Appalachian Intellectual. To me that means plain thinking. I am A Non Commissioned Officer in the Army Reserves. Let me say...My views expressed here are mine and not those of The U.S. Army, Army Reserve or my fellow brethren in The National Guard. This is entirely Sua Sponte. This is My Thinking.
I'm single and in my mid 30's. Politicaly, I'm a Libertarian. (Again, Sua Sponte.I do not represent the Libertarian Party.)I love my native Appalachia, Rock n Roll and...I love God.
I started blogging for two reasons. I was concerned about the changes to the area I live in, Southern Appalachia and I was about to go to the war. I was in Iraq in 06 and 07 and now Kuwait in 11 and 12. Blogging was a means of documenting my experiences and hoping it would help gain clarity. I don't feel that way about it any more. It's said people write blogs because they are frustrated, that's why people read them too. That makes us sound apocalyptic. Are we? Let it be said, what I say here is of my own thinking. This is entirely Sua Sponte and not an official representation of the U.S. Military or the U.S. Government as a whole.
Now this video is a tad long, a little over five minutes. Lots of cameo appearances and historical qoutes.
Now, go ahead, get mad at me. Some one needs to rock the boat. In the usual order of things, you are not getting the word, as the second video explains.
In this election thing...It's a shame we have to get so rapped up in Federal Elections...If you think the News coverage is so lopp sided trying being one of the other guys. And this is the guy I intend to cast my ballot for, Bob Barr with Wayne Allen Root as his VP.
Now after this I intend to move on to other things. So, bare with me. Freedom of Speech. It's not about cursing.
Ballot Access
So, if you have the connection, now you know. Vote however you like. The Appalachianist
It ain't worth stubbing my toe about. My computer is having a hick up and the modem is not functioning properly. I may have to go as far as reloading it. Which means I'll lose a little material and some pictures, mostly ones fom Iraq. Until I get the hick up, or even better, it get's itself worked out, I'm depending on the work machine.
But don't you worry! I'll be back with so much Appalachian Patria that...Well, something.
I would like to get a chance to cruise by my fellow Bloggers...Be on the look out for me.
It's Election Year. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. It's fraud year. It's a joke. The Democrats fought like they actually had two different people to choose from...Left and Lefter. OK...I can admit there is a difference in the two...One's likable and the other dislikable. Depending on which one you happen to like.
So, off we go to the land of sand..It's more like clay dust. Sen. Obama makes a rock star appearance with cameras in tow. Sen. McCain goes there often, so, it's not that big a deal for the newsies.
I spent a total of 340 days in Iraq (My theater time is 362 days including my Mid Tour Leave)and during that time I did not see one politician. I was at one of the biggest focal points in the rebuilding and fielding (rimes...)of the Iraqi Armed Forces (that includes Police)and, never seen one. Oh, we saw the media. I was probably seen on PBS Frontline pulling PSD[1]. Now, I could have seen President Bush, but, it was late when I found out he was meeting Troops while our(me and the Pres)crossed paths in the IZ in June of 06, and I felt it more important to clean my weapon. But, I never saw one of either, Democrat or Republican show up to see Taji National Depot.The bus just didn't stop there...Times short, hustle, hustle hustle, shake this hand listen to this report...Hurry, we've got a schedule to meet...Gotta get back. Honestly, if you were one of the elites would you be out there stepping over the water bottles where the Iraqis have been wiping their ass? Or shaking hands with future voters? Honest intentions or not...That's the way it is.
Not to take from Sen. McCain that had a hellacious experience in a war more brutal than the ones we see now. Despite that, the New York Times just can't publish his rebuttal to Sen. Obama's Iraq opinion...Write it over to sound like Obama, John. What did the news media people go to college for? Choreographing cartoons? That's a one sided debate. Anymore when it comes to the Democrats and the Republicans we're clapping with one hand and thinking we're keeping a beat.
I can see where both of the big shot Presidential Candidates are coming from. Leave Iraq? Yes, definitely. Make a time line we have no intention of keeping...Typical Democrat sheets over the eyes blathering. Case in point, did we have a time line in the Balkans? Have we left the Balkans? Now, the surge...The Surge. I remember it. I watched it build. Here we are now, it's allot quieter than it was two years ago or one year ago. As a realist, a simple atempter to a tactician...Or Strategist for that matter[2] it was probably a combinations of factors that has contributed to the quell in violence. Will it last? We don't know. But, it is hard to argue with success. So, it's hard to argue with sen. Mccain.
So, here at Appalachian Patria, we (Me,myself and my imaginary friends)are all about freedom of speech. That's one reason I'm a Libertarian...Don't tread on me...County Commissioners and all. so, I'm going to link the Op Ed piece by Sen. McCain. Here you go.
OK..Check this out...
What did he say? Hold on, let's say it again...In italics so you can understand it.
Cartoon Choreographer:"If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you support the surge:"
Sen. Obama: "No, because keep in mind that question, you wouldn't ... but keep in mind that kind of hypothetical is very difficult to know hindsight is 20-20 ... later ... but I think that what I'm absolutely convinced of is that at that time we had to change the political debate because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with." Boy, that's gotta allot of principle.
One thing is for sure, who ever gets a four year lease on the White House next has a job cut out for them. Here is why..."The secret to success is having a wide range of options. That was the basis of von Moltke’s approach to operational art, as opposed to the Schlieffen school’s myopic focus on one option. The list of commanders and nations whose single option failed is a long one." (Now pay attention in the comments between Senor Tomas and Chet then Ma's response, food for thought, it may come up again.)Sadly, that is as real of a in a nut shell analysis of what we face as the U. S of A. Bill Linds part, that is.
In the meantme, we're living a cartoon...
The Appalachianist
[1] Personal Security Detail/Detachment. [2] The Germans strongly believed that one should have a thorough understanding of two echelons up, as I do. So, to be better on the Tactical Level, I think the Strategic.
While driving between Chattanooga and Atlanta I stopped in at Cartersville Ga to see the Etowah Mounds. Unfortunately the Museum was closed and would not open for a couple of hours. This was once quite a city of the Creek Nation. Dates vary by which web site you visit, but all agree this city was abandoned by 1550. It seems obvious that prior to De Soto' arrival there had been a sudden population decrease in the southeast. As to why this city became an abandoned site, I don't know.
It is thought to have been visited by the Spanish, being the principle town of the Chiefdom of Coosa. The Etowah River later joins another to become the Coosa River.
If you will notice, it had a moat. This moat appeared to be about 10 Ft. deep. All of the major towns, such as this one and the lesser sized towns had defensive works of some kind. I'm told Keowee, a Lower Cherokee town on Keowee River (now Lake Keowee)had earth works, but, I'm not aware of a mound. They were serious about keeping intruders out for obvious reasons. Yet, I think it displays that wars could be large scale among the inhabitants of the South East during the Mississippian time.
Here's a quick video of Etowah Mounds.
My title may confuse some local readers. This is not Henderson County. No.
Greetings heathens... I may not be around for a few days. I'll not dead, I'll be performing (How do you like that word, makes me feel like an actor) Duty of the Army. I have to go to Chattanooga tonight, and then to Athens Sunday, back home Thursday night, and then Athens Saturday morning, for Drill it's self. Go check out what Traveling/Rambling' Ed wrote on the 4th of July about his Inner Hippie. The Appalachianist...or all of you taking to calling me Dan...
Have you ever heard the term "the road to hell is paved with good intentions"? Voices get drowned out in the constant dogmas that we are becoming more accustomed too these days. Every thing has become a cause...Without effect. Werther you believe the article or not it's worthy of consideration...It's a saying worthy of consideration.
On the more personal side of things...Last week, to make a long story short, the Dogs got out from me. Both Squeaky, my Plott and Bell, the Blue Dog stayed gone for two days. I searched, asked folks, asked two horses in a pasture as the Stallion snorted at me (I snorted back)and saw people I ain't seen in years. Squeaky had been seen wondering around yards, playing with Lady Dogs, down in Frozen Creek. The next day I got a call, he was in a woman's yard and hurt. He had gotten on a Bear and it had bit him good. He's fine, I just have to keep his cuts clean. I had called for Bell, walking a thousand yards off from the house the day I got Squeaky back and she came running up behind me...Unscathed and in heat... The Appalachianist
I heard this poem on Writers Almanac this morning. It hits close to home...Literally.
The Exchange by Ron Rash
Between Wytheville, Virginia and the North Carolina line, he meets a wagon headed where he's been, seated beside her parents a dark-eyed girl who grips the reins in her fist, no more than sixteen, he'd guess as they come closer and she doesn't look away or blush but allows his eyes to hold hers that moment their lives pass. He rides into Boone at dusk, stops at an inn where he buys his supper, a sleepless night thinking of fallow fields still miles away, the girl he might not find the like of again. When dawn breaks he mounts his roan, then backtracks, searches three days hamlets and farms, any smoke rising above the tree line before he heads south, toward home, the French Broad's valley where spring unclinches the dogwood buds as he plants the bottomland, come night by candlelight builds a butter churn and cradle, cherry headboard for the bed, forges a dougle-eagle into a wedding ring and then back to Virginia and spends five weeks riding and asking from Elk Creek to Damascas before he finds the wagon tethered to the hitching post of a crossroads store, inside the girl who smiles as if she'd known all along his gray eyes would search until they found her. She asks one question, his name, as her eyes study the gold smoldering there between them, the offered palm she lightens, slips the ring on herself so he knows right then the woman she will be, bold enough match for a man rash as his name.
I've never been a big fan of the B-52's, but, I can't help but like this one. I said the Ladies still looked good. I've meant o put it up, so there, there it is.
