I’ve been working on some “projects” instead of writing.  I’m not saying that they were critical, but they have cut into my writing time.  Among these was rereading a couple of novels because I thought that the next in the series MUST have been released.  I thought I actually saw that it was, but no.  Anyway, I had read my copy of George R. R. Martin’s Storm of Swords, but I had to rely on the library for A Feast for Crows.  I signed up for A Dance for Dragons, but it isn’t even released yet.  In fact, the last update from George was a couple years ago.

So. . .      . . . I’m about ready to get back to work.

My intention, as I’ve mentioned and as is indicated by the title of this site, is to write about Celtic people, as I imagine they may have been, as I imagine they could be.  It may be that this is what you seek as well.  

If not, and if you are interested, rather, in the romance and intrigue of the Saxons after Harold was defeated at Hastings you might want to take a look at this: Lothere by Jenny.  This may keep you busy while you wait for me to write more that is Celtic and also rewrite what is merely Celtic into something good, or at least better than my first attempts.

I’ve also been thinking and doing some research and it is the thinking part that has led me to my topic today.

If you are reading this, it is likely that you are an English speaker.  I’d say that there is an even better chance that if you are reading this you are from the United States.  One of the main destinations for the Celtic Diaspora was the shores of the New World.

That being said, let me say that the spirit of the Celts lives in American rugged individualism.  This American ideal is being trained out of us, to be sure, but a focus on the individual owes much to immigrants who themselves were likely influenced by these values.

I planned to sprinkle this little post with several quotes about the flamboyant celtic spirit, their love of colors that some might term gaudy, a certain pride, but also extraordinary bravery.  Instead I think perhaps I’ll put together a page of that sort of thing.  The truth is that reading about CuChulain and Finn, Lugh and Nuada, the Dagda and the Morrigan, all of it makes me want to echo those old themes and bring them to another generation of readers if I can.  .  .

.  .  . And so here we are.  If you’ve made it to this post you may have become disappointed once again.  I’m not very far along on this odyssey.  I’m not sure if I’m up to it.  But like my ancestors, it really isn’t about what I can do, it is much more about what I will do, and what I intend is large and gaudy and brightly colored, and of the same sort of beauty as the bagpipes.  Certainly it isn’t the kind of thing that is for everyone, but I hope it is for you.

Hopefully this rambling confessional ends my hiatus and I can get back to the business of yarn spinning in the celtic mode.

Sincerely,

LSO

No, the world won’t end if the unique form of government designed by the founders of the United States is destroyed, but it will be a much worse place, lacking hope.  Many, even most, may think I exaggerate for effect.  However, I don’t think it is an exaggeration, first, to say that our constitutional republic, founded on the rights of the individual and strict limits on government, has made the United States unique in its individual freedom and generous in its dealings with the world, and second, that our uniqueness hangs by a thread.

I was listening to a radio show that presented a survey of college students in prestigious universities as freshman and as seniors and discovered that the seniors knew less about our system of government than the freshman.  In fact it isn’t general knowledge that we do not live under the rule of a Democracy but rather we are citizens of a constitutional republic, or did.  In the words of Ben Franklin when asked about what sort of government they’d crafted, Ben said, “A Republic Madam, if you can keep it.”

Far worse than oversight, our educational system is in the process of eradicating the knowledge of our origins and indoctrinating our children, at every level, into a socialist, materialist, Marxist system that has nothing unique to offer, certainly nothing good for humanity.

Power has been and continues to be concentrated in the hands of a few, along with wealth.  Socialist warriors, who rail against the rich, are the foot soldiers of a bureaucratic class that agitates for ever bigger government as it favors ever larger companies replacing cronyism for capitalism.  Recently the pretext Capitalism has been shed as the current regime simply nationalizes one industry after another and shows no signs of stopping.

Kiss your child.  You may be looking at the last generation born free.  The debt accrued by our over-reaching and wildly unconstitutional government is mind bending.  For all you who babble about sustainability have a look at our country’s finances. 

We are insolvent, our borders are porous, we are bailing out the EU while they have been trying to destroy us financially.  Are we mad? 

I think of the many things we are, the most pressing is that we are and have been misinformed.  I do not believe that the current regime is legitimate, who would have voted for blue dog dems who vote in lock step with a Marxist/Leninist like Nancy Pelosi?  They are not in anyway what they represented themselves as being to get elected in conservative districts and their vote for a radical leftist for Speaker of the House is clear proof of that, their later betrayal of their oath to protect the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic only confirms what that vote reveals.

Our president, who presented himself  as being some kind of Constitutional scholar, has not stopped (teleprompted speeches to the contrary or not) his attacks on the Constitution from his first 100 days.  It may be that he is not even qualified to be president according to that document which may explain why he holds it in such contempt. 

It may be that he holds you in contempt as well, he presented himself as a moderate uniter and left you to imagine what that might be.  He let you Hope and imagine in your own mind the Change you wanted to see.  Instead he has not stopped removing your freedom and selling you into national debt with deficit spending that is unsustainable on the order of months not years.  Let’s face it, he does hold you in contempt.

Well there, if the United States of America ceases to be, if we implode into a wasteland of warring barbarians picking through the bones of a once great society or live (if you can call it that), exist rather, as slaves of Imperial China it won’t be the end of the world.

Our government has run off our constitutional rails long back, and there is only a very short time until it can not again be put right.  Become informed, organize, and by all means vote.  You owe it to your children to get this vote right.

In the words of Franklin, “We have a Republic IF we can keep it.”

LSO

I have been bothered by our economy for some time. Granted, I’m not an economist, a policy maker, or even particularily well educated, still, it seems to me that wealth creation must involve the finding and securing of resources, the refining of resources, and the creation of some useful item or at least desired item. This seems to be an idea that is not shared by the leaders of our country.

I think that people and organizations unfriendly to the United States or at very least unfriendly to our way of life have been agressively obstructing the securing of resources and for whatever reason we have fallen farther and farther behind in manufacturing the items that we use and therefore need.

Ultimately we need food, water, and shelter. As Americans we have become accustomed to having private transportation and a ready and varied supply of entertainments. The first things truly are necessary, but the other two things seem culturally to be very nearly so.

But that is today, and what I want to talk about how the past is similar to today or perhaps to America in its golden age.

In the past, golden ages involved a surplus of items necessary for sustaining life. Usually it was easy to get these things, long fruitful growing seasons securing abundance of food, unexploited raw materials, items that may not have had a use in the past, that could be gathered without difficulty, water running near by, easily aquired and reliably abundant.

These are things that may not be long so easily found for Americans. As such, unless we can develop means to create abundance again, we are leaving a golden age for a darker period.

In fiction as in real life, as we see from history, we remember the golden times. Perhaps there is time for such entertainments as remembering, perhaps artistic elements can grow and amplify, from abundance, the lives of folk who can spend their time being heroic without being forced to scrape for sustainence.

Yet perhaps these are the times that are truely the most heroic, when men must be more than they are at other times. Art is not reality, it pretends it is. Securing bare survival isn’t the stuff of legend, but if there is no survival then there can be no story either.

What a mess. I’m going to post this. I will be so humilated to see this drek I will be forced to revise and improve it. Forgive me dear reader.

LSO