Sipsey Street Irregulars: What a day. The continuing saga of the Red Dragon's solitary conspiracy to keep me away from D.C.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

What a day. The continuing saga of the Red Dragon's solitary conspiracy to keep me away from D.C.

This past Friday we had the water pump fixed on the Jimmy, affectionately known by the girls as "The Red Dragon." Sunday we replaced the brakes (shade tree) for Hannah to run back to Hattiesburg in. Before she could take off, there was smoke pouring out of the right rear brake assembly, so we had to swap the Toyota until we could figure out what the deal was. Diagnosis by somebody who knows what they're doing this AM said, stuck caliper -- must replace. Beyond my competence. So, since I'm leaving for DC tomorrow (or is it today already?), I had to fetch the Toyota from Hattiesburg. Enter AmTrak. Made the train at the station in downtown Birmingham with 6 minutes to spare at noon, got to H'Burg at 5:00PM, where Hannah picked me up. Did my posting with my laptop from Hannah's apartment (no WiFi on the Crescent), waited until she got back from soccer practice at about 8, visited a bit and then jumped in the Toyota to come back. Made it here at about 1AM our time. Wonderful day.

I would tell you about my AmTrak experiences but I'm beat.

G'night, folks.

Or, good morning.

Whichever.

2 comments:

Dale said...: "Welcome aboard AMSLAMM--We don't sell tickets-we sell chances!" Have fun on the train Mike. I worked for Railroads for over 20 years...Amtrak has gotten better, but they are still not up the the former RR's standards, but the equipment is a lot nicer these days. Like you, I do not fly in the US, take my car or Amtrak..At least they serve reasonable food and have a fully stocked bar..beats the shit out of Airlines anytime!!; July 19, 2011 at 2:05 AM
Dennis308 said...: Good Luck on the Mission to D.C.

Ya know some times Ya just gotta put down that ol'mule,do what's right, shouldn't let it suffer like that. I know difficult to find another one like 'er.

Dennis
III
Texas; July 19, 2011 at 7:42 PM

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.

Sipsey Street Irregulars

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

What a day. The continuing saga of the Red Dragon's solitary conspiracy to keep me away from D.C.

2 comments:

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