The Ultimate Answer to Kings: This is not the result I was looking for.

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.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

This is not the result I was looking for.

A couple of weeks ago I signed the blog up for something called "Survival Ring," in hope of directing more traffic here. It hasn't had any good result, but I just got a comment from The Grey Lady:

Joel I had a devil of a time getting onto your blog today, when I used my bookmark I kept getting redirected to this:

http://www.webring.org/hub?ring=survivalring

This is the first such complaint I've received, but that doesn't mean people aren't having trouble. If you are, would you please respond here? If this isn't some momentary glitch, I'll bump that bit of code right the hell off the blog.

8 comments:

Weetabix said...: No problems here. Never even noticed it.

(I know you asked for responses from people with problems, but I figure a "no problem" response also provides data for troubleshooting.); November 17, 2010 at 11:35 AM
Anonymous said...: That happened to me once on Wednesday, but the 2nd time, it came right here like always.; November 17, 2010 at 11:39 AM
The Grey Lady said...: Perhaps a momentary glitch? This time my book mark worked as it should. Fingers crossed....; November 17, 2010 at 1:20 PM
Phil said...: I never have a problem because I come here from that crazy bastard Mayberry's place. I have been too lazy to bookmark ya myself. I guess I'll have to do that now.; November 17, 2010 at 3:20 PM
Pat H. said...: A weird thing is that I can't post comments over on the Grey Lady's blog, it's yet another troubled blog. A friend of mine had one like that.; November 17, 2010 at 4:21 PM
The Grey Lady said...: Excuse me Joel,

Pat,

What????????

You can't post comments at my blog????!!!

First I have heard of it, could you explain what the problem was?; November 17, 2010 at 4:53 PM
suek said...: >>First I have heard of it, could you explain what the problem was?>>

Pat probably would have - if Pat could comment!!

Sorry...that just struck me as really funny...!!; November 19, 2010 at 12:07 PM
Anonymous said...: I hate the webring thing. I must have accidentally clicked it when trying for "older posts" and couldn't get back to where I wanted to be at all. I had to completely retype the blog name in the browser and start over.

Love your blog, though. I stop in every few months to read everything and catch up with the lair's progress.; November 23, 2010 at 7:50 PM