Second Chances

Several years back I gave my son my old Specialized Hardrock mountain bike to ride as he had outgrown his bike.  That old bike had served me well since 1991 and I thought it would be around for a long time.

You need to know something about my son.  If I can find something that he can’t destroy then it is something worth owning.  I have often thought my son’s true calling in life is as a product torture tester.  Seriously, he is tougher on things than anyone I know.

My Hardrock survived 2 years of extensive riding in the Owyhee desert with my good friend Ron many years ago.  It survived one of the first Bicycle Patrol Schools offered up in Idaho, where, 18 years ago I met Rob, who told me his agency was hiring.  Then it survived another 2 years as a Police Bike for this very same agency.

The chrome-moly frame could handle just about anything.  So you can imagine how surprised I was when my son came home and the front fork was bent and crumpled.  “What did you do?”  I asked.  “Nothing Dad.  I was just going down a hill and the fork collapsed.”  “Nothing??”  I yelled.  “No screaming down Canfield mountain with your hair on fire or playing Evil Knievel and jumping over things?!!”  “Well,” he said sheepishly, “I was going downhill.”

When I let my son torture test this bike, I had replaced it with a Trek 7300 Hybrid, and had also purchased a Northrock for trail riding.  But seeing that old Hardrock in the condition it was in just plain made me sad.  Too many memories.

Having been the recipient of more second chances than I deserve, I decided to disassemble the old bike and see what was salvageable – I just couldn’t bring myself to drag it off to the dump.

The tires were completely shot, but surprisingly the wheels were fixable.  The frame was straight and true, as was the fork stem.  Nothing else was worth keeping.  Seriously.  Nothing.  Everything was either bent or broke.

After a couple of hours on Amazon.com, I assembled a list of replacement parts and a budget for the repair.  Yes, you guessed it.  I could buy a new Hardrock for the money I am going to put back into this one.  Sentimentality is expensive.

I picked up some parts at my local Specialized dealer and when I told him what I was doing he replied, “Yep, we do that sort of thing all the time for customers.” At least I am not alone.

The parts are slowly dribbling in as I can afford them, and today I spent 4 hours and $16 cleaning the wheels and getting them back to spec by replacing the bearing pack, bearing cones, and tightening up the loose spokes.   A new seat and seat suspension is now installed, as well as new V brakes. 

Its glory days as a Mountain Bike are over.  When I get it all back together it will be my “57 Chevrolet,” and will have an honored place in my garage.  Just too many memories to let it go.

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

A Nation that worships idols instead of God Part II

Along similar lines of what I wrote about some time ago, here is a secular perspective that I think completes the picture of what is wrong with our society.

This from  the Arctic Patriot:

Thoughts for Consideration

Here are some thoughts of mine.  They will offend some people.  That is not my concern; I cannot control others' reactions to what I say.  I hope people are able/willing to look through offense, and my clumsy words that cause it, in order to see what I am saying here.  Here goes-

It has been said that the Constitution would only work in a moral society.

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion ...Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  John Adams

Benjamin Franklin, Signer of the Declaration of Independence - "[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

" Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society."  - Washington

I think there's a little more to it than that, but let's assume that the statement is true at face value, and look at some things.

What do you think a "moral" and "religious" people looked like to Mr. Adams, Washington, Franklin, and their contemporaries?

No, I mean it.  Really.

Walk through the nearest clothing store and look at the people.  Look at the trash and filth polluting our children's (and our) minds at the grocer's checkout line.  Look at almost everything that comes from Hollywood and earns millions of dollars.  Look at the people who make the news, that slice of degenerate America.

Moral?  Religious? 


Those of you who know me well enough know that I am not pushing a certain religious worldview here; I have more than enough doubts and concerns with religion for five men.

What I am saying here is that taken in context, John Adams said that the Constitution cannot work in anything other than a moral and religious setting such as that in which he lived.

Think about this.  Please.  Really.


No, I mean it.  Really.  Think about it.

If John Adams is to be believed, even a complete, as-ratified, Constitutional restoration will utterly and completely fail in the society in which we live.

Think about that.

Consider what Washington or Jefferson might have had to say about that new Hunger Games movie.  Consider what Adams or any "moral and religious" person from that time period would say about the filth Americans pipe into their homes, the trash Americans allow to invade their children's brains, or the garbage that is known as "entertainment" today.

Think about it.

Would they accept it, or would they recognize it for danger and trash that it is, and drive it from their communities?

You may disagree with me on this, and that is (obviously) fine.

Just keep in mind that perhaps the problems in this nation go far, far beyond mere politics and economic interests.

Decadence and immorality often go hand in hand with tyranny.  Failure to self-regulate results in harsh government oversight.  I have learned this over and over again in the business world. 

A "moral and religious people" self-regulates. 

Bastiat once said that for a law to be respected, it has to first be respectable.

I will go further.  It works both ways.  For a people to be respected by the law (and government), they have to first be respectable.

Can you really see Washington and Adams taking their wives out for a lovely evening to watch Hunger Games?  Can you see any lady from 18th century America allowing her children to be exposed to the filth on display in nearly everygrocery checkout line?  It is utterly amazing to me that I cannot find clothes for my twelve and thirteen year old daughters that are not, by design, tight or revealing.

Moral and religious.  Without it, we as a people might as well forget any restoration of the Constitution.

I am not calling for a return of long dresses and breeches, or mandatory church services.  What I am saying is needed is a sense of modesty, respect, and basic consideration of others.  I think we can all agree these things are vanishing, if not altogether missing from American society.  What I am saying is that the American infatuation with materialism, instant gratification, and hedonism is dragging this nation to its death.

So there it is.  This is why I believe any restoration of American Constitution / Liberty as the founders understood it is bound to fail in this society.  If one accepts Mr. Adams', Mr. Washington's, and Mr. Franklin's words, and applies the proper historical context to them, I cannot see how any other conclusion is possible.

Think about it, and what we, what you can do to reverse this trend. 

Let me tell you, it doesn't make you a popular guy.

Outlaw Capitalists

Its official: my simple head cold wasn’t;  more of a sinus / lung infection requiring heavy doses of antibiotics and some really cool pain meds.  Suffice to say that this past week I had noting but time on my hands to feel miserable.

Starting to crawl out of it now, but the older I get the slower the healing process becomes. 

Some of that time on my hands was spent reading a small book (small because that is all I could concentrate on with the stuffy head – took me a week to read a 90 page tome!!).  This book, “Classic Harley-Davidson 1903-1941,”  just made me realize once again why our country is headed to the dustbin of history.

The first chapters of the book concentrated on how William Harley and Arthur Davidson, two boyhood pals, got started building motorcycles.  This was truly a family endeavor.  The boys utilized Art’s dad’s woodshed, the advice of good friend Ole Evinrude, and the help of family members who worked in the railroad machine shop and foundry, all unofficial of course, as well as many other friends and neighbors.  In the small time frame of five years they went from a very small operation to a mindboggling big operation.  I had no idea but these guys were the Apple Computer of their day.

Why did this reinforce my belief as to why we are slipping away as a strong country?  Easy, innovation and entrepreneurship of this kind cannot legally exist today.  Regulations and codes simply will not allow it.

Imagine that you wanted to build some kind of cool widget.  You are a young man or woman that is blessed with mechanical abilities.  You are also blessed with a dad who has some really neat tools in his garage.

You start making these widgets and advertising them in a local widget magazine.  Sales take off.  Enough for neighbors to notice that a lot is going on in your dad’s garage.   Next thing you know you are being visited by the code enforcement officer, who tells you that you must get a business permit, tax number, and you must build your widgets someplace else, as your parents home is zoned residential only. 

You quickly do the math in your head and realize that all of a sudden the money you were making is not enough for you to become “legit.”  Frustrated, you simply give up or go “underground.”

Can’t happen?  Oh but it does, all the time.  I know several people who operate businesses out of their garage on the side.  They all fly under the radar of existing codes and regulations – they simple can’t afford to do otherwise.  They have become “outlaw” capitalists.  Don’t think this stifles innovation?  Is it any wonder we are a nation of consumers and not producers?

I look at my Harley Davidson and lift a glass of homemade brew to salute all the backyard innovating “outlaw” capitalists out there in the heartland.  May your spirit and ingenuity never die – your fortunes and the fortunes of our country go with you.

Typing under the influence....

 Spring just wouldn't be spring without a nasty head cold.  I've already missed two days of work which is eating on me just imagining how far behind I am, and what a pain in the keester it is going to be trying to get caught up.  As soon as I find the guy who pumped all of this air and snot into my head there will be h eeh double toothpicks to pay.....

Nothing is easy.

Nothing is ever easy as it looks.  You know what I am talking about.  You watch those do-it-yourself TV shows and it looks so easy that after a trip to Lowes or Home Depot you are set to tackle whatever task is before you with confidence, except it is never easy and usually involves 2 or 3 more trips to the hardware store. 

So it has been this weekend.  I am not going to go on a rant, I actually like working on things.  I like the challenge.  When something brakes or doesn’t go like it should I take it as a challenge.  The machinery has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged my manhood.

I remember years ago working on my Sportster 883.  I noticed that the exhaust coming off of one of the cylinders was cold, meaning that the fuel/air mixture wasn’t firing.  I took the bike apart trying to figure out what was wrong.  After about two hours of extreme irritation, my Dad walked out and asked me if I had checked the spark plug.

There I was, sitting amidst a bunch of parts and my voltmeter, and I hadn’t bothered to check the spark plug.  That was what was wrong and my Dad taught me a very important lesson that day;  when attempting to diagnose a problem start with the simple and work towards the complex.   Genius right?  This simple lesson has since saved me countless hours of grief.  Looking back I should have paid more attention to my Dad when he was working on things……

Except this past weekend I discovered another truth; if something you are doing is easy, you are probably doing it wrong or you have missed something.  I know I’m not the first to come up with this, as nothing is new under the sun.  I simply “learned” it the hard way.

The silver lining in the cloud is that repairing whatever usually involves the purchase of some new tool to fix what I have messed up.  Hence, I have a LOT of tools.

Kind of like our lives, which are never easy – and if we are currently living on easy street this is simply a warning from God to be VERY vigilante.  Something is wrong; we just haven’t figured it out what it is yet.

God does not intend for us to live easy lives.  It is part of the challenge He has given us.  Luckily for us He has  provided a fantastic tool and a counselor to help us muddle through.

Spring is almost here.

The sun rises a little earlier and sets a little later each day.  There is a certain smell in the morning air – maybe just a hint of fresh vegetation instead of the old dead rotting leaf smell.  All signs that spring is almost here, and what better way to get ready for spring than to get the motorcycle ready?

Not the old mid-life crisis Ninja I have had for the few years and sold last fall, but my new Harley Davidson XL1200 Sportster Custom.  This bike will be my 4^th Harley and my 3^rd Sportster.  Why a Harley?  They are visceral.  They are noisy.  They require constant attention and care, and the smell from a Harley exhaust takes me back to my Dad’s shop and the smell of oil, grease, and arcing welding rods.  Unlike the Ninja, the engine is exposed for all to see its nakedness.  No cheap plastic here.  Kind of the meat and potatoes of motorcycles that harkens back to a better  simpler time.

Many years ago I used to make fun of people who rode Harleys.  That was in my Honda days.  There was a Yamaha in there too.  All very nice bikes.  Very predictable, reliable, and also very boring.  Nothing ever went wrong and no tweaking or adjusting was ever needed.  For a guy who likes to turn a wrench this is simply unacceptable.  The Harleys are pretty reliable too, but every now and then you need to get your torque wrench out and re-torque all the things that get shook loose.  I didn’t understand the value of a bike that required this kind of TLC 30 years ago.  I certainly do now.

With literally a gazillion aftermarket parts, you can make your bike very much your own – the tinkering is endless.

I think that this is why when you look at many used HD bikes you find that they have very few miles on them.  People see them more as a work of art in progress than something you actually ride.  Happily, I like to ride them too.

When I sold my Fatboy and purchased the Ninja I realized too late that it had to be the dumbest thing I have ever done (or at least way up there on a very long list of dumb things I have done).  The Ninja was just too fast.  Ridiculously fast – explains why the insurance was also ridiculous.

The Harley, while no slouch, is basically a tractor motor.  You can do all kinds of things to the engine, but its still a tractor motor – in a strange way the sound it makes sounds like an old Allison Chalmers tractor put putting in a field somewhere.  Again, a simpler time.

And of course, put putting around the lake on a beautiful spring day is a great way to experience God’s creation up close.   Yes, spring is almost here.

What Christians could learn from Act of Valor movie

Worth the time to read......

What Christians could learn from the movie Act of Valor

Surrogates

This past weekend we took the grand-dog back to my daughter’s home in Western Washington.  As we left I realized that while I miss Boog, it is not really him I miss but rather my daughter.   Boog has been serving as a surrogate for her.  Now that Boog is no longer here, I simply miss them both.

Seems that while it is inevitable that the wife and I will eventually become empty nesters, the house just is not quite the same without chaos – something the dogs are happy to provide.  When the children were little I dreamed of the day when we would have the peace and quite we had prior to their arrival.  Now that they are leaving the peace and quite prospect doesn’t sound so hot and we look at each other as if to say, “O.K., what do we do now?”

Something tells me I am going to have similar feelings about retirement when it sneaks up on me……

Crap.

A Nation that worships idols instead of God

The Bible is a wholly remarkable book.  It is the only book on the planet that gives us the literal word of God.  The God we worship is the same today, tomorrow, and yesterday.  As such it would be safe to say that He responds to disobedience as He always has in the past and will do so again in the future.  His response to disobedience among Israel, his chosen people, is well documented in the Old Testament.  Using what God has done in the past as a guide, a pattern if you will,  to how He will judge disobedience in the future, we can get an idea of how he deals with His people when they become rebellious.

¹Then God gave the people all these instructions ◙ :

²“I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.

³“You must not have any other god but me.

⁴“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. ⁵You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. ⁶But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those ◙ who love me and obey my commands.  Exodus 20:1-6

On our journey into how to apply the 10 Commandments to the 5 aspects of our lives, we cannot start with us, but with God who is at the center of all, and today we will explore what happens to a people as a collective and individually when they violate this primary commandment.

God tells us that we are to have no other god but Him, and that we must not make for ourselves an idol of any kind.  He promises us that if we obey his commands that he will lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love him.  He also proscribes a curse for those who don’t.

God makes it clear that not only are we not to have any other god but Him, but prior to the nation of Israel entering the promised land, God made it clear as to what Israel was to do about the god’s that were worshipped in the land:

¹“These are the decrees and regulations you must be careful to obey when you live in the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must obey them as long as you live.

²“When you drive out the nations that live there, you must destroy all the places where they worship their gods—high on the mountains, up on the hills, and under every green tree. ³Break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. Burn their Asherah poles and cut down their carved idols. Completely erase the names of their gods!

⁴“Do not worship the LORD your God in the way these pagan peoples worship their gods.”  Dt. 12:1-4.

Not only was Israel warned about destroying these other gods, but they were also warned not to worship them:

²¹“You must never set up a wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build for the LORD your God. ²²And never set up sacred pillars for worship, for the LORD your God hates them.” Dt. 16:21.

God hated these idols and other “gods” so much that the nation of Israel became the arm of justice against the nations who worshipped them:

⁴“After the LORD your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The LORD has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way. ⁵It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The LORD your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Dt. 9:4-5.

God was punishing these nations because of their wickedness, and Israel was God’s instrument.  This is strikingly familiar to the way God utilized the Assyrian’s to punish Israel for it’s unfaithfulness – a pattern is emerging….something God calls “a sign and a warning among you and your descendants forever.”  Dt. 28:

God lays out this pattern as to how he will destroy a disobedient people:

1.  Frustration in all they try to do:

                  ²⁰“The LORD himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me.” Dt. 28:20

2.  Their wealth and sovereignty will be destroyed:

                  ⁴³“The foreigners living among you will become stronger and stronger, while you become weaker and weaker. ⁴⁴They will lend money to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail!” Dt. 28:43.

 3.  Those who hate God’s people will rule over them:

                  ¹⁷I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you!” Lev. 26:17.

4.  Utter and complete destruction:

                  ⁴⁹“The LORD will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the earth, and it will swoop down on you like a vulture. It is a nation whose language you do not understand, ⁵⁰a fierce and heartless nation that shows no respect for the old and no pity for the young. ⁵¹Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you will be destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs, and you will starve to death. ⁵²They will attack your cities until all the fortified walls in your land—the walls you trusted to protect you—are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the LORD your God has given you.

⁵³“The siege and terrible distress of the enemy’s attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you. ⁵⁴The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving children. ⁵⁵He will refuse to share with them the flesh he is devouring—the flesh of one of his own children—because he has nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns. ⁵⁶The most tender and delicate woman among you—so delicate she would not so much as touch the ground with her foot—will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or daughter. ⁵⁷She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.”  Dt. 28:49-57.

All of these curses happened to the disobedient Nation of Israel.

So how does this affect us?  They serve as signs and warning to us as a nation.

Although popular American culture assures us otherwise, America was founded on a firm belief in God and His Commandments.

America’s official birthday is not 1776 as we have all been told, but was actually in 1789, when George Washington was inaugurated as our first President, establishing fully the new government of the United States of America.

It was during Washington’s inaugural address that he publicly recognized the hand that God had in the founding of our nation:

“…in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.”

Shortly thereafter, Washington and a large delegation walked the short distance to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in New York City and engaged in 2 hours of prayer for the new country.

That our country was founded on a strong belief in God is beyond doubt, even though it is popular today to call this into question.

John Adams stated, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Modern America has substituted a belief in God with a prideful belief in self.  I am sure you have heard the old refrain “man is the measure of all things.”  We have become our own idol as a people.

America worships at the altar of self and wealth.  Wealth is our god, which bestows upon us all the trappings and vices of materialism, taking care of our every need and pushing out any need for God.  We have violated the first commandment.

Are we experiencing God’s judgment?  Is everything our government currently attempting to do the repair the economic mess working?  Or does it appear to be frustrated at every turn?

As a nation do we look to our own reason and intelligence to solve our most vexing problems or to God?

Are we a debtor nation?  Do those in power in our government marginalize and demean believers?  Yes to all.  I believe we are under God’s judgment.  God has given many warnings, and we as a nation have largely ignored them.  

We as believers are not off the hook from this either.  We have not been the salt and light to our nation.  Church populations pretty much mirror the culture in actual morality – the divorce rate is the same for professed believers as non-believers.  Read the studies and surveys and they will terrify you.

                 

So what do we do?  “….¹⁴if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  2 Ch. 7:14.

We as individuals got ourselves into this mess collectively, but it will take us individually turning to God to get us out of it.

Orwellian doublespeak.....

According to LifeSiteNews.com, "The White House announced today that, instead of forcing religious employers to pay for birth control, it will force insurance companies to offer drugs free of charge to all women, no matter where they work."

So that is Obama's idea of a compromise on the current firestorm that he created?  Let me see if I get his thinking straight on this one; since Catholics and other Christian's are justifiably upset over Obama's mandate that religious institution must pay for birth control and related drugs, instead of making these organizations pay for them, he will simply require their insurance companies to provide them for free?

First off,  nothing is free.  The insurance companies will offset this cost by charging a larger premium - the religious organizations are still paying for contraceptives!!

Secondly, does the President think that we the believers are that gullible?  Apparently he does.

I've decided to use a little double speak of my own, something I am sure that given the above the President can understand:

I am no longer voting against Obama.  I am simply going to vote for the other guy.  Completely different huh?

A Bachelor of Art in Serfdom.

I am amazed at some of the things that people do.  Take for instance borrowing money to get an education. Under the current system this guarantees that you will be a debt serf.  In addition, when the government got into student loans business, the cost of a college education skyrocketed.

These increasing costs were addressed by the President when he told colleges that they would need to keep their costs down.  Which is ironic.  Once student loans were guaranteed by the government, allowing anyone to get a loan, including very poor credit risks that private industry would never have loaned to, the number prospective students increased.

As this easy money flowed into colleges and universities, they were able to easily increase their prices - although they would tell you that they are adding value to the service they provide.  Gag.  Which is why the $850 per year tuition I paid 20 years ago is now $5566 per year (in-state tuition). Not to mention the current price of books.

At $425 per semester, I was easily able to pay my own way to attend college.  I also bought used books on the cheap and sold them at the end of the semester - this prior to universities figuring out that they could slightly change something in a textbook or course and require brand new books each year.  My used biology book was $35.00, and was good for several years.  My daughters current anatomy and physiology textbook was $400+, and a new book is required each time the course is taught.  The situation has gotten so bad that even Vice President Blowhard has admitted government culpability in the rising costs of tuition.

If this isn't bad enough, the truly terrifying issue to me is that once you take on debt to finance your college education, this debt follows you for the rest of your life.  Many people have been given loans that traditional private lenders would never have made - simply because these loans are a poor credit risk and the lender would have lost  money.  Under the current system, poor credit risks are given a loan for their education, knowing full well that many of these people will be unable to pay it back.  But pay it back they will - these loans will follow them to the grave.

If they should decide to stop servicing the debt, many states are now tying employment to the service of the debt.  So, if they don't pay, they don't work.  Many of these same student WILL NEVER work in a job that has anything to do with their major.  Making that expensive college education not only impractical, but downright foolish.

Now I'm not knocking a good college education.  If you're going to go DON'T go into debt to do it - you will become a slave for the rest of your life.  Also, get an education that is actually worthwhile, like engineering or a business degree that is has universal application.  I think a lot of people would be saved a lifetime worth of grief by doing a cost / benefit analysis before taking out loans to get a degree in woman's studies or some other such useless degree.  If you are independently wealthy, then knock yourself out.  Otherwise, why would you consciously want to become a slave?

I think we already know the answer to the question....

Libertarianism Without Boundaries Equals Death

I was dealing with a person today who had no concept of boundaries.  She believed and acted as though she could do anything she desired and say anything she wanted to with absolutely no consequences to her actions, after all, “it’s a free country.”

As she was exercising her freedom on private property, and vocally I might add, this led to her being told to leave and that if she came back she would be trespassed and arrested.

As I talked with her the reason why libertarianism will not work in America solidified.  Hang with me on this one.

Libertarianism would work as a governing principle IF we were a moral people – or if we all accepted certain boundaries while practicing our liberty.  Since we are not a moral people (if we ever really were), libertarianism without morality equals anarchy and death.

I personally like being responsible for myself and making my own decisions.  I am a free man but I live within the boundaries set by God in the Old and New Testament.  I am not going to steal from you, I am not going to lie to you, I am not going to covet your stuff or your wife (I happened to be married to the best wife on the planet), I am not going to be a drunkard (abuse alcohol), and my hands will not shed innocent blood.  If everybody adopted the boundaries that God set, we could all be libertarians and live quite happily.

The libertarianism being espoused today strikes me as being very similar to the behavior and actions of that young woman I dealt with.  Basically anything goes.  I get sick of hearing the fringe elements of the libertarian party talking about legalizing prostitution and drugs, citing the failure of prohibition as the primary example of why the criminalization of marijuana is such a failure.  Let me ask you this, if prohibition was such a failure, was legalizing alcohol any less of a failure?  Look at the destruction the abuse of alcohol brings upon families and the number of people that drunk driver’s kill each year and tell me how much of a better solution legalizing alcohol was to prohibition. 

My point is this: as long as we adopt situational ethics for our guiding moral compass instead of the moral boundaries that God set down for our wellbeing, WE WILL NEVER FIND A SOLUTION TO OUR PROBLEMS, and libertarianism simply will not work.  In fact NO form of government that we come up with will "work."

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. 

It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

                                                                                            John Adams

Or put another way, if you desire an oppressive government become an immoral people.

I still believe in individual liberty.  I call myself a moral libertarian to distinguish myself from all of the immoral crazies that seem hell bent on the destruction of our culture and society.

Thought for the day.....

Same Old Same Old

I'm trying not to be too disgusted with the state of politics in this country.  I am especially upset with how primaries are operated.  Is it just me or is it obvious that the eastern half of the country pretty much gets to decide who makes it to the primaries of the western half of the country?  I'm getting tired of the progressive wing of the Republican party choosing who will be the nominee.  Here is a novel idea.  Why not have a primary week, where all the states would be required to have their primary within a set week, say February?  This would take the focus off of any particular state and perhaps give those of us in the west who have late primaries a chance at having a real say.

Given the two top choices so far, The Toad or Romney, I'm reminded of something the Gipper said years ago, taking a small editorial privilege.  "I didn't leave the Republican Party.  The Republican Party left me."  Are Republican's really out of touch that much to offer up for consideration Obama II, and Obama Light?

A very succinct three part essay about what has gone wrong.  Yes, it has been deliberate, and although the author is mainly talking about Great Britain his thesis has equal application to us.

Worth the time to read.

How To Destroy a Country Part I

How To Destroy a Country Part II

How To Destroy a Country Part III

New life for an old Colt

About 17 years ago I purchased a brand new Colt Combat Commander in Stainless Steel.  At the same time I bought this gun I also bought a beavertail grip safety to replace the colt grip safety, just to make it look cool.

The new grip safety required that a portion of the frame had to be removed, and not having the skills or the tools to do this, I took my shiny new Colt to a shade tree gunsmith who told me that he did that sort of thing all the time.  I watched in horror as he carved down the frame to make the grip safety fit.  It looked like crap so he didn't charge me for the work.  I soon bought a .22 conversion kit for this gun and this is how it remained.  Until now.

In those 17 years I developed skills and collected tools to do all kinds of odd jobs, and that cobbled Colt was crying out for a make over, so I sat down and did a little online shopping.  After enriching Midway Sports with all of my mad money I stripped the Colt down and did some finishing filing and working over that terrible frame modification job with a little 220 grit sandpaper.  I then took it to a local gunsmith to bead blast the frame, slide, and grip safety.  The factory finish was partially bead blasted but the side of the slide and frame were polished and were easily scratched.  I also had some Trijicon night sites installed.

I got the frame back from the smithy today and couldn't wait to get home and get it back together:

Looks like brand new!

The only original parts I used for the rebuild were the frame, slide, grip safety, barrel and firing pin.  Everything else was brand new including; a matched hammer and sear; a titanium nitride coated series 80 safety kit to reduce trigger pull; new trigger; match bushing; flat mainspring housing; magazine release; extended safety; and new wolf springs.  All in all, including the original price I paid for the gun, I am now into it a little under a grand and change.

After about 3 hours tonight I finally got it all put back together and functioning properly.  You know where it says "some minor fitting may be required"?  Well, they weren't kidding.  That minor fitting turned into major fitting.  Really all it took was patience and a little sanding here and there.  I think the results speak for themselves:

For my next project I want to resurrect an old Ruger Old Army black powder pistol.  I'm pretty sure this gun dates to the early 70's, and I got it at a garage sale many years ago for $25.  Some joker tried to home blue it and it looks terrible - but it shoots just fine.  I'm thinking a new blue job and some fake aged ivory grips ought to shape it up!

Never Surrender

I don't know who wrote this.  I found it on one of the Blogs that I frequent and thought it worthy to pass along to you.  The thinking behind this essay is spot on.  Something to consider next time you hear some jackass tell you that it is best if you give in to the demands of a criminal:

Resist. Always resist.

SOURCE

"Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense"……..Winston Churchill, Oct 29, 1941

I do not know the author of the following article but he has a point. Surrender is not an option and this article make a good case for that position.

The Phases of Surrender

The first phase of surrender is failing to be armed, trained and committed to fight. We are prepared to surrender when we are unprepared to resist.

The second phase of surrender is failing to be alert. You must see trouble coming in order to have time to respond. The warning may be less than one second but it will be there and it must be recognized and acted upon immediately.

The Third phase of surrender is giving up your weapons.

The last phase of surrender is up to the monsters who have taken control of your life and perhaps the lives of your loved ones. The last phase of surrender is out of your hands.

Surrender during war

During the American Revolution 12,000 Colonists captured by the British died in captivity on prison ships, while only 8,000 died in battle. Had the 12,000 who surrendered continued to fight many would have survived and they could have done great damage to the British and likely shortened the war.

Civil War prisoners were treated so badly that some 50,000 died in captivity. More Americans have been killed by Americans than by any foreign army in any war. Six hundred eighteen thousand (618,000) Americans died in the Civil War.

As many as 18,000 captured American and Filipino prisoners died or were murdered at the hands of the Japanese during the six days of the "Bataan Death March." Had most of these soldiers slipped into the jungle and fought as guerrillas they could have tied up elements of the Japanese Army for months or years and perhaps more of them would have survived the war.

Of the Americans who actually reached Japanese prison camps during the war, nearly 50,000 died in captivity. That is more than 10 percent of all the American military deaths in the entire war in both the Pacific and European theaters combined.

In addition to the 50,000 captured Americans who died in Japanese prison camps an additional 20,000 were murdered before reaching a prison camp. If those 70,000 Americans had continued to fight, they could have provided time for the United States to build and maneuver its forces, perhaps shortening the war and saving even more lives. Some of them would have likely survived the war. If they had all died in battle their fate would have been no worse.

During the early stages of the Battle of the Bulge American soldiers were massacred by the German troops who captured them.

During the Vietnam conflict many American Prisoners Of War were tortured daily for years by the Communist North Vietnamese. Many Americans died during the process. Only Officers (Aviators) held in North Vietnam were ever repatriated. Enlisted Americans captured in South Viet Nam were routinely tortured, mutilated and murdered by the Communists. As a combat soldier and knowing my fate should I be captured, I was committed to fighting to the death. I made specific plans to force the enemy to kill me rather than allow myself to be captured.

In recent years, American troops captured by Islamic terrorists groups have virtually all been tortured and murdered in gruesome fashion. If I were fighting in the Middle East, I would make a similar vow and plan to fight to the death. Under no circumstances would I allow myself to be captured by our Islamic enemies.

Death by Government

R.J. Rummel, who wrote the book, "Death by Government" states that prior to the 20th Century; 170 million civilians were murdered by their own governments. Historians tell us that during the 20th Century perhaps as many as 200 million civilians were murdered by their own governments.

Some of the Nations where the mass murder of civilians occurred during the 20th Century include Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, The Congo, Uganda, Armenia, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Nigeria, Laos, China, Cuba, Manchuria, Iraq, Iran, Biafra, Rwanda and many others. The slaughter of civilians by governments appears to be as common as not.

Most of these slaughters were only made possible by disarming the victims before killing them. Had these people resisted, their fate would have been no worse and perhaps better. Resistance is much more difficult after the government has already taken the means of resistance away from the people. Planned genocide has been the primary reason for weapon confiscation throughout history.

Jews and others who surrendered to the Nazis were murdered in slave labor camps by the millions. Had all the Jews in Europe resisted when the Nazis started rounding them up they could have made the Nazis pay an enormous price for the holocaust. The fact that Hitler confiscated guns in 1936 made resistance far less feasible.

Had the Jews in Germany resisted, the outcome may have been the same but the world would have learned about the holocaust years earlier and may have intervened. Most people would prefer to die fighting and trying to kill their oppressor, than be taken off to a death camp and starved to death or murdered in a gas chamber.

William Ayers, former leader of the Terrorist organization The Weather Underground, and close friend of Barack Obama, told his followers in the Weather Underground, “When we (Communist Revolutionaries) take over the United States, we will have to kill 25 million Americans.” He was referring to those who would never submit to a Communist takeover. Those who would refuse to deny and reject the Constitution would have to be murdered. If this sounds impossible, remember that Genocide by Government was the leading cause of death in the last Century.

Surrendering to Criminals

The Onion Field Murder in California was a wake up call to Law Enforcement Officers everywhere. On March 9, 1963, two Los Angeles Police Department officers were taken prisoner by two criminals. The Officers submitted to capture and gave up their weapons.
They were driven to an onion field outside of Bakersfield.
One Officer was murdered while the other Officer managed to escape in a hail of gunfire. The surviving Officer suffered serious psychological case, having been unable to save his partner. As a result of this incident, the LAPD policy became, “You will fight no matter how bad things are.” “You will never ever surrender your weapons or yourself to a criminal.”

Consider the Ogden, Utah record store murders. Read the book if you do not know the story. The manner in which the criminals murdered their young victims cannot be described here. Resistance might have been futile. Compliance was definitely and absolutely futile.

The courts in this country have ruled that the police have no legal obligation to protect anyone. Why do Law Enforcement Officials always tell civilians not to resist a criminal, while they tell their Officers to always resist and never surrender? Police administrators fear being sued by a civilian victim who gets hurt resisting. Furthermore, the police, like all government agencies derive their power by fostering dependence.

According to Professor John Lott's study on the relationship between guns and crime, a victim who resists with a firearm is less likely to be hurt or killed than a victim who cooperates with his attacker. His book is titled "More Guns, Less Crime."

The Doctor and his family in Connecticut complied and cooperated, meeting every demand of the home invasion robbers to whom they had surrendered. The Doctors wife and daughters were tortured, raped, doused with gasoline and burned alive. How did surrender and cooperation work out for them?

In another home invasion robbery, a kindly couple with 9 “adopted, special needs children,” surrendered to the robbers. The victims opened their safe and did not resist in any way. When the robbers where finished ransacking the home and terrifying the children, they shot both parents in the head several times before leaving. How did surrender and complete cooperation work out for them?

Handing over your life by surrendering to someone who is in the process of committing a violent crime against you is a form of suicide. Some survive but many do not. The monster gets to decide for you.

We have heard brutalized victims say, "The robber said that he would not hurt us if we cooperated." Why would you believe anything that someone who is committing a crime against you says? He will be lying if he speaks. As we say in law enforcement, “If a criminal’s lips are moving while he is speaking, he is lying.” Criminals by definition are dishonest and should never be trusted or believed.

You have no doubt heard friends say, I would not resist a criminal, after all why would he kill me? This is stupid and naive. In law enforcement, we call these people “Victims by Choice” (VBC). There could be a long list of reasons why a criminal would kill you despite your cooperation.

You may be of a different race, thus a different tribe. Only members of his tribe are actually human in his mind. He may feel hatred toward you because you have more than he does. Gratification from being in a position of total power is reason enough for some.

Criminals are sometimes members of a Satanic Cult who worship death such as the “Night Stalker” in California. Eliminating a potential witness is often cited as a reason to kill a victim. Sometimes criminals simply enjoy causing suffering and death. There are people who are in fact, pure evil. I have heard criminals say, “I killed her just to watch her die.”

A victim who begs for mercy can give his attacker a tremendous feeling of power which many criminals seem to enjoy. You cannot expect mercy from someone who does not know what mercy is.

Resist!
We  each have a duty to ourselves, our loved ones, our neighbors, our community, our city, our state and our country to resist criminals. Reasoning with a thug who believes that his failures are because of people just like you is not likely to be helpful. Pleading with a terrorist who has been taught from birth that his salvation depends on murdering people like you is a doomed plan. Resist!

Resist! His gun may not be real. After you are tied up it will not matter. His gun may not be loaded. After you are tied up it will not matter. He may not know how to operate his gun. After you are tied up it will not matter. Resist!

Statistically if you run and your assailant shoots at you he will miss. Statistically if you run and he shoots and hits you, you will not die. Bad guys shooting at the police miss 90 percent of the time. The odds are on your side. Better to die fighting in place than to be tied up, doused with gasoline and burned alive. There are things worse than death. Surrender to a criminal or a terrorist and you will learn what they are. Resist!

If you resist with a commitment to win you may well prevail, especially if you are armed and trained. If you lose it is still better to die fighting in place than to be taken prisoner and have your head cut off with a dull knife while your screams gurgle through your own blood as we have witnessed on numerous videos from the Middle East, brought to us by the “Islamic practitioners of peace.”
Some who have refused to surrender.

History is filled with brave people who refused to surrender. Some of these men and woman have won their battles despite what seemed to be insurmountable odds. Others have gone down fighting and avoided being tortured to death. Some fought to the death to help or save others. Many have fought to the death for an idea or a belief.

When General Santa Ana (also the President of Mexico at the time) ordered 180 "Texacans" to surrender the Alamo, Col. Travis answered with “a cannon shot and a rebel yell.” Eventually General Santa Ana was able to build his troop strength to ten thousand. The Mexicans then swarmed the defenders and killed them all.

The battle of the Alamo delayed the Mexican Army long enough for Sam Houston to build his Texacan Army, which met and defeated the Mexican Army and captured General Santa Ana. General Santa Ana traded Texas for his life and the sacrifices of the Alamo defenders changed history.

Frank Luke was a heroic aviator in WWI. Shot down and wounded he refused to surrender when confronted by a German patrol. He killed 4 German soldiers with his 1911 Pistol before being killed. Luke was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

When his unit was pinned down by German Machine Guns and all of the Officers and non commissioned officers in his company were killed or wounded, Alvin York never considered surrendering. Instead, he attacked hundreds of German soldiers killing about 25 with his rifle and pistol and then captured 132 others by himself!

Most of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto (Poland) surrendered to the German Army. They were taken off to death camps and murdered. Between 400 and 1,000 Jews refused to surrender and armed with only a few pistols, revolvers and rifles, they held off the German Army for three months before dying in battle.

During the “Battle of the Bulge,” the 101st Airborne was surrounded by the German Army and ordered to surrender. Faced with overwhelming odds, the Commanding Officer of the 101st sent this reply to the Germans. "Nuts." The Americans refused to surrender and they stopped the German advance. Most of the Americans troops survived.

On Sept 2, 2010, 40 armed criminals took over and robbed a train in India. Some of the robbers had guns, others used knives and clubs. When they began to disrobe an 18 year old girl for the purpose of gang raping her, one of the passengers decided to fight. He was a 35 year old retired Gurkha soldier. He drew his Khukasri knife and attacked the 40 robbers. He killed three of the robbers and wounded 8 more despite his being wounded in this 20 minute fight. The remaining criminals fled for their lives leaving their stolen loot and eleven comrades dead or wounded on the floor of the train. The eight wounded robbers were arrested.

How does one man defeat 40? How does he summon the courage to fight such odds? He utilized all of the Principles of Personal Defense: Alertness, Decisiveness, Aggressiveness, Speed, Coolness, Ruthlessness, and Surprise. He was skilled in the use of his weapon. Most importantly, He refused to be a victim and allow evil to triumph!

If this one inspirational soldier can defeat 40 opponents using his knife, it would seem that we should all be able to defeat a group of armed criminals by using our firearms if we are professionally trained as was this heroic Gurkha soldier.

Final thoughts

How will you respond if you are confronted by evil as some of us have been in the past and some of us will be in the future? If you have not decided ahead of time what you will do, you will likely do nothing. Those who fight back often win and survive. Those who surrender never win and often die a horrible death. Have you made your decision? Remember, no decision is a decision to do nothing.