ohioscott's Blog

(this is copied off a friend's note, which was in turn copied off a blog..) 

I don't take credit for this post. This was originally posted, as far as I can tell, on the now defunct Munchkin Wrangler blog. A friend brought it up in conversation recently and I discovered that the blog is no longer up. I wanted to to preserve the text here because I thought it was poignant and spot on, so I thought it appropriate to do so here.

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation. . . and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.

 Rose Kennedy

US wife of Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. (1890 - 1995)

 This was simply too much of a time saver not to share it with you   

 God created man in His own image... so how could sin find it's way into the mix? Why would God allow the poison of sin to sour His creation? I kind of feel like a hamster in a cage, and having bitten my master, I feel abandoned... given what I need to survive until I expire... and it sucks. 

And if God DID create us in His own image, is it possible, at some level, that He has some residue of sin within him? 

I just don't understand how a creator can love us so passionately, but still allow sin to reign and tell us "Believe in me... your treasure awaits you in Heaven."

Well, I guess I'm venting a bit.. Haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd let you know I'm still alive. I've been feeling good and living the dream of feeling more than sub-human. My family life has improved somewhat, my job is doing good, got an iPhone (and I'm still totally lovin' it), my on-line friends have been a bit busy but they stay in contact so it's cool. 

All in all, I've been feeling pretty good, however, this feeling is (of course) subject to change without notice...

Hope you are also doing well. Take care then, Scott

I just feel really teary today. I can't stop myself from trying to own some of the sorrow over what my friend and his family is dealing with. I hate living through this seemingly endless death march that is my life. There's always something to keep me from being happy for very long. I just don't understand life, death, love, good, bad... almost everything in my world is battleship gray...

Boy, talk about sad... my friends wife had some leg trouble during her pregnancy, she gave birth to a son about 2 weeks ago... So my friend from work (the husband) had some pain in his left hip/leg. He eventually went to the doctor and got pain meds. Then his right hip/leg began to hurt. He couldn't work. The pain was terrible. He's in the hospital and today I found out that he has stage 4 cancer. And here's the worst part: No life insurance. It's just so sad. What must he be going through? How will his family survive without him? He's only 36 years old for God's sake. It's just so sad, his wife is in such a tough place in life... and the kids too. It's just tragic. I'm not super-depressed or anything, but I'm just worried about his family... So sad...

My mood: somewhat sad