It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets. But we all know that’s not going to happen.
I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.” It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. Different tools for different applications. Others’ mileage will vary greatly, but that’s cool. Big enough to need its own holster, but the way I walk around most days that’s really a plus. But it’s a remarkably good tool, and I’ve gotten an enormous amount of use from it.
I mocked it at the time because it’s got like seven different modes, only two of which I ever use. So for my uses, I’ve settled on a BLF light that a reader sent me almost seven years ago. And that’s why I keep ending up with all this dumb stuff on my belt, I guess. Don’t want to rummage around in a pocket, don’t want to fiddle with it. But for everyday use, I like a tool I can just grab and use. Gets a lot of use out of a AAA battery, I must say. That little light second from the right is a favorite, which I carry when I dress for town and leave most of the belt kibble at home. When I moved here I wasn’t aware that fancy lights were a thing, with their own vocabulary – which I’ve never bothered to learn – and practically their own culture. And so you will also find yourself collecting flashlights. Off grid, you frequently find yourself in dark places very far from a light switch. They keep getting smaller, but no less capable.
Walked around digging them out of their various cubbies…
But for everyday use I prefer something I can work with one hand.īut that being the way my mind was working, I got to thinking about lights I’ve carried at different times. It’s a fascinatingly clever little thing, and really bright in high mode. I mean, I get it: The Olight is obviously meant for a keychain and in that application it might well be perfect. My tentative conclusion is that it’s possible for everyday tech to get too small for practicality. I’ve been carrying this one in my pocket for the past week or two, to see if that might be more practical than my favorite BLF belt light and maybe get some crap off my belt. But such is life.Īnyway, I was idly rummaging in my pocket and came up with an Olight i1R2 keychain light that a Friend of the Blog recently sent me along with some other useful stuff, and got to thinking about how the past couple of decades have been an inadvertent tutorial in flashlight trends. So I’m cocooning indoors today.Ī little discouraging to look out my bedroom window and watch the wind bounce tumbleweeds up my driveway from the wash, when I just finished clearing the homegrown ones out of my yard. It’s a super windy day, with temps unlikely to get out of the fifties.