Peepin' and a'hidin'!
We got some serious snow last night, weird fat heavy spring snow that came down after a little rain and a little sleet. This would be no big deal if we hadn't been in Golden to see V for Vendetta, which by the way I liked the heck out of. I didn't see it as left-wing propaganda at all...ever since I read Heinlein back in junior high school ("If This Goes On," f'er instance!) I figured the ultimate threats to liberty come equally from the right and the left. Plus, I really liked Stephen Rea as Finch the doubting cop, who made what I (duh!) thought was one of the most profound comments of the movie.
As the people of London began pouring into the streets in support of the "terrorist" V, Finch's partner asked Finch what he thought was going to happen when the crowds met the heavily armed forces of the fascist Brit government.
"What usually happens when people without guns meet people with guns," Finch replied.
Ah, that pesky Second Amendment!
Anyway, it was sunny when we started home after dinner. Once we hit Coal Creek Canyon and started the home the back way, it went from snowy to scary in nothing flat. The rain and light sleet essentially laid a layer of glass ball bearings on the road, quickly covered by wet, slippery snow. We were in my Sweetie's Mini with serious snow tires (Dunlop winter rally ice racing tires from Europe), which is pretty sure-footed, but she lost it once on a downhill. My Sweetie caught it quickly — both of us went through ice-driving school up in Montreal for a magazine article a few years back. She drove awile longer and passed it to me.
I have never driven on anything so slick, including the frozen Montreal River and coming home from various ski resorts in screaming whiteouts. The short story is that we got home, but it was a hellish couple of hours for a half-hour trip. As usualy, the way was lined with rear wheel drive cars that couldn't move at all and SUVs in the ditches — ice is the fundamental limitation of 4-wheel drive and California driving skills!
My goal today is not to leave the house. We've got a couple of days of snow left...maybe as much of two feet when it stops!
I just pulled out my 1988 DC Comics batch of V for Vendetta. The author comment in volume 1 was complaining about the Thatcher government, how unfriendly Britain had become and that he wanted to leave... apparently the first few volumes had been written prior to 1982.
ReplyDeleteThe actual story had Thatcher losing in 1982, the Labor government doing nothing of their promises except getting American nukes pulled from England, then the war, then community pull-together for survival and self defense, then the coalition of 'right wing groups with surviving corporations' to create the 'party' marching in to take over... followed not too much later by the roundup of gays, blacks, and those associated with 'socialist/communist' groups.
The book story really was excellent overall but the author just kept 'rubbing the reader's face' in "right wing party hates everyone not pure and white and Christian".
I'm looking forward to the movie, especially in view of your and other's comments... after all a movie with the poster comment about government fearing its people can't be all bad!
As far as governments facing an armed people.....the people will not have armored vehicles, helicopter gunships, main battle tanks, full auto weapons, well, you get the idea.
ReplyDeleteIt seems in Iraq the insurgents quickly learned that taking on American forces with RPG's and AK47's was a pretty effective means of committing suicide and quickly chose the IED instead.
We gunlovers spend to much fantasy time believing we could stand up to the big, bad, government. As long as the military and police remain under control of the big, bad government open rebellion with AR15's and 1911's is nigh on hopeless.
I suppose being armed with a rifle is not so much a threat to an army as it is a threat to a politician.
ReplyDeleteActually, IEDs are perfectly useful tools when you don't have gunships, armored vehicles, etc.
ReplyDeleteI've always found it odd that on the one hand (esp., the LEFT hand) we say "the people" can't stand against a modern military force, while on the other hand we point out that any number of Third World insurgencies whallop the shit out of us with stunning regularity...Vietnam, Somalia, etc. Not to mention the Mujahadeen against the Russians...etc.
The lesson of Third World insurgencies is patently clear — it doesn't take a modern military force to break the will of the "enemy."
Or have I missed something the last 50 years?
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I think of armed civilians as affecting the cost of engagement. Even limited resistance increases the cost--financially and politically--to an attacking force. That deters aggression or buys time for a stronger defense.
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