"At The Beginning Of The 20th Century, A British Citizen Could Carry Arms........

........and ordnance for personal protection. A century later, they are prohibited any means of self-defense at all. Current laws treat Englishmen as colonial subjects were once treated, without rights. What a pity! Even Russian subjects are permitted some, admittedly poor, means of self-protections...never thought I'd see what was once a relatively free country fall so low. Yet, reading Orwell's Coming Up for Air, we can spot the beginning of the decline even prior to 1914.

Unfortunately, some parts of the US (Washington DC, Hawaii, New Jersey, Chicago, Puerto Rico and a few others) are scarcely better. At least, in the US we have the option of avoiding such locations in favor of Montana, Tennessee and other places more respectful of personal rights.

I read several London and Kipling stories over the last week. That had the effect of highlighting the improvements and the declines in the various facets of the human condition in the last century. Overall, I'd take 2006 over 1906, but certain developments haven't been to our credit.

My buddy Montieth is keeping some of the British artifacts alive, but his Bren is only a ghost of a machine gun. As we speak, thousands of Stg44s, PPSH41s and other historic artifacts are being scrapped by the US Army in Iraq. We look down on book-burners and iconoclasts of the past centuries, but the irrational fetishism and the fear of the inanimate symbols is alive and well with many people and the proxy governments they vote in."

Oleg Volk
March 17, 2006