Politics and government – it’s not the waste water treatment plant you smell

Posted on 2016-02-11 by TPOL Nathan

Libertarian Commentary, #16-06C, 11 February 2016 By Nathan Barton

In 2016, people are learning (again!) that politics is dirty and stinks “to high heaven,” offending the nostrils of God and anyone with any brains.

New Hampshire, with just 1.3 million (not even as much as SD and WY put together) is the tail that wags the dog politically in this country. And it is, despite Free State Project claims, as dirty and corrupt as any other in the nation. World Net Daily one big stinker from Tuesday: Even though avowed Socialist Sanders beat quasi-Socialist Clinton 60 to 38, SHE has more delegates to the Demo’s national convention from NH: 15 to 13 thanks to the Democrats’ method of ensuring that the elites rule (oligarchy): she has six of eight “superdelegates.”

Mama’s Note: Nobody saying anything more that I can see about the miracle of all the “coin tosses” going to Hitlery. Not that a coin toss is even relevant – just more evidence of corruption. And by irrelevant, I mean superfluous… there is so much evidence already… you can’t wet a river. Mighty curious. Continue reading →

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Disgusting habits

Posted on 2016-02-10 by TPOL Nathan

Libertarian Commentary #16-06B by Nathan Barton

Americans have this disgusting habit of politicizing everything, especially commercials for food, and people and businesses who sell food. Remember the bakers who are being punished for not baking ‘same-sex wedding’ cakes and Chik-fil-A? And I hear that the latest GOP wanna-be-boss debates featured a question about which Super Bowl team the candidates favored. Now, a pro-choice (pro-abortion) group is crying foul over Doritos commercial “ultrasound” for the Super Bowl.

According to Fox News, “A pro-choice group kicked off a corn chip controversy Sunday night when it mocked a Doritos commercial as being ‘anti-choice’ for using the ‘tactic of humanizing fetuses.’ Some viewers laughed, while others were a little put off by the ‘Ultrasound’ ad, which showed a fictitious fetus kicking around in the womb as its oblivious and expectant father munched on Doritos. But few took the advertisement as seriously as NARAL Pro-Choice America, which tweeted ‘#NotBuyingIt — that @Doritos ad using #antichoice tactic of humanizing fetuses & sexist tropes of dads as clueless & moms as uptight. #SB50.’ The tweet (part of a barrage criticizing various aspects of Super Bowl commercials seen as sexist or anti-choice) received 348 retweets and 325 favorites.” [Steve Trinward noted: I am pro-choice and thought it was hilarious, as did a variety of people at the Super Bowl party I attended; NARAL needs to get a clue.] Continue reading →

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Syria and its woes

Posted on 2016-02-10 by TPOL Nathan

Libertarian Commentary #16-06A By Nathan Barton

The Islamic wars continue, Freedom Net Daily has a few stories to comment on, specifically looking at Syria right now, where at least four sides and a dozen nations and other groups are making hay:

First up is Canada, where the dynast Justin Trudeau, is keeping his campaign promise to end airstrikes against the Caliphate (Islamic State) in Syria, according to the Intelligencer. “Canada’s prime minister on Monday announced that the country will end airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq by Feb. 22, saying that ‘the people terrorized by ISIL every day don’t need our vengeance, they need our help.’ Justin Trudeau, following up on campaign promises he made last year, also announced that the government will expand efforts to train local forces and rebuild the war-torn region.” Even a stopped clock is right twice a day: Trudeau is doing the right thing, partly – but FedCanada efforts to “train local forces” that are just another kind of government will just fail. As the next story can help remind us. Continue reading →

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Insanity – is it catching?

Posted on 2016-02-05 by TPOL Nathan

Libertarian commentary on the News, #16-5E, 05 FEB2016 By Nathan Barton

A few commentaries ago, I noted that Canada’s dollar exchange rate is about as low as I can ever recall it being. Part of that was clearly due to Canada’s status as an exporter of raw materials, including crude oil, a situation made worse by the DC squatter’s rejection of the Keystone XL. Now, Zero Hedge tells us that many real estate markets in Canada are in “full retard” condition – idiots going bonkers. This is particularly bad in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the AVERAGE price of a detached, single-family house is now CDN$1.8 million. This may be due to the collapse of the Chinese economy and yuan, and other factors – even as millions of square feet of commercial space in Alberta’s Calgary and Edmonton sit empty and Canadian unemployment hits Great Depression levels. But apparently Realtors and house-buyers have caught some sort of insanity disease. Continue reading →

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Political correctness or lust for power?

Posted on 2016-02-05 by TPOL Nathan

Libertarian Commentary #16-05D, 05 February 2016 By Nathan Barton

Schools, that is “public schools,” or as Marshall Curtis called them, “government-run, tax-funded” (GRTF) schools (my take is often “government-ruined, theft-funded”) are more than just, in essence, penal institutions into which American children are placed for 4-10 hours a day, five days a week and 180 or so days a year for 13 years. The central purpose is indoctrination into worship of the state, including all the political correctness, workforce preparation, and social molding that any tyrant could hope for. In the past half-century, the schools have become increasingly regimented (despite claims to the contrary), with speech and actions of students (inmates) and teachers and staff more and more restricted, while the myth of local control has largely vanished. The first story shows how far it has gone in one school, one town, and one state. Continue reading →

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Signs of the Times – And Infection

Posted on 2016-02-04 by TPOL Nathan

Libertarian Commentary #16-05C 04 February 2016 by Nathan Barton

Are we recognizing the signs of the times? Is society really winding down in much of the world, or are we just getting ready for a massive change in attitude and action? Today’s stories make me wonder.

Although crime rates overall in the Fifty States are declining as gun ownership and other factors have their effect, urban areas are still NOT exactly law-abiding places, as their conditions worsen. Situational awareness is critical, especially in danger areas like inner cities. The Blaze reports how a man became an example of why some of us prefer concealed carry over open carry of a self-defense weapon: two black males knocked this man down in broad daylight and stole his pistol out of the holster on his belt. Come on! Pay attention to what you and the people around you are doing!

Mama’s Note: While open carry would obviously be a potential problem in bad urban areas, where the person is alone and surrounded by such predators, the same would be true whether he was carrying or not in all reality. It just doesn’t make the news. So the fact remains that this does NOT happen in a great many other places where open carry is acceptable and unremarkable. If these gun grabs were happening here in Wyoming, or Arizona, etc., it might be relevant to open carry… but it just doesn’t happen here. And yes, situational awareness is vital, as is the old rule: Don’t go stupid places, with stupid people and do stupid things. This prevents a lot of bad things from happening; theft of one’s gun being a very minor part of it. Continue reading →

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Technology and Old-Fashioned Ways

Posted on 2016-02-02 by TPOL Nathan

Libertarian Commentary #16-05B By Nathan Barton

I am a very strong believer in human creativity and science: real, theoretical and practical science, not the Soviet-style political (politically tainted) science we find in government agencies, universities, and “foundations” associated with government. I am not alone in this. Many free-market anarchists and even many libertarians share this idea, so I constantly investigate news about new discoveries (or rediscoveries) and inventions. Let’s look at a couple, first off.

Mama’s Note: The only way that science and the economy can be free of political contamination is for there to be no involuntary, centralized government controlling people and their property. There are things we can do to help encourage honest science in the meantime, but it will always be less than ideal until there truly is a free market. Continue reading →

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Killing around the world: Is there a solution?

Posted on 2016-02-01 by TPOL Nathan

Libertarian Commentary #16-05A 01 February 2016 By Nathan Barton

It appears that Boko Haram is “modernizing.” Many so-called “christian” groups have supplemented or replaced their Sunday worship with worship on Saturdays, apparently to reach the “unchurched.” According to the Charlotte Observer Nigerian officials say 86 dead in a Boko Haram attack on Saturday, instead of the traditional Sunday slaughters. “A survivor hidden in a tree says he watched Boko Haram extremists firebomb huts and heard the screams of children burning to death, among 86 people officials say died in the latest attack by Nigeria’s homegrown Islamic extremists. Scores of charred corpses and bodies with bullet wounds littered the streets from Saturday night’s attack on Dalori village and two nearby camps housing 25,000 refugees, according to survivors and soldiers at the scene just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram and the biggest city in Nigeria’s northeast.” It seems pretty clear that the victims and those with them were unable to defend themselves, either because they did not have the motivation, the training, or the tools (weapons), and based on the one-sided killing, it appears that the troops and police presumably just three miles away failed to respond to carry out their “duties” to protect the innocent from violent attack. No word on exactly what religious or other group was attacked this time. But I think it safe to say that these people (or their parents) seem to put their faith wrongly in the state. Indeed, another story, from Anadolu Agency, reports that Nigeria’s leader has released a Muslim general accused of murdering hundreds of detainees in 2014, instead of fightin Boko Haram. He was supposedly in charge of fighting against Boko Haram, and apparently part of his effort was to deny civilian targets to Boko Haram by having the army kill them instead. Nice to have a government and army that can be trusted like that, eh? Continue reading →

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Oregon and the Continuing Saga of Cops Killing

Posted on 2016-01-30 by TPOL Nathan

Libertarian Commentary #16-04D 30 January 2016 by Nathan Barton

Blood has now been shed in the Mahlour Standoff, this week. Freedom’s Phoenix, published a personal account from Stewart Rhodes (Oathkeepers) on the situation and people involved in the FBI killing of a rancher, Lavoy Finicum. The Rhodes article mostly talked about the fate of many in the occupation of the FWS building who left, some of whom were lied to by the FBI and are now in government custody.

It was reported by mainstream media news on Thursday that Lavoy had been reaching into a pocket in which the FBI claimed to have found a loaded pistol.

It is clear that in the eyes of most people, the occupation has failed and all who participated are enemies of the state, traitors, and criminals. Although with seemingly less bloodshed and destruction than Ruby Ridge and Waco, it has resulted in violence and death. And with little or no indication of any good results: certainly no change in the policies which the occupiers claim to have been protesting against. Continue reading →

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As The World Turns, So Does The Stomach

Posted on 2016-01-29 by TPOL Nathan

Libertarian Commentary, 29 Jan 2016, #16-04C  By Nathan Barton

The Wall Street Journal tells us that “Some Migrants in Germany Want to Go Home”. There are no official statistics on migrants leaving Germany on their own accord, but Germany’s immigration office keeps statistics of migrants leaving Germany through some programs which covers travel costs for people who prove they can’t pay for their own trip back. In 2015, a total of 37,220 people left Germany voluntarily through such programs, up from 13,574 in 2014. Most were people from Balkan countries, but the number of Iraqis who left quadrupled in the same period to 724. But Syrians currently aren’t eligible for support to return to Syria because of the security situation. But some still try on their own, or at least to neighboring countries such as Turkey or Jordan, where many Syrians had sought refuge before moving on to Germany. On government official said, “It regularly happens that people disappear. Many are ashamed to admit they made the wrong decision to come here.” Continue reading →

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