tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post2464880882731698852..comments2024-03-27T17:10:55.396-05:00Comments on Johnday's Blog: Signaling Virtuous VictimhoodJohn Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12123174297818737132noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-56107355419661549642020-07-23T16:13:13.145-05:002020-07-23T16:13:13.145-05:00The point I made about brandishing/advertising fir...The point I made about brandishing/advertising firearms being dangerous was low-hanging-fruit, which states the obvious. It's in the news today that the lady lawyer brandishing a 9mm handgun at BLM interlopers-on-her-domain was bluffing. It was a dummy gun and she played a dummy hand.<br />You have a more logical stance, to have them and be actually prepared to use them in the moment of need. I was raised using firearms. Dad took me to the rifle range every Tuesday night, and I have the hearing to prove it. "You're a right handed rifle shooter" was my audiometry report. <br />I have not cracked a breech since around 1981, but I presume that I could. <br />Well, I lack the means.<br />"Karma is habits", say some teachers. But we use it as divine-cause-and-effect. "As you sow, so shall you reap"<br />The last fight I got into was in college, as I rode my bike home from school. Some asshole got on my tail and rode the horn. I stopped in the street and gave the salute. A guy got out (passenger side) and shoved me off my bike. As I appeared to be catching my balance, I was actually building into the quick punch that opened his upper lip into blood. He was bigger, but I knew how. He dived into me, and I headlocked him on the ground, above me, bleeding onto my shirt. I still remember the shirt. He was stuck. A nice old man came by and slyly berated him for being on me. "You get up off him, now". I was impressed at the diplomacy. He got up.<br />I saw the actual driver, standing by the vehicle, a pregnant woman.<br />I felt all sick for beating up the poor bastard, who just felt like he had to defend the pregnant woman. I still feel sick about it. It was her fault, for whatever turmoil she was going through that day.<br />A big misunderstanding. My last fight. I've felt like it almost every time somebody almost hits me in traffic, which is pretty often. Now I do mental practices to forgive them. They did not mean to harm me (usually). The ones that pull a vehicular power play and drive away are just gone, but take longer for me to release.<br />The fools that mess with me all stand down these days, when I am in front of them. Maybe I'll get run over, but they're clearly all afraid to fight. <br />I just wasn't born that way, and I grew up on USMC and Navy bases. Violent warrior society I matured from.<br />"The child is father to the man", they say. Wazzat sposta' mean?John Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12123174297818737132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-59902868798484799142020-07-23T15:05:20.023-05:002020-07-23T15:05:20.023-05:00"Karma is the air we share. My body is what I..."Karma is the air we share. My body is what I use to reside amid the shared karma. Inside my body, there is no karma... except in how I treat myself. (I've abused my body horribly.) My internal karma is no one's business but mine, and anyone who physically interferes with mine or an innocent in my responsible vicinity, has abandoned all relationship with my karma."<br /><br />Also, essentially, my pro-choice argument. ALong with the fact that once abortion can be legislated against it can also be legislated for. Robin Morrisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15098768488282086396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-90548901854672214722020-07-23T15:03:06.114-05:002020-07-23T15:03:06.114-05:00"Brandishing/advertising firearms is such a b..."Brandishing/advertising firearms is such a big risk to everybody involved."<br /><br />Absolutely. But come a certain point, it's guns or give up. I think that point in history is rather swiftly passed through, it being too deadly a disease for the remaining populace to withstand for long.<br /><br />But there tends to come a point when the crowd goes insanely apeshit and karma is just so much dust in their whirlwind as you shoot to protect the only solid seed stash in the region that you know of... etc.<br /><br />Life in all forms is based on life taking life. Any investment in the living requires creation of the dead.<br /><br />But the lasting strength is in courageous leadership that attracts loyal moral adherents. Guns, if nothing else, are a quick short reliable form of euthanasia/suicide if the gangs breach your perimeter and seem bent on being evil. (Had a friend in high school whose Armenian grandfather survived the Armenian massacre during WWII. He and his sons were down to the last bullets, getting ready to shoot their own before themselves, when the cavalry arrived and the Turks retreated.)<br /><br />I can kill or break joints with impunity. Fuck someone who thinks they have the right to physically assault me even slightly. Karma is the air we share. My body is what I use to reside amid the shared karma. Inside my body, there is no karma... except in how I treat myself. (I've abused my body horribly.) My internal karma is no one's business but mine, and anyone who physically interferes with mine or an innocent in my responsible vicinity, has abandoned all relationship with my karma.<br /><br />But when it comes to violent threat, that's dicey ground. Kill or be killed is my motto, otherwise, leave it be. We wish to frighten others into submitting to our wish not to be violated (we call it deterrence), but that is terrorism, and twerrorism is almost as bad as universal currency.<br /><br />Another way of looking at it, the strategic view, is: Never let 'em see you coming. Even when they're coming for you. Guns should be drawn, aimded, and fired, says me. If it's serious enough to draw weapon, it's serious enough to plug a hole in someone's forebrain. <br /><br />I look to churches. Not as they are now, mostly foolish "Xtian lifestyle" club houses, but as they can be when things get tough: sources of uncommon mutual trust via shared magical thinking, which mode of thought grows in hard times as much or more than ruthlessness.<br /><br />Robin Morrisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15098768488282086396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-37287583849063083242020-07-23T08:46:06.628-05:002020-07-23T08:46:06.628-05:00Thanks Robin,
I've given it a lot of thought o...Thanks Robin,<br />I've given it a lot of thought on bike rides, down to the specifics of killing and being killed, vs being unarmed. There are just so many ways for a situation to jump to the endgame once both sides show guns, or one shows and the other holds and strikes quickly.<br />Brandishing/advertising firearms is such a big risk to everybody involved. Those lawyers who threatened the BLM trespassers on their property have become a national battle themselves. That worked out to where nobody got shot.<br />There's Karma to killing another sentient-being, too. I suppose there is karma to preventing the murder of innocents, also, and that is popularly presented as justification for an armed citizen killing a gunman on a rampage. I'm not sure, because I wasn't there, in any of those incidents. If I had been there, I would not have been carrying. What would I have done in those moments?<br />I try to envision ways to be worth marginally more alive than dead, but desperados are desperados, and they egg each other on in gangs. We see images of that in cities, but I know it to happen to isolated homesteads in the country, too. Small towns might be the safer sweet spot. I'm speculating...John Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12123174297818737132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-91634910945919154592020-07-23T07:39:04.020-05:002020-07-23T07:39:04.020-05:00fwiw, my motto in such matters is this: No point i...fwiw, my motto in such matters is this: No point in having guns if you don't have somethiong worth stealing... unless one intends to become a brigand.<br /><br />That said, there isd a period in collapse when people destroy and steal just for the desperate emotional satisfaction of expressing their outraged insanity... like when the pawn shops close and they have to figure out what to do with STUFF rather than who will pay them money so they can but STUFF. It's a funny paradox but there it is.<br /><br />Lions raised in cages ain't much good at hunting if released into the wild.Robin Morrisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15098768488282086396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-24542515442273069122020-07-22T12:18:52.097-05:002020-07-22T12:18:52.097-05:00Thanks for the useful information, Wolfgang. Hmong...Thanks for the useful information, Wolfgang. Hmong women growing poppies as home remedy...<br />Will wonders never cease? :-)<br />I hope to remain employed, but I currently get pid to take care of poor people. My career is a historical anomaly. Also, People's Community Clinic (began as The PEople's Free Clinic in 1970) is tied up in the tightening web of medical compliance, being a "Federally Qualified Health Center" these days. A fondness remains for the original mission. I'm especially fond of the original mission,myself. No American doctor can practice outside the vast electronic compliance network today. Impossible.John Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12123174297818737132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-73287867594391412952020-07-21T18:51:53.486-05:002020-07-21T18:51:53.486-05:00Speaking of distilled spirits, I used to play with...Speaking of distilled spirits, I used to play with that craft back in high school. Later got a degree in chemistry but never did anything with it. Living in corn country now. Maybe time to get back into distilled spirits. Not much interest in whiskey locally, but at the time blue agave is in fashion. In the last year agave has doubled. Big demand for Tequila in the US. And then there's poppies. Used to have a plot in the Milwaukee county community gardens. I personally favored chiles, but some of the older Hmong ladies would have some poppies growing. Home remedy for aches and pains. Lots of opportunities out there.<br />And dr. John, you got an occupation that will always be in demand. Not to worry.Wolfgang Brinckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08314364206955412017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-66613651600357690482020-07-21T18:34:30.190-05:002020-07-21T18:34:30.190-05:00James C Scott in his books, against the grain and ...James C Scott in his books, against the grain and The Art of not Being Governed goes into various schemes used by south east Asian hill tribes to avoid taxation by the State, root crops being one of them. Grain crops were to the State what petroleum is to the State nowadays. Got petroleun, get invaded. Any crop which ripens at a predictable time is a liability for the farmer. Anyway, James C Scott is good reading, entertaining, and if you have any false notions that the state is your friend, his books give lots of counter examples.Wolfgang Brinckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08314364206955412017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-73174429349815582892020-07-21T16:58:35.833-05:002020-07-21T16:58:35.833-05:00Thanks for maintaining engagement, Robin.
My epiph...Thanks for maintaining engagement, Robin.<br />My epiphany back in the 1970s was that stuff did not get stolen based upon value to the owner, but more on what it would sell for in a pawn shop. Sometimes things are just stolen on a whim, too. Mainly little things that catch the eye.<br />My endeavor in growing food is that it be right out in the open, producing for regular harvest, but not quick or easy to run away with, like what gangs and armies want.<br />That's why armies would traditionally, in Europe, take the grain, but leave the potatoes in the ground. Potatoes are a lot of work to dig, and heavy/bulky for an army to carry as food. Armies and thieves need concentrated calories. I admit I grow beans and black eyed peas. I also have a few big bags of rice. I would keep things like that, and if it gets stolen at gunpoint, maybe we;d be able to live awhile, anyway.<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDq36YD1ESMJohn Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12123174297818737132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-40933257983975150232020-07-21T08:42:45.727-05:002020-07-21T08:42:45.727-05:00Being landless and physically rather frail, I focu...Being landless and physically rather frail, I focus on enjoying the Atlantean cornucopia while it's around, and being useful to younger people in encouraging and hopefully wise ways. Invest in a lot of chicken wire, says I.<br /><br />Also: distilling. People will want vinegar and essential oils. A small medeival chemistry lab/factory inside a garage is something a fellow can protect from thieves easier than an open field of crops.<br /><br />Yeah, dive into the wave.Robin Morrisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15098768488282086396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-2920996699855486842020-07-20T20:52:40.097-05:002020-07-20T20:52:40.097-05:00That seems like the kind of advice that I give mys...That seems like the kind of advice that I give myself to "dive into the wave", rather than be caught trying to flee. It's allegorical, and may speak to surviving by immediately countering fear with the antidote of action.<br />Anyway, maybe I get it. I think I do.<br />I'm feverishly tryng to invest in a future where I'll need to meet my basic needs, and those of family, in a world where I expect people to steal things they need at gunpoint. History says that wheat and corn get taken, but nobody digs up potatoes to run off with.<br />I don't like digging potatoes from clay soil, and you need something like a cash-crop to trade, so avocado trees are it. I'm pushing the climate envelope a bit in Yoakum, but with Mexican avocados, which don't ship well, due to soft skins. I could double the amount of vegetable garden, too, but I would not be able to keep up with it unless I lived there full time. Then I'd grow chickens, too. There are hawks and coons. That would be a challenge.John Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12123174297818737132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-79650261656173271372020-07-20T19:58:06.895-05:002020-07-20T19:58:06.895-05:00Typo city! I was groggy from a nap.Typo city! I was groggy from a nap.Robin Morrisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15098768488282086396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-46521426566756668052020-07-20T19:10:14.566-05:002020-07-20T19:10:14.566-05:00Standard State trooper wisdom regarding best "...Standard State trooper wisdom regarding best "evasive action" when an accident happens in front of you. Concept being that by the time you arrive at ther center of the collision, the reactions to the collision will have pushed the vehicles away from the (now former) center.<br /><br />IN practical terms regarding human civilization at this impasse, it roughly means expect the worst but do your best. (Hope for whatever best motivates you, I reckon.)<br /><br />I no longer own property but when I did, I did simple things like scorounge all the organic/mineral fertilizer makings that I could. We were poor and struggling but I aimed for the heart of the collision, which seemed to me needing soil, seed, water, sun, and fertilizer.<br /><br />If we'd stayed there, I would be the fertilizer king around the time people realized they can't feed themselves but bagged potting soil. This is an example of 'collision heart' thinking combined with 'doing the least for maximum return'.<br /><br />THat sort of thinking. Regarding institutions, it translates into 'don't expect there to be insititutions for awhile except bad ones'.Robin Morrisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15098768488282086396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-65510099088245508022020-07-20T16:26:13.389-05:002020-07-20T16:26:13.389-05:00Robin said, "All I know is to aim for the hea...Robin said, "All I know is to aim for the heart of the collision".<br /><br />Please expound, Sir!John Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12123174297818737132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4275885258914846834.post-62876587060325063802020-07-20T13:39:50.957-05:002020-07-20T13:39:50.957-05:00"I posit that we are now in an epoch where mo..."I posit that we are now in an epoch where more is changing at once than any of us can cognitively model"<br /><br />All I know is to aim for the heart of the collision.Robin Morrisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15098768488282086396noreply@blogger.com