The Ultimate Answer to Kings: Jayne is a girl's name.

They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. 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. "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."

I thought about that for a long time. If there's an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I've got bullets - he's got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that's not going to happen. So if there's an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain't bullets.

It finally came to me - and that's when I left the city, abandoned a goodly percentage of my goods, and gave all that was behind me a good, stiff Randian Shrug.

The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Jayne is a girl's name.

Heh. M sent me this, and got my morning off to a good start.

"It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of son of a bitch or another." - Mal Reynolds

5 comments:

CorbinKale said...: Oh good, she brought grenades.; June 17, 2010 at 9:51 AM
Anonymous said...: Well, except that they misspelled jane Austen's name. Now I can't hang this on my door in the library, because it would be an object of derision.; June 17, 2010 at 1:31 PM
Joel said...: Not if they get the joke. It's not a misspelling.; June 17, 2010 at 1:40 PM
Anonymous said...: the character Jayne in Firefly; June 17, 2010 at 6:42 PM
Jeffersonian said...: A closer look reveals they are in fact wearing Cunning Hats.; June 18, 2010 at 6:03 PM