Three of my ancestors, all three brothers, James, John, and William served in Company D of the 37th Mississippi at least as early as April 1863. In December of 1864 all three brothers were captured on the left flank during the second day's battle of the Siege of Nashville. The Tims trio was transported to Camp Douglas like cattle to what is coined by many historians today, a regular extermination camp. And known by those that suffered there, Eighty Acres of hell.
Alabama born Private William Tims died of exposure that led to pneumonia. The Chicago winter in 1864-65 was one of the coldest on records and the POWs there had little more than their old musty and tattered infantry coats to keep warm. The barracks were elevated adding to the misery of the wind and cold.

These three patriots stood together as the finest moment in my family's history. I hope to find some information regarding the 37th's flag, for I have never seen a copy or photo of the original.
I think there should be two laws regarding Confederate colors from the period whether they were regimental flags or ceremonial.
1. Any period any design or example of Confederate or state flags existing in the north under private or public ownership should be returned to the state the flag was originally made. If it's origin cannot be established, the flag should be donated to a worthy Civil War or Confederate museum in one of the thirteen states or two territories of the old Confederacy. Giving it over to the Sons of Confederate Veterans could be a great solution for orphaned Confederate flags existing in the North, for the organization is the living link of the soldiers and sailors that carried the Confederate flags into battle and immortality.
*In Norlands, Maine near Livermore there is a Confederate battle flag on display in the historical library there. It is neither being preserved appropriately nor displayed in an honorable fashion. It hangs from a pole near a giant window. Much of it is faded and tattered already. It may be very near to being too damaged by 148 years of exposure, light, dusty, and moisture. I do not know the origin of the flag but it is a Confederate flag from the period that men followed such flags with muskets and rebel yells. The Washburns, a very prominent, wealthy, and political family of Maine during the Civil War hailed Norlands as one of their bases. Most likely, the captured flag was presented to one of the Washburns by a Maine unit. Mayors, governors, senators, legislators; both North and South politicians and puffed up patriots standing their post in luxirious town homes and hotels hundreds of miles from combat posts made frequent requests to combat officers for flags captured from the enemy. Most were saved and used as decorative trophies, much like the Norlands flag still appears today! Sadly, many others were publicly burned or destroyed otherwise.
Very soon the Norlands flag will share this fate if some of us do not attempt to press the principal that the war is over. These flags having witnessed the same sacrifices on the field and in camp as the soldiers had experienced, they are as sacred as the final resting places of those brave soldiers!

Please visit http://www.norlands.org/ and voice your concern and interest in the matter. If you click on the museum link on the front page you’ll see in the left hand side of the forth photo, the wasting away of the captured battle flag.

2. It should be illegal to sell or auction any period Confederate or state flags privately or publicly. In my opinion this is as shameful and critically harmful to the history of my ancestor's struggle for independence and defense of everything and everyone in their life that was dear. Their homes. The less we preserve the less we leave to our children. Though we may never "impound" all the Confederate battle flags turning into dust in peoples' attics or junk chests, a serious new effort needs to form to bring these precious symbols of the bloodiest war in our history into the light and preservation!
One of the causes that so many Confederate flags, even those saved by museums are not preserved or displayed correctly is because both the NAACP and KKK have joined forces for generations to mislead the public of the true history and nature of these symbols of Southern heritage. For you will never see the 20th Maine regimental colors being buried in a museum basement or sold to the lowest bidder. Lest we forget that the enemy of those that charged with the 20th Maine banner happen to be many of our own ancestors!
The true history of the War against secession needs to be taught and respected. And when the true stories that these banners were a part of become as sacred to our country as the history and flags from every other period in our history, both shall be preserved. There would be no greater loss to our history than loosing its symbols.

And for the record, I believe these two "laws" should go both ways, regarding period Union flags as well. But the salvation and preservation of most Union war flags have never been as failing an issue as the plight of flags born in the Southern Confederacy.

Welcome
to my new blog devotion.  The Confederate States of America lost it's
rightful independence in 1865.  The Southern states lost more than
their sacred right to be free.  More than three hundred thousand
soldiers and sailors and a long censured number of civilians were
killed and wounded.  Thousands became refugees out of burning
communities.  Thousands suffered or died in Northern versions of German
concentration camps (without the gas). 

I dedicate this blog devotion to exposing the long distorted truth of
their deeds and their cause.  I have concluded that the reasons many do
not look back to their day and deed with pride is that their
understanding of the Southron's deed and day has been denied them! 

I had discovered over the years of patient
and passionate reserach that the biggest reasons Americans favor the
Northern victory at the conclusion of the War against secession are based on a deeply
biased view of a history conviently censured in many places. In recent
years I have concluded that the motivations behind creating a flawed
memory of that war was as bad as the campaign against the truth. 

I
want to show you the unpopular and untouched truths and memories of
those that sacrificed all for an independent Confederacy for their
children.  It is incredibly wrong that the history of so many of
our ancestors have been tormented and forgotten.  I want you to witness
me
destroying myth for truth and what side of history that actual facts
and period testimonies prove is right. By using a wider base of
references and sources and being
more open minded to the passions of the period with not a small amount
of passion of my own is how I will approach this devotion.

Jefferson Davis, the one time president of the Confederate
States of America responded to the outright revisions the history he
had led, already becoming staples in the education system. He wrote,
"Truth crushed to the earth is TRUTH STILL and light a seed will rise
again."

My
study and tribute of the rights characters, and campaigns of the War against secession will
not follow a strict timeline.  I will add to it as I do with anything.
Whatever inspires me at the moment. 



So enjoy the very first part of Good Morning CSA


A
CONFEDERATE OFFICER AND PARTICIPANT OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG'S
RESPONSE TO LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS THE PRESIDENT'S WAR AGENDA



Lincoln created a new brand of persuasion:



So
many of us learned President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address before we
were even taught to read.  Few understand, however, that it was nothing
more than a justifying of the insane death toll at the battle of
Gettysburg, the deadliest battle in American history.  He knew that his
twenty-one state union's commitment to the war could reverse at any
moment.

The
words are an example of the still highly successful fear tactic that
become more common when mutual faith in the government is low or when
that government needs the people in a bad way. 
Roosevelt used the wild reaction over Pearl Harbor to finally enter the
war that would decide which of the nations would end up being the
supreme world power.  Bush milked the passion and fear following 9/11
to not only loose our armies on two different nations but also allow
incredible spending and a smashing of our rights. How will Obama use
fear? (or fear that he "inherited")  

Many know that the
South fired on Fort Sumter.  But few understand the details of it and
why that battle was so important to Lincoln's plan for war.  War is
always good for powerful governments.  

When South Carolina seceded from his union,
Lincoln refused to remove Federal troops garrisoned within the state's
borders at Fort Sumter.  Having them there was like a foreign
nation's military posted on Staten Island. It was right. It was asking
for trouble. Lincoln was bad like that. An earlier example of Lincoln's
self will was his determination to become president even though the
states, the people, felt threatend enough by him to warn of secession. 


With South Carolina's promised  December
1860 separation from the Union, by April of 1861, the Union Army still
remained in Charleston Harbor  When the Federal post there was
re-supplied by the US
government, it became clear to the Southern military that the invadors
were ordered to remain.  The foreign
occupiers would not leave willingly.  It was damned if you do, damned
if you don't.  If they didn't fire on the fort, then that Federal
garrison, right in
the middle of the state's busiest harbors, would remain in
control of another government.  If the Carolinians did fire on the
fort, the North could interoperate it as aggression. It would be a
cause for Lincoln to use to gather his much wanted armies. No one stops
to consider that occupying territory in another government's borders is
an act of aggression of its own! I imagine that any state today might
still have an issue if a Federal post acted against the state's
concerns. To remove the occupiers, the
Confederate military did eventually fire upon Fort Sumter and reclaim
it.  The small Federal garrison had no chance of victory. 

It is
funny how the government will set itself up for a big crises or defeat
to motivate the majority towards war.  Pearl Harbor, for example, was a
sitting duck.  The destroyers were lined up alongside each other.  And
as if somebody knew that an attack was coming, the most valued part of
the Pacific Fleet, the carriers and bombers were absent from the harbor on Dec 7 1941. Just saying

Fort Sumter was left just as vulnerable, dangled out like bait. News of
a defeat and surrender of one of their flag's garrisons combined with
the deceptive points of Lincoln's first innagural speech gave the North
reason to invade and kill their late brothers to the South.

When
South Carolina reclaimed her fort, the Northern invasion was set in
motion.  Lincoln warned his people that the South intended to destroy
the Union, over throw it, and dissolve what the founding Fathers had
created.  

In his Gettysburg Address Lincoln wrote,

"Now we are
engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."

And later,
"We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting
place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. 
and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall
not perish from the earth."



A Confederate officer from Alabama saw the true meaning of the 16th
president's speech upon the battlefield where he lost his brother and
so many neighbors four months earlier.

Colonel William C. Oates commanded his
Confederate unit, the 15th Alabama against the Union defenses on Little
Round Top during the battle of Gettysburg.  His canteen detail having
been ambushed, Oates and his men marched through the most trying
terrain in Adams County, PA on it's hottest day of the year.  Even when
half his men died from heat and thirst they drove the Federal 1st
Sharpshooters from Big Round Top and had come close to crushing the
left flank of the Northern army on Little Round Top.  From Virginia to
Tennessee and Georgia, Colonel Oates and his men were worthy of a
greater honor than the deceptive speech Lincoln gave for the Union
fallen.

For ten years I belonged to
a Civil War reenactment group that portrayed the veterans of the 15th
Alabama and so have learned much of its campaigns and heroes.  

In
his 1905 thick study of the War against secession, its causes, and the campaigns he
and his unit fought in titled The War between the Union and the
Confederacy, Oates gave his own response to the speech named for the
battle where his only brother fell.  







“President
Lincoln’s great oration on the field of Gettysburg at the dedication in
November, 1863, proceeded entirely on the erroneous hypothesis that the
life of the nation was at stake.  A proper analysis of his speech was
that if the Confederates succeeded that the nation was destroyed-that
it would prove not only that American Government was a failure, but
would accomplish its destruction as well.  He assumed that if the South
were divorced from the North it would prove the death of each.  How
fallacious and deceptive.  The secession of a part of the states did
not, could not, and never did put the life of the nation in jeopardy. 
In all his letters and messages he asserted that the life of the nation
was at issue, when no one knew better than he that the seceding States
united in a Confederacy sought peaceable separation and were anxious to
treat with the Union still composed of twenty-one States.  He
considered a slump in a body of one-third of the states of which the
Union was composed would kill the Union, or the nation, as he called
it, which would still after the secession have been composed of
twenty-one of the most wealthy and populous States.  The assumption
that the Confederates sought the destruction of the Union was
preposterous.”



It is too often that we are convinced of one
biased and one-sided view of the Gettysburg Address. A view that
Lincoln intended to perpetuate.  I do not know how readers of both
George Bush and Lincoln's speeches fail to acknowledge the
similarities.  The deceptions, the fear, the flowery war cry.  



Colonel William C Oates arguably wrote the most detailed and
interesting history of the Civil War.  He addressed every issue that
started the conflict and brought its immortal actors and witnesses and
events to a wonderfully real life.  

One of the things I find most
fascination is how many facts that he included in his work that have
never been shared, studied, or defended since!  Though Oates filled his
pages with historical fact, the truth contradicts the Union/Lincoln
worship agendas of modern historians.  What leads these misleading and
censorships (Oates book will never be found on a required reading list
at Universities nor in their libraries) is that historians choose sides
defending views that they themselves would defend.  The only
problem with that is, it leaves a out very critical points. 
Too many history books are written like opinion sections of papers
different from Good Morning CSA. It is retarded to write a history
study using modern popular or personal views
as a guide for choosing sides 148 years ago.  



William
C Oates actually lived and fought during the War against secession.  I would trust
his examination of the conflict before any other.  For example, if you
wish to learn the truth of a crime, you will gather all the witnesses
available.

I appeal to students of history that, like in court,
actual witnesses of the War against secession give a more authentic portrayal of
the time period than works of those that merely studied it more than a
century after.  I mean, would the Bible still hold the same credit it
does today if all its books had been written centuries after the fact?
No. The Bible's greatest strength is that many first hand witnesses
told it.  

Yet when it comes to history, like for example, the War against
secession, people content themselves to believe whatever is easiest to
learn.  Instead of reaching for one of the many hundreds of
autobiographies, memoirs, and historical works of those that lived it,
we turn to biographies and documentaries based on a history that is so
misunderstood and distant from modern writers.  It is all about who can
write the most sensational and unique account.  Truth is controversy
and not a profit if unapproved.  

Unlike studies written in modern times or by Union veterans, former
secesh usually included references to the
constitution and pre-Civil War history in their first couple
of chapters. In presenting their history, the works of former
Confederate veterans or citizens give  unique and very detailed but
simple examinations when arguing their cause to the readers. They led
any personal opinion in their works to specific direct
sources and facts.  In making their case they include statements, laws,
articles, and quotes otherwise lost to history.  

The South got a
bum wrap during and after the war against secession.  The smearing and cover up of
Southern history is about what I would have suspected England would
have did also if the colonies had lost the revolution.  

The soul
aim, in my opinion, for the big media and the education enforcement in
the government to portray Southern secession as an attempt to preserve
slavery is keep a very disturbing vision in each of us when the
word secession is mentioned. For the powers that enjoy a power over the
states it would not do for a majority of Americans to consider and be
inspired by ancestors that fought the power to free some of these
states.

We hear so much concerning the
holiness of Union and the godhead that forced the Southern states to
remain in it, Saint Lincoln.  So censured and corrupted is the balance
of true history that to defend truths of Southern history is to be
termed a racist!  A disenchanted view of states and ancestors united in
secession from the ruiling majority in the government, serves the
ruiling majority in the government well.







Learn and love history through reading what was published by those that lived and felt it.
I recommend to any of you that might have an interest in the Civil War to
hunt down this book before any other.

The War between the Union and the
Confederacy. 

Three Months in the Southern States written by a neutral observer of the war
between April and July 1863, Lt. Colonel Arthur Freemantle of Great
Britain. 

The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government is a very
interesting and uniquely truthful work by the leading figure of the
whole Civil War. President Jefferson Davis. 
General John Gordon's Reminisces of the Civil War  
Memoirs of Service Afloat by Admiral Raphael
Semmes.  He served in the Confederate Navy as Captain of the CSS
Sumter and CSS Alabama.  During his service he sank and destroyed more
than fifty Union merchant ships.  



This is true history from the march and the waves of the war. You may find many of these titles at Amazon.com



I
leave you with the first hand wisdom of Colonel William C Oates, former
officer in the Confederate Army, congressman of Alabama, governor of
Alabama, and United States General in the Spanish American War.  



"The
Union was a voluntary one, and that it was no longer a safeguard and
protection, but a menace to their rights, resolve to withdraw from it
and form another Union, in which it was believed there would be peace,
harmony and security of rights resulting from homogeneity of
interests."  Pg 35, The War Between the Union and the Confederacy



“They
asserted, with all effrontery of impudent falsehood, that the chief
occupation of the gentlemen of Virginia was the breeding of slaves like
cattle for the more Southern markets.  To this day the whole South is
suffering under this defamation of character, for it is well-known that
emigrants from Europe now refuse to come and settle in Virginia and the
South on account of their belief in the stories against us with which
their minds have been poisoned.”-page 46, The War between the Union and
the Confederacy.



“A majority of the people in the Northern States
was opposed to any attempt to coerce the seceding States to return to
the Union.  They knew that it would be resisted and would provoke a
bloody war, and if successful would change the fundamental principals
of the government on which the Constitution was founded, from a great
Federation based upon mutual concessions and equality of rights, as
States, and convert it into a centralized nationality with power to
govern the States by force.-page 50, The War Between the Union and
Confederacy



As I stated earlier, Oates, like many other Southern
writers of the history in and of his time, used dozens of other sources
from his time period to make a solid case.  

The following should
hopefully convince you that reading period works will give you a more
authentic understanding of the war.  For we have all been told that the
North was somehow totally united in Lincoln's agenda to fight against
Southern secession.  None of today's biographies or textbooks produces
the fact of just how diverse the sediment had actually been in the
North.  Yet, in this old memoir, Oates offers two articles written in
two major newspapers of two major Northern cities during the Civil
War.  Without Oates' help I would probably of never imagined either
that it was possible that the press from the "other side" defended the
South's chosen fate in 1861.  

Ironicly these two yankee newspaper
articles produce a  more convincing understanding of what the Southern
states practiced in 1861 than any thing printed today.  They say that the yankees write history. 
Yet, they fail to include their own history sometimes.  Like for
example Lincoln's positive opinion towards secession given in 1848 or
his 1850s rants against equality of the races and argument for racial
superiority or even General Grant's opposition against the cause of
abolition  These events as well as the following two articles are
woeful testaments to the hypocrisy and censorship of the whole history.




We hold, with Jefferson, to the inalienable right of communities to
alter or abolish forms of government that have become oppressive or
injurious; and if the Cotton States shall decide that they can do
better out of the Union than in it, we insist on letting them go in
peace.  The right to secede may be a revolutionary right, but it exists
nevertheless; and we do not see how one party can have a right to do
what another party had a right to prevent.  We must ever resist the
asserted right of any state to remain in the Union and nullify or deny
the laws thereof; to withdraw from the Union is quite another matter. 
And, whenever a considerable section of our Union shall deliberately
resolve to go out, we shall resist all coercive measures designed to
keep her in.  We hope never to live in a republic whereof one section
is pinned to the residue by bayonets.”-New York Tribune, November 9,
1860



The difficulties between the North and the South must be
compromised, or the separation of the States shall be peaceable.  If
the Republican party refuse to go to the full length of the Crittenden
amendment-which is the very least the South can or ought to take-then,
here in Maine, not a Democrat will be found who will raise his arm
against his brethren of the South.  From one end of the State to the
other let the cry of the Democracy be, Compromise or Peaceable
Separation.-The Union News Paper of Bangor Maine

Watched a clip of Bill O Reily who reminds me of sausage fly.  He had two crusty former Mousekateers (one that had written a book about it) from the old 50s and 60s Mickey Mouse Club.  They all three, Bill included, gloated on how times have changed, how society is so different from back then.  Meanwhile they are showing different clips from those old timely episodes that included in every other one, a little more than barely legal tween girls kicking up their heels and twirling their short skirts and flashing the camera guy their most flirty charms.  Oh, really, well how is that different from today.  The Disney Channel is still pouring out more dirty-ole-Bill-eye-toys by the generation from Christina Agularer, Britney Spears, Hillary Duff, and Linzy Lohan (until they turned unfashionably eighteen) to Selena Gomez and the Jail Bait Elvis of them all, Miley Cyrus.  Glen Beck, a journalist I actually respect, said earlier that words have lost their meaning.  It is like our national debt, causing our confidence to wain, the dollar to loose value, backed by gold that doesn't exist.  Words, promises, even opinions have lost their worth and are used without thinking because truth has become elusive and rare.  Bill O Reily, for example, with his two crusty Disney hags (they didn't seem to be offended that they hadn't received a call from Disney since they were fifteen) saying how innocent the fifties were with the Mickey Mouse Club getting some props for that illusion. 
They said this during and following one of the Disney pig's confession that she had been seduced by Frank Zappa to be in some nude spread shots during the 70s.  (Her post-Disney legal years).  As they talked about the glorious influence that the Mickey Mouse Club had on the youth and the Musketeers themselves.  I think of the wonderful influence that being Musketeers had on (again) Britney and Christiana or Lindsey Lohane and the even sleazier influence they had on their fans.  I shudder and think of why those girls had to be beautiful & young to be worth so many adults' billions of dollars. And what about the youth that watched the 50s Mickey Mouse Club that these two famous crusted Musketeers had belonged to?  The youth turned into a hypocritical hippie for life that failed to reach any of their goals besides becoming hairy one day and a divorced Match.com whore pain killer pusher the next.  The Mickey Mouse Club let Mom and Dad & Dad down and they helped bring us down.
The worthlessness of words for the lack of honesty. Bill O Reily calling the birth of Disney's creepy not youth but youth-sexuality crusade and the two sexed up crusty memories of it innocent and inspiring.  Oh, but for just one example. 
And more and more these days people around me are giving more and more words and with action (if any) that mimics the inanity of their oaths. 

Oh where to I bee gin!  Personally for me right now life is at such a low that I can't even be poetic about it.  And I can be poetic about some pretty serious stuff.  I have Eminem's Dad's gone crazy going through my head tonight. I played it earlier but it seems like I am still listenting. 
"The parents are pissed but the kids love it."
I am in Alpine now, beyond the Twin Sisters and Marfa herself.  I have so much to say but for the first time in my life I don't know how.  Or I don't know where to begin.  Or I am too tired to think.  When does woe begin to be less inspiring and more tiring? 

Nancy Grace of CNN Headline News, one of our national media CORPERATION'S leading puritans should try what millions of other beam eyed hypocrite should try.  Tasting what they serve.  Not so good on the other side of the spoon is it? 
Last night Mrs. Grace turned on her nightly crusade scolding Casey Anthony, mother and murdeer of infant, Caylee Anthony for selling images of the young victim for thousands of dollars.  @ first my mind danced to Nancy's tune.  Of course, how could any mother think of selling images of her murdered child to the press or anyone?  And I even felt some kudos to Mrs. Grace for raising this serious matter.  However, a few minutes into it I suddenly thought, wtf?  During this whole rant wich included, as usual, a panel of lawyers and "specialists" I must have noticed at least a dozen different photos of the young dead Caylee somewhere on the screen.  Hell!  Did anyone wonder where THOSE photos came from?  Surely Casey Anthony didn't just donate those home pics to CNN Headline News.  No way any of them could have been gotten and used by Nancy Grace without some price. 
hypocrite, hypocrite, hypocrite.  Nancy Grace, for the charges you bust on others, you belong with them.

These following thoughts, or story rather (its all a g-ddamn story) were conceived while waving a salt and peppered glance toward the magazine rack (dunno-y).  I looked upon a Bop, a teen magazine that was the holy grail of almost two years of my life.  Then it was covered by Elijah Wood (young), Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Hillary Swank (In the New Karate Kid).  This time its cover (I did not look further than that) was twas flooded with Ashley Tisdales, Hannah Montanas, Camp Rock stars, Jonas Brothers.  All these tweenystars, teenyboppers, are products and plushes of the Disney Empire.  I don't think that another network had so much influence and power over the tween population (the most profitable age group) than Disney has in recent history. 
Sure Disney has always been that giant in the corner of the room.  Weird but wonderful.  Orlando was always a big hit for families and so has its movie and animated films over many, many years. 
Yet, until the introduction of That's So Raven and Lizzy McGuire staring a then teenage Hillary Duff, to a Wizards of Waverly Place and Cheetah Girls, the Disney Channel has always been that "cool cartoon channel" that the cable company made available for a week or two.  It was mostly for young children, by far not Disney's greatest profiteer. 
Today the Disney Channel and its creations and stars must bring in billions to an empire that the original Walton, uh, Walt could never of even imagined. 
Elvis was king because he owned the tween world and so was the fab-four.  With children sprawled out on the floor, parents would watch the Ed Sullivan Show along with their children and soon go out to buy them Beatles tickets or memoberlia.  Today their grandchildren are sprawled out in front of the TV watching Hannah Montana's Miley Ray Cyrus (The greatest luck ever experienced by a mullet wielding one hit wonder; Billy Ray).  How many billions of dollars of worth of High School Musical stuff will the Santa's little person slaves make in the North Pole this year?  From the east to the west, in every country in the world from the half decent to the most corrupt blob of the west, billions of daughters sobbed for Suite Life of Zack and Cody dolls.  I'm sure of it. 

I don't know, it kind of makes me sick.  If you ever discover that you have less of a life than I and decide to watch something on the Disney Channel (if you have a daughter I'm sure you've seen plenty of it) you'll notice how little Disney actually spends in their sets, script writing, and actor scouts.  Watch one of the three High School Musicals to get the picture.  The film gives off this puky radiance of a false universe called a high school full of pretty people that each have their very specific and important role in the school structure, singing lyrics ripped off the Donny Asmond Show and filling our youth's eyes and brain with sticky sloppy sweetness. 
This is the first generation since before Elvis when the youth has completely lost all its edge, confidence, and independence.  Replaced with

We’re all in this together

I finally figured it out (yeah yeah)
That all our dreams have no limitations
That's what its all about

Everyone is special in their own way
We make each other strong (each other strong)
Were not the same
Were different in a good way
Together's where we belong

In the words of the great Kill Hannah,

They can't save us now
'Cause we're far away from home
And there's no where else to go
They can't save us now
'Cause we're lost and won't be found
We can scream so loud
But they can't save us now

Abilify

The house that ain't a home.
Laurels of loneliness.

December 19

Six years and eight months later...
Two candles lit on the alter of life.  Our first kiss in my history of part 3.  I lit two for Mom too.  My other angel and the only other soul that truly knew and became equally blessed by the spirit of Cheyenne. 
There are signs tonight.  I call to her.  The glory of the flyer.  It will be okay.  Live and die with wings.

Divers removing the bell of the Fitzgerald in Lake Superior feared a spark would ignite some pressure tank.  They were more than three hundred feet under water....

A Shell Commercial that is popular with both parties for sure informs us of glorious news:  To feed our glutton want of black gold, they are inventing a more "cleaner" and nicer way to drill for oil:  a super long snake like tube, more like an ill, that would bury itself into the sea bottom as the rest of its snake like body length whips around the sea.  Oh yeah, much safe than sturdy drilling and I'm confident whales might like to get smacked by it every once in a while.  But hey, it looked cool on TV right?  People are dying of diseases that should have been cured decades ago yet we are still focusing our technology on ways to cause more destruction of the land, water, and air, the same destruction probably responsible for the incredible rise of physical and mental illnesses! 

You’re not yelling when you’re right.

December 22

Blizzard Party

A Jonas Brother has type 1 diabetes. Like me

The Obama inaugural ceremony won't allow stolers or wheels chairs anywhere within two miles of the candidate everyone loves so much.  Everyone loves Obama so much that more taxpayer dollars are being spent and more law enforcement are being called to enforce and arm this inaugural event than any other in history.  Also, the list of banned items, which do include the preferred mobility of both infants and elders, is larger than any one like it in the past.  Change we can believe in indeed!

The first inaugural speech ceremony that featured armed guards was the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in March of 1861.  Reflecting on building his administration and his empire on sending an armed military by sea and land to deny a people's right of revolution and constitutional right to secession, Lincoln feared for his life and maybe his soul.  The measures that Lincoln conceived to protect his own life, that future presidents would feel compelled to follow, were the same as his measures to oppose a South that attempted the journeys of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. 

This is the year of Jefferson Davis.  200  There were no armed guards at his inauguration in either Montgomery or Richmond. 

I love my heritage.

The blizzard continues in and outside. Wooooom wooooosh.

Whether a Maine Civil War reenactor wears the blue or the gray, they are still yankees that stubbornly maintain thefeatures invented by puritans. 99% of the Confederate reenactors (has the lowest number of Confederate reenactors in all the states except Hawaii)Maine have contradicted the honor, faith, and compassion represented in those uniforms of gray.  Those coats reflect the gentle chivilary of Lee's Army in Pennsyvania on one hand and the deadly willingness of General Forrest's cavalry to fight for home referenced echoed throughout the four years of conflict.  Yet, for those that wear it for parades and picnics here in Maine, the uniforms are little else than the common fashion of their paciliar past time.

For most of them wearing the gray uniform and flying the Confederate flag is a mid-life hobby for outcasts and drunks. Most (usually spotted by the stars or bars on their collars) are failures in real life and will scratch, claw, and deceive their way up in rank.  What a sad sight; their desperation and obession for a rank that is nothing more than that of the private's: it is a role.  It is a portrayal. And they wield that exagerated power arrogantly and pathetically though most of them have no real experience or knowledge of the rank and post they are portraying.

Yet, the most common image of Confederate reenacting in Maine is the combination of chaotic politics, rank being the true goal and cause of participating, personality considered before principal, and a list of personal dishonors to the soldiers they are portraying. A couple of examples in that list include a pick up bed full of farby or non-period gear and uniform parts found in each group. And then there is the completely stupid fact that the Confederate troops in Maine do not like to drill and perfect their image and over all presentation for public events. Most of the Confederate officers in Maine can not lead their units through more than ten different marching orders.

There have included a train robbery by a group of infantrymen. They don't consider the fact that there never was one incident during the whole civil war involving infantry soldiers capturing a train.

Mosby's Rangers and JEB Stuart's cavalry rode on horses. They were the ones that captured the trains.

These gavalnized yankees do these silly events because it gets the public off and playing train robber banditos is a lot more fun than doing a graveside ceremony at one of Maine's five Confederate graves. Marching across level open fields for a hundred yards before dying is usually the style for both the Union and Confederate units here in Maine. Considering that the average weight of these so called soldier reenactors is 290 lbs (wives: 300 lbs) and are usually no younger than thirty-five and as old as the sixties, there hasn't been a tactical reenactment in Maine in many years.  The last I heard, one "Confederate" reenacting group in Maine has a first sergeant in his sixties that cannot spend more than an hour in the direct sunlight and had dropped out of reenacting for three years following a battle that caused his feet to get wet. 

Oh snap.

I've visited and experienced a number of Confederate units from others states and I am usually impressed by them, especially those from the South. Many of them have a well-balanced presentation of not being too serious yet serious enough to give an appropriate portrayal of the Southern soldier.   The very serious guys are the coolest, to me, at least.

Confederate reenacting is too sloppy in Maine. The whole thing has turned a hive of units, each with no more than fifteen reenactors that actually form for a parade or drill. The spare no efforts to compete with each other.  The competitions between Maine Confederate units would shame even the most dramatic battles between the blue and gray.

I've had very few experiences while Confederate reenacting in Maine when topics such as battlefield and monument preservation were brought up by any one other than my family and I. Other topics and subjects like planning events to honor two of Maine's Confederate generals or the Confederate raid into Calais or even large scale encampments in the state.

They never discuss or attempt to try group effort school presentations, making a booth at community events, or doing an event in public to celebrate a Civil War anniversary date or Confederate Memorial Day.

In fact, in the dozens of schools that I gave countless classroom presentations of the Confederate soldier, there was only one or two times where maybe one or two other members of my unit participated in.

Again, Confederate reenacting has turned into a pack of little people motivated by big egos.

If these were the kind of "men" that were charged with defending the South during the Civil War, the war would have been lost long before Fort Sumter!

(This is a cool post.  Starts off a little slow but gets better along the way).
"Yay Me"-London Tipton

Actually, in the movie, V for Vendetta, a stinking freethinking liberal exaggeration of the drawbacks of conservatism, the line was, "Remember, Remember, the 5th of November." 

Why do super heroes wear masks?  I am sure this has been asked before in countless circles while passing around peace pipes and joints.  I am sure it was asked over many coffee lattes and coffee brandies. 
But for now-its mine. 

I believe that the hero’s mask is their trademark of self-denial, hypocrisy, and self-righteousness.  Too ashamed to face themselves or have others know the violently insane and obsessive cases they are capable of being.   V and Batman and Spiderman all wear their masks for the same reasons the Green Goblin and the Riddler wear theirs.  The Joker wears his make up for the same reasons the Ninja Turtles live in the sewer and wear masks.  They are freaks. The Joker (like Two Face) was horribly deformed and transformed from an unknown street pirate and mob goon to a super vindictive and violent and determined opponent.  As much as the mask defines the psizophrenia personalities of super heroes so does the mask and makeup define the villian's own disorders of hate and rage or in the super hero’s case, self-medicating by saving others. 

Every point in our history where there have been cultures and empires that have not been inspired to live the teachings of Jesus and the lessons of His death and resurrection (You'd be surprised how few moments in history had been inspired by Him) the people have been at war.  Division and plunder.  Greed and power.  Glory and lust.  Blood for lies. 

I find the so-called super hero’s image and story as pathetic as the stories of some of the state cases I live near.  Instead of trusting in God and following His word through times of trial, these guys plunge themselves into a self-glorified angel with a black belt.

The entertainment industry, the same a holes that brought us Rudolf (I do not blame the comics because they are not the first form of literature that has expanded on society's weakness) feed us that these are only normal guys that are channeling their negative forces towards the greater good.  We eat up that happy bs.  Go Wild Cats!

However, Bat Man as well as the Joker, both the red and black Spiderman, give us an extrordanary opportunity to watch a two-hour film about your own dark cores without having to acknowledge it. 

In our dreams we are the christs that people pray for when they are in trouble.  In our dreams we are the angels that can fly around  NYC or Gotham either on the wings of a pterosaur or upon a spider string.  In our dreams our villains are justly beat (by us) and all the pains of the past and present are confronted and challenged. 
Yet, in our dreams we are also the flamboyant and charismatic playboy villain.  The guy that, like the super hero, is unafraid to stand up and face the world without fear of consequences.  Though villains usually get killed, in our dreams that is cool.  Villains always go out standing and with a bang. 

Whether we acknowledge this or not, there is a part of our ego that wears both masks of the villain and the hero.  Yet, we live in reality, where there isn't an are to a company and fortune that has the right recipe of rage, wrath, and obsession to stalk the night for a Penguin or a guy that got his big screen break in One Flew Over the Coo Coo's Nest. 
We live in a world where an evil yet sexy opportunist doesn't just suddenly rise to the top of the world as a part of his evil plan.  Wait, this is November 4, 2008 right?  (Woman screeches) OMG its Blitzkrieg Barrack!  Not unlike the Joker,  Blitzkrieg Barrack wears a different face than in his past and he won our hearts through charisma and image alone. 
His blue imps have raided most of the national senate and house too.

(Shines a spotlight into the night with an outline not of a bat but of a plunger).  Joe the Plummer, where thou art?

I get a kick out of the many forms of art featuring a devil as recognizable as a half goat half dragon with clover feat, spike tail, two horns, and a cool goatee.  
Shouldn't we know by now that the devil also wears a mask?
In Eve he was a snake (on a planet where there is hundreds of species of them). 

My confident, hopeful fellow Republicans, I have heard and read countless accounts of witnesses to war.  Most of these stories had come from Civil War veterans of many ranks.  In comparing all my readings from memoirs and published letters from that war with those that I have also read from the world wars and Vietnam, I've learnt that the Civil War was by far the most insanely horrible, terrible, and tragic.  Ironically, all this terror and blood was not produced by a Hun or a jap but rather the volunteer forces that answered Lincoln's call to destroy and wipe out the independence of the Southern states. 
More often than not, especially in the war's first couple of years, the gray lines faced north and the blue, south.  Ranks of tens of thousands of Southern men were all that separated the Federal armies and the complete sacking, burning, and conquering of the South beyond the rear of the Southern defenses.  Often, Confederate soldiers from Tennessee, Virginia, or Georgia would find themselves charging the enemy across their own lawns, careful not to shoot the cows. 
In fact, at the battle of Gettysburg, there was a Confederate private by the name of John Wesley Culp from that village.  Those that know something of the battlefield know that Union Commander, Maj General Meade's northern right flank constructed its defenses on the hill, known locally as Culps Hill.  Pvt. John's family owned it.  He was killed less than a mile from his home. 

The battlefield deaths would have made even the opponents of the Geneva Convention squirm.  The technology of small arms and artillery had advanced further in the twenty years leading up to the Civil War than what was advanced for three hundred years prior.  Spiral rifling became mandatory for all military rifles.  Musket balls were modified to the revelations of a Frenchman named Mini, a cone shape rather than a round ball with three groves around its length to catch the spirals in the rifles.  This increased the accuracy of the rifle from twenty-thirty yards to five hundred to one thousand, depending on the terrain. 
The tightly packed ranks and battle lines that had been crucial for soldiers with inaccurate weapons (putting enough smooth bores into one place increased the likelihood of somebody hitting something) surprisingly did not receive the same advancements as the weapons of war.  These shoulder to shoulder battle lines hardly ever stood up to a defensive position armed with the latest. 
Even loading had become more efficient.  The Mississippi rifles was the first of their kind to include a simple mechanism to ignite the powder.  Where before it was the clumsy, messy, and some times dangerous flint stone and powder pan, useless in the land, by the late 1840s, the percussion cap nipple had replaced the pan and the flint was replaced by the rugged and simple percussion caps.
Whether it was the Federals at Cold Harbor or the Confederates at Franklin, regardless of the size of these forces, they would fail miserably while advancing on a well dug in position. 
Artillery had advanced in the same ways of the rifles of that period...spiraled bores, shells molded the same shape as the mini ball, and cannon were converted to fire by the simple tug of a rope.  Some Confederate batteries even included the ahead of its time, Whitsworth breech loading artillery pieces that could send shells up to two miles.  Quite a feat for a light artillery piece! 
These guns got bigger and more dead.  Field pieces also included a mobile arsenal that not only included solid shot but also canister (a can filled with dozens of golf ball sized projectiles.  It was a big shot gun. 
Men were torn to pieces by the artillery.  The small arms fire could be just as grooving.  For when the exceptionally slow musket ball entered a soldier's flesh, it would pan out to almost twice its size, loose its momentum and become like a pin ball in the body often going in one way and tearing out the other leaving broken bones and organs. 
The field hospitals were more deadly than these weapons for the doctors of the time had no clue about germs.  The same cutting blades and other instruments used on some patients were used on others, washed only for a moment in a blood tainted water pot.  Infection killed so many.  And the conditions of thousands of men from different parts of the North and South pressed into great groups caused outbreaks of all the deadly diseases of the time, most common pneumonia, pox, or diarrhea...all killers. 
The POW camps killed plenty more.  Despite all the attention given to Andersonville, more Confederate soldiers died in Northern prisons than in Southern ones.  This is especially strange considering the North had a lot more resources to care for its prisoners.  Instead, thousands of Southerns died at Elmira, Camp Douglass (my own great great uncle died there) and Point Lookout. 
Lastly, during that war hundreds of thousands of unarmed and helpless civilians were either killed, raped, starved, or made homeless in the South by Northern assaults on Jackson, Columbia, New Orleans, Richmond, Charleston, Atlanta, Savannah, Petersburg, and Vicksburg. 

Yet, even when I hear some of McCain's stories on being a POW in the Vietnam war or even some of those from the citizens of Vicksburg that had to dig caves to replace their homes when the Federals shelled their community for months, I can't help but feel that our nation's most decorated war heroes have not seen a more sadder side of hell on this earth.  I won't argue that seeing your comrades and mess mates die in a burst of red or slowly on a cot is a despair that I would not wish to know.  Killing others, even the enemy, would be high up there in despair. 

Yet soldiers as well as the citizens in Vicksburg stuck together, banded together to either save lives or help their cause.
But I challenge McCain or any other to visit Sand Hill in Augusta to happen upon something probably worse.  How so?

As terrible as it is, in war there is the sense of honor, duty, and sacrifice regardless of the cost of war's want of blood.  Yet, in this community in Augusta from the lawn of Saint Augustine’s castle church that also serves as the intersection of Washington and Northern Avenue to Monroe Street, on Sand Hill there are things that are worse. 

Here we have people that are not dying from battlefield wounds but self inflicted ones.  Here the American dream seems as distant as Washington DC.  While men and women serve to protect our freedom, the citizens of these parts choose not to honor any of these values our soldiers fight for.  They exist only to consume.  Friends only exist to aid in battles against neighbors provoked by rumors or differences.  Parents have children to receive government benefits, and most of the many, many, people here on disability income neither deserve it or need it any more than the most productive worker. 
These people are lazy, spoiled, vindictive, and crazy.  They are defeated, plagued, and live only outdated trends that haven taken years to finally reach Maine. When Maine cut back on its mental health funds the state hospital was forced to release dozens of critically messed up patients.  They now mostly live on Sand Hill, screaming, thrashing, and ticking like time bombs.   Sand Hill's population of a thousand or more has a higher concentration of sex offenders than in any other community I've lived in.  In fact, many of them live across the street from or live in the same apartment building as children. 

Joe the plumber is does not represent this place or its voters.  If asked to live on Sand Hill for one year, on Stewart Lane or Washington Avenue or Jefferson Street, I am confident that both McCain and Obama would have either something new to their conscience and campaign promises or either continue not to consider the people's plight, as they have all along any how. 

War exists but in these wars there are victories and causes.  There are battles upon Sand Hill.  Yet these never include either valiant causes or any kinds of victories. 

Ah, another git-em-2-reed-mi-blog-blog-title.  This time, though, I predict that most of this following post will roll with the recent debate that was limited to candidates of only two parties.  (Debates including candidates from other parties or with budgets less than hundreds of millions might be found on your local PBS channel).

In all fairness, I did enjoy myself quite honestly.  For a moment, I could actually understand why so many Americans gather around their tellies to view such a performance.  The thing was choreographed famously.  There was the grand-dad veteran.  Was he the one that helped hoist up that flag in that Clint Eastwood production?  Wrong war? Hum.  Well, I'm sure McCain hoisted a flag up somewhere in Vietnam (or Iraq).
Or how about the half-African American version of Leonardo Decaprio?  Hum. Mr. smooth talking passenger with a lucky ticket was able to sweet talk the rich girl from jumping off the rear end of the boat.  Though his charm never failed, "We have to stay on the ship for as long as possible, Rose,"  it was a worthless commodity when the same rear end of that ship was sticking out of and sinking in the black water. 
For those of you that were so fwiggin kind to read all through that but still did not get the whole metaphore-satire-analagy image of the debate, I'll break down a more simple example without sacrificing the Titanic staple.  WATCHING THE DEBATE WAS LIKE STANDING ON THE STARBOARD SIDE OF TITANIC ON THE EVENING OF APRIL 14, 1912 WATCHING THE PRETTY STAR AND SHIP LIGHTS GLITTERING UPON THE BLUE GLASSY JAWS OF THE ICE BERG.

But, seriously my fellow walrus's and clams, I did enjoy myself.  In fact, I previously had a wonderful list of things that I was preparing to blog about yet the debate stole my attention right along with yours.  It was more fun than the Palin vs. (who's that guy?) debate last week.  But, regardless of your political feelings, I think we might agree that the recent presidential debate will knock last week's VP debate off the number one spot on Fox News' play list.  But ye log cabin and mansion in the sky Republicans need not fret.  I know some cool cats out there that will vote for your man based simply on the likelihood that because of McCain's age, it would not be a very unusual thing for Madam Vice President Pailin to outlive the old soldier while in office.  Yus'uh, I bet you know at least one fellow American that loves Palin that much.  You go girl!

Every member of the audience at that debate that not only had the once in a life time chance to appear on national television but also enjoyed the six and a half seconds of bonus fame by asking the candidates a question was able to perfectly estimate the amount of inches the microphone should be from their lips.  I personally do not feel convinced that we owe this to either God's mercy or miracles.  Personally, I am cursed.  If I had attended the debate in Nashville
(my great great grandfather, Private James K Polk Tims of the 37th Mississippi Regiment was captured during the November 1864 battle of Nashville when his comrades in Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee was routed by Maj. General Thomas' yankee divisions).
I would have most likely unintentionally held the mic too close to my dry lips, causing my voice to be a quick wild shrill countered by a nervous and meek correction.  On the positive side that scenario of me becoming instant youtube fodder, it could have provided a second or more (depending on who you are) distraction from our sinking unsinkable economy.

Bin Laden was brought up several times during this debate.  Both candidates made it very clear that they differed in opinions regarding which countries deserved the most aggressive "boot in your a." 
As for Bin Laden, they both agreed that his goose should be plucked and cooked. Yet, again, both held different opinions regarding all expense paid vacations for men and women volunteering in our armed forces.  Obama's travel plans include taking a beltway around Iraq and following the interstate with the least tolls.  Who can afford the scenic route with gas prices being what they are?  His vacation package includes camping, hiking, and armored tours from Pakistan Land to Afghanistan World.  Obama seemed assured that this getaway will lasso Bin Laden before the premier of High School Musical 4.

McCain, however, is promising our men in uniform a different sort of travel plan.  A spring break in North Korea.  A Memorial Day weekend in Iran and an endless summer in Iraq.  It sort of reminds me of the film that made Mr. Chevy Chase famous, Vacation.  In all McCain's fantastic visions of taking the Griswalds by every roadside attraction, actually capturing Bin Laden appears as appealing to him as visiting Uncle Eddy.
It seems, to me, and MOST Americans that Obama's plan is the lesser of the two evils.  Oh! Every election, the lesser of the two evils, always, always! Congressman Ron Paul, we thank you for voting against the 700 billion dollar bail out bill last week but surely a ton agree that your presence was missed in the capital city of Tennessee.  In a time of crises do we despair more for yesterday's lost opportunity or for grim visions of tomorrow?  Though the opportunity we had to put Ron Paul onto the ballot is all but lost can we nevertheless counter the grim portrayal of tomorrow?

McCain did not do good in the debate this week because he was truly and brutally honest about his intentions regarding health care, the economy, and war.
One of his statements that personally eckled me has probably never been seriously considered.  America was neither born by our ancestors or preserved by the sacrifices of every generation since to be a 'force of good' in the world.  Being a free, prosperous, and strong nation was what our forefathers intended to be the actual force of good.  We were an inspiring example.  Was it not enough?  Our successful struggle for independence inspired the common man in France to rise and revolt against King Louis.  Did their liberation appeal for an American Operation French Freedom?  NO!  The American experiment also lit a fire under the bud of England, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, and ironically the war for Southern independence.

The American Revolution proved that not only does anybody have the right to revolt against tyranny, but that the revolt could be pulled off, even by a thin group of colonies against the greatest empire of their time.

It is my complete and confident feeling that those states, tribes, and people that have lacked revolutions on an equal scale simply did not want to.  Why must we convince ourselves that everybody from the south pole to the north pole and the east pole to the west pole share in their heart the same causes as George Washington or Jefferson Davis?  We ourselves declared our independence.  Nobody came over here and forced us to declare it.  So why must we force upon Iraq to declare their independence from a regime that they have declared for thousands of years?
Both history and recent history have proved that we do better for the world tending to our own principals, values, and strength than by sacrificing all them to tending (invading) others.

However, though I believe that Obama appeared more qualified in this second interview for the seat of power in a country in crises, I do not trust my vote to him either.  I am completely disgusted by Americas' choices for the nominees of the Republican and Democrat parties.  My laughing at the end of the debate would have been less cynical and more light if this country was not presently surrounded by a plume of doom.

This was one of the things that I was on the verge of blogging about before I was distracted by the swishing of the swords of the late debate.
I am a unique and strange Christian by today's terms.  I by no means claim any knowledge of His plan.  What makes me most unique is my suffering.  Most Christians suffer from battles with sexual orientation, alcoholism, smoking, or some cancer or another.  Granted, my battles are not unlike some of theirs'.  I have diabetes type 1.  I war and loose to any variety of sins that the serpent let loose in Eden.  Yet, I've noticed on so many Sunday nights, almost every church, the same, people claiming victory.  The hoot, holler, smile, fellowship, and bear witness.  The elders, as if by instinct or inherent right, pray upon others.  While they tell them that we are all equal in sin, all fall short of Christ, and are all equal in the eyes of the Lord where does the unequal balance of one man on his knees, humbled and praying for salvation from this world and the other man (in the same church) that you never see on his knees, never see praying for His mercy but rather standing with oil on his finger tips bringing healing and comfort to the other.  The human contradiction that I find is that between the humbled and bowed sinner and the youth group leader elder offering collector the roles are never shared, exchanged, or traded during any one service.  The subliminal message seems to me that one has attained a higher level, a higher power while the other has not been blessed with the same yet or ever.
I have issues with that.  I do believe that the Christian religion is the guiding force of the universe and our world.  The destiny of everything that He created will be decided by Him.  God made everything good and all life with the exception of those of us with free will naturally accepts Him and his plan.  Dogs live as God commanded dogs to live.  Monkeys live as God commanded monkeys to live.  The worlds orbit as He commanded them to do.  I can't imagine the mayhem that would exist if all God's creation was born with free will!  For the things and life that God created without free will, living his plan to get to Heaven is pretty simple.
Yet, ever since the creation of Adam and Eve, free will has only gotten our species into more and more trouble.  The choices that human kind has made out of the gift of free will has very nearly destroyed our planet and slaughter of countless species since we began is only one of our marks.  Today, so much sin has been evolved into our lifestyles, societies, cities, neighborhoods, and minds from generation to generation that using this free will to choose Him is not so easy.  Rather than relying totally on God and reading the instructions and lessons he scribed for us in the Bible, we have become so dependent upon our own decisions, thoughts, and ideas.
We arrogantly go from day to day trying to make our own paths, each one of us using our free will to attempt choices and decisions that will make our path the best ever.  We trust so much in each of our unique handling of free will that we'll someday obtain immortality.  But is it any wonder that we've all been only going in circles and circles throughout our entire history?  Is it any wonder that along with free will human kind has constantly repeated mistakes upon mistakes upon mistakes including some that cause whole empires to fall or millions to die or countless more to suffer?  When will we turn our free will to choose God?

I was watching CBN last night and the 700 club with Pastor Pat what's his face.  His newscasts appeared no different than the staged ones that other Christian stations create the press home a point that signs are leading to the end.  You know the kind.  The erie fact, however, was that this newscast was real and the events that were reported was no different that what has been reported by every single news agency out there.
The battles along the banks of Israel, Russian and Georgia, and the Middle East and the growing frustrations of dozens of other nations all seem to be construction a stage of kinds of wars too vast and too violent to be contained by any side.  The 700 billion dollar bail out designed and worded to give a break to the crooks that began this brink of depression and the tools to repeat the mistakes that initiated this mess, of course, did nothing to save the constant broken records of falling stocks, failing dollars, and dying confidence.  I find it hilarious that just days after Obama's and McCain's senate passed that bill things have become much worse and quicker than ever imagined before hand.  Our little ole local economic issue has now engulfed the European empire as well.  We are more than ten trillion dollars in the hole and it is estimated that billions of dollars reserved for health care, social security, and other retirement savings our being zapped in the wind on a weekly schedule.  It is near to the point where all we have is what we have now.  The scariest part of that fact is that we are not only loosing what we have for tomorrow but what we have today.  Glen Beck calls it the perfect storm.

We are all the point in our history when the Bible offers the only successful bail out scenario.  And YET, pastors and people are still praying that God fix these things, changes these things, or reverses this black dawn.  Most do not realize that this is all according to plan.  The only thing avoiding the signs and the truth that this history was already written to set the stage for Christ's return is us.  Pastor Pat what's his face prayed for all good things to happen soon, hinting nothing at the obvious connection of what he had just reported and what was written in the Bible.  And as if that connection was some threat peeping around the bend, pastor Pat what's his face switched off to a heart warming and chicken soup story of a member of a rock band called Korn (he pronounced it Khorn and I loosed a giddy giggle for him having no clue at what the band's name symbolized) became a born a gain Christian.
We are living in a specific passages of the Bible, the most important parts since the books of John, Mark, Luke, and Matt all Pastor Pat what's his face can do is report the signs yet not read them and then pass on to a story about some guy from Khhhhorn?
Oh Lord!

I was watching a show on the history channel about bread.  One part of the program showed a Kosher bakery making Hebrew bread.  They were so strict in their standards that they had actual Rabbis come into inspect the ingredients.  The History Channel seemed to give honor and respect to these Hebrew traditions and made the process of creating traditional food holy to the Hebrews appear interesting and educational.
Yet, would the History channel or any other network channel provide just as much respect and tolerance towards Christian practices and traditions without calling them fanatical or "things of faith"?

More on that soon!  I have run out of words and I am off to bed.  I am sure that some sleep will inspire me to continue here later.

Ha, I am trying out a new tactic to get more hits and comments on my blog.  I've been a member here for almost a year I think and of the around twenty (lengthy) posts I've contributed to the cause of revolution.  Regardless of the subject matter (or tags) I have failed to connect with the majority here.  I feel that revolution should only be excerized when there are any number of citizens or states right to use their voice.
I especially feel that it is some sort of responsibility to share these thoughts and topics, for everyone that I shared regards to a growing but preventable doom.  My contribution to those subject matters was common sense, Christianity, and a love for history.
So dam it, I think I ought to be heard!  If having a misleading subject line will bring you to my blogs I wrote for you, then why not.  In fact, aren't your heroes, whether be Obama or McCain, always reflecting those tactics?  At least I give the people a chance to slay me for my mistakes and errors in these posts.

I can't believe how disappointed I was with the American people today.  For the first time in my life I felt more love for Congress than I did for their voters.  I wish the reason why was more obvious than just a few.
Before the House voted against the 700 billion dollar, socialist, special rights for a few citizens or institutions, anti-accountable, little band aid bill, the American people were screaming fire and brimstone for their lawmakers to say nay.
The following is a note that I wrote to Bill O Reily (the GOPs spokesman in the media):

I should have felt an unchecked relief yesterday that for once the great majority of congress did not turn their back on the American people for partisan or party interests and deals.  Rather, our congress on both sides of the isles sided with the opinion of the people.  Neither party can be blamed for the bill's destruction.  Rather I think, even in spite of the total turn around of opinion, that the people truly stepped up and caused their voice to manipulate congress.  We all seem to have a very short memory considering the people decided to approve after it failed to their will. It is hard to imagine that just two days ago we demanded congress vote against it.
The second I heard the results of the congressional vote yet before the first interviews I felt a great spell of hope for our country.  I was feeling hope that had been mostly gone since Ron Paul ducked out of the race.

Congress not only moved with the will of the people, despite the turn around but it did also side with the rights of the people and their states.  Did they recognize that such a bill was unconstitutional for very important reasons?  Instead of passing another sort of legislation that would challenge our rights and our laws, congress did the responsible thing by not trading liberty for a little temporary (financial) security.
Yet, yesterday was mixed with despair over the sanity of the people.  It was announced the bill that the people had been firmly against had just been firmly defeated.  Yet, suddenly the media, Wall Street, and the people had a complete change of heart.
Before yesterday citizens wrote countless blogs, letters to the editors, congressmen, and appeared on talk and radio shoes to express their rage against a "government bail out."  Everyone felt that it was a sell out of our trust to protect financial giants with no accountability and that the banks should find a more responsible solution, just like the rest of us.
One person called it a "golden parachute."
If I am not the most confused person on earth, one day after, I am positive President Bush is the most likely other.  On one hand congress and the people's initial opinion once again shared a mutual distrust towards the president's solutions aka problems.  And that was never more obvious in the past than it was yesterday when in the midst of a financial crises and a administration in panic mode, Congress equally on both sides of the isle, shouted nay in his face.
Yet, on that same day the Dow Jones mysteriously dropped more than 700 points and the voice of the country quickly forgot its previous day's principals.  Suddenly the president that has caused so much economic punishment and casualties in two separate wars these past eight years, might have been right after all.  (We were wrong?) Suddenly a temporary security by giving big banks Federal (our) hundreds of billions of dollars, might of been pretty cool.
It was only right that you had Senator Kerry be a guest on your program last night.  Yesterday truly was a "Was against it before I was for it," moment in our history.
I give my thanks to Congress tonight.  Will they take this as a "can't please our voters no matter what," and become more reckless then in the past?  Shall they remember that despite what the public is saying now, they did exactly what it demanded before hand?  I hope at least, they are convinced they did the right thing.
They did.

Because I am neither Obama or McCain I have decided not to allow my subject line to be misleading after all.

The top five reasons to love Sarah Palin

1.) She would be the most ardent and passionate pro-lifer in an aministration since the Rogue vs. Wade verdict.  Though she is against the death of unborn babies, she is still more hypocrite than Christian.  She supports the death penalty and she supports war which usual involves wide scale death.  Anybody in the world can claim to be a Christian yet until that person attempts to follow the commandments and opposes any violations of it regardless of his causes, that person is not a Christian.  For example, The Bible says THOU SHALT NOT KILL.  There are no foote notes to that included.  You either obey the whole thing or you don't.
But I am not going to vote for Obama.  Because though he does not support causes that cause soldiers to get killed in Iraq he nevertheless favors abortion.
Because both candidates support causes that clash with multiple of my most strongest Christian beliefs, I will vote for neither.

2.) She once discussed Alaskan secession.  Many on the Donkey side of the isle will scream that she is a radical secessionist wac job while the Elephants will try to dismiss or ignore it. I mean, after all, didn't Lincoln having the reigns of the Republican party raise several armies of Northern troops to invade and destroy the South for attempting secession?
Regardless of either parties' views towards the constitutional right of secession, the right still very much exists.  First of all did the states not join the Union with as much freedom to withdraw from it?  Did any of the states or their represintives sign any oaths or contracts that forbade their will to any ends?  And most obviously, does not the X amendment read clearly that the supreme rights be reserved to the people of the states?
So constitutionally and in respect to freedom of the people, what part of Pailin's secession discussions was wrong?  Maybe it is time that we start addressing and demanding certain promised and recorded rights that have long been oppressed.
Civil War hero Admiral Raphael Semmes wrote that the revolution, though illegal under British law was a right reserved to the slaved or oppressed by God.  Yet, secession, though our government all but forbids it, is a right reserved to the people and states of the United States by the Constitution.

3. She supported the "Bridge to Nowhere."  I'm with you Sarah! Bridge to Nowhere my butt.  It would be a bride to Paris, London, or Rome.  True there are many challenges we would face the building project considering it would be thirty miles longer than the longest bridge at the present, it would go across the Baron Strait, and that more than a thousand miles of tundra wasteland exists during the first part of the vacation.
Yet, are we not Americans?  How many times have we scorned at the odds with the Washington Monument, the San Jacinto Monument, or the Golden Arch?  What about the Lake Charles Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge, or the Golden Gate bridge?
Even though I have never been to college in my brain's mind I can envision perfectly the Bridge.  To protect the trains and other vehicles from some of the most cold and violent weather on earth, the whole expanse of the bridge would be in a tunnel like tube.  Vehicles and trains would pass through it like electricity in a wire.  It could be made large and strong enough to protect passengers from the elements and high enough off the water to protect shipping.  Such feats have been proven before.  Certainly the above ground tunnel idea has worked.  As far as the population problem, temporary stores and gas stations could be erected along the way.  Such ideas had been practiced during the gold rush to California.  The route out west was dotted by small camp towns and trading posts.  The same idea is being used along the ice roads of the north that end up at giant mines.  Rough out posts and fill up stations dot that landscape.
The need for those structures would not last forever, for I am confident this largest example a means to trade and ship overland would produce dozens of towns along the way.  And then to address the costs.  Considering that our country was prepared to spend 700 billion to help ignorant banks and trillions on depths that had aided the actual people very little, I am confident the budget could be there.  In fact, along, over, or under, the above ground bridge tunnel there could be a large or a couple large oil pipelines connecting oil rich northern Russia to the US.
As a traveler I would love to someday drive to Paris. I hate airplanes.  Yet, most importantly, our country used to build and create some pretty amazing things.  As far as those that imagine that the Freedom Tower may at least be an example of that, I don't find anything amazing about building a VIP office building upon a graveyard of pulverized terrorist victims.
Even though that very specific plot of land seems ot be a common target for terrorist attacks, wouldn't it finally be wise to leave that peace of earth alone?  It really doesn't make any more sense than if the US navy put their ships back in packed formations even in spite of the lessons of Peal Harbor attack.  Building an even taller world trade center upon the same site that terrorists on 9/11 used the height of the former Trade Center to deadly effect is as nonsense not to mention very disrespectful towards the victims.  There should be a monument (s) there, the biggest the world has ever seen, yet not stuffed with people.

Sorry for getting off topic.  I do like Sarah Pailin on some issues.  I even think she is pretty foxy!  Yet, this shouldn't be the best there is.  It is sad that since Ron Paul left the race, the only grain of light I see is that I agree with some of the issues of a VP nominee.

In the worlds of poor Charlie Brown, Oh Brother!

I first started blogging here about a year ago after seeing the wonderful editor of this site appear on a Fox News program.  Blogging was a very new thing to me so I wanted to go with the biggest and best.  I loved the concept of blogging.  For the first time since Manifest Destiny's bloody assault upon the west, Americans, regardless of their location can from their PC or black berry or even phone (wow) communicate their thoughts, grievances, beliefs, ideas, hopes, dreams, fears, achievements, questions, and public and political information to masses of people.  I have no doubt the blogging age had a serious influence upon politics and the election.
"I have a voice and I have a lot to say."-MxPx.

My personal visions, feelings, principals, ideas, hopes, dreams, fears, and values are all over the place.  I am smart and I know history, geography, and a lot of other stuff.  But it would be useless for me to blog about math.
About politics,different issues, or candidates, NOTHING nor party is an influence.  The constitution and our rights are the side you'll see me by.  Our country faces countless of issues because we do not trust our own constitution to decide them. Aside from my Ron Paul and Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson Davis principals, I am pro-ALL life (anti-abortion, anti-war, anti-capital punishment).  In other words, I feel that whoever approves of any form of knowingly killing another human, including the unborn, is a hypocrite if he or she is either against other forms or happens to be a Christian (who's Bible is blunt THOU SHALT NOT KILL   p-e-r-i-o-d).
I believe that healthcare should be a right and that we already get taxed enough to budget this (as soon as we challenge the government's spending habits). I believe that Creatism is logical and more scientifically true than evolutionism.  I that Jesus created the only road map to peace.  I believe that most Christian churches are misleading in that very few actually deeply consider or attempt to follow His commands.  I always thought it was weird that for a group of people that appears to love Jesus so much and dance the aisles because of His death and resurrection, those people usually have no clue about half of what Jesus commanded.  Nor do many of them ever attempt to practice those commands at least as much as they seem to pervert it!

Yes, I have a lot to say and that's why I am blogging.  It is not only for my own satisfactory but I also think that some of these thoughts, values, and principals may help others.  Most of these feelings, views, ideas, and lessons have been gathered up by a very unique and special life and I believe they are all a part of the same gift of life.  I will attempt to share all I can.

Today I would like to share my understanding and thoughts on the Constitution's and our responsibilities in  maintaining personal and states' rights.
Both the historical references and references of our rights, the states, and the constitution can all be sourced and authenticated as fact.  Every view is related to these facts.

Did not the states create the constitution?  Did they not freely activate it for the purpose of preserving the rights of all the people and states in the Union?  Should the volunteer of its own club not also have the right to leave?
Families work as long as their is peace, understanding, love, faith, and respect are their values.  But still, sometimes a family member can be abusive and evil and corruptive towards another, usually younger, member of the family.  Is it not the responsibility of the community and the people to either intervene and hold the abuser accountable or is the worse case scenario, remove the victim (secede the victim from the family, union until either the home is proved to be beyond a reasonable doubt, respectful of the rights and safety of the victim, or in most cases, never.
The states should have this same right.  The states joined the constitution knowing on one hand that being in a union was better than being on your own, yet on the other, trusting future generations to do what was necessary if ever, the Union "was no longer a safeguard and protection, but a menace to their rights..." (Jefferson Davis)
Republicans like to boast about being the 'accountability' party.  Yet, today's politics and system are so completely opposite of anything resembling accountability.  The fact that our states and the people will not only allow all repeating humiliation and tyranny from the government but we also let it, and its parties, and its lies influence our principals.  That is total submission and pathetic. 
Am I anti-government?  Am I a fanatic? Am I right wing or left wing or conservative or liberal?  Am I a secessionist or a terrorist? (The foundation of the origin and vision of the founders was that no two words were more different from each other than secessionist and terrorist). 
I am not any of those things yet I have a little bit of each inside me (with the exception of terrorism).  However, the most authentic and accurate description of my party and political principals is: FREEDOM. 
Freedom was an American thing.  Somehow, until 1776, no civilization in history had ever experienced quite the same success or magnitude of freedom in the new world.  It was the most perfect marriage of freedom and law that ever existed!  Many of us now either ponder, was our forefather's creation in the latter part of the 1700s perfect enough to provide every solution to every issue including the civil war to today?  Yet, the fact is, the form of government they created was perfect for whatever future generations faced.  The problem is that we are not honoring certain parts of it.  How can a solution work if it is not worked?  Again, the solutions to all our country's issues can be discovered in the same constitution all the veterans of our military and our elected officials swear to uphold! LETS UPHOLD IT!
The other obvious (to me) reason to me that national issues regarding the economy, national security, and personal rights, to name a few of all of them, are always present regardless of what administration is in office is because we ignore and do not consider our national motto, something as truly as important as the constitution.  It reads: IN GOD WE TRUST. 
How fewer problems and crises and issues would we be facing today if the constitution was upheld not only by all the men and women that swore to, but by all the citizens that owe it to their children and ancestors to respect it likewise?  How fewer crises and crimes would happen if even half our citizens honored the sacred motto of a country who's dignity and success rely souly on them?
It is not impossible.

The answers and the messages within our founder's motto and instructions are pretty dang obvious.  They were written for a people to not only understand but also approve.  In 1784, when the average citizen lacked any reading skills because the average village lacked a school, the forefathers had to draft the good news in a language simple enough for the simple man.  If it had been too complicated or vague, the weary and distrustful people would have re-declared their independence, this time from yankee doodle.

In light of this, I can not understand how any of us are having debates about any of the issues when the constitution has the authority to decide it.  The problem is that, for the politicians and law makers, the solutions within the constitution are not the kind of solutions they are looking for (How can I get reelected? How can I get away with this or that?  How can I deceive the public of the real me?  How can I get the most money to get to me?  What's in it for me)?
For the average or unaverage citizen, there are many reasons why the constitution is a forgotten tool box in the shed.  And none of these reasons are beyond our control. (It is too much work, nobody else cares, going against giants, fear, manipulated by the media and government that solutions and hope lay with your vote rather than you. What's in it for me)?  And even though the constitution was created with sensitivity towards a simple nation, most of us can only recite one line from it!  The responsibility of you or your kids becoming educated on the constitution and the responsibility of maintaining it is NOT our schools, NOT our military, NOT our government, and NOT the media.  IT IS OURS.  If we do not gather around our responsibilities, the crap that is building all over, is ours alone.

Granted, sometimes our responsibility and commitment to our flag and our country may not be simple.  It may not seem right at the time and may even create a few challenges.  One example was the Civil War.  This was the first and perhaps the greatest example in our history where not only did the government crush the constitutional rights of millions of people but a majority of them allowed it.  The Southern states had practiced their constitution rights.  The folks in those states remembered their ancestors' promise.  God had given the colonists the right of revolution for certain rights.  The constitution and the authority of the sovereign states hemselves gave the Southerns the right of secession for any cause. 
However, Lincoln and his administration gave birth to more recent tactics more powerful than honor and responsibility, it seems. Fear.  He ruled much of the north in  by martial law.  In dozens of his speeches, including the Gettysburg Speech, Lincoln constantly hinted that the fate of the nation was being decided when in fact, Southern secession would of had no effect on the exisiting Federal government, its constitution, or remaining states.  He championed the cause of slavery even though he personally wrote racist accounts in letters.  Even though the same cause did not exist one way or another on the other side. 

"The Northern onslaught upon slavery was no more than a piece of specious humbug designed to conceal its desire for economic control of the Southern states."-Charles Dickens, 1862

"We were not rebels; we did not fight to perpetuate human slavery, but for our rights and privileges under a government established over us by our fathers and in defense of our homes." -Richard Henry Lee, Confederate Colonel

Though it was the people of the North's duty to allow the secession of the Southern states just as it had been the duty of those states to secede and make an accountable decision regarding their future.
We will never know what kind of history would have followed if the Northern states had respected the equal rights of their Southern neighbors and allowed them to form a country of their own.  It would not have been the first time a nation was born from secession.  Colonies from England, Mexico and Cuba from Spain, Texas from Mexico.

I pray that someday we will give the states, states of we the people, back the throrn ofthrone that birthed this awesome freedom.

"If the doctrine that secession is treason be true, it matters not how grievously a State might be oppressed, by the Federal Government; she has been deprived of the power of lawful resistance, and must regain her liberty, if at all...........

Was this the sort of experiment in government, that our forefathers supposed they were making?"
-Admiral Raphael Semmes

There is a a giant line called common sense and responsibility that separates:
A. Attacking another country; invading its soil; overthrowing its president & system of government based on NO evidence that the country was any kind of threat to either us or our alleys.
B. Defending your home; your government; your family from an immediate threat from an invading and hostile country.

The true conservative is NOT an imperialist. Perhaps you have not studied the writings and platforms of conservatives throughout our history including those by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Thomas Pane, John C. Calhoun, John Tyler, Jefferson Davis or even those from more recent times, Ronald Reagan, Jessie Ventura, or Ron Paul.

While none of these conservatives would have invaded and overthrown another country based upon false evidence of terrorism, many of them were involved in wars and conflicts that had been unavoidable and for the safety of the safety of their countrymen.  
A few examples include:
The war of 1812. England invaded US soil.
The Mexican American War. Mexican troops crossed the US border along the Rio Grande under the authority of their government.
The War Between the States. United States troops refused to vacate a garrison which was within the territorial waters of the Confederate States of America.
The same month Lincoln issued a call to arms for 75,000 volunteers to cause an armed invasion of the Confederacy, and invasion not unlike the English invasion of the newly independent colonies in 1776.

The true conservative is not against war for the purpose of defense and one executed through the will and approval of the people. Yet, only a liberal (like LBJ) would nod to a war that brings nothing but misery to the US and death to Iraq and continues even without the consent of the American public.

Lincoln did start the Civil War without the consent of the people. In fact, during his administration more than 7,000 thousand citizens including agents of the press were arrested and jailed without trial simply for opposing his invasion of the Southern States.  One of these men was none other than the grandson of Francis Scott Key.
Though it is so that the majority of the Northern States did favor causing bloodshed against their Southern neighbors, I believe that it was because they were more interested in putting their industrial and war profiting interests before admitting the South's legal right to be free.

One thing that I have never been able to understand was how modern day Republicans seem to brag at being the party started by Lincoln even though that party held a far different platform than today's.  While the modern day Republican platform stands for lesser government and less taxes and more faith based community awareness, Lincoln went to war to uphold that central government had absolute authority over the states and the people. Lincoln going further beyond the bounds of the constitution created more sperate forms of taxation during four years than during any other point in history including World War II.  As goes faith, Lincoln was the only American president to of included doubts towards Christianity in his writings.

The South did not break the law of the land but had upheld it. Secession was included into the United States Constitution for two very important reasons. The right of secession was included so that it would be clear to future generations that the states owned the final say and authority over their destiny-that the states and their people could never be harmed by the Federal Government as long as they had a way out if need be. The second reason that the right of secession was included (ironically) was that in the event of a state or states separation, a civil war or revolution would be avoided. For in 1776 the colonies had no legal right to leave England and that was what justified England's decision to fight. By making secession a legal practice within the constitution, separation would be a protected form of action.  
It was the North under Lincoln who did not abide the law of the land. Lincoln and the North took the rights of decision, free will, and self government from not only the states and the people then but the future generations of all Americans.  

Secession was included into our constitution because our forefathers knew that no matter how perfect the government they formed was, it was no guarantee that it would always be as it should. They knew that they had no control over how future generations may lead the government.  They had no certainty that the government would always follow the constitution.

When the Southern states agreed that their role in the government was second class and inferior to that of the North, made more obvious by Lincoln's election, they saw no alternative to submission except secession.  
Yet, despite the constitution, Lincoln and his administration led an armed invasion of over one million volunteers to occupy the Southern states...Atlanta, Charleston, Columbia, Richmond, Jackson all burned and destroyed by men from Illinois, Maine, and Minnesota. Men from Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama died by the thousands in POW camps in Chicago, Elmira, and Boston.

The history that has been rewritten was the history of the United States War against the Confederate States.

The true conservative (to the earlier point) is not a party man.  He is one who pledges allegiance not to a king, queen, president, or flag, but to his rights.  Rights not given to him by a government, legislator, or country but by the people.  If Republicans or any other party does not uphold these old (aka conservative) ideas then he is not a conservative.  

Of course there are many other ideas and principals that a conservative considers but these I included are what define him most.  At the time, Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin were liberals.  Yet, their ideas gave birth to today's conservative.

Other than the strange hand in hand time-line of Reality TV's popularity and the loosining of our control and care of our own government is our growing addition to phyc meds and pain killers.  Here in my own city two new pharmacies have been constructed recently, both within one mile of each other. 

Not only are the majority of adults on these medications but they are being handed out just as much to our kids.  Kids today are no more crazy or insane than they have been for thousands of years.  Yet, parents are now treating many of the common and normal characterstics of childhood like diseases of the minds. 
In truth, the parents, just trying to enjoy their own high and dope tranquility, are becoming less patient and accepting of the levels of energy that normal children are supposed to have.  They are becoming as determined to quite their children's existence with perscription drugs as they attempt to achieve the same for themselves.  It makes sense to them that their children should become more quite and dumb.  Cause all these users want now is peace.  Where madness, energy, dancing, and skipping used to represent a healthy and creative child, it is now treated like an exhausting load to deal with.

Within these past nine years I have noticed more and more of my friends and family becoming addicted and dependent upon prescription drugs and in this same time frame, also the time frame of reality tv, mind you, I have noticed the sad, tired, and careless decline in our society and culture.  These and other things, I am confident, are sapping the soul, the energy, the passion, and the life out of a society of a free people.  The reality of our society is becoming as much a farce as Reality TV.
Sorry Brooke, but you and your new room mate are screwing with are a part of a cancer being digested by our country's soul.  Forget American Idol. Lest we loose the American Dream est. 1776.  
How much life, liberty, and pursuits be sacrificed due to our country's dependence on the illusions of television or the foggy realms of prescribed "pain" (passion) killers and "antideppresants" (anti-actions). .