Once again, it is the footnotes that take your post over the top. As much as you say you love the footnote ability here on substack, I love READING your footnotes (then going back and re-reading your post) even more.
I disagree with you about a number of things, but it looks like disagreement that can be the subject of conversation rather than shouting bumper stickers at each other. Plus which, “Bugscuffle” is such an excellent word.
One other thing that really made me feel at home with Ian's writing - based on clues in The LawDog files (which may or may not have been obfuscated for opsec), my grandparents had a farm in New Mexico which wouldn't have been more than a 3 or 4 hour drive from his old stomping grounds as a deputy. A lot of the men I grew up around sounded just like Ian writes.
I was bemused for about oh-point-thirty seconds when a political quiz labeled me a "constitutionalist." Oh-point-six seconds later I thought "Right. That about sums it up." If I remember, I'll send you a David Crockett commentary on the role of government. Why, pray tell, is the tenth amendment so absolutely disregarded?
IMO, the 10th A is disregarded because it reserves power away from the Fed.gov, to the People and the States.
Since 1860, whe the Fed.gov became the power and the States became subject components of that power,* anything that interferes with the ruthless application of Federal power is derogatory by the Fed.gov.
*I think, in economic terms, that the Civil War was between an export driven economy (South), and a domestic manufacturing / sales driven economy (North).
The social basis of the conflict, and the motivation of the Northern people was the evil of slavery.
The War was necessary was because the Fed.gov was then entirely funded by tariffs and excise taxes, and could not survive the removal of most of its income by Southern secession.
That income went away during the War, but the Fed.gov made it up through an inflated currency (greenbacks), which did not trade at parity to gold until almost twenty years later.
I'd either read or was able to infer most of this based on reading The LawDog Files and your posts here, so there were no big surprises.
I cannot for the life of me imagine how anyone would send hate mail over the clown meme. To (slightly) misquote the Declaration of Independence - "We hold that truth to be self-evident."
And I've got no grief with your bio and philosophy. It mostly agrees with my mine, and, where it doesn't, it's at least internally self-consistent. Can't stand folks who have multiple incompatible exceptions to things in the philosophies by which they say they live.
In re the clown meme: "I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace, that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a congress.” - 1776 (said by John Adams, but apparently not a real quote.)
Sam Vimes is my absolute favorite. For many reasons. Not the least of which is an imperfect, flawed man working to do the best he can and lead others as well to do the best one can in a deeply broken, flawed society- out of nothing other than sheer stubbornnes because doing the right thing (or at least mostly right with a hint of tarnish) is the damn right thing to do.
I differ from you on some things, but resonate with much and the core principles I think distill down to much of the same, with me leaning much more towards being willing to care for the broken on a more systemic level.
Hmm, you seem to have failed in your mission...If I were a writer of your skills, I could have written the opinion part of that about myself...(I had the sense to choose parents who didn't drag me to third world s**tholes during civil war season ;) )
I devoutly hope you have read or are reading the works of H. L. Mencken. You might not agree with him on every particular, but at a minimum I think you would enjoy his writing about the world and politics.
While I disagree with at least one of your thoughts, I applaud you for having a great understanding forged through years of dealing with 'not very pleasant' situations or worse. And I completely and strongly agree with all the rest of your thinking. What's more, I beleive there are millions like you, and me, and some of the others who responded. We may not be out of the woods, but we are moving towards a better forest.
You failed. You didn't annoy me at all. Way to go!
Once again, it is the footnotes that take your post over the top. As much as you say you love the footnote ability here on substack, I love READING your footnotes (then going back and re-reading your post) even more.
I disagree with you about a number of things, but it looks like disagreement that can be the subject of conversation rather than shouting bumper stickers at each other. Plus which, “Bugscuffle” is such an excellent word.
Still hoping you'll republish the Lawdog Files content. We miss Paper Armour, the gun rights cake, the demon kitten, and the Pink Gorilla Suit.
One other thing that really made me feel at home with Ian's writing - based on clues in The LawDog files (which may or may not have been obfuscated for opsec), my grandparents had a farm in New Mexico which wouldn't have been more than a 3 or 4 hour drive from his old stomping grounds as a deputy. A lot of the men I grew up around sounded just like Ian writes.
I was bemused for about oh-point-thirty seconds when a political quiz labeled me a "constitutionalist." Oh-point-six seconds later I thought "Right. That about sums it up." If I remember, I'll send you a David Crockett commentary on the role of government. Why, pray tell, is the tenth amendment so absolutely disregarded?
IMO, the 10th A is disregarded because it reserves power away from the Fed.gov, to the People and the States.
Since 1860, whe the Fed.gov became the power and the States became subject components of that power,* anything that interferes with the ruthless application of Federal power is derogatory by the Fed.gov.
*I think, in economic terms, that the Civil War was between an export driven economy (South), and a domestic manufacturing / sales driven economy (North).
The social basis of the conflict, and the motivation of the Northern people was the evil of slavery.
The War was necessary was because the Fed.gov was then entirely funded by tariffs and excise taxes, and could not survive the removal of most of its income by Southern secession.
That income went away during the War, but the Fed.gov made it up through an inflated currency (greenbacks), which did not trade at parity to gold until almost twenty years later.
John in Indy
I'd either read or was able to infer most of this based on reading The LawDog Files and your posts here, so there were no big surprises.
I cannot for the life of me imagine how anyone would send hate mail over the clown meme. To (slightly) misquote the Declaration of Independence - "We hold that truth to be self-evident."
And I've got no grief with your bio and philosophy. It mostly agrees with my mine, and, where it doesn't, it's at least internally self-consistent. Can't stand folks who have multiple incompatible exceptions to things in the philosophies by which they say they live.
I could see complaining because it's an insult to professional clowns.
That's actually... a valid point.
In re the clown meme: "I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace, that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a congress.” - 1776 (said by John Adams, but apparently not a real quote.)
Yeah, I can’t believe that people on either political side would be offended by the clown meme.
Unless they worship their congress critters, which seems to be happening way too much lately
Or they like clowns.
Sam Vimes is my absolute favorite. For many reasons. Not the least of which is an imperfect, flawed man working to do the best he can and lead others as well to do the best one can in a deeply broken, flawed society- out of nothing other than sheer stubbornnes because doing the right thing (or at least mostly right with a hint of tarnish) is the damn right thing to do.
I differ from you on some things, but resonate with much and the core principles I think distill down to much of the same, with me leaning much more towards being willing to care for the broken on a more systemic level.
Thanks for sharing it all!
Thank you ...
A lot of truth gems in " A Kingdom of Heaven' - if you'll get out of your own way and just listen...
I suspect things may get a bit more brutish before they get better ..
I find myself entirely unannoyed. But then, I'm a rationalist small-l libertarian.
OK, comparing congress to clowns is an insult to clowns.
And sleep off P-Con, I know what you mean. Within about two or three hours of getting home, I laid down for about a four hour nap.
Hmm, you seem to have failed in your mission...If I were a writer of your skills, I could have written the opinion part of that about myself...(I had the sense to choose parents who didn't drag me to third world s**tholes during civil war season ;) )
Dear Sir,
I devoutly hope you have read or are reading the works of H. L. Mencken. You might not agree with him on every particular, but at a minimum I think you would enjoy his writing about the world and politics.
While I disagree with at least one of your thoughts, I applaud you for having a great understanding forged through years of dealing with 'not very pleasant' situations or worse. And I completely and strongly agree with all the rest of your thinking. What's more, I beleive there are millions like you, and me, and some of the others who responded. We may not be out of the woods, but we are moving towards a better forest.
As a philosophy there are a lot that are worse
I'm of a similar mindset.