“Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years.” – Niccolò Machiavelli, The Art of War
“The United States and its leaders are stuck in their own Catch-22. They need the economy to improve in order to generate jobs, but the economy can only improve if people have jobs. They need the economy to recover in order to improve our deficit situation, but if the economy really recovers, long-term interest rates will increase, further depressing the housing market and increasing the interest expense burden for the US, therefore increasing the deficit. A recovering economy would result in more production and consumption, which would result in more oil consumption, driving the price above $100 per barrel, therefore …
"The universal practice of carrying arms in the South is undoubtedly the cause of occasional loss of life, and is much to be regretted. On the other hand, this custom renders altercations and quarrels of very rare occurrence, for people are naturally careful what they say when a bullet may be the probable result." – LtC Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, HM Coldstream Guards, 24 May 1863
“What people did not realize was that war had started. By 1 p.m., a few minutes after Molotov’s speech, queues, especially in the food stores, began to grow. The women shoppers in the gastronoms or grocery stores started to buy indiscriminately – canned goods (which Russians do not like very much), butter, sugar, lard, flour, groats, sausage, matches, salt. In twenty years of Soviet power Leningraders had learned by bitter experience what to expect in time of crisis. They rushed to the stores to buy what they could. They gave preference to foods which would keep. But they were not …
“1) David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy, Richard Speck… 2) what about them? 1) Serial killers. Serial killers only have two names. You ever notice that? But lone gunmen assassins, they always have three names. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Mark David Chapman… 2) John Hinckley. He shot Reagan. He only has two names. 1) Yeah, but he only just shot Reagan. Reagan didn’t die. If Reagan had died, I’m pretty sure we probably would all know what John Hinckley’s middle name was.” – Mel Gibson, in the movie Conspiracy Theory. (Screenplay by Brian Helgeland)
“They think we might be better off holing up and waiting for the government to save us. But Jerry and I both know better. We’ve seen enough failed federal disaster responses to know that we’re better off walking into a future of our own choosing.” – Terry DeHart in “The Unit“, a post-nuclear war survival fiction novel.
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech." – Benjamin Franklin
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.” – Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds
“Deyr fé, deyja frændr, deyr sjálfr et sama; ek veit einn, at aldri deyr: dómr of dauðan hvern.” (Translated: “Cattle die, kinsmen die the self must also die; I know one thing which never dies: the reputation of each dead man.”) – The Hávamál, Ancient Gnomic Norse Poem
“Ben Bernanke made a fatal error by launching QE2 too early, with an incoherent justification, by dribs and drabs for fine-tuning purposes. The QE card cannot easily be played a third time. If he now tries to print money on a nuclear scale to crush all resistance and hold down Treasury yields, he risks exhausting Chinese patience and invites the wrath the Tea Party Congress.” – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
“The Year of the 1911: Gear up for it… Every gun magazine in the world is going to be running articles and photos about every kind of 1911 on the market past, present and future. And that’s cool… but not everyone likes a 1911. We call those people, ‘Wrong.’” – George D. Hill (Editor of the Mad Ogre Blog), writing about the 100th Anniversary of the John M. Browning’s Colt Model 1911’s adoption by the U.S. Army. (To be precise, it was adopted on March 29, 1911. We are planning a special family M1911 shooting event here at the ranch …
Dennis mentioned the Sustainable Local Food and Farm Conference in Grass Valley, California that will be held on January 22, 2011. o o o Our changing sun. Solar max by the middle of the decade? Major flares? o o o A World in Crisis: What the thirties tell us about today. (Thanks to John R. for the link,) o o o Beau spotted a web site with a lot of military field manuals. Most of the manuals can be downloaded and saved or printed. o o o The Polish Rosomak APC Debuts in Afghanistan
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” – John 3:36 (KJV)
African Huts Far From the Grid Glow With Renewable Power o o o What a concept! ‘We the people’ to open next Congress House to read Constitution o o o Jim B. mentioned a review of three anatomy books. o o o Mary F. flagged this from The New York Times: With Ambulances Stuck in Snow, City Resorted to Triage o o o Commentary from Marko The Munchkin Wrangler: The Snow Gestapo
"Ring, happy bells, across the snow; The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true." – Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ring Out, Wild Bells, 1850