If your reading my blog on Facebook, I’m a ghost! I’ve decided that it consumes too much of my time and doesn’t provide me with anything tangible.
There are so many things in our lives that rob us of our time. Work, social obligations, boat and house projects, television, where is our time to dream, where is our time to think and forge our dreams into reality?
Sure, by posting morbidly appropriate haikus on facebook we might feel like we are doing something to better our lives, or to propel us in positive direction, but does it? Is it a “positive” to bicker the pros and cons of republican or democratic views? Truthfully it doesn’t change anything and just creates an arena to separate us further. Is it a positive to like something someone says without taking the time to personally tell them yourself?
Do we really need Facebook to remind us of our friends birthdays or anniversaries?
I cant help but think of the Borg (Star Trek). I just don’t want to be part of 
the collective nor assimilated!
I’ve come to the conclusion (personally) that social media disconnects me from my physical world and the people around me. I’ve only stopped checking Facebook for a few days now and I’m amazed how many times a day I go for my phone when I should take the moment for myself.
When I started my sailing journey over a decade ago I noticed an incredible surge of freedom and time. Casting off the dock lines, cutting the cords, saying no to a physical address (mailbox) and 
bills, and aimlessly bounding onto my path and an unsure future was the single most spiritually (no I’m not religious) productive thing I have ever done. My lifestyle of freedom, love, and the absence of borders is a gift I choose to give myself daily. Facebook just interferes with it. It snuck up on me and anchored me to a system that I just don’t want to be a part of.
I will continue to have my blogs available on Facebook for the sole purpose of being an opposing force. I have always chosen the road less traveled. If society goes to the right, I will always choose the left. I don’t really know why aside from the fact I’ve always been a loner, but its where I find peace.
If you like my blogs or my writing please take the time to drop me a line 
through www.projectbluesphere.com, or via telephone or email.
Eleanor is almost ready for her trip South and we are scheduled to leave on Sunday.
My crew member Todd also has a blog, maybe you want to check it out to get his perspective form being aboard Eleanor.
http://bubbathepirate.blogspot.com/
Facebook gives us the option to like something but not dislike it. If you think this is wrong, and not something we should be teaching our children, please “like” my post :)
Peace.
Sail far and live slowly.
alex
Good to know you´re leaving on sunday. You should be proud you have been successful after so many serious problems faced since you first arrived NYC. I hope you will now have good wins and a very happy sailing way home.
rudi,
Im so tired of working, hoping to focus on sailing and travel now :)
Alex –
You would think after the Snowden revelations that people would wake up and dump Facebook after learning that it is used as a domestic spy tool by the NSA to sweep up large swathes of data detailing every aspect of our personal lives in order to build comprehensive and detailed profiles on all private citizens. Not even Orwell could imagine something so draconian.
To make matters worse, most participants on FB are not investing in themselves or anyone else, they are simply wasting time.
Social media does not encourage social networking, it fosters anti-social retreating and anti-social recreation. Clicking likes, posting status updates, commenting on photos, and communicating with other users electronically does not cultivate meaningful relationships with real people nor does the activity of posting-liking-updating-commenting build meaningful connections.
This form of connection and communication may provide an emotional stimulation and sense that you’re actually doing something worthwhile, but in reality it only deludes participants into thinking they have an active social life with a large network of meaningful friends and relationships. The reality is most of these “friends” are lazy social media addicts drifting in a sea of social drifters.
Congrats on your epiphany!
– Contrarian
Contrarian,
I was wondering if you would peek your head out for this blog :)
I must say I am quite happy with getting my nose out of Facebook, Carla actually deleted her account, GOOD TIMES!!!!
The nice thing about this is Im much more focused on Project BlueSphere again :)
Alex – you know me too well ;) Yeah, FB epitomizes the dystopian nightmare that the US has become where everyone and everything is monitored and tracked. People are so compliant and willing to secede their sovereignty and forfeit their privacy. I don’t get it. I for one refuse to make it easy for the bastards
Hey, like you I just bought a bigger boat. HR42e. Love it. In the midst of a full electronics refit so she’s in shambles at the moment. Looking fwd to joining you guys out there in the real.
Hope all is well!
– C
Contrarian,
Out in “the real” is nice, as is a life without Facebook!
I cant relate to the norm either. What really kills me here is the consumerism. I’m all about working for an honest living but just feel like I’m being taken advantage of wherever I go. I was in a chandlery yesterday and picked up a package of two stainless pieces of plate about 10″x4″ with a few holes drilled in each for $160. I had to buy two drill bits for $50 over the last few days, and I’m just pulling my hair out. I am a stranger in a strange land.
Todd (my crew member) laughed yesterday when I was talking to Carla on Speakerphone. She is living on $10 a week while I’m gone. There is a local guy in a pickup truck who drives around selling vegetables and fruit. Carla stocks up for the week for $10 and has no other expenses aside from $15 a month internet. She stays entertained by painting and varnishing Splendid, and playing with her surfboard and Nacho. I like home! I like life that simple!
We are leaving in a few days and I cant wait to be on the hook again. I’m looking forward to being able to sleep without the meter running :)
I’m really happy to leave New York too. There are some really nice people here but for the most part very cold. Even though New York is my birth place, I can say with 100% conviction that I am no longer a “New Yorker”
I’m really enjoying focusing my time on Project BlueSphere again :)
Take the red pill!
peace.
Alex – what you’re feeling when you go the chandlery is price inflation. You are not being taken advantage of by the chandlery, you are being take advantage of by the “system, specifically the Federal Reserve, which is running their printing presses 24/7 around the clock debasing our paper fiat currencies in order to flood the financial sector with liquidity to stop the giant debt based ponzi scheme from collapsing.
If you look at a chart of the dollar dating back to the 1930’s you see that the greenback has lost 97% of it’s purchasing power. Although the “official” USGovt statistics show inflation is benign, the stats are rigged and massaged to support the narrative the state wants us to believe – that is that they are not creating inflation and destroying our standard of living little by little every day with their money printing schemes.
As long as we chose to live and conduct business within the western financial system, we will be exploited, used, looted, taxed, and taken advantage of. The best advice is to avoid it if at all possible, lest you become a serf and a slave to it.
Stay on the hook… you’re safer there :)
Cheers!
C
Although Facebook can work for some people, I really feel that “social media” is turning us into an anti social society. Kids dont even look up at peoples faces anymore. They are buried into their phone, tablet and so on. There’s nothing better then speaking one to one, eye to eye, and seeing the other person expressions. When we loose sight of each other, we loose feelings for each other. Besides, most people are so dishonest or exaggerate their Facebook posts anyways. If you cant remember the birthday of somebody you care about and need the help of Facebook or other social media to remind you, do you really care about them. We are loosing touch with family,friends, nature, and life. Time for a change. A simple life is all we need. SAIL ON!!!!
C,
A large part of it is greed as well, devaluation or not, most just want more, more, more! It’s the philosophy that more will make you safe or whole.
I was talking to a power boater in the parking lot the other day and he kept going on and on about money. He told me I was lying when I told him I love on under 10k a year “it’s just F’N impossible” he belted in a thick New York accent. He kept going on and on, and on about the importance of money. When I told him that I wasn’t impressed or interested about how much money he had or was making, his eyes kind of glazed over and he didn’t know how to process it. I don’t hate wealth either, I just could never be a part of the working class again, my time is too precious.
I’m not saying I don’t need any money, but I do strive to need as little as possible. Yes, the hook is safe. Most people however want to pay for a slip or mooring and truthfully I just don’t sleep well with the meter running. I’d rather deal with the squalls and possibility of dragging, I feel safer :) and thanks to my big 85lb Manson supreme on Splendid I sleep well on the hook, can’t wait to get it on eleanor.
Alex – I don’t disagree … greed is part of the problem, rising taxation is another, inflation compounds and exacerbates the everything, and peoples expectations are part of the mix as well.
Wether one chooses to live inside the Matrix or outside of it, the paper currency is how society has chosen to transact in the modern world. In order to acquire most of the goods and services we need, we must have these paper notes, and there is only three ways to get them: trade your time for them, steal them, or inherit them. If theft and inheritance is not a viable option then we need to trade our time for them, and we must spend far more time today to earn those dollars than we did just a decade ago.
Then layer on top of the shrinking dollar the state that wants what’s left over and that takes more and more of our depreciating dollars every year. The result is the vast majority of folks are getting squeezed on both ends and aren’t left with much. No doubt there are greedy folks who’s appetite for money and power knows no bounds, but for most, they think about money all the time simply because they spend most of their waking hrs chasing it and in the end don’t have any of it … for the reasons I’ve described above.
Think about it this way, … if you have no food and you’re starving … what is constantly on your mind 24/7? FOOD! Food is all you can think about! Once you’ve had a big meal and your are stuffed full, the last thing on your mind is food … because you have had enough. You are satiated.
I think it’s this way with money … once you’re full and have had enough you don’t think about it anymore. It’s no longer your priority. Therefore the key to “feeling satisfied” is to figure out what is enough and hit that number. Now if that number is small then it’s relatively easy to feel full and satisfied. Carla for example, probably feels full on $10 a week. That’s an easy number to hit so she’s satisfied and money is not a priority. If however she only has $5 in her pocket she might think about money more. If someones “enough” is big number then they are likely always hungry, always working, and always thinking about money … all the time. Anyways … that’s my theory ;)
I think one of themes that runs constant in your blog is to make “enough” a small number so we can feel satisfied, quit the rat race, stop chasing money, drop out of the Matrix, and begin the process of living.
– C
Cayman jewel I agree with you 100%
There’s nothing as ridiculous as all these groups of friends in a cafe, all of them looking at their phones instead of each other! And they’re probably sharing a photo of their hamburger on social media and responding to comments on it.
It is what it is. It’s also silly to fall into the trap of believing that the past or our time was a whole lot better or healthier. I grew up during one of the darkest, bloodiest military dictatorships in the history of the Americas. Imagine what being African American was like a century ago or two. Each period in history has its better things and its worse things but we have a choice when we decide how to live. I found myself scrolling down my Facebook newsfeed like a complete idiot, finding nothing really worth looking at, scrolling scrolling scrolling like an addict or something. Right there and then I told my contacts to send me their email addresses if we only used FB as a means to communicate. (I’ve been traveling for 15 years so I don’t have anyone’s number and some people don’t know how track me down). The next day I did not “deactivate” my profile, I deleted it permanently. No more scrolling. Period. Read, write, swim, talk. It’s our choice to live the life we want and dream of.
Contrarian, it’s funny I’ve always enjoyed pushing myself to having less money. Since I can remember. When I was at school I would intently leave some of my lunch money at home to see how I’d find a solution to it: I could walk home under the sun instead of taking the bus and use that money for a the coldest sweetest soda after the second mile of walking. If I had money for all three: bus, food, soda then nothing would be so much fun or taste so good. I’d be a boring sheep instead of a wanderer. A wanderer can never own much, weight is your worst enemy as well, your riches are your stories, not your belongings.
I feel so fortunate to have always had this amazing attribute. Money has no power over me, it’s exactly the opposite and so my focus has always been elsewhere. The cycle of banks, 9-to-5, consumerism, bills, taxation was always foreign to me. You’d be surprised at how many people don’t believe me though, and get aggressive because they feel accused. That’s never my intention. When I talk about money and the ways around it I do it in an attempt to give new ideas to those who need them. I understand some people enjoy money. And I always say I’m glad some people want to have or work for corporations, I enjoy my yellow m&m’s from time to time.
I think you hit the nail on the head! The key for money to be useful instead of enslaving is to enjoy what you have. To keep that number low. I assure you I have had $5 and I have had $0 during my travels and it was always a positive experience to see how I would savor what I could afford. You can always adapt. Happiness is not related to money and I get really tired of talking about it here with middle class Americans who get mad at me. Get out of your fucking lawn, travel and see the joy and freedom “poor” families have all over Latin America, Asia, Africa… it’s not about money. It is about love, mental and physical health, freedom. There’s unhappy poor and there’s unhappy rich. There’s enslaved poor people and there are so many enslaved rich people. God they commit suicide, they take pills to sleep, pills to calm down, pills to have sex,cocaine to deal with stress. IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY!! You love it, be my guest chase it, pile it up, guard it, smell it, eat it, fuck it. Just leave the rest of us alone. The problem is that when you love money, since it’s something philosophically complex, SOME PEOPLE get the feeling that they would be happier if they could have “just a little more”. And their corporations destroy the planet, or mess with our seeds. Or life becomes like that zombie scrolling down your newsfeed. You lose track and all you do is work for your credit card bills and debt. Life is not life anymore.
Facebook I believe is just like you say. A tool for those in power to dominate with more ease and some kind of opium to take us away from boredom, or stress. It had its functionality for me, I’ve traveled since I was young and found lost school friends through Facebook and I’m really glad I did. I really enjoy their real personal company now. So everything can be positive or negative. Money, Facebook, m&m’s, even family and friends. It depends on what you do with them.
Alex and Carla –
Personally, I don’t begrudge those who have money, nor do begrudge those who have taken a vow of poverty. These are distinctions with a difference yet they are opposite sides of the exact same coin. Striving to live on as little as possible takes the same levels of self-discipline and commitment as striving to earn as much as possible. The personal dedication and effort to achieve these goals are the same — even though the objectives and values are different.
In nature there is a perfect symmetry and equilibrium … and humans are part of nature too. Some animals are vegetarians and others are carnivores, some plants require desert climates and others need a forrest to survive. Some of us are Muslims, Christians, and others are atheists; some are Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and others are political atheists; some people seem to thrive better in the concrete jungle than the natural one. Some people prefer life inside the Matrix to living outside of it, and the vast majority don’t know the difference. This is the way its supposed to be. Everyone is on their own unique path – some are drifting others are running and some are further along that path than others. Some refuse to move and have staked out a spot on the path and will never budge. I think it is important to accept people as they are right where they are at. Acceptance doesn’t require agreement, just mutual respect and acknowledgement without judgement.
If we value freedom then we should also value those who are freely choose to live differently than we do. If we believe everyone should be free to live as they choose then we should hold those who are poor and choose to live on peanuts in the same regard as those who are rich and choose to chase money. All of us who value freedom and hold it dear should respect all those who freely choose a different path than the one we are on.
But another persons freedom to swing their fists should ends at my face. I don’t care what you do or how you live your life so long as your choices don’t affect me or hurt those I care about. My enemy is not the Muslim, the vegetarian, or the wealthy businessman – my enemy is the person or entity who in order to get what they want have to take something away from me to get it.
We should reserve our collective angst for those who by coercion or violence try to consolidate their power and wealth by taking away ours. Most people with a different view point or socioeconomic situation are not a threat to you or me. Most governments however and some large corporations pose an immediate threat to all of us, because in order for them to get something they have to take it away from something or someone else.
The more powerful the state the less powerful the people. The wealthier the state the poorer the citizens. The more liberty and freedom the state has the less freedom and liberty the people have.
Ok, I’ll step off my soapbox now….
I love my wife :)
I shake my head every day, I will never understand how so many men are content selling their freedom for shiny things or a false sense of security. If my freedom has to come with poverty, so be it! I love sailing and travel, and all I wish for my older years is to live on the sea sailing the world minimalistically with my wife. I dont mind holes in my pocket so much if I have sun on my back and salt at my feet.
Contrarian, I’m so glad to hear your pulling the plug!
In the world we live in, there’s no way around it. We need to use money. But very little can be plenty.
In an ideal world, if we all took only what we really need, then there would be enough for everybody.
But I assure you that here, in the real world, in the area of Panama where I currently reside, next to our anchorage there’s a small village. It’s one of the most “impoverished” areas of the country with no running water or garbage collection. People get their fruit and drinking water walking up the mountain. They catch octopus with a piece of old wire and line fish from their canoes just with a string with a piece of straw tied at the end. Children play with sticks and leaves and walk round the reef to catch small bait. They can’t afford a mask and they certainly don’t have violent video games or social media problems.
I hear their laughter everyday. Most of these people only do odd jobs a couple of times a month. They have time to be together, and do those things they like doing. Families are tight. Schools and local hospitals are free for all (Alex got treated for his leg infection here in Portobelo a couple of months back and it was better care than in the private clinics we visited later in the city).
Life is not perfect here, they can’t always put meat or eggs on the table, their roofs might leak when it rains, but many of them have found happiness in watching their children grow, watching the sunset with their spouse, or dancing to (very loud) music. They do not have a mortgage or credit card bills to worry about. They have built their homes with their own hands and there is only one electricity bill to pay every other month, that is if they use electricity at all.
There’s also drugs and theft, which is very painful for those people who want to live in peace. But there’s drugs and theft in your local police department, House of Representatives, or IRS office, wherever you live. Just on a much bigger (and refined) scale. And it is just as painful for those who want to live in peace there.
Happiness is a philosophy and freedom is a choice. Both have very little to do with how much money you own. Sometimes, I assure you, less is more.
That’s what I mean when I say I disagree with the statement that money can’t buy freedom or happiness but it helps. I really don’t think it does. It usually brings more stress, obligations, confusion and clatter. We choose to live a simpler life with more free time and less possessions.
Some people are happy, some people are free, but it has nothing to do with income. It has to do with their attitude towards life, their spiritual wisdom. No number will ever make you happy if you’re not happy today. It’s something else entirely you should be searching for. Reach out. Work on it. Be more spiritual and generous. And it will gradually become simple and clear.
In the last 5 years, I went back to school. For a time, I worked in the produce department of a big box retailer (not Walmart, thankfully). I worked evening shifts and was always right near the front door. It was interesting to watch the people flow by. It was my experience that the families who came through that were obviously less well off were by far happier. They smiled and would respond when I said hello. Ironically, the people who were obviously more well off, who should be way happier even by their own standard, were frowning. The more affluent families often shopped in silence. No one smiled. Their eyes were cast down. Many times I said hello and simply got no response. Their faces were masks of stress and pain. The kids were less animated and wore the same strain on their faces.
Capitalism does not function without greed and its ugly child, consumerism. We all use money now because that is the system that we are stuck with in so-called “Developed Economies.” I am anxious to experience life in Panama; and elsewhere in my future travels. It seems that the further you get from the center of “Development” the easier it is to live on less money, and barter. By living with less we can weaken this system. If we can influence others to also live on less, we might be able to start people thinking about alternative economic systems. The propaganda in social media, the news etc. all function to keep people believing that what we have is the best option; that we should be happy. It is no wonder people are stressed. They believe very strongly that what they are doing will result in their happiness, yet they know deep inside that they are not happy.
The primary philosophical driver of Multi-National Corporations, and capitalsim itself, is growth at any cost. The only thing in nature that functions this way is the cancer cell. Not the best model to build an economy on.
Wow, there’s an analogy! Cancer.
That is most probably how the indigenous tribes of the world have seen the rapid and ferocious advance of the Western culture, not only killing and pushing them aside, but also stupidly destroying the vital nature and its resources needed for survival. Cancer cells also spread greedily and blindly until the organism containing them cannot sustain life anymore.
I gotta say I do feel a new awareness in people, a new spirituality, let’s hope a new era begins, and that we can slowly restore that balance.
Contrarian,
In no way do I begrudge those with money and couldn’t agree with you more, nor do I dislike those who work hard to acquire it. And I must say I am very “greedy” myself when it comes to my freedom and time. Those however who force me to give up my time (freedom) are a differant story all together. Aside from the multinational corporations, mainstream media is something that i truly despise. I’ve lost my father to Fox News and it breaks my heart. He is so afraide of Isis and the North Koreans that I want to cry. I recently got him away from the idiot box for a few weeks and he was such a differant person. Happy, laughing, and seeing the beauty in the world and not the over dramatized, sensolationized, near-sighted, and often fictionilized version of what “news” is supposed to be.
I really do feel like Neo walking through the matrix for the first time. Many people may call me un-patriotic but the truth is it hurts to see my country so lost, divided, and taken advantage of by the very systems that are supposed to be in place to protect it. I don’t want to get into a political debate as all I can do to fight it, is to live as free as I can and share my experience with those who are interested to read about it.
I’ll be sailing by the Statue of Liberty today, it’s kind of a big deal for me as it was such a positive icon throughout my childhood.
In case you haven’t read the words that are carved at her base, here you go:
New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Im finally leaving on my trip home today !!!!!!!
Peace
Have a good trip Alie and remember, Carla and Nacho are eagerly awaiting for you!
WOW !!!!! Just WOW!!!!
To sit down with all of you with a few bottles of wine, some fresh food….the conversations would be EPIC!! I’d be drinking my green tea, or a nice rum and coke!
Anyway…..
This is top three, maybe even the best blog so far. We all get caught up in the “I needs” that we just spend hour upon hour busting our ass to buy things! Three weeks ago I almost bought a 2015 Jeep Wrangler. I’ve wanted one for the better part of 25 years. When the salesman slid the paper across the table and showed me my payments would have been anywhere from 590 to 671 dollars a month, I wanted to cry. It literally took my breath away. As I drove away I realized that a new Jeep for me was never going to happen. So 1200 dollars later my 17 year old Ranger has new shocks, control arm bushings, sway bar bushings, serpentine belt, oil change and front brakes! Oh, and I bought a Jackson Big Rig kayak, so now I can go fishing! We are awash in consumerism. Everywhere you look, someone is trying to get you to buy something. I too am trying my hardest to unplug. I am exhausted. Not in the physical sense…ok maybe a little…but exhausted from being constantly bombarded by everything. You cant watch the morning news without someone trying to sell you a new car. I can’t read an article on the web without some advertisement. I’ll be trying to read it and then I hear voices that I have no idea where they are coming from. So I have to scroll up or down to find it. Now they are getting clever and not letting you pause or cancel it!
I just want off this continent. I crave a simpler life, but I am terrified out of my mind. I’ll be 49 in October. If I can pull this off in the next say 6 years, I’ll be 55 then. If I ever came back to the states my only employment options would be to go back to long haul trucking, which I absolutely dread.
I need to quit over thinking things. I need to get off my ass and take care of business. Over the past few years, I’ve watched 3/4 of the people I know and love battle cancer. Some have won, others have lost. Burying your best friend at 48 really, really sucks. Yet here I sit, worrying about stuff I can’t control. Worrying about whether or not I’ll have enough money to afford the next latest and greatest thing. Wondering why the cute girl down the street seemingly wants nothing to do with me anymore. I’m tired of worrying about why people do or don’t like me. I something that said “If you aren’t good enough to be in someones life, is that your problem, or theirs!” Boy I need to start listening to that a whole lot more.
I’m so sorry for rambling on…Have a safe trip, Alex!
Hi Carla!!!
Fishn4bogy,
If you get rid of the television and social media you’ll get to where you want to go a whole lot faster. No so much to be afraid of out here, just lots of peace and quiet :)
Hey Alex – I was not implying you (or Carla) begrudged those with money – it just so happened to be the topic at hand so I jumped on the opportunity to express my personal view about it.
Speaking of my personal views …
You are one of the most patriotic people I know. The flag-waving element of the population (for which I assume you are referring to) is prone to confuse loyalty to the country with loyalty to the government. These are the lost souls who watch the MSM media like Fox, CNN, MSNBC and actually believe they are getting the news, when in reality they are being spoon-fed a sanitized and Americanized version of events, otherwise known as propaganda. These are the same fools who confuse patriotism with blind loyalty to the government and the politicians who run it. These people are not patriots … they are people who have been domesticated and conditioned to believe in a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods.
A patriot is not loyal to government or the people who run it, a patriot is loyal to the principles this country was founded on. Real patriotism is a willingness to speak truth to power and stand up and challenge the government and hold the politicians accountable for their actions.
You often speak of how the country changed following 9/11. I couldn’t agree more. Critical thought has been considered “unpatriotic” since 9/11 and anyone who is critical of the official US Govt narrative or questions the bought-and-paid for politicians who are driving the ship of state onto the rocks are considered “unpatriotic”, or worse, called a terrorist and placed on a “watch list”. Sadly, this country today more closely resembles a fascist tyranny than it does a democracy.
One of our countries founding fathers, Thomas Paine, he said it is the duty of the true patriot to protect his country from his government.
Holding your government to account for subverting the countries founding document does not mean you are calling for the overthrow of the government – to the contrary, it means you are calling for the reinstatement of our government. It does not mean you are calling for lawlessness – it means you are calling for an end to lawlessness and a return to the rule of law. It does not mean you are subverting the country by critically examining and questioning your governments actions to undermine it – it means you are calling for the reinstatement of the Constitution. This is what it means to be a patriot.
By this definition there are very few patriots left in this country…
– C
C,
I didn’t think you thought that at all, and I know Carla loves your posts too :)
And I agree 100% about patriotism. Yesterday I sailed by the new Freedom Tower in NYC and past the Statue of Liberty.
There is an inflatable buzzing around the Statue of Liberty with a crew, and mounted with a machine gun. I’m woundering who would ever attack the Statue Of Liberty, and if “they” did, would a 50mm machine gun matter? It looked to me as if it was just a show for all the tourists. They buzzed by Eleanor to check us out too.
It’s all too complicated and “safe” for me, I was happy to put New York to my stern and sail under the Varazzino for New Jersey.