Monday, June 20, 2011

 Now here is a man who states exactly what I believe.  This is the most truthful statement ever pronounced by anyone besides God.  We American fought to free ourselves of the yoke being subjects of the king.

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Price of War

   Yes ground combat is bad.  It kills our youth and wounds them, it also damages their minds. It gives them painful things to think about the rest of their lives. A volunteer army is much more likely to have to fight such wars. The guy who sits in a chair and flies a drone does not have to look his target in the eye, but he knows of those he has killed.  Will he ever get over it? I doubt it.
     Even the General who orders men into battle must pay a price by way of the knowledge of those who have died or been damaged by his command. Can he in all good faith mourn his own coming death knowing of  those who have by their direct or indirect hand.  Men who fight just wars cannot possibly suffer as those do who know they are at war for unjustified political ends. Every American must feel the pain of a subscripted son in order that we only fight absolutely necessary wars that are thrust upon us by foreign powers.
    How can I possibly be in favor of a war that my son, daughter or I will never have to fight in.  What ever the reason we fight it can only be justified by it's allowing our children, grandchildren on onward to live as free Americans.    These are the only justified reasons to fight a war. It is our right.                                    Doug

Its an Old Story

  It's an old story the countries in a slump,Washington looks bad, needs to raise the debt ceiling, increase the budget and increase spending.  Dump money in the economy by increased military and the replacement of military equipment.  The economy will look a bit better for a time.  Then we drag young men off the unemployment lines and put them in the service. Who can complain about spending when our kids are over there fighting. Seems to me it forces the hand of Republicans in the house to approve the war we are already in.       Hitler, had the same problem over spending that then required a war to  create a need for more taxes and the confiscation of foreign lands.                                   Doug

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Machinists 1942

In the year 1942 may father had a Machine shop in our Basement. There was a war on and we mad aircraft parts for the Glen L Martin corporation which was later Martin Marrietta and still later Gruman Martin Marietta. My Brother was serving his machinist apprentice ship at Bethlehem Steel Company. When he finished his four years he went into the Navy as a Machinist Mate.  All of us kids worked some in the shop and made a little spending money.  My father worked part time at home and full time as a machinist at Bell Telephone. The Government froze him in his job for the duration of the war so he was not able to work full time at home.  It was possible to go to prison for leaving your job.  At the very least if a man were young enough he would be drafted into the service.  No one complained as most thought it was their patriotic duty to work at their defence job as they were called. Everyone was required to work six days a week and got paid time and a half for Saturday. Everyone had a big bank account as there was not much you could buy with the money.  At the end of the war everyone bought a new house and a new car.    
The narration on this video is a bit hokey but it was made for school children. Still for any who are interested in the machinist trade this may be interesting.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Sailing Ships and Sailing Men

As a boy in the 1930's, I knew sailors. Most came home and swore off sailing ships for ever.
Drawn to a wild Baltimore waterfront life, they blew their wages on booze, women and gambling. They were shanghaied or signed onto a ship just to have a home for a time. It was not the sea they were drawn to, but instead, family.
A man, known to do his share high up on the yard arms, had respect.
On land, they were lowly and even tramps. Upon the sea, each a respected seamen! To stand his watch, furl canvas in rain and sleet then lend a hand on the bitter end of a sheet a new boy on board rose to man and mate.
Good people these, though not in a way most of us would recognise.
Among us modern sailboat sailors we may swagger and tell of hanging on with one hand and reefing a flogging sail with the other.
You could with effort, drag the same story from these square rig sailors, though they wouldn't say they were high in the air above mountainous waves reefing and tying as they rounded the notorious capes, driven by snowy squalls. To be 200 ft in the air in gale winds with a sails snapping and booming making every attempt to throw the watch to deck. Cut from heavy cloth, these men who worked, lived and died at sea.
A seaman I knew and was influenced by, was a Mr. Outabridge who fell from the main yard cracking his skull. He supervise the repair of it and inspired the character Doc in the Novel, Of Mooncursers and Other Spun Yarns By Douglas G. Pollard Sr. on sale @ Lulu.com .
My mothers brother Talmage Williams right after World War one was shanghaied aboard a sailing ship in to the far east. After a two year stint when his ship had not made a U.S. Port. He signed aboard a steam ship to Baltimore. Left in port at Tripoli where he had gotten drunk and spent a couple weeks in jail for getting into a bar room brawl. That was his last duty under sail. Arriving home he lost his seaman's papers for a year for jumping ship. During world war two he stayed at sea almost constantly. He made the one and only Mermanske run through the North Sea hauling gasoline. They were close on the German coast and suffered bombings for several days. Talmage said they watch ships burning in the distance every night and all hands fully expected to die on that trip. IT was by luck that they were not attacked by German dive Bombers.
To find men like these today you have to look to our men fighting on the sands of the middle east. So, every Generation has it's men.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Berlin Part I act 2 "for the sake of God there goes I"

During these years when this film was made you could not tell Berlin from my home town of Baltimore Maryland except for the spelling on street signs. The people look the same they dressed much the same and they went to work by street car and walked busy streets with a friendly nod here and there. There was a difference though. The people in Berlin did not have the American constitution that gave them the same status as the king of any country. They were not sovereign.   In the united states, the states are sovereign as is each and every person. Our Federal government not sovereign Under our constitution we as individuals have more power to run the country than does our Federal Government.  WE are more powerful that was Nero of Rome each has ultimate control over hydrogen Bombs and jet fighters. Few other people on earth has a document that demands under penalty of impeachment in a trail before the Congress.  Held by the Chief justice of the supreme court with the intent to convict any tyrant failing to do his constitutional duty to uphold the constitutional rights of each, and every American.
The German people as  result were willing to trust an individual to benevolently run Germany and protect their rights. To protect their rights? Can someone protect your rights for you?  Should we be willing to forestall such an outcome here in this American land.  We have a duty to stand and yell "God Bless America for we are it".   How can we possible be embarrassed to stand on a street corner and proclaim this statement of love of country.
A symphony of video portraying Berlin in 1927 This was the early years of the Third Rich.  The German Government was splitting off into a kind of dangerous socialism called Fascism The world and the United States in it's innocence was soon to loose that innocence and would see an explosion of Faschism.  German trust of Government and a supposedly benevolent socialist Leader Adolph Hitler would soon become the Angel of death to much of Europe the Jewish as well as Polish people.   Some of the slightly older boys I grew up with in the 1930's would loose their lives and the future family's they and their sweat hearts would have had. They were left rotting in the ground.     There is no sound but the video tells the story without it, of a gentle people who handed over their freedom to elegant sounding political figures and they lived and died for their weakness while carrying their guilt to their graves. A rich proud people were bought for a few Government gifts that they themselves paid for. .