From one semi-employed loser to another...

...Sir, I salute you!

thunder6 finds value in the babbling of America's favorite Terminal Adolescent and fake bomber jacket wearer.

I finally managed to pull out of the tailspin this morning – and oddly enough it was a comic strip from Gary Trudeau that did the trick. Our “daily” newspaper, The Stars and Stripes, usually arrives 1 to 2 days late, so the Doonesbury strip I read this morning was actually a cartoon from July 3rd. The comic accused bloggers of being “angry, semi-employed losers who are too untalented or too lazy to get real jobs in journalism”. That single sentence was enough to snap me out of my listlessness with a fierce tug. But wasn’t anger that spurned me… it was laughter. My laughs didn’t come from Mr. Trudeau’s hollow attempt at a punchline, they came from his display of willful ignorance at the current state of his own crumbling industry. Nobody is arguing that bloggers aren’t biased… they are. But what the high minded powerbrokers in journalism forget is they are every bit as biased. You would be hard pressed to find someone who believed their claims of impartiality were anything more then lip service.

The best part of the Doonesbury strip wasn’t the condescending tone of the “real” journalist. It was the assertion that the true measure of an author’s skill is how much cash they rake in for their stories. If there is one problem with the modern news media it is the belief that the truth should take a backseat to what sells the most copies. I’m not paid a dime for writing about the world around me, but that means I’m beholden to none. No advertiser can tell me what to write, and no editor can make corrections to my prose. The finished product may not be as polished as a newspaper article, but it is the unvarnished truth. And for me, that is enough.


Here's thunder6's 4th of July post (with which I have only one problem):

Two hundred and twenty nine years ago a document was signed by fifty six men, and with the stroke of a pen the course of human history was fundamentally altered. That single document was the fontspring of all our rights and privileges, (Emphasis mine.) but have you ever looked into the fate of the founding fathers?

That I can't buy. All rights, privileges, facial tics, every everything comes from God. Even the deists among the founders admitted that. Their truly revolutionary political innovation was the idea that government did not have the right or the power to parcel out these God given rights as the ruling elites saw fit.

Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. Today we are afflicted with a politcal class of rulers that make 18th century British aristocrats look like saints. Of course, that is our fault, not George Washington's.

Nine of the signers died from wounds suffered in the Revolutionary War. Five signers were captured by the British and charged as traitors - facing cruel torture before being executed. Another two lost their sons in the Revolutionary War. The privations didn’t end there. Another eight signers had their homes looted, their possessions scattered to the four winds. Carter Braxton was a man of means when he signed the Declaration – but he died with little more then the clothing on his back. Thomas McKeam faced the same fate, losing all his wealth hiding his family from the British. Others weren’t even able to protect their families. Hart, Norris, and Livingston lost everything they held dear in the world… their home, their land, and their cherished families.

Our Founding Fathers sacrificed everything they owned and risked everything they loved for the freedoms we now enjoy. Freedoms that have led to a nation without parallel in human history. But now we face another threat, one compounded by self serving groups bent on forcing their views on the body politic. The Declaration of Independence was signed by many of the leading minds of the day – but now the self appointed intelligentsia view patriotism as a low and empty exercise for the poor uneducated masses. Those same high minded “world citizens” are quick to say the United States is imperialistic, materialistic, and the genesis of every evil that plagues the modern world. I would probably be a little more inclined to listen to their mealy mouthed speeches if they had spent a single day here in the cradle of civilization.

Freedom is many things, but it is never banal. It is never cheap. It is never a birthright. It is a sacred trust, a blazing torch passed from one generation to the next and safeguarded by the combined efforts of an entire nation. I have seen some of Founding Fathers steely eyed resilience in my soldiers, and it gives me hope. As long as there are brave men and women manning the ramparts I know the flickering light of democracy will not easily burn out.