Wallace, Stirling Bridge, and Us.

The search that found the music linked yesterday (see below) led me to scan other music pieces, and in looking for them, I came across some clips from the movie "Braveheart"

Let me say right up front that I know it is "just a movie". And I will also admit (with boundless pride!) my Scottish heritage, and that I still find piping music to be unmatched in making me think beyond myself, and making me look at the real heros in our history.

Having said that, listen to William Wallace as he speaks to his countrymen, who are looking at the English army, an army that outnumbers them, outclasses them in weaponry, and is far more experienced in the art of war. And those countrymen, just "guys next door", don't want to fight and possibly die; they want to go home to their wives and families, back to their farms and hearths. But Wallace has seen something that they are missing. He has seen freedom from a ruler who cares not about them, who sees them as servants and slaves to his every want and need. And Wallace has seen that freedom as a goal worth fighting for, and even worth dying for. His talk to them rings out.....yes, you can choose to go home and live. But somewhere, sometime before you die, you will wish that you chose differently, that you saw freedom and decided to fight for that freedom, to put it all on the line for a greater good.

It isn't medieval Scotland; it is the 21st century in the United States of America. We are not standing on the battle field of Stirling Bridge; we are sitting in front of our computers. We aren't carrying broadswords, shields and dirks; we are more likely carrying cell phones and I-pods. But we ARE looking at an assault on our country and our freedom, just as real as was Edward's assault into Scotland. We have suits in Washington having taken over corporations and banks, now aiming at health care control. We have "leaders" in Washington spending our money, money we will never see or have any control of because they take it before we even have it, both current money and money going generations into the future. We have "experts" predicting a warming globe and blaming it on us, and seeing as a solution yet more money taken from us, all in spite of absolutely no evidence showing human-cause warming, if there is any warming at all! We have a government that now acts as a nanny for almost 50% of the population, and wants more and ever more power over those it is supposed to be serving. And this government is never satisfied; it constantly grows and grows, spends and spends, and takes and takes. Our defense against this oppression were 3 of the most powerful pieces of paper ever written and signed, the Deceleration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. But after over 200 years, they are swept aside or simply ignored as the government continues to roll on, growing and taxing, taxing and crushing all before it. We are marching inexorably down a road that can only lead to ruin, a road traveled many times in the past by many countries and societies, all of whom failed and collapsed. The road we used to be on, the road laid out and built by the founders of this great country, the road paid for with the suffering and the blood of all those who fought for its survival, the road that we have to find again and set out upon, the road that leads from the Stirling Bridge of our time, is there for us, if we have to courage to look for it and take it as our own. The choice is ours as it was for Wallace and his army: go home and be satisfied with our servitude or stand up like men and say "FREEDOM".

Change of Pace

Just some music to soothe the anger and frustration
here

The Spending Cut

Being as how I do better with pictures (everyone knows that the words are there for those who don't understand the pictures, right??), I liked this graphic.

Kingston Tea Party

The Kingston contingent held their rally along Ulster Ave this afternoon. Estimates were that there were 250 to 350 present at any one time, although people came and went through the afternoon. I was struck by the huge number of passer-bys who honked, waved, and gave thumbs-up as they drove past.





A real cross section was there, older, younger, all varieties of people who shared a concern with where this country is going.

Just Truly Fantastic, and Touching

Truly beautiful and hauntingly sad.

If you can listen to this and NOT think of all the soldiers who have died protecting us and our liberty, then your mind works differently than mine.

He Is Risen

"On the first day 0f the week, at dawn, the women came to the tomb bringing the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled back from the tomb; but when they entered the tomb, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were still at a loss over what to think of this, two men in dazzling garments stood beside them. Terrified, the women bowed to the ground. The men said to them, "Why do you search for the Living One among the dead? He is not here, He has been raised up. Remember what He said to you while he was still in Galilee-that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again."
Luke 24, 1-8

On this blessed day that proclaims to the whole world, "HE IS RISEN", may the joy of that most sacred event fill all of you, not only today, but every day. He died for us and now is risen, so that we all may live.

A happy and blessed Easter to everyone.

As Liberty Is Slowly Crushed

Even as recently as a few years ago, most of us pointed fingers at places like Chavez's Venezuela, or Castro's Cuba, and remarked about how sad it was to see a people locked under a tyranny of a government that seized private property, oversaw all means of news reporting, and kept the common man completely under control.

We are now that country. Starting with the TARP program, the government sought to take control of the financial markets, and now we have a president who feels it is within his power to fire a CEO of General Motors, a Secretary of the Treasury who has no problem setting salary limits in the private sector, and a set of congressional members who blithely sign away our most basic rights.

Some of the banks who took those TARP funds, sometimes under duress, are now trying to repay them and get out from under the government thumb. Lo and behold, the government won't let them!!! This is NOT about saving the economy, this is about power, seizing and holding power. See here.

Now there has been presented a series of bills that would set up a new "czar" of information, and which bills would give the president absolute control of the internet. See here and here. Think about this for a moment. In order to protest what is happening in Washington, we have to first know what is happening. We have already learned that the mainstream media is of no use at all in this regard, and the restriction of "talk radio" is simply a matter of time. What is left to us is the free and unfettered exchange of ideas and information on the internet, just as you are doing right now. And these bills would grant the government absolute control over this medium.

The government controls the finances, is about to control health care, and now is taking control of communications. What, pray tell, is the difference between us and those countries that we used to pity? Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our Declaration of Independence, all of them are swept aside, ignored and forgotten, simply relics of past times. Instead we have a government that grows and grows, literally devouring the country in its never ending quest for power, power and more power, and we, the citizens of that country, are told to shut up, accept our place as servants of the government, and pay more and more to that fiendish machine of power-hungry politicians.