Once I had managed to figure out which dimension I had landed in, it seemed like I should just get on with routine, and things might settle into some sort of recognizable configuration. It doesn’t seem to be happening though, and I’m not quite sure what to do about it? Do I continue to act as if I’m right at home, or should I start panicking soon? An uncomfortable conundrum for early morning, to be sure, but, I think we’ll just use the human trait so common among the mundanes, of being able to completely ignore any part of Reality we don’t understand. Works for me today, because, in spite of getting a bit of sleep, I can’t seem to cudgel my brain into any sort of creative mode. Ah, well, so much for vaulting ambition, eh?

So be it. Since I’ve got diddly-squat on board, I’ll just do my usual default sandbagging, and dip into the archives for part of today’s post. Expect to see something a bit crusty in the rant section, and a poem of mine from the past, as well. Other than that, hey, it’s as fresh as I can make it, and, y’all will just have to like it, or, lump it, as they used to say when I was a kid. Oh, they do? Well, how ’bout that! Okay, I’ve spewed enough bs for one morning, so, let’s get the hell down the page, before I get either maudlin, or, god forbid, smarmy from trying to be clever….

Shall we Pearl?….

“We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children  smart.” — H. L. Mencken

“Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays,”Self-Reliance”

From 5/8/2013:

This may be cheating, but, it’s a good  sort of cheat….. This was a rant on gun control that I wrote last year, after one of the spate of incidents in which a bunch of innocent folks got blasted by some crazy man…. Since that particular question is still in the public eye, this is worth a re-run…. (Hmm… I realized my statement may seem a bit calloused… but, that’s merely my attempt to keep emotional distance from the feelings that such events can produce, of sadness and outrage, neither of which will help reach a solution to the problem…) Any who…. abondanza!

“Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the _real_ object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?” — Patrick Henry

Here is a subject that is always worth a few words…. I’m a firm believer in the right to bear arms. I do feel that it is probably unnecessary for a private citizen to own, or feel they need, an automatic weapon such as a machine gun, or even an M-16 assault rifle. I can’t think of a lot of everyday situations where one might be called for, but, I wouldn’t want that to be a factor in whether or not I would be allowed to have one, because what Mr. Henry asks above remains valid today….”in whose can they be trusted..  with equal safety… as in our own hands.”

That simple question is one that MUST be answered to even CONSIDER the idea of disallowing citizens the ownership of firearms. It is a certain conclusion, with more than ample evidence, that the police, military, and government agencies and people that I know of, are NOT to be trusted to have the monopoly on guns. Nope, no way will those who seek entitlement and power over others in society ever be trusted fully by the likes of me….

“A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun, therefore, be the constant companion of your walks.” — Thomas Jefferson — Encyclopedia of Thomas Jefferson, 318 (Foley, Ed. reissued 1967)

Tom may have gone a bit overboard in his enthusiasm for his personal artillery, but, it does reflect the environment in which he lived, and the culture of the time. In today’s world, of course, physical health needn’t depend on the environment, per se, to provide the exercise our bodies enjoy, and need, to stay healthy and strong. Now we have a fitness center, a faux gym, every third block in major cities, open all night for those insomniacs who want to obsess over their abs. We don’t need to go tramping through the woods with our forty pound musket, trying to spot something appropriate for dinner.

But, even without the need for the exercise involved, if one is going to have a gun, it needs to be used in order to retain its functionality, and one needs to practice occasionally, in order to maintain the skills needed to actually hit whatever at which one is aiming. Society, because of the average person’s fear of guns, and of violence in the whole, has made that more difficult for citizens as time has passed, as those who don’t want to have to deal with violence at all in their lives add the power of the common man’s fears to the effort by the beloved ruling class to take away our guns, which they’ve been trying to do regularly since the inception of this nation.

Our country is still one of the very few in the world where the government actually still has to keep in mind the fact that the citizens are well armed, and able to defend themselves…. Very few governing groups will allow that, and those in power in this country are still trying to get us to give ours up, too. It has been obvious since 1782, when the Constitution and the Bill of Rights came into effect, that those in power would prefer that the populace give up their weapons…. just check Congressional records to see how often a bill is introduced to that effect. To now, all of those attempts have been thwarted, until the latter half of the 20th century, when some limitations were placed on what kinds of weapons would be legal for citizens to own.

But, the effort by the beloved ruling class to disarm the populace continues, and every year I hear talk about new legislation designed to limit the citizen’s access to guns, and place that power monopoly in the hands of the government. I won’t have it, I tell you, and there are a LOT of people in this country who feel the same way…. I have not seen ANYTHING that convinces me at all that the people who run the government are to be trusted with that kind of power. I have seen many, many pieces of evidence to the contrary, especially in the actions of about half of the police forces in the country, who are filled with power hungry sociopaths, who believe they are above the law, and should be allowed to interpret the law to their advantage, and to the advantage of the people who buy them, er…. pay them……

Nope…. none of what I see in society is any evidence of the trustworthiness of the government, and until there is no question of their integrity, (like THAT will ever happen), you won’t be convincing me that they are worthy of my trust…. ESPECIALLY regarding guns…..

“So live that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell.” —  Smart Bee

“Immortality lies not in the things you leave behind, but in the people your life has touched.” — Truly Wise Bee

“For my purpose holds… To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” — Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.” — Franklin P. Jones

“It’s the most unhappy people who most fear change.” — Mignon McLaughlin

“Human nature is interesting not because it is human, but because it is nature.” — Aristotelian Bee

“Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.” — Epictetus — Discourses, Book i, Chap. xii

“Maybe you’re right, boss.  It all depends on the way you look at it….Look, one day I had gone to a little village.  An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree.  ‘What, granddad!’ I exclaimed.  ‘Planting an almond tree?’  and he, bent as he was, turned round and said, ‘My son, I carry on as if I should never die.’  I replied, ‘And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.’  Which of us was right, boss?” — Nikos Kazantzakis, “Zorba the Greek”

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Done again… whew! I was NOT certain, at all, I would be able to do it, but, have once again, by trusting the process, completed my self-directed duty. Yay! Now, I think, I’ll go back to be a while, if Leelu can postpone her play time…. Either way, the rest of the day, for me, and for y’all, begins now. I, with my usual caveats, will be back tomorrow, to try again. See y’all then, since I am just crazy enough to believe I should….