A WW-II Barong

This wonderfully preserved “Brush Knife” belonged to PFC. Wm. M. Mears, 19135664. He was stationed with the Headquarters Battalion, DIVARTY. He was born in 1919 and enlisted at age 23 in 1942. With a recorded three years of college he was probably better educated than many of the men his age. Most likely that education landed him his position with the JAG (Judge Advocate General) Department. The 1st Armored Division Artillery (DIVARTY) is the divisional artillery command for the 1st Armored Division normally stationed at Fort Bliss. The DIVARTY served with the division in World War II.

 

One of the most exciting parts of this purchase was the shipping container. Suffering a few splits, occurring over the last 70 years, the bamboo that was used as a shipping tube has held up quite well. The knife has been well cared for and there is no rust on the hand forged blade. The buffalo horn handle is iron mounted and has a full length tang which is peened over on the butt cap. It remains tight and without and cracks. The bamboo tube contained the knife housed in its rather crude wooden scabbard. The scabbard has several cracks, either from age or shrinkage. The outside of thte bamboo was wrapped with a parchment type paper and still has military inspection marks, the shipping and return address. The labeling is rife with valuable information. Mear’s  APO 25 address places him somewhere in the Phillipine Islands, which certainly provided him with the opportunity to buy this fine brush knife, better known as a barong. It would be more dramatic to envision Wm. Mears hacking his way through the jungle, tracking down Japanese soldiers, but being assigned to JAG he probably spent most of his life behind a desk.

Back in 1970 while in route to the island of Diego Garcia we made a refueling stop at Clark Air Force base in the Filipines. Imagine the Commanding Officers comments when we re-boarded and I had led a buying spree wherein we cleaned out the local bolo knife maker. The CO was a good sport and did not make us take them back.

Where in God's Mercy or Man's Insanity is this Okay?

Just when I thought life could not get any more hideous or cruel, having seen ISIS burning men alive, cutting throats, drownings and beheadings, cutting little children asunder, raping women and small girls: we have Planned Parenthood. What a nice, wholesome sounding name, not like ISIS. I cannot imagine anything more macabre than aborting living fetuses and cutting off pieces for sale to the highest bidder. I do not want to even think of how this could be topped by the liberal progressives but wait... they will find a way. 

Anyone with a shred of humanity would cry out to stop it. BUT. The leftist newspapers defend it, the DOJ is going to prosecute the people who blew the whistle on it, and the president vows to veto any legislation that might defund Planned Parenthood. It makes me want to vomit. How low the great have fallen. Nero is his greatest debauchery, Caligula in his most outrageous fits of insanity could not out-do Planned Parenthood.

 

What do People Want?

What do most people want? To be left alone, to lead their lives unimpeded by nosey bureaucrats and threatening tyrants.  If you scratch the surface of a "patriot," what do you find underneath? A person who just wants to be left alone. "But we cannot have that says the government. If the people are not ruled and regulated surely they will go astray. Therefore we must tax the shit out of them and use that money to control their lives. If we leave them too much of their hard earned income they might squander it so we will take more for their own good. We have hundreds of thousands of laws on the books and even more regulations but they are still not doing what we want. They are still following their own destinies and that must stop, for the greater good, IT MUST STOP!"

The people on Ruby Ridge, the people in Waco Texas, all they wanted was to be left alone. "BUT how do we know what they are doing," worries the government. They might be fomenting rebellion, they might be cooking up mischief, or maybe just trying to live their own lives. What drives some people to demand total subjugation of the people who elected them? What insanity eats away at the minds of politicians who cannot get enough power, enough control? What moral vacuity within the body politic has scrubbed their useless bodies free of heart and soul.

I have been warned that my posts paint a target on my back. I've been told the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. A very long time ago, back when I was a teenager, I was told that the truth would set you free. Was that a lie? Are we destined as a "FREE" people to hide from our oppressors? Are we supposed to turn our heads when the domestic terrorists are the ones who threaten us daily with new laws, new regulations, burden us with new taxes, lie to us to get elected, send our young men off to die in frivolous wars, send thousands of us to prison (sometimes on trumped up charges), who make bad deals with BAD people and true terrorists, who break the very laws they write and live outside of the cages they build for us? Will the truth really set you free or send you to prison? Here is an iconic image of the patriots at Bundy Ranch doing what was right, protecting another man's rights, and praying to their God for guidance and protection. May God Bless them and their like all across this great nation!