Free Chase: Fill & Download for Free

Illyrio claims that they aren’t a genuine threat, and that the walls of the Free Cities couldn’t be breached by a million Dothraki, but “why take chances, when their friendship comes so cheap?”And this is, actually, the basis behind a lot of organized crime, even in our own time. Violence is expensive, and buying someone off is often cheaper than fighting back. If the tributes you’re paying a Dothraki khalasar is less than you’d spend for Unsullied and mercenaries to fight against them (which would get expensive, considering how many people were killed), then it makes sense to just pay them.For some people, this would sting their pride or sense of honor, but the Free Cities seem to have come to terms with the practicality of it. And, like organized crime, it brings in it’s own form of order. The arrangements the cities have with the Dothraki seem to function as a form of protection money. If one khalasar is receiving tribute from you, the others won’t harrass you, because they would face a fight with other Dothraki, meaning that the Free Cities are left in peace.Incidentally, destroying the horse lords is virtually impossible. Repelling a force coming at your walls is relatively trivial in military technology. And (unlike certain horse lords in real life), the Dothraki seem to lack both the skills and patience for sieges. So any direct assault on the Free Cities is likely to fail. But the Dothraki are renowned for their horsemanship, they know the wilds of the Great Grass Sea better than anyone, and every single one of them is mounted. Seeking out and chasing down such a force would be almost impossible, and attacking them in an open field would be suicidal (particularly for a force like the Unsullied, who appear to lack any kind of riding skills). They have no strongholds to attack, so they could simply melt away into the plains if too large a force approached. Then they could catch that force unawares, cut them to pieces, and kill every one of them. You could attack Vaes Dothrak, I suppose, make burn some buildings and capture the dosh khaleen, but that’s all of cultural and symbolic importance, not strategic: all it would accomplish would be to enrage the Dothraki and unite all the khals against you.The point is that the Free Cities and the Dothraki live so differently that direct war between the two would be more or less a farce, and neither side seems dumb enough to initiate such a conflict. The Dothraki can basically hurt the Free Cities by raiding surrounding communities, farms, and trading caravans. None of this would be an existential threat, but all of it would make life a bit harder and cost them money. So they’ve simply decided to accept a relationship where they keep the Dothraki on the payroll, and don’t have to worry about such nonsense.

I work in Houston, a city of 5.5 million people in which 70–80 percent of the population drive to work every morning, most with a 30–60 minute commute.I think it’s nuts. I bought a house next to the Park & Ride, and I ride the bus, doing a little writing each morning and evening. From time to time, when gas prices spike, my coworkers start complaining about the cost of fueling their giant SUVs and stretch pickups. Yet…they won’t take the bus.Why? Well, I’ve asked them. Usually, they say “I want to be able to go when and where I want.”Only…they can’t. Going anywhere in Houston is an exercise in logistical planning. During most of the day, in most parts of town, with a few closely guarded exceptions, going anywhere out of that local area incurs such a large time penalty, that it’s kinda stupid to try. Buying groceries, getting a haircut, or a night out on the town require advance planning and scheduling. As does getting gas.Screw up, and that 5 minute drive to Kroger becomes a 20 minute haul.But “I can go when I want to.” No you can’t. And let’s face it, for the number of times most people will ever haul a piano or help a friend move, it’s a LOT cheaper to rent the odd truck than to drive one to work and pay for gas, parking, and depreciation.But whatever. Americans are so conditioned to instant gratification, most of us would rather have a “freedom” we cannot exercise than contribute to a shared resource that would serve everyone better.And, the American sense of individualism and faith in commerce are being abused by those in power to manipulate the faithful in trying to apply very effective solutions to problems they cannot solve in order to maintain profits for rich people who are covered either way.The free market cannot control the costs of critical care—unless, as with veterinary care, we feel free to simply put “Granny to sleep” when the bills get too high.The free market cannot maintain a maximally healthy and efficient workforce because accidents can happen to anyone, and no one is immune from diseases. Without universal health insurance, accidents and diseases can reduce tens of millions of people to poverty.The free market will not prepare for national emergencies—it’s focused on squeezing out all the redundancies and inventory stocks you will need to recover when disaster happens—by which time the shareholders will all too often have already absconded with the profits.For the same reason that schools, libraries, and nuclear civil defence have always been the purview of the government, so should health care, as it is in every other developed country. That doesn’t mean eliminating the benefits of free market innovation, just casting the beam of that market where it is capable of shedding light, and lighting the shadows with vermin chasing government oversight.A great many Americans today believe there can be no balance between government and industry, free market and central planning. They are wrong—all of them—and are re-fighting the war we already won (the Cold War) with a pretty good chance of losing this time, not to a foreign adversary, but to our own myopia.

Here is an interesting thing I've learned since having free range chickens.If you have free range chickens, you love crows and want a murder of them as neighbors.Crows don't bother chickens, although they occasionally swipe bites of their food. I’ve even seen one of our hens chase off a couple of crows chowing out of their food bowl.However, crows hate hawks. They are rivals and hawks will eat baby crows if they get the chance.But crows are smart.So as soon as a hawk shows up, the crows gang up on it and chase it away.And hawks also love hunting free range chickens. You can hardly blame them. Chicken is delicious. But I don't want hawks eating my beloved hens.I witnessed this one day. The hens were out foraging and I happened to look up and see this huge red-tailed hawk circling directly above them. Uh-oh. Suddenly out of nowhere, three big crows appear and start hammering on this hawk. Hitting her, dive bombing, cawing very loudly. Within minutes the hawk high-tailed it out of there. And the crows vanished.I have never lost a chicken to a hawk. Many of my friends have.Could a crow defeat a hawk one on one? Probably not. Hawks are formidable. But there is no such thing as a fair fight with non-human animals. A crow’s gotta do what a crow's gotta do to survive.