WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED This is the true memoir of one US Air Force navigator’s journey from the schoolhouses of Air Training Command to the nuclear alerts of the Cold War to combat in a 35-year-old anachronism called the B-52. It is a first-hand account of life during the last days of Strategic Air Command, the early days of Air Combat Command and the ensuing military drawdown of the 1990s. From peacetime training exercises across the globe to combat operations in Desert Storm, Jim Clonts takes the reader inside the cockpit where life and death are seconds apart. Often comical, sometimes heart-pounding, other times tragic, WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED takes you into the world of military aviation, a crucible where warriors learn the true nature of character, conscience and mortality.

Friends of Liberty VOL 60
by Jim Clonts, 2010

07/04/2010

I celebrated our nation's birthday this year with mixed feelings. I find it difficult to celebrate the founding of our nation under its current circumstances. The things that have made America great in the past are in jeopardy today. The Fourth of July is celebrated with red white and blue bunting, flags waving, patriotic music playing and men in 18th Century costumes marching in a parade with muskets over their shoulders. I guess I find it ironic seeing such a nationalistic display of pride in one's country when our leaders in Washington are not only trying to undermine the Constitution at every turn, but also doing their level best to surrender our sovereignty to a new world order. The ruling party in Washington sees this nation more as a member of the world community than as an independent nation.

President Obama said just last week at the G20 summit that America would not be the "engine of growth" for the world anymore. He said in the name of fairness we need to work hard to "eliminate competitive advantages one country holds over another." Friends of Liberty, do not believe for one moment that any other nation in this world puts our interests or the world's interests ahead of their own, yet we are told we need to do just that. We need to be cut down to size because we are too prosperous, too powerful and use too much of the world's resources---resources we purchase, incidentally.

When asked what makes America great, many would say it is our Constitution, our representative republic, our system of justice, our personal liberties, our free markets and our capitalist economy. Make no mistake, these are important, but they in themselves simply create the environment that makes American Exceptionalism possible. This exceptionalism stems from a very basic source: WE ARE A MERITOCRACY. Americans earn their way in this world by the merit of their ideas, ambitions and hard work. America is where the individual can realize his or her full potential.

Every nation has potential inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs, but in the United States, the best are free to be the best, supported by the next best and building on the previous best. The potential can be realized in America. Great ideas in this country come to fruition in an environment unique to the world, unencumbered by restrictions on personal freedom, restrictions on government funding, class, and race. Our people are rewarded for their hard work, their ambition, and their vision. They are not rewarded by a government bureaucracy, but by the income their ideas and actions generate from consumers in a free market.

When personal liberty is matched with Free Enterprise and limited Government, it creates a powerful catalyst which encourages human beings to be the very best they can be. History shows this model works not because it is the result of any think tank or theoretical, government-appointed blue-ribbon commission, but because it is so perfectly aligned with human nature. It feeds on the human need to survive, prosper, compete and create. It appeals to the very best in us and provides an environment in which the best comes out. Even the darker traits of human nature, such as greed and ambition, are harnessed in a mostly productive manner. This is American Exceptionalism. It is what makes us different from other nations. It is the winning formula that may save us. Today, sadly, many Americans do not survive and thrive on their merits, but on the scraps tossed to them by a bloated Federal Government $13 trillion in debt.

"If you want more money, go on strike."
-Major League Baseball

"If you want more money---win more races."
-NASCAR

Which of the above is the real American Past-time?

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