I’m sorry to be so late. First of all this is all my younger son’s fault, as he was doing a guest post for my blog. However, it seems to have morphed into a short story, so…
I have a guest post from Colonel Kratman, but my stupid computer won’t let me open it. This leaves me stuck writing by myself. I thought I’d go back to Copybook Headings by Kipling, because someone has to. This is going to be a very short post because I have throat ache from heck. This con-crud might not be. My eye doctor said he had something similar but it just kept getting odder and odder and lasted about two months. Let’s hope not. I don’t mind the pain or the TB level cough that means I must medicate to sleep (which I hate—yes, even cough meds) but I DO mind the low-grade fever.
So, The Gods of the Copybook Headings by Rudyard Kipling…
What’s shocking about the poem is that it is so astonishingly modern.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
This is one of the most tiresome lies told to civilized man. “if you disarm, the police/the authorities/the powerful will look after you. Bad people can’t get you. There will be peace.”
But the powerful have a really bad record of doing what’s good for anyone else, the authorities that are supposed to protect you always turn on you in the end, feudalism is a beautiful system but only for the feudal lord, and the peasants in their undefended huts are prey to all sorts of evil marauders.
And yet, we still get it, in this day and age we still hear it, “if you just give up your weapons, you’ll be safe.” “If you just shut up, we won’t attack you.” “If you are a good boy/girl, we’ll be kind to you.”
The Jews rounded up by Hitler went quietly, civilizedly, because they were appalled at what they were being accused of, afraid that they’d be called worse things, afraid of being thought a disturbing element.
And besides, what could happen? The German people were SO civilized.
If you aren’t defending yourself, if you’re counting on someone else to defend you, realize that no one – no one – has the right or the duty to keep you alive.
And that “desert” is another name for “peace.”
Completely different post over at Mad Genius Club: Whirlpools.
According To Hoyt 
Or, as I like to say: “The United Nations was founded to promote peace and understanding. And it all worked out very well, except for the peace. And the understanding.”
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Recall that the Babelfish was responsible for more, and more horrible, wars than any other discovery.
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I just finished A Desert Called Peace. Also I just moved into an apartment for the first time with my best friend.. Next year could be interesting- He wants to get a gun, and then train/teach me about it. Roommate is former active duty army currently in the reserves.
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By all means repair what sounds like glaring ignorance. On the other hand consider that learning about guns from your best friend may just be like learning to drive from a parent. Finally I’d question the ability of anyone who doesn’t currently have at least one firearm handy but perhaps the economy demanded great sacrifices.
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For several reasons, I’ve always preferred edged weapons, but I’ve been convinced I need a gun.
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Ask Kratman about tomahawks – maybe you have? – or see Manley Wade Wellman’s brother Paul I. Wellman’s novel, The Iron Mistress, … but then again it’s not a gun it’s two is one, one is none and the handgun is to fight your way to your rifle.
And to repeat myself on the off chance (actually a pretty good chance) that I have something your other contacts don’t your whole family is invited to play with any of mine for test and evaluation. Michael Bane (Wednesday night outdoor TV and a pretty good writer in his own right) spoke highly of your writing. Have you seen his DVD from Panteo on Concealed Carry?
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One of the greater crimes committed by the US education system is that we do not teach age appropriate gun safety and handling in every grade of our schools K through 12.
Think for a moment. We have an estimated 300 million firearms held by 80 to 100 million families in this country. What is the likelihood that a child will never experience an unsupervised encounter with a loaded weapon? The liberal belief that failing to at least provide them the knowledge on how to treat a gun responsibly keeps them safer makes every bit as much sense as the theory that if you just don’t mention sex to the kids we won’t have any STDs or teen pregnancies. But then again liberal logic does seem to be a classic oxymoron.
Due to your situation I’d recommend you pick up a shotgun, either 20 or 12 gauge, preferably with what is known as a slug or deer barrel of 18.5 inch length. Such can be had fairly cheaply, the ammo is readily available even these days, and it avoids the onus of “evil handgun” while being quite lethal at short range. Once acquired schedule a day trip with the entire family to somewhere that you can all shoot several round through the gun. Having an NRA certified instructor there is a definite plus. I suspect you have several in your circle of friends whether you know it or not. And of course the first step is to familiarize yourselves with the basic rules of gun safety and the individual idiosyncrasies relevant to your individual weapon.
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I was going to say, they rage if we don’t tell kids how penises work, but they’re cool with not telling them about guns? But you said it.
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I remember this movie. I watch it everytime it happens to pop up.
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“The penis is evil”
Always love that quote!
So, Sarah, when did you become a radical feminist? ;-)
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You’re assuming I don’t like evil, sweetie ;)
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So does that mean the hair hides the horns? :-)
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Paradoxically, there is good Evil and bad Evil. Nothing wrong with liking good Evil.
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That was my resonse to that silly twit who wrote a column about buying and carrying a gun with no training. Make the necessary training part of the k-12 curriculum. It’s not that hard, and the boys are destined for the militia anyway (why haven’t the people screaming for women to be allowed in combat been working to include women in the draft and the unorganized militia? Oh, right, it’s not about equality, it’s about destroying social institutions.).
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Having a gun is no reason to get rid of your edged weapons. ;)
I know others are recommending shotguns and such, for perfectly good reasons, but they are somewhat inconvenient for you to carry when you go for a walk (which you mentioned is no longer safe unless you take one of your boys along), so for that reason I would recommend a handgun. By all means make sure you are well-versed in gun handling safety. You have mentioned previously you have difficulty hitting the broad side of a barn (possibly even from the inside), while I am personally somewhat of an accuracy fanatic, in reality for your most likely scenario, accuracy is not all that important. Get a handgun that is convenient for you to pack (if you habitually carry a purse you can carry a somewhat heavier and larger gun comfortably than if you are wearing it in,say, an inside the pant holster, so think of how you will be packing it before purchasing). I recommend as powerful of one as you can comfortably handle, but not moreso. The thing is you are unlikely to use a handgun in self-defense at much more than convenient spear range, and at such ranges accuracy in a much smaller concern. If you get attacked while out taking a walk you are unlikely to be concentrating on drawing a fine bead and making sure you squeeze the trigger smoothly anyways, and it doesn’t take a great deal of accuracy out of either the gun or the wielder to hit a mansized target at 5 feet.
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So my publisher told me. (G-d, I love that woman.)
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Someday, when at a range that isn’t overseen by a hovering park agent with his long list of rules for his shiny new remodel, I’d like to show you my nifty little carry piece (Keltec PMR-30, for the gun aficionados), and put a paper target at 15, then 5 feet away from us. Ranges that want me to start shooting at 30 yards miss the entire point of defensive use: if someone is 30 yards away, they’re not a deadly threat to me.
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Tueller Drill might pay off some day.
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“if someone is 30 yards away, they’re not a deadly threat to me.”
Au contraire, there’s a reason for football coaches to measure player speed by “how fast can you run 40 yards”. One of the things I wish the Zimmerman defense team had emphasized.
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I feel that in debating edged weapons versus firearms too many people are overlooking the benefits of blunt force trauma. A walking stick, a cudgel, a baton, shillelagh, club, baseball bat (the miniature souvenir versions are excellent), ax handle or beer bottle (especially Australian beers) — all offer opportunities, when skillfully applied, to persuade aggressors you are best left alone.
For that matter, a roll of dimes secured in the fist makes a very compelling argument, albeit one which wants forceful expression.
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I prefer a roll of nickels myself, and if you plan on taking more than one punch use a little black tape on the roll so it doesn’t explode on the first impact.
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Whatever fits your hand, frankly. I have found quarters very satisfying even though my hands are smaller than my phenotype would suggest.
Let us pause here to contemplate what a wonderful world we inhabit, in which rolls of coins are available in plastic sleeves instead of paper ones.
Keep in mind, as well, that your own body is among the least desirable things with which to directly strike an aggressor. Whenever possible use a stick, club, hammer, rock etc.
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I use keys– middle finger in the ring, keys against the back of my hand. I play with them. For some reason it makes people nervous when I fiddle with it.
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I had considered mentioning keys, but as I was advocating on behalf of blunt force trauma implements it seemed contrary to include an edged weapon.
Is also why I said nothing about the employment of aerosol spray and butane lighter. If you have “reason” to carry a spray bottle of ammonia window cleaner, that would be preferable to going meekly to your doom.
While there are many reasons I don’t care for the Home Alone series, it should be praised for its advocacy af (and instruction in) improvisational self-defense.
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Straw Dogs (at least the original I’ve never seen the remake) is useful on mindset as well. Joyce Hornady when he was alive used to do a demonstration on reloading is as safe as anything else around the house if not safer. He included spray cans and lighters as well as cooking oil, alcohol and such – currently alcohol based hand cleansers are good for Sterno – and so it goes. Lots of food processor parts can be used for tiger claw sorts of things as well.
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Muwahahah, the Buffy Blow Torch!
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I have a Swiss Army knife that has a wicked-sharp awl that opens out of the middle of the back of the knife. When I grasp the knife in my hand with the awl open, it sticks out about a half-inch between my fingers. I’ve always wondered how much damage it would do, so I tried it against a ruined polyfilled pillow. It’s deadly.
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Anybody else have a little bit of theatre background?
Back when I was in school we used a device called a stage screw (go ahead – you won’t make any smutty joke that I haven’t heard — or probably made) which is used to quickly set in place various items of scenery:
(hunh – I wonder what they use these days!) It is generally a hefty piece of ironmongery designed to be gripped firmly in the hand with the screw extending between middle and ring fingers (see picture) with the screw portion extending two to three inches.
Useful off stage, too.
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But tarantulas are so hard to carry concealed!
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All good and what, but it is best if the goblin in need of dispatch is never actually close enough to hold you, or able to sue you afterwards for you using something out of the ordinary. Yeah, sometimes a dead rapist you shot is better than anything else you did to the deserving to make him that same dead way. Juries and the police are odd like that. Using the Zimmerman case … if he had used a bat or walking stick, even if TM survived, he likely would not have had the police even think self defense and likely would have been booked (and likely would have been charged and convicted if TM died but not from a gunshot) even if everything was just the way it is otherwise.
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Regrettably, non-lethal force seems less than optimum in view of the discovery that the Obama DOJ was organizing and fomenting the Zimmerman lynch mob (http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/07/10/newly-released-documents-detail-the-department-of-justices-role-in-organizing-trayvon-martin-protests/).
Two observations are prompted by such tactics:
1. This actually serves to endanger minority youth, incentivizing lethal force lest you be tried in a biased “your word against his and his counts for twice what yours does” courtroom.
2. The Democrat Party has a long history of organizing lynch mobs, experience which it is obviously willing to employ for contemporary political gain.
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benefit of being here in Texas. mostly that doesn’t happen and when it does it is less effective. A Fox local reporter tried to gin up something on an old man once but all it did was get her “reassigned” and I forget if they let her go or she left on her own.
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Clubs are also very good for those who aren’t very violent by inclination– less “oh, my, that’s blood” type reactions.
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What’s the old joke? “Judge to woman: Why did you strike him? — He called me a two bit whore. Judge: And what weapon did you use? — a bag of quarters.”
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Since something like a walking stick is about the only bigger thing I can carry lawfully (Finnish laws…) – and I have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis, although it doesn’t bother me much yet – something like that is in plans. I can always talk about my knees and the slight difficulty with going down stairs and occasionally getting up if I need to do something like get something from a low shelf in a store if anybody wonders about it. The other alternative, and for now something I’d prefer, is the ‘unbreakable umbrella’. A bit expensive (used walking canes and sticks can be found cheaply, but not those umbrellas) but I’m going to get one as soon as I can spare the money.
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On May 23, 2013 the Wall Street Journal had an article on Bartitsu
http://live.wsj.com/video/bartitsu-how-to-fight-like-sherlock-holmes/BE4A30BF-00EA-4F97-9C48-5657BB3A64C2.html
See accompanying video demonstration. Make sure you acquire a proper bumbershoot for this purpose; the compact models are likely to provide disappointing performance.
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From Wikipedia’s extensive article:
I have been looking at an old manual I downloaded from the web. :)
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I don’t own a gun, but I’m living in rural PA. So I’m kind of depending on herd immunity….
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Not a bad idea, so long as you live in a place where folks are more likely to be startled that you don’t have a gun, than that you do.
A gun is a weapon, after all– and if you have a reason besides “guns are icky” to not have one, it’s cool.
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I prefer the formulation:
I used to emphasize sporting firearm instead of weapon for most of my own firearms but there is a risk in thinking it’s a long distance one hole paper punch when it’s also a loaded gun (all guns are always loaded).
And of course Marian’s husband goes in with an axe handle as his own weapon of choice to deal with Jack Palance.
Although I’m all for proper training with firearms and certainly for universal safety training I’m inclined to think the schools are unlikely to do any better at this than at most things. Once upon a time the students in the schools of education had about the same profile as most other students on the same campus. These days the students in Education are scoring lower on entry – though perhaps making better grades for less work – than most other students on the same campus.
On the other hand when I was teaching hunter safety on the Palouse we had real agony about working with youngsters who wouldn’t read. Highly motivated as they were they learned everything we taught them. Graduation criterion was would you include this child in your hunting party and the answer was almost universally sure much more so than the parent. But we knew too that in a world of changing rules and regulations we were setting the youngsters up for future mistakes as the world changed around them.
Finally like AA I’ll share my experience with firearms but I won’t – much- give general advice on personal choices here. Mostly try a variety and move toward what appeals.
That said Mr. Zimmerman might be better or for all I know worse off today if in addition he’d had say a push dagger arranged for his weak hand or a handy Mini-Maglite he’d practiced with as a Kuboton. With great power comes great responsibility.
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Zimmerman’s mistake was thinking his neighbors were worth defending.
Man’s screaming for help, and the best anyone does is call the cops. I’m a runt, and I’d have called 911 while I was running out for an attack of opportunity at someone’s head.
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Hard to know whose head in the circumstances. I knew a trainer who always started his simulations by simulating killing over-eager first responders. It seemed a useful reminder not to wing it. There are any number of such training scenarios that flip-flop the good guy and the bad guy or make the whole thing a joint ambush the first responder setup.
As somebody wrote realize that no one – no one – has the right or the duty to keep you alive
No breach of duty in the general population to not get involved in what they don’t understand nor in what they do understand.
This is distinct from trained folks in full gear with at least soft body armor should run to the sound of the guns as at Columbine (rather than the safer establish a perimeter outside the school and then leave a contact person at the entry point and everybody else goes in the same door and stays together in sight moving slowly and stacking up then pieing every corner so there is no non-playing character coming the other direction to startle and be startled)
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No breach of duty in the general population to not get involved in what they don’t understand nor in what they do understand.
Quite disagree, but that would appear to be a basic philosophical difference.
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I’d like to think I’d take the time to fiddle with high button shoes or be willing to take a surely harmless needle in the chest and maybe I would and maybe I wouldn’t.
That said I don’t think I can define duty even for myself and surely not for anybody else let alone for everybody else. I don’t think anybody else can define my duty. There are a myriad of high sounding formulations:
I’m not sure his defense of slavery and some of the ways he did that was doing his duty but he must have thought so. Be nice to ask Pickett to expand his own few words on the subject.
I did once carry a Randall that had duty faith and love engraved after the quote I first saw in the Silver John stories that duty faith and love are roots and evergreen – that’s how I came to learn Manley’s brother had written the Jim Bowie book. But I was younger then and knew more.
I’d be interested to see any folks dispute the author of the ” no one – no one – has the right or the duty to keep you alive ” quote – this is a good forum for that.
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“A Farewell to Arms” by George Peele
His golden locks Time hath to silver turn’d;
O Time too swift, O swiftness never ceasing!
His youth ‘gainst time and age hath ever spurn’d,
But spurn’d in vain; youth waneth by increasing:
Beauty, strength, youth, are flowers but fading seen;
Duty, faith, love, are roots, and ever green.
His helmet now shall make a hive for bees;
And, lovers’ sonnets turn’d to holy psalms,
A man-at-arms must now serve on his knees,
And feed on prayers, which are Age his alms:
But though from court to cottage he depart,
His Saint is sure of his unspotted heart.
And when he saddest sits in homely cell,
He’ll teach his swains this carol for a song,–
‘Blest be the hearts that wish my sovereign well,
Curst be the souls that think her any wrong.’
Goddess, allow this aged man his right
To be your beadsman now that was your knight.
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That is beautiful….
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I have been in several big wave rescue situations where most of the bystanders were as well equipped (fins, surfboards) as I was, but just stood by watching. At the time, not acting was not an option for me. I honestly could not comprehend the lack of action by others. Philosophical difference? Maybe, but I was young and immortal as well.
Re guns vs edged weapons, we keep a katana handy.
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CEM put it in greater depth than I could, but my views overlap with his.
Foxfier, not everyone is a veteran like you.
The analogy of sheep and sheep dogs is relevant here IMHO…although nowadays their roles have departed from their proper balance.
That said, yes it’s true that (most of) the people who didn’t go to Zimmerman’s aid have nothing to be proud of.
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Thank you for the implied complement, but I really can’t imagine not going out– even when I’m cursing myself for a fool.
I don’t have any real training for fighting. I just know I’ve got to do something if I think someone could be in trouble.
Additionally, next time– it might be me that some wanna-be punk that’s getting kicks out of random attacks and chest-beating on social media goes after, once he decides I’m a “safe” target. I pray to God that the outcome is as good as this case. (For those going “but he was a cute little kid gunned down” etc– check out Legal Insurrection’s guest blogger that’s on site. Even the prosecution’s witnesses favor the defense.)
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See especially, at least as currently reported, the obscured and delayed files from Mr. Martin’s cell-phone for a character study. Who knows whether more prejudicial than probative?
It does appear to me that the current trial is in the nature of a show trial in the Darkness at Noon manner of show trials for objectives of the State.
That said just as we can now say Sacco and Vanzetti were surely railroaded but cannot say what the then facts were – similarly my own view is that the events of that evening in Florida are on the other side of an event horizon – never to be proven and so under our system reasonable doubt exists. I’d say as a matter of law the defense motion for a directed verdict should have been granted.
Doesn’t mean I think the crime scene should have been a mob scene.
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Branca’s reports have been fascinating.
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Yep, I particularly like the fact that the prosecution brought forth several witnesses whose purpose was to ‘prove’ that Zimmerman had training in law, and understood what was legal under Florida’s ‘stand your ground’ law. Since when is claiming the defendant has ‘a full and complete understanding of the law, therefore he knows exactly how far he can push the line without breaking it’, a good prosecution ploy?
Zimmerman is not on trail here, Florida’s self-defense law, and the right to defend yourself, especially against a minority the government favors, is.
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The prosecution’s attempt to cast the fact that his legally carried handgun had a chambered round as being the “ill intent” element of second degree murder should have been rejected by the judge and resulted in a grant of the motion for a directed verdict.
The idea that a criminal justice class textbook was somehow proof of Zimmerman’s attempt to “game” self defense claim was so outrageously illogical that it should also be struck but this judge is in the bag.
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One of the implications of the persecution’s “he knew the law, so he knew what to claim” is that every police officer, prosecutor, and defense lawyer are suspect.
Used to be that just ignorance of the law was no defense. Now knowledge of the law is evidence of guilt…
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It’s been suggested that willingness to talk at length in the immediate aftermath of violence correlates with a cocky attitude that the person can beat the rap and that may imply more.
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In my ideal scenario, you’d have another neighbor giving you a flanking bonus… :)
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Zimmerman’s mistake was defending himself against a man who looked just like Obama’s son, if he would have had one.
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If we now have to watch for alternate-reality Obama sons, we’re good and scr*wed.
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I’m a fumble-fingered idiot when it comes to tools, and power tools scare the hell out of me for that very reason. I’ve fired guns, under controlled conditions, but have real doubts about the intelligence of using one in a hurry.
Abstractly, I think guns are pretty cool.
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If it is at all comfortable, get a Glock. There are many arguments about it from the fanatics to the haters, but for my self-defense money (and I used to have one) the thing that overrides all else is that if you squeeze the trigger it goes bang and if you don’t it doesn’t. This includes dropping it from a stepladder onto a steel plate. Not cleaning it for a ridiculous number of rounds and storing it in seawater for a week. Still a bang when the trigger was pulled and no bang otherwise. The other thing to remember with one is that your holster is you saftey. It should stay there unless you are going to shoot (or clean, or change holsters).
On a more general note, make sure to get instruction on your local law of self-defense so if you do have to use the firearm, you don’t end up in court.
Finally (and this should be covered in your training) don’t bring a gun to a knife fight or a knife to a gun fight. Either one can get you killed.
Forgive me if I am going over stuff that you already know. My defense is that I don’t want anything happening to your before you have written all the stuff that I want to read both fiction and opinion and (as you know) self-defense is a deadly serious matter.
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I second this recommendation, and Glocks are in the mid-price range. On the other hand I don’t own one, and probably never will, because they feel like holding onto a 2×2 to me. Reliability is the single most important thing in a self defense gun, and automatics don’t get much more reliable than Glocks. Revolvers are as a general rule, more reliable than automatics, and double-action revolvers can be fired by simply pulling the trigger, like a Glock they have no separate safety. Revolvers however tend to be larger than autos for comparable calibers, less easy to conceal, and carry less bullets. I often recommend a 357 snubnose revolver to women, any but the absolute cheapest off-brands should be absolutely reliable, they can be shot with 38’s for practice (much less recoil, and much cheaper ammo) and then loaded with 357’s for carry, and far more stopping power than practically any compact auto pistol (they do make a few compact 45’s which are at least in the ballpark of a 357 for stopping power). But revolver’s and especially more powerful ones like the 357 are much thicker through the cylinder and thus much harder to carry concealed if you are wearing tighter-fitting clothing, unless you habitually carry a purse (or yes, a diaper bag, if you have kits :) ). Also again they hold less rounds than most semi-automatics.
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For me, a close second to reliability is comfort. I found a pistol that feels like an extension of my arm in the form of a Gen4 G17. The fact that I get a discount for my profession is just a (very) nice bonus. I admire the 1911 and all of Saint John of Ogden’s work, but they feel awkward in my hand. Revolvers are particularly bad for me in that regard. I believe it was said already, but try a bunch of things and see what works for you. I found mine, but I make no claim to their suitability for anyone else.
Above all (and I know Our Esteemed Hostess knows this already), remember that the only weapon is between your ears. Everything else is just a tool. A wolf or sheepdog barehanded is more dangerous than a sheep with a tank.
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Yep. Like I said that is why I will probably never own a Glock, 1911’s on the other hand are very comfortable in my hand. Revolvers vary greatly, the most comfortable brand overall I have found is Taurus, the large frame ones like my 44 mag Ultralite fit me beautifully while the somewhat smaller framed ones with their ribber (originally a typo, but Taurus didn’t catch it until it had already circulated all over, so then they went with it as the official designation of their ribbed, rubber, grips) grips I find comfortable, but would fit a person with smaller hands better. Redhawks fit my great, and are pleasure to shoot, while I despise Blackhawks unless they have aftermarket grips, because they hurt my hands to shoot even light loads in. I just bought a Security Six in 357 and because it has a small grip I worried about it (bought at an auction, I was unable to test it out beforehand) but surprisingly found it very comfortable to shoot. S&W’s are a tossup, I find some that are comfortable, but probably over 50% I do not, Dan Wesson revolvers on the other hand, I have never fired one I didn’t like (can’t say as I like the price tag on them however). I have found personally that double-action revolvers are much more comfortable than single-action ones. The action type should not affect comfort whatsoever, so I have to conclude that companies tend to copy each other and shape the frame and grips differently on double-actions than single-actions for some arcane reason.
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I just looked at this thread and realized how annoying to the non-gun geeks on this forum it must be that every time guns are mentioned the thread is taken over by multiple page long comments on the pros and cons of various calibers, makes, and models. Sorry.
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One of the things I’m trying to do with one of my half-tamed authors is balancing his love of specific firearm info (think Larry’s early work) with accessibility to people who are not gun geeks. I think it’ll be fine, but I’m always thinking “How would this look to someone who only knows which end the bullet comes out? And probably refers to magazines as clips?” :D
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“How would this look to someone who only knows which end the bullet comes out? And probably refers to magazines as clips?” :D
While I know the difference between magazines and clips, I will refer to a magazine as a clip 99.5% of the time. Because I grew up with them always being called clips, quite likely if I would have asked many of those I grew up with (that handled and used guns daily) to, “hand me that spare magazine.” Their response would be, “huh?”
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Well, I’m more familiar than that, but I call “things which hold bullets and are slid into guns” clips. View it as like correcting someone that’s looking at a herd of cattle and calls them “cows” by saying “no, there are four steers right here and at least one bull with those cows, and I think it’s actually a bunch of pairs with a bull.”
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Finding it rather educational, truth be told.
Mew
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The good thing is, I think, that authors are much more likely to be tolerant because they’re used to researching/asking experts for stories, so it’s skimmed over or filed away for use later – and there’s a heavy portion of geeks here, who even if it isn’t their passion, are well used to dealing with the sudden gleeful side conversation when somebody mentions something they’re passionate about.
Last night, the very-gun-knowledgeable people were looking in confusion as I and another lady were gleefully discussing pipeline welding, and how to get the bottom fill in just right. They clearly had no clue what we were talking about, but just sort of started their own side conversation about something else while continuing to drink tea and eat the same chocolates, and occasionally check if they should understand when we started or giggling or trading knowing looks.
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I find it cute.
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1. Meh. Nobody makes me read this thread. No apology necessary, IMHO. Live and let live.
2. Since I nattered at length on about my PowerPoint slides :roll: elsewhere in this comment section—and got useful feedback!—-, the above attitude cannot be called objective… ;-)
3. Before coming to ATH, I thought that ~40 entries was the most a comment section could handle and remain readable. Now I see that the low three figures are viable. Presumably there is an upper limit, but I don’t know what it is.
4. That upper limit presumably depends on the thread navigation capabilities provided to the reader. Maybe things like colored and dashed lines will come into common use.
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Lots of discussion, mostly unjustified assertion to be followed by contradiction followed by acrimony. Myself I picked a S&W M&P over a Glock. I’d suggest the newish M&P with an optical sight adapter plate from the factory. I have an RMR installed by David Bowie on my own M&P compact (switch barrel for 9×19, .357 Sig and .40 S&W).
The only kaboom in my immediate circle was a Glock in .40 S&W. Given the current Colorado laws the market for Glocks will be interesting in the short term – maybe a resurgence of old magazines limited to the bureaucratic 10 cartridges.
I carried a nicely done 1911 with a thistle on the slide in 9×23 but Hilton Yam is right – the 1911 is very much a specialist’s piece demanding either a very informed operator with time on his/her hands which means a limited duty cycle or a unit armorer with lots of spares to swap out. Hilton Yam has some useful words on a 1911 and such with at least some attention from Mad Mike once upon a time. My game gun is a Wilson CQB which is nice pistol but no more effective than less expensive firearms.
There is no best and many good enough. Billy the Kid did OK with black powder Colt revolvers including escaping from the surrounded and burning McSween house.
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I read that last sentence “escaping from me” three times. Glad I was wrong. Time travelers are so much trouble. ;)
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He’s an E4 in the army…I’d trust him to not have me do something stupid.
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Have you got other home defense measures in place?
Guns are very nice, but sometimes you don’t have them right with you. Before we could afford a gun, I took to putting WD40 sprayers and old kitchen knives up top of various closets; one hand, they’re useful, on the other, they’d really ruin the day of someone coming around a corner.
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oooh.
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Again we come back to my wanting to get together a list of improvised and alternative weapons (with instructions on the improvised ones).
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My favorite was the bookshelf of textbooks at the top of the stairs in the horribly impractical entryway…. The landing was *directly overlooking* the only way up stairs.
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Would be good. And a real service for people living on my side of the pond. Anything innocent you can carry without risking trouble with the law neither before and preferably not even after maybe having to use it for some purpose not intended by its manufacturer. I am intending to get that umbrella but that actually is a bit risky, if I ever ended whacking somebody with it the fact that it is something which is being sold as a potential self-defense weapon might get me in trouble.
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Reading that just broke my heart a little bit. Any time you want to relocate to a free(r) country, the Oyster house has a spare room you can use. That goes for any other Hun or Hoyden looking to leave a more oppressive regime (cf. l’affaire TJIC) for freer lands. My life, my fortune, my sacred honor: did you think they were just words? Did you think that I was joking?
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I would second FRO’s offer, but not only is he considerably farther south, for your SAD, but he probably wouldn’t require you to help finish (drywall, etc.) said room ;). Consolidating our ‘Americans borne abroad of foreign parents’ in America should be both desireable and a good means of protecting them. Unfortunately the Zimmerman trial is doing little to raise such people’s confidence in America’s commitment to rule of law.
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Thank you both. Now keep your fingers crossed that my writing will one day turn into something which gives me an actual income, and who knows. From what I have looked online of local destinations both Arizona and Texas look rather nice. Lots of sunshine. And I like rocks. Would be nice to see places like Grand Canyon and the Meteor Crater in person. :)
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And hey, I have had one uncle who was an American, and one set of grandparents who maybe count (immigrants who came back here). So even my family are not all complete foreigners. :)
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And of course possessing such a list would be merely “research for story purposes”…. :-P
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Yep.
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And if you ever were to use something in real life, it’s because you had researched these things for your writing and thought of that knowledge when the brown stuff hit the fan and you were desperate. And any training done is also only for research purposes – it’s a lot easier to write about something with which you have at least some personal experience, whether it’s sword fighting or knife throwing or riding or picking a lock ;) (well, I write adventure… all kinds of action scenes. Haven’t managed to pick a single lock so far, although I occasionally practice with an old padlock I lost the keys for. And I’m getting slightly better with the throwing knives. At least I now tend to hit the target more often with the blade part first :D).
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Do they make golf umbrellas on your side of the pond. When my brother was working in a pro shop when he was a teenager he got a bunch of leftovers that we used for years. they are incredibly sturdy and just a good thing to have in the car for emergencies. The also had turned wooden hand and were basically a 5/16 in steel rod. Not something you would want to get hit with. But its just a big tough umbrella that doesn’t break in a little wind.
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I don’t know, but I’ll check. Thanks for the tip.
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Look, the Okinawans’ arms
Are multi-tasking at their farms.
Nanchaku are but thresher’s flails
The bo a staff for water pails.
Gifa are for holding hair;
Held in hands, they rip and tear.
The kama is a sugar sickle;
The sai a pitchfork, real little.
The eku is a wooden oar,
And broom or bo can sweep the floor.
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<3
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Samuel L. Jackson and Eddie Murphy demonstrate how being a deadly person matters more than holding a deadly weapon:
It is recommended you not try this at home.
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Talk about mopping up.
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If someone has a shotgun,I prefer ambush from behind over a face to face admonishment of the gunwielder’s manners…
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My preference is to have the screenwriter and director on my payroll.
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True ‘dat. I am minded of two items from fiction.
One was from Trevanian’s The Eiger Sanction, in which the crusty old fighting instructor pounds home the lesson that there are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous men. On the question of fighting on an airliner, he took an inflight magazine, rolled it tightly lengthwise, and used it as a quite-effective club, demonstrating how the rolled end can be used to blind an opponent.
The other is from everybody’s favorite, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, in which Manny relates that Mike noodles out that weapons, as a class, are tools for the delivery of energy to a particular point. He was talking about throwing multi-ton rocks at interplanetary distances. But it’s just as true hand-to-hand.
Developing the habit of thinking of combat this way might free the mind.
M
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For those interested in reading it, newer copies of The Eiger Sanction will be published under the authors name of Robert Ludlum, rather than his pen name. One of several books Ludlum published under a pen name, due to publishers claiming that authors who wrote more than one novel a year were hacks.
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Wasp spray comes highly recommended. WD40? seriously?
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Yeah– there’s a lot of water in the eyes, I know I can aim it, and– like I said– it’s useful to just have around.
If you write a blog post about wasp spray and improvised weapons, you get a redesigned PaulBot that comes and posts about how it’s a horrible idea, buy our product.
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no- it is a basement apartment, so I am not sure how much redecorating we could do. :) I got a big heavy flashlight by my bedside table though.
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Get a dog. Cheapest alarm system in the world. Even a small one will help wake you up before the bad guys get in.
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Started on the next book in the series. Anyone read Founding Brothers? got the audio book version off my neighbor, and find it interesting.
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*raises hand* It’s been a while, but I recall that it was a nice summary.
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I’m LISTENING to it.
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The Brits imported Saxon mercenaries to protect against reavers. That worked well.
Kipling’s work was informed with a deep respect for History and how Humans behave. His ideological opponents, having decided they were more clever and enlightened than anyone else who’d ever lived, disdained History and deemed Human behaviour as malleable as clay.
Which suggests an alternative approach to defining Human Wave fiction: fiction which recognizes and accepts the weight of History and Culture and believes that Human Nature consists of certain unalterable predilections, and that amongst these predilections is the desire for life, liberty and pursuing happiness.
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Obligatory Serenity quote: ” They’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people… better. And I do not hold to that. … I aim to misbehave.”
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“Do you know what your sin is Mal?”
‘Hell! I’m a fan of all seven! but right now I’d have to go with WRATH.’
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Looks like you can get a blog post topic or two out of that for a while.
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The weird thing about today’s disarmament movement is how… disconnected… it is from the reality of violence in the US. They’re essentially saying “let’s you and me take the guns away from Peter so Paul won’t shoot Jim while committing a crime”.
.
Chicago had a record number of shootings last year — and I think they’re on track for another one this year — and ONE involved a rifle. Not even sure if it was a Dreaded Assault Rifle. Very, very few of those shootings were in middle-class neighborhoods. Yet the gun-grabbers literally CROW about their goal being the disarmament of middle-class people! Particularly, for some reason, middle-class white men.
And when the supposedly anti-violence groups make statements essentially supporting the militarization of the police… well, I wonder just what their goals really ARE.
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Cheap moral superiority.
Orwell observed that pacifists were common in England because it’s an island.
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Orwell pointed out to British pacifists that their opposition to the war effort in effect aided the Nazis.
It has been pointed out to the gun-grabbers that disarming the middle class in effect aids armed predators.
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Have you ever read his Collected Letters and Essays? It’s kinda funny. The first volume, up to the outbreak of World War II, he’s pacifist himself and lumps fascism and democracy together. Its last essay is about a sudden volte-face, and he spends the war years lambasting the very same arguments he had offered seriously in the first volume.
(He also firmly believed in Progress. In the last volume — there are four — he clearly suffered a bad shock to that owing to the atom bomb.)
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I’ve dipped into his essays; haven’t read them cover to cover. His piece on Kipling is both a tribute and a takedown: IMHO a very worthwhile corrective to the inordinate adulation by some people and pavlovian condemnation by others. I won’t link it because its copyright status depends on one’s country, but it’s not hard to find online.
I haven’t read the genre intensely since high school but, as long as I’m committing Heresy at Hoyt’s, let me add that while I enjoy and admire Heinlein, my favorite sf authors are, offhand:
1. Jack Vance
2. Poul Anderson
3. C.J. Cherryh, Charles Sheffield, and Clifford Simak (tie)
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YOU MIGHT be irredeemable. I suggest we burn the witch, guys! (Yes, of course I’m joking. De gustibus, etc. I was never into Vance, Sheffield’s politics annoy me, Cherryh is okay but honestly she could learn what to do with endings. — the caveat being I only read her fantasy. The SF “locks me out” — none of these are a judgement of quality. There are many writers because there are many readers.) My tastes change too, about every ten years, so nothing is set in stone. Heinlein is the only constant.
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1. Re Cherryh’s fantasy: Yeah, I didn’t even finish the last Owl book I saw, but much can be forgiven for a masterpiece like The Paladin.
2. I might have to make room for Stapledon on my list if I read more than extracts.
3. I restricted my post to sf; otherwise I’d have to add Pratchett and maybe others who don’t immediately come to mind.
4. LeGuin and maybe Tepper could well have forced me to expand my list if they hadn’t gone PC. Ditto for Bujold if she had taken Miles & milieu into middle age and beyond.
5. De gustibus est semper disputandum, but enough for now PowerPoint calls.
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It’s a well organized call. With graphics.
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1. Yes, thanks, I gathered online that today the kewl kids are embedding a lot of graphics, in contrast to the basalt blocks of bullet points in the old days.
2. Speaking of the old days (early 90s), I remember fighting to get my boss to approve the use of PowerPoint, in contrast to giving handmade charts to secretaries.
3. Wrt my comment above, by Cherry’s Owl series I meant her Fortress series.
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Remember, every time you make a Power Point slide, Edward Tufte kills a kitten. {grave expression}
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1. I was considering an alternative to PowerPoint, but the product isn’t quite there yet. When it gets there, Microsoft will probably coopt it or make it compatible.
2. Tufte has some thought-provoking things to say. Thanks for bringing him (back) to my attention.
3. I know, of course, that the mind works in sleep. However, for the first time in 40 years of working in STEM, I was woken up by an image that, in hindsight, absolutely must be in the lead-off part.
Re SAH’s “whirlpools”: As soon I made the plot, it appeared to invalidate my whole approach until, after an…interesting…couple of days, it dawned on me I was misinterpreting it. shudder Well, better now than in front of an audience.
4. In fact, per Tufte (thx again), I’m considering restricting the pitch to a handful of slides including the one I mentioned, and use the rest as backups in an interactive session with my prospect(s).
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Come to think of it, to get back to Heinlein, my potentially fatal misinterpretation of my results sprang from forgetting that…tanstaafl.
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*a great black head perks up from the rug in front of the fireplace* OH! Did someone say barbeque?!
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Scram, Fido! :razz:
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GS, that’s a Werewolf you’re telling off. You really don’t want him mad at you. Even Dragons dislike “upsetting” Werewolves. [Very Big Dragon Grin]
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well THAT ain’t ever gonna happen.
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It would please me to continue this in kind, but:
My financial situation strongly suggests I break my lifelong habit of leaving viable projects 95% done.
Pleasure making the acquaintance of you gentlebeings.
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Aw. He’s okay. He just needs his bath.
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Understood, Sarahnissima.
A friendly encounter, with (I trust) no ill feeling on any side.
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And his flea-powdering. ;)
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I do NOT need a bath. I’ve HAD my bath today. and
oh my favorite troglodyte stuck his nose out. So now I’ll finish with the obligatory..GODDAMN YOU FRENCH!
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He doesn’t need flea powder, he is wearing his collar, “Shh, don’t tell him that most flea collars don’t have two contact prongs.”
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You’ve only read Cherryh’s fantasy? You need to read The Pride of Chanur. It’s possibly one of her best books, and she does a fantastic job with the alien cultures. Or is that what you meant by “the SF ‘locks me out'” — that you’ve read it and couldn’t get into it? Because if so, I can understand — but if you’ve never read the Chanur series, you owe it to yourself to at least try the first novel.
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That is what I meant, yes.
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Doesn’t mean it’s forever. When I first read H. Turtledove he also somehow ‘held me out”. Ten years later, I was fine.
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Such exposure as I’ve had to Carolyn (and to David) Cherry I’ve been very much impressed but many people find much of her writing off-putting. Truth is I have liked her filking better than her writing myself. I used to suggest Cherry, Engh and Budrys on a panel topic of middle initial as a predictor of writing style or quality.
On the one hand given the reality of so many books so little time my first suggestion is why bother – as a wise man said in effect not to read something is like never in one’s life eating a peach to which I add not to read everything is inevitable no point in drinking even the finest champagne from a fire hose. (and don’t try it from a diesel injector it will draw blood, lots and lots of blood).
On the other hand (and remembering Carolyn had eye problems of her own for a long time) I do suggest trying a different form. Mostly I suggest maybe a large print on a large screen if that would a different form for you in reading Cherryh – at my age I use a high resolution high fidelity 24″ in portrait mode that allows me to read a line at a time quickly to get into books that I otherwise might bounce off – even a large print paper format helps me keep after writers with what I consider annoying idiosyncrasies as the reading is easier. Sometimes an audio book with just the right amount of distraction until the hook sets and I grab the print to get through faster.
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Oh, I read her fantasy. For a long time Russalka was one of my favorite re-reads. I still think she fobbed the end — but I’m a writer, I have technical issues with a lot of books, even ones I like. She’s just not one of my top three…
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Might be interesting to remember that just as Mr. Heinlein spent time doing ballistics on butcher paper for a line (or was it two?) so too Carolyn calculated all the travel times properly for the Alliance-Union universe especially when that was slower than light.
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Anybody find any similarities between Cherryh’s very tight third person and David Drake altering tone to match the focus character especially as seen in the Isles or other fantasy works?
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Cherryh is an excellent writer, but I wouldn’t consider most of her works that I have read human wave. I don’t know that it is the tight third person, I always thought it was the somewhat dark, but depressing viewpoint, and lack of a happy ending that reminded me of David Drake’s darker works when reading Cherryh, but regardless of the reason, yes she does remind me strongly of Drake.
She is like I said and excellent writer (and someone I suspect I would like in person) but not one of my favorite authors, I have half a dozen of her books, but I’m not running out to get any more.
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Oh, and speaking of The Pride of Chanur…
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Heinlein isn’t one of my favorites either, his work varies greatly to my tastes, from good to terrible, but the only thing of his I would ever term great is the short story, The Long Watch. On the other hand almost all (and possibly all, there are some I don’t know their preferences) of my favorite SF authors really like him and name him as an inspiration. So I have to give him kudos for being a pioneer and paving the way for and inspiring those that followed.
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I’ve found that there are a lot of types of entertainment where it can be hard to read, or see, the ‘ground breaking works. CITIZEN KANE is a case in point. So many directors have copied the techniques that Wells pioneered in that film that it looks rather pedestrian (if well done) to somebody used to later film vocabulary.
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Much the way Shakespeare is crammed with cliches.
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If you think Shalespeare is bad, try reading the Bible, especially the King James. Do you know they have the gall to quote President Lincoln, without attribution? And their tale of Ishmael has nothing to do with Melville’s best known main character!
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I’ve been reading Poul Anderson’s Collected Short Works in five volumes thus far. Slowly. Can be grim in a way that would scare the socks off most grimdark writers. Perhaps bleak would be better.
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He couldn’t have been a pacifist all the way up to WWII. He fought in Aragon. (And phew, that Homage to Catalonia is a weird book. Definitely points out that whole leftist infighting thing, plus reasons it stunk to be part of the perpetual Communist Party heelturns. But he was still leftist after all that.)
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Personally, I think that if my spouse and I and all my war buddies were in danger of being arrested in the streets just for ending up in the inconvenient leftist group, I’d be reconsidering my politics pretty darned quickly. But nooooo.
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sigh. No. It was both a dream and a religion, see?
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Well, he was certainly anti-Communist after that. Homage to Catalonia was clear enough.
I’ve read a leftist whining that he’s known as an anti-Communist not as a socialist. This is because as an anti-Communist he was a genius, and as a socialist, he was sillier than usual. His collected stuff — there is a certain amount of unholy glee in watching him lay out his innocent belief that informing the working people that they were now a socialist country would immediately identify with it and work accordingly.
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Pacifist as far as not fighting for England. That was a noticable strain during the war.
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I’ve added it to the Goodreads group’s politics page
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Genocide of the unternenschen–those of us who don’t live in hipster cities.
This becomes increasingly clear every time you look at what they say when people aren’t watching. When they’re pushing for actual laws, they talk about how criminals shouldn’t have guns–but when they’re amongst themselves, they actually support criminals having guns. It’s only “inbred rednecks” they talk about disarming then.
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That’s because they believe that their hired muscle can protect them from the criminals, but are uncomfortably aware that the level of skill among those ‘inbred rednecks’ is somewhat higher….
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Illinois legislature just overrode Quinn’s veto to enact shall issue concealed carry – granted with ridiculous no carry locations and ridiculous required training – but full out shall issue. Wow.
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Thanks, I was going to look up and see what was happening their, I thought they had to have it passed yesterday, or be in contempt?
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If they hadn’t adopted a bill, the court would not have held them in contempt. Instead, the court would have merely invalidated the statute that made concealed carry at crime at al. Effectively Illinois would become like Arizona / Alaska / Vermont. But I think this bill conforms to the court’s requirements (unlike Gov. Quinn’s outrageous attempt to amend).
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And Illinois is HOW far behind issuing FOID cards these days? I’ve heard six months, but cannot confirm it…
Concealed carry is good, but without the ability to own in the first place, it’s moot, yes?
Mew
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There’s a lawsuit ALREADY about the delays.
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I suspect the bureau-lib-crats are dragging their feet hoping the statehouse-lib-crats will manage to pass some other restriction, a bullet-tax for instance.
This is how they operate .. when they can’t win in court, delay in the bureaucracy, when they get caught delaying, pass a law that restricts some other way, then run back to the courts…
For this reason, I’ve said in other venues that the 2nd Amendment folks need to figure out how to fight in the culture, not just in the legal system.. the latter can be turned into flypaper.
Mew
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Ayup – the bureau-lib-crats excel at the death by a thousand papercuts when they can get away with it.
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Time yet again to repeat a lesson from history:
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling in terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? […] The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!” —Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
I have a strong hunch that as our own “cursed machine” continues to overreach we USAians will not meekly submit. It will not be pretty.
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It will be one hell of a lot prettier than if we do submit.
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Indeed: the gardens will get ever so much more fresh fertilizer.
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You ARE a bad man #3 son!
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*bows*
So I’ve been told, on any number of occasions.
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Remember what happened to the too-nosy reporter in “Footfall”?
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Nit, the problem wasn’t that the reporter was “too nosy”. The problem was that he wasn’t prepared to forfeit a “Prize Winning Story” because of *real* National Security concerns.
If he had been concerned about “National Security”, he might have gotten a bigger story by telling the US Military that he’d keep silent if they allowed him to tell the “inside” story of the Michael project (to be published after Michael had launched).
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Except it wasn’t the military that put him in the mulch pile; he never had a chance to make an offer for an exclusive.
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True. My point was that if he had talked about getting the “Bigger Story” to that gentleman, the gentleman might have let him live to make the offer to the US Military.
As it was, the gentleman really disliked what the “Foot” had done to Earth’s Environment and wanted “payback”. No way was he going to let the reporter leak the info about Michael before Michael was launched.
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Well, IIRC, it was really that the person he was talking to didn’t believe that he would wait until after to publish the story, wasn’t it? Wasn’t he swearing he would wait? I probably wouldn’t have believed him, either, of course.
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IMO it was a matter that the gentleman thought “if you even think about releasing the story then you’re likely to release it”.
IE the gentleman was thinking “only an idiot or traitor want to release that story”.
So yeah, I won’t have trusted a reporter who even thought about releasing the story.
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The guy in this area who mulched a trespasser for trying to dig up ginseng on his land — um, well, it didn’t work out. Apparently he should have read more mysteries on how to hide bodies. County law enforcement was Not Amused, and added a lot more charges than if he’d just shot a trespasser.* So… yeah, be good; and if you can’t be good, be careful.
* Although the judge sentenced all the charges to run concurrently, so effectively it’s just the manslaughter.
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Depends on for whom you’re referring.
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what pisses ME off is the following. The same assholes that scorn and sneer at history and human nature and either never learned it or were taught it and disbelieved it; ARE THE SAME SIMPLE WITLESS FUCKS TRAMPLING DOWN THE ROAD LIKE A HERD OF STAMPEDING CATTLE TO REPEAT ALL THE WORST OF HISTORY!
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Wolfie, short version: Santayana was basically right, he just forgot to add “…and they really piss me off.”
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•”Say to Mr. Poinsett that it is very true that I threw up my cap for liberty with great ardor, and perfect sincerity, but very soon found the folly of it. A hundred years to come my people will not be fit for liberty. They do not know what it is, unenlightened as they are, and under the influence of a Catholic clergy, a despotism is the proper government for them, but there is no reason why it should not be a wise and virtuous one.”
Yeah I know that is Gen. Santa Anna, not Santayana; but that is what I first thought of.
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Pfui. Deguello.
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Well some of our current leaders seem to have taken that quote to heart.
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T.R. Ferenbach, as un-PC as they come, said a similar thing in his (very well written) history of Mexico, “Blood and Fire.” He argued that the US was not the model to use for founding a country, as we are too exceptional. he thought Mexico (as of the 1970s, IIRC) was a better example of the problems and possible solutions involved.
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“And besides, what could happen? The German people were SO civilized.
Elie Wiesel said that his family was offered the Anne Frank option of hiding out with gentile friends and former servants covering for them or taking to the woods – with some support from country homes and estates.
He continued that the Allies had already landed at Normandy and the end of the war was in sight so the family decided that rather than endanger their friends and supporters the family would endure the no doubt misery of the camps for the few months remaining.
He went on to say that had the BBC say warned not to go [it’s a cookbook] they are death camps not mere concentration camps more if perhaps not all of his then living family would have survived. I’ve also heard Arthur Schlesinger Jr. say that FDR did absolutely everything he possibly could with an emphasis on the possible – no more could actually be done – to save the Jews of Europe.
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Arthur Schlesinger is an unreliable source. A loyal Democrat and Liberal, he might believe FDR did everything possible (or even everything reasonable) to save European Jews but it just ain’t so. Look up the MS St. Louis — although that incident occurring in 1939 might not properly count against him. But there were things possible that were not done — such as reporting the truth (or even the suspicions) about the camps.
Let others debate what was reasonable — bombing the railroads taking boxcars of people (NOT just Jews) to the camps — and there is no purpose debating the conduct of that war and its aftermath. There is plenty of shame to go around and recriminations mainly distract from the serious point that reliance on the kindness of others is a poor long term strategy.
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And it led to ya’ll’s only unjustifiable pile-on. (No, no argument. Though ESL might have intruded, too.) I agree with you on the first paragraph. But I only mentioned it because these very nice people were killed for being nice — and unarmed. The rest was decoration. Call me the anti-Gandhi. If they’d defended themselves, many would be alive today (or their grandkids.)
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Beloved Spouse and I recently watched the film Defiance
and I cannot resist observing a) how many reviewers misrepresent the film (the refugees do not become “freedom fighters”) and b) how many lives were saved by the simple expedient of choosing to not go quietly into the darkness.
Many of the condemned died because they could not grasp what their persecutors were doing. Correia’s MHI books are reflections upon the importance of a flexible mind when confronting monsters of any sort.
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Thank you for reminding me. I’ve been meaning to watch this.
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Beloved Spouse and I will be interested to know your reactions. I shan’t say more lest I spoil some element, but we deemed complaints about it being “uneven” stemmed from basic misapprehension as to what story was being told.
Looking at how my comment posted I am befuddled — okay, maybe I missed the /blockquote before my “Many of the condemned…” comment, but I thought I’d said sommat about reviewers being wrong in calling the refugees “powerful freedom fighters.” That isn’t what the story is about, and those looking for that type of tale will be disappointed.
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Schlesinger is full of it but there were practical limits to what could be done. But nothing was tried because little credence was given to the Intel.
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There is an excellent book, the name of which escapes me at the moment (I have it, somewhere. I’m sure those here know THAT feeling.) that thoroughly debunks the idea that the allied powers could have done a lot more than they did to rescue the Holocaust’s victims. It goes into the inaccuracy of WWII bombing, the ineffectiveness of attacks on railroad lines, the difficulty of persuading the victims that they were in danger (most German Jews considered their co-religionists who wanted to go to Palestine to be fanatics). It makes a strong case that, by the time irrefutable proof that Germany had gone collectively psychotic was in the right hands the best that could be done was to prosecute the war as forcefully as possible.
It also mentions that Jewish leaders in the U.S. asked FDR to NOT bomb the camps, as it would a) probably have killed at least as many prisoners as it might have saved and b) have given the Nazis a ready-made excuse for so many corpses.
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When attacking rail from air, do not use bombs — use cannons and machine-guns, and demolish the rolling stock.
Do not ask me how I know this. :)
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Used to know a P51 pilot who said that was the most fun part of the job – always ignoring the fact that he was steaming the steam locomotive crew to death of course.
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Compare with say: The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz by David Kranzler from Syracuse University Press. Lots more could have been done despite the defensive posturing mentioned and even the often successful efforts of American officers at Nuremberg to sweep atrocities under the rug.
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Remember that World War I was FILLED with atrocity stories about those horrible Germans.
Indeed, Barbara Tuchmann carefully used only German or neutral sources for her chapter on them, and observed in her introduction that still many people believed that there had been none because of the exaggerations.
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Side note, case law including trials in front of SCOTUS has consistently held that the law enforcement duty to protect applies only to society as a whole. Simply put, the police have no legal responsibility to guarantee individual safety. Should inaction or wrong action by law enforcement be directly responsible for your harm or death there is no recourse within our legal system. Sole exception is should a LEO be guilty of a criminal act. Absent that, one cannot seek damages from the cops for failure to prevent harm done by a criminal.
Bottom line, you yourself are solely responsible for your own safety. Does not mean that the police will not help you, but that is not something you can depend on when your life or that of your loved ones is at stake.
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When you’ve got seconds to live, the police are only minutes away. Unless of course it is the police you need to protect yourself against.
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The only people who need to fear that I am armed are the people that mean me harm. Since the ‘elites’ in DC are trying so hard to disarm me I can only assume that they mean me harm.
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We seriously need a “Like” button…
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As Marko Kloos put it so well:
http://munchkinwrangler.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/why-the-gun-is-civilization/
The public school system all but delivered me “helpless and bound” to my foes, unable to defend myself against larger, more aggressive, older students. Ain’t happening again. Shouldn’t happen to a country or civilization, either.
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Oh, so that’s where Maj. Caudill blogs! *runs*
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Now, TXR, you KNOW that that isn’t true. I recall precisely the same thing happening to me, but have been repeatedly told that it never happened, by various people on the internet, who know what happened in my school better than I did, by virtue of their not being there, but nevertheless being morally certain that the wonderful saintly teachers in our schools would never-ever let such a thing happen. Besides, if they believed me, they wouldn’t be able to live with themselves putting their children on that little yellow bus every morning, and would have to give up their free babysitting service.
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Ms Ann, I thought I’d delivered some weapons grade snark in my day, but I does doff my cap to you. It’s a good thing I read quickly else you’d have left a smoldering hole in my monitor.
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“if you disarm, the police/the authorities/the powerful will look after you. Bad people can’t get you. There will be peace.””
If you removed from the people all ability to defend and protect themselves, they will insist on a police state, for their own protection.
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As to weapon’s much good advice has already been given. I endorse a shotgun for home defense and a handgun for your walks. a stout walking stick with a heavy head along with the will to use it promptly and aggressively is also a good option. As I sit in my living room, I have 2 large knives, Nepalese Kukris, my 10mm S&W and a large cudgel in reach or near reach. At my feet are three large dogs and one small one who will slow down a home invader long enough it’s to be hoped.
The three authors who in my youth (early grade school) fired my love of SF, the three against whom I measure all others, are in no particular order, RAH, E.E. “Doc” Smith, and H. Beam Piper. They may or may not now be my “favorite” but they remain the Benchmarks for me.
It was pleasant speaking with you and your husband again at Libertycon, and having you both visit my modest room party on Thursday evening. I look forward to seeing and speaking to you both in meatspace again soon.
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Sarah last week I got my first revolver a S&W 351PD it shoots 7 22 Mag bullets. The weight is less then 11 ounces and easily fits in a pocket. I will probably be getting CCW in a few months.
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The edged weapons company Cold Steel makes a machete that is a dead ringer for a Roman gladius. According to a discussion I had a while back with Mad Mike it is superior in both strength and edge holding ability to an actual sword of the period. It’s actually quite a handy tool for doing in serious weed growth and drooping tree branches. I expect it could also do a fair job at lopping off an attacker’s head or assorted other extremities.
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I have one of these. The only beef is with the plastic hilt.
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Plus, if it looks like an ancient weapon, you can have it hanging on the wall and not be thought odd. Kinda like the guy who accidentally killed a robber when the idiot charged him while the guy had a “samurai sword” from his dresser.
Lots of empathy in the “I heard an odd noise, grabbed the first sort-of weapon at hand, and went to look….” storyline. Probably why the news doesn’t mention Zimmerman was just running to the store.
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“Smachett”?
http://www.coldsteel.com/Category/5_1/Machetes.aspx
(link to all of ’em, because… well, there are a lot of really cool weapons, there; I want the cutlass one)
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Puffery on the Gladius
Currently available at $27.49 about half list from MidwayUsa.com. Useful to distinguish machete style blades recognizing the brush in different parts of the world is more or less woody and some places a light swing it all day flat stamped style blade is better and other places folks use more weight forward for dealing with heavier obstacles but taking more effort.
Fairbain/Sykes/Applegate thought the Smachett superior to the potentially weak at the narrow tang British commando pattern version of the Arkansas toothpick – see e.g. Get Tough by Fairbain – at least for general issue. Boker might be the best known quality maker.
Lots of issue knives are in some part wire cutters and meet other special needs.
When she was alive my wife had a few fancy Gerbers as they made some mirror polished 440C blades with Jade and other assorted very fancy versions of their combat knives – these looked at home with a stapler as a desk set and some of the smaller ones could look at home as maybe something like a cuticle pusher in a grooming kit as did a nice Morseth sleeve knife from A.G. Russell.
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http://www.midwayusa.com/product/176774/cold-steel-gladius-machete-19-1055-carbon-steel-blade-polyproylene-handle-black
(one link at a time USUALLY doesn’t trigger moderation for long-time posters…. better go sacrifice a chicken just in case, though, and shake the rattle-beads)
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Thought I would add this link to see how many others I can reduce to sputtering incoherency, http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/07/11/gun-geo-marker-app-tries-to-locate-homes-businesses-gun-owners/
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His final quote hits all the markers of a lying hoplophobe: “As a gun owner myself” (pull the other one, buddy) “I want to see our[sic] rights preserved” (so why’d ya wanna make it easy for confiscation to occur?) “and thwarting the will of 90 percent of the American people” (I know exactly which orifice you pulled that number out of) … eh, I can’t be bothered to continue. It’s not like this idiot is going to learn from it.
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Since it’s anonymous, and all … what’s to prevent enterprisi- ah, horrible, unsafe guns *cough* I mean, gun-OWNERS (those ‘orrible, little latent terrorists that they are) from dropping pins that might – possibly, possibly – bear as little resemblance to reality as that protestation of “no, really, I AM all for freedom and liberty” spiel the … gentleman (bless is heart) spake?
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The article talks a lot about how that’s already happening. :-)
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I read the guy’s academic bio on the UCSD website. He’s an electronic artist, of all things, who designed software to help the Zapatistas take down Mexican government websites and teaches about computers, database design, and other stuff.
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Probably the simplest response to this idiot savant is to tag everybody and everyplace. I learned that approach back when my reading consisted of the Brothers Grimm and Andrew Lang.
His system does lack feedback/verification mechanisms, doesn’t it?
(Sorry – have not and don’t plan to read the article; I will read more than enough before Noon to lower my store of knowledge and don’t need to exceed my tolerance so early.)
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Ahh, Kipling! So completely a child of his time, and yet he GOT IT in ways that few other folk in recent history have. And “The Gods of the Copybook Headings” is one of his best. It seems so simple, almost a nonsense-rhyme to someone who doesn’t know his references. Even if you do get the references, that monotonous Kipling rhythm lulls you into complacency. It seems to wander up, staggering slightly like a friendly drunk, stands next to you chatting idly for a few minutes, and then Gibbs-slaps you hard enough to make your ears ring.
“What’s shocking about the poem is that it is so astonishingly modern.”
Actually it’s not. But (this is key) neither is the attitude it attacks! Progressivism has not significantly changed in the century and a half since it was first conceived. It has always been all about power and the obtaining thereof, and the various ways by which an uninformed people can be suckered into giving power to those who want it. The Progressives of the mid-1800s were Smart People (and proud of it!) who were tired of not getting the respect and power, and the perqs of power, that they thought they deserved. So they developed Progressivism as a way of convincing the common folk that they could run things better — after all, they were Smart People. To be sure, it wasn’t hard to argue that they could run things better than the putrefied remains of the old hereditary aristocracy. But the problem with the Progressives was that they never really wanted to make things better. They wanted to keep the same old system, just with themselves on top. So their entire movement was premised on a lie. That being the case, they had absolutely no problem with telling lesser lies to support it — such as promising things that they knew they could never deliver.
Which is what “The Gods of the Copybook Headings” is really all about. The Progressives can’t deliver on their promises and never could, and the more we let them try, the more we guarantee a bigger and badder disaster when they finally, inevitably fail.
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The Progressives need to contemplate the implications of Ozymandias, but humility is not a strong suit of theirs.
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Sorry no comment yesterday. I have come to the conclusion that I need to start to write/cross stitch again. It means that most of the day, I am out of touch. ;-) Pohl. I will be sending you Hilda’s Inn pretty soon. It is around 35,000 words.
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