Radio: Who Will Be On The Side Of The Civilians

Radio has on his blog, Radio's Preparedness Subculture Blog, a series of videos showing the recent progression of our nation's slide into a totalitarian state. I watched them all, and thought of the world I grew up in. Even back in the 60's, 70's, and 80's, we had begun an ever accelerating slide into what can be described as an Orwellian world, but compared to today, it could be called paradise.

When I compare it to the childhood of my father, it was a prison.

Every day brings new laws, new restrictions, new prohibitions, loss of language, loss of concepts, creation of words and concepts to reflect the will of an established order, and none of it seems very American to me.

We are a unique people, with a unique sense of what is right, and what is just. Even though we have stumbled and made grievous errors in the treatment of our fellow man, we have tried to rectify our mistakes. Many lands, and many peoples can not say the same. We tolerate the profane, accept the indolent while encouraging and lauding hard work, and beat each other senseless in the public arenas and walk away shaking hands.

One member of the British Parliament had this to say about us, "Americans were a strange set of people, and that it was in vain to expect any degree of reasoning from them; that instead of making their claim by argument, they always chose to decide the matter by tarring and feathering."

Tar and Feather.....maybe its time to bring back the practice.

The one point I forgot to make in my response to Radio was that those who took up arms against the colonial rule were farmers, cobblers, silversmiths, blacksmiths, deserters from British forces, fishermen, woodsmen, Indians, tinkers, shop owners, even men of means. People from every walk of life.

Most of them had no formal military training, and yet they defeated the world's best military.


Below is my response to Radio's post:



Radio,

How very strange. I was thinking of a post along these lines as well.

Although I wanted to make a very different point because it seems many of us out here on the edge seem to lack, dare I say the word, "hope".

When the English decided that they had taken all the bile they could possibly stomach from their public officials, they revolted. Thus was born our nation, the United States of America.

History books can't paint a picture that shows the hardships that people endured as a whole, although they are very good at showing us names and dates of the major players and actions.

The one thing that they will not show is the cruelty visited upon human beings by other humans.

If we find no peaceful resolution to our current dilemma, and must resort to violence and revolt against those who seem determined to stand upon our necks, then it shall indeed be a cruel, and harsh season for all Americans.

People will bear witness to acts in our own streets that are the purview of horror movies or the battlegrounds of the third world.

But there is "hope".

When the heavy hand of Parliament, British business concerns, and King George imposed onerous laws, and unreasonable taxes. People began to ignore them.

We can see that happening now here, again, in this land. How many people openly ignore speed limits, restrictions on cell phone usage, drug laws, copyrights, gun laws, laws about manufacturing, possessing, or using destructive devices, licensing animals, and all the other minutiae, and even major laws such as the income tax.

These actions are becoming more and more frequent, and more flagrant

When resistance began spreading through the English Colonies, the Crown relied upon its military and navy to quell the sporadic outbreaks of open disobedience and even violence.

Here, now, this criminal government relies on the current equivalent. The FBI, the BATF, local, state, and other federal law enforcement agencies. American military forces have been used at checkpoints, and to go house to house to confiscate weapons not just in New Orleans, but in Kansas.

Instead of quelling the resistance, the resistance grows stronger. The people are more bold in speaking out against a government drunk with power.

England was forced to resort to mercenary forces because it could no longer rely on her own forces, even as she recruited from her own prisons, to protect and maintain her interests.

Even now, our corrupt government recruits from prisons, ex-convicts, and gang members to fill its military's ranks. It turns more and more to places like Xe (Blackwater) to provide armed suppression units as more honorable active and retired military, police, and others weigh their Oath to the Constitution and the people of the United States.

Blogs, internet radio shows, videos on YouTube all contain content that borders on, if it isn't outright, seditious. They've taken the place of Thomas Payne's Common Sense and all of the less well known postings and bills pasted in the town square.

Who will be on the side of the civilians?

I will.

So, hopefully, will be you. And others who read your blog, and all of the blogs that speak to a unified theme of not bending a knee to those who demand it.

Once we take up arms, we are no longer "civilians". We will be an army.

If we are captured, they'll call us "enemy combatants", and make us disappear.

It's a sacrifice I will make if called upon. The acres of stone in our National Cemeteries demonstrate the willingness of those who have gone before us to make the same sacrifice. The willingness of American's to give their lives for a greater purpose, a noble idea.

That of Freedom.

Kicking Cable TV and The Dish: Part Four

You've got your computer set up and connected to your TV, and you're watching your favorite programs via HULU or Fancast, or maybe streaming a movie from VEOH.

One of my favorite oddball sites for online TV is a place called Joost.

Then the thought comes to you, "I'd really like to have a copy of that show."

All you need is a plugin for your web browser. Personally, I use Firefox as my browser. Hundreds of add-ons can be located here that increase the security, versatility and functionality of Firefox.

When I've decided that I want to save a particular program, I just have to click a button at the top of my browser. I'm using Sothink Web Video Downloader. I'm able to save the program on my hard drive and either view it later, or burn it to a video CD or DVD. You can also easily convert the video to fit on your iPhone, iPod, PSP, or other mobile device.

There are also other general video download programs like Download Helper, and some specialty programs like the "one-click" Ultimate YouTube Downloader, which allows you to save a video file directly from YouTube's site as either a .FLV (Flash Media), .MP4 (MPEG - 4) and .3GP (3GPP File Format - Generally used by mobile devices like cell phones).

The bonus is the above add-ons, plugins, and browsers are free.

If you'd like something with more functionality (features), then you might want to check into a program like RipTiger. The full RipTiger Media Suite is about $60.00 but just about everything you need to save, convert, and burn your files is in one package. The other nice thing about this package is that it maintains the original file quality. Some other downloaders will not always maintain the same quality as the original streamed file. When you play the file back, it may look slightly out of focus or lack sharpness or definition.

Now that you have a media server set up for yourself, you can add drive space as your budget allows to store additional content as you find and save programs for yourself.

The other nice thing about having this set up is that you can easily download "podcasts" from places like PodCastAlley as well as internet radio and other streamed audio content.

If you subscribe to NetFlix, you have the option to stream movies and TV shows directly from their servers. Up until now, you had to go out and get a clunky box called a Roku if you didn't already own an X-Box 360, a PS -3, TiVo, or one of the newer network enabled Blu-ray players.

Not anymore. You can download an application called Boxee from Boxee.TV. Install it on your new media server, and away you go. It's free...

Now the trick is, not everything is available at all sites. You'll need to make a list of the programs you want to watch and then look for them on the various sites. Once you find them, create a bookmark for them in your browser. That way you'll just have to go there to "change the channel" so to speak to get to your program.

So, now you can kick cable TV and Dish to the curb, use your highspeed internet to fill the gap, and save yourself some dough in the process!