OLD PLAYGROUND

Sent in by my good friend VA Shepard, charter member of Team StormBringer:



I hiked this ridge in the Southern Japan Alps in August '94. The first picture is taken from Oku-Hodaka. That peak in the distance is Yari-ga-take. It's a Japanese tradition to watch the sunrise from that peak, but a round-eye beat them to the top that morning. Its the roof of Japan - I could see across the whole island from East to West.

VA Shepard Sends

Free One-Year NRA Life of Duty Membership

Active Duty Military, Law Enforcement & First Responders: NRA members appreciate your continued service and have sponsored free one-year NRA Life of Duty memberships to show their support. Membership includes all regular NRA benefits, plus $27,500 in life insurance, exclusive gear discounts, subscriptions to all NRA official journals and a subscription to the NRA American Warrior digital magazine.

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NRA News - Colion Noir Episode 1

Colion is the first of a group of new, young and very diverse commentators for NRA News – all of which will be unveiled later this week. Viewers will be able to watch weekly episodes on www.nranews.com



You may remember the teaser released a few weeks ago for a new NRA News Commentator; Colion Noir (better known as @MrColionNoir to his Twitter and YouTube Following) just released his first episode over on NRA News and we're very interested to receive your feedback.

- Thanks, S.L.

DISARMING AMERICANS

They said the Government would never come into my house and confiscate my weapons. They said.









Disarming American citizens, Obama style:

Presently flying under the radar of the American people is the much misunderstood, deliberately mischaracterized and under-reported United Nation’s Arms Trade Treaty. Considering the persistent multi-level attacks against U.S. gun owners and American’s rights under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the “Final U.N. Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty” that convened yesterday (3/18/2013) and is scheduled to last through March 28, 2013 should be front page news all across America. But it’s not, and for good reason.

Most people, including conservative Americans thought the United Nation’s Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) was a dead issue, or at least not a threat to U.S. gun owners based on a number of assumptions relating to international treaties and U.S. Constitutional law. Like everything else with the Obama regime, however, things are never what they appear, nor are they as simple as we are led to believe.

Barack Hussein Obama is on record as being against the private ownership of firearms by American citizens.

Barack Hussein Obama has a long and well documented history on gun control, going back as far as his law school days. There, he was mentored by Laurence Tribe, a staunch opponent to gun rights of American citizens. In 1994, Obama was a member of the Joyce Foundation, a Chicago based charitable organization that in part, is a proponent of various anti-gun groups and related agendas.

In 2003, Obama voted in support of legislation that would have banned privately owned hunting shotguns, target rifles and black powder rifles in Illinois. While running for political office in 2004, Obama called for national legislation to prevent anyone but law enforcers from carrying concealed firearms. As reported in the February 20, 2004 edition of The Chicago Tribune, Obama was quoted as “back[ing] federal legislation that would ban citizens from carrying weapons, except for law enforcement.”

. . . It should also be noted that on February 26, 2013, the American Bar Association’s Center for Human Rights issued a white paper on the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, concluding that “the proposed ATT is consistent with the Second Amendment.” A review of this four-page document reveals certain questionable assumptions on which that conclusion is based.

This is a warning to all Americans that the Obama support of the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty can lead to some “UN-intended” consequences to American’s right to own and bear arms. Americans looking at this issue are failing to look at the larger picture, which is the ultimate subjugation of the United States to a global governance. This can most effectively be accomplished through the disarmament of its citizens, especially in the face of violent outbreaks as the U.S. and the world economic systems begin to unravel (italics mine) . . .


Read the rest of it HERE and weep, people . . .


- STORMBRINGER

POSSIBLY WORLD WAR II's COOLEST PHOTO

The Story Behind This Photo of a RAF Pilot:



by David Frum at The Daily Beast

Remember that photo of the RAF pilot getting his hair cut between missions?

His name was Francis Mellersh, and it turns out his daughter is a friend-of-a-friend. She sends more of the story:

We have the original of the photo, and the book (he was crazy about John Buchan) and that bloody pipe killed him in the end at 72. I'm afraid those who have been to war and daily diced with death are rather cavalier with their health. I'll tweet you a pic of him in his 60s . . . the red hair's faded to strawberry blonde but still recognisably the chap getting his hair cut.



Instead of resuming his Oxford studies at the end of the war he remained in the RAF for another 30 plus years and flew right until the end (often with the Red Arrows - stress!). He reached Air Vice Marshal and was Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff. He was a very modest man, very laid-back (that photo says it all) and spoke little of the war.

You'll like this bit. My grandfather, his father, was a WW1 ace and was on the sortie which downed the Red Baron. Forensic historians of course now say he was shot from the ground . . . my grandfather's eye witness account is often quoted. We have a little box made from Richthofen's propeller wood. He too made a career of the RAF, was in charge of operations in Burma etc in WW2 and, at one point, my father's boss . . . somewhat disastrously! He died in a bizarre accident shortly after retiring . . . ironic given he survived the RB.

My grandfather was AVM Sir Francis (FJW) Mellersh, nickname "Tog" and my father AVM Francis (FRL) Mellersh, known always as Togs (nanny's nickname ie. "of Tog"). Quite ridiculous. I have their obituaries and citations and some extracts from Aces High etc as well as my father's log book filled in somewhat irreverently. He flew Beaufighters, Mosquitoes and Spitfires.

Francis Mellersh was twice awarded Britain's Distinguished Flying Cross and was recommended for the Victoria Cross.

SNAKE FLAGS

Part of the mission of Blog STORMBRINGER is to fight ignorance and to enlighten the uninformed. Following Friday's post WHERE DO I STAND we recieved the following comment:

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.

Misspellings aside, the gentleman is mistaken on at least three counts. Explanation follows:



JOIN, OR DIE

The rattlesnake as a symbol of resistance to the British in Colonial America, 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."



The Green Mountain Boys flag did NOT have a rattlesnake.

The Green Mountain Boys flag is 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 Colors of the Vermont National Guard. Furthermore, the Green Mountain Boys were not a militia, they were a regular regiment of the Continental Army:

A Green Mountain Boys Regiment was authorized by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1775 and became part of the Northern Army. Colonel Seth Warner and a regiment of 500 men were called the Green Mountain Rangers. The illustrations are the uniforms of the Rangers. Before this time, the Green Mountain Boys had no formal uniform, wearing primarily bucksin jackets and breeches.



Flag of the South

Colonel Christopher Gadsden 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. Gadsden also presented a copy to the Congress of South Carolina.



Not to be confused with the First Navy Jack

The First Navy Jack features 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.

Commodore Hopkins, Commander-in-Chief of the American Fleet", by Thomas Hart

Flag experts (vexiologists) speculate that either the English artist Thomas Hart either did not know about the practice of rattlesnakes to coil in defense - or did, and intended to insult the fledgling American Navy as a weak and vulnerable creature as a rattlesnake is when not coiled and ready to strike, slithering on the ground, trying to escape, with its motto "(Please) Don't Tread On Me!".



Culpepper Minutemen

The flag of the Culpepper Minutemen - of Culpepper Virginia - 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.



NOT a 'Flag of Rebellion'

To me the Snake Flag represents resistance to the threat of foreign control and domination. I fly the Snake flag here on Blog STORMBRINGER and on my car in the spirit of the TEA Party, which is to say the Spirit of Independance and the Rights and Freedoms of the American People, as espoused and enshrined in our founding documents; the Declaration of Independance, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers.

These days there is a lot of talk of a coming revolution. Personally I do not tolerate such talk - no matter how bad things are they would be ten thousand times worse if the United States dissolved and we descended into civil war.

I have seen such wars and believe me; we do not want this here. There are other ways.


"I'm not advocating sedition, but I will not bow down before tyranny either."


THIS is the flag that I love:




- STORMBRINGER SENDS

SEVEN SAINT PADDYs DAY THINGS

1. Leap Year Proposals
According to legend, St. Bridget complained that women were tired of waiting for marriage proposals, so she took matters into her own hands by proposing to St. Patrick on February 29th.



2. Luckiest Day to Get Married
St. Patrick's Day is considered the luckiest day of the year to get married, unless it falls on a Saturday. The Irish proverb goes: "Marry on Monday for wealth, Tuesday for health, Wednesday the best day of all, Thursday for losses, Friday for crosses, Saturday for no luck at all."

3. Babies Named Patrick
About 650,000 American newborn babies have been named Patrick over the past 100 years.



4. Guinness
On any given day, 5.5 million pints of Guinness are consumed worldwide. On St. Patrick's Day, that number more than doubles to 13 million.


5. "Kiss me, I'm Irish!"
The Blarney Stone is reportedly kissed by up to 400,000 people a year.


6. Send It In A Letter
Hallmark sells anywhere from 8-15 million St. Patrick's Day-themed cards each year.



7. Seven Places
There are seven places in the United States named Shamrock, the floral emblem of Ireland.





"Happy Saint Paddy's Day!"

- STORMBRINGER SENDS