Angry with government? Welcome to the club

Posted on 2018-05-08 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Today, we run into a lot of anger.  People are getting angry about every little slight and misunderstanding.  At the same time, it seems that misunderstandings, disagreements, and poor treatment of people are getting to be more common.

I see it, literally daily; people I am working with and for, store clerks, people at worship, family friends, and even customers at stores and such.  And much of the problem is coming from others – impacting on these people I talk with.

Especially coming from government.  And dealing with government.  All of us have to deal with government, often daily.  Many of us know family and others who work for government.  Sometimes we feel like we have to tiptoe around just to try and avoid setting someone off.  Especially someone who has (real or potential) power over us – power to harm, at least.

It makes it worse because it wasn’t always this way.  And although it has been gradual, the creeping actions – and therefore anger – with (and in) government have often reached intolerable limits. Continue reading →

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How the Rules Mentality F’d-up Sex

Posted on 2018-05-06 by MamaLiberty

By L. Reichard White
©May 4, 2018

Wondering why we’re all f’d-up about sex lately? Well, you can stop wondering.

Take movie ratings for example. The original Robocop — where they literally shoot officer Alex J. Murphy to pieces right on screen — eventually copped an “R” rating. On the other hand, showing naked folks and feigned sex — as in “I Am Curious (Yellow)” — not only regularly got an “X” rating but could get the flick confiscated by U.S. Customs.

Despite the fact that Robocop gave Chrys’s thirteen-year-old daughter nightmares, all sorts of bloody mayhem, murder, and gratuitous violence in film was at worst traditionally rated “R” while showing a naked female breast — two of which nourished most of us as babies — or feigning the sex act — which is how almost all of us got here — was rated “X.”

So, according to Official U.S. Culture, sex is worse than bloody murder.

Starting from that premis, is it any surprise we’re all f’d up about sex? Continue reading →

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Book Review: Herbal Medicine for Beginners

Posted on 2018-04-29 by MamaLiberty

Review by MamaLiberty

By Katja Swift and Ryn Midura

Over the vast diversity of people who embrace natural health and nutrition, one of the wisest sayings (obscure origin) is that we do well to make our food our medicine. Herbs and many common food items comprise all the medicine most people actually need to be healthy.

On the other hand, those who would begin to experiment with actual herbs need to know what to expect, how to judge dosage, and be warned of any potential problems. Herbs are medicine, and many are quite powerful. Continue reading →

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Can we do without government?

Posted on 2018-04-28 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Modern advertising, as we know it today, did not exist until sometime in the 1700s, well after the invention of printing.  Today, in print and electronic media, it is pervasive – and invasive.  We cannot do anything without seeing advertising of some sort.

The advertising wants us to DO something – especially to BUY something.  It reminds us of the benefits (real or imagined) of doing or using or owning something. Sometimes it is negative: it warns us of the problems because we do NOT do or use or own something.

Of course, the majority of the advertising we think of (and perhaps have) today is commercial in nature: products and services. They are trying to get us to voluntarily buy something that we cannot do without.

In the past, the world did have advertising, but of a much different sort. In an era where most products were made and most services provided at home, there were no big commercial enterprises – private or public – trying to sell the goods and services that they provided. Continue reading →

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Rebellion? Revolution?

Posted on 2018-04-23 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

I am hearing more and more signs of rebellion in many parts of the West – especially the rural farming and ranching areas.

People are sick of being told what to do in the minutest detail by the people in their State Capitols.  Add this to resentment of the Federal Congress and bureaucracy and THEIR micromanagement (directly through the alphabet agencies and indirectly through state government agencies), and the anger grows.

Usually, the mandates result in making life more costly, as well as more miserable.  People know that they are breaking numerous laws and innumerable regulations.  It is not that they don’t care.  They were once law-abiding citizens, and proud of that nature.  Even when it didn’t make sense to them.  But now, not only do the laws and regulations make less sense, not only do they cost a fabulous amount of money and time, they are also impossible in many cases to comply with.  This is not a “War on the West” as during the Reagan era.  It is a war against rural people, societies, and institutions.  Against not just farmers and ranchers, but against businesses and institutions. Continue reading →

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Gaming and government

Posted on 2018-04-19 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

As the final episodes of Game of Thrones are being anticipated, it is fun to look at the way gaming has impacted our view of government today.  (And by gaming, I do not use it in the South Dakota manner of “gambling” at all the little “casinos” which dot the state (the places in Deadwood are “gambling houses”) and bring in all kinds of money – that is a subject for another commentary.)

War games and role-playing games long predate our current computer and internet based gaming. Indeed, some of the earliest are beloved family games: Monopoly, Risk, and The Game of Life come to mind. But the complexity and elaborate nature exploded in the 1970s and 1980s.

They became “popular” (at least to geeks and a small community of interesting people) back in the 1970s: Strategic Simulations Inc. and Avalon Hill for wargaming, and Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) for Dungeons and Dragons, the first well-known role playing game.  Continue reading →

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We ARE all crazy – the economy is the most insane part of our lives

Posted on 2018-04-17 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

This picture appeared today in Laissez Faire , labeled as a “Silicon Valley Fixer-Upper” with an asking price of a mere $800,000 (or, to put it another way, 598 ounces of gold (ozAu), which at the old $20/ounce rate (1787-1935) is a “mere” $12,000.

This is, of course, nuts.

Shack

I mean, seriously, folks! Continue reading →

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Do we care?

Posted on 2018-04-10 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

The news these days is a constant drumbeat of just a few things: the evil actions of the FedGov and especially POTUS (“evil” as defined by the mainstream media), shootings (mostly in/around schools), movies (what is doing well, what is not), and of course, celebrities (pontificating on evils of guns and POTUS and the FedGov and their latest divorce and other critical moments).

The talk shows these days are a constant stream of “countering” leftist views of whatever the political and shooting/killing news of the day is. And getting people to calm down.

The newspapers: daily or weekly, they get thinner and thinner, with more and more “fluff” news about baby chicks and the celebs and how Ms. Smith’s third-grade class went out and picked up litter in the school yard for a “public service” project.

But listen to the advertisements that go along with that news and those talk shows and those newspapers.  More and more it fits into three categories: sponsorship “promotion” of the latest fads whether it is automobile repair insurance or blinds or holiday-related gifts; political adverts for various causes (usually in line with the show’s political leaning); and public service announcements (PSAs).  (Most of which are government generated or sponsored.) Sometimes it seems like the PSAs are taking over. (Newspapers also have “official notices” published by governments.) Continue reading →

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The Second Amendment

Posted on 2018-04-07 by MamaLiberty

By MamaLiberty

The hysterical media hype of the “progressive” marching children has faded some the last week, though the anti-gun – anti liberty – crowd continues to make the news daily. Some important counter measures have been publicized as well, for a wonder, and how it will all come out in the wash is anyone’s guess.

But most “people of the gun” continue to talk about and rely on the second amendment to the constitution, and worry that their rights will be eliminated by those in control of government.

Too bad they’ve been misinformed. It is not possible for anyone – or even a super majority – to eliminate the natural right of all living things to defend themselves. The natural right to defend our lives, family and property needs no words on a strip of parchment to make it so. That requires only the will and action of the individual. Continue reading →

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Do We REALLY Need The Second Amendment?

Posted on 2018-04-07 by MamaLiberty

By L. Reichard White

Newspapers and other publications keep what they call “stylebooks” to let the folks who write for them know what’s acceptable to the publication and what isn’t. Many factors determine the rules that are included in a stylebook, many, but not all of them, economic.

What these stylebooks reveal, however, is much more than just preferences and economics. What is a “terrorist” for example – – –

For the record, here’s the [Minnesota] Star Tribune style entry, word for word: “The Star Tribune permits the use of the word ‘terrorist’ to describe nongovernmental groups that carry out attacks on civilians. Other words –‘gunmen,’ ‘separatist,’ ‘rebel’ and ‘suicide bomber,’ for example –usually are more precise and therefore are generally preferred. In the case of Al-Qaida, the use of ‘terrorist network’ or similar terms is permitted. Also, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks as ‘terrorist attacks’ is permitted.” –from Minnesota startribune

So, “In the case of Al-Qaida, the use of ‘terrorist network’ or similar terms is permitted.” But, in the case of governments, apparently, the use of “terrorist,” etc. isn’t permitted.

It seems that if a “governmental group/network” does exactly what a non-governmental “terrorist group/network” does — “carrying out attacks on civilians,” etc. — it isn’t called “terrorist.”

Can you think of any “governmental group/network” currently carrying out attacks on civilians?

Thought so. Me too. Continue reading →

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