I can imagine some of you shaking your heads after reading yesterday’s post, wondering who the hell would waste time and money modifying something like a Swiss Army knife. Surely this Ubi Libertas guy lives in a very small world of people who tweak ordinary things.
Well, if you’re older than 12, then you know that everything gets messed with somehow, by someone. Cars, motorcycles, chainsaws, vaping mods — depending on what it is, an everyday item can spawn a massive aftermarket industry devoted to custom parts and services.
Case-in-point — the Ruger 10/22. Introduced 60 years ago as an affordable semi-automatic rimfire rifle, it wasn’t long before folks realized that it easily could be adapted to suit their own wants and needs, from tack-driver to tacticool.
Deb and I have done it ourselves. Each of us took a plain-Jane 10/22 and threw parts and money at it. She ended up with a precision field rig that helped her earn multiple Appleseed “Rifleman” honors. Mine turned into a full-on woodswalking gun, suitable for plinking, pest control and a whole lot more.
What began as simple $300 starter rifles became custom guns which, if we’d paid retail (which we didn’t), would’ve cost us between $1,250 and $1,500 apiece — and that was just the parts. We did all the work ourselves.
Swiss Army knives, likewise inexpensive and competent tools, inspire the same tendency to modify.
Some years back, on Christmas, Deb gifted me with a meticulously customized Victorinox Pioneer. At first glance, it was obvious that the OEM Alox scales had been refinished in OD green Ceracote.
A closer look revealed that the stainless-steel blade and tools had been stonewashed or acid-etched, leaving them with a matte gunmetal finish. Both backsprings got the same treatment. Gone were the original aluminum liners, replaced by wafers of black G10. Holding the knife together was countersunk black hardware, taking the place of peened brass pins.
I was blown away. I still carry it often.
The Pioneer is a stout and extraordinarily useful pocketknife to begin with. This custom Pioneer is, to my eyes, a work of utilitarian art.
The simpler a thing is, it seems to me, the more it begs to be tailored to the person who owns it and uses it. That carries the risk of putting tits on a boar, sure, but I see nothing wrong with trying to make a good thing better, stronger, faster or more beautiful.
Just a small gallery from this morning, before I retreated from the 108°F heat.
So Chuckles picked a running mate. He’s the sitting governor of Minnesota. Beyond his state’s borders, he’s a political unknown — another “empty vessel” for leftist elites to present as some sort of “moderate.”
Democrats’ calculus, of course, is that having this transplanted Nebraskan on the ticket will help it appeal to upper-Midwesterners, in particular rural voters. This guy has shown that he can do that, too, though it’s probably because he once was a gun-totin’ country boy with an “A” rating from the NRA.
Not anymore — in 2018, he flipped in favor of banning “assault weapons.” As governor, he’s pushed hard for more and stricter “gun control” laws.
He made a series of inexplicably awful decisions related to race riots during the summer of 2020, essentially standing back and letting a lawless Minneapolis burn. He was a champion of masks, mandates and all manner of “pandemic theater” in the midst of the WuFlu nonsense.
Reportedly, he was the first to label Trump, Vance and their supporters as “weird.”
I could go on about him, but there’s a single quote that tells you all you need to know. During a fundraising call for Chuckles recently, he said this:
“Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values. One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.”
I don’t want to overstate the significance of a VP pick, any VP pick. But it’s beyond credible dispute that this guy doesn’t broaden the Democrat ticket — he reflects the increasingly anti-American values of the party.
He’s nothing more than Crazy Bernie without the Brooklyn accent.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB