cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reason and Violence Yesterday my personal indulgences came in the mail. I figured I'm entitled to get myself something out of that bonus. So along with an order of Christmas presents from Cabelas I got a new safari shirt and some various shooting accessories. Some .38 ammo because I'm getting terribly out of practice with my handguns, a new rifle sling and scope bases for my .22 bolt action. So last night I mounted a spare scope on my .22 and installed the sling on it. I'd been swapping one sling between 3 different rifles depended on which one I was using. Which is annoying to have to do. The .22 looks wicked cool now. It's a big center fire scope intended for a deer rifle. Kind of overkill for the application but it was the scope I happened to have laying around. I still have to get it properly zeroed. Maybe this weekend. I was starting to come down with a cold towards the end of work yesterday. So I stopped at a drug store on the way home and picked up some Cold Eez (or however they spell it). Works almost every time. In this case I woke up with zero symptoms. Cured. The trick is to catch it really early. If I take it right at the first symptoms then I usually head the cold off completely. Wait a day or even half a day and the virus will get up to high enough levels that there's not much of anything you can do to keep it from running it's course. Lately I've come to the conclusion that I am somehow much more aggressive than I was, say, a year ago. I wonder why that is? I'm not sure it's a bad thing. I don't go flying off the handle or anything. I'm very much in control of myself. But I have much, much less patience for bullshit than I used to. We got a phone call from some scam outfit a couple weeks ago. Long story, but in short they lie about having acquired old debt from many years ago and claim that you owe them $1,000 or whatever. I googled it, total scam. Anyway, first I politely told the woman on the phone that I was aware of this whole deal and that I'm sure she is a very nice person but that she is representing a company that is engaging in fraud. Her response was to interrupt me and go off on this very rude tangent in which she called my parents liars for having told me that the same scam had been attempted on them. That fucking did it. I unloaded. I was SCREAMING into the phone at this stupid bitch, and she's starting to shout back, so I shouted even louder and fucking laid into her. Calling her a criminal and a thief, accusing her of fraud and threatening to talk to friends at the AG's office if they ever dare call this phone number again. I finally hung up on her. They haven't called back. Trish was like, 'whoa, where did that come from?' But really, this woman was literally trying to steal money from me. And we didn't have that kind of money to spare. What would I have been expected to do if I had caught someone actually breaking into my house and taking cash out of my wallet? I'd have beaten the living shit out of someone for doing that. Taking bread from my family's mouths. This bitch was just lucky that I was talking to her on the phone rather than her standing there in person. She got off pretty fucking easy just getting screamed at. I find that I'm giving orders more often. Not to Trish or people who are friends. But in any random encounter with some stranger who is causing a problem and does not respond to polite behavior. Like some dude who was parked illegally and blocking me in last week. I held up my keys and motioned for him to move. Dude just sat there in the car and did nothing. So I walked up and tapped on his window. He rolled it down a few inches. "Move the car. NOW." I said it in basically a cop voice. As if the very idea that he would do anything other than obey was ridiculous. I didn't threaten, didn't brandish any weapon. I just gave him an order. And sure enough, he started his engine and drove away. Didn't say a word. Just left. I have essentially zero fear of any other person for physical reasons at this point. There are 2 ways of getting somebody else to do something. Reason or violence (or the threat thereof). Personally, I prefer reason. Because I have a concealed weapon permit, I am usually armed now. Nobody can force me to do anything through the threat of violence. Regardless of how big the other guy is or what his attitude is or how threatening his behavior is. I cannot be forced into action or inaction through the threat of violence. Because I could defend myself with a firearm against a 250 pound professional boxer just as easily as I could against the proverbial 98 pound weakling. It's a nice feeling. It's a feeling that allows me to choose reason in dealing with anybody no matter how bad the neighborhood is or how 'scary' the person might be. And you know, when you don't display the slightest bit of fear, it's amazing how well reason works. The other party senses that overly aggressive behavior might not get them anywhere. The world would be a better place if the only choice was reason. If nobody threatened anyone else with violence. In the absence of that, a lack of clear physical advantage between 2 parties is probably about the most reliable way of ensuring that reason is the path that will be chosen towards agreement. 9:33 a.m. - 2007-12-12 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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