Friday, March 15, 2013

WHERE DO I STAND?

When they kick down your front door,
how you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
or on the trigger of your gun?



The Clash - Guns of Brixton

A Reader writes:

I saw your post about the MRAPs and so forth. I chose not to comment on the blog, but I am asking you, where do you stand? It is getting harder to obey orders when those issuing them are so far from the laws and moral values of our forefathers. The Nuremburg Defense ain’t gonna cut it. Pretty soon we all gonna be drawing a line.


More and more people are asking me this question so I guess I'm going to have to do a post on it one of these days.

There seems to be a lot of despair out there these days. The Left with their pie-in-the-sky 'share the wealth and make everything equal' schemes are trampling all over our individual freedoms. There is a lot of talk of States secceeding from the Union, resistance, etc.

My bottom line is this: as bad as things may be or may get, things will only get ten million times worse if we descend into civil war. We do not want this. We must remain within the rule of law and our political system; which - flawed as it may be - is ten million times better than any other system out there.

I am a law-abiding, tax paying, land owning citizen and I intend to remain so. That snake flag over there is an American flag. It is not a flag of Rebellion.

"But StormBringer! But StormBringer! What about the gun grab? What about: 'If Guns Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Guns'?"

Well, as far as that goes I do not wish to become an outlaw, but I will not bow to tyranny. If our freedoms are usurped by the Liberals and their good intentions; well, I will be a LOT more effective working it from the inside than I would ever be making active resistance. If the day ever comes where I'm toting a rifle and leading raids and ambushes, that would be an absolute waste of my capabilities and I would be effing up by the numbers.

Consider: Schindler was a million times more effective at saving lives and mitigating Nazi crimes against humanity by wearing a Party lapel badge and working within the system, than he would have had he died in the streetfighting against the stormtrooper brownshirts.

I took an oath to uphold & defend the Constitution against all enemies - but I am not an "oath-keeper" nutjob. It is the job of the Supreme Court to determine legitimacy of government rules, actions, regulations, and orders; not the mob.

Regarding the current themes and efforts toward gun control, registration, etc - here's the STORMBRINGER party line: how about some enforced voter registration and voter identification FIRST - both allowable under the Constitution - before we start hacking away at the 2d Amendment?

Anyway lets be real, people. This is the United States of America - not the UK or Australia - and there is no way on God's Green Earth the American People are going to allow themselves to be disarmed. The Limey's and my Aussie bretheren were satisfied to drop trou, bend over and grab the ankles, spread their cheeks and let the Big Bad Government Bogeyman shove it to them right up the poop chute, but I got a feeling it ain't gonna be that easy here in the good ol' U S of A. I mean, they tried to outlaw alcohol and all that achieved was a nation of alcoholics, and they've been waging the war on drugs for over half a century now and all they got for it is a nation of drug addicts.

Go ahead and outlaw guns and see where it gets you. The American people are very resourceful. Me? I'm an opportunitist, a mercenary, and a laissez-faire capitalist. If they outlaw guns, I'll probably become a millionaire.

Well I guess I just wrote my post.


"That's my story and I'm sticking to it!"

- STORMBRINGER SENDS


12 comments:

  1. The Clash my favourite group of all time.

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  2. "That snake flag over there is an American flag. It is not a flag of Rebellion."

    Um... I'm not anti-American. But historically... The American state resulted from a revolution against the crown. America is founded on the principle of disloyalty to such institutions. All of the constitutional stuff was formalised by good men and is respectable as a post-rebellion justification of treason. Which is what it was.

    America is fortunate that the revolution was actually decent people fighting against decent people (at the time it was viewed as a civil war) and unique in the fact that the rebellion did not turn into a disaster after the transition of authority.

    Thank goodness that Britain and the USA now get on, but the "don't tread on me" flag is a flag of rebellion. A rebellious tradition inherited directly from the roundheads of England.

    Molon Labe!

    All the best,

    Paddy

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  3. I'll point out two things:

    1) ALL (especially military types) have a duty to NOT obey illegal orders;

    2) the progs/libs (whatever they call themselves) do NOT have 'good intentions' - they are trying to assert their will over us.

    OTB MCPO sends.

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  4. I don't know a veteran who wants a war - but that is the direction Americans are feeling pushed by government, politicians and the media. People's feelings aren't that of "Oh hey! I wanna go to war against the feds!" - no. People feel "Um, the feds are declaring war on us for no reason and are going to declare resistance an act of war. So what do we do?"

    The song is the same again and again.

    In the end, guns do not a peaceful society make - morality a peaceful society makes. If your society is loaded with guns but nobody values their life or the lives of those around them - you have a bloodbath. But if people use guns to protect what is rightfully theirs and use so with moral discretion then there is no problem.

    If they think they can disarm Americans - I'm going to agree with you. American's won't take it. We are by nature a rebellious people. Rebellion has been our way of life since 1620 when or forebearers decided not to play by the rules of Jolly Old England and said, "We're going to take our ball and go play somewhere else." We've been in a state of revolution on one issue or another ever since.

    No matter how much ammo DHS buys, they still don't have the manpower to overthrow the third largest country in the world where too many know and are trained in the tactics, strategies, technology, equipment, and there will be loyalists and defectors within the system - it won't succeed in a clean coup.

    But more powerful than guns are the power of morals, convictions, virtue. These, rightly lived cannot be swayed. These have more power to reach through the lines into the hearts and minds of those who are making the decisions that we are facing as a society.

    These cross barriers, are carried through lives, put into families, and affect the decisions that are being made.

    The pen of law enforced by guns was not meant to rule the hearts and minds of men, but rather the hearts and minds of men rule the pen of law and enforce the use of guns.

    People are confusing politics with religion and they are 180 degrees out of phase. They have begun to worship politics and accept them with blind faith while questioning and doubting religion.

    We need to have more faith in religion and god and question politics. This is how our country was designed.

    This is why our motto is "In God We Trust."

    Lastly, regardless of who wins the battle - we all die and will face our Maker and stand accountable for our lives and choices. Freedom lived immorally becomes slavery and a spiritual death-trap. This is why we cannot simply keep freedom by keeping our guns without tending to morality.

    America's problem is not one of guns, either too many or not enough - but one of morals. One of too many of the wrong one, and not enough of the right ones.

    If we wish to remain free, we need to repent, individually and nationally but we can only start with ourselves. But the impact of a single life rightly lived can have far reaching consequences, there are too many examples in history of this.

    I would say while we would do well to be prepared to fight, this should not be our focus. Oscar Schindler had the power he had because of his morals. We need to harness that power in our personal and family lives as well. As more of us do this, we will undermine what power the left seeks to exert over us. If we wish to fight the left, we need to raise our voices and live right lives, stand for virtue - and that - they cannot stop us from doing - and the power of this done? Well....it touches other lives.

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  5. Did people (mostly) obey the new laws here in Australia?

    Yes, we did.

    But please do not think we are 'disarmed like the British are'. Nothing could be further from the truth. I just got back from the range (breaking in my nice new Howa 1500 .308) and it was jam-packed. And they were running two full classes for junior shooters, and turning kids away due to being short a couple of RSO's.

    Ranges never used to be full, before the legislation change.

    See, a funny thing happened, after the legislation change. Lots of people like me (after I left the military) decided to jump through the hoops and become shooters and/or hunters. Just to tick off the left-wing bedwetters in many cases.

    There are now a lot more firearms here in Australia than there were before the legislation change, there are a hell of a lot more shooters, and the sport is growing very quickly.

    We do not have and have never had anything like your 2nd Amendment. It's completely alien to our culture and for good reason. This continent was so harsh and dangerous a place to settle that individuals could not do it by themselves. There's a saying that the difference between US and Australian culture can be summed up by the following:

    'Take two settler families and four wagons, put them pretty much anywhere in the CONUS and isolate them completely. Come back ten years later and you'll find a small, thriving farming community.

    But try that in Australia and you'll come back to find their bones.'

    The nature of this continent is that we have never had a choice but to work in partnership arrangements with each other and with government. Anything else just got you dead.

    Little fact for you. Ignoring the fact that 35% of Australia has no topsoil at all, did you know that the average depth of topsoil over the rest of the continent is less than half an inch? I just moved to Brisbane from Canberra. When I settled in Canberra in 2001 it was in a drought which had started in 1997. When I left Canberra was still in a drought. It was the same drought. I left in 2011. That drought broke last year, it was a 15 year drought.

    Now the problem is floods.

    Now, I spent a lot of time working with your Navy and Marines over the years, and there was a view that 'Australia is like the US was 20 years ago'. I saw quite clearly how people could have that idea. It's also completely wrong. We are very different civilisations. Generally, Australians like Americans and we get on very well with each other (the sad cretins of the Australian left excepted).

    Here, our left-wing government (as bad in its way as yours) is heading not for electoral defeat in this year's elections.

    oh no, it's headed for complete annihilation and perhaps 12-18 years in the wilderness. The Conservative party here (called the Liberals) are going to completely destroy the socialists (called the Australian Labor Party - dumb buggers can't even spell 'Labour' properly).

    Yet you guys re-elected your socialists. More indications, should any be needed, that we are very different countries.

    Mk 50
    Brisbane

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    1. This reader may not be aware of my intimate familiarity with Terra Australis:

      http://seanlinnane.blogspot.com/2009/10/origins-of-stormbringer_04.html

      http://seanlinnane.blogspot.com/2009/10/penguins.html

      It is not that Australia and America are different civilizations - we are part of the same great Western Civilization that emerged from Ancient Greece and Rome. Rather, we are different cultures, or perhaps sub-cultures, of that great civilization.

      Similarly, the difference between Australia and America is not so much the amount of topsoil or the meteorological conditions - granted you make a valid point about how conditions supported independence in America. The difference is the Constitution itself, most notably the Bill of Rights; a unique document in the annals of human history.

      Consider; when I lived in Australia I saw a man jailed for three days in Pentridge Prison for NOT VOTING - a federal crime, apparently. I also saw a man have his Australian passport revoked and not be allowed to travel outside of the country because of his religion - he was a leader of the Hare Krishna, and percieved as a dangerous influence to Australian society. When I tell Americans this, they think I'm crazy.

      Also, we didn't exactly re-elect our socialists. Our side still holds the House of Representatives and the Dems lost their super-majority in the Senate; in other words the Dark Demon lost his teeth. Of state governors there are currently 30 Republicans, 19 Democrats and 1 independent.

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  6. That "snake flag" as you call it is the Gadsdon flag, It is the battle flag of "The green mountain boys" A revolutionary war MILITIA that conducted a gurrilla war on the britts. It is Very much a flag of rebellion.

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    1. Yes I know that. That was then - since that time we have established a Republic and have a Constitution - which is our contract as individual citizens with that Republic. Nowadays the Snake Flag represents a reminder to the people we hire to govern our Republic that they'd better read the fine print on that Constitution very carefully or they're out of a job.

      Not my fault we let them get away with ballot box stuffing in Ohio and Pennsylvania. If it was up to me photo ID would be required to vote, just like it's required to get on an airplane, open a bank account or to drink in a bar.

      BTW it's spelled 'guerrilla' . . .

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    2. The rattlesnake was a symbol of resistance to the British in Colonial America, but actually had its origins in the "JOIN, or DIE" political cartoon penned by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 during the French and Indian War. Franklin's famous woodcut showed a snake cut into 8 sections representing the colonies. Franklin said of the rattlesnake "she never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders."
      Colonel Christopher Gadsen was representing his home state of South Carolina at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, PA when he designed the famous flag. He was one of seven members of the Marine committee who were outfitting 5 companies of Marines to accompany the Navy on their first mission. The flag's design and color matched the drums carried by the first US Marines.
      Col. Gadsen presented the flag to the newly appointed commander-in-chief of the Navy Commodore Esek Hopkins, to serve as his personal standard on his flagship (Col. Gadsen also presented a copy to the Congress of South Carolina). This is not to be confused with the First Navy Jack, which has an UNCOILED rattlesnake and the words "Don't Tread On Me" on a background of 13 stripes. There is question if this flag was flown prior to modern times - it appears to have been designed by English artist Thomas Hart as background art.
      The Culpepper (Virginia) Minutemens' flag had a coiled rattlesnake on a white background and added "Liberty or Death" to "Dont Tread On Me." The Proctor's Regiment of Westchester, PA, and the Rhode Island Militia Artillery flags also had coiled rattlesnakes. All four American designed "Rattlesnake Flags" show COILED rattlesnakes.

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  7. Glad to see where all of us oath keepers rank with you.

    SteveA

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    1. Lighten up Francis - you'll like tomorrow's post, I assure you. - S.L.

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  8. The Green Mountain Boys flag did not have a rattlesnake. It had a green field and, in a azure canton, a constellation of 13 5-pointed stars arranged in a natural pattern. Its still in use today as the regimental flag of the Vermont National Guard.

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