"I Am What I Am" - That great pipe-smoking philosopher, Popeye

There's something people seem unable to understand about me. I keep quiet about things I either have no interest in, have no knowledge of, or generally don't care about.

But step on my toes just once about something that I believe? Attack something I care passionately about? Prepare for a storm like you've never encountered. I don't keep quiet, I don't back down, and I don't change.

God: I'm a Christian. Deal with it. I'm not a "Go To Church Twice A Year For Holidays" Christian. I'm a completely, 100%, sold out believer. It pervades my life in a way, unless you're one as well, you can't even begin to comprehend. When something violates those beliefs, when something attacks them or ridicules them, prepare for a reaction. I will defend not only my right to believe this, but the correctness of those beliefs.

Family: I hold my family dearer than my own life. I would willingly lay it down for them. I love them, even when I don't particularly like them. Anyone who messes with them has a big problem. You can insult me, you can attack me, you can terrorize me, and we might be able to get along at some later point. No promises, but it's a possibility.

But go after my family? That's an entirely new situation. If you mess with my family, if you even think of attacking, or harming in any way, my family, you will discover something new and frightening. You've never encountered what you'll find if you go after my loved ones.

Friends: You don't get to choose your family but you do get to choose your friends. I may not always agree with them. I may get angry with them. We don't see eye to eye on everything. Completely agreeing, right down the line, on everything is boring and takes the zest out of life. But you don't ever want to mess with them. That includes talking to me behind their backs. Because, assuming they don't kill you, I will make you wish you'd never been born. I refuse to listen to anyone attacking my friends verbally, and I'll be damned if I let anyone attack them physically without getting involved.

America: I'm a patriot. I'm a firm believer in the dream that is America. It's not perfect, although it's a damn sight better than any other country on the planet. (Sorry, Canada. Great place to visit and fish, but not even remotely interested in living there.) I'm also not blind to its faults. But that doesn't change my passionate belief that there is no better country in the world. Arguing about what's best for the country is one thing, as is talking about its faults and your honest opinions for how to fix them. But attacking this country? Not just physically (although that leads to my next point) but verbally? As the colloquialism goes, "Them's fightin' words."

Military: I am not a war monger. I consider war to be one of the worst ways to settle difficulties imaginable. Nevertheless, there are times when war is the only possible alternative. When all other recourse is pointless. I'm not going to sit here and say that happens often, but it does happen. There are those who have already incurred my verbal wrath for their stance on the military. Not naming names, but I've heard the military referred to by countless ignorant terms- proving nothing about the military, but everything about the person doing the talking.

Remember one thing, if you remember nothing else. The military is the entire reason you are able to insult the military. Without them, you'd be bowing to one or the other of a half dozen tyrants. People who would have conquered this nation on a whim, but didn't even attack because of our military.

I do and will support our troops for as long as they exist. Like it or not, the only way to ensure peace is to be prepared for war. When the pacifist meets the tyrant, the pacifist dies.

I'm not saying the pacifist is entirely wrong. Violence is rarely the answer. But there are times when violence is, in fact, the only answer.

Work: You don't have to like what I'm about to say here. I'm assuming some of you have not liked at least one of the other points I made. In case you haven't noticed, let me spell it out- I don't care. I believe work, and being rewarded for that work, to be the most beneficial thing imaginable. Alternatively, I believe welfare to be, by and large, one of the inventions most detrimental to the human condition. If I had my way, only extremely select people would qualify for welfare, and then with very specific limitations to it.

There are people who will look through that list and call me, as if it was an insult, a redneck. You know what? You're right. I believe in God, family, friends, country, the military, and hard work. In that order. As I said earlier, deal with it.