Be Careful Following the Masses

Posted on 2015-08-03 by MamaLiberty

By MamaLiberty

The “news” is usually much more about opinion than factual happenings. And even the supposed “reporting” of things that are happening is full of opinions about the whys and wherefores, let alone omitted facts and  inaccuracies or – shall we call a spade a spade – outright lies. Occasionally the inaccuracies are corrected in subsequent releases, but the damage is usually done by then. How many people take the first thing they read or see as the absolute truth about an incident or person, and never bother to learn more? Impossible to say for sure, of course, but I suspect the number is very large. Continue reading →

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Where do we draw the line? Abortion and other forms of murder

Posted on 2015-08-02 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

A comment was made in response to a sentence in my recent commentary on “Predictions”:

If you give “this administration” – or any other – the power to “stop partial birth abortions!”, you give them the power to do all the rest of these things. Individuals, families, and voluntary associations must take back the responsibility, authority, and exercise this power to govern themselves. Nobody can have it both ways.

I responded by changing it to read “stop funding partial birth abortions.” In part, this is a matter of semantics. How do we “stop” something? I think that Mama Liberty and I agree that government should not be funding abortions, regardless of the source of the money. I used to think that we agreed on abortion itself, but this comment now causes me to reassess that understanding. And I wasn’t necessarily saying that government SHOULD have such a power, just that they do not, even though a majority of Americans oppose the evil practice. But let us explore this more. Continue reading →

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Nuns and Ghouls

Posted on 2015-08-01 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Recent events discussed on the talk shows (and much less so on news channels, especially the mainstream media) are deeply disturbing, and the response of too many libertarians both disturbs me and disgusts me. So when a correspondent sent me this quote, it set my brain on fire.

A friend shared this with me recently: In one simple quote, Sister Joan Chittister, O.S.B. (Benedictine Nun and writer/lecturer from Erie, PA) sums up the hypocrisy in the ‘pro-life’ movement as reported in the Daily Kos:

“I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.” Continue reading →

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Response to my comments on “no due process, no justice, no passport”

Posted on 2015-07-31 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

A relative sent me this rebuttal from an unnamed source:

I first took the loss this to my representative when I found that we were some had people going to fight with icis in the Mideast. This would be a stopgap measure to try to stop and this going to our enemy to fight our troops. It could be and made permanent as in the story of a man without a country. How else can we for force them to stay where they are and not return to the U.S. and cause problems here?

Mama’s Note: One has to wonder if English is not this person’s first language, or if he’s just as dumb as a box of rocks… or both. No editing even attempted. Continue reading →

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Libertarian News and Commentary, #15-30E:E is for Evil

Posted on 2015-07-31 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

At least they aren’t dead. Several stories about cops acting… like cops. Being evil.

Prison Planet (usual caveat here) has a video of a cop slamming his elbow into a restrained man, an action so callous that even the cop’s boss has decided he was wrong and has charged him with a misdemeanor wrongful assault charge. But apparently the cops had no real reason to even try to detain or search the abused man, except that the local IRS office was frightened. On YouTube, courtesy of Freedom’s Phoenix, we have a cop threatening to kill a driver who mistakenly went the wrong way on a one-way street. And the cop has such an AMAZING roadside manner: or maybe he is just mentally deficient, based on the language he uses. And of course, he is so easily identified as a cop… How stupid are we, to allow ourselves to be terrorized by these thugs? Continue reading →

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Libertarian News and Commentary, 30 July 2015, #15-30E: Good news, bad news

Posted on 2015-07-30 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good news AND bad news from the United Kingdom this week.

First, it appears that a space drive previously derided as “impossible” now supposedly really does work, according to the Telegraph. The EM drive, likened to the fictional impulse drive of Star Fleet, is capable of accelerations WITHOUT fuel other than solar energy, which would allow travel to Luna in 4 hours and Mars in 70 days. IF NASA is right. It is a British invention, so perhaps Moonraker CAN be built.

As usual, the bad news is political in nature. ZeroHedge reports that a 3-year-old child in London has been determined to be an “extremist” and placed in custody, in a creche for reeducation. Is that sick or what? The UK government grows more and more corrupt: can we hope that King William will clean up the mess in a few years? Continue reading →

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Are we to be grateful that predictions in 2008 and 2012 haven’t come true?

Posted on 2015-07-30 by TPOL Nathan

by Nathan Barton

A friend sent me a posting from Facebook which pointed out how fortunate we were that the various predictions about what the squatter in 1600 PA was going to do to us have not proved to be true: “our government hasn’t confiscated our guns, hasn’t incarcerated us in FEMA camps, and hasn’t completely destroyed the United States…at least, not yet. “

Huh?  I guess that the Facebook poster doesn’t pay attention to the news. Consider:

a. America has 25 percent of the total incarcerated population in the world. Millions of people are in prison or jail or on parole or work release. That 3 million or so is only one percent, but still… And there is much worse than just being incarcerated in a FEMA camp or a prison. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 29 July 2015, #15-30D: Garbage in, garbage out

Posted on 2015-07-29 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Garbage in, garbage out. As we continue to see the war between the hoploclasts (haters of guns) and the rest of us heat up, the WaPo spouts some more nonsense about how “regular people” can’t use guns in self-defense, once more citing a whole series of bogus, biased “scientific studies” and running a bunch of people through fake “training situations,” including one dealing with larceny which is NOT something to be commonly responded to by drawing and using a weapon. (Findlaw defines larceny as: “Larcenyis what most people think of as common theft: it is the taking of someone else’s property without the use of force from a location other than inside their home.”) Mama Liberty and I have long pushed people to get trained properly and constantly practice to use firearms in self-defense and defense of others, but this article is a push to use that as an excuse to register and control… the police state at work. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 28 July 2015, #15-30C: Warning

Posted on 2015-07-28 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

The last week has featured several warnings by prominent people, not even really covered by independent media, much less the mainstream media. These warnings point out that, in the past decades, it is not just that government has grown more powerful, but has become a threat to people that rivals that of any tyranny in history.

First, of all people, one of the Nazgul himself, Justice Scalia, as reported in Truth and Action, warns that the insane detentions of Japanese Americans in World War Two can – and WILL – be repeated on a vastly larger scale if things continue as they are, and that internment could begin very quickly. He clearly expects that the traitorous and increasingly evil SCOTUS will sustain such actions as constitutional, as the language also continues to be more and more perverted. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, 27 July 2015, #15-30B: Gun haters and Lies

Posted on 2015-07-27 by TPOL Nathan

by Nathan Barton

In a separate commentary, I discuss neutrality as regards political issues and liberty and wars. One of those fields where it is sometimes hard to tell friends from foes, and hard to be neutral, is the realm of self-defense, and the God-given right to keep and bear arms.

JPFO just published an article which they entitled “How An Anti Thinks,” reproducing an article in Salon from a Baton Rouge writer, ex-USAF, saying the Second Amendment must go. Now, Salon is well-known for its constant hatred of firearms, and its disdain for those who own and carry them. But this time, they really outdo themselves. Continue reading →

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