The Secret to Happiness

You know what?  I'm tired.

On Wednesday, May 14, 2003 I hit "publish" on the first post here at The Smallest Minority.  That was eleven (11!) years ago today.  This is post 6348, for an average of about 1.6 posts per day.  As you may have noticed, I've not posted much here in the last few weeks.  I've been reading a bunch of my older posts and the links in them that still work.  I had plans (and I actually began work) to crank out an über-überpost for this anniversary, but I decided instead:

The one consistent overarching theme of this blog during the last eleven years has been "Tough History Coming."

I still believe it.  I'm just not going to repeat myself for the one-hundred and eleventieth time.  Been there, done that, got the t-shirts.  But this shit is tiring, especially when I've seen no reason to alter my outlook over a decade later.

It's not all been negative, though.  I was surprised as anyone when Arizona got Concealed Carry in 1994.  If you'd asked me in 2003 if I thought Arizona would be a Constitutional Carry state, I'd have had you involuntarily committed.  This map makes me grin every time I see it:

But it's not enough. Legal recognition of the right to arms is not enough. Incorporation of that right is not enough. Kim du Toit, in that quote on the masthead (that goes to a broken link) has it right:

I don't just want gun rights... I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance....I want the whole bloody thing.

And I'm not going to get it. If there were any chance of that, Obama would not have been re-elected. Mitt Romney would not have been the most recent Republican nominee for President, nor McCain before him. Politicians wouldn't keep getting re-elected. IRS and NSA officials would need to be in protective custody.

Tar, feathers, pitchforks and torches would be an appropriate response to what our government has become, but the change has been so gradual, and associated with "de-moralization" over the last century that a significant majority of the nation is simply incapable of considering such, much less being inspired to outrage. Hell, few even bother to write letters-to-the-editor anymore. The TEA Party movement has apparently been successfully co-opted by people more interested in enriching themselves, and by the few rabid partisans who value ideology over, you know, winning. And the Big-"L" Libertarians still frighten the white people.

So we're going to keep on spending like the money will never run out, our foreign policy will continue to be based on fundamental misunderstandings of geopolitical realities, our immigration policies will remain chaotic, schizophrenic and completely dysfunctional while our borders will remain porous, our supposed "security" agencies will continue to monitor everyone and everything, molest children and old women getting on airplanes while never catching a "terrorist..."

And we'll keep putting up with it.

'Cause we're Americans. It's now what we do.

So, I'm done worrying about it. I've got other things to worry about.

1) My mom has lung cancer.
2) I'm busy as hell at work.
3) I've volunteered to help Mr. Completely organize this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous
4) I've got a stack of books that need reading.
5) I need to get out and shoot more. (ANYBODY seen Unique on a shelf in the wild?)
6) My home needs maintenance that I've been neglecting.
7) I want to spend more time with my wife.

I'm not completely hanging it up here. I'll still post from time to time - mostly in the near future I suspect about the upcoming Rendezvous - but I doubt seriously that there will be any more überposts. I greatly appreciate the hundreds of readers and dozens of commenters, and I still hope you drop by and visit, and maybe leave a comment from time to time.

Thank you for your attention and your support over the last decade-plus.  It's meant a lot to me.  It's given me hope.  Not a lot, but it's better than being alone.


(click for full size)
It's too late for me, but obviously there are millions out there who have already saved themselves!

UPDATE:  I was on Squirrel Report Episode 104 on Thursday talking about this post, überposts and blogging in general.  Longest Squirrel Report ever.

Appropriate.