The Sentinel Of Liberty!

Captain America!

That name may not be familiar to you but if it is you'll understand and if not,well maybe you'll read this and understand my point.



Captain America is a 69yr old superhero character created by the company that went on to become the publisher we now know as Marvel Comics. You can probably infer from his name alone that Cap is a pretty patriotic guy,yeah I know,kinda obvious.

Cap was created during World War II and his origins are pretty straight forward,the character's "real" name is Steve Rogers,a scrawny farmboy who decided to enlist in the U.S. Army in order to help defeat the Nazi threat! Now this being a comicbook origin story you just know there's more to this. Steve was classified as 4-F by the Army doctors that examined him and was deemed as being unfit for service,but some sharp eyed fellows spotted him and offered the chance of a lifetime,the chance to not only serve his country but to serve it as an elite warrior,part of a planned attempt to create Super-Soldiers that would be sent into battle to fight the Nazis in place of our regular forces! One problem though,Steve was the only guy who who could handle the treatments,so the Army made the most of it and gave him the star-spangled suit and shield and a legend is born!



All of that tells you how Cap came to be and to an extent who he is as well and with that out of the way allow me to move on to my main course.



Movie director Joe Johnston,who you MAY know from "Jurassic Park III","Honey I Shrunk Th e Kids",and "The Rocketeer" is the shlub behind the new Captain America movie to be released next summer.

Mr. Johnston is of the opinion that Cap is "jingoistic" and a "flag waving patriot". Now I'll tell you I ma pretty damn familiar with this character and I also happen to be a patriot so you can see where somebody cutting down my favorite characters would end up in my blog!

There is far too much of Mr.Johnston's attitude toward those who lover their country these days. I have been mocked for my love of my country and this,while not directed at me specifically,certainly does the same. Why would Mr. Johnston even take on this project with this character if he felt the character's most obvious and deeply important traits were a flaw that HE has to correct??
The answer is that Mr.Johnston is one who subscribes to the idea that to be Patriotic(at least as an American) is to say that our country can do no wrong and as such it condones ANY act our government may wish to take. Hardly a realistic view. TRUE Patriots will ALWAYS love their country and what it stands for but we will also stand up against the actions that would do harm to our homeland. The Tea Party movement is the example of this,those of us in the movement and who support it are Patriots but patriots who are aware of what our government is doing and hope to call attention to it so that others will see and join us in trying to stop these acts before thay can cause harm to us all. We don't just blindly follow where ever the flag leads us,that would be more akin to Mr. Johnston's view that patriotism and jingoism are virtually one and the same.

I look at the character of Captain America and I see someone who reflects the definition of patriot that I attempted to lay out above. Cap has taken off the star-spangled suit more than once in an effort to demonstrate his disgust at actions taken by the government of the country whom he has sworn to defend so if he were the type of character that Mr Johnston seems so eager to claim that he is I could see his desire to show that he was a good person in spite of putting on the suit and picking up the shield.

I hope that what I'm inferring from the creators of this movie isn't what they mean and that it sin't what the end product will portray but I have my doubts about that.

Captain America is an ICON in the comics world,but unlike Batman,Superman,Wonder Woman,he's the true everyman. He has no special powers,he wasn't born different,he wasn't the heir to a billions of dollars fortune,and he isn't a demi-god nor has he been given any weapons that are imbued with any special powers themselves. Cap is special,more so the character was lucky,Cptain America is very unique because he is a soldier who was fighting for his country! Everyting Cap fights for actually matter to him personally,in short Captain America is not only AN American but he is AMERICA itself,he is strong,steadfast,compassionate and loves FREEDOM and LIBERTY!

Thanks for reading this and God bless America!

Hero Worship?

For this entry I want to talk about everyone's favorite tv personality Glenn Beck.
I've only been a fan of Beck's for going on two years now,about three years ago I found one of his booka at the libraray here in town and decided to read it since it seemed to reflect som eof my own opinions. I hadn't heard of Glenn then and to be honest as much as I enjoyed the book I quickly forgot HIM soon after,just kinda tucked him nto the category of interesting people that I'll never hear of again. Yeah,little did I know,right? LOL!
So why Glenn as my subject? Well,obviously,I've rediscovered him,thanks to Fox News,I watch him daily and occasionally look at his website or watch a clip of his radio show when I find a topic of interest from it. I have come to realize that I share nearly every opinion about the state of politics in our nation as he does and as such he has encouraged me to learn more about our country's history and to be more concerned about what our politicians are trying to do to to alter our country.

All of that is useful to you,dear reader,to understand that I am truly a fan and fond of Mr.Beck. I am grateful to him for his untiring efforts to expse those who seek to subvert the country and the Constitution and so upon hearing the news that his vision is failing him and may indeed be going blind I was hurt. I can think of no other modern man who has put so much of himself into works that so many have attacked him over. I wonder why they attack him,what is he doing that's so hateful? I often am at a loss to explain that.
Glenn losing his sight isn't the end of the world and isn't going to be the end of the fight to rid ourselves of those in power that care to use it an the exact opposite manner that they should.
To me and others Glenn is our hero,he brought light to our eyes and helped us to turn our digust and even anger at these politicians and others into something far more useful than just irritation,he's encouraged us to get up off the couch and go out and be active in the community and to BE the change we all wanna see!

So,WHY Glenn? Why should my "hero" get such great news? Well I guess it should be why not but that's pretty damn hard to do when it's someone you hold in such regard. Glenn's not the first person I've known of to suffer this type of conditions I have an inkling of what he's up against with this becuase of my experience with someone that suffered something like this.
He'll likely eventually be quite blind,my friend's eyesight wasn't gone but she had no central vision at all and was at the mercy of others when it came to such tasks as grocery shopping. No kind of life for a woman that had been a schoolteacher in her younger years.
I suppose that it's because of this fine lady that I feel so for Glenn,I know what will happen to him eventually and I just don't want that for him. He's so much a dynamo of positive energy and it seem slike such a pity to lose that amazing force.

Glenn,I salute you and your good works sir and I hope that you'll be able to continue with those works with or without your eyes! Thanks for being the voice for positivity,you've helped me to realize that even MY voice can help to make a difference.

A New Hope

Ni-Hao to ya! Confused yet? Yeah,that passes with time. My primary purpose here will be to convey my feelings on whatever matter I happen to have feelings on and lately that's been politics. I expect to use this soapbox to shout to the heavens my disgust with our current president and to point out what I have seen from his government,racism,blatant disregard for the Constitution,the Founding Fathers and "We The People"!

My secondary purpose here? Just to blow off a little bit of steam and to brag up my kids and my wife and to indulge my desire to pretend to be a journalist. Make no mistake,I'm not expecting a Putlitzer here but I do hope that those who read this come away realizing that I'm sincere in my love of both my family and my country.

So,follow me,don't follow me,whatever,but remember this is MY little slice of the internet and what I say HERE is law. We can have a debate here kiddies but I decide the winners!

Can you dig it? I knew that you could now.