Marion Robert Morrison

Does that name sound familiar? How about Marion Mitchell Morrison? Still the same person.

Here is a the question he was presented and his reply. Playboy Magazine 1971:

Responding to questions about whether entitlement programs including Medicare and Social Security were good for the country:

“I know all about that. In the late Twenties, when I was a sophomore at USC, I was a socialist myself—but not when I left. The average college kid idealistically wishes everybody could have ice cream and cake for every meal. But as he gets older and gives more thought to his and his fellow man’s responsibilities, he finds that it can’t work out that way—that some people just won’t carry their load … I believe in welfare—a welfare work program. I don’t think a fella should be able to sit on his backside and receive welfare. I’d like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living. I’d like to know why they make excuses for cowards who spit in the faces of the police and then run behind the judicial sob sisters. I can’t understand these people who carry placards to save the life of some criminal, yet have no thought for the innocent victim.” 

I ran across this quote today and it really surprised me. I can remember as a kid I thought pretty much the same thing. What is amazing is this was said 41 years ago. And in light of the great Obamacare debate, the high usage of EBT cards I really find this poetic.

 

John Wayne said this quote. Surprising no? To bad the zombies and politicians in this country wont wake up and read what the Duke said.

French Foriegn Legion

I was putzing around on the computer at lunch a month or so ago and was just searching for random stuff and typed in French Foreign Legion. I had remembered when I was very young watching cartoons all Saturday morning on a black and white TV  in my pajamas until the last of the 3 available TV stations, ABC, CBS, NBC all played their final episodes. After Johnny Quest and that creepy Clutch Cargo series was finished for another 7 days. And, I would once in a while be treated with a chicken pot pie on a TV tray for lunch, still in my PJ’s! Ah 1970! what a life!

One of those afternoons in particular I remember watching the old movies that would come on after WWF (before it as WWF or WWE) wrestling on Channel 8 WQAD broadcasting from the Quad Cities. Beau Geste. what a great movie. The French Foreign Legion, those rugged guys in the pale featureless, hot unforgiving desert, march or die! you can sleep when your dead! kind of guys. I ran across this article on Vanity Fair’s website The Dark Romance and Grim Reality. I can see all the raised eye brows now, Vanity Fair?

Around page 3 the reporter interviewed one of the FFL Officers, “a French officer complained to me about the local citizens. He said, “They speak about their rights, their rights, their rights. Well, what about their responsibilities? In the Legion we don’t speak about our rights. We speak about our duties!”

I said, “It angers you.”

He looked at me with surprise, as if to say, And you it does not? “

Everyday we see in the media and how many times in a conversation we hear “my rights” or “their rights” After reading the Vanity Fair article I have been thinking hard about the FFL Officers comment. “Well, what about their responsibilities? In the Legion we don’t speak about our rights. We speak about our duties!”

There was a time in this country that we as a society not only said that same statement but lived it. Even the Progressives first family, American royalty, the Kennedy’s more specifically John Kennedy during his 1961 inaugural speech

 Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.  This much we pledge—and more.

and finally, And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

This all was said before I was born, my grandmother raised me this way.

Well, what about their responsibilities?, Well, what about your responsibilities?

Responsibilities? such a queer word for our world today, when nothing is our fault. As preppers we have no choice but to be responsible. It is our duty to ourselves, our families and in some part to our communities to be responsible. Learning a new skill, or improving an old skill, added to our preps. Even teaching a skill to a friend or neighbor.

My rant is over, but what about our responsibilities?

Hannibal ad portas

It was written that Hannibal taught the Romans the meaning of fear. It has been said that for generations, Roman housekeepers would tell their children brutal tales of Hannibal when they misbehaved. In fact, Hannibal became such a figure of terror that whenever disaster struck, the Roman Senators would exclaim “Hannibal ad portas“ (“Hannibal is at the Gates!”) to express their fear or anxiety. This famous Latin phrase evolved into a common expression that is often still used when a client arrives through the door or when one is faced with calamity.

One could almost look at the previous paragraph as a microcosm of today’s political stalemate in our own capital. But my feeling is that no one is saying Hannibal is at the Gates! Instead, we hear nothing.

Do I know what is going to happen in the next few weeks? Not really. If the country does go into default, which is around the November time frame when we as a country have to start to pay for everything with cash, and we all know that our government does not take in enough in taxes as a opposed to what is going out.  When and if we do run out of credit, it will begin a slow spiral into a depression. There is no amount of collusion that the main stream media will put up in print and video that can cover up what is really happening. Me? I believe that the last 5 years have been a depression, not in the vein of 1929, but a depression non the less. And to claim that the worst is past? Isn’t that a precious statement? Look at the recent crash of the food stamp EBT/LINK card system. There was a run on some grocery stores and WalMarts. The cards were coming up with an unlimited amount of credit on them. Some, zero balances. Just a small glimpse of what could happen.The shock after the event(s) is not surprising when reading some of the employee quotes in the aftermath of the run on the store.

Washington and their acolytes, the press will say and do anything. They know that when bellies get empty and hungry, the populace gets rowdy.

I spent this last weekend at WF’s class reunion. Not knowing any of her classmates, I was a fly on the wall the whole weekend. The same story over and over that I overheard was ” I was let go, laid off, company closed” and the denial. “Its the big companies fault”, what can I do? The damn company is building everything in China”. Mostly denial is what I witnessed.

WF was talking to a friend of hers about gardening etc. WF made the comment, you have to prepare. The expression on her friends face was priceless. I really don’t know how to explain her facial expression, she (the friend) had but the statement you have to prepare was so foreign to her she had no reply. Others around the table had this deer in the headlights look. It was a few seconds of awkward silence before the conversation passed to another subject.

I wish I had a crystal ball and could say we all are going to get Unicorns that poop candy until we die. And for free!

But I can’t. What I see is one political party attempting to build a Chicago type machine in Washington that will have lasting and not so good effects on the country for the next 3 generations. They have given a preview of their actions by using the government agencies as their brown shirts (The National Parks Service) and castrating the Border Patrol at the same time. One restricts the everyday life of the population and the other is not allowed to protect our borders.   I also see this same party trying to smash the other political party into oblivion.

The Republicans are trying to hold on for dear life and the Tea Party trying to inject some semblance of libertarian view on it all. Both need each other to combat the Democrats.

You and I are stuck in the front row strapped to our seats unable to extricate ourselves from the theater.

The next couple of weeks with be a classic “our side won” while saying the other side is “out of touch”. To use a talking point of the Progressives, lets have a common sense discussion on the budget. It seems to work for gun control, why not the budget?

 

Hannibal is at the Gates!

Black Hawk Down 20 years on

Black Hawk Down 20 years on. Jesus, I remember just returning from deployment and watching the news after this terrible event happened. As a matter of fact, I had just returned from that same AO. We flew in-direct support missions for the Marines and later the Army.

Even though I wasn’t there, in Mogadishu at that particular moment in time, I felt part of it. My heart was ripped out. Honestly I cried.

I am not a big 60 Minutes fan, this was aired last week. I watched the 15 min episode expecting some left slant on how we fucked up and should have never been there, it was Bush 1’s fault, blah, blah, blah. Didn’t see that in this episode.

http://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/terrorism/black-hawk-down-site-revisited/2732786339001/

 

 

I have seen the movie numerous times and many documentaries. Have not read the book. And I am not going to pass judgement. There were many things that went wrong with that mission.