For many years, you probably heard the claim that anyone able to win election as President of the United States is unfit to actually serve. Well, to serve well: actually PERFORM the work in a satisfactory manner based on any reasonable standard.
Actually, history does support that claim, more often than not. And not just in the White House. Let us look at this a bit.
Continue readingI got asked an interesting question the other day.
I reworded it slightly. I suspect that the questioner is not an American, or not one for very long, and really doesn’t understand rural areas. Especially not American rural areas, or Western American ones.
Q: Why is it that people don’t riot in rural areas? Not in the fields or desert, but place with more trees. Places with gas stations, malls, car dealerships, etc.?
Continue readingMany libertarians think that all people who claim to be “Christians” or even religious in general reject the libertarian, or free-market anarchist, worldview. This quote from 1867 or 1868 is worth thinking about:
You got a mask? For 99% of Americans, the answer is yes. Stores and websites are selling them like hotcakes. It seems like every other store (especially the big-box and small-box stores and the supermarket and convenience store chains) has a dozen signs warning, begging, demanding (and once in a while asking) you to wear masks. And sometimes threatening you if you don’t.
Consider New Mexico.
Continue readingAuthor’s note: As I sit writing this, our home outside Rapid City in the Black Hills sits under 15-18 inches of fresh, wet, spring snow, courtesy of the vast Storm Xylia that engulfed much of the Rockies and Great Plains. Including our beloved Paha Sapa. As reported in The Blaze and elsewhere.
Moisture is a variable thing in this territory, but people have lived with it for a good 147 years – (and some of us for a lot longer than that). Lack of moisture is once again an excuse to do (or not do) something. Officially, probably even with this massive snow, the Black Hills is in “severe drought” but last year, during the first week of July, the Hills were in “moderate drought.” Just one step lower. It was the POLITICAL climate that was different.
Continue readingStupidity to the point of insanity is increasingly a “occupational disease” of politicians – especially those elected to state legislatures. Consider this. It is not a joke from the Onion or the Babylon Bee. It is Oregon House Bill 3305:
I do not know how much of a chance there is that the Oregon legislature will pass this bill, but based on the stupidity and arrogance demonstrated by the State’s governor, she (Kate Brown) is very likely to sign it.
Continue readingAfter an unexpected and unplanned hiatus of two weeks, The Price of Liberty returns.
Following a whirlwind tour of seven states, at least three still in the throes of the evils of the Lockdown, TPOL is back up this week.
With, we might add, a lot of ammo to use in proclaiming liberty unto the land, and all the inhabitants thereof. Safe passage through and out of the domains of the evil Emperadora (Empress) Lujan Gresham of New Mexico and the wicked Warlord Polis of Colorado (“Greater Denver”).
Continue readingDavid, Tom Knapp, and several others pointed out my typo in the second paragraph, and I realized it was also unclear.
Here is what I meant to write and what it now says:
“Especially since no doubt many of the purchasers are the deplorables: the 75 million + those who voted for Trump or Jorgensen + those who have these quaint beliefs in the Constitution, God, liberty, and such obsolete things.”
I was of course being sarcastic, but need to be clear.
Certainly those who voted for Trump do not all have these “quaint beliefs” – though at least some do. And many of those who chose NOT to vote for ethical and moral reasons do not have those beliefs either. (Some do, of course.) I also understand that many times their beliefs are based on a very poor understanding of what liberty is – and Who God is. Much less even a rudimentary understanding of that human, faulty document called the Constitution.
There are many errors in understanding liberty, especially vis-à-vis the US Constitution. One big one? The idea that the Bill of Rights GIVES anyone ANY RIGHTS. Human rights exist because we are HUMAN. Whether you believe in “nature’s God” or just plain “nature,” no other human has any legitimate power to steal away those fundamental rights. (Not saying that they don’t have POWER to do so, just that the power to do so is exercised illegitimately, no matter WHAT some Constitution, charter or law says.)
Governments, no matter for what purpose they were established, sooner or later get in the business ot taking away those God-given/Natural rights.
The right to keep and bear arms is always a good illustration of that. Human government is in itself illegitimate beyond family and other voluntary agreements and institutions. But it is a constant evil, just like cold, heat, disease, and even famine/hunger, and thirst. We have to defend ourselves against these things: in the case of government, there are as few sure ways as there are when dealing with weather. We can “move along, move along” to a better place (assuming there is one), or we can resist. We bundle up and have fire to fight cold, for instance.
With government, we respond to force and the threat of force – aggression – with threatening or applying force – defense – against the government.
That is what Biden (and yes, Trump, and many who call themselves “Libertarian”) fear: that they will not be able to FORCE us to do what THEY want us to do. Even if they cloak it in the lies “it’s for your own good.” I may believe that you are doing something that is NOT for your own good, but I recognize that I must let you decide. I cannot decide for you. I can suggest, guide, even beg – but I cannot legitimately, morally, scripturally, in a godly manner, make you do it.
But that is precisely what government and those in government – especially elected officials – believe that they have the power – and many claim “God-given power” – to do. They are wrong. They are, indeed, evil.
I may have the right to defend myself (and even others) against the consequences of what you choose to do. If you chose to attack me, or mine, or an innocent person, I may defend myself and them. If I choose to do so. When government tries to take away the tools I choose to defend against the wrong acts of others, the government is even MORE evil. And that is precisely what Biden seeks to do. And those who use Biden as their puppet, their poster elder.
Which is why he, and his efforts (the ones made in his name, anyway), and those of his supporters and appointees, MUST be fought against. We have the RIGHT to fight against them: to defend ourselves, our families, our communities. And many of us believe that we also have an OBLIGATION – freely taken upon ourselves – to do so.
And you do not defend yourself by allowing the enemy to disarm you.
Enough is enough. And this is enough for now!
According to various sources, gun sales in the Fifty States (measured by background checks with BATFE and the FBI) hit a new record in January. Back on the 3rd of February, 24-7 Wall Street reported 4,137,480 sales for the first month of 2021, the largest single month since figures started to be recorded in 1998. In 2020, gun sales in the United States rose 40% to 39,695,315. That’s more than 1 for every 10 Americans!
Alarming! Dangerous! Especially since no doubt many of the purchasers are the deplorables: the 75 million + those who voted for Trump or Jorgensen + those who have these quaint beliefs in the Constitution, God, liberty, and such obsolete things. They often don’t even trust government or government officials.
So it is no surprise that our beloved Uncle Joe and all his helpers, starting with Miz Kammie and Beto, want to do everything they can to protect the American people (the other 250 million or so) from the coming epidemic of violence. (As well as the pandemic from China.)
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The Price of Liberty 
California – more than just another “banana republic”
Typically a lot of us poke fun, if in a very serious vein, at California.
Not just today’s California, but going back to the 1980s. The People’s Republic, we call it. Or the Democratic (Communist) Republic. In Iowa, we have Idiots Out Wandering Around, but in California? The idiots are in charge of the asylum. And worse. Writer Robert Heinlein, himself long a resident of California, often took aim at it, and its people. In one twisted story, all of the inhabitants were granted college degrees automatically at age 18. Mark Twain, too, loved to make fun. But it isn’t funny any more.
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