Kilts, Pistols and Politics, and Life

That's what this blog is about.

Kilts--I'm no professional Scotsman, but like a lot of East Texans, I'm your basic Celtic mutt. Scots and Irish, and Scotch-Irish, probably some Welsh, and likely some English and African as well. I've been wearing kilts on and off for the last four or five years. I like the comfort, I like the attention, I like the heritage. Regarding tartans, I tend to like either fashion tartans, universal tartans, or occupational tartans. That is, I don't wear clan tartans much.

My favorite tartan? The leatherneck, of course!

Pistols--I like guns. It's kind of funny how the world looks at it, you can be a sports enthusiast, a fan of philology, but if you like guns, you're a gun nut. (This goes hand in hand with being a gold bug.) Nut? Bug? Let's say "enthusiast" and leave it at that.

Although I like many types of guns, I mostly like pistols. Handy, portable, hopefully "always there when you need one", the pistol is primarily a defensive weapon, a way to deter and deny aggression. I believe that self-defense is an inalienable and God-given right for all mankind.

Although I particularly dig on revolvers, with some emphasis on big bore double action carry guns, modern automatic pistols deserve some attention, and they get it from me as well.

Politics--this is one of those tough issues. I am a conservative libertarian, which always ties people up in knots. (That is, my being a conservative libertarian ties people up in knots, I do NOT tie people up in knots, at least not literally. Not my bag, baby.) By "conservative libertarian" I mean that my personal tastes and inclinations are conservative, but I don't think Agents of the State ought to swoop in and beat people until they agree with me.

My main interest in politics, however, starts at the water's edge. I am a foreign policy geek, and have a strong interest (and strong opinions) about how we interact with them funny furriners the rest of the world seems to be filled with. My strong opinions tend to run hand in hand with "the other George W" (anyone else remember that ad?).

You know, George Washington, the DWM who talked about peace, friendship and commerce with all nations, entangling alliances with none.

I've read a reasonable amount about the Great Game, the tripartite struggle between the British Empire, the Russian Empire, and India. The bigwigs tasked with the defense of (British) India subdivided into two schools of thought. Those who favored the forward policy wanted to "fight them there so we don't have to fight them here" and believed in pushing, umm, forward. The other school, derided as "masterful inactivity", looked around and said, "Hey, let's stand firm here, let's not chase after problems, if the Russians want to over-run India, let's see them over-run Afghanistan first, and cross the Pamirs, and we'll meet them this side of the Hindu Kush, where we have the Great Trunk Road to help us maintain good interior lines of communication and logistics." Well, ok, maybe they didn't phrase it JUST that way, but close enough.

Hey, it's time to go get my children up and moving, so that's all you get for right now.

Oh, and I could be wrong about this stuff, you know.