An Independence Day Assortment

Please excuse the brevity of what follows. I'm in intense pain, to the point that I can barely concentrate, much less type. I spent most of yesterday in a hospital's Cardiac Emergency Center, only to be told that "Your EKG is perfectly normal, and we have no idea what's wrong with you." No painkiller appears able to assuage whatever this is for very long. So instead of my usual interminable droning, you're getting a handful of squibs.

***

The weather here on Long Island has been oppressive for several days running. It's been hard to get any outside work done. But our troubles are somewhat less than what's been predicted for the Carolinas:

The only good to come out of that will be a really thorough test of the readiness and capabilities of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

***

Any bets on whether New York's 13th Congressional District Democratic Party primary will be decided by returns manipulation and illegally cast votes?

***

I've never been much impressed by Dan Riehl's stuff, but this emission is simply beyond the pale. Go find a stool at the other side of the bar, you pseudo-heterosexual, you!

(Rodney Dangerfield: "I'm an ass man. At least, that's what my friends are always telling me: 'You're an ass, man!'")

***

Indie writers must support one another. After all, who else is there to do so...and besides, this is Independence Day, isn't it? And so, I'd like to repeat some recommendations I've issued over the past few years:

• Martin McPhillips, Corpse In Armor
• Mark Butterworth, A Man With Three Great German Shepherds...and 1000 Troy Ounces of Gold
• Brian H. Jones, A Mixture Of Metals
• Leslie Cameron, A Click Away From Chaos
• M. T. McGuire, Few Are Chosen
• Jaron Lee Knuth, Level Zero
• Wesley Allison, Women Of Power

(By the way, you could do worse than part with a few pence for one of this clown's books, too. Just sayin'.)

***

The news about the probable confirmation of the reality of the Higgs boson is less interesting to me than the spread of lay reactions to it. On one extreme fringe, there are militant atheists prattling about how this is the final nail in God's coffin; on another, we have hard-core evangelists screaming that this is something God never intended for us to know. For my part, I'll remain skeptical of the whole of quantum physics until the "Standard Model" is confirmed by a comprehensive set of experiments performed in "flat space" -- i.e., outside any detectable, metric-distorting gravity field.

(What's that? If there's no Higgs boson, then what's responsible for mass? You say you simply have to know? Okay, okay: I'm responsible for mass. Now go away.)

***

Ignore Eric Fehrnstrom's gaffe. It doesn't matter whether ObamaCare's individual mandate is a penalty or a tax. Either way, it's an insult to the very idea of freedom.

***

Scott Angell's words of wisdom about the importance of acquiring gold -- really acquiring it, such that the actual metal comes into your own clammy little hands -- have never been more timely or more urgent. The huge cash balances various institutions have amassed owing to Ben Bernanke's sieges of "quantitative easing" (i.e., deliberate inflation) will be spent sooner or later, at which time the general price level (i.e., the price of everything) will increase sharply. Please, for your own sake, don't put it off any longer.

***

A few final, maximally serious words and I'll close.

I had a chat with my dear friend Duyen a little earlier. She was terribly distraught, and said she had been for several days. Not for herself, but for this country, which she literally risked her life to reach. She completely fails to understand how we could so passively let our freedom be taken away from us. She asked me to explain it to her. I tried, but I fear my attempt was insufficient.

Duyen's husband Matt is the manager (and as of a few months ago, co-owner) of a gun store. She told me about the rumblings he's been bringing home from work: mutterings about how it's finally time for patriots to mass for an armed uprising. She called it the only good news she'd heard in a week. As little as I like the prospect of bloodshed, I couldn't disagree with her.

The United States of America is the greatest sociopolitical development in the history of Mankind. Yes, it's in terrible trouble today. Yes, we stand a fair chance of degenerating into just one more socialist-fascist tyranny. But that's a good reason to spend a few moments appreciating the glory that was...and that could be again, if only we could awaken enough of our citizenry to what's being done to us.

We came on the ship they called the Mayflower,
We came on the ship that sailed the Moon.
We came in an age's most uncertain hour,
And sang an American tune.

[Paul Simon]

You might well be weary to your bones. You'd have every excuse. Perhaps you have no children whose futures you need fear for; perhaps all that matters to you is finishing your life in a reasonable approximation of peace and quiet. But there will be future generations -- and if you want them to know any fraction of the freedom and prosperity you've known, won't you please consider rousing yourself for one more last-ditch fight? Really, is there anything more worth it than freedom -- than "the last, best hope of Mankind," into which so many millions from other lands have streamed, many of them with all their worldly possessions on their backs and in their pockets, for the merest chance of attaining what we've enjoyed?

At the very minimum, you can vote. I've defended for decades every American's right not to vote, and will continue to do so. That having been said, please, please vote this coming November. Even if purging the Obamunists from Washington is only a temporizing measure, it is that, at least. The time we can buy that way may be our only hope for saving the Republic.

Happy Independence Day.