception, BUT community input required. Can you say ACORN?!!
Pg335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339 - Government mandates establishment of outcome based measures. Health Care the way they want. Rationing.
Pg 341 Lines 3-9 Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans (Part B), HMOs, etc. Forcing people into Government plan.
Pg 354 Sec 1177 - Government will RESTRICT enrollment of special needs people!
Pg 379 Sec 1191 Government creates more bureaucracy - Tele-health Advisory Committee. Health care by phone/Internet?
Pg 425 Lines 4-12 Government mandates Advance [Death] Care Planning Consultion. Think Senior Citizens end of life.
Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney. Mandatory!
Pg 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Government provides approved list of end of life resources, guiding you in death.
Pg 427 Lines 15-24 Government mandates program for orders for end of life. The government has a say in how your life ends.
Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An "advanced care planning consult" will be used frequently as patient's health deteriorates.
Pg 429 Lines 10-12 " advanced care consultation" may include an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from Government.
Pg 429 Lines 13-25 - The government will specify which doctors can write an end of life order.
PG 430 Lines 11-15 The government will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life.
Pg 469 - Community Based Home Medical Services=Non-profit orgs. Hello, ACORN Medical Services here!!?
Pg 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORG. 1 monthly payment to a community-based org. Like ACORN?
Pg 489 Sec 1308 The government will cover Marriage and Family therapy. They will insert government into your marriage.
Pg 494-498 Government will cover Mental Health Services including defining, creating, rationing those services.
PG 502 Sec 1181 Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research Established. - Hello Big Brother - Literally.
Pg 503 Lines 13-19 Government will build registries and data networks from YOUR electronic medical records.
Pg 503 lines 21-25 Government may secure data directly from any department or agency of the U.S. who have any of your data.
Pg 504 Lines 6-10 The "Center" will collect data both published and unpublished (that means public and your private info).
PG 506 Lines 19-21 The Center will recommend policies that would allow for public access of data.
PG 518 Lines 21-25 The Commission will have input from Health Care consumer reps - Can you say unions and ACORN?
PG 524 18-22 Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund set up. More taxes for ALL.
PG 621 Lines 20-25 Government will define what quality means in health care. Since when does government know about quality?
Pg 622 Lines 2-9 To pay for the Quality Standards, government will transfer money from other government Trust Funds. More Taxes.
PG 624 "Quality" measures shall be designed to assess outcomes and functional status of patients.
PG 624 "Quality" measures shall be designed to profile you including race, age, gender, place of residence, etc.
Pg 628 Sec 1443 Government will give "Multi-Stake Holders" Pre-Rule Making input into Selection of "Quality" Measures.
Pg 630 9-24/631 1-9 Those multi-stake holder groups include unions and groups like ACORN deciding health care quality.
Pg 632 Lines 14-25 The Government may implement any "Quality measure" of health care services as they see fit.
PG 633 14-25/ 634 1-9 The Secretary may issue non-endorsed "Quality Measures" for Physician Services and Dialysis Services.
Pg 635 to 653 Physicians Payments Sunshine Provision - Government wants to shine sunlight on doctor but not government.
Pg 654-659 Public Reporting on Health Care-Associated Infections - Looks okay.
PG 660-671 Doctors in Residency - Government will tell you where your residency will be, thus where you'll live.
Pg 676-686 Government will regulate hospitals in EVERY aspect of residency programs, including teaching hospitals.
Pg 686-700 Increased Funding to Fight Waste, Fraud, and Abuse. Do they mean like the government with an $18 million website?
PGs 701-704 Sec 1619 If your part of health care plan isn't in Government Health Care Exchange but you qualify for Federal aid, no payment.
PG 705-709 SEC. 1128 If Secretary gets complaints (ACORN) on health care provider or supplier, government can do background check.
PG 711 Lines 8-14 The Secretary has broad powers to deny health care providers/ suppliers admittance into Health Care Exchange. Your doctor could be thrown out of business.
Pg 719-720 Sec 1637 ANY Doctor who orders durable medical equipment or home medical services MUST be enrolled in Medicare.
PG 722 Sec 1639 Government MANDATES doctors must have face-to-face with patient to certify patient for Home Health Services.
PG 724 23-25 PG 725 1-5 The same government certifications will apply to Medicaid and CHIP (your kids).
PG 724 Lines 16-22 Government reserves right to apply face-to-face certification for patient to ANY other health care service.
Pg 735 lines 16-25 For law enforcement, proposes the Secretary-HHS will give Attorney General access to ALL data.
PG 740-757 Government sets guidelines for subsidizing the uninsured (That's your tax dollars people).
Pg 757-762 Federal Government will shift burden of payments to Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSH) to States. (Taxes)
Pg 763 1-8 No DS/EA hospitals will be paid unless they provide services without regard to national origin.
Pg 765 Sec 1711 Government will require Preventative Services including vaccines. (Choice?)
Pg 768 Sec 1713 Government - Nurse Home Visitation Services (Hello union paybacks).
Pg 769 11-14 Nurse Home Visit Services include economic self-sufficiency, employ adv, school-readiness.
Pg 769 3-5 Nurse Home Visit Services - "increasing birth intervals between pregnancies." Government ABORTIONS anyone?
Pg 770 SEC 1714 Federal Government mandates eligibility for State Family Planning Services. Abortion and State Sovereignty.
Pg 789-797 Government will set, mandate drug prices, controlling which drugs brought to market. Bye innovation.
Pgs 797-800 SEC. 1744 PAYMENTS for graduate medical education. The government will now control doctors' educations.
PG 801 Sec 1751 The government will decide which health care conditions will be paid. Can you say RATION!
Pg 810 SEC. 1759. Billing Agents, clearinghouses, etc. req. to register. Government takes over private payment system.
Pg 820-824 Sec 1801 Government will identify individuals ineligible for subsidies. Will access all personal financial information.
Pg 824-829 SEC. 1802. Government sets up Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund. Another tax black hole.
PG 829-833 Government will impose a fee on ALL private health insurance plans including self-insured to pay for Trust Fund!
PG 835 11-13 fees imposed by government for Trust Fund shall be treated as if they were taxes.
Pg 838-840 Government will design and implement Home Visitation Program for families with young kids and families expecting kids.
PG 844-845 This Home Visitation Program includes government coming into your house and telling you how to parent!!!
Pg 859 Government will establish a Public Health Fund at a cost of $88,800,000,000. Yes that's billion.
Pg 865 The government will MANDATE the establishment of a National Health Service Corps.
PG 865 to 876 The NHS Corps is a program where doctors perform mandatory health care for two years for part loan repayment.
PG 876-892 The government takes over the education of our medical students and doctors.
PG 898 The government will establish a Public Health Workforce Corps to ensure supply of public health prof.
PG 898 The Public Health Workforce Corps shall consist of civilian employees of the U.S. as Secretary deems.
PG 898 The Public Health Workforce Corps shall consist of officers of Regular and Reserve Corps of Service.
PG 900 The Public Health Workforce Corps includes veterinarians.
PG 901 The Public Health Workforce Corps WILL include commissioned Regular and Reserve Officers. HC Draft?
PG 910 The government will develop, build, and run Public Health Training Centers.
PG 913-914 Government starts a health care affirmative action program thru guise of diversity scholarships.
PG 915 SEC. 2251. Government MANDDATES Cultural and linguistic competency training for health care professionals.
Pg 932 The Government will establish Preventative and Wellness Trust fund- initial cost of $30,800,000,000 billion.
PG 935 21-22 Government will identify specific goals & objectives for prevention & wellness activities. That means controlling YOU!!
PG 936 Government will develop "Healthy People and National Public Health Performance Standards" Tell me what to eat?
PG 942 Lines 22-25 More government? Offices of Surgeon General -Public Health Svc, Minority Health, Women's Health
PG 950- 980 BIG GOVERNMENT core pub health infrastructure including workforce capacity, lab systems, health info sys, etc.
PG 993 Government will establish school based health clinics. Your kids won't have a chance.
PG 994 School Based Health Clinic will be integrated into the school environment. Say government brainwash!
PG 1001 The government will establish a National Medical Device Registry. Will you be tracked?
Mathew D. Staver*
Founder and Chairman Dean and Professor of Law
Liberty Counsel Liberty University School of Law
Offices in Florida, Virginia and the District of Columbia, Lynchburg, Virginia
(800) 671-1776 - Telephone (434) 592-5300 - Telephone
LC.org
law.liberty.edu
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Taking Chance
What a difference 40 years can make. I remember vividly being in high school during Desert Storm, my history teacher asking the question:
"How do you think all of these stickers and ribbons in support of our troops make the Vietnam vets feel?" While on one hand he was proud to see his country finally salute its solders, he told us of his experience coming home to being spat on. This movie shows how we as Americans, every day, by simply acknowledging their existence, we pay them tribute. Watch this movie please and remember the fallen. (Read about Chance Phelps USMC here)
Thank you to all Airmen, Marines, Sailors and Soldiers. May you and your families find the peace you deserve.
Jason
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Justified, Part 4
I have previously posted parts here, here, and here to little fanfare. I continue to relate my justification for descent. This will be link thick, read them, then come back.
Armed Citizen has an important essay here where he clarifies in layman's terms the pursuit of "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Reverend Franz has some essential reading on "choices" here and here along with an IMPORTANT essay HERE
Now that you have absorbed these, if you have not yet, check out Anthony Martin's writings here
Caught up? Good. Lastly absorb knowledge here
Now you have a basis of my slightly off-center state of mind. I openly call for revolt, violent if necessary, against a tyrannical government. The reasons are posted above in detail. However I will attempt to simplify it here.
I am a husband and father first, patriot second, and follower of MY faith third. Sad as it is, I have been forced to have a discussion with those that I love and respect. The summary is that there is a time and place for how we act/react. If my hand is forced I will react in a way that causes my death, I am okay with that. May my sons grow strong in proud in the path they have been placed. On the brink of history to fight and kill, if needed, for Liberty. We have lost the vision of our Fathers, we have lost the visions of freedom. For pop culture we have forgotten the Spartans, William Wallace, Roland of Gilead, and Bob Lee Swagger. For purists we have ignored Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. We have all been taught (fooled) to believe that there is hope in a two party system. There is none. I do not recognise the rule of man. I do not blindly follow a nationalistic flag. I believe the founding fathers and their ideals reign true.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Do not follow the idea that barack obama is to blame, nor that george w. bush is. Not even bill, or jimmy c. It is a system that has been growing for generations, stripping us of truth and justice.
Soon we stand and we fight. Train, prepare, and tell those that you do that you love them. Say good bye. Hope that I am wrong, fear that I am not.
Jason
III
Armed Citizen has an important essay here where he clarifies in layman's terms the pursuit of "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Reverend Franz has some essential reading on "choices" here and here along with an IMPORTANT essay HERE
Now that you have absorbed these, if you have not yet, check out Anthony Martin's writings here
Caught up? Good. Lastly absorb knowledge here
Now you have a basis of my slightly off-center state of mind. I openly call for revolt, violent if necessary, against a tyrannical government. The reasons are posted above in detail. However I will attempt to simplify it here.
I am a husband and father first, patriot second, and follower of MY faith third. Sad as it is, I have been forced to have a discussion with those that I love and respect. The summary is that there is a time and place for how we act/react. If my hand is forced I will react in a way that causes my death, I am okay with that. May my sons grow strong in proud in the path they have been placed. On the brink of history to fight and kill, if needed, for Liberty. We have lost the vision of our Fathers, we have lost the visions of freedom. For pop culture we have forgotten the Spartans, William Wallace, Roland of Gilead, and Bob Lee Swagger. For purists we have ignored Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. We have all been taught (fooled) to believe that there is hope in a two party system. There is none. I do not recognise the rule of man. I do not blindly follow a nationalistic flag. I believe the founding fathers and their ideals reign true.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Do not follow the idea that barack obama is to blame, nor that george w. bush is. Not even bill, or jimmy c. It is a system that has been growing for generations, stripping us of truth and justice.
Soon we stand and we fight. Train, prepare, and tell those that you do that you love them. Say good bye. Hope that I am wrong, fear that I am not.
Jason
III
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Re-post As We Enter Year II
One year ago today I "published" my first essay. Thanks for reading and debating over the past 12 months!
I was reading some blogs and postings and noticed a general decline in the attitude of what I will call, people for change. (real change, not the socialist/fascist manifestos of politics today) People who see me a lot or know me well, will roll their eyes at my "power of positive thinking" rhetoric. You will have a hard time convincing people to change by telling them life (theirs or yours) sucks; they already have an opinion about that. Sell them on the "positives" of your new message. If all else fails read the "Federalist Papers" again, arm yourself with knowledge, and give them hope. Idealists change the world, for better or worse. The general population flows with the tide. Remember your history, not the one printed in High School books; the American Revolution was not brought on by "popular vote." The founders as we call them today were an assembly of small groups, consisting of some VERY intelligent and convincing men. They told of a powerful message, "liberty and rights." Liberty being your choices, and rights being UNDENIABLE by other peoples choices. That message is being heard again today, I thank Ron Paul for bringing it to the forefront of "mass-media" again. Our country has been in a downward trend for generations, since well before I was born, and needs to be rebuilt to what it was. Unfortunately, change can only come after tragedy, rebuild after destruction. Let us hope the tragedy is small and the change is large. Keep positive, keep informed and spread the words of our founders. Focus on the ability to reach total strangers across the globe in an instant, make your message heard. America can be the "Shining light on the hill" again. It will not come quickly or easily.
Jason
I was reading some blogs and postings and noticed a general decline in the attitude of what I will call, people for change. (real change, not the socialist/fascist manifestos of politics today) People who see me a lot or know me well, will roll their eyes at my "power of positive thinking" rhetoric. You will have a hard time convincing people to change by telling them life (theirs or yours) sucks; they already have an opinion about that. Sell them on the "positives" of your new message. If all else fails read the "Federalist Papers" again, arm yourself with knowledge, and give them hope. Idealists change the world, for better or worse. The general population flows with the tide. Remember your history, not the one printed in High School books; the American Revolution was not brought on by "popular vote." The founders as we call them today were an assembly of small groups, consisting of some VERY intelligent and convincing men. They told of a powerful message, "liberty and rights." Liberty being your choices, and rights being UNDENIABLE by other peoples choices. That message is being heard again today, I thank Ron Paul for bringing it to the forefront of "mass-media" again. Our country has been in a downward trend for generations, since well before I was born, and needs to be rebuilt to what it was. Unfortunately, change can only come after tragedy, rebuild after destruction. Let us hope the tragedy is small and the change is large. Keep positive, keep informed and spread the words of our founders. Focus on the ability to reach total strangers across the globe in an instant, make your message heard. America can be the "Shining light on the hill" again. It will not come quickly or easily.
Jason
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Somalia, we're comin back in!
"An administration review of U.S. policy toward Somalia found an urgent need to supply the Somali government with ammunition and weapons as it struggles to confront increasingly powerful Islamic militants."
From HERE
2 Questions come to mind:
What could go wrong with this plan?
From HERE
2 Questions come to mind:
What could go wrong with this plan?
What about OUR need to confront increasingly powerful Socialist Statists?
Jason
III
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Quote of the MONTH
An open letter to our elected representatives from Arizona resident Janet Contreras, sent to Glenn Beck which he apparently read aloud yesterday. (I don't listen to Glenn, this was recommended to me.)
I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:
One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.
Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.
Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.
Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.
Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!
Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.
Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.
Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?
Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.
Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.
Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.
Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law.
I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when hewill rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.
I hope Ms. Contreras represents a growing number of voters, I really do.Please pardon me, though, if I doubt. Glenn Beck interviewed the author today, I think. From the transcript:
May I, may I make a prediction. Your letter, in the next 72 hours, will be a letter that is circulated through a good portion of this country on the Internet. I have a feeling your letter may become a rallying cry.
Just doing my part. We the People are coming.
A repost of Smallest Minority, I could not pick a quote so here is the whole deal.
Jason
III
I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:
One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.
Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.
Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.
Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.
Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!
Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.
Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.
Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?
Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.
Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.
Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.
Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law.
I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when hewill rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.
I hope Ms. Contreras represents a growing number of voters, I really do.Please pardon me, though, if I doubt. Glenn Beck interviewed the author today, I think. From the transcript:
May I, may I make a prediction. Your letter, in the next 72 hours, will be a letter that is circulated through a good portion of this country on the Internet. I have a feeling your letter may become a rallying cry.
Just doing my part. We the People are coming.
A repost of Smallest Minority, I could not pick a quote so here is the whole deal.
Jason
III
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Patriot or Loyalist
We are again, in our short history, forced to ask ourselves where do we stand.
Thomas Jefferson in 1775 wrote:
"Believe me, dear Sir: there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America."
Shortly after he drafted other words that echo through America:
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
At this time the country (colonies) had two parties, with a large percentage of the population not fully believing or trusting either. But the basic mindset could be divided into "loyalist to the crown" or "patriot to the cause." Loyalty has been a guiding ideal in my life, like a dog I can be loyal to a fault. However, by the grace of God, I also have reasoning beyond that of canines. I cannot stay loyal to a master, but will be forever vigilant in my loyalty to a cause. As you lay yourself and your loved ones down, recall our proud history. As you read the news, and hear the words of your elected "leaders", no longer simply granted the title of representatives, remember our proud history. Stand loyal your ideals and mans judgement upon you is irrelevant. I for one cannot stay "loyal" to a government that, at every turn, tries to regulate as many facets of life that they can. Meet up face to face, build a network, expand that network. Share, teach and learn. Become a Patriot, and rally others to the cause. A storm is brewing, find shelter and support.
In the CRISIS No.1 Thomas Paine wrote:
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
To this day his words ring true, I have some more reading to do!
Jason
III
Thomas Jefferson in 1775 wrote:
"Believe me, dear Sir: there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America."
Shortly after he drafted other words that echo through America:
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
At this time the country (colonies) had two parties, with a large percentage of the population not fully believing or trusting either. But the basic mindset could be divided into "loyalist to the crown" or "patriot to the cause." Loyalty has been a guiding ideal in my life, like a dog I can be loyal to a fault. However, by the grace of God, I also have reasoning beyond that of canines. I cannot stay loyal to a master, but will be forever vigilant in my loyalty to a cause. As you lay yourself and your loved ones down, recall our proud history. As you read the news, and hear the words of your elected "leaders", no longer simply granted the title of representatives, remember our proud history. Stand loyal your ideals and mans judgement upon you is irrelevant. I for one cannot stay "loyal" to a government that, at every turn, tries to regulate as many facets of life that they can. Meet up face to face, build a network, expand that network. Share, teach and learn. Become a Patriot, and rally others to the cause. A storm is brewing, find shelter and support.
In the CRISIS No.1 Thomas Paine wrote:
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
To this day his words ring true, I have some more reading to do!
Jason
III
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Quote of the Day
"Great. Now Napoltano will be sending emails warning of the Imminent Terrorist Threat posed by by Medicare recipient" -Posted By: RedsQMee @ 06/13/2009 10:38:57 AM
On an artilce about the "elderly criminal minds" HERE
On an artilce about the "elderly criminal minds" HERE
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Memorial Day
Traveler, take this word to the men of Lakedaimon:We who lie buried here did what they told us to do.
Remember the warriors
Jason
III
Jason
III
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Pride
"Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individuals recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity."
From here
For most of my life people have tried to teach me that pride is bad. If I display confidence it is regarded as arrogance, if I refuse to loose it is considered overly competitive or mean. I disagree. See we have been flooded with the ideals of the seven deadly sins, or even more recently with the negative side of pride. E.G. "white pride", "black pride", nationalism, and "gay pride."
This is being used to separate "us" into clicks and cliches. Pride in yourself is a fantastic tool, do not fall into the trap of a singular ideal. Stand up and have some pride in yourself, your life, your abilities or lack of. All of it defines YOU, take pride and strength in that fact. See no self respecting man who has pride in his life, and its position in the world, would stand for oppression. The greater good? I am that greater good because of pride. I am proud of my life, wife and children. I am proud of the accomplishments I have made. I am proud that I have carved out a little space on the Internet to vent and debate with others. Do I have pride, hell yeah. Is it sinful or bad? Not in the least. I learned a long time ago that if you want to appreciate life, you must accept death. That acceptance led to pride. I search for experience in what life I have left, and take pride in what i accomplish in that time. You may not agree with me or my life's choices, that's okay, I am still proud of it. Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1741-"In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."
I believe this at my core, pride is meant to be embraced it is your conscience and should be your driving force. Instill pride in your community and it thrives, instill pride in your children and they flourish.
Have faith, stand strong, stay proud.
Jason
III
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Lucy, you gots some banning to do!
Ricky Ricardo would loose his mind trying to esplain this to his red haired queen as she only want to protect "little Ricky"
Here are some real numbers of accidental child deaths per year:
Cause ......................Number (Ages 0-14) .............Number (Ages 0-4)
Motor vehicle .........................2,591..........................................819 Drowning .................................943............................................568
Fires and flames .....................593............................................327
Mechanical suffocation ..........601.............................................508
Ingestion of food, object.........169 ............................................169 Firearms ..................................86...............................................19
Source: Figures are for 2000. National Safety Council, Injury Facts: 2003 Edition, at 10-11, 129.
Sourced from here
GUNS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM! There are much worse things to de doing with your children. Hell even the Clampet's undestand this
(This is SARCASM I do NOT believe in the government banning of any activity that does not directly harm or infringe another human being E.g. Murder)Monday, May 11, 2009
Is The Military Coming For Us?
Part of my weekend was spent enjoying time and conversation with friends. Some of which are current and/or retired military. The talk drifted to the current Mid-East as the battalions represented had recently returned from Iraq, and are set to deploy on an Afghan route by years end. Anyways during the clearing of Fallujah talk we were going over the adaptive rules of engagement as Marines were going door to door. Here is a brief rundown:
-Early on it was door to door looksey.
-Some would fight, most hostiles would flee a few doors down.
-After a while you get a build up in a single location, a severe fight ensues.
-Door to door becomes escalated with multiple frag grenades. More people run out sooner, dig in deeper.
-More severe fight ensue, and the escalation continues on and on, and involve rolling big boomers.
-Early on it was door to door looksey.
-Some would fight, most hostiles would flee a few doors down.
-After a while you get a build up in a single location, a severe fight ensues.
-Door to door becomes escalated with multiple frag grenades. More people run out sooner, dig in deeper.
-More severe fight ensue, and the escalation continues on and on, and involve rolling big boomers.
Here is my first thought, if the Marines do come for Threepers were fucked! We simply do not have a realistic defense against a squad with a full frag set up. The good news is I don't think we need it. See as I posed the question to the Marines, about citizen disarmament, the answer I got was (paraphrased) "we got some crazy assholes, but I would hope the MP's would say F that before the orders even got to recon." Essentially followed up by the hint that you would soon see Marines on both sides of the line with an overwhelming majority of the battle proven on the side of our citizens. Thanks for the reassurance of support, Semper Fi and be safe out there boys.
Jason
III
III
(PS not meant to dismiss ANY other branch of service, you all just weren't at the party. Thanks to all who have and do serve. May you and your families find rest and peace soon, you deserve it)
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Drug Control, WTF
I have a persistent skin condition, Have had it since I was a child. Anyway here is the deal. I have:
-A rash (similar to shingles) on my eye lid.
-Due to location, it gets infected, inflamed at the time of breakout.
-White blood cells do their thing and build up in my lymph nodes.
-I require "prescription" antibiotics to fight the infection.
To get them I need to leave my job, create an appointment with a doctor to repeat the above symptoms, he/she will look at me, agree and fill out a little 4"x6" piece of paper. I then need to drive to a pharmacy and turn in the "script" and stand in line for 30+ minutes. Collect my pills and move on. Repeat 1-2 times a years. Bullshit... this is not medicine but control, control over my well being. Searching out homeopathic holistic remedies, any ideas? I am done with "western medicine." Drug laws similar to gun laws, and other behavioral codes are designed to remind us we are a lower class of people than those who have been "approved" and appointed. Taxing and regulating behavior is NOT going to stop behavior, only assert "control" over the average man/woman who has a life inside of the daily grind.
-A rash (similar to shingles) on my eye lid.
-Due to location, it gets infected, inflamed at the time of breakout.
-White blood cells do their thing and build up in my lymph nodes.
-I require "prescription" antibiotics to fight the infection.
To get them I need to leave my job, create an appointment with a doctor to repeat the above symptoms, he/she will look at me, agree and fill out a little 4"x6" piece of paper. I then need to drive to a pharmacy and turn in the "script" and stand in line for 30+ minutes. Collect my pills and move on. Repeat 1-2 times a years. Bullshit... this is not medicine but control, control over my well being. Searching out homeopathic holistic remedies, any ideas? I am done with "western medicine." Drug laws similar to gun laws, and other behavioral codes are designed to remind us we are a lower class of people than those who have been "approved" and appointed. Taxing and regulating behavior is NOT going to stop behavior, only assert "control" over the average man/woman who has a life inside of the daily grind.
Jason
III
On a side note- The "swine flu," is THE FLU, stop panicking. It will go over and break in a few days. Quit getting flu shots, eat healthy and exercise. Practice basic hygiene and you will be OK.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
F'n A Right
Read about him HERE, announced today so content is mostly "coming soon." 2010, I am looking for some "change". Bye bye McCain. The shear fact he is going against the hypocrite traitor McCain gets my vote.
Jason
III
Monday, April 20, 2009
Right, Wrong, Indifferent
I was one of a group that received an e-mail from a writer for the Washington Post referring to an article on Obamas comment about the 90% of guns in Mexico. On face value, as more than one person reminded me, the e-mail could have been an innocent attempt at providing us (bloggers) with a noteworthy link. I saw it to be different, and responded as i felt was accordingly.
If you would have bothered reading many of the sites you sent the article to you would know they are already all over the story, and it's inherent LIES. Please remove me from any further e-mails unless it is to renounce your "profession" and the lie it tries to sell to the American people. We are not "AUTHORIZED JOURNALISTS," simply stated we call em as we see em. Good luck in your endeavor, your article on the bats was entertaining. Flawed as the "global warming," giant fans are going to save us syndrome is. Read the sites you mailed, they are top notch and full of things you could report on, things that matter.
Jason
III
I acted in a way that was entertaining to me for me. I "copied" everyone the original Wash Post email had attached and expected no responses. Oops. For the record I was at first flattered to be grouped in with blogs I read daily, for I neither have their content, readership or skill. That is what pissed me of at the same time, NO WAY would anyone put my Blog on par with theirs. More likely an email blast was created off of someones blogroll, and a spam was used to increase Wash Post readership. My site is for my entertainment and to occasionally provoke discussions I see as relevant. Childish yes, do I care, not really. I am still content with my response, but I did not intend to imply I was speaking for anyone other than my self.
Sebastian asked:
"What's wrong with a polite request be removed from his list?"
Nothing, just not in my personality, I occasionally feel like being an A-hole.
and "Why the need for lengthy exoriating screeds against journalists and journalism?"
Too be honest I had to look up the definition of exoriating, and no it wasn't necessary but it was entertaining, and I believe acceptable considering the source and the perceived intentions of the email. To be honest I do not accept elitism by title and call BS as I see it, I also felt the request was condescending in its content and spam like address bar.
D. Codrea stated: "To my knowledge, I coined the term "authorized journalist"--"
Would never mean to disrespect you or "steal" one of your ideas without credit being given. It was used off the cuff and ownership was not intended, I felt it fit the response perfectly. Similarly I frequently refer to your site and its reference to the "only ones" you track so well when it fits the discussion.
Others chimed in but the above statements I felt were directed at me and responded to here. Attention, easy come easy go. For anyone who did not originate the email, hopefully no harm no foul. As for the "journalist" that sent it I still say "Read the sites you mailed, they are top notch and full of things you could report on, things that matter."
Jason
III
If you would have bothered reading many of the sites you sent the article to you would know they are already all over the story, and it's inherent LIES. Please remove me from any further e-mails unless it is to renounce your "profession" and the lie it tries to sell to the American people. We are not "AUTHORIZED JOURNALISTS," simply stated we call em as we see em. Good luck in your endeavor, your article on the bats was entertaining. Flawed as the "global warming," giant fans are going to save us syndrome is. Read the sites you mailed, they are top notch and full of things you could report on, things that matter.
Jason
III
I acted in a way that was entertaining to me for me. I "copied" everyone the original Wash Post email had attached and expected no responses. Oops. For the record I was at first flattered to be grouped in with blogs I read daily, for I neither have their content, readership or skill. That is what pissed me of at the same time, NO WAY would anyone put my Blog on par with theirs. More likely an email blast was created off of someones blogroll, and a spam was used to increase Wash Post readership. My site is for my entertainment and to occasionally provoke discussions I see as relevant. Childish yes, do I care, not really. I am still content with my response, but I did not intend to imply I was speaking for anyone other than my self.
Sebastian asked:
"What's wrong with a polite request be removed from his list?"
Nothing, just not in my personality, I occasionally feel like being an A-hole.
and "Why the need for lengthy exoriating screeds against journalists and journalism?"
Too be honest I had to look up the definition of exoriating, and no it wasn't necessary but it was entertaining, and I believe acceptable considering the source and the perceived intentions of the email. To be honest I do not accept elitism by title and call BS as I see it, I also felt the request was condescending in its content and spam like address bar.
D. Codrea stated: "To my knowledge, I coined the term "authorized journalist"--"
Would never mean to disrespect you or "steal" one of your ideas without credit being given. It was used off the cuff and ownership was not intended, I felt it fit the response perfectly. Similarly I frequently refer to your site and its reference to the "only ones" you track so well when it fits the discussion.
Others chimed in but the above statements I felt were directed at me and responded to here. Attention, easy come easy go. For anyone who did not originate the email, hopefully no harm no foul. As for the "journalist" that sent it I still say "Read the sites you mailed, they are top notch and full of things you could report on, things that matter."
Jason
III
Sunday, April 19, 2009
April 19
A year ago my friend wrote a post for the anniversary. Rather than trying to top his, I repost it in it's entirety here:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood;
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps,
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream that seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone,
That memory may their deeds redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
O Thou who made those heroes dare to die,
and leave their children free,
--Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raised to them and Thee.
RW Emmerson
April 19th is an important day in American history, arguably the most American day of all of them. Commonly called Patriot's Day, all but now forgotten, and only an official holiday in Mass and Maine. Today I thought id give a reminder to you of those who have gone before you, in this great country, that you might remember them, and learn from them.I think John Parker, leader and Captain of the Lexington Irregular Militia can do a better job than I of explaining what happened the morning and afternoon of that April 19, 1775, so ill let him speak first, before i try and explain what those happenings meant, and mean, to you.
"I, John Parker, of lawful Age, and Commander of the Militia in Lexington, do testify and declare, that on the 19th Instant in the Morning, about one of the Clock, being informed that there were a Number of Regular Officers, riding up and down the Road, stopping and insulting People as they passed the Road; and also was informed that a Number of Regular Troops were on their March from Boston in order to take the Province Stores at Concord, ordered our Militia to meet on the Common in said Lexington to consult what to do, and concluded not to be discovered, nor meddle or make with said Regular Troops (if they should approach) unless they should insult or molest us; and, upon their sudden Approach, I immediately ordered our Militia to disperse, and not to fire:—Immediately said Troops made their appearance and rushed furiously, fired upon, and killed eight of our Party without receiving any Provocation therefor from us."
So, there you have it, that's the gist of it.But what were soldiers doing in Lexington, and why were they worried about irregular militiamen, plainclothes farmers who carried rifles once or twice a week, drilling in the town squares and in fallow fields?Well, you see, by the mid-1700s the New England colonies had already begun a long legacy of self reliance and self government. Due to the great distance to the old country and its own government, they had been accustomed for generations to managing their own affairs, with little oversight from England.Because England had incurred a great deal of debt from its frequent wars with France, the British Parliament decided in the 1760s and early 1770s, to try to raise some revenue by taxing the colonies directly, something it had not done before. These taxes were not terribly burdensome, but a great many people were disturbed by the principle: the colonies had always governed and taxed themselves, and they resisted the idea of having to contribute to what they saw as an "external" government. When ordered by the Royal Governor not to hold a town meeting, the Boston representatives held it anyway. A local crowd harassing a group of young British soldiers was fired upon in what came to be called the Boston Massacre. For several years these tensions built and built, until they came to a head in the first few months of 1775.Parliament had ordered the Port of Boston closed, a heavy economic burden for a major trading center, and had ordered the towns to cease holding local meetings. Massachusetts was effectively put under military rule, but since there was only one major garrison, in the city of Boston itself, most of the people in the countryside ignored the orders and continued to act as they always had. They did, however, begin to collect arms and ammunition, and to reactivate their militia system that had fallen into disuse since the end of the French and Indian War a decade earlier.The collecting of muskets, gunpowder, cannon, and other arms for use of the town militia was a violation of the orders of the military governor, General Thomas Gage. Gage was aware that these stores were being collected, and his garrison had carried out several missions to confiscate them in the months prior to April 1775. On one occasion, troops had successfully marched from Boston and captured a large supply of colonial gunpowder that was being stored in the nearby town of Somerville. This maneuver enraged the local population, as much because they had been caught off guard as because they had lost their powder. Determined never to let that happen again, the towns refined their elaborate system of alarm riders who were responsible for spreading word of troop movements throughout the countryside. The system was mobilized in February when another military force was sent by ship to the coastal town of Salem to seize a store of powder and arms. Advance warning to the local population allowed them to raise an intervening drawbridge and move the munitions away, and the troops arrived late, and left empty handed.As the spring came, General Gage received orders from Parliament instructing him to take decisive action to put down the rebellious town governments and to capture those inciting the rebellion. In response to these orders, Gage decided to make another move into the countryside to capture the largest colonial munitions supply, the one at Concord in Middlesex County, about eighteen miles west of Boston. The plan was to move quickly soon after dark with complete secrecy, be at Concord by dawn to seize the supplies, and then return to the garrison in Boston by midday before the colonists could even spread word of what had happened. But the colonists were watching too carefully, and in the small space of Boston secrecy turned out to be impossible.With advance warning of the government raid, the systems put in place after the Somerville raid sprung into action, from flags to rowboats to gunfire signals through the woods, by the time soldiers reached Lexington, no sign of the majority of the muskets, balls and powder they were sent to seize was found. The town's civilian militia, numbering 38, expecting the British before dawn had gathered on the square, in formation, in the middle of the night. When the government soldiers arrived, shortly after dawn they drew a battle line across the green from them and they ordered the militia members to lay down arms and disperse.Some began to disperse at once, being outnumbered by nearly 130 men, but some hesitated, and none layed down their arms, simply walking off towards the town halls. The situation of course was very tense, and there was much yelling to disperse, lay down arms at once... etc, When, suddenly, without warning, and of unknown origin, a shot rang out. Whatever its origin, that first shot started the soldiers firing, without orders, into the dispersing militia. They were immediately ordered to seace fire, but it was too late. When the smoke cleared from those very few minutes of confusion, eight Lexington militiamen had been killed and nine wounded, some bleeding on the steps to their homes facing the green.The soldiers, who weren't quite sure what they were doing at this point, or what their main objective now was, having never been briefed before marching, grew increasingly nervous as they were now told they had to march another several miles to concord, reaching concord about 7am, even as militia members and citizens gathered on the other side of the bridge having heard, no doubt, that something was afoot at Lexington. Again the government soldiers found nothing of the majority of the muskets, balls and powder they were sent to seize. The larger and mostly immobile artillery pieces they were particularly eager to seize at concord, and expected to find in the usual place, on or near the central green, had been whisked into predug holes in nearby fields and plowed over. As the numbers of those gathering near the bridge broke 100 armed men and women, the safety in numbers the military men had previously held began quickly to erode, as tensions built.In the center of the town the government search parties set fire to some smaller gun stores they found, and the militiamen assembling near the North Bridge saw the plume of smoke and believed the troops were beginning to burn the town. They marched forward to the bridge positions held by the soldiers, and the troops again opened fire. The Militiamen returned fire, and several more were killed on both sides.The government soldiers were driven back to the center of the town, and soon the entire force began to march back the way it had come, down the long road to Boston. Even as the regular army fled these citizen soldiers, word of the attack spread through the system of alarms and ready systems now in place. By the hour, more and more militia companies and citizens were arriving from the surrounding countryside, and the troop's retreat turned into a brutal route, a battle three hundred yards wide and eighteen miles long. At every turn of the road a militia company was waiting and fired into the soldier's ranks. The soldiers ordered out by General Gage were fired upon from many houses along the road, and in response their advance parties began burning nearly every building they came to. In the village of Menotomy, between Lexington and Cambridge, the fighting was especially fierce, and the exhausted and terrified British soldiers forced almost every house along the road and killed all the inhabitants.About eight o'clock on the evening of the nineteenth, the column finally reached the safety of its own lines across the river from Boston.They had been marching for almost twenty-four hours, through the night, the last six hours under heavy fire, They had suffered more than 272 casualties, including sixty-five killed. The fighting civilians had suffered ninety-four casualties, including fifty killed.Twenty-three separate towns had at least one member of their militia killed or wounded.No one had called it, and even, perhaps, no one had known it at the time, but the American Revolution had begun. It began in these few new england towns, but soon, it would spread across what would soon be a new nation.Within two days, 15,000 men from across New England had assembled and surrounded Boston, and the soldiers of the crown were never able to move more than a short distance off that small peninsula again. Three months later, at the request of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, a Virginian rode north to take command of that citizen army that had laid siege to the city. His name was George Washington, and the 15,000 New England militiamen became the American Army. Eleven months later, the garrison at Boston was evacuated by sea and was never seen in New England again.In a day where news often took weeks to to travel even a few hundred miles, news of this battle spread at almost supernatural speed. By the evening of the nineteenth—the same day—the news of Lexington had reached New Hampshire to the north and Rhode Island to the south. Within four days it had reached New York City, two hundred miles away. By April 26th the news of Lexington had arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia. New Bern, North Carolina, heard the Lexington alarm by May 3rd, carried via ship from Newport, Rhode Island. Wilmington, North Carolina, heard by May 8th, and Charleston, South Carolina, by May 9th, also from the sea. The Shenandoah Valley on what was then the western frontier received the news overland about the same time. And when it reached a far western hunting camp on another part of the frontier, the hunters decided to name their camp "Lexington." That camp today is the city of Lexington, Kentucky.A forty-year-old Massachusetts lawyer named John Adams, who had been arguing for some time for a political separation from Britain, heard the news on his farm in Braintree that afternoon, and immediately went to see for himself what had happened. He rode that evening along the battle road for many miles, and saw burned out houses, groups of people burying the dead, and refugee families trying to escape farther into the countryside. Adams remembered that day's ride as a turning point in his life; it convinced him that "the Die was cast, the Rubicon crossed." Within a year he would be working with Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence, and would go on to become the second President of the United States. Thomas Paine in Philadelphia had previously thought of the argument between the colonies and the Home Country as "a kind of law-suit", but after news of the battle reached him, he "rejected the hardened, sullen-tempered Pharaoh of England forever." George Washington received the news at Mount Vernon and wrote to a friend, "…the once-happy and peaceful plains of America are either to be drenched in blood or inhabited by slaves.Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?"One of the men in Concord on the nineteenth was the town's minister, the Reverend William Emerson. His house that day became a sanctuary for frightened women and children trying to escape the fighting. More than sixty years later his grandson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, would write one of the defining pieces of American literature for a ceremony commemorating the battle at the North Bridge, that poem with which began this history."The fight had been the hinge," said the novelist Henry James, many years later, "on which the large revolving future was to turn."As JAMES M.NICHOLS wrote in his own remembrance of those who fought at Lexington and Concord, in his history of the revolutionary war, in 1886:It was one of those great days, one of those elemental occasions in the world's affairs, when the people rise, and act for themselves. Some organization and preparation had been made; but, from the nature of the case, with scarce any effect on the events of that day. It may be doubted whether there was an efficient order given the whole day, to any body of men as large as a regiment. It was the people, in their first capacity, as citizens and as freemen, starting from their beds at midnight, from their firesided, and from their fields, to take their own cause into their own hands.Such a spectacle is the height of the moral sublime; when the want of everything is fully made up by the spirit of the cause, and the soul within stands in place of discipline, organization, resources. In the prodigious efforts of a veteran army, beneath the dazzling splendour of their array, there is something revolting to the reflective mind. The ranks are filled with the desperate, the mercenary, the depraved; an iron slavery, by the name of subordination, merges the free will of one hundred thousand men in the unqualified despotism of one; the humanity, mercy, and remorse, which scarce ever deserts the individual bosom, are sounds without a meaning to that fearful, ravenous, irrational monster of prey, a mercenary army. It is hard to say who are most to be commiserated, the wretched people on whom it is let loose, or the still more wretched people whose substance has been sucked out to nourish it into strength and fury.But, in the efforts of the people -- of the people struggling for their rights, moving not in organized, disciplined masses, but in their spontaneous action, man for man, and heart for heart, though I like not war nor any of its works, there is something glorious. They can then move forward without orders, act together without combination, and brave the flaming lines of battle without entrenchments to cover, or walls to shield them.No dissolute camp has worn off from the feelings of the youthful soldier the freshness of that home where his mother and his sisters sit waiting, with tearful eyes and aching hearts, to hear good news from the wars; no long service in the ranks of a conqueror has turned the veteran's heart into marble; their valour springs not from recklessness, from habit, from indifference to the preservation of a life knit by pledges to the life of others. But in the strength and spirit of the cause alone they act, they contend, they bleed. In this, they conquer.The people always conquer. They must always conquer. Armies may be defeated; kings may be over thrown, and new dynasties imposed by foreign arms on an ignorant and slavish race, that care not in what language the covenant of their subjection runs, nor in whose name the deed of their barter and sale is made out. But the people never invade; and, when they rise against the invader, are never subdued.If they are driven from the plains, they fly to the mountains. Steep rocks and everlasting hills are their castles; the tangled, pathless thicket, their palisado; and Nature-God, is their ally. Now he overwhelms the hosts of their enemies, beneath his drifting mountains of sand; now he buries them beneath a falling atmosphere of polar snows; he lets loose his tempests on their fleets; he puts a folly into their counsels, a madness into the hearts of their leaders; and never gave, and never will give, a full and final triumph over a virtuous, gallant people, resolved to be free.So, remember, this patriots day, lest these actions, and the lessons they beget, be forgot.
Tempus Fugit.
Posted by ReverendFranz
Remember the past my Friends.
Jason
III
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood;
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps,
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream that seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone,
That memory may their deeds redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
O Thou who made those heroes dare to die,
and leave their children free,
--Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raised to them and Thee.
RW Emmerson
April 19th is an important day in American history, arguably the most American day of all of them. Commonly called Patriot's Day, all but now forgotten, and only an official holiday in Mass and Maine. Today I thought id give a reminder to you of those who have gone before you, in this great country, that you might remember them, and learn from them.I think John Parker, leader and Captain of the Lexington Irregular Militia can do a better job than I of explaining what happened the morning and afternoon of that April 19, 1775, so ill let him speak first, before i try and explain what those happenings meant, and mean, to you.
"I, John Parker, of lawful Age, and Commander of the Militia in Lexington, do testify and declare, that on the 19th Instant in the Morning, about one of the Clock, being informed that there were a Number of Regular Officers, riding up and down the Road, stopping and insulting People as they passed the Road; and also was informed that a Number of Regular Troops were on their March from Boston in order to take the Province Stores at Concord, ordered our Militia to meet on the Common in said Lexington to consult what to do, and concluded not to be discovered, nor meddle or make with said Regular Troops (if they should approach) unless they should insult or molest us; and, upon their sudden Approach, I immediately ordered our Militia to disperse, and not to fire:—Immediately said Troops made their appearance and rushed furiously, fired upon, and killed eight of our Party without receiving any Provocation therefor from us."
So, there you have it, that's the gist of it.But what were soldiers doing in Lexington, and why were they worried about irregular militiamen, plainclothes farmers who carried rifles once or twice a week, drilling in the town squares and in fallow fields?Well, you see, by the mid-1700s the New England colonies had already begun a long legacy of self reliance and self government. Due to the great distance to the old country and its own government, they had been accustomed for generations to managing their own affairs, with little oversight from England.Because England had incurred a great deal of debt from its frequent wars with France, the British Parliament decided in the 1760s and early 1770s, to try to raise some revenue by taxing the colonies directly, something it had not done before. These taxes were not terribly burdensome, but a great many people were disturbed by the principle: the colonies had always governed and taxed themselves, and they resisted the idea of having to contribute to what they saw as an "external" government. When ordered by the Royal Governor not to hold a town meeting, the Boston representatives held it anyway. A local crowd harassing a group of young British soldiers was fired upon in what came to be called the Boston Massacre. For several years these tensions built and built, until they came to a head in the first few months of 1775.Parliament had ordered the Port of Boston closed, a heavy economic burden for a major trading center, and had ordered the towns to cease holding local meetings. Massachusetts was effectively put under military rule, but since there was only one major garrison, in the city of Boston itself, most of the people in the countryside ignored the orders and continued to act as they always had. They did, however, begin to collect arms and ammunition, and to reactivate their militia system that had fallen into disuse since the end of the French and Indian War a decade earlier.The collecting of muskets, gunpowder, cannon, and other arms for use of the town militia was a violation of the orders of the military governor, General Thomas Gage. Gage was aware that these stores were being collected, and his garrison had carried out several missions to confiscate them in the months prior to April 1775. On one occasion, troops had successfully marched from Boston and captured a large supply of colonial gunpowder that was being stored in the nearby town of Somerville. This maneuver enraged the local population, as much because they had been caught off guard as because they had lost their powder. Determined never to let that happen again, the towns refined their elaborate system of alarm riders who were responsible for spreading word of troop movements throughout the countryside. The system was mobilized in February when another military force was sent by ship to the coastal town of Salem to seize a store of powder and arms. Advance warning to the local population allowed them to raise an intervening drawbridge and move the munitions away, and the troops arrived late, and left empty handed.As the spring came, General Gage received orders from Parliament instructing him to take decisive action to put down the rebellious town governments and to capture those inciting the rebellion. In response to these orders, Gage decided to make another move into the countryside to capture the largest colonial munitions supply, the one at Concord in Middlesex County, about eighteen miles west of Boston. The plan was to move quickly soon after dark with complete secrecy, be at Concord by dawn to seize the supplies, and then return to the garrison in Boston by midday before the colonists could even spread word of what had happened. But the colonists were watching too carefully, and in the small space of Boston secrecy turned out to be impossible.With advance warning of the government raid, the systems put in place after the Somerville raid sprung into action, from flags to rowboats to gunfire signals through the woods, by the time soldiers reached Lexington, no sign of the majority of the muskets, balls and powder they were sent to seize was found. The town's civilian militia, numbering 38, expecting the British before dawn had gathered on the square, in formation, in the middle of the night. When the government soldiers arrived, shortly after dawn they drew a battle line across the green from them and they ordered the militia members to lay down arms and disperse.Some began to disperse at once, being outnumbered by nearly 130 men, but some hesitated, and none layed down their arms, simply walking off towards the town halls. The situation of course was very tense, and there was much yelling to disperse, lay down arms at once... etc, When, suddenly, without warning, and of unknown origin, a shot rang out. Whatever its origin, that first shot started the soldiers firing, without orders, into the dispersing militia. They were immediately ordered to seace fire, but it was too late. When the smoke cleared from those very few minutes of confusion, eight Lexington militiamen had been killed and nine wounded, some bleeding on the steps to their homes facing the green.The soldiers, who weren't quite sure what they were doing at this point, or what their main objective now was, having never been briefed before marching, grew increasingly nervous as they were now told they had to march another several miles to concord, reaching concord about 7am, even as militia members and citizens gathered on the other side of the bridge having heard, no doubt, that something was afoot at Lexington. Again the government soldiers found nothing of the majority of the muskets, balls and powder they were sent to seize. The larger and mostly immobile artillery pieces they were particularly eager to seize at concord, and expected to find in the usual place, on or near the central green, had been whisked into predug holes in nearby fields and plowed over. As the numbers of those gathering near the bridge broke 100 armed men and women, the safety in numbers the military men had previously held began quickly to erode, as tensions built.In the center of the town the government search parties set fire to some smaller gun stores they found, and the militiamen assembling near the North Bridge saw the plume of smoke and believed the troops were beginning to burn the town. They marched forward to the bridge positions held by the soldiers, and the troops again opened fire. The Militiamen returned fire, and several more were killed on both sides.The government soldiers were driven back to the center of the town, and soon the entire force began to march back the way it had come, down the long road to Boston. Even as the regular army fled these citizen soldiers, word of the attack spread through the system of alarms and ready systems now in place. By the hour, more and more militia companies and citizens were arriving from the surrounding countryside, and the troop's retreat turned into a brutal route, a battle three hundred yards wide and eighteen miles long. At every turn of the road a militia company was waiting and fired into the soldier's ranks. The soldiers ordered out by General Gage were fired upon from many houses along the road, and in response their advance parties began burning nearly every building they came to. In the village of Menotomy, between Lexington and Cambridge, the fighting was especially fierce, and the exhausted and terrified British soldiers forced almost every house along the road and killed all the inhabitants.About eight o'clock on the evening of the nineteenth, the column finally reached the safety of its own lines across the river from Boston.They had been marching for almost twenty-four hours, through the night, the last six hours under heavy fire, They had suffered more than 272 casualties, including sixty-five killed. The fighting civilians had suffered ninety-four casualties, including fifty killed.Twenty-three separate towns had at least one member of their militia killed or wounded.No one had called it, and even, perhaps, no one had known it at the time, but the American Revolution had begun. It began in these few new england towns, but soon, it would spread across what would soon be a new nation.Within two days, 15,000 men from across New England had assembled and surrounded Boston, and the soldiers of the crown were never able to move more than a short distance off that small peninsula again. Three months later, at the request of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, a Virginian rode north to take command of that citizen army that had laid siege to the city. His name was George Washington, and the 15,000 New England militiamen became the American Army. Eleven months later, the garrison at Boston was evacuated by sea and was never seen in New England again.In a day where news often took weeks to to travel even a few hundred miles, news of this battle spread at almost supernatural speed. By the evening of the nineteenth—the same day—the news of Lexington had reached New Hampshire to the north and Rhode Island to the south. Within four days it had reached New York City, two hundred miles away. By April 26th the news of Lexington had arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia. New Bern, North Carolina, heard the Lexington alarm by May 3rd, carried via ship from Newport, Rhode Island. Wilmington, North Carolina, heard by May 8th, and Charleston, South Carolina, by May 9th, also from the sea. The Shenandoah Valley on what was then the western frontier received the news overland about the same time. And when it reached a far western hunting camp on another part of the frontier, the hunters decided to name their camp "Lexington." That camp today is the city of Lexington, Kentucky.A forty-year-old Massachusetts lawyer named John Adams, who had been arguing for some time for a political separation from Britain, heard the news on his farm in Braintree that afternoon, and immediately went to see for himself what had happened. He rode that evening along the battle road for many miles, and saw burned out houses, groups of people burying the dead, and refugee families trying to escape farther into the countryside. Adams remembered that day's ride as a turning point in his life; it convinced him that "the Die was cast, the Rubicon crossed." Within a year he would be working with Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence, and would go on to become the second President of the United States. Thomas Paine in Philadelphia had previously thought of the argument between the colonies and the Home Country as "a kind of law-suit", but after news of the battle reached him, he "rejected the hardened, sullen-tempered Pharaoh of England forever." George Washington received the news at Mount Vernon and wrote to a friend, "…the once-happy and peaceful plains of America are either to be drenched in blood or inhabited by slaves.Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?"One of the men in Concord on the nineteenth was the town's minister, the Reverend William Emerson. His house that day became a sanctuary for frightened women and children trying to escape the fighting. More than sixty years later his grandson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, would write one of the defining pieces of American literature for a ceremony commemorating the battle at the North Bridge, that poem with which began this history."The fight had been the hinge," said the novelist Henry James, many years later, "on which the large revolving future was to turn."As JAMES M.NICHOLS wrote in his own remembrance of those who fought at Lexington and Concord, in his history of the revolutionary war, in 1886:It was one of those great days, one of those elemental occasions in the world's affairs, when the people rise, and act for themselves. Some organization and preparation had been made; but, from the nature of the case, with scarce any effect on the events of that day. It may be doubted whether there was an efficient order given the whole day, to any body of men as large as a regiment. It was the people, in their first capacity, as citizens and as freemen, starting from their beds at midnight, from their firesided, and from their fields, to take their own cause into their own hands.Such a spectacle is the height of the moral sublime; when the want of everything is fully made up by the spirit of the cause, and the soul within stands in place of discipline, organization, resources. In the prodigious efforts of a veteran army, beneath the dazzling splendour of their array, there is something revolting to the reflective mind. The ranks are filled with the desperate, the mercenary, the depraved; an iron slavery, by the name of subordination, merges the free will of one hundred thousand men in the unqualified despotism of one; the humanity, mercy, and remorse, which scarce ever deserts the individual bosom, are sounds without a meaning to that fearful, ravenous, irrational monster of prey, a mercenary army. It is hard to say who are most to be commiserated, the wretched people on whom it is let loose, or the still more wretched people whose substance has been sucked out to nourish it into strength and fury.But, in the efforts of the people -- of the people struggling for their rights, moving not in organized, disciplined masses, but in their spontaneous action, man for man, and heart for heart, though I like not war nor any of its works, there is something glorious. They can then move forward without orders, act together without combination, and brave the flaming lines of battle without entrenchments to cover, or walls to shield them.No dissolute camp has worn off from the feelings of the youthful soldier the freshness of that home where his mother and his sisters sit waiting, with tearful eyes and aching hearts, to hear good news from the wars; no long service in the ranks of a conqueror has turned the veteran's heart into marble; their valour springs not from recklessness, from habit, from indifference to the preservation of a life knit by pledges to the life of others. But in the strength and spirit of the cause alone they act, they contend, they bleed. In this, they conquer.The people always conquer. They must always conquer. Armies may be defeated; kings may be over thrown, and new dynasties imposed by foreign arms on an ignorant and slavish race, that care not in what language the covenant of their subjection runs, nor in whose name the deed of their barter and sale is made out. But the people never invade; and, when they rise against the invader, are never subdued.If they are driven from the plains, they fly to the mountains. Steep rocks and everlasting hills are their castles; the tangled, pathless thicket, their palisado; and Nature-God, is their ally. Now he overwhelms the hosts of their enemies, beneath his drifting mountains of sand; now he buries them beneath a falling atmosphere of polar snows; he lets loose his tempests on their fleets; he puts a folly into their counsels, a madness into the hearts of their leaders; and never gave, and never will give, a full and final triumph over a virtuous, gallant people, resolved to be free.So, remember, this patriots day, lest these actions, and the lessons they beget, be forgot.
Tempus Fugit.
Posted by ReverendFranz
Remember the past my Friends.
Jason
III
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