Watch the whole series; 4 minutes or so of your time.
In a previous post regarding the importance of getting the best boots you can afford, here, two commenters were very positive on the addition of SOLE brand insoles to replace those that came with whatever brand boots (typically Danner in the post). Here’s what they had to say:
“Added some SOLE insoles, lots of BodyGlide and Leukotape for the heels, and not one blister in 110 miles of training rucks to break them in. ”
“SOLE foot beds are the best.”
After reading them, and reinspecting the manufacturer’s supplied foot beds in my Danner Acadias and ‘Combat Hikers’, I decided to try them out, at least on one pair of boots, as they’re a tad expensive at $40 a pair. I went to the SOLE web site, here, and looked for the best insole for combat boots or heavy walking/work. The site recommended the ones above, and that’s what I ended up purchasing. I thought getting a pair might take care of a couple of ‘hot spots’ my feet would experience when doing long walks with a heavy ruck. An aside, hot spots are really a pain, because it makes taking every step after they develop highly unpleasant. So, having good boots, Vermont Darn Tough socks, and moleskin wasn’t proving enough to kill the hot spots in the Acadias.
The product itself comes well made with instructions on how to heat mold them in the oven or by plain old walking in them. I tried the walking routine first, and decided later to do the oven routine, and I’m glad I did. It takes a few long walks to generate enough heat and pressure to form the foot bed to your specific unique foot shape. The oven routine takes about 3 minutes to heat them up to 160 degrees and about a minute or so standing in the boots after immediate insertion after removing them from the oven. Makes a HUGE difference in how they feel.
Hot spot wise, coating the area with body glide helps with the friction that causes the hot spot, and a single package will last one user a long, long time.
Because the new footbeds are a tad thicker and much more rigid than the manufacturers supplied version, they’re going to snug up your boot a bit, but not so much that they don’t fit anymore, at least in my case. The difference is evident to me when I lace up — the laces have more space between them (about 3/16 of an inch). I also tape my heels with Leukotape and body glide that area (on top of the tape) as a precaution against friction.
So far I’ve walked about 25 miles total (5 to 8 miles at a time) in the Acadias with rucks weighing 65 to 80 pounds on pavement, gravel roads, and grassy lanes. My feet aren’t near as exhausted as they were, and don’t have the tendency to cramp like they sometimes would in the past. I’ll know more in the next couple months when I log in another 100 miles or so.
The ‘Combat Hikers’ are my ‘get home’ shoes kept in my car along with necessary kit/clothing, and I just custom fitted them to my feet yesterday, so I can’t comment on anything other than initial feel, which is superb! I won’t be carrying a heavy ruck with them, but will test them nevertheless in the next few weeks doing a ruck walk or two.
Right now, today, DTG gives the SOLE Softec Ultra Footbed 4.5 stars out of 5 (have to do more walking to get a complete 5…). The instructions for oven heating and fitting are easy to follow, and using your oven won’t make a mess and piss off your wife, so that’s a plus, too!
Thanks for the advice, guys! Looks like I’m going to be able to increase the length of my walks now, to realistic distances for getting home and moving during a SHTF situation.
American citizens, law abiding (openly carrying legal weapons and concealed pistol licensed, in many cases) citizens, who’ve taken their own time to stand guard outside of recruiting centers, are being looked at by the US Army as a ‘Security Threat’….
http://www.stripes.com/news/us/army-to-recruiters-treat-armed-citizens-as-security-threat-1.359134
The headline, in “Stars and Stripes,” the military’s newspaper, reads:
Army to recruiters: Treat armed citizens as security threat
The mind boggles…
Radio Basics Presentation, by Saratoga
Section 3 Tactical Radios
CB – Citizens Band
- Total of 40 channels.
- Channels from 26.965 to 27.405 MHz (11 meter HF band).
- Reliable range is from 5-10 miles but can be much farther with right conditions.
- For use in personal and business activities of the general public.
- There is no age, citizenship, or license requirements.
- Can use any of the 40 channels, but channel 9 is used only for emergencies or traveler assistance.
- Usage of all channels is on a shared basis.
- Generally limited to 4 watts.
GMRS – General Mobile Radio Service
- Total of 15 channels.
- Channels 1-7 shared with FRS.
- Channels from 462.5625 to 467.900 MHz (just above the 70cm Ham band) in the UHF band.
- Range is normally 2-5 miles.
- Requires a license ($85 / 5 years) but no exam.
- Can transmit up to 50 watts, but 1 – 5 watts is more common.
FRS – Family Radio Service Total of 14 Channels
- Channels 1-7 shared with GMRS
- Channels from 462.5625 to 467.7125 MHz (just above the 70cm Ham band) in the UHF band.
- Range is about 1-2 miles.
- Initially proposed by Radio Shack in 1994 for use by families, authorized in the US since 1996.
- Limited to 500 milliwatts (0.5 watts).
- Must use permanently attached antennas.
MURS – Multi-Use Radio Service
- Total of 5 channels.
- Channels from 151.820 ot 154.600 MHz (just above the 2m Ham band) in the VHF band.
- Range is 2-5 miles.
MARINE
- Total of 50 channels.
- Channels from 156.000 to 157.025 MHz (just above the 2m Ham band) in the VHF band.
- Limited to “on the water.”
- Range is about 20 miles.
Scanners
- Receiver used to monitor police, fire and emergency medical services on VHF and UHF.
- Sequentially monitor multiple programmed channels or search between frequency limits.
- Stops on active frequency and resumes scanning other frequencies when that activity ceases.
Read the rest, here. Pay attention the the advantages of Ham radio, and think ‘hand held’ and NPT security patrols.
The next installment of a superb lesson on conducting a patrol Enjoy it, and then practice what you read!!
Jim slowly slides back out from under the thick brush that conceals our position overlooking the homestead. He joins me at a spot deeper in the forest roughly centered between Andy and Al, who are still providing security to our flanks and rear. It’s time to move on, but first I take advantage of the break to rearrange our order of march. Walking point requires a constant, intense mental focus and Andy needs a break. If left at that position too long even the most experienced soldier will eventually loose concentration and begin making mental errors which can lead to disaster. I also want to give Jim something else to occupy his mind other the carnage that we are leaving behind. I signal Jim to take point, with Andy behind him where he will take up pace count duties. Al stays in the number 3 slot, manning the receiver, while…
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Simply put, the hardest task you must master is sticking to your training regimen as a team over time. It’s easy when you’ve first formed your NPT and the members are excited about all the neat things you’re learning and doing. But like champagne left open without a cork, after a time, it becomes flat. This will occur after all the ‘whiz-bang’ training is complete, and you’ve been through every tactical, survival, combatatives, intelligence, communications, casualty care, land navigation, marksmanship, and any other class you can think of, the ‘bubbles’ start to evaporate, and the hard part of being consistent and getting your NPT together on a routine schedule and practicing everything you’ve learned starts.
Then, after a time, the skills your team is practicing together will seem to become so easy that you and your team will start to believe you can do it in your sleep. And that’s when boredom will set in, and as a NPT is comprised of ‘regular folks’, thoughts of, “I can be doing other stuff now, I’ve got this down,” will start to surface. Once that occurs, watch closely, because you’ll see evidence of the other ‘more important’ things take precedence over training together. I’m not talking about slipping a training day due to a family event, unusual work requirement or other exigency; but the slipping of training from, say, one day a month to one day a quarter to twice a year or less. Or, once roles are assigned in the NPT, the members focus so diligently on that role that team practice of the basics takes a distant second in importance.
It’s a difficult problem to overcome, but it’s important, because the apathy that breeds from believing mastery is the end of the training journey leads to atrophy in the skills in question. Remember, every NPT skill you learn is perishable: If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. At the minimum, you’ll slip from “Willing and Able” to “Able and Unwilling” or less on the task maturity continuum.
As time goes on, if you’re not careful, you’ll see your NPT start to dissolve. Excuse/Reason after excuse/reason why various members won’t be able to make a training day; fill in the blank as to what it might be. When you start see that, it’s your ‘detonation is imminent’ warning.
What to do? Again, simply put, keep at it. Keep scheduling and conducting your NPT training. Even if it’s just you. Stay consistent over the long term. Stay loyal to your cause, which was and is: Master the skills to protect your family and NPA.
Remember you’re in this for the long haul. Remind your team: The. Long. Haul. There’s not going to be time for an intense 4 day refresher when things go South, no matter how intense. Think of how sore you might be if you stopped your PT for 3 months and decided to get back where you were and your first PT session was the same intensity level as a few months back when you were in shape. Imagine how sore and unable to move you’d be. Same goes for your NPT skills. Bruce Lee is attributed to have said:
Remember this: Being good at something comes from doing the same thing the same way every time you do it, and it should be done often. The skills you master are perishable. Your excellence in what you can do will be judged on the day you are required to protect your ‘precious cargo.’
Training anyone?
Parting thought, because it fits more than just PT:
Two Couples Ambushed By Group Of Men While Walking Down Detroit Street, Stripped Of Clothes And Sexually Assaulted
DETROIT (WWJ) – The hunt is on for a group of men in Detroit who allegedly attacked two couples while they were walking down the street, forcing the male victim to watch as his female companion is gang raped.
The first incident unfolded around 11:30 p.m. Thursday in a well-lit area near McNichols Road and Birwood Street. The alleged attack happened in a northwest neighborhood just blocks away from Marygrove College.
Read the rest, here.
Need combatives training? Just in case you want to, “Finish It Now”? We can help.
In light of recent events including the murders of unarmed United States Marines here at home, this repost is provided as a purposeful statement identifying our beliefs publicly. Being a follower of the Nazarene does not equate to being a sheep waiting to be led into the butchering shed.
Any questions?
When considering the following article from http://www.readynutrition.com and Tess Pennington, take into account the reason a systemic collapse would accelerate: BJIT Inventory practices, retail industry wide. BJIT stands for “Barely Just In time,” and in essence the system is projected to work by having only inventory that will be sold within 72 hours or less be on hand at any site using the resources, be it manufacturing, food distribution centers, or other retailers. Further, it’s designed so that the consumer who’s paying for the product has an automatic waiting period (exception for food distribution) to allow the distributor of the product or service to use the consumer’s money for an elastic period before delivery of the purchased service or product. Quite ingenious to increase revenue; the rub comes when we’re dealing with life sustaining products such as food, water, clothing, medicine, etc. That’s why preparedness needs to be part of your every day life, because….
When the Trucks Stop Delivering, ‘The System’ Will Collapse
Collectively speaking, most Americans take for granted the system in place to deliver essential supplies to their area. “The system,” an underlying infrastructure that keeps goods, services and commerce in America flowing creates a sense of normalcy and order. Food, water, gasoline and medications are just a few of the items restocked weekly in order for our dependent society to maintain a steady flow. What many fail to grasp is just how fragile the system is and just how quickly it can collapse.
Our transportation systems are one of the weakest links in the system. Mac Slavo explains:
In a 2012 report prepared for legislators and business leaders by the American Trucking Associations highlights just how critical our just-in-time inventory and delivery systems are, and assesses the impact on the general population in the event of an emergency or incident of national significance that disrupts the truck transportation systems which are responsible for carrying some ten billion tons of commodities and supplies across the United States each year.
A shutdown of truck operations as a result of elevated threat levels, terrorist attacks, or pandemics would, according to the report, have “a swift and devastating impact on the food, healthcare, transportation, waste removal, retail, manufacturing, and financial sectors.”
So too would events such as an EMP attack or a coordinated cyber-attack that could shut down global positioning systems and the computers responsible for inventory control.
The report goes on to explain that consumer fear and panic will exacerbate shortages. News of a truck stoppage—whether on the local level, state or regional level, or nationwide—will spur hoarding and drastic increases in consumer purchases of essential goods. Shortages will materialize quickly and could lead to civil unrest.
What the following graphic will demonstrate is just how quickly our system will fail. When the trucks in America stop, all commerce and delivery stops with it.
Read the rest, here.
DTG: The following is taken from the embedded link in Tess’ article via http://www.shtfplan.com, as Mac Slavo explains in his piece, here. Got preps for water? Food? Meds? Training to hold on to them? We can help.
Mac Slavo: The effects of a transportation shutdown for any reason would be immediate (in some cases, within hours) and absolutely catastrophic.
Excerpted from the American Truckers Associations report
Food
- Significant shortages will occur in as little as three days, especially for perishable items following a national emergency and a ban on truck traffic.
- Consumer fear and panic will exacerbate shortages. News of a truck stoppage—whether on the local level, state or regional level, or nationwide—will spur hoarding and drastic increases in consumer purchases of essential goods. Shortages will materialize quickly and could lead to civil unrest. (We’re seeing this in the UK right now)
Water
- Supplies of clean drinking water will run dry in two to four weeks. For safety and security reasons, most water supply plants maintain a larger inventory of supplies than the typical business. However, the amount of chemical storage varies significantly and is site specific. According to the Chlorine Institute, most water treatment facilities receive chlorine in cylinders that are delivered by motor carriers. On average, trucks deliver purification chemicals to water supply plants every seven to 14 days. Without these chemicals, water cannot be purified and made safe for drinking.
Health Care
- Without truck transportation, patient care within the truck stoppage zone will be immediately jeopardized. According to Cook, many hospitals have moved to a just-in-time inventory system. In fact, some work from a low-unit-of-measure system. This means that essential basic supplies, such as syringes and catheters, are not ordered until the supplies are depleted. These systems depend on trucks to deliver needed supplies within hours of order placement. Internal redistribution of supplies in hospitals could forestall a crisis for a short time; however, in a matter of hours, hospitals would be unable to supply critical patient care.
- If an incident of national significance produces mass injuries, truck transportation is the key to delivering urgently needed medical supplies necessary to save lives.
- Hospitals and nursing homes will exhaust food supplies in as little as 24 hours
- Pharmacy stocks of prescription drugs will be depleted quickly. According to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, most of the nation’s 55,000 drug stores receive daily merchandise deliveries by truck.
Transportation
- Service station fuel supplies will start to run out in just one to two days. An average service station requires a delivery every 2.4 days. Based on these statistics, the busiest service stations could run out of fuel within hours of a truck stoppage, with the remaining stations following within one to two days
- Air, rail and maritime transportation will be disrupted.
- A fuel shortage will create secondary effects. Without access to automobile travel, people will be unable to get to work causing labor shortages and increased economic damage. Without cars, many people cannot access grocery stores, banks, doctors, and other daily needs. Public bus systems will cease to operate as well, preventing many disabled and elderly people from accessing these necessities. Without fuel, police, fire, rescue and other public service vehicles will be paralyzed, further jeopardizing public safety.
Waste Removal
- Within days of a truck stoppage, Americans will be literally buried in garbage with serious health and environmental consequences. Further, without fuel deliveries, many waste processing facilities will be unable to operate equipment such as backhoes and incinerators.
- Uncollected and deteriorating waste products create rich breeding grounds for microorganisms, insects, and other vermin. Hazardous materials and medical waste will introduce toxins as well as infectious diseases into living environments. Urban areas will, of course, be significantly impacted within just a couple of days.
Retail / Manufacturing / Economy
- Replenishment of goods will be disrupted. Many of the nation’s leading retailers rely on just-in-time delivery to keep inventory levels as low as possible. Similar to the low-unit-of-measure hospital inventory system, these stores rely on frequent deliveries to replenish basic goods. Often, delivery of a shipment is not triggered until the current inventory is nearly depleted. Without truck deliveries, retailers will be unable to restock goods, including consumer basics such as bottled water, canned goods, and paper products.
- Consumer behavior during emergencies triples the rate of inventory turn-over.Since many large retail outlets typically keep inventories as lean as possible, problems often arise quickly during truck transportation slowdowns that occur from crises such as hurricanes.
- Just-in-time manufacturers will shut down assembly lines within hours. Major American manufacturers, ranging from computer manufacturers such as Dell and Compaq to major automakers such as GM and Ford, rely on just-in-time manufacturing. Without truck deliveries, component shortages and manufacturing delays will develop within hours
Financial Sector
- ATM and branch bank cash resources will be exhausted quicky. In today’s fastpaced, high-technology economy, consumers access cash 24/7 from 370,000 ATMs nationwide. JP Morgan Chase, the nation’s second largest consumer bank, replenishes its 6,600 ATMs via armored truck delivery every two to three days. Given the increase in ATM activity that occurs before and after any type of crisis, ATMs would run out of cash much sooner.
- Small and medium-size businesses will lose access to cash.
- Regular bank functions will cease.
While an event that disrupts truck transportation systems may be unlikely, recent history suggests it is fully plausible and the blowback can be devastating. A day after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, panicked government officials stopped all transportation flow into the region, forcing hundreds of trucks loaded with emergency supplies like food and water to wait for permission before they could enter the area. As a result, thousands of residents of the city were left without items essential for survival. It took days before truck routes were re-opened and supplies were allowed to flow. Government officials acting on limited information, lack of knowledge and personal politics were responsible for restricting the flow of goods into New Orleans, potentially killing hundreds of people in the process.
What this incident demonstrated is that when the trucks in America stop, all commerce and delivery stops with it.
Now consider what may happen if the emergency is more widespread, affecting not just a city, but the population of an entire region or the United States in its entirety.
As regular readers know, we don’t typically delve into anything considered political, simply because it’s beyond the scope of our small enterprise. We’re first and foremost a skills teaching and consulting group. However, this Op-Ed, by Pastor Chuck Baldwin, on News With Views, is worth your time to read and consider because while reading his article, he does something very important: the presentation of unrevised history, all of which can be verified easily, through a cursory study of unrevised historical documents balanced against political maneuvers currently on-going in our country today.
Enjoy, and let us know what you think in the comments!
THE CONFEDERATE FLAG NEEDS TO BE RAISED, NOT LOWERED
By Chuck Baldwin
July 9, 2015
NewsWithViews.com
Ladies and gentlemen, I submit that what we see happening in the United States today is an apt illustration of why the Confederate flag was raised in the first place. What we see materializing before our very eyes is tyranny: tyranny over the freedom of expression, tyranny over the freedom of association, tyranny over the freedom of speech, and tyranny over the freedom of conscience.
In 1864, Confederate General Patrick Cleburne warned his fellow southerners of the historical consequences should the South lose their war for independence. He was truly a prophet. He said if the South lost, “It means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy. That our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by all of the influences of History and Education to regard our gallant debt as traitors and our maimed veterans as fit subjects for derision.” No truer words were ever spoken.
History revisionists flooded America’s public schools with Northern propaganda about the people who attempted to secede from the United States, characterizing them as racists, extremists, radicals, hatemongers, traitors, etc. You know, the same way that people in our federal government and news media attempt to characterize Christians, patriots, war veterans, constitutionalists, et al. today.
Folks, please understand that the only people in 1861 who believed that states did NOT have the right to secede were Abraham Lincoln and his radical Republicans. To say that southern states did not have the right to secede from the United States is to say that the thirteen colonies did not have the right to secede from Great Britain. One cannot be right and the other wrong. If one is right, both are right. How can we celebrate our Declaration of Independence in 1776 and then turn around and condemn the Declaration of Independence of the Confederacy in 1861? Talk about hypocrisy!
In fact, southern states were not the only states that talked about secession. After the southern states seceded, the State of Maryland fully intended to join them. In September of 1861, Lincoln sent federal troops to the State capital and seized the legislature by force in order to prevent them from voting. Federal provost marshals stood guard at the polls and arrested Democrats and anyone else who believed in secession. A special furlough was granted to Maryland troops so they could go home and vote against secession. Judges who tried to inquire into the phony elections were arrested and thrown into military prisons. There is your great “emancipator,” folks.
And before the South seceded, several northern states had also threatened secession. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island had threatened secession as far back as James Madison’s administration. In addition, the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were threatening secession during the first half of the nineteenth century–long before the southern states even considered such a thing.
People say constantly that Lincoln “saved” the Union. Lincoln didn’t save the Union; he subjugated the Union. There is a huge difference. A union that is not voluntary is not a union. Does a man have a right to force a woman to marry him or to force a woman to stay married to him? In the eyes of God, a union of husband and wife is far superior to a union of states. If God recognizes the right of husbands and wives to separate (and He does), to try and suggest that states do not have the right to lawfully (under Natural and divine right) separate is the most preposterous proposition imaginable.
People say that Lincoln freed the slaves. Lincoln did NOT free a single slave. But what he did do was enslave free men. His so-called Emancipation Proclamation had NO AUTHORITY in the southern states, as they had separated into another country. Imagine a President today signing a proclamation to free folks in, say, China or Saudi Arabia. He would be laughed out of Washington. Lincoln had no authority over the Confederate States of America, and he knew it.
Do you not find it interesting that Lincoln’s proclamation did NOT free a single slave in the United States, the country in which he DID have authority? That’s right. The Emancipation Proclamation deliberately ignored slavery in the North. Do you not realize that when Lincoln signed his proclamation, there were over 300,000 slaveholders who were fighting in the Union army? Check it out.
One of those northern slaveholders was General (and later U.S. President) Ulysses S. Grant. In fact, he maintained possession of his slaves even after the War Between the States concluded. Recall that his counterpart, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, freed his slaves BEFORE hostilities between North and South ever broke out. When asked why he refused to free his slaves, Grant said, “Good help is hard to find these days.”
The institution of slavery did not end until the 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865.
Speaking of the 13th Amendment, did you know that Lincoln authored his own 13th Amendment? It is the only amendment to the Constitution ever proposed by a sitting U.S. President. Here is Lincoln’s proposed amendment: “No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any state with the domestic institutions thereof, including that a person’s held to labor or service by laws of said State.”
You read it right. Lincoln proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution PRESERVING the institution of slavery. This proposed amendment was written in March of 1861, a month BEFORE the shots were fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
The State of South Carolina was particularly incensed at the tariffs enacted in 1828 and 1832. The Tariff of 1828 was disdainfully called, “The Tariff of Abominations” by the State of South Carolina. Accordingly, the South Carolina legislature declared that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were “unauthorized by the constitution of the United States.”
Think, folks: why would the southern states secede from the Union over slavery when President Abraham Lincoln had offered an amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing the PRESERVATION of slavery? That makes no sense. If the issue was predominantly slavery, all the South needed to do was to go along with Lincoln, and his proposed 13th Amendment would have permanently preserved slavery among the southern (and northern) states. Does that sound like a body of people who were willing to lose hundreds of thousands of men on the battlefield over saving slavery? What nonsense!
The problem was Lincoln wanted the southern states to pay the Union a 40% tariff on their exports. The South considered this outrageous and refused to pay. By the time hostilities broke out in 1861, the South was paying up to, and perhaps exceeding, 70% of the nation’s taxes. Before the war, the South was very prosperous and productive. And Washington, D.C., kept raising the taxes and tariffs on them. You know, the way Washington, D.C., keeps raising the taxes on prosperous American citizens today.
This is much the same story of the way the colonies refused to pay the demanded tariffs of the British Crown–albeit the tariffs of the Crown were MUCH lower than those demanded by Lincoln. Lincoln’s proposed 13th Amendment was an attempt to entice the South into paying the tariffs by being willing to permanently ensconce the institution of slavery into the Constitution. AND THE SOUTH SAID NO!
In addition, the Congressional Record of the United States forever obliterates the notion that the North fought the War Between the States over slavery. Read it for yourself. This resolution was passed unanimously in the U.S. Congress on July 23, 1861, “The War is waged by the government of the United States not in the spirit of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or institutions of the states, but to defend and protect the Union.”
What could be clearer? The U.S. Congress declared that the war against the South was NOT an attempt to overthrow or interfere with the “institutions” of the states, but to keep the Union intact (by force). The “institutions” implied most certainly included the institution of slavery.
Hear it loudly and clearly: Lincoln’s war against the South had NOTHING to do with ending slavery–so said the U.S. Congress by unanimous resolution in 1861.
Abraham Lincoln, himself, said it was NEVER his intention to end the institution of slavery. In a letter to Alexander Stevens who later became the Vice President of the Confederacy, Lincoln wrote this, “Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would directly, or indirectly, interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears. The South would be in no more danger in this respect than it was in the days of Washington.”
Again, what could be clearer? Lincoln, himself, said the southern states had nothing to fear from him in regard to abolishing slavery.
Hear Lincoln again: “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it.” He also said, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so and I have no inclination to do so.”
The idea that the Confederate flag (actually there were five of them) stood for racism, bigotry, hatred, and slavery is just so much hogwash. In fact, if one truly wants to discover who the racist was in 1861, just read the words of Mr. Lincoln.
On August 14, 1862, Abraham Lincoln invited a group of black people to the White House. In his address to them, he told them of his plans to colonize them all back to Africa. Listen to what he told these folks: “Why should the people of your race be colonized and where? Why should they leave this country? This is, perhaps, the first question for proper consideration. You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss; but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think. Your race suffers very greatly, many of them, by living among us, while ours suffers from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason, at least, why we should be separated. You here are freemen, I suppose? Perhaps you have been long free, or all your lives. Your race is suffering, in my judgment, the greatest wrong inflicted on any people. But even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with the white race. The aspiration of men is to enjoy equality with the best when free, but on this broad continent not a single man of your race is made the equal of a single man of our race.”
Did you hear what Lincoln said? He said that black people would NEVER be equal with white people–even if they all obtained their freedom from slavery. If that isn’t a racist statement, I’ve never heard one.
Lincoln’s statement above is not isolated. In Charleston, Illinois, in 1858, Lincoln said in a speech, “I am not, nor have ever been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races from living together on social or political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white.”
Ladies and gentlemen, in his own words, Abraham Lincoln declared himself to be a white supremacist. Why don’t our history books and news media tell the American people the truth about Lincoln and about the War Between the States?
It’s simple: if people would study the meanings and history of the flag, symbols, and statues of the Confederacy and Confederate leaders, they might begin to awaken to the tyrannical policies of Washington, D.C., that precluded southern independence–policies that have only escalated since the defeat of the Confederacy–and they might have a notion to again resist.
By the time Lincoln penned his Emancipation Proclamation, the war had been going on for two years without resolution. In fact, the North was losing the war. Even though the South was outmanned and out-equipped, the genius of the southern generals and fighting acumen of the southern men had put the northern armies on their heels. Many people in the North never saw the legitimacy of Lincoln’s war in the first place, and many of them actively campaigned against it. These people were affectionately called “Copperheads” by people in the South.
I urge you to watch Ron Maxwell’s accurate depiction of those people in the North who favored the southern cause as depicted in his motion picture, “Copperhead.” For that matter, I consider his movie, “Gods And Generals” to be the greatest “Civil War” movie ever made. It is the most accurate and fairest depiction of Confederate General Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson ever produced. In my opinion, actor Stephen Lang should have received an Oscar for his performance as General Jackson. But, can you imagine?
That’s another thing: the war fought from 1861 to 1865 was NOT a “civil war.” Civil war suggests two sides fighting for control of the same capital and country. The South didn’t want to take over Washington, D.C., no more than their forebears wanted to take over London. They wanted to separate from Washington, D.C., just as America’s Founding Fathers wanted to separate from Great Britain. The proper names for that war are either, “The War Between the States” or, “The War of Southern Independence,” or, more fittingly, “The War of Northern Aggression.”
Had the South wanted to take over Washington, D.C., they could have done so with the very first battle of the “Civil War.” When Lincoln ordered federal troops to invade Virginia in the First Battle of Manassas (called the “First Battle of Bull Run” by the North), Confederate troops sent the Yankees running for their lives all the way back to Washington. Had the Confederates pursued them, they could have easily taken the city of Washington, D.C., seized Abraham Lincoln, and perhaps ended the war before it really began. But General Beauregard and the others had no intention of fighting an aggressive war against the North. They merely wanted to defend the South against the aggression of the North.
In order to rally people in the North, Lincoln needed a moral crusade. That’s what his Emancipation Proclamation was all about. This explains why his proclamation was not penned until 1863, after two years of fruitless fighting. He was counting on people in the North to stop resisting his war against the South if they thought it was some kind of “holy” war. Plus, Lincoln was hoping that his proclamation would incite blacks in the South to insurrect against southern whites. If thousands of blacks would begin to wage war against their white neighbors, the fighting men of the southern armies would have to leave the battlefields and go home to defend their families. THIS NEVER HAPPENED.
Not only did blacks not riot against the whites of the south, many black men volunteered to fight alongside their white friends and neighbors in the Confederate army. Unlike the blacks in the North, who were conscripted by Lincoln and forced to fight in segregated units, thousands of blacks in the South fought of their own free will in a fully-integrated southern army. I bet your history book never told you about that.
If one wants to ban a racist flag, one would have to ban the British flag. Ships bearing the Union Jack shipped over 5 million African slaves to countries all over the world, including the British colonies in North America. Other slave ships flew the Dutch flag and the Portuguese flag and the Spanish flag, and, yes, the U.S. flag. But not one single slave ship flew the Confederate flag. NOT ONE!
By the time Lincoln launched his war against the southern states, slavery was already a dying institution. The entire country, including the South, recognized the moral evil of slavery and wanted it to end. Only a small fraction of southerners even owned slaves. The slave trade had ended in 1808, per the U.S. Constitution, and the practice of slavery was quickly dying, too. In another few years, with the advent of agricultural machinery, slavery would have ended peacefully–just like it had in England. It didn’t take a national war and the deaths of over a half million men to end slavery in Great Britain. America’s so-called “Civil War” was absolutely unnecessary. The greed of Lincoln’s radical Republicans in the North, combined with the cold, calloused heart of Lincoln himself is responsible for the tragedy of the “Civil War.”
And look at what is happening now: in one instant–after one deranged young man killed nine black people and who ostensibly photo-shopped a picture of himself with a Confederate flag–the entire political and media establishments in the country go on an all-out crusade to remove all semblances of the Confederacy. The speed in which all of this has happened suggests that this was a planned, orchestrated event by the Powers That Be (PTB). And is it a mere coincidence that this took place at the exact same time that the U.S. Supreme Court decided to legalize same-sex marriage? I think not.
The Confederate Battle Flag flies the Saint Andrews cross. Of course, Andrew was the first disciple of Jesus Christ, brother of Simon Peter, and Christian martyr who was crucified on an X-shaped cross at around the age of 90. Andrew is the patron saint of both Russia and Scotland.
In the 1800s, up to 75% of people in the South were either Scotch or Scotch-Irish. The Confederate Battle Flag is predicated on the national flag of Scotland. It is a symbol of the Christian faith and heritage of the Celtic race.
Pastor John Weaver rightly observed, “Even the Confederate States motto, ‘Deovendickia,’ (The Lord is our Vindicator), illustrates the sovereignty and the righteousness of God. The Saint Andrews cross is also known as the Greek letter CHIA (KEE) and has historically been used to represent Jesus Christ. Why do you think people write Merry X-mas, just to give you an illustration? The ‘X’ is the Greek letter CHIA and it has been historically used for Christ. Moreover, its importance was understood by educated and uneducated people alike. When an uneducated man, one that could not write, needed to sign his name please tell me what letter he made? An ‘X,’ why? Because he was saying I am taking an oath under God. I am recognizing the sovereignty of God, the providence of God and I am pledging my faith. May I tell you the Confederate Flag is indeed a Christian flag because it has the cross of Saint Andrew, who was a Christian martyr, and the letter ‘X’ has always been used to represent Christ, and to attack the flag is to deny the sovereignty, the majesty, and the might of the Lord Jesus Christ and his divine role in our history, culture, and life.”
Many of the facts that I reference in this column were included in a message delivered several years ago by Pastor John Weaver. I want to thank John for preaching such a powerful and needed message. Read or watch Pastor Weaver’s sermon “The Truth About The Confederate Battle Flag” here.
Combine the current attacks against Biblical and traditional marriage, the attacks against all things Confederate, the attacks against all things Christian, and the attacks against all things constitutional and what we are witnessing is a heightened example of why the Confederate Battle Flag was created to begin with. Virtually every act of federal usurpation of liberty that we are witnessing today, and have been witnessing for much of the twentieth century, is the result of Lincoln’s war against the South. Truly, we are living in Lincoln’s America, not Washington and Jefferson’s America. Washington and Jefferson’s America died at Appomattox Court House in 1865.
Instead of lowering the Confederate flag, we should be raising it.
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