Today a convention begins in chaos, amid cries of law and order, that classic killer of freedom. Today, the media mourns three blue lives, as if the murder of armed agents of the state is worse than decades of police murders of the less politically protected.
Well, I don’t know which is more depressing: presidential candidates who’ve never succumbed to any vices or those who have but lie about it.
Rigidly straightlaced people rarely make empathetic “leaders.”
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It’s definitely depressing that America’s blood-dancing hoplophobes will still fail to notice a) that it does happen in other countries and b) that an evil guy with an agenda can kill more people with a truck than with a firearm.
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And why do so many people consider it somehow “better” if the Nazgul preserve an appearance of impartiality, even when they clearly have agendas?
This is like the dysfunctional family that thinks as long as nobody talks about the problem, there is no problem.
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While clearly there’s a lot in the world to be pissed off about (and there always has been, right from the time the first finny thing ate the first one-celled squiggly thing), I had no idea until Joel mentioned it that today is supposed to be a national day of rage.
Which is good. Because so far, as of early afternoon Pacific time, I haven’t yet managed to get beyond a good ennui.
Still, there’s time. Even if one can’t manage more than a state of mild vexation today, perhaps a touch of contumely toward one’s presumptive rulers, The Brunett warned recently of a dangerously mad summer to come.
Could be. I don’t share either the fear or the rage, but then I live in a peaceful, pleasant backwater, where the people around me are actually, you know, nice. And many of them reasonably self-sufficient and busy enough with their lives not to set aside public time for rage and riot.
(ETA) Thus it was almost a relief to learn from wise commentors that no one’s seriously demanding that we get all enraged after all. At least not today. Whew.
Still, does anybody doubt that we’re only seeing the beginning of dangerous times?
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As for me, since Robbie died, I’ve been taking extra walks with Ava. Sometimes our walks are just the usual thing, a mile or two in the morning or afternoon. But we’ve done more than our share of hilly trecks that (speaking only for me; I don’t know about Ava) get the heart rate going and produce a happy soreness in thighs and calves. I think both Ava and I have lost a little weight this last week on this routine.
But to heck with getting overly healthy. We’ve also earned our indulgences. Yesterday after one such hike, we stopped at the little tienda in town and bought a fat slice of tres leches cake (swimming in thick cream!) and a Jarritos tamarind soda. Took them both over to the waterfront and enjoyed them there. Ava got to lick the cake carton.
I don’t like carbonated beverages and rarely ever have soft drinks of any sort. But I love how these fruity Mexican sodas boast of their gloriously high, and pure, sugar content. In this age of low-cal/no-cal everything, when even the worst sort of junk food masquerades as healthy (often because it’s filled with distinctly unhealthy manmade ingredients), it’s refreshing to see sugar proclaiming itself so cheekily from the side of a bottle. A bottle that, BTW, still requires a churchkey opener that’s hung from the side of an old-fashioned refrigerator case.
The tienda also has incredible tacos — handmade soft corn tortillas, folded over seasoned meat, avocado slices, crema, and fresh cilantro, among other goodies. But I’ll go back for those another day.
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In the meantime, don’t feel you absolutely have to go out tonight and, on command, work yourself into such a righteous rage that you forget to enjoy your Friday and your weekend. :-)
Here we are, less than 250 years after one of human history’s most glorious moments, the supposed beneficiaries of that glory, watching our country crumble. Economic ruin and stagnation. A police state obsessed with surveillance and control. Even formerly all-holy free speech under relentless attack from glassy-eyed apparatchiks.
And even the most unaware among We the Ordinary are beginning to wonder, “How did we get here?”
How J.R.R. Tolkein found Mordor on the Western Front. Simplistic. But with the 100th anniversary of the unthinkable Battle of the Somme, apropos.
Bill and Loretta. Yeah, I suppose it’s possible that they really did talk about their families, as Lynch insists with a wink-wink, nod-nod. If so, the conversation probably went like this.
What a cesspit and an illegal tavern tell us about American revolutionary history.
Anybody here still living in California? Plan to continue there after this? And how on earth is that background-check-and-registration-for-ammo going to work? Well, of course ultimately it’s not going to work (except in the sense of keeping people from buying cartridges, which is surely the real point). But I’m trying to think of the costs, the backlogs, the bureaucratic screwups, the unwillingness of FFLs to want to bother, the entirely new bunch of tax-suckers this will require. (It’s not clear from what I’ve read whether the b-c-a-r-f ammo provision will ultimately go into effect.)
And after that load of disgustingness, we close — and cleanse our spirits — with some beautiful courage and inspiration from Mike Vanderboegh.
Thomas Paine wrote those wordsafter the shooting had already begun at Lexington and Concord, after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a fact that always surprises me. We tend to think that by that time, the game was on, lines were irrevocably crossed, and everybody who was going to take a side and get involved was already committed. But not quite so.
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We of course haven’t even had our Lexington moment yet and frankly I pray we never do. Even in the best cases (and the American Revolution was certainly one of those), shooting wars ultimately play into the hands of the most wily statists. Who shoots first, shoots straightest, has the biggest weaponry, or has “God on their side” doesn’t always determine how free people are once the smoke has cleared.
Because the MSM (and of course most of the gunblogosphere) is currently “all murder, all the time,” I thought a bit of good news was in order (courtesy of MJR).
Seems recently the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife “requested” access to a creekside property to survey for some frog you’ve never heard of.
The homeowners said yes. That is, they said yes … BUT.
It was the premise of the Politico article that drew me in. It was the claim that politics of 2030 would be shaped by the ghastly presidential election of 2016. There would be big changes to come.
Given the tumult of the times, I don’t doubt that one bit. The contest between The Hillary and The Donald, and all the odd and shifting v*ter alignments and policy preferences around it, is bound to reverberate into the future. It’s something I’ve thought a lot about. I wondered if others were coming to similar conclusions. So I read.
The barefoot one didn’t manage to freeze Mama. Reading this article, I’m not sure whether Colton Harris-Moore is a naive young kid or a crass hustler who’s going to head right straight for trouble again when they release him from prison this summer.
“This Bud’s for you, America.” Another one to read mainly because it’s by George Will, who writes like a barbed angel. The whole business with Budweiser’s temporary name change is as pathetic as it is cynical.
Why are house prices soaring across this Great Land of Budweiser? One guess.
When headlines lie: “American Airlines is fed up with the TSA and taking matters into its own hands.” Don’t we wish? But no, American Airlines is scared of losing money and having its service and employees reviled because of the TSA’s bad behavior. So it’s enabling the TSA in exactly the same sense a co-dependent enables an alcoholic.
Anybody up for 13 solid minutes of Hillary Clinton lies? No? Me, neither. Twenty years of them is enough, already. But for you who have stronger stomachs, here’s the video.
The bigotry continues. House v*tes to ban Confederate flags at V.A. cemeteries. Presumably even on the graves of men who fought for the Confederacy.
Not news to most here. But it’s been downhill since Jefferson wrote those famous words. Downhill as a nation, anyhow. As a government. But not all downhill for individuals determined to remain free.
And the thing I think Elias would most like you to know about (and contribute to): a a new movie he’s hoping to complete with a little help from friends.
Currently the site is a mix of the new and old, with navigation not always smooth between its component parts. But then, it’s a work in progress. Just like Elias himself. Just like me. Just like most everything.
I’ll ask Elias to keep me posted as he adds new features.
Sorrys in advance for being unable to remember now where I got some of these links. I’ve been saving them up for a while. So thanks to The Usual Suspects. :-)
Joel got to this one first, but it’s too pure-and-simply wonderful not to re-blog: the mystery of the squatter in the woods who came and left with no trace. Ghostery to the max!
But this … once again takes “small-space living” to crazy extremes. Only in San Francisco. Or New York City. Or London. Or other places that have become hellholes for normal people.
Kevin Wilmeth comments on my TZP “constitutional carry” piece and gets it exactly right: “The only downside I can see, honestly, is that celebrating a good thing for what it is, isn’t going to help the sort of prag mindset that still can’t distinguish between long-term strategy and true pre-emptive surrender.”
OTOH … ouch. Stupid, angry people and guns are another matter.
Finally, an accurate scale model of the U.S. government. Only not dangerous enough. Or complicated enough. And more purposeful, even if nobody has any idea what the purpose is.
I’ve had a lot of time to think this week and one question runs through my mind: Why is freedom so closely and (for many) irretrievably associated with fighting?
Sure, we do periodically have to defend freedom against tyrants. And defend it more frequently against incremental encroachments and (if I may coin a term) the political encockroaches who so encroach.
But given that the main thing we do with freedom is enjoy it, given that it is, in most of our lives, as lovely and easy a thing as pure air, why the sticky association with strife, battle, bloodshed, anguish, and all things bad?
That doesn’t make freedom sound like much fun at all. Or like anything most people would want to have. Is it just because we’re hardwired to take freedom for granted when it’s not threatened? Is all this emphasis on fighting just because of the times we live in? What?
Why is freedom so closely and (for many) irretrievably associated with fighting? And for that matter, why are so many who claim to be ardent supporters of freedom the very sort of people you’d prefer not to have for your next-door neighbors in any would-be Libertopia?
I was going to post this yesterday before home Internet disappeared. But have I mentioned it was a crazy week? So, belatedly, the library’s wifi system and I present today’s links:
But speaking of following orders, what the hell kind of government would do this — or even think of ordering thugs to do such a thing??? (Another look at it with more detail. Both stolen from Wendy McElroy.)
And speaking of unsurprising things, why are we always supposed to be so shocked when, generation after generation, war after war, the fedgov perpetrates atrocities upon its own soldiers, then not only denies doing so, but even denies care to the poor saps?
And if you prefer more peaceful thoughts, you can download high-res versions of 19th-century Japanese woodblock prints, courtesy of he-knows-who-he-is in comments.
Finally, I’m not linking because I expect you to care about Nevada or South Carolina caucusaries or primuses. I’m linking it just because the name of Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, always makes me laugh. I mean, is that name straight out of Atlas Shrugged, or what?
