Saturday, August 31, 2013

MOVIES INSIDE MY MIND

I'm not sure why but I've always related to this song in a powerful way ... enjoy - S.L.



STORMBRINGER SENDS

Thursday, August 29, 2013

THE THIRD CRUSADE

Am I the only one who senses the irony at how the 2009 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize has painted himself into a corner into a war with no good guys?

And so we embark upon the Third Modern Crusade.


The First Modern Crusade was the Gulf War of 1991, of course. This limited excursion liberated Kuwait, featured SCUD missiles raining down on Tel Aviv and brought about a tenuous twelve-year peace.

The Second Modern Crusade of 2003 included the Liberation of Baghdad, which quickly devolved into savagery, and the Sack of Falluja.

Right now the options for military intervention in Syria are bad, and worse. There are no good guys on the ground. A series of sterile air and cruise missile strikes will accomplish little, if anything; Assad has disbursed his weapons and troop formations amongst civilian population centers; collateral damage i.e. non-combatant casualties are inevitable. Imagery of these casualties will be exploited to the max by the Assad regime.

At this time, Assad has approximately two hundred SCUD missiles pointed toward Israel; this is his only trump card and we must assume they have chemical warheads. Meanwhile, his allies the Iranians have Allah knows how many missiles pointed toward Israel. A reminder; the Islamic fundamentalists view the State of Israel as merely a modern iteration of the old Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Western foothold into their territory, and they are determined to take it back. This explains their eagerness to unleash havoc.

Has anyone in the Obama Administration spoken of possible objectives in Syria? I have not seen this discussion in the media. To put Americans in harms way without a stated goal is beyond ignorant; this borders on criminal negligence.

From a purely strategic point of view, the only effective application of military force would be to go in and kill in all directions. There are no good guys. Assad and the Awalite forces are behaving like pure savages, while the rebel forces have been thoroughly usurped by al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.

A Crusader's memoir from the Third Crusade: "We slew the Saracens in their thousands and in their tens of thousands, until the blood ran knee deep in the streets. Knee deep, to the horses knees."


This of course, brings to mind the timeless quote of Arnaud Amalric, uttered at the commencement of the sack of Cathar stronghold of Béziers, during the Albigensian Crusade in 1204:

Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.

"Kill them all, for the Lord knows those that are His own."

- STORMBRINGER SENDS

NRA Life Of Duty: OUTLAW PLATOON FULL FEATURE

This is a follow-up on the release of the Outlaw Platoon Part 3 Full Feature on NRA's Life Of Duty website

In 2006 Lt. Sean Parnell and the men under his leadership, known as the Outlaw Platoon, deployed to one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan, less than 10 miles from the Pakistani border. Their mission was to disrupt and destroy this network at all costs – to seek out enemy positions and thwart the movement of insurgent forces into and out of the safe haven of Pakistan. After a year in some of the most intense combat imaginable in a 360-degree battlefield, the only thing Sean Parnell and his men wanted to do was survive.



Wednesday, August 28, 2013

NRA NEWS: BACKGROUND CHECKS

ex-Navy SEAL Dom Raso to speak to the American public for NRA News.


In "Background Checks" former US Navy SEAL Dom Raso discusses the futility of thinking one new law will solve everything. Watch more from Dom and the other NRA News Commentators at www.nranews.com/commentators



Tuesday, August 27, 2013

FIELDCRAFT 101: TIE TWELVE KNOTS

These are some of the basic and essential knots all pioneers, woodsmen and adventurers should know - S.L.

1. SQUARE KNOT.
The square knot is used to tie the ends of two ropes of equal diameter. It is a joining knot.


How to tie the Square Knot:
A) Holding one working end in each hand, place the working end in the right hand over the one in the left hand.
B) Pull it under and back over the top of the rope in the left hand.
C) Place the working end in the left hand over the one in the right hand and repeat STEP 2.
D) Dress the knot down and secure it with an overhand knot on each side of the square knot.

2. OVERHAND KNOT

This general-purpose knot can be used as a “stopping knot”, or as a step in tying more complex knots.

3. CLOVE HITCH
The Clove Hitch is an anchor knot that can be used in the middle of the rope as well as at the end. It can be used as either an anchor or middle of the rope knot, depending on how it is tied.


How to tie a Clove Hitch at the End of the Rope:
(Note: Assume that the anchor is horizontal.)
A) Place the working end of the rope over the top of the anchor. Hold the standing part in the left hand. With the right hand, reach under the horizontal anchor, grasp the working end, and bring it inward.
B) Place the working end of the rope over the standing part (to form a loop). Hold the loop in the left hand. Place the working end over the anchor to the left of the loop.
C) With the right hand, reach down to the left hand side of the loop under the anchor. Grasp the working end of the rope. Bring the working end up and outward.
D) Dress down the knot.


How to tie a Clove Hitch in the Middle of the Rope:
A) Hold rope in both hands, palms down with hands together.
B) Form a loop away from and back toward the right.
C) With the right hand, form a loop inward and back to the left hand.
D) Place the left loop on top of the right loop. Place both loops over the anchor and pull both ends of the rope in opposite directions. The knot is tied.

4. TIMBER HITCH
The Timber Hitch is even better than the Clove hitch. It is easily made by passing the end of a rope around the spar or log, round the standing part of the rope and then twist it three or more times around, under and over itself.


How to tie a Timber Hitch:
A) Place the working end of a rope around a spar (c).
B) Then route the working end (a) several times around standing part (b), against the lay of the rope.

5. SHEET BEND
The Sheet Bend Knot is used for tying two ropes of different diameters. It is structurally related to the Bowline.


How to tie the Sheet Bend:
A) Pass the end of one rope through the bight of another.
B) Go around both parts of the other and under its own standing parts.
A double sheet bend may be employed when a Sheet Bend may not have enough friction to hold well.


The Double Sheet Bend, like the Sheet Bend, is used to fasten a small line to a larger one. In the illustration the light colored line would be the smaller and the
darker one would be the larger.

6. ROUND-TURN-AND-TWO-HALF HITCHES
This knot is used to tie the end of a rope to an anchor, and it must have constant tension. It is an anchor knot.


How to tie the Round-Turn-and-Two-Half-Hitches:
A) Route the rope around the anchor from right to left and wrap down (must have two wraps in the rear of the anchor, and one in the front). Run the loop around the object to provide 360-degree contact, distributing the load over the anchor.
B) Bring the working end of the rope left to right and over the standing part, forming a half hitch (first half hitch).
C) Repeat STEP 2 (last half hitch has a 4 inch pigtail).
D) Dress the knot down.

7. TAUT-LINE HITCH
Since it will only slide one way, the Taut-line hitch is often used to adjust tension on tent lines. The taut-line hitch will hold firmly under tension.


How to tie a Taut-Line Hitch:
Place rope end through or around whatever it is you are fastening (in the illustration it is an eye on a corner of a tent or tarp) make a round turn twice around the standing part below it, then bring rope up across the standing part and a make a half-hitch around it.

8. BOWLINE


The bowline is one of the most important and versatile of knots. It is be used to tie a single fixed loop in the end or the middle of a rope. It is an anchor knot, when used to tie the end of a rope around an anchor. There are several variants of the bowline.


How to tie the Bowline:
A) Facing the anchor, bring the working end of the rope around the anchor, from right to left.
B) Form an overhand loop on the right hand side of the standing part of the rope, toward the anchor.
C) Reach through the loop and pull up a bight.
D) Draw the working end of the rope from the left hand side through the bight, and bring it back onto itself. Now dress the knot down.
E) Form an overhand knot with the tail from the bight.

9. BOWLINE-ON-A-BIGHT (TWO-LOOP BOWLINE)


The Bowline-on-a-Bight is one of the many variants of the Bowline. It is used to form two fixed loops in the middle of a rope. It is a middle rope knot.


How to tie the Bowline-on-a-Bight:
A) Form a bight in the rope about twice as long as the finished loops will be.
B) Tie an overhand knot on a bight.
C) Hold the overhand knot in the left hand so that the bight is running down and outward.
D) Grasp the bight with the right hand; fold it back over the overhand knot so that the overhand knot goes through the bight.
E) From the end (apex) of the bight, follow the bight back to where it forms the cross in the overhand knot. Grasp the two ropes that run down and outward and pull up, forming two loops.
F) Pull the two ropes out of the overhand knot and dress the knot down.
G) A final dress is required: grasp the ends of the two fixed loops and pull, spreading them apart to ensure the loops do not slip.

10. GIRTH HITCH
The girth hitch is used to attach a runner to an anchor or piece of equipment. It is a special-purpose knot, often used in mountaineering for placing a snaplink (D-ring or carabiner) in mid line, or tying one rope 90 degrees off a heavier line.


How to tie the Girth Hitch:
A) Form a bight.
B) Bring the runner back through the bight.
C) Cinch the knot tightly.

11. CAT’S PAW

The principle of fastening by twisted rope is utilized in the “Cat’s Paw”. It can be used as an alternative to the Girth Hitch, or for hoisting with a hook.


How to tie the Cat's Paw:
A) Pass the bight of your rope over the end and standing part.
B) With a bight in each hand, take three twists from you.
C) Then bring the two bights side by side and fasten the snaplink or hook.

12. PRUSIK
The Prusik is used to put a moveable rope on a fixed rope such as a Prusik ascent or a tightening system. This knot can be tied as a middle or end of the rope Prusik. It is a specialty knot of climbers.


How to tie the Middle-of-the-Rope Prusik:
The middle-of-the-rope Prusik can be tied with a short rope to a long rope as follows:
A) Double the short rope, forming a bight, with the working ends even. Lay it over the long rope so that the closed end of the bight is 12 inches below the long rope and the remaining part of the rope (working ends) is the closest to the climber; spread the working end apart.
B) Reach down through the 12-inch bight. Pull up both of the working ends and lay them over the long rope. Repeat this process making sure that the working ends pass in the middle of the first two wraps. Now there are four wraps and a locking bar working across them on the long rope.
C) Dress the wraps and locking bar down to ensure they are tight and not twisted. Tying an overhand knot with both ropes will prevent the knot from slipping during periods of variable tension.
How to tie the End-of-the-Rope Prusik:
A) Using an arm’s length of rope, and place it over the long rope.
B) Form a complete round turn in the rope.
C) Cross over the standing part of the short rope with the working end of the short rope.
D) Lay the working end under the long rope.
E) Form a complete round turn in the rope, working back toward the middle of the knot.
F) There are four wraps and a locking bar running across them on the long rope. Dress the wraps and locking bar down. Ensure they are tight, parallel, and not twisted.
G) Finish the knot with a bowline to ensure that the Prusik knot will not slip out during periods of varying tension.

My references for this post are US Army Field Manual 3-97-61 MILITARY MOUNTAINEERING and The Boy Scout Handbook.

- STORMBRINGER SENDS

Friday, August 23, 2013

WWII VET BEATEN, LEFT TO DIE

Another senseless, unprovoked, racism-fueled lethal attack on a white by African Americans, and again not a peep out of the Obama Whitehouse or their witting accomplices in the Lamestream Media - S.L.

What the hell is going on? Over a year ago a brown man shoots and kills a black man in self-defense of his life, and the President of the United States makes it part of his personal agenda, proclaims the thug Trayvon as his son, and sics the Federal Justice Department on a local Sheriff's Department in Sanford, Florida. The media climbed on the bandwagon and couldn't stop beating the race drum.

Now we have two incidents in two days - Chris Lane gunned down in cold blood, and now Delbert Belton, a WWII veteran who survived being wounded in action during the Battle of Okinawa only to be beaten and left for dead by two teens at the Eagles Lodge in Spokane, Wednesday evening.

Witnesses say Belton was in the parking lot of the Eagles Lodge at 6410 N. Lidgerwood, adjacent to the Eagles Ice-A-Rena, around 8 p.m. Wednesday when the two male suspects attacked him as he was about to head inside to play pool.


"Shorty," as he was known by his friends at the Eagles Lodge, served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific during WWII and was shot in the leg during the Battle of Okinawa. He went on to work at Kaiser Aluminum at the company's Trentwood plant for more than 30 years. Belton's wife passed away several years ago.

Spokane police are looking for two male suspects in the attack. They said the suspects are African Americans between 16 and 19 years old. One suspect was described as heavy set and wearing all black clothing. The other was described as being about 6 feet tall and 150 pounds. There was no description of what clothing the second suspect was wearing other than a silk do-rag.

Police investigating the deadly attack on Belton have also obtained surveillance footage from the scene.

Latest:

Teen suspect to be charged as adult in murder of WWII vet

If Delbert Belton had shot those thugs in self-defense and survived, Obama and the race-baiting industry would have the Lamestream Media and the DOJ all over him.

STORMBRINGER SENDS

MSG GEORGE BANNAR, KIA, AFGHANISTAN


Master Sgt. George A. Bannar Jr., 37, of Orange, Va. was killed in action August 20, 2013, in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, from wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit, military officials said.

MSG Banner was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. This was his fifth deployment to Afghanistan.

He is in Valhalla. Honor him.

STORMBRINGER SENDS


ONCE UPON A TIME IN BRAZIL

Attempted Robbery Ends in Unexpectedly Spectacular Failure



Family legend: my grandfather did this to a gangster who was trying to shake him down for protection money, knocked him straight through the front window of the family pub with such force the bad guy went across the sidewalk and into the horse trough. TRUTH.

How come none of these assclowns ever show up when I'm around?

STORMBRINGER SENDS

Thursday, August 22, 2013

IF I HAD A SON HE WOULD LOOK LIKE CHRIS LANE

Lamestream Media Tries to Ignore Australian Student Murdered By "Bored Teens" Obsessed with Violent Rap Lyrics

There has been more outrage in the mainstream media, more attention paid in the mainstream media to that stupid clown story at the Missouri State Fair than there has been to this wanton murder in Oklahoma. What little coverage this senseless murder has been given has been oriented on guns. This isn't about legally owned guns being used in self-defense, this is about racism, pure and simple.

Chilling 911 call details final moments of Melbourne baseballer Chris Lane's life



Jesse Jackson Says Oklahoma Murder is "Frowned Upon"

Frowned upon? FROWNED UPON??? Is that the best the Left can come up with? The same crew that castigated Zimmerman for shooting Trayvon Martin in a clear-cut case of self-defense, who played The Race Card all over the place during the entire Trayvon Martin saga, has barely a peep to say about this situation - which is everything they said about the Zimmerman case, only in reverse.

This one hits home for me; I'm an Australian, I'm from Melbourne, and I came to America to better myself. Here's my personal message to the President of the United States, to Attorney General Eric Holder - sympathizer to the New Black Panthers who are the modern-day KKK - to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and all professional race-baiters in this country and the media Libtards who empower them:

You silence speaks volumes. Where is the outrage? This case is everything you claimed the Trayvon Martin case was about: a deliberate, cold-blooded, pre-meditated first-degree murder driven by the lethal racist mindset the gangsta rap music culture promotes.

This is where the frenzy you whipped up during the Zimmerman trial leads. This is the end result of gangsta-rap and the nihilistic culture it spins. This is racism in America and you Liberals own it.

"If I had a son, he would look like Chris Lane."

- STORMBRINGER SENDS




YOUR HISTORY LESSON FOR TODAY

Hours after Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Secret Service found themselves in a bind. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was to give his Infamy Speech to Congress the next day, and although the trip from the White House to Capitol Hill was short, agents weren’t sure how to transport him safely.

At the time, Federal Law prohibited buying any cars that cost more than $750, so they would have to get clearance from Congress to do that, and nobody had time for that.

One of the Secret Service members, however, remembered that the US Treasury had seized the bulletproof car that mobster Al Capone owned when he was sent to jail in 1931. They cleaned it, made sure it was running fine and had it ready for the President the day after.


And run properly it did. Capone’s car was a sight to behold. It had been painted black and green so as to look identical to Chicago’s police cars at the time. It also had a specially installed siren and flashing lights hidden behind the grille, along with a police scanner radio. To top it off, the gangster’s 1928 Cadillac 341A Town Sedan had 3,000 pounds of armor and inch-thick bulletproof windows. Mechanics are said to have cleaned and checked each feature of the Caddy well into the night of December 7th, to make sure that it would run properly the next day for the Commander in Chief.

The car was sold at an auction price of $341,000 in 2012.

"Now you know the rest of the story . . ."

STORMBRINGER SENDS

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

JUST ANOTHER NOTCH ON MY GUITAR

Robert Cray IS the Blues, personified - simple, soul-cutting lyrics, incredible guitar riffs - I was first exposed to his genius in 1988; been a fan ever since -S.L.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

WIT & WISDOM OF SIR WINSTON

"Paraprosdokians" - Churchill loved them - are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently humorous. Enjoy! - S.L.


1. Where there's a will, I want to be in it.

2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on my list.

3. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

4. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

6. War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

8. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

9. I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

10. In filling out an application, where it says, 'In case of emergency, Notify:' I put 'DOCTOR'.

11. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they
are sexy. (Ever been to K MART?)

12. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

13. I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure..

14. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

15. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

16. You're never too old to learn something stupid.

17. I'm supposed to respect my elders, but its getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

Monday, August 19, 2013

DREAM SAGA 3

There are three types of dreams. In the preceding Dream Sagas I presented a dream which turned out to be a symbolic glimpse into the future, and an astral travel dream that included a supernatural visitation - S.L.

Most dreams are simply the brain cleansing itself of the previous days myriad of thoughts and impressions. It only makes sense that this is why they dissolve and go away, leaving behind no memory.

There are some dreams, however, that are so vivid that you will never forget them.

The Third Dream

In this dream, my mentor from Special Forces was present.

"Deacon of Doom"

By curious twist of Fate, Deacon was not only my mentor in Special Forces, but he was also my mentor in my post-military career as a security consultant. I have learned a great deal from the Deacon. He has always brought out the best in me, showed me how to apply my knowledge.

In the dream, Deacon and I are preparing for one of our secret missions. Because it was World War II in Europe - in the dream - we put on the uniforms of the Gebirgsjäger - elite alpine troops of the Wehrmacht - to infiltrate an enemy installation a la 'Where Eagles Dare'.


This is extraordinary because when I was stationed in Europe I actually trained with the Austrian Gebirgsjäger up in the Alps, and received the coveted Edelwiess.

So we're in this compound, and like most Germanic military / industrial facilities it is very bauhaus, there is lots of concrete because those people seem to worship cement; they must have invented it for the Romans.

It's Day 2 of the mission; Deacon is off doing his nefarious deeds, setting up commo or something, meanwhile I'm walking across the center of the compound and it strikes me something is awfully familiar about the surroundings. That is because the place is actually my old high school campus; International School Bangkok, in Bangkapi, Soi 15.


Of course in my dream the place is infested with German and Austrian soldiers in Nazi uniforms. Everywhere you look there are swastikas, iron crosses, SS lightning runes, eagles, the whole nine yards.

A blonde woman approaches me.


"I don't know what it is about you, something is different."


She puts her hand on my sleeve. With a discreet nod of her head she indicates all the Nazi swine around us.


"You are not like the others."

I'm thinking, 'Oh great, I'm busted. Now we're going to have to scrub the mission and get the hell out of here.' As she begins fiddling with a button on my uniform, I become aware that she is Jewish, trying to pass herself off as a fraulein.

Then I become aware that the blonde woman I am talking to in the dream is somebody I actually know - an ex-lover, in fact.

Dream Interpretation

This dream is obviously of great psychological significance - the kind of dream that Freud would have said reflects the wants and needs of the subconscious psyche. The dream is fraught with significant symbolism; the Nazi uniforms and insignia themselves transmit a strong message.

The woman is the key to this dream; present life circumstances demand discretion, however. Needless to say, the enemy installation I am infiltrating in the dream morphs itself into my old high school campus, and it is apropos that she approaches me within these surroundings.

But nowadays we are completely different people from who we were, way back when. There are aspects of my persona which I sense she finds disturbing - military themes, my enthusiasm for the gun culture, etcetera - the warrior mystique, for lack of a better description. She is of the arts crowd, surrounded by people who perceive themselves as being more . . . < ahem > . . . open-minded . . . in their outlook on life. The Nazi uniform I wear in the dream may possibly represent the exterior that people tend to see, versus the sensitive sophisticate that dwells within.

Analysis of this dream revealed a deeper, more profound facet of my subconscious that I find somewhat disturbing. Again, circumstances demand discretion, and so this will remain private.

STORMBRINGER SENDS

Sunday, August 18, 2013

DREAM SAGA 2

This second dream is like something out of Ancient Greek literature . . . S.L.




In the previous Dream Saga post, I described how the Ancients had all kinds of beliefs about dreams, from astral travel to glimpses into the future to supernatural visitations. I believe there are three types of dreams. Most of them are quite simply deprogramming of all the mental garbage that goes through our cerebellum each and every day. That is why it is so difficult to remember them - they simply dissolve into the ether.

Some dreams, however, have deeper significance.

These are the dreams that you never forget. They stand out because they are exactly what they appear to be; an intersection between our conscious life in the physical, material world and the plane of the supernatural.




There IS a supernatural world - it is exactly what the word means; over and above or greater than the natural world. From an engineer's frame of reference, the natural world consists of that which can be recorded and measured and then replicated under controlled circumstances; laboratory conditions as it were.

The supernatural world, or the spirit world, or whatever you want to call it, represents itself to us in those phenomena that we can observe but cannot replicate. Think of ghost sightings, UFOs, crop circles, voodoo and the spiritualism of primitive peoples, the sixth sense, out-of-body experiences and other paranormal activities. These events do occur, but because we have extreme difficulty putting them into a frame of perspective, we do not understand them and therefore we tend to deny such a dimension exists.

And yet it does exist, and it manifests itself each and every day.


Background

This dream took place within two weeks of my mother's passing away, in September of 2000. My mother had a lot of class and a definite style that was all her own. What happened was while I was overseas on one of my adventures, she'd had a stroke. I contacted her and asked if I should come home early. She said she was fine, she'd had a complete recovery and to complete my mission and come home on schedule, in six weeks.

I remained overseas, but when I came home the first thing I did was go and visit my mother. Good thing I did, because she had another stroke. The next day I was visiting her at the hospital, and she was sitting up in bed, full recovery, seemingly no effects of the stroke. The only after-effect of the stroke was she kept referring to an item she'd seen on the news about some kind of wild animal that had appeared up in the Northeast, but she couldn't put her finger on what exactly it was.

We all asked her, "Was it a raccoon?"

"No."

"Was it a coyote?"

"No."

"Was it a possum?"

"No."

"Was it a groundhog?"

"No."

We went through the whole menagerie from aardvark to zebra but nobody could help her figure out what the thing was. This was the only after-effect of her stroke, thankfully.

Then the next morning she sat up in bed, went "Oh! Oh! Oh!" held her hand to her head and fell back. Massive brain hemorrhage - she was gone. But she was in such good physical shape that it took her another 48 hours to expire.

We all have to go sooner or later. Mother's passing was the Gold Standard of checking out - fast and relatively painless, surrounded by friends and family, after a long and satisfying life.

Like I said, my mother had a definite style that was all her own. Immediately after her passing away, my sister-in-law commented that there was such a presence of her in the house. She was absolutely right about this. Everywhere you looked were reminders of my mother's personal touch.

The dream came a couple weeks later . . .


The Second Dream

I was sleeping when I felt a deep cold move like a wave over my entire body.




Despite the fact I was asleep, I felt like I was wide awake, as if I were under some kind of anaesthesia that keeps one conscious but unable to feel or to move one's body. It was a definite out-of-body experience.

I was in some kind of subterranean cavern, a large, gray chamber with dark passages leading off to parts unknown. It was cold, dark and lonely.




I became aware that my mother was there, pale and gray.

By this time I was certainly wide awake but in a sleep-like state, if that makes any sense. My mother didn't say anything at first, she was just there, a presence.





"Mother," I finally said, "What's it like? The Land of the Dead?"


"Oh it's cold . . ." she replied.

". . . so cold . . . oh so cold . . ."



That's all she said. Then I drifted into a deep, dark slumber.

I will never forget this dream.


Dream Interpretation

This dream was obviously a form of astral travel, and a supernatural visit from the Other Side. There is no doubt in my mind that this was my mother in spirit form visiting me. I definitely had the sensation we were in a holding area - an antechamber of Hades - that this was not my mother's final destination. I am quite sure of this, because I sensed my mother's presence one more time, about six months later.


Epilogue

It was in Kuwait and something went horribly wrong; a friendly fire incident involving a Navy F-18 and three 500lb bombs. Six were killed, including the man who at the last minute went forward in my place, and two were maimed. I immediately felt that my mother had interceded to keep me from harm.

My mother was always worried about my military activities. After the incident in Kuwait, I felt that my mother had served her post-mortum purpose, and that she moved on past the waiting place where we had met. I never sensed her presence again.


The final Dream Saga 3 follows . . .

STORMBRINGER SENDS

Saturday, August 17, 2013

DREAM SAGA 1

I often refer to myself as a philosopher, although my trade is soldiering . . . S.L.


Nowadays I earn my living via the knowledge and skills picked up over twenty-five years of wearing the war suit. That is what I do for pay, but I walk this Earth as an observer, a student of human nature and a seeker of truth. Along with honoring our heroes, this is really what Blog STORMBRINGER endeavors to represent.

Nowadays we have psychologists, these are the modern philosophers and Freud was the first of this genre. There is much knowledge to glean from the Moderns, but I do not turn my back on the wisdom of the Ancients. I try to view the world through the prism of Ancient Greece and Rome, as much as possible. This outlook, along with my spiritualism makes for an interesting life journey.



Three Types of Dreams

The Ancients had all kinds of beliefs about dreams, from astral travel to glimpses into the future to supernatural visitations.

Spiritualy, the Moderns also have differing opinions about dreams. Freud believed that various aspects of dreams had specific symbolism, reflective of our subconscious psyches. This seems to make absolute sense. However, many Moderns seem to believe that dreams are nothing more than a kind of mental static, random & abstract images as the brain cleansing itself of the previous days myriad of thoughts and impressions. This also seems to make sense.

Myself, I believe there are three types of dreams. Most of them are as mentioned above, a sort of deprogramming of all the mental garbage that goes through our cerebellum each and every day. If we retained every thought and opinion experienced during the course of a day, we'd go stark raving mad. Some dreams, however, have deeper significance.

There are some dreams that are so vivid that you never forget them. Sometimes they are repeat dreams that come back on a regular basis - this can mean many things. The sensation of reality in these kind of dreams makes them stand apart from the usual nightly rinsing of the mind. I present to you three dreams; this first dream came to me more than ten years ago and I have never forgotten it. As events bore out, this dream was obviously a symbolic harbinger of future events which unfolded for me.

The First Dream




I was back in Bangkok...

it was the Bangkok of the 1970s where I grew up...






It was a party in somebody's apartment. All my friends were there, the teenagers I'd gone to high school with at the International School. We were adults now, but the surroundings were of the 1970s. The apartment had the cement walls, the screened windows; louvered slats of glass that opened when you turned a little aluminum crank, lots of dark teakwood inside; teakwood parquet floors, teakwood furniture, teakwood paneling.

So many of the old crew was there; Tessie & Ralphie, Rebecca S., Shelley, Jeff Snark, Mark the Ferret, Charlotte T., Ann, Johnny A & Wayne Bro; but we were all grown up now. You must understand that because we were ex-pat kids, once we graduated the International School we literally flew away to the four corners of the Earth. At the time I had this dream, I had not laid eyes on most of these folks in more than two decades.

I recall at one point we were congregating in one of the bedrooms, only it was not furnished as a bedroom. It was bare, and I was looking out those louvered windows at the Bangkok street scene outdoors. It was the usual Bangkok street scene - lots of cement buildings, grimy from the air pollution, heavy traffic.


Then, as things do in dreams, the scene outside the windows changed. The grimy noisy Bangkok of the 1970s became a colorful open field, very pastoral but not natural somehow. There was a definite artificiality to the fields and the electric-blue sky, and I don't know how to say it but the place seemed to lack a distant horizon. . We were looking out at an other-worldly scene.

In the center of this strange field was an arrangement of pipes, painted bright colors: red & blue & yellow. The pipes elbowed all around and intersected themselves over and under and all around at ninety-degree angles. We left the apartment and walked out to wander amongst them. We wondered what they were for, what was their purpose?


Because I'm an engineer I can analyze systems and have a knowledge of industrial facilities. I could sense the pipes were energized somehow, there was a definite energy field about the apparatus, and it suddenly dawned on me we were in the middle of some kind of machine! The lack of any kind of moving parts suggested the thing made use of harmonic energy - and when I became aware of that I became slightly unnerved.

"Hey guys!" I announced, "I know what this thing is! It's a TIME MACHINE!!!"

We looked about in wonder at the thing, not understanding what it meant, yet marveling at the fact that it was indeed a time machine. That's about as far as the dream goes.

Dream Interpretation

What is remarkable is that at the time of that dream, I had not seen any of my old school mates since the late Seventies. Since the time of that dream - thanks to the modern phenomenon of the Internet and social media - I have managed to reconnect with most of my old friends from high school.

There are one or two holdouts but I know where they are, and I hear from them or of them from time to time. We have re-unions, once every two years, either on the East Coast or the West Coast. We have websites and Facebook pages and so often its like going back in time, or looking through a time portal, or as if time itself has stood still.


This dream represented an unusual glimpse into the future; a sort of symbolic foretelling of a future nobody could have imagined at the time I dreamed this dream.



More to follow . . . Dream Saga 2 is next . . .

STORMBRINGER SENDS


Friday, August 16, 2013

THIS DAY IN 1977 . . .


. . . Elvis goes into hiding




I am an American . . . the only King I bow and pay homage to is Elvis.

STORMBRINGER SENDS

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

AUTHOR OF INDEPENDENCE

This is amazing - S.L.


Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man who started learning very early in life and never stopped.

At 5, began studying under his cousin's tutor.

At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.

At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.

At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.

At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.

At 23, started his own law practice.

At 25, was elected

To the Virginia House of Burgesses.

At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America ? And retired from his law practice.

At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.

At 33, took three years to revise Virginia's legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.

At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry.

At 40, served in Congress for two years.

At 41, was the American Minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.

At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.

At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.

At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of Republican Party.

At 57, was elected the third president of the United States.

At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nation's size.

At 61, was elected to a second term as President.

At 65, retired to Monticello.

At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.

At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.

At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence along with John Adams.

Thomas Jefferson knew because he himself studied the previous failed attempts at government. He understood actual history, the nature of God, his laws and the nature of man. That happens to be way more than what most understand today. Jefferson really knew his stuff. A voice from the past to lead us in the future:

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe ." - Thomas Jefferson

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." - Thomas Jefferson

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world." - Thomas Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Thomas Jefferson

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." - Thomas Jefferson

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." - Thomas Jefferson

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson

"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802: "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing Armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."


Say No More . . .

STORMBRINGER SENDS

Monday, August 12, 2013

A GIRL WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes


Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone


Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaahhhhh...


Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmellow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high

Newpaper taxis appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you're gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaahhhhh...

Picture yourself on a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstyle
The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaahhhhh...

Sunday, August 11, 2013

GUNS IN AMERICA - A STATISTICAL PERSPECTIVE

Gun Ownership vs. Crime Statistics shed some sanity upon the issue - S.L.


Every year, guns are used over 80x more often to protect a life than to take one.

Source: 2010 CDC Report


270 Million = Approximate # of Civilian firearms in America

Source: www.gunpolicy.org









200,000 TIMES A YEAR = WOMEN USE A GUN TO DEFEND AGAINST SEXUAL ABUSE


Source: Kleck and Gertz, "Armed Resistance to Crime," at 185






3 out of 5 POLLED FELONS SAY THEY WON’T MESS WITH AN ARMED VICTIM

Source: U.S., Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, "The Armed Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons," Research Report (July 1985): 27.


GUN OWNERSHIP vs CRIME - AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:

Highest Gun Ownership Rate per 100 residents:

#1 - USA: 88.8%

#2 - YEMEN: 54.8%

#3 - SWITZERLAND: 45.7%

#4 - FINLAND: 45.3%

Source: SmallArmsSurvey.org


Highest Intentional Homicide Rate per 100,000 residents:

#1 - HONDURAS: 91.6

#2 - EL SALVADOR: 69.2

#3 - CÔTE D'IVOIRE: 56.9

#4 - JAMAICA: 52.2

(USA is #103 at 4.8 homicides per 100,000 residents.)

Source: "Homicide Statistics 2012", UNODC.

A recent study published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy concluded that there is a negative correlation between gun ownership and violent crime in countries internationally (more guns = less crime).

Nations with strict gun control laws have substantially higher murder rates than those who do not in general. In fact, the 9 European nations with the lowest gun ownership rate have a combined murder rate THREE TIMES that of the 9 European nations with the highest gun ownership rate!



UNITED KINGDOM CASE STUDY - “Most violent country in EU”
Source: Telegraph - UK is violent crime capital of Europe 2 July 2009

No guns: POSSESSION OF HANDGUNS IS ILLEGAL IN THE UK

Crime: 2,034 VIOLENT CRIMES PER 100,000 PEOPLE IN UK (vs 466 violent crimes per 100,000 people in the USA)

In the decade following the Labor party's election and banning of handguns in 1997, the number of recorded violent attacks soared by 77% to 1.2 million in '07- or more than 2 attacks every minute!


Kitchen knives are being used in as many as half of all stabbings in the United Kingdom and has prompted a group of doctors to call for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives.


CONCEALED CARRY IN AMERICA

An analysis of the FBI crime statistics found that states that adopted concealed carry laws REDUCED:

Murders: 8.5%

Rapes: 5%

Aggravated Assaults: 7%

Robberies: 3%

Source: Wall Street Journal, August 28, 1996: More Guns, Less Violent Crime


With just one exception, every public mass shooting in the USA since 1950 has taken place where citizens are banned from carrying guns. Despite strict gun regulations, Europe has had 3 of the worst 6 school shootings.

Source: USA Today, December 25, 2012 - Opposing view: Guns in schools can save lives


POLICE vs. ARMED CITIZEN

794,300 total police officers Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
vs.
80,000,000 gun owning citizens
Source: National Rifle Association

Police = 11% error rate
vs.
Armed Citizen = 2% error rate

Source: Newsweek Magazine: Nov 14, 1993


14.3 average deaths of a shooting rampage stopped by police
vs.
2.3 average deaths of a shooting rampage stopped by an Armed Citizen

Source: The Examiner August 6, 2012 - Auditing Shooting Rampage Statistics


Police = 606 criminals killed each year
vs.
Armed Citizen = 1,527 criminals killed each year

Source: Kleck, Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America, (1991):111-116, 148.



89% Drop IN BURGLARIES AFTER MANDATORY GUN LAW

In 1982, Kennesaw, Georgia passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in the house. The residential burglary rate subsequently dropped 89% in Kennesaw, compared to just 10.4% drop in Georgia as a whole. Source: Gary Kleck, "Crime Control Through the Private Use of Armed Force," Social Problems 35 (February 1988)

Today, the violent crime rate in Kennesaw is still 85% lower than Georgia's or the national average. Source: City Rating


Related: The only gun infographic you’ll ever need.

Gun Rhetoric vs. Gun Facts at Factcheck.org


Final Word

The Democrats and their willing sycophants in the Left-Leaning Mainstream Media will not engage in a debate on guns concerning the truths about safety and crime statistics mentioned above. This is because:

GUN CONTROL IS NOT ABOUT GUNS.

GUN CONTROL IS ABOUT CONTROL.



Seek firearms training, carry concealed, stay safe and spread the word . . .

- STORMBRINGER SENDS