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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Giving up

Posted on 2017-06-10 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

When do you give up?  When do you say it is all too much, and it is time to just stop.

Most (or many) libertarians have a phrase for it: “Going Galt.”  Most readers will know this, but a brief explanation doesn’t hurt.  It is a phrase from Ayn Rand’s classic “Atlas Shrugged” and it explains what Galt, Mulligan, Reardon, and many others, incredibly wealthy types and just ordinary hard-working business owners and technicians and train engineers did in the course of the story.  They dropped their tools, locked the doors on their businesses, stop investing their money and time and sweat into new things – providing the goods and services that their community depended on.

Because they got tired of the parasites.

Are we seeing that today?

I am in contact with a wide range of people scattered over a dozen states from coast to coast, but especially in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.  It seems as if I hear from one or another almost daily about how conditions are getting worse.  People tell me about the growing power and corruption of local officials: not just elected County Commissioners or Councilors, but civil service appointees and employees.  And of the similar growing incompetence, not just of government employees but of private businesses’ employees, especially those providing utilities and other essential services.  Sometimes the stories are of coworkers, supervisors, and subordinates. Continue reading →

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Racism rears its ugly head

Posted on 2017-06-09 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Apparently, some part of “The Resistance” based in Louisiana State University (LSU) is demonstrating their incredible racism by demanding that the LSU mascot, the Tigers, be replaced by a different one.  They claim that the Tiger is a racist mascot because it was the nickname and mascot of a Louisiana militia unit which was part of the Confederate States Army during the late unpleasantness (the War of Yankee Aggression (1861-1865)).

What they fail to recognize (or refuse to) is that the modern Louisiana Army National Guard 256th Brigade is STILL known as the Tiger Brigade, and includes hundreds of proud BLACK men and women soldiers who are very proud of the unit and its nickname, and in no way consider it to be racist.  Any more than the hundreds of thousands of black soldiers serving in US Army units consider their units, unit designations, or nicknames/special designations to be racist.  Even though many of those units are the same units which fought on both sides of what is officially called “The War of the Rebellion” and popularly known as the American Civil War, occupied the conquered South after that war – and enforced evil federal laws such as the Fugitive Slave Act and various forms of segregation from the adoption of the US Constitution right up to the mid-1950s.  Or were units which were segregated for nearly a century after blacks were finally allowed to enlist in the Army during that war.

Not only that, but they ignore the fact that thousands of black LSU students have been and are proud of their membership in LSU Tiger sports teams over the past 50+ years.  I am not a sports fan and have not the slightest idea of what success LSU teams have had in everything from football to basketball to archery to synchronized swimming and concrete canoe building over that time, but I do know that their jocks are proud to be LSU Tigers, successful champions or not.  Any university’s sportsmen are.  You can be sure that mega-university sports teams are NOT “racist” (by any reasonable definition) today. Continue reading →

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Attack on the “free world”

Posted on 2017-06-05 by MamaLiberty

By MamaLiberty

London terror attack: May calls assault attack on free world, threat level remains severe

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday that the country’s terror threat level will remain at “severe” after weekend attacks in London left seven dead and nearly 50 others injured.

May described the assault as an attack on the free world.

Indeed, each such attack is an assault on “the free world.” Well, it would be if this was a free world, of course. Unfortunately, this response to such attacks creates less and less freedom, and certainly less and less safety for the potential victims everywhere.

May’s response is as impotent as it gets, since the people remain helpless to defend themselves. I’m glad some had the guts to throw chairs and bottles at the murderers, but we all know that is as effective as the mouse baring his teeth at the cat. Calling 911 (or the UK equivalent) has never been more futile.

May’s proposal merely doubles down on the useless and provocative “ban” on a few things she and her government fears, and which have nothing to do with the real problem. Start to tear down all of the terrible barriers to peace, prosperity and liberty that your (and every other) socialist government has built to keep the people helpless. End the insane “ban” on self defense and defensive weapons, lady. That’s the only path toward having a free world.

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Baker’s Dozen ™ Miz Hillary’s List-to-blame for losing the 2016 election

Posted on 2017-06-04 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

It’s been more than six months now, and at least one of the failed candidates in the 2016 election for a new Massa continues to appear in the news daily, whinging about how she had the election taken from her.  The list of who is to blame is impressive.

  1. The Russians
  2. Wikileaks
  3. Former FBI guy James Comey
  4. Alex Jones (InfoWars)
  5. Her campaign staff
  6. Democratic National Committee
  7. Facebook
  8. Sexism (especially that of Bernie Sanders, Democratic voters, and Republicans)
  9. Republicans who suppressed votes and voters
  10. The New York Times (and other mainstream media)
  11. “Twitterbots” – whatever those are
  12. Self-hating women
  13. Obama

I am sure that there are a lot more that she (and her aides) would add.  And Bill himself could come up with a couple of Baker’s Dozen worth. Continue reading →

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Classic

Posted on 2017-06-03 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

The current fad is cyberbullying.  But there is still a lot of the regular kind, all over the Fifty States.  Bullying is wrong, no?  It is, when it involves “children” (which include teens under 18), illegal: it is “child abuse,” and even parents can be found guilty of it.

Unless, of course, the bully is the government, or someone else using government.  Then, it is apparently part of the society and culture and government.

This case has all the classic symptoms of both government-stupidity and child abuse.  According to The Free Thought Project, the City of Gardendale, Alabama is taking action against teens who mow grass and don’t have a $110 business license, after a local businessman filed a complaint against his competitors.  (TFTP is reposting a video news article from ABC 33/40, a local station.)

The legal action is being used as a hammer by some “private entity” who uses the government (local, in this case) as a tool of aggression against someone he doesn’t like.  He figures he can beat up, indirectly, on a powerless teen.  And the city agrees that it will use its “police powers” to go after nonconforming teens who don’t cough up the money or stop competing. Continue reading →

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Advocating a military coup

Posted on 2017-06-01 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

A few weeks ago, Freedom Net Daily pointed to an editorial in The Week, “Will Trump’s loose lips lead to a military coup?” by Noah Millman.

“President Trump is alleged to have revealed to Russian officials, in the Oval Office, intelligence of a highly sensitive nature related to ISIS plots, intelligence whose revelation could well compromise not only American intelligence assets but those of our allies who provided the information. … if this new report is accurate, then a rubicon [sic]  has been crossed that cannot be retraced. And in the absence of ‘tapes’ revealing that no conversation took place, why should anyone believe even the most strenuous denials? America’s military and intelligence services are therefore faced with a difficult dilemma. The only way to preserve America’s assets will be to routinize the violation of the chain of command by cordoning off the president from information that he properly needs to make informed decisions. Moreover, in order to reassure foreign allies, military and intelligence services will need to show their willingness to violate the chain of command in this fashion. It will need to become an open secret that the president of the United States is, in effect, no longer the president. The threat this poses to America’s democratic and constitutional system should not be minimized.”

I don’t know Noah Millman – think this is the first time I’ve read anything by him.  He is supposed to be a Conservative, and is an enemy of Warren Buffet (which actually could endear him to me), and used to be a “financial engineer” – whatever that means. Continue reading →

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Hazards and “Critical Infrastructure” – What can we do?

Posted on 2017-05-31 by TPOL Nathan

by Nathan Barton

I recently was in a training class on Critical Asset Risk Management.  That is a fancy term and acronym (CARM) for identifying what physical infrastructure is critical for society to function, what threats or hazards may cause damage or destruction to that infrastructure, and what can be done to prevent or mitigate damage/destruction and make them functional again after they’ve been damaged or destroyed (called recovery).  Been hit by enough jargon yet?

It really is pretty simple: bad things happen to physical things – and nothing lasts forever. You need to figure out what bad things can happen (and how likely they are to happen), and what needs to be done to reduce the damage when bad things happen  And what needs to be done to restore those physical things to again function, both immediately and long term.  What do you have to do to prepare for disasters, and how do you respond? Continue reading →

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You can’t have it both ways

Posted on 2017-05-29 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Two news stories out of Oregon today.  From Estacada comes a truly macabre story about a man carrying the severed head of his mother and stabbing a grocery store clerk.

On Friday the 26th, according to the Oregonian, on the Portland MAX public transit train  a man accosted two Muslim girls, and then killed two and wounded a third with a knife when they came to the girls’ defense.  The man with the knife is reported to be a racist hatemonger (according to the infamous SPLC) and the Oregonian stories quickly linked him to pro-Trump rallies and protests.

A year and a half ago (October 2015), a community college in Oregon was the scene of a mass killing in which ten (including the killer) died.

Keep in mind, please, this is Oregon, and these things happened in the Willamette Valley, the greenest of green liberal paradises here on earth, full of peace and good will, and is a land of pacifism as it has been from the beginning. Continue reading →

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