The Ultimate Answer to Kings: Sigh. How did these people ever win the war?

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, May 23, 2012

Sigh. How did these people ever win the war?

I like coffee. If I want a cup of milk and sugar, I won't waste good coffee in it.

Cocoa, now - that's different.

4 comments:

Stephen said...: Gag...I agree. What a waste of coffee.; May 23, 2012 at 2:12 PM
KurtP said...: They didn't win the war.
The Democrats won it for them.; May 23, 2012 at 6:25 PM
Anonymous said...: Dude....that's HOW they won. This is like those nasty red bull monster tweaker drinks people here suck down when they can't get or don't have the balls to use speed.
Think about it, that's a sugar and caffeine bomb.
You'd shoot the little bastards and they wouldn't know to stop fighting 'til the rush wore off.

Actually, that's not so bad. It's kind of like a dessert to me. The Malay have a similar drink but made with tea. Te Tarik.

That music was made of awesome. I'll have to download that. It irritated the piss out of my wife.

Buck.; May 23, 2012 at 8:26 PM
Joe Falcon said...: ACtually it's rather good, especially freshly ground.

As to how they won, it was their home (see American Revolution for home team advantage) before US, it was the French, while France was making them a Colony and lost to Nazi Germany in WW2, it became the Japanese property (who caused several million deaths from starvation and did not suffer one war crime, but I digress), before them it was the Chinese.

Surprised evolution didn't have them come out the womb with a combat knife.

That an US Military stupidity, ignorance, and supporting a facist dictator that noone cared for. Did I mention the US has never pulled off Imperial occuptation with any success since Hawaii?

Did I miss anything?; May 24, 2012 at 2:55 AM