Essential Reading for Every American

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Let's get the complaints out of the way up front: At a suggested retail price of $15.95 (Amazon = $12.44), and at 4-1/2 x 6-3/8 inches hardbound, this is not exactly the back-pocket carry-along that Wayne LaPierre intends it to be. I'd suggest a true softcover chapbook format and price, and perhaps even a low-cost ebook version to make sure the word gets out to everyone who needs to know the truth about the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. And that audience amounts to every citizen of the United States.

I am a middle-aged Caucasian male who has never owned a gun, hasn't fired one in ages, and who, until recently, lived in a suburb of Baltimore where our doors were only locked a handful of times in 23 years. My teenaged son and a friend were accosted at gunpoint several years back, and though nobody got physically hurt, he was pretty well traumatized. The teenaged - admitted - assailant got off, due to police incompetence, and having to face him in school was bad for my son.

Other than that, when I thought about guns at all, it was in the form of platitudes. There were too many of them; too much gun violence; too many domestic assaults; too much suicide; and an arms industry that was out of control. I saw "Columbine," and think Charlton Heston was a colossal jerk.

I say this as preamble to a glowing review of Wayne LaPierre's The Essential Second Amendment Guide. It is a little gem. It belongs on your bookshelf, and in your local public library.

The Guide is not about guns. It is about The US Constitution: how it reads; its history; its writers and interpreters. It is about the meaning of personal liberty, individual rights, and what is required to preserve them.

LaPierre has written a short, highly readable, and extensively sourced guide to the most controversial of the first ten amendments to our Constitution, also known as the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment, guaranteeing our right to keep and bear arms, is subject to constant attack. Yet, "it is the one freedom that gives common men and women uncommon power to defend all freedoms."

Simply put, when guns are outlawed, only the government [and outlaws] will have guns. That's not freedom, and it is as intolerable today as it was in 1776. LaPierre, of the National Rifle Association, makes a very strong, well-supported case for our Second Amendment rights.

He has hit what he was aiming at in writing a book everyone should read and keep close at hand. Please buy an extra copy for your local library; read it; read the suggested readings; above all, read, discuss, and defend our Constitution.

In addition to reviewing books, Rick Ostrander writes about 21st Century homesteading on the Santa Fe Trail, and building resilient communities in post-Peak Oil America. You're invited to visit his new blog, http://taylorsprings.blogspot.com/.

Winds of War by Herman Wouk

World War II was the "Big War" with "Big" on the Players. Hitler's Germany was busy in Europe trying to control the rest of the continent with their military might and influence. Meanwhile in the Pacific region, Japan was plying its growing influence in that part of the world. They had witnessed the British expansion in China and Australia and US involvement in Hawaii and the Philippines. Since they had a superior air force and believed that they were in fact the superior race with a great military too, it should be their turn to control things.

The Henry family was involved in both theaters of war activity. The senior, Victor Henry was a Navy man who was privileged to have met American President Franklin D Roosevelt. FDR liked Victor opinion and is in several occasions, they have several special missions was sent. He was able to get a close up view of the thoughts and ideas of men like Hitler, Stalin and Churchill. Meanwhile, one son was a Navy pilot and his other son, Byron was a Navy Submariner who happened to be romantically linked and then married to a Jewish girl of Polish extraction. Conditions in Poland, Russia, Germany and even Italy were harsh for those of a Hebrew background. Hitler's quest for power and hatred for the Jewish race were unbelievable. Through the Byron's eyes, the truth is seen by the reader, yet not fully understood by the western world at that time.

The US tried to stay out of the Great War for a long time. They didn't believe the alleged atrocities rumored to be taking place in Europe. They supported Britain with a special ship loan program and thought this conflict would eventually be over and it was far away from US shores. France and Italy or the European continent and most were already under Hitler's control. America thought they were safe at that time. Everything changed is Dec 7, 1941 when Japan drew the US into the war by their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands is a. Most of the US western fleet of ships was in port there. Then later, Hitler declared war on America and we had no choice but to expand our involvement to Europe as well.

This historical fiction novel is very educational as well as an interesting story of this Navy family involved in all aspects of the terrible conflict. The US was unprepared for war at first but Americans worked together to built up and create the most powerful war machine the world has ever seen. Probably shouldn't have been used in the atomic bombs are those Japanese cities yet the war might have taken a lot longer and more lives may have been lost. No one will ever know for sure. In Europe, the Hitler's many mistakes eventually shut him down and then they took his own life rather than surrender. The biggest mistake was putting so many of his soldiers on the Russian border at a time when the US and British were invading the French shores and then pushing eastward. Their army was "tired and weakened while the US had a strong determined people and leadership.

I've often wondered what the world would be like had Hitler won and continued to spread his influence. Would we be speaking German today? The Japanese Would be in control of China and Korea? I'm glad it turned out the way it did. Let's just hope the history never repeats itself.

John Sprague is an American currently working in the mideast. He enjoys writing and working on his websites in his free time. He has a new site at http://www.marketingkindreds.com/His website has photos of the mideast and marketing articles that you may be interested in viewing. There are also website analysis tools and articles is a genealogy and DNA.

Hawaiian Missionaries - The People and the Stamps

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American missionaries began arriving in the Hawaiian Islands in 1820. A bestselling book from that time Memoirs of Henry Obookiah alarmed the missionaries and motivated them to leave New England and sail around Cape Horn on a mission to the Hawaiian Islands. Their pioneering effort was courageous and indeed a leap of faith.

The pioneer American Mission company was led by Reverend Hiram Bingham a graduate of Middlebury College and the Theological Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts. The missionaries were given a section of land on Oahu where they established a mission station. That land was called Ka wai a Ha'o (the water of Ha'o) in reference to the fresh water spring located there in which Chiefess Ha'o bathed. Next to the spring Reverend Bingham established the first church in Honolulu he called it Kawaiahao.

The Pioneer Company of missionaries initially set up three mission stations on the islands of Hawaii, Oahu and Kauai. Reverend Bingham directed the mission station expansion from the Honolulu mission station. From behind the Kawaihao church the business of the missionaries was conducted. Over the next twenty years nineteen mission stations were established at population centers in the Hawaiian Islands. As new missionaries arrived from America they would stay at the Honolulu mission station until they were assigned to one of the nineteen mission stations. Also at the Honolulu mission station a mission depository was built that served as a warehouse where shipments were received and provisions were sent to the remote stations.

One of the most challenging tasks the missionaries faced was learning the Hawaiian language. The language did not exist in a written form. They had to develop an alphabet that would capture all of the nuances of the Hawaiian language. Once that was done they began translating the Bible from the original Greek and Latin directly into the Hawaiian language.

The pioneer and subsequent mission companies arriving from New England brought with them printing presses and additional supplies for the mission stations and for the Mission Press. The first Mission Press building was constructed at the Honolulu mission station just few feet from the Mission Depository. Over the first twenty years of operation the Mission Press printed 113,017,173 Hawaiian language pages. All supplies for the Mission Press, the paper, the ink powders, (pigments, driers and extenders) were stored in the Mission Depository.

When the American Missionaries arrived no postal system existed. The Mission Depository received deliveries that included mail in addition to supplies. When mail was delivered mail that had been written by mission members was waiting to go out. Samuel N. Castle who operated the Mission Depository wrote in his Journal a Post Office Law that he would have the master of the ship read before he would entrust them with mission mail. Mr. Castle kept detailed records of mission correspondence, dates sent, to whom and on which ship the mail was carried. Of particular importance was mail that was sent to J.B. Moore the postmaster of San Francisco. Mr. Castle contacted Mr. Moore to establish a regular postal delivery between Honolulu and San Francisco. Those letters were sent in August and September of 1850.

In October of 1850 Henry M. Whitney was given postal responsibility for California. Mr. Whitney was the adult child of an American mission family. He had been sent back to America for education when he was a child. He learned the printing trade and returned to Hawaii to direct the government printing office in Honolulu. In November of 1850 Whitney hired William S. Emerson as his apprentice. The young men were both mission children, since their parents called each brother and sister they liked to call each other cousins. William was given added responsibility at the post office when Henry went to visit his sister Maria Pogue in March of 1851. The first postage stamps issued by the Kingdom of Hawaii were also issued in 1851, they have become known as the Hawaiian Missionaries.

In 1918 George Grinnell a Los Angeles school teacher said he was given some Hawaiian Missionary stamps by a man named Charles Shattuck. When Grinnell sold some of them a few years later they were seized by the United States Secret Service and were the subject of a superior court case. The court decided that the stamps Grinnell offered for sales were worthless pieces of paper.

Much has been learned since the trial. It was later learned the mother of Charles Shattuck and the mother of William Emerson were friends. They had written to each other. The Grinnell stamps are typographically different those stamps that are thought to be genuine. Also the cancellations are different that those that are thought to be genuine. The solution to the mystery lies in the journal of William Emerson where he recorded the dates and hours he worked for Whitney. Those work records which were found by Patrick Culhane a Shattuck descendant at the Mission Houses museum library in Honolulu. The cancellation dates that appear on the used Grinnell stamps do not show a year. The author believes that the dates were applied in January, February and March of 1851 when William had added responsibility at the post office. The work record of William Emerson corroborates this, eighty percent of the dates that show on the Grinnell stamps are dates that William Emerson was working at the post office.

Conclusion: The Grinnell Hawaiian Missionary stamps are Genuine.

They are a first printing created by William Emerson as part of his apprenticeship to Henry Whitney in the first quarter of 1851 when he had added responsibility at the post office. The existence of these in the hands of only one family suggests that William was testing out his design.

Anthony R. Kassel is a member of the Hawaiian Historical Society. This year he published a book on the Hawaiian Missionaries both the People and the Stamps.

To read more about this interesting topic and to purchase a copy of the book please visit the Hawaiian Missionaries website

Anthony R. Kassel is also a member of the American and Hawaiian Philatelic Societies he has turned his stamp collecting hobby into the web based business. Click this link to visit the Antonios-Philatelics website where you can view and purchase thousands of collectible postage stamps.