Liberty and Safety a blast from the past from August 2013

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Liberty and Safety a blast from the past from August 2013

It is a truth universally acknowledged that it is a bad thing – a very bad thing – to make Sarah berserk out over breakfast, which is why most sentient species, some invertebrates and some single-cell life forms have learned to avoid it.

No, this doesn’t mean Dan and the boys are in trouble.  No, that’s fine.  What happens is this – after week from hell, I was running around with a headache so bad I could barely think through it.  In case it wasn’t obvious from the rate of typo to word in the last few posts, I also could barely write through it.

As happens we found a hotel that met our low-price-to-low-flea rate and Dan and I ran away so I could get work done on the overdue Baen novel.  (It is unique in writers that our vacations involve the chance to write MORE.  Shouldn’t be a great shock, though.  Our “let’s go out to dinner” nights involved “I need to work out a novel plot.”

This was particularly needed because on top of the situation with our friend Alan – who should go home from the hospital today and start a new course of chemotherapy, so that’s good news – my kids are having beginning of school year issues.  Since it is written (I don’t know where, but if I ever find out, I’m setting fire to it) that nothing the Hoyts do can be easy or simple, they’re both adding second majors and weird ones at that, and giving the bureaucracy hissy fits.  This for some reason causes them to run into my office at the rate of a kid every five minutes, to p*ss and moan.  So, the office gets impossible to work in (also smelly.  The cats hate competition) and I lost two entire days to this.  Which also added to my blazing stress headache.

So we ran away for three days and two nights to “get writing done.”  So far so good, right?

Yeah.  Except that breakfast is included in the room special promo sale.  Which is why we stayed here.  Have breakfast latish and you don’t need lunch, so that’s one meal less to pay for.  (Hey, we’re writers.  We’re cheap.  Also, largely poor, our days of being rich beyond the dreams of average – sic – having crashed at the same time the towers turned to rubble and the tech boom collapsed.)

So we went down to breakfast.

Just when you thought it was safe to go down to breakfast…

We were in a little isolated table but separated by a curtain from a large group table.  I heard the words “They can’t expect Obama to fix everything with one measure.  I mean, things were so bad it doesn’t have a quick solution,” and I told Dan “Right then, I’m going to order an omelet, before I start ranting.”

When my calmer half said “I don’t know.  I’m kind of hoping they make you start ranting.”

So I went down to get the omelet, and I came back and sat down.  The large group of unmitigated stupid seemed to be talking lower – at least.  If I said the multiplication tables backward in my head, I could tune out the occasional break through sentence like “What we need is more business regulation.”

And then, zero to nothing, I heard something, and I started shaking – painful body-long shakes – trying to suppress the berserker.

The phrase was “the problem is we have too many liberties in this country.”  Like that.  Like that, I found I was putting my head through the curtain and saying “If you discuss politics in public, I’m going to intervene.”

I want to point out that when I’m fighting the berserker, my voice gets really weird, and my eyes get this bizarre “one step over the line and you’re dead, Mister.”

I’ve been known to make postal workers run away (true) and airline employees bend over backward to give me anything I want, while I’m being perfectly polite and suppressing the berserker.

But these people were wrapped in an invincible mantel of stupidity.  They said – I swear to Bob – “What?  This is a public space, we can talk about anything we want.”

I said “Absolutely.  And I can correct you any way I want.”

At that point the better half who is a New England gentleman intervened. “Yes, it’s a public space,” he said.  “And we’d like to have breakfast without your politics intruding on it.  Can you keep it down, please?  Particularly if you insist on being ill informed.”  (When calmer half feels the need to put in the knife, imagine what my excitable self was feeling.)

And so I downed as much warm coffee as I could, because if you can’t find alcohol, warm liquids will help, and eventually the shakes subsided.

Too many liberties…

There are three things to take from this encounter: first, it is polite and proper, if sharing a public space with other sentient beings, to try not to say anything offensive out loud.  I tend to discuss the latest scientific developments, a novel I just read, anything innocuous.  I’ve gone to dinner with PJM colleagues at election time and not discussed politics loud enough for the other tables to hear – and shut up when the waitress approached.

Look, guys, there was a reason that Englishmen who had servants said “not in front of the help” – it wasn’t just to avoid gossip.  It was also to avoid making another human being, not in a position to retaliate, uncomfortable.

Good manners and all that.

So, if you have politics to discuss, keep your voice down or save it to your room.  UNLESS you’re sure that the entire room is taken up with your coreligionists.

Another thing is that these people looked fairly normal.  I didn’t see any badges of the little Satanists for Stalin or anything of the kind.  This scares me beyond belief and I’m trying not to be depressed.  They really think Obama is fixing “this mess.”  I… Look, go over to the Zero Hedge guys… just read this.

A tiny excerpt:

#1 When Barack Obama entered the White House, 60.6 percent of working age Americans had a job.  Today, only 58.7 percent of working age Americans have a job.

#2 Since Obama has been president, seven out of every eight jobs that have been “created” in the U.S. economy have been part-time jobs.

#3 The number of full-time workers in the United States is still nearly 6 million below the old record that was set back in 2007.

#4 It is hard to believe, but an astounding 53 percent of all American workers now make less than $30,000 a year.

#5 40 percent of all workers in the United States actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968.

#6 When the Obama era began, the average duration of unemployment in this country was 19.8 weeks.  Today, it is 36.6 weeks.

#7 During the first four years of Obama, the number of Americans “not in the labor force” soared by an astounding 8,332,000.  That far exceeds any previous four year total.

There is more.  Oh, yes, there are 33 of these facts.  But the mainstream media won’t report it, and those who are dumb beyond the dreams of average swallow it, hook, line and sinker.  And what can we do?  I’m serious.  WHAT can we do?  This is sort of like before the French Revolution when people demanded Necker be returned to power because when he was borrowing and spending everyone was doing so well.  There are no words.  To paraphrase Heinlein, stupidity is the only capital crime.  The punishment is always death.  Unfortunately when it’s public stupidity, the death often falls on those who weren’t stupid.

Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it and take the rest of us along for the ride.

The third point though…

There are few things you can say that are so HEINOUS that they send me into automatic “Must suppress the berserker” mode.  Look, guys I’ve got through entire dinners with communists without getting there, and without looking speculatively at the silverware and considering how to kill someone with a fork.  (Okay, I lie about the second one, but all the same. Thoughts are, thank you, private, and my hobbies are my own.)

But that “we have too many liberties” got under my shield and went directly to the “attack” and immediately as well to the “you can’t go berserk in a public space.  No, really.”

How can anyone think we have too many liberties?

Oh, I know.  They think that because they believe in the myth of the “superior man” who will take care of them.  The man on the white horse who knows better than everyone, and who can run everything so that no one is ever afraid or poor or sick or marginalized.

In other words, they dream of the ideal childhood.

The rest of us know that never in the history of the world, not even the calmest, has there been a time when a leader could guarantee safety, health and contentment to everyone. There will always be poor, unloved, suffering people.  You can’t help that.

You behave in a way you help those around you and you try not to be a burden, but even then at times that will fail.

Those of us who are religious believe a time will come when we will live like that, in perfect harmony and contentment with a superior being watching over us.

But last time I looked, neither king, premier, president, emperor or satrap had the power to look into the hearts and minds and judge everyone perfectly.  And no, the NSA spying ain’t it.  And none of the above were the creators of the universe.

They are all, in fact, fallible men, usually fallible men attracted to power over others, who want to run you not for your own good but for their own internal satisfaction.  And since people who crave this sort of power tend to be more broken than writers, their internal satisfaction might be something that even they don’t understand.

There is no man on a white horse.  There is, always, an old trickster, coming to town and promising eternal peace.  If you look carefully, you can see the horse is a mule that has been painted white.  And the man is just using the same old promises the human brain is wired to crave, but what he wants is quite different.  And even if he truly believes what he says, he can’t deliver.  He’s just a man.  He can’t know what each individual wants and needs.  Only each of you can know what he wants and needs.  And sometimes not even that.

Clearly the people on the next table would like to believe in the man on the painted mule.  I would too.  The idea someone will look after you perfectly is SO appealing.  But I’m grown up.  You can’t go back to kindergarten.  And even my kindergarten teacher had no clue how to handle me.

I’ll handle myself, thank you.  Even to the point of making sure I don’t berserk out at the breakfast table.  It can be done.  It’s just not easy, or comforting or pretty.

It’s a horrible way to live.  Except for every other one.  I’ll keep my liberties, thank you.  You want to give yours up, I can give you a list of destinations willing to oblige you.  It starts with Cuba.

No kings, no queens, no lords, no ladies.  We won’t be fooled again.

133 thoughts on “Liberty and Safety a blast from the past from August 2013”

  1. To me a real problem, then and even worse today, is how some folks do conflate liberties with privilege and demand such privilege while rejecting either responsibility or accountability for the inevitable resulting harms done to others.

    To put it bluntly, feel free to do you on your dime, but not at the expense or infringement on the rights and liberties of others. Today’s world seems to be plagued with far too many Karens and choosing beggars.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I really hope we don’t have the martyr du jour on tap. I gather we had: guy pulled over for traffic stop; guy pulls gun on cop; cop pulls gun on guy; exit guy, feet first. And the, “Was this really necessary?” stories are starting. *Sigh.*

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I saw that this morning. My only question was why unmarked police were making a traffic stop for a minor violation. If I had to guess it’s because the deceased was under investigation and (maybe had a warrant out) the stop was merely a lawful pretext for speaking with him.

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        1. That’d be my guess– would also jive with the acting officers being an entire tactical team, doing enforcement where they know there is a very good chance of the guy who isn’t supposed to have a gun not only having a gun, but planning to use it on those who stop him.

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            1. The terminally stupid usually bluster and wait far too long to initiate their attempt at lethal violence. However, I’m not going to provide instructions on how to successfully ambush a cop. After all, at the local level, about half of them are good people trying to do a necessary and usually thankless job.

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          2. Dashcam’s don’t typically get the outside noises, unless windows or doors are open. We have one. The reason we can get away with it in jurisdictions that require mutual consent to record, because outside the car it doesn’t record sound. In the car the dashcam is plainly visible and implied consent (Oregon, only we have to give consent).

            OTOH the officer was likely wearing a camera too, or someone else caught it videoing. Possible the official police video was released to get ahead of the backstabbing no information analysts.

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            2. Sound recording has been common for 80-ish years, so a dense thicket of laws have grown up around it. Practical personal video recording devices are much newer, so the politicians and bureaucrats haven’t had time to strangle our liberty in that area. Yet.

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        1. Looks like it’s hitting the news again right now because the hang-the-cops-out-to-dry group got a FOIA and released selected bits.

          Which explains why the chest cam is coming out now.

          Liked by 1 person

        1. Indeed there seems to be an unwillingness to attribute freedom of action to people. The person in question was ALREADY up for a gun violation and yet chose to have a weapon. The person in question was actively choosing to disobey legal (albeit it petty ) requests from police officers. The person in question apparently verbally threatened at least one officer with grave bodily injury. The person in question appears to have chosen to draw a weapon against armed and ready officers. Yes they would have gone to jail if they didn’t but the results of drawing on multiple armed and ready officers are well understood even to folks like the Turnip in Chief who are drooling idiots. That person effectively rolled the dice to escape and in D&D terms rolled a natural 1. To borrow a phrase from Jeremy Clarkson, “Oh No! Anway…”

          As for the number of shots the CPD is required to carry 9mm semi automatic weapons (.380 automatics authorized in some cases). Most of these are larger capacity (i.e. Glock 17 at 17 in the magazine) weapons not the old 5-6 of a wheel gun. In general once the shooting starts it continues until the target is obviously incapacitated/disarmed or until people’s weapons need a reload and they have to think. Sounds like that is exactly what happened, the threat being in a vehicle and hard to determine if the threat was neutralized they went to the reload point. I might like a bit more restraint for the safety of any bystanders, but given the officers had been threatened and were in a tense moment for officers that rarely discharge their weapons even in Chicago the result is unsurprising.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. I was friends with a gunshop owner, who had a large number of police as customers and friends. One told of a confrontation between a cop and a violent perp. As I recall, it took about 20 rounds of 9mm to get the person to stay dead.

            (Thus Jeff Cooper’s advice to bring a firearm to a gunfight with a caliber starting in “4”.)

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            1. If someone’s on drugs– well, the lady who emptied her 38 special into the chest of a guy at point blank range, and he then WANDERED OFF and teh cops found him a few blocks away, pulled over in his car….

              Whoof. Yeah… eventual stopping power….

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Also, it reflects the era before really effective 9mm bullets were available. Getting something better than an FMJ round to feed a 9mm several years ago (I got Cooper’s advice circa 1991) was a distinct challenge. The 9mm S&W auto I had at the time got serious indigestion at anything other than FMJ, while the 1911 was happy with about everything.

                I do tend to shoot better with a 1911, though before the great canoe tragedy, my EDC was a 9mm with modern ammunition.

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              2. A wee bit of presentism there, Ian. Of course! The Colonel should have realized that with hollowpoint 9mm bullets, modified with plastic inserts, would have done as well as a 0.4xx bullet. Might even have fed in my long-gone S&W 559, too.

                Oh wait! They weren’t on the market yet. Like bronze age infantry would have done a lot better with steel arms and armor.

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  2. Back in 2012, I was at the house of some friends for, I think, their “let’s eat the Thanksgiving leftovers” dinner, and over at the other table, their other guests were audibly discussing how fortunately the presidential election had turned out. So I raised my voice enough to be heard, and said, “Actually, I would even have preferred Romney.” And they paused a moment, and one of them remarked that I could have voted for Gary Johnson; and I said that in fact that was who I voted for. (I wasn’t enthusiastic about Romney, for reasons I’m sure I need not explain, and that was in California, which was certain to go for the Democratic candidate, so keeping the Libertarians visible was less of a wasted vote.) And then the conversation turned away from politics. I had intended that comment as a warning shot across the bow, and that time it worked.

    The thing is, that I had the choice: I could be the person who listens to political discussion, and it denied the ability to say anything back, by timidity or politeness; or I could establish that “not everyone here agrees with you,” and allow them to back off. I usually try to do the second. It doesn’t always work. . . .

    I agree with you that “too much liberty” is a horrifying thing to overhear, but there is worse being said since 7 October. I’m happy not to have heard it in person yet.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I was permanently disinvited to ever enter the home of a friend of my wife because the Thanksgiving conversation had veered into the subject of illegal aliens and I stipulated that as invaders, they had zero right to be here, and every one of them should be rounded up and stuck back in the box cars or semi-trailers they rode in on for a return trip to their home countries. So now I’m the crazy Nazi (in a majority voting blue town.)

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Because it’s not allowing me to answer William’s comment: If I hear crazy anti-semitism in public (And it’s all crazy) I’m going to end up in jail, because I’ll be adjusting someone’s hair cut with the nearest table or chair.

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        1. If you administer any “hickory shampoos”, be sure to get video with sound. Folks would pay good cash for that.

          Or so I have heard.

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        2. <snort>.

          I just started another Israeli shawl, as in, white and blue. Not a Jewish prayer shawl per se, but flag colors. Any suggestions on where to send it when it’s done are welcome.

          (Was in the Book of Esther recently, and learned that when Mordecai was elevated by Xerxes, he was dressed in white and blue. I wonder if that was the inspiration for the flag colors?

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Could be. I’m kind of partial to a white shirt, blue jeans, and a red bandana look myself. Baseball cap or cowboy hat if you need cover. Sneakers, cowboy boots, or steel-toed combat boots all work.

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          2. Pretty sure that blue is the color of tassels, and white is the color of bleached linen. Priest/Temple reference.

            But yeah, I should look that up, because there is probably a secular rationale also.

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        3. I’m with you on that. And I’m probably eloquent enough to verbally provoke them into initiating the physical violence, without actually giving a legally chargeable threat (at least in a rational world) to them. However, there’s considerable satisfaction to turning them into gibbering, frothing at the mouth, sputteringly impotent, gasping fools that stalk off in a huff.

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    1. It’s always tempting to say, “Which liberties would you like to give up, then?” And when they protest that they mean other people, well, you know the drill.

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      1. Because not one of those people said: “Please pass this so that I won’t be able to do something I know I should stop. Nyet, tovarishchee, was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them “for their own good”—not because speaker claimed to be harmed by it.

        — Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

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  5. God bless you, Sarah A Hoyt. 

    And all us little* USAians around the world.

    * Note: actual size, age, color, shape, martial arts ability, and loquacity may very. Not guaranteed in all 50 States. Your mileage may vary.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Even if they said “We have too much liberty”, I doubt that’s what they meant. The amount of liberty that they had was fine. It was other people’s liberty that was the problem.
    Including annoying people who would interrupt them at breakfast. 😉

    Liked by 2 people

    1. They never think anyone opposed to them would ever have power over them, but SOMEHOW they get the vapors over Trump being President. The cognitive dissonance is astounding.

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        1. Fuel for the fire:

          • What does this make Mount Rushmore?
          • Why is the interstate highway system so conveniently sized for shipping around mecha?

          Liked by 2 people

          1. Easier to hide and transport inside semi-trailers. Biggest problem I see with mecha IRL is that they are far more vulnerable to damage than standard battle tanks like the M-1 Abrams. They can probably be built to withstand most small arms fire under .50 cal; but bigger than that, and against anti-armor missiles/rockets, they’re not going to fare well. And the old Molotov cocktail can still burn up hydraulic lines and wiring, or get sucked into engine intakes unless totally shielded. Not trying to rain on your parade. Mecha ARE cool.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Ah, but you’re assuming only publicly disclosed materials and laws of physics. I’m sure the DoD is saving the good stuff for the right occasion.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Quite possibly you are right, when you have a DOD more concerned with CRT, DEI, and what shade of lipstick they want their external genitaia personnel to be wearing, than with actually fighting and winning battles and wars.

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                1. I wish we had more conspiracy theories about mechs being real. Why should UFOs get all the love?

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                  1. Sad. Very sad. And the article was even more disturbing. recruits that can’t properly throw a hand grenade; and that’s not even rocket science.

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                    2. Somebody mentioned that the Master of Arms* must really hate the CO. I’m not familiar with the optic, but apparently the lens caps were still on, too. That, and there was speculation that the flying cases were photoshopped in the pic…

                      ((*)) Or, whoever did an AI pic was bone-ignorant of the scope or** hated the CO.

                      ((**)) Not excluding the healing power of “and”.

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                2. The answer is both yes, and no. Me and heights have issues. But… but… but… GIANT MECH. I want to drive the giant mech. Just don’t look down while getting in. REALLY don’t look down.

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                  2. TBH I’m not comfortable with heights either. But I’m not petrified by them, just very very cautious. Body harness every time I have to do roof work; although I can do the chimney cleaning without it since I have a good secure ladder and platform set up for that.

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        2. Book unhinges into a sword.

          Torch turns into a 16-inch, 4.18 × 1015 joules, particle beam cannon.

          That full length dress in copper makes a wonderful plating base for a cyclical E-M shield.

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    2. “Activate interlocks! … Infracells up! … Dynatherms connected! …. MAGA-thrusters are go!”

      …..

      “LETS GO LIBERTY FORCE!”

      Liked by 2 people

        1. Glances at Lego Lion Voltron set Ya know, I do need to get around to that Covid project I picked up and have yet to work on …

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      1. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

        Jefferson was trying to warn us.

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    4. OOooh. Anthology fodder. That would make a seriously cool Raconteur Press anthology.

      Liberty and Mecha for All – short stories about icons of America that defend the world from aliens, dictators, and other forms of evil.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. There is a giant statue of an Indian woman with a glorious, multicolor shawl in South Dakota, named, “Dignity.” I suspect she and Liberty might get along.

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          1. I want to see Crazy Horse go Get Some.

            And the memes for where the Marine Corps War Memorial can plant that flag kinda write themselves.

            Liked by 1 person

  10. I’m attempting to deal with blood pressure issues, though I find that visits to large cities tend to make that a difficult goal. One thing I like about Flyover County and F-Falls is that there is a comparative shortage of the boneheaded progressives, and in the places where I eat, if they show, they don’t talk. I don’t get the berserker frenzy, though my heart tends to disagree with that assessment. Thus my search for quiet, or companionable places to be.

    My last medical excursion (neighbors took me in because of Kat-the-dog’s inability to be alone without major panic attacks) had me buying lunch at a local diner. We had a discussion with a couple at a nearby table about dogs, cats, and the things they do. Much better than discussing the insanity from the state and national capitols. I have no idea of their politics, nor they mine. As it should be. (We brush on politics with the neighbors, but our attitudes are similar. I wish that the husband hadn’t had so many clot-shot boosters, but that’s water over the bridge. Or is that under the dam?)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Consider weight training to burn off the anger points, and add heavy bag / combatives work.

      Also rather useful if you do have to go caveman on some asshole.

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  11. They suggested that people have too many liberties these days. And when you politely asked them to refrain from politics, they told you that since it was a public space they could talk about whatever they wanted to.

    Yeah, that sounds about what I would have expected.

    Liked by 2 people

  12. It’s even worse nowadays. So many thin-skinned people.

    Seriously, yesterday I had a customer start raising her voice and making a scene because I was breathing wrong.

    “Ma’am, I was at the dentist yesterday and I have a Headache.”

    “Well that’s no excuse to take it out on the rest of us!”

    Seriously. Breathing. That’s the level of offense, here.

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    2. A sword-shaped demon that eats souls is probably something that Lady Liberty would definitely NOT be wielding. 

      While the Statue of Liberty is a gift from France, you’d think that a sword from French legends or mythology might be more appropriate. However, the only ones I could find were only famous due to their wielders, and had no intrinsic powers of their own.

      Personally, I’d think, Dyrnwyn, the Sword of Rhydderch Hael from Welsh legend, would be more appropriate. ”When drawn, it blazed with fire; if drawn by a worthy man, the fire would help him in his cause, but its fire would burn the man who drew it for an unworthy purpose.” 

      Liked by 1 person

      1. “Foe Hammer” works.

        I like the idea that the tablet expands to a decent shield, and the torch can either generate a plasma blade or fire as a Phased Plasma Gun.

        whirrrclickclackHMMMMMMMMMM….

        BAzorrrrrrrrrrch! FOOM!

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      3. Durandal is the sword that you’re looking for. Yes, Roland wielded her. But some legends also claim that a young Charlemagne did, as well. She was reputed to have at least one holy relic incorporated into her. And most importantly, when a mortally wounded Roland attempted to smash her so that the Saracen pursuers wouldn’t be able to recover her from his dead body, he was unable to so much as leave a mark on her. Durandal was apparently indestructible.

        So yes, she’s only famous because Roland wielded her. But the legends about the pair mark her as a powerful sword in her own right.

        Liked by 1 person

    3. Nah. Stormbringer’s blade is a black so dark it sucks up the light around it, and is incised with demonic runes that make your eyes hurt just to look at them. It also howls like the damned when unsheathed.

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    4. Doesn’t match the description https://stormbringer.fandom.com/wiki/Stormbringer no ruby in the hilt, no eldritch inscriptions not really black enough. As a sword suitable for Lady Liberty I think a scaled-up version of Anduril (Name means Flame of Westernesse) would be a suitable tool. Although a vorpal blade with its lovely snicker-snack as it removes a portion of a useful idiot’s anatomy would be acceptable.

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        1. That is of course the Michael Whelan cover art for Stormbringer in the Elric of Melnibone series by Moorcock https://www.reddit.com/r/CoolSciFiCovers/comments/1b0fn4b/stormbringer_by_michael_moorcock_cover_art_by/ (I think I own that DAW SF version). Note the gems in the pommel and cross guard not present in the sword held by Lady Liberty. Notice the color of the blade, a dark black whereas that held by Liberty is plain steel. Note the glowing insciptions on Stormbringer. Note the upraised side pieces from the quillions they are far longer and near parallel to the blade whereas Liberty’s sword are far shorter and angle out from the blade.

          I will Note I think Mr Whelan’s depiction is excellent although the gem is supposed to be a ruby, not a sapphire (although both are essentially carborundum with slightly different contaminants). I suspect the blue was chosen to work better with both the overall green background of the image and as a technical need to make the cover printable because any offset with red into the green in the color printing process will yield mud whereas the blue just gets a little aqua tint, It also to lets the gems and the eldritch printing be done in the same print layer color printing in the 70’s being rather limited.

          On a separate issue the extensions on the quillions of Stormbringer are just odd for a giant (like 5′ plus) two handed sword. One sees things like that in later thrusting swords (e.g. early rapiers) and especially in the paired daggers for rapiers (main gauche). The extensions are intended to catch the tip of the opponent’s weapon and either break it or control it using the advantage of leverage against them. Because rapiers are fundamentally thrusting weapons this can reduce the effectiveness of your opponent’s weapon. Stormbringer and its likely paired opponents (other two handed/ hand and a half swords) are not focused on the thrust, slash and cut being their strength. That kind of guard is likely to be quickly busted off or cause the holder of the sword to get some serious wrenching of the shoulder if they stop a heavy blow. Stormbringer being Sentient would not permit that to happen but that sentience (and the just general foul tempered evil nature of Stormbringer) has its own issues :-) .

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  14. We don’t talk politics in public either. Even when with sister and BIL, or BIL and his wife. We’re all on the same page. Sister & BIL we talk a bit about their kids and grandchildren. Plus what trips they are taking (2024: Iceland cruise back to Nova Scotia, Cruise around South America. 2025: African cruise. Yea, I know. It is their children that get to deal with the fallout. It is what they want.) What trips we are planning (not as ambitious, no desire for the world stuff). BIL and SIL, again, mostly about her children and her mom, her job (at age 70, no less). Then we morph into dogs, cats, guns (he is an enthusiast, and reloads) and range practice. FYI, he CCL’s, everywhere. If CCL not allowed, he does not go. We haven’t gotten that way around town. Just because we have our CCL doesn’t mean we must carry. Besides we lost ours in those boating accidents.

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  16. <I>There will always be poor, unloved, suffering people. </I>

    I read a book (_My Brother’s Keeper_, in case anyone cares) in high school that said that. It infuriated me. There is a problem; solve it, don’t accept it.

    Then I got older. I absolutely despise that fact, but my opinion of it doesn’t change it.

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      1. If and only if WordPress neglects the top line crud, html markup will work. (As it just did.) When it shows up, you have to use their B&D scheme to get text enhancements. I have no idea what triggers the top line stuff; seems to be dependent on whim.
        In other words, WPDE.

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    2. Well, there will always be poor, unloved, suffering people. And I can’t solve all of their problems. But sometimes I can help one of them solve one of their problems.

      The key is to not beat yourself up because you can’t save all of them. Or to let others beat you up because you couldn’t save all of them. Do the best you can, with what you have, and let God do the rest. Trying to take God’s job away from Him doesn’t work well.

      —

      I have to laugh. That last sentence can have a double meaning.

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      1. I’m certainly not going to try to take G*d’s Job away from him; he might choose me, instead. Although, I’m probably safe from that particular problem, not being devout. We do chat on occasion, mostly me looking up and saying, “I didn’t mean that as a challenge.”

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  17. The idea of “too many liberties” is idiotic. I understand that many people feel overwhelmed at the sheer number of choices available to them on any particular topic. But to willingly give up your own agency and have someone make the choices for you is a sign of mental illness if you’re an adult. Childhood should end when you are able to look after yourself. Their parents did a poor job of raising them if they still want to be looked after as adults.

    My wife doesn’t like me to talk about politics. She’s conservative, but is still in the naive state of believing the MSM. She still thinks things are the way they were 30-40 years ago. She doesn’t like me to point out things in TV/Movies that don’t make any sense either. She’s currently watching Designated Survivor and is confused as to why I’ve never wanted to watch it. The thing I pointed out about the episode last night wasn’t even political, just demographical. An animation of the spread of a flu virus had an explosion of cases in the Jamestown area of North Dakota (~15K people), and none in the Minneapolis/St. Paul (~3.7M people) area of Minnesota. It really seemed to like spreading in rural areas and not urban areas like pretty much every other disease in history.

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  19. #2 Since Obama has been president, seven out of every eight jobs that have been “created” in the U.S. economy have been part-time jobs.

    FWIW, I had my FT job broken into two half time jobs, and the other person doing my other tasks paid significantly less than I make. My pay per hour is still the same, but max benefits are predicated on total salary, ergo, insurance values and retirement contributions are only half of what I had before. ’sall good though. I track my minutes worked, and don’t work a second more than I’m paid for, and management gets warned once, in writing, if anything they need exceeds that. I’m kind of hoping they miss something that ends up costing them a few million in Medicare reimbursements, and I expect that to happen within 6 to 12 months. Meanwhile, I have plenty of time to pick a second part time job to fill in.

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    1. Good luck on getting a second part time job. I’ve heard of scheduling messing so bad with schedules, that like the college student’s problem, one can not work another part time job. Whether that is the first part time job or second one that pulls this stunt.

      SIL’s new job isn’t considered part time, but is considered temporary. So, she’ll work 5 months, get a month off, repeat and rinse. Since temporary, no insurance, no PTO, etc. PTO not sure how she feels about that. Insurance? She’s on Medicare Advantage. Again, she’s 70.

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      1. Yeah, they pulled that just before I turned 65. And both the manager and HR swore up and down that it had nothing to do with age discrimination. /snort

        The problem is, age discrimination, at least in NH, is damn hard to prove, especially in fields that don’t require physical ability.

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        1. that it had nothing to do with age discrimination

          Any programmer who is 40+, at least being hired. Once on, golden. But damn it was a PIA. I started listing degrees but with out dates. I dropped older experience. Dropped dates off some of the relevant experiences. Couldn’t hide the gray hair (early onset) even with coloring. Oh, they didn’t say it was because I was too old. They weren’t that stupid. Being let go wasn’t age discrimination either, unless it was, but they were willing to take down the entire company to do it. Younger employees got cut in earlier rounds, so, no.

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  20. “the problem is we have too many liberties in this country.”

    Oh boy, that triggered some cPTSD flashbacks from growing up in New York City.

    And no, they never mean *they* have too many liberties. Just the great unwashed masses.

    Excuse me, I have to go eat some feelings now.

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  21. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this earlier. Most people don’t ever realize that there has never been a leader in the history of the world who could even guarantee his (or her) OWN safety, health, and contentment; much less than anyone who he served, or who served under him.

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  22. “rich beyond the dreams of average” GOLDEN! I’m adding this to my descriptions of aspirational wealth, right up there with “Texas thousandaires.”

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  23. “Too many liberties” are what the Administrative State have taken with our legal and governmental system vs. what is allowed by the Constitution.

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  24. Except for the (unacacceptable) pain it would cause you, I bet seeing you go full berserker would be a joy to behold.

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  25. “first, it is polite and proper, if sharing a public space with other sentient beings, to try not to say anything offensive out loud.”

    Of course, for a leftists, their opinions are NEVER offensive, only ours. It’s like how we read that something is controversial – never a leftist policy or statement, only the right.

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    1. Yep. And if you tell them that something they said offends you they either ignore it or attack you for “attacking” them. As Our Hostess noted, and several others commented, they never grew, mentally or emotionally, beyond *very* early puberty. If that.

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      1. Most of them seem not to have grown past the age of 3, emotionally. That’s what we’re dealing with. Physically adult 3-year-olds. Remember all the kicking and screaming tantrums when Trump won the election? They’re still going on today.

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        1. About Trump? Of course; due to the laws known as “squatters’ rights” laws: Since he’s living rent-free in all their heads and has been there for over 30 days they can’t get him to leave. :twisted:

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  26. Apropos of not much… I just found out something about that Pembroke guy who wrote the riding manual for the UK cavalry, back in the day.

    When he was still only 19 or 20, he met Domenick Angelo, who later became famous as a fencing master, but who was famous as a master of equitation at the time.

    He was enthusiastic about learning everything Angelo could teach him about riding and the training of horses, and he even persuaded Angelo to move to a house in Wilton near his regiment (Elliot’s Light Horse, which became the 15th Hussars later); and to teach other young officers, and even some troopers, how to ride and how to train horses for cavalry work.

    Philip Astley, of Astley’s Amphitheatre, started out as a trooper who was taught to ride by Angelo.

    Angelo apparently only did this gig for about a year, but it made a big difference to UK military history.

    It was after this that he became a fencing master to the Duke of Devonshire and various members of the royal family, and that was how he was known to most people for the rest of his life.

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    1. Funnily enough, the American artist Benjamin West once painted an equestrian portrait of Angelo and his famous horse Monarch.

      In his picture “The Battle of the Boyne.”

      Yup, King George II was vain enough to ask West to paint Angelo as him.

      So it’s Angelo, but with George’s head.

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      1. It also turns out that Domenick’s son Henry Angelo, who took over his fencing academy, was employed to teach cutlass to some selected midshipmen in 1813. They then spread what they had learned, and it became the navy way to fight with a cutlass.

        Domenick wrote a very serious treatise in French, with illustrations, called L’Ecole des Armes.

        Henry wrote books of reminiscences, and they apparently have tons of good Regency material in them, because he knew everybody and was friends with the Regent. He even knew one of Bach’s kids, who came to London and hung out with Gainsborough, who apparently liked music as a hobby but was a little too bad for Bach to take. He also taught Byron.

        This stuff is very interesting, like a crossover between Regency and Aubrey/Maturin books. :)

        There’s a really long article following the family members down to 1904:

        https://books.google.com/books?id=M7c7AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=reve+engelo&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjw-LKR_bqFAxXHDHkGHfchDzM4ChDoAXoECAgQAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

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    1. At least Hogg was more honest than most anti-gun freedom deniers. He admitted that he couldn’t guarantee that it would never happen. (And then, of course, the person making the guarantee would, in the next breath, claim Trump was the next Hitler.)

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    1. I’ve had several comments evaporate, then turn up hours or days later. I suspect that’s Sarah, spelunking in the dark underbelly of WPDE with her digital crowbar, prying them loose. We can but admire her dedication. :-)

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