Mike Vanderboegh and I met back in 2011 at the NRA convention in Pittsburgh. I was helping a Buddy run his booth, and Mike came by to check out what we had to offer. We had a great conversation that consisted mostly of the “Soon to be released” info about “Fast and Furious”, and other things related to the fight for our freedoms. Years later a blow up happened between us when I believed he was being hypocritical, and overly critical of Kerodin, and I said so ( I tend to do that). I said a former communist had no place talking crap about a former felon, since the communist chose at one point to follow in the steps of Lenin, Stalin, and Mao, and at the time I believed Kerodin’s line about being set up by the Feds because of his stance as a patriot (it does happen).
The only part of that conversation that I later needed to apologize for (because that’s what Men do when they are wrong) was the fact that I should not have believed Kerodin’s BS (I should have done my due diligence without believing it verbatim) about being set up, and I should not have defended him. The best liars incorporate a small amount of truth in their lies, don’t they? Mike was gracious enough to accept my apology, and that was that. Mike has done a number of good things throughout his life as a “Former Communist In Recovery”, and he has used the majority of his time on earth to help others see the lights of Liberty that are available to us if we would only grasp them. Read what he said. Grasp the significance. Go and do likewise.
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Monday, May 23, 2016
Valediction of a Three Percenter by Mike Vanderboegh
“Valediction — noun, An act of bidding farewell; a leave-taking; a speech or statement made as a farewell.” — Merriam Webster Dictionary
(Note from Mike: As time gets close, I wanted to get these words out while my mind is still clear. Don’t write my obituary just yet, but these words needed saying.)
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. — Ephesians, Chapter 4, 1-6.
“I love my country, my God and my kind. I have served them all and I want no praise of song or prose.” — C.C. Sheats, Alabama Unionist
Valediction of a Three Percenter
For many years I have introduced myself as a Christian libertarian who believed in God, free men, free markets, the rule of law under the Founders’ Republic, and that the Constitution extended to everyone regardless of race, creed, color or religion. As I take my leave from this existence, I must admit that the Constitution, as the Founders crafted it, is now or soon will be dead — killed by corruption and collectivism and mostly by our own sloth and moral cowardice in opposing its enemies.
Yet if the Constitution is dead as an organizing and unifying force in this nation, the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights can never die as long as there remain free men and women who believe in the Founders’ vision. This is the essence of the Three Percent, that no matter how small our numbers are — if we remain armed and determined — we may yet preserve the flickering flame of liberty.
However principled, you must still be clearheaded about the realities facing us. We are on the brink of chaos that will make the agonies of the former Yugoslavia look like child’s play. Anyone who believes otherwise is whistling past the graveyard of history. There will be no deliverance from the rigged game of national politics. If any of our traditional liberties are to be saved it will be on a local basis of community, county and church, secured by your own efforts, your own organization, with your own friends and neighbors according to the principles enunciated by the Founders. I envisioned the Three Percent movement with that local focus in mind, as a philosophy, a discipline, of the armed citizenry. I enunciated some of these in the Three Percent Catechism. The growth of the concept has been startling. Yet many of those who claim to be “Three Percenters” haven’t a clue about the principles upon which the movement was founded. While the concept of a determined minority of the armed citizenry has continued to grow, so has confusion about the mission of the Three Percent and how that mission should be carried out. I summed up the Catechism in this way:
“These four principles — moral strength, physical readiness, no first use of force and no targeting of innocents — are the hallmarks of the Three Percent ideal. Anyone who cannot accept them as a self-imposed discipline in the fight to restore the Founders’ Republic should find something else to do and cease calling themselves a “Three Percenter.”
As said in the Washington Post just this morning by B.J. Soper of the Central Oregon Constitutional Guard: “If we’re going to effect change it has to be done at a local level.” Anything that takes time and resources from such local efforts is a waste that we cannot afford. At its most basic and irreducible, what the Three Percent movement was designed to do was to REBUILD THE CONCEPT OF CITIZENSHIP, one citizen at a time. This begins with you, with each and every one of us. Citizenship is defined by the dictionary as “the state of being vested with the rights, privileges, and duties of a citizen.” Three Percenters are insistent about all three of those components of citizenship, that is why our collectivist would-be masters are so hateful and afraid of us — we actually take citizenship seriously, as a way of life, and not just a word. This attitude makes us scary even to folks who silently agree with what we say — we LIVE what they CLAIM to believe. But that is the difference between a citizen and a subject, between free people and mere inhabitants of a place. If I am remembered at all, let me be known as a citizen of the Founders’ Republic.
Not long after my doctor gave me the final prognosis, I was told by a reader that I would be recalled as someone “who taught us how to fight on every battlefield.” It was humbling to me for him to say so, but that is what a citizen does — he fights on every battlefield to best of his ability and resources. And if after I am gone the Three Percent movement should prove to be my living monument, it will be because it is made up of citizens of the Founders’ Republic, faithful to their vision and to God’s will and purpose.
God has blessed me throughout my life with many friends and supporters. I could not have accomplished anything without them. They are all truly citizens in all senses of the word. I am proud to have known you. It has been an honor. Now I leave you behind on this battlefield to carry on the fight. I wish I could stick around but God seems to have a different schedule in mind. Your futures and those of my family — all our families, our friends — indeed our country as envisioned by the Founders as well as our entire way of life are in your own hands, yourselves alone, subject to the will and infinite power of God. God does not promise us victory. He does command us to stand. The Founders bent their knees in prayerful supplication to the Almighty. I believe that the string of improbable events that comprised the miracle of the Revolution can be ascribed to nothing less than God’s will. He may yet provide others.
But absent a miracle, your victory will be won by citizens rising to the duties and challenges of citizenship. It will be won one citizen, one locality, one community at a time — according to the example of the Founders, organizing fellow citizens in the light of Three Percent principles.
As for me I have tried to live up to the epitaph of Chris Sheats, an Alabamian who I long ago admired as a member of my pantheon of American heroes:
“I love my country, my God and my kind. I have served them all and I want no praise of song or prose.”
Mason Dixon Tactical 
Mike proved that he was more of a man than I am when he accepted my apology for wronging him. He validated himself with just a few kind words in an email and for that I will be forever grateful.
Me as well Brother
And me…
AND TOM
Seems to be you and Mike and others have the commonality of being honorable enough men to admit error. That is what I call being a stand up guy.
Respect to you all
Thanks
I started reading his writings years back during the F&F issue(never resolved it seems!)and enjoyed his views/actions and wry sense of humour at times that came through.I am a optimistic SOB and hope as happens a lot the docs got it wrong.
You two made a mistake,dealt with it and seems Mike dealt with it very graciously.Ken and JD,you both on your sites try and help others with petitions/speaking out about issues/review gear/ideas/charity ect. plus a little humour,i.e.,you help a lot of people out.I do not always agree on say gear(still love me 45 degree iron/Vortex combo!)but in general you both steer folks in looking at least in new directions and they in turn hopefully helping others along the way,the smalls add up.
We all die and shoes sometimes cannot be filled,that said,the path is still there for others to leave their imprint on and you two help add imprints on said path,not too bad I would say.
Thanks, that’s appreciated
Yes, it is appreciated. Thank you.
…all that, +100. Mike has been truthful, honorable, and appreciative. And forgiving. That gives credence to his quotes of Scripture. It also, in light of his primary ‘detractor’ (think: pink hands and blue guns) speaks volumes about his character. Mike will be missed… his ‘detractor’ could vamoose, and all we’d do is cheer.
Actually, vamoose would be a better option than what some consider for Scambo’s exit.
“Pink Hands, Blue Guns” I feel a Meme or movie idea coming on
Men do that. They man up. Something that is completely foreign to Sam Kerodin. And in the case of Kerodin, he thinks all his inflated lies and BS mans him UP.
You”d think that the Veteran “Uncle” he’s. Always talking about, would have taught him that first, instead of the “Two Gun, Two Pumpkins” trick. The first is more important.
Which I believe just goes to show that “veteran uncle” is just another Sam hallucination.
All Sam had to do, was just admit he made mistakes. But then that would have cut into his income and self persona image.
Of course the “self persona” is the more important in the mind of the ignorant. Then again, his income is based on lies. I guess it’s a toss up as to which is more important. I’d say it’s his image, considering what he’s said about himself, and how he says it. He can always come up with another scam, his image and rep lasts forever. Unfortunately for him, his is all bad now.
Plus the fact that he has invested a few years building this persona. That is an investment in and of itself. I imagine that would take a heavy emotional toll on his psyche if he were to suddenly give it up. As in, where does fantasy end, and reality begin? He has invested too much to reinvent himself.
The problem with a “persona” like his is due to it being all word of mouth FROM HIM! If he had actual people who could back up the BS, or like those in the military, had documentation of his “feats”, It would be a different story. First rule is that someone who’s actually done the things he’s said he’s done, doesn’t talk about it. My DD-214 can do my talking for me, as well as other certifications. I am proud of what I’ve accomplished, and my pride in those accomplishments isn’t based on the opinions of my peers or subordinates after the fact, and it never has been.
True. But think of all the hundreds and thousands who don’t know better. Especially all the younger ones full of piss and vinegar looking for some “excitement”. It appeals to them. He appeals to the ignorant. And, some who should know better… for whatever reason.
That is why you have been doing, what you have been doing. Smoking out the poser.
Funny thing is that was all I was doing originally, was calling him on his “Commando” BS. The rest of it came out the more I dug up.
Dug himself a pretty deep hole, didn’t he? Mr. been there, done that… and, plus some more, been there and done that. I’m guessing he is able to defy time in some alternate reality/universe. Ya know, all that other stuff, between missing 2 days on the mat, through broken bones, in 17 years! Plus running a Anti-Terrorist Security outfit to boot. While globe-trotting in world hot-spots. While learning such and such commando stuff from such men! And etc. erp.
Look, I have always been suspicious by nature. But its not like I have never been suckered in before. I’m just glad that good people caught on to him.
Yup, the hole he dug is even deeper than his useless vagina.
And that will take a mountain to fill.
Mt Everest at a minimum
Oh, at least. LOL.
Or, we could throw the pacific ocean in it and give him that slushy feel.
If he keeps diggin’, maybe he’ll find the fukishima waste. LOL
Bingo!
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…and of course by following the breadcrumbs, we’ll someday be confronted at belt buckle range, by the ‘man’ hisself, who KNOWS his skillset is superior, because he’s learned much from such men… isn’t that the real reason for his ‘iiiperson tour’ – traveling the countryside (as he did on his national dojo tour, over 17 years… high speed breakfalls onto concrete and all that…) – so he can show us all to be afraid of him, and he can post video of us cowering, and begging for mercy, and etc.?
Oh, wait. That was fantasy, like NyteOrchid and “Cuntland ‘the faux’ Girljeans”…
Like Kenny shared, this practically writes itself.
As we enter the holiday weekend off topic but doubt Mike would mind lets remember All who have died in wars in the past for a moment.You do not have to agree/disagree with the reasons/whys/politics of why a war happened to remember the dead.They were all someone’s family/friend/brother/sister/fellow citizen.The cost of war is very high in human lives and while am in total agreement to being ready to defend yourself/loved ones/country lets as we remember try and figure out any way we can avoid the insanity of war in the future.I realize a bit optimistic and perhaps impossible to do but given the cost we have to at least try.