Man Alive – A Survival Manual for The Human Mind

Posted on 2015-10-04 by MamaLiberty

By Greg Swann

Save the world from home – in your spare time!

That headline is my favorite advertising joke, a send-up of all those hokey old matchbook covers. I don’t know if anyone still advertises on matchbook covers. I don’t even know if anyone still makes matchbooks. Presumably, by now, smokers can light their cigarettes with the fire of indignation in other peoples’ eyes.

But I have always believed that ordinary people should be able to save the world from going to hell on a hand-truck. Our problem is not the tyrant-of-the-moment. The only real problem humanity has ever had is thoughtlessness – the mindless acquiescence to the absurd demands of demagogues.

That’s the subject of this little book: The high cost of thoughtlessness – and how to stop paying it. It weighs in at around 75 pages. I’m nobody’s matchbook copywriter, and I would have made it even shorter if I could have. But it covers everything I know about the nature of human life on Earth – what we’ve gotten wrong, until now, and how we can do better going forward. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 03 OCT 2015, #15-39D: Islamic wars

Posted on 2015-10-04 by TPOL Nathan

by Nathan Barton

Islamic wars abroad and at home. Coming to a town near you!

As Europe continues to get trashed by the “Syrian refugees” or invading migrants, World Net Daily reports that the FedGov is admitting that the information on these so-called refugees is both very, very limited and from sources of dubious accuracy. Hundreds of cases of forged or stolen identities have been found among those in Europe, with organized syndicates involved, and they seem perfectly willing to do the same favors for those that the White House intends to allow into the Fifty States. The mess seen in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Greece seems likely to develop quickly here. More and more reports are coming from Brit, German, and French news sources of more and more faux Syrians, actually Muslims from Pakistan, Turkey, and Egypt, are claiming to be Syrian and sneaking in with the “legitimate” refugees. (I sometimes wonder if there ARE any legit ones, or if they are all being enslaved back home.) Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 30 September 2015, #15-39C: Ain’t so.

Posted on 2015-09-30 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Someone once said that it isn’t what we don’t know that is dangerous, it is what we KNOW that ain’t so that creates trouble.  News stories today make that point.  We can see how we take things for granted, that make life worse for us, especially when we voluntarily give up the liberty that should be so precious to us.

Will we stand for it?  Government getting involved not just in regulating but in producing what we drink?  The Casper Star-Tribune reports that  Wyoming officials consider spending $3 million for malting plant to make whiskey. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 28 September 2015, #15-39B: Mining in space and other fun things

Posted on 2015-09-28 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Popular Science babbles on about how it may soon be legal to mine asteroids, and has this article filled with references to the Outer Space Treaty and how companies might be “given the right” to mine on other bodies in the Solar System.  To me, it is the wrong approach, the wrong answer, and the wrong question.  The primary question is WHO or WHAT gave ANY of the states that signed that treaty the power to regulate who does what in space?  On another planet, at least: they might have SOME claim to regulate things in earth orbit – at least LOW earth orbit.  But they cannot, LOGICALLY, not just morally or legitimately, regulate and dictate something that they cannot enforce.  No cop cars in space, fellers.  No “Space Precinct.” No Solar Patrol, no Gray Lensman. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 27 September 2015, #15-39A: Where is the outrage?

Posted on 2015-09-27 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Where is the outrage?  7 of 12 judges in an appeals court have decided that the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic order, are NOT having their religious freedoms abridged by being forced by the Abominable Act (ObummerCare) to provide contraceptives to their workers, according to CNS News. The reasoning is that the nuns are not interpreting their own religious rules “properly.” The five outnumbered judges said this was the equivalent of telling a Jew that, since the real reason for the Torah’s prohibition on eating pork was good health, and proper feeding and testing of pork made it a good, safe food to eat, then Jews can legally be forced to eat pork.  But… if that WERE the case (or if the same argument were made but it was a Muslim and not a Jew), the screams of outrage would be heard in orbit. But for these poor sisters – well, even the Pope isn’t supporting them, I guess: now he says contraception is okay, it is just abortion that is sinful. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 25 SEP 2015, #15-38E: They just don’t get it

Posted on 2015-09-25 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

They just don’t seem to get it, do they? Freedom Outpost reports the “strange” comment of a mayor about the concealed-carry gun owner who shot a bank robber who attacked him. The mayor noted his “support” for rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment, but warned that “we don’t want vigilante justice,” demonstrating the typical government official failure to understand the facts of life and liberty, and exactly what “self-defense” involves.

Although not necessarily good, Bernie Sanders gets something that seemingly most do not, as CNS News explains. Bernie Sanders is pleased with the way the Catholic Pope’s agenda is “very progressive,” which we can translate as “socialist, statist, and of course, Tranzi” transnational progressive” in nature. The man’s speech to Congress had lots about the poor and justice and the environment and equality, but didn’t even mention He Whom Francis is supposedly working for and representing: Jesus Christ. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 23 September 2015, #15-38D: Government – evil AND stupid

Posted on 2015-09-24 by TPOL Nathan

by Nathan Barton

How much worse can California get?  Apparently, as reported by The Newspaper (.com), we are nowhere near the limit yet.  The California People’s Assembly of Idiots and Tyrants has passed a Governor Moonbeam inspired law to limit statewide petroleum use by 50% (of today’s consumption) by 2030, in the interests of “fighting” global warming – note, not just gasoline and diesel use, but ALL petroleum use.  The law gives the California Air Resources Board (CARB), already a star court and eminence gris, the power to apparently do just about anything to accomplish this. They will likely raise taxes again and again, spy on drivers, prohibit everything from idling to mandating lower speed limits.  I can picture border checkpoints where people might have snuck into Arizona or Nevada to buy fuel (Oregon is likely to join CA in this: that state STILL makes self-serve  gasoline “illegal.”  Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 23 September 2015, #15-38C: Civilization Falls

Posted on 2015-09-22 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

As we watch things crumble. First, Europe:

I think that I know why Germany is changing its tune on Muslim “refugees” which are flooding Europe after “fleeing” Syria.  Or at least a major reason: Oktoberfest.  At that nasty little site, “Change.org”  someone in the Netherlands, is petitioning Stadt Muenchen (Munich) to cancel Oktoberfest as an anti-Islamic, anti-Muslim festival.  No doubt, Karnival is next.  A generally libertarian new site, Eagle Rising has an interesting commentary on it, pointing out the mess that Germany (and other European states) has gotten themselves into.  He does not point out that it is largely Euro-American meddling in Syria that has created the excuse for a “refugee crisis,” but does note the refusal of most Muslim nations to do anything productive. (Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon (a mixed-religion state) being exceptions to that.)  And he goes off on a defense of drinking for christians that is not well-reasoned or written.  (Using Martin Luther as either an example of or authority on The Way is always a bad idea.) Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 21 September 2015, #15-37B: Babies and Government

Posted on 2015-09-21 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

While reviewing stories this weekend, some odd stories popped up concerning infants. All the time we hear a constant drumbeat of excuses or “justification” for the nanny-state, the police-state, the omnipotent god the state. So compare this news to this claim.

From the UK comes a well-publicized story, reported in CNS News about a baby born prematurely at 23 weeks, which is one week before the “standard” expectation of survivability, and also one week before (in the UK and many American states) abortion is banned. (The range is from 22 to 25 weeks, I understand, but many US states have no limit on the maximum time of gestation before abortion is not allowed.)  The child was released from intensive care and the hospital a few weeks short of the normal 40-week period, but with good weight and health.  The obvious purpose of the story is to challenge the law allowing what are basically late-term abortions, laws based on “viability outside the womb” as being a definition of human life. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 21 September 2015, #15-37A: Worthless Responses to Government Crimes

Posted on 2015-09-21 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Recent actions by the EPA are, as readers of this commentary know, outrageous, and criminal – or would be if real people and businesses did them.  So what is the response?  Downsize DC proposes petitioning Congress and writing letters to your “representatives” there.  Right! What good does this do?  At best, it presents an appearance of holding to the moral high ground, but is that worth the effort?  The EPA is in the cat seat, as with the IRS and DHS, virtually all Congressmen are afraid of getting on their wrong side, and are unlikely to do anything substantial. The agencies will forgive them their political grandstanding, but not any real, substantial action.  What IS the answer?  Civil disobedience, for one.  Including refusing entry to EPA agents, if necessary filing charges of trespassing and in some cases, self-defense (ARMED self-defense) against them.  Possibly electing local sheriffs and selecting local police chiefs who understand that they work FOR those who elected/selected them and NOT for the FedGov.  Difficult, but with more potential than another e-mail or letter campaign or “petition” drive. Continue reading →

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