The Rusted Musket

As a student of the Western Empire there’s a natural infinity I have for individualism, especially the rugged kind; and Indiana Jones fedora’s. A problem occurs however when I try to combine this individualism with my life in Christ. For they are in fact, incompatible. As much as I love rugged individualism I have to admit, Christ doesn’t talk about it, rather, he talks about membership.

Did you know that membership is a uniquely Christian word, one that Christian’s made up to best explain what was going on? Member, in the Greek, means organ, and this membership is what the Christian is called to, not solitary individualism, or collectivism I might add. We are not just another “specimen of some kind of things as X and Y and Z,” we are a body, where the parts are not interchangeable and also dependent on the other. Lewis explains it as if each person is almost a species in himself. He continues by using a metaphor of family, “The mother is not simply a different person from the daughter; she is a different kind of person. The grownup brother is not simply one unit in the class of children; he is a separate estate of the realm. The father and grandfather are almost as different as the cat and the dog. If you subtract any one member, you have not simply reduced the family in number; you have inflicted an injury on its structure. It’s unity is a unity of unlikes, almost of incommensurables.” ¹ (incommensurable means almost impossible to measure or compare)

Unity compels us, and is compelling to us. As a boy I had my mom read the Wind in the Willows again and again, not because the pictures were awesome, which of course they were, rather, the Rat, Mole, and Badger working together “in harmonious union, which we know intuitively to be our true refuge both from solitude and from the collective” ² made me feel good. Of course, as a boy I couldn’t have articulated myself like Lewis did, but the seemingly incompatible group that conquers insurmountable odds in Wind in the Willows resonated within my little chest. Just like the Star Wars crew, or the Lord of the Rings party would as I grew older. All of these seemingly incompatible groups that conquer insurmountable odds pointing to what could only be fully fleshed out in Christian membership.

It simply won’t work any other way, a christian Achilles, or replacing name with number…

This is so disturbingly true…. As a IT Professional I usually don’t fix other peoples’ computers. Most of the time they want it for free and I will then forever be tied to their computer… The thing is, I would never ask a doctor to fix me for free, or a carpenter to build a table for just the cost of materials… Its a strange double standard.

My John Marston’s awesome. He wears the Legend of the West outfit, uses dead eye to shoot dudes off horses, and once killed a grizzly with nothing but his bowie knife. His long arm of the law is the double action revolver.

Red Dead Redemption’s redeeming features are sweeping vistas, a good cowboy storyline, dialog that’s never a bore (at least when Marston’s doing the talking), and assorted moments of pure cowboy bliss, such as storming the mansion in Tumbleweed. Also, I just can’t tell you how much fun riding a virtual horse is, that is, until you accidentally shoot it in the back of the head while riding during multiplayer. Honorable mention goes to the audio, I once was playing during a thunderstorm with my surround sound on and couldn’t tell the difference between the thunderclaps in my living room and those outside.

Still, let it be known, in my opinion the games not worth paying full retail. But I suppose if you haven’t much going on this summer it’s not a bad one to pick up.

The things I didn’t like about the game are as follows.

There was a stiffness, a general clunkiness of 3rd person movement that annoyed. All I want to do is walk up the stairs, in between the railings, to the front door, before the rancher’s daughter gets shot darn it. Then there was the default snails pace walk speed which guarantees you’ll never want to walk. And the multiplayer, I just don’t think it’s great. The open roam will see you recycling the same six gang hideouts again and again. I mean, I can only do Pike’s Basin or Fort Mercer so many times. I suppose there is a lot to do if you get a posse going on, like taking on other posse units that are sharing your free roam session, maybe I lack the creativity to exploit that which is actually awesome. The team based games are great, okay, and terrible all at the same time. Some guys rock your socks off and usually have their friends with them, which makes for backing out of games to find a different server an often occurrence because the skill level match maker is on vacation (yes, I had some very rough rounds last night, hence my vitriol).

In conclusion I foresee myself playing Red Dead Redemption for another week or so, enjoying it, and reselling it on Ebay for something respectable before the price starts nosediving towards the thirty dollar mark, which, by the time of this article, hasn’t happened yet. Which goes to show there might still be room in this semi auto world for a six gun man, at least, for a little while longer…

Chicago is well known for its crime; they got the mafia and plenty of gangs and other criminals to boot. But they are also known for very restrictive gun control laws. They are one of two cities to ban handguns (well was one of two, DC’s ban on handguns was struck down), and being in Illinois there is no conceal carry permits available. So basically, if you are a law abiding citizen you are rather restricted on what you can do to defend yourself. You can get a shotgun or rifle and certain types or pistols. But you must be careful, because if you use it you could be the one going to jail and not the criminal.

Anyway, I ran across this article and it is the most compelling evidence I have seen in recent memory that plainly shows that gun control laws don’t work, and innocent citizens get hurt because of the laws. If some of these people had the means and training to defend themselves it might have turned out different.
It is just a scary story, 54 people shot over one weekend in a city of 3 million? Crazyness….

This is kind of old news, but its too interesting to pass up:

How does a person get to this point? I mean its like 6am and this lady is very drunk, driving at the airport… Crazy enough she gets away with barely a scratch despite her car pretty much blowing up…

Freedom of speech isn’t for the faint of heart, nor the timid. It is reserved for those who think for themselves, who depend not on the crafting of thought by others. Some say the Supreme court did, and did not, help the freedom of speech’s cause by giving corporations and special interest groups a free hand concerning the amount of commercials they may make during election cycles. On the surface, yes, the amount of media sway that could potentially be bought by people with ideas I vehemently oppose, does indeed make me uncomfortable. But, the bottom line is that those faceless companies and interest groups aren’t faceless. They are made up of people, real citizens, who have banded together their time, money, and resources in order to get an opinion across.

Just as an individual has the right to say something, so does a group of individuals, my comfort be damned. For freedom of speech isn’t about making making people comfortable, and still less about restricting the flow of commercials during prime time…

Well it looks like Washington DC has slightly better gun laws now, meaning you can acually legally own one now. But it is a difficult and restrictive process. I really feel that the people’s right to defend themselves is infringed upon all in the name of “public safety.” Ironic since criminals don’t care if its legal for them to own guns or not as they will still use them on helpless residents.

In order for a law abiding citizen to get a gun they have to be fingerprinted, photographed, job history is checked out, there is a test, a five hour class including one hour on a gun range (there isn’t any in the city). The class has to be taught by a police certified instructor (which there probably isn’t many) and then after the citizen is approved and they actually get the gun, they then have to go in to the police station and get the gun’s ballistics registered (which by the way doesn’t work, matching a bullet and a gun is nearly impossible). The registration expires after 3 years and must be renewed or the owner faces fines and confiscation of the gun.

Talk about restrictive bull! The law abiding residents, who just want to protect themselves, are treated like common criminals! I really hope these laws get loosened because they are rather unconstitutional. I doubt that the founding fathers meant for people to have to jump through all these hoops and treated like a criminal simply to own a firearm.

I highly recommend this article by The Onion. Normally I don’t take what they say too seriously, but this article has a lot of satirical truth in it. Basically it is talking about how the governmental official don’t trust the citizens that elected them, which is a spin on citizens not trusting the politicians in office.

Its so interesting because its so true. Congress is at a rock bottom approval rate and has been for years, they don’t get a whole lot done and what they do get done is not what people want. They don’t listen to the citizens and just work their own agenda. I rarely hear of someone who likes a politician that is in office, they may agree on some points and disagree on others, but there is rarely that connection, or trust of the official. But maybe the flip is also true, citizens of this nation are a very fickle bunch who want handouts but aren’t willing to pay for them. They want the government to fix all their problems and they want to blame someone when something goes wrong. Its the blame game, I’m sure you played it as a kid. You never say its your fault, you always blame someone else. The sad truth is that most problems our country is facing is the result of collective consent.

For instance, kids doing badly in school is generally two fold. Our school system is broke because it never should have been in the government’s hands in the first place and the government poisons everything it touches, but the other big problem is that parents aren’t involved anymore. People who really shouldn’t have had kids did and they don’t give them the proper attention and care. Who’s fault is it then? The government and their screwed up system, or the parents of their lack of attention? Both I’m sure.

Or how about health care. Why is it so expensive? Well surely some of it has to do with doctors needing very expensive malpractice insurance because people are suing and getting crazy amounts of money way over what they should. Yes the doctor screwed up, yes they should pay for it, but to the tune of millions? I don’t think so. There are many other instances, like people not taking their antibiotics properly causing it to be less effective and requiring more, or different meds. People going in and tying up doctors time for stupid things.

Anyway, the article is very interesting and true in a kind of backwards, kind of way…

Image from The Onion

The following video is very disturbing. It depicts two men being brutally beaten by some juvenile delinquents. Its very sad that this kind of thing goes on. The strange thing is that they appears to be no reason for this. The young men just beat the two guys just because.

Its videos like this and other such incidents that happen that really make me want to fight for our rights to defend ourselves, i.e. conceal carry.
The two men in this video had to be admitted to the hospital, but it looks like they will recover.

Just last week I was at home, on the computer. It was a little late, something like midnight on a Saturday night, when I heard a lady screaming. Normally this isn’t a big deal as I live in a larger city and drunk people are commonly screaming, or some lady starts yelling at her boyfriend or husband. But this lady didn’t stop so I went to the window to see what was going on. I couldn’t tell right away and was about to go down and investigate. But several other people from the surrounding apartments had already gone down there to help out so I just listened in on what happened. Apparently this lady and her boyfriend were walking along the sidewalk when someone came up behind them and whacked her guy on the back of the head. She started screaming and the person ran off. Thankfully no one was hurt too badly, but it could have been a lot worse. This whole incident was a little disconcerting since it was just outside our apartment. I guess the lesson here is I need to act a little faster and that you can be assaulted anywhere.

Things like this are happening all too often and part of it surely has to do with the lack of consequence or danger for these criminals. Most people can’t properly defend themselves against someone stronger than they are and most don’t make a habit of conceal carrying for defense. So the first line of defense for someone isn’t there. Assuming they survive the encounter then the attacker has to be caught and they may even walk away from it or just get a little time in jail. Seems a sad state we are in, but you have the right, and the duty, to defend yourself and your family/friends. Get trained and apply for a conceal carry permit!