One of the few holidays I take seriously.
If you’re as big a fan of it as I am, then you know what to do and why. And, eventually, to whom.
Tag Archives: Patriot’s Day
Patriots’ Day
‘Tis Patriots’ Day! A day that has a host of meanings and symbolism to a buncha different crowds. To some it’s a day to mark the beginning of the American Revolution. To some its the day to commemorate some terrorist events. To our friendly fedgov it’s a day to be on ‘heightened alert’ because..well..because. And to some folks it’s just plain ol’ Monday.
For your buddy Zero, it’s a day to reflect on what your role in .gov is, and more importantly, what is .gov’s role in YOU. And it’s a great day to head to the range and practice with your firearms .
In the meantime….
Patriots Day 2020
One of only a a handful of holidays I actually get enthusiastic about, today is Patriots Day. You can do a search on the blog under ‘Patriots day’ and come up with previous posts on the subject. I try to keep to it’s spirit by going out to the range and practicing for the next shoot-the-Redcoats episode that comes along.
Interestingly, you can buy multicam versions of those hats online.
I understand many of you cannot, for various reasons, get to the range today. It happens. But if you can’t get out and put some lead in the air, you should at least give some thought to the history of the day and what it means to you.
Patriot’s Day
Think, really think, about what it must have been like to literally bet your life and the lives of those you love on what was, at the time, treason.
Sure, everyone says they’ll pick up a rifle and ‘fight for their freedom’ but these guys actually did it.
While we may not know if we’re made of similar stuff until called upon, we can at least try to be ready. So…head to the range and put some metal in the air.
Patriots Day and 25th anniversary of Waco atrocity
‘Tis Patriots Day!
You know what to do, you know where to do it! Get out there!
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It is also the 25th anniversary of the ATFE burning down a building full of women and kids in Waco Texas. This utterly inexcusable atrocity was the impetus for ‘militia movement’ that the 90’s was known for. To this day there are still a lot of unanswered questions from Waco. It continues to serve as an excellent reminder of what government can do when it wants to. As a result of this incident, and the Oklahoma City Bombing several years later, April 19 is a day of extra caution in some government agencies.
Patriot’s Day
‘Tis Patriot’s Day. Sure, I have a couple things I need to do today but none will be as meaningful as a trip to the range. The price of liberty is eternal….marksmanship practice.
Anyone needs me, I’ll be at the Deer Creek range putting metal into the air.
Patriot(s, s’,’s) Day.. or is it?
There’s only a handful of holidays I get worked up over…Independence Day, my birthday, Valentine’s Day, Paratus, and one or two others. And then there’s Patriot’s Day…the moveable feast of the political right.
Maybe someone really said this. Maybe not. But the sentiment certainly seems apropos.
First, there’s a bit of ambiguity about the name..is it Patriot’s Day, Patriots Day, or Patriots’ Day? I go with Patriot’s Day. You can figure out which punctuation rings your (liberty) bell. It most certainly is not ‘Patriot Day‘ which is, I think, a holiday in poor taste since we already have a holiday with that name and ‘re-using’ it is patently disrespectful to the original holiday.
Then there’s the date. To me, Patriot’s Day is April 19. Why? Because that’s when the shooting started. The notion of making it the third Monday of April, regardless of date, for the purpose of creating a three day weekend is abhorrent to me. You make a holiday to remember and act upon a historical event. You don’t make it for the sake of getting a three-day weekend. *
Folks are calling today Patriot’s Day but I’m going to be a stickler….orthodox, if you will…and say that Patriot’s Day is April 19. Period.
* = Having said that, yes, Paratus is a moveable holiday. BUT..Paratus was designed from the get-go to be held on a Friday so you could have a weekend to play with your Paratus gifts. I do not find this inconsistent with my attitude about re-arranging historical holidays to fit modern demands for three-day weekends.
Patriots Day
To be fair, there is some confusion over whether it is Patriots Day, Patriot’s Day, or Patriots’ Day.
Succinctly, its the anniversary of the opening salvos of what we call the Revolutionary War. (Remember – if you strike at the .gov and win, it’s a revolution; if you lose it’s a civil war.)
The history is available at the usual sources.
In a sad commentary on the cynical nature of .gov, this day is also a ‘heightened alert’ day for many .gov, .mil, and LE agencies. Apparently those of us who remember days like this are considered a suspect group.
So what’s the great purpose of Patriots Day? Well, I think it’s one of those holidays open to personal interpretation. I think its an excellent excuse to head to the range and practice with a firearm. I also think it’s an excellent day to contemplate what patriotism is to you, how it is manifested, what it’s qualities are, and what you’re willing to do and not do in the name of it. In short, it’s an excellent occasion to mull over your ideals and beliefs vis-a-vis government and individuality.
In olden day, there used to be Liberty Trees or Liberty Poles…these were features that served as rallying points on days like this.
Nowadays rallys tend to be held at places like the federal courthouse or other building, which seems a little counter-intuitive to me. It’s using ‘the other guys’ features as your own rallying point. However, I was in Kalispell last weekend and saw a bunch of armed, Gadsen-waving folks with signs at the war memorial up there…so perhaps that has become the new de facto ‘liberty pole’. Although, really, I like the notion of a huge sprawling liberty tree that people can gather under and around…have rallies or simple picnics on Independence Day..that sort of thing.
Regardless…it’s a holiday today, and it’s not a bad idea to head to the range and punctuate the day with gunfire.
Patriots Day
‘Tis Patriots Day. Think about it and go shoot at some targets.
Ranking the LMI, Fire fight, Medical Guide For Ships
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Its Patriots’ Day! Get out there and make some noise!
I have a hot date with the Dillon 1050 and 1m .452″ 230 gr. TC bullets later this week.
Plenty of food, plenty of ammo….the upcoming years are going to be messy but we’re going to go through them with every advantage we can get.
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After I went to Rosauers the other day and confirmed that they were, in fact, selling large quantities of storage food in #10 cans I started calling all my LMI friends and acquaintances to inform them to get in on the action. As I thought about it later I realized that the order in which I called them, and those whom I thought ‘call immediately’ and ‘meh, I’ll call them later’ was a subconscious prioritizing and ranking of where they stood on the Friends Of Zero scale. The ones I felt closest to I called first, the ones I’m kind of ambivalent about I called much later (or haven’t called at all yet). In this way, I’ve had a rather eye-opening experience into the nature of my relationships with the people I hang out with. Kinda interesting.
Speaking of, I went back there today and there was significantly less food. One of the LMI told me that when he went to checkout the clerk said “Oh, another one!” and mentioned that the record for the day had been one person buying $800 worth of food. The fella at the supermarket I spoke with said that the stuff has been selling very well and he thinks it might become a regular item. I dont know if they appreciate the market for that kinda product. Once you spend your $800 on it, youre pretty much done for twenty years or twenty kilotons, whichever comes first. I picked up a couple more cans of scrambled egg mix. Me and a budding LMI (more about him in the next paragraph) joked that there was no way we were going through the apocalypse eating just rice and beans. Indeed, while rice and beans has been a staple of Third World countries I cannot for the life of me think why anyone would want to live like a Third World country when they dont have to.
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In the last few weeks a fella has been dropping by the shop once in a while to talk preparedness. He’s been into it on and off since Y2k but he has gotten back into it in a much bigger way as of late. I bounce ideas at him, give him my opinions (for whatever theyre worth), loan him books and sometimes make him a nice deal on preparedness stuff. We chitchat in that familiar and welcome way of people who have finally found people who ‘understand’ each other. Lets face it, many times when youre talking long term food, ammo, bunkers, ham radios and bugout bags to people youre going to get some seriously weird looks unless the person youre talking to is a like-minded individual. Anyway, he’s in a business that, like my own, has a certain utility amongst the LMI. One of the things he does is sell, recharge, test, etc. fire extinguishers.
Now, most of us have the small extinguishers you buy in a two-pack up at CostCo for $40. Nothing wrong with them, Im sure many a kitchen grease fire has met its powdery end at the hands of someone wielding one. But, sometimes you want something with a little more firepower. After all, when the wheels fly off civilization it won’t take a Ph. D in BTU’s to whip up fiery trouble with some gasoline and an empty bottle of Night Train. So, without getting into the realm of ‘not man-portable’, I got the fire extinguisher equivalent of “ten pounds a’ swingin’ cod” as a wise man once said.
Considering the plethora of electrical equipment thats running around here, this could be handy.
What I really want is a modern version of the old stirrup pumps used during the Blitz. There is a modern version out there, but Im having a hell of a time finding a US supplier.
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An interesting .pdf came across my monitor the other day. International Medical Guide For Ships. The ’ships medicine chest’ at the end is pretty illuminating and would probably go quite well with the appendices in ‘Where There Is No Doctor’.
