Courage – part 2

Posted on 2018-07-05 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Courage, as discussed earlier, is a virtue.  It is also a requirement for many occupations.

“First responders” is a fairly new label, referring to firefighters, emergency medical technicians/paramedics, and law-enforcement officers.  That is, those persons (usually government employees) who are the first to respond to an accident, illness, disaster, or crime, including attacks.  Most often, it refers to law enforcement: police officers.

They have been elevated, in the public eye, to be the equivalent of military (defense) forces  We are constantly urged to thank them for their service, and to honor them in various ways, including discounts at local convenience stores and the like.

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Courage – part 1

Posted on 2018-07-04 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

As we here in the Fifty States celebrate the 242nd anniversary (official, at least) of the independence of the United States of America from the Kingdom of Great Britain, let us meditate on the courage of the Founding Fathers.

In that hot, sticky July of 1776 there in Philadelphia, there was little if any certainty of success in their secession from the empire. Indeed, despite the fact that the thirteen new nations were “hanging together,” they still might very likely hang separately.  Especially the fifty-some men in that Congress who voted on this difficult resolution.

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Happy Independence Day

Posted on 2018-07-02 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Today is the 2nd of July.  242 years ago, in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence.

Even the FedGov recognizes that today is the REAL Independence Day, as can be seen in this article from 2005.  Not that the truth matters to the FedGov.

In that vote, Congress voted to SECEDE from the British empire.  To sever their political (and other) ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain. (It would not become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until 1800.) It would take another seven years of war to secure that independence, to gain that freedom. (And then just a few short years to give up most of it by ratifying the Constitution of 1787 (actually taking effect in 1789).

So Happy Independence Day! Let us look forward to a new birth of liberty in the near future.

 

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Arrogance? Unprofessionalism? Or just being stupid?

Posted on 2018-07-01 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

This was shared by an associate – the location and state and circumstances have been “sanitized” to avoid ramping up.  Anyone with a little bit of search skill can probably find out the omitted details.

bridge-slash

On a bad early spring day in April, along a fairly empty stretch of an interstate highway out in the Great Plains, something happened in an 85,000-pound semi-truck rolling with the wind at 75 mph.  We will not know (until Judgment, at least) what exactly happened.  The semi plowed into a set of four pylons supporting an overpass, breaking two in half, and nearly severing a third.  Both occupants of the truck died instantly.

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A new civil war?

Posted on 2018-06-28 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Warnings or threats or attempts at self-fulfilling prophesy?

All kinds of articles and comments are appearing in June about an upcoming civil war.  A war between the “liberals” and the “conservatives.” A war that might actually merit the title a lot more than the 1861-1865 conflict (actually a War Between the States which did include a number of civil wars).

See the source image

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Good-bye from MamaLiberty

Posted on 2018-06-27 by MamaLiberty

As you may have already noticed, Nathan Barton has taken over publishing The Price of Liberty. He has been my faithful friend, critic and moral support over at least the last 20 years, and I couldn’t say enough about that if I wrote for a week.

I won’t be involved any more because I am dying of an aggressive cancer and have little idea how much time I have left. I am blessed with a wonderful family and many good neighbors and friends, so will not be alone or lonesome in that process.

If you truly want to “do something” to help, please give Nathan your support and encouragement. He won’t have an editor now, so gently help him with typos and things since I can’t do so any longer.

The Price of Liberty was established on Oct. 3, 2003. I hope it will continue for a long time. Thanks to you.

MamaLiberty

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Drawing that line

Posted on 2018-06-26 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

“Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins.”

It is a quote many of us (self-governors, libertarians, anarchists, Christians) have heard.  It was written by Zechariah Chafee, Jr., a man few know anything about.
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The Great Sales Tax Scam

Posted on 2018-06-24 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

The great guys at Agora Financial/Laissez Faire sent this out recently:

For the record: As anticipated here [Agora Financial] Tuesday, the Supreme Court has just cleared the way for states to start collecting sales tax from online retailers.

The decision reverses the 1992 Quill decision, under which catalog retailers were required to charge sales tax only in states where they had a physical presence like a store or warehouse.

Going forward, for example, an online retailer based in Massachusetts like the home-goods website Wayfair will have to charge sales tax to its South Dakota customers. (The case was South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc.)

The justices ruled 5-4, with most of the conservative bloc joining the majority — except for Chief Justice John Roberts.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The Black Hills is a great place to live, and about as free as you can find these days in the Fifty States. But the government in Pierre stinks. While not as money-grubbing and far less bureaucratic-nanny state as, say, Colorado, or as paranoid about recordkeeping as, say, Utah, they are bad on a lot of things. Continue reading →

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Religion and government – secular views

Posted on 2018-06-23 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Thomas Paine today is claimed as an atheist, supposedly because he lived before Darwin “proved” that you didn’t need to have a Creator.  Before that, we are told, Paine and others were “deists” – those who believed in God, who created the world, but then (once He wound the clock up) did not involve Himself in the affairs of men.

Lincoln Memorial

Yet that stands in stark contrast to many of Paine’s writings.  Consider this one: “Practical religion consists in doing good: and the only way of serving God is that of endeavoring to make His creation happy. All preaching that has not this for its object is nonsense and hypocrisy.”

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The corruption of government spreads

Posted on 2018-06-22 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

“Power corrupts.  And absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Acton

Today, we take government corruption for granted. Indeed, government corruption has been a feature (NOT a defect) of government since Nimrod started his little empire in Mesopotamia 4,000 years ago or so.  Government has power, and therefore corruption. But it has, frankly, just gotten worse since then. AND a lot more pervasive, subtle, and harmful.

Today, at least here in the Fifty States, government doesn’t just corrupt itself and the other governments which infest our beautiful land of former liberty and bravery.  Government corruption is so ubiquitous and so bad that anything and anyone that comes in contact with it is corrupted by it as well.

And who, in these Fifty States today, does NOT come in contact with government at some time in some way? In trying to limit the power of government, we have created many levels and kinds. Adding up to a burden that is intolerable. Continue reading →

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