American history and the birth of a patriot

The latest of my intellectual endeavours has been to familiarize myself with American history. My relationship with my country has a sordid past. I was raised by a liberal family, I watched Bambi though hunting was just killing animals (or would have if I hadn't been such a boy), I thought mining was just dumping chemicals and logging was just killing trees. Evidently you actually get trees when you cut them down, crazy talk I know. I remember being in third grade and being so happy when Clinton got elected over Perot. Fifth grade was my best experience with a history class. Mr. Powers was a young fit guy with black hair that was steadily greying. He just came in to help our teacher out with the history section. He taught us all about European history and the famous sea explorers like Magellan and Columbus. We had as reenactment of the trial after the Boston massacre. In which I played the defense for the British captain (John Adams). I was sure we were going to win, we had history on our side, and logic. What we didn't account for was the popularity of the prosecutions lawyers, who were something like Le jeune étudiant dressed in 1995 instead of pink. We lost, but I stayed loyal to the crown through the entire class.

When I was in high school I took an Am Hist class which consisted of a horrendous text book that you had to read and then answer questions out of the back... I'm still not sure how I ever passed as I did very few of those lessons. The only memory I have in class was learning about all the terrible things we did to the Indians. OOH, one cool thing they did was had the principal of the school come in and tell us we were going to have to start paying for the paper we used as students. It was supposed to show us something about taxation with out representation. We were supposed to get all riled up and refuse to pay it, instead it just made this poor girl start crying. (HA! poor people are funny).

After I got saved, as much of you remember I'm sure, I still didn't like my country. Wow, I can't remember why though I'm sure you can imagine, just insert the standard liberal banter. The real turning point in my political world view came as a two pronged attack. There was a summer I listened to Rush Limbaugh while delivering mail on campus. It was at this point I realized that the line between Liberal and Conservative followed closely the line between those who believed that right and wrong was decided by humans or decided by something above humanity. The other prong came from a political economy class I took. The teacher was probably liberal but never the less he mathematically proved to me that capitalism was the best/only way for a society to function. Capitalism stands against Communism like Libs and Coservs do. Capitalism works based on the principal that people are greedy and will only work for themselves. Communism works on the assumption that people can just be good comrades and will work hard to benefit the commonwealth. The later simply isn't true, that's why Russia fell, and why China is pink (not red) at best with all the trade they do. In Cuba Castro keeps communism as a facade but the invisible hand of free trade where supply and demand do battle is working very well.

I'd recommend that class for anyone who wants to know how the world really works. My face about melted out my nose when I realized you could graphically represent the net loss of benefit that an economy endures when ever the government subsidises something or artificially alters prices. Ask me about it some time if you want to see the graph and I'll do my best to draw one up its really cool.

I really don't like the Idea of America being a melting pot. I used to ask my parents what our ethnicity was but all I ever got was a vauge Northern European mutish reply, I had friends who could take pride in a German or Scottish ancestory and would read all about it. I wanted that but didn't have it. Eventually a sociology teacher brought up this subject and I expressed my frustrations on being a mutt to the class. Earlier we'd had some technical problems and I came up with a solution that 'saved the day' She argued that this kind of ingenuity and ability to think on your feet was an American characteristic and at that point I decited that I'm not just European mut who lost something on Ellis Island but I'm a member of a new race called Americans who unlike the Germans or Jews are too young and too widely bread to have any racially defining characteristics yet but make no mistake I am one.

Lately I've been watching A few TV series one for adults called John Adams ( our second president), which Chronicles his life and all the history surrounding it. If you're looking for an show with some really powerful examples for conduct and loyalty this is a good one. Mr. Adams was short and pudgy but believed powerfully in his convictions, he knew that American was not a British colony but was in fact an infant country that hadn't realized it and he worked hard to unite it. I think it much to his credit that he defended the British Captain who was part of the Boston massacre because it was the right thing to do and didn't shy away from the colonial mob that wanted then soldiers all dead. His wife Abigale is an equally amazing woman very intelligent, very loyal and very committed to her household her family and her country. I guess John is away from home a lot as he's part of the Continental congress and even though she hated him being away she still inspired him and helped him in any way she could. Its cool to see a family that realized that when a cause above their heads exists that if its going to cost them something its worth paying. (How much greater Christian soldiers is OUR cause)

The other show came at the recommendation of the Humphrey's. Its a PBS kids show called "liberties kids" in which three kids lives are woven into the formation of our country. Its very through and seems to be accurate, though its hard to allow my self to lay the foundation of my knowledge on a cartoon.

If you find your knowledge lacking in this area you should watch both of these shows. Either borrow them or buy them (Definitely worth owning). The only thing you need to watch out for is that 'John Adams' is and HBO series so theirs some stuff you shouldn't watch in them. (theirs some nudity when a guy gets tarred and feathered but that's all in the first two episodes)

Happy learning!

Ok here's the question of the day: where do you see the liberal agenda being most craftily applied to keep people from believing in universal truth (IE God)?

Think broadly: History, art, education, entertainment.

I'd have to say it's in the environmental area. If we can be brainwashed into thinking that the action of our race is killing the "all holy pure and sacred" ecosystem then we are more inclined to believe that the earth should be worshiped and not God and are more inclined to believe in evolution.