Stand...or Don't

September 21, 2017

 "Stand...or Don't"

It's a really hot day in Northeast Kansas today. It's not quite Autumn yet; that will come tomorrow for us. For us Pagans, it will start the season of Mabon, where the year will begin to die and culminate in that cycle in late December.

But it feels like Summer; it's 89 F degrees, and 62% humidity, making it a miserable heat index of roughly 98, using my powerful third grade math.

I've read several articles this week, and listened to the President of the United States address the United Nations Assembly; a speech that sounded way too much like a campaign speech or a State of the Union address. It was powerful, nonetheless, and I am sure that Kim Jong-un is already plotting the destruction of his model airplanes, and deciding whether to nuke Guam or Japan first.

Now, you heard all of that, right? I hit on religion, weather, the POTUS, and a world leader all in one lump sum. You know how? The First Amendment...that's how. It guarantees me the right to say what I will, speak my mind, and tell you in this blog that Hillary Clinton is a liar, Mitch McConnell should have retired a long time ago, and that my taxes in Kansas are just way too damned high.

I can do all of this without fear of arrest, detainment, or prosecution as long as I do it peacefully. I can't yell these things out on my front porch, and when someone disagrees from across the street, send a bullet flying across the way intended for their shiny little head...that's illegal.

You also have those rights; the ones that the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States gave you, including the one to sit down or kneel when the National Anthem is being played at a football game or some other sporting event, and the one to peacefully protest the cop that was acquitted after he shot a kid with a something he thought was a gun, only to find out it wasn't.

However, I ask one thing as a Patriot. I ask you to study, learn, and ponder what you are actually exercising your First Amendment rights for. Are you shaming the memory of fallen soldiers in our nation's bloodiest wars by not standing when they are honored? Because that is what the National Anthem is played for. It is played to remind you that you are at a football game as a free citizen, and not at a food line waiting for a scrap of bread in a concentration camp. Our society has history at their fingertips...literally; every day, via smart phones. I would like just one or two of them to use it to open an encyclopedia and read about World War II or the American War for Independence. Maybe, just maybe, they'd start giving one third of a fuck what they aren't standing for.

 

Join me anytime at http//: jimculp.blogspot.com

 

 

 

September 11, 2017

 

"Patriots and Diligence"

 {This is a partial, but not exact...excerpt of my upcoming autobiography: "To Three Hells and Back" that I will try with all my earnest efforts to publish by December of this year....}

 Sixteen years ago, I was a US Government Employee, as well as a member of the US Army Reserve, in the role of a Chief Movement Control Supervisor.

I worked for the US Government at an Army Reserve equipment storage facility, and attended training and duty periods in Manhattan, Kansas at a local USAR facility.
On September 11, 2001, I was washing a big truck that is designed for one purpose, to haul the M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank. It has a tractor with four massive axles, and a trailer with 40 wheels across five axle lines. Needless to say, if that beast is dirty, it takes a while to wash it.
My partner came rolling up in our team pickup truck to tell me that "some planes just crashed into some buildings," and that we were supposed to go to the office and report to the supervisor. Less than a few hours later, Threat Condition Delta had been ordered across military bases all over the USA, as well as the world. That Threat Condition means that things are locked down, and armed guards are placed at any security checkpoint, and things take on a different status for an un-foretold amount of time.
I wondered what my wife was thinking, and how things would go from then on.
One year and roughly six months later, my team and I were heading to Iraq, and assist in movement control of the invasion and occupation of that vast piece of what was once ancient Mesopotamia. My team of sixteen men; officers, NCOS, and troops, would spend the next two years of our lives in Mobilization, Deployment, Occupation, Re-Deployment, and Reintegration. Our lives, or at least, my life, would never be the same.
I was a new man, and my eyes had been opened.
September 11th of 2001 was a tragic event. We must never forget the lives that were lost. I swear that as a diligent man of my word.
The events of September 11, 2001 were also grossly mis-portrayed to the citizens of the United States of America, and need to be confessed, told factually, and made public record to the same. I swear that I will attempt to make that come to pass as a Patriot of this great nation. I recall the oath I took so many years ago, in a MEPS center in El Paso, Texas, when I was the ripe old age of 18 years.

"I, James Matthew Culp, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

I took that oath very seriously then, and as a retired Senior Non-Commissioned Officer, hold to it now. I will tell the truth. The citizens of the USA deserve to know it.

 

 

September 8th, 2017

 

"Legislation and Immigrants"

 

-By Jim Culp

 

I've read recently that there is a growing debate about DACA, the reversal of DACA, and the accusations by parties on subjects surrounding DACA.

I'm not going to get into the history or the explanations of this program; that is for you, the reader and citizen, to study and understand yourself.

I've been accused of being a "fence rider," and a guy that isn't for "either side." Both are right. I don't conform to social constructs that try and label me. I am a free man that seeks the truth, and a veteran that knows full well what can happen when freedom is lost.

Instead, I'm just posting my thirteen opinions, and you can agree or disagree with them as you please.

I'm available by all these channels:

Facebook:  Just "friend request" me.

Twitter:  Jim Culp@gmjim13

My Blog:  http://jimculp.blogspot.com/

 

1.         DACA was written for people to be able to stay here in the USA and work. It wasn't a "commie plot" or an attempt to get more of "them damn foreigners" living here.

2.         The accusation that President Obama's Executive Order creating DACA was an "abuse of that power" is both ludicrous and as unfounded as it is untrue.

Presidents use Executive Orders to push agendas through. Some are good, some are bad. They ALL DO IT, and in the case of the last three presidents; profusely.

 

Bill Clinton               364

George W. Bush       291

Barack Obama          276

Donald Trump         45

 

3.         The accusation that DACA recipients commit more crimes than persons that already have citizenship is both unfounded and false.

4.         DACA is not the product of some conspiracy, it is the action of a leader that saw a specific need and acted accordingly.

5.         Adding to number 4, don't blame the people who participated in DACA, blame your Congress that can't come to a decision about anything without taking a year to do it. Elect new Congressmen.

6.         Don't blame a mother for wanting to protect her child, or a person for wanting a better life. If you are reading this, you are an immigrant unless you are a First Generation Native American.

7.         Let me be clear (if not obverse) for my last five points. I have heard all the arguments, and I respect anyone's opinion as long as it is made with clear statement and with respect for the person they are addressing.

8.         Absolutely no one should get free college, unless we all get free college.

9.         Absolutely no one should get free health care, unless we all get free health care.

10.       About having babies: You can have one, or you can have twelve. But how ever many you have, you need to have a plan of how to support them. The American taxpayer is not responsible for feeding or educating your babies.

11.       We continue to dodge the fact that our Congress that lives in a financial and social bubble has no idea what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck. Get rid of ALL of them, and start over.

12.       There are millions of people that cannot begin to understand what it is like to return to your home after a war, flood, or tornado and see a flat piece of earth where that structure once stood. It is a sad fact, and detriment to our society; that most of them never will.

13.       You can rant and rave that Trump is going to save the day. Maybe he will.

But that doesn't change that our system is broken. So I say to you, my fellow citizens; that until it is fixed, there won't be any real union as a nation.

 

September 4, 2017

"The Hand of Vigilance"

By Jim Culp

 

I was recently roped into a conversation about the subject of vigilantism, because a woman (who I won't name) had suffered the loss of her daughter through rape culminating in murder, and had, in turn, murdered the perpetrator by her own hand.

The question posed to me was, "should she be cleared of all charges, and set free?"

I didn't answer, because I directed the questioner to this article, wherein I want to explain my positions on this highly critical subject.

The world, let alone this nation, grows increasingly more and more lawless everyday. There are more brutal beatings, more savage rapes and murders, and more car and purse jackings per day than you can count.

I spent my early childhood in West Texas, and then was raised to early adulthood in Southwest New Mexico. I witnesses criminal activity many time, mostly on a low scale. When I was only 12, the conflict in Vietnam was winding to a close, and thousands of men that had just left a brutal war in a far away jungle were roaming the streets, clueless of how to rejoin society. The Black Panthers, the Ku Klux Klan, and hundreds of other hate groups were the item of the day. I used to hear the old folks say on a daily basis: "take 'em out and shoot 'em!" They were referring to persons of every age, creed, color, and sex that had committed crimes, both small and heinous, and had not been punished, or in many cases, not even arrested. The same thing goes on today, 40 years later.

Our society is slightly different, but there are still thousands of crimes committed on a daily basis, and no one is held accountable for them.
People commit crimes that are, in most our eyes, punishable by death; some are less heinous and not at that level, and we accept the lesser sentence of life imprisonment or some tally of many years as a punishment.
There are many times in my life that I have been one of these persons that watch the evening news, and sees someone acquitted of a crime that they were well known to have committed, but the evidence just isn't there. OJ Simpson comes to mind. Then there are crimes so violent that a family seeks to take out vigilante style justice, as the woman did in the story that I started this article with, and thousands of people cheer it on, and say that justice is served.
But as I have grown up; I have realized, more than ever, that the sixth amendment to the US Constitution is more important than ever, and a guardian of light that we just don't want to see disappear from our laws.
The Amendment, first proposed in 1789, was ratified in 1791 as Amendment VI.

It reads so:

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense."

 This means that any person accused of a crime has the right to be tried. Now, it's easy for anyone to "jump that gun" and say "but we know he's guilty!!"

That always sounds great, unless you are the one that is being accused.
My grandfather WB Bristow (Birdie) was a soldier for some of his life, and a range cowboy and loving father for the rest of it. He lived in a rugged part of West Texas where "old justice" was carried out many times.
He told my mother a story of a woman that was raped in the little town of Sierra Blanca, Texas in 1928. The woman was raped, and then beaten to "insure her silence."
The rapist, a transient, was long gone hours after the rape. A drunken man in a saloon, who was annoying a group of wives at a dance, was named the rapist by a group of cowboys that didn't care for him in the first place.
He was apprehended by a "posse" with no official purpose, and after a severe beating in a barn; he was hung by the rafters until dead.
It was forgiven and forgotten, and a year later, the actual rapist confessed his crime to a priest in Van Horn, Texas. Grandpa told Mom that although no one really cared for the "old boy", he had died for a crime he never committed.
That story rings true with me today.
Do we need a quicker judicial system? Yes.
Should we sentence more people to death for heinous crimes? I say absolutely yes.
Is our system broken in many areas? Most assuredly, yes.
But I caution anyone that entertains the notion that the Sixth Amendment gets tossed out with last week's meatloaf. We are a nation of laws, and if we are not going to abide by those laws, we are no better than the posse that hung the drunken cowboy by mistake.

 

September 1, 2017

 

"Of Gods and Mammon"

By Jim Culp

 

The headlines of the past few weeks are both exhilarating and horrifying all at once. The world is flooding in over four major areas; massive fires are enveloping the western USA, and nations stand in fear of a communist regime that proclaims that if its leader does not get his way, he'll do the unthinkable and launch medium and long range intercontinental ballistic missiles to other nations, and inevitably start World War III.

In the last week, I have heard cries for help from God, and cries for money from anyone that can send it.

Let's talk about God first:

In Christianity, as described in the Christian bible in the last book of the version ordained by James I of England;

"And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." Revelation 19:6.

Bear in mind, omnipotent means "unlimited power," or "power above any other."

In Genesis Chapter One, we're told that God created the Earth.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." That sets a pretty irrefutable standard that God is the most powerful being in the Universe.

In the Muslim world, where the religion of Islam is the ticket to God, the Quran tells us that God (Allah) is "omniscient," which means that he is "the host of all knowledge," and that "his knowledge is without boundaries."

He is also omnipotent (that means "all powerful," Chapter 2, Verse 20 of the Quran says.... 20. "The lightning almost snatches their sight away. Whenever it illuminates for them, they walk in it; but when it grows dark over them, they stand still. Had God willed, He could have taken away their hearing and their sight. God is capable of everything."

He created Earth, Man, and everything else.

16. Say, “Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth? 'Say, “God.”...“God is the Creator of all things, and He is The One, the Irresistible.”

So we're pretty set from two major sources that God is the all powerful, all being, all knowing, and pretty much makes Superman look like kitty litter.

People from all walks of life make a decision at some point in their life to "serve God" in some way. Some do it by working in soup kitchens that feed the poor, while some believe that serving God means making sure that they (as well as their children) are seated in a church auditorium every Saturday or Sunday morning, and when that plate comes around, a donation (or obligatory tithe) is placed in that plate, and the person and his family have "done their duty" like Jesus commanded.

Money...

Oh, that dirty word. Money is the standard we live by, the stuff that we want our pockets and checking accounts to be full of, and when we have a bunch of it, we're much less prone to give it away to people that we just don't think deserve it very much. This isn't anything new, it's anywhere from 4,000 to 6,500 years old. There was some form of money way back in the early days, and it wasn't much different than it is today, except that today everything is electronic, and we can manipulate monies that are both tangible and intangible.

But the reason for this article is this. Charities and churches are given a special status in the tax code called 501c3. That gives them freedom to take in donations, and fill their bank full of monies that will aid their organizations in carrying out their missions, whether that be funding breast cancer research, or building new facilities for studying autistic behavioral patterns, or providing food and shelter for children in Syria, Iraq, and Niger that no longer have a home to live in. When an organization applies for this status, they agree with the government that they will abide by the following:

"The exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3) are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and preventing cruelty to children or animals.  The term charitable is used in its generally accepted legal sense and includes relief of the poor, the distressed, or the underprivileged; advancement of religion; advancement of education or science; erecting or maintaining public buildings, monuments, or works; lessening the burdens of government; lessening neighborhood tensions; eliminating prejudice and discrimination; defending human and civil rights secured by law; and combating community deterioration and juvenile delinquency."

All good? No, it's not. Too many of these organizations take in millions of dollars a year in donations, and do very little or nothing to help anyone. I see it everyday. I talk to Christians, Catholic Christians, Muslims, and Hindis on a regular basis, and a staggering majority of them admit in a heartbeat that their organizations do not operate any programs outside the walls of their church building.

The exempt code was poorly written where in that second sentence, it states "advancement of religion." Why? Well, Uncle Jim is going to show you.

I have no issue with the "advancement of religion," as long as that group, church, or club is actually doing something to help people.

This takes me right back to the religious verses I quoted at the start of this article.

God is reckoned in these religions as the most powerful being in the universe.

So when you place your faith in God, and obey his rules, laws, and commandments....he's going to return the favor and take care of you, right?

Great. But hundreds, even thousands....every single day in this nation, form churches with 501c3 status, and start taking in two things: 1) donations (gifts from the person to help the church reach its goals; whatever they are; and 2) tithes and offerings. In Christianity, people tithe because of scriptures in the Old Testament that arguably stated that people give money to God. In the New Testament (Matthew 22:20) Jesus' disciples and a small crowd were asking him questions....

²⁰ And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?

²¹ They say unto him, "Caesar's". Then saith he unto them, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's."

²² When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left him, and went their way.

When the disciples answered "Caesar's," they were talking about the Emperor of Rome, a man that led an empire that controlled the region of Judea ( a Roman Province) during that time. Jesus was suggesting that his followers pay their taxes, because if a man didn't, he was arrested and jailed.

He also suggested giving service to God, and by that he meant help the poor, feed the hungry, and provide for those that have no home. I guarantee you that he wasn't telling anyone to give money to the synagogue; it was corrupt and he knew it. He had been there himself and drove the tax collectors and money changers out like a shepherd would drive jackals away from his sheep. Historically, this and many others have long been interpreted to mean that Jesus commanded people to give the church or synagogue 10...(or in many cases, 20%) of their income to the church. You know, that's all fine and dandy if that church is actually helping  the poor, clothing and feeding the homeless, and donating their money to research that so badly needs it. Sadly, in most cases, they just aren't.

In Islam, Muslims observe the Zakat, a tithe tax kind of donation that was commanded to them in Sura 30:39:

39. "The usury you practice, seeking thereby to multiply people’s wealth, will not multiply with God. But what you give in charity, desiring God ’s approval—  these are the multipliers."

And again in Sura 31:4:

4. "Those who observe the prayer, and pay the obligatory charity, and are certain of the Hereafter."

I worked with several Muslims in Iraq. They were God fearing men, but also had common sense. On a "good month" they'd give 10% to the church, but on a month where the kids were barely fed, and the car needed tires, they gave 2.5%, or nothing. They said that Allah, in all his wisdom, understood all of that.

My question has always been this....did God (or Allah) know way back then, that we would be modern nations with trillions of dollars at our command? Did he ever intend his followers to pay taxes to a corrupt government, much less a corrupt church? I don't think so. I believe that if that God exists, he'd want a person to perform charitable acts, money or not.

Seemingly though, the answer in a believer's mind is undoubtedly yes. If God is all knowing, and lives for all time, he surely knew the future back in 600 BC.

So here we are in 2017. We see massive floods in Houston, Nepal, India, and Bangladesh; and thousands of charitable persons are rushing to aid the troubled.

When this is all over, I want to see the statistics of charitable organizations that contributed to these nightmares. I bet I'll see the smallest of these doing the most giving. You'd think that multi-billionaires would be giving donations in the billions. I know damn well that if I had a million dollars, I'd have no problem sending 10% of my money to relief efforts in Houston or Mumbai. Yes, I'd have to pay taxes on it, but so be it. I'm a good person, and people need help.

I think I have said all of that to say this.

I have no idea if Jesus or Muhammad ever existed, or God for that matter.

But I know two old sayings that have rung true in my ears for all of my life.

1) "The love of money is the root of all evil."

A massive accumulation of wealth will corrupt the wisest and truest man. We see it every day.

2) "You can't serve God and mammon."

That was literally meant to say that money will corrupt the truest heart.

I believe that good people can have a ton of money and do good things, but those people are simply few and far between.