A Rant

All governments operate by using coercion to maintain an orderly society.


The desire off all freemen is to live in a state of maximum liberty whereby one’s way of life, behaviors, and views exist in a state of natural freedom. Complete liberty is anarchy.  Complete coercion is despotism.  a democracy is the institutionalization of government where civil control over the permissibility of coercive actions is maintained by internal checks and balances and ultimately controlled by the power of election and rebellion. In the event that our democracy should turn toward the path of despotism and sustain a period of unresponsiveness to rebuttals of the excess, a Bill of rights was created giving the people the power to own military arms which could put effectively block said path to despotism.


Should a party truly wish to pervert the government, they must first and foremost use the media to sell the idea that firearms are inherently evil in the hands of the people.  Then they must slowly make limitations upon the right to bear arms and finally they will begin confiscation.  At that point all the other natural rights of men can be disposed of quickly as the means of resistance has been permanently removed. The failure of democracy occurs when subsets of society take their personal beliefs and attempt to impose them on the whole of society rather than to be open and accepting of alternate views.  These issues not only become divisive they distract from the other operations of government which often leads to corruption in the bureaucracy. 


Should I force my Christian views on abortion as the murder of a child?  Is it right for my belief to be forced on all Americans that wish only to be free?  When does my morality trump the morality of others?  Is my feelings on abortion any different than those that led men to enslave their fellow man?  To survive as a free society, we must deeply and thoroughly consider each and every law and not act with haste.  We must read it to know what is in it before it is voted upon.  We must stop being idiots.  We all know crazy people and criminals shoot people, yet half the country want to ban guns due to the media.  We need to step up and start institutionalizing the nuts and really punishing criminals and arming citizens.

The origin of "Old Glory"

William Driver, captain of the whale Charles Doggett out of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1831,  was presented with a beautiful American flag with twenty for stars.  On his way out to sea the banner opened in the breeze for the first time and he exclaimed "Old Glory!"

This very same voyage, the Charles Doggett founds 65 Pitcairners on the island of Tahiti and took them back to Pitcairn.  The Captain was paid with cash partially raised from selling copper from the HMS Bounty.  The Pitcairners were the mutineers and their native families that set Captain Bligh a drift back in 1789.

Six years after this famed voyage, the Captain retired taking his treasured flag with him.  When Tennesee seceded from the Union, rebels were determined to destroy the Captain's now famous flag, but repeated searches never revealed the location of that damnable flag.  On February 25th, 1862, Union forces captured Nashville and raised the American flag over the capital. It was a rather small flag and immediately folks began asking Captain Driver if "Old Glory" still existed. Happy to have soldiers with him this time, Captain Driver went home and began ripping at the seams of his bedcover. As the stitches holding the quilt-top to the batting unraveled, the onlookers peered inside and saw the 24-starred original "Old Glory"!

Captain Driver gently gathered up the flag and returned with the soldiers to the capitol. Though he was sixty years old, the Captain climbed up to the tower to replace the smaller banner with his beloved flag. The Sixth Ohio Regiment cheered and saluted - and later adopted the nickname "Old Glory" as their own, telling and re-telling the story of Captain Driver's devotion to the flag we honor yet today.

Captain Driver's grave is located in the old Nashville City Cemetery, and is one of three (3) places authorized by act of Congress where the Flag of the United States may be flown 24 hours a day. The flag was given to his granddaughter or niece whom presented it to the Essex Institute for display.  Old Glory eventually made its way the Smithsonian.