The Gun Guy reads a couple of articles, one by Peggy Noonan and one by Vaclav Smil, dissects them a little bit, and comes to some conclusions:

What our “elites” seem to have forgotten is that when they have argued themselves into impasse, and the social order and infrastructure have collapsed, it will be left to We The People to fix it, with our beloved Constitution to guide us. Let’s just hope that after all these years of having government do our work for us, that we remember how to.

Sober stuff. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one thinking about these things. Give ‘em all a read, and let me know if I’m not just in a Good Old Days mood.

For those of you who’ve just finished up Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men (which I highly recommend), and are interested in something vaguely similar, here’s a really good choice, and it’s non-fiction. One Ranger, by Joaquin Jackson — he of the world-famous Texas Monthly cover.

I grabbed this one while waiting in line at the Border’s the other day, as an afterthought. After I finished another low-grade techno-thriller airport-trash novel last night early, I pulled it out of my bag and opened it up for a preview. Suffice to say that it was very late when I finally put it down for the evening. So far, it’s really enjoyable. Mr. Jackson wrote it with the help of some dude name of David Wilkinson, but it’s all written in the first-person. It’s got that unique flair for language that I would expect to hear from a lawman born in the Great Depression who patrolled the Texas-Mexico border. So far, it’s a series of vignettes about his growing-up years and the family he was born into, and how he got into law enforcement. After 63 pages, he’s now a new Texas Ranger, and getting his first dose of life on the border. I’m obviously looking forward to the rest of the book. And about those 63 pages: I generally read a page per minute. Not this one, though…it’s dense. But it clips along and you don’t even notice that you’re not turning pages as fast as you usually do. Some good pictures are included that help bring home what kind of places West and South Texas are, and the type of people it takes to live here. Not being the type to look ahead, I’m eagerly anticipating more of the same.

Anyhoo, like I say, it’s a premature review, but I think anyone from Texas would probably enjoy this one. I’d recommend it to any law enforcement history buff, too. If I remember, I’ll write a wrap-up when I finish it, but don’t count on it.