This morning I awoke with Alex Bevan singing in my head. I realize virtually no one reading this has a clue who the hell that is, but the voice best known for “Skinny (Little Boy From Cleveland, Ohio)” was belting out his cult classic from the late 1970s, “Let’s Have Another Laugh On Cleveland Blues.”
I don’t think I have to tell you that I’m nowhere near Cleveland, never mind my 20s, nor do I have any chance of pulling in WMMS on my truck’s radio. It was the damnedest thing.
The only way I could kill The Alex Bevan Earworm was to get out of bed, open YouTube and listen to the song all the way through.
On the bright side, I got to enjoy my Black Rifle Coffee on a sparkling morning with temperatures in the low 60s. Knowing it’d reach 90°F by afternoon, I welcomed the cool air and the promise of a perfect day.
My previous post, “Power & control,” didn’t mention something that happened yesterday in Cincinnati — an armed dumbass from Columbus tried to breach the FBI field office, failed, then fled north on I-71. After a standoff in Clinton County with officers, he was neutralized permanently.
Reportedly, shortly before his death he posted this to social media:
“I do not expect to save America, I do expect to die trying. If, when I am gone, you stick to this pseudohistorical line that America doesn’t use violence, you deserve what happens to you. Your children, unfortunately, do not.”
We’ll soon learn, I’m sure, that the guy’s actions were precipitated by the unprecedented raid on Mar-A-Lago earlier this week. And right or wrong, he’ll be linked somehow to January 6th.
You’ll never read anything here on Ubi Libertas Blog advocating acts like that in Cinti, and you won’t find me praising the idiotic “storming” of the U.S. Capitol last year. Though those actions were delusional and harmed the cause of restoring America, however, the people involved saw the same dangers I see.
And then they made shitty decisions.
Returning to the subject of yesterday’s blog post, I’d like to add a little perspective. I named some of the federal agencies and departments that deploy armed agents — but exactly how many armed federal officers are there?
We don’t know. The most recent numbers we have are, shockingly, 14 years old. As of 2008, and not including members of the military, the United States government employed approximately 120,000 armed federal agents. Given the political landscape since, we can make an informed guess that the total is larger now, perhaps much larger, but let’s just use that figure.
Is that a lot? After all, it’s a big country.
Consider this — it translates to one unelected, unaccountable fed with a gun for every 2,750 Americans.
Again — and I can’t stress this enough — that doesn’t count the military. Every gun in the federal bureaucracy’s considerable arsenal is, for all intents and purposes, trained inward.
By comparison, there are 535 elected representatives in the Congress of The United States, or one for every 630,000 citizens.
If there’s a better illustration of the State’s obsession with power and control at the point of a gun, I can’t imagine what it’d be. The Founders warned us about standing armies. We ignored them, and now look where we are.
That guy in Cincinnati yesterday, by his actions, was a certifiable, suicidal nutjob. Judged by his words, however, he saw the threats quite clearly.
From the moment we turned off of Arkansas Route 14 until we arrived on The Mountain just before noon — a distance of six miles — we were alone on the backroads. We didn’t see another vehicle. It’s common for that last stretch to be deserted, or nearly so, and it always brings a smile.
We had no grand plans for today’s trip. Deb’s cousin needed a second set of hands to finish securing the wood in the bed of his ’42 Chevy project and I was glad to oblige. Other than that we simply enjoyed each other’s company in the place we’ll soon call Home.
On our way out of Yellville we did make an overdue stop at Blacksheep BBQ — over three weeks here and it was our first return. Deb had brisket and I had a burger. It was oh-so-good to be back.
The upcoming weekend looks like it’ll be brutally hot. We may stay close to camp ’til the heat breaks unless construction begins early on The Mountain (which could happen).
Oh, and yesterday we got bit of good news — the buyers of Second Chance Ranch told us (through their real-estate agent) that they’re waiving the inspection contingency and proceeding straight to closing. If all goes smoothly that could cut weeks off the process.
Life is good.
One year ago today, we went where nobody goes — the ghost town of Swett, South Dakota.
And we’re still not buyin’ it.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB