The Dark Ages – coming back in a nation near you?

Posted on 2017-06-29 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Repeating the evils of history?

Back in the 8th Century AUC (better known today as the 1st Century Anno Domini), life was simple.  Not just simple but short and anything but sweet.

The  life of children in the Greek and Roman worlds (and indeed, much of the known world) was particularly bad.  Death rates from childhood diseases decimated infants and toddlers. Greco-Roman society in particular was very hazardous for the newborn, because of the custom (apparently in all social levels) of exposing infants – taking unwanted newborns and leaving them in a field to be either collected by slavers (or perhaps a few good people) or eaten by wolves or other predators. Generally, Greek custom was similar, as was that of many other cultures. The Hebrews are often pointed out as exceptions to this, whether in Canaan (Palestine) or in the Dispora across the Empire and in Mesopotamia and Persia.

The emperor Constantine (yeah, that one – the “religious convert to christianity) made it legal to sell infants in 313, regardless of the status of their parents: this was supposedly a compassionate measure to reduce the exposure and death of infants. Continue reading →

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When is self-defense NOT?

Posted on 2017-06-28 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

In California, convenience store owner Min Kim was just convicted of manslaughter for gunning down the criminal who tried to rob his store, and he will be in prison for eight years.  As reported in Freedom Post, the store’s surveillance cameras saw the robber come in, try to steal something, get accosted, get into a fight during which he tried to take Kim’s gun (and failed), then tried to escape.  Kim shot and killed him in the doorway of the store.

It is a sad situation, and Kim admitted he had done wrong and that the shooting was not self-defense.  To make matters worse, a previous robbery had seen Kim’s wife shot and wounded just a month earlier.  And the dead robber had been convicted for trying to kidnap a young girl – a crime for which he received a “horribly severe” punishment of eight months in jail.  Kim’s community is better off with the scumbag dead, no doubt.

But today, even cops (well, sometimes) are convicted of unjustified killing when they gun down someone in the back, fleeing.  I think that the jury had a pretty open and shut case.

This happens much too often.  People do not understand just what self-defense means, and when there is a moral justification for using deadly force.  Why is this? Continue reading →

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Badges of honor – Part 2

Posted on 2017-06-26 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

And so I come to a last story and another whole slew of badges of honor.  Again from The Blaze, we see that several Christian organizations well known for their defense of traditional marriage have been labeled “hate groups” by GuideStar, one of the United States’ leading charity research groups. This outfit, which claims to be a “neutral” database containing information on more than two million charities, has adopted the progressive Southern Poverty Law Center’s nonprofit designations. The charity site pointed to the “hateful rhetoric” during this “highly politicized moment” in American history as its reason for making the decision, according to the AP. In other words, GuideStar and SPLC are attacking these groups for doing exactly what the preacher in Houston is doing – and the eight states California hates – standing up for truth, justice, and what used to be “the American way.”

I do NOT see eye-to-eye with any of these “Christian organizations” such as the Family Research Council, Alliance Defending Freedom, Liberty Counsel, and the American Family Association.  Still, the page for each of these on GuideStar now features a banner warning they were “flagged as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.” Indeed, a badge of honor for a religious organization in 2017.

(Please understand – a disclaimer here – I do not believe in “traditional” marriage, but in the accepted definition (legal and social, and in the dictionary for centuries) that marriage is between a man and a women: not two men, two women, a man and two+ women, a woman and two+ men, or any number of dogs, cats, horses, motorcycles, etc.  And that calling a tail a leg does not give a dog five legs. These religious groups have largely defeated themselves by accept “serial monogamy” (divorce for any reason), government licensing of marriage, and so much more.  But that does not excuse lies about them, and branding them as hate groups is nothing but a lie.) Continue reading →

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Badges of honor – part 1

Posted on 2017-06-26 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

A person’s (or organization’s) character is often better known by seeing who their enemies are, and not who their friends are.

We see that all the time.  The Blaze reported recently that California’s Tranzi state government (the People’s Republic, led by the dynast Jerry Brown) has added four more states to its travel ban list: “Golden State employees will no longer be able to travel on any state-sponsored trips to Texas, Alabama, South Dakota, and Kentucky, bringing the total number of states banned to eight. California lawmakers passed a bill last year that bans non-essential travel to states that they believe discriminate against the LGBT community, and included in the initial bill were North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee.”  In the CNN version of the story, they quoted the state spokesman, and he substituted ND for SD – typical: they don’t care about flyover country except to denigrate them.

Mama’s Note: Hmmm… and why are these people making NON”essential” junkets to start with? Why are they traveling to other states period, at taxpayer expense? Seems as if the bankrupt state of California will at least see some savings with this new policy – whatever the reason. Maybe they can ban even the so-called essential travel next? Continue reading →

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School vs. the Gateless Gate: Fixing the Damage

Posted on 2017-06-25 by MamaLiberty

By L. Reichard White
(Original publication) ©May 27, 2016

There are indeed, many paths through the gateless gate. This one is fairly easy — and when we arrive at the fence-line, there’s a little trick that will get you through. For me, it involved dishes – – –

We’re at the first Way-Stone already – – –

“‘You know what Indian time means?’ [an Ojibwe tribal leader] had responded in a session with local college students. ‘It means, ‘When I’m damn good and ready.’ The old man was operating on Indian time. I was still operating on a clock and a paycheck.” –Kent Nerburn, Neither Wolf nor Dog

The contrast between “Indian time” and author Nerburn’s succinct “clock and a paycheck” marks our path. But “Indian time” isn’t unique to “First Nation” folks in North America – – – Continue reading →

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A need to liberate children and families

Posted on 2017-06-22 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

As I’ve been concentrating on schools and education recently, I was pleased to find an article at the Foundation for Economic Education about an Arizona legislator who has called for the repeal of compulsory schooling.  The article is an excellent review of how we got into the mess. Of course, this legislator is unlikely to get this bill passed – at least right now.  But everything needs a start.

Most news on the “education” (indoctrination) front is not so good – as we see what Heartland Institute has published about “SEL.”

Teresa Mull, in “Parents, what you don’t know is hurting your kids” writes:

“Contrary to what you might hear from leftists in academia, the growth
of the Social-Emotional Learning movement is nothing less than
alarming. SEL is all about teaching children how to think and feel. Its
goal is to transfer power parents have had since the dawn of time — to
cultivate their own offspring into developmentally sound adults with a
strong moral fiber and outlook — to government, whose aim is to create
an unoriginal, unimaginative, cog-in-the-wheel mindset for our kids.
Government doesn’t want a bunch of little rebel-rousing free thinkers;
they want a society fixated on the good of the collective — and it’s
starting in 2nd grade.” Continue reading →

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Divorce and separation of and in universities and colleges

Posted on 2017-06-21 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

What or who should control training and education? Especially technical education, such as science, engineering, medicine, mathematics, and related fields?  What we have now is NOT working, and increasingly dysfunctional.

Lew Rockwell website has an interesting story telling us four reasons that college degrees are becoming useless.  In reality, the headline does not accurately state the thesis of Jonathan Newman’s article.  He provides four (of many) reasons that more and more college degrees ARE useless.

Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute, wrote in his blog  a few weeks ago: In US universities, a divorce is needed. “If the worthwhile parts of the U.S. universities are to continue to thrive, or even to survive as serious endeavors, it would seem that a parting of the ways must come. The STEM fields must separate themselves from the bulls**t parts of the universities. The latter can then go their own way to fester in their nonsense until the general public awakens to the need to cease supporting such activities altogether. This divorce cannot come too soon.”

It seems to me that this has already happened. And it didn’t work. Which is why most college degrees today ARE useless – or more accurately, worthless.  To the one that has it, to his or her family, and to their community and society. Continue reading →

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Schools: an example of society and government arrogance

Posted on 2017-06-19 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Just as the Thanksgiving/Christmas season is always flavored (or marred) by political controversies over free speech and freedom of (from) religion, so the high school and college graduation season is frequently marked by clashes on religion in public life, free speech, and decorum.  These incidents often show just how society is disrupted by the arrogance of government and our “civil servants” and how they play into the hands of those who want to force change in society.

One recent collision took place on 2nd June in Pennsylvania, as reported by The Blaze. There, a valedictorian was ordered by the school superintendent to “remove all religious references” from her graduation speech.  The young woman did rewrite her speech and put in vague references to “blessings” and being thankful, and the superintendent approved it. But at the ceremony, she added something to it, clearly stating she knew she was breaking the rules and then ended her lesson with the traditional ending of a prayer to God, “in the righteous name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”  She defied the school and the system, and the woman who ordered her to not do anything like that.

Bravo for her! Continue reading →

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Politics as a blood sport

Posted on 2017-06-15 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Yesterday’s incredible display of poor marksmanship fortunately seems to have resulted in just one death – that of the perp.  Maybe. I and many people are grateful for that, and have prayed for those hit and their families and coworkers.

Based on the initial information (which of course, as is common in these things, will be buried and replaced by a “legitimate” narrative), it was probably an assassination attempt. And based on the usual definitions (despite the FBI’s waffling), it seems to be an act of terrorism.

By whom is the real question.  Not the terrorist who actually pulled the trigger, supposedly for 100 or so times.  But who is behind the shooter?  And who is behind the shooter’s backers?  He is labeled as a “Bernieista” (maybe several different spellings of that), a NeverTrumper, a liberal left-wing nut-job.  Although I haven’t actually seen the words “lone wolf,” there seems to be a common theme that effectively denies there is any cabal behind this attack. Continue reading →

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Infidelanda

Posted on 2017-06-10 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Indiana – Infidelanda, apparently.

Muslims are “outraged” that a billboard east of Indianapolis tells “untruths” about their Prophet Mohammed (peanut butter und honig).  In the article, USA Today equates the billboard to the man who attacked two Muslima teenagers and then stabbed and killed two people who came to their defense, and to other examples of Islamophobic rage and attacks.

Never mind that the billboard doesn’t contain the words “prophet” or “Mohammed” or “Islam” – the closest words are in large letters and quotes; “The Perfect Man.”

Never mind that there is no identification of who put it up – the only identification on the sign is “Educate Truthophobes.”  Now, truthophobe (quite a ridiculous made-up word: a more correct word would be “aletheiaphobe”) (a person who fears truth) seems to have been coined to label and denigrate people who are also described as being Islamophobic – fearing Islam or fearing Muslims.  (There is an Australian website [Truthophobes.com] (mentioned in the article) which appears to have adopted the name as a badge of honor, and use it to describe Muslims and others who fear the truth about Islam, its teachings, practices, and history, especially that of its founder.) Continue reading →

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