Libertarian commentary on the news, #14-11A: Crimea and America

Posted on 2014-03-17 by TPOL Nathan

Good morning!  Well, the Crimea has voted to secede and join Russia.  War hasn’t broken out in Ukraine and the Crimea yet, and the ‘messiah’ hasn’t bombed Moscow yet, or even told Pepsi to stop selling to the Russians.  The “vigor” of the condemnation of that evil man Putin and all his ilk is obvious in the blogosphere AND on the mainstream media.  As it is on a few other things this week.

On Saturday, one of the ‘messiah’s’ minions, John Kerry, has given Russia an ultimatum to get OUT of the Crimea by Monday “or else.”  Of course, the “or else” is that tired old, unenforceable list of sanctions and hand-slapping that doesn’t work for North Korea or Iran, and is not going to work for Russia – even if Russia doesn’t seem to have international law on its side.  Funny how secession is just fine for the other 14 republics of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, or for Kosovo or Slovakia, but NOT for the Crimea?  And that popular votes are fine for electing presidents or joining the EU or all these other things but NOT democracy for the Crimea to decide what they want to do?  Of course, those who are screaming about this conveniently seem to forget that “democracy” is not allowed to apply to giving special rights to homosexuals, nor to redefining marriage, nor to legalizing either medical or recreational cannabis, so who is being the hypocrite here?  It is a very broad brush, indeed.

On further thought, a friend reminded me that the ‘messiah’ is just returning to standard FedGov policy of 150+ years: secession is not just illegal but evil, immoral, and causes bad breath.  It is sure that DC will not dare to allow any of the Fifty States to HOLD an election on the subject, so the question as to whether it would be recognized is a moot point.  The business with cannabis is point of fact:

Supposedly, “the House GOP” passed a law to force the ‘messiah’ to “crack down on Colorado and Washington flaunting federal anti-marijuana laws” by “forcing” the White House to enforce drug laws.  But when I read the bill passed (which still has to go to the Senate) it seems to apply to any law – for the White House to do its job to carry out the laws passed by Congress and signed into law by past presidents.  And it appears that it was passed by the House of Representatives – whether it was a partyline vote or not.  While we can argue the merits of that idea (passing a law to enforce enforcing laws, and the wisdom of the laws in the first place) it is the way this is being spun that is baffling and noteworthy:  why have I read in a half-dozen places this is aimed at drug laws and not immigration laws or marriage laws or education?  I fall back on an old position: neither GOP nor DP can be trusted with ANY authority, and will do stupid things that don’t make sense and just cause more trouble.  And apparently they are also trying to pass a law to let Congress sue the executive branch – another baffling act considering that such a suit is an implied power of the Legislative Branch already in the Constitution.

The EPA is rotten to its slimy little core, as the second study in five years shows.  Zero Hedge reports on an IG report on FY2012 credit card purchases: in a sample of 80 (out of 67,000), 92% were suspicious and probably fraudulent.  What is worse, the 2012 information is about the same as a study in 2008.  DP administration is no better than GOP administration.  If EPA employees are willing to use government money to buy gym memberships for family members and dozens of gift cards, they are no doubt willing to lie and accept bribes and “inducements” to falsify reports: allowing people to either let pollution go unchallenged OR (more likely) to unjustly attack businesses and individuals (like the recent threats against a Wyoming family for digging a pond on their property).

Speaking of slimy government agencies, BATFE just raided a Southern California gun parts store (Ares Armor) for selling lower AR-15 receivers (80% complete, as allowed by law) and stole their customer list, despite a federal judge issuing a restraining order to prevent just that very thing from happening.  Several things are disturbing about that: the first being that the store was so incredibly stupid as to NOT ether delete the list or move it to someplace with SOME reasonable expectation of security, and apparently unwilling or unable to encrypt the list, either.  Secondly, that customers who buy this kind of part are so stupid as to not pay cash and not keep their information private.  Third, of course, that the store’s owners and lawyers would trust a federal judge to do anything but side with the government.  How many more people are going to get stung?  And how long are we going to keep putting up with this?

I think more and more people are agreeing with the strong tone of Dr. Ben Carson, recently comparing the ‘messiah’s’ America to Hitler’s Germany in using intimidation to shut up the regime’s opponents.  The good burghers of Germany MIGHT be excused for letting their nation slide into horror and abject totalitarian tyranny, do WE have that excuse? Imagine if Hitler’s Wehrmacht had the advantages of 2014’s American military in the beginning of his effort to dominate Europe and the world.  We may disagree with Dr. Carson’s specific thoughts (the GOP is NOT innocent), but it is easy to understand his argument.  Yet, no one is willing to do something about it.

Conflicting news is coming out of Houston regarding a double murder on Friday of a lesbian couple.  Some stories are claiming that this was an “honor killing” by the father of one of the two, a Muslim with an extensive criminal and sex offender record.  This is typical for the Islamic nations, as I’ve commented on repeatedly, and has happened in Canada: now we find it here in the States.  Of interest is that the mainstream media (television and newspapers) does NOT report the religious affiliation, although both right- and left-wing sources (Huffington Post and “God-bless-Texas.com, for example) are reporting it – and the accusation made by the daughter’s mother.  It is getting increasingly difficult to trust ANY media to accurately report: their agenda trumps the truth.  Again, what are we going to do about it?  “You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  You have to FIND the truth: yet all we are getting are lies.

Oklahoma is a much vaunted “red state” but this week, when 41 sheriffs went to the Statehouse for their annual get-together with the legislators, they were asked to disarm or leave.  They left.  Do you suppose the legislators had some reason to be very, very afraid of these 41 elected officials?  Our legislatures, like the Parliament of the late 1700s and early 1800s, have become corrupt, rotten with greed for power and lust for wealth.  And their arrogance is matched only by their fear that someone will treat them as they deserve to be treated: put up against the wall or hung from lampposts.

On that chipper note, I leave you for the day!

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-10D: Hype and Fear

Posted on 2014-03-15 by TPOL Nathan

Good afternoon!  Another week is nearly done, and we can rest up for the next one, right?  Meanwhile, some thoughts worth sharing (I hope and think) about news the last several days.

One thing in the news that is getting more and more tiresome is the ever-increasing hype about “we’re all gonna die” in the next (take your choice: six months, twelve months, by 2016, etc.) and that the conspiracies are in progress and we can do NOTHING (well, nothing except by THEIR book or subscribe to THEIR magazine or buy THEIR brand of overpriced, hyped, bulky food).  Of course, the various private enterprises that do this learned from the “best:” the media and the government.  Saw lots of that in the news and the ads this week.  I don’t need to give you websites – easy to find online.

In a case I’ve been watching for some time, a Saudi cleric has been released from prison after he paid blood money to the mother of the daughter he killed. The popular “TV imam” admitted he had beaten his five-year-old daughter because he suspected she had lost her virginity.  Yes, read that again, that is really what happened.  She hung on for ten months before she died: he was sentenced to eight years (you read THAT right too) in prison for this “lawful deed” [sic AND sick] (according to Shari’a) but was allowed to paid compensation of $270,000 (50% of what he’d had to pay if it had been a son) to the mother (his divorced ex-wife) and get out of jail four months early.  Islam IS a death cult: this sort of thing is written into their holy books, unlike Christianity in which the inquisition, the religious wars, and the auto-de-fe are contrary to the New Testament scriptures.  Yet, the Saudi criminal gang lords are our friends… far better to have Mexican drug lords or Italian capos.  Is it any wonder that just a few short years after the Spanish overran the last Muslim-ruled territories in Iberia (in 1492, SEVEN HUNDRED years after the Muslim invasion and “submission”), when they discovered the murderous Azteca religious rites, that they decided to wipe the Aztec out? But today, we invite this venomous snake into our homeland.  In this case, we aren’t all “gonna die” and it is unlikely that too many Americans will die in this sort of honor killing anytime soon.  Of course, the more Islamist Muslims move into the country, the more this kind of thing will happen here.

As the Malaysia airliner mystery deepens, it seems that no debris has been found after all; and supposedly the plane flew for 4 hours after losing contact? Four hours would be about 2,000 miles: a big area.  The conspiracy types are just freaking out over this: the latest theory is that this was a “digital hijacking” using the unique electronics of the aircraft, and that the airliner, with or without its passengers and crew, could be someplace in India or Pakistan, being prepared for another Bloody Tuesday.  As usual, the US is identified as the evil mastermind of the plot…  And the result?  We are all gonna die…

As Kerry is involved in a last-minute effort to stop Crimea from voting to join Russia, it appears that the Crimea’s are going to exercise the same “democratic rights” that people in places like Kosovo and Slovakia – and even Catalonia and Scotland – are willing to, despite the fact that the much-vaunted “leader of the free world” (the ‘messiah’) has said that the Crimeans should not be allowed to do so.  Unfortunately, here at home, the FedGov’s propaganda effort seems to be working as we find a new poll released Friday shows, the highest percentage of Americans since the break-up of the Soviet Union believe Russia is a threat. Sixty-nine percent say Russia presents a “very” or “moderately” serious threat to America — up 25 percentage points since April 2012, according to the CNN/ORC International poll. The percentage who say Russia is a “very” serious threat (29 percent) has nearly tripled since then (11 percent).  This is exactly what the ‘messiah’ and all his allies and puppetmasters want, as the Islamic terror threat no longer seems to motivate Americans enough.  Again, the horrormongers are running wild: the major theme seems to be that a century later, Crimea is the new Serbia and all Europe will be drawn into a massive “accidental” war as happened in the Great War of 1914-1918.  Except, of course, the United States will be involved from the gitgo.

The Nanny State metastases still more, as the DNC defends ObamaCare: ‘You have to take your medicine’ no matter what.  To add insult to injury, one of the “messiah’s” thugettes said, “There will be no delay in the penalty most Americans face under President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law if they fail to obtain health coverage this year.” Sebelius also said there would be no postponement of this month’s deadline for enrolling in coverage through new private health insurance marketplaces or the Medicaid program for the poor.  There seems to be an intent to force more and more people into dire straits, perhaps to “encourage” them to join their side as being the least painful way to survive.  Once more, the Chicken Littles are screaming about White House plots to set up a national health service (single-payer system); but others are pointing out that the whole house of cards may come tumbling down.

Here are some items from around the various States:

In Wyoming, a family is being persecuted for having a stock pond on their eight acres, by the EPA (threatening $75,000/day fines), despite having state permits.  The congressional delegation is begging the EPA to stop.  Right.  This is an example either of total hypocrisy (the two senators and representative are playing both sides of the street) or proof that Congress is a worthless collection of wealthy babblers with no real power.

Mama’s Note: You forgot a third possibility… both are true.

In Colorado, a state-employed public defender (a lawyer) has been fired for having sex with one of her clients in the Denver County Sheriff’s Office building.  But apparently, no legal action is contemplated: we must of course protect the members of the bar.

In Connecticut, a hockey referee has been arrested at instigation of the parents of a teen hockey player he ejected from a game, because he “physically” escorted the boy off the ice.  Sounds like a lot of parents in that state need to get a life.  Or maybe they should ban hockey?  Where were the REAL adults?

In Mississippi, a Baptist preacher was badly injured in an accident.  That wasn’t the government’s fault, but the ObummerCare provisions that caused his medical insurance to be jacked up by 15% and therefore unaffordable IS.  It took them months to find an alternative through the dysfunctional “health care exchanges” but the insurance didn’t go into effect until next month: result, NO insurance and a hundred thousand in medical bills.  To add insult to injury, they could have kept their original, lower-cost plan thanks to the new post-de-facto extension the FedGov so generously gave.  At least this man and his family have a family of faith to try and help.

In Texas, mainstream media used an innocent picture of a Trail Life USA troop to blacken the alternative to BSA as being neo-Nazis.  The media has for the most part refused to correct the outright lie – but then, what do we expect?  Trail Life USA was established as a breakaway movement from the Boy Scouts of America after open homosexuality (boys and leaders) was accepted by the 104-year-old group, which continues to be attacked both by the atheist and homosexual activists because their abject surrender did not go far enough.

Have a good weekend.  On the road and so there may be another extended weekend!

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Crimes of government: daily harm, daily death (Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-10C)

Posted on 2014-03-14 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning.  Every day, I see a dozen or more news stories which describe how government, at some level, for some reason, has harmed people.  Sometimes a government agent has killed or maimed yet another innocent person, or a person involved in something which might be morally wrong but did NOT justify their death or permanent disability.  Sometimes the government employee has simply refused to do something they claim to have authority to do, and this inaction results in someone’s death or injury.  Sometimes, the government does or refuses to do something that results in great financial cost to one person, a family, a few people, or thousands or millions of people.  These are not rare cases: this sort of harm takes place every day, right here in one of the Fifty States, perhaps in EVERY one of the Fifty States.  Some states are more prone to see it than others: Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and California all come to mind.  But EVERY state has this happening AND reported in the media daily.  How many more are NOT being reported?

Even if only 10 – TEN – persons were harmed each day, on average, in each state, that would be 182,500 people a year.  But it is certainly much higher than that.  Here are some very recent examples from the Fifty States:

  • A (presumably off-duty) cop in Connecticut used Facebook to threaten another man (“kick your door in and take your guns”) because of comments made about the new gun laws. (I commented on this previously.)
  • Tens of thousands of shareholders and business-owners in Herbalife, a network nutrition company, lost millions of dollars in investments and sales because the FCC sided with a billionaire opposed to the company and began “investigating.”
  • In California, a teen was found unresponsive, supposedly after overdosing on a “new street drug,” a problem due in VERY large part to the war on some drugs making far less harmful drugs very difficult and expensive to get: a process now happening with tobacco.
  • Like the DC Council, the New Hampshire lower House again voted to “decriminalize” marijuana, so that the state’s revenue sources are protected and the war on some drugs is somewhat reduced.  But it still is a “crime,” when the only victim is the person themselves.
  • In upstate New York, a high school student was suspended for wearing an NRA T-shirt (apparently because the NRA logo has two rifles in it), after he refused to turn the shirt inside out or put tape on it.  Once more, we see that basic human freedoms are not allowed in government-run, tax-funded schools.
  • In Nevada, an elected sheriff defended his deputies acting like Robin Hood and his merry men, stealing money and guns from travelers on I-80 even when no arrests were made or drugs found. Or maybe I should compare Kilgore to the robber barons along the Rhein in medieval times?
  • In DC, that piece of garbage Sebelius made it clear her thug-boss will not delay going after individuals who do not pay blackmail to insurance companies and will make them pay the blackmail to the government instead.
  • In Ohio, still more regulations will harm internet-cafe operators and their customers, as new regs are proposed to “crack down” on illegal internet games and gambling.

I may look at the same kind of thing worldwide another time, but this is enough for today.  How sick a nation, a society, a people we have become, to tolerate this kind of evil, day in and day out in our nation.

On to some other news.

White House Examining Ways to Ease ‘Family Burdens’ on Working Women? Simple, get rid of government so that it doesn’t require two incomes to support a family, and so that all of people’s paychecks are available to buy the goods and services they need at a price which does not have to support the parasites of government and everything else!

This story is almost too painful to read, about how a young man was singled out for his political views and had his life destroyed: a situation made possible because he was training as an Emergency Medical Technician, and who now is not even allowed to visit his dying grandfather.  This is what a police state some states of the Fifty have become.  Who is next, my friends, who is next?

Study: Income Inequality Greater, Growing Faster in Blue States which makes me suspect that a big cause of that is increasingly expensive, intrusive government keeping more people from making a living.  ANYthing that government does to interfere in the economy: in people voluntarily buying and selling ANYTHING, is damaging to that, and results in greater misery.

US Commander Warns: Al Qaeda reclaiming Afghanistan would be ‘Huge Moral Factor’ as well, of course, as a serious moral issue.  This is why for years I argued in support of keeping US and NATO troops in Afghanistan (keeping in mind we live and operate in an imperfect world): that the US had destroyed a nation and had a moral obligation to try and repair that damage.  Of course, one reason I have given this up is that the FedGov has demonstrated over and over its complete inability to repair the damage, and has proven that it has no other desire than to INCREASE the damage wrought both in Afghanistan and everyplace else on this planet, including the homes of those it claims to serve and protect: the people of the Fifty States.  Those people in “charge” of the FedGov have shown themselves to be totally morally bankrupt, hypocritically so in the case of those who claim to be conservative or lean towards minarchism, because they constantly take actions that are not a matter of compromise but rather serving no end but their own gluttony.

That same US Commander went on to say Al Qaeda could see ‘Great Victory’ in Afghanistan after a U.S. withdrawal, and I think that is almost a certainty.  As in Mesopotamia, the US won the war and lost the occupation: it is as if in 1956, the National Socialist German Workers Party again took over the reins of government in both East and West Germany, or as if the British came back and reoccupied the Eastern Seaboard in 1793.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-10B: Economy and hatred

Posted on 2014-03-13 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good afternoon.  Cold weather again in the news today, at least in the Northeast.  Another excuse, maybe, for our beloved masters in DC to have a day off work.

Driving across country this morning, I heard the latest outrage from our ‘messiah.’  Our beloved emperor has issued a new decree, mandating that all salaried persons making $50,000 a year or less MUST receive time-and-a-half pay for overtime, to combat “income inequality.”  Not because it is the law, but because that is what HE wants, and after all, who IS the master?  Once again, expect Congress to do nothing: lapdogs – whinging lapdogs, maybe, but as toothless and worthless as the Senate in Augustus’ time.  Meanwhile, it appears that the ‘messiah’ is trying to buy votes – but for whom?

Meanwhile, in Florida, various legislators are trying to gut self-defense to prevent “abuse.”  And in Missouri, a cabal of lying legislators try to outlaw common weapons in major urban areas. Calling it a “second amendment protection act.”  And in DC, a seemingly highly qualified (through very young) appointee to Surgeon General turns out to be a political lickboot of the ‘messiah’ who is rabidly anti-gun.  Let the NRA and some others proclaim how much better off we are as far as arms and self-defense, but it seems to me to be getting worse, not better.  As we see in Connecticut.

It appears that things are truly going nuts in Connecticut as the arguments and threats over enforcing a clearly unenforceable gun law continues.  Indeed, the guy one police officer threatened on Facebook has now been asked by the cop’s boss to work to cool things down: and the Facebook cop is under 24-hour protective detail and suspended (with pay, of course).  Meanwhile, no one is trying to see how many of the cars, trucks, planes, and boats leaving Connecticut are heavily loaded down with the 300,000 “assault weapons” and twice that many overcapacity magazines that have not been reported or surrendered.  My remarks last week stand: enough is enough: ANY attempt to steal weapons from free people MUST be met with enough force to prevent the attempt from succeeding.  Of course, secession WOULD be an option.

The cop-killers continue to prosper:  Will Grigg picked up this story: A North Vegas Police Officer shot and killed a 38-year-old man for the supposed crime of walking away from a cop.  What gives?  How long are we going to allow a uniform and a badge to trump human rights and decency and steal people’s lives for little or no reason?

The WaPo says that Democrats are pinning the Florida special election loss on dismal turnout effort, which is a convenient excuse to try and hide their failure: the “solution” is more money.  Mmmm.  That sounds like their solution for the economy, for education, and for health: spend more more – yours and mine, not theirs, of course.

Forbes has an article picked up by various and sundry and embellished on by many, about a BitCoin wannabe popping up in Indian Country.  The article and those commenting on it clearly do not understand what they are dealing with, in any way.  The guy smells like a con-artist, and con-artists pop up on Pine Ridge (home of the Oglala Sioux Tribe) like weeds after a wet spring.  The writers do not understand how the Lakota (and the rest of the Sioux) are organized, how their society and culture work, or even the restrictions and limitations on government and banks.  They apparently think that the Oglala’s Office of Economic Development speaks for every Lakota in a minimum of FIVE tribal governments, when in reality, the office can’t speak for the Oglala Tribal Council, or any of the nine districts.  And they seem to believe every word of this con-man.  In other words, the media in this case are behaving even worse than the governments normally do.  Is there any hope for economic understanding, much less cultural knowledge that does NOT create problems?

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-10A: Congress and other thugs

Posted on 2014-03-12 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning, after a long weekend hiatus from my column, dealing with all kinds of fun things.  Almost as much “fun” as in DC this week.

Incredibly, Diane Feinstein, in an act of incredible hypocrisy, denounced the CIA for spying on Senate staff.  To me, this is nothing more than a falling out among thieves (crooks); an internal squabble to see who can count coup on whom, and stick it to the rest of us more.  Now, notice, she hasn’t done this to the NSA, which shows even more that this little temper tantrum of hers is nothing but a turf fight.  Like the Bloods and the Crips, except that we are ALL collateral damage.

Of course, this isn’t the only hypocrisy in the Senate, and the GOP has their share.  Inhofe has complained that the “messiah” wasted $120 Billion on global warming, which could have bought 1400 F-35s so that the money would have been wasted on OTHER stupidity.  Do we need 1400 F-35s?  Hardly, not when we are mothballing or scrapping out A-10s – which are fine for defending the US.   Of course, doesn’t Inhofe need to go back to school and learn basic civics, that the Congress supposedly holds the purse strings and that therefore it took Congressional complicity for the “messiah” to ‘waste’ all those billions stolen from people.

Back to the CIA brouhaha, the WaPo says that the Senators rally around Feinstein, demand answers from CIA; that is, Senators of both parties voiced support Tuesday for Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) decision to publicly accuse the CIA of violating federal law and interfering with a committee investigation into the agency’s interrogation practices.  At least, some Republicans on the panel suggested that Democrats might also be at fault.  But once more, it points out this is falling out among crooks who are more concerned about their vaunted Omerta than their supposedly-legitimate oaths to uphold the Constitution.  The idea is sickening.

And still more hyprocrisy: Sen. Rand Paul says that he had lunch a week ago with Holder, which not only turns my stomach, but makes me wonder just what kind of a hypocrite Paul is, too.  Could YOU have eaten with Himmler or another of Uncle Adolph’s minions in 1938 or 1939?  I don’t think that I could, no matter what was possible.  The ONLY time a senator should be willing to talk to Holder (odd: Holder, Himmler… similar in name AND evil) is across the table in the Senate chambers during Holder’s impeachment trial.

On to other things:

On top of information from Georgia last week about the constant, continuing killing of black babies there, we learn that in NYC: 80% of abortions are minority babies, which ought to make people like the intellectual heirs of Margaret Sanger and Henry Ford all happy and excited.  We KNOW it makes the “messiah” and his minions tickled pink: they really aren’t “minority” babies as much as they are “lower class” babies, and “destroying” the environment.

Speaking of destroying the environment, according to a new report from the Environmental Policy Alliance, buildings that received the LEED “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” certification use more energy than the buildings that did not. So-called “Green” buildings are judged by LEED standards, which are one-size-fits-all and might work in the big urban areas, but when set in remote, rural, or even exburb areas, are expensive worship of “Mother Gaea” and the cult of environism.  (And therefore prove the value of that name: environists are people who claim to love and value the environment (environmentalists) but are brain-dead or just plain stupid, thus taking the “mental” part away and leaving us with “environist.”)  A green LEED building can cost 50% more than a non-LEED building, which makes it very hard to be cost effective OR environmentally sustainable, when they use more energy for their entire life.

The Blaze tells the heartwarming story of a man (no spring chicken himself) saving his 83-year-old mother from a knife- and shovel-wielding home invader after hearing the attack over the phone and racing two minutes to respond with his pistol.  No shots fired, although there was a physical fight.

At the beginning of this week, I had to travel deep into New Mexico for the first time in several years (quick sneaks across the border to Farmington or Shiprock don’t count: like visiting Dunkirk or Lille in France), to meet several groups in Albuquerque.  One thing I was surprised to see in myself is how all those “New Mexico State Police” vehicles patrolling the highways and lurking at good observation points upset me.  It is no doubt because of the recent news about the jack-boot thuggery of the Connecticut State Police and the Pennsylvania State Police.  As I have stated earlier in commentary, NO American state should have a “State Police.”  A “highway patrol” or “state patrol” (like Colorado or South Dakota has) is barely tolerable, when ALL law enforcement should be built on the Anglo common law bedrock of voluntary efforts and elected Sheriffs directly responsible to the people.  State Police, whether they are “Secret” State Police or just “plain” are an affront to liberty, even if they were reined in for a few decades.

New Mexico is indeed a land of contrasts, with Albuquerque one of the cleanest and quietest major cities in North America today, but with the disgusting tradition of Iberian government and the hideous powers given to any police by both law and tradition.  The same holds true in the pueblos, wealthy in so many ways with their glittering casinos and massive public works projects, but holding back the desert and pretending that this “good life” will go on forever.

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Some Truth About Narcotics and “Addiction”

Posted on 2014-03-11 by MamaLiberty

By Susan Callaway, RN

To paraphrase what I’m told is an old American Indian saying: Don’t judge someone unless you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.

I’ve walked in those shoes. Both as a nurse and as someone who has lived with chronic pain most of my life, I’ve seen this thing from both sides. I’ve worked with “addicts” who were dying of AIDS, and many others. I took high doses of prescribed narcotic analgesia for years, though I did learn how to eliminate the medications.

In my case there was no “addiction,” and the physical dependence was easily overcome with a logical program of tapering off over a few days. It was not always completely comfortable, but it was manageable because I understood what was going on and was in control of both my body and mind. Ignorance and fear make the process painful and frightening, not necessarily the drug.

The whole notion of some uncontrollable, overwhelming “addiction” is mostly nonsense, but very few people – including doctors – have any real understanding of it at all. The incidence of true addiction is very low, and it takes real time and work for most people to become even physically dependent on a drug, let alone “addicted.”It doesn’t happen overnight, or after a few doses. The usual “addict” is addicted to the sensations, the euphoria itself, and the fact that they no longer remember their actual situation or feel responsible for themselves. They want only to crawl into a hole and pull it in after them. Some do it with drugs, some with alcohol and some with a whole host of other things. Many choose even more destructive combinations.

Addiction is of the mind and spirit, not just the body, and it is most certainly within the control of the person involved in most cases. Taking charge of our minds and bodies, and taking full responsibility for what we choose is not always easy, but it is almost always possible. That the mistaken idea of involuntary addiction is commonly used as an excuse for self destructive behavior does not change this fact.

Is it not, then, incredibly hypocritical to throw some drug users into jail, yet maintain others in their habit, both at taxpayer expense? Neither approach solves anything and both are destructive to “society” in general and to the individuals involved. Why do either one? Why not rather leave each other alone to abide by the consequences of our choices? Who is really better qualified than YOU to decide what you will do with your own life? If you choose destruction, how is it anybody else’s business?

Many people – even some who call themselves libertarians – voice the fear that uncontrolled drug availability would lead to increased crime, child abuse and general indolence by an increasing population of users. But these fears completely ignore the reality of economics and human nature. They also often ignore the reality of the police state response to these things, and the increasing death and destruction resulting from them. And there are certainly non “state” solutions to the problem of children and other family members caught in this tangle.

Generally speaking, those who choose to take drugs, or indulge in any other destructive habit indiscriminately, tend to become ineffective and unhealthy, unable to support themselves or their families. Instead of letting nature take its course, with the individual bearing full responsibility – therefore being faced with the choice of reform or starvation and death. All too often that reform is not actually an option because they are murdered in street action or midnight police raids, or incarcerated and actively prevented from having any kind of normal life afterwards.

There should be no barrier to helping those who are willing to receive it, either through private charity or the usual fee for services on a voluntary basis. There is no need to abandon people to fight this thing without recourse if they truly want help. In reality, the voluntary approach gives us the only honest chance to help them. Those who do not choose to seek help usually can’t BE helped anyway. They simply must not be enabled to continue destructive behavior at someone else’s expense.

Supply is determined by demand. The “war on drugs” has been a signal failure in reducing either the supply or the demand. Instead, it increases the price by increasing the risks associated with production and distribution. The high price simply encourages those who are willing to take the risks. Since they operate outside “the law,” they have every incentive to settle disputes violently, and their customers have no recourse if they are sold impure or false products.

The only appropriate response to aggression, real crime, is for the intended victims to be vigilant and defend themselves. The reason the criminal chooses aggression does not alter the required response. Locks on our doors, and tools to defend ourselves make a lot more sense than prison cells and SWAT teams.

Utopia is not an option. There will always be people who insist on making poor choices and imposing on their neighbors. Some will choose to damage their lives and families this way, no matter what anyone else says or does. It seems obvious that it isn’t possible to prevent anyone from making such choices or to remove every dangerous object and substance from our world. The only world of perfect safety lies in the graveyard.

Far too many people weigh in with opinions (and vote accordingly) without having the slightest understanding how drugs (any kind) affect the human body and mind, or the realities of economics. They have been told that all “illegal drugs” are evil, always bad, and the CAUSE of crime and poverty. So, the only logical thing to do, they believe, is to ever ramp up the efforts to eliminate the drugs and punish those who use or do business with them.

We can see that this approach is really improving all of our lives…

No? Well, perhaps it is time to learn the truth and try something else. As has been stated many times; the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. The results of the current “war on drugs” are always the same: more crime, more corruption of government, more people – users and innocent bystanders – with their lives and property destroyed, and lost liberty for everyone. When are we going to face the fact that this war on drugs “cure” is many magnitudes worse than even the most inaccurate estimation of the disease?

There are many good and learned articles and books on this subject, and I’m not qualified to rewrite any of it. I’ve included a good list of references below, and urge everyone who has questions to read as much as they can – until they get the answers.

The Other War By Thomas DiLorenzo

The Egregiously Destructive War on Drugs By Gennady Stolyarov II

Lies and Myths About Opiates by Randal Cousins

Meth Mouth and Other Meth Myths by

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Addiction and Dependence

Posted on 2014-03-09 by MamaLiberty

By Susan Callaway, RN

First, define “addiction” as you understand it. Then do a search on that word. I’ll wait.

Ok, that was a trick question. But I hope you did a search anyway. In case you didn’t, here are just a few of the definitions available:

addiction
Dictionary.com Unabridged

the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

Origin:
1595–1605;  < Latin addictiōn-  (stem of addictiō ) a giving over, surrender.

 

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
addiction (ə-dĭk’shən) Pronunciation Key

  1. A physical or psychological need for a habit-forming substance, such as a drug or alcohol. In physical addiction, the body adapts to the substance being used and gradually requires increased amounts to reproduce the effects originally produced by smaller doses. See more at withdrawal.
  2. A habitual or compulsive involvement in an activity, such as gambling.

The American Heritage® Stedman’s Medical Dictionary
addiction ad·dic·tion (ə-dĭk’shən)
n.
Habitual psychological and physiological dependence on a substance or practice beyond one’s voluntary control.

And the definition has changed, seriously:

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
addiction

c.1600, of habits, pursuits, etc., from L. addictionem (nom. addictio) “an awarding, a devoting,” noun of action from addicere (see addict). Earliest sense was less severe: “inclination, penchant,” but this has become obsolete. In main modern sense it is first attested 1906,

So, we learn that “addiction” is anything from a mere inclination, through “habit forming” and physical and psychological compulsion, to “slavery” which is beyond voluntary control. So which is it? All of them? None of them? Who has legitimate authority to define this or anything else for YOU… especially at the point of a gun?

You can call any of those conditions “addiction” if you want, and you can obviously seek help with any of them – IF YOU want it. You can even urge friends and family members, seemingly caught in this dilemma, to seek help – if THEY want help.

If they don’t want it, at some level and at least some of the time, the efforts to “help” are a serious waste of time, effort and money, even when police state control freaks are not involved. And that fact should have been common knowledge long before this.

So, one must conclude that all the effort and expense is not actually geared to helping the “addict” – or even “society” – but uses “addiction” as one more excuse to control the lives and property of other people. And this is just as true of the “do-good” citizens who truly believe in that forced “help,” as it is of the jack booted thugs who do it, more or less, for pleasure and profit. And I’ve yet to see anyone explain how being beaten, shot, robbed, incarcerated – with the subsequent systematic and deliberate destruction of a person’s ability to get a job, a loan, start a business or even find a place to live – can possibly help anyone overcome an addiction anyway. Why should they bother?

Then, the fact that so many of the people affected are black, poor and often marginally educated to start with should raise a seriously large red flag as to the intentions and benevolence of the enforcers, er… “helpers.” No, the only obvious reason for any of it is the lust for control, ownership, extended to almost every facet of all our lives. And those already living on the margins are most easily controlled – or eliminated.

So many people with this fantasy of owning others, from Bloomberg in New York, to the folks next door who simper that YOU shouldn’t be allowed to eat meat, or smoke cannabis, or drive a car, or whatever, demand to control YOUR life simply because SHE/HE doesn’t like whatever and doesn’t “believe” in it. They want to control you, which is the same as owning you… except they aren’t even good pet owners because they are certainly not prepared to take any real responsibility for you… Oh no, only the control part.

We can get sidetracked into discussions of the actual, violent or aggressive crimes committed by those who have addictions, but those crimes are no different than those committed by anyone else. If drug users, or compulsive gamblers, choose to commit aggression, then that is the real problem – the only real crime – and the only thing that others in society can address. Theft, assault, murder and rape are ALWAYS wrong, no matter who does them. Real crime must be addressed with awareness and self defense, not attempts to predict and prevent those crimes – simply because nobody has that ability, let alone that authority over others.

So, we come back to the real question. Who owns your life and body? Who besides you has any legitimate authority to decide how you will live, what you will eat, drink, smoke, or anything else? If you own yourself, does it matter if someone else thinks what you do is harmful to YOU? If you have not committed aggression against anyone else, why would what you do be anyone else’s business?

Who owns your life? If it is you, then YOU must bear full responsibility for your actions and choices, including any “addictions.” If you won’t do that, then you really should just be quiet and leave everything to your masters… whoever is currently running the plantation.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-09E: Nanny state and culture warfare

Posted on 2014-03-07 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning!  Having talked about stupidity for several days, let me move on (or back) to the nanny state and all the culture war type evils we find today.

Our beloved nanny of nanny agencies, the Department of Health and Human Services, says that there will be 60,000 unaccompanied illegal alien children caught in 2014; up 815% in three years, which is a good indicator that bad as things are here, they are worse in Mexico and the rest of Latin America.  It also is an indicator that though we treat anyone under age 24 as a child in too much of the USA, many countries still send children out on their own at a ripe young age.

Newly-renominated Representative Sessions talked about the “messiah’s” budget: ‘This is the way a nation goes broke’,  which means that Sessions is NOT telling the truth or is an idiot: the nation is already broke and has been for decades.  We are in the grave, the “messiah” is just digging it deeper.  Reelecting people like Sessions is NOT part of the solution.

The Dalai Lama opens Thursday’s Senate session with prayer to ‘Budda and All Other Gods’, and we notice that the usual suspects screaming about separation of church and state are nowhere to be heard.  Nor do we hear anything about people who are offended at this eastern potentate’s causal disregard for OUR faith.

Mama’s Note: Actually, I couldn’t care less what the Senate wants to do for an opening prayer, or if they have one. People in this geographical area called America have dozens of different “faiths,” and a great many people have none at all. The people who occupy Washington D.C. do not actually “represent” any of us to start with, and certainly not in matters of faith.

The LA Times reports that almost 1 in 5 American soldiers had a “common mental illness,” such as depression, panic disorder or ADHD, before they enlist in the Army, according to a new study that raises questions about the military’s assessment and screening of recruits.  Now, how about a study of those running for Congress and getting appointed to high political office?

There is a greater divide in income between the rich and the poor (the so-called income Inequality) in the nation’s biggest cities than in the United States as a whole… A claim (or fact) which does not boggle the mind: cities – especially the big urban complexes around the world – are BAD for you.  Physically, mentally, socially, emotionally, economically, and spiritually.  They are crowded cages filled with two-legged rats (and four-legged ones, too, one of the reasons they are physically bad for you).  We’ve known for decades that if you take the ten largest cities in the US out of the calculations, the murder rate in the US drops to near the bottom of the world list – better than the UK (although I’ve never seen data from the UK that takes London, Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool out; I wonder).  Of course, the other reason for this inequality is that (a) the megawealthy (Buffet, Gates, Bloomberg and the like) AND the big-shot governmental thugs live in the big cities – including DC.  You don’t suppose government has anything to do with it, do you?

And squeaking of the big shots, apparently, some of the big shots under the iron dome of the Capitol are upset that the NSA would have the gall to spy on them and their staff, and are suddenly claiming constitutional violations.  After all, they aren’t peons like the rest of us: they are the 1/10 of 1%, and “how DARE the NSA.”  Hmmm, just reminded me of StateSec in the Republic of Haven and the People’s Republic of Haven: you don’t suppose…

Assad Likely to Flout a 3rd Deadline for Destroying Its Chemical Weapons Stock , but we just got to give him a chance: he is hoping and praying that the FedGov will collapse first, see?

Mama’s Note: I’m with him on that one… But I’m hoping governments around the world begin to drop like flies. His too.

Catholic Church on Homosexual Acts: ‘Under No Circumstances Can They Be Approved’ which apparently puts paid to rumors that Francis is going to (or has) accepted homosexual “civil unions.”  If you or I filed paperwork to establish a corporation whose mission statement was “perform murders for hire,” then you KNOW that the local sheriff would come a calling.  A civil union exists only because two people, engaged in sin as defined by thousands of years of history and every MAJOR religion, including christianity, want to pretend to be married, and don’t want to “rile the natives” too much.  It is a charade, and has little to do with claims of inheritance and hospital visitation rights and all that: which could just as easily be established though a simple partnership agreement and an exchange of powers of attorney.  But the people who go in for this kind of thing (as well as the “calling a tail a leg” business of “homosexual marriages”) want AFFIRMATION of their actions, of their lifestyle, and they are willing to go to horrific lengths to get that affirmation, or at least the shabby pretense of it.  That is why some people so viciously attack church-owned resorts, bakers of wedding cakes, wedding photographers, and banquet facilities.  Of course, there are heterosexuals who also have this pathetic need for affirmation of their lifestyle and actions, even from the very religious organizations they denigrate and reject.  (I know (unfortunately) a woman who once told me, “The reason that I’ve been married five times is because I respect marriage so much.”  Which shows she does not understand the institution in the least.)

Why do I bring this up in a political, anarchist webzine?  Because the home – and the institution of marriage which is the most stable foundation of the home – is the fundamental building block of society.  Not the neighborhood or the community or the county or state – and absolutely not any “national identity” or similar manmade organization or framework.   The decay of the home and family for the last 80+ years is a key cause for the decay of society and the growth of government.  The more the family and home is damaged, the less stable everything else in society is, and we are reaping the results of many decades of that damage.  Starting with the Great Depression, continuing with WW2 and the Cold War, the troubles of the 1960s and 1970s, and the last 30 years of liberal ascendancy, even while the more extreme forms of “family” are visible in the light and trying to make the mainstream, we see more and more societal decay.  Wonder why?  Perhaps because government, never strong on encouraging good morals, has gone to even MORE strongly actively promoting immoral behavior, starting with stealing and waste, fraud, and abuse?

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-09D: More Stupidity, especially about Russia

Posted on 2014-03-06 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning, as we enjoy a nice clear morning in the Four Corners, and hope that you are warm and safe.  After the last column on stupidity, a whole bunch of interesting stories illustrating more stupidity showed up, so I’m doing a second series of commentaries.

The LA Times has a story about a poll explaining how stupid most Americans are, because they don’t know technical terms for computers and the internet.  It may be the case, or it may be that at least SOME of the people responding to the internet/phone poll-by-invitation decided that they were sick and tired of surveys and decided to have some fun.  I know I’ve been tempted, just as I have been tempted to call into some talk shows with insane comments, just to mess with their minds.  Have you?

Mama’s Note: I’ve answered exactly one “survey,” done by a nurse’s group I joined more than 20 years ago. Other than that, I toss those coming by mail and hang up on those who call. It’s not only a waste of time, it leads to more and more misinformation. The “questions” are always slanted to obtain the answers they want. And any that don’t fit can so conveniently be lost…

A long-scheduled Russian ICBM test was successful and on-schedule.  Despite it being scheduled and announced (notification to the US was given months ago), there are a lot of people who are reacting as though it was launched across the bow of a US warship in the Black Sea, as part of the Russian “escalation” of the Ukraine crisis.

Speaking of paranoia, the nut-web bunch seem to be saying that NATO and the US have been planning the current mess in the Ukraine and Crimea since the end of WW2, if I understand their meandering.  These people are as bad as those who claim that Putin is implementing his grand plan to reestablish the Soviet Union.  This is akin to those who claim that all they need to do is say the right magic words in the right place (often, the US Supreme Court) and all the evil FedGov things, from the Federal Reserve to the Income Tax to the EPA will vanish in a cloud of emerald smoke.

Mama’s Note: Don’t we just WISH? And why, pray tell, have these marvelous words not been spoken already then? Sheech.

Back to Russia and Putin: With full justification, Putin points to U.S. interference in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya in responding to the ham-handed, stupid U.S. threats against Russia for getting involved in Urkraine, and specifically the Crimea.  It is not a bad comparison but the hypocrisy of the U.S. (well, the FedGov) is (as always) massive.  And of course, he won’t make the FedGov and the “messiah” shut up: they are too stupid to understand the risks and to understand that there is a reason that Russians love their strongmen rulers.

American politicians and “foreign experts” are apparently SHOCKED that Russia is playing the same cards that the US frequently does, by pushing back at the FedGov’s threats to isolate and punish Russia for “invading” the Crimea.  News and claims continues to be controversial and conflicting, but it looks more and more like (again) the FedGov is lying about what is going on and what happened.

FLASHBACK: Only Minor Punishment for Russia Last Time It Sent Troops Across the Border, in major part because there was no way that the U.S. could intervene in Georgia, given its location.  Of course, if the US wants to get more enemies in and around the Black Sea, the FedGov could intervene in Crimea and drag Turkey into a shooting war with Russia.  Remember, about 160 years ago, Turks (specifically the Ottoman Turkish Empire) OWNED the Crimea and lost it to Russia despite Brit AND French aid and intervention.  Since Turks are the third largest ethnic group in the Crimea (after Russians and Ukrainians), it is a recipe for trouble.

Not really heard much about this in the mainstream news, but an anti-war activist detained and injured in Cairo says that the U.S. Embassy ‘was missing in action’ just like in Libya (Benghazi) and a good many other places around the world.  Not that ANY of us would expect the State Department to come down on the side of anyone who is Anti-War. Kerry’s main job these days seems to be to anger anyone and everyone he can, perhaps in the hope of getting them so mad that they shoot at us.  Of course, his instructions from the “messiah” (or the Tranzi master council) are to push homosexuality and global warming, which are enough to rile anyone sane or insane.  Doesn’t he do a good job?

Former VP candidate Paul Ryan says ‘I can’t believe we lost to these guys.’ Well, Mr. Ryan, it wasn’t due to lack of trying: the Presidential candidate, what WAS his name, oh yeah, Romney, worked very hard to help keep the bogus incumbent, the “messiah” in the White House, and succeeded very well.

Reid blasts Kochs again: ‘two very wealthy individuals who intend to buy their very own Congress’, which of course upsets him: he and his cronies (including the “messiah”) and their backers/controlers paid VERY good money for Congress, and don’t want to lose their investment in both Democrats and Republicans.  Let the Kochs go out and find their OWN country to buy.

Obamacare’s Disincentives to Work Are a Good Thing, NPR Spins, since it will give them more listeners.  Keep in mind, for NPR to flourish, they need “professional” and “middle/upper class” people with no jobs or fewer jobs.  The lower class and the underclasses don’t listen to NPR, they listen to Top 40 and Hiphop (or whatever garbage is currently in style) and (at least in the West and South) the latest excuse for “Country Western” – which isn’t either.  So if those who were “more gently raised” don’t have jobs, well, NPR’s rating boom!  And all their sponsors will shell out more moolah.

A Long Island New York man is facing a manslaughter charge after he shot and killed a suspected burglar almost seven months ago.  Family surveillance cameras will be used by the family to defend him in court, as police claim that the only weapon carried by four men who apparently assaulted his home was a pellet gun, and that he was not within his rights to use a shotgun to wound and kill one of the attackers.  At night. Typical for New York, no?

Mama’s Note: My understanding is that this man fired at the robbers as they were running away. He would have been within his rights to shoot while they were actually threatening him, but not as they fled. That’s the part that is not being reported or discussed, and makes all the difference.

An Obummercare “expert” claims that health insurance “as we knew it” is toast and won’t exist in a few years.  A friend and correspondent was told that it may not be years, but months, and that BlueCross/BlueShield may totally disappear: ending a massive health insurance provider once and for all.  And perhaps triggering a massive meltdown of much of the economy – offering opportunity for a massive FURTHER government expansion into health care.

Mama’s Note: Or not… It will depend a lot on the response of the medical professionals and their organizations. From what I’ve read, most medical professionals will refuse to have anything to do with any form of Obummercare, and those who do will be simply overwhelmed. Some meeting of the minds, to reinstate true forms of catastrophic insurance or other forms of risk pools, would be ideal. Unfortunately, the entire economy and irrational, non-voluntary government will probably have to collapse first.

Health “insurance” as we know it now is doomed, one way or another. What will take its place is up for grabs. Here is someone with great, free market ideas. And it seems to be catching on. The Oklahoma Surgery Center does not accept Medicare, Medicaid or any other insurance or government subsidy. They post their cash prices on line, a tiny fraction of what even the “not for profit” hospitals charge. Dr. Smith blogs here too, and gives us the best of his great understanding of how current “health care” works, and what it will take to fix it.

Bloomberg and other hoploclasts are now urging Facebook to prohibit guns on their website.  In the form of talk, of course.  Does ANYone know of a single person killed or even wounded by a picture or a discussion of a firearm on-line?  One?  The liberal/progressive panic about guns once more.  Pointing fingers, wearing shirts with gun pictures, having key-chains with tiny miniature guns: all of these are MORE important than people being able to defend themselves.

Mama’s Note: This false panic isn’t about self defense any more than it is about safety. It is ALL about control. They want to do things to us that we won’t allow as long as we have guns.

Global warming is destroying the world, one waterfall at a time.  Niagara Falls has frozen AGAIN this winter, because of the “insane” cold in the Eastern US and Canada.  Right, global warming is going to kill us all.  By the way, the pictures at the link are beautiful!

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-09C: Stupidity high and low

Posted on 2014-03-06 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning, to all my “non-stupid” readers.  It is so easy to get frustrated with the demonstrated lack of competence across the board these days.

DHS tells the Romeike Family “you can stay”, just the day after the U.S. Supreme Court denied their appeal for asylum. HSLDA is glad, but baffled, as we all are.  But maybe the DHS figured that the distraction value had reached its limit.  Or maybe everyone in DHS is as stupid as the TSA thugs in most airports seem to be.

Putin claims that Russia has no plans to annex Crimea as well as stating that the Crimeans should determine their own fate, and pointing out that  Yanukovych was overthrown by a coup and NOT by a revolution or rebellion.  Whether we believe him or not, he is more plausible than the “messiah” or minion Kerry, to say nothing of Uncle Joe.  Picture what it would be like if a French Canadian prime minister were overthrown as the result of a bogus street revolt in Ottawa led by a cabal of Western provincial English speakers, encouraged and aided by Russia.  How would many in the US respond? Or for that matter, France, if the use of French were outlawed by the new “populist” “English-only” regime?

Related to this, an RT (Russia Today) TV newsbabe resigned from the network, on air, claiming she was sick of repeating Putin’s lies.  The woman (an American and “proud” to be one) whose grandparents were Hungarian refugees from the Soviet occupation admitted doesn’t have a good opinion of Russia and Russians, which might be influencing her.  While I suspect that she might be buying into the White House propaganda (as WAY too many conservatives are), I suspect that she will have to find another profession, as whatever other network or “news” outlet she hires on with is very VERY likely to have even MORE troubles with the truth than RT.

Targeting Student Aid, that is, making financial aid dependent on a student’s college readiness could better target taxpayer dollars… according to an article republished in Daily Policy Digest.  Well, that may be, but a FAR better solution is to get the government (at ANY level) OUT of the education financial aid business.  There are multiple advantages, including moving higher education closer to a free market so that prices and demand/supply determine the value, not some legislature or session of Congress, ending government meddling with the content of education, and allowing money to be spent (voluntarily) on those who can benefit from a college education and not just four more years of childhood.  But even THIS modest reform proposal is going to be rejected as elitist and racist, since to sort potential students into sheep and goats is obviously discriminating and sure to harm their delicate little egos.  And show up the public (government-ruined, theft-funded) primary and secondary schools as the worthless institutions that they are.

“In an effort its spokesman has described as ‘outreach to rednecks,’ the Kentucky Baptist Convention is leading ‘Second Amendment Celebrations,’ where churches around the state give away guns as door prizes to lure in the unchurched in hopes of converting them to Christ.  The “social gospel” gone to seed, as Baptists no longer have much faith at all in the REAL Gospel, and must bribe people to come in (not just to win one of the 25 handguns being given away, but for a free steak dinner)!  Fortunately, most Baptists have departed so far from the simple christianity of the New Testament that their stupid actions won’t bring as much reproach on true faith as they might have, say a century ago.

Once again,Quebec’s Free Quebec Party is trying to get a majority in the provincial parliament, leading everyone to think that they will again try to get enough popular votes to be their own nation.  No doubt, once again they will be disappointed: too many Quebecois see too many advantages to staying in the federation.  Too bad: a seventy-state solution for North America would be a big improvement.

“A judge in the US has ruled that lawyers representing Amazonian villagers used bribes to secure compensation worth billions of dollars from oil company Chevron in Ecuador. So the Amazonian villagers can’t use US courts to enforce the ruling.  Tom Knapp noted, “I bet there was some bribery going on. But I wouldn’t be too quick to conclude that bribery only happened in Ecuador …” I note that just because they can’t use the US courts, they could still get a lot in Ecuador and other Latin countries where Chevron operates.  For one thing, who trusts an American judge to tell the truth (or decide truthfully), bribery or not?  Assuming a US judge has ANY jurisdiction, the question is not whether or not there was bribery in Ecuador, but whether or not the damage really happened, and whether or not Chevron is to blame.

“The District of Columbia City Council voted Tuesday to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana in the nation’s capital. These people (as we know from other actions) are born stupid.  The Mayor intends to sign the measure, which replaces jail time with civil fines but does not legalize the use, possession, sale or growing of cannabis; they clearly want the revenue and to save space in jail. Apparently no one thinks that Congress will veto the measure, because Congress is divided and both houses must approve a veto.  Of course, it is STILL going to be illegal federally (Schedule 1, remember?) so this could be funny indeed.  How many in all those big fancy buildings will toke up, despite federal law?

DNC members can’t think of a single Hillary achievement, at least not one they are willing to admit to.  Those of us who see her an another poster child for nanny-state and Tranzi tyranny can think of lots – but again, none that SHE would be willing to admit to.  Her record can speak for itself, including the way she lets her hubby run wild.

Mama’s Note: Mr. Clinton is responsible for himself. If she had any integrity or moral compass, of course, she’d have divorced him a long time ago, but it’s not her responsibility to control him. She has enough evil on her own plate without that.

Speaking of wives and husbands, the “messiah’s” consort and his incredible Let’s Move front organization have admitted that 1.6 million paying students have dropped school lunches, as apparently there are ‘challenges with palatability’ thanks to the consort’s efforts to promote “healthy” meals for children.  So, as an”unintended consequence” of this wonderful plan to keep children from getting fat and developing deficiencies, the cost of the federally-subsidized school lunch programs goes up as well.  Of course, there are other consequences to her nanny-thug approach.  A correspondent reports to me that school cafeteria workers “tearfully” refuse to let Lakota children on several reservations have seconds because they are “forbidden to” by federal regulations (and thugs), which is a definite problem (as reported) because too many of the children with boozing or drugging parents and siblings have little or nothing (except for some junk food, maybe) to eat at home, and often the school lunch is the only meal that they get on weekdays.  Seems to me like if they are driven to tears over this, they’d try to work around the feds and the thugs, but perhaps being the descendents of seven (or eight) generations of what are essentially welfare drones courtesy of Honest Abe and Carl Schurz and their ilk back in the 1860s, they literally have had initiative and compassion bred out of them

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