When the Truth comes out...

At NBC we’re just not used to broadcasting things that people want to watch.

And at Camp Perry, Ohio, named in honor of the Naval hero of 1812, The President's Hundred.

Makes me wonder about all that I know not.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness....

The government isn't supposed to take away any of those rights.

A judge in America thinks the government has a duty to infringe on a right of one of the people?

It all makes me tired. Constant assault by well meaning people, bullying everyone else into their religion or idea of perfection.

I am sure that ignoring them will be much better than participating in the madness. Sure they are one day going to come and kill me for my own good. Or someone else in my family or of my beliefs. That is a certain level of Historic perspective. They chopped off John the Baptists head, because he was telling the truth and a fourteen year old dancer was hawt. They hung Jesus on a cross for being not of their influence. Do you really think it was just the people of those times? That kind of thing couldn't be done in  this day and age? Not by our government. Well, mostly you would be correct, most of the people wouldn't do that in any country. But those in power, that think they are special and don't owe their people, God or History a better behavior - they will be corrupt, and deadly and all too soon evil. Even in America, even in the modern enlightened world.

You have to be the winner to determine what is a crime against humanity. For sure the victors aren't going to surrender to judgment.

So, get smarter, learn, and try and change the lost direction of the current Political Correctness, and Media Mass Mindlessness. Make a difference one or two people at a time. Stand up quietly for good, all done without government power, protection or persuasion. Do it as one of the good people. Start by telling the truth, obeying God's law, and loving more than you hate, much more. Take care out there, the government still has no control over love, and media has no idea what it really means.

In so many ways I understand that having more weapons than the killers in Colorado, more ammunition, and more love unmeasured means that God holds me to His standards not that of the ATFE. And the really great law enforcement officers and our serving military know that I am not the problem, even Jesus spoke and acted with the Centurions and the holy men of the Temple, and the fallen women and the tax collectors.

Because I am not an expert...

Listening to media personalities and politicians pontificating on firearms and firearms laws is like listening to eighth graders pontificate on sex.

They sure don’t let lack of any first hand knowledge dampen their enthusiastically-held opinions.

The above was from Tam, or VFTFP (which took me forever to link in my mind). But it and some other reading here and there reminded me of one of my problems with big magazines on military style rifles. Having had to use the M14 and M16 and M16A2 in places where people (enemies) want to hurt me I have always thought the magazines get in my way of getting as low and small as I like to become as a target (invisible works as well as on an alternate universe - hard to achieve).

Pardon me, my wife is traveling in Canada and our telephone is ringing and I want to ignore it. Political hacks, computers or charities asking us to give a little bit more. And I pay for that connection.

Okay, as I wandered the internet I thought about how many rifles, machine guns and light weapons had magazines that feed from the left or right or above the bolt. What we use now isn't always the best, it is just what exists. I think springs are better, but there is the 'look' of the firearm, and the pretty of the soldier so adjustments would be made for many reasons. The soldier just wants something that works: lighter, and better in accuracy than the shooter's skill set, and effective on target.

My personal choice is the M1 rifle. I only shoot, don't design nor worry about my good looks. It has History and meets all my needs. It even has wood used as a stock, darn near beautiful.

What can you do? Go outlaw...

Reading Tam's blog I find her recommending a title for her kindle, and I hit the link, bought the title (even after I found it by the author of the Flashman series - which I didn't like at all). After buying it, I had to schedule a trip to my local library, where my kindle loves to download politely. While there I picked up three paper books, Death of Kings, The Road to Rome, The People's War - looking forward to reading them. I do like to have more reading than I am capable of... but that is much better than listening to talking heads in the media, or the politicians that pretend they wanna be good to all my desires.  Really, I can get more from the written word than the emotional messages beating to the pulse of the commercial enterprises that pay the bills... and I hope that Amazon is smart enough to credit Tam with the buy, the computers are.

So if I am addicted to finding out what the rest of the world is doing, okay, limited by the size of the window, I can do something productive. You know, cook dinner, brew coffee, or prime my cartridges. Anything productive is better than the lack of importance on television. Pray for the Jackson family, and along the way, pray for all the families - the Jacksons aren't more important than all the other ones you know about, but we can all use the Lord's help.

Oh, the whole outlaw thing? Glad you asked, if there isn't a real difference between the two parties and candidates in our government. And the law against killing another human being is dishonored by the authorities, the mad men and women, and they tell us that what we need is another law on the people that were obeying the first one. Well, that won't work. Just sayin'.

So, I think that I trust you enough to allow you to be smarter, and stupider than I. That I trust you enough, to work hard to make your life better and that would mean my life will be better. Most people don't want to have POWER over me. When they had a real legal authority and responsibility to control me, it didn't go as well as they assumed it would. But then I was just doing that thing I thought was critical, telling the truth as I saw it, and working hard to fix problems. Not being a 'yes' man is tough on those with thin skins. I guess the answer I have is go around the government's goodness and do your best for all the correct reasons - not the politically correct reasons.

Barriers, borders and the edges...

Most of the weather here stops at the Canadian border, on television at least. And the hottest and driest times in America only go back to "in living memory", a cliche said quickly if at all. For it has been hotter, dryer, and colder... and most anything else the Mostly Mindless Media can fill you with. Limits on your imagination and knowledge are very important for making you a slave, serf or servant of those with POWER. Just sayin'. It has always been that way, custom, rules and don't try this at home....

You do know that a genius needs normal people to survive, don't you? That there are more men excelling and in the worst possible mental physical condition, that men aren't as regular and balanced as women. Having said that, there are women that have been mass murders, terrorists, and saints. Generalization of the unknowing upon the clueless cause all the silly things that show up on media. They aren't evil, mean spirited (most times), and are a reflection of mankind's best and worst. The reason that very bad government works is that no one changes it: too busy, too afraid, too unaware. The way to keep power, is to control the volume of fear (make sure it is enough), to isolate and eliminate the opposition, to make most of the supporters feel allied or special, to repeat loudly and often your truth, to firmly fix the borders and lines never to be crossed.

Truth, no American would have died in Iraq, if President Bush hadn't sent them there. No American would have died in Iraq after he left office if President Obama had ordered their withdraw. That is a truth.

Iran would have worried more about Saddam than the western world, if he hadn't been disposed and hung (or is that 'hanged' now?). And don't get me started on Afghanistan, looks so much worse than Vietnam ever did, except there is no draft sucking up the blood of the country. If you wanted to look for silly plots, the constant wars are to draw off the warriors and fighters with some idea of honor and selfless sacrifice - too dangerous to leave on the ground in this country. You may have thought it was about the Defense industry making money, but it could have been to control unrest...

No, they only think they are that smart. Notice that Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, Franklin and Adams, even Teddy Roosevelt had things to say and write worth studying and repeating. Have any of the recent, in your living memory, political leaders said anything you are studying, listening to, find interesting or worth sharing? Speech writers, ghost writers or co-authored... makes me wonder if they are lacking those talents of the greats of the 19th Century? okay, they have the talents but not the skills nor make the effort.

The Great NorthWest had a visit by the Commander in Chief, he was performing in town for those with lots of money for his re-election. On the television, local news, we got pictures of Air Force One, and of some of his motorcade (on time delay), and the Secret Service had the Department of Transportation black out the traffic control cameras as he was taken out of town. Reminds me of trying to figure out where Saddam was in the first Gulf War, always hidden from our 'smart' bombs. Anyway, he did get lots of support and donations, and Jay Inslee was at the Airport to say good-bye (he is running for governor and can't depend on enough ballot irregularities to win). We are so lucky to live so far away from the center of attention, those potato farmers in Grant County never had to think about his affect on traffic on the expressways and such.

There are some barriers I appreciate, no one came to my home to make sure the world was safe for fool ideas. God was watching me and I have to be better than that reptilian brain... working on it, LORD. Yes, I will go make the bed now.

Dreams go even farther back...

So there I was, dreaming of being asleep on a chair with a book under my butt riding a thermal above the airport. I had to scooch a bit to rock the chair off the thermal and land crashing on the earth, but being a paratrooper, it was okay and gentler than a real chair without airbag, chute or aerodynamic ability. The airport was in Albert Lea, Minnesota, where my father started his flying career, and I had played in the corn fields and rows of crops. It was being run by immigrants from southern Asia, hollow and as flimsy as dreams are. Time to wake up.


Only two things in the news, one about Colorado and the shooter and the        . Yep, there isn't any reason to watch that coverage, the shooter didn't look like me, and he is under some restraints.

The NCAA has shown as much love for football at Penn State as it has for money. Which is likely why it is a bigger problem than America wants to face. There have been bad people doing terrible things to children forever - many of them in powerful positions, many of them looked at as little gods - to be followed and worshiped. The NCAA also decided to change History, wiping out victories won on the football field by real players and teams because they haven't a clue about how abusing children makes such a winning coach. Did it give Penn State an advantage? Making it unfair to struggle against a University that didn't embrace embracing naked boys by sick sexual predators? No one wants to say that the coach was so bent because he was a repressed homosexual - which may not be true either - but what he did was wrong and should have been stopped by society immediately, but that little fear of failure, confrontation and such - it had to be hidden away. Until it gets to collapse of the soul. Penn State should close the entire Football program down, use the non-money gathering sports to teach the good stuff about sports. But somehow money is going to corrupt the contests, challenges and glory. Too many little people think that money counts, big time.

It goes to Presidential candidates hiding tax returns, school records, and other things they do in the dark... why are we afraid? We don't trust in the Lord, and our government and lives are shallow, hollow and empty?

In my email, I have no idea of the author...

Why Mitt Romney is Unlikable!

 

A lot is being said in the media about Mitt Romney not being "likable" or that he doesn't "relate well" to people. Frankly, we struggled to understand why. So after much research, we have come up with a Top Ten List to explain this "unlikablility."

 

Top Ten Reasons To Dislike Mitt Romney:

 

1. Drop-dead, collar-ad handsome with gracious, statesmanlike aura. Looks like every central casting's #1 choice for Commander-in-Chief.

 

2. Been married to ONE woman his entire life, and has been faithful to her, including through her bouts with breast cancer and MS.

3. No scandals or skeletons in his closet. (How boring is that?)

 

4. Can't speak in a fake, southern, "black preacher voice" when necessary.

 

5. Highly intelligent. Graduated cum laude from both Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School...and by the way, his academic records are NOT sealed.

6. Doesn't smoke or drink alcohol, and has never done drugs, not even in the counter-culture age when he went to college. Too square for today's America?

7. Represents an America of "yesterday", where people believed in God, went to Church, didn't screw around, worked hard, and became a SUCCESS!

 

8. Has a family of five great sons....and none of them have police records or are in drug rehab. But of course, they were raised by a stay-at-home mom, and that "choice" deserves America's scorn.

 

9. Oh yes.....he's a MORMON. We need to be very afraid of that very strange religion that teaches its members to be clean-living, patriotic, fiscally conservative, charitable, self-reliant, and honest.

10. And one more point.....pundits say because of his wealth, he can't relate to ordinary Americans. I guess that's because he made that money HIMSELF.....as opposed to marrying it or inheriting it from Dad. Apparently, he didn't understand that actually working at a job and earning your own money made you unrelatable to Americans.

 

My goodness, it's a strange world, isn't it?

She's gone, gone, gone....

Temporary bachelor in the house... dangerous times. Earl doesn't do well all alone. Eat too much, watch too much television, wander around bumping into walls, best find some really good reading.

The Blues will be blasting as I find nothing of interest on the television, don't have to look at the Blues on cable, just listen.

I do get to find a job, maintain the home and yard, and do some more thinking about thoughts. Hope I survive.

I will be married well again on Saturday evening, although I am even now a very married man. What ever that is worth, I will cling to it and the memory and the promise. I do pray she is safe and has a great trip with her church friends and the Canadians.

If I don't show up here for a bit, not to worry, I will be trying and that means might not be safe in crowds and confrontations. I will attempt to be a nice guy.

I like to think I do well speaking in church

Mostly because I am a quiet loner, and I don't want to bother others, and I like firearms and shooting... all those things that just aren't right. The many prayers and subjects of discussion were of God's love and our purpose and what we must do for His Glory. Regular reinforcement of better behavior through Bible Thumpin'. There were several special moments of prayers for the fallen, the lost and I added Mayor Bloomberg that wants to saddle the entire nation with New Yorks' version of Constitutional avoidance and their success story in low murder rates, suicide and accidental deaths. I always would have prayer for the shooter of the innocent, he also needs saved. At least he doesn't have to watch television coverage of his stupidity.

I am sure that nothing I have said today will take any pain away, support the People, the Constitution, or the government goodness. But two conversations stuck in my mind, one with a younger fellow that was Famous, and now I know his name - he is even more Famous - leads some Christian cell group, plays a bass (I believe) and husband and father of two daughters. Anyway, when I mentioned that I was going to pray for the end of television he responded that they had canceled their cable - because Disney wasn't family oriented any longer, and many other instances where Satan is in charge of the box. He didn't say it was Satan's box, but immediately understood the term.

Another older (like me, much older) man and I talked about what was wrong with America and what happened in the midnight movie madness  -- he listened and we discussed that in the America that we had thought we were growing up in when we were young, that would not have happened. People would have done more to stop it. My recommendation of mobbing the monster isn't going to be quickly accepted, but just the front two rows of patrons could have made a major difference in suppressing his fire and affect on the audience. Have to be willing to die to kill the shooter. My basic qualification for becoming a leader that I would follow, someone willing to take the bullets so we could take out the machine gun position. Tough call, tough job and you can't buy that. We really have become victims of the Politically Correct Bullies that haunt the elite and the media telling us how 'they' are only correct and get the experts to handle it.

Where are the bodies buried?

Every so often, I step off the treadmill and pause. Looking around and wondering how I got there. Seems that I have been looking deeper and finding more failures.

How do you decide that was a fail? Remembering circling an island in Panama a couple times before I realized I wasn't going straight - there were others hoping I knew where I was - I was only close. It must have turned out right, I am no longer in Panama. Lovely jungles.

All of us have stories, things happen, but we are so lucky that we aren't mobbed by television reporters asking how it feels to be shot at and hit. Did you think you were going to die? No, the question I always had was 'Lord, what am I doing here?' especially since I had chosen that profession.

I owe three Airborne berets and one set of Mickey Mouse boots and that is only the tip of an iceberg of things that I didn't do the way it was supposed to be done. People trusted me, and it was a fail. Don't want to pick at the wounds, but they do make me less than what the Lord intended,  Lay down my burden, down by the riverside...

So why do you carry your gun to a movie?

Same bad things happen there as outside the clubs in Seattle.

I guess I am not going to the new Batman movie.

Questions are being asked, and all will be answered - one day. If you have prayed you may have the answer sooner than those watching the Special West Coast edition of Good Morning America. A suicide bomber would have killed many more, but no death is good.

I am interested in the reactions of the media, lust for exciting content. The President speaks - he did get to the horror and the importance of family, and love. The light chatter on the internet: are you carrying a flash light to help you find the shooter?

First, you are involved in an attack - trained personnel attack back immediately and vigorously... if they recognize the threat. That leaves 99% waiting for someone to help.

You aren't trained, but finally realize this is real - get down and out of sight out of harms way.

Think clearly (please this is important) Panic will only work if you can flee faster than the predator can catch you, won't work with a pack of wolves or pride of lions.

IF YOU WERE CLOSE TO THE SHOOTER GO PILE ON THE SHOOTER. I expect this will not happen much, we are watchers now. Some one will take out their cellphone and start streaming video to their friends (I only imagine that could be where all those clips come from). When I was young and someone started trouble, you had to jump on him quick to change his focus (on his pain hopefully) but now we are told that violence is bad.

After the shooting stopped and the lights came on, people helped.
As they should and do best. Trying to restore order in their lives. I like that, people helping and taking the dying and wounded to the hospitals. Best effort to a good end.

There will be calls for this and that, from all over and worry about how we can get it to stop. It is too much like tornadoes missing one town, and destroying another. No matter what the talking heads and all the experts in every point of view... pray for all the lost souls, reach out and help and assist and get right with God.

There were Police with firearms there, they were ready for crowd control and maybe some fool gang bangers posing after the movie. They were not thinking combat zone. When they saw the shooter, they did what they were trained to do, apprehend and gather evidence, and crowd control.

For those carrying concealed. It was dark, smoke, people in panic, if you were there what could you have done? Carrying raises the level of your responsibility, carrying at all means you could take appropriate action. And in the end, the lawyers smell blood in the water, are they going to do class action suit against Midnight Movies?

Time to read Job, an annual mission of self and God...

Thank you very much for your attention.

But remember best friends, young men, and even self haven't got the answers, or the TRUTH!

Don't you love moments of clarity? The lights go on...

I don't want to jinx myself, but I have been starting to feel normal, must be because I am adjusting to OLD, or it just takes a little longer to get better from terminal illness called life. But thank you all for your good thoughts and prayers.

I have been spending way too much time on the computer and watching mindless television, watch enough and you are guaranteed the mindless. I mind less than I ever have in my life. Luckily my wife just thinks my hearing is gone a little farther away. She often forgives me, all my known faults.

I have mentioned before, Facebook, and the game CastleVille, the Government and why things don't work... or I think I have. But as I found myself discovering in the darkness of Gloom a new shadow, and there has been some foreshadowing of the new quest/adventure/efforts of the game designers to suck me into the impossible and their goal of making money from my participations.

They do offer the game free! They allow you cheap exploration to suck you into straying from your mission of cleaning up the other three areas of roots, slime, or rocks -- at the same time you are adventuring to re-float a pirate ship on an exotic island. That is a lot of stuff, and for some crowns (which you can pay real dollars for) you can cut corners and get on to the next big thing.

Well, I decided that time I have, so I opened up the block and found a giant. All I have to do is make his life feel worthy, so a magical birthday party is just the ticket. Which means diversions from the stock piling and creation of the weapons needed to destroy the bad guys and gals and GLOOM. Which are not really EVIL characters, they just love the Dark.

Since I was faintly listening to the news that Mitt Romney is a man that lies and could be a felon... the light came on. The game is the politics of our government. Free to play, lots of quests and adventures and 'feel good' moments and surges of fervor uniting the masses of mindless. EXACTLY. THE. SAME.

The rules of the game have never been read by me, I have read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but the little sets of rules in business and work, the piles of regulations designed by the government and game designers are to be ignored, they only slow me down and divert my attention and energy from my objectives. Both the politicians and the game designers don't worry about my goals - they know if I had a life I wouldn't be paying attention to them. Kind of why the general information of not being cruel in your killing in combat, make sure that non-combatants aren't taken out of season -- is ignored in legal terminology, understand not wasting rounds on that that isn't threatening me or my operation. Sadly, the same self-centered thoughts mean I don't cuddle save nor comfort those that don't add to my immediate combat op. That can come after I win the battle and am cleaning up. AFTER.

The politicians in our (?) government, and the game designers will completely not miss my participation in their puzzle places, real or virtual. They are already sure they know and are the experts.... and the government keeps sinking into debt, more regulation and the game keeps having fewer players, fewer playing longer because of frustrating wading in muck and murk. The politicians and game designers believe that they will be in control and successful as they wear out the players patience. Have you had enough yet? They only want your money, participation, and if it all falls apart you can't blame them, because they were trying.

So old, just don't pay attention to the old guy in the...

corner.

Personal opinion, he should get a more deadly pistol, or not. He was the only person willing to attack while waiting for the law to take charge. Nice to know they don't think his actions were racially motivated. Nor has anyone covered this story as "suicide by gray haired concealed carry nuts" or "how to go out with several bangs". Decided lack of Main Stream Media frenzy. Thank him for his service, both perps were wounded and will live to become choir boys or Republicans.

Just a note...

Dreams of returning to fight again in Vietnam, where did that come from? Wet a bit outside, luckily the grass was trimmed neatly by Saturday. Great day in worship and socializing at church, two lively smiling young lasses made me donate to the youth trip to the Grand Canyon, ice cream and big smiles do that to me. Spent a fine quiet evening with my kindle and romantic errant knights and foolish young temptresses... so out of culture. English lady writing it.

In the what if category. Being very tired of lies of politicians and their henchmen, I have mostly stopped paying attention. I have my picture from President Obama, and now from Governor Romney. The governor is in color! and spiffy dressing down in front of weathered building with American Flag, can't see his gun nor his target from the range. Neither of them is looking me in the eyes. If I were voting on pictures, the Governor would have mine. But the stray thought, is maybe the Governor Romney run for office is a feint, that at the Convention everyone will select another candidate and the Democrats will still be asking for the tax returns of the wrong fellow.

Have any of you looked into opening an account in a Swiss Bank? Maybe that is a project whose time has come. It can't be that difficult, could it? Better than packing out to go fight again in Vietnam. Start that week!

A job for a former Secretary of State...

The News having little of importance to cover will consider anything news worthy. A Senator from Florida and a former Secretary of State have both said they are not seeking the Vice Presidential position on Governor Romney's Republican ticket. What is most not worthy of being covered nor speculated upon by the Main Stream Media is that two very qualified people would not seek to be in that position. That is only a Heartbeat away from becoming President. It is the position of President of the Senate and used to break ties in that body (not often but importantly).

I also guess that one of the reasons that the press doesn't cover that, is that the press doesn't think elected offices are of more use to it than the behavior of Actors, singers, and sports heroes in selling ad time. They have exactly the same weight. If boring life were television worthy, there would be more of it on television. No, the media is in selling products, and selling producers and sellers ad time. Rush Limbaugh seemed humbled by being asked to front for the Republicans under Bush the elder against Clinton (the last?) because he knew what he did had nothing to do with making the country stronger, smarter or more humane. What he did was stimulate discussion not covered by Main Stream Media, allowing the conservatives an opportunity to expound and vent and show they weren't stupid. But he did it so he could sell airtime for products that would make him money. Overseas, the Armed Forces finally broadcast an hour of Rush Limbaugh's show, one of three. I would have rather have had straight Blues, or Jazz without words but I wasn't in charge. I -stopped listening at all to Rush Limbaugh when I found him outraged and ignorant of the truth during the invasion of Haiti, or was that a kind of rescue mission? No matter, he had fallen for a poor First Sergeant's complaint about not having enough ammunition for the jump into possible combat. It was not true.

I would rather on several levels have either the Senator Rubio, or the Secretary of State Rice as Presidential candidate than either Governor Romney or President Obama - but like what I wanted to listen to on the radio - I am not in charge. I think both of them would serve if Governor Romney sincerely requested their participation for that ticket. They both are still stirring up the support for the party. I lean just a little bit more towards the former Secretary, she is honest enough to say she is a little pro Choice.  A true politician wouldn't take that position. I, myself, am for a woman's choice (to have sexual relations) - until she gets pregnant, then I think the unborn child should be protected until age eighteen when the mother and the doctor can go into an alley with the now grown child and fight it out to see which one has God on their side. It would only be fair. Abortion is five steps deeper into personal Hell than any woman needs to go. But jeering and cheering and crowds of stupidity all around - drown the cries of Love, and the moans of blessings unwanted. The government doesn't care, for the government has no soul and cares not for anything but itself.

Well, I hope that Governor Romney continues to do a fine search for the perfect Vice President, I voted against Senator Obama because he picked Senator Biden. Which told me more about Obama than all the lauds and lamentations I had heard from his lips and the star struck media. And for a transparent President the seal on his school records says so much. And although the dumb Democrats want to make much of where, Swiss Banks, Governor Romney has some of his riches -- they haven't said he has hidden anything from the tax man. Knowing that people that work for Obama politically may just be very stupid when they say that Romney might be a felon... it could be true, no one in politics or Washington DC has any honor left.

Or, as I told many military men on their way to the Pentagon, all the REAL Soldiers in that area, are all in Arlington, in the Old Guard or buried beneath the soil. All others are politicians, and that is sad.

I don't write well, so I am sorry, but no one should

read this without understanding that if I were really smart, or worth reading I would be making money at it... and I am not.

I think the United States of America, is a fine country, and solid form of government and has much it can be very proud of... but things that were never built into the government have taken all the good things and twisted them into what we have now. There is entirely too much government, too many regulations and too many people go get power to have it and lots of money. Mostly they want the power, the money will come.

In the American People are many very great folks, solid families, hard working, fun loving and looking to a better future - what happens is they are in servitude to the government and its agencies, unless they are keeping their eyes open and working out of the system. Because the government as it is now, thinks nothing of making its people (when did the people start belonging to the government?) more dependent on its goodness. I wouldn't worry about being part of something that owned me, I was in the Army for twenty-seven years. But I thought of it as an exchange, my services in occupations that weren't easy and seemed to be needed. So if the government wants to hire all the civilians and put them to work, go to it. I am sure, every private business will do better than the government at any task. Every state has an Employment Agency - yet, all the people they hire for the State positions (important ones like Director of Education) are normally filled by a civilian headhunting organization. They need to fight a war, so they hire the unwanted and unworthy (NOT!) but then if it isn't an important or critical war, the enlightened elite keep their young people out of it, or in safer places. Which is why I think the elite are only posers, Caesar fought many enemies of Rome, and had a much better idea of war and politics than our current professors or experts in government.

Well, there I go being negative again. Real people outnumber the fools, fanatics and fearsome and fearful. And real Good people are a large part of of Real people. And some of the Good people, and Real people are in government employment - doing the very best job they can. Many in far off combat zones or guard posts, doing work that won't change the world, but will change them, forever. You don't know the cost.

Now, business and corporations, and banks  - are not EVIL. Being rich is not the same as being a Drug addict, a drug dealer or a dope. Although, a person (one of THE PEOPLE) could be all at the same time.
People grow up, grow old, grow bored, grow excited, get smarter, lose it all --- there is no forever after, you have to work very hard to keep the body strong, healthy and HAPPY! and even harder if you want to be Holy! God doesn't proclaim easy, sexy or green in the Gospel.  I will wish you lots of success with your relationship with God, it has to be personal and I can only say 'have one'.

But business is how one exchanges goods and services with other intelligent beings that want the goods and services and has something to exchange agreeable to both parties. Where there seem to be problems is that businesses are encouraged to count money as success. Not fine products, repeat customers, satisfaction of transactions beneficial for the beings in the transactions... false values. Banks make money when they help move it, to produce more business actions between people. They get in trouble by keeping too much money out of circulation, alienating customers, pretending that someone has to help them when they hire the most stupid con-artists as investment managers. I think some banks are really solid, but there are some really big banks that are completely out of touch, and going to fail.

What is going to be very difficult to overcome in the approaching decline and collapse of the United States of America is the lack of Trust. It comes from making too many enemies: of races, of sects, of 'they' or 'them kinds of folks'. That is all tribal, you should read the story of David and Uriah, and look very closely at that ugly fact that Uriah was keeping the Law much better than David. Don't you just hate those people that live to the letter? I don't, if David hadn't cheated then the whole lineage of Christ would have been lost... and I will always know that no matter what the central headquarters says about how to plan a battle or the death of a great warrior - it is all naught with the first contact with the enemy. You should love your enemies, I hold with killing them quickly, or beating them up badly, but they will have to surrender and change - cause I love them and it can't get any better than that... can it? But maybe I don't trust many people until I meet them, and having met them I trust them until they prove otherwise. Now in the case of every organization (government, business, banks, or other groups of grasping better than I folks) I look and see I can't trust them quickly.  As more of The People get smarter and uneasy with the grasping control of our lives and future, the lack of Trust will grow and it will all come tumbling down.

Remember if the government could regulate success - they would issue degrees in expert of anything, make doctors of everyone, and declare good health and happiness! And anyone that says differently must be insane and need to be eliminated or treated for the illness. Oh, that is happening already, issue another medal, the wars are smaller, the costs always in time and dollars, but paid for in flesh, blood and spirit. We don't know the real price, our values are false.

Summertime and the living is easy... or could be...

You haven't noticed but I have been having trouble getting going, my getup was gone... leaving me behind. But for no reason I have located, I was going to move a part to the gunsmith working on my favorite target rifle. I called him after nine, making sure I would be welcome with the part, dressed, shaved and put my teeth in... got on the Trusty Triumph and was off. I had made sure to take my camera (took no pictures) and was armed (anyone on a motorcycle is already dangerous). I had the part and paperwork for it.

I got lost, Kent is the Post Office of the address, but Covington, Washington is where I needed to be. I got refueled and found a map and decided that I could get there, I had a map now. Sure enough, I found a fine twisty road to get farther East then turned down the correct road, and turned into the drive way of his home/shop. He has such a lovely lot of firearms, being worked on. He had another Stevens with the need for an extractor like the one I had purchased, I gave him the number of the supplier that I bought it from so he could get another one (here in Washington State!). One complaint he had, wasn't the amount of work he was going through, it was the amount of guidance from goodness gracious government (most of which sat unopened on a stack out of the way). I did not suggest it was good of the government to supply fire starter (if they made it on real soft and flimsy stuff - he might not need to buy toilet paper). But I know, he has too much work to stop and read more regulations that he might not understand - or won't improve his craftsmanship. He is proudly Italian, now American, I would (if I were the NRA or supporter of more guns for citizens in America) reach out to the gunsmiths in Europe, if they were willing to set up shop here. There is a need. Now, if you are a smart young person, wanting to be in business for yourself - you should look into this fine profession, we aren't giving up our guns, and they do wear out and break. If you are thinking of the hot sexy, and all the fun shooting full auto and piles of cash that one sees on television - go become a lawyer or a banker.

Back on the motorcycle, and down the road to Highway 18, Federal Way, Dash Point Road (lovely twisty turns and views) Tacoma, the Main Library of TPL, and then back home. To find what I had forgotten in my excitement of the leaving. I forgot any key to open the Caravan, or the house... I am so old. But I was at the correct house, and looked it over carefully, searched all my pockets - AGAIN. Still no key, no hurry, so I don't break open the front door, there were two ways in that my wife (the Home Fires Security Matron) hadn't secured. The old Earl rose to the challenge and I was in... I may be absent minded, fat and faint of heart - but I had a dark past almost professionally going to Hell. I don't recommend it, except you seek the light when it gets really dark. Better to live in the Light... still, I could have waited for the Security Matron and slept away the afternoon, or gotten back on the Trusty Triumph and tooled up Mount Rainier - looking so cool and solid in the Sunshine.

Old dog no tricks...

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:

~Number of States won by: Obama: 19 McCain: 29
~Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 McCain: 2,427,000
~Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million McCain: 143 million
~Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2 McCain: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country. Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

I don't know that the above is at all true. It just feels so wrong. But I am here to write about why the economy isn't working and I am not working either...

I play some computer games, the only one online I am slugging through is CastleVille now. The game designers have the typical stupidity of the government - and being a citizen of America and a player on CastleVille I discovered that I am almost as stupid as they are.

The government has decided that they must make lots of money, to spend lots of money, so they have a greater measure of success. The game designers decided that they must make lots of money, to spend lots of money so they have a great measure of their success.

Earl doesn't have a job, doesn't want to owe for a new business and is often preparing to leave the mortal realm for the Heavenly one - so I am cutting bills, paying off loans and trying to smile at more people - measuring my success in reflecting goodness gracious and smiles that keep the dark away.

The government increases the pace and pages of regulations, without ceasing. Prayers without ceasing would be more effective, but they don't really believe in God.  The game designers want the players to play faster, offer buy ins (with real dollars) to gain glory and success. They also sell ads and ad space and design their game to cause more clicks, to reduce screen, add ads, and impress ad space buyers. 

I am tired. Suddenly realizing this is why business is slow, business is tired. No one in government is cutting regulations, REALLY CUTTING! No one in government is reducing the intrusion into the daily lives of the citizens! WHY! If I don't know what my taxes will be for the next ten years, why work, why plan, why struggle if the government has become the ugly cancer on my life? 

The game designers have made me tired, too. There are too many things to rid the game of, monster and ugly out number the beautiful, as fewer gamers participate daily the remaining gamers must decide to drop out, prioritize or just lull. Nice thing about the game - it is not a real life. Turn it off and feel just a little guilty for abandoning my fellow gamers. I have done it twice, on two other games, and the games have never ended up on my dream schedule.

So the government and the game designers have beaten business and Earl into a passive watcher. Wanting to play harder, work more, remembering the glory days when HP could start in a garage, Jobs could get with friends and amaze each other, and I was fully employed really defending the America I loved, sure it was mythical but it hadn't gotten bent yet, we are close to broken now.

Slash and burn, clear the trees, gird them and start tilling the soil. IF the game designers or the goodness lost government  want to increase players and participants in the game, economy or life in general. CUT THE REGULATIONS, quit building challenges and barriers to moving into the future. The people and business are ready to grow.

On the whole 9/11 event --- the government was stunned that it was supposed to have stopped this type of attack. And then decided to pretend it could stop it for ever and invented more agencies and departments and obstacles to better relations to the world, the people and the idea of law. IF THE PRESIDENT HAD SAID we were going to be attacked tomorrow and every day there after, we might have had a better solution than the mess we seem to be mired on now.

There are people in the world that hate us for what we are, for what we pretend to be, and for what we will never become. Some of those people are very dangerous and willing to die for their mark on History or death of their fears and enemies. Get over it, build your life on solid values, not fears, base it on Love not lust, envy, and sloth...

The government and game designers will never ever have your best interests in mind.

 

 

 

Once upon a time, I had a great job...

The part I want to highlight was that after an operation or training exercise or a day of fun at the range, I would get to clean my weapon. It was that kind of job. Lots of uniforms and lots of weapons and ammunition. But when you got back to base, barracks, security - you started cleaning everything and accounting for all missing, in-operational and incomplete equipment. I could whip through a rifle and pistol, magazines, backpack, rucksack, radio, and stuff one hangs on all over. Oil, wipe it off, reassemble, do function check, and have someone inspect it and get it to bed. Tracks and trucks the same way, the tubes and tanks, and the helicopters and other aircraft had even longer recovery maintenance. No sleep until it was ready to go out again... what no sleep! Nope. Never know when the SHTF moment is going to strike.

I liked knowing that by the time my comrades in arms were ready for their own sleep or recovery time, they would be without a care. Then they would get off to home, rack, washing the laundry, writing or calling important people that they wanted to touch... but couldn't.

That clean up and preparing for the next operation or attack or recovery is never in those movies about what one has done during the day. It is boring, but needed for the next time. I am now out of that job, long out, and don't have to clean my rifle (don't call it a weapon, you might scare the neighbors) until I am ready. Of my position, I treat my tools better than I did when the government was providing the opportunities to use them, and I have only a shadow of the anti-gun goofs plotting to take all my weapons away. I am sure once they get the firearms they will be back for the knives and the bows, then the different chemical compounds. I just don't have enough years left to think it matters as much as they think. I will concern myself more over manners, values, smiles of folks and pleasing God Almighty. Still, I will clean my weapons, until the next time.

No I am not the President, but I am hiding my shooting...

kind of.

Normally, I am there with all the targets and talk and such. But today I just went, paid my money, waited for a spot, posted the target, and shot my forty rounds, only bringing back thirty-nine cases, and one was split.

I did enjoy the day, talking to the other shooters and admiring their stories, rifles and attitude. So maybe it was better than I can write about it, or I will just enjoy that day and hope yours was a great one, too. Even if it wasn't anything to write home (or on a blog about). The Blues should be playing now, my wife is out watering the garden and her flowers, I can go back to reading of lives lived in adventure - which is always a little bit more unsettling than talking about it later --- always trying to live in blest boredom. Amen.

No, I cannot blame the President, any of them...

A President presides, doesn't lead, doesn't rule, doesn't shoot, doesn't legislate, find work for me or better my condition. If you get the President back to what his job means, he doesn't have to be on television, on the internet, hiding his buddies from Congress. He just presides.

So I am responsible for the complete collapse of the housing market, fools betting on the economic numbers in many ways, electing representatives that don't understand high or low finance, supply and demand (too much BS and no one buys it), and the failure of the world beyond my computer cave.

Well, I guess I will go pay the bills, exercise, go to the range (forty rounds at 200 and 300 yards. Y'all have a great day!

Earl's Financial and Economic advice...

Take your gross income, put ten percent in the thankful for the bounty and the blessing, take ten percent and invest in your future (savings, land, stocks, tools, education), live on the remaining eighty percent - which will be attacked by the government for your own and their own good. Always, every payday.

Never borrow money: instead get another job, delay buying, grow up. Every dollar you spend on interest payments for the privilege of borrowing slow you down from success, if you are thinking you should be paying interest when you retire you have no business reading this post. If you think borrowing money for education will make you a faster success, eat lots of ice cream and potatoes and gravy -- when you are fat enough race a mile and see if you come in first.

So you want to buy a lottery ticket, some one has to win. I am lucky, the shredder is beside my desk, when I want to buy tickets I can just put the dollar into the shredder and save all that angst waiting for the winning number on my ticket. Seems my old tickets all got shredded. It does take a bit of time to get smarter.

Look at the average of the Congressmen and President and Judges - and they all spend money they don't have, for things they don't need, with that levy on your income that 'they' say is your fair share.... see? Hope the country has enough time to get smarter.

I have heard/read it again...

Have to stop the drug flow, have to stop the rape, have to stop the murders.... you all realize that you can't stop the rain, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, tiny little things yet unknown...

But I am very tired of the excuse that if we don't have a law and enforcement against it, everyone will become corrupted. NEVER HAS BEEN TRUE.

Remember prohibition? No alcohol, and some folks winked and made lots of money.

But mostly I am certain tired of being thought as big a fool as that drunk down the road, or as  misunderstood as the fool that thinks clouding his mind and body with stuff he doesn't understand now is going to make him something better than he was when he started to get 'wasted'.

I am going to mow my lawn.

It is Independence Day, not the 4th of July...

In Great Britain they honor the 4th of July, by not declaring it a holiday. Although that seems to be the day the colonies in North America put their foot down and their dukes up. Or just proclaimed in written form, in English, that they were listing the reasons for leaving the links to the Crown behind. Links could have been chains of slavery, but they weren't. But they did know that Great Britain did not love them any longer. Those that held fast to the certain glory of the Crown would be driven out of town and home, and enlarge the Empire elsewhere.

  Even the military might that was defeated by the Continental Army and the many Militia units that sprang up like weeds, did much better in India and Africa and stomping on the best little general from Corsica. I have three heroes from the Revolutionary War, Daniel Morgan, Benedict Arnold, and George Washington. Only one was trying to build a nation and an army that could defeat the one from King George. Daniel Morgan was just trying to be very effective on the battlefield of the entire wild wilderness called America (and he brought rough men that shot far and weren't afraid of anything except lace and white linen and smooth talk), Benedict Arnold was always trying to better himself and would risk everything for that and did in the end get caught beyond the position of honor... They each had a story, a part in making of America and none of them would sign the Declaration of Independence, perhaps only General Washington would read a copy somewhere along the line.

 In them days, as now, the grunt work of revolution was done in swamps, fields, mountains and meadows - in every kind of weather, in face of terrible injury and illness, lacking food and shelter and not many kind words. The people paid a heavy price for that idea of Liberty. An idea that today no one would give me a dollar for, since the dollar could buy me a lotto ticket with a chance at millions but Liberty just gets me a spot under a bridge when it rains, and chased by Law Enforcement because I could be a problem (might have a gun, be evading taxes or community service or after the children) best to move that illegal person along.

Today is for picnics, food and feasting, fireworks and friends --- it is also a day to re-read the Declaration of Independence and see what we have lost as we got soft and dependent on the bounty of benevolent government. A day for fairy tales that don't always end happily ever after. Do re-read the document, the Constitution is longer but it too is shorter and lighter than the paper chains around your life.

Full days don't include much Facebook, do they?

So after breakfast and exercising, off to shoot the M1 with the freshly reloaded 30-06 rounds. I get firing point 17 on the right, place target and begin at 25 yards, move to fifty, then out to a hundred, fifty-one well regulated rounds, none got away to parts unknown. I will want to tighten the groups up, work on my sight picture, and get off the bench that doesn't fit me, but I have good rounds to engage the targets with. Happy times with other shooters and our Liberty from those that just don't understand.

I went home, ate left overs and headed with my wife for the Korean War Veterans honoring at the Tacoma First Baptist Church. Do you know they are getting really old, like 78 to 86 or so? They are leaving, say thank you, folks. The Republic of Korea does often, for they know how much good America did by committing to the defense of the innocent and not ready to join the modern communist world. Unlike Vietnam where we cut and ran, or Cuba where we didn't care to invest more than their original independence as we fought Spain for colonial possessions -- the blood, bullets, and bluster paid off (although by President Carter's term American forces could have really departed, but then I wouldn't have been able to take my family back for three and a half years and the Olympic Games). Dr George Drake and Professor Han, Jung-woo both presented their efforts to make sure the newest generations don't miss the whole story about what happened, there are so many that don't KNOW about the efforts of Truman, Stalin, Mao in creating the modern world. I must be getting old, they kept trying to add me to the number of veterans they were honoring, but I was only two to five years old during that conflict. My wife remembers fleeing with her family, her father was on the list of folks to be executed by those that would make Korea all better under Kim and Communist Party foolishness.

After the presentations and prayers for the future of the audience, and the two nations, my wife and I left to pickup our portion of the potluck and go to the Men's Bible study. The men were fine, and I met the married daughter of one of them, interesting she sat to eat with the older men and not their wives. Her husband is in Afghanistan. We were lively in our discussions and enriched by the various views of life, the Bible and the promise and our responsibility to the current culture.