Religions > Bible > Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death??
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28 Jun 2005 06:46:16 AM |
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Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
http://americanhistoryforums.com/showthread.php?p=94#post94
Ten Commandments Votes
Email this Story
Jun 27, 6:54 PM (ET)
By The Associated Press
How each Supreme Court justice voted on two Ten Commandments cases:
Texas state capitol display:
Yes to display - Rehnquist, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer.
No to display - Stevens, Ginsburg, O'Connor, Souter.
---
Kentucky supreme court display:
No to display - Souter, Stevens, O'Connor, Ginsburg, Breyer.
Yes to display - Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy.
Eminent domain ruling was wrong
Where in the world is the public outrage over the latest Supreme Court
decision on eminent domain decision (Page 1D, June, 24)?
It reminds me of a quote I read recently:
``When they took the Second Amendment, I was silent because I didn't
own guns.
``When they took the Fourth Amendment, I was silent because I didn't
deal drugs.
``When they took the Fifth Amendment, I was silent because I was
innocent.
``Now, they've taken the First Amendment, and I can say nothing about
it.''
R.M. Bascom
San Jose
Governor is on downhill slide
It's nice to see that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger feels sorry about his
arrogant and bullying behavior, now that he's seen his poll numbers
collapse (Page 1A, June 22). If he really expects us to believe he's
changing his ways, it will take actions, not words.
At a minimum, Schwarzenegger needs to:
1. Cease all support for the ill-conceived initiatives he's rushed to
the ballot.
2. Contribute 100 percent of the money he's raised in his fundraising
jaunts to California's hard-pressed schools.
3. Personally reimburse the taxpayers for the $50 million he's wasting
on the Nov. 8 special election.
Otherwise, he can expect to follow former Gov. Gray Davis in the slide
to political oblivion.
Joni Reid
Palo Alto
Teacher earnings -- the real story
Wayne Martin (Letters, June 25) stated that retired teachers double
their earnings after working for 30 years. I retired after 32 years and
I haven't seen that money. Perhaps it's with my check from the
Publishers Clearinghouse.
Mr. Martin failed to consider that when I retired, the district could
hire two beginning teachers on my salary. Schools are now more
labor-intensive, and about 85 percent of the budget goes to salaries
and benefits.
Since the money received by school districts from the state and federal
government is fixed, there is a financial benefit to having teachers
retire early.
On the flip side of the coin, one reason we have tenure laws is to keep
school districts from firing older, more experienced teachers to save
money.
Bob Miller
Campbell
Bay Bridge project isn't high priority
I'm responding -- or maybe reacting -- to the proposed Bay Bridge
construction (Page 8A, June 24). I realize that the California economy
is important to all who live here.
However, at a time when our education system is one of the worst in the
nation -- and seemingly only getting worse -- this proposal is
blatantly indicative of California's wrong priority. The impact of
these kinds of decisions will be the decline of economic growth.
I do not blame the governor or his colleagues; it is we, their
constituents, who are ultimately responsible. We Californians would
rather perpetuate our dependence on the automobile than to educate
upcoming generations.
Michael Harris
Santa Cruz
Teacher can have job, not credential
From all accounts, Michelle Delk has done an excellent job teaching
inmates at the Elmwood Correctional Center (Page 3A, June 25). In this
specific case, the Elmwood Correctional Facility should seek to waive
the requirement for Ms. Delk to have a credential. She will then be
able to continue to do her good work, while the safeguards that the
credentialing commission deems necessary will remain in place.
However, this does not mean that the California Commission on Teacher
Credentialing should change its rules, which disqualify convicted
felons from holding a teaching credential. Those rules are in place to
protect the population at large, especially our children.
Mark St. John
Sunnyvale
Intelligent design deserves discussion
Why is it that opponents of intelligent design fail to listen to the
objective arguments for the intelligent design hypothesis (Page 14E,
June 18)? Empirical evidence of intelligent design, based on physics,
DNA, biochemistry and astronomy, routinely meets or exceeds
conventional scientific methods and criteria based on probabilities or
inference by best explanation.
Intelligent design is not, as skeptics claim, an argument from
ignorance or metaphysics masquerading as science.
Why the personal attacks on the motives of proponents instead of
responding to the merits and facts of the case? Is it possible that
naturalists and Darwinists cannot offer a better empirical defense
against the evidence for intelligent design discovered in the last 25
years?
Jeff Popoff
San Jose
The governor's real motives
The piece by Pete du Pont (Op-Ed, June 27) is a classic example of
doublespeak. In plain English, what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hopes to
accomplish with his special election is to weaken our education system,
bust the unions and stack the deck for the Republicans for the next
election. Meanwhile, he will cut taxes for the ultra-rich and
corporations while our state infrastructure crumbles. The abortion
issue was thrown in as an afterthought to make sure the religious right
turns out for the election.
Don't worry, governor, the left will be there.
Diana Harper
San Jose
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| User: "c-bee1" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
28 Jun 2005 07:39:35 AM |
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<jollyrogership@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1119959176.187756.198670@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
http://americanhistoryforums.com/showthread.php?p=94#post94
Ten Commandments Votes
Email this Story
Jun 27, 6:54 PM (ET)
By The Associated Press
How each Supreme Court justice voted on two Ten Commandments cases:
Texas state capitol display:
Yes to display - Rehnquist, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer.
No to display - Stevens, Ginsburg, O'Connor, Souter.
---
Kentucky supreme court display:
No to display - Souter, Stevens, O'Connor, Ginsburg, Breyer.
Yes to display - Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy.
Eminent domain ruling was wrong
Where in the world is the public outrage over the latest Supreme Court
decision on eminent domain decision (Page 1D, June, 24)?
lol Don't really read the group, do you?
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
28 Jun 2005 10:00:03 AM |
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On 28 Jun 2005 04:46:16 -0700, wrote:
Eminent domain ruling was wrong
The ruling on eminent domain was along the lines of conservative views
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
29 Jun 2005 06:56:02 AM |
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The Eminent domain ruling wasn't along conservative views!!
The ruling was for bigger government!!
It's all explained here: http://jollyrogerwest.com
Join the poetic & classical Consitutional renaissance!!!
KILLDEVILHILL.COM
On a bright blue, blustery February day, I'm standing on top of Kill
Devil Hill, looking out over towards Cape Point, Hatteras, witnessing
from afar the eternal battle being performed by two opposing oceans.
Just off Cape Point the northbound Gulf Stream and the cold currents
hailing from the Arctic meet head on, sending white spray over
one-hundred feet into the air. Over the years these conflicting
currents have been depositing sand off Hatteras, and the resulting
diamond-shaped sand bar has come to be known as the Diamond Shoals,
it's fang-like shifting sand bars pushing seaward to snare the unwary
mariner. While the shoals are the largest and most formidable hazard,
the entire Carolina coast is marked by such eternally shifting,
submerged features, and thus long ago sailors were inspired to call it,
"The Graveyard of the Atlantic." And as I look out over the clashing
currents, which are indiscernible but for the mist they throw
one-hundred feet into the air, I am reminded of how it are those
invisible inner conflicts between the polar opposites of our souls from
which the visible art departs, aspiring towards the heavens. Art is the
eternal piece of us striving to be free, and thus all generations seek
a renaissance, so as to join Edmund Burke's community of eternal souls.
I found out about Cape Point from a book my girlfriend gave me for
Christmas entitled, THE GRAVEYARD OF THE ATLANTIC. The book narrates
the stories of the numerous shipwrecks off the Carolina coast. She'd
also given me a poetry anthology, which is a cool one, because it's
small and there aren't any of those tedious introductions to the
poems-- there're only the poet's words. In it I finally found that one
Robert Frost poem about making your avocation your vocation, and that's
exactly what the WWW's allowing us to do-- to make our passion our
profession... CONTINUED
THE MOST PERFECT SILENCE
I know where the most perfect silence is,
Seen it in the wild blue off Hatteras,
A mile out, rainbowed sails in silent bliss,
Looked like they'd collide, but they safely passed.
I know when the most perfect silence is,
Down a dusty Ohio road, high noon,
No shirt on, being burned by the sun's kiss,
Sixteen, takin' my time-- it was still June.
I know what the most perfect silence is,
It's what we say when falling out of love,
It roars and thunders right through the kiss,
Says all that no words can ever speak of.
I know why the most perfect silence is,
It is there for the whisper to be born,
The whisper in her ear became the kiss,
Just a dream in DC early one morn.
I know who the perfect silence is for,
It is for the ones whom we love the best,
It is there to protect them from our core,
By the silent trust we all seek to rest.
And I know how rare that silence can be,
With everyone talkin', it's hard to hear,
But I know I felt it, on the streets of DC,
The sound in her eyes-- it was crystal clear.
And it brought back to mind the rainbowed sails,
And the way it looked like they would collide,
Like two souls set upon fate's iron rails,
But the most perfect silence never died.
--Drake Raft
GATHERING WOOD
Gathering wood as a cold dusk descends,
A crisp October 'neath a powdered sky,
Carolina mountains, so the day ends,
Beside a fire you pause to wonder why.
Staring together at glowing embers,
Then both looking up at the milky way,
You look at her and hope she remembers,
After the embers have faded away.
For you know there'll be nights colder than this,
And shadows that thought cannot apprehend,
When the only thing you can do is miss,
Wondering why beside your campfire friend.
For hard work is part of all that is good,
And I look forward to gathering wood.
--Becket Knottingham
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| User: "ouroboros rex" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
29 Jun 2005 12:15:24 PM |
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<jollyrogership@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1120046162.425352.177840@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
The Eminent domain ruling wasn't along conservative views!!
The ruling was for bigger government!!
Who benefits?
It's all explained here: http://jollyrogerwest.com
Join the poetic & classical Consitutional renaissance!!!
KILLDEVILHILL.COM
On a bright blue, blustery February day, I'm standing on top of Kill
Devil Hill, looking out over towards Cape Point, Hatteras, witnessing
from afar the eternal battle being performed by two opposing oceans.
Just off Cape Point the northbound Gulf Stream and the cold currents
hailing from the Arctic meet head on, sending white spray over
one-hundred feet into the air. Over the years these conflicting
currents have been depositing sand off Hatteras, and the resulting
diamond-shaped sand bar has come to be known as the Diamond Shoals,
it's fang-like shifting sand bars pushing seaward to snare the unwary
mariner. While the shoals are the largest and most formidable hazard,
the entire Carolina coast is marked by such eternally shifting,
submerged features, and thus long ago sailors were inspired to call it,
"The Graveyard of the Atlantic." And as I look out over the clashing
currents, which are indiscernible but for the mist they throw
one-hundred feet into the air, I am reminded of how it are those
invisible inner conflicts between the polar opposites of our souls from
which the visible art departs, aspiring towards the heavens. Art is the
eternal piece of us striving to be free, and thus all generations seek
a renaissance, so as to join Edmund Burke's community of eternal souls.
I found out about Cape Point from a book my girlfriend gave me for
Christmas entitled, THE GRAVEYARD OF THE ATLANTIC. The book narrates
the stories of the numerous shipwrecks off the Carolina coast. She'd
also given me a poetry anthology, which is a cool one, because it's
small and there aren't any of those tedious introductions to the
poems-- there're only the poet's words. In it I finally found that one
Robert Frost poem about making your avocation your vocation, and that's
exactly what the WWW's allowing us to do-- to make our passion our
profession... CONTINUED
THE MOST PERFECT SILENCE
I know where the most perfect silence is,
Seen it in the wild blue off Hatteras,
A mile out, rainbowed sails in silent bliss,
Looked like they'd collide, but they safely passed.
I know when the most perfect silence is,
Down a dusty Ohio road, high noon,
No shirt on, being burned by the sun's kiss,
Sixteen, takin' my time-- it was still June.
I know what the most perfect silence is,
It's what we say when falling out of love,
It roars and thunders right through the kiss,
Says all that no words can ever speak of.
I know why the most perfect silence is,
It is there for the whisper to be born,
The whisper in her ear became the kiss,
Just a dream in DC early one morn.
I know who the perfect silence is for,
It is for the ones whom we love the best,
It is there to protect them from our core,
By the silent trust we all seek to rest.
And I know how rare that silence can be,
With everyone talkin', it's hard to hear,
But I know I felt it, on the streets of DC,
The sound in her eyes-- it was crystal clear.
And it brought back to mind the rainbowed sails,
And the way it looked like they would collide,
Like two souls set upon fate's iron rails,
But the most perfect silence never died.
--Drake Raft
GATHERING WOOD
Gathering wood as a cold dusk descends,
A crisp October 'neath a powdered sky,
Carolina mountains, so the day ends,
Beside a fire you pause to wonder why.
Staring together at glowing embers,
Then both looking up at the milky way,
You look at her and hope she remembers,
After the embers have faded away.
For you know there'll be nights colder than this,
And shadows that thought cannot apprehend,
When the only thing you can do is miss,
Wondering why beside your campfire friend.
For hard work is part of all that is good,
And I look forward to gathering wood.
--Becket Knottingham
.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
29 Jun 2005 05:37:41 PM |
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Not the little guy. Not the working man. Not the tax-payer. Only the
bureuacrats benefit in this.
But we can change it.
With a classical renaissance.
Join us!!
http://jollyrogerwest.com
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
29 Jun 2005 02:19:16 PM |
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The government beureaucrats & their big business cronies.
We're for the rights of the individual!!!
http://jollyrgerwest.com
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
29 Jun 2005 08:47:20 PM |
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On 29 Jun 2005 12:19:16 -0700, wrote:
The government beureaucrats & their big business cronies.
Conservative government is in power
So you just answered the question
Thankew
------------------------------------------------------
houston toilet for ladies
</groups?q=author:danaraffaniello%40worldnet.
att.net&start=210&hl=en&lr=&ie=UT>F-8&selm=63j
060%24j0j%40bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net&rnum=225>
use me as your toilet. will be toilet for female parties.
can also be used as a rug, so you can walk on me.
.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
01 Jul 2005 08:27:08 AM |
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Are Republicans conservative?
Bureaucrats are bureaucrats are bureaucrats.
The classical liberals and neocons must unite against them.
http://jollyorgerwest.com
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
29 Jun 2005 02:19:26 PM |
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The government beureaucrats & their big business cronies.
We're for the rights of the individual!!!
http://jollyrogerwest.com
.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
29 Jun 2005 08:46:44 PM |
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On 29 Jun 2005 04:56:02 -0700, wrote:
The Eminent domain ruling wasn't along conservative views!!
The ruling was for bigger government!!
"bigger government" was sure okay with conservatives when it sided
with FL SecState and sued to have vote counting stopped.
The government did not get "bigger" in the Eminent Domain case, it
merely pandered to business interests over that of indviduals.
That was a conservative ruling.
Now don't get me wrong.
I didn't volunteer whether or not I thought the ruling was "right"
I observe that the USSC siding with business is a conservative ruling.
It was in the early part of last century
It still is today.
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</groups?q=author:danaraffaniello%40worldnet.
att.net&start=210&hl=en&lr=&ie=UT>F-8&selm=63j
060%24j0j%40bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net&rnum=225>
use me as your toilet. will be toilet for female parties.
can also be used as a rug, so you can walk on me.
.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
03 Jul 2005 09:30:19 AM |
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IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM
The night fell fast, I found myself alone,
A DC summer storm was blowing in,
I stood at the tomb, these soldiers unknown,
and knelt and prayed for the rain to begin.
Not for the monuments nor any money,
nor pomp, circumstance, nor the pedant's pride,
the politician's smile, nor lawyer's fee,
for these present treasures, none of them died.
I ran to Jefferson to read the wall,
to make sure that God was still written there,
then to Washington, and across the Mall,
where Lincoln invoked his immortal prayer,
Winded and ragged, lightning everywhere,
I slowed to a walk, pondered what would be,
if God's great Enlightenment weren't there,
we could still be brave but never be free.
I found comfort in the Mall's mud and rain,
without mines nor cannons nor raining shells,
so free from fear, iniquity, and pain,
because thousands had endured a thousand hells.
And I found myself back before the tomb,
humbled by the humbled, with naught for name,
shivering, though they had the colder room,
sans light, nor sound, nor tomorrow, nor fame.
I thought for a moment, what it could be,
the center and circumference of their dreaming,
it must have been the prophet's poetry,
that granted their souls eternal meaning.
So judges and Congressmen, please don't forget,
the reason these patriots picked up swords,
not for perks nor power were their deaths met,
but for honor and duty-- for mere words.
So do take pause before telling a lie,
for there's one more thing I saw on that night,
as the wind and the rain began to die,
I walked away, turned, and beheld a light.
Wil'O'wisp, reddish light, sailor's delight,
It hovered there-- just above the tomb's stone,
As fading thunder whispered to the night,
"Freedom's the name of all soldiers unknown."
Rock the renaissance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--Drake Raft
http://jollyrogerwest.com
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
05 Jul 2005 09:31:26 AM |
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It turned out the Corolla Light was locked, so what we did instead
was we sat in some old rocking chairs on the front porch of this quaint
little house beside the lighthouse. It was the gift shop, I could tell,
for I could see all the racks with the postcards and miniature
lighthouses and books on Blackbeard. They'd just found Blackbeard's
ship about eighty miles on down the coast, just off of Wilmington. And
there, on the windowsill, somebody had left a copy of Moby *****. It was
a big old hardback edition, and as the gusts of wind swirled in under
the awning, they flipped the pages back and forth, back and forth, as
if some ghost was searching for the one portentious passage that alone
contained the words which so beautifully expressed the moment's somber
sentiments-- the humble, profound feeling that precedes a spring storm
blowing in off the Atlantic.
Now I'd never been all that good at small talk, and it didn't
help too much that this was sort of a first date. So in a way Herman
Melville came to my rescue on that night, just as he would, time and
again, with words that filled a contemporary void, echoing the subtler,
unheralded beauty, providing a literary beacon by which to navigate
through life as aspiring classical poets. Moby ***** became a literary
bible for Drake, Elliot, and I, as we saw ourselves as the captain of
the Pequod, being called upon to avenge the deposed Greats and the
honor, nobility, and pride of Generation X.
Moby ***** was a tragic record of the harshness and indifference
of the baser natural and human elements, which are utterly immune
towards the greater glory of all rhyming contemplations, just like
David Geffen and Time Warner. And we took it to be a motif for the
modern reality of young artists coming of age in this postmodern fog,
surrounded by the intellectually indifferent, amoral, ambitious
university presidents, editors, publishers, and professors. The
classical traits, such as honor, honesty, humility, prudence, and
integrity had been cast overboard along with the classical literature.
The abstract structure of the culture and the old, traditional,
time-honored rules had been deemed an obstacle by the rising
resentniks, for the Truth contained therein got in the way of their
politics. Forever be it known that there is a difference between Truth
and Politics, and that good Politics is that which humbles itself
before the Truth. Thus the postmodern liberals performed a most wicked
crime upon the culture and future generations. They deconstructed the
Western heritage, removed God from the center and circumference of the
universe, and replaced Him with fringe feminists, economic indicators,
multiculturalists, and marketing executives, just to make sure the
transition looked cool.
Rock the renaissance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--Drake Raft
http://jollyrogerwest.com
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
07 Jul 2005 09:43:56 AM |
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The right to abortion is NOT in the constitution.
The right to private property IS.
Figure it out.
http://jollyroger.com
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
30 Jun 2005 07:33:46 AM |
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If it's a conservative ruling, then why did all the conservative
judges vote against it, and liberal judges vote for it?
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/2005/June/30/OPlist2.htm
http://jollyrogerwest.com
What has transpired is notably referred to as "unintended consequence."
Our founding fathers included this clause in the Constitution as a
method for revitalizing blighted areas, establishing roads, schools or
creating other projects for public use.
Yet our illustrious Supreme Court's liberal wing of John Paul
Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, joined
by Anthony Kennedy, ruled against the conservative principle of
individual property rights.
Do you really think that the framers of our Constitution, a group of
brave men who lived their lives for freedom, would so easily give the
government such a disproportionate amount of power?
Join the Classical Constitutional renaissance!!!
http://jollyrogerwest.com
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
17 Jul 2005 07:56:42 AM |
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http://classicstorytelling.com
http://jollyroger.com
In 1995 Jollyroger.com set sail from Hatteras as a labor of love, and
now, by the Grace of God and the loyalty of all our intrepid readers,
the Good Ship has evolved into a profitable venture that allows us to
do that which we were born to do-write. Unlike most dot-com startups
originating from MBA homework assignments, jollyroger.com was not
launched to line the pockets of venture capitalists, but rather she set
sail to serve the eternal popular culture with a renaissance-an
entity which the bankers could not afford to invest in, as enduring
literature must be funded by the courage of poetic passion. Very few
MBAs ever comprehend the business of eternity-the subtleties of how a
world may be born from a grain of sand-and thus it is left up to CEO
Statesmen and Poets to captain literary ships. Business ventures tend
to be considered in terms of monetary risks and rewards, whereas words
of eternity must be written, come hell or high water. It was not mere
information that the Good Ship sought to deliver over the internet, but
poetry, and so instead heading West to Silicon Valley and raising VC,
we raised The Jolly Roger to strike fear into the hearts of Truth's
opponents, and we sailed forth from Hatteras one pristine September
day, beneath a Carolina-blue sky. And we never looked back.
In an era where cool has been commodified and postmodernism has
triumphed in the literary, cultural, and financial arenas, where
inherent worth is oft dismissed and new-age hype rules the day,
jollyroger.com has stuck by the guns of fundamental principle. She has
sailed steadily along her foreordained course, signing aboard loyal
crew members one by one, firing broadsides from the Western Canon to
defend the embattled Great Books, and laying the foundations of the
world's classical portal with the most valuable kind of seed
capital-heartfelt poetry.
In the postmodern culture's pervasive gray, it's often difficult to
perceive the Permanent Things; and thus on the foggier nights over the
past five years, faith in the ancient's words came in handy upon this
deck. In the deepest darkness of the most ironic ironies, where the fog
itself is concealed, there yet exists an inner light in the form of a
classical yearning for Truths greater than ourselves-many know her as
Faith. And like the wind and waves of an approaching hurricane, the
Bible, Plato, Shakespeare, the Founding Fathers, and Melville reminded
us of her-the Words of the Greats let us know that something
all-powerful and great existed just beyond our mortal sight. And by
Faith's inner light and the steady winds of immortal words, we were
able to navigate beyond the postmodern fog, through the popular
culture's sound and fury, on towards the center of our souls-the
placid eye of existence's storm-on towards the eternal peace of
immutable words written and read in the solitude and splendor of
Truth's Freedom. Thus we know firsthand that the greatest literature
serves a higher purpose than the bottom line or the advancement of
political causes-words exist not only to entertain, advertise,
exhort, and explain, but also to light Faith's beacons and fill the
sails of God's Grace. From Words we have fashioned the Jolly
Roger's Oak planks of reason, riveted them with rhyme, and designed a
ship to voyage across all of time.
All generations are united by the classical elements, and the poets and
prophets of each age are those who perform the timeless truths in the
living language, adding to and enriching the context of the eternal
popular culture heralded by the Great Books. Joining in this venture
has always been a risky endeavor, and thus few prudent parents have
ever encouraged their children to become poets. But in this era
especially, ambitious proponents of the postmodern ideology actively
seek to scuttle the souls of young poets embarking on eternity's
favorite venture. The postmodern blockade serves to protect the
degraded trade of the liberal industrial cultural complex, while their
fog shrouds the beacons of timeless truth, thereby rendering the
context for contemporary classical literature all but impossible to
navigate, while endangering the very hulls of morality and Western
Civilization.
Postmodernism is the corruption of democracy, just as deconstruction is
the violence of the weak-both cultural movements owe their popularity
to their ability to empower anyone harboring intellectual or artistic
ambitions overshadowing their talents. Postmodern culture is like an
internet pyramid scheme, wherein cultural creations possessing no
inherent worth are given vast valuations by the insider critics and
cliques who subsist upon and profit from the ephemeral hype, which is
often tax, tuition, and smut subsidized. But eventually all true art,
like all true companies, must create real and lasting benefits for the
public, or fade away, like communism. "One cannot pray a lie," noted
Huckleberry Finn, but without faith in God's Invisible Hand,
postmodernists believe that it's possible, as long as the requisite
mob is assembled and promised a cut. And while the insiders benefit in
the short-term when worthless companies, fallacious systems of
government, and meaningless art are hyped and sold to a duped public,
the public is oft left holding the bag, with their investments
diminished, their classical religions tarnished, their armies
demoralized, the sacred institution of marriage defiled, and the
curriculums of their children's schools gutted.
When the higher ideals and fundamental precepts are forsaken, the
entire democratic ship of state may drift along happily through the
fog, navigating by polls reminiscent of the one given by Pontius
Pilate, not aware of the nature nor consequences of the errant
direction. And when a few in the rising generation begin to seek the
fixed stars above, which they've read about in antiquity's forsaken
myths and felt deep within their souls, they will be branded crazy. And
when the classical rebels see the stars through the breaking fog, and
seek to navigate a straighter course by the Permanent Things, they will
encounter violent opposition from the postmodern culture czars who
benefit from the lack of higher standards, who prefer their arbitrary
will to the rule of Law in cultural entities ranging from politics, to
architecture, to education, to poetry. The relativistic oligarchy shall
view the rising poets' loyalty to God as insolent rebellion, and the
postmodern media shall be commanded to destroy them. And on that day,
the postmodern critics' souls shall be tested, as they choose to be
loyal to tyrants or Truths greater than themselves, as they choose to
remain upon postmodern liberalism's sinking ship or sign aboard a
fighting frigate bound for eternity.
One could spend several volumes chronicling the nature of
postmodernism's adherents and their predilection for bureaucracy, and
the dark character of their political, cultural, and literary ponzi
schemes, but that is not jollyroger.com's destination. We all know
what the fog looks like-too many know nothing else-and the nobler
and more pertinent task becomes taking us beyond it. To criticize
nihilism is to exalt it to undeserved heights, and rather than studying
the ephemeral, poets would be wise to devoted themselves to penning the
eternal.
Whether it's inevitable as fate or it hinges upon perseverance and
free will, we do not know, but jollyroger.com must gain a popular
culture worthy of the Great Books' context. And the only way to do
that is to navigate by the same timeless beacon that yesterday's
poets navigated by-honesty's courage.
The contemporary poet's task is not only to pen the eternal verities
in the era's language, but it is also to resurrect the context in
which those timeless truths may freely navigate and gain the home ports
of the children's souls. And that is where the WWW has played an
invaluable role, for it has allowed us to establish a universe
perpendicular to the contemporary popular culture-a universe wherein
words mean things and the classical context thrives, but which also
intersects with the popular culture. For Great Books growing dusty upon
shelves are of little use, and the classical sentiments must be
continually performed in the living language. While the majority of
contemporary editors, agents, critics and literary officials yet remain
loyal to the degraded postmodern-MFA mentality and the fleeting
insta-classic literary fashions, the greater spirits of the rising
generation are classical in nature, as children's souls always are.
And by allowing The Jolly Roger to circumvent the literary
middleman's cynical vortex, the WWW has allowed a renaissance to set
sail.
Although all enduring truth must by definition be robust, history has
shown that its messengers have often been castigated and impugned. But
upon these American shores, it has ever been our right, as it has been
our duty, to continually foster and defend the classical context
wherein the foundational documents serve the people, come hell or high
water. The Greats have all agreed upon this-liberty demands eternal
vigilance. The pursuit of smaller government, less taxes, rhyming
poetry, and more freedom is as long and arduous a voyage as it is a
noble one.
As a beacon in history's darker contexts, America was founded as a
haven for truth's messengers, thereby becoming the world's
wellspring for science, religion, and freedom. The Declaration of
Independence and Constitution, which may be found at the end of this
book, were penned in tribute to higher principles superior to all
politics and time. Even though the Founding Fathers believed in the
existence of higher laws, they were humble about their ability to
discern them, and thus they presented us with a Constitution which
could be amended. They had as much faith in their children as they had
in the timeless truths, and thus they bestowed us with the tools to
pursue justice and happiness in a free marketplace of ideas, which they
perceived to be ultimately governed by Nature and Nature's God. The
eloquent words of America's founding documents provide for the civil
structure that protects and promotes the acknowledgement of higher
principles by which natural rights are defined, thereby preserving the
sacred freedom of all individuals who are humble before the higher
ideals. And thus upon these shores the honest have always been promised
the freedom to pursue the exalted American dream.
But when the language is degraded until the poetry no longer rhymes
except in vulgar rap, when sacred customs are honored more in the
breach than in the observance, when words and their meanings part on
their separate ways, when the bottom line is placed above the higher
ideals, when the base bass beats over the melody in the music we listen
to, in the clubs we frequent, and in our hearts and souls; when
innocence is lost before it is known, when cynicism is loaded upon hope
and hope is ballasted with irony, and we're exhorted by tax, tuition,
and smut-subsidized cultural officials to carry this pyramid's load
down the road to serfdom, shall we still be free to dream those greater
dreams? When under this burden America is then cut free from her
religious anchors in the name of secular economic freedom, and women
are sent off to raise the Dow Jones to pay taxes rather than raise
moral children, can America long survive and prosper as the flagship of
free republics, even if all the postmodern pyramid schemes never
collapse? Science and history have suggested otherwise-that where
God's morality is eroded, the eternal Bureaucracy marches forth to
become the stolid regulator of human interaction. When people cease to
govern themselves according to higher principles, they lose the ability
to be guarantors of their own wellness and happiness, and they soon
find themselves subject to a political order determined by other
mortals-the rule of Law gives way to the rule by men.
Where the Word-the sacred vessel of all poetry and politics-was
diminished or deconstructed, bullets and slogans oft became the new
brushes with which humanity painted upon history's canvas. And as the
past is prologue, any optimist of human affairs would be wise to aspire
to the wisdom of those who gave us not the gift of freedom, but the
documents which define and defend the freedom that they perceived as
being a gift from God.
In asking what is best for the future of a democratic republic, we are
really contemplating the best way in which to pass along freedom's
traditions. How might we rebuild the classical context wherein children
learn to love reading the Greats, and teachers are given the necessary
authority to teach them? How do we reinstall the killer-app open-source
software of the soul-the classics-which teach not by dictating how
to think, but by inspiring free thought in a rational context?
Today, too many of our peers reside in a superficial context of image
and sound, wherein the popular art, movies, music, and literature make
circular references to the same superficial brands in a self-contained
cultural whirlpool in history's greater context, where ephemeral
lusts, common degradation, and wayward feelings overrule rational
thought and the higher ideals. So how shall we introduce our friends to
a far more profound culture in the context of the Great Books? How
shall we revive the center and circumference of civilization, the crux
of conscience, the jury of justice, the romance of marriage, the honor
of honor, and the device by which we mark the pinnacles of our
aspirations-the written Word? We're not sure of the exact mechanism
nor means to accomplish this, but the crew here believes the answer
lies more in art than in scholarship, more in poetry than in politics.
For intellectuals study yesterday's renaissances far more often than
they inspire today's, and politicians follow the popular culture far
more often than they lead it.
At the dawn of the internet in 1995, the three sonneteers set out upon
a fleet frigate, seeking to pirate the profound and establish a brave
new website where the eternal optimism of the literary classics would
prevail-where the news of the day would always be that the world's
grown honest and Hamlet's gone mad. We saw the chance to marry the
greatest that has ever been written and spoken to the greatest
publishing medium ever known to the individual, and to create a
classical context wherein the glory of words would resound. We saw the
opportunity to circumnavigate the postmodern nonbelievers and cynics,
to appeal to the nobler aspects of humanity's conscience, and prove
that the world yet loves common sense embroidered in eloquence. We saw
the opportunity for a renaissance wherein dignity and honor would be
restored to public office, and the poetry would rhyme once again.
And with a little bit of that Midwest humor which walks hand-in-hand
with Midwest honor, we decided we'd have fun following the dream that
Providence had enabled. We would salute the passing postmodern era from
the decks of a pirate ship, acknowledging postmodernism's vast
success in pervading all aspects of contemporary culture; and with
broadsides of truth fired from the Western Canon, we'd let them know
we considered it good sport to play along with their irony-the irony
that a lover of the Great Books could be considered a barbarous
buccaneer upon Princeton's ivied campus. We were ruthless rebels
because we sought Truth's Traditions.
Postmodern liberalism had won the day, but as a fundamentally
secular-materialist philosophy, that was all that it had ever sought,
and tomorrow shall belong to the classics. For however fun the
postmodern era was, I don't think we'll be making a tradition out
of it. Political rhetoric is soon forgotten, while poetry is that which
endures.
We figured the best way to communicate our exalted vision would be to
combine the cutting-edge technology with the exact same literary
devices used by the sages of all ages. We'd use the common language
and the colloquial to sign sailors aboard, and we'd endow the poetry
at jollyroger.com with rhyme and meter. Whispering reason is far louder
than pompous pedantry, just as poetry is far more adept at winning a
girl's heart than polemics. The greatest writers had adorned their
works not with thesauruses, but with wit. If a preacher knows something
of poetry, then we'll listen, for they must know that deeper meaning
behind the sacred scripture-that law and order exist to protect
beauty's fundamental freedom.
A contemporary literary renaissance presents itself as a formidable
task-one cannot do it alone. For the fashionable relativists are
right in that truth and custom must have an appropriate societal
context within which to exist. And the concurrent relativistic societal
context, fortified with the entrenched prejudices of a maturing,
tenured generation that ushered in a Dionysian revolution via the
pre-internet electronic media, along with a plethora of ideological
"isms" to replace God's simple grace, coupled with a fading popular
culture centered about the printed word and an enforced cynicism
amongst a generation who for the most part only know of the Greats in
their deconstructed, corrupted form, makes the Apollonian renaissance
that jollyroger.com's sailing towards seem all but unreachable.
But then again, as the ancients noted, "post tenebras lux." After
darkness light. Just as God and the Greats originally sprang forth in
tradition's void, so it is that they might be born again in the midst
of a deconstructed culture. For poetry, religion, and romance are
sought by the immortal parts of all souls, and they never have greater
cause to be than when they are not. In the long run, without Truth men
cannot have those possessions most coveted by all deeper
souls-meaning and freedom. With this bold vision and humble hope,
jollyroger.com has set out to resurrect a classical context.
Though jollyroger.com's destination is pristine, the voyage has not
always been and will not always be so. It is a wonderful time to be
alive for the author and entrepreneur, with abundant wealth and
opportunity being fostered by the internet revolution, but even so, it
is a sobering mission to be called upon to serve poetry. For there are
those powerful elite today, and their ambitious disciples, who so
vehemently oppose the first Two Amendments of the United States
Constitution, who have it as their mission to prevent the honest from
lifting those pens which are mightier than the sword.
Neither Wall Street nor the postmodern academy nor publishing
industry-the iron triangle-will invest time nor money nor faith in
a renaissance, but that is OK, as a renaissance has little use for
money, and eternity's time will do just fine. Wall Street prudently
considers the poetry of a cultural renaissance a financial risk in
today's cultural conditions, while the academic MFA postmodernists
consider it a dire threat, and the corporate conglomerates of the
publishing industry have one foot in either camp. But we foresee the
dawn of a new era, wherein those who join in serving and enlightening
the public with the classical sentiments will profit immensely, both
spiritually and monetarily. It is time for a sea change, matey, and
time for the poetry to rhyme once again.
There have been and there are yet to be cruel nights out there in the
postmodern fog, where the Good Ship will seem all but lost, and where
the winds of elite and popular opinion will rage and blow in
opposition, while the critic's cannons blaze away with all the fury
of an MFA scorned. But such is the rugged nature of all greater
adventures, and as of late the seaward signs suggest that the wind is
shifting towards a more favorable direction.
Where men are yet free, they must have poetry equal to that freedom,
and where men yet have poetry, they must be free. Thus exalted poetry
is worth fighting for, and too, these are the reasons why those who
serve the darker powers shall always oppose pristine poetry. The
relativist's favorite tactic in cultural warfare is to redefine
sacred institutions as degraded, corrupted, political entities, from
poetry to the Presidency, until it appears that there is nothing to
defend, until only the dishonorable seem fit to slouch towards office.
Thus they win the war by convincing the common man that there is no war
to be fought, by deconstructing honor and chivalry, by proclaiming
poetry to be no more than politics, by teaching that Presidents were
always corrupt and will always be corrupt, and then enforcing their
dismal science throughout the culture. They deconstruct God and appoint
their friends to all the newly-minted bureaucracies which seek to
overrule His Decree, and which exacerbate the problems they seek to
solve, thereby providing coveted opportunities for more taxation, more
government programs, and more bureaucracy. With a snide smile they call
it irony and cynicism as they benefit in the shadows of the postmodern
fog, but we see it as something much darker than that, as their methods
rebel against God's Will.
Jefferson once stated that from time to time freedom's fields must be
fertilized with the blood of Tyrants and Patriots, and thus in order to
defend the profound prose of this renaissance, treacherous battles
shall be waged against the ferocious prejudices of pedants and
postmodernists for the right to write, publish, and disseminate poetry
written with words that rhyme and mean things. Postmodernists consider
the rhyming truth's shining light a violent assault upon their fogged
territory, and they will fight back viciously according to their
fundamental rules, which state that there are none but for what they
feel. A tyranny of liberal thought exists in the contemporary
publishing and academic industries, which is equal parts ignorance and
resentment, and which may best be defeated by light and truth rendered
with poetry and humor. God's Patriots must learn these gentle ways of
war.
Though these words will not be directly censored, pristine poetry may
be effectively banned by the erosion of the context which supports
it-when pornography is published, the sacred is censored. The Great
Books have been banned far more often by ignorance than by law. Many in
my generation shall never hear this melody as it's drowned out in the
base pounding bass of this week's corporate rock'n'roll, but it
shall be their loss, and not the words'. While we feel sympathy for
the cultural conformists lost in the apathy and cynicism of the
swirling fog, we nevertheless believe that as individuals it is
ultimately their choice, and may God help them find the Better Way. To
those who have, more shall be given, and to those who have not, even
that shall be taken away. May God inspire their moral imaginations to
dream beyond the gray on gray that has come to define their indifferent
universe, wherein spurious definitions of irony have become their
bigoted religion.
Postmodernists know that in order to defend their arbitrary power
structure, where exalted critics wield influence by hyping the value of
degraded literary works, they must defend to the death their
deconstructed context. They have learned that as long as the common
water source is poisoned with their politics, nothing will be allowed
to grow upon the private property of our souls but for barren cynicism.
They know that were the fog to break, the ideals of fidelity, honor,
and lasting romance would begin to blossom in the rising generation's
spirits. As the powerful architects of contemporary corruption, they
must disparage and destroy all who do not ultimately agree that black
is white and white is black, and thus noble romance and honest
innocence are their dire enemies.
The greatest postmodernists have never been the most beautiful nor
talented nor honest-they have ever been those with the least to lose
in the absence of beauty's truth and truth's beauty. Having little
in the way of the fundamental decencies and Natural private property,
as relativist critics they seek to gain by deconstructing others'
private property. And eventually there comes a time when there is
nothing left to deconstruct, but for the true living poets, who shall
be invincibly wicked in seeking vengeance for the razing of their
spiritual heritage and the cold-blooded murders of their cultural
fathers. So it is that the entire postmodern army of deans, agents,
editors, critics, and publishers today fear a lone poet by the name of
Drake Raft. For last night I saw his ghost in midtown Manhattan,
crossing Madison Avenue in cowboy boots, with his hat's brim hiding
his eyes.
Convoluted ironies and swirling vortexes will be encountered on the
high seas of postmodern culture, wherein it will yet once more be
observed that institutions which purport to cherish and transmit the
truth can easily be turned right around in the fog and become those
entities which most oppose it. As it must take an honest stand before
reality, some of the poetry and prose contained herein details the more
macabre customs particular to this generation, raised in the jaded wake
of free love, a declining reverence for the eternal soul, the
crassification of the popular cultural and political arena, and the
spiritual casualties of abortion.
At times aboard the decks of jollyroger.com, we peered a bit too deeply
into the fog's void, and as it looked back into us, we learned
firsthand how postmodern cynicism may breed the most powerful
enemy-one's very own conscience. For even when a man has slain all
the external demons, often the battle is only beginning, and never has
the enemy within known a better ally than postmodern relativism. We
kind of know where a lot of the postmodern priests are coming from. We
were in a grunge band and all that-we saw what the theories sung from
the secular pulpits on high could do to the souls of one's friends,
and we lost more than a few friends at the edge-to the classic
clich=E9s of drinking and drugs, to the all-out pursuit of the material
high, to a few too many girls, and to the
Freudian-Darwinian-Nietzschean cynicism that God is no more than a
myth, and that we're no more than random chemical reactions, sans
intrinsic nor extrinsic meaning. Alas, without faith they joined the
living dead. Raised in the gray void sans tradition nor religion, they
never could discern the very grayness of the void, and so certain of
postmodern indifference, they were convinced that the eternal soul did
not exist, and they sold out for nothing at all. Such is the arrogance
of the small mind which never knows a context greater than itself, and
though conscious, never apprehends conscience.
We'd tasted that pseudo-scientific-secular atheism as physics majors
at Princeton, and we'll tell you that it was a natural faith in
something greater that saved us-wherefrom we also learned that virtue
is not to be found within revenge, but rather it is to be gained by
forgiving one's enemies. Never shall one prevail against the darkness
by answering with darkness, but only by lighting a light. We bear the
postmodern oligarchy and army-the deans, editors, professors,
lifetime politicians, cultural czars, MFA officials, professional
administrators, and all their eager students of decline-no malice,
but we only wish to inspire a literary movement that will grant the
children something greater than was given our generation.
This renaissance is by no means a generational war, but rather it's a
generational peace, as classics are written for all generations. It is
a recent marketing myth which ordains that every fifteen minutes the
new generation must be different (consume different things) from the
preceding one, for there is no difference in the continuum of eternal
souls. Justice is justice is justice, as it has always been, and as it
shall always be. By no means are the boomers in general to be held
responsible for postmodernism's obligatory cynicism, for I sense that
most of them are on our side, such as my mother and father, and the
high school teachers back in Ohio, who were humble before Shakespeare
and taught him by setting his words free within our souls.
And never forget-no matter what postmodernism's fading oligarchy
ordains, they cannot keep young poets from enjoying aesthetic freedom.
They can degrade the romantic to no end, assaulting the ideals of
pristine femininity and noble masculinity in the greater culture, but
young lovers' hearts belong to God alone, and the poetry of this
renaissance shall blossom in their souls. For I saw it in her deep
brown eyes just last night, walking the streets of Davidson, North
Carolina. If ye manage to keep objectivity's even keel-as our
conscientious teachers and parents did-knowing that the Greats are
yer crew members and God is the captain, then the eternal treasures at
jollyroger.com shall be yers for the keeping.
Poets are the fundamental leaders of all cultural transitions, and all
noble leaders must begin by voyaging beyond the contemporary in their
dreams, on towards the higher ideals; and from these spiritual
pinnacles they can hope to appeal to the better angels of human nature.
Fortune and chance play a decisive role in setting the stage, but once
set, all those who follow the call to set the truth down in words
proceed by creative endeavor and luck, on towards the same immutable,
classical elements that all poets and prophets have ever sought. Though
ye might sometimes feel yer walking the straight and narrow alone, know
ye that this voyage is eternity's most popular journey amongst the
Greats, and thus yer always in good company.
We were fortunate in that we began harboring dreams of a literary
renaissance at the dawn of the internet revolution, and too, we were
fortunate to be living in beautiful North Carolina, where we could meld
the natural romance emanating from places like Kill Devil Hill and
Chapel Hill and Boone, and the majestic lighthouses and mountains-all
reaching for the Carolina blue skies-into the jollyroger.com aura.
And the power and fury of September's hurricanes always served to
remind us of beauty's fundamental fragility.
Back in 1994, rejection slips were piling up for our more traditional
and refined literature, when suddenly a channel out towards a popular
renaissance opened upon the internet. We took advantage of the Linux
knowledge which becomes second nature to all physicists, and we set
about creating a classical context in the popular culture. And out upon
the web, we found that greatest treasure of all-a live global
audience to serve. Upon the open seas, all yer appreciative emails
combined to form the favorable winds that filled jollyroger.com's
sails in its formative years. And never for a moment do we
forget-were it not for all of ye out there, we might've made it out
beyond the postmodern fog, but we would've never made it back to
shore. For writing is the voyage out, and being read is the voyage back
on home.
While the revolutions in online commerce have been trumpeted far and
wide, and while jollyroger.com has certainly benefited from them, we
see a spiritual revolution in the culture as a nobler opportunity. As
the ecommerce infrastructure solidifies, with the thousands of
high-tech pyramid schemes collapsing, and the useful websites achieving
global dominance, the renaissance beyond the postmodern fog shall take
a bit longer to realize, as it is easier to change how people shop for
books rather than change the books they shop for, and the context they
read books in. It is perhaps impossible to change an aging
generations' heart, and thus the culture must wait for the rising
generation to resurrect those permanent beacons which endow life with
its richer meanings. Have faith we will, mate, for God springs eternal.
Before the internet, it was difficult to imagine a locale upon this
globe where people from all walks of life could gather to discuss the
Great Books, but now such a timeless, ubiquitous entity exists, an
equidistant one-click away from everywhere in the world. And though the
conversations range in quality and tenor, the Great Books don't seem
to mind, as they have changed not one word, nor their unyielding,
eternal context of Freedom's Truths. And now and then we receive the
email that makes it all worthwhile: "Thanks for inspiring me to read
Moby *****. . ."
Some critics contend that literature serves no moral purpose and that
words should be read for mere enjoyment, and we hope that they enjoy
these words. And too, we hope jollyroger.com serves as a map that helps
the reader find a safe passage out towards their dreams. Always
remember this-even though our greater dreams are sometimes
unobtainable, there is yet vast beauty left in the wake of their
pursuit. For although Einstein, Socrates, and Captain Ahab never
apprehended the white whales they originally set sail seeking, they yet
left behind immortal art and science within the records of their
pursuit of the Truth.
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
21 Jul 2005 03:01:25 PM |
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http://jollyroger.com
http://jollyrogerwest.com
The individuals who "thought differently" have arguably produced the
greatest and most enduring wealth ever known to mankind. Some prominent
venture capitalists in Silicon Valley have recently mused that they
have been at the center of the greatest legal creation of wealth in
history, but really they have been at the center of the greatest
inheritance. Perhaps they have forgotten the giants upon whose
shoulders they have stood upon, including Newton, Einstein, Planck,
Bohr, Shockley, Galileo, Gauss, Brillouin, Rutherford, Schroedinger,
Faraday, Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Moses,
Aristotle, Socrates, and all the countless souls and innovators who
labored for, studied, advanced, and sometimes gave their lives for the
Science and Truth which sets us free.
For the classics would exist without the internet, but the internet
would not exist without the classics. The robust free-market economy
would not exist were it not for The Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution, and in turn these documents would not exist were it not
for all the classical and biblical poetry which preceded them. Venture
capitalists, and the second-rate, superficial, rock'n'roll publishing
and university CEOs who seek to imitate them only to end up satirizing
them, are inextricably anchored to bottom lines. And all profound
innovations and renaissances only ever belong to the free
spirits--those who venture beyond money on towards the actual creation
of wealth's deeper meanings. The "New New" thing has ever been the
eternal.
Society's laser-like focus upon money is complimentary to
postmodernism's fierce focus upon "ism" politics, as while a
preoccupation with money neglects the higher ideals so as to focus upon
the bottom line, postmodernism's love affair with pure politics
neglects the higher laws so as to focus upon the postmodernist's
ephemeral egos. In both cases, this is bad for long-term business, for
as Huckleberry Finn once said, "You can't pray a lie." Walk across a
college campus, and ye'll find that both the postmodern business
schools and the liberal humanists share an equal disregard for the
Great Books. Turn on the TV or pick up the daily paper, and ye won't
find an overabundance of rhymed reason nor philosophy profound. While
one could lament, like Hamlet, "How all occasions do inform against
me," we instead see this classical dearth as a vast opportunity for
jollyroger.com to succeed as both a cultural and business venture. The
internet is revolutionizing all aspects of life, and as it is primarily
a medium of information in the form of the printed word, it makes sense
that it would allow the rising poets to revolutionize poetry. Simply
put, the demand for rhyming, metered poetry and contemporary words
reflecting the Permanent Profound is far, far higher than the supply,
and thus all stalwart literary sailors shall find ample work. For there
is nothing that a generation values more than living poetry carrying
eternity's meaning.
The internet eliminates the middlemen, and from a literary standpoint,
this means the creative writing workshops and all their infinite jest
and progeny in the form of postmodern agents, the editorial elite, and
the postmodern critics in the popular press. No longer must literature
be judged in their temporal, arbitrary, debased context, but now, out
here on the internet, literature has an opportunity to be judged in the
eternal context defined by the Great Books. And just like Rozencrantz
and Guildenstern met their early ends because of their short-sighted
choice to ingratiate and serve the evil king, so too is it that all the
middlemen who lived by brown-nosing the feminists and serving the egos
of the postmodern literary administrators shall sink on the postmodern
ship which they signed their souls aboard. 'Tis the nature of the
literary sport, mate. Wo to those who would cross paths with
Jollyroger.com's destiny.
There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.-Hamlet III,iv (William
Shakespeare)
http://jollyroger.com
http://jollyrogerwest.com
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
25 Jul 2005 10:09:14 AM |
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The night fell fast, I found myself alone,
A DC summer storm was blowing in,
I stood at the tomb, these soldiers unknown,
and knelt and prayed for the rain to begin.
Not for the monuments nor any money,
nor pomp, circumstance, nor the pedant's pride,
the politician's smile, nor lawyer's fee,
for these present treasures, none of them died.
I ran to Jefferson to read the wall,
to make sure that God was still written there,
then to Washington, and across the Mall,
where Lincoln invoked his immortal prayer,
Winded and ragged, lightning everywhere,
I slowed to a walk, pondered what would be,
if God's great Enlightenment weren't there,
we could still be brave but never be free.
I found comfort in the Mall's mud and rain,
without mines nor cannons nor raining shells,
so free from fear, iniquity, and pain,
because thousands had endured a thousand hells.
And I found myself back before the tomb,
humbled by the humbled, with naught for name,
shivering, though they had the colder room,
sans light, nor sound, nor tomorrow, nor fame.
I thought for a moment, what it could be,
the center and circumference of their dreaming,
it must have been the prophet's poetry,
that granted their souls eternal meaning.
So judges and Congressmen, please don't forget,
the reason these patriots picked up swords,
not for perks nor power were their deaths met,
but for honor and duty-- for mere words.
So do take pause before telling a lie,
for there's one more thing I saw on that night,
as the wind and the rain began to die,
I walked away, turned, and beheld a light.
Wil'O'wisp, reddish light, sailor's delight,
It hovered there-- just above the tomb's stone,
As fading thunder whispered to the night,
"Freedom's the name of all soldiers unknown."
http://jollyroger.com
http://jollyrogerwest.com
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| User: "Captain Ranger McCoy" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
26 Jul 2005 02:27:41 PM |
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http://jollyrogerwest.com
http://killdevilhill.com
THE MOST PERFECT SILENCE
I know where the most perfect silence is,
Seen it in the wild blue off Hatteras,
A mile out, rainbowed sails in silent bliss,
Looked like they'd collide, but they safely passed.
I know when the most perfect silence is,
Down a dusty Ohio road, high noon,
No shirt on, being burned by the sun's kiss,
Sixteen, takin' my time-- it was still June.
I know what the most perfect silence is,
It's what we say when falling out of love,
It roars and thunders right through the kiss,
Says all that no words can ever speak of.
I know why the most perfect silence is,
It is there for the whisper to be born,
The whisper in her ear became the kiss,
Just a dream in DC early one morn.
I know who the perfect silence is for,
It is for the ones whom we love the best,
It is there to protect them from our core,
By the silent trust we all seek to rest.
And I know how rare that silence can be,
With everyone talkin', it's hard to hear,
But I know I felt it, on the streets of DC,
The sound in her eyes-- it was crystal clear.
And it brought back to mind the rainbowed sails,
And the way it looked like they would collide,
Like two souls set upon fate's iron rails,
But the most perfect silence never died.
http://jollyrogerwest.com
http://killdevilhill.com
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
28 Jul 2005 07:26:23 PM |
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http://autumnrangers.com
http://jollyroger.com
Autumn Rangers is where NASCAR meets Moby *****, where the Founding
Fathers hang with Kid Rock, where poetry collides with physics, and
where Classic-American-Country-Hiphop-Lit burns through the pomo fog to
exalt America's heart and soul. Autumn Rangers is the American
Renaissance that's been a long time coming, where the Man with No Name
rides again with John Wayne.
The Great American Novel roars 'cross the Rugged American Terrain in a
Jeep and thunders down Dante's Lost Highway in Autumn's Corvette, with
Ranger riding shotgun, packing the Constitution and Declaration of
Independence, chasing down that classic American Dream that makes
Outlaws out of Romantics these days.
Autumn Rangers is a book, movie, video game, magazine, and philosophy
for packing up and heading west, for hiding out and laying low on the
run, for taking a chance with that one life you've been given--taking a
chance on living it from the inside out for those higher ideals,
standing up for what's right, defending eternity against all odds,
facing down irony's evil Sheriff and his Deputies at high noon with a
couple Colt .45 Peacemakers loaded with poetry, and becoming an Autumn
Ranger. But first and foremost, from the Alpha to the Omega, Autumn
Rangers is a story. . .
U.S. Marine Ranger McCoy, an F-22 Raptor fighter pilot, is the Classic
American Hero. After defending the US Constitution from enemies
without, getting shot down and escaping on home, he finds himself on
the run, defending the US Constitution from enemies within. Folk rocker
Autumn West is the All-American Girl. After living for things greater
than herself, she finds herself on the run from a failed marriage, with
a broken heart and jaded soul.
Ranger tried to trade his guns for a camera and a pen, and Autumn tried
to trade a life on the road for a farm and a family, but life fell
short of their dreams.
Ranger invented APRIL--an AI biocomputer which was stolen by Silicon
Virtue Inc. and turned against him while he was flying missions over
Afghanistan. Silicon Virtue is using APRIL to serve the bottom line
instead of the higher ideals, building WMDs and sending
ever-more-sinister RoboClones to hunt Ranger and Autumn down. Ranger
wears the Ring that can save APRIL by unlocking an encrypted moral
operating system named Beatrice, named after Ranger's first summer love
who passed away when they were fourteen.
Together Autumn and Ranger have to make it from Charleston to LA on
backroads before the bombs APRIL built for terrorists detonate in NY
and LA, and before APRIL's RoboClones kill them.
And so it is that two Romantics find themselves on the run from
RoboClone agents and Sheriffs of Irony who enforce a context of decline
and persecute the honest and true. Autumn and Ranger become partners in
crime and partners in rhyme. They become Classic American Outlaws
running west in a '69 Stingray Corvette, building the Renaissance
against all odds. They become Autumn Rangers. And by the time Ranger
discovers Autumn's deep secret, it's too late--he's in love.
http://autumnrangers.com
http://jollyroger.com
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| User: "Captain Ranger McCoy" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
29 Jul 2005 06:38:02 AM |
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http://jollyrogerwest.com
http://killdevilhill.com
All generations are united by the classical elements, and the poets and
prophets of each age are those who perform the timeless truths in the
living language, adding to and enriching the context of the eternal
popular culture heralded by the Great Books. Joining in this venture
has always been a risky endeavor, and thus few prudent parents have
ever encouraged their children to become poets. But in this era
especially, ambitious proponents of the postmodern ideology actively
seek to scuttle the souls of young poets embarking on eternity's
favorite venture. The postmodern blockade serves to protect the
degraded trade of the liberal industrial cultural complex, while their
fog shrouds the beacons of timeless truth, thereby rendering the
context for contemporary classical literature all but impossible to
navigate, while endangering the very hulls of morality and Western
Civilization.
Postmodernism is the corruption of democracy, just as deconstruction is
the violence of the weak-both cultural movements owe their popularity
to their ability to empower anyone harboring intellectual or artistic
ambitions overshadowing their talents. Postmodern culture is like an
internet pyramid scheme, wherein cultural creations possessing no
inherent worth are given vast valuations by the insider critics and
cliques who subsist upon and profit from the ephemeral hype, which is
often tax, tuition, and smut subsidized. But eventually all true art,
like all true companies, must create real and lasting benefits for the
public, or fade away, like communism. "One cannot pray a lie," noted
Huckleberry Finn, but without faith in God's Invisible Hand,
postmodernists believe that it's possible, as long as the requisite
mob is assembled and promised a cut. And while the insiders benefit in
the short-term when worthless companies, fallacious systems of
government, and meaningless art are hyped and sold to a duped public,
the public is oft left holding the bag, with their investments
diminished, their classical religions tarnished, their armies
demoralized, the sacred institution of marriage defiled, and the
curriculums of their children's schools gutted.
When the higher ideals and fundamental precepts are forsaken, the
entire democratic ship of state may drift along happily through the
fog, navigating by polls reminiscent of the one given by Pontius
Pilate, not aware of the nature nor consequences of the errant
direction. And when a few in the rising generation begin to seek the
fixed stars above, which they've read about in antiquity's forsaken
myths and felt deep within their souls, they will be branded crazy. And
when the classical rebels see the stars through the breaking fog, and
seek to navigate a straighter course by the Permanent Things, they will
encounter violent opposition from the postmodern culture czars who
benefit from the lack of higher standards, who prefer their arbitrary
will to the rule of Law in cultural entities ranging from politics, to
architecture, to education, to poetry. The relativistic oligarchy shall
view the rising poets' loyalty to God as insolent rebellion, and the
postmodern media shall be commanded to destroy them. And on that day,
the postmodern critics' souls shall be tested, as they choose to be
loyal to tyrants or Truths greater than themselves, as they choose to
remain upon postmodern liberalism's sinking ship or sign aboard a
fighting frigate bound for eternity.
One could spend several volumes chronicling the nature of
postmodernism's adherents and their predilection for bureaucracy, and
the dark character of their political, cultural, and literary ponzi
schemes, but that is not jollyroger.com's destination. We all know
what the fog looks like-too many know nothing else-and the nobler
and more pertinent task becomes taking us beyond it. To criticize
nihilism is to exalt it to undeserved heights, and rather than studying
the ephemeral, poets would be wise to devoted themselves to penning the
eternal.
Whether it's inevitable as fate or it hinges upon perseverance and
free will, we do not know, but jollyroger.com must gain a popular
culture worthy of the Great Books' context. And the only way to do
that is to navigate by the same timeless beacon that yesterday's
poets navigated by-honesty's courage.
The contemporary poet's task is not only to pen the eternal verities
in the era's language, but it is also to resurrect the context in
which those timeless truths may freely navigate and gain the home ports
of the children's souls. And that is where the WWW has played an
invaluable role, for it has allowed us to establish a universe
perpendicular to the contemporary popular culture-a universe wherein
words mean things and the classical context thrives, but which also
intersects with the popular culture. For Great Books growing dusty upon
shelves are of little use, and the classical sentiments must be
continually performed in the living language. While the majority of
contemporary editors, agents, critics and literary officials yet remain
loyal to the degraded postmodern-MFA mentality and the fleeting
insta-classic literary fashions, the greater spirits of the rising
generation are classical in nature, as children's souls always are.
And by allowing The Jolly Roger to circumvent the literary
middleman's cynical vortex, the WWW has allowed a renaissance to set
sail.
Although all enduring truth must by definition be robust, history has
shown that its messengers have often been castigated and impugned. But
upon these American shores, it has ever been our right, as it has been
our duty, to continually foster and defend the classical context
wherein the foundational documents serve the people, come hell or high
water. The Greats have all agreed upon this-liberty demands eternal
vigilance. The pursuit of smaller government, less taxes, rhyming
poetry, and more freedom is as long and arduous a voyage as it is a
noble one.
As a beacon in history's darker contexts, America was founded as a
haven for truth's messengers, thereby becoming the world's
wellspring for science, religion, and freedom. The Declaration of
Independence and Constitution, which may be found at the end of this
book, were penned in tribute to higher principles superior to all
politics and time. Even though the Founding Fathers believed in the
existence of higher laws, they were humble about their ability to
discern them, and thus they presented us with a Constitution which
could be amended. They had as much faith in their children as they had
in the timeless truths, and thus they bestowed us with the tools to
pursue justice and happiness in a free marketplace of ideas, which they
perceived to be ultimately governed by Nature and Nature's God. The
eloquent words of America's founding documents provide for the civil
structure that protects and promotes the acknowledgement of higher
principles by which natural rights are defined, thereby preserving the
sacred freedom of all individuals who are humble before the higher
ideals. And thus upon these shores the honest have always been promised
the freedom to pursue the exalted American dream.
http://jollyrogerwest.com
http://killdevilhill.com
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Eminent Domain, The Ten Commandments: What Does Everyone Think About The Recent Supreme Court Rulings? Don't Tread on Me???? Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?? |
13 Aug 2005 12:17:27 AM |
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http://jollyrger.com
http://jollyrogerwest.com
PIRATING THE PROFOUND: ROCK THE RENAISSANCE!!!
With all the thousands of publishers and millions of dollars of
government grants and billions of dollars of venture capital with which
we're supposedly competing with out here on the net, how was it that
three poets came to own the World's Classical PortalTM? For a few
simple, complimentary reasons. First off, most venture capital firms
are only interested in short-term monetary gains, and so the creation
of everlasting poetry and literature does not show up on their radar.
Thus we have little or no competition from any well-financed sector.
And even if we did, their money would buy hype far more easily than it
would ever buy integrity and profundity of meaning, and thus even if
they wanted to, the venture capitalists could not create nor enhance
classical literature by investing in it. They are excluded from the
club. The poet alone can create literature by investing his spirit's
time. And though there is no pay for the initial labor, once a classic
is written, it gets free passage to all corners of this watery globe.
It must be known, it must be read, and only foolish, nihilistic tyrants
and vindictive feminists have ever tried to inhibit the Greats'
inevitable propagation.
Governments, by their very nature, prefer bureaucracy over art, and
thus their self-serving investment of other peoples' money usually
finances esoteric farces. And the contemporary publishing houses, lying
somewhere between the postmodern business gurus and the postmodern
socialists, naturally must harbor all the requisite postmodern
prejudices against the Greats--it is in their character to refrain from
passing the literary judgements that define and defend God's higher
aesthetics. But as is so often the case, the iron rails of their
political prejudices have become the iron bars of their prison. Thus it
is that the WWW RenaissanceTM is owned by the three sonneteers and the
tens of thousands who have signed their souls aboard jollyroger.com.
The individuals who "thought differently" have arguably produced the
greatest and most enduring wealth ever known to mankind. Some prominent
venture capitalists in Silicon Valley have recently mused that they
have been at the center of the greatest legal creation of wealth in
history, but really they have been at the center of the greatest
inheritance. Perhaps they have forgotten the giants upon whose
shoulders they have stood upon, including Newton, Einstein, Planck,
Bohr, Shockley, Galileo, Gauss, Brillouin, Rutherford, Schroedinger,
Faraday, Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Moses,
Aristotle, Socrates, and all the countless souls and innovators who
labored for, studied, advanced, and sometimes gave their lives for the
Science and Truth which sets us free.
For the classics would exist without the internet, but the internet
would not exist without the classics. The robust free-market economy
would not exist were it not for The Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution, and in turn these documents would not exist were it not
for all the classical and biblical poetry which preceded them. Venture
capitalists, and the second-rate, superficial, rock'n'roll publishing
and university CEOs who seek to imitate them only to end up satirizing
them, are inextricably anchored to bottom lines. And all profound
innovations and renaissances only ever belong to the free
spirits--those who venture beyond money on towards the actual creation
of wealth's deeper meanings. The "New New" thing has ever been the
eternal.
Society's laser-like focus upon money is complimentary to
postmodernism's fierce focus upon "ism" politics, as while a
preoccupation with money neglects the higher ideals so as to focus upon
the bottom line, postmodernism's love affair with pure politics
neglects the higher laws so as to focus upon the postmodernist's
ephemeral egos. In both cases, this is bad for long-term business, for
as Huckleberry Finn once said, "You can't pray a lie." Walk across a
college campus, and ye'll find that both the postmodern business
schools and the liberal humanists share an equal disregard for the
Great Books. Turn on the TV or pick up the daily paper, and ye won't
find an overabundance of rhymed reason nor philosophy profound. While
one could lament, like Hamlet, "How all occasions do inform against
me," we instead see this classical dearth as a vast opportunity for
jollyroger.com to succeed as both a cultural and business venture. The
internet is revolutionizing all aspects of life, and as it is primarily
a medium of information in the form of the printed word, it makes sense
that it would allow the rising poets to revolutionize poetry. Simply
put, the demand for rhyming, metered poetry and contemporary words
reflecting the Permanent Profound is far, far higher than the supply,
and thus all stalwart literary sailors shall find ample work. For there
is nothing that a generation values more than living poetry carrying
eternity's meaning.
The internet eliminates the middlemen, and from a literary standpoint,
this means the creative writing workshops and all their infinite jest
and progeny in the form of postmodern agents, the editorial elite, and
the postmodern critics in the popular press. No longer must literature
be judged in their temporal, arbitrary, debased context, but now, out
here on the internet, literature has an opportunity to be judged in the
eternal context defined by the Great Books. And just like Rozencrantz
and Guildenstern met their early ends because of their short-sighted
choice to ingratiate and serve the evil king, so too is it that all the
middlemen who lived by brown-nosing the feminists and serving the egos
of the postmodern literary administrators shall sink on the postmodern
ship which they signed their souls aboard. 'Tis the nature of the
literary sport, mate. Wo to those who would cross paths with
Jollyroger.com's destiny.
There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.-Hamlet III,iv (William
Shakespeare)
There's a deeper symmetry at the center and circumference of this
universe, and those who retain a faith in the eternal community of
souls, those who seek to serve something greater than their material
selves, shall come to own a piece of the WWW Renaissance. In the free
marketplace of ideas, the riches of Great Literature shall elude the
classically-indifferent software companies, the politicians, the
postmodern professors, the investment bankers, and the greater
abundance of editors and agents, while favoring the honest
individual--both the reader who reads to read, and the writer who
writes to write. Upon these hallowed American shores, where freedom has
always had a way of triumphing, freedom shall once again triumph in
poetry--her sublimer essence and form shall be liberated from the
postmodern monopoly.
II
And so it is that I've come out here to the Outer Banks to ponder a few
things as I sail this renaissance on home and reunite a generation with
its heritage, the future with the past, and words with their eternal,
immutable meanings. For there's a powerful wind a-rising, and I didn't
want to miss it. With all the poetically-indifferent Fast Company's and
Business 2.0's and Wired's and New Yorker's, there's a rising yearning
for entities within the popular culture judged not by how much money
they make, nor by the extent and degree to which they desecrate all but
forgotten traditions, but by the simple subtleties they signify.
PIRATING THE PROFOUND: ROCK THE RENAISSANCE!!!
http://jollyrger.com
http://jollyrogerwest.com
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