Thursday, January 19, 2012

It's Bigger Than it Looks.

This a photo of Wayne LaPierre, NRA Executive Vice President.  In my most recent e-issue (January 2012) of the American Rifleman, I ran across an article by Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA Executive Director, entitled "Fast and Furious, Right From the Source".  It reminded me of the response of the NRA after the attempted service of a federal search warrant at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX.  I am an NRA member and I agree with a lot of what they try to do.  However, they, like others who use their considerable resources to influence what goes on in Washington, sometimes use attacks on public servants to get at otherwise untouchable politicians.  The photo that goes along with the article shows a beaming Chris W. Cox, (Career Lobbyist)  flanked by U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (Career Politician) and U. S. Representative Darrell Issa (Wealthy businessman turned politician with a very interesting past - check them all out on Wikipedia).  I did, and I'm convinced I wouldn't trust any of them to make a decision on what was or wasn't a legitimate law enforcement operation.  I gave my take on "Fast and Furious" in a post during August of this past year.

http://www.pappysbalderdash.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html .

I was not going to post on this because it is so hard to lead readers through my maze of critical analysis without loosing them to their own staunch gut reactions.  However, a fellow blogger (a former Chief of Police) sent me a blog entry calling for shooting more police officers and lauding the recent killing of a Deputy Sheriff in Phoenix Arizona.  He was asking me what I thought we should do to counteract those who call for such action.  Here is my response to his inquiry.

"I read it Brady. It is a sign of the times. Unfortunately, people who
dislike the laws we have passed, take out their angst on the people who
enforce it. Those who would have us enter a state of anarchy and
lawlessness have an agenda to destroy the public's confidence in those who
are guardians and enforcement officers (soldiers and law enforcement
officers). When they do this, the "Nanny State" can come in with their
hand picked cadre of enforcers and force people to do as they're told. The
process is aided by people who lack understanding, or those who have nothing
else to do in life but get paid to protest. Look at the "Occupy Wall
Street" crowd for example. Our current president came from the ranks of
those who can be paid to stir up unrest under the guise of furthering social
justice. "Community Organizers" are people paid by wealthy patrons to keep
the undereducated masses in a state of turmoil and herd them in mass to the
polls to vote for those candidates who "The Pseudo-Intellectual Elitists"
tell/pay them to vote for. Barack and Michelle Obama are getting rich and
living large doing exactly as they are told by people like George Soros.

The system is incremental and many people don't even realize they are
playing an active roll. We have passed so many laws that people rebel,
(even those we label as good folks) and quietly justify their selective
obedience/disobedience of the law in their own minds. How many people
speed? How many cheat on their income taxes? How many take liberties with
the gun laws? The list is endless. Those who have financial interests in
the process lash out at the enforcers of the law on both sides of the
political aisle. It is a society driven by short sided selfish interests
that ignore the future consequences for those who follow. Once the
representative republic implodes, then the masses are forced into
compliance/slavery by the Oligarchy.

Everyone loves the NRA right? After ATF's failed service of a search
warrant at the Branch Davidian compound, and the subsequent FBI directed 51
day standoff, Wayne LaPierre the head of the NRA suggested that his
followers shoot ATF agents in the head. He later apologized for the
statement, but what led him to do this? All the agents involved were acting
according to, and following the laws of our land. He had a platform to
attack political opponents of the gun laws and stir up his base to send more
money to the NRA. The target of vitriolic written accounts both before and
after the raid targeted law enforcement (even though many officers belonged
to the NRA). The ATF and FBI were enforcing laws passed by our
representatives in Washington, D.C. However, the political opponents of
the NRA were the democrats who occupied the White House and controlled the
congress under then president Bill Clinton. In our society, these elected
officials are virtually untouchable, and through the courts, the Attorney
General, powerful elected representatives, and a now complicit national media
they control much of what goes on in our country without consulting those
who put them there. So to get at this juggernaut, powerful players in both
political parties target the relatively defensless and hamstrung public
servants who enforce the laws of the land. They are repeating their actions
now by attacking, and inacurately portraying the actions of ATF agents in
Operation Fast and Furious. Agents and police officers are usually under
some level of gag order while the political infighting goes on. They cannot
defend their actions without facing punitive sanctions. The NRA and their
political supporters on the right are after Obama and Eric Holder (among
others) and the left uses their platform to further erode the public's
confidence in their public servants. The media piles on with their blather
which the underinformed, who can read, gobble up without any critical
analysis. Our soldiers are also covered in a manner designed to create
doubt and mistrust.

We are a society in decline and the problem is world wide. We were a
country, like no other country, founded by men who followed the Holy
Scriptures and the principles outlined by Creator God. Our God is a jealous
god, and will not be mocked. We are doomed to failure unless we return to
the selfless life his Son, Jesus Christ modeled for us in his short life
here on earth. God knew before he created us that by giving us the freedom
to choose, (a necessary component to make relationships mean something) he
had given us the program to choose selfishly. He knew man would make the
wrong choice, and he planned for his perfect Son to come and pay the penalty
required to make a way for us to return to a right relationship with Him. Man's
pride and continued insistence on following his own flawed human wisdom has
caused us to pick up speed in our slide toward perdition. We are oblivious
to the slavery that ultimately awaits us when we live our lives outside of
God's plan."

I hope you were able to follow the thread.  At the least, I hope you will do your own critical thinking and research on the issues brought up.  Thanks for reading,  Pappy

Monday, January 16, 2012

A Life Long Battle




            DIETING

No, low, free, light;
words I often see
when browsing through my pantry
or refrigerator door.

Let us have some lettuce
with our sprouts and tofu.

One more glass of water if you please.

Measure out a steak
no bigger than my palm
and I shall chew it slowly
while moving Brussels sprouts around.

Adjust the bathroom scale.
Move it ‘round the floor.
Take an average weight for best results.

One more glass of water if you please.

Do you have a public restroom?
I ask every where I go.

One more glass of water if you please.

How many times should one get up at night?

I wonder how much pressure
waistband closures can take?

Isn’t there a pill out that doesn’t make you shake?

One more glass of water if you please.

I’m fasting today.
I really think it’s water weight.

Dennis Price 2007

Walking isn't a lost art: one must, by some means, get to the garage.  - Evan Esar


Sunday, January 15, 2012

Optical Anomaly


We are creations
of created hands
and stand in lifeless effigy
to mirror life.

We pose in never changing
form beneath an azure sea
and what appear as signs of life
an optical anomaly.

Link to the Mag for more poetic contributions.

Friday, January 13, 2012

A Political Ramble



I have been in a creative slump lately.  It is not an uncommon condition for anyone who creates things they hope will inform or entertain others.  Periods of reflection and rumination are necessary steps in the creative process.  A moonshiner must wait until the mash is ready before he starts the distillation process to insure an end product that is strong enough to be named, "Pop Skull".

You have probably been swamped by news from the Republican primaries that has left you confused and befuddled.  I know I have.  The response from the Democrats has been predictable, and in my brain, even less appealing.  However, lets look back in history to the beginning of our representative republic.  I went back and looked at some cartoons from the twenties and thirties and I offer the following as an example.



The cartoon above could have been published today and it would still be relevant.  All of us, who are maturing adults, have witnessed the repetitive and cyclical nature of human behavior.  If you were to draw a diagram to illustrate human behavior from the Garden of Eden to the present age, it would look like a huge coil with ever expanding rings.  The expansion of the space between the successive coil segments would represent the increase in scientific knowledge and technology.  But, the repetitive coil segments represent the repetitive nature of human behavior.

Representative republics and democracies fail because unrepentant man will always head toward a state of total selfishness and depravity unless there is spiritual intervention to offset the natural leanings of his carnal nature.  Our nation is not, and never has been, a Christian nation.  In fact there is no such thing as a Christian nation.  Christianity is the body made up of individuals who have repented of their sins and asked God to forgive them based on the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ, on a Roman cross over two thousand years ago.  Christ's sacrificial death and subsequent resurrection made it possible for man to have an indwelling presence that provides the antithesis to the selfish unrestrained child of his human nature.  In the early years of our republic, there were a sufficient number of people who chose to be influenced by this indwelling force to make a constitution that would work based on the voluntary and unselfish compliance of the populace.

I know, I know, those of you who don't believe will say this is hogwash.  Christianity goes against everything that seems to come naturally in our human nature.  It is probably the only thing you must believe (by faith) before you can understand it.  Even then, many things are hard to come to terms with because we are getting input from our carnal side that tells us the spiritual message "does not compute."  It is the only thing that can save us both individually and as a republic.  God's ultimate plan will come to pass on his time table regardless of what we or any other nation chooses to do.  I have personally chosen to put my life in his hands and daily renew my dependence on him.