To everyone who’s read my blog in the last few months, it’s been a good run, I’ve had a good time, as I hope all of you have, thanks.  I’m off to go on a mission for two years, in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Wish me luck in finding and baptizing Brother Manning.  Thanks again, and goodbye.

I’ve recently decided to take up running.  I’ve never ran for the sake of running.  I’ve ran for my high school lacrosse and rugby teams, but that’s about it.  I never even did much running outside of practice.  Why this sudden emergence into the world of running?  Well you see, I realize that my metabolism isn’t going to stay this fast forever, so I figure I need to do some sort of regular exercise in order to stay in shape.  I figure my main choices are running, cycling, and swimming.  Swimming’s out, because I’m a terrible swimmer, I’ve never been able to do more than I needed to for my swimming merit badge.  Cycling I love as a means of transportation, but have never been able to get into it as a sport, plus you just have to ride forever to get a workout, and I don’t have that kind of time or patience, not to mention it requires mondo expensive equipment.  I’ve always kind of hated running, but it really meshes well with my life philosophy, I like to live outside of the influence of the machine a lot of times, I love doing stuff with just my own two hands, building stuff myself, hiking in wilderness areas rather than in paved over national parks, blacksmithing, tinsmithing, hand-sewing, etc..  On top of all of that, I love that we’re the most efficient runners on the planet.  We’re not the fastest, true, but we can run longer than anything else, including a Kudu, models of running efficiency.  So despite my not liking it, I choose to run.

As I’m sure you all know, I cannot stand the tea-party.  I just can’t understand how people can legitimately believe some of the rhetoric spat at them from big names such as Ron and Rand Paul, Glenn Beck, etc.  It baffles the mind, it is one big, amorphous, logical fallacy.  I figured that maybe I was judging them too harshly though, maybe the few I know aren’t a fair indication of what the movement’s like as a whole, so I decided to look up their party platform, and surprise surprise, I found stuff that would make the KKK support them.  The following is a letter written by Mark Williams, head of Tea Party Express, an organization that puts together tours of the US for Tea Party speakers, i.e. Sarah Palin, and, this one came as a surprise to me, Joe the Plumber (that guy that, as it turns out, wasn’t really a plumber).  Anyway, the letter…

Dear Mr. Lincoln:

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.

The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew NAACP Head Colored Person

If that’s not racist and offensive, I don’t know what is, well maybe state senator Chris Buttars is, but this is right up there with all things offensive.  Well at press time (I always try to insert fancy terms into my blog), nobody in the tea party movement had denounced this letter.  I know this may come off as a ridiculous comparison (much like the tea party’s comparing Obama to Hitler and Lenin), but I quite frankly see the tea party as quite similar to the Klan.  They’re anti-anything with color, but cover that up with the benign facade of mainstream conservatism.  Much like the Klan, they are very pro-WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) values and culture, pro-small government, and very militant.  I know a tea partier who said “I don’t agree with everything Glenn Beck says, for instance, he says that the way to change the country is with ballots, not bullets or bombs, and I disagree.”  I have no idea how to follow that, do I report them to the police?

The part I really laugh about is that they all freaked when it was found that Bill Ayers, the leader of a terrorist organization in the 60′s known as the weathermen, was an acquaintance of President Obama, because he blew up a few buildings, whereas it’s alright for them to blow up buildings or kill people because they disagree with the politics of the day.

Why, pray tell, do conservatives just have this infatuation with the American revolution?  I understand it’s the birth of our nation and what not, but these people, A) a lot of times don’t really know much about the revolution, and B) have a sick obsession bordering on mental illness.  So I did a living history event in Orem Utah last night (for those of you who don’t know, Orem and Utah county in general is about as conservative as it gets) for the fourth of July.  I should’ve seen the red flags since it was called the 1776 Freedom Village, but no, of course not.  This wasn’t actually terrible, and isn’t the thing I wanted to rant about; however, there was a “native american,” (like Iriquois or Huron, not Sioux or Cheyenne) that was clearly white.  This isn’t super uncommon unfortunately, but this guy was creative, he had painted his skin a brownish red, in order to look like a real indian.  I think this is incredibly offensive, but I could be wrong.  Anyway, this guy had painted his face, hands, arms, feet, legs, etc. he went all out, it was just a bit odd when his skin color was rubbing off on his white shirt.

Anyway.  My mom is obsessed with the founding fathers (thank Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck for that one), and thinks that since I point out their faults, and don’t like John Adams or Andrew Jackson (I know Jackson wasn’t really a founding father, but to her, he is), I therefore hate America, and might even be Muslim.  OK I made the last part up ha ha.  I was trying to explain to her that Adams thought that the president should be like royalty, referred to as “your highness,” and so on.  He thought that the American people couldn’t be trusted to rule themselves and that smart people like him needed to.  She replied with “well you think you’re really smart, and you do know a lot, a lot more than me, but I know that they were good men!” I’m completely baffled as to how to respond to that, obviously logic doesn’t work, merely appeals to emotion, and only if they’re from a neo-con.

So the revolution.  The conservatives I know seem to be all about the revolution, and 1776, and “no taxation without representation!”  So they love the revolution I think because it was a states’ rights movement, and because it was a war against taxes.  The states’ rights part first, so the whole state sovereignty argument was basically rendered obsolete/useless/dumb in April of 1865 at the end of the civil war.  Heck, even the states’ rightists’ patron saint, Jefferson, wasn’t all that much for states’ rights.  He always talked about it, and how a state could nullify any federal law, but then he got elected president, and realized that doesn’t work.  He passed an embargo, which if any one state were to say they were nullifying it, it would be completely ruined.  Also, the war on taxes.  I get that you don’t like taxes, I really do, but the government has to pay for roads somehow.  Oh ya, and we also have to pay for those little trips to Afghanistan and Iraq that so many of our nations’ young men and women seem to love taking so much.  So I read an article today about how the tea-party has adopted Calvin Coolidge as one of their patron saints too, because he was so anti-taxes.  See the thing about ol’ Silent Cal, is that the Great Depression was totally his fault, not to mention he was a major supporter of the Klan.  He made huge tax cuts, and drastically downsized the government, and removed all kinds of market regulations.  See that made for a decade of massive prosperity, but after that we took a major downturn, that somehow conservatives are blaming on FDR, I’ve yet to figure that one out, but maybe someone can enlighten me.

First off, this is inspired by a recent post by my friend Stephen over at the Full Chisel wood working blog, hope neither of you mind.  He talks about something known among living history and re-enactor circles by many different names:  ’getting into the moment,’ a ‘period rush (as is mentioned inTony Horwitz’s book Confederates in the Attic),’ and many other names.  In my experience, there are a couple different types of these ‘moments.’  The first type is the rarer of the two, where you completely forget what century it is, where you are so immersed that the line between past and present is, mentally at least, not only crossed, but destroyed.  The second is more common, and easier to achieve, but spectacular nonetheless, it is when you’re still conscious of what time period you are in, but something is so overpowering that you get a feeling deep down inside that something is exactly how it was in the era you’re portraying.  It comes in many different forms, but essentially it’s when one sense is completely overpowered, be it sight, sound, smells, etc., whereas the first type is the combination of all the senses, and then some.

My best experience with the first type may seem insignificant, or trivial, but it was powerful!  Back in April I went to a civil war event with some friends of mine in Tennessee.  It was a hardcore campaigner event, meaning nothing that was non-period, from underwear to food, and you carried everything on your back.  Well on these sorts of events, they post pickets.  The last night of the event, I was dehydrated, tired from marching all day alternately in the sun and rain, I was caked in mud, and very  sleep deprived.  We had no idea when the confeds were going to attack, and my company was in charge of pickets that night, so we weren’t aloud to take our gear off (i.e. cartridge box, bayonet scabbard, haversack, etc.) and we had hour breaks between picket shifts.  I was so tired, and on the verge of vomiting, praying that no confederates would attack, because that would mean movement.  I was so tired and  cold that I’d fall on my back (with all kinds of things jabbing me when I’d lay down) next to the fire, and fall asleep instantly.  My ‘moment’ came after one of these awful picket shifts.  I was nearly asleep on my feet, straining my eyes in the pitch black night, trying not to trip on a tree branch or a soldier, groping my way back to the fire.  Upon arrival, I leaned my musket up against the tree, along with about 10 others.  For some reason unbeknownst to me, that really did it for me, seeing all those muskets leaning against the tree, and seeing everyone else’s weary faces looking up at me, looking like death, it was just a total sensory overload for me, I literally forgot what century I was in.

Next, is the second type.  My experience comes from the 145th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg re-enacment.  It was during Picket’s Charge.  For this one, we were the confederates.  The morning of the charge, they gave us all little slips of paper saying something like “get shot in the leg halfway there,” or “make it to the wall, and get captured,” or “die in the beginning.”  They asked us not to share what ours said with any of our comrades-in-arms.  At the time, I thought that was pointless, but followed their council regardless.  When the charge started, I understood.  As the cannon started firing on us as soon as we stepped off, people started to fall.  I kept looking to my left and my right.  As I looked, I saw some of my best friends fall to the earth with (fake) wounds.  Rex got shot in the face, Russ took some shrapnel to the leg, Jake went down with some lead in his gut, etc..  At that moment, I got the feeling, if and ever so small portion of it, of what it would be like to be in a massed infantry charge that was doomed to fail.  You see your friends mowed down around you, and that means your chances of survival are slim to none, and there’s nothing you can do about it at this point.

Well I hope this all makes sense, and it’s not too long, and that I didn’t ramble too much, also, hope you enjoyed.

I recently took a trip to Oklahoma to visit my sister and her husband, which is why I’ve been away from the blog for so long.  Anyway, that’s not the point.  Her husband, is in pilot training for the Air Force there, and they live on the base.  Just a few thoughts on that.  It’s like living in a police state.  It totally reaffirmed my decision to not join the military.  You just give up so many of the rights that you normally enjoy in the land of the free.  You can be stopped at any time, and you have to be able to produce ID, and if not, I’m not sure what happens, but potentially jail (I realize that technically this is a law in the rest of the US too, but one that is never ever enforced).  The real kicker for me though, is that the national anthem will come on over the base-wide PA system (USSR anybody?) and everyone has to stop what they’re doing to salute or put your hand over your heart and look at the flag.  This includes cars.  If you’re driving, you need to pull over and do the same.  Now, I mentioned flags.  I figure none of my readers have been to Nazi Germany or Communist Russia, however many of you may’ve read 1984.  It’s exactly like that, there are flags EVERYWHERE!  It’s fine if you’re patriotic, but seriously, the feeling of nationalism felt on a military base is palpable, and a little sickening.  Some of you will get mad at me for this, saying “if you don’t like America, you can leave!”  I do like America though, it’s probably the best place in the world to live, it’s the best of all the countries I’ve been to, but I think strong nationalism is incredibly dangerous, even if it is for America.  People always say we should get rid of all religion, because lots of wars are fought for religious reasons, but far more wars have been fought for no other reason than national pride.  The only place I’ve personally been with a strong of national fervor as was seen at the military base, was Laos (it still wasn’t as strong as the base though).  For those of you who don’t know, Laos is a tiny, impoverished nation in south-east Asia, next to Vietnam.  They also have a communist government.  In the first city we went to, Luang-Prabang, there were flags in front of almost every house and place of business.  There were not only Lao flags, but hammer and sickle flags, everywhere.  As Laos is a real police state, much of this is probably because they feel intimidated into doing it.  The funny thing is that I felt more at ease in the communist police state that oppresses their people than inside a military base.  Granted, the Lao government is a lot easier on western tourists, because they bring much needed money into the economy, but you’re still subject to the laws, just like everyone else.

Ok, I’m fine with the idea of a tea-party, if someone wants lower taxes, that’s fine, I can let them have their views, but it seems all the “tea-partiers” that I know are incredibly militant about their agenda.  They, among my other conservative friends, always complain that the “left-coast liberal (sometimes they’re liberal socialists)” are so aggravating because they’ll never let you talk, and that’s the only way they can ever win an argument, and say that they should be civilized in their debate (they also throw this in there, it’s my favorite.  A quote from Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the Democratic party: “I may not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll fight to the death for your right to say it.”).  Interesting that the tea-party seems to be the most loud, in-your-face, provocative organization in the modern American political arena.  They just seem to re-spew random facts that Glenn Beck tells them (which he has admitted several times that he doesn’t check his facts), using logic from the same source (which is also incredibly flawed).  Granted, I only know a handful of tea-partiers, but from everything I see/read/watch about tea-partiers, they’re not any different from the general membership.

Well I try not to talk about politics too much, because I know I have a tendency to rant and rave often times, but this was too much to pass up.  Someone posted this on Facebook.  It’s an article about how the author thinks that a military coup in the near future, is a very real, and even probable, possibility.  He thinks that if Congress doesn’t change real soon, they’re going to end up with the military taking over.  He also thinks that the military would leave the democracy intact, keeping President Obama, “tied to his two tele-prompters,” to make symbolic speeches, while the real power lay in the hands of the new military regime.  He doesn’t think it’s the worst thing in the world either (it’s not, cats that shoot lasers out of their mouths are the worst thing in the world, but for our purposes, a military coup is pretty bad), and thinks it would work.  All I have to say is WTF?!?!  How does anyone that wants to preserve our democracy (ok fine, constitutional-federal-demcratic-republic) intact, think that a military coup is a good idea?  Also pretty great, was the string of comments that followed this article, saying things like “Congress is out of control, it’s time for the 1776 solution,”  ”I’m up for more than speculating if Congress doesn’t change soon,” or my personal favorite, “I’m ready!”

Today in 1935, T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, died.  He seems like a pretty sweet guy to me.  He was an archeologist (and no doubt an influence for Indiana Jones), a friend of the Arabs, a very gifted military strategist, and very humble too.  He led a guerilla war against the Ottoman empire, which is all anybody needs to do to get into my good graces (it’s really difficult to get into my good graces since 1914, when the Ottoman empire collapsed, however, Russia?  You’re still in my good graces for that one, there was never a cold war from me).  Anyway, I’d like to read his book someday, but we’ll see when I have time for it, it may be quite a while before I do, there’s a lot of books on the queue right now.

Sorry, I feel like I inject politics into too many of my posts, but I just have to write this one.

Many of you have seen this picture on posters, bumper stickers, t-shirts, etc..  I think it’s ridiculous.  Not so much for the caricature, but for the caption.  The stupid mud slinging in politics bugs me to no end!  Obama is not a socialist, he doesn’t advocate a planned economy.  Have any of the artists, or anybody that owns something with this image, or anybody that calls him a socialist or a communist or a red, have read The Communist Manifesto?  Or if we’re going by the more widely accepted world definition of communism/socialism, do you know what Stalinism really was?  You need a state planned economy, the complete abolition of private property (which, despite what some people think, he doesn’t advocate), and total state ownership of the means of production (again, some people think he wants to do this, but if so, how come he hasn’t seized more companies?  There’s been a total of 1 company come under government control, and by very legal means).  Also, if we’re going with Stalinism, he’d control the media, and all civil rights would be abolished, and millions of people would “disappear.”

The point is, Obama’s not a socialist.  Just because he’s left of Laissez-Faire, he’s clearly a communist.  Well that’s all I’ll bug you with today.

Recently, like within the last couple of days, I’ve come to a stunning realization: I enjoy school.  I’ve always loved learning, but have never really been a fan of school, but the other day I caught myself thinking “I can’t wait to go back!”  I find this really disheartening, school has been my arch-nemesis for years, this is like Ronald Reagan suddenly becoming friends with the reds!  I don’t know how I’m going to cope with this, but thus far, I don’t like it, but maybe that’s because it’s summer.  A short side note, as I write this, my 6 year old niece is upstairs.  I can hear her giggling.  My 2 year old nephew is also upstairs.  I can hear him saying “no, no, no!”  through tears and moans.  I’m not sure if they’re near each other or if their respective noises are related, but I’m pretty sure this is from a horror movie!