By Nathan Barton

Good morning. Let me start with a commentary well worth reading and pondering.

It is a reminder and a call for action: The Constitution is not a self-enforcing document.  This is no news to most lovers of liberty: L. Neil Smith and Ken Royce (as well as your esteemed publisher Mama Liberty) have been pointing this out for years: our freedoms are in OUR hands: it is OUR action that defends our rights and liberties, OUR action that is necessary to destroy tyranny which is destroying us and these Fifty States.  An example, very limited, of the power of one person, is found in the next story.

In Florida, a private charity transforms a community. No federal or state welfare program can show such a tremendous success. Harold Rosen singlehandedly turned a horrible community around.

Ebola is now a concern in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota, where people have recently returned from West Africa and aid missions and are VOLUNTARILY quarantining themselves, although there are no state laws requiring that they do so, and although they are “low-risk.” Why?  Perhaps because they have as much concern for their families, friends, and community as they do for the people of Liberia and other countries.  What a contrast to the CDC agent, Hickox, and the poorly trained staff in a Dallas hospital. And to the politicians whose only care is votes, money, and power.

A video has gone viral; it shows the “highlights” of 10 hours of walking in the streets of Manhattan, and has generated “rape threats.”  It is made by a woman in a black crewneck tee shirt and black snug (well, tight) jeans, and some of the supposed 100 catcalls, “insults” and “harassment” received, primarily from black and hispanic males.  Only in NYC would many of these words of greeting be considered “harassment” – like “Have a nice day” and “Have a nice day,” and “How are you doing today.” The video’s intent is supposedly to encourage more civil, less sexist behavior.  Frankly, viewing it, much of what is evaluated as “harassment” was nothing more than what New Yorkers would say is friendly admiration for a pretty woman. And this IS New York, well known for its rude pedestrians and drivers, so should this be a surprise?  Some even tried to introduce themselves and exchange numbers: so asking for a date in NYC or just introducing yourself is (sexual) harassment! The woman did not respond in any way in the “highlights” but constantly had a slight frown on her face, something that she shares with tens of thousands of New Yorkers, the few times I have been on the streets of that city (or most other large urban areas).  Each of these people is individually and personally responsible for their words and behavior, and trying to say this is proof that society promotes and supports harassment and “intimidation” and “mean-spirited, predatory” behavior is stupid.  See also a video “Saying Hi To A Woman = Harassment” where he challenges the entire effort, pointing out that the clothing worn by the woman is DESIGNED and SOLD in order to attract males (which of course is evil behavior).  Who is responsible? She is the one who is responsible for what she buys and wears, the men are responsible for their own words and actions.  And most of what is shown in this video is NOT harassment: it is friendliness and males responding to a woman they find and was dressed to be attractive.

Mama’s Note: What an utterly stupid woman. There are just so many of them these days, but this is dumber than usual. I’m glad to hear that there are still some friendly people in NYC, and hope they can just ignore such garbage.

Does the TSA know something that they aren’t telling us?  Twice in one day, a man was harassed by TSA for a belt buckle shaped like a very small Buck Rogers-style ray gun, losing it the second time rather than missing his flight.  Is weapons technology actually much more advanced than we think?  The nozzle of this ray gun (ray guns have nozzles, not muzzles, right?)  isn’t big enough to take a bb, much less a pellet. But TSA agents get off on harassing travelers.  Yes, this man probably should have found another buckle after the first flight, but he was not at home.  And the “zero-tolerance” makes absolutely no sense.

An example of that is the five-year-old I had supper with yesterday (and his dad and my wife, for a business meeting).  He ordered chicken strips and fries: big chicken strips the restaurant takes pride in.  The shape of the two strips, when they were delivered, were a temptation he could not resist: one IMMEDIATELY became a pistol and the other a knife.  Now, I admit his family is a conservative one, veering towards libertarian, but it is just NATURAL for kids to do things like this.  And yes, he made phew-phew sounds (don’t know if his family uses silencers or not).  In many many schools in the nation, this cute, polite little boy would be expelled and in psychiatric care.

The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is a federal agency that is similar to the Air Traffic Safety Board, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Board, and other agencies which have two missions: ONE, to investigate accidents, and TWO, to prevent them, generally through guidelines AND through lobbying (“working with”) Congress to pass new laws, such as increases in the regulations under MSHA, OSHA, and such.  As government agencies go, they are not “too bad” (but nothing like a real private business).  But they still are (as so many bureaucrats are) too committed to overreach.  Their latest is an example of that: A 14-page brochure trying to teach science teachers how to safely conduct experiments using flammable material.  This is, of course, education and therefore NOT the responsibility or the business of the FedGov, no matter HOW many accidents have injured students.  It has nothing to do with interstate commerce. It has nothing to do with national defense.  And there SHOULD be NO need for this anyway, if the teachers colleges (sorry, they are NOT “universities” – they are at best trade schools – and produce an incredibly poor product) have not done their proper job of teaching science teachers (yes, and even coaches that have to teach a science course because basketweaving, English, and social studies are beyond their skill level and IQ), then master teachers should be doing this – or the local fire department or hazmat response team or analytic laboratory.  Or they could find out how on-line via YouTube or the dozens of companies that provide that kind of training.  But teachers (and therefore administrators, school board, and parents) continue to set up situations where students (children) get hurt.  Or killed.  How STUPID!  What a total lack of personal responsibility.  I can assure you, that if the next teacher who “accidentally” kills a student in a school laboratory were to be strung up by their neck from a lamppost outside the school, this would not happen very much.  (Well, certainly not for a decade, but I have to remember that teachers can often be very forgetful – as well as stupid.)