Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-05E:

Posted on 2014-02-01 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning, and the end of the week is upon us.  But rest assured, the stupidity of government officials does not flag.  Nor does that of the usual crop of statists, Tranzis, government-worshipers and nannies.

Alan Korwin of JPFO sent me info about a Fox News story “20 children hospitalized for gun injuries each day in US” that reports on a Pediatrics journal release about a Yale study, that as Alan suggested, is the latest Bloomberg effort to use bogus science to get more and more gun control.  While I may comment in a separate rant on this, I want to get my two cents in now.  First, although I haven’t seen the “study” yet, I can assume just from the short description that it makes all the usual wild accusations and produces the data in a way that maximizes their already shaky numbers:  for example, one common practice in gun violence studies is to define “children” as being under age 21.  Another is to classify intentional shootings by cops and other gangbangers and those fired in self defense as “accidents,” and according to the blurb, this count of 7,000+ a year includes broken bones and other injuries that are not directly inflicted by a gun.  (Maybe too excited about getting out of a house or yard that has been targeted for a drive-by shooting and injuring themselves and others?  I’ve seen it happen.)

Steve sent me an interesting article entitled “Why even failed activism succeeds” by David Swanson.  As Steve told me: ” I don’t claim to agree with the general philosophy of the author or his political leanings, but I wholeheartedly agree with his premise.  I have seen it first hand.” As have I.  And I also agree that I am NOT a supporter of many of the political causes Swanson discusses.  Still, like Steve, I agree with his premise, but he is still living in la-la-land.  Especially what he says here: “The beautiful thing about nonviolent activism is that, while risking no harm, it has the potential to do good in ways small and large that ripple out from it in directions we cannot track or measure.”  Any widespread nonviolent activism, if it starts to make a difference, WILL run serious risk of harm to the activists and those who are attracted to them and follow them.  MLKJr’s supposed “nonviolent activism” did that as did the follow-up to Rosa Parks’ nonviolent actions, and today we see it happening nationally and internationally on all points of the political diamond.

Deputy US Attorney General James Cole told the New York State Bar Association annual meeting on Thursday that the guy in 1600 PA will take “executive action’ to reduce prison populations. Now, given that “executive action” is often an euphemism for assassination, killing individuals or groups, and given the “messiah’s” bloody hands (he has ordered actions which have killed thousands of innocent women and children around the world, directly, and indirectly hundreds of thousands), it does pose a very “simple” solution to prison overpopulation.  Maybe I am thinking of this because of recent news stories about 55 graves at the Dozier School for Boys in Florida, from more than a century ago.  What are a few thousand more dead druggies and white-collar crime perpetrators to the people in DC?

The EPA Administrator has told scientists to ‘Speak the truth’ on Climate Change (aka Manmade Global Warmiing) to meet Obama’s ‘needs’, at a conference in Virginia (inside the Beltway, of course).  This amounts to “be good little political scientists” and I am sure that thousands will obey their massa’s commandments.  Is it not curious how the more evidence is actually found that global warming is NOT real, that the more the Administration and the Tranzis and their minions double down on it?

Doug Lawson, president and CEO of Kingdom Trust, a South Dakota firm, says that the “messiah’s” plan to told CNSNews.com call his new government-sponsored retirement program “MyRA” in Tuesday’s State of the Union address because that’s the same name as his firm’s four-year-old “keynote” investment product.  Doug, like many others, is learning that the government is a criminal organization that will steal ANYTHING.  I am immediately reminded of the story the prophet Nathan told King David about the rich man stealing the poor man’s only sheep.  Of course, perhaps the “messiah” and his minions can come up with a more accurate name: how about “Social Security eXtreme” – since all this piece of garbage that he spewed out on Tuesday IS, is a new version of the same old Ponzi scheme that FDR got passed through a greedy and stupid Congress.

Pope Francis is telling Notre Dame University: defend the freedom of the Roman Catholic Church. So sorry, but the REAL church is NOT amenable to the laws of man, as Christ Jesus told Pontius Pilate so long ago.  What he and other people of faith should be concerned about is the freedom of christians to live and practice their faith.  The pope, the cardinals and other bishops of the RC Church should be working to defend the faith – and therefore the liberties – of every one of their parishioners AGAINST government.  Anything less will just show that the hierarchy of the RC Church is STILL allied WITH the State against God.

Did you see this?  Attorney General Sergeant Schultz – opps! Holder, proclaims ‘I Don’t Know Anything…’ Holder denies knowing that the IRS investigator was an Obama contributor. What a familiar statement from this evil man.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-05D: Sad examples of government goons

Posted on 2014-01-31 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning!  There are always some bizarre things to report in the news.  If the thugs and mentally/morally-challenged people in government didn’t treat us all like serfs and lord it over us, they would be comic relief most of the time.  Today we have some examples of just how sad they can be.

Our beloved HSS (Homeland Security Secretary, emphasis on SS) tells us that all the border jumpers have ‘earned right to be citizens.’ Ignoring the dubious benefits in 2014 of being a citizen, exactly how have their earned it?  By finding their way across an imaginary line in the dirt (and sometimes over or under a fence)?  Even advocates of totally open borders have to view this as proof of the insanity of government and those currently in it.

Just to make it clear, I did NOT watch or listen to the big talk made by the squatter in 1600 Pennsie, but just reading to comments from both sides makes it clear he speak with forked tongue, big time, and that his imperial posturing is just getting more pronounced.  Among other things, apparently he has credited Michelle Obama with lowering childhood obesity and several folks have opined that he was just offering some new handcuffs to try on.  I don’t know why he would bother: plenty of those around already, and if you don’t have one handy, zip-ties work pretty well.  But the real thing to remember is that WE (you know, the American people) GAVE him and the rest of the goons the handcuffs.

Apparently, I was not alone in NOT watching, as it seems that Obama’s State of the Union attracts 33.3 million viewers, fewest since 2000 (or so sayeth the WaPo).  I am glad so many of us are learning not to waste our time.  And I bet stress levels nationwide on Tuesday night were lower than they could have been, too.

Well, “my” representative, Kristy Noem (R, SD) is crowing that she helped get the $956 Billion Farm Bill out of the House on a bipartisan 251-166 vote, It was ONLY 954 pages: what a BARGAIN!  Less than $1 billion per page.  And they DID NOT cut ANY money from SNAP (you know, the PC name for Food Stamps) so we will not see any bodies of people dead from starvation on the highways in South Dakota (just those who froze to death because of manmade global warming).  And as ALWAYS, it was filled with the tastiest kinds of pork to let all the usual participants feast for the next five years.  Congress is so NICE to us, isn’t it?

(By the way, I was reminded that one of the nifty little things hidden in this is a NEW tax of fifteen cents on every living/formerly living Christmas tree (I’m sure it is politically correct and refers to it as a “holiday tree”) sold in the US, to create a slush fund for the national Christmas tree growers association to blast us with advertising to “buy real.”  Since they could not get their growers and members to cough up the money voluntarily, they are using the fists and guns of the IRS and government in general to shake down their own, and therefore everyone of us who buys a tree.  (Not me: went artificial years ago.)

Mama’s Note: I have a potted Norfolk Island Pine tree in the living room. It’s been my “christmas tree” for a long time. I didn’t bother with any decorations this year, but usually it is hung with .22lr rounds as “ornaments,” and a few little bows. Fantastic conversation starter.

Were you shocked?  I sure was, to learn that the “chief minion” of the “messiah” (Vice President Joe Biden) thinks he’d make a good president starting in 2017.   At least, that is what his heart tells him! I was kind of hoping his heart would be like that guy in “Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy,” the worst poet in all of history, time and space, whose heart leaped out through his throat and strangled him to save the galaxy.  Of course, that would have been hard, with that foot in the way.  And I guess he IS of that branch of Tranzis or liberals or democrats whose hearts are Sooo big that they had to sublet space in the skull, which doesn’t leave room for any brains.

Reports come from the Philippines that dozens were killed after a “peace” agreement was reached in Mindanao apparently because cops tried to arrest some of the Muslim rebel leaders.  Mama Liberty pointed out that she can’t seem to get over how violent these people seem to be, Muslim or otherwise.  The Philippines’ history is in so many ways a continuation of 1300 years of Iberian history, and this is not the first (or even the tenth) “peace agreement” and is not much more likely to succeed than the previous ones.  Spain’s centuries of military government warring against Muslims continues halfway around the world for the same reasons: fear, hatred, revenge, and people unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the shoe is on the other foot – or the other body.  Boko Haram, an Islamist terror organization, killed at least 85 people and injured 40 more in the latest Sunday attack against christian villages.  Islam continues to be a religion of peace – in death, at least.  It is this sort of thing that can make us more sympathetic to the attitude of the people in the Philippines, even though I condemn their aggression against the Moros.

A new study claims that humans can’t live in space, or so the mainstream media is slanting it.  The body isn’t prepared for space because we didn’t “evolve” in space, or so they say.  Putting aside the obvious error about “evolving,” this seems to be a typical Luddite/Tranzi reaction.  Folks, we are NOT getting out of this life alive!  We are all going to die, and even if our lifespans were cut decades short because we live in micro-gee in space, will it be any different than in the bad old days (you know, the 17th or 18th century, or the 20th century on most of the planet) where the average life expectancy was 50 or so?

Mama’s Note: The silly part of this sort of ludditism is the idea that humans can’t adapt and invent machines, etc. to compensate for the problems. Humans have had to adapt their machines and technology to survive in a great many hostile environments, and will continue to do so. Space is a very large challenge, on many levels, but it is not insurmountable in the long run.

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The government WILL disarm us, IF we let them

Posted on 2014-01-30 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Usually, the columnists over at FreedomOutpost.com are thoughtful, make pretty good analyses, and understand the world we live in.

Sadly, Tim Brown fails to meet that mark, when he writes, “Our government isn’t going to disarm us.” Although the headline is to the effect that government “can’t convincingly justify disarming” the people, he states baldly and wrongly a different proposition.  When I started reading the column, I thought he would point out how many millions of us are armed, how many millions of firearms and other weapons are out there, and how much ammunition and training and practice many Americans have.  I was wrong.

Here is part of what Tim Brown wrote.

“It can’t. Let me explain why. We currently live in a constitutional republic. Because of that, our elected and appointed leaders are legally obligated to defend and uphold the Constitution. Our Constitution currently protects our citizens’ right to keep and bear arms. There are really only two ways our government could disarm us: They could abandon the Republican principles upon which this country was founded, or the people themselves could willfully disarm.

“One way our government could disarm us would be to label us all enemies of the state. Historically, governments have disarmed people because they perceive them to be a threat.”

Tim, oh Tim, what on earth are you thinking?  This is pathetic.  I cannot believe that Freedom Outpost would even publish such a piece without extensive editing.

First, ONCE UPON A TIME we were a “constitutional republic.”  But no more: daily, in virtually every state and a hundred times in DC itself, the principles AND the letter of the Constitution are violated with impunity by government employees, from the very members of Congress and the occupants/employees of the White House down to meter maids and dog catchers and low-level bureaucrats in cities and towns and villages.

It has been decades since “elected and appointed leaders” (itself a poor phrase to use) have been held to their freely-taken oaths to “defend and uphold the Constitution.”  As L. Neil Smith and many others have pointed out, the Constitution protects NO rights, as it is toothless and ignored: not just the Second Amendment but EVERY one of the ten of the Bill of Rights.

The Federal government and state governments have long ago abandoned the republican (NOT “Republican”) principles upon which this country was founded, just as they have abandoned the basic and essential concepts or principles of liberty, moderation, and personal responsibility.  LONG AGO.  And much of the population of this country HAS willfully disarmed, desiring security more than liberty, allowing fear to rule their lives and lead them to try and rule the lives of others.

And Tim, virtually all Americans HAVE already been labeled as “enemies of the state,” including the very soldiers that Congress and the imperial White House send out to “police the world.”  Certainly anyone who actually believes that the Constitution has ANY authority in 2014 is such an “enemy of the state.”  But that is understandable, because we ARE a threat.  Indeed, the government officials and their minions have made us a threat, by treating us like slaves, stealing our liberties and our money and our self-respect, in ways that only a few great tyrants of history have dared to do.

Later in his article, Tim Brown goes on to caveat his initial words, but STILL refuses to admit the fact that the government of these formerly united States in 2014 is unconstitutional, illegal, immoral AND seeks and works actively, daily, to take away the liberties of its own people and people around the world.  This government HAS ceased to be representative, and it does not matter WHAT ideals it was founded on, those ideals have been abandoned.

The people in charge, not just in DC but in most state capitals, not just CAN disarm us, they are working actively to disarm everyone they possibly can.  And they WILL succeed if we let them.  And if we believe that all these things Tim claims that are so, we will let them.

The hollow, un-dead shell with its pretense to following the procedural elements of the Constitution is fooling Tim, I guess.  Let us try not to let it fool us.

Mama’s Note: Unfortunately, the “constitution” was a hollow shell as well – right from the start. “Representation” only works if the people so “represented” actually agree to it, and are free to repudiate that agreement whenever they wish. The difference is obvious if you compare any level of civil “government” and a person’s relationship with an attorney. You can hire and fire the attorney at will… can you opt out of the US Government?

Nobody in the world is actually free to opt out of the control and chains, regardless of the political system that claims the place where they live. Those with the means to do so may choose a lesser evil, a more benevolent master, or one that just doesn’t pay as much attention… but none of us are free. And none of us ever will be free unless we can eliminate the idea that any person or group of persons has any legitimate authority to control our lives – or even to “protect” them – without our full consent, and subject to our withdrawal at any time. There is no such provision in the “constitution” or the “republican” form of government.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-05C: Mexico and DC – partners in crime?

Posted on 2014-01-30 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

The Mexican government said on Monday it had caught a leader of the Knights Templar, one of the many violent drug cartels waging war against the Federales.  At the same time, Mexico City is co-opting the so-called vigilantes in the war against the drug cartels.  Why “so-called?”  Because most of them are NOT taking the law into their own hands:  vigilantes as in San Francisco in gold rush days acted as police, assault troops, judge and jury, and usually executioner.  These people are simply defending their communities and themselves against both the drug lords AND the thuggish state and federale police.  If they are co-opted (and if the Federales are telling the truth, I must add), that means that they have failed in their mission: now it is again Ciudad Mexico and Hermasillo or Monterrey or Ciudad Juarez calling the shots, not the local volunteers and their freely elected leaders.  Too bad.

The Pacific Research Institute point out what any real observer already knew: Health Insurance Was Not a Free Market Prior to ObummerCare. Comparing what we had in 2009 and what we have today is NOT comparing apples and oranges, but two different varieties (Jonathan and Delicious, maybe?) of rotten, stinking apples which have been pulled from the bottom of the dumpster after sitting in there the whole month of August.  Indeed, anyone who has studied the history of the decline of the medical profession and health care in this country can trace ALL of it back to government interference in the system, starting with the medical schools and licensing back in the early 1900s and continuing through the tax system messing with the insurance and all the rest, including ALL the parts of Medicare and Medicaid.  Which is WHY the Abominable Act is just causing the system to crash sooner than later: it is solving NONE of the problems, just making them worse.

Well, well, it seems 35.5% of disability beneficiaries Have ‘mental disorder’; 43.2% in D.C. and I would assume that many of them are ex-federal employees (and maybe not “ex” for that matter) or ex-elected officials.  No, it isn’t DC that drives them to distraction (I’m trying to be nice and not say “mad.”) but that they are ATTRACTED to it.  Like flies to… well, you get it. Which reminds me, did I tell you about that new “Bait-n-Blast” for coyotes?  It smells like long-dead cow, which is kinda what I figure the mental scent of DC is like.

The State of the Union (or is that “Stench of the Onion?”) speech last night once again featured the august, imperial presence and dominant personality of the “messiah” in a setting which is not quite as Romanesque as I am sure he would want, but which seems to have set all kinds of fireworks off on the GOP side of things, even the RINOS.  We have nasty things said by Cruz and King and Fleming, Gohmert and even McCain about the “messiah.”  Of course, we can always get a rise from reading what Ed Schultz (North Dakota’s revenge on the lower 47) has to say about how he worships the feet that the “messiah” walks on, and how he welcomes the dictatorship of The One.

You, like me, are hearing a lot about how evil “income inequality” is and how the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.  (It is really hard for the pollsters to pull the poor away from their cell phones and 50-inch wide televisions and monitors with their Tweets and latest downfeeds of Beiber’s latest piece of “musical” madness to tell the pollsters how bad off they are.)  But even the New York TImes admitted today that “upward mobility” has not declined in the past decade, when 20 percent of children born “middle income” found their way to the top.  I am not saying the poor are not “poor” in comparison to the rich and even what is left of the middle class, just that they are getting rich, too, just much slower than the rich are getting richer.  I suppose it IS harder to break into the upper class today, but people also have a much stronger incentive to do so, so it kinda balances out.  Thanks to a couple hundred years of limited government and relatively high individual personal and economic liberty, the United States advanced to prosperity that not only had never existed before (except maybe pre-Flood) but beyond that of the rest of the world.  Then we threw it away so we could “be like all the other nations.”  So today, even the poorest of the poor Americans are still living far FAR better than the average African or Asian – even in China.

Science Magazine is a brown-noser when it comes to government, and its latest story “Will Expanding Health Insurance Strain Emergency Rooms?” shows that they are just that, with a big “YES.”  Of course, I suppose it depends on what you consider “health insurance.”  Real people with real insurance are going to understand that their costs, out-of-pocket AND indirect, are going to go up if they run to the ER with a sniffle or a cut finger, and use urgent care clinics or their doctor’s office – or even just deal with it themselves. It is the government-faked insurance and especially that evil piece of stinky DC dripping “ObummerCare” that will keep the same number of people going to the ER, except that NOW they won’t be “uninsured” (maybe), just sucking off the taxpayer’s bottle.

Bill Janklow of South Dakota was famous for the sort of State Budget Gimmicks that one story reminds us of:  some of the most popular “tricks” used by legislators (and governors and state budget folks) to hide the true cost of government spending include underfunding pensions, inflating revenue projections, shifting funds and using one-time asset sales…  As it gets harder and harder to live in champagne style on a beer-drinker’s pocket lint after he’s been mugged, the legislators get more and more creative.  (A friend, not a libertarian even of the minarchist style, asked me a few days ago, how those we elect – who SEEM to be good and rational people – turn into tyrannical idiots?  ALL the time?  I didn’t and don’t have an answer, except to say that the only real solution is to take the power away from government.)

Common Core teaching/education standard have been around for five years now, but only in 2013 did the fight over them seem to heat up.  Some states (like South Dakota) adopted them in 2010 and 2011, but they didn’t become controversial until much later.  This controversy seems to be causing SOME changes: some states have dumped the Common Core Tests and take other actions.  Again, the fuss is NOT going to solve the problem, any more than the Common Core was going to solve the problems. Schools are poor at what they do because they are government controlled, and we know that government can do NOTHING well.  It has been proven for about 6,000 years, and we see more proof each day.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-05B

Posted on 2014-01-29 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning! Slow news days, apparently: a lot of folks are rehashing old stories, and no one seems to know what to do about the growing crises in many parts of the nation. And Matt Drudge has cryptically told his audience “Have an Exit Plan.” So even MORE people are panicking.

Snowden has disclosed that US and British spies “get personal data from Angry Birds” Well, I have never played the silly game, so I guess I am safe. Now if it were some of the three-in-a-row games… Seriously, we need a lot more imagination to fight off NSA and the several thousand agencies worldwide seeking to collect (steal) information about us. And if you believe NSA when it says, it ” was not interested in data beyond ‘valid foreign intelligence targets.'” then please call me, or better yest, just e-mail Mama Liberty your credit card numbers (don’t forget the three numbers on the back of the card) and your birthdate and place of birth, so that we can protect you from NSA. We’ll do a great job, we promise! (Mama’s Note: sarcasm alert! Please don’t send me that stuff!)

It turns out that all these wonderful, caring Congress types who are pushing to raise the minimum wage don’t even bother to pay their interns, but instead get free labor. Of course, they ARE Senators and Congressmen: the rules and fairness don’t apply to the “servants of the people.” Any more than they did to Party members in the old Soviet Union.

New week, new stories of killer cops. In South Carolina, a patient brought to a mental health facility was shot dead by a probation agent or officer (a cop). Another cop, doing what he was hired to, apparently: kill people. And in North Carolina, a grand jury finally decided to indict a police officer who shot and killed former FAMU football player Jonathan Ferrell in September. Still, after the business with the killing of a mentally handicapped man ending with “not guilty” for the cop despite video and other evidence, I’m sure this killer cop will not be punished.

Speaking of cops, William Grigg has a good column on the recent arrest and “resisting arrest” of a pop star in Florida. It isn’t just pop stars that are charged with “resisting arrest without violence” for responding the way anyone not sedated out of their mind would normally respond when you are grabbed by a thug in uniform.

Apparently, our massa-in-chief will bypass U.S. Congress to order a 39% hike in minimum wage for federal contractors. This is garbage piled high and deep for several reasons. First, there are few IF ANY federal contractors who pay their workers only the minimum wage: most are required to use Davis-Bacon Act rates which are incredibly higher than minimum wage. Second, he is telling agencies to spend more money on their contracts to allow this, even though Congress has not appropriated money based on this: so he is stepping on the toes of Congress. Third, if (as usual) the “minimum wage increase” is an excuse to raise ALL salaries and wages for the contracts by this insane 39%, at least SOME of the work the taxpayers are theoretically paying for in these contracts won’t get done because the money won’t be there. Which is (for the supporters of the “messiah” like labor unions) GREAT news: more excuses to raise taxes and borrowing.

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FINAL COLLAPSE (Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-05A)

Posted on 2014-01-26 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning to all.  As we near the end of the first month of 2014, the news seems even gloomier than last year, but the sun is still shining (yes, even above those snow clouds) and the wind is still blowing (and HOW) and the grass is still growing (at least some places).  So we have to be upbeat, right?  And take the news with at least a pinch of optimism and skepticism.

When I was still in high school, enamored of Asimov’s and Heinlein’s future histories, and looking at what was happening there in the early 1970s, I figured that the US was going to fall more quickly than Greece or Rome, if not quite as fast as Israel (the old one, not the current one) or the second Babylonian empire.  I figured that the collapse would be nasty, brutal, bloody, and would be very different in different places: no disruption which could not be dealt with in some places, and virtually total depopulation in others.

I figured (for story writing and planning purposes) that the early to mid-1990s would be the right time range for the “Final Collapse” of not just these united States, but of Euro-American civilization.  Later, older and wiser, for my storytelling purposes I moved it up to the 2020s or even as late as 2030.  Now, with that time just a few years ahead, and much older and a wee bit wiser, I may have moved it too far into the future.

I am not the only one to think so, apparently.  Casey Research frequently has some thought-provoking studies, including this one on a Collapse (by Jeff Thomas) which Lew Rockwell’s website picked up on.  Their “glimpse” talks about six likely actions or events in case of a financial (or political) collapse here in North America, and I can’t find much to fault: at least as a starter list.  This article should again make us review our own situation, and prepare better, because the collapse is coming: it may not be in 2014 or 2016, but it will come, because so many people are pushing it.

Jeff’s deadly six are: (1) Travel restrictions, (2) confiscation of wealth (3) food shortages, (4) squatter’s rebellions, (5) riots, and (6) martial law.  Again, these make sense, but these are NOT one-size-fits-all-FIFTY type things.  And some of these are already happening in SOME states (even when it is the feds doing them).  Most of these can be taken into account and planned for, IF we think about it.  Some may just not be possible to avoid without relocating or drastically changing our lifestyle.  But I still think that staying EAST of the Sierras (and certain nasty places like Reno, Vegas, and the Quad-Cities in Washington State) and WEST of the Mississippi; staying at least 150 miles from major urban areas (Denver-Front Range, Albuquerque-Santa Fe, the Wasatch Front, Omaha-Lincoln, Kansas City, and ANY of the big Texan megalopoli) removes MOST of these problems.

Govgoons are lazy, for one thing: they will go after the lowhanging fruit.  And while you may not LIKE eating pinto beans or wheat sprouts, if they are locally grown and available, it beats trying to get something to eat off empty Safeway or Krogers shelves in the big (or small) cities.  Riots are likely in the big cities: unlikely that MOST small towns will have those – except maybe towns with high ethnic tensions or large federal populations.

Anyway, on to stories, not just speculations about the future.

Need another excuse NOT to go back East to the OTHER Left Coast? According to several stories, DoD will deploy high-altitude  surveillence blimps over DC that will be able to identify everything from people’s faces on the ground to those bombs or missiles screaming out of space and aimed at the houses of power and wealth and corruption in the District of Criminals.

There is a need for more technology in Texas Public Schools according to various public policy folks.  They say that more than 50 percent of school districts interviewed indicated that the most difficult part of technology integration has been getting teachers to buy into the programs…  Wow.  First off, the real root of the problem is “public schools” (government-ruined, theft-funded).  Second, teachers (well, specifically students in normal schools (teacher’s colleges) are among the lowest in high-tech (information systems) skills.  They can use a phone, even a cell-phone, to take “selfies” and they can sext and text and even twitter.  But integrated database applications and presentation software?  Developing and deploying personalized training and testing systems with self-correcting multimedia feedback and response analysis?  You get the picture: I suppose we should be grateful that they can read.

Invester’s Business Daily, a publication that I don’t browse as much as I’d like, tells us there is ALSO a need for more nuclear power in the US, because the United States needs a mix of energy sources to keep the country from relying too much on a single power source…  (It strikes me that this is also a powerful argument against a strong central government.)  I think IBD is right, but as long as the fedgov drives decision making on energy sources in the US, it isn’t going to happen.  Top-down decision on things like energy, transportation, protection/conservation of land and other resources, has ALWAYS resulting in the wrong decisions being made.  A free market in ALL these areas is essential for efficiency, sustainability, growth, and meeting the needs of tomorrow’s people, families, and businesses.

CNN says that Michigan’s Governor wants visas for immigrants who’ll ‘stay for five years’ in Detroit.  Most of us see that one of Detroit’s BIG problems is immigrants, period, especially those who love the ghetto, third-world conditions (corruption, lawlessness, crumbling infrastructure, etc.) of Detroit and its suburbs and stay instead of adapting to American society and getting out into the real world.  This of course will no doubt be one of the dumping places of all the Syrian Islamist rebels.

Apparently, Ruger is pushing its series of Mini-14 rifles for 2014, which makes sense, because they are built on a good model and are dependable weapons.  But does THIS really make that much sense?  They now have a “Mini-Thirty” rifle which is on a similar scale and weight as the “traditional” Mini-Fourteen (which uses .223 Remington (essentially 5.56mm NATO), but which apparently is chambered for .308-cal (7.62mm x 39mm): the original round which the M-14 uses.  Of course, the reason it is a “mini-14” is because it is a scaled down version of the M-14 to use the now-more standard round.  But (not having tried one) I have my doubts as to whether a smaller, lighter weapon can really do a good job of sending that 75-cent (or more) 7.62 round down range.  I would LOVE the stopping power and range of a .30-cal, which proved itself in WW2 and a bunch of other fights over the years.  But with a smaller rifle, will it just waste the potential of a good round? (Thanks to John for this story.)

Mama’s Note: I’m in no position to judge the Mini-14 or compare it to the M-14, since I’ve never handled either one, but I do own and shoot an old fashioned M1 .30 cal carbine and it places those bullets very neatly, with considerable power. It is not a long range gun, and was never intended to be, but it can be carried and fired by almost anyone, to good effect in many different situations. No one gun can do it all, which is no doubt one of the many reasons so many different guns are made. The more the merrier, I say.

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Stressed Out

Posted on 2014-01-26 by MamaLiberty

By Susan Callaway, RN

Toby heard a bell ringing, but could not determine the direction the sound was coming from. Then he saw a light above him, which demonstrated the absolute dark he’d been in before. Reaching up to the light, he was horrified to find he could not move a muscle. Suddenly he couldn’t even breathe and his panic built until his eyes opened and he realized it had all been a dream.

Sitting up he turned off the alarm clock, waited for the adrenalin rush to recede, and then stumbled toward the bathroom. Stubbing his toe on the leg of the bed sent waves of pain up his leg, and he limped the rest of the way, once again awash in adrenalin.

He could see by the bathroom clock that he was already late, and knew he didn’t have time to sit on the commode to wait for nature to take its course. Maybe he could relax a little at lunch time?

Showered, shaved – with only one small nick – he dressed rapidly, stewing with regret at having to wear the three piece suit and remembering how good life had been when all he needed to wear were jeans and sports shirts. The fancy dress shoes were an irritation and he was sorry that he could not possibly dare to wear his soft boots.

Downstairs, he looked into the kitchen and saw the mess he’d left the night before – well, actually, several nights in a row now. The half-eaten fast food, overflowing ashtray and empty whiskey bottle demonstrated a lifestyle light years away from everything he’d known before he came to this cursed city. He realized simultaneously that his gut was too knotted to eat anything and that if he didn’t leave immediately he’d be late for an important meeting with the partners.

Toby drove away from the miniature kennel he now called his dwelling – the word or concept of “home” had not been a part of his vocabulary since Alice had taken their son to live with her parents in Idaho after the divorce. His stomach churned because he was going to be late to work with all this traffic, but he didn’t dare hurry. Watching carefully in every direction, and obsessively obeying every traffic rule, he nonetheless felt another spike of panic as a police car cruised past him and he clenched his teeth as the gumball lights began to flash, pulling over someone in front of him. He absolutely could not afford another ticket, even if they let him keep his license.

Then, since he was late, he had an awful time finding a parking spot and had to settle for a public lot two blocks from the office building. Sprinting that far was out of the question with his aching gut and the pinching shoes; the effort left him breathless and shaking after only a hundred yards. He’d just have to be late, and endure the looks of his employers while groveling and apologizing again. He would have given anything to be able to say, “I quit,” but he could not afford the spousal and child support without this job. The sheer unfairness and pain of it all nearly overwhelmed him as he climbed into the elevator.

Deep in the darkness of his consciousness, however, was a growing rebellion. Something had to give and he had no intention of living this way forever. It was a thought that had attempted to rise many times and he pushed it down ruthlessly again in his haste.

******

What hope does Toby have for health, wellness, peace or joy as long as he is continually bathed in the toxic adrenalin rushes, fear, frustration, anger, disappointment and hopelessness?

What would it take to spark that rebellion; for him to get out of the toxic environment and relationships he endures every day? What does health mean for people like Toby?

Not everyone is this bad off, of course. And many who have worse situations don’t live in them constantly or for long, but every one of those negative emotions and dilemmas tear down one’s physical and mental health, destroying the joy and good in life and may even bring about killers such as cancer, heart attack and suicide.

So, as important as diet and exercise truly is . . . I think it is probably secondary to facing the stress we live with; finding ways to reduce it and deal productively with what we can’t avoid.

Doctors want to dispense pills, and there are always any number of fad diets that promise health and peace, but there is just so much more to life and health than either of those. If you would like to explore the core of health and wellness, take a look at EFT.  Prepare to spend a little time at this website and keep an open mind. Real health, wellness and stress management are available to anyone who is willing to accept it.

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Keystone XL and America’s business climate (Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-04E)

Posted on 2014-01-24 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

A good day to everyone reading this.  Let me know what you think both on these and other stories.  Many of the stories I comment on are suggested by other people.  There have been some interesting things happening this week.

My oh my.  The first US leg of Keystone XL pipeline open on Wednesday in Oklahoma and Texas.  Funny, no mass protests, no Earth First terrorist attacks, and no sudden uptick in greenhouse gas emissions OR jump in global temperatures.  Guess we will have to wait for Spring for that.  So I guess you better make that trip to Oklahoma or Texas you’ve been putting off, before this evil 2.3 billion dollar, 487 mile long nightmare come true destroys the ecology, climate, society, and governments of the two states.  Of course, the important thing here is that the FedGov has REFUSED to take any action on the rest of the project, which has to be approved by DC because it crosses into Canada.  We were idiots to give DC the power over things like this, and see where it has gotten us.  And we didn’t learn, as the next stories help us see.

Fox News reports that A new study by the World Bank and the International Finance Corp. found that the U.S. ranks well behind countries like Rwanda, Belarus and Azerbaijan in terms of how easy it is for an entrepreneur to start a new business (but narrowly beat Uzbekistan, yeah!!!).  Of course, the World Bank refuses to recognize that we are not “A nation” but 54 DIFFERENT nations (counting DC and all the territories), and that difficulty in starting a new business varies horrifically from say, Wyoming or South Dakota, to New York or California.  To say nothing of the difficulties in STAYING in business.

You see, apparently the apparachiks in DC have proposed new federal rules to boost better bolstered booster seats in cars which would require that they protect children against side crashes and prevent deaths of about five children and injuries to 64 others each year.  Of course, since these improvements would raise the cost of these seats significantly, many families might not be able to afford them, and thus INCREASE deaths and injuries that would otherwise have been prevented by any kind of child restraint system.  Of course, to the fedgov thugs, these rules would be a win-win, since it gives cops another excuse to search the cars of anyone they want – for the chilluns, of course. But that is not the only transportation-related problem on my desk today.

Are you ready for still HIGHER prices?  A study of the impact of the 2013 changes to the insane FedGov rules for truckers to drive their rigs, the “reform” of the Hours of Service (HOS) rule warns us what is coming.  Those changes reduce the hours that they can drive (or do other things) and the study shows that shippers can expect to see carriers increase rates.  Which means business and other consumers will see prices go up like mad.  This is for two reasons: first, trucking firms are running out of people willing and able to get CDLs and drive trucks, so they are short of drivers AND have a high turnover rate.  And what drivers they DO have and keep, can’t drive as far or work as long. Or so says the The Global Supply Chain Institute of the University of Tennessee’s [UT] College of Business Administration.  And it makes sense to me.

And of course, we can figure out what is happening to employment as a result of more regs like this.

A writer for the Independent Institute asks the pedantic question “Are our unemployment statistics broken?” and quickly demonstrates that they are not just broken, but intentionally and deliberately, malice aforethought broken.  To increase the power of government and the wealth of a select “elite” who could not be so rich and powerful if they did not suck everything they can from others via the straw of government.  Not only do the current statistics exist seemingly only for the purposes of lying about a “recovering economy,” but hide the fact that individuals in large portions of the country and in large groups recognized by ethnic and other factors are in such dire straits as to threaten a massive economic shutdown.  Today, TheBlaze tried to “factcheck” the claim that the actual unemployment is really 37%. The government claims that it is 6.7% and lower in December than in the past. They try to tap dance around it, and I’m just an engineer, but it seems to me that the statement that it is 37% IS valid.  Just because someone isn’t looking for or does not want a job, does NOT mean that they are not unemployed.  Same thing for college students and people in training and volunteer (non-paying: REAL volunteers) are not EMPLOYED for a wage or salary, no matter how much they are spending their time productively, and no matter how much they are enjoying it, or who is paying for them to live.  Equally so for those who are disabled.  Claims that we have only 6.7 percent unemployed, as the government and too many mainstream AND alternative media claim, are bogus and dangerous.

On to some other items:

The FedGov (White House minions apparently) have decided that waiting more than 30 minutes to vote is unacceptable.  Really? Our ancestors – shoot, you and ME, would find this hard to believe.  When I COULD vote in my own precinct stateside, I waited more than 30 minutes a LOT of the time.  Of course, I was there with friends and neighbors and teachers and classmates and family, and I guess it just didn’t bother me.  After all, I didn’t have to worry about going outside in the dark and getting mugged, because in those days I COULD go armed in the polling place and the other issues raised were questions about which caliber and whether a revolver really made sense to carry, and when were we all going to go out to the edge of town for some more opportunity to shoot rats and rabbits.  Not like today, really.

Project Syndicate tells us that the world is better off today than people realize, because the amount of extremely poor people has been cut in half over the last three decades, down to only 17 percent of the global population in 2010, compared to 42 percent of the population in 1981.  That makes sense, I guess, but it is one size fits all.  Looking back the 33 years to 1981, before the fall of the Soviet Union and even the Berlin Wall, it makes sense that much of the world IS in better shape.  But there are places, like much of the former Soviet Union, and the former Yugoslavia, and places like Lebanon and Detroit, where that is NOT true.  And the real noticeable problems are of much more recent origin.  Yes, most of us in the West are probably better off than in ’81, but NOT than we were in ’91 or ’01, and NOT just economically, but in terms of liberty and local society.

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Crash of 2009 still here, popes and queens (Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-04D)

Posted on 2014-01-23 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning!  Apparently much of the country is again shivering in winter, and California is again panicking, this time over not enough snow, water, and mudslides.  Meanwhile, the economy is also still in the deep freeze.

Mama’s Note: Having lived in So. Calif. most of my life, I know for a fact that they have only two seasons: Drought/fire, and flood/mudslides. That’s it. Northern Calif. does have a little more to offer, of course… one of the reasons they’d like to break free. It’s just too bad that Sacramento and San Francisco are in the northern half.

A Wall Street adviser is claiming (and providing evidence) that actual unemployment is 37.2%, ‘misery index’ worst in 40 years, and my own information agrees with the general idea: too many people out of work or not fully employed, and the economy STINKS no matter what Wall Street and DC want to believe or claim.

Also, this ties into two other interesting stories found by Mama Liberty.  Will robots take all our jobs? and will trained animals start providing health care and assistance to the disabled?  According to the fright-headlines of the media, we are to worry that 2014 is the year our jobs will be taken by robots flipping burgers, pouring drinks, and even babysitting.  (Gee, I thought that most people had turned THAT over to a machine – the television – years ago!)  Kentucky’s legislature wants to make it legal to let “service monkeys” help paralyzed people.  (Oh, when was it made ILLEGAL?)

Mama Liberty and I had a lively discussion over the use of robots (not monkeys) in health care and other work, which may show up as a rant in the pages of TPOL some day.  As she noted: “Robots and monkeys don’t need “minimum wage” or medical “insurance.” Amazing what people do to get around the roadblocks… unfortunately, if they spent the same money and effort getting rid of the central planners, we’d all benefit.”  And that is the truth, indeed.

Apparently, the new pope Francis is still, to the disappointment of the media, other Tranzis, and (if you believe those groups, 95% of Roman Catholics and 99% of the rest of the planet) still opposed to abortion, and says ‘I Join the March for Life With My Prayers’.  Now, maybe I am expecting too much of someone in their late 70s, but it seems that physically joining the march(es) would make a far better statement. Even if it were in the Popemobile for defensive purposes.

But this bit of news comes when a correspondent asked me about a report that then-Cardinal Bergoglio of Buenos Aires gave a scorching interview to NBC’s Chris Matthews before he was elected.  In the supposed interview, Bergoglio gave a surprisingly libertarian (minarchist, admittedly) view of persistent poverty being caused by the state, as well as defending opposition to abortion, “women priests,” and “homosexual marriage.”  My family and I were really impressed by it.  Unfortunately, it turns out that the entire interview transcript is a forgery, apparently created by someone in England.  Both Catholic sources and NBC deny it ever happened, and both internal and external evidences are pretty strongly in favor of it being imaginary – another example both of people stupidly doing things that can be checked out as true or not, AND of the way people blithely pass on lies and propaganda to dozens and ultimately to hundreds of thousands of people, without bothering to spend five minutes checking on the validity of an email or blog posting.  All the evidence is that despite his treatment by government, and his claim to be following the Word of God, Francis is still a Jesuit and senior Roman Catholic official who follows the church’s centuries-old policy of cooperation with, and endorsement of the state and actively or passively helping to steal away the God-given liberty of humans.  Claiming to speak for the Christ, they pervert His words and corrupted His church into an evil organization while persecuting and killing those who have sought to follow The Way and stand up for God’s gifts of free will, liberty, and eternal life.

Speaking of panic over weather?  Everyone, including the White House, seems to be in a panic about the threat of terrorist attacks against the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the US is planning all kinds of things.  Mama Liberty has a simple solution:  “Seems to me that if there is that much danger, and I think there may be, why in the world would anyone go there at all? Seems to me like a very good reason to stay home and forget the whole thing.”   Personally, I think that the threat is greatly exaggerated and the White House, various security agencies (outside Russia) and the media are making much ado about nothing.  Personally, if there WERE a significant threat (say, 1 in 10 chance?), I’d just not go: but then, sports don’t mean much to me.  If these people are so enslaved to their pursuit of sports and silly pieces of ribbon and metal, or so desperate to make big bucks in endorsements and future winnings, but still fearful, let THEM pay for increased security, and decide on their own that the risk is worth it.

The UK’s Mirror says that Elizabeth II has begun the process of handing over the reigns (their pun, not mine) to Charles (who might, hideously, be “Charles the III”) to allow for a gentle transition.  This, of course, upsets a lot of people, who believe that Charles has demonstrated he is an idiot over and over, and at age 65 shows no signs of smarting up, and hoped and pray for a King William V instead.  Of course, given the success of the last four elections for a “national leader” here in the US, who are WE to any longer talk about the silliness of inheriting a monarchy?

Mama’s Note: I don’t pay much attention to the “royal” idiots of any country, but the doings of the English are occasionally thrust upon me in moments of slightly lapsed attention while looking at the news. It’s sort of amazing to think that poor old Charles is two years younger than I am… has never had any rational occupation, and never will have. The fact that he’s as goofy as the average Cocker Spaniel is rather pathetic, but hardly germane. England has had an awful lot of loopy “kings,” so one more would hardly make a huge difference. They’ve been mostly defanged for a long time anyway. It’s too bad our “dear leader” isn’t similarly a mere figurehead and impotent.

Here is a fun and easily understood illustration using gumballs to show how poverty in the Third World is NOT solved by continuing massive immigration to the US.  It also explains why immigration and colonization did not and will not relieve problems with overpopulation and crowding, whether we are talking about just from one country or continent to another, or from one planet to another (or to asteroid colonies or whatever).  This punctures one more fantasy (or at least one more element of their propaganda, whether they believe it or not) of Tranzis trying to deny basic facts and principles, like “good fences make good neighbors” and “state welfare systems are bad for people, economies, and society.”

Mama’s Note: Immigration is only one small part of the equation.  What people need in order to counteract or prevent poverty, overcrowding, and all the other ills of current society is freedom. Individual liberty and responsibility, so they can build their own good fences around their lives and property without infringing on the same rights for everyone else. Trying to limit immigration as the only or main “answer” is counterproductive to that liberty for all of us.

According to the Tenth Amendment Center, the state of Tennessee is trying to force the NSA to move from its encryption-cracking operation in Oak Ridge.  This, of course, is interesting if Tennessee (1) can get the votes in the legislature and get the governor to sign it, and (2) can get DC to listen and obey.  Constitutionally (theoretically), each state has a veto over whether a federal facility can be located in their state.  As we know, this has been impossible since Fort Sumpter, and as the recent (last several decades) debacle over where to locate nuclear waste facilities has shown, Congress and the White House do not believe or act like ANYONE else has any say on what goes where: from nuclear waste to prisons to biological contamination to Cuban detainees to the next national park or monument.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-04C: Killer cops and the home front

Posted on 2014-01-22 by TPOL Nathan

Good morning.  This week and last I’ve seen an amazing number of new and old stories about police across the nation behaving like the police did in Dritte Reich Germany, so many Mediterranean, and Latin American countries.  I’d bid everyone to have a great day, but fear those things will sour you as much on the day as they did me.  I think this is related to some of the other stories.

Garry Reed, the National Libertarian News Examiner has posted a frightening RT video that indeed makes a strong case that the Police State is HERE.  Right now, and for years, in the United States.  That the epidemic of violence in the streets of many cities, and even towns and rural areas, is a direct result of police officers gunning down, beating, and even torturing people with little or no reason, or taking the law into their own hands.  Seriously consider showing friends who still think “cops are our friends” this video.

Did you read this?  Reuters tells us that Trust in governments plummets according to a survey.  It is, they say, DC that is “suffering” the most, while pointing out the Snowden revelations and of course the glorious debacle of ObummerCare, which is blamed for causing a 16-point drop.  Nobody seems to think that the fact that trust in the governments of Spain, France, and Italy was even lower is at all related to the fact that those governments have been behaving for decades the way the FedGov is behaving today: socialist, nanny, surveillance states that treat their own citizens like dirt. Lovely, eh?

Of course, one of those reasons for the drop is the total waste of treasure and blood in Afghanistan, despite the fact that the White House has said that they aren’t even going to try to win the war.  Not only that, but there are several wars the US is losing in Afghanistan.  Supposedly, the US wants to win the war on some drugs by eradicating poppy growing and opium manufacture and sales.  But apparently that isn’t happening, so some “goals” aren’t being realized.  Several people have pointed out that the official goals of the FedGov might not be the REAL goals: price support for selling opiates in the US is strong.  Actually, if they wanted real peace and prosperity in Afghanistan, they would support legalization of this very valuable agricultural product.

I really REALLY hope this is true: that certain really great foods like dark chocolate and many berries which contain flavanoids can help protect us from type 2 diabetes (because they help the body regulate blood sugar levels).  Sadly, I don’t think that this would justify a 100-gram/day addiction to dark chocolate.  But it is nice to dream.  And of course, if these really did work well enough to cut demand for allopurinol and other drugs which “protect against high glucose levels,” I am sure that Congress would try to outlaw them, or require prescriptions for chocolate bars and malts.

It is a commentary not news, but I found it interesting to learn just how one of the big cheeses in the DEA gave testimony to Congress on legalizing cannabis: “It scares us.” Timothy J Taylor wrote about how the guy might be scared because he might lose his job and the chance to suck blood etc. from Americans.  I notice that (as expected in a Tranzi or Liberal state) emotion and hysteria overrule facts and solid reasoning in making so-called “public policy.”  Over and over, for fifty years now, we have seen hard data and incident after incident showing that the war on some drugs simply creates MORE problems in society and for individuals, while aggravating the problems it supposedly is trying to solve.  We refuse to learn – or rather, the politicos and their hired thugs refuse to change their evil ways.  Yes, I KNOW that “drugs are bad” but that doesn’t mean that there should be a law against them when enforcing that law leads to direct crimes of violence against many more people than are harmed by taking the drugs in the first place.

Mama’s Note: Nobody on earth has the legitimate authority to dictate what any individual eats, drinks or takes into their body any other way – and it doesn’t matter in the least if those things are “good” or deadly poison. This is the bottom line that much be accepted before the “war on drugs” can be ended.

While some “sources” condemn the Syrian government (Bashir and company) for killing 10,00 or more of their own people and wasting the bodies by putting them in mass graves, the UN condemns the Islamist rebels for killing 20,000 either through “direct actions” or starvation and disease in various refugee camps and towns. A pox on both their houses: they are not content with killing each other, they have to kill people who  are in the wrong place at the wrong time, and claim it is to the glory of Allah or for the glory of the “race.”  None of us are old enough to remember it first hand, but I am reminded very much of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, where the two sides were the “Republicans” supported by the Communists and the “Fascists” supported by the Nazis.  And murder, rape, torture, reprisals and the like were all the rage.  Certainly none of them were fighting for liberty or just to be left alone, either then or now.

Just yesterday, I was reading how most Americans seem to prefer security over liberty, but today, the front page of USA Today announced that a poll found Most Americans (70%) now oppose the NSA program and don’t think there are enough limits on the NSA.  While nice if true, I have to take ANYthing that Pew and USA Today state with a big grain of salt.  And as always, remind myself that MOST people are wrong about MOST things, and that truth and liberty are NOT subject to majority rule (or polls): they are God-given and not “democratic” in nature.

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