By Nathan Barton

Welcome to The Price of Liberty. Part of this web-magazine is my frequent column of commentary on the news stories of the week: I usually publish three to five separate commentaries, each about 1,000 words more or less, and providing extracts of five to fifteen news stories (and a few commentaries) and my thoughts on them from a free-market anarchist point of view, based solidly on my christian faith and my responsibilities as an Army officer and engineer.

I am a private businessman, and operate mostly in the Central Rockies and Western Great Plains, working for private (and a few public) clients in the fields of environmental, civil, and mineral engineering. I have been involved in electoral politics, the “first responder” community and emergency planning, and a variety of religious, military, and engineering activities over the years, on three continents in a dozen states and nearly a dozen countries. I am married with two sons, all of us free-market anarchists and rabblerousers.

I do hope that you are having a great day, wherever you are. I hope that the commentary on the news that I and my correspondents (including my family) dig up during the week will make you think, give you ideas about how to live free and gain/regain the liberty that is God’s gift to us, and incite you to action that leads in those directions.

Often, I use this commentary and the associated “Nathan’s Rants” to point out where I believe people have gone wrong, whether it is believing some of the garbage out there and passing it on, or much more lengthy dissections of commentaries that are about subjects related to liberty, that interest me.

So without further ado, here’s what I am looking at this week (12-18 January 2014) on a nice, if cool, Friday in the Black Hills.

For us who do texting, be careful! Those are NOT all that private. In particular be sure to keep your texts NSA friendly from now on because they are watching. People, PGP and other ways of protecting yourself are out there. Of course, most people who tweet and text and Facebook are stupid enough to put their full names, pictures (often of them doing stupid things), address, and birthdate on-line. Why not just put your credit card numbers and SSN on? (Of course, NSA already has all that stuff; they want to gather the dirty metadata: who are you talking to/meeting/conspiring/sleeping with, how much do you gamble, when do you say bad things about politicos, and so forth.)

The “messiah’s” (my moniker for the guy squatting at 1600 PA in DC) approval rating has dropped down in the 30’s again. No, really? There are still that many people in this country that agree with what he is doing? At least mostly? Of course, this poll, like most, has to be taken with a grain of salt.

“Gilligan’s Island” star Russell Johnson, aka The Professor, passed away early this morning. He flew 44 combat missions in WWII and was awarded the Purple Heart. Today’s professors don’t compare. I grew up with Gilligan’s Island on first-run, my sons with video recordings of it. Fun and even for the day, pretty clean.  Lots of us are going to miss him.

Who is responsible for the gridlock in DC these days? It sticks in my craw to have to thank them for anything, but according to a Democrat think tank which just did a study, it is Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats who are responsible for all the gridlock! For once, good for them! Gridlock, frustrating though it may be, is good for the nation.

Now, more and more Republicans have joined Democrats in pushing to “reform” immigration, apparently thinking that they must jump on the bandwagon if they want to win in the elections this year and in 2016. Which is odd, because some recent polls say most Americans don’t care. Per the poll, only 3% of Americans rank immigration reform as a “top” priority. Of course this ignores the fact that Congress is clueless and can do nothing that will really fix problems with immigration and welfare. Indeed, they will just mess it up even more. Of course, the “messiah” will just write his own decrees to “solve” the mess.

NBC has some bad news which I am amazed that they even report: biting the hand that feeds them: The ObummerCare web site is a mess.  In essence, everything that has been done for the last couple of months is eyewash. And yes, the prices are still insanely high. And the subsidies are even MORE insane.

I have not touched much on the nationwide, state-driven (but federally promoted and enable) “Common Core” school “reform” plan, adopted by South Dakota and other states years ago, but now suddenly discovered by conservatives and branded an evil. Well, it seems that they’ve identified LOTS of problems – and they probably can’t be fixed. To me, that is a no-brainer. These were developed by educrats, for educrats, and are trying to fix the unfixable: government-ruined, theft-fund (“public”) schools. The biggest problem I see is that poorly informed parents and poorly trained teachers and administrators, even in private schools, will try to apply these to private and even home schooling. Bad idea. Very bad idea.

Readers know my professional opinion of “man-made global warming” and all its permutations. It is political science and propaganda at its worst. So, cheers for some encouraging news. More than ever, people in the US now disbelieve in man-made climate change! Algor must be livid!

Imagine! A friend told me that a British defense advisor says that the “messiah” Obama is “Clueless.” True. And he STILL doesn’t like the Queen, either (the “messiah,” not the Brit). Excuse me, can someone explain how an elected monarch is really any better than a hereditary one?

The FBI isn’t going to pursue criminal charges over the IRS targeting religious and political groups. “Nothing that was criminal happened here.” So say the Praetorians about their beloved emperor, the “messiah” and his handpicked goons. Besides, they are too busy investigating all the political and religious groups that filed bogus reports with the IRS (in the opinion of the IRS).

“Out with Hollande and the entire political class” was painted on the side of the truck of the man who deposited tons of horse manure in front of the Bourbon Palace, home to France’s lower house of parliament. Hmm. I never knew that the French parliament was in a building named for Bourbon tyrants that ruled France before the Revolution (and after it, for a while, too). Does that explain the arrogance of French government and politicians? I think that this man’s traditional gesture is wonderful, and hope that there are LOTS of copycats around the world. Far more fun than throwing shoes at politicians!

I will do a few more commentaries in the old style, but want to hear from readers about this new version.  Let Mama Liberty and me know!