Like a storm.

I want to believe we will get beyond this stage.

I want to see things put right. I want to wake tomorrow and discover that this whole affair with our house-of-cards economy, government lies and discord and hate – was all just some kind of fevered imaginings. I want there to be room for belief and discovery and love and honesty.

But I know we are experiencing the fall of a very dark night indeed.

Breathe.

Nothing seems right. We charge our heroes with crimes and provide the criminals and monsters with deep respect, lawyers and well-appointed prisons – until their release, of course. Our government turns a blind eye toward those who have lost everything, yet props up the rich and powerful with backroom deals and plans to steal even more from the people.

I don’t pretend to understand any of it. I just know, in a visceral way, that it is wrong.

Breathe.

I have known much smarter people than myself – people of faith and people with dreams. I think we need those kind of folks right now. Times have moved beyond the artful deception, which has been politics. I believe we face a crisis requiring fewer lawyers and more men of action.

But even us common people can make a difference. In the most unlikely ways and under the most unimaginable circumstances we can give of our time and our talents and fight fabrication with the truths, which make us shine. In the midnight being thrust upon us, we can light the way for others, and we can be safe havens, guardians, providers of hope and goodwill.

I know there are those who would say to me that God will provide – and perhaps he will. But there’s no harm in being good people. There’s nothing wrong with hard work and compassion, flawed though we may be.

People have told me they are frightened. And I have seen epic endings and understand with my limited intelligence, tattered faith and tired dreams, that we can lose it all. Civilization is not a promise or a right. It is a responsibility and a complex burden for the free.

Breathe.

But know this. We are out here – those of us who have seen things - and although you feel alone, you are not. Demons and devils may walk among us and pluck us like ripe fruit from the face of the world, but I have seen Angels too, and felt their compassion. I have seen the courageous and beautiful and true of heart do amazing things. And amongst all of it, I have come to know a truth that many would give a great deal to understand.

It is simple and pure and there is nothing on this Earth that can sully it or destroy it. It is indestructible, impermeable and untouchable. Evil shrinks from it and those with peace in their hearts understand it completely and perfectly.

This thing has power so immense that it can reshape the world. It is unlimited and those who have experienced it and cling to it are changed completely and irrevocably.

It is of course love.

Breathe.

The worms don’t understand that we fight for each other. The gutless wonders, which have leveraged themselves into positions of authority can’t fathom the simplest truth, the lowest ranking troop learns in the field: we stand up for each other. This is not because we are noble or valorous; It is just because, we have to. Love requires the protector to protect. We care for the same reason we fail – we are human.

Those who forget it, regardless of their station in life have reason to fear. Those who remember it, stand together as brothers and sisters against the opposition’s darkness, and they will always win.

Someone once asked me to sign onto a group which would claim “they did not fight for this:” ie. this government and its’ version of change and warped hope.

But I will always fight for this because I will always fight for you. I will never give up, never give in and never surrender. When you are feeling weak, I and those lke me, will be here with strength. When you are tired, we will stand for you. When there doesn’t seem to be anything left – we will meet the opposition with glad hearts and power they cannot ever understand. And we will win.

Breathe. And feel your heart beat. Listen to all our hearts beat – all our breath as one - together.

It is like thunder.

It is like a storm.

Kilikini Surprise knife

Here's a knife I just finished for a friend in Hawaii. Super 6A High Carbon Stainless steel with hand engraving on the blade and brass pins and walnut handle.

If you like this one, have a look at dsadventuregear.blogspot.com - then e-mail me at Blackstarfish@cableone.net.

-d

Endings.

What is the end of the world?

I recently had someone on Twitter accuse me of “alarmist propaganda” – presumably “Right Wing,” although I don’t believe they said that. But what other kind is there? After all, if you wish to believe the modern liberal viewpoint, the 60s could never have happened. No way, were there ever, or have there ever been, left-wing alarmists.

But, in the spirit of being a reporter – or at least a retired one – I looked at my own beliefs and examined my motives and weighed and measured the scope of my alleged bias.

It’s necessary to do this, because the place with the deep hole and the pointy sticks at the bottom, is often difficult to see. It lies hidden amongst the leaves of supposed objectivity – fallen leaves from a season long past. The pitfall is just out of sight, sometimes because we refuse to see it and other times because we’ve been conditioned not to.

But it’s there. And the greatest among us and the least among us, have decorated its’ depths with their bones.

So what is the end of the world?

If my bias exists, it is there due to experience and not some half-witted imagination, or the dull-witted excuse that I am listening to some experts or advisors. I have no experts and no advisors, except for the English Bulldog, and his response to everything is either bleary eyes, or an unapologetic, breaking of wind. Either way, and either end of the dog, proves to be not much help.

But I have some experience with endings. Witness for a moment the dark, ruined hallways of a parliament building in Mogadishu. Their government had collapsed just two years before the arrival of U.S. troops in country. Yet, it only took two years for drugs, corruption, thievery and murder to reduce the country to a wasteland. The huge parliament building and its ransacked interior had even had the electrical wires ripped out of the walls. Discolored government papers and letters and postcards calling for the release of political prisoners likely long dead, littered whole hallways. Members of my unit waded at times – knee deep in them.

What hadn’t been looted or strewn about, had been burned or just abandoned. Not even rats or insects found the structure useful. For the modern, 20^th century government that had occupied the complex only two years before, it had certainly been the end of the world. They saw it coming.

I still have part of a document, recovered from the presidential palace, which describes the days before the fall. It was written by an intelligence operative in the Somali Sahan, for the despot Siad Barre. It details the corruption and drug trafficking, which was destroying the country. It turned out to be correct, not that Barre could have done anything about it. Like so many dictators, he was long past useless. He had taken control of the country in 1969 and had simply become dangerous, hated and finally, ousted and fleeing by 1992. He died January 2, 1995 at age 74 having attempted what so many governments attempt: to have and hold on to power, at all costs. Witness for just a moment – through my eyes and memory – the destruction left behind. Millions dead. A society dissolved. A people devastated and hungry and sick and busy trying to kill each other over food, meager possessions, drugs, weapons or simply no reason any sane human could imagine.

It was the end of the world.

Now, witness the sanitary hallways of a Department of Veterans Affairs hallway half a world away, in New Mexico. The floor in question has been renovated and is fresh and clean and open. The people working there are courteous and do their best amidst a convoluted health care system serving an exploding number of veterans. See the small exam room with its’ fresh paint and modern, but sparse furnishings. The walls are paper-thin. Despite being behind a closed door, the conversation from the next room is as clear as if they were sitting next to you. You are alone, waiting for your own conversation, but despite trying to focus on something else – anything else – you can’t help but hear the news being delivered to the unseen and unknown patient next-door. He has cancer. It may be treatable, but there are realities to face, and those realities could mean the end of the world.

I have been in other rooms in that hospital – in critical condition with a monster called a “pulmonary embolism” in my chest. Death came for me once, and I saw something beautiful. I have seen what waits for us.

But what do I really know about it? What can some guy in the desert Southwest know at all?

I know that what I am seeing at work in our own government, suggests the possibility, however remote, that we could be facing our own Somali-style ending. I can feel the bad news coming. I know the deliverers of it are just next-door, in an identical room; and despite the clean, antiseptic surroundings, I know this is all just thin veneer. The experts and glossy people can give you all the numbing soporifics you can handle, but it won’t remove the effects of reality when it finally comes knocking.

Everything can be ripped out and ripped away in a moment.

It can end.

Look at this post for more - including a copy of a postcard retrieved from the destroyed parliament building...

http://rog99.blogspot.com/2009/08/room-101-theft-of-freedom.html

These things have appetites.

“Whatever these things are, they sure have one hell of an appetite.”

Yep. That’s the line made so famous by so many bad science fiction movies. But I can’t help but think it may describe our government. After all, our President and his wife are treated to red carpet treatment all over the world, New York “date nights,” and when they finally come home, instead of getting into some kind of a work-mode, they host a 338-person State Dinner.

In the meantime, our Congressman and women, so tired after their lightening-fast vote on the Senate healthcare package, have already jetted to their various high-class homesteads to host their own feasts. And people are losing their jobs everywhere. People are losing their lives, elsewhere.

Thank God India is being touted as a “global leader” since the continued actions of the administration is selling us down the river. Dark waters, leading to a darker destination is the river, which bears us all. We are facing an economic meltdown of China Syndrome proportions.

We’re being sold shadows, and we’re paying with our very futures. And of course, our troops are left another week for that promised Presidential decision to send them the back-up they need. How many will die in that week, whom could have been saved with reinforcements? I look at the photo of President Obama and wife, standing with the Indian Prime Minister and I am struck by the cardboard cut-out smile of our President next to the uncomfortable looks of their guests.

I wonder about that discomfort. I wonder if it is real or imagined on my part – and if real, what might be the cause of it?

Surely the discomfort wouldn’t be due to the massive, glamorous appointments of the dinner which was held in a huge specially constructed tent on the South lawn. This possible discomfort wasn’t reflected in the Prime Minister’s comments, in which he was complimentary of the hospitality and noted that the Obama election last year had been an inspiration to millions of people in India.

Of course, a chef was flown in from New York and tableware was pulled from the Eisenhower, Clinton and Bush collections. Hollywood heavies and reps from CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN were invited. Oprah Winfrey was not. The first lady was decked-out in a gold and silver dress produced by an Indian-born designer.

All this occurred beneath chandeliers and in front of a clear view of the Washington Monument. A symphony Orchestra was on hand to provide some lovely music. No discomfort there.

And definitely, not your everyday dinner at home.

But that’s what you’d expect isn’t it? Amidst the gluttony on Wall Street and the payoffs and bribes in Congress; amidst continued job loss and amidst the well-fed Senators and House members passing legislation geared to steal even more from the regular people; amidst threatened taxes and massive increases in energy bills; amidst the dark cloud of nightmare health care edicts – our leaders enjoy the lives and trappings and treatment of kings and queens.

Quite an appetite these things have.

Honestly, I would feel better with a little interstellar warfare right now. Really, how much easier would greasing some aliens be, than dealing with the grey mists of obscurity in our nation's capitol and abroad, and the feeding frenzies of power and policy and astronomical ransoms they mask?

Sixteen years. Just remember that number. That’s how long we could have funded the war if we had used the stimulus money on our men and women overseas in the bad places, instead. That would have kept our troops in beans and bullets – not exactly posh state dinners, but when you’ve made it through another day, and you’re sitting in some dusty hole on the other side of the world, those field rations aren’t too bad.

They go down pretty well actually. But you do wonder – sometimes too often - when you’ll next have dinner with your family, or if you ever will again.

New custom knife underway

Below is a .178 thick, AUS8 Super Steel cryogenically tempered blade with custom laser engraving which was done a while back for a service buddy of mine. I am now doing another one of these military knives for a Marine who is the son of a friend of mine. This knife is called the D&S CQBT.

If you want a special knife for someone, email me at Blackstarfish@cableone.net.

Or you can have a look at some of my other knives at:

dsadventuregear.blogspot.com

Thankful

As predicted, health care reform goes into the next round. It will now, allegedly be debated by the Senate.

If you missed the vote, which allowed it to go forward, it’s OK. No one really saw it. The vote passed so quickly, there were probably members of Congress with their jet planes idling on the tarmac, waiting for the speeding limo to deliver their fat butts to the very steps of their personal aircraft. Why? So they can get back home for Thanksgiving break, of course.

Thanksgiving – the holiday which celebrates the survival of a colony, which would eventually take-root as a country named America. A colony that was begun by people fleeing repression – a country, that was formed and developed by a people united in a dream of freedom and the hopes of a new republic. This is a dream that so many have sacrificed for. It is a dream which has survived the near eradication of America’s indigenous people, the horrors of slavery, the blights of disease, war and inequality.

But our leadership is selling the dream to China. They are giving our hope away to fat-cat bankers and cronies while they steal away our rights and opportunities. They are destroying us – but you can be certain that each and every one of them will be enjoying a big, fancy dinner in their big, fancy houses this holiday break.

Meanwhile, somewhere, someone is returning home with bad news – they lost their job. Their family is in trouble. I suppose universal health care will be nice, because the one segment of the population, which will be expanding is the homeless. They may not have a home, but they’ll allegedly be covered medically - just not as well as their fat-cat Congressmen and women. Makes you hope those shovel-ready jobs are actually producing some bridges, because we’re going to need that real estate for people to live under.

Of course, there are no shovel-ready jobs. Not really. There’s no job-creation, there is only continued job loss. We are now firmly into double-digit unemployment figures and with the government just printing money, it means that those of us who are hanging on, will have money which is worth less and less and inflation which will mean prices for everything will explode.

We are in danger of a real Western-World apocalypse.

What are we thankful for, then?

I am thankful that our troops are holding the line, even though our political leadership is appearing worse than impotent. I am thankful that the Fort Hood terrorist attack - the only successful terror attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, wasn’t even more horrible. I am thankful that the government seems to have been wrong - or perhaps just deceitful about the overwhelming danger of the Swine Flu. I am thankful that the administration seems to be consistent in their lies – at least we don’t have to worry that they may be telling the truth on anything.

I am thankful that there are still brave people who will keep us safe – and that there are others who would relinquish their safety to keep the public informed and fight for truth. I am thankful that Iran hasn’t finished developing their nuclear weapons – or don’t have the guts yet to use them. I am thankful we have the capability to eliminate that government’s opportunity to use those weapons on innocent people or our soldiers, in-theater and I’m thankful that our country can still offer some measure of security in the world.

I am thankful that despite our continued executive branch’s idiot protocol mistakes and dopey foreign policy, we still have a few allies in the world. I am thankful that we haven’t just thrown open the gates at Guantanamo and let all those creatures loose. I am thankful that not everyone is a lawyer, or there would be no children in the world. I am thankful Al Gore is wrong, because it may mean I can keep that last quart of Ice Cream cold enough to enjoy it, when the rest of the world collapses in some other kind of messy end. I am thankful that some of the great people in the world have become doctors and nurses – because some of them have saved my life – and the lives of so many others.

I am thankful for people of charity. They make the world better for those who have nothing, or almost nothing.

I am thankful for my friends, because I can be thoughtless, foolish and irritating. I am thankful that I can still express my opinions here and elsewhere and I am thankful God has seen fit to give us each another day to live and love and try to be better people.

But most of all, I am thankful for the regular people I see everywhere – folks who have not given up, and are willing to stand up for the ideals of that first colony and the idea of the struggling, early republic.

I am thankful for the living, breathing America that is you.

New custom Knife finished

I finished this new knife for a friend. Thought the rest of you might like to see it.

1/4 inch Damascus Steel blade. G10 laminate scales with Narwhal Tusk and Mammoth Tusk inlay. Custom concealex sheath with built-in sharpener, fire-starter and compass.

One of my finer jobs I think.

I make special knives for special folks - always unique - so if you'd like one, e-mail me at Blackstarfish@cableone.net. For more of my knives, have a look at the following link:

dsadventuregear.blogspot.com

-d

A list of broken things

Tomorrow the Senate votes on whether to bring their version of Health Care reform to the floor for consideration and discussion.

If you believe they’re just going to pass this one too, raise your hand.

Yep. It sucks doesn’t it? Because all five of my readers out there just had to stop themselves from raising their hands. I’m afraid that’s as bad as it has got. Even those of us, who believe the world can’t possibly get any stupider out there, are left sitting here believing that “yes,” it really can get there. It's "dumb" or "dumber" in Congress these days.

Just goes to show you that even the best of these folks - allegedly elected by the people, are actually either being bought off by special interests and administration promises, or are just trotting along with the rest of the Congressional cattle. Where are the cow-abducting UFOs when you need them?

Someone call Black Helicopter headquarters and get the UFOs on the job.

In any case, I suspect C-Span will see unprecedented ratings tomorrow, and that once again we will all be trying to make sense of it all. Of course, there really is no sense anymore. We could try to look at this whole mess logically, but things are spinning so fast, creating so much nausea out here in the real world, we’d spend an eternity trying to squeegee up the vomit.

I believe health care is broke. But, if you’ll notice the name of my new book – “A list of broken things,” you’ll come to understand, that from my perspective, I believe there’s a whole lot more broken than healthcare. I have a list – and I can’t believe our country’s leadership doesn’t have one too. But instead of starting at the top of that list, they’re starting somewhere in the middle.

How many other things can you think of – how many better things we could actually be spending our time on?

Personally I’d feel better if the President would stop with his globe-trotting and sit down and make a decision on either pulling our troops out – or sending them the back up they need to prevent needless loss of life. That would be a good place to start. But I’ve got a list.

Does he?

I’d feel better if we’d get back to being serious about Iran and spend a little time eradicating their production facilities to prevent the construction of weapons which can not only be used against Israel, but against our troops as well.

I’d feel better if we just got the whole Guantanamo thing out of the way. They’re guilty. Let’s start there. Now, string the bastard terrorists up, and be done with it. No more body-surfing – no more comfy prison in Cuba. No vacation in New York courtesy of the U.S. Justice System. Just end it.

I’d feel better if we enforced a few of our existing immigration laws and put those who are here illegally, out of the country. They are, after all, “illegal.” I’d feel better if we didn’t start acting soft on the whole drug issue – why? A large part of Somalia’s population is nearly completely hooked on drugs – especially one called Kat. But they use other stuff too, and I don’t know if anyone noticed how well that whole thing has worked out for them, but it isn't a nice place to live. I’d also feel better if we turned the water on to the California farmers, dropped some of our environmental restrictions, started building some oil platforms – even if they occlude the millionaire views at those ocean-front homes. I’d feel better if we stopped paying off administration cronies, big bankers and lawyers, and tried focusing on the regular people for a change.

I’d feel better if we gave our small business people some breathing room, so they could start expanding and start hiring.

But I’ve got a list, and with the Senate foolishness happening tomorrow, it makes me wonder if anyone else has one?

I’ve got a list of broken things.

Terror in the courtroom

I would just like to throw some ideas out there regarding the intended New York visitation of Islamic terrorists responsible for the September 11 attacks.

Let’s first look at the religion. Islam is a religion of peace, yet there are interpretations, which produce some amazingly warped individuals. Much like distortions of the Christian religion produces people like Jim Jones or David Koresh – just on a scale of insanity which we can’t fathom.

But if you consider Islam for a moment, one must wonder how these individuals would fare in a trial by their own faith and their own rules? It makes me wonder where the people are who are protecting the real faith? Should they not be calling for the execution of these mass-murderers?

Or how about the moments when they do the perp-walk? And what kind of security will there be in that courtroom, or on the way to it? They’re going to have to guard against accidents, ambushes by angry citizens and other threats on the way there, then they’re going to have to do daily courtroom screenings for everything from anthrax to pipe-bombs, grenades and ceramic pistols firing ice bullets from the gallery as someone screams “God is Great!” in English or a multitude of other languages.

And let’s say there’s not a single, individual who lost everything in those attacks –willing to trade their life for the satisfaction of seeing those murderers die – permanently and totally. Then what are the options?

How about this one: Every terrorist gets off on technicalities. Can you imagine the insanity, which would ensue if these guys walked away from it all – like the U.S.S. Cole attack planner Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri? In this instance, the only way they would get out of New York, is with the full power of the U.S. government protecting them all the way. Yep, just imagine, some first-class tickets back to the land of Holy Wars, where they can pass their time, killing our soldiers, while they plan more mass killings in the States.

Or what about this chance: They all are considered to be whack-jobs. So, they are all put in the funny farm with the guys who believe they are Napoleon or Spiderman and those who are certain the voices in their heads are telling them to build submarines out of toilet paper. In that case, these terrorists won’t be sent to deep, high-security, underground locales like we see in Silence of the Lambs.

Nope.

Instead, they will get a pleasant locale where they can be fed their happy meds and happy meals daily, three squares and a nice pleasant room, perhaps some outdoor time and field trips – all on the dime of the U.S. citizens. Their facility will be much like Guantanamo without the hot weather, questioning or body surfing.

Or how about this possibility – my greatest nightmare, really: Suppose the thing just drags on and on. Consider the daily damage to our national security. Consider the damage to the families of those lost that day, and please consider what a fantastic intelligence and recruitment tool this is, to the terrorists and would-be-terrorists still out there walking free?

How many people will die in the next attacks due to the weakness we show now? There’s no end to this.

Unless - by some measure of justice - the courtroom proceedings are brief, kept out of the public eye and these guys are executed and disposed of quickly and efficiently. I guess we’ll have to hope for that.

It’s all we’ve got left now.

Finding peace

Where’s the place where peace and happiness and freedom and beauty outweigh the hardship and pain and hatred and loss?

Because I can’t find it.

I’ve Googled it and asked around, I’ve hunted on globes and maps, but I fear if it exists, it is not on this Earth. Oh, it’s easy to watch the beautiful people on television with their red carpets and tailor made costume, and believe that all that money must buy them a piece of such a place. And it’s easy to overlook the antics of the politicians and our President; all globe-trotters and all busy on their pseudo-vacations paid for by the working public and believe that all their power must get them special entry into a place where life is good – and only good.

But it isn’t true.

Men and women of power and influence would say we should follow them. They will tell us that we can trust in their wits and self-interest. They of course are wrong.

Men and women of words and news try to push us into buying their product, and if we refuse, they would rather see us all burn. This is why people are often attacked continually in the media. It is because those in power simply love to see the failure of others. In their worship and feeding of the flames, they feel greater, and they feel vindicated when their actions continue to destroy more. They have learned to feed on misery and are happy to cause more of it.

Holy men would say that we can only find the place of happiness and freedom in the unreachable climbs of Heaven or Valhalla - or whatever name you wish to call the afterlife. And many would say that only through God can this be achieved. Perhaps they're right.

But I believe in us - as a people. I believe it is possible to create all of these things for each other. I believe we can build a world where truth and life have meaning and where the good only get stronger. I suppose the cost of creating this place, must come down to belief or faith, and subsequently come from a higher place. But in the past, madmen and despots and others seeking to find it or create it, have escalated and twisted the purchase price to a point where it is measured in thousands, hundreds of thousands – even millions of lives.

We seek paradise – whatever that means to us personally – and sometimes regardless of the cost. The misguided and insane, crash airplanes into buildings, become suicide bombers, sack cities, destroy civilizations, commit genocide, kill the young and innocent, crush liberty and violate human rights at every turn. Around the world, people still struggle to survive in horrific circumstances and against impossible odds. Their prayers entwine with others on the delicate winds of the universe. Are they heard and answered? Are they heard individually, or do they register as an incessant, aggregate moan, reaching across the empty places between worlds? These are lofty considerations for wiser people, perhaps.

But although this question may seem disconnected from our lives, I believe it may be central to them. Because if we can create a better world, it won’t be by covering every square inch with solar panels, smart grids and eco-friendly vehicles; nor will we create that place by dropping one country’s medical care into the hands of its’ government. It won’t be accomplished by curbing Co2 emissions or wiping out free trade, nor will it be solved by putting huge numbers of people on trial and killing those whom we can’t.

We won’t create a better world through “summits” or glad-handing or bowing to Kings and Queens and Emperors. And we won’t get there by creating more efficient weapons or attempting to build international relations with countries who don’t want them – and would rather have the weapons. Nor will we get there by eliminating the power of every politician, every lawyer and every dictator.

We won’t get there, because we can’t make the trip carrying old baggage. We have to strike out as pioneers – carrying only ourselves, on a new path – a different one to every road we have taken before. We need to be bold and we have got to believe enough in that vision of beauty, that we can make it real and that we can see the way. Technology won’t do it. Politics won’t do it. Money won’t do it. Fighting won’t do it.

It may seem trite, but I believe in the human heart – the real beating, living center of our extended lives, and the part which extends into other places, and can hear the whispered voice. I believe it can really get us all the way there. And when we get there and we walk in that perfect place of warmth and light, we will recognize each other, and smile. All our fears and all our anger - all the discord - all the pain and loss, will flow from us like rain, and filter through the soft fingers of clouds, and away.

And we will know completely and finally, that we have found our way home.

They just want to see it burn

I’m going to write specifically about Sarah Palin.

Perhaps some folks are tired of the subject, but I would like to offer an inconsequential point of view. It directly regards the treatment Palin has received in the media, but it’s not just about Palin.

The oft repeated question is: “Why has Palin been attacked so consistently and with such vehemence?” I see this question posed over and over – often with the implied understanding that some kind of “fear” underlies the phenomenon. I would suggest that there are a certain number of educated people out there, with very different philosophies, who are capable of coming up with a conceptual viewpoint which might be threatened by someone like Palin should they achieve office. But they represent a very small group of people. It doesn’t explain the huge numbers of folks who have lined up against the former Vice Presidential candidate.

Fear doesn’t explain the segment of the population in low-paying jobs, struggling to make do, who somehow followed along with the initial attacks on Palin during the campaign. Fear doesn’t explain the media, who have often staged rabid assaults on the woman’s image. Fear doesn’t explain most of the women who disagree with Palin, lowering themselves to personal attacks.

And so, fear is not the motivating factor.

What is the source of the gloating, sexist, insulting comments, which have been leveled at the woman and her family? Where does it come from? Because, without threat there can be no fear. So, if these folks out there who are fueling these attacks, are not worried about Palin reaching some lofty position, then what? If they are truly not worried she could harm them at some undefined point in the future, then how do you explain their actions?

As a former newspaper and PR guy, I know the one truth, which fuels the media – bad news. “Bad news sells papers,” is the old phrase. That simple truth is due to the fact that a large portion of the population feeds on the grief of others. They love to see the fall and are transfixed by every moment. They are the first to see the cracks in the walls, because they are waiting like jackals, drooling out at the edge of the firelight. It is like the gladiatorial games of ancient Rome; give the people what they want – a spectacle. That’s why there’s so much wailing and gnashing of teeth in front of the television cameras. The people who revel in the misery, just want to see the carnage.

The attacks on Palin don't have to be analyzed and sifted and categorized. They don’t have to be weighed and measured - and the silly question, “why,” doesn’t even need to be asked.

For a long time, the image of the “Joker” face paint from the movie “Dark Knight” overlaid on a photo of Obama has circulated everywhere. Those who have seen the film were no doubt amazed at the late, Heath Ledger’s performance, because he really presented a picture of the insane. The performance was a kind of revelation, because he showed how “reason” doesn’t need to be part of everything. Sometimes, it’s just all about insanity.

Palin is being attacked not because of fear. They just want to see her fail. It is a kind of insanity.

And there are no rules for the insane. They live in their own world and their actions have no rational reason. I believe the face paint on that circulating Obama image is misplaced. I believe there are many more “Jokers” out there than we would care to admit.

And like the man said, “they just want to see the world burn.”

Passing of another hero

You're a 19 year old kid.

You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle in
the Ia Drang Valley.

November 11, 1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam.

Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.

As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter. You look up to see an unarmed Huey. But ... it doesn't seem real because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you.

He's not Medi-Vac so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.

Even after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway. And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses.

And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!!

He took about 30 of you and your buddies out who would never have gotten out.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , Idaho.

May God Rest His Soul.

-author unknown.

A dream that was us

How do we fight and win against so much built-in infrastructure designed to keep the regular people in their place? It's a structure which seems designed to enrich and elevate the wealthy and powerful elite in our American society, but keep everyone else in a state of dependence.

I have heard much unfocused talk about revolution – and I would answer that word with “evolution.” You have to be beyond the stage where you are simply willing to bash the other monkey’s head in with a rock to attain your stated aims. I have also heard talk of “resistance.” But in order to resist you have to “exist.” Our own government chooses to ignore whole sections of the public, labeling them with terminology not fit for the coarsest environs.

I have seen people rail against injustices so obvious that children could easily see the solution; turn the water on so the California farmers can return to their fields, build oil platforms so America can acquire its’ own fuel, stop worrying about what is going to happen to the planet a thousand years from now and focus on what is going on today, stop taking away the very things which build jobs and allow people to subsist, stop paying off bankers and lawyers and every other crony who produces nothing, stop ignoring terrorism and meet it head on. And for God’s sake, give our soldiers the support they need and are asking for, so they can finish the fight – or send in the ships and aircraft and bring them home.

But how do we do all this? What muddy battlefield awaits where these things - which the average person is very concerned about – are respectfully addressed by lawmakers and resolved? What will our country look like when our leaders are less interested in how they will be re-elected and more interested in making this place better for future generations?

I have seen television commentators and reporters, work themselves into froths over the twitching, flopping antics of a government out of control. I’ve seen a government based on the ideals of freedom, openly attack free speech and other rights and attempt at every turn, to grasp and control more of our daily lives.

And we all have seen increases in taxes and regulation and how each day, our country resembles more and more, a kind of compound, where slavery to the state is compulsory. We are all witnessing a creeping kind of statism, socialism or worse.

I have seen in my lifetime, the gathering of the “Tall Ships,” in honor of our naton’s 200^th birthday. I stood on the shore in Newport, Rhode Island with my grandmother as – while holding the hands of my sister and I - she told us, “look at this now, because in your whole lives you will never see this again.”

I have seen great men speak. I have talked with astronauts who have taken the first steps into that "final frontier." I have walked in Red Square when Russia was still the Soviet Union. I have seen communism and its' effects first-hand. I have seen anarchy and its' effects first-hand. I have walked the dirt paths of the La Fole orphanage in Somalia and tasted the fine dust, which permeates everything and leaves a coppery-taste in your mouth - like blood. I have stood knee-deep in corridors filled with post-cards requesting the release of political prisoners. I have seen mass-graves and the scent of such places never truly leaves your nose - it's burned into your mind at a level so deep you can't help but think of it the remainder of your life.

I have crouched unmoving around the clock, perfectly concealed, as people walked past just inches away, doing my job as an LPOP. I have protected massive, mobile nuclear arsenals. I have interviewed sad, lonely doctors at the ass-end of the globe – so tired, they nearly nodded off as I asked them “how hard has it been? What do you need?” I watched those same doctors recount the horrors of purgatory in flat, monotone voices, with eyes too dry for any more tears.

What does anyone need? Life, love, a chance – some hope.

I have seen many things in all this time; and yet all this time is less than a flicker. I don’t even count as a speck in time. None of us do.

And yet in all of this, I have never seen a Continental Congress – the collection of odd representatives which created this country – and which if re-established, has the legal power to shut it all down and rebuild it.

The morning of Sept, 7, 1774 saw the first opening prayer for the Continental Congress. At 5 p.m., Wednesday, November 11, 2009, the same prayer from 1774, was repeated, and another group of the people’s representatives were convened in New Orleans. They did this even as our current Congress seeks to force massive legislation packages onto the public - packages, which they admittedly have never even read.

The new Continental Congress was subsequently formed in response to the following assumptions:

1. The Constitution cannot defend itself and it is not a menu.

2. CC 2009 is a National Assembly of citizens from the states of the Union and the District of Columbia.

3. The purpose of CC 2009 is to legally end certain violations of the federal Constitution.

4. CC 2009 is the appropriate next step in a 14-year process by the free People to hold their STATE AND FEDERAL elected officials accountable to the federal Constitution.

5. The free People have exhausted their administrative and judicial remedies.

6. The free People wish now to exhaust their constitutional remedies, as guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence and the Accountability Clause of the First Amendment.

7. The Delegates wish to focus on Facts, avoiding Opinions.

8. The Delegates wish to focus on violations of the Constitution, avoiding political questions.

9. When the People are up against unjust and uncivil government and laws and they are entitled to reform they will achieve it if they are pro-active, non-violent and have a mass-movement.

It makes me wonder, looking at the video of the event, if anyone else will see what I see – some life; a love for “a dream” which was once the United States - a glimmer of what we once were.

A hope we can be that again.

http://www.givemeliberty.org/CC2009/default.htm

What to do with terrorists

Where do we begin?

We want to be the country, which exemplifies freedom and peace and truth and honor and strength and bravery and sacrifice, but here we are allowing these scumbag terrorists to be brought back to the city, which they attacked, for some kind of soft-shoe courtroom drama. What is justice?

In this case, death is justice.

I want the people who perpetrated that act, dead. It’s simple. I wanted them dead the day those buildings came down, the week after it, the month after it and I still want it. I wager there's a large majority of the population who feel the same. Why they are still drawing breath, is a question, which cannot be answered. I can’t fathom it. It makes as much sense as the Fort Hood terrorist surviving the attack he planned and executed - and that one is a no-brainer. Justice it would seem, should wear the Reaper's robes in all these cases.

Would this not make some greater sense in the scheme of things, if there simply weren’t any possibility of giving these morons a platform to verbally assault the families and individuals who lost so much on September 11?

But we are going to release some of these people around the world. We’re going to give them a venue to expound on their warped ideals and employ yet more lawyers to investigate and publicize our intelligence community’s tactics and methods. Does anyone else see this as a national security issue?

I would suggest that the only reason to bring these folks to New York, is to put them on the end of a rope in a public place and give the families who lost loved ones on 9 / 11 the control of the lever to execute them or not. Who better to decide their fate?

On the other hand, if the pilots and the other folks accompanying the terrorists on their way back to New York, simply put the plane on auto-pilot and leaped out the side I wouldn’t mind. I could see them parachuting to a safe pick-up by the U.S. Navy as the plane carrying the terrorists continued to cruise on auto-pilot into the center of the ocean - running out of fuel, and dropping the terrorists into an un-marked, un-remarked, watery grave.

Let Davy Jones sort ‘em out.

Yes, I know what you're saying right now - "Yeah, but Jolly, that's a waste of a perfectly good aircraft." This is one expenditure I would never question. Use the plane. Hell, everyone else is. Use Al Gore's plane! He doesn't need it! He wants to save the planet! We can cut down the emissions from his jet - and all the Co2 emissions from the terrorists breathing - all at the same time! He won't mind, either! He'll just buy another one, thus creating a few jobs in the aircraft industry. It will feed the fish, make a nice habitat for coral and barnacles to attach themselves to, and since it will be totally out of fuel, there won't even be an oil slick!

And, if we decide to just find a nice remote section of desert for their final resting place - then make it anonymous. It is still a shovel-ready project, after all.

But none of that will be the case. We’ll give these creatures all the benefits of our legal system. I wonder if we’ll have an OJ moment where a glove is trotted out as evidence and the scumbag slips it on to show that it doesn’t fit?

It’s like a Cinderella kind of thing – the glass slipper and all that.

Oh, can’t you just see what a great idea this is? Instead of these animals disappearing into history, we give them a last chance to get their warped view of Islam out to all their buddies, one last time.

Yeah great.

Good thinking.

The book is being assembled

I'm very busy building the pages for my new special-edition hand-made book. So, my posts may be a bit thin for a while - a week at most. You can get one of my books. Just drop me an e-mail and I'll give you the details. Each book will be numbered and signed by the author and there will be a very small number produced. A real piece of artwork - with my articles, poetry and paintings - and maybe even the unveiling of my "Perfect Idea.

They will be bound with an Asian method I have used before (very classy), and the artwork in them will all be printed on archival paper (no fading or discoloration for 70 years).

Good - yes?

Get on the Jolly Wagon. Get a copy of "A List of Broken Things." And as far as myself - any concerns are unfounded. I wasn't there and you can't prove anything. And I won't even say, "Let me be clear..."

Trust the Jolly.

-Dave

A Jolly Rogers book about to be released!

I am about to do something really cool.

For all you folks out there who just need a hard copy of a thing in your hands, I am going to release, this Christmas, a limited-edition, hand-made, hand-bound, book of my writings, poetry and artwork. Here it is: "A List of Broken Things." It is really something. Oh, and each will be numbered and signed by the Jolly, and there will be a very small number produced.

Want a unique x-mas present? Want the best of Jolly? Want Jollyganda, not propaganda? Want more hammers and less pansies in Congress? Contact me at Blackstarfish@cableone.net. It won't save you from Sasquatch abductions, but it might irritate nearby liberals and force them to jump off the world. You can even roll it up and use it as a fly swatter, or a stand-in ice cream scoop. You can use it to patch a hole in your car's window. Astronauts can use it in space to make fun weightless paper hats! You can cut it up and line your shoes with it. It will even wrap tasty bits of flounder.

I'm doing them for family, but drop me an e-mail if you want one.

All of your Jolly Rogers favorites, plus one or two surprises will be in this book - and it's hand-made by the Jolly using his archival-quality, high-tech gear and low-tech traditional oriental binding. This will be a work of art in every way!

-Dave

Broadsword and the Beast

Dark sails on the horizon.

That’s what Ian Anderson sings about in his song, Broadsword – popular sometime in Spring 1982. It was the last tour for Jethro Tull in which they went out of their way to be theatrical, dressing up the entire stage as a pirate ship.

Interesting when you consider how pirates keep showing up. There are Somali pirates, then there are election pirates, there are terrorists who perhaps view themselves as pirates and there are government pirates – but more like the kind of looters Ayn Rand wrote about.

Don’t you wish for simpler times? I certainly do.

In an earlier age, the problems we are being beset with today would have been met with a completely different response. Instead, we are faced with the Political Correct nonsense in which it seems everything is backward and upside down. The careless, cackle like madmen watching with red-rimmed eyes from the curbs of the burning world. The witless run rampant.

Funny isn’t it, that Tull’s album cover for Broadsword would have been decorated around the edges with Cirth runes which were used by J.R.R. Tolkien in his masterpiece of good versus evil, “Lord of the Rings.”

It’s funny because of the good versus evil thing. Because while I don’t usually sign on to extreme views, I can’t help but note that we are facing an open assault on our entire way of life – an assault perpetrated by those in our own leadership. And while government functionaries and their minions may use condescension and derision, misdirection and propaganda in an effort to marginalize the growing anger and resistance to their plans, they are fighting on the wrong side. They are essentially, pirates on the black ship. And we all know what happens to pirates.

Looters meet forces, which can’t be frightened into submission. Pirates eventually meet the hard men who will protect the populace regardless of personal outcome – or they learn the truths of angry citizenry who have been pushed too far. Witness the ignoble end of Sadaam Hussein, the Bosnia elite, or even Mussolini, and so many others. The truth of angry citizenry is: Push far enough and they come for you and you are expelled from office.

They are breaking rules and bending truth to such an extent, I believe our current government will very soon reach the point where they can’t keep track of the lies they are speaking to attempt to placate the populace. But you have to understand, the crown jewels of their legislative attempts – the House Health Care Reform Bill passed in the House by a very thin margin. The vote was unbelievably close, even with a near “state-run” media in place, a huge propaganda machine (the National Endowment of the Arts) paid for, most unions on their side, payoffs to various power brokers and promised gifts to lawmakers. They nearly lost everything in a moment, even though they have control of the entire lawmaking process, huge nebulous groups like Acorn to run roughshod during elections and now greater control of the internet and other communications networks. And still this legislation can be stopped long before it has the chance to reach the President’s hands.

But why should it have even been close? The morons who created and voted for this package, shouldn’t have even been in the least bit worried. It shouldn’t have taken them months to get this mess through the House. With all this control, they should have simply danced through, laughing and skipping all the way.

The reason they didn’t, is because the populace is so dead-set against everything they are doing and that despite the “control,” they are struggling. Blogs like this one – and people like you, dear reader, are having an effect in marches, demonstrations, letters, public meetings and in so many other ways. Want to know whom the heroes are who are coming to save us? They are you – each of you, so long as you never give up, never give in and never surrender.

Yes, there is a dark sail on the horizon, but we are here waiting for it. You and I are standing at the roundhouse on the cliff and the enemy has been well-sighted. And he will not get through. We will meet him with unflagging resolve, and we will cut him down. The night and the sails are darkest just before the dawn, but when morning comes and the opposition is revealed for what they are, we will meet them with stronger hearts and stronger wills, and we will drink to their spirits, and our deeds will live on in songs and stories forever.

We have been marking time, staring at that sail, as if it is some kind of abyss, but I have seen into the Void before, and this is not it. All that sail represents is a hard fight coming – a battle in which the day will be filled with pain and hardship and fear, but which we shall not lose, because we stand shoulder to shoulder. And when your shield drops, mine will be the cover for both of us. When your sword arm fails, mine will cut for you.

We are brothers and sisters in the cause of the free and the just, and we will stand together and not be overcome.

Those Cirth Runes on the Tull cover art had a meaning in English. They read:

“I see a dark sail on the horizon, set under a black cloud that hides the sun. Bring me my broadsword and clear understanding. Bring me my cross of gold as a talisman.”

Yes, bring me my broadsword.