| At the risk of starting the argument of all | | | | purchase price now. It's a multi-billion |
| time, I feel compelled to point out that | | | | dollar industry! |
| Americans today are simply not made of the | | | | |
| same stern stuff as our ancestors. | | | | The search for safe energy has brought the |
| | | | search for renewable energy to a standstill. |
| You disagree? Please write and tell me | | | | Terrestrial energy sources are dangerous, |
| honestly what you think your nearest neighbor | | | | whether we are talking about the merely |
| would do if awakened at midnight by the | | | | overwhelming, like hydroelectric power, or |
| warning, "The redcoats are coming!" Frankly, | | | | other flammable, explosive or radioactive |
| my next door neighbor is an active duty | | | | sources. Solar power is reasonably safe, but |
| Marine, but tucking tail is the first thing | | | | it is weak and unreliable as yet. Chemical |
| that comes to mind. I certainly cannot | | | | sources are dangerous because of the kinetic |
| imagine him handing a rifle to his wife or | | | | energy locked up in the substances involved. |
| daughter and telling them to "lock and load." | | | | You can't get away from that without changing |
| | | | the laws of physics. |
| Not in this lifetime, at any rate. He'd be | | | | |
| too worried about his retirement. | | | | Hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the |
| | | | entire universe. Combined with oxygen, it |
| Our ancestors had one or two advantages over | | | | burns hot and clean and could provide us with |
| us. In the first place, most of those who | | | | energy for the life of the human race. It is |
| lived on the American continent at the time | | | | also dangerous. |
| of the signing of the Declaration of | | | | |
| Independence were no more than one or two | | | | Because of our fear, because of our |
| generations removed from individuals who had | | | | cowardice, we are still dependent on energy |
| possessed the courage and vision to leave | | | | sources developed before we became so timid |
| every single thing they had ever owned for | | | | as a society. The largest deposits of those |
| unspecified opportunity in a new and savage | | | | energy sources are located in a part of the |
| land. It was one hell of a winnowing, and | | | | world that calls America the "Great Satan." |
| their descendants were the best of the best | | | | Our president is taking us to war as I write |
| that Europe had to offer. | | | | this for control of those resources, an evil |
| | | | and immoral war that cannot possibly have a |
| Throughout history, winnowings such as the | | | | happy ending for anyone. |
| settlement of our American continent have | | | | |
| brought forth the most shining examples of | | | | If you still believe that we are going to war |
| human courage and achievement. Sadly, we have | | | | with Saddam Hussein because of weapons of |
| just about run out of Earthly frontiers now, | | | | mass destruction, please tell me why we are |
| and it cannot happen again until we begin to | | | | not preparing to attack North Korea, which |
| colonize Antarctica - or outer space. | | | | has just admitted to nuclear weapons. |
| | | | |
| We have now experienced a full hundred years | | | | Cowardice carries its own penalties. |
| of urban civilization. One hundred years | | | | |
| separate us from the last of our ancestors | | | | America needs to take a collective deep |
| who fought the Native Americans for their | | | | breath and get a grip. Life is hazardous to |
| survival. One hundred years separate us from | | | | our health. No one gets out of it alive. No |
| the last remnant of frontiersmen who strapped | | | | one. Perhaps we could begin by accepting that |
| on their guns and went out to wrest a living | | | | one simple fact, because it makes everything |
| from an unforgiving land. | | | | else so much easier. |
| | | | |
| We've become the sort of weaklings our | | | | Are you tired of ruinous taxes? Are you tired |
| ancestors would be ashamed to claim as | | | | of government regulators with their fingers |
| descendants. Oh, there remain a few here and | | | | in every part of your life, from the cradle |
| there who would make our common ancestors | | | | to the grave? Are you tired of being forced |
| proud, and they or their children will almost | | | | to pay into a Social Security system that |
| certainly be the first to colonize a new | | | | your legislators systematically loot? |
| planet, but they are now so widely scattered | | | | |
| among the rest of us that they are hard to | | | | Are you tired of paying billions to fight a |
| find. | | | | war against drugs that merely results in your |
| | | | loss of freedom - and makes street drugs more |
| A fellow by the name of Todd Beamer comes to | | | | prevalent than ever? |
| mind, but when I think of that magnificent | | | | |
| young man and his friends, I am also forced | | | | Are you tired of vicious federal agents who |
| to recall that the passengers on three other | | | | manufacture evidence and burn women and |
| airplanes submitted meekly to hijackers with | | | | children alive in their homes while blatantly |
| mere box cutters - hijackers they outnumbered | | | | violating the Second Amendment of the U.S. |
| by roughly ten to one. | | | | Constitution by trying to jail people for the |
| | | | heinous crime of owning the wrong sort of |
| The awful truth today is that just teaching | | | | firearms? |
| your child courage and self-reliance can lead | | | | |
| to accusations of child abuse. | | | | What part of "shall not be infringed" is |
| | | | giving them trouble, anyway? |
| I remember (painfully) one occasion when I | | | | |
| was barely two years old. I laboriously | | | | If you are tired of these things, if you |
| climbed to the top of about a six foot slide | | | | truly want these things to go away, then you |
| in Central Park, then lost my grip and | | | | are eventually going to have to give up the |
| tumbled off said slide head first. I wound up | | | | so-called protections of government. You must |
| with a goose egg the size of Kansas right in | | | | learn self-sufficiency. You can't work to |
| the middle of my forehead, saw whole galaxies | | | | dismantle an overbearing government with one |
| of stars, and my mother's hair turned a shade | | | | hand while your other hand is outstretched |
| or two whiter on the spot. | | | | for what that government will give you. |
| | | | |
| If that had happened in today's world, my | | | | You can start by purchasing a handgun and |
| parents would have had a very unpleasant | | | | learning to use it. It's only a very small |
| visit from Child Protective Services, and it | | | | part of the process, but it's good for you |
| is quite possible that they would have lost | | | | psychologically to realize that you don't |
| custody of their daughter altogether. | | | | need help defending your life or your |
| | | | property any longer. You hold your head just |
| I remember hanging upside down from Jungle | | | | a little bit higher. A man or a woman who |
| Jim bars. I remember swinging so hard on | | | | cannot or will not defend immediate family is |
| swing sets that I pulled the legs of the | | | | not worthy of the name "human." Even animals |
| swing sets clean out of the ground. I | | | | defend their young. |
| remember running back and forth on a seesaw, | | | | |
| wildly keeping my balance as it tipped each | | | | Take some chances! It may sound silly, but a |
| way. | | | | skydiving course is not a bad idea. You will |
| | | | find out that life is fun when you aren't |
| Compared to my great-great-grandmother, who | | | | wrapped in cotton. You may find that you like |
| climbed aboard a covered wagon in Missouri at | | | | your fellow skydivers better than most of the |
| the ripe old age of 16 years and drove it to | | | | people you know. Life tastes very sweet when |
| Texas, having a baby on the way, I am your | | | | you take big bites. It needn't be skydiving. |
| original pansy - but compared to today's | | | | Try flying an airplane, scuba diving, or rock |
| sissy kids, I am Attila The Hun in drag. | | | | climbing - but find something you love to do, |
| | | | maybe something just a little bit risky, and |
| Unfortunately, the progression is obvious and | | | | do it. It is never too late to learn physical |
| not too flattering to today's generation. | | | | courage. |
| | | | |
| The more we demand safety, the more our | | | | Learn to hunt! This is terribly difficult and |
| government tightens its grip. | | | | painful for animal lovers like myself, but it |
| | | | is crucially important to any man or woman to |
| We demand safe drugs, so our Food and Drug | | | | know that they can provide their own food. |
| Administration has made the requirements for | | | | Long range shooting has been an important |
| testing new drugs so stringent and expensive | | | | skill for centuries. Only in the last hundred |
| that drug development has ground almost | | | | years has it fallen into disrepute. Learning |
| completely to a halt. Those few new drugs | | | | to hunt is more than learning to shoot, |
| that are being developed are priced right out | | | | though. You must also learn to field dress |
| of reach for the people who need them the | | | | the carcass and prepare the meat for |
| most. This government agency actually has the | | | | consumption. These are survival skills that |
| unmitigated gall to tell you what you can and | | | | every single one of your ancestors possessed. |
| cannot try when you have a terminal illness! | | | | They would be appalled to learn that you do |
| | | | not. |
| Dozens and dozens of wonderful children's | | | | |
| toys are no longer on the market, because of | | | | If you do not want to be treated like a |
| potential risks if parents were not vigilant, | | | | helpless infant by your government, the first |
| or allowed children of the wrong age group to | | | | step is to cease to be a helpless infant. |
| play with them, etc. | | | | |
| | | | That is only the beginning, though. It will |
| Have you read the idiot warnings on labels | | | | not be enough. |
| lately? Honestly, the last time I purchased a | | | | |
| firearm, it had a big label that said that | | | | Government is a cancer. It feeds on itself. |
| firearms could be hazardous to my health! By | | | | Those who possess power over your life will |
| itself, this was merely amusing, but it does | | | | not give it up easily. When they learn that |
| lose its humor rapidly when you consider what | | | | you are trying to free yourself from their |
| it says about our society. | | | | grip, their jackbooted thugs will come for |
| | | | you. |
| The last motorcycle helmet I purchased warned | | | | |
| me sternly that it was designed to be worn on | | | | They will come for all of us, and for our |
| my head, not on other parts of my body. | | | | families. |
| | | | |
| The warnings on knives are frankly hilarious. | | | | The day is approaching when each of us will |
| | | | have to decide what we choose to defend with |
| I shudder to think what will come with my | | | | our lives. We must decide if we will accept |
| next motorcycle, but I'm sure it will be a | | | | slavery, or if we are willing, as our |
| good-sized book. | | | | ancestors were, to pledge our lives, our |
| | | | fortunes and our sacred honor to secure our |
| The worst insult of all is that we have pay | | | | freedom. |
| to print this stuff! Every product we | | | | |
| purchase includes warning labels in its | | | | The redcoats are coming! |