Patriot's Journey
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
The Constitutional Tripwire
One of my best friends served in the Air Force at about the same time that I was in the Navy, and one of the places he served was in South Korea. He explained to me about how few military members they have along the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) relative to the estimated threat, and why that is - it is the concept of the Tripwire. For those of you who have seen it in the movies (either military movies or the ones where they have lots of zombies), you will immediately recognize the utility of such a thing.
It is a simple concept - a string or wire stretched across a putatively open gap, with some kind of noisemaker attached (such as a few pebbles in an empty can), so that when the line is crossed, the noise will alert the defenders as to both the breach and the location. It can be as simple as a string, a can and a few pebbles to scare away the neighbor’s goat or as complicated as infrared and motion detectors with low-light level cameras and armed security responders with STK authorization.
The tripwire is not a defense, it is a deterrent - it is supposed to warn the encroaching forces that they have gone far enough and that any further advance will be met with much larger - and much deadlier - forces.
We have the same thing in our Constitution, and it is the Second Amendment.
Our Founders had just spent years of their lives and much of their personal fortunes getting rid of an oppressive government, and they recognized that the results of their efforts would not last forever, so they wanted to make sure that their descendants would be able to make the same decision, so they included a means for the People to take back control of their country from the men who thought that their elections were actually coronations.
Not only is the Second Amendment the one that protects all of the others, it is also the tripwire that warns of a much larger encroachment, requiring the response of those willing to defend that particular hilltop.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
People make much of the part about the Militia, ignoring two important things, one a flaw in logic, the other a flaw in definition.
The first is a flaw in logic, because they are ignoring some basic parts of sentence diagramming. That first clause - “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State...” - is what is known as a ”dependent clause”, and it cannot stand alone, but is intended to eatablish the basis for the independent clause of the sentence.
An example would be “Because Jimmy’s favorite flavor of ice cream is strawberry...”. It establishes a likely reason for the action described in the independent clause ("… his mother made sure she had some ready for his birthday party."), but not necessarily the only reason. Another reason is that perhaps everyone in the family also likes strawberry, or that it had been on sale, or other reasons, any one of which might be sufficient to explain the motive behind the action (buying strawberry ice cream). The independent clause “...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” can and should stand alone.
The second error lies in that of not being able to describe exactly what defines a member of a Militia. According to Federal Law, every able-bodied male between the ages of 18 and 45 is considered a member of the Militia, and the word has never been defined anywhere else that I can find, so that is the definition used in American Law.
The need for the States to be able to defend themselves via their various Militias is more than enough reason to make sure that everyone had the right to own and carry whatever weapons may be necessary to defend themselves against the various threats that the average citizen might come into contact with during his day (or night). There were highwaymen (seeking to redistribute the wealth), hostile natives (especially along the frontier), angry fauna or whatever. Just because the threat has shifted slightly with the times doesn’t mean that people don’t still run into muggers (seeking to redistribute the wealth), hostile natives (especially along La Frontera), angry former employees seeking their 15 minutes by shooting up someplace where guns are forbidden, or whatever.
The attempt by the government to take that power away is nothing more than an attempt to take away that tripwire. The police not only cannot protect you, they are under precisely ZERO legal responsibility to do so.
Monday, June 08, 2009
The luckiest citizens on the planet
You wanna know why? Because I can say things like “Obama sucks dead donkey dicks for an occasional afternoon snack!"* and not have broken any laws. I can worship a chicken with a sunburst on its breast (and some here in California have done exactly that) and the only penalty I will receive is some odd looks. I can choose to belong to The Flat Earth Society (or, more explicitly, the National Association of Marlon Brando Look-Alikes) and the only punishment I am eligible for is a few sidelong glances.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
(* - I have no evidence that this is the case, but neither can he find any way to deny it.)
There are literally hundreds of denominations across the country. The Roman Catholic church has calved off several major denominations - Lutheran, Methodist, Anglicans, etc. - and there are more than 100 sub-denominations of Protestantism, such as Baptist, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Pentecostal, you name it. There are Jews and Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists, Satanists and atheists, and America welcomes them all.
Politically speaking, our citizens range from one end of the spectrum to the other, no matter whether the spectrum is for ‘Economics’, ‘Governmental Control’, ‘Social Standards’ or ‘Freedom’, and we can switch from one to another in the space of a single election cycle (such as the 1980 Presidential or 1994 Congressional elections). Yet, even the most vociferous Soap-box Cicero can speak his piece free of any kind of interference from the government. (Protestors are never arrested for their opinions, but for trespassing or assault or destruction of private property or some such.) America welcomes challenges in the Marketplace of Ideas.
Imagine any of those anti-war protests going on in (say) Communist China or North Korea. Or Cuba.
I was born here, so I didn’t do anything to become a citizen, but I have been (and still am) doing everything I can to earn those additional benefits ever since. (Kind of like winning the lottery as a baby, then working your whole life to pay it back.) Military, jury duty, elections, and evangelism of the Ideals of Citizenship.
If you can’t think of any ways to make your country a better place to live, just ask, and I’ll come up with something.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
I don’t use this word often
But I fucking HATE this.
Most of my regulars know that I have Fibromyalgia, and yesterday just sucked. And not in a good way.
The worst part is knowing that I am neglecting a commitment and not having the energy, mental or physical, to do a damned thing about it. And to top it off, I actually had to fire someone. Long, ugly story and the details aren’t important (making my wife cry is NOT a good idea when I’m the one who signs your paychecks), but it just adds to the stress, which aggravates the condition, which makes me feel worse, which adds to the stress, which aggravates the condition, which…
You can see where I’m going, I’m sure. Anyhow, enough of my troubles.
Today is the 65th Anniversary of D-Day, the land assault at Normandy (and efforts elsewhere to try and keep the German Army from reinforcing the defensive lines), and the beginning of the end for the Third Reich, one of the most murderous regimes in all of History, with literally tens of millions of innocents killed, not to mention the millions of combat deaths. And all because one man with a Messianic complex decided that he and he alone knew the way out of the economic troubles his country (and the rest of the continent) were going through at that time.
To get an idea of how horrific that day was for those men, watch the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan.
If not for the courage of those men, you would be reading this in German right now. To those men, I say “Thank you” with humblest gratitude. We owe them a debt that can never be repaid, and (knowing this) those men did not ask for anything. When the war was over, they took off their uniforms, went home and rebuilt two continents from almost the ground up.
We are their legacy. Be worthy of them.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Been a rough day
Not much to tell today, but let’s take a moment to remember those who lost their lives in The Square of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen Square) exactly 20 years ago today.
“I don’t know what Democracy is, but we need more of it.”—Anonymous Chinese student
Hundreds died, thousands were wounded, and the government didn’t change a thing.
“If it doesn’t fit the first time, use a bigger hammer. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyhow.”
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
What is the Constitution?
It’s a contract - a binding agreement between We The People and an organization that had never before existed, the Federal Government of the United States.
Y’see, We The People had much more important things to do with our lives - raising families and crops, building homes and dreams - than deal with the day-to-day paperwork and drudgery of keeping the rest of the world off our backs. So we hired some folks to do the job.
It was never intended to become an occupation, but a chore. Something that some patriotic type would go and do for the good of his community and then, after a few years, he could come home and some other sucker would be told “It’s your turn in the barrel.”
Kind of like jury duty.
But then some fools got greedy. They discovered that they could pass a law and people had to obey! And that they could vote themselves pay raises and increased benefits that they didn’t have to pay for, because it was all paid by We The People (and what’s a few million among friends, eh?).
Then these yammerheads decided that they were too important to have to put up with unannounced visits from those who were not as important, and a bureaucracy started filling in the gaps wherever they could. “The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding bureaucracy.”
But it doesn’t have to be that way. That power they wield is borrowed from We The People, make no mistake about it.
We are the ones that have rights, not the government. We are the ones who get to vote, not the government. We are the ones who decide what form of government we shall have.
Not the Government. No, the Government has been given some authority to do certain things…
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Republic versus Democracy
Many people think we live in a Democracy, and I delight in telling them the truth - that is not now, nor has it ever been, true in the remotest degree. The biggest effective size for a democracy is a Boy Scout Troop, because anything larger becomes too unwieldy and cumbersome to make even the most basic of decisions.
Imagine trying to put the location of every stop sign up for a public vote. Or getting 50.1% public permission for every parade and protest.
But the moment you select someone to handle all of the daily grind (decisions, policies and legislation) and no matter how that person is selected (election, appointment or employment application), it changes from a Democracy to a Republic.
Just because there are some democratic tendencies (such as selecting our legislators via popular election) does not suddenly alter the facts. A Republic could still exist if the selection of legislators were made by lottery, or by pulling a name at random out of the list of licensed drivers, but the worst part about electing them is that the process allows for the creation of a new occupation: politician. And since they can use the benefits of office to campaign and advertise for a chance of being rehired while still on the job.
We The People need to remember one major point: they are not “elections”, they are “hiring decisions”. They are not “campaigns”, they are “employment interviews”. These people are “employees”, not “leaders”. The power they utilize rests entirely with us, and we can take it back at any time.
Sometimes, though, it isn’t a complete reversal of policy that We The People want, just a “wake-up call” to those who have been neglecting their duties, like the recent and ongoing “Tea Parties”. And that kind of thing is specifically protected from government interference (freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom to petition for a redress of grievances, et alia). It was kind of interesting to see the reactions being disseminated by those who had the most to lose from We The People clearing our collective throat - calling them “racist” and “tea-baggers”, and even refusing to acknowledge them.
The professional politicians need to heed that wake-up call, though, because the next step isn’t for We The People to get louder, it is for us to get silent. Or silencers, at the very least.
When politicians forget the First Amendment, it is time for the People to remember the Second.
Monday, June 01, 2009
I wanted a post
that would celebrate American inventions, but I cannot compete with Wikipedia on this one, and how can I choose from among them?
Never mind the things that are so basic that most people have forgotten that they ever needed to be invented on the first place - such as the concept of interchangeable parts or the wrench, the clothes hangar and bifocals.
Never mind the things that are so esoteric as to be almost incomprehensible to the man-in-the-street - from Emission Spectrochemical Analysis to Dendrochronology, from Extragalactic astronomy to the Universal Product Code barcode.
Let’s remember those things that are globally present (GPS) and globally enjoyed (the chocolate chip cookie). Globally used (the Internet) and globally useful (the Post-It note).
And all because of the daydreams and ingenuity of American citizens.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Baseball and Apple Pie
Call your mothers, and thank them for being there all of those times. When she asks why, tell her that you were just thinking about her.
It’ll make her day.
However important Mom may be, she is only one leg of the triad of Americanism - baseball and apple pie being the other two. I can’t do much more than point you to the official baseball website for the official rules.
It’s the unofficial games that make it perfect, though. “The sewer cover is home plate.” “Get that damned goat away from that haybale - we’re using it as second base, dadgummit!” “Anything into Old Lady Nussbaum’s yard is a home run, because we’re never getting it back anyway.”
But that’s why they use the term “ground rules” - the grounds make the rules.
However, there is one way I can spread that little bit of Americana to all and sundry. I can give you a simple recipe for homemade apple pie.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Even God worked on Saturday
But most of us here in America not only don’t have to work six days a week, our bosses would have to pay a 50% financial penalty in order to have that happen (commonly referred to as “time-and-a-half” or “overtime” for anything over 40 hours per week).
That penalty is to ensure that others would also have a job, by “encouraging” employers to hire less capable people to fill those extra hours and do that extra labor. At the current Federal Minimum Wage (currently $6.55 per hour, rising to $7.25/hour on July 24th of this year), and working precisely 40 hours per week, the minimum wage works out to $13,624 per 52-week year, comfortably above the “poverty level”. (Of course, it would be a little less if any vacation time is taken or shorter weeks are worked.)
For most of Human History, the routine was unchanged from father to son to grandson: get up at sunrise, work as hard as possible until the sun goes down, get drunk on whatever homemade brew is available, sleep, and repeat. (Sundays were the only breaks, when half the day was spent in pews being lectured about how evil they all were, followed by trying to get the necessary work done without the priest finding out.)
Six days shalt thou work, doing all thou art able.
The seventh the same, and clean out the stable.
That condition held steady for generation upon generation, until the Industrial Revolution, when machinery started to take over, putting lots of people out of work. Those people started branching out, looking for alternate means of supporting their families, while at the same time, many more goods of uniformly high quality became available, driving the price down. Specialists began improving things around the population, such as when a former lumberjack (who lost his job to a machine-driven saw) became, say, a furniture-maker instead, and with motorized delivery, stores began to sub-divide and specialize. Gone was the town’s “General Store”, and in came the greengrocer’s, the butcher’s, the dry goods store, the fabric store, the candy shop, and sporting goods store to replace and expand the options.
Nowhere was this effect more clearly seen as in the United States during the 19th century. John Deere tractors and Winchester rifles. Eli Whitney’s cotton engine ("gin") and the mechanical printing press. McGuffey’s Readers and Farmer’s Almanac. Electric lighting and coast-to-coast railroads.
Forty acres and a mule. (Just as an FYI, forty acres is equal to a square of land measuring a quarter-mile wide and a quarter-mile long, about as big an area as can be handled by a single adult man without machinery.)
There are still occupations and businesses out there where the ownership and responsibility is passed down from father-to-child, but damned few, because we are the Land of Opportunity. Every child has exactly the same opportunities as every other. Our current President is the product of a broken home (his black father abandoned him at a young age), but that stunted beginning was not enough to keep him from becoming the most-powerful political figure on the planet. I was raised in similar circumstances (my father abandoned us when I was very young), and my mother raised five of us all by herself, yet today I have my own business which has nothing to do with any of the jobs either of my parents once held. (She was a Medical Administrator and he drove a school bus for years before starting his own taxi company.)
The lives we live are entirely based upon the choices we make, rather than the choices our grandparents made, and all it takes is enough sense to not draw to an inside straight. To become wealthy? Even easier. All it takes is a lifetime of effort and the occasional partial denial of immediate gratification (going to the movies rather than Disneyland or choosing Hamburger Helper over filet mignon). The fact that we can is one of the greatest things about our country.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Feed the homeless to the hungry
What would be a good definition of “poor”? The dictionary says that “poor” is defined as “"lacking material possessions” or “of, relating to, or characterized by poverty”, and “poverty” is “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions”.
That bolded part is mine, because it clearly shows that poverty is a relative term.
According to the Federal Government, a family is defined as “poor” (or “below the poverty line") by having an income level below certain published minimums.
$10,830 per year for a single person is considered “poverty” level? Yet, according to the U.S. Census:
- 43% of “poor” households own their own homes (average size = 3 bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio).
- 80% of them have air conditioning.
- Only 6% of “poor” households are considered “over-crowded”, while 2/3 of them have two or more rooms per resident.
- The “typical poor person” in America has more living space than the “typical” European citizen. (NOT the “poor” in Europe, but the average citizen.)
- Nearly 3/4 of “poor” families own a car, and 31% own two or more.
- 97% have a color TV, and over half own two or more, not to mention 78% having a VCR or DVD, and 62% getting cable or satellite reception.
- 89% own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.
- Roughly a third have both cell phones and a landline phone.
Overall, the typical American defined as “poor” by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, hot and cold running water, a stove and oven, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry, and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family’s essential needs.
Compare that with the poor in other countries. No home, no food, and no hope of improvement if your grandparents had the wrong connections. Where Death, War, Famine and Pestilence aren’t just the Four Horsemen, they are your next-door neighbors always wanting to come hang out. Where a suicide mission looks like it might be worth it, as long as your family was taken care of afterward.
So poor that even Sally Struthers would say, “Oh, you poor dears.”
And remember that we, as a nation, are so rich that even the poor are wealthy beyond dreams of avarice for the poor elsewhere. There but for the Grace of God, right?
Amen, folks.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Two out of the three so far
We’ve had a post celebrating those that help maintain Life, another that celebrated those who protect our Liberty, so today we will talk about the massive industries that offer many different ways to Pursue Happiness.
So tell me, what do you do when you’re bored?
That was a rhetorical question, by the way, because I’m about to tell you what you do. Every time.
You find some way to pass the time. You read. You listen to music. You play a game. You watch a TV show or movie. You watch the pretty girls/hot guys walk by (as your personal preference opts). You ski. Take a vacation. Go to an amusement park. Or a casino. Or shop. Or drink. Or eat. Or cook. Or help others.
Or blog.
There are too many ways to Pursue Happiness to list here, but for every single one of those pursuits, there is an entire industry needed to support those practitioners, whether it is as solitary as knitting or as gregarious as a game of hide-and-seek. Whether it is as barren of equipment as someone taking a walk or as complicated and esoteric as partaking in an SCA tournament.
Think about what you enjoy doing, and then think about anything that you have to have in order to participate in that activity. (Don’t forget the extras that you will want later in order to improve the experience - better shoes, special tools, fan paraphenalia, season tickets, what have you.) Then remember all of the shops, stores, people, manufacturing plants, transportation infrastructure, advertising and all the rest.
For all of those people, it’s just a job. For YOU, it’s your “inalienable right”.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
America’s Heartland
The World’s Breadbasket.
I get a lot of hits from the Midwest, but none from what I would consider “farming country”. (I’m probably wrong, since my knowledge of specific geography from that region - to the county/city levels - is a bit fuzzy.)
My loss…
Farmers and ranchers combine to create almost every food you manage to buy in your local supermarket, and unless you have lived on a farm yourself (I lived on a small-acreage farm as a young boy; just a few acres of fruit orchard, one or two horses, and The Mule), you will never quite understand how tough that kind of job is, even with the help of technological advances. Modern machinery has only improved the efficiency (meaning more acres per worker), genetically calculated seed stock has eliminated some diseases and limited others, and chemical fertilizers have improved the amount of food produced per hectare, but the basic job hasn’t changed since Man first discovered that a pointy stick could slice a furrow into damp soil.
The ability to grow grains and fruit-bearing trees and vines on a regular basis was what kicked off that whacky little thing we like to call Civilization. (Domestication of animals had taken place centuries or millennia earlier, with the first wild canines hanging out with the nomad tribes, and small animals that could walk or be carried tagging along.) No, it was the ability to grow more grain than the local tribe could easily consume that encouraged them to set up shop in the Nile basin and in Mesopotamia. That name literally means “land between two rivers”; specifically, the Tigris and the Euphrates. (IOW, modern-day Baghdad.) Trading different types of grain/fruit/livestock (and keeping track of the resulting commerce) brought about writing and mathematics, and everything else developed from there.
But I’m talking about the farmers of America’s “fly over country”. Our farmers have managed to turn the most productive soil in the hemisphere into a cornucopia of food that could literally feed half the planet. Our farmers are so effective at growing food that we had enough to send to our enemies during the Cold War. So much so that the government was actually paying the farmers to not grow any more, because there just wasn’t anyplace left to store it. The farmers had filled every silo, barn, empty ICBM silos, and decommissioned warships they could lay claim to, yet the food just kept on coming.
Our ranchers are equally effective at overproduction. So muck milk and cheese, the government was literally giving it away. So much beef that you could buy… well, never mind.
We have so much food stored away that we were dropping crate-sized bundles of food on the Afghanistan people, even as we were dropping laser-guided 500-pound bombs onto their buildings, just in case some of it managed to make it to those who might have been on “our side”.
We have so much food that the number one health care concern in the US is obesity!
Just in case anyone says that the Midwest is an accident of location and we’re just lucky enough to live here, let me point out that there is a similar (in a geologic and chemical composition sense) area in the southern part of Russia that covers almost half a million square miles - twice the size of France - of the most fertile land in Eurasia, yet Russia only produced a smidge less than 4 percent of the world’s food, and was a net importer of food.
Now take all that food, and add in the Law of Supply and Demand. When you have too much of a thing, the price goes down as the quality available goes way up. When you get rid of just some of a thing, you always start with the very worst, and work your way up to “mediocre” before tossing out the cream of the crop. Lower grade apples are turned into juices, sauces and ciders, while only the very best are reserved for bobbing, candying and keeping the doctor away. When it takes less effort to earn enough money to feed the family for a day (only an hour or two, rather than almost all day), and the family is eating good quality food, it becomes easier to pay bills and even save a little (since the kids are eating all those apples, the doctors are getting bored).
A vacation trip to the beach on Memorial Day. (Didjaknow that 75% of the nation lives within a two-hour drive of a beach?) Take a day off on the Fourth of July to barbecue with family and friends (and even have some sparklers for the kids). Have the leisure to let your kids study something more than just enough Readin, Ritin and Rithmatick to keep the family business afloat.
Become prosperous! As a family and as a nation, and all because our farmers are too good at what they do: spreading Civilization…
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Yesterday, we remembered
... those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Today, we thank those who are still on the front lines.
The hundreds of thousands of active duty military personnel. The hundreds of thousands more who are in the reserves, still serving. They are well worth celebrating, but we also have others who are serving their communities, rather than the nation as a whole.
The millions of police and fire fighters. Paramedics and ambulance drivers. Emergency Room doctors and nurses. Random Good Samaritans. The people who run towards those in pain, seeking only to relieve that suffering, no matter the personal cost.
How many times have you seen a headline where someone was lost in rough country, with insufficient gear or training for long-term survival? Hundreds of total strangers will show up to search some of the most unforgiving terrain on the continent, and - occasionally - one or two of the rescuers will die in the attempt. Nevertheless, just as many searchers will turn up the next time the call goes out.
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?—Luke 15:4 (KJV)
Maybe it’s the Judeo-Christian ethic (see the parable of the 100th sheep), but that mindset - that when one of our number needs rescue, others should not count the cost - is one of the most celebration-worthy things about our country. Thank them all the next time you see them - doctors, nurses, cops, paramedics and fire fighters. Without them, our society would be literally hell on earth.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Once more into the breach, friends
Welcome to my Sixth Annual Patriot’s Journey, friends.
Take a moment, if you will, to pray for those who died in the service of our country, to the Higher Power of your choice.
Thanks.
I write not to sorrowfully remember their loss, tragic though the loss was to us all. I write instead to celebrate the things that they thought were worth the cost of that Ultimate Sacrifice. Let’s face it. In order to properly understand their sacrifice, we have to understand what it was they were sacrificing for, don’t we?
The things that make our country great, instead of just “okay”.
”Take Me Out To The Ball Game”. Disneyland. The Empire State Building. Ernest Hemingway’s seven-toed cats. The Golden Gate Bridge. The Grand Canyon. The seemingly endless miles of the Great Plains. Superman comic books. Chewing gum. Dixieland jazz. The St. Louis Arch (the “Gateway to the West"). Billy Joel. For that matter, Christie Brinkley (wink, wink). Being able to fly from coast-to-coast in a single day. Mount Rushmore. John Wayne.
All of these things and many thousands more, all wrapped up into a single culture that made us the Greatest Nation on the Planet. We set the standards, and let others wonder what they are doing wrong.
Don’t ever forget it.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Second Warning
Anyone who wishes to join in on this year’s Patriot’s Journey, could you please drop me a line, so that we can arrange for cross-linkage? It will run from May 25 through July 4, inclusive.
That addy is:
Dee
Are
Emm
Double You
Ess
Tea
Are
-AT-
gmail
-DOT-
com