“They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.” –Patrick Henry, to the Second Virginia Convention, 23MAR1775 I had a conversation with a friend a couple of weeks ago on this subject of delay and “breathing room,” or as my old friend “Dan Morgan” pointed out on his defunct blog, “time to scour our hatchets.” I pointed out in the conversation that I’m not getting any older, and if these things must come to pass, I’d just as soon they came in my day, when I were still able to effect change and benefit, in lieu of waiting until it is a burden that must be carried by my children alone. That having been said, one of the key reasons we homeschool is not so much the political and social engineering that happens even in our small, rural, local community’s schools, but more so, because of the ability homeschooling provides us to focus the kids’ education on those skills and branches of knowledge that I know will best provide them the opportunities to thrive in the ongoing decline of hegemony. Rather than kickball or dodgeball (which I presume is no longer allowed anyway, lest someone be physically or emotionally damaged by it), physical education focuses on running, weightlifting, hiking/backpacking, horsemanship, and martial arts—both armed and unarmed. Rather than focusing on the social injustices of the past (which, to be fair, were very real), we can focus their historical education on those exemplars of courage and moral fiber that provide guidance for their own behavior and morals. Rather than focus on the supposed benefits of a service-based economy, pigeonholing them into a future of working for others, we can educate them in trades and skills that will allow them to exercise entrepreneurial spirit and the yeomanry that Jefferson lauded. I shake my head in frustration when I hear people talk about “breathing room” and “hold off just a few more years” when discussing the very real collapse going on around us. Wishing for catastrophe to postpone, that you may make yourself more comfortable, or more secure is both cowardice and a fool’s errand. Nobody is escaping the events surrounding us today, and as they continue to deteriorate, that will become even more true. Pawning that immiseration off on your children or grandchildren, because you fear the discomfort of facing it yourself, is naught but cowardice. It is unseemly, and definitively un-American. If there must be struggle, let it happen in my time, that my sons may know peace. Granted, my children will not know peace, as just like following the American Revolution, there was not peace for most, but simply different struggles, but I would much rather they be raised in the struggle that is current and future life in the post-modern world, than gain their majority in the softness of modernity, only to be confronted by the realities of post-civilizational struggle, unprepared and unhardened for what their lives will present them. —————————————————- Oddly enough I sent my mid 90s Benchmade CQC7 back to them for a similar overhaul. They sent me an email back and said that the design was an Emerson design and therefore Emerson had to deal with the warranty. I explained the knife had been up to 22k feet in Nepal, on peaks in Peru, Argentina, Ecuador and Africa. Fast forward a month Benchamde sent me a new knife of theirs, and Emerson overhauled the knife free of charge. I won’t carry anything but Benchmade and Emerson. Top notch companies. The only other pocket knife I’ve really loved is the Opinel #8. Again, a 1095 steel, and apparently shoddy and poorly built, I’ve had fanastic luck with them as a basic pen knife. Most people love their Case and the like, but the Opinel is so inexpensive, for the actual quality it provides, as to be mind-boggling. ————————————————— I’d like to get back to 30 mpw – you schedule runs in the morning or evening – still hitting strength sessions like 3x week sometime during the day I assume? Or you’ve just been building the running mileage up while waiting for the ribs to heal? I’ve barely gotten back into the gym for real. I lifted a few times in June, thinking I was healed enough, but a follow-up visit in early July indicated that the worst break had not healed, and was healing slower, because of the constant strain and torque I was putting it under, that I abstained until mid-August. Nevertheless, I am running 6-7 miles a day, in the early morning. If the oldest kid is awake, she runs with me, otherwise, I’m up early enough to be gone and back before they rise for the morning. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my sustained distance run is abbreviated to 3-4 miles, but I make up that difference with 400 and 800 yard repeats (¼ and ½ mile) for 8-12 each, depending on which distance I am doing that day. These aren’t “sprints” in the sense of running all out. Instead, I aim for a pace about 10-20% faster than my normal distance running pace, in order to build the speed over ground to increase my sustained distance pace by 5-10%, over the course of time. Read the rest, and join the conversation: https://www.patreon.com/posts/campf...paign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Continue reading...
