Category Archives: War

Passover, Holy Week and the World’s Insane Savagery not always Progressing Civilization

Posted on April 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

“On the First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, ” Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat Passover?” Matthew  26: 17  NAB. During Easter and Holy Week Christians celebrate Jesus celebrating his national and ancestral holiday of the feast of Passover.  Jesus the Redeemer and Deliverer was celebrating a holiday of Delivery and Redemption when  he entered into the suffering and death of his Paschal mystery. According to the Bible the Hebrew had come into Egypt as wealthy administrators whose zenith was embodied in the man Joseph who struck  a shrewd deal to help Egypt through a crisis and secure his people’s survival. Perhaps ties to Hyksos Semitic elements before or after their dynasty and ties to lands as far away as Babylon and as close as Canaan enabled the early Hebrew clans to play a key role as a small part of the Egyptian society and economy. But things change. “Then a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph, came to power in Egypt, He said to his subjects, look how numerous and powerful the Israelite people are growing, more so than we ourselves! Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase, otherwise in time of war they too may join our enemies to fight against us and so leave our country.” Exodus 1: 8-9 NAB.

The Hebrews are enslaved (although neither in the systems we have known relatively recently nor in the system for individual war captives in Egypt) and when that doesn’t do the trick infanticide is commanded to keep them down. Doubtless many Hebrews gave children to any Egyptian who would save them. One of those saved was Moses who became the deliverer of the Passover. There are no real vowels from which English translates his name in the oldest texts.   So we may say his name was Mss. The Pharaohs often had names like Ramses (Rmss) or Thutmose (Ttmss). As a Hebrew  reared as an Egyptian Prince he was doubtless possessed of the name of an egyptian God followed by the “mss” name. He then removed that Pagan first syllable and had a new meaning given to the last two syllables of that name perhaps based on an event or perhaps based on a wall known story of Sargon which was in the Pharaoh’s  Palace Library — and so his name tells a story. Moses’s struggles, spiritual journey and growing sense of Hebrew identity filled a period after he fled Egypt for killing an Egyptian and then returned to seek the deliverance of his people. Why would an atheistic team of scholars and scientists say he appeared to confront Pharoah at that time?  Many such say the story is made up. But I say they are lazy cowards.   

A man learned in all the vast science and wizardry of Egypt that an astute Princeling could learn there he added to it ties with Semite and nomads with old ties to his Hebrew Ancestors. He preayed and sought the help of God for a deliverance for his people. Through consultation and study steadied in prayer he became certain enough that a vast volcanic eruption was coming to the Eastern Mediterranean. The first shifting of plate and upheavals of the Earth came after he had already begun to prophesy to Egypt’s leaders. They found the water reddish and discolored and somewhat poisoned after the prophesied first quake. Hebrews rejoiced at this sign that their unique leader could predict the future. Frogs first, then gnats and then flies were driven from wetlands and wilderness and among the flies were stinging water creatures found in new puddles and flats. Moses preached and life got bad. Moses and his agents kept a sense of pace and theater building the tension and soon the bad water, gasses from fault cracks and rotting bodies and waste of insects led to devastating disease.

The Seventh plague of hail came as the first ashes coated with ice and snow stirred up storms with the early eruptions.  These storms stirred up unprecedented numbers of bugs that swarmed to escape the hostile climate. Then the Locusts descended on a blighted land. Finally the main eruption poured forth and the ejecta cloud darkened the skies for three days. Moses had prevented the Hebrews from being victimized in these terrible ordeals — perhaps sacrificed or eaten and instead had made them feared when he preached and predicted all of this. In the Wealthy Houses many if the Heirs lived in areas of the building nearest the outgassing inlets and as the Hebrews gathered to pray, plan, drill at arms and feast these died in their sleep.

Then the Hebrews moved away from Egypt and found water courses diverted and dams of debris creating dry corridors. The crossed over these and when the Egyptians had second thought s the waters were returning to courses and the armies were cut off surrounded, flooded and washed away by the returning waters.  The Hebrews followed a column of cloud near the coast by day as the cloud of the erupting volcano was visible and of fire at night as it glowed. Exhausted birds flying from lands devastated by the volcano fed them and the ashes fell down with humidity from the sea and caused little plants to produce food in the desert for flocks and people and this went on for a while and was called manna.  With courage and faith they risked it all in a world turned upside down and found themselves free at the end. Unfortunately many seminaries are either illiterate or else see only how fairy tales are similar to these stories.

Jesus was also a real man who really healed the sick. He really fed the hungry and preached and led crowds. He came to Jerusalem knowing he would die horribly with the endless courage that typified him and his life. He came among other things to celebrate the Passover. 

I do appreciate the glories of Egypt and Rome. I am not a romantic idealist purist who hates all trappings of power and pomp. But the great stories at the heart of  Judaism and Christianity are also about human greatness. These are not worthless fools serving a worthy God. This is God drawing near to his people.   

In recent posts I have been putting up a goodly number of more or less political postings.  In fact, the last half-dozen have all been political without an exception. I could have interrupted these to do a personal post on my brother’s wedding but I did not.  Having committed to this political expression I have decided to go on with the process for the immediate future. Everyone has got their discontents and their sense of what are the tolerable limits of their civic and social situation before they must take some kind of drastic action to change that situation or remove themselves from it. I am not arguing that whatever I will do is immediately and inextricably linked to what society as a whole will find to be the right and practical response. In fact, in may ways my own place is one of having lost that basic sense of trust in society which would be at the base and part of the very essence of such an assertion as I disclaim here. But on this holiday as we think of our civilization let us remember that civilization is more than power alone. Besides the unique and great criticisms of Moses and Jesus Egypt and Rome retained much of whatever habitability and decency they did retain because of others who sought more than just power in that sense and were also able people who could wield power.

Human Habitat,  Resources, Sex and Reproduction, Military Culture, Bio-diversity,  Really Understood Moral Hazard, Preservation of Momentum and Continuity of Resources are all themes I would like to address in my blog. I would like to draw near to a plan for reforming our society. However, I want to take a break to ponder God’s mercy in the redemptions we celebrate just now. As we move into SPRING, maybe a new springtime of a genuine and intelligent faith can find its way into our policy.

Happy Passover and Happy Easter.

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Posted in Christianity, Easter Holiday, Jesus Christ, Judaism, Passover, Personal Philosophy and Moral Economics, Religious Holidays, Royalty and Empire, United States of America, War, Western civilization

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American Survival — American Transformation

Posted on March 21, 2010 | 2 comments

America must decide to survive.  If it does so it must in some sense transform itself. What kind of transformation is that likely to be?

Identifying a crisis eventually becomes effortless if the crisis is severe enough. In terms of identifying the crisis the worthy trick is to identify it in time to take some kind of actions to avoid, mitigate or redeem its worst results and consequences. America is in a deep national and societal crisis. Not all of us are free to react in the same way to addressing this crisis.  However, we can perhaps do what we can do.  Suppose one is eager to do more than whatever one’s present actions are, what can be done?

To identify the real dimensions and parameters of our crisis goes beyond what can be achieved in a single blog posting.  I do a lot of listing in these posts but there would be nothing but list if I even attempted to mention every major area of concern and cause for serious  anxiety and action.  In recent posts, especially the last five,  I have outlined where I think we need to end up in very general terms. In this post I will try to outline what perhaps can be done prior to the revolutionary transformation taking hold in these United States of America.

First, if you follow my advice you will have to adopt a mental attitude quite distinct from the mental attitude on which most politics is presented, proclaimed and outlined these days. If one accepts the revolutionary changes outlined here as a goal and takes them seriously then one can still admit that it is unlikely that the goal will be achieved. Although it is not more likely im the distant future it is possible that it will happen but not occur until after a reasonable life expectancy has passed. So this means a distinct political approach recommends itself.  Agitation and campaigning for candidates must both be relatively minor aspects of this effort to achieve political transformation.

One thing that can be done is to read this blog and other related material and then to discuss it with people selected as being the best people to help push these ideas and changes forward. Another thing that can help is to find ways to build value and grow one’s own dreams in such a way that they have value on their own but also can work to bring about a larger program and pattern of change. So let us talk about some principles of creating this movement if it is to become a movement.

First, after the reading described above try to set down a few notes and remarks somewhere to show you are committed to the project. Maybe take a friend out for coffee and explain that you are committing yourself to this project.

Second, do not diminish your participation in politics. Whether that means changing where and how you participate or merely finding ways to let those people know that you basically support there goals but have some more refinements and other profound changes that you would also like to see in our society. Be less pushy and assertive than those who can get more satisfaction out of quick short-term goals.

Third, work out the principle of autonomy linked to loyalty. That is trying to create your own resources that are really yours but which can also be restructured readily to support a movement for change and identify the causes discussed here particularly (along with country, family and religion) causes you would and are willing to support with resources that are wholly yours even if it costs you more than it is really worth to you personally.

Fourth, be invested in community and tie that to your social ideals. Don’t put the idea of revolutionary change above all the needs of your family, church congregation, soccer league, neighborhood watch and alumni association  but try to tie all the commitments you make to these community-building things to a sense of the social transformation you would like to see.

Five, learn to supply critical support.  Consider giving care boxes to local National Guard units and building a real relationship and still speak openly about changes you would like to see over time in the military culture of our country and society. Give money and write letters to candidates for office when you can and mention some of these ideals not as a condition to your modest donation but identifying where you would like to see things going over time.

Six, consider starting a discussion group. Consider getting together with some other people who are able to take small steps to help bring about these changes.

Seven, IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING LEFT CONTACT ME.  You can contact me here are on media linked to this site like Twitter. If you wish to support these ideals through me directly I am not incorporated but you could mail a check payable  to Frank W. Summers III to:

Frank W. Summers III

PO Box 22

Perry, LA 70575

If you do that, write ” Reconstitutionalize America” in the memo line. If you give me a return address I will try to let you know how I have spent it.  This is not even really a recommendation but rather an option just in case it seems right for you. I make no representations in advance about how it will be used and it will not be tax-deductible.

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Posted in Acadians, Environment, Family Missions Conpany, Geopolitics, race, Royalty and Empire, Sex, United Nations, United States of America, War, Western civilization

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After an American Revolution: The Royalist Portion of the Empire

Posted on March 16, 2010 | 3 comments

This is a separate post from the four-part American Revolution post. It is also being written (at least in part, we shall see what happens)  the week of my brother Joseph Anthony Summers getting married to Brooke Lee Ortego.  I do have some things to discuss about the transition to royalism and the royalist aspect of the Empire and the changes that are necessary.  I choose to do this partly in terms of Twelve Principles and Precepts of the Transition to the Empire. This is all so very extremely distant from the run of American politics and yet it is quite the minimum in terms of understanding a transition from a republican to a royalist system. This is the kind of thing where the big break is to discuss the matter at all. Once one begins to discuss it there is no way to avoid saying many things that must seem ridiculous from the current vantage point. But the transformation would be a real transformation and so one must explain how it ought to work or else really had better not discuss it at all. I am also inconsistent in my use of person and tense here and I am not going to go with single style. This is in a sense incorrect but also suggestive of the context of this blog.

First Principle and Precept: The Emperor shall reign, shall be the Supreme Executive, Special and Extraordinary Commander in Chief and Judiciary of  Last Resort.  He is a minor and indirect player in the making of laws known as Legislation.

Second Principle and Precept: The Emperor shall preside over an a federal Empire which while it is more unitary and less federal than the true nature of the republic is as federal as the republic was often understood to be recently and his sovereignty is that of the federal and direct imperial power and not of the States or constitutional jurisdictions in which a portion of the system of dual sovereignty exists.

Third Principle and Precept: The Emperor shall by right occupy in fullness the Presidential and executive power during times when the First and Executive Vice President is disabled or unnamed but the powers of the Executive Branch as they have been vested in the Presidents of the Republic shall be ordinarily and customarily exercised by First and Executive Vice President  except where the written constitution of the Empire clearly transfers or reserves those rights to the Emperor or where lands, bureaucracies  houses and tribes clearly fall under the special power of the new Empire and were not part of the old Republican Presidency.

Fourth Principle and Precept: The processes of the Founding of the Empire shall in every way count as the Election of the Founding Emperor and the joining while the Constitution endures of the title of Basileus and Emperor. Basileus shall be the senior title and the Acadians shall provide no less than two-thirds majorities in all conclave elections under the Constitution. The Emperor shall also be at least King of the Compact of Louisiana and possibly of some of its Jurisdictions as well. This shall be a title equal in seniority to that of the Emperor and shall produce no less than half as many elector in the Conclave as the Empire itself produces. Further the Empire must accept that some of the Acadians  will not be citizen-subjects of the Empire. These Outside Acadians will number no more than one fifth nor less than one tenth of the Acadian section of the conclave unless the demographics or politics should obviously mean that the se persons had become citizen-subjects of the Empire.

Fifth Principle and Precept: With the exception of the National Parks and existing military bases the ordinary Federal government’s  land ownership shall be that which most yields to the transitions of creating the Empire. The Imperial House, The Peer-Elector Fiefdoms, The Gift Estate and the large transfers to the new Constitutional Jurisdictions will largely consume and exhaust other federal land ownership. Thus the First Executive Vice President will control fewer and less extensive lands as federal although new lands will enter the hands of the Emperor.  The Peer-Electors chosen and choosing will pay something for their lands and these funds will be divided into four equal parts. One part will go to a fund to pay down the national debt, one part will go to the Emperor’s  and Imperial House Trust, one part will go to a Custodial trust of the Fiefdom and Title of the Peer and one part will go the Imperial Combined Aristocratic Trust. The Forty-Nine Fiefdoms will be part of the Direct Imperial Government.

Sixth Principle and Precept: There shall be a handful of Institutions which shall be most especially the Preserve of the Royalist Imperial element of the government and society. A partial but substantial list that includes most of these elements would be:

1. The Imperial House itself.

2. The Office of Liaison to the Ethnos Arkadios.

3. The Empress’s Office of Women’s Affairs

4.The Empress’s Ministry of Protocol.

5. The Mistress of Ceremonies’  Office of Liaisons and Placements

6. The Mistress of Ceremony’s Office of  Ritual Confrontation

7.TThe Imperial Household

8. The Imperial House & Household Bank

9. The Emperor’s Office of Wastes and Ruins

10. The Imperial Office of  Human Habitat Expansion.

11. The Personal, Household and  Direct Imperial Military Institutions.

12. The Imperial Services Agency.

13. The Imperial Wellness Agency.

14. The Imperial Borders Administration.

Seventh Principle and Precept: The funding of the Royalist section shall not be subject in large part to the ordinary legislative process. The Operating Treasury of the approximate dozen major agencies of the Imperial Bureaucracy  would receive certain fixed funds by Constitutional prerogative:

1.  One  half of one percent of all revenues collected by the Federal government during each year would be given to this Operating Treasury.

2. A fourth of any and all taxes collected in the Direct Imperial Government lands would be evenly divided between the Imperial House Trust and the Operating Treasury prior to any other claims upon them.

3. All those passing through the entries to the United States in the Royal Fiat Zone would pay  a fee and all freight would pay an entry tariff to the Imperial Operating Treasury and the Imperial House Trust. A formula for these fees  would be set permanently  in the constitution.   The Emperor would have the right and prerogative to make use of the labor of apprehended illegal aliens and to maintain an office of Liaison with Canada and one with Mexico solely to operate this program in a state of transparency. The EMperor would have no obligation to arrest or detain anyone and  the US Border Patrol would operate on the interior line of the Fiat Zone as on an international border enforcing US laws of immigration. These aliens detained by the Emperor would be paid, fed and housed but paid less than other  American workers for Imperial projects especially in the border’s Royal Fiat Zone. There would be an escalating system of arrests. One week of labor on first arrest, six weeks on second arrest, twelve weeks on third arrest, one year on fourth arrest and five years followed by legal acceptance as permanent resident aliens on fifth arrest.  All aliens would be released with some portion of the profit they had earned when released, a portion equal to half the amount the alien received would go to the Transparency and Resettlement program of either Canada or Mexico or be held in trust until such date as they should agree to set up such an office and program. Labor would be forced but consistent with the health, capacities, skills, willingness and interests of the aliens.  The regular US border beyond this Royal Fiat  zone would operate on separate and parallel rules.   

3. The Emperor and Empress would each have an ex-officio Estate and Manor and the Peer-Electors would each have certain covenants to entertain and   support some aspect of the Household from their estates.  The legal principle regarding these operations should be “The King shall live on his own”.

4. The Imperial Operating Treasury shall receive one tenth of the revenues produced from all foreclosures in the United States but shall at the end of three years of earning conservative interest remit half of these funds to pay off the national debt. This shall be both a tax and a penalty on foreclosing institutions. The Imperial Operating Treasury shall also remit one tenth of these funds to the General Treasury of the Direct Imperial Government.

5. The Imperial Services shall include a Stock Market Assurance Agency. Every share of stock traded in the United States will be charged a one percent SMAA premium. A third of each premium will go into a General Recovery Fund.  Most of the rest will go into accounts attached to the names and credit of various players in a transaction according to rules set out. Each stock exchange in the United States will also pay one half of one mil of its gross gross volume of trade to the SMAA as an annual premium. When a company fall into nearly nill value its shareholders, employees and creditors will  be entered into an SMAA Company Holding Venture. The SMAA will evaluate which of a schedule of options is best from partial making whole of all, to a minimal settlement and dissolution of all interests and to a rehabilitation of the company. The Imperial operating Treasury will receive one percent of all revenues collected by the SMAA as an operating fee.

6. By a set of laws set out in the Constitution the Emperor shall have a right to profit from anything left to waste and ruin in the United States.

7. Every person voting in a national election would pay a nickel to the Emperor each time the voter exercised this right.

8. The Emperor shall have fees and excises associated with titles from which he may derive incomes.

Eighth Principle and Precept: The Imperial Commerce of Agency of the Imperial Services would be set up to pay taxes on activities of the Emperor and House in the free and private sectors of the economy. Both parties may engage in such activities and profit from them but when they do they can sue and be sued through this Agency.

Ninth Principle and Precept: The Emperor and the Imperial House (as well as each Peer-Elector and their House) shall have an official religion or a group of sponsored religions with which he will set the example of that mix of devotion, conflict, adherence and protest which typify these relationships. In the case of an Acadian Basileus the Roman Catholic Church is the Official Church and the Greek Orthodox Church is the most honored other church to which also an excommunicated  Basileus should first seek admittance for himself. However, the Emperor’s religion shall not be imposed upon the Citizen-Subjects of the Empire.

Tenth Principle and Precept:  Those in the Nobility and Aristocracy shall be subject to an Imperial Honor and Protocol Code   which shall govern their standing. In the founding papers it shall be described how the Imperial bureaucracy may discriminate in favor of Aristocrats and Nobles in Good Standing and how they may not so discriminate.  Anyone may buy a lowest rank , such as that of High Squire, for the purposes of attaining some small participation in these privileges. A fee shall be paid to the Ministry of Protocol and  another to the House, a Family Crest shall be certified, a plot of land subject to the new entail law be established, a family trust  and a family charity endowed and one can unless sued to prevent it on solid grounds buy such an elevation. The True Nobility starting at the equivalent of the British Rank of Baron may also be applied for and in a sense purchased but here the Ministry of Protocol must certify that there is some honor to be gained by the Institution and the Purchaser must already be a High Squire at least before applying. No rank above the baronial may be purchased directly under this scheme. Here a Knight’s Hold, a Coat of Arms, a family Shrine and a Personal and Family History would all be required of the purchaser as well as a very secure trust sufficient to provide a modest living at the time of its creation. These trusts will not be subject to seizure by creditors and therefore will require new working out of various laws.

Eleventh Principle and Precept: The House itself will be a domestic regime unto itself under Imperial LAw and with a fairly extensive set of written property and domestic laws. It shall not be subject to other domestic and property laws.

Twelfth Principle and Precept: The First and Executive Vice President would report to the Emperor regularly as prescribed by law and would pay him homage openly at the start of each four-year term or would not be able to hold office.

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Posted in Acadians, Healthcare, Jesus Christ, Louisiana, National Parks, Royalty and Empire, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, War, Western civilization

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The Mental Ferment for Men (and Women) who Might Foment an American Revolution: Part Three

Posted on March 9, 2010 | 2 comments

We really are facing a dangerous period of opportunity.  Could there be an American Revolution? If so how could it play out and what might its outcome be? I think that we have reached a point where more than few crises will slip out of control unless they are addressed in the relatively near future.  For me as an individual person the idea of seeking and pushing a particular form of constitutional transformation is well justified.  There is enough desperation in my circumstances and history to make me unquiet for a long period of time.

But Revolution is a strong prescription. There are varied levels of the dreaded opportunity our founding fathers called the “State of Nature”.  Remember they did not seek to overthrow the British government or dissolve their own colonies. They simply sought to exclude the British from the governance of the United States and to transform the quasi-state colonies into states. The Constitution they drafted allowed not only for amendments but also for a constitutional convention which would allow for the most low risk possible way to pass through a grave crisis. This would be sort of skirting along the borders of the dreaded state of nature. I think a serious and honest scholar of the period would have to conclude they would have hoped we would achieve many forms of political development we have avoided before undertaking many things we have undertaken. Now we reach the part of this essay which is the most risky and dangerous for the writer. In describing a proposed revolution one should be able to describe some set of relatively large and even shocking changes desired and possible under the new regime which are not possible under this regime. So, either in this section I will discuss what my ideal new America  would be like in terms of almost all its map and in terms of the Congress of the United States and the Electoral College.

I.  The Map and Congress: First Level of Revolutionary Change

However, I will get to those larger and more distinct looking changes much later than this sentence or paragraph.  I will start with those that most closely flow from my last comment. I will focus on the map and Congress. The new House of Representatives  should be made up of 800 seats and representatives exactly. The number of people in a district in a State would be constitutionally set at the variable A (apportionment number). The non states would have 53 seats not apportioned by population: The District of Columbia would have three such seats, a federation of all lands not in Constitutional Jurisdictions (which is what States, Territories and Possessions would be called together) would have two seats. The allotted State legislature representatives of all the Colored Districts in the States would hold an electoral conference every two years and select three of their own members to serve in the House of Representatives and have authority to expedite an election to fill their State legislative Seats. In addition each of the 14 Territories would have two seats serving the Territory as a whole regardless of population and its apportioned seats. Each  of the 17 Possessions would have one seat representing the Possession as a whole and its apportioned seats. Then all military bases of the United States militaries would be made into districts electing representatives. Military people would have two votes in this way– they would keep their home constitutional jurisdiction vote and gain additional representation in the Congress and Electoral College through their base-district votes. Each Territory district which is apportioned by population would serve 1.5 A people, each Possession district apportioned by population would serve   2 A people and each military jurisdiction.There would be 747 seats apportioned by the new council of Censors — as with the States now none ould include parts of more than one Constitutional Jurisdiction.

B. The United States Senate

After the Addition of the State of Puerto Rico there would be no new States added without a Constitutional amendment. There would also be the one additional Senator for each State elected by the State Legislature and serving a longer term.  That would bring the total number of US Senators to 153. These Senators would serve for all purposes of Law, Procedure, Equity and Normal Business. They would be the only ones allowed to vote when the Senate considered such matters. However, there would be a number of additional members  of high office and some elected by the Censors and Tribunes to serve in a Senatorial Constitutional  Assembly entitled to vote on the amendments to the Constitution. The current Congress of the United States numbers a bit under 550 and the new Congress would number a bit under 1000. This would be more in line with our revolutionary heritage. 

C. The New Constitutional Jurisdictions

The cost in lands would not fall on all States equally to create the new  Constitutional Jurisdictions and the Federal Government would be required to provide some lands of its own to the process.

Territories:

1.The Territoryof the Federated Aboriginal American Nations of the North Eastern States

2.The Territoryof the Federated Aboriginal American Nations of the South Eastern States

3.The Territory of the Federated Aboriginal American Nations of the South Western States

4.The Territory of the Federated Aboriginal American Nations of the North Western States.

5.The Territory of the Kingdom of Hawaii

6.The Territory of American Samoa

7.The Territory of Guam

8.The Territory of the Aleut, Inuit and Eskimo Peoples of Alaska

9.The Territory of Creoles of Color of Louisiana

10.The Territory of the Creoles of Color of Puerto Rico

11.The Territoryof the Creoles of Color of the US Virgin Islands

12.The Federated Territory of the Mestizos of the Western Half of Spanish Borderlands

13.The Federated Territory of the Mestizos Eastern Half of the Spanish Borderlands

14. The Small Federal Territory of  token Micronesian, Filipino Other American Imperial Communities

Thus 28 not-by-population districts in the House.   

Possessions:

1.The Negro and African-American Possession in South Carolina

2.The Negro and African American Possession in Mississippi

3.The Negro and African American Possession in Florida

4.The Negro and African American Possession in Alabama

5.The Negro and African American Possession in Georgia

6.The Negro and African American Possession in Louisiana

7.The Negro and African American Possession in Texas

8.The Negro and African American Possession in Virginia

9.The Negro and African American Possession in Arkansas

10.The Negro and African American Possession in Tennessee

11.The Negro and African American Possession in North Carolina

12.The Negro and African American Possession in the US Virgin Islands

13.The Negro and African American Possession in Puerto Rico

14.The Negro and African American Possession of Federated Districts in Kentucky, Maryland and Oklahoma

15.The Negro and African American Possession of Federated Districts in the Union States of 1864

16.The Negro and African American Possession of Federated Districts of the Pacific States and Territories

17.The Negro and African American Possession of Federated States of the Greater South West

Thus 17 not-by-population districts in the House.

D. The Compact Zones

Each constitutional Jurisdiction shall yield a small zone of land to the direct governance of every compact it belongs to — no Compact Zone will be larger than four square miles and shall vary by the size of the Constitutional Jurisdiction.  There shall be major Compacts and minor compacts. Generally, the Major Compacts will receive larger zones.

The Major Compacts:

1.The Thirteen Colonies Compact

2.The Original Constitution Compact

3.The Compact of the Louisiana Purchase

4.The Compact of the Hartford Convention

5.The Compact of the Spanish Borderlands

6.The Compact of the Confederate States of America

7.The Compact of the Union States of the Civil War

8. The Compact of All Jurisdictions West of the Mississippi

9.The Compact of All Jurisdictions East of the Mississippi

10.The Compact of All States

11.The Compact of All Territories

12.The Compact of All Possessions 

Each Major Compact will receive a rebate of half of one percent of all federal taxes collected in every member jurisdiction as well as a half of one percent of all revenues raised by each jurisdiction. The Major Compacts shall also elect an elector for life who will sit and vote with other electors for the President and be seated in the Compact Council. The Compact Councils shall reserve most of the seats in their lower chamber for those elected from the Compact’s Roll of Kindreds. Every family association must belong to at least two Rolls of Kindreds and should contribute one percent of all its revenues to each Roll of Kindreds it belongs to up to four percent. After that if it elects to belong to more it shall simply divide four percent of its revenues equally among all Rolls. The Upper Chamber will be a Council of Nobles.  The Compacts will have the right to petition both the US Congress and their member legislatures. They shall each maintain a cavalry Honor Guard.

The Minor Compacts

The Minor Compacts will be institutions authorized and chartered by the United States Government to co-ordinate a basic set of long lasting concerns. Like the Major Compacts they will have independent constitutional funding but their governance will just be a set of uniquely chartered institutions not fully part of the federal grand plan for the society. I will not attempt to list them all but will give a few examples: the Compact of Louisiana, The Compact of Hawaii  and The Compact of Puerto Rico.

II. The Electoral College: Second Level of Revolutionary Change

A. The Election of the Chief Executive 

Every four years as today a person would be elected to many of the duties and roles of the current President of the United States. Each Jurisdiction would elect as many electors as it has members of its total Congressional caucus as today.   However, there would also be eighty-two Electors for life from the eighty-two Constitutional Jurisdictions and twelve  Electors for life from the Major Compacts.  These would be of less importance than ninety four new electors added to our five hundred because of the expansion of Congress and thus popularly chosen electors. The Electors for Life shall form a council with the only real direct oversight power over the Censors in drawing up the electoral districts. They shall meet to certify these districts on year before each Presidential Election. No one shall be declared President until the full electoral college shall have voted. Popular electors shall be bound as robots on the first vote but free to change their vote if there is no majority in the Electoral College on the First Ballot.

B. Other Elections

Should there be more than a single National Election ( today we have only the single Presidential and Vice Presidential ticket) then in these new elections the Electors for life would also participate as a primary organ of those elections.

In Part Four of this posting I will discuss the most radical outcomes of the proposed American Revolution. Outcomes more likely to be off-putting than any discussed so far in this essay.

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Posted in Acadians, Frank W. Summers, Geopolitics, Jesus Christ, Lords of the Blog, race, Sex, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, War, Western civilization

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The Mental Ferment for Men (and Women) who Might Foment an American Revolution: Part Two

Posted on March 8, 2010 | 3 comments

The question that supersedes and eclipses all other questions in this kind of discussion is whether or not it is really possible that the United States of America will enter a period of constitutional transformation. That sort of change which falls into the largest definition of the word “revolution”. Then (and I admit that there may be revolution at all any time soon) one can come to the question of whether or not such a change will be occasioned by the relatively sane, patriotic and productive citizens of which the Tea party is one major grouping or whether change will come from forces which are more destructive, opportunistic and perhaps more largely foreign as well. Hunger and the threat of  large-scale killing of citizens by the government are the most common reasons history shows us for people to seek to change their government. It may be that we need change but is there much chance of making real change. I think there is a less than fifty percent chance. However, Americans have a sense of creeping tyranny and a desire to react to it that is real. This is also rooted in their history.  “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson — even republican democracies in form can be tyrannical. That is both true and a truth which the Founders believed. Jefferson was the most democratic in philosophy of the first rank of Founding Fathers and he certainly had a distrust for democracy and did not ever use it as a synonym for good government as we often see being done today. 

In this four part posting I am exploring what an American Revolution might mean.  I am looking at what it could come out of and where it might bring us.  Here, in this post I focus more on our Revolutionary Heritage. By the fourth part I should be more focused on the Revolutionary future. 

Other founders such as Adams were much more openly critical of the whole espousing of Democracy as an ideal and they did not believe that they had intended to create a democracy nor that such had been the result of there efforts. Adams was on the committee which assisted Jefferson in writing the Declaration of Independence  and approved it before submitting it to Congress. Yet he did  not hesitate to declare. “Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” John Adams There are many elements besides democracy which are supposed to be operating in our country’s governance and conventual. We are a country founded on getting these mechanics right under an accepted and specific constitution which provides the ground rules and lines of operation for the “game” which is government and indirectly culture and society.  There is no way that people can all be persuaded to understand the same questions as being priorities nor to come up with an understanding that the same answers are always right and especially not right for all.  Naive optimism is how our enemies have described our nation’s political philosophy but it is not fair even to our most idealistic founder: “An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.” Thomas Jefferson. There is more than conflict resolution here that is intended. Federalism itself allows some conflicts not to be resolved and states to live under different laws while all still are participating in the great American society with its greater resources and grand purposes.  Far from Term Limits for everyone I believe that in a new constitutional order we should have three US Senators for each State. Let popular elections choose two as has become habitual but let a third one be elected by the state legislatures (as in the original constitution) but let this one officer be subject to certain qualifications tests (not too onerous) and be elected for a longer term. Let former Presidents, retired General Officers and the US and retired  Justices of the US Supreme Court serve on a small per diem and their pensions as Censors. Let them control the Census now taken by the Commerce Department and also create districts and apportion seats for Congress. Let them serve independently and for life. Let them also hold some power over the organs for ethics in the federal government.  Radical as this may seem there is evidence the founders thought we should get to this eventually. This Council of Censors would restore the nondemocratic elements which have wasted away and left us in chaos as we see all power in the hands of popular majorities.  That is very un-American. We have a more complex society now and it should be under a more complex government not a less complex one. 

 Nor was this constitution designed to consider all  starting positions as equal. It was not crafted so that all ideas and  ways of life could start on exactly the same footing.  Few were more in touch with the founding of the country that is the USA than John Adams and he did not hesitate to write about what was to be favored. “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams.  Nor was Adams merely concerned with any kind of piety. He could not have been more certain in his own mind of the pre-eminence of Judaeo- Christian values and cultural traditions in forming the national fabric. “The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. ” John Adams. Remember that the racial and ethnic implications are coming out clearly from one of the Declarers select committee. Some lands from the State and the federal government should be surrendered both to compact and a central government with small needs and specialized missions but a larger part (totalling as much as two or more percent of all lands) should be put into a “pot” together with Guam, American Samoa, part of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands as well as all Indian Reservations to create a series of really viable Territories and Possessions which are represented in the House of Representatives and not in the US Senate.   Part of Puerto Rico should be admitted as our final state and part as one of these new Territories, these two jurisdictions will have a compact. The relationship will be repeated in Hawaii and Alaska where close relations between distinct jurisdictions will be the norm. This will new order need to include a substantial Kingdom of Hawaii, Negro Possessions in the Southern States (as well as Creole of Color territories in some places) and two Mestizo territories in old settlements of the Spanish Borderlands Compact. These ethnic groups would have lands and governments to use and elect,  they would have seats in the House and could have simple tribunes with limited vetoes and subpoenas in the Senate. Some funds and contracts would be reserved for their development in the new constitution. Poverty and prison programs would be replaced with innovation in many states. Schools would improve and the State universities would reserve a small percentage of their seats for the best qualified of their neighbors. However, most  jurisdictions would service their own peoples needs and employ their own police and teachers. This would not be for all colored people as under Jim Crow but jurisdictions favoring specific raci0-ethnic groups with districts and rights for their own minorities. Real racial purity laws per se would be forbidden federally everywhere. The family associations would define the reace of there members for most purposes and the acts to deny racial identitry would be limited in effect and require due process.  But America would not pretend to racial indifference any more. In the States there would be  both colored districts where those not  related to nearby districts would elect parties to the state legislature and have some kind of municipal governance but also be less than equal in many rights of the state citizen while protected as US Citizen. Northeast Asian Communities such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Sino-Filipino peoples would be  assured equal representation for drawn minority majority districts in all states where they have a traditional population.  In addition they would participate as full state citizens. Likewise Filipinos and Micronesians would be given special federal assistance in settling here because of the ties of their countries to ours.  Family associations would work with these new laws and jurisdictions. But there would be an end to varied forms of racial madness in this country. All future immigrants would have to be admitted by both the United States and a lesser Jurisdiction State or otherwise.  Each jurisdiction should elect one elector for life who will sit with the popular election electors for the President and also have other legislative roles. Such a person would be able to hold multiple offices.

Likewise, America has never been founded on any principle that allowed for weakness as a national ideal.  “If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War. ” George Washington.  War, I would argue is not merely murder. Modern societies do not always fight wars quite frequently they just murder people. War involves, discipline, declarations, chains of command and a known return address  ( to at least some degree) for the violence. I have often been critical of the US military but it is still the military founded by that tall Virginian quoted above. It is still one of the institutions that works in our society.   The people have a right and a need for militias, hunting clubs and I think in a society like ours they need more differentiated groups along the lines of orders of chivalry where the most privileged speak a more refined language of violence. America is in danger of losing all that it is in this simple regard.  “Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth.” George Washington.  On this and some other issues I will focus my third and last portion of this posting. 

We must also have a society where the federal and state governments are openly concerned with the moral development of these constituent armed groups and their members. No value neutral governance is possible part of our culture of defense and security. “Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.” George Washington. My last portion will also relate to this moral aspect of governance.

So, next time expect to see me discuss morals, arms and how to effect real change as well as other issues relevant to this subject not yet addressed. So far you can see that for me revolution is a word I take seriously.

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Posted in American Samoa, Chivalry, Louisiana, Personal Philosophy and Moral Economics, race, War

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Veterans Day

Posted on November 11, 2009 | 6 comments

Today is Veterans Day. I think it is a sort of holiday some Americans would call a “No Brainer” which does not mean observing it shows that one does not have a brain but rather that even someone with no brains could see the need for it. We need to honor our Veterans.  We need to have a holiday in which we honor our Armed services. Of course, in point of fact, we have Memorial Day and Flag Day and the Fourth of July and Armed Services Day. I am not sure of the rank of all of these days but we are a society with few official holidays at the Federal level and at least Memorial Day and Veterans Day are really military and  Independence Day has strong military overtones. I want to thank all those who have worn the uniform of this country and especially those who have either killed or put themselves in real danger of being killed or wounded in the service of the United States. Memorial Day honors the dead and Veterans Day the living but I want to honor the dead as well. I especially want to honor the memory of my cousin Severin Summers who was alive last Veterans Day and lost his life in combat in Afghanistan this year.

I honor the service of all veterans of this country but I am going to post here a former Facebook Post related to Easter. Perhaps after the tragedy of the Fort Hood shootings we could all use some of Easter’s hope and renewal and I think that the basic message is especially relevant to those US service people who are Christian.  There are of course many of those.

So here is my Facebook post:

 Monday, April 6, 2009 at 11:28am |
Many of my fellow Americans are bearing arms in the service of their country in Afghanistan and Iraq.These are the countries in which the US is more or less officially engaged in a war. We have a large number of people, mostly young men who wear uniforms, follow schedules, bear weapons, drill, fight and kill as well as dying and being wounded in those two distant lands.

Perhaps they know Jesus as the Prince of Peace. I certainly know and honor Christ as the holder of that Title. Many of them are certainly Christians and it is to the Christians who serve in the US military that I primarily address this note. I think war should be avoided whenever it is right and possible to do so. Jesus said “I came that you might have life and have it abundantly”, can it be acceptable to Christian families to have their sons, daughters, wives and husbands far away causing pain and injury to other people?

Smaller numbers of Americans are bearing arms in service of the country which has renewed my passport in Korea, Germany, Japan, Cuba, and on ships and planes around the world. In addition there are far-flung bases on quasi-American soil or a least not state soil. Tiny detachments hold a position for our interests in American Samoa and larger ones in Guam. There are bases in very powerful and not so powerful countries with whom we have had historic ties — these range from the United Kingdom to the Federated States of Micronesia. Then we have a fleet of nuclear powered and nuclear armed submarines prowling the oceanic depths. This is an impressive amount of coverage for a nation’s military. I actually find the role of the military as an institution very interesting. However it is also true that I am interested in the way our troops are mentally affected by their service. I wish all American military service personnel well as military service personnel. That is a simple position for me to take. As long as I carry an American passport, have credits with the Social Security Agency and vote in our elections in Louisiana as it now and forseeably exists — then the USA is the country I support as mine and the very important role of the military in that national team is one I have to root for in their role. Some people in uniform are also brave, honest, decent and patriotic. I like those qualities. However, I do not cheer on our folks in uniform because I think they all have these qualities. Rather, I think otherwise.

Jesus said that no man born of woman was greater than John the Baptist although the least born to the kingdom of heaven was greater than he. John the Baptist told soldiers who asked him how to live that they should not steal and should be content with their pay. Is that the sum total of New Testament advice to young Christians headed off into harm’s way to serve their country?

It is important to understand that I never have served in the uniformed services of the United States. Further, it is quite possible that this is one of the more difficult things that I have ever attempted to deal with in writing. However, I would not deal with it at all if I had not reached just a certain point in the process of my life. I am able now to write about many things I hoped I would never want to write
publicly about in the way that I now do. In this note I am tagging some people who are not either Christian, military or American. I am not tagging anyone for whom I do not have respect but I am really addressing my self in my own mind to a certain audience or readership. I am really writing to Americans who are in the armed services and celebrate Easter as a religious holiday .Reflecting on my own life and spiritual journey I am sort of appointing myself a momentary e-chaplain to Christians in the American military. I certainly could avoid discussing war. However, it would not be easy to do all the other things and seek after all the other objectives that I seek after and not acknowledge war.

Jesus healed the servant of a Centurion who had been generous to the Jewish population and never criticized him for representing an occupying army. He told his disciples that when the Roman soldiers conscripted them to carry their heavy Roman packs one mile they should carry them two miles instead. That is where we get the English expression “going the extra mile”.

I think that Christianity is entirely relevant to the discussion of war and arms in the United States. I think that Easter week especially is a relevant time to join the two discussions. It may prove to be a very thankless task indeed. I think of my countrymen and women who are coming from the aging congregations of urban Catholic Cathedral parishes, small rural Catholic chapels, incense filled Orthodox churches in ethnic neighborhoods, hard-shell Baptist churches on red dirt roads near old sawmills and bait shops, Mega Churches with Protestant preaching and modern audio-visual equipment and the average sized Catholic churches filled with families. I think of young men of 17, 18, 20, 24, 25 and 27 heading off to boot camps, training, transports and war. I think of the secular ideas which guide so much of the military structure and the whispers and influences of men as diverse as George Washington, Hitler, Clausewitz, Mohammed, Mao Zhe Dong, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Horatio Nelson, Andrew Jackson and Patton who may influence their thoughts about war. I have nothing against their learning from, and studying either the good men or the bad. However, I am driven against all sane reasoning to put down a few of my own thoughts about Jesus Christ and the Christians view of war and military service.

Jesus’s Apostles had nicknames, given names or nommes de guerre that included: the Rock, Sons of Thunder, the Zealot ( a member of a known military and anti-Roman organization) and were accustomed to life threatening situations. Crucifixion and stoning were among their regular subjects of conversation. Jesus also spoke prophetically of the coming siege of Jerusalem. Is this post of engaged observation all their Savior has to offer those who serve in the military and honor his name?

Over the course of these notes I have discussed my own life experience as it relates to this subject. However, I always repeat something from an old note in each note. I do not expect whoever chooses to read a given note to have read all the other notes. I think that it is a really difficult subject for me to deal with in conversation or writing. However, no subject is all that difficult for me to deal with. I am someone who communicates a great deal. Further, this is not the New York Times this is my Facebook notes section. It is more like drunken ramblings at a bar in some ways than it is like shouting and proclaiming from a podium. So I will try to summarize or paint a verbal picture of my background as regards this whole world of warfare. I will try to relate this to my own faith journey as well.

Jesus said ” Do you think I have come to bring peace to the Earth? I assure you that I have not come to bring peace but fire and a sword”. Is a sense of social revolution or social consciousness all these young people can bring into the upheaval of armed conflict from the one who is their model of perfection?

My grandfathers both served in the US military. I have a rather complex and rather large warrior heritage. It extends in varied directions. My mother’s father Cecil Bruce Gremillion served as a bombardier instructor in the Army Air Corp. My paternal grandfather served as an officer in the US Navy. He said he commanded a glorified private yacht in the Gulf of Mexico early in the war. Later he was part of the large fleet of vessels headed toward the invasion of Japan’s home islands when the atomic bomb ended the war. He used to say that although he saw some action in the Pacific his real anxiety was just as great in the Gulf. He said only once but with great passion that while in the Pacific he was well-armed and supported in the Gulf he and his next subordinate (perhaps an Ex. O. or a Chief I do not recall) sometimes referred to the yacht secretly as the “USS Sitting Duck” which had to do with his evaluation of the vessel’s capacity to take on a wolf pack of German submarines in full-out combat.

When Jesus was criticized for failing to keep some laws of the Sabbath by gleaning grain on that day he defended his behavior by sighting the example of King David who ate the Show bread because David was a king and he and his men were under the duress of warfare. Is Jesus’s example merely that of seeing his ministry in the pattern of military operations in his familial and national history?

I am a child of the sixties. I lived in New york and London in the 1960s and had relatives who were on élite college campuses during the heyday of the Peace Movement and the movement known as the Hippies. I never really felt that wearing black hats made some people bad and wearing white ones made other people good. I do not have the space and presume of the reader’s time enough to really cover the personal aspect fully. I am not a trusting blind supporter of the military or its policies. I would not describe myself that way at all. I am not ashamed of my own lack of courage or experience with conflict or danger. I would not describe myself that way at all.

So I wonder what I might say to those spending Holy Week and Easter in the forward zone or any other zone of the US military. First, I would say that Jesus did have you in his heart as he prayed for you that night in the Garden of Gethsemane because you are one of those who has believed. That is a great comfort in many ways. But it is also true that is evidence that God holds you to a personal standard. A Christian cannot believe that our personal lives and consciences disappear entirely into the duties and rights of a military force or a country. God will still hold you accountable for all that you do and become while you are in the services. God will not expect you to behave as if you were not a soldier, sailor, marine or airman but he still sees your heart and weighs your deeds. Of course when Jesus taught us to pray “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” he no doubt included martial trespasses in the economy of God’s mercy. God’s mercy is certainly a very big part of what we celebrate on Holy Week and Easter.

On Palm Sunday we remember Jesus, the Son of David entering the City of David. We remember that the crowds were shouting “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Jesus had many who supported him his claims and his ministry.He did not shy away from leadership, rank or office and he was very open and brave.

So far everything I have written in this note is something I can live with and not regret. But now I am going to start the part that I already regret before having written it. In a sense all war is wrong and even military service. I say that as one who believes that in the Holy center of the Universes around the throne of God the angels wear and use weapons and are organized in armies. But ideally and perfectly there would be no war or planning for war. So I am writing this to an audience I want to encourage who at the same time I do not hesitate to say should ideally be doing something else. I look out at the world and the church today and feel that I too must do something immoral and which will stink in my conscience for a long time. I feel that I must reveal the some of the secrets of a society which has done great good and kept its secrets since the time of Jesus. I do not see Knightly orders, Popes,their Catholic Majesties of Spain or anyone else standing between me and this day. So I write what is precious to me hoping I am not violating Jesus’s injunction not to throw pearls before swine.

The secrets of our ancient order which I am going to reveal are hidden in the gospels themselves. Are there things hidden in the Gospels? It is a reasonable question.

“The disciples approached him (Jesus) and said, ” Why do you speak to them in parables?”
He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you but to them it has not been granted, To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not even what he has will be taken away. That is why I speak to them in parables, because they “look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand”.” Matthew 13:10-13 New American Bible.

Jesus was, among all the other things he was, a warrior. He did not do many of the things that leaders who inspire others have done. He did not besiege or sack cities like Mohammed or his own namesake Joshua. He did not burn down the temples of idols like these same men. He did not rejoice in blood and mayhem like Genghis Khan or the Viking Pagans. Your savior was a warrior who took his joy in weddings, Passover feasts, the Eucharist he was founding, flowers, birds and children. He did not take his joy in the sufferings of others. Our age is very different from the spirit of that secret warrior Jesus but nonetheless in following the warrior’s path you are not straying from the path of Jesus’s own experience.

Josephus either implies or states that during the siege of Jerusalem the Jews turned to Cannibalism and ate one another. People eating other people is a huge and undiscussed part of human history and experience. It is one of the most important struggles of human history. Many societies have been proudly and openly cannibalistic. Many people in the world in 2009 are cannibals. Rome was a place where public law and morals condemned cannibalism. It was a place where officials would have been ashamed to admit to having dealings with merchants trafficking in human flesh. I know to my own satisfaction that here were non Jews eating and butchering Jews at that siege. By mentioning cannibalism at all, even blaming it on the Jews, Josephus put his own life at risk. In Rome there were a group of unofficial but sophisticated pirates who participated in the war machine by buying slaves on the cheap after battles and sieges as well as capturing all they could in the invaded country. They killed these people, often with torture and sport and then made sausage or pies out of them mixing the human flesh with pork.They made a very good profit on this in part because they worked the people as slaves before reducing them to food and extorted knowledge about the new lands fallen before the Roman banner. For this purpose they located large herds of swine near the lands to be destroyed in advance. They were wealthy, powerful, cunning, well-armed, possessed of assassins corps and called themselves demons. They had a handful of key agents throughout every Roman Imperial government. They were an order older than Rome itself and not entirely Roman. There were at least tens of thousands of men at arms at their command both in the Empire and in non-Roman lands. These were the enemies Jesus fought with 12 Apostles, 72 zealous highly trained disciples divided into groups of six for each Apostle. Then he had 38 reserve guards. All were also trained in charitable ministry and his preaching this was not a made up addition later on and yet with 133 part-timers(the ten not enumerated are my last nod towards a disappearing tradition) and the women officials and crowds who supported them Jesus opposed one of the most fierce and powerful forces ever to have existed.

The events of Jesus’s war are chronicled in specific events:
Event One:
Matthew 8:22-27 / Mark 4: 35-41
Jesus calms the storm at Sea

Event Two:
Matthew 8:28-34 / Mark 5:1-20
Jesus crosses the sea of Galilee
Demons are confronted
a herd of swine are destroyed
captive freed
Jesus leaves the region with the ones remaining very upset

Event Three:
Matthew 14: 13-21 / Mark 6;34-44
Jesus feeds 5000 people mysteriously
the disciples are instructed to collect all the fragments

Event Four:
Matthew 14:22-33 / Mark 6:45-52
Jesus is seen walking on the water with Peter.

Event Five:
Mark 8:1-10
Jesus feeds 4000 people. Mark makes it clear that these were multiple events.

Event Six:
Matthew 16: 21-23 / Mark 8: 31-33
Jesus begins to predict the Passion and Crucifixion in Jerusalem as inevitably the end of his life.

Jesus and his élite units used to wait for the worst storms on the Sea of Galilee. They crossed the sea in those storms under his fearless leadership. They opened the early pens located by the demons there in anticipation of the Roman destruction of the Jews and they liberated the prisoners. They then drove the pigs from the demons herds into the sea. Jesus was a carpenter and he located wooden butchering sites at hidden spots in the out in the lake. The crews would remove nets filled with rocks and the rafts would float to the surface. Then his crew would attach inflated pig skins and pig bladders to increase buoyancy. On these non free board platforms they would slaughter the pigs and butcher them into boneless slabs of fish shaped meats. They would dump the entrails, guts, bones and heads in the lake. Knowledge of these dumps enabled him to instruct fisherman as to where to put down their nets to get a great catch. Then they would cover the platforms with nets filled with rocks and arrive at shore near guarded ovens. Reusing fish bones from each feeding and buying distressed fish from other fishermen with knowledge of where great catches could be found they would take a breading and adhere two pork steaks to the fish skeletons. They mixed these porkfish with regular bread and fish and fed thousands repeatedly. This also attracted donations from those who wanted to contribute something and these resources funded a large ministry of healing and teaching. Jesus constantly taught that eating unclean food (such as pork) did not make someone immoral. Once Peter and Jesus were seen using these platforms it was inevitable that Jesus would be killed. He chose to make this happen in a very specific public way in Jerusalem and create pressures on the demons.

After cleansing the Temple, Jesus managed to give on last speech to a huge crowd before being arrested and killed. He said two things at once. To his disciples he said that he was the living water and if they recognized him and believed in him then he would flow out of their hearts and meet their needs for courage and peace of soul. To the handful of demon spies the same words literally were: if you recognize me from the stormy waters, I am the water that made your guards thirst no more and living water (blood) flow from their chest.

Jesus was not a great general, he had no palaces, published glories,nor vast armies and suffered more than he made his enemies suffer. He spent time healing, forgiving and seeking peace, he was humble and meek at many times (not always meek and almost never mild) but he was a warrior. In terms only of skill and bravery he was as he was at everything– arguably the best there has ever been. Yes, I mean that seriously. Your churches and mine may in the end condemn me for what I write and I think his contribution to war is lost in the mists of time. But your Savior has not left you as orphans in this world of war. There are no simple answers, no excuses, no blood lust but the Prince of Peace was a man of war and you need not doubt him as you celebrate his legacy in an armed camp.

Happy Easter! I hope this note which makes me so unhappy is useful to someone. I have no doubt that it is largely correct.

 
End of Facebook Post–
 
I wish everyone a good and pleasant veterans day. We are a nation in trouble in many ways but our military must play a key role in any chance we have for a better future. 

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America in Afghanistan Today

Posted on October 6, 2009 | Leave a comment

A cousin of mine named Severin Summers lost his life in uniform far away.

Met death from an explosive device perhaps with hostile fire as well.

Every day someone dies in a war our media must daily display.

Regarding that, I believe folks should know why some say war is hell.

In Helmund, Kabul and near Baluchistan as well as across lines

Camps house our soldiers and others who watch for mines.

America is now at war with Al Quaeda and the Taliban as well.

 

In Manhattan’s island there is still a hole of woes and pain.

Not many forget completely the human and concrete rain.

 

A graveyard of Empires they call this land of Afghan folks.

Frontier it gave to the British Indian Raj so diverse and vast.

Great Persia invested and fortified a rule that did not last.

Hordes inexorable left their dead there in snowy cloaks.

As we know the Soviet Union lost fire and much gold there,

Now that does not mean these empires gained nothing fair.

It does not mean there were no rulers who did some good.

Still it does mean that risk must be fully understood.

There is a royal family, socialists and secular democrats too.

As far as I know we have not linked these with the tribes,

Now we could build a really Afghan client not with bribes.

 

There may be a need to locate some expats for bases rich,

Or raise up an Afghan Cavalry with horse, hawk and bitch.

Digging jobs and agricultural reforms may be needed

And we may need cheap loans to farms well seeded.

Yet there are starting points where we’ve succeeded.

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Getting into the Nitty Gritty of Warfare and Peace

Posted on September 20, 2009 | 1 comment

President Barry Soetero-Barak Hussein Obama is putting out feelers, or trial balloons about reducing troop strength in Afghanistan and that is after he used the carrot of build-up in Afghanistan to reduce forces in Iraq. He is closing the prison in Guantanamo. He has said he believes in a world without nuclear weapons. He supports a two state solution in Israel to the Palestinian crisis. He was endorsed by Hamas before the election.  He is alligned with the ACORN agency recently exposed as very averse to keeping the law. He has said he believes we must stop using coal. He has been explicit in making Islam an equaly important fount of culture in the United States with  Christianity. He is devoted to stirring up a great deal of animosity in towns where nobody has yelled and screamed in a political gathering since the War Between the States.  

 I find him to be a real threat to national security. However,  I haven’t been feeling all that secure before he got here. I know some good military people that I would like to think are my friends  although I have never worn my country’s uniform.  I would be happy to see the constitution ammended to seat some senior officers upon retirement in more important government positions. However, I do believe that we are losing the struggle for a culture which is both militarily effective and decent. I was reading in this morning’s home’s rural sheriff has organized a junior posse where youngster’s can learn a little about law enforcement and a lot about horses. I like that my elected official is doing that. It may be a seed bed for a renewal of chivalry in this area. Here is some food for thought.

This post originalyappeared on my Facebook Account on August 28, 2008.

 Chivalry is dead. “No it’s not dead, I saw a dude open the door for his woman last week”. Chivalry and Knighthood are among my favorite subjects about which I have never written for pay or publication except in some passing comment in a larger piece. I once heard Margaret Thatcher on C-Span’s coverage of the Prime Minister’s question time and one of her own people gave her a softball question. “Does not the honorable lady resent the tone of these proceedings and regret that chivalry is truly dead?” The elder statesman had a fierce quiet about him.

“Chivalry is not truly dead so long as the right honorable gentlemman is here to defend it and exemplify it.” Thatcher’s reply was entirely riveting in its delivery.

Chivalry is one of the greater mysteries of the world in my view. It has seen many distinct forms but it has some common ideal essence underlying those forms. There have been good knights and evil knights, famous knights and obscure knights. Great knights have been known for their great wealth but among the wealthiest were a group long distinguished by their poverty. Knights have been avowed celibate aesthetics, courtly lovers and Bon Vivants. What then is a knight? What then is chivalry?

Many very serious books by good scholars have been written on the subject of chivalry and knights. Yet oftentimes these books share the same serious mistake they confuse one or a few traditions of chivalry with the whole of the chivalric tradition. On the other hand, a number of books heavy with photos, etching, drawings anecdotes and quotes out of context that were intended as popular quasi-scholarship have done a better job of capturing the essence and the breadth of chivalry. While not refering to any specific books this has been my experience.

In this note I want to discuss some of the chivalric traditions and institutions of my own heritage in the context of all that is chivalry. Like alll these notes this is being written without many or any sources at hand, in a kind of hurry and briefly. Yet, here it goes and here I go again.

I will start with chivalry, an English word deriving from the French word “Chevalier” which for all practical purposes is synonymous with the English word knight but also is a word like “horseman”. It refers to the animal in the word itself –“cheval” being the word for horse.

Horses, his order, women, weapons and the divine make up the points of the knightly star. Horses are important. Too little horse and there really can be no knight. Knights are not just whatever someone thinks that they are. One of the things which I want to confront directly is the idea that horsefighting and cavalry are obsolete.

Hard as it will be for US military types to accept, I seriously believe that if the US had 10,000 top knotch horse troops in Iraq and Afghanistan it would be an enormous assistance to American efforts in those theaters. It would also mean thirty thousand war horses, five thousand guide and dispatch horses, two thousand pack mules and ideally about four thousand specialized dogs in work groups and teams. Local young people could be hired to care for many of these animals creating at least two thousand employees who could not betray valuable secrets but could develop close ties to their employing American horsemen. Horse armor and meds would be a huge area of military research as would helicopter and transport plane transit for the horseborne units. The amount of jamming equipment, communications gear and and IED detecting instruments that can be carried by a well armored man on a Clydesdale or Percheron backed up by a pack mule far exceeds what two men can carry into rough terrain. The speed and point of view of men on Arabians and Thoroughbreds in the front of the same squadron is much better in many situations than a fine special forces scout can ever achieve. After these advantages there are others not so obvious to having horse units in the field. Just because we don’t design for horse war does not mean that it is obsolete. Horse troops with infantry under air support could do many things which are currently impossible.

Most countries in the world today which issue knighthoods of any kind leave the horse completely out of the official eqasion. However, until the British recently abolished fox hunting,  British knights have usually remained a demonstrably horsey set. Republican France maintains both some knighthoods and some official ceremonial cavlary units. Horseback hunting is also still practiced by the French nobility last I checked. When the influence of the horse is completely gone so is the chivalry. Some camel mounted, elephant mounted and dog drawn warriors had as fine an embryonic set of knightly values in ages past as anyone could. Greek footsoldiers laid the foundations of much of Chivalry as did shipborne Viking marines. Without exception however, when chivalry reached its peak in a society the horse played a vital role in the institution.

I am not just picking on the modern British monarchy here although that is one of my favorite hobbies. Among the ceremonial knighthoods of an admittedly decadent and mysterious Acadian Royalty (last come close to full light in the time of Joseph Broussard, Chief Beausoleil des Acadiens who used that misspelling of Basileus Arkadios over his open court in the 18th century) the Ridelles have been groups of horsemen who oversaw the ceremonial Couriere de Mardi Gras in each community. Most of these groups have died out and many others use almost entirely automotive and foot transit for the ritual. I therefore feel no cultural superiority in this regard.

I will warm up any mind engaged in reading this note to the idea that a good part of it will be about Chivalry in the United States. I think that many people have a view that knighthood and the American tradition have little to do with one another or nothing at all. So we can look at some of the history and connections together. There has of course never been a king of the United States of America and that is a weakness in its chivalric claims as a nation. However, there is no requirement of perfect adhesion to all aspects of a chivalric ideal to be really a knight. While, I am inactive, I am a Knight of Columbus. That order does a lot of good under a knightly banner and with knightly ideals and style despite the imperfection of it chivalric structure.

One of the most controversial examples of raising the chivalric banner is that of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and their invisible empire. This group was made a success and a celebrated institution by one of its early members recruited by an obscure co-founder named Morton. That celebrated early member was one of the last great cavalry officers which history has given us to ponder. Nathan Bedford Forrest rose to high rank in the Cofederate army. This early Klansman who often was honored as “the wizard of the saddle” was a poorly educated and untitled self-made millionaire who had never held a commission or any public office prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. The original Klan which he rose to lead and which was a serious institution in so many ways was disbanded by him. This chivalric order has been very influential in American life.

I have a theory as to some of its original elements which is not a universally accepted theory. One of the many lies and myths used to justify the destruction of Constitutional government during the civil war and the unconscionable behavior of most union troops is the idea that the South felt threatened because it was paranoid but that the status quo would have gone on had the Southern states not brought all the misery on themselves. That is absurd.

There were northern and foreign provocateurs destroying civilization in the South in a big way from 1850 onwards. They found local and regional support and waves of violence and unrest plagued the region. Militia and vigilantes were raised to counter thses threat in some places. One of the largest vigilante organizations in American histoy existed among the Comites de Vigilance de La Louisiane. The most distinguished of these committees was the Comite de Vigilance des Attakapas which was located and centered near where I live. This is the land of the largely extinct or absorbed Attakapas Indian Nation. One of the principal captains was my ancestor Severeign Leblanc. He answered to the Moutons only who produced in a few generations a Governor of Louisiana and the most prominent Acadian officer in the Confederate forces — General Mouton who died at Shiloh but fought bravely around here whenever he got wounded in a Northern Campaign. Some say that the title of Basileus Arkadios or Basielus Arcadies (King of the Arcadians) passed from The Broussards Famille de Beausoleil to Moutons and then after the Civil War or during it trransferred to the Leblancs. The Moutons included many elements of the ancient ridelles in their instiutions. This mix of vigilante and ridelle elements is seen in much of the iconography of the Klan. The Klan even has a Greek name. It is Ku Klux but that signifies Cuclos which means circle. Thus the Circle Clan which has three Cs is now replaced with three Ks. Even Forrest’s Klan was in my opinion far inferior to the Comites. However, the non horse Klans since are not even close.

Forrest is alleged to have dissolved his Klan because discipline had been replaced with spasmodic violence. His own character was badly damaged I think but it was the ruin of a great thing. The Comites on the other hand, held a trial in absentia, then issued a warning to the accused to leave, then they flogged the person accused and left them alone and only if they did not then leave the region did they excute them by lynching. While there were exceptions this rule was really observed. They hired a professional historian to live among them and record their activities, published their names on occasion and supporting the growing political movement that became the Confederate States of America. No founders of the Klan had this formative experience but many were able meet or serve with former members during the war. When they had to the Comites enforced there orders against armed banditti with hundreds of gunmen. They used cannons, horses and drilled formationjs of fast shooting vigilantes to flush out hideouts of bandits. They never collapsed into the paranoid spasms of terrorism the Klan got into. But they never faced a situation with 200,000 armed and hate-filled slaves deiven by a rich and mechanized enemy. The Klan is a hard institution for me to judge.
Some say that the Comites still survive but there is not much evidence for it. Acadians have been in a state of decline until recently and the Comites were expensive.

In my family and extended family as well as in parts of my life that were very individual the chivalric ideal was tied into the ideal of the cowboy and the American horseman in other contexts. To our rough and ready western and Castilian riding skills we added the observation of cousins and strangers with postilian and horse show skills. The horses were a part of us all and as we learned to teach them they were teaching us a great deal. They were forming our minds along with constant pursuits with weapons. hunting, target shooting and relatives in military school combined with Catholicism which is one of the most chivalric forms of religion. That and the fact that later in life my grandfather became a Knight of St. Lazarus. He joined a knightly order that had once had its own army and navy and for which the Pope played the role unltimate Earthly prince and monarch. We sedlom discussed chivalry as directly applying to us but we did discuss it as a historic pattern and an institution or set of institutions.

I personally have added to that basic foundation with a lot of both academic and practical study of combat. I havealso taken a strong interest in a lot of other aspects of chivalry such as relating to women and to God. In my travels around the world I think I have learned a good bit that has in has further enriched my view of chivalry.

One of my Facebook friends is Louis De Bourbon, Duke of Anjou, head of the French House of Bourbon (Louis de Bourbon is not my Facebook friend as I post this on WordPress). He has gathered a company of knights around him to assert the claims of his family and restore the French Monarchy. Many Americans feel that the Fench republic is a kind of sister state to their own country. Actually a Bourbon king and the Marquis de Lafayette were among the largest financial and military backers of the revolution. Probably Louis and Marie Antoinette died mostly because of the money spent on our war.  The Marquis was a lifelong constitutional royalist who helped put a Bourbon prince on the trhone again after the reign of teror and the revolution. Perhaps this Friends block member deserves a sympathetic reviewing of his plans by his American cyber neighbors.

There is far more I would like to discuss about Chivalry. Mostly how an order, weapons, a horse and a religion more help knights to develop skill in dealing with women. There have been a handful of women knights but far more of them worked with and encouraged the knights with whom they interacted. I am leaving a lot unsaid today in this note. But I say enough and sense some urgency to get my little voice into the ether.

Assuming I live long enough there  I will probably be notes filling in the blanks in this note. I say long live chivalry!

The End of Facebook Post.

I know this does not directly address any of the policy issues I started this post with. However, it does deal with the issue of culture and one basis of national security. One of my cousins has recently been buried at Arlington after being killed in Afghanistan, He and I had a long talk about the nature of wars and warriors about a year before he died.  I hope I will be worthy of the price he paid and do what I can to honor a brave volunteer who met his enemies at close range on the gorund much of the time. I have a peace heritage as well and have probaly gone a bit too far at times in that direction. But I hope the President of the United Staes is not undermining the basis of our independence and hope for peace.

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