Just get up off the ground, that’s all I ask. Get up there with that lady that’s up on top of this Capitol dome, that lady that stands for liberty. Take a look at this country through her eyes if you really want to see something. And you won’t just see scenery, you’ll see the whole parade of what Man’s carved out for himself after centuries of fighting, fighting for something better than just jungle law, fighting so he can stand on his own two feet, free and decent, like he was created, no matter what his race, color, or creed.

That’s what you’d see. There’s no place out there for graft, or greed, or lies, or compromise with human liberties. And if that’s what the grownups have done with this world that was given to them, then we’d better get those boys’ camps started fast and see what the kids can do. And it’s not too late, because this country is bigger than the Taylors, or you, or me, or anything else. Great principles don’t get lost once they come to light. They’re right here, you just have to see them again.

And from the poster of the video, jbranstetter04:

Honesty, sincerity, selflessness, duty, integrity, political courage, these are the things missing in Washington. And until they return, we will continue to see our great Republic slip away from us, until eventually it is no better than a third-rate, banana republic run by tin-horn, despot dictators who exploit the people for personal gain.

Do we still have politicians like the one portrayed in this movie? Ones who will put their political careers on the line for something that they believe in? Or, are we just left with spineless, greedy people who are only concerned with their own political futures?

I don’t have much faith left in our politicians to do the right thing for our country no matter the consequence to their own future. But I do think that there are good people out there who would love to go to Washington and do what is right for our country. The problem is that they are not running for office. The likely reason for this is because they don’t want to get into the cesspool that we call Washington politics.

Source YouTube

Image via Occupy Congress

I am far from an expert on military matters, but this seems like cogent advice.

Even before they put on a uniform, the members of the post-9/11 generation of service members were the best educated, most tech-savvy ever to sign up. And by the time they leave active duty, they’ve added to their knowledge base with still more technical and leadership skills.

So why, in a country where business is always fighting for competitive advantage, is overall unemployment among veterans greater than 12 percent – some 3 percentage points higher than their civilian peers?

According to Tarantino and others who spoke with Military.com, there’s no single reason unemployment among veterans is higher than civilians. Instead, there are several contributing factors:  Employers and veterans who fail to see how they can connect; shrinking public sector budgets; and a long-suspected but difficult-to-prove reluctance by some employers to hire workers who may still have a reserve commitment.

Tarantino said he thinks the communication problem comes in part from a lack of civilian understanding.

“We’re 30 or 35 years into the all-volunteer force,” he said. “There are very few business leaders who served … We now live in a country where so few people understand military service.”

At one time, Tarantino said, there was a very good chance that a veteran going in for a job interview would be talking with someone who also was a veteran. There was no need to have to translate what a Soldier might have done and learned in the military because the person on the other side of the desk had been there and done that, Tarantino said.

Other vets’ advocates agreed.

In parts of the country without significant populations of veterans, hiring managers often just don’t understand what skills a veteran possesses, he said. One of the Chamber’s goals is to help employers get that understanding, through efforts with the Labor Department and the National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.

But veterans have to do their part in selling themselves, too, Schmiegal said. And they need to do it without military jargon, acronyms, and references to skills designations.

“They need to speak more about their leadership experience, they need to talk about their leadership skills, their problem-solving skills, their adaptability, and the fact that they’re good team players,” he said. “That will distinguish them from a lot of their peers” who did not serve.

Ostensibly tongue-in-cheek, the latest Downfall mashup conveys much of the truth and rage that characterizes the sane response to our absurd reality. They may win a few battles, but they will lose the war. There is no going back.

If you’d like to learn more about SOPA/Protect IP, please refer to the video and links at the bottom of the post.

How could this even be up for a vote!? Why isn’t this on every front page of a newspaper!?

First, the U.S. Supreme Court says corporations are people. Now, corporations can censor people…

It’s been almost two decades. The MPAA/RIAA still haven’t figured out the Internet. Piracy is a service problem. The way to defeat piracy is to provide a better service than the pirates, not take a shit on the First Amendment!

You don’t get to destroy the Internet because it doesn’t fit your business model!

The economy is in the toilet… Congress wants to cripple the only medium that’s consistently creating jobs and growth. It all comes down to money. You need a thousand people pissed off just to balance out one dollar that a politician raises.

How are a bunch of old people, most of whom don’t even use the Internet, regulating it!?

I don’t see congressman going to jail for voting on something they haven’t read, for accepting money to let companies dictate legislation!

Don’t cry, Disney owns the rights to that emotion.

Imagine this happened 15 years ago. There’d be no Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. No memes… The Internet is lost.

It was supposed to be a vast network of infinite human knowledge, expression, and creativity. Now, it’s censored to catch pirates, who will get around it anyway.

I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

Further Reading

What is SOPA and how does it work? The Stop Online Piracy Act explained

The Stop Online Piracy Act: Big Content’s full-on assault against the Safe Harbor

How SOPA would affect you: FAQ

What You Need to Know About SOPA in 2012

Source YouTube, Vimeo

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Source YouTube

You think this can last. There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, cause when it hits, you’re all going to wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us.

It is a great pleasure to bear witness to the fruits of a master’s labor, and a great compliment when an individual is found to reflect the essence of their place and time. Undoubtedly, Mr. Nolan is both of these things, i.e., an incredibly skilled filmmaker and a person that has an uncanny ability to identify the zeitgeist of our age, explore the depths of its consequences, and seamlessly weave dark, provocative stories that both entertain and provoke contemplation.

I can feel the timeless qualities of another masterpiece. It does not seem like he is going to disappoint.

Source YouTube

They dream of a world where they can make us better. They won’t let things like morals and ethics stand in the way of their inexorable pursuit of knowledge and control. Their ever more mechanical view of human beings will make it difficult to see that we are more than the sum of our parts.

In a world where perception often seems to hold more weight than reality, I implore you to not let them define you. Don’t let them set boundaries for your potential. Don’t let them take away your dignity, your spirit, your dreams. Don’t let them extinguish your fire.

Source YouTube

I hope these men and women realize that they are so much more than soldiers.

This little guy was used for fighting. He was a toy for other dogs to beat up on and they don’t have a choice. What a better companion to have than a veteran, like us, or a firefighter or a police officer to help this little guy out. He has the physical scars on the outside, but we have the mental scars on the inside. So, that’s where we heal each other and meet in the middle of the road.

Source YouTube, P2V

And thus began a tiny rebellion…

And that’s how my depression got so horrible that it actually broke through to the other side and became a sort of fear-proof exoskeleton.

Source Hyperbole and a Half

When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.

That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is, everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.

The World Is Cold. You Must Light The World On Fire.

Your Fire.

You Must Burn.

Source YouTube, Feld Thoughts

If we stay the course, including accepting death as a possibility at the end of the line, then you have exercised the most potent aspects of non-violence. The willingness to die for what you believe in is the best measure as to the power of the tools that you’re using to strike a blow for freedom.

Harry Belafonte on, among other things, the importance of maintaining a policy of non-violence and the willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice in the struggle for social change.

Source YouTube