Best thread in a long, long time at FreeRepublic

[FleetwoodMac]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2979461/posts

My dear rifle

My dear rifle
I love it so
It ain't for shooting deer
Don't you know?

Let's be blunt
It's for shooting tyrants
For protecting liberty
You can kill me
But 'til then I'm free

Yeah, you can come and take it
If you dare
But let me warn you
I'm a well-armed bear

Signed,

An American

I can't wait for the sequel thread: My Dear AR-15

[Buzz Clik]

1. Brings a tear to my eye.

Up against the wall, redneck mothers!

M is for the mudflaps on my pickup truck
O is for the oil in my hair
T is T-bird
H is for Haggard
E is for eggs and
R is for REDNECK!!

(tip of the hat to Jerry Jeff Walker)

[FleetwoodMac]

8. Haven't heard that in a long while...

[lillypaddle]

21. Oh, man

I used to par-tay to that song, big time! Everyone would sing the "Up against the wall redneck mother" chorus at the top of our lungs. It was particularly special that we were in Oklahoma. Ah, memories!

[TwilightGardener]

2. I was just laughing at that.

Calls to mind: "This is my rifle! Without me it is nothing! Without it I am nothing!"

[Erose999]

3. Did anyone else read that in the voice of William Shatner, accompanied by a double bass and bongos?

[patrice]

4. No one can do anything about what is & what isn't tyranny when people are shooting one another.

That makes that "dear rifle" the oppressor. The NRA is the tyrant here, trying to push us into Civil War and/or more wars in their Bushmaster markets in poor countries abroad.

I'm very tired of adolescent pipedreams about what infantile fascists call "Liberty" being treated as though they are somekind of absolute truth for all of the rest of us, to which all MUST bow or else.

[FleetwoodMac]

6. Perfect: "adolescent pipedreams about what infantile fascists call "Liberty""

I don't think I've ever read a more apt summation on the subject.

[patrice]

14. There are too many blind assumptions about what constitutes freedom. Simplistic minds

probably tend to think of it as 0 consequences and, yet, they are also known to say things about how, "Freedom isn't free", which IS true, but then they conceive of the price of freedom ONLY in terms of blood, preferably someone else's, which in some instances is also more or less true, but the difference between those instances in which that may be true and those instances when oppression is the more likely result of that blood is extremely important to the freedom of everyone.

All of that is very concerning in contexts in which authentic understanding of what constitutes rational thought is completely missing and people operate most of the time under the principle that just saying something makes it so (because they themselves have known little or nothing but corporate propaganda).

The price of freedom is responsibility, ongoing, rational, honest, diligent, work-wo/manly commitment to what happens ALL of the time, NOT just after the fact. After "the horse is out of the barn", when it's too late to figure out whether whoever is headed at you, armed to the teeth is the oppressor or not and by how much, let alone how one's own behaviors have contributed to oppressing one's self by limiting one's choices until they lead to that bloody moment, in which no choices are left for anyone.

This means that people should recognize that if you NEED a gun to protect your home from thieves or criminals, it's already too late, so you should accept your responsibilities for social and economic justice BEFORE you get to that moment, which will result not only in fewer bad people trying to take your stuff, but also an increased probability that if anyone does try to assault your castle, they are more likely people who HAVE chosen to do that and therefore deserve to be apprehended and brought to justice. That's another important difference, because it reduces the inertia of the cycles of injustice that involve people who WOULD choose otherwise (i.e. choose not to be thieving your property) if they had had more chances not to all along and separating THOSE sheep from the goats reduces the strength of the cycles that repeat, repeat, repeat, until it's too late and a bunch of people lie bleeding and dying for something that never had a chance of being authentic freedom in the first place.

None of that can happen when chaos reigns and no one can identify their functional choices (all along, throughout all of the processes) well enough to adapt their own trajectory themselves, as individuals, and violence creates chaos, so it is much more likely that the results of violence are only more privilege, not freedom.

[FleetwoodMac]

17. +1. Well written, Patrice. I particularly like this paragraph...

"The price of freedom is responsibility, ongoing, rational, honest, diligent, work-wo/manly commitment to what happens ALL of the time, NOT just after the fact. After "the horse is out of the barn", when it's too late to figure out whether whoever is headed at you, armed to the teeth is the oppressor or not and by how much, let alone how one's own behaviors have contributed to oppressing one's self by limiting one's choices until they lead to that bloody moment, in which no choices are left for anyone. "

[patrice]

20. The 2nd love of my life was an honest Libertarian and a brilliant human being. We had many

delightfully challenging, informative, and interesting conversations, to which I came as a '60s style Liberal with all of those kinds of experiences and which conversations nourished my understandings about life and created in me a respect for what Libertarians want to be, but fall short because of the sorts of things, including ourselves, that oppress all of us.

Thank you for your fine compliment, FleetwoodMac!

[2theleft]

33. Phenomenal piece, patrice.

Really. Amazing summary. Best post on this topic I've seen.

[patrice]

41. Thank you, 2theleft! It really means something important to me when people understand.

I have this crazy idea that if all of us try as best we can to be understood and to understand, that alone will make things better for lots of people. Even people who don't think they have anything to contribute will be surprised by the good things that can happen when people are real people to one another.

[LukeFL]

38. Wow. I wish I could write like you

You should publish it. Everyone should read this. Create your own blog.

[patrice]

40. Thank you! very much, LukeFL. & I should seriously consider that.

It would be a place where I could return again and again to work on articles I've read in detail.

[nc4bo]

5. Wonder what their definition of tyrant is? Could it be what they call our POTUS every single

dang day?

They better watch themselves, what they say and how they say it.

Morans!

[NewJeffCT]

7. To a lot of them

tyrants are liberals, Democrats and people of color.

[azalia]

9. Can someone please explain to me what guns have to do with Tyranny?

I keep hearing this from people around me who are against gun control.

[Scuba]

10. The sequel will be called "What do you mean the range of a Predator Drone is 1,150 miles?"

[FleetwoodMac]

12. Your sequel sounds better

[BeyondGeography]

11. These people act as if they're kulaks and collectivization is underway

[FleetwoodMac]

25. I think when the NRA realized that the "self-defense" argument no longer hold water...

on account of the fact that more people die from accidental shooting than from actually defending themselves, they brainstormed for a new angle and came up with the Stalinesque/motherland crap.

[sinkingfeeling]

13. Well, there you go! The answer to the problem. Make it illegal to have sex with a gun.

[FleetwoodMac]

28. Thou art infringing on their God-given right!

[Rozlee]

15. I've got a poem for him.

Sitting at my drone programming station
Inputting info for location on fools who
Declared war on our nation
It ain't just for disrupting Afghan weddings, don't you know?

Let's be blunt
It's for smoking beer guts with assault rifles
Their M4 arsenals and reams of .223s are mere trifle
They should have thought before pulling these stunts
Watering the tree of liberty will get you blasted by US grunts

Yeah, you think you're a well-armed bear
But, let's see how well you'll fare
And how well you sass
When you see the fuckin' 82 Airborne
Comin' for your ass.




Hey, wonder if I can put it to rap with my war face.

[daleanime]

16. Hopefully some well-mannered troll will take that home when they leave...

[FleetwoodMac]

27. "And how well you sass When you see the fuckin' 82 Airborne Comin' for your ass."

A future classic that line is...

[nobodyspecial]

32. Great reply

[octoberlib]

18. Bwahaha!

Last edited Fri Jan 18, 2013, 11:57 PM - Edit history (1)

That site is hilarious.

[Paladin]

19. Don't Quit Your Day Job, Or Lose Your Luck,

'Cause when it comes to poetry, you're an inept fuck.

[FleetwoodMac]

24. I haz giggles...

reading that.

[Paladin]

39. All Compliments Gratefully Accepted. Have A Good Day. (nt)

[Special Prosciuto]

22. They will take my bear arms from my cold dead claws...

[OswegoAtheist]

23. X-posted to Poetry

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1199130

I figured they'd appreciate it immensely

Oswego "If you end up on the jury when that thread is alerted, think kindly of me" Atheist

[samsingh]

26. deluded fools

[cantbeserious]

29. Openly Proclaiming Defiance To America Makes One A Traitor To Be

eom

[Turbineguy]

30. I'm thinking about inventing a gun

with a trigger mechanism that can be worked with a small, flacid penis. I call it the schmuck gun.

[Lint Head]

31. Words of wisdom rhythms that fit 20 children dead and the NRA doesn't give a shit

[MrSlayer]

34. I'm a bear. Grrrrr.

These people are idiots.

Reminds me of a line from a Stephen King novel. "Politics and poetry rarely go together, propaganda and poetry never do."

[quaker bill]

36. Some serious confusion there

Freedom is a state of life and mind. I would not be more free if I possessed a refrigerator, an arc welder, a boat, a guitar, or a rifle. Possessing things does not create freedom.

I would be much more free with universal healthcare as then I could really explore my business rather than sticking to the day job for the insurance.

Some of my neighbors have substantial flag displays and I imagine own weapons. But I suspect are doing the same sort of day job, and are sending their kids to the same schools, making the house and car payments.... They think they are more free because they have purchased more of the symbols. Freedom is not a possession, you literally can't own it, you can only live it.

[DFW]

37. Sounds like the gun freak's country song

Around 1970, a friend and I composed and performed the gun lover's country ballad.

I forget how most of most of it went, but the first verse went this:

Sleep tight my darlin' Marlin
You're so long and slim and sleek
When I jerked off your trigger last Sunday
I had an orgasm for a week.

[sakabatou]

42. Or the very last in the series, "My dear ICBM."