JERRY'S MUSINGS

“Reclaiming The Blade” Is A Terrific Film, If You Have An Interest In Swords And Swordsmanship – And, If You Don’t, You Should!

As a lot of you may know, when Sharon and I aren’t writing novels or working on firearms related articles and columns – I write them and Sharon does the photography – I write a column about swords in the bi-monthly KNIVES ILLUSTRATED, a sister publication of GUN WORLD, wherein I also write a column.  Sharon does the photography for the sword column, too, of course.  Both of us grew up watching Errol Flynn swashbucklers on WGN in Chicago.  I never knew that “The Adventures Of Robin Hood” was even in color until we got it on tape.  And, of course, Sharon and I – our parallel interests are/were uncanny – watched Richard Greene as “Robin Hood,” Roger Moore as “Ivanhoe,” Guy Williams as “Zorro,” etc., etc.  A sword belonged in a man’s hand – unless, of course, the gorgeous Maureen O’Hara was wielding one.  Actually, a lot of women were/are fine “swordspersons.”

The thrust (I love puns) of “Reclaiming The Blade,” which is very nicely done and narrated by John Rhys-Davies, focuses on a return to swordsmanship.  No one is saying get rid of your AR-15 or AK-47 and get a Katana or a Rapier instead; but, having a sword or two and knowing how to use a sword is something everyone should consider.  Now, granted, I’m a little professionally paranoid.  I sleep with a Detonics CombatMaster .45, a Crimson Trace LaserGripped S&W .38 Special 640, a Katana and a Wakazashi next to the bed.  The truth is, even the finest handguns – and the CombatMaster and the two-inch J-Frame are two of the finest – can malfunction and will run out of ammo.  But steel, unless your break it, will never fail.  And, if you break a sword, chances are what’s left will still be a pretty large knife. 

There’s a wonderful elegance to the sword.  The late Hank Reinhardt, who figures prominently in “Reclaiming The Blade,” once told Sharon and me that with a Katana, for example, one could work out one’s own Kata, or routine, and do a pretty good job of defending oneself, without formal training.  I’ve heard the Katana, by the way, described as the most deadly close-range weapon ever devised.  When used properly, it is.  

We have the two disc set, which features interview remarks from “Lord Of The Rings” actor Viggo Mortensen, legendary sword coach Bob Anderson and a great deal of additional footage, including “making of” and more interviews.  Also, there are significant segments from a number of armed and open hand martial arts training videos.  These are sensational.

“Reclaiming The Blade” (www.reclaimingtheblade.com) is something that will entertain you and may very well inspire you to contact Museum Replicas (www.museumreplicas.com) or CAS-Hanwei (www.casiberia.com) or one of the other producers of battle quality swords. Swords grow daily and internationally in popularity. You may want to get into swordplay yourself.  Every man – or woman – should reclaim the blade.                

JERRY'S MUSINGS

THE LAST HAMMOND HAS ROLLED OFF THE LINE AND CLEAR THE TRACKS FOR TINKY’S GRAPEFRUIT!

The late Ayn Rand’s magnificent novel and philosophical treatise, Atlas Shrugged, is also turning out to be prophecy, rather than speculation.  Move over Nostradamus!  If you’ve not read Atlas, you can get the main ideas by watching, listening to and reading the news – if you watch FOX or take the time to find other unbiased sources.  In Atlas, groups of grasping, idiot bureaucrats control the governments of the world, including the United States, and they punish those who excel by taxing and regulating them in every way possible.  Sounding familiar?  Life imitates art – at least since the November 2008 election.

Take the health care bill being pushed by Democrats in Congress.  It has now been proposed to pay for universal healthcare with higher taxes on the rich.  I am not rich, have never been rich and likely never will be rich.  All that said, nothing gives me license to steal from the rich.  Ayn Rand never liked the story of Robin Hood.  I think this was because she bought into the clichéd idea that Robin and his Merry Men robbed from the rich to give to the poor.  It didn’t happen that way.  Robin and the guys in tights stole the unjust taxes back from the evil minions of a wannabe usurper.  Hey, now there’s a coincidence in the making, maybe.  Robin never ripped off the rich; he ripped off the thieves who made themselves rich by stealing from everyone they could and he gave the money back to those from whom it had been stolen. 

In Atlas Shrugged, productivity is punished by the government.  Making  wealthy Americans – and Democrats have a strange idea of what constitutes wealth – pay more because they happen to make more money is theft wrapped in Socialism.  A principle tenet of Communism/Socialism is the redistribution of wealth.  I guess the leftists in the Democratic party are showing their true colors – shades of pink and red. What gives these leftist Democrats the right to punish someone for being productive, for being successful?  Nothing.  In Ayn Rand’s novel , a man named “John Galt” starts a movement to “stop the motor of the world.”   Slowly, steadily, he gets the more productive people to stop being productive and just kick back, so everything will start to slip away.   And, it does.  Without the entrepreneurs, those who dare financially, those who risk all for an idea rather than just being comfortable, those who run small businesses about to be taxed out of existence, the motor of the world truly would stop.  Without Capitalism, as the Russians and the Chinese found out, society crumbles.  Even though China still calls itself Communist, financially, it’s one of the most capitalistic countries on the planet.  If you doubt that, check out where your clothing, your cookware, your pocket knife, your electronics and much of everything else you have comes from.

But, the leftist Democrats in Congress who want to tax the wealthier among us in order to have universal healthcare which will be inferior to the current system and plunge the nation into irredeemable levels of debt don’t understand Capitalism, or choose to ignore it in their relentless passion for power and control.

FDR had “The New Deal.”  LBJ had “The Great Society.”  Under America’s current leadership, we’ve got “The Bum Steer.”  Let’s just pray that a real “John  Galt” is working to make things right again.  The leftists will stop the motor of the world sooner than later, but not as an object lesson.  We’ll just all run out of everything we need to make that motor run. 

Now, albeit that it may already be too late -- but we must try -- let’s start working to elect Conservative Republicans and non-leftist, Conservative Democrats in 2010.  Let’s give the man who wants to change America, apologizes for what he labels our arrogance and wants to redistribute wealth a Congress that will tell him exactly what he can do with his radical leftist vision for our nation.  Then, let’s get behind a candidate who can take on the leftist Democratic candidate in 2012 and deny him re-election. 

The time is now to save America.  Let’s prove why a government predicated on the principles of Capitalism and Democracy, and not Socialism and Communism, is the best form of government on the planet.  In 2008, a portion of the American electorate made an error of epic scale.  Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work to save our country.   Let’s rectify this horrific mistake and pray to God that we can make things right again and undo the damage already done and the damage still to come.

JERRY'S MUSINGS

Jerry in one of his more mellow moods

After a long time, we've finally got the website up and running -- although there'll be a lot more "running" coming along in the next few weeks.  I'm going to use this space for a variety of things, among which will be grousing about the current state of affairs politically.  As many of you may have suspected, I did not vote for the guy hanging out in the Oval Office.  And, I'm not wildly crazy about things like the energy bill -- read energy tax-- and some other things that are moving along in Congress.  Actually, the whole idea of thousands and thousands of words in a Bill and rushing the Bill through Congress before almost anyone could read it makes you kind of wonder.  Either the administration and it's lefty allies in Congress are hiding things they don't want read, or they figure the American people will be so ticked off by the time the 2010 off-year elections come around, Obama will be looking at a Republican Congress that's going to stonewall his wierd vision for America.  God willing!  At any event, with any legislation, how can a member of Congress vote on a Bill -- good or bad -- without knowing what's in that Bill?  That's madness!  And, it's dereliction of duty.  Let's get going now to field and support people for the 2010 elections who will realize that change for the sake of change is stupidity.  America's the finest country on the face of the Earth.  We have nothing to apologize for to the rest of the world and our Constitution is the finest political document ever written.  When I was a kid, if you said someone was a "Leftist" that was another way of saying he was a "Communist."  Neither term is or ever has been or ever will be a compliment.