I am taken to task over my many failings. My reply.

Received this email this afternoon from a fellow whom I have disappointed in many ways. My reply is below, as well.

-----Original Message-----

From: Daniel (REDACTED)

To: georgemason1776

Sent: Sun, Feb 26, 2012 3:24 pm

Subject: Comments on CPX Foxtrot at WRSA

Dear Mike,

Having recently read the circular firing squad over at WRSA, CA asked you a few direct questions that I believe deserve to be answered,despite having been scrubbed from the comments recently.

I understand you have serious concerns regarding Kerodin, but do you really think that airing dirty laundry for the world to see does anything productive for morale? I think it to be extremely short-sighted.

I understand Gunwalker has consumed your time for well over a year now,and you did your damnedest,and I applaud you for it. However,I was there almost two years ago at Fort Hunt Park when you said Absolved was finished,and yet you are still working on it. That would make me wonder if you were really done with it,or if you're really working on it now.Either way,it doesn't instill confidence in me with you.

I have been financially supportive of you and your efforts on multiple occasions,and I would like to think that I am not misplacing my trust in you.

It would make me happier to see you as the Mike Vanderboegh of 4 or 5 years ago,than what I have seen you put yourself through lately. You can do much more productive things with your time,in my opinion.

We all admire your valiant work in trying to hold Mordor accountable,and we all see the complicity of the media and both wings of the fed.gov party, and bless you for doing the work that the multimillion dollar press refuses to do.

But for petes sake,stop with the Kerodin thing. Please.

And finish your books already.

For the Republic,

Dan (REDACTED)

MY REPLY:

Daniel,

I went through the 90s when we let Kerodins attach themselves like leeches to a movement without doing enough to mark the difference. So, no, I will continue to speak out on Kerodin until dispositive FOIA documents or court discovery records prove me right.

From my latest post this morning, in case you missed it regarding Pete's demand for answers:

Explain to me why I owe you an answer to any of them. I didn’t lie when I said Absolved was finished. It was, in raw form. That I responded to editorial concerns raised by others that caused me to rewrite the entire work — interspersed by huge episodes of writer’s block — is immaterial to you. Gee, I fucked up, I’m human. So sue me. But what, really, do I OWE you, or anybody, about Absolved? Half of it, including most of the tactical, practical lessons, have already been published on the Net. For free. You may not have noticed, but I’ve been a little busy in the mean time, ferreting out ATF scandals prior to Gunwalker, netting together the Coalition of Willing Lilliputians which put us in a position to learn of, and exploit, that granddaddy of all federal scandals. To reckon the Gunwalker Scandal expose’ in terms of “casualties” ignores the value of the results already achieved against the enemy — destruction of legitimacy, barely managed chaos within federal law enforcement agencies — all of which buy time for folks to get ready. Ask Eric Holder how much trouble I have put him to since 2009. This is not something that you didn’t already know, because I explained it at some length to you in conversations early on.

I disappointed you. SFW. Get in line.

You criticize me for soliciting money through my blog subscriptions, yet you more than anybody know the limit of my finances. I could not have accomplished a tenth of what I’ve done on Gunwalker without those extra resources, which, by the way, I have to pay taxes on.

So I don’t meet your qualifications as a leader because I rightly question your choice of convict “friends”? Whose ego is bruised?

I didn’t make up the characterization of Kerodin as a leader of “Death Eaters,” but I damn sure see my friend’s point. Forget his compromised status as a federal felon which makes him eminently blackmailable — as well as discrediting on its face to any claim of “leadership” in the Three Percent — his previously expressed penchant for targeting non-combatants is both discrediting and dangerous. Indeed, accepting such “logic” is merely an expression of feared weakness, not an understanding of real strength.

The MORAL component of our fight is the only thing that makes it worth doing. Otherwise we are the same sort of monster that we condemn. I am a Christian, first and foremost. I will have to look my God in the eye one day and justify my life and actions. If that makes me a disappointment in your eyes, then I suggest you look in the mirror for an explanation.

– Vanderboegh

Absolved was finished, it simply wasn't ready for print. As far as misplaced trust, I'm the same guy I always was. I thank you for your past support and I can tell you that I tried to waste none of the donations sent my way. However, I can only do so much, and my failures are all my own. Indeed, most of my failures came about due to overwork because I could not say no to the many projects which are left at my door, always with the comment, "Only you can do this, Mike." But I am more worried about what my God will say to me later than anything else, as, indeed, we should all be.

There is a tendency -- natural, human trait -- to look for leaders who are omniscient, infallible into whom we pour all our own hopes for success of a common enterprise. I am not such a person. If Absolved has one message above all it is this: don't look for leaders, be your own leader. Do what you can, all that you can, where you are at.

It is certain that no one else could have done the Gunwalker business, or pushed it as far as it has come. Even Pete acknowledged that. So what should I rank as more important than that?

As far as "airing dirty laundry" and "factionalism" it has always been my belief that people who willingly submerge their basic principles in order to attract more so-called "allies" like Kerodin are extrapolating from their own needless sense of weakness, brought on at least in some measure by the isolation and anomie of modern life. And, in the end, they are self-defeating, since they enabled the hand that knifed them in the back. We are stronger than that, or, at least we will be if we understand that embracing such as Kerodin will drive off all our potential allies when the time comes.

The reason I'm so particular about allies and principles is that what we must attempt, should we ever face more tyranny from the Feds, is an open source insurgency, which is to say, many small-scale, local fights with national, even international, principles. Some call it "leaderless resistance" but that is not true. We must be led, but by principle. And only 4th Generation Warfare which targets policymakers -- and policymakers only, not their families or other innocents -- will win. Kerodin, apart from all the questions surrounding him, blurs those moral bright lines. If we fight by his rules and lack of moral sense, we will lose. Hence, I will continue to speak out against him, even with my last breath. This isn't about ego, it is about unshakable principle.

If that is not what you wanted to hear, I am sorry for your disappointment. It happens to be the truth as I see it.

Mike

III