Someone alerted me to this posting over at Democratic Underground, and I couldn’t resist reposting it here. While I think this post pretty much speaks for itself, you really owe it to yourself to read all the replies agreeing with the original posting.

So next time the mainstream media calls you ignorant, racist, or stupid because you’re a conservative views, remember that it could be worse. You could be moon bat crazy like her.

BanzaiBonnie Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Is the shift about to hit the fan

On Friday, the 9th, NASA plans to blast a kinetic weapon into the moon. I will do everything I can to alter the course of that object in order to avoid the colony located in the area that is being targeted. I am not alone in this effort. Light workers around the world have been notified and are on the case.

In my meditation under the stars and moon last night I promised those living beings on the moon that we would do everything we could to keep them from suffering any ill affects from this ill advised launch from earth.

And though I should not have been surprised, I was when I got a response… it was a voice in unison, like the voice of many, a sort of collective response. “We know, and thank you” I then sent the thought that the action of a few is not the action of the many. Again, a response of “We know, and thank you”

And then I held my hands out to the sky and made my promise out loud to accept my birthright and to fulfill promises I made before I came here (incarnate). What happened next was quite unexpected.

In my left hand I received a torch with the understanding that it is the torch of truth that lights the way. In my right hand I received a sword. I sat for a bit feeling its weight and the responsibility of carrying such a weapon. (This was a bit unusual because I consider myself a pacifist) Then I was told that it is the sword of justice and those who are unrighteous will be cut down. They have made their choices over time and continue to make bad choices. It will not continue indefinitely and the end of their nonsense is at hand.

I sat there stunned, wondering what the heck does this all mean. I can make some guesses at this and don’t know that it’s literal, but because symbolic communication is so powerful it definitely means something is afoot.

As a public service to our readers in the Baltimore area, we bring you a list of Charm City’s new speeding cameras, their latest money generating scheme weapon in the name of public safety. Why just knowing that one of these monstrosities is a few blocks from my house makes me feel much safer already, I don’t know what to do with myself. It’s like I’m living in an Orwellian paradise or something!

Of course, this list is posted merely for informational purposes only. Please do not make a mental note of the locations that would affect you, or  make sure these locations are programmed into your car’s GPS navigation system. Remember, our city’s coffers depend upon your ignorance, not to mention the big fat city contract needed for more of these.

Hey, times are tough, and even the city needs to do what its gotta do. Fur coats don’t grow on trees you know, and neither do gift cards. Do your part, Baltimore, and speed Speed SPEED!

The list is broken down by road, cross street, and direction of enforcement. I have no idea how comprehensive it is, so use at your own risk.

Don’t thank me, just don’t get caught.

1. 33rd Street @ The Alameda, EB

2. The Alameda @ 33rd Street, SB

3. Caton Ave @ Benson Avenue, NB

4. Caton Ave @ Benson Avenue, SB

5. Liberty Heights Avenue @ Hillsdale Road, WB

6. Liberty Heights Avenue @ Hillsdale Road, EB

7. Harford Road @ The Alameda, NB

8. Edmondson Avenue @ Cooks Ln, EB

9. Edmondson Avenue @ Woodridge Road, EB

10. Edmondson Avenue @ Woodridge Road, WB

11. Frederick Avenue @ Catherine Street, EB

12. Harford Road @ Christopher Avenue, NB

13. MLK Jr Boulevard @ Pratt Street, SB

14. Franklin Street @ Pulaski, WB

15. Harford Road @ Rosalie Avenue, NB

16. Walther Avenue @ Glenmore Avenue, NB

17. Wilkens Avenue @ Desoto Road, EB

18. Cold Spring Lane @ Hillen Rd, WB

19. Cold Spring Lane @ Loch Raven Boulevard, WB

20. Sinclair Lane @ Moravia Road, WB

21. Sinclair Lane @ Shannon Drive, EB

22. Sinclair Lane @ Shannon Drive, WB

23. Orleans Street @ Linwood Street, EB

24. Eastern Avenue @ Kane Street, EB

25. Hillen Road @ Argonne Drive, SB

26. Liberty Heights Avenue @ Dukeland Street, NB

27. North Avenue @ Howard Street, WB

28. Northern Parkway @ Springlake Way, WB

29. Northern Parkway @ Waverly Way, WB

30. Northern Parkway @ Greenspring Ave, EB

31. Northern Parkway @ Greenspring Ave, WB

32. Charles Street @ Lake Avenue, SB

33. Reisterstown Road @ Fallstaff Road, SB

34. Cold Spring Lane @ Tamarind Rd, EB

35. Wilkens Avenue @ Pine Heights Avenue, EB

36. Erdman Avenue @ Macon Street, EB

37. Erdman Avenue @ Macon Street, WB

38. Madison Street @ Caroline Street, WB

39. Franklin Street @ Cathedral Street, WB

40. Orleans Street @ Gay Street, EB

41. Park Heights Avenue @ Violet Avenue, NB

42. Patapsco Avenue @ 4th Street, WB

43. Perring Parkway @ Belvedere Avenue, SB

44. Pulaski Highway @ Monument Street, EB

45. Northern Parkway @ Park Heights, WB

46. Park Heights Avenue @ Hayward Avenue, NB

47. Park Heights Avenue @ Hayward Avenue, SB

48. Cold Spring Lane @ Roland Avenue, EB

49. MLK Jr Boulevard @ Washington, NB

50. Lombard Street @ Gay Street, WB

51. Harford Road @ Walther Avenue, SB

Earlier this year, my current bank, feeling flush with TARP money, bought up my old bank and issued me a bunch of new account numbers, bank cards, and all sorts of other good stuff. Of course, I forgot to give any of this new information to my web hosting company, who turned me off sometime last night for failure to pay my bill. Oops! The good news is that fervor.net is back up and running, and my wallet is only $120 lighter. Ouch! Don’t worry, I’ve already got my hand stretched out, and I am sure Uncle Sam is has something for me in those deep pockets of his. I’ll let you know when my manna from heaven arrives.  In the mean time, I apologize if you unsuccessfully tried to access fervor.net within the last 12 hours or so. My bad.

Besides forgetting to pay for my hosting, I’ve also forgotten to mention that I’ve got photographs up online for you to BUY! That’s right, now you can stimulate my economy and have groovy stuff to hang on your wall at the same time. Just go to redbubble.com/people/bowman1 and start shopping. Swing on by and show your support for fervor.net as well as my camera habit.

I should also point out that a recent ruling by the Federal Trade Commission has mandated that bloggers reveal any payments or free stuff given in exchange for product reviews. We’ve never done any product reviews here at fervor.net, but we sure would like to! Especially things we can’t normally afford, like expensive liquor, Benelli M2 shotguns, or high quality rifle optics. Hey, it’s hard having champagne tastes on a Keystone Light budget. This is your opportunity to help us live beyond our means by submitting products for review and our crackerjack staff will get right on it.

Now let us go forward and march bravely into the rest of the week.

I was poking around Amazon today in regards to a scheduled “book bomb” by a famous survival author/blogger.  The book hasn’t even hit the streets yet and a reviewer gave the guy one star out of five and wrote, “this guy has been holed up in a bunker for 15 years” blah blah blah “go live life!” blah blah blah.  This ties in of course with the Hollywood portrayal of survivalists as apocalypse awaiting nut jobs who can’t get out of their own way when a real emergency strikes (see the movie “Tremors” for a good example of this cast type).  While I am sure there are folks that fit this bill in real life, your average survivalist is nothing like that.  The media does a good job of putting these folks down as well, grouping them all together with the McVeigh’s and Rudolph’s of the world.  Yes, these men were survivalists, but not all survivalists are murderers and terrorists.  Capiche’?

Making fun of folks that are interested in personal preparedness is like making fun of the kid who goes the extra mile in school or calling the star football player a pompous jerk just because he’s the star football player.  It gives some folks a momentary feeling of coolness and worth, but in the end, they are still underachievers and armchair quarterbacks just the same.  Could it be one’s own sense of UN-preparedness that makes them insecure enough to make fun of folks that want  to be self-sufficient and in control should an emergency arise?  All signs point to “yes”.  While I get tired of the term “un-American” for everything the pundits on the Left and Right disagree with, there is nothing MORE American than self-reliance and preparedness.  Just ask any colonist!

I for one sleep alot better knowing that if the power goes out for a few days, I’ll at least have some water to drink and beans to eat.  Personally, seeing as how I moved recently, I feel rather naked without my normal stockpiles and all of my tools in various states of storage and packing.  Having a nice cache of supplies is like insurance (the non subsidized type).  One worries less and lives with greater freedom by preparing for possible hardships.  There is nothing foolish or irrational about that.

“But the world won’t end!  The government will protect us!”  they say

Tell that to the law abiding citizens of New Orleans.  What about the good folks who lived through the LA Riots?  Rolling California brownouts anyone? 

It isn’t always something catastrophic like a hurricane or violent riots either.  Take the village of Rosemont, MD and the city of Brunswick, MD.  Brunswick controls the water supply for neighboring Rosemont.  Due to budgetary concerns, Brunswick plans to shut down the public water stream to the Rosemont Village residents.  While I am not here to debate the right and the wrong in this case, what are these citizens to do when their water gets shut off?  They are currently fighting the plan, and the court process has temporarily halted the shutdown.  However, imagine one day you’ve got that cheap, clean, running source of city tap water, then suddenly you don’t.  Do you call a well driller?  Do you call your lawyer?  Do you call a town meeting?  I answer “YES” to all of the above, but in the mean time, wouldn’t it be nice to have a few gallons of water per family member, per day stashed away to hold you over until a resolution is reached?  Think about that next time you are busting on someone who is rational enough to realize that “stuff happens”.  When “stuff happens” would you rather be the person who relies on charity or the guy that can help his neighbors because he prepared himself?

Always be prepared.

Don’t think it can’t happen to you!

Anxious to start practicing what I preach again…..I hate moving.

As I type, I am listening to Tom DiLorenzo and Robert Murphy, both Austrian economists, on WBAL 1090 out of Baltimore.   Murphy wrote, “The Politically Incorrect Guide to The Great Depression” and is speaking tonight on myths of the Great Depression at 7PM at Loyola in Baltimore.  If you live around there, you should go.

The two PHD’s and the host began speaking about the healthcare debate and as Austrians, they obviously believe in markets and freedom.  If you aren’t familiar with the Austrian school of thought on economics, I would go to www.mises.org for a good start.  The reason you probably haven’t heard about the Austrian school of thought is because the “mainstream” economists are all Keynsian’s (ie: big government/pump priming types) and the profession of economics is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the frauds at the big banks and the government.  The media does its best to marginalize anyone from the Austrian school as a conspiracy nut.  Examples of media marginalization of said thinkers include Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, and Jim Rogers.  These guys, and many more like them, predicted the current financial crisis when all of the mainstream econ guys and analysts were yelling “UP UP UP!”

The healthcare discussion went on and one of the interviewees stated that the government plan won’t work, govenrnment internvention caused the current mess, and that the whole Obama plan should be scrapped.  A confused caller stated that, “these Austrians or whatever aren’t free market, don’t they know that government caused the problems with current healthcare?  How can they say just scrap the Obama plan and go back to the current system? Its not free market either!”  He rambled on and on making it clear that he was a political half wit and had never heard of the Austrian school until today.  It was painful to listen to and I could only imagine the smiles and gestures being shared by the guys on the radio.

If only more people had the sense to ascribe to rule one of getting out of a hole:  STOP DIGGING!  To think for a second that more government involvement in our healthcare and eventually cradle to grave management of our lives would be more cost effective and beneficial to our health is ludicrous.  It hasn’t worked anywhere!  Why do we have the audacity to think it will work here?   What programs do you know of that the government has presented that are economically sound? Its unfortunate the caller was so confused that he answered his own question and contradicted himself all in the same comment.

While my more intellectual friends of the Austrian school can and have written volumes on the subject of Austrian economic theory, I am not an intellectual, so I have one advantage:  You see, intellectuals tend to have a bad habit, even the guys and girls that you agree with, to use big phrases and terms that go WAY above the average man.  I can sum up Autstrian theory much easier in street lingo:

I want all of you to imagine you are the breadwinner of your family.  You make $200 a day.  You go to the store every night and spend $250, $200 of which you have, $50 of which is borrowed.  At some point, you have to pay back the borrowed money.  This can be done in two ways:  Consume less, or earn more.  When the government does this in the name of “stimulating the economy” (spending what it ain’t got), fools cheer.  When will the US have to pay the piper?  I can’t tell you when, but the day is coming.  Lets STOP DIGGING!

Several weeks ago, Tim asked me if I would be interested in posting here.  My answer was an emphatic “yes”.  New venues, new audiences, and new alliances are always good for honing one’s craft.  For weeks now, I have had various ideas about politics, economics, and finance that I considered posting, but never quite got around to it.  Something about posting on someone else’s site makes me want to take extra care in what I post and how I post it.  SO, after reading Tim’s blog on the AR-15, which is right on by the way, I decided what better ice breaker for a libertarian/conservative/survivalist blog than a gun article?  Of course, Tim and I could talk guns ad-nauseum, so we will have to be prudent in changing topics to keep things fresh over here, but instead of boring you with the same old political arguments today, how about a post about MY favorite gun of all time?

Now, it should be noted that I have always been a bit of a survivalist and a utilitarian.  The Boy Scouts couldn’t hold my interest as a youngster because den mother’s are more interested in popsicle stick sculpture than they are in edible plants, marksmanship, and fort building.  In addition to that, I don’t own much of anything, but what I have gets the job done.   When I buy something that works, I tend to stick with it.  It doesn’t matter if it is a pair of boots, an automobile, a sandwich, or a firearm.  Local deli owners see me coming down the road and they are frying up the bacon and toasting the bread for my BLT before I order.  My bartender has a Yuengling on the counter for me the minute I come through the door.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!  Quality, not quantity.

So, you may be wondering, now that you know my favorite sandwich and my favorite beer, what exactly is this man’s favorite firearm?

Well, if you are looking for a gun that will last forever, has knockdown power, can be used in multiple hunting applications, and makes a fine home defense tool, look no further than the Remington 870 Express.  This shotgun is Remington’s best seller ever and I believe it ranks as one of the best sellers of any gun, ever made, anywhere.  This puts the 870 Express in the ranks of American legends such as the Winchester 110, The John Deere 4020, The Louisville Slugger, and the Ford F-150 pickup.  Simple, reliable, and powerful.

When I was 14 or 15, I had worn the pages out on the Remington catalog trying to decide which gun was best for me, all the while saving my money in hopes that I could one day buy one.  I had not discovered girls yet and I got out of baseball card investing before the market tanked, so I was in good shape financially.  I forget what the list price was back then on the 870, but it seemed like the prospects of me ever owning my own hunting gun was a distant prospect at best.  I would forever be borrowing guns from my uncle or relying on the Christmas generosity of rich relatives to feed my hunting and shooting habit.  Then I opened up the newspaper one fall afternoon and the ad jumped off the page at me!

“Cameron’s Hardware:  Clearance:  Remington, 870 Express Combo, $300″

This was way below any other price I had seen and not only that, the combo package offered both the rifled slug barrel and the regular ’shot’ barrel for wingshooting.  My Dad, forever the fiscal conservative tight-wad, a lifelong local government manager who always gave a portion of his budget back to the coffers each year instead of having the typical “spend it or lose it” mentality and who ran his department for twenty years without a rate increase to taxpayers of any kind, came home at 6.  I had to find a way to make this happen.  Dad’s help was needed for two reasons:  A) I couldn’t drive and B) you can’t buy a gun when you are 14.  I cut out the ad and put the clipping in the Remington catalog on the same page as the 870 along with a note that said, “look how much cheaper it is, I called and they said they have two left, hard to pass up!” and left it on his chair.

He got home and saw it, gave me his typical run around, a drill he often put me through to build my patience and negotiating skills, and then said, “Get your money, lets go!” rebuffing my mother’s brief protest with, “its the boy’s money, he can waste it as he pleases.”  Its not that my Dad was anti-gun or anti-hunting or anything like that.  He was just anti-spending.  The man still wears shirts from the 1984 Superbowl and saved his crayons, to this day, from the first grade if that helps to clarify things.

I was beaming ear to ear as we jumped in the truck and headed down Route 1.  The store closed at 9 and it was only 30 minutes away.  I would have my gun before bed time!  Then tragedy struck.  The 1977 Ford F-150 blew a radiator hose!  I learned how to change a radiator hose that day.  Yes, my Dad had a spare hose in the truck as well as clamps and tools (now you see where I get it).  The 30 minute drive took over an hour between stopping to get coolant and pulling over once or twice to let the motor cool.  My mind raced with worry that we would get there to late.  We FINALLY got there with twenty minutes to spare.  The man in the sporting goods section was in his mid-twenties and was very cool.  I told him what I wanted and he pulled the display model out and let me shoulder it (as if my mind wasn’t already made up).  He reiterated to my Dad that they just don’t sell them this cheap very often.  It may have been a sales tactic, but he wasn’t lying based on my research.  My Dad and I filled out the paperwork, as I was underage at the time, and I forked over my money.  I will never forget the feeling of pulling that beauty out and putting her together that night.  We took her to the range that weekend and I shot until my shoulder turned black and blue. 

Over the years, I harvested dozens of deer with that gun and countless waterfowl, upland game, and varmints.  It is also the gun I consider my primary “home defense” tool as it is nimble and, seeing as how it has regularly dropped 200 pound deer in their tracks, I have no doubts that it will stop even the hardiest of intruders if God forbid, the day ever comes when I have to use it in such a manner.  As is the case with most gun owners, I pray every night that I never have to use it against my fellow man. 

The 870, equipped with the slug barrel and a 3″ Magnum load is not fun to shoot for more than a few rounds, especially in the warmer months when there isn’t much clothing between one’s shoulder and the butt of the gun, but, if you’re proficient, you won’t need more than one shot to fell a deer.  A school teacher of mine who happened to be an avid hunter as well, recommended I switch to a 2 3/4 inch load, which I did, but the gun kicks like a mule nonetheless.  That being said, I have rarely missed with the 870 in big game applications and the gun holds its sights from year to year. 

 In wingshooting applications, the recoil is not nearly as harsh and the gun shoots like a dream (that however doesn’ mean that I always shoot like a dream).  Many wingshooters shy away from pump action guns in exchange for autoloaders and over unders.  My experience with autolaoders has not been good, the exception being my Uncle’s Binelli 12 Gauge.  In cold weather and dirty duck blind conditions, dealing with a jammed autoloader is not fun.  More than once I’ve knocked a front bird down with my first shot only to have the gun jam as I tried to take down a second.  The 870 pump has NEVER jammed on me except for the one or two times I got excited and only “half shucked” the action.  Furthermore, having to pump the action keeps one’s hand in motion which is key to being a good wingshot.

 My 870 has been dropped, covered in mud, bounced around in trucks, boats, and on ATV’s, submerged under water, and has survived dozens of ”moves”.  It has never missed a beat.  I have never had to tear it apart and it has never had to go to a gunsmith.  Not bad for a tool I used everyday for the better part of four years after school.  Oh, did I mention it was only $300?

I appreciate a good over under or an old side by side, as they are classic wing shooting tools, but these guns are pricey and simply to pretty, in my opinion, to have out in the marsh or the goose fields on a mucky day.  In addition, when deer hunting season comes around, if you are like me, you like to get down in the brush or into the parts of the woods where no one else will trek.  Why take a $2000 rifle into those places when you can get the same functionality, if not better, out of a gun that is far less expensive?

The 870 is a mule.  While I named my 870, “Leona”, the 870 is the reliable “Old Betsy” of the modern firearms cache.  If you are looking for a gun that will drop large game, provide a balanced and reliable wingshooting option, and is nimble and powerful enough to provide peace of mind as a home defense tool, look no further than the Remington 870 Express.  While I know of many guns that may perform better in each individual application, I know of no gun that can do all of them as well as the 870 in one package at such an affordable price…..all you have to do is change the barrel!

When I am not busy making a living, taking pictures, or writing this blog, I can be found doing any number of productive activities, like thinking about zombies. Yes, that’s right, I said zombies. Oh sure, you laugh now, but we’ll see who’s laughing when a horde of the living dead comes shambling over the horizon looking for fresh flesh. Wake up and smell the coffee, people. Zombies aren’t an if, they are a WHEN, and the time to prepare is now.

As part of my preps, I’ve been listening to max Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide on long car trips. It’s got a lot of good information on the origin of the zombie, its physiology, and the all important how to kill one for good. It’s also got a lot of good information on edged weapons as well, including things I hadn’t thought about, like the disadvantages of a blade with a saw toothed back. Unfortunately, he completely missed the boat when it comes to firearms, particularly the AR-15/M-16.

Without quoting the book chapter and verse, Mr. Brooks basically calls the M-16 (the military equivalent of the civilian AR-15) “the worst assault rifle ever invented.” He criticizes the gun for being fragile, prone to jamming, and needing constant cleaning in order to function. He then goes on to praise the AK-47 as the greatest assault weapon ever created, and sing its virtues as the most reliable firearm ever deployed.

Oh please…

The M-16 had some terrible reliability issues when it was first deployed, but those were more problems with bureaucracy and ammunition rather than the rifle itself. A change in powder and a lack of cleaning kits resulted in a disaster for many troops, and a lot of brave men died as a result. Once the mistakes were realized, however, and proper maintenance techniques were introduced, the M-16 proved itself to be a very reliable weapon. Not only in the jungles of southeast Asia, but in the sands of Afghanistan and Iraq as well. Even the Israelis have adopted the M-16 in favor of the AK based Galil, a testament to the effectiveness of the M-16 in a desert climate.

Of course, the AK had no such growing pains. I would be a fool to deny that the AK is a fine, reliable rifle. Just recently I heard about one uncovered in the desert sands of Egypt, cleaned, and shot with no problems. It’s a great rifle, and I tip my hat to Mr. Kalashnikov for creating a true classic. That does not, however, make it the perfect zombie gun.

The one shortcoming of the AK is that it is not designed to be a precisely accurate weapon. While the AK can reliably hit a man sized target at 200+ yards, it cannot reliably deliver the headshot needed to drop a zombie. You can try, but you’re just wasting precious ammunition.  The AR, on the other hand, is a very accurate weapon made even more so by the addition of a heavy barrel. Army troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are routinely making headshot kills in excess of 200 yards with standard issue M-16s and off the shelf optics. You just can’t do that with an AK.

The AR is also an incredibly versatile weapon. You’re two pins away from swapping out the entire upper assembly with a different one more suited to the purpose at hand. Want to keep zombies at bay from long range? Add an upper with a fluted heavy barrel designed for long distance shooting with long range optics. Ghouls getting a little too close for comfort? You’re less than 30 seconds away from switching back to a shorter barreled carbine that’s set up for close quarters battle. You can even get uppers designed to handle other calibers, from 22LR to pistol cartridges. This versatility, combined with the large number of third party manufacturers, means that countless options are available for the weapon. You can customize your AR to your heart’s content, but I’d keep it simple and reliable when setting up a zombie gun.

The advantages don’t stop there either. An AR  in typical anti-zombie configuration doesn’t weigh much less than a standard AK, but add six loaded mags and another 200 rounds to your pack and you have a substantial weight advantage for the AR. You’ll have to work harder to carry an AK with less ammo than an AR with more ammo, and more ammo means more dead zombies. That’s a good thing.

There’s a reason why the M-16 has been the main battle rifle of US armed forces longer than any other design, and it isn’t the military industrial complex as cited by Mr. Brooks. The M-16 is a reliable, proven design that is accurate enough for dispatching zombies at long range. The civilian shooter benefits from the massive number of options available for customization as well. While the AK has its place in your arsenal, the AR is the way to go when it comes time to put down an uprising of the living dead.

It’s been a slow week here at fervor.net. External pressures all too familiar to most of you, namely work, have colluded against me making more than a couple of posts this week. That’s ok though, because the very topic of today’s blog is about the very thing that’s kept me from writing, and why that’s a good thing.

The overcast and dreary morning gave way to a beautiful afternoon, and I couldn’t help but look out the window and wish I was somewhere with a camera around my neck. Unfortunately, I had meetings to schedule, hands to hold, and stupid questions to answer. That can only mean one thing: I was at work. For eight plus hours out of my day, I have to go into the office and do things I’d rather not do. In return, they give me a paycheck, which keeps a roof over my head, my animals fed, and lets me not have to worry about getting sick. All in all, it’s not a bad trade. They control a portion of my life so I can do what I want with the rest of it.

So when my liberal friend tells me I am a cold, heartless bastard who doesn’t know what it is like to live without insurance, I can say yes, you are at least half right. I do not know what it is like to be without insurance because I’ve always been smart enough to keep my ass covered by a health insurance policy. I don’t know what it is like to visit the ER without coverage because I’ve always been covered, but that hasn’t always been easy. In that past it’s meant taking shitty jobs I didn’t want to have, or paying some $7 grand in COBRA payments when I was a consultant, but I’ve always made sure I had bennies.

Meanwhile, my liberal friend seems to be content with a job that will someday save the world. Never mind that it doesn’t pay all that well, or that it has crappy benefits, I am sure that protecting all of us from the countless dangers of coal is its own reward . While I can appreciate that, and recognize it is her dream job, that doesn’t change the realities of the world we live in. Health care is still expensive, health insurance is an absolute must, and hospitals don’t give discounts to do good tree huggers.

While I may like what I do for the most part, I can still think of a dozen other places I would have rather been this afternoon than the office. Like I said though, I think it’s a fair sacrifice. If you don’t think so, fine. Just don’t expect me to sacrifice even more to make sure you’re covered. I’ve already given enough at the office.

While walking through the Antietam battlefield on September 19, 2009, I could not help but be struck by how tranquil, and bucolic this place appears on the surface. The gentle rolling hills are filled with corn and beans, waving to the sky in the late summer wind. near the Sunken Road, several grazing cows chew contentedly on the green grass around their hooves, while staring at me and my camera with a mix of indifference and curiosity. On September 19, 1862 though, the ground I walk on would have been covered with the dead.

On that day, other photographers, including Alexander Gardner, canvassed the battlefield, bringing the horrors of war to the people on the home front like never before. Their shocking, horrifying images brought the grim reality of war to places far away from Sharpsburg, Maryland, both shattering the glorious nature of war forever and creating the new discipline of photojournalism in the process.

147 years later, it is my turn to walk the sunken road with camera in hand. Thankfully, the flying cannonballs of 1862 have been replaced by a pair of goldfinches I have disturbed while trying to bathe in the dust of the sunken road. The dead, however, still remain below the surface of this farmland in shallow, unmarked graves. It fact, it wasn’t too long ago that  some hikers came across part of a jawbone near a groundhog hole. The remains, later determined to belong to a soldier from New York, were that of a young man estimated to be no older than 19 when he died. While his remains are now interned at the national cemetery in nearby Sharpsburg, countless others remain undiscovered, known only to God.

All these years later, I find myself in the same photojournalistic role as Gardner. While I cannot capture the immediate aftermath of the battle like he, or bring the madness of war to a new audience, I can do my part to make sure these men are not forgotten. The Civil War has passed from conscious memory forever, and is now little more than an abstract lesson taught in American history. I hope that these photos remind us all of the sacrifice that happened here, and the blood of all those young men who transformed it from a mere cornfield into hallowed ground. If my photos can inspire someone to learn about what happened in this place nearly a century and a half ago, I think those old soldiers will rest a little easier.

Maybe even as peaceful as a beautiful late summer’s day in western Maryland.

For those interested in seeing more photos from Antietam, check out my Antietam photos at pbase.com

The bloody cornfield. It’s actually half beans and half fallow this year.

Monuments to fallen Pennsylvanians.

Cannon position near the bloody cornfield.

Towards Mumma Cemetery

The Sunken Road, also known as Bloody Lane.

Burnside Bridge

Burnside Bridge

Well, the new and improved fervor.net has made it through its first week without any major issues. I haven’t received any nastygrams in my mail calling me a racist, the IRS has not sent me any letters notifying me of a pending audit, and my dog is alive and well. Not only are things going well here, I’d say we’re in full bloom. How so you ask? Let me explain.

For those of you who pay really close attention to these things, you’ll see that this post was made by ‘Tim’ rather than ‘admin’. I made that change because I am no longer the sole contributor to this blog. Sometime in the near future, you can expect to see other content generators besides myself writing material for this blog. That’s a development I wasn’t really expecting, but it is welcome news nonetheless. It will give fervor.net a few other conservative viewpoints besides my Libertarian one, and it will give readers a break from my usual rants and raves.

Also, I would like to mention something that I didn’t realize until today. Yesterday not only marked the adoption of the US Constitution, it also marked the anniversary of the bloodiest day in American history: the battle of Antietam. More than 20,000 young men, both Union and Confederate, died in the fields just outside of Sharpsburg, Maryland on September 17th, 1862. May all of those young men who never had a chance to grow old rest in peace. I will be traveling to the battlefield this weekend to take some pictures, and will be posting any keepers here sometime next week.

Until then, have a wonderful weekend, and remember to include those who died at the battle of Sharpsburg in your prayers. They may have died 147 years ago, but they are not forgotten.