…and you live a really long time, you might someday manage to look like this Datsun I saw while filling water bottles this morning.
It was ironically parked next to a Fiat so new…
…that at first I barely recognized it as a car.
ETA: Personal to that guy who left that screw on the road…
Thanks for everything you did to keep our morning unpredictable.
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.
– 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.
– 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
It seems that Nissan stopped USA sales of Datsun-badged cars in 1986, so yea that’s pretty old.
You might wonder why Nissan decided at first to sell their cars and trucks in the USA under the Datsun badge. I know I always did.
And at my orientation when I went to (briefly) work at Nissan 23 years ago, I learned the answer. Or at least an answer: I don’t promise it’s entirely true. They said that when Nissan began selling compact trucks in the US in the fifties, Yutaka Katayama thought the name sounded vaguely German and so wouldn’t remind Americans of, er, certain recent unpleasantries. Actually the name is older than that, so like I said it might not be entirely true but that was the story.
Might be the same reason Mitsubishi’s American version of their official history doesn’t mention their most famous product.
The Velveteen Datsun.
Brings back old times! Still have the ’76 Z I bought new in Ohio. Its been to both coasts with me and was my daily driver until 2016. That old car is on second engine and second paint. It’s a dream to service. You can open the hood and see ground below. Lots of it. Now it has operating reserve status to the smallest version Nissan van, manufacturer selected for perhaps evident reason. It’s an old bias, we all know passage of time changes many things.
Student of the Pacific War beginning way way back in my teens. Golly, I wonder if Grumman and Chance Vought sell cars in Japan today? OK, didn’t think so. 🙂
I would rather have that old Datsun then that Fiat or any new domestic. I used to have an old Datsun 510 wagon and pickups. They were dependable, easy to work on and long lasting
1976 280Z. Oh, there was a car…
Hey Joel, it still is Sir 🙂
And still fun to drive. ~’77 did ~135mph on the wide open Cincinnati beltway (it was just a one time test, see).
Was always a driving machine here so It is showing its years…
I remember a lot of 510’s around back then. People I knew liked ’em. Detroit was losing its mojo. And Toyota was building a rock solid reputation.
Why the Z back then, anyone ask?
Well, about ’74 I was riding around in a ’70 Beetle which I liked a bunch lots.
My best friend from school who was now running a truck suspension shop his Dad built in north Jersey, had just snapped up a new ’74 Z and let go his Firebird 400 he had during school days (A Corvette was probably faster, but the Z was nimble and less expensive).
No biggie, nice car, so what diff.
Until one day I was getting on the freeway behind him and he left me in the dust like I was driving a oxcart. Freeway merge ability and focus matters to me. So, mission start. 🙂
I’m partial to good Engineers and Mechanics.
Good machines are fun (and often very useful) !
I had a 1971 240Z…I wish I still had it.
Our first 4 wheel drive when we moved to Colorado was a Dodge Raider, which, it turns out, was actually a Mitsubishi Montero. So much for name recognition.
I like the old Datsuns, especially the 280ZX. Just sitting there, they look like they were doing a hundred. The story about the name sounds plausible. There is, however, an old joke about naming this car brand…
The night before the press conference to announce the new car brand the senior executives at Nissan were still in a quandary about a name. Finally, the CEO called the head of marketing and said: “We have no idea what brand name will work in America. Come up with an idea.” The marketing director said he would do his best and asked when the name project would be due. The CEO replied: “In the morning. Can you do it?” The marketing director, after a moment’s thought, replied: “Datsun, eh?” 🤣
It’s no big surprise seeing these old cars around where you are considering the dryness and lack of salt used on the roads in winter. Up here, if you don’t rustproof your car, you can almost watch it rot away in real-time.
My first car was a Datsun 1600 roadster. That was a great car to learn about spins. 😉 You had to double clutch her to downshift into second, But what fun she was!
I had 3 Datsuns beginning in ‘63. The first was the Fairlady sports car, with the only accessory being a bolt-on hardtop; the second was the small station wagon, (I got married), and the 3rd was their small pickup. Loved them all.