By Nathan Barton
Good morning, as we enjoy the first full week of summer. Much of the Fifty State will enjoy warm days and a chance of rain (in the Black Hills, thunderstorms are likely the rest of the week). Nice, really.
For some folks, though, the summer is not so nice. Consider what KNBC News reports about 9 year old Spencer Collins of Leawood, Kansas, who had to take down his little free library, essentially a communal bookshelf, on Wednesday. The motto of the sharing center had been “take a book, leave a book,” but Collins learned there’s a lot less give and take in city government. Tyranny, especially local tyranny, knows no bounds. Why oh why do we put up with these petty tyrants, these control freaks?
We are not the only nation with such problems. This is also not a great summer for millions of folks in the UK, where Her Majesty’s ministers have pulled a trick from the 1600s and banned the teaching of creation and creation science in ANY school that gets a single pence of government money. Politicians (pushed by atheists, humanists, and “scientists” who worship science as a god) have dictated what science is and what can be taught, while claiming that they are taking this action to ensure that children are given a balanced view of the world. One can only assume that if withholding money is insufficient to enforce the ban, that the Star Chamber, the whipping post, gaol, and the burning stake will be used as they were in the 1500-1700 period when it was a crime to preach the Gospel and speak out against King and Church. Then, as now, the “elite” know better and will FORCE the populace to agree.
Mama’s Note: The obvious answer is not to take “government money” at all, and provide independent education for one’s children. Why would anyone expect anything different?
The Mayor of Milwaukee has created a hotline to let people call in and snitch on someone that they see or know about who has a gun that MIGHT be “illegally” owned, in order to help deal with more than 200 shootings in his fair city so far this year. In the first twenty-four hours of the hotline, “more than a dozen” calls were received, but there is no word about arrests or getting the evil gun-owners shot in the head (see the next story).
For once it isn’t that fat guy from North Dakota that is the liberal radio talking head who talks garbage, it is ANOTHER liberal radio talking head who talks garbage, out of the south somewhere, that wants to see people who openly carry weapons shot in the head (he didn’t actually say dead), and is willing (given that he might be in the right situation to do so) to lie to the 9-1-1 dispatcher about “shots fired” in order to stage the confrontation between civilians openly carrying and trigger-happy, panicked cops. Now, on to another “threat.”
Have you ever been threatened by a flag? I know I haven’t, but once someone threatened me with a flag staff, one of those fancy ones with the spear point at one end. Of course, the flag was still on it, so it really wasn’t much of a threat. But apparently in the Houston area, some company and twit managing an apartment building has decided that Muslims in their community are THREATENED by one of their residents hanging a flag up on his balcony. Not even with a staff or flagpole, mind you. No one has actually come forward to file a complaint, civil or criminal, against the flag for threatening them, mind you, and the resident is telling the management to stuff it, but I am sure that in the next day or so some poor Muslim walking peacefully along the dark alleys of Houston will be found strangled to death, with either a few strands of red, white, and blue thread or the imprint of embroidered stars on his dead flesh. But it is not just FLAGS that threaten people.
As if threatening flags weren’t of great concern, we have THIS. The Russian military has revealed their new military symbol, and people claim it is just a reworking of the old Soviet era Red Star. Well, to me this looks like something the USAF could and would come up with. Fortunately, we have the conservative bloggers to guide us and make us understand how EVIL this really is: just one more proof that the evil Vlad Putin is working overtime to rebuild the Soviet Union.
I don’t know whether we are seeing hypocrisy in action here, or schizoid paranoia, but the California People’s Assembly is busy passing laws that will “regulate” sex on college campuses to make sure that all sex is totally and openly consensual and that there is NEVER a single move that is not approved IN ADVANCE by the other participant (or, this being California, participants plural). How on EARTH can these stupid politicians expect their state university (and votech and community college) campuses to honor California’s heritage by being hotbeds of wild sex AND impose such limits on creativity and “alternative lifestyles.” Imagine, even those into BDSM will have to have not just “safewords” but… I don’t what to call them, “danger words” maybe, that they can chant to let their torturer know it is okay to proceed! Gee, could we come up with something like that to let these Assemblypeople know when the taxpayers and peons of California want to stop being shafted?
Mama’s Note: I was looking at this too, and the only way I could see even partial enforcement of this would be video and sound recordings, from several angles, in every room on campus… including the bathrooms. And I did say “partial” enforcement, of course. Where there is a will, there is a way. Crying “rape” afterwards could be a little more awkward, if they couldn’t produce the recording of the entire incident, but then college people are endlessly inventive and I’m sure that could be worked out if you know enough “geeks.” Naturally, that would just take the whole thing even deeper into stupid…
The headline is “Harvard Educated Michelle Obama says founders were not born in America.” This is another example of the conservative press behaving stupidly and willing to do anything to blacken a political foe. Look, we all know that the Fuehrer’s consort is a rather arrogant, boastful, poorly educated, medium-low IQ, vain woman and it is no surprise that she is (a) a lawyer, and (b) disbarred. But to take a statement of hers and twist it as has been done by Godfather Politics (I really expected better of them) and other sites is stupid and will rebound. They claim she said the American Founders were not born in America. Reading her remarks, she clearly is stating (perhaps wrongly, depending on interpretation of the facts) that the Founding Fathers were not Americans until they declared independence from Great Britain, and were therefore Americans by their own choice and not accident of birth. It is something that can be argued both ways: At what point were the inhabitants of the Thirteen colonies/states no longer Englishmen (or colonists of their respective homelands such as Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Ashanti (or other African state) and “Americans” is a fine line. This woman has said some stupid things, but this doesn’t fit in that usual category. Don’t we have enough against her to not twist things to fabricate yet another accusation?
The most corrupt states of the Fifty? Several weeks ago, there was a really pitiful list based on how many laws and how many commissions and boards investigated and enforced these laws. Now we have this from another source (Fortune Magazine), which makes more sense. These folks studied more than 25,000 convictions of public officials for violation of federal corruption laws between 1976 and 2008 as well as patterns in state spending to develop a corruption index that estimates the most and least corrupt states in the union.
Worst Ten: 1. Mississippi, 2. Louisiana, 3. Tennessee, 4. Illinois, 5. Pennsylvania, 6. Alabama, 7. Alaska, 8. South Dakota, 9. Kentucky, 10. Florida
Best ten: Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Vermont, Utah, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Kansas
I still have trouble with this listing, although it is based on more realistic factors than that old one. But I know several of these states very well, and think they are still missing the point: Colorado, for example, cannot possibly be part of the best ten in company with states like Nebraska or Kansas. The key is not just conviction of federal laws, but also those acts of corruption which are NOT resulting in convictions, and which don’t involve federal laws, but state and local laws, or just plain common decency. However, it is critical to recall that ALL government is corrupt: it is only a matter of degree. The very idea of coercive, mandatory, non-voluntary government IS corrupt: that one man should have control over the life of another.
Well, I bet that this surprises a lot of conservative types, to find that a Muslim here in the States has followed the example of a Muslim in the UK and called for the Fuehrer and his entire family to have their heads chopped off – literally not figuratively, and thus somewhat in agreement with many conservatives. (Seriously, virtually ALL conservatives would be more than satisfied with a figurative beheading: impeachment, conviction, and a large fine, long-term imprisonment, and perhaps sterilization to prevent further reproduction. Okay, not so seriously about ALL of that.) But really, compare this to the threat caused to Muslims by hanging a US flag from your balcony!
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The Price of Liberty 
Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-25B: Threats and fears
By Nathan Barton
Good morning, as we enjoy the first full week of summer. Much of the Fifty State will enjoy warm days and a chance of rain (in the Black Hills, thunderstorms are likely the rest of the week). Nice, really.
For some folks, though, the summer is not so nice. Consider what KNBC News reports about 9 year old Spencer Collins of Leawood, Kansas, who had to take down his little free library, essentially a communal bookshelf, on Wednesday. The motto of the sharing center had been “take a book, leave a book,” but Collins learned there’s a lot less give and take in city government. Tyranny, especially local tyranny, knows no bounds. Why oh why do we put up with these petty tyrants, these control freaks?
We are not the only nation with such problems. This is also not a great summer for millions of folks in the UK, where Her Majesty’s ministers have pulled a trick from the 1600s and banned the teaching of creation and creation science in ANY school that gets a single pence of government money. Politicians (pushed by atheists, humanists, and “scientists” who worship science as a god) have dictated what science is and what can be taught, while claiming that they are taking this action to ensure that children are given a balanced view of the world. One can only assume that if withholding money is insufficient to enforce the ban, that the Star Chamber, the whipping post, gaol, and the burning stake will be used as they were in the 1500-1700 period when it was a crime to preach the Gospel and speak out against King and Church. Then, as now, the “elite” know better and will FORCE the populace to agree.
Mama’s Note: The obvious answer is not to take “government money” at all, and provide independent education for one’s children. Why would anyone expect anything different?
The Mayor of Milwaukee has created a hotline to let people call in and snitch on someone that they see or know about who has a gun that MIGHT be “illegally” owned, in order to help deal with more than 200 shootings in his fair city so far this year. In the first twenty-four hours of the hotline, “more than a dozen” calls were received, but there is no word about arrests or getting the evil gun-owners shot in the head (see the next story).
For once it isn’t that fat guy from North Dakota that is the liberal radio talking head who talks garbage, it is ANOTHER liberal radio talking head who talks garbage, out of the south somewhere, that wants to see people who openly carry weapons shot in the head (he didn’t actually say dead), and is willing (given that he might be in the right situation to do so) to lie to the 9-1-1 dispatcher about “shots fired” in order to stage the confrontation between civilians openly carrying and trigger-happy, panicked cops. Now, on to another “threat.”
Have you ever been threatened by a flag? I know I haven’t, but once someone threatened me with a flag staff, one of those fancy ones with the spear point at one end. Of course, the flag was still on it, so it really wasn’t much of a threat. But apparently in the Houston area, some company and twit managing an apartment building has decided that Muslims in their community are THREATENED by one of their residents hanging a flag up on his balcony. Not even with a staff or flagpole, mind you. No one has actually come forward to file a complaint, civil or criminal, against the flag for threatening them, mind you, and the resident is telling the management to stuff it, but I am sure that in the next day or so some poor Muslim walking peacefully along the dark alleys of Houston will be found strangled to death, with either a few strands of red, white, and blue thread or the imprint of embroidered stars on his dead flesh. But it is not just FLAGS that threaten people.
As if threatening flags weren’t of great concern, we have THIS. The Russian military has revealed their new military symbol, and people claim it is just a reworking of the old Soviet era Red Star. Well, to me this looks like something the USAF could and would come up with. Fortunately, we have the conservative bloggers to guide us and make us understand how EVIL this really is: just one more proof that the evil Vlad Putin is working overtime to rebuild the Soviet Union.
I don’t know whether we are seeing hypocrisy in action here, or schizoid paranoia, but the California People’s Assembly is busy passing laws that will “regulate” sex on college campuses to make sure that all sex is totally and openly consensual and that there is NEVER a single move that is not approved IN ADVANCE by the other participant (or, this being California, participants plural). How on EARTH can these stupid politicians expect their state university (and votech and community college) campuses to honor California’s heritage by being hotbeds of wild sex AND impose such limits on creativity and “alternative lifestyles.” Imagine, even those into BDSM will have to have not just “safewords” but… I don’t what to call them, “danger words” maybe, that they can chant to let their torturer know it is okay to proceed! Gee, could we come up with something like that to let these Assemblypeople know when the taxpayers and peons of California want to stop being shafted?
Mama’s Note: I was looking at this too, and the only way I could see even partial enforcement of this would be video and sound recordings, from several angles, in every room on campus… including the bathrooms. And I did say “partial” enforcement, of course. Where there is a will, there is a way. Crying “rape” afterwards could be a little more awkward, if they couldn’t produce the recording of the entire incident, but then college people are endlessly inventive and I’m sure that could be worked out if you know enough “geeks.” Naturally, that would just take the whole thing even deeper into stupid…
The headline is “Harvard Educated Michelle Obama says founders were not born in America.” This is another example of the conservative press behaving stupidly and willing to do anything to blacken a political foe. Look, we all know that the Fuehrer’s consort is a rather arrogant, boastful, poorly educated, medium-low IQ, vain woman and it is no surprise that she is (a) a lawyer, and (b) disbarred. But to take a statement of hers and twist it as has been done by Godfather Politics (I really expected better of them) and other sites is stupid and will rebound. They claim she said the American Founders were not born in America. Reading her remarks, she clearly is stating (perhaps wrongly, depending on interpretation of the facts) that the Founding Fathers were not Americans until they declared independence from Great Britain, and were therefore Americans by their own choice and not accident of birth. It is something that can be argued both ways: At what point were the inhabitants of the Thirteen colonies/states no longer Englishmen (or colonists of their respective homelands such as Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Ashanti (or other African state) and “Americans” is a fine line. This woman has said some stupid things, but this doesn’t fit in that usual category. Don’t we have enough against her to not twist things to fabricate yet another accusation?
The most corrupt states of the Fifty? Several weeks ago, there was a really pitiful list based on how many laws and how many commissions and boards investigated and enforced these laws. Now we have this from another source (Fortune Magazine), which makes more sense. These folks studied more than 25,000 convictions of public officials for violation of federal corruption laws between 1976 and 2008 as well as patterns in state spending to develop a corruption index that estimates the most and least corrupt states in the union.
Worst Ten: 1. Mississippi, 2. Louisiana, 3. Tennessee, 4. Illinois, 5. Pennsylvania, 6. Alabama, 7. Alaska, 8. South Dakota, 9. Kentucky, 10. Florida
Best ten: Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Vermont, Utah, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Kansas
I still have trouble with this listing, although it is based on more realistic factors than that old one. But I know several of these states very well, and think they are still missing the point: Colorado, for example, cannot possibly be part of the best ten in company with states like Nebraska or Kansas. The key is not just conviction of federal laws, but also those acts of corruption which are NOT resulting in convictions, and which don’t involve federal laws, but state and local laws, or just plain common decency. However, it is critical to recall that ALL government is corrupt: it is only a matter of degree. The very idea of coercive, mandatory, non-voluntary government IS corrupt: that one man should have control over the life of another.
Well, I bet that this surprises a lot of conservative types, to find that a Muslim here in the States has followed the example of a Muslim in the UK and called for the Fuehrer and his entire family to have their heads chopped off – literally not figuratively, and thus somewhat in agreement with many conservatives. (Seriously, virtually ALL conservatives would be more than satisfied with a figurative beheading: impeachment, conviction, and a large fine, long-term imprisonment, and perhaps sterilization to prevent further reproduction. Okay, not so seriously about ALL of that.) But really, compare this to the threat caused to Muslims by hanging a US flag from your balcony!
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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.