By Nathan Barton
Good morning! If you haven’t already, visit and read my rant “In my inbox...” written on a cold, snowy Saturday afternoon here in the Paha Sapa.
Even as I am going through news stories right now, looking out the window/door of my office at the huge flakes of snow drifting from a Black Hills sky, I am thinking about all the comforts we take for granted: warmth (heat!) and power and light and easily prepared food (even if we grew and harvested and canned it ourselves). Do you realized that canned food has only been around for about 200 years!?
One of the articles I commented on last week was dealing with the collapse of Western Civilization, and how it was inevitable due to squandering of natural resources and an inequality of income that separated the Elite from the Commoners more and more. The study (done by NASA) was done using money stolen from American taxpayers, now and in the future. And it was biased towards government solutions: a solution many other commentators branded “communist.” That may well be, but the basic premise of the study is wrong: no, not that civilization will not fall, but that it is a scarcity of resources and a massive disparity in income that will make it fall.
No civilization, no great power, in earth’s history has survived forever. Neither shall this one. But liberty and technology can and does survive, and I for one am not going to give up because some government study says that unless we surrender all our liberties and give up our technology that we shall fall.
Well, on to the news read and commented on this weekend!
A 2nd/3rd Grader in a California public school has claimed that he was sexually assaulted by a male classmate over a period of at least two semesters, and teachers have been suspended for allowing this to happen. It is no longer just teachers and high school athletes who are predators in our “modern” pre-penal system of government-ruined, theft-funded schools: our so-called “Education System.” It is no longer just time (PAST time) for parents to rescue their children from these dens of abuse and corruption: it is time for teachers (any that are left) who are sick of this sort of thing to leave: to boycott and strike, and take other actions to dismantle these evil systems and places. It is clear that reform is no longer possible.
As this situation illustrates: the father of a student in California has gotten a restraining order against a nine-year-old bully who has physically attacked his son multiple times in school. I don’t know what the father thinks a piece of paper will do, if the school is so incredibly stupid and has done nothing effective, yet. Perhaps the son is getting bullied because he wears the wrong clothing or has the wrong book bag or is not fully politically-correct, so the teachers and other staff overlook the attacks? Or are they also afraid of the bully?
Despite more and more claims from government, “economists,” media and even so-called professional business organizations that the economy is doing better, data from the first two months of 2014 shows that at least the HOUSING sector is sliding into further trouble, and that much of the “improved” economy is either bubble territory or very small segments in very limited parts of the country. If home sales are again crashing, despite the write-off of billions of dollars of paper wealth, the new head of the Fed (who appears to be channeling the last head) is likely to do the same stupid things as for the past five years, and really hammer on the economy. As we see inflation again picking up, job numbers flatlining, and more stupid proposals from both the White House and the Capitol, we are more inclined to hunker down than ever before. And speaking of hunkering down:
Mama’s Note: A trip to the supermarket, the drug store, the hardware store, or any other store in town with a typical shopping list tells the tale rather well. If you can find one, get a cash register tape from a year ago and match the items. Watch the SIZE of the product too, of course. The toilet paper is inches narrower, baby wipes are smaller, most “quart” size containers now hold only 30 ounces, and on and on… right along with higher prices overall. Did your paycheck get larger this year? I didn’t think so… but I’ll bet your tax and insurance bills did.
As we mourn the third anniversary of the signing of the Abominable Act (ObummerCare), we see that many patients are seeing a drastic – even heart-stopping increase in copay costs for drugs. Like the horror stories about massive increases in premiums, deductibles, and out of pocket costs for doctor’s visits and procedures, this is ignored or pooh-poohed by the DP and the minions of the Fuehrer, but seems to be pretty well documented. Again, it appears obvious that this was known to be likely, but hidden by those who want a single-payer, fully-socialized system. Smells more like HillaryCare all the time, but it also appears that this will not be repealed anytime soon.
Mama’s Note: The thing that even the best MSM reports seem to ignore or gloss over is the fact that the “payer” simply won’t matter when there are no medical professionals available. That is increasingly the disaster waiting in the wings. It won’t matter a bit who pays or how much they pay if nobody is willing to take the job. It’s long past time to take charge of our own health and wellness, and make the changes necessary to take care of ourselves. Doctors can be extremely valuable in many ways, but they never could be a substitute for personal responsibility. Atlas is shrugging… even as we speak.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that “in a year of intense public interest over the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, the government cited national security to withhold information a record 8,496 times – a 57 percent increase over a year earlier and more than double Obama’s first year, when it cited that reason 3,658 times.” Apparently, the Fuehrer has gutted the Freedom of Information Act without a single Act of Congress or even a Fuehrer-Befehl (Executive Order). Which means that we know less and less of what is really going on. But it is not just the lack of information (“transparency:” the false impression that citizens and media knows what is going on behind closed doors, in order to lull them into inactivity. (From the Tyrant’s Dictionary) that is alarming.
Mama’s Note: The key to all this is to accept the basic fact that no person or group of persons… no matter who they are or claim to be — has any legitimate authority to control the lives and property of other people. Without the assumption of authority, nothing they did or said would matter in the least.
The Associated Press also reported last week, “The presidents of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Associated Press Media Editors have urged their members to stop using White House handout photos and video, saying they amount to propaganda.” Not that what the AP and its related media outlets prints/publishes/speaks is NOT propaganda, but you get the point. We have declined so quickly that is hard to keep up: a much more rapid decline than anything Germany went through between 1918 and 1933. More is yet to come, as we all know.
But more important: this too shall pass. Governments can and do fall, and people and freedom live on.
Like this:
Like Loading...
About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.
The Price of Liberty 
Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-12A: Theft is a many-splendored thing.
By Nathan Barton
Good morning! If you haven’t already, visit and read my rant “In my inbox...” written on a cold, snowy Saturday afternoon here in the Paha Sapa.
Even as I am going through news stories right now, looking out the window/door of my office at the huge flakes of snow drifting from a Black Hills sky, I am thinking about all the comforts we take for granted: warmth (heat!) and power and light and easily prepared food (even if we grew and harvested and canned it ourselves). Do you realized that canned food has only been around for about 200 years!?
One of the articles I commented on last week was dealing with the collapse of Western Civilization, and how it was inevitable due to squandering of natural resources and an inequality of income that separated the Elite from the Commoners more and more. The study (done by NASA) was done using money stolen from American taxpayers, now and in the future. And it was biased towards government solutions: a solution many other commentators branded “communist.” That may well be, but the basic premise of the study is wrong: no, not that civilization will not fall, but that it is a scarcity of resources and a massive disparity in income that will make it fall.
No civilization, no great power, in earth’s history has survived forever. Neither shall this one. But liberty and technology can and does survive, and I for one am not going to give up because some government study says that unless we surrender all our liberties and give up our technology that we shall fall.
Well, on to the news read and commented on this weekend!
A 2nd/3rd Grader in a California public school has claimed that he was sexually assaulted by a male classmate over a period of at least two semesters, and teachers have been suspended for allowing this to happen. It is no longer just teachers and high school athletes who are predators in our “modern” pre-penal system of government-ruined, theft-funded schools: our so-called “Education System.” It is no longer just time (PAST time) for parents to rescue their children from these dens of abuse and corruption: it is time for teachers (any that are left) who are sick of this sort of thing to leave: to boycott and strike, and take other actions to dismantle these evil systems and places. It is clear that reform is no longer possible.
As this situation illustrates: the father of a student in California has gotten a restraining order against a nine-year-old bully who has physically attacked his son multiple times in school. I don’t know what the father thinks a piece of paper will do, if the school is so incredibly stupid and has done nothing effective, yet. Perhaps the son is getting bullied because he wears the wrong clothing or has the wrong book bag or is not fully politically-correct, so the teachers and other staff overlook the attacks? Or are they also afraid of the bully?
Despite more and more claims from government, “economists,” media and even so-called professional business organizations that the economy is doing better, data from the first two months of 2014 shows that at least the HOUSING sector is sliding into further trouble, and that much of the “improved” economy is either bubble territory or very small segments in very limited parts of the country. If home sales are again crashing, despite the write-off of billions of dollars of paper wealth, the new head of the Fed (who appears to be channeling the last head) is likely to do the same stupid things as for the past five years, and really hammer on the economy. As we see inflation again picking up, job numbers flatlining, and more stupid proposals from both the White House and the Capitol, we are more inclined to hunker down than ever before. And speaking of hunkering down:
Mama’s Note: A trip to the supermarket, the drug store, the hardware store, or any other store in town with a typical shopping list tells the tale rather well. If you can find one, get a cash register tape from a year ago and match the items. Watch the SIZE of the product too, of course. The toilet paper is inches narrower, baby wipes are smaller, most “quart” size containers now hold only 30 ounces, and on and on… right along with higher prices overall. Did your paycheck get larger this year? I didn’t think so… but I’ll bet your tax and insurance bills did.
As we mourn the third anniversary of the signing of the Abominable Act (ObummerCare), we see that many patients are seeing a drastic – even heart-stopping increase in copay costs for drugs. Like the horror stories about massive increases in premiums, deductibles, and out of pocket costs for doctor’s visits and procedures, this is ignored or pooh-poohed by the DP and the minions of the Fuehrer, but seems to be pretty well documented. Again, it appears obvious that this was known to be likely, but hidden by those who want a single-payer, fully-socialized system. Smells more like HillaryCare all the time, but it also appears that this will not be repealed anytime soon.
Mama’s Note: The thing that even the best MSM reports seem to ignore or gloss over is the fact that the “payer” simply won’t matter when there are no medical professionals available. That is increasingly the disaster waiting in the wings. It won’t matter a bit who pays or how much they pay if nobody is willing to take the job. It’s long past time to take charge of our own health and wellness, and make the changes necessary to take care of ourselves. Doctors can be extremely valuable in many ways, but they never could be a substitute for personal responsibility. Atlas is shrugging… even as we speak.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that “in a year of intense public interest over the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, the government cited national security to withhold information a record 8,496 times – a 57 percent increase over a year earlier and more than double Obama’s first year, when it cited that reason 3,658 times.” Apparently, the Fuehrer has gutted the Freedom of Information Act without a single Act of Congress or even a Fuehrer-Befehl (Executive Order). Which means that we know less and less of what is really going on. But it is not just the lack of information (“transparency:” the false impression that citizens and media knows what is going on behind closed doors, in order to lull them into inactivity. (From the Tyrant’s Dictionary) that is alarming.
Mama’s Note: The key to all this is to accept the basic fact that no person or group of persons… no matter who they are or claim to be — has any legitimate authority to control the lives and property of other people. Without the assumption of authority, nothing they did or said would matter in the least.
The Associated Press also reported last week, “The presidents of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Associated Press Media Editors have urged their members to stop using White House handout photos and video, saying they amount to propaganda.” Not that what the AP and its related media outlets prints/publishes/speaks is NOT propaganda, but you get the point. We have declined so quickly that is hard to keep up: a much more rapid decline than anything Germany went through between 1918 and 1933. More is yet to come, as we all know.
But more important: this too shall pass. Governments can and do fall, and people and freedom live on.
Share this:
Like this:
About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.