MUSINGS ON TEN MILLIMETER January 30, 2012
I first became interested in the 10mm pistol cartridge when it didn’t exist. All of my ballistics calculations told me that that was “where the lines crossed” in terms of optimal ballistic performance with current metallurgy and propellants. I even “invented” the 10mm with a friend, making up dummies from .30 Remington cases and cast .38/40 bullets. When the factory cartridge came out, it was identical to mine, but 1/16″ shorter.
Naturally, I signed up to be the first kid on the block to have a Bren Ten — two of ‘em, …
BEND OVER, BEN & JERRY! January 12, 2012
You may be old enough to recall a period before _Star Trek_ when Men
in Space (this was before we bumped our heads on the word “astronaut”
– or on gender correctness, for that matter) had to check for things
like temperature, pressure, and atmospheric composition before going
outside.
The gauges were often on the arms of their bulky spacesuits.
The acronym “EVA” hadn’t been invented yet, either.
Times have changed since then in many ways. One of the most noticable
is that whenever you “go outside” these days, it’s prudent to test the
political environment, if you can. I can never do …
_CERES_ Nominated for Freedom Book Club Annual Award January 11, 2012
I’ve just been notified that my novel _Ceres_ is currently being considered for freedombookclub.com’s annual literary award. The award is determined via opinion poll, which closes on February 2, 2012 at 7:20:30 (Eastern).
There is a link below to the survey for _Ceres_. I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d respond to the poll and ask others to do so, as well. I believe _Ceres_ is the best book I’ve written so far. I’m extremely fond of itand the characters in it. And I think it might be important in helping us to regain the free country we once believed we had.
http://freedombookclub.com/c/p/11/03.html
It’s …
AN OPEN LETTER TO WESTERNJOURNALISM.COM January 3, 2012
Regarding your recent attack on Ron Paul’s video, “What if China had bases in Texas”, which you assert is “dangerously misleading”.
No, Ron’s video is neither dangerous nor misleading. You just can’t take the plain, hard truth. As I was asking people a _decade_ ago, what would you do if some superior power arbitrarily told Americans that they couldn’t fly below the Mason-Dixon Line? What would you do if those superior powers blockaded America until half a million American children died for lack of food and medicine?
You’d fight back, if there’s anything to you.
And your contention that only Al Qaeda would …
I REMEMBER BARNEY December 23, 2011
I was having an online conversation with a friend of mine who may
be even more into weapons and self-defense than I am, when he informed
me, in passing, that he’d just bought a splendid set of fancy throwing
knives.
This is what I told him in reply …
I meant to mention, when you told me about your throwing-knives,
that I was taught to throw weapons — especially including improvised
weapons like screwdrivers — by a member of the First Air Commandos
(an American revival of them in …
I TOLD YOU SO December 1, 2011
What seems like many years ago, I wrote an essay — the earliest
reference I can find to it now is in an article published in 2000 by
former _The Libertarian Enterprise_ editor John Taylor, but I’m sure
it’s older — which, with a nod to one of my favorite scenes in
_Raiders of the Lost Ark_, was called “Why Did It Have To Be …
Guns?”.
Its thesis, essentially, was that you can learn everything you
need to know about any politician if you find out where he stands with
regard …
THOUGHTS ON NOT DYING November 22, 2011
My wife Cathy startled me the other day by saying, “I want to die
young.”
Let’s just say that the lovely and talented mother of my only
child is over 50, so at first this seemed like an extremely peculiar
thing to say, until I realized what she actually meant by it. She
wants to continue feeling young, right up to her final moment. She
also says — and this is a big part of it — she wants to leave this
mortal coil with lots left to do. I have to admit …
THEY WALK AMONG US August 9, 2011
As the author of a new novel, _Sweeter Than Wine_, let me share a secret with you about vampires. They are real, you know, and they tread the Earth, all but invisible to their potential victims. Creatures of the darkness, bit by bit, they suck the very essence of life out of the human beings around them, leaving them as nothing more than dried husks to be scattered by the winds of history.
And what is the very essence of human life as we understand it? It is freedom. It is independence. It is individual dignity, integrity, and sovereignty. …
Blinding Flash of the Obvious August 7, 2011
I am deeply ashamed that it has taken this long to dawn on me that in the face of the inevitable catastrophic failure of every collectivized economy that’s ever been erected — and often, the consequent deaths of thousands or millions or tens of millions by starvation, exposure, or firing squad — that socialists today have been re-energized by perhaps the most evil thought ever hatched in the demented mind of a human parasite.
If mass death is the invariable result of socialism, why not _embrace_ it? Why not graft the most brutal and fascistic form of environmentalism onto the stalk …
A Point to Ponder August 3, 2011
I was just reminded, in a conversation with a friend, that 25 years ago, I wrote a sword-swinging novel in which Europe has been taken over by Muslims, and there’s a Caliph in Rome, instead of a Pope.
The novel, still in print, is _The Crystal Empire_, available from Phoenix Pick, through Amazon.com.
Of course these are not the Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson-style Muslims we see and hear about today, but the sort who invented algebra, descriptive astronomy, refined sugar, general hygeine, and were reasonably tolerant of others(See Rose Wilder Lane’s _The Discovery of Freedom_). Still, I can’t help reflecting …
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