A principled stand – freedom of self-defense

By Nathan Barton

Since Mama Liberty (Susan Callaway – Lady Susan) began publishing, this publication has had a few very solid principles.  As her successor (not replacement: I cannot replace her), I hold to these same principles.

One of these is the God-given right of freedom of self-defense.  We here in the Fifty States know it better as the right to keep and bear arms. It is simple.  Because you are a human being, you have certain liberties.  Whether others recognize them or not. One of those is the right to defend yourself and your family (and community) against aggression.  (Some of us believe it is not just a “right” but an obligation – a moral obligation.)

This right was not granted by the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution.  It pre-existed that document and will continue on long after that document is null and void, overtaken by history.

Let me see if I can give a simple explanation.

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Those who forget their history …

… are doomed to repeat it.

The original version of this statement is attributed to George Santayana, an American philosopher. The exact quote is “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” from his work, The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense.

Ouray, (1833-1880)

Sadly, it seems as those who are most able to apply this principle are the enemies of liberty, here in the Fifty States. (And around the world.)

We see this today or a regular basis. The so-called “uprising” on 6 January 2021, led by the evil monster in the White House, is a more important (nd feared) milestone in American history than… (take your pick) Bloody Tuesday (9-11), Pearl Harbor, or whatever. The enemies of freedom, of liberty, of decency can get away with this because the vast mass of the people have forgotten even recent history. Much less a century or two or three ago.

Perhaps it is more accurate to say that they have never been taught real history. (It is easy to “forget” what you never learned.) For years and years, less and less accurate history has been taught in primary and secondary educational institutions – and even less in the so-called institutions of higher learning. And what has been taught is denigrated as “history of dead while men” and condemned as elitist, exist, racist, colonialist, and more. More and more people believe the propaganda taught as “history.”

So we find ourselves, as communities and States and nations, taking that path of which Santayana warned: condemned or doomed to repeat our history – especially the mistakes.

This morning there was an example of how this works, from Montrose, Colorado.

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Californian lies – so blatant even a judge recognizes them.

It just takes time, patience, and a lot of money.

The recent decision by Judge Roger T. Benitez that overturns the State of California’s ban on AR-style rifles is a breath of fresh air in a fetid land. The ban, he wrote (94 pages!) IS unconstitutional. Read the judge’s decision (Miller et al. v. California) if you have the time.  (I’ve not, yet – no time, but I understand he wrote in language that even a journalist or a politician (well, some of them) can understand.)  (Although I won’t wager anything on that.)

32 years!  That is how long this once-lovely and free State has imprisoned people for exercising a basic right supposedly protected by the US Constitution. (Lie #1)

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If all you have is a hammer, everything must be a nail

I’m sure you’ve heard – even said – some version of this commentary’s headline.

Today, the Social Justice “Warriors” (SJW) – best known as enemies of liberty – try to prove the truth of that saying every day.

Consider this recent article in The Guardian, that stalwart of British (Imperial and Socialist) Journalism. “Food injustice has deep roots: let’s start with America’s apple pie,” proclaims activist Raj Patel’s headline. (Hmm, hard to think of a more imperialist name, eh? Admittedly, probably his parents chose it for him.)

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The “Daily Fear”

In his novel 1984, Orwell’s Ingsoc had the Daily Hate. This was a period where emotionalism was whipped up by the people’s puppeteers, against whomever was the enemy at home and abroad. Which of course encouraged abject obedience, mind-numbing repetition, loyalty to their masters, and more.

Today, in the Biden regime, Uncle Joe himself seems to be encouraging not just emotionalism about every issue, but a complete lack of facts, consistency, and logic.

I call it the Daily Fear, but we could call it the Daily Threat, or the Daily Specter, or just plain stupid.

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Salt losing its savor and more problems

Way back in the day (1998) the Foundation for Economic Education, a premiere organization and website supporting liberty, had an article about that very thing: salt losing its savor. It discussed the way unions are treated by government agencies (like the National Labor Relations Board and the Courts) as “more equal than all the other equal animals.” For one company to “salt” another company’s staff with its own agents is industrial espionage and illegal and strongly condemned, but a union using the same idea to sabotage a non-union firm is not just acceptable, but supported, by government.

Salt of the Earth | Disciples | Torah Portions

But unionizing is not the ONLY example of this sort of “do as I say, not as I do” stupidity. Lets look at a few examples.

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Drinking the Koolaid

According to recent reports, finally after 15 months a “majority” of Americans think that we can go back to life as normal after the Pandemic Panic. Specifically, that we do NOT need to stay home as much as possible and minimize contact with others.

But apparently there is a big exception. Supposedly, 71% of people who self-identify as Democrats – 71%! – believe that we must continue to stay at home as much as possible, for fear of getting or giving COVID-19 to others.

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Beer flu, pandemic panic, and the police power

We are now fifteen months into the Pandemic Panic, and the greatest expansion of the police power of state and local governments in American history. Why? Not because of any disease, but because of this:

In

This is what the governors, the State legislatures, the mayors, the city and town councils, the county commissions, and especially the staffs – the officials – of all these governments and their health and police and every other agency believe.

Even though it is wrong. Very wrong. And immoral.

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When do protests become aggression? When do protests become riots? Is this good or bad?

Summer is here. We are already full swing into construction season. And Minneapolis just demonstrated that protest season is here too, and in many cities, just around the corner. Looks like a hot one again this year, in both ways.

One of the ways in which society can collapse, at least temporarily and locally, is when protests and/or riots shut down normal activities. Whether it impacts only a small part of an urban area or an extensive zone, these things can be highly disruptive. Let’s look at them in a bit of detail.

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Will we ever have a world in which race does not matter?

More and more people seek to tear apart the Fifty States – virtually every major city and many smaller ones – in order to “fight” racism. As they do so, let us for a moment believe their screams of anger: they want to end racism. That is, they want a city, a state, an empire, a universe, in which race does not matter. That everyone is treated equally regardless of your… your what? According to the Oxford Dictionary, “membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginal.” Racial? “Relating to the major groupings into which humankind is sometimes divided on the basis of physical characteristics or shared ancestry.” Today, that can be your skin color, your hair color, the shape of your eyes, the shape of your nose and lips, even what sex organs you have. It can also be your native or ancestral language, your religion, and many other things.

Hmmm. Can we destroy racism? Can we have all aspects of racism disappear from these Fifty States? Or the world? Can we have a world in which all these differences do not matter to anyone? Or at least one in which no actions are made based on racism?

Can that be done?

I don’t think so.

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