Mature adults carry their weapons. Because why would you deliberately choose to be helpless?
No, this wasn’t intended to be a picture of Neighbor D’s ass. It was just a fence-building photo that went horribly wrong. But it does show D rockin’ the cowboy look, which has always been his thing. Not sure why, but none of my business.
They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
Little Bear 2009-2018
Laddie the Amazing Torso Boy 2011-2020
"Freedom Outlaw. It’s not what you do; it’s how you do it. It’s an attitude — from which actions always follow. It’s a do-it-yourself occupation. And a lifetime vocation."
- Claire Wolfe, Backwoods Home Companion, 6-07-10
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
- G. K. Chesterton
"If every Jewish and anti-Nazi family in Germany had owned a Mauser rifle and twenty rounds of ammunition and the will to use it, Adolf Hitler would be a little-known footnote to the history of the Weimar Republic."
- Aaron Zelman
"Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force."
- Barbie
"Never underestimate the ability of shit to find a fan."
- F. Paul Wilson
"You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs." The sophistry of villains - Bah!
- Robert A. Heinlein, Double Star
“Truth is, I’m not specifically interested in an armed society. What I want is a free society.”
- George Potter
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.
- D. H. Lawrence
Aristippus passed Diogenes as he was washing lentils.
He said, “If you could but learn to flatter the king, you would not have to live on lentils.”
Diogenes said, “And if you could learn to live on lentils, you would not have to flatter the king.”
Sandy Hook was a Gun Free Zone. So was the Westroads Mall. And the Aurora Theater. And Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Should I go on? They were all Gun Free Zones.Â
– Reality
“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
- Robert A. Heinlein
"Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
- Ayn Rand
If ever a man should ask you
For your business or your name
Tell him to go and fuck himself
Tell his friends to do the same.
For a man who'd trade his liberty
For a safe and dreamless sleep
Doesn't deserve the both of them
And neither shall he keep.
- Frank Turner
Don't be afraid to try something big, just because you're an amateur. The Ark was built by amateurs. The Titanic was built by professionals.
- Anon
"Nothing scares a police officer more than the threat of being treated the way that they treat people every day."
- Anon
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."
- Gen. James Mattis
"Lust for power is the most flagrant of all the passions."
- Tacitus
"The man who knows what freedom means will find a way to be free."
- F.A. "Baldy" Harper
"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude."
- William James
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
- Viktor Frankl
The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country.
- Milton Friedman
“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
- William Faulkner
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
- Ernest Hemingway
"Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
John Moses Browning - The most badass Mormon who ever lived.
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'"
- Ronald Reagan
The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.
- James A. Baldwin
"It is better to be a warrior in a garden than to be a gardener in a war."
- Anon
“I tried to live in such a way that, when dying, I would rather feel happy than scared.”
– Witold Pilecki
Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.
- Sallust
"Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark."
- Lazarus Long
Read, every day, something no one else is reading.
Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.
Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.
It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
– Â Christopher Morley
“I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.”
-Frederick Douglass
ESSE QUAM VIDERI –
To be, rather than to seem
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
“A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.”
– Ida B. Wells
Do what thy manhood bid thee do; from none but self expect applause.
He noblest lives and noblest dies, who makes and keeps his self made laws
– Sir Richard Burton
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
– Winston Churchill
“Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Dance as though no one is watching you. Love as though you have never been hurt before. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth.”
― Father Alfred d’Souza
Off topic, but what’s the green stuff on the post? I assume it’s rot or termite preventative of some sort; is the green stuff (whatever it is) better than creosote?
It’s a copper-based wood preservative. I don’t know the brand name.
I wanna know more about the hogleg Neighbor D is packin’. Don’t wanna know nuthin’ ’bout no d*** fenceposts.
Ruger Vaquero in .45 Colt. I’ve shot it, and it’s a very sweet pistol for the money.
I am wearing the cone of shame today. Trying out a new daily schedule pattern, I realized as I arrived at the pool in town that while I had carefully packed belt, holster, spare mag, light, and blade, along with clothes and pool stuff, I had managed to get out of the house without the Safepacker which had the holster’s intended contents.
Suffice it to say that this does not happen often, but it happened today. And while it might be tempting to say that it did simplify the post-swim dressing process, that would only really be true if the end result was that I actually felt dressed.
So, cone of shame, and comitant loss of grownup points on my card. My penance is that today is now become a committed review of available pickup weapons and a little extra attention to blade availability, escape routes and response times. (I’ve no intention of letting a lack of optimized hardware affect my attitude.)
The green stuff is probably ACA, “Ammonia Copper Arsenate”, or something similar.
Oh, and I’m a huge fan of the Blackhawk design, as well as the original Vaquero. (Haven’t logged enough time with the “new”, slightly-more-svelte Vaquero to have an authoritative opinion on it, but if I don’t need the kerflattenboomer power that the Blackhawk is capable of, I suspect that would be a very nice field piece indeed, especially with slightly optimized sights.)
Afield with the possibility of encountering large beasties, my own ass–I’ll spare everyone the pic 🙂 –usually sports a box-stock 4-5/8″ Blackhawk with 325-grain Buffalo Bore (.45LC) loads. Power-wise, if it can be done with a handgun, this will do it, and yet this 1911-sized piece is belt-comfortable all day. At that power level, I can get subsequent shots off as fast as I can with a DA design (periodic re-testing has been gratifyingly consistent), and all the comparable DA designs I’ve considered are both bigger and more expensive. I’m not sure you can do better, for the money.
Kevin, I’ve showed up at off-site chores with an empty holster any number of times, having left my revolver on the kitchen counter for whatever reason. Also the sights are the one thing I don’t like about D’s Vaquero, but then I loathe the sights on my Taurus but it still works, so you take what you can get. The one thing about revolvers I will change after betraying the revolution and setting myself up as president-for-life is mandating that they all be capable of receiving decent aftermarket sights.
Yeah, most fixed revolver sights have only the “rugged” benefit going for them. It seems odd, doesn’t it, that so many are so little different than they were a hundred years ago, while most auto pistol sights have improved dramatically? (And yet I still love my Centennial J just the same.)
If I come in to a Vaquero some day, I’ll have the notch widened and the front blade cut to a glare-free post, which should cost relatively little. Or, if my ship comes in and I have the time and the money, I’ll just call up Hamilton Bowen and ask him to do that voodoo he do so well. (If you haven’t seen Bowen’s work before, beware before looking, and for heaven’s sake never pick one up. 🙂
just wanted to say thanks for turning me on to The Art of Not Being Governed.
And I never liked the sheepdog wolves analogy. From either the non costumed badge carrying side or the costumed badge carrying side.
Ruger does make some very fine firearms. One of the nicest features is the transfer bar safety so you can load all the cylinders. The stainless steel and .45 LC caliber are not shabby ether. Oh well, I guess that I will have to simply make do with my old .357 S&W model 19… sigh.
In one of my sillier purchases, I got a Ruger Super Blackhawk with the heavy 10″ barrel. I find that even with all that weight, it is much less pleasant to shoot than my 5″ S&W 629, and vastly more difficult to carry. What it really needs is a Bisley grip and hammer (I shot a .500 Linebaugh once with that Bisley grip, it was fine).
Outside of grizzly areas, a .357 is all you need in a revolver – or maybe even that nice .327 Mag Ruger:
http://www.gunblast.com/Ruger-Single7.htm