Emerson's essay, "Compensation"

Some of the best teachers I've had weren't popular among the other students. One such teacher introduced me to Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays. After years of reading them, the words still provoke thought and shape action.

An Emerson quote under Brigid's eyes pulled me into reading his essay, Compensation. Here are some ideas from it that are as true today as they were in 1841.

Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess.

For every thing you have missed, you have gained something else; and for every thing you gain, you lose something.

For every benefit you receive a tax is levied.

Material good has its tax, and if it came without desert or sweat, has no root in me, and the next wind will blow it away.

But because of the dual constitution of things, in labor as in life there can be no cheating. The thief steals from himself. The swindler swindles himself. For the real price of labor is knowledge and virtue, whereof wealth and credit are signs. These signs, like paper money, may be counterfeited or stolen, but that which they represent, namely, knowledge and virtue, cannot be counterfeited or stolen. These ends of labor cannot be answered but by real exertions of the mind, and in obedience to pure motives. The cheat, the defaulter, the gambler, cannot extort the knowledge of material and moral nature which his honest care and pains yield to the operative. The law of nature is, Do the thing, and you shall have the power: but they who do not the thing have not the power.

None of us, individually or collectively, can override the dualist, reaction-born-of-action, "law of Compensation" that Emerson witnessed in nature and our human condition. It's a comfort in these days when words such as change and hope have been misappropriated and rendered meaningless.

A new-to-me Smith & Wesson

I picked up this S&W Model 66, circa 1986, with a 3-inch barrel and round butt from my local FFL this afternoon. It was purchased through GunBroker.com, a first for me.

Unlike Model 66s with 2 1/2 and 4-inch barrels, the 3-inch version is difficult to find in any condition. This one was advertised as being 99 percent, which I'd say was an accurate description. It locks up perfectly and boasts a decent double-action trigger. Those are two characteristics many S&Ws from the same era, particularly the stainless ones, weren't blessed with before leaving the factory.

I once owned an identical Model 66, part of a Coast Guard contract overrun, in the late 80s. I carried it off duty in a Milt Sparks Summer Special, which is no longer available for revolvers. This one will ride in a Don Hume J.I.T. SLIDE belt holster for now. The J.I.T. is a tunnel-loop belt slide with a slight FBI rake. Unlike most tunnel-loop rigs, the loop is stitched on the rear of the body more toward the front. One threads their belt through the tunnel first and then under the loop. At any rate, it pulls the revolver butt in so it doesn't print against a cover garment.

I have never cared for pancake holsters for revolvers. The cylinder bulge often seems to press right against the point of my right hip.

One never knows what may be hiding amongst clematis.

Tomorrow I'll wade through the swamp between the house and the range and then conduct a field trial. Alligators don't usually range this far north, but if I happen to find one ...

Flint knapping anyone?

A note from one of the distributors I use for reloading components:

At this time we are not taking any new backorders for primers that are not listed here. We currently have over 50 million primers on backorder. If you currently have a backorder in place your order will be processed as primers become available. Once we begin receiving more primers from the manufacturers and are able to begin filling current backorders we will update the website.

English-type musket flint found in Lyon Co., Kansas

There seems to be a fair supply of #10 and #11 percussion caps. Maybe it's time to pick up a new brace of cap and ball revolvers. Then there's always flintlocks--no flint shortages in Kansas. Oddly enough, I don't have a .22 LR revolver. I've spotted a Colt Official Police so chambered with a 6-inch barrel and some pearl Jay-Scott-Ajax-looking grips.

Yes, I'll remove the pearlies if that Colt finds its way home with me.

Three of Quantrill's men--no pearl handles on their fighting irons.

Happy May Day!

There's all sorts of reasons--green and red--to party hearty today. Decorate and distribute May Day baskets, wash and wax the T-55s and Scud missiles, boycott or strike, and do a little maypole dancing.

Lay down your burdens, procreate and join the parade.

The Reformers: "Il faut cultiver notre jardin."

I stumbled upon this quote by Albert Jay Nock, a devotee of Voltaire.

"The only thing that the psychically-human being can do to improve society is to present society with one improved unit. In a word, ages of experience testify that the only way society can be improved is by the individualist method which Jesus apparently regarded as the only one whereby the Kingdom of Heaven can be established as a going concern; that is, the method of each one doing his very best to improve one."

I'll have to find more of Nock's work. It will be good reading during the 100-day party. It is change I can believe in.

A warning to any deranged person ...

including any loco relatives:

Plan well. Don't bring just a flashlight, chunk of firewood and a pocket knife to a fight. There's some bitter people attached to medical implants who cling to guns.

Waterboarding

If Obama administration officials and Congressional investigators truly want to uncover all the details about the Bush Administration's interrogation procedures following Sept.11, 2001, they should waterboard members of Congress such as Nancy Pelosi, Jay Rockefeller, Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin and others, who as members of House and Senate intelligence committees were briefed about waterboarding and other aspects of interrogation.

Their memories must be a bit foggy. Momma always said a splash of cold water to the face every morning would refresh me.

For those out there in the intelligence community looking for a waterboarding alternative, try forcing those enemy combatants or whatever they're currently called to watch congressional hearings via C-SPAN. Just five minutes of experiencing Rep. Henry Waxman's twitching nose hairs or hearing Rep. Barney Frank lament his weight gain should knock the secrets right out of the perps.