Folk,
Before you read any further, make sure you understand that what follows will touch on issues of faith and politics. So, if there is any possibility you will be ‘triggered’ by either subject, and/or you suspect you might never want to use TMD products again if you discover you do not agree with my personal beliefs, STOP READING AND LEAVE THIS POST — NOW! If you ignore this warning and keep reading and end up feeling offended, I am telling you right now: I would rather lose your business than apologize. There, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! What you do next is up to you.
Shouldn’t you leave?
Are you sure?
Are you REALLY sure?
Last chance!
Are you still here? Foolish man (woman). I tried to warn you away from this post, but you couldn’t resist. You just have to watch the train wreck, don’t you? Well, OK, but just so long as you understand the wreck may well be piling up on you. 🙂
So, why have I been in such a bad mood? The answer is simple: I live in a nation where a near or even majority of my countrymen are embracing a political Party whose leaders are promising to not only end my business, but also take away my liberty and possibly even my property. I can’t speak for others, but the Marine in me was taught to honor such threats — especially when said Party has a history of actually keeping these sort of promises. So, I am waiting to see whether or not the citizens of the U.S. are going to vote to destroy my world by having their Party take my property and give it to them.
Now, that is the political reason for my bad attitude, but it is actually the lesser of the two reasons I have been in such a bad mood. The second, larger reason has to deal with those who claim to have the same faith as I do. Far too many of these people have proven to be spiritually blind. They cannot see that the Party they are supporting has renounced their God and His commandments. All they can see is their hatred for the other side. Well, I’m sorry, but, if you are actually a follower of the way, then you are commanded not to hate, but also to forgive. So, I am having to accept that far too many of those who are supposed to be my spiritual brothers and sisters are actually children of the other side.
There you go; these are the two primary reasons I have been in such a bad mood. In the first case, I cannot understand how a people who should know better still believe they can grab a live wire and not get electrocuted. In the second case, I cannot understand how self-professed believers convince themselves that they are following God while they are in total rebellion to everything His Word teaches? I have always tried to have faith in my fellow man, but I am now being forced to face the fact that objective reality (i.e. actual events) is strongly suggesting that my faith has been misplaced. I am happy to say this will not shake my faith. If anything, it is making my faith much stronger. But it has put me in a bad mood, and I am likely to stay in a bad mood until I know whether or not I can get back to work or I have to look for a safe place to move my family.
OK, that’s it. Hope I didn’t ‘trigger’ anyone. But, if I did, TOUGH! You were warned. Not only that but, as a member of this hobby, you — above all others — should know history well enough to realize that the people who are troubling me are repeating the same exact mistakes that have been tearing the world apart since before WW I. I really expect more from you because I expect you to have learned more about history as a natural outflow of our hobby. So, if you decide you are never going to buy TMD again because you ignored my warnings, all I have to say is that I and my world will be better off. Like I said in the beginning, I am just not going to apologize for trying to be a responsible citizen who conducts himself according to the teachings of my faith and human history.
To the rest of you, I thank you for your friendship, your understanding and — hopefully — your continued business. May YHWH bless and keep you and your family safe: now, and in the future.
Joe
This old infantryman remembers every target we had for advanced rifle training was a little dude with a red star on his helmet. It was the Soviet bloc that was our enemy…. We celebrated when the Berlin wall came down and here we are on the cusp of voting on a leader(s) with the same goals as the Communist parties….. If language such as, “we’ll retrain you” or talk of “Truth and Reconciliation” Commissions doesn’t scare the hell out of you….. you’re a freaking idiot.
I’m with ya and hear you loud and clear! You too Cliff.
You’re not on your own on that side of the pond we have our fair share of the right on brigade here with the gospel according to the brainwashed, after 25 years in the British Army I to wonder was it worth it? Better shut up now as I may entertain a visit from the thought police. Stay safe mate
Dear Joe – All those shipping problems you had were thanks to PMG DeJoy from right here in good ole Greensboro, who just paid his old company $5 million for helping with our mail, and he’s still doing what he can under the table to sabotage mail delivery – we got on Wednesday mail that USPS’s Informed Delivery said was coming on Tuesday, when we got nothing. Mail fraud voting was always a self-fulfilling prophesy, almost entirely perpetrated by DeJoy’s favorite politicial party.
Covid plan? Infrastructure plan? Climate plan? Largest budget deficit ever? Largest trade deficit ever? One vote from a powerless nation supporting our latest UN Security Council resolution? Lowest respect level ever from our major trading partners and NATO members? Covid infection, hositalization, and death rates going up rather than magically turning the corner (yeah, and facing a Mack truck coming this way on a one-lane street)? China ending the year with economic growth while we open and close, get sick, lose work or/and die because there’s no plan?
Churches that don’t believe in science or St Augustine’s warnings about denying nature ending up with virus outbreaks, sickness, and deaths, even of respected pastors. Faith leaders getting caught with their pants down, sexually preying on the young and weak (or pants up and watching). One of our political parties going back on everything Jesus would do, its leader violating commandments about honoring elders, telling the truth (20,000+ lies, multi-dozens added at each rally and TV appearance), and not stealing or committing adultery – what does the New Testament say about sinners who accept Jesus and then sin again?
You reckon racism, race nationalism, and religious bigotry are sins, or just stupidity? Don’t Black lives matter, too? Do you trust cops who fire their weapons wildly, shooting the wrong person six times and totally miss the guy with the gun, all on a trumped-up warrant naming another guy who wasn’t there and hadn’t been there in months based on “information” from a post office that denies supplying the information and another PO that says they told them they had no such information, breaking in when only one person in the whole building – who changed his story – heard them announce their presence, getting off without the grand jury being able to consider charges, as the state AG lied about?
DeJoy, our fearless leader, and likely the church leaders, lots of cops, and certainly the Kentucky AG, all have one political party in common, and the ignorance and dishonesty that party has come to stand for worries me a lot more than trumped up fascist tall-tales and masturbatory Qanon fantasies.
But you know what, Joe? The plastic and resin don’t care, and I try to help my fellow humans because I do care about us creatures here below, whether we agree about politics and religion or not. I just wish you could keep your head on straight long enough to get some consistent happiness out of your talents and gumption.
Christopher,
I count you friend, and one of the best friends of TMD I’ve had. However, while I am not going to fight with you here, I will say that I can factually refute most everything you just asserted (except with the post office mess — though I don’t know the REAL details behind it, so I won’t blame the man tasked with fixing it…YET!).
All I am going to tell you is this: my head IS on straight. I have been listening to the ‘other side’ (I am NOT a Republican, and haven’t been since about 2014). What I have heard from them is a long string of promises (which I believe) that WILL end my business and — most likely — cost me a good deal of what my wife and I have worked to achieve.
I can trace what is happening to this nation all the way back to the first focused starting point: 12 Sept 1905, in a loft above Park’s restuarant at 140 Fulton St in lower Manhatten, when Upton Sinclair, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, J.G. Phelps Stokes, and Clarance Darrow met to start planning the overthrow of the Western world. I can trace their plan forward, to this point in time. By in large, they have been wildly successful. All they need now is one more vote and the U.S. will end and the heirs to their dream will begin to create yet another Marxist utopia. I understand that few people will believe me, but I can show you the plan, the players and how it has successfully manifest in the real world. And this is why, when they promise to finally fulfill the dream started 115 years ago, I BELIEVE THEM! This is why I have been upset — because I know they seek to enslave the entire free world! I know it because I have read it in their own words, written by their own hands. And this is without me even going into all the many problems with ‘the Church.’
So, my friend (I hope we still call each other friend ), if this post upset you, then you shouldn’t have read it. I tried to warn people not to read it if they thought there was a chance it might come between us. But I was serious: I will not apologize for my position, nor will I back away from what I fear may be coming. I know w-a-y too much history to be that foolish. If this cost me your friendship and/or your business, I understand. I hope that doesn’t happen; I’d miss you. But, if it does, then it’s only fair. You have as much right to live according to your beliefs as I have to live according to mine. It’s just that one Party is telling me that, if they gain power, I will no longer be allowed to live the way I want. They will force me to live the way they say — ‘for the good of the whole.’ Once again, I believe them, and that is why I am so concerned.
so who do we end up with, the idiot that might start the 3rd world war or the idiot that sleeps through it:)