I broke the end off my clutch lever by dropping the Tiger in my driveway, because I'm a klutz.
Aimee and I went to Engle Motors as part of our Fathers' Day date mostly so I could drool over the new Thruxton R. While we were there, I ordered some new adjustable levers.
They look a lot nicer than the stock levers and and have a lot more adjustability.
They were very easy to install. I only used a 10 mm socket and a screwdriver. I think I'd like some had guards. I don't plan to do any offroading with this bike, but they'd make cold weather riding a little more comfortable. I'll probably wait until the weather cools down.
“Most people catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society, the way that a child catches the measles.” ~ Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture
Culture matters. A lot. And if Francis Schaeffer was right about how most people form their world view, popular culture matters most of all.
The contempt for fathers that generations of children (now adults) absorbed through popular culture is one major reason that families are crumbling in the US and throughout the West. Families are the foundation of civilization. If the foundation crumbles, what happens to the civilization?
Fortunately, there are still movies that portray married fathers as heroes, and Fathers' Day is the perfect time to highlight them. This is a non-exhaustive list, so if you know of others, please feel free leave a comment below.
Cinderella Man James J. Braddock was a real life Rocky Balboa, an aging, has been, washed up, working class boxer with far more heart than talent who got a shot at the world championship. Unlike Rocky, Braddock was a married, devoted father of three who lived during the Great Depression. He fractured his right hand (his only weapon in the ring) in a fight he lost and was forced to retire from boxing. He lost everything during the Depression - except his family.
This is a story about the lengths to which a father will go to support his wife and children. If you haven't watched it, do so. Better yet, read the book.
We Were Soldiers
Hal Moore is one of the great American combat commanders of the Vietnam War. He commanded the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965. He is also a married (now widowed) father of five (now grandfather of 12). The first act of the movie focuses on the Soldiers and families of the 1-7 as they prepare for the deployment. I posted one of my favorite scenes above, in which then-LTC Moore mentors one of his young LTs on balancing soldiering with fatherhood.
American Sniper I reviewed this movie previously, so I won't write much about it here. Chris Kyle was not only a heroic Navy SEAL sniper, he was a devoted married father of two. Read the book!
The Impossible
If you have kids, this movie will scare you more than any horror movie ever could. It's based on a true story (are you starting to see a trend?) about Enrique Álvarez, María Belón and their three sons Lucas, Simón and Tomás Álvarez, who were on vacation in Thailand during the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. The movie changes the names and nationality of the characters from Spanish to English, but the main theme remains intact - the lengths to which a father will go to reunite his family after a natural disaster tears them apart.
Soul Surfer When, in real life, a shark bit Bethany Hamilton's left arm off just below the shoulder, it was her dad who trained her to surf again. Since then, she's placed first in six international surfing competitions and competed in many more.
Apocalypto
This one really surprised me. Though set in a completely alien (now extinct) culture, the primary subject matter is entirely familiar. It's a story of the lengths to which a father will go to protect his family. Whether intentionally or not, this movie makes the point that marriage is God's idea, and therefore transcends culture and time. Jaguar Paw and his wife, Seven, obviously weren't married in a church, nor do they hold a marriage license, yet we recognize them as husband and wife.
Act of Valor
A fictional story portrayed by real-life Navy SEALS, it begins and ends with a letter written by one of the SEALS to his battle buddy's son. Yes, I know that's an Army term that the SEALS don't use. Sue me.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
When the Avengers need a place to recuperate after a mission goes disastrously wrong, they take refuge at Hawkeye's house, the only member of their team who is a married father.
Man of Steel Though flawed, Man of Steel portrays Superman's natural father (Jor El) and his adoptive father (Jonathan Kent) as honorable men doing what they believe is best for their families and their people.
That's all I have for now. Surely there are more. My tastes obviously gravitate towards action, adventure and war movies, and I haven't watched all of those, much less every other genre. If you're a dad, I hope you had a happy Fathers' Day. Enjoy a good movie with your kids!
If you've ever watched the movie Watchmen - or better yet, read the comic - you probably remember the following scene. If you're squeamish, skip the video.
Rorschach, one of the heroes, gets locked up with many of the criminals he put in prison. After defeating an attacker in a fight, Rorschach yells at his fellow inmates, "I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me!"
Police don’t actually protect law-abiding citizens from criminals so much as they protect criminals from the much-rougher justice they’d get in the absence of a legal system. Burglars would be hung from lampposts, and shoplifters would be beaten and tossed into the gutter if there were no police, as in fact happens in countries where there isn’t a reliable justice system and a civil-society culture that restrains vigilantism. Reminder to the criminal class: Ultimately, we’re not stuck in this country with you. You’re stuck in this country with us.
The following day (3 Sep 2015), Prof. Reynolds linked to a story about the rising trend of street "justice" in Venezuela.
When a man they believed to be a thief sneaked into their parking lot in the Venezuelan city of Valencia, angry residents caught him, stripped him and beat him with fists, sticks and stones.
They tied him up and doused him in gasoline, according to witnesses, in one of what rights groups and media reports say are an increasing number of mob beatings and lynchings in a country ravaged by crime.
Almost a year later, the trend has not abated. In fact, as Venezuela continues its death spiral under the crushing weight of Socialism, it seems to be getting worse. Why? Caracas city councilman, Jesús Armas, explains...
This year will without a doubt be the most violent in the history of our city...
The insecurity has three roots. The first is associated with levels of poverty and inequality that we see in the city. Today Venezuela is the country with the highest inflation in the world, with shortages that force people to line up for hours to buy food. For decades neighborhoods have sprung up outside the city, and now more than 50 percent of the city's population lives in places where houses are built with low-quality materials, and where they don't formally have access to basic public services and are without roads or consolidated public spaces.
Poverty, inequality and no basic public services in the Chavista Socialist paradise? Unpossible!
The second element has to do with a culture of lawlessness. In the country, a habit of disrespect for most basic laws - those related to transit, shoplifting, even the ways the authorities and the rest of the population interact with these laws, has resulted in a collective indifference toward much larger crimes because the law is simply a dead letter.
When the government officials who are supposed to enforce the law are the biggest thieves, how can anyone else be expected to respect the law? Chavez died a billionaire, and his daughter is the wealthiest person in Venezuela.
Finally, there is the reaction of the national and local government in terms of managing the violence. The truth is that we have a mayor who, through hate speech and a series of acts of violence promoted by groups related to his party and his administration, has over the years exhibited excessive permissiveness toward huge criminal groups that dominate vast and populous parts of the city, either because they handle drug trafficking or because they have a monopoly on violence and illegal activities that generate income.
Likewise, the state has implemented a policy that has nothing to do with protecting life, liberty and property of citizens, but on the contrary, has driven a socialist model that seeks to limit those freedoms, using crime as a way to maintain power and control of the population. But the truth is that today things are out of control and we are left with a failed state in which the so-called peace zones are micro-states controlled by gangsters and not by constitutional institutions.
... a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government; and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
Unfortunately, Venezuela's Socialist government - like all Socialist governments - busies itself primarily with "[taking] from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned", secondarily with buying votes with the bread it took from the mouth of labor, and not at all with its actual responsibility of "[restraining] men from injuring one another".
The result is what we now see in Venezuela. We may not see it for long, not because it'll stop any time soon, but because Venezuela's government - embarrassed by its own impotence and incompetence - banned media coverage of the lynchings. Venezuela's government won't crack down on crime, much less unshackle the people and economy from the disastrous Socialist policies that led to the disintegration of Venezuelan society. They'll just prevent news outlets from talking about it, thereby accomplishing nothing of value.
As European governments refuse to protect their citizens from Muslim migrant criminals and conspire to cover up their negligence, homicide rates in some American cities skyrocket due to the Ferguson Effect, and insurmountable federal debt leads us towards Venezuela-style hyperinflation, lessons abound. The decent among us need to learn those lessons quickly and prepare accordingly. Criminals won't. After all, criminals aren't known for prudence or self-control.
Observing the actions of 2nd Amendment opponents has convinced me that they fundamentally oppose the right to self defense... for us peasants, anyway. Supposedly anti-gun politicians and celebrities routinely surround themselves with well armed, professional security teams, and even avail themselves of concealed weapons permits. They deny the rest of us the right to own the most effective self defense tools (guns) because they deny our right to defend ourselves.
Police initially charged Mamadou Diallo, 61 years old, with manslaughter after he repeatedly struck Earl Nash with a tire iron in the elevator bank of a Bronx apartment building Monday night...
...
Mr. Nash, who has a long criminal history, has been in and out of state prison since 2006 and was most recently released in July 2015...
...
Nash
The wife told police that when she answered the door, Mr. Nash forced his way in, took off his pants, tried to tear off her clothes and attempted to rape her, the official said.
The [female] cousin heard the commotion and tried to fight off Mr. Nash, the official said.
While the cousin and Mr. Nash struggled, the wife used a cellphone to call her husband, who was outside, the official said.
As Mr. Diallo arrived in one elevator, Mr. Nash tried to flee in another, the official said. The wife pointed to Mr. Nash as her assailant and the men clashed in the elevator bank in a one- to two-minute fight that was caught on surveillance video, officials said.
The father was never arrested, but the killing was investigated as a homicide.
Philip Hilder, a Houston criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, said he would have been surprised if the grand jury had decided to indict the father. Hilder said Texas law provides several justifications for the use of deadly force, including if someone commits a sexual assault.
"The grand jury was not about to indict this father for protecting his daughter," he said.
The anti-2nd-Amendment Brady Campaign gave New York State an A- for its strict gun laws. Why only an A-? Presumably because 100% confiscation alone would satisfy the Brady Campaign.
By contrast, gun-crazy Texas received an F. Unfortunately, an F is the lowest grade the Brady Campaign awards, because Texas has since then legalized open carry, and freedom-minded folk take pride in low Brady scores. It's kind of like golf. Just ask the people of Wyoming. It won't take long. There aren't that many.
Here's the score that actually matters.
In anti-gun New York, a man will be prosecuted for beating to death his wife's attempted rapist.
In gun-friendly Texas, a man wasn't even arrested for beating to death his 5-year-old daughter's attempted rapist.
Why? Because anti-gun actually means anti-self-defense. Hopefully, sanity will win the day, but it's Mr. Diallo's misfortune that he lives in an anti-gun, anti-self-defense, "liberal" state.
Why do we conservatives support the 2nd Amendment? Because we believe humans have the right to live. In fact, the right to live is the foundation of all other rights, because one can only exercise ones other rights if one is alive. If a human has the right to live, then it stands to reason that he/she also has the right to defend his/her right to live. If a human has the right to defend his/her right to live, then it stands to reason that he/she also has the right to "keep and bear (carry)" the most effective tools with which to defend his/her right to live - guns.
One can't oppose a human's right to "keep and bear (carry)" the most effective self defense tools available and logically, simultaneously claim to support that human's right to defend his/her right to live.
