Heading for Sherwood Forest

I'm a kid at heart, and therefore I like toys. The old saying goes, "the only difference between men and boys are the price of their toys", is all too often true. Nothing wrong with that.
Leisure is our reward for a long day's toil. I've found a new game to play-archery. Yeah, I'm gonna be a real Robin Hood; and like him, I'll be using a longbow. For more than twenty years, I've wanted a longbow. When I was a kid I had bows. First was a wooden flatbow. It was probably a toy, but as well as I can remember it seemed to be well made. It was probably an antique, I just don't remember. Next came a fiberglass recurve, a twenty pound, the kind that came in a set with a belt quiver, tab, cuff, and three arrows. It was white(ick!), and as I remember when I first strung it, I had it backwards! It eventually snapped(I tried using it to make a crossbow, I was nothing if not imaginative). As soon as I was able, I forgot all about bows and starting concentrating on guns. Then one day, in my early twenties, I discovered that longbows exist, that they were way totally cool and I wanted one. In the intervening years I dabbled with a compound bow, and I even picked up an old Ben Pearson recurve, but nothing had the allure of the longbow. Lately I've been trying to assuage my feelings by buying new toys.
Presently, I have four guns, with another on the way; but in all honesty, guns just don't do it for me anymore. I'll probably keep a couple, and sell the rest. They're just too noisy, expensive to feed, and I just don't feel comfortable shooting them anymore; I guess I don't like drawing attention to myself. I was even tempted by muzzleloaders again, but I think I may have finally put that bear to rest. I just don't have the time or money to dedicate myself to that activity. As far as silent weapons go, I even tried a sling. Truth is, it's cool, but I can't hit the broad side of a barn with the damn thing. Something like that is no fun if you can't do it right. Which brings me back to the longbow. Although I have some archery experience, it's hardly enough to qualify as nothing more than a sincere interest; but it may be that that sincerity would be enough. In any event, shooting the longbow seems as though it would be a mystical experience, kind of Zen like.
And that's seems as good as a reason as any to head to Sherwood Forest and become one of the Merrie Men.

When the Giant Falls

In 1941, after the successful attack on Hawaii, Admiral Nagumo, the Japanese Naval commander is said to have uttered "I'm afraid all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant". He was indeed correct. Today that giant is on the verge of falling over. We, as a nation, are a mere
shadow of our former selves. What was great about America is no more. Our industrial base has been shipped off to the Third World, our economy is nearing total collapse, and our government is quite prepared to put on the Iron Gauntlet. When, not if the end comes, there will be literally hell to pay. Blood will be spilled and death and mayhem will be the order of the day. I have no clue as to what the outcome may be, but I certainly hope some semblence of what we should be will be restored.

Official Language

I've just read a thought provoking article about the prospect of English as America's "official
language". I can see where the author is coming from in decrying that position as simply another
government sponsored intrusion, but, in actuality English is our de-facto "official" language here.
I live in an area with a fairly robust Hispanic population and I must admit that I'm not particularly fond of Spanish. To me, it's an ugly language, sounding more like gibberish. It's not so much the fact that there are Spanish speakers among our citizenry, but rather it seems as though they segregate themselves, with little desire to assimilate into the community at large; although I must also admit that inroads have been made in that regard. Trust is a two way street, and although when these folks came here, they did bring with them an influx of all sorts of undesirable elements, we seem to have developed at the very least a tolerance of one another.
That, and of course many of us go about armed, so all those troublesome problems like muggings and carjackings don't occur. When our grandparents came here, they understood that in order to be successful in society, one of the first orders of business is to learn the "natives' " language. Within one or two generations most immigrant families were thoroughly Americanized; so I have little doubt the same thing will occur now. As far as legislating English as our official language, we have enough bad laws already without adding another one, I say let nature take its course, and let the people speak for themselves.