Libertarian Commentary on the News, 01 November 2015; #15-44A: Nuts

Posted on 2015-11-01 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Are they nuts?  Yep!  Sovereign Man tells us that Australia is “eliminating” passports: physical passports – they gonna move them into the cloud.  As the article says, a gigantic sign will say “hackers, get your data here!.”  Excellent tirade about the evils of passports and “papers, please.” Politicians gone to seed: insanity is catching.

Are THESE folks nuts?  No, but Congress is gonna think so, and the lobbyists and donors are going into overtime and burning out their checkbooks (or do donors use plastic cards now?):  Popular Science reports the nazgul ruling that says that automotive software is NOT – get that NOT – covered by copyright and that paragon of evil, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. So we are free (until Congress messes in the pool) to tweak the software that makes our cars (well, all of them but that 1985 Dodge Dakota) run. Hurry, folks; Congress is going to get flooded with money and change this to make it (again) illegal to use anything but a “certified” mechanic to work on your vehicle. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 30 October 2015, #15-43E: More stupid government tricks

Posted on 2015-10-30 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Isn’t this thing supposed to be PROTECTING against threats from the air, not be one?  In Pennsylvania, a multi-billion-dollar Army blimp crash-landed after wild chase by F-16s.  As reported by the Los Angeles Times, “After a wild four-hour jaunt above parts of two states, a runaway military surveillance blimp crash-landed in rural Pennsylvania on Wednesday, ending a bizarre incident that raised concerns — and many smiles — across the Northeast. Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled from New Jersey to help monitor the giant blimp after it tore loose from a ground mooring at an Army base in northern Maryland and took to the windy skies, according to the Pentagon.” (Tom Knapp noted “Cost of the program so far — $2.7 billion for two blimps.”)  This was the northern of two of these things that are supposed to be protecting DC.  Hmmm… maybe it wasn’t the wind?  Maybe the software got hacked, or the blimp got shot at by one of those drone guns?  Some people have already compared this runaway blimp to runaway government – which certainly shares other features with blimps. Enough is enough. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 29 October 2015, #15-43D: The Government Joke

Posted on 2015-10-29 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

We all know that government is a joke – though too often a KILLING joke. Now, in wartorn Ukraine, the New York Post reports that many people – many in a single party – are rubbing their fellow citizens’ noses in the fact, having a lot of fun doing it, and (funny and strangely) winning some elections.  The Emperor Palpatine won election to a local council seat this week, although Darth Vader, Padme, and Yoda apparently did not get enough votes. Ridicule can often be a powerful weapon, especially when people are incredibly frustrated already. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 28 October 2015, #15-43C: The Big Lie Contest?

Posted on 2015-10-28 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Is there some national or worldwide contest to see who can tell the biggest lies?  If so, we have a lot of entries this week.  Here are just a few.

The bogus debate rages, with more bizarre claims (lies by another name) on both sides. Stars & Stripes reports that a “senior lecturer” and a female colonel in charge of totally integrating male-female troops in combat units are condemning the USMC “women in combat” study as flawed for various reasons, including “not establishing standards” and “not properly screening” women for physical condition.  Never mind that in combat, the standard is a simple one: pass-fail.  Either you accomplish the mission or you do not. It isn’t like combat is graded on a curve.  And we know that whatever physical standards are established, they will be waived in the “interests” of creating a mixed-sex, emasculated combat force that is successful judged only by the correct ratios and promotion rates, NOT how well they defend the Constitution and protect the life, liberty, and property of the free people they are supposed to serve.  But the opponents of this sexual mishmash refuse to state (and may not understand) the REAL reasons for keeping women out of combat except on a case-by-case, person-by-person basis, reasons stated by Heinlein and others decades ago; survival of the race, of the people, and key physiological and psychological differences between the sexes.  That is, after all, sexist!  So we destroy ourselves. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 27 October 2015, #15-43B: Wars and Rumors of Wars

Posted on 2015-10-27 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Everywhere we turn, there are wars or threats of war, or HOPES for war. Here are a few stories about war of various kinds, this week.

Are we winning?  The war against guns?  Apparently, several liberal (“progressive”) analysts think so, as reported by Breitbart.  Indeed, despite claims by various Tranzis, the demographics of the Fifty States seem to be very much in favor of continuing to arm ourselves to the teeth, and we seem to be convincing liberals here and there that not only are guns essential to liberty, but they are pretty cool, too, and NOT for shooting up theatres or campuses.  Which, of course, convinces the demon-possessed hoplophobes to scream even louder about the evils of guns and ammo and all the rest,  while they seek more and more ways to steal our weapons out of the hands of our children, to ensure that THEIR bodyguards have more and more firepower themselves. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 25 October 2015, #15-43A: Medical and other foolishness

Posted on 2015-10-26 by TPOL Nathan

by Nathan Barton

First we have this rather fatuous article from Australia, featured in PJ Media. Should Fevers Accompanying Infections Always Be Treated With Analgesics? It discusses what seems, from the brief discussion in the article, to be a very poor “experiment” on real-life people in very bad medical condition.

Mama’s Note: I have a good, simple partial answer. First, do no harm. Some really stupid stuff here… but sadly, more and more typical of much medical “research” these days. The question is stupid to start with. Analgesics are for treating pain, not fever. SOME analgesics also reduce fever. The real question should be something like: ‘when is fever detrimental to the patient, worse than the immune response required for healing… and then, what measures are truly helpful to reduce that dangerous fever without hampering the immune process unnecessarily. Clue…” there is no one size fits all answer to that question. It depends… and there are a good many better ways to control high temps than NSAIDs. Continue reading →

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Vaccines for pregnancy – Pro and con – The battle for humanity’s future

Posted on 2015-10-25 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

A “vaccine against pregnancy” which supposedly makes muscle cells block a hormone (GnRH), is supposed to work on multiple species (“all vertebrates”) by preventing sperm and eggs from developing and maturing. It is administered by injection, and called “vectored contraception.”

This story comes from TrueActivist.com, but because I do not trust that site, I vetted it carefully. The actual publication is found here at Cell.com [pdf]. True Activist waxes poetically over how this will reduce the 70,000 cats and dogs born each day, and reduce the need to put 3,000 unwanted cats and dogs down each day. That is, of course, a very good thing. But there is, as always, a dark side to this. Remember, ANY thing can be used for good or for evil: such things are not evil in and of themselves. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #15-42C: Guns and Politics

Posted on 2015-10-24 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

It has been a bad, busy week, and so here are a few more comments about news of the week.

First off, more on gun and self-defense issues. In the last commentary, I discussed migrants, the homeless, and barbarian invasions, all of which should make us aware of the need for defending ourselves.  Yes, even against the homeless, who often are mentally ill and support themselves by petty theft.  Not all, any more than all immigrants are of concern, but whatever the threat, the ANSWER is being properly prepared and trained. And often that means being armed and knowing how to defend ourselves and others WITH those arms. Continue reading →

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What Would You Do?

Posted on 2015-10-22 by MamaLiberty

By MamaLiberty

Had a hair raising close call here last week. One of my neighbors has two very large German Shepherd dogs. He lets them run loose when he is with them – actually allows them to chase him when he’s on an ATV – and they never seemed to be a problem until last week.

I carried my 9mm carbine down to the fence along the road that day because those two dogs were chasing one of the horses just across the road from me. The pony was kicking at the dogs, and darn near nailed one too. The dogs didn’t seem to be trying to bring the pony down, but they were all running fast and at any time the pony could have stepped into a hole and broken its leg or gotten hurt running into the barbed wire. The field where the horses graze is rough, with rabbit and other holes evident. I’ve had horses, and know they can be panicked into a bad place or a fence. They don’t know the dogs are only playing. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 21 Oct 2015, #15-42B: Self-defense and Jack-booted Thugs

Posted on 2015-10-21 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Self-defense? Is it a right? A natural, or God-given right of humans? Is it something that can be, should be, must be, limited? How? By what authority? There are many “christians” who believe that self-defense is something that can be waived: given up for the sake of their faith. But many of those who claim to have given up this right seem to think that the state can protect them… hmmm.

So let us talk of self-defense in some recent circumstances: Mama Liberty noted: “Somehow, this didn’t make the MSM headlines… but did finally show up in Fox News.” She says, “It should have been a defensive handgun situation.”  An Illinois Army vet, 75, saved 16 kids (and some moms) from knife-wielding teen who stated in public and to the cops that he was planning mass murder, of the children in the library for a home school chess class, taught by the vet who used fifty-year-old military training to fight off the psychopath with the knives. This man, in a rational society, would NOT have had to face the severe injuries he received in protecting his charges. Continue reading →

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