Webster

The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." --American Statesman Daniel Webster (1782-1852)


Thursday, April 30, 2015

"Stick to your guns"...From Matt Bracken




I ran across this from Here.  I remember seeing this posted before right after Sandy Hook.  Since then, the government has tried to ban certain ammo for a very popular rifle platform.  BATF is just doing the bidding of the petulant boy king.   I have commented in the past that there is only one way to enter Valhalla and kneeling before the executioner ain't it.  I am adding some points to the below essay.  I have this thought going through my mind if the time came and I had to choose to die with honor or live as a coward....
     If the decision came, I hope I acquit my self as well as the vikings did in this battle, yes I know that this is a movie, but the Alamo was real as was other places that fought against overwhelming odds.    I sincerely hope that it never comes to this and we pull away from the abyss that is looming in front of us.  There is a lesson here, if everybody choose to fight, the enforcers will quickly lose heart for we vastly outnumber them.


Stick to your guns–no matter what!

This is a re-post from a couple of years ago. Matt tells it like it is. If we don't resist, it's just a short boxcar ride to a "re-education" camp. Or a bullet in the back of the head. I have made my stance very clear on more than one occasion.
  My line in the sand;
     I would rather be shot by a government thug while standing in the middle of my street 
      than to be shot in the back of the head by a government thug while kneeling next to a pit.

by Matt Bracken


If they come to take away your guns by force, they have declared war on the Constitution, and on you. At that point, war is joined, just as it was during another famous gun confiscation raid on April 19, 1775.
If a firearm was legal in 2012, under the 2nd Amendment it’s still legal in 2013 and it will be legal forever, no matter what so-called “executive orders” are handed down or new “laws” are passed by a panicking Congress. Those who say otherwise are liars and traitors and oath breakers and domestic enemies.
Every survivor of every genocide says the same thing: when they come to take your guns, shoot them! Make them take them, and their system of repression will be overwhelmed, because they don’t have millions of jack-booted thugs ready to do armed battles all over the country.
If you give up your arms, you are placing your entire trust in the permanent future benevolence of the U.S. government. This trust is invariably fatal: ask the American Indians about those treaties that were guaranteed forever.
History is clear, with numerous examples, of the danger of gun registration and gun control. The German gun registration laws were enacted duuring the 1920s Weimar Republic, years before Hitler came to power. German gun registration was mandated in the name of “public safety.” Note that phrase well. I’m sure today’s liberal utopians would agree that they were “common sense” and “reasonable” gun control laws. Don’t we all want “public safety?”
Then Hitler rose to power, and used the gun registration lists to first disarm the Jews, and then to force them into starving, overcrowded ghettos, and finally into mass graves and gas chambers. The Nazi genocide of the Jews was enabled by those “common sense” German gun registration lists.
Millions of Polish Jews were rounded up by German military police battallions. The German military police only needed a 1-10 ratio to their victims. A mere 100 German military police, (4-Fs in their forties, bottom of the barrel conscripts, not rabid SS), would round up and murder a town of a thousand Jews over the course of one day.
The Germans would force them to sit tightly packed together on town plazas or sporting fields under the watch of only a handful of armed guards. The Germans would then march groups of twenty or thirty at a time at gunpoint into the woods for point-blank executions. A 1-10 ratio means the military police were not worried at all about meeting resistance. The victims were all previously disarmed.
During the Armenian Genocide from 1915-23, two million Christian Turks were exterminated by being marched at gun point into burning deserts with no food or water. The Turkish gun registration laws were enacted in 1911, in the name of “public safety.” The genocide began a few years later, after the Armenians’ firearms were confiscated.
Entire divisions of Russian troops hiked home from WW1 in 1917/18, carrying their rifles and swords and other sidearms. Very early on, Lenin decreed that “public safety” required they all be turned in, under penalty of death. And so the Russian war veterans were disarmed—but not the Communist Party members. Then came the Soviet purges, the Great Terror, the Gulags, and tens of millions of disarmed Russians were murdered.
I’m sorry, but I do NOT trust that our federal government won’t turn as brutally tyrannical as the old USSR at some point in the future, perhaps after an economic crash or other major crisis. The Obama regime already perceives that we “Bitter Clingers” are “reactionaries” who are not only standing in the way of social progress, we are actively blocking it.
That makes us pure Evil, since their plan for a socialist utopia is pure Good. And that means they will ultimately come to feel totally justified in seeking a “final solution to the Bitter Clinger problem,” in the same way that the Turks, Soviets and Nazis did. Can anyone guarantee Americans that tyranny will never visit our shores?
If the socialists in power are scapegoating us as national villains now, what will they do when they have no reason to fear us whatsoever? Did the Turks, Soviets or Nazis treat their despised minorities better, or worse, after disarming them? Think!
And once a despot’s enemies (that’s us) are disarmed and helpless…the temptation grows to simply do away with them. Obama mentor and ghost-autobiographer, the Weather Underground bomber Bill Ayers, stated that they would need to murder ten percent of the American population to achieve their socialist nirvana. Thirty million bitter clingers. Guess who that is?
Don’t relearn this bitter lesson the hard way. Learn from history’s many examples. As it was for the Turkish Armenians, German Jews, Russian Kulaks, Chinese, Ugandans, Guatemalens, Cambodians, Cubans, Rwandans, and on and on, history’s lesson is crystal clear:
Stick to your guns–no matter what!
I think this passage says it all. If we resist, what are they really going to do? What happens when the enforcers are afraid to go out and do their jobs? 
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you’d be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. Or what about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur — what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked. The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!”
~~Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Just Do....Don't hesitate

 First off..My quick opinion of the unrest in Baltimore Maryland, the liberal female democrat mayor let the rioters "have room to protest and burn."  Well the protestors took full advantage of the Mayor's discretion....despite a bunch of cops getting hurt, she initially backed the protestors.  If I was a person that got hurt during those protest or had my property destroyed...the city would be facing a lawsuit.  Also the Department of Justice is sending people down there to help......With Holder/Lynch in charge...who will the D.O.J be assisting...the cops or the rioters....

   Now here is the information on the latest saint of the inner city.....

    This is the guy the hoodrats are burning down parts of the city for.   Now if a white guy had died at the hands of the police...there would have been a quiet funeral, and the family will mourn....But since it is a black criminal.....they go all out burning, looting, and pillaging.      

 I shamelessly clipped this one from DaddyBear's facebook page, who shamelessly clipped it from here.  Here was my comment..." That one is worth remembering. It is better to die on my feet than on my knees...you only go to Valhalla one way. A good plan and a big stick violently executed works better than a perfect plan and glock in the safe."   






If I may offer some advice....






I get inundated with "security advice" questions all the time in life. Riot breaks out somewhere, the emails and phone calls come in. Spree shooter sets about murdering as many people as he possibly can, the emails and phone calls come in. A bad guy goes an...well you get the picture.

There's always this string of questions. What caliber? What plan? What tactic? What bag should I EDC (every day carry) and what gear should I EDC in my EDC bag?

Questions, questions, questions.

Allow me to answer in brevity that is devoid of any sarcasm and is the most sincerest answer I know to give.

When the wolf comes to kill don't worry about the sheep, don't worry what kind of dog you may be or may not be. Don't worry about getting killed, don't worry about the aftermath, don't worry...about anything.

DO.

Make a decision to stop the wolf and then go stop him.

Stop him where he stands by whatever means necessary and don't do it with kindness, don't do it with anger, do it with sincere an solid intent that he will never stand again.

We live in a very modern age but the bad men of the world are very old in their ways and desire. And for old problems new answers are rarely the solution.

You stop a bad man by making a decision. That decision is all that will matter until the future of everything being over arrives. Give no yield, no quarter, no pause. Do nothing less than be victorious. There is no shortage of bad men in the world and there will never be a shortage of such men. But they, the creatures that go bump in the night, the wolves at the door, are thwarted by decision and decisive action.

It's not caliber, capacity, polymer nor steel that overcomes the evil of this world but rather bravery.

Be brave. Be Brave. Be Brave.

Monday, April 27, 2015

Monday Music Eagles "Already Gone"

 I was very busy, I went to a conclave for the southeast region of the Order of the Arrow up at Sidney Dew near Rome Georgia.  I have some great pics I will post this week



  I decided to roll with Eagles "Already Gone".  I touched on this last week with it being a great driving song....especially with the windows open and the music blaring.  the song reminds me of driving in the southland on a country road.   In my heart I am a country boy, I do not want to live in the city, I am not a city dweller...being trapped inside a city if things go "pear-shaped" definitely is not a comfortable feeling.


"Already Gone" is a song recorded by the American rock band Eagles for their 1974 album On the Border. It was written by Jack Tempchin and Robb Strandlund and produced by Bill Szymczyk.
The song was the first single released from On the Border and peaked at #32 on the Billboard Hot 100. Since then, the Eagles have included it on their greatest hits albums and in their live performances. Tanya Tucker and Wilson Phillips have covered the song.


"Already Gone", which is four minutes and 13 seconds long, was written by Robb Strandlund and Jack Tempchin. In the liner notes for The Very Best Of, Glenn Frey said that Tempchin sent him a tape of the song through the mail. Tempchin had already written one of the Eagles' previous singles, "Peaceful Easy Feeling".
"Already Gone" was one of the first songs that the Eagles recorded after they moved to Los Angeles, and it was produced by Bill Szymczyk. Frey was the lead vocalist

"Already Gone" is the opening track of the Eagles' album On the Border, which was released by Asylum Records on March 22, 1974. It was released as the first single from the album in April 1974. Its b-side was "Is It True".
The song has also been included on some of the Eagles' compilation albums, including Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) and The Very Best Of

"Already Gone" has been described as a "classic". In his book To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles, Marc Eliot wrote that the song "was an out-and-out rocker ... Musically it sounded like a fuel-injected rave-up, with melodic echoes of both 'Peaceful Easy Feeling' and 'Take It Easy.

 
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Thursday, April 23, 2015

6 mistakes of Man......

  My apologies....I was working the overtime...again.  As long as they keep offering it....I will take advantage of it.  

I saw this on my friend Shelldude's Facebook post.  I though it was fascinating enough to do some more research on.



“Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century:

Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;

Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;
Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;

Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;

Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;

Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

Marcus Tullius Cicero 106-43 BC

Marcus Tullius Cicero - Biography

Marcus Tullius Cicero, sometimes referred to as “Tully” was born on the 3rd of January in 106 B.C into a lower aristocratic family of the equestrian order in Arpinum just south of Rome. He lived during the tumultuous times of the civil war outbreaks of the Roman republic and its impending decline, eventually becoming an enemy of the state. Marcus Tullius Cicero was murdered by decree on December 7th in the year 43 B.C. He was a lawyer, statesman, politician and philosopher and came to be known as one of Rome’s greatest orators. Marcus Tullius Cicero was an avid thinker and writer and his texts include political and philosophical treatises, orations and rhetoric, the latter of which has come to be known as “Ciceronian rhetoric,” and an amass of letters. Above all, he considered politics of utmost importance, which should be effectively influenced by philosophy, and politics his greatest achievement.

Born into a land-owning and respected family of the provincial gentry, Marcus Tullius Cicero was well cared for and well educated in his childhood. He was the eldest of two sons. His father, whom he was named after, did not have much of a public life due to his physical disabilities yet was extremely learned and intellectual. His son became a renowned student, developing a love and penchant for philosophy, taking up poetry and successfully translating Homer. According to Plutarch’s biography, he was so auspiciously talented as a young student it soon afforded him the attention and opportunity to study in Rome.

While his intellectual prowess would soon gain him recognition and entry into the Roman elite, coming from second tier aristocracy inhibited him from entering into politics directly. Therefore, Marcus Tullius Cicero had to either enter via military service or through the practice of law. Prior to his commitment to the field of law, he did serve in the military, albeit briefly, under Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, between the years 90-88 B.C. This was not the path for the young intellectual and he followed the opportunity in Rome to study under the renowned stoic and Roman politician, Quintus Mucius Scaevola.

He studied alongside Servius Sulpicius Rufus and Titus Pomponius, later known as Atticus. The former Cicero would come to regard as a far better lawyer then he, the latter became Cicero’s closest confidant and consult, like a “second brother”. Due in part to his family and in part to his intellectual prowess, Marcus Tullius Cicero received patronage from the well-regarded Roman consuls, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and Lucius Licinius Crassus, the latter of whom Cicero regarded most and who became a significant mentor.

His love of philosophy also flourished during this time of study in Rome (and subsequently over the rest of his life) in which he gained a broad range of philosophical scholarship from the Epicurean school to that of the Stoics. He and Atticus met with Phaedrus when he came to Rome and exposed them to Epicurean philosophy. Atticus would become an Epicurean, while Cicero mostly rejected it. Years later Philo of Larissa, then head of Plato’s Academy in Athens, came to Rome and Marcus Tullius Cicero apparently devoured the teachings from the Academy and particularly of course, Plato’s philosophy. While it is said that he disregarded Plato’s theory of Ideas, he came to admire his discussions on morality. He also soon met Diodotus, a Stoic, who expanded Cicero’s understanding of Stoicism, even though Cicero was not entirely convinced of it, and Logic. Cicero highly regarded the philosopher and the two became close friends; Diodotus would come to live with Cicero until his death.

While he studied philosophy, and rhetoric, his dedication to jurisprudence he favored and it soon led to his obtaining his first major case by 80 B.C. in which he defended Sextus Roscius on the charge of patricide (killing one’s father). It was a very big case and put Marcus Tullius Cicero in a challenging position as he accused friends of the general Sulla (whom he had served under) with the actual charge of murder. He was triumphant and Roscius was acquitted. Soon thereafter, Marcus Tullius Cicero left Rome for Greece, Rhodes and Asia Minor. He met with Atticus, the now ‘full-fledged’ Epicurean who became an honorary citizen of Athens, and was introduced to Athenian society. In addition to further philosophical study he expanded his knowledge and style of rhetoric with Apollonius Molon of Rhodes, which would have a lasting impact on his oratory.

During this year, presumably 79 B.C, Marcus Tullius Cicero was married to Terentia. Most likely a marriage of convenience, Terentia came from the socially and economically noble family, Terenti Varrones, and was purportedly more interested in Cicero’s career than in their household management. The couple produced two children, a daughter, Tullia, and a son, Marcus, whom Cicero hoped would become a philosopher. (His son did not, but eventually became involved in politics after his father’s murder, and under Augustus took action against Mark Antony in honor of his father).
Not only did Marcus Tullius Cicero prove himself as a lawyer, his improved skills at oration began to make an impact and his career in politics started to flourish. He was successfully elected to each main Roman government office—quaestor, aedile, praetor and consul—all at a considerably young age. Another challenging move by the incredulous philosophical politician was his exposing the Catiline conspiracy in 63 B.C. while he was serving his term as consul. The conspiracy was attempting to forcefully take over the Roman state. Marcus Tullius Cicero ordered the executions of five of the conspirators without a trial. Execution without trial was a risky action to take by the statesman, and earned him both praise and criticism.

Nonetheless, Marcus Tullius Cicero was much loved and admired. He also became a member of the Roman Senate, which while not wielding any direct authority, was a very influential body in Roman political life and was depended upon for advice and counsel. The Roman republic was heading towards instability and it proved to be a difficult and trying time for the statesman. Power struggles would leave him in precarious positions, not just politically. During what is considered the First Triumvirate, Marcus Tullius Cicero chose to remain loyal to the Senate and the idea of the Republic, however mythical the idea was in practice, rather than join Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus in taking control of the Roman state. In retribution, a law was passed in the tribune Clodius, 58 B.C., to retroactively punish any order of execution without trial. This led to Marcus Tullius Cicero’s exile, as his punishment was a dismissal of Roman citizenship, which included property.

After approximately a year and a half of exile, Marcus Tullius Cicero was restored to Rome due to another shift in the political landscape. He was allowed to practice law, and had to, as he now owed a debt to the Triumvirate for terminating his exile, yet he was not allowed to practice politics. Between his exile and the subsequent years in which he could not be a statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero enriched his studies in philosophy and began to write as well. Roughly between the years 55 and 51 B.C., he wrote his infamous texts: De republica (On the Republic) De legibus (On Laws), De officiis (On Duties).

On the Republic, except for Book VI containing the Dream of Scipio, was lost since the middle ages, but reconstructed from fragments, quotes and a palimpsest found in the 19th century. The books collectively focus on the conditions for republic, justice, human nature and citizenry. Marcus Tullius Cicero very much identifies with the Greek ideals of justice and a commonwealth following the Aristotelian view of “giving each their due,” and the Platonic paternal notion of a ruling justice. He contrasts with a Roman individuating sense of glory and honor in favor of a virtuous commitment to justice. While the dialogue in On the Republic was set in the past, the dialogue for On Laws was set in Cicero’s day in which he, his brother and his friend are the main figure of the dialogue. Once again, only fragments remain, but the premise is that of law and justice being of the highest reason and while it can be corrupted, and must be exposed and discarded, it is in fact man’s natural inclination as reason comes from nature. The participants go on to discuss an ideal code of law that is essentially a modified representation of the then contemporary Roman law code.

His final writing of this period, On Duties, is often considered Cicero’s “republic.” It in fact very much parallels Plato’s Republic positing a conflict between justice and individual advantage that is in essence illusory as ethics, being true to the ethical, would disavow such apparent conflict. Maintaining the inseparability between ethics and politics, Marcus Tullius Cicero puts forth an exemplifying case that acknowledges the too oft corruption of political power and self advantage as that being a misunderstood relationship and confidence of ethical duty as self advantageous. The latter is in effect the “moral” of the story, such that conflict and tension between the two exists, naturally, yet justice, and ethical duty, properly understood, is in fact always advantageous for the one, and the many.

Marcus Tullius Cicero’s philosophy was primarily in service of his role as a politician and to his commitment to the ideal of a/the republic. And, in particular, to the Roman republic in which, or for which, he translated much Greek philosophy and developed new vocabularies in Latin to aid in translation and understanding for this particular audience—many of our words used today come from this development such as: morals, image, individual, property. The main schools of thought that Marcus Tullius Cicero engaged with, whether in disagreement or in affinity, were the Academy Skeptics, the Epicureans, the Stoics and the Peripatetics.
He was most aligned with the Academy Skeptics and the general view that nothing can be known with certainty and that ‘truth’ is essentially relative probability. The skeptic approach appealed to him especially as an effective strategy in law and politics. The skeptic must seek as many perspectives as possible and tease out as many probabilities in order to present a valid argument. As well, it also accepts and advocates malleability as probabilities and perspectives fluctuate over time, and ‘evidence’ proves otherwise. While he was most aligned with the Academy he also incorporated aspects of the other Hellenistic philosophies, as Skepticism could not attend as well to the practice of jurisprudence in the everyday with the everyday man. Thus, through a skeptical approach, he looked to the Stoics for a philosophy as the best probable form to attend to the significance and sanctity of law and justice in society. His Stoic ideas are very much present in his writings on law and duties in which natural law, a product of reason, is man’s guiding principle. When employed ‘properly’ this creates a set of laws and a community of men that share in their duty to their just collectivity and thus to themselves. As such, political participation is then an expected virtue. Perhaps one could say that his overarching philosophy essentially revolved around justice and its possibility.
Marcus Tullius Cicero would continue his engagement with philosophy and writing as the Triumvirate eventually collapsed and he was again exiled from Rome for (barely) siding with Pompey over Caesar, who became first Roman emperor in 48 B.C. Caesar soon pardoned Marcus Tullius Cicero a year later, but he was forced to abstain from active political life. Following the political upheavals that were ensconcing Rome, he and his wife divorced. It is said that he believed his wife to have betrayed him, yet it wasn’t clear how specifically he meant as such. It seems the official divorce occurred in 51 BCE and a few years later, either in 46 or 45 B.C., he married a young women. It is presumed it was out of a need for financial gain, as he owed the debt of his x-wife’s dowry. His second marriage was short lived and Marcus Tullius Cicero was soon thereafter ensconced with bereavement over the loss of his daughter whom he was enamored with and in which his text on death and consolation derived from: The whole life of the philosopher is a preparation for death.


Marcus Tullius Cicero would have a final role in Roman politics before his death in the period immediately following the murder of Caesar; members of the Senate executed the latter in 44 B.C. Marcus Tullius Cicero was witness to the murder but was presumably not a part of the conspiracy. While another power struggle ensued, among Mark Antony, Marcus Lepidus, and Octavian (who would come to be called Augustus), Marcus Tullius Cicero hoped that he could assure the possibility for the continuance of the Roman republic. Addressing the Senate once again, Marcus Tullius Cicero made a series of orations that are known as the Philippics. The name comes from an infamous moment in Greek history when Demosthenes orated the rise of the Athenians against Philip of Macedon. In Cicero’s case, it was a call to rise against Mark Antony in support of Octavian and the survival of the Roman republic.

Although this moment of voice has become infamous, it failed, one could say, by subversive power as opposed to justice. Mark Antony and Octavian partnered together in taking over Roman power and Marcus Tullius Cicero was to become an enemy of the state since Octavian chose not to protect him. On the orders of Mark Antony, the man of justice was murdered—slit in the throat with his head and hands decapitated, which were then hung on the podium in the Senate as a warning. It has been noted that Marcus Tullius Cicero, upon capture, told his would be murderers, “there is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a dedicated and committed man of justice, of justice as probability. He was extremely prolific, and while, and only because he was detained from political practice, wrote extensively on philosophy through dialogic writing. He wrote as well his numerous orations that reveal both his political philosophy as well as his political prowess in their provocative challenging rhetoric. Finally, he was an ardent and prolific letter writer having exchanged countless letters, most often with Atticus and his brother, in which hundreds remain in archive.
His legacy is long lasting and had its greatest effect in the Roman era and later during the Renaissance. St. Augustine credits Marcus Tullius Cicero’s thought and writing with his pursuit of a greater purpose in life. His political thought and activism is said to have inspired the figures of both the American Revolution and the French revolution. The translations and writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero are often considered to be the bedrock of much European philosophical training and understanding and thus long-lasting effect. Yet in the more modern era, discrepancies in his thought and character, revealed through revisionist insight and the distribution of his private letters, have very much tainted and caused great criticism of his ideal yet subsequently contradictory practice.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Monday Music, Jackson Browne "Running on Empty"



   Welcome to my next installment of "Monday's Music".  I decided to go with "Running on Empty from Jackson Browne.  I first heard this song on the radio and it was a staple of the Rock stations and the song was on "BJ and the Bear".  it was what I consider a good driving song.  One you can listen to over and over.  Another song from the "Eagles" called "Already Gone" is the same way with me.  The song envisions driving on the long open road with the asphalt beneath your tires, the windows open...and if the car is a ragtop, having the top down and soaking up the sun.


    
     "Running on Empty" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. It is the title track to his 1977 live album of the same name, recorded at a concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, on August 27, 1977. A #11 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when it was released as a single, it spent seventeen weeks on the chart after debuting on February 11, 1978 at position #72. Rolling Stone ranked it at number 496 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and it is one of Browne's signature songs.

     
The song was written while Browne was driving to the studio each day to make The Pretender, according to Rolling Stone magazine: "I was always driving around with no gas in the car," Browne is quoted. "I just never bothered to fill up the tank because — how far was it anyway? Just a few blocks."
The song may be meant to describe the rigors of a musician's day-to-day life on the road, and its effect on his life as a whole, in connection with the themes of much of the album, but the lyric is more generally applicable, as well:
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels —
Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields.
In '65 I was seventeen and running up 101
I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on ...
The song starts off with an immediate, propulsive backbeat, with the melody carried by piano and throughout laced by David Lindley's distinctive lap steel guitar work. Browne receives vocal back up from Rosemary Butler and Doug Haywood.
The lyric's ages and years match up with Browne's:
In '69 I was twenty-one and I called the road my own
I don't know when that road turned onto the road I'm on.
Rolling Stone writer Paul Nelson saw "Running on Empty" as embodying a "tenacious, win/lose duality" and being "what daydreamers have nightmares about":
You know I don't even know what I'm hoping to find ...
Running into the sun, but I'm running behind.
With its #11 peak on the Hot 100 in spring 1978, "Running on Empty" was Browne's third-biggest hit single in his career (trailing only "Doctor My Eyes" and "Somebody's Baby"), and subsequently became his most-played song on classic rock radio formats. It became a staple of Browne's concerts, and whenever Bruce Springsteen has guested at such shows, they have shared vocals on "Running on Empty".

Sunday, April 19, 2015

French Frigate sets sail for Boston....

   I have been working a lot.  I am working again today....I have several half completed post in the waiting stages of completion for me to post.  I will post them Tuesday and later.  Monday is saved for ...you guessed it...."Monday Music"  the only consistent thing about my blog...well kinda...since I have posted them on Tuesday before....Oh well.  I was quickly perusing the news sites and I ran across this article.  I have shamelessly clipped it from "FoxNews".  I thought it was a very cool thing, I am a fan of historical stuff and this kind of thing is right up my alley.   I remember reading that when the AEF landed in France in 1917, General Pershing stated..."Lafayette...We are here..". 


It was a debt of honor that was recognized because of the young French nobleman that came over to help General Washington in his fighting of the British. and was instrumental along with Benjamin Franklin in securing the aid of the French...The date was significant in 1780...That was when we won the battle of Saratoga and proved to the French that we COULD win against the preeminent power of England and that supporting us wasn't a lost cause.




With champagne, fireworks and a presidential blessing, a painstakingly built replica of the frigate once used to bring French troops and funds to American revolutionaries is setting sail for Boston.
Saturday night's celebratory sendoff for the $27 million Hermione seeks to retrace the 213-foot frigate's trans-Atlantic journey in 1780, when its namesake under Marquis de Lafayette's command helped to lay the foundation of French-American relations.
Lafayette persuaded French King Louis XVI to provide military and financial support to George Washington's troops. Lafayette set sail on March 21, 1780, arrived 38 days later in Boston, and played an important role in the revolutionaries' ultimate defeat of Britain.
French President Francois Hollande plans to take a short trip on the ship ahead of its official departure Saturday night.
The ship is the fruit of nearly two decades of brainstorming, fundraising and toil. Using captains' logs and manuscripts from the era, maritime experts and historians ensured that workers used the same construction materials and methods as those used to build the original.
Sailmakers sewed eyelets by hand on the 2,600 square yards of linen sails. Engineers replicated the pulley system. The vessel even was built in the same shipyard, in Rochefort in southwest France.
"It has been a very long project," said Miles Young, president of the Friends of Hermione-Lafayette in America. "You don't create an 18th century warship very easily these days. ... It took enormous efforts to find enough oak trees naturally shaped so they could create the helm."
Volunteer crew members will sail the frigate, with "Hermione" carved across its stern, across the Atlantic.
"Authority and respect for the hierarchy is what guarantees our safety on board and ensures the boat runs smoothly," said crewman Nicolas Masse.  "Given that more than 70 percent of the ship's crew is made up of amateurs, never questioning the line of command is something you have to learn."
A rigger, Woody Wiest, praised the international camaraderie aboard, and the unique experience of sailing in the 21st century on a ship made up of natural fibers and materials.
"When you put people side by side aboard a ship, they're puking together, they're cleaning the toilets together, they're really bonding," he said. "It makes for a very close and open relationship between people and it lasts forever."
The relationship born of Lafayette's journey has also been lasting. Even in times of modern diplomatic tensions, American presidents routinely refer to France as "our oldest ally."
"If it hadn't been for that French intervention at that time," Young said, "the war of independence probably wouldn't have been won."
U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley is expected to attend Saturday's events.
Firing its cannons, the ship left the La Rochelle port earlier this week for a test run, escorted by sailboats and watched by thousands of cheering supporters on shore, some waving American flags. It has been performing exercises ahead of the voyage.
Among those aboard is Adam Hodges-LeClaire, a volunteer apprentice tailor dressed in period clothing.
"I wanted to push this experiment to its logical extreme, so I prepared a full 18th century wardrobe based on after-death inventories I found in the Paris archives and artwork from the period," he said. "So I have a full valise of 18th century clothes and nothing else. The experiment doesn't end until I get back to my house this fall and put on jeans again."

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Working a lot and "I'm so ronery", and "Hillary....and Hitler....."

I have been working a lot of overtime and I haven't had time to blog...I wanted to comment about April 15 and the evil progressive income tax.  I believe in either a flat tax or a "Fair Tax".  And if you don't pay...you don't get out....but I was too busy to post about that....I also wanted to post about the Butcher of Bengazi Hillery throwing her hat in the ring to be the next President, yeah...she will be a hero for all feminist that rode to their destiny on their husbands coattails.....But I have been too busy to make a coherent post about Hillary,
     But instead I will show a video that one of the other mechanics was playing and we all had this song playing through our head.....

       We all were singing it and the leads and foreman thought we had lost our minds.......
   And on another swung back into my mind, I will make another run on Hillary again......Like shooting Fish in a barrel.....She provides soo much material....almost like Obama does....
   And speaking of Hillary....I had saved this pic for a while....This ties in the Hillary and Hitler theme that I am running.....


      

      

Monday, April 13, 2015

Monday Music "Jeopardy" by the Greg Kihn Band and Weird AL's version

I was riding to work and this song was playing on my XM/Sirius, I haven't heard of this song in a while and I remembered it playing a lot on MTV.....you know back when they played music video's rather than crappy reality shows.  This song and video was very popular and it did speak a message about getting married....I guess that is why I waited soo long;)   I also will add a Weird AL version that was also popular and Greg Kihn made a cameo in it.  They say if Weird Al parodies your song....you are a success.


"Jeopardy" is a hit song released in 1983 by The Greg Kihn Band on their album Kihnspiracy. It is the band's first and only Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, reaching number 2 in May 1983 (behind Michael Jackson's "Beat It") and also hitting number 1 on the dance charts for two weeks a month earlier. The song also reached number 63 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the band's only charting song in the UK. The song is written in the key of D minor. The song switches to the relative F Major Key in the song's Pre-Chorus.


A bride-to-be gets out of her car screen right and enters a church. Soon afterwards a groom-to-be (portrayed by Kihn himself) gets out of another car screen left and enters an adjoining church. Entering in the groom's back entrance, he is readied for his impending marriage (to another bride) by his parents, who nudge him into the church's main hall. Inside the main hall, a children's choir is seen singing the song's first chorus, the minister, the rest of the groom's family, as well as the groom's ushers (portrayed by Kihn's band). The (other) bride is led by her father, who rather forcefully gives her to Kihn. As the minister recites the vow questions, Kihn turns his head backwards multiple times, as he cannot help feeling that something is amiss at the ceremony. He looks at his parents and notices that they are handcuffed together. The minister asks Kihn for the ring. He looks at this bride's parents and sees that the hands that are being held together in a handshake of friendship merge and morph into a bone-destroying blob. The minister asks Kihn for the ring again. He looks at his aunt and uncle and notices that they are literally joined at the hip. The minister asks Kihn for the ring a third time, this time using sign language. He reaches into his coat pocket and finds the ring, puts it on the bride's hand and takes off the veil. The bride proves to be a zombie, who lets out an earth-shattering screech. (This is a possible reference to Bride of the Monster.) Kihn screeches in horror at the sight. The entire congregation turns into zombies (possibly referencing Night of the Living Dead) except for Kihn, who makes his first attempt at escaping. Just as he is halfway down the aisle between the church's pews, a gigantic, tentacled monster emerges from the church's podium. The monster pulls him to the center of the church. Kihn, in retaliation, breaks off a piece of a pew and uses it as a spear. He pokes and cuts into the tentacle with the "pew spear," and the monster goes back down into the floorboards. Kihn then uses it like a guitar and sings the last verse to the crowd. He then makes a second run for the door, the congregation coming after him, and this time he succeeds. Next is seen what looks like a successful end to the proceedings, but it is revealed to be a movie watched by burning skeletons of the bride and groom. The screen dissolves to reveal that this has all been a dream of Kihn's. Kihn then takes a bottle of champagne and sneaks out the back way of the church. He jumps into a convertible and glances over, just in time to see the bride-to-be from the video's beginning running away from her own wedding. He pulls in front of her, and she gets into his car. (Its license plate reads "LIPS.") They pop the cork of the champagne bottle and ride off into the sunset.

Video production

 

 

"I Lost on Jeopardy" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic from his second album, "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D. The song is a parody of "Jeopardy" by The Greg Kihn Band, and its refrain "Our love's in jeopardy". The parody's lyrics center on the then-former game show Jeopardy!, hosted by Art Fleming; a syndicated revival, with Alex Trebek, began three months after the single's release.
The song became the fourth music video released by Yankovic, and featured a number of cameo appearances including Kihn, Fleming, Yankovic's mentor Dr. Demento, original Jeopardy! announcer Don Pardo, and Yankovic's parents.


The song has been referenced several times on the game show itself, including once as a category on the current Alex Trebek-hosted version, and later when Yankovic appeared on Rock & Roll Jeopardy!. It was the subject of an Audio Daily Double on the daytime episode that originally aired on October 23, 1984, when the contestant who got the clue was asked to identify the artist of the song from an audio sample of the song but failed to do so, and the subject of a Daily Double on the April 27, 2012 episode of the show, but the contestant receiving the clue--which consisted of the release year and some lyrics--failed to identify the song. The song was played over the closing credits on the second episode of Rock & Roll Jeopardy! on which Yankovic appeared.

The music video, shot on May 24 and 25, 1984 and directed by Francis Delia, takes place on a reproduction of the 1964–1975 Jeopardy! set.
In his game, Yankovic plays against a plumber (Mr. Leroy Finkelstein from Brooklyn, New York) and an architect (Mr. Millard Snofgen from Carbondale, Illinois), both with a Ph.D. The board contains a series of befuddling and nearly-impossible clues from these categories: "T.V. Themes", "Nuclear Physics", "World Geography", "Food", "Potpourri", and "Famous Accordion Players". Although the other contestants manage to get their questions right, Yankovic misses every clue, finishing with a score of -$6,750 and proceeding to give up.
Don Pardo proceeds to tell Yankovic of what he did not win: neither consolation prizes nor "a lousy copy" of the home game. Furthermore, Pardo tells Yankovic that he has made himself look like a jerk in front of millions of people, and has brought shame and disgrace to his family name for generations to come as a result of his disastrous showing while his score continues to plummet and his podium begins to break down. Pardo tells Yankovic that he will not come back the next day and that he is a "complete loser" as the camera cuts to the board, now replaced with cards saying "complete loser". Art Fleming raspberries Yankovic as security guards come to kick him out from the studio. Embarrassed but undaunted, Yankovic hopes his luck will change "next weekend on The Price Is Right", and is literally thrown out from the studio into a convertible driven by Greg Kihn himself. Kihn described the car as "a vintage sports car to approximate the one I drove in the original 'Jeopardy' video."



Radio personality Dr. Demento, the man credited with discovering Yankovic, makes a cameo appearance as a control booth technician at the 1:59 and 3:00 marks.


  


Sunday, April 12, 2015

The power "Selfies..."

 I ran across this on my infrequent forays into the land of "Faceplant", a friend of mine had posted this with her dismay of the pretty young things posting pics that are suggestive in nature looking for the approval of strangers.  Well I read this and immediately thought of our petulant boy king and his incessant need for "Selfies"   Remember this one during the funeral of Nelson Mandella..


















       I have seen many pics of the President in selfies.....This confirms to me that he is extremely narcissistic individual.  This ties in with my belief that he is an extremely shallow individual and he is concerned about "his legacy" not what is best for his country.   He promised that he would fundamentally transform this country and he is well on his way to doing that and with the spineless republicans in congress, he has an open agenda.    I weep for the future of my great country and the great American experiment.  perhaps in the future they will try again and they will use the American system and fix the flaws that we discovered too late to prevent.


Friday, April 10, 2015

My, My, My...How things have changed.............

Before I go on a *rant*, I do those things every once and a while.  But before I start, a couple of things....This weekend is the annual N.R.A meet in Nashville, well I wanted to go but I found out about it too late, 2 weeks notice is not good timing...and this is my fault..if I had opened my "American Rifleman" magazines when I got them..rather than be 3 months behind....what can I say...I am busy.  I could have gone but the only hotels that still had rooms were at the 300-400 dollar range...Granted I make "ok" money....I don't make that kind of cheddar...But I heard from "Mac" that the annual N.R.A meeting will be in Atlanta in 2016......So I WILL be there..I will either get a hotel early or make the commute and catch the transit system.  They do allow CCW holders on that system.  If you are "Out of towners", make sure your Carry concealed license has reciprocity with Georgia...but you have to read the fine print;).  I absolutely despise traffic and Atlanta has some of the crappiest traffic in the country.   And speaking of "Mac"  he talked me into running a cub scout range at the camp this Saturday.  And I will be working overtime on Sunday:)

     Well on to my rant.....By now you have seen the video of the shooting of the white police officer and the black man in South Carolina.  Immediately you have Al Sharpton...you know the guy that owes 4.5 million dollars in backtaxes...responsible for the Freddie fashion mart fire and Tawana Brawley..yeah..that guy.   The same guy that helped stir up things in Ferguson and anywhere where the perception of "racism" exist....by his definition.   He is calling for a "federalization" of the police depts.  As far as I can tell the South Carolina dept has acted properly...The Police Officer was fired and charged with murder.  But Al is calling for the federalization of the police.   How many things are wrong with this.  If they are successful in this, they will use some of the major police dept's to base this big government program....it will be a police department that is run by liberals...either New York or Chicago or some of the other major liberal bastions....And whatever they do will not work for some county cop in Wyoming...I will bring up something else....when there are more rules...they have to have more Police to enforce it.....Remember Eric Gardner...the Saint of loose tobacco..He was selling "loose tobacco" to circumvent the very high sin tax that New York was charging on Tobacco...
     I have another point to make.....The wheels of Justice are already in motion...but the mob wants the Police officer "guilty" on the spot......Funny how things have have changed...In the past before the civil rights act...the people being lynched were mostly black......just for the appearance of being "guilty".   Now since they have a "protected status" by the Fed's they are demanding that the officer be lynched....for the appearance of being "guilty"....Funny how times have changed...They have forgotten the past...
   

    

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Monday Music..."Pac man Fever" by Buckner and Garcia

Here I go again.....doing Monday Music on a Tuesday......What can I say...I like working overtime:).  There was no OT for me today:(  so I can get my installment of Monday Music.   I heard this song on my XM radio on the way to work.  It was on the countdown for 1982 and I think it got to number "9".  I remembered going to the arcade at Southlake Mall, and watching all the video junkies play "Pac man"  I did play it a few times....and got slaughtered....My game of choice was "BattleZone" and "Zaxxon".  I heard this song and it was campy and fun to listen to.  it did describe the early 80's very well, to a  young person listening to it now...they wouldn't get the references.  Video games are very commonplace....and taken for granted.  But in the early 80's video games were new and fresh and they took off and basically defined a generation.



Pac-Man Fever is a 1982 concept album recorded by Buckner & Garcia. It is also the name of the first song on that album. Each song on the album is about a different classic arcade game, and uses sound effects from that game. The album was released as an LP, a cassette, an 8-track tape, and later completely re-recorded for CD release in 1999 and 2002. The title itself is a parody of “Cat Scratch Fever” by Ted Nugent.





The title song, "Pac-Man Fever", was released as a single in December 1981 and became a top-ten hit, peaking at #9 in March 1982 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning Gold certification by the RIAA for selling over a million records; the single sold 2.5 million copies in total as of 2008. It had been released independently earlier in the year on the BGO Records label, before being picked up by CBS. "Do the Donkey Kong" was the second single released from the album, but it failed to chart except on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles at #103. Like the title song, the album Pac-Man Fever itself went on to receive a Gold certification from the RIAA, for over 500,000 records sold; the album sold 900,000 copies in total by the end of 1982. The duo performed both of these singles on American Bandstand on March 20, 1982, as well as appearing later that day on Solid Gold, singing "Pac-Man Fever".

    In 1998, the duo was asked to record an unplugged version of "Pac-Man Fever" exclusively for the syndicated radio show Retro Rewind. In 1999, a re-recorded version of the album was released independently by Buckner and Garcia, which was released commercially through K-Tel in 2002. The re-release was anxiously awaited by fans of the original album. However, Buckner and Garcia could not obtain the original master recordings from Sony Music Entertainment, so the duo was forced to record new performances of the songs and recreate a lot of the sound effects either digitally or musically.