Saturday, February 21, 2009

The end of 'things'

Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.
George Washington



The end of things, or stuff, is here. It's funny, because I've actually wanted this since I was a teen. I knew what we all had was false, but no one wanted to look around, to see things the way they really were. That time is now, and people are starting to awaken from their slumbers, en masse no less.

It's unfortunate that things had to turn out this way. There will be blood, and there will be pain. I only hope that people will steel themselves for the hard times ahead, and not bury their heads in the sand.

The talking bobble-heads in the media would have you believe that all is well, and that good times are just ahead. That nonsense could be further from the truth. The real truth is, that sometimes the doomsayers are right; that you should heed all warnings with at least an iota of caution, and prepare accordingly.

The end of the age of things is upon us. Now we get back to what really matters. Family. Friends. Trust. Self-sufficiency. Holding on to things of value.

We would be fools not to prepare ourselves for the 'impossible'. Why? In an infinite universe, anything is possible, even probable; given an infinite timeline, everything can, and will, happen.

We must all take care of the things which matter most to us, lest we lose ourselves and our humanity in the whirlwind of change that is before us.

Diaspora will happen, too.Katrina Diaspora: after disaster.

The main thing is not to fear change. You must learn to embrace it and adapt accordingly. Change is a constant in nature, there is nothing to be afraid of. Adaptation should be your middle name, and the crux of all that you are.



Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Molon Labe


Two words that, to this day, still ring throughout history.

Wikipedia:


Grammar

The first word, μολών, is the aorist active participle (masculine, nominative, singular) of the Greek verb βλώσκω "blōskō," meaning "having come."[1] Λάβε is the aorist active imperative (second person singular) of the verb λαμβάνω "lambanō," translated "take [them]."

The two words function together in a grammatical structure not present in English called the circumstantial participle.[2] Where English would put two main verbs in two independent clauses joined by a conjunction: "come and take", a strategy sometimes called paratactic, ancient Greek, which is far richer in participles, subordinates one to the other, a strategy called hypotactic: "having come, take." The first action is turned into an adjective. In this structure, the participle gives some circumstance attendant on the main verb: thecoming.

In regard to aspect, the aorist participle is used to signify completed action, called the perfective aspect. Moreover, the action must be completed before the time of the main verb. The difference in meaning is subtle but significant: the English speaker is inviting his enemy to begin a process with two distinct acts or parts—coming and taking; the Greek speaker is telling his enemy that only after the act of coming is completed will he be able to take. In addition there is a subtle implication: in English "come and take it" implies that the enemy might not win the struggle—the outcome is uncertain; in Greek, the implication is that the outcome is certain—"after you have come here and defeated me, then it will be yours to take." For comparison, these elements happen to be present in the previously-noted English phrase, "over my dead body", or the similar phrase "I'll give up my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands."

[edit] History

Μολὼν λάβε was reportedly the defiant response of King Leonidas I of Sparta to Xerxes I of Persia at the onset of the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC). Xerxes, whose forces vastly outnumbered the Spartans and their allies, offered tospare the lives of Leonidas and his few thousand warriors if they would only surrender and lay down their weapons.

Instead, the Spartans held Thermopylae for three days and, although they were ultimately annihilated, they inflicted serious damage upon the Persian army, and most importantly delayed its progress to Athens, providing sufficient time for the city's evacuation to Salamis Island. Though a clear defeat, Thermopylae served as a moral victory and inspired the troops at the Battle of Salamis and the Battle of Plataea.

The source for this quotation is Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 225c.11. This work may or may not be by Plutarch (ca. 46 - 127) himself, but it is included among the Moralia, a collection of works attributed to him but outside the collection of his most famous works, the Parallel Lives.

[edit] Modern usage

Molon labe has been repeated by many later generals and politicians in order to express an army's or nation's determination to not surrender. The motto ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ is on the emblem of the Greek First Army Corps,[3] and is also the motto of United States Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT).[4]

In the Anglosphere, both the original Greek phrase and its English translation are often heard from pro-gun activists as a defence of the right to keep and bear arms. It began to appear on pro-RKBA web sites in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In the wake of firearm seizures during Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent defiance of Federal court orders by the New Orleans government to return seized weapons, the phrase has again gained popularity among Second Amendment supporters.

Molon labe has been recently used in the 2007 feature film 300 in which Leonidas speaks this famous line in English in response to "Spartans! Lay down your weapons!" as "Persians! Come and get them!" In the 1999 comic book of the same name, upon which the film is based, the phrase becomes "Come and get it", with no exchange concerning the laying down of arms.[5] In the earlier 1962 film The 300 Spartans Leonidas says the phrase both in Greek and English to the Persian general Hydarnes. The same exchange contains Dienekes' remark about "fighting in the shade" (as Persian arrows would "blot out the sun"), assigned to Leonidas.

If, for one minute, anyone in this country thinks that millions of Americans will just bow out of protecting ourselves from a persecutor that comes from within our own borders, you've been sadly, sadly mistaken. If you still think this, and you plan to make laws prohibiting firearms outright, or even try to ban certain ones, say, Automatic weapons, you will be exacted a price so high it will make the 'bailout' seem like small potatoes.


This isn't a threat, it's just a pulse I've gotten from everyone I know who owns a gun. There will be no peace where gun owners are concerned regarding gun bans, be they automatic or otherwise. They, We, will not let them go. No apologies, no surrender, no defeat. Period. Zilch. End of conversation.




Long live the fighters; may the light shine upon you in dark times.







Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The trouble with truth

Truth is a powerful thing.

They say the truth hurts.

They say the truth will set you free.





I give you Einstein's quote:

"The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. . . . The ordinary objects of human endeavour -- property, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible."

Well, I can get behind that. I like property as far as rights go, so me and Mr Al can agree to disagree. But sometimes the point is lost. Was he talking about property as in a mans personal possessions? Or was he talking about the insecurities and envies brought about by said property? I'd like to think it was the latter, if taken only in context of the quote. Outward success, luxury. Surely we don't need such excesses; surely we don't need to be outwardly successful? I would agree with Einstein. We don't.

You see, excess breeds envy. For instance, what if I were to say that I'm a multimillionaire? Would you still take me at face value for the things I believe, such as frugality, inward successes of virtue, and honor? Or, would you scorn and hate me because I have so much more money than you, and I know how to make it, as well as save it?





There is a fine line between love and hate, they say. I'm not sure who 'they' are, but 'they' may very well be idiots. It is a totally different thing to love, than it is to hate. If you've had these two feelings (if not, get some help, or tell your nearest coworker that you are a Cylon.), then you'd know they are totally different in nature, so don't be fooled by this misconception. Know your emotions, because they can do great good, or cause great harm. The 'line' between these two emotions comes from envy, supposedly a sin. I'm not too keen on religion, and if you are, more power to you, but; I do know that certain things can cause perceptions to mutate beyond the scope of sanity. Such as love and hate. I suppose that's why there's a supposed line there, but if you can temper your emotions like a plate of steel, working it into a blade, you'll know the difference.

The point is that envy breeds our current 'keeping up with the Jones' mentality, and if you DO believe in religion, then you could very well make correlations between Babel and our own Western Society.

Truth is perception. Perception can be deception, if not carefully maintained and honed into a fine edge with which to make the difference.

For instance, one could make the claim that 9/11 was an inside job. You've already made up your mind whether hijackers did the deed, or whether the U.S./Global government did the deed. The facts are there for you to decide, and perception is the key to truth.








Perception helps humans to map the world around them. Unfortunately, it also takes them from one extreme to the other, whether or not they've decided for themselves the facts of a situation. After the perception kicks in, and emotions get involved, facts no longer matter. The emotions will take over, and make the perception for you... and that can be bad.

"Emotion can be the enemy, if you give into your emotion, you lose yourself. You must be at one with your emotion, because the body always follows the mind." - Bruce Lee



Just remember:




"Never put your passions before your principles, for even if you win... you lose." -Sifu Vatche Bartekian




Monday, February 2, 2009

The Collapse of Empire

What does it take for an Empire to collapse?

I'd say that there are several things that could do such a thing, but the one thing we've been doing is spending oodles of money on, well, printing more money. Money that is backed by nothing but a premise which is all but irrelevant now. Look closely at this dollar bill.







The upper left of this bill says, "This note is legal tender for all debts public and private." The key word here is, of course, debt. We all know what debt is, to be sure. What is not known is the original bills used were backed by gold, payable to the the bearer on demand.




In essence, you would take this bill to a bank, and they would render unto you 20 dollars worth of gold coin. The REAL currency of the world. If you have one of these, I'm sure its worth a lot of money. Do what it is intended with this bill. Cash it in to a collector and use the cash to buy gold.

Money is worthless when it is backed by nothing, as I'm sure any German old enough (good luck) to remember the Weimar Republic. Or you could ask anyone from Zimbabwe. The problem is inflation, or hyperinflation in the two cases above.


This poor fool will be able to buy a loaf of bread with all of that money. The really funny thing? That wheelbarrow is worth more than that cash. TaDa! Hyperinflation hard at work. And guess what? we're next. Here's why.





You see that spike at the end of the chart? That's the U.S. printing money like mad. The chart goes back to 1910, and as you can see, we were basically flat-lined until about 1985-87 with the savings and loan debacle. We hit September of last year, and WHAM! Our money base has been thoroughly smitten. And we're still going up. The new 'Stimulus Package' the thieves in Washington are now touting, is nothing but a 'Spending Package' and the only thing it will stimulate is further inflation.

The unfortunate bit about inflation is that the effects aren't felt until the damage is done and forgotten. In inflation, everything gets more valuable except money.

Here's the skinny: You got extra money? Buy things that are worth something. Shoes, clothes, food, beans bullets and band aids. Why? Because it's an actual investment. When you invest in something, you want it to be worth more in the future. Buy a pair of shoes for 50 bucks now, because it will be 100 bucks in the future. Get it? Spending money now will be saving money in the future.

Here's another grand idea. Hit flea markets, yard sales, and thrift stores. Not for the usual. You'll be looking for silver items. a 50 cent silver spoon at goodwill is actually worth about 10-15 bucks, and if money collapses all together, how will you pay for anything? Silver is easier and cheaper to get on a budget than gold... but if you have gold, even jewelry, keep it under a rock somewhere, because it will soon be worth more than all of the cash in your savings account.

And you can take that to the bank.




Sunday, February 1, 2009

Important Websites I follow

You may, or may not know, that the media lies. Quick, look surprised!




An inaction to report a story because of a political affiliation or some other such nonsense, falls under the 'lying' clause, in my book. The media has turned into one more of several wings (how many wings this thing needs is nauseating) of the leviathan state. In fact, if you look back through history, this is no new thing. Propaganda is exactly what the media is intended for in this day and age. Excuse me while I attempt to muster up some surprise.

It behooves us to seek out the truth of things. If you take the old saying,
"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty... I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well (T. Roosevelt)."
and apply it to getting truth, then you see the dilemma
with media. Easy ain't always good, hoss. We can't expect them to bring us the truth on a silver platter with some Fillet Mignon whilst sitting on our collective asses and expect quality.

Which is why I've done my research on many things and have come to the conclusion that, well, we're being lied to. So I've compiled a small list of places I go, daily, to get my news. Now, remember, blogs aren't news, necessarily, but viewpoints differ, and some are smarter than others.

http://www.strike-the-root.com/ Libertarian to the core.

http://www.urbansurvival.com Financial news+rickety time machine+awesome daily links = Awesome daily read from a guy who knows what he's talking about.

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/ Another financial site with good commentary. Very Good.

http://www.321gold.com/ Financial news and commentary. Also quite good.

http://www.alanskitchen.com/SANDWICH/ Because you should never read news without a good sammich!

http://www.lewrockwell.com/ Great site, lots of commentary. Libertarian to the core.

http://www.dailypaul.com/ Who doesn't like Ron Paul?


http://www.infowars.com/ Now... Alex Jones might be a nutjob sometimes, there's still good news to be had if you hunt.

A catchall of news drops can he found here.




That's just a sample of the news sources I view everyday. Next, I'll Put some links that pertain to topics I follow which aren't necessarily news, but may have news in them, which is a bonus, because we all like 2 for 1.




http://www.awrm.org/ A Well Regulated Militia... A good site for references and talking to like-minded people. There are some there that rub you the wrong way, but that's life, so get over it.

http://www.survivaltopics.com/
A good site with all kinds of wilderness survival techniques in there. They also have forums to discuss said techniques, and other things not related.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/ Another good site with lots of interesting survival topics.

http://www.survivalblog.com/ This site is great, Rawles wrote a few books, you know. I've heard they're good, but have yet to pick them up. plus, the Glossary is abound with all of those vague acronyms we all love and use, and the definitions.

http://www.stevequayle.com/index1.html There's some off the wall stuff here, but again, you have to sift through it and you'll find some good news and info.

That's it, for now. If you'd like to add one, write it in the comments section, and I'll post it. I love new sites.




Long Days and Pleasant Nights.