— A French officer observing the Austrians in action against the Prussians, 1760. (A little subtle military humor from the Seven Years’ War)
On Monday, I read this excellent piece on Charlie’s Blog and just had to extract two of the sections that I though were particularly correct. I have excised the profanity to fit my standards (apologies to the author, click the link at the end to read it in its unmodified state), but his points are so clear and true:
It blows my mind to watch this whole debt limit drama, and people get upset because their […] welfare check might not be in the mail. This is where we are at as a country. We allow compassion and sympathy to trump intelligence and morality. Here are the two facts you have to consider. The first is that welfare erodes the strength of this nation. The second is that WE ARE […] BANKRUPT. When I watch the same sort of […] in a place like Greece as lazy worthless […] take to the streets to protest their loss of government benefits, it blows my […] mind. People believe they have a divine right to the fruits of other people’s labor.
— Mark Twain
Just the other day, I posted how I’m not really that enthused about writing about wargaming. But I figured that I should at least give it a try after taking some photos at last night’s game.
Veterans of Austrian IR#4 Hoch und Deutschmeister advance, supported by Jägers in the distance
It was our monthly “Napoleonic Night”, and my assignment is to provide our “Second Table” game of Song of Drums and Shakos, a fun set of Napoleonic-period skirmish rules (aka SDS). The games are quick, played with maybe a maximum of a dozen figures on a 3-foot-square table area. It has become one of the favorites at The Bengal Club, so there are plenty of guys learning the rules.
We had two players and ran two games in a couple of hours. The first game is mostly what I’ll be writing about (because it’s the one I took the most pictures of), which was a quick matchup of Austrians vs. Bavarians during Napoleon’s 1809 campaign that culminated with the battle of Wagram. John D. commanded the Austrians, Paul P. the Bavarians.
One of my favorite minimalist blogs that I read regularly is Miss Minimalist (it even holds one of the 5 coveted spots in my sidebar links). I really like the author’s take on being a minimalist and enjoy reading about her life as an expat.
Today, she posted a wonderful piece entitled “A Haiku Life” that I think is a must-read. I remember being fascinated as an elementary school child when I was taught about Haiku and have written them myself on-and-off over the years. I’ve used the “principle” of Haiku (simplicity, careful selection, limited size, attention to detail, etc.) in many endeavors in life. I think it’s an excellent standard to live and work by, and sums up the concept of “minimalism” very nicely.
I most appreciated her summary paragraph, which ties everything up perfectly (and better than I can, frankly):
In summary: a haiku life means being mindful of every possession, word, and action in our lives. It’s living lightly and gracefully, and celebrating beauty in everyday experience. By following the spirit of these exquisite little poems, our lives too can be sparkling jewels, full of meaning and with nothing superfluous.
I haven’t written much lately about my other big hobby, Miniature Wargaming. I still attend our weekly Friday night games at The Bengal Club pretty regularly and a few weeks ago I actually got especially enthused and spent quite a bit of time painting figures (almost an entire corps of Austrian Napoleonics in 15mm).
I guess I’m just not as interested in blogging about it. I think the biggest reason is that it would entail actual work on my part to craft up something interesting and provide all the required photos for it. Another might be that I have a lot of other interests and things on my mind and wargaming has started taking a backseat to them.
So I suppose more than any other topic I write about here, wargaming will be the most “hot and cold”–you may see a spurt of new stuff if I’m particularly gung-ho at the moment, but you’re more likely to hear the wind whistling through this category as it gets no love.
There was a wonderful post this morning on the Cato Institute’s Downsizing the Federal Government blog. It’s a short little piece on why we need to minimize the size of government and its oppressive effect on our lives.
Most interesting, however, was a quote by Sheldon Richman from his article Bondholders and Victims: Who’s less worthy of compensation? over on The Freeman blog. I think it very accurately sums up the problem:
Government is not some higher super-competent entity like the man pretending to be the Wizard of Oz wanted the people to think he was. It’s a coercive organization of limited, flawed, and essentially ignorant men and women who, having been anointed in an election after campaigns hawking snake oil, are presumptuous enough to think they are capable of making wise decisions on our behalf.
journey, not destination 