People who pay attention are cool.

The scene: an elevator in Anaheim, at a technical conference. I'm going up by myself; at floor X, one woman and two men, all conferencers, get on with me, with the usual rote pleasantries.  The following happens after a short pause:

Man #1 to man #2: "You know, I'm really enjoying the side conversations here. They've been very useful." (Elevator stops at a new floor.)

Man #2 to man #1: "Yeah, and the eavesdropping; I really learn a lot that way." (They both get out and the elevator door closes.)

(After a short pause) Me, aloud, but not specifically to the woman, who is looking at her smartphone: "Ironic, isn't it?"

Woman (who doesn't just giggle, she *bursts* out laughing): "Yes, it is!" (She's still chuckling when she gets off at her floor.)

 I admit, I was happy to score the double play on that one.  :-)

Man, I love people who pay attention.  I hate this place--far too many folks who "personally wet themselves" at the very thought of their own shadows, and (worse) insist on wearing that particular neurosis openly on their sleeves--but even here, I regularly find people who are at least partially worthy of the term "human being".

That is a good reminder for me, in these tiresome times.

Grigg: Happy Insurrection Day!

Ran across this classic again today.  It is so outstanding that I felt the need to have it bookmarked here.

Just a teaser:

It's hardly surprising that the Wilson regime effectively criminalized the Declaration: Like collectivists of all ages, Wilson assumed that man, who was created for the state, should be pitifully grateful for whatever transient "liberties" he was given by the state, and should be prepared to sacrifice everything on behalf of the state.

"It is not an army we must shape and train for war, it is a nation," Wilson declared, as he centralized the economy, orchestrated a frenzy of war hatred against Germany, and moved to impose conscription. His Vice President, Thomas Marshall, urged that citizenship be formally revoked for anyone found to be "not heartily in support of the Government in this crisis."

Bernard Baruch, chairman of the War Industries Board and de facto commissar of the economy, explained the logic of Wilson's war regime in admirably frank terms: "Every man's life is at the call of the nation and so must be every man's property.... The state is all; the individual is of importance only as he contributes to the welfare of the state. His property is his only as the state does not need it. He must hold his life and possessions at the call of the state."

I'm saving that one for the next Wilson apologist I run into.  Jeez, what awful people.

And Grigg's wrap-up is exactly what you'd expect from him:

What if, instead of starting every day being marinated in the language of submission (to pledge "allegiance," after all, is to proclaim one's status as a vassal bound in service to a feudal lord, or "liege"), youngsters were taught, on a daily basis, the principles of self-responsibility, individual liberty, and principled rebellion? As I stated earlier, if this kind of thing were to become common, our rulers would simply criminalize the Declaration. They've done it before, and they would be more than happy to do so permanently.

The sobering truth is that, due to the cultivated docility of the American populace, Jefferson's document, much like the Constitution created eleven years later, poses no threat to the designs of our rulers.

As always, worth it to RTWT.

Independence Day.

Five years later, and I still don't feel the need to change anything.

Whatsay let's all remind someone who needs reminding, tomorrow, that what we celebrate on Independence Day is the practice of sedition.

I'll say it with a smile.  It's the original American tradition, after all, and there's no need to hide the pride.

What David said.

I've not written here about the whole open-carry protest "movement" that seems to be going on these days.  Really, there's a simple reason for that:  it's inherently in the political realm, and I can't really "side" with any of the demonstrators without feeling like I'm somehow legitimizing the underlying politics*.  And I'm sure as hell not going to do that on purpose.

Besides, sometimes others say it better than I ever could.  Today, David Codrea addressed it this way, in re Target:

That first part is all that should matter to us. For a company that never wanted this distraction in their stores and were forced to walk a tightrope, what more do "we" demand from them?

This is no victory for the antis. If they tell people it is, they're liars, which should not come as a big news flash.

If someone doesn't want to fight and is leaving you alone, don't back him into a corner. If you do, expect him to react in his interests, not yours.

If you still don't like it, you don't have to shop there. Me, in the absence of belligerent aggression that invites further observations, I'm moving on.

Magnificent.  Simply magnificent.

I suppose one could gripe that "That first part" implicitly acknowledges the legitimacy of "local laws", but that's not the point David is making.  And anyway he's still spot-on that it is about as respectful a means of declaring "no dog in this fight" as I could imagine.





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*Sure, I'd like to see both open and concealed carry normalized and common everywhere, but I can't see winning the hearts and minds of individuals by adopting inherently collective strategy to do it.  I'm much more of the MamaLiberty frame of mind on the matter:  I'm going to do what I do every day, and that is going to be much more authentically "normal" than showing up with a group whose express purpose is to say, "LOOK AT US WE'RE NORMAL!"

Ahem.

You know, in high school I was blessed with an outstanding English teacher who impressed many things on me that really were useful.  Among the strongest was her insistence that there truly is one book that is always worth burning:  your thesaurus.  She said that if we used a thesaurus to help ourselves write a paper, she would be able to tell immediately, because a thesaurus word simply jumps off the page at her.  It is not a word we would use normally, in regular dialogue, but rather it sits there and screams, "I am a word!"  I have no doubt--no doubt at all--that she was being wholly honest about this.

I think a lot about her, when I see people gather together for the specific purpose of making a political point.