I literally spit my soda out and had the bubbles choke my nose out on the " shoot yourself in the meat department" line.
I literally spit my soda out and had the bubbles choke my nose out on the " shoot yourself in the meat department" line.
Beyond the vocab issue (which I also happen to find grating and forced, whether used in real life or not, and likely an unconscious attempt to mimic Cooper and gun other writers of his era who did the same) the sarcasm and amazing-creskin-like attempts at reading other people’s minds and knowing their motivations are off-putting. You don’t convince people you’re right that way (a lesson I myself took far too long to learn, and still struggle to remember).
Additionally, I don’t know that I would use statistics to discount the draw or the reload, since once you get down the path of statistical analysis in the self defense world you quickly realize that while it may not be the odds but the stakes, the odds are frankly so small that the stakes approach irrelevent.
All of that said, if you can get past the tone and the vocab, and you’ve decided that a real-world gunfight is imminent, she makes some good points.
Of course, once again, all of this would come after getting your retirement set up, having good health insurance, keeping to a healthy weight, eating right, getting some physical activity, building friendships and relationships, wearing your seatbelt, getting right with god (if you believe in that sort of thing)...
Good article Tam! And I like (and use) obscure words, daily.
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A good article, of any significant length, should stimulate the reader to consult a dictionary, at least once.And, no, I do not mean the Urban Dictionary dot com.
I did not find “panopticon” to be a familiar word, but immediately understood it to refer to numerous optical devices, probably cameras, because, well, recognition of pieces of familiar old Mediterranean language roots. The sentence made immediate sense, even though I do not speak Latin or Greek. (“Pan” and “optic” both actually derive from Greek, and are found in so very many of today’s English words.)
It is, also, good to see the occasional quote from, or reference to, Herodotus, Thucydides, Shakespeare, or, dare I say it, Ezra The Scribe.
Last edited by Rex G; 03-07-2019 at 09:29 AM.
Retar’d LE. Kinesthetic dufus.
Don’t tread on volcanos!
Sesquipedalianist
A person who uses long, unusual, sometimes obscure words in speech or writing.
== That is a fine trait in a writer as it expands the world of those who read. BTW, the existence of a larger vocabulary was a quick test of IQ in the Stanford-Binet IQ tests. Take the hint.
She is one of the best gun writers out there.
As one who remembers Tam's posts on various firearms-related internet forums going back to the mid-'90s, and later from her Blog, I'd observe that she's always been relatively more eloquent than average. Her throwing in a word like "panopticon" isn't uncharacteristic, and doesn't offend me a bit.
Now that she's also become a professional "gun writer", I'm pleased that she writes about things pertaining to guns without the usual (and hackneyed) turns of phrase so common to the genre and its current cadre.
The sophomoric level of writing typically found in most (not all) of the "gun rags"* makes them essentially "toilet picture books" for me most of the time, apart from some more erudite 2A-support political articles, and if Tam's writing is of better quality, I say more power to her.
* Full disclosure: I still subscribe to American Handgunner, get Guns & Ammo on a $5/3-year deal, and get one or another NRA publication, and I've subscribed to a few other titles over the years.
"Therefore, since the world has still... Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure, Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
I'd face it as a wise man would, And train for ill and not for good." -- A.E. Housman
That article is full of lovely stuff, fun to read, and quite frankly, if you couldn't figure our her meaning behind "panopticon" from the context, I doubt your ability to anticipate a problem before it happens on the street.
I’m was a philosophy major at university and consider myself a philosopher, so I got a crack at the panopticon early on in life. It’s a cool concept, and once you make a deep dive into the Orwellian stuff, it’s a constant touchback.
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Some people were too busy looking up big words to get the joke.Originally Posted by Tom_Jones
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
Beware of my temper, and the dog that I've found...
The denizens of this Panopticon or graduates from the Panopticon will kill you on the street. That's after you shoot yourself in the meat. Remember all guns are potential decockers.
I used to present big words when I taught as to increase the vocabulary of the young. Seemed to go with the job.
