For over the past few days I have been on a crusade of sorts. I've been walking down the streets of my little town waving my rather large American Flag. I've caused quite a stir in Madisonville. How many people actually go out and stand up for their beliefs in such a way that draws so much attention to themselves. Few people today have that courage, to stand up and accept either the accolade of thousands or their criticism and disdain. Very few people indeed voluntarily subject themselves to that exposure.

Which is why I suppose why I have drawn the attention that I have. Especially when somebody calls the cops thinking that there might be something wrong with you. Yes, on the third day of my flag protest someone had called the cops to investigate what exactly it was I was doing walking down the street with Old Glory. The investigating officer was really friendly, he didn't exactly understand why he was sent down to talk to me. He did not have a problem with me walking up and down the streets with a flag. The whole incident  humored me greatly. It was some gratification to me, I was getting people's attention. As subsequent to being pulled over by the police, the editor of the Messenger, the local newspaper, ran out to take my picture and talk to me about what I was doing.

Which is why I am here writing. I am here to explain my position a little more fully.

I am a patriot, in the truest sense of the word. I believe in the freedom of mankind to choose for themselves a government that best represents their interest and I believe that we have certain rights that we have been granted that can never be removed us, no matter what others might try to do. I believe that everyone has the same rights to freedom, liberty, and happiness. No matter what the differences that separate us, we all deserve the same rights and indeed we have them. Even if others would like to deny it for reasons of their own.

This is what has compelled me to act. I love America for the reason that it is the country that best represents the spirit of patriotism, even when we have so much further that we can go to ensuring that every citizen of the United States has complete and irrevocable freedom. I see so many Americans who freely give up their freedom. They give up their liberty and they do not even realize that they are doing it. It greatly distresses me.

What exactly am I talking about? What do I mean by saying that people are willingly giving up their freedom? I am talking about the people who do not think for themselves when it comes to matters of national importance. I am talking about the people who listen to the news networks like Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, the people who allow other people like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reliey, Glenn Beck, and Wolf Blitzer to form their opinions for them. People who allow the media outlets to think for them and allow these networks to tell them how they should vote. These are the American citizens who I am referring to. When you yield your voice to these people and allow them to vote for you, you surrender your freedom.

When you no longer think for yourself and allow other to do the thinking for you, when you vote, the government you are electing stops becoming a government of you, for you and by you, the people; and it starts to become a government of them, for them, and by them. Do not mistake me for a disgruntled right winger with a bone to pick with President Barrack Obama. I voted for him and I trust him to do the job I elected him to. Unlike others I know who voted this past fall, I seemed to have actually thought about the decision I was making, rather than just blindly voting for the sake of doctrine. Be reminded, this is not a matter of Conservatism versus Liberalism. This is a matter of exercising your right as an American citizen to make informed and educated voting choices. I am not suggesting that everybody who actually thought about their vote and did research about the candidates would have voted for Barrack Obama, no that is not what I am saying. What I am saying is that people should decide for themselves the government that best suits them.

When you do the research for yourself and do thinking for your own interest it is only then when you exercise fully
your freedom and liberty as an American citizen. When you take in all of the facts and make the decision of your own volition and do not allow the pressure of others to sway you, it is only then that you truly become a patriot of this country and when you truly do "The Spirit of '76" justice.

The Second President of the United States, John Adams, who is by and far my favorite of the Founding Fathers of this country, had a couple things to say on the subject of liberty. He is one of the people in the Continental Congress who while other were fighting with guns and powder for our Independence, he was fighting with words for us. He spent a great deal of his time in the Second Continental Congress fighting for the cause of Independence, we can thank him most especially for when we declared our Independence when we did. This is what he had to say on the matter of Liberty.

" Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people."
"Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power."
"The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."

What exactly is Mr. Adams saying with these statements? I think that these statement speak plainly enough to what Mr. Adams thought about liberty and freedom and the responsibilities of the American people. To have true liberty in this country is to be fully informed with all your opinions. If you are ignorant of the situations going on in Washington D.C. and do not have all the information you need to make proper decisions, then you have no liberty at all. The ignorant cannot be expected to make good decisions. You must think for yourselves to have true liberty in this country, you must make hard decisions. Voting is not a simple thing, it requires a great deal of responsibility. The final statement on liberty can be take several ways, I interpret it to mean that you should not allow one man to hold enough power over you to completely surrender your ability to exercise your liberty.

That is my whole purpose for parading around with an American flag. I want the American people to remember that this is still a government of, for, and by the people. The elected officials do not hold supreme power over us. If they do something we do not like, it is our responsibility to inform them in a respectful manner. It is one of our First Amendment Rights to peacefully and respectfully assemble to petition to the government our grievances.

It is my purpose to remind the American people that they should remain responsible citizens of this country of Liberty by educating themselves before they go to polls and before the protest. It is your responsibility to your liberty and freedom to be informed. I am not suggesting that you completely disregard what these talking heads are telling you. I am just saying to question everything you hear. Discern for yourself the speaker's motivation. Gather your information from several different sources, somewhere behind all of the bias is the truth.

I do not care which party you ally yourself with, I do not care whether you are conservative or a liberal. Thinking and being a responsible citizen is not a partisan issue. Do not allow others to sway your opinion, think for you. Do your research and educate yourself and make the most informed decisions you can. Then no one can fault you for your choice, you would have down what is in your best interest and that is all that any American can ask of you.

With Liberty and Justice for All!

Yeah, so I haven't posted here in a long time. Sorry about that. After November I kind of drifted away from here. If I can blame something (and not just my own laziness) I would have to say life got in the way. Amazing how that happens.

I've gone through a lot of changes since the last time I was here. I have changed philosophically, religiously, and I suppose my character has changed a little to. I've always been a laid back individual. You know, taking life as it comes, not really worrying about anything. The kind of guys who lets things be, why fight? Why worry? At least that is how I am generally. I am real easy guy to get along with. Yet, when I step into the realm of politics, that is a completely different matter.

I will be blunt. I dislike ignorant people who think they are intelligent and think they are clever. Nothing aggravates me more than ordinary citizens who think they have it all figured out and stage protests and demonstrations about something they don't have the vaguest idea about. But feels right to them, they are protesting something because they don't understand it. If can't already guess, I really hated all those people who were doing their "Tea Parties" on Wednesday.

There were a few here in town staging their little protest. I felt compelled to go out and talk to them, to really gauge what they understood of the situation, but I did not. I probably should have, just to see if my assumptions were right about their understanding of the situation. That way I am not just blindly calling them unintelligent about American politics and the tax system. Yet, just from my observations of these "tea parties" and gather one unifying trend. They all hate Obama.

These people never liked Obama in the first place and they believed the lies that McCain's campaign was throwing out at them. The lies about whether he was really an American citizen. The lies about his supposed Marxism. The lies about how he was a terrorist. Some of these people at these demonstration on TV still actually believe these lies about our President. Of course, Fox News as done nothing to move on about this. They are happily pouring gallons of gasoline on the fire of these disgruntled citizens. They are enraging them to believe certain things about our President. I mean Glen Beck was even wearing a t-shirt at one of these demonstrations that had Obama dressed up like Mao Zedong. (For those who don't know, Mao Zedong was the Chinese Lenin when it came to the Communist Revolution in China.) Fair and Balanced my ass. Please excuse my language, but this stuff really aggravates me and gets me angry.These cable news networks have a responsibility to provide us with information so we can better understand what is going in the world. Instead, they are using their influence to promote their own politics. I am not just talking about Fox News, either. CNN and MSNBC are just as guilty, MSNBC to a lesser extent.

These people believe what they were being told by the networks and they seriously believe that Obama is going to turn this country into a socialist country. I mean, Fox News was about as subtle as a sack of bricks landing on your head. One day during one of their economy segments they flashed "United Socialist States of America" at the bottom of the screen. Which brings me to my next grief about this whole incident. Fox News making these whole tea party things look like 'grass roots' movements. They are reporting them like they are actual free will demonstrations. You know that isn't true either. Some of these latter protest events may have been locally organized by the common people, but the ones that made the news in the first place were organized by people like Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich. They people who have the least amount of gain when it comes to Obama's Tax policies. They organized these 'tea parties', at least off the record. You can tell, because the people protesting Obama's Taxes are actually protesting against what is most beneficial to them. Obama has just given them, the middle class, the grass roots, the boys of the heartland, the 'real' Americans, the biggest tax break in US History. Whether they like to admit it, Obama is their best friend when it comes to taxes.

Which I suppose is something else that has to do with this. They hate the fact that Obama might actually be a positive thing for these country. I think a lot of this 'movement' (if you could call it that) is just some left over election fallout. These people are still pissed that their candidate, good ole' John McCain lost. They are still upset about it and they are looking for any reason to hate this man. Of course, now I am speaking more broadly. The entire right, or least the prominent ones, are still angry about the outcome of this election. As I have said before, Fox News has stopped being subtle about their politics, they are now happily flaunting them in your face. All because a liberal is President of the United States. To quote Jon Stewart here: "Your confusing tyranny with losing".

Now, let me make something clear here. I am in no way bashing Conservatism. I may not agree with right wing politics, but I respect them. What I don't respect is that some of the right, more importantly the ones in power and with the most influence of the general public of their party, who do not extend the same courtesy to the left. I am not advocating that everyone become a liberal. I am of the belief that there is no right choice when it comes to matters such as these. Everyone chooses what political ideology to ally themselves with for a particular reason. All I want is for people to think for themselves. Don't just get your news from one source. Get it from several. I skim Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, I get my headlines from BCC and Al-Jazeera (yes, that Middle-Eastern News company that Bin Laden is always sending his videos to). I gather my information from a vareity of sources to keep myself informed on the situation as much as possible. Which is why I get angry with people whose only source of news is Fox News, Bill O'Reliey and Glen Beck. They are not getting all of the information, nor are they hearing all sides of the argument, even though Fox News would like them to think so.

Well, that was quite a rant. As you can see, I have quite a bone to pick with the ignorant masses of America. I suppose I could quote Adolf Hitler here, and I don't do that often but I think he was right at least in this respect, "There is no end of stupid people". I think he was right.