Mandela

Posted on 2013-12-06 by TPOL Nathan

Nelson Mandela is dead, at age 95.  I’m not bothering to cite any sources, as this dominated most news the last half of Wednesday, both US and UK.  As part of this, Liberty-tree.CA had the following quotes this morning:

“I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his kin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than the opposite.”
— Nelson Mandela

“I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.”

— Nelson Mandela
“Once a person is determined to help themselves, there is nothing that can stop them.”
— Nelson Mandela

Liberty-Tree.CA’s quote blog described Mandela as:  (1918-2013) South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, imprisoned for 27 years, President of South Africa (1994-1999).  You can find these and more at:  http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Nelson.Mandela.Quote.AFA9

These are some good quotes.  They are like so many quotes we can see from “great men” like Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and even the likes of Bill Clinton and Woodrow Wilson.  They do NOT accurately reflect the attitudes, opinions, and actions of the men who spoke them.  Indeed, they are often a sharp contrast to the real people.  They are often the words of hypocrites.  They are used to elevate those men to immortality, to make them MORE than human.  It has happened not just with Americans, but with men of many lands:  Cyrus of Media, Alexander of Macedon, Julius Caesar of Rome, Augustus (Octavian) of Rome, Alfred the Great of England, Mao Tse Tong of China, Adolf Hitler of Germany, and many many more.  They are or were made demigods.

Mandela was born about the same time my grandfather was reporting for duty with the US Army to go to France to fight in what we now call the First World War.  He was an adult during the Second World War, and a terrorist when my father was on duty during the Korean War. He is NOT ancient history. But he has been and is being treated like those ancient “great men.”

The demigod worship is well underway, but on hearing of Mandela’s death, my wife and my first response was “finally.”  May his evil die with him.

Despite the way he has been idolized and glorified, even by self-governors and libertarians, Nelson Mandela was an evil man.  He was a Communist (in both name and fact), he was a murderer,  involved in killing not just his political opponents and enemy soldiers, but even supposed comrades-in-arms, and especially innocent people: civilians, many of his own race.  He was a terrorist in the 1950s, and helped found a terrorist organization back in the 1960s (before the magnificent “Global War on Terrorism”).  He didn’t serve 27 years in prison as a political prisoner, but because he confessed to more than 100 acts of terrorism: bombings and killings, including targets like sports venues and theatres and parks.  The attacks and killing were for political purposes, but they were still murders: killing of innocent people.  He was also a racist, as proven by recordings of him singing songs about killing white people and other documentation.

I am not saying that he did not change, but I question whether he really repented of all these things:  rather than admitting his actions and saying that he renounced and rejected them, that they were wrong, he seems to have simply tried to sweep them under the rug. This is not repentance, this is the typical behavior of a politician.  And his term as president of South Africa and his support of the evil actions of his wife certainly do not demonstrate (at that time) any change in heart, any repentance, any regret for what was done in the past.  The legacy of corruption and authoritarianism and crony government and capitalism left in South Africa since 1999 are NOT the legacy of “another Gandhi,” or “an international icon of peace and reconciliation” though he shares many of the characteristics of another Communist, Martin Luther King, Jr.

The point is, once more the Tranzis – the progressives, the left, the socialists and their kind – are twisting and rewriting history.  We are told he really wasn’t racist, because among other things one of his close allies in his terrorist days was a white man.  How many white racists have still been condemned even when they have pointed out that they have black friends?  He was not a terrorist, we are told, because he condemned violence – yet he was an ally of both the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Stasi!  He was not a Communist, it is said, because he said that the ANC was not a Communist organization; but there is documentation that he was, indeed, a card-carrying Communist for many years, and on very good terms with many more Communists than just a few Stasi agents.

Mandela was a “great man,” but so was Stalin and Lenin and Hitler and Churchill and Giap and all the rest:  as were Augustus and Alexander and Xerxes and Ramses II.  But great men are generally NOT good men, and until we recognize and teach that, there will always be another man on a white horse (or not) coming and enslaving and stealing and killing (directly or indirectly) and fighting AGAINST liberty (even while proclaiming loudly how much he loves liberty).

I do wish that we could honor Mandela (and others) as lovers of liberty who had been and done evil things in their youth and then repented and became good men, fighting for liberty as well as freedom, working to treat everyone as they themselves wanted to be treated.  But that is not the case.

Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013.  Finally.  Let the dead bury the dead; the rest of us want real liberty, not the Mandela-Tranzi kind.  Mandela, at last, is answering to God.

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Geronimo: Guam Invaded

Posted on 2013-12-06 by TPOL Nathan

TWO THOUSAND DEAD MICE IN PARACHUTES
(HNGN) Mice invade Guam on Sunday. After being killed and injected with Tylenol, or being killed BY being injected with Tylenol.  And using cardboard parachutes, and being dropped on an American Air Base.  In the hope that brown snakes, an invasive species, will eat them and die.

NOT THE ONION!

Just when you think government has reached the ultimate in stupidity.  No word yet whether this massive invasion has caused Guam to tilt and turn turtle and sink.

It is a concept worthy of Representative Hank Johnson, the bottom-of-the-brain-power-run Congressman:

Congressman Hank Johnson fears Guam will tip over, March 25 …

But then, we should get used to this kind of intelligence in Congress people (politically correct but seemingly inaccurate use of “people”), as we see the likes of Sheila Jackson Lee and the Wicked Witches of the West (Boxer and Pelosi and Feinstein – or are they The Three Stooges?).  One more result of failing to cull the herd sufficiently.

And just imagine what a huge commercial bonanza it is for the company that makes Tylenol:  I can see the ads already.  “If Tylenol can cure Guam’s headache, imagine what it will do for yours!”

I wonder, would this work on the two-legged snakes that infest inside the Beltway?

Mama’s Note: Not unless you can adulterate the cocaine they snort with Tylenol. Say, now there’s an idea…


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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-46C: Stupidity, Polls, ObummerCare and worse

Posted on 2013-12-06 by TPOL Nathan

I understand that it is not a nice thing to do, to call people stupid.  But sometimes, there is no other word that fits.  People do stupid things – which means, that at least SOME of the time, they are being stupid.  All of us are sometimes stupid, but sometimes certain people are stupid all or most of the time.  Today’s stories point that out, from people who base their decisions about fundamental liberties on what they are told by the mainstream media after an incident, to people in Congress (yes, embarrassing as it is, they ARE human) who pad their already gluttonous salaries and benefits with another $11,000 per year in subsidies, to people who go to a website KNOWN to be without any security capable of withstanding the fumbling attempts of a 12-year-old hacker and enter their personal data, to companies that parrot propaganda in hopes of selling their overpriced products.  It is disgusting, and they are stupid.

Stupid we will have with us always, just like we will have the poor and sick and hungry.  But could we not just work for a society in which it is not the stupid who make decisions which are rammed down the throats of the rest of us?  Enough is enough.

Hoploclasts and hoplophobes – Self-defense
Support for stricter gun laws continues to drop
(Washington Post) Another new poll shows support for stricter gun control measures has fallen significantly since the push failed in Congress earlier this year. The CNN/Opinion Research poll shows 49 percent now support stricter laws — down from 55 percent in January (shortly after the shootings at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.) and from 53 percent in April. Half of Americans (50 percent) say they oppose stricter gun laws.

Nathan: For what polls are worth, which isn’t much.  Must be dropping even more than this reports, for the WaPo to talk about it.  Notice only 1 percent is supposedly undecided.  But the strident tone of the hoploclasts is as loud – louder – than ever.  I suppose this means that it is time for another horrific and spectacular mass murder someplace.  I’m sure the next perp is having his medication carefully increased to the necessary levels right now.  Or am I just being cynical?

Mama’s Note: While it is encouraging to think more people recognize that additional “laws” are not going to help, far too few of them are doing what it takes personally to be ready to actually defend themselves. So, no, an opinion poll isn’t worth a lot. Talk is cheap.

Abominable Act (ObummerCare) – Stupid people
29,000 Americans enroll under HealthCare.gov in 2 days, officials say
(CNSNews.com)
(Washington Post)  Roughly 29,000 Americans signed up for insurance on HealthCare.gov between Dec. 1 and 2, according to an individual familiar with the figures who asked for anonymity to discuss ongoing operations. That total exceeds the total number of Americans who enrolled online between Oct. 1 and Nov. 2, which was 26,794. The government defines enrollment as an individual who has successfully signed up for a plan.The new total, while short of the pace needed to reach the administration’s target of 7 million enrollments by March 31, shows the federal health insurance marketplace is working much more smoothly than it was at its Oct. 1 launch.

Nathan: Or they’ve got their lies much better organized.  What kind of nightmare have these people signed up for?  What will they get?  What will happen to them and their families, and their money and their identity?

Mama’s Note: As I’ve said all along, this was never intended to “work,” in any fashion. It was fully intended to be a mess, and disrupt what was left of free market health care to pave the way for full nationalization. The failure of the web site and exchanges is merely superficial, with the real damage going on pretty much under the radar. When the dust settles, people will discover that they may well have expensive “insurance,” but few or no doctors or other professionals are available to actually deliver care of any kind. This disaster is only getting started, and the inevitable damage will be serious indeed.

But there is a silver lining to this dark cloud. Those who are not stupid are increasingly seeing that their only hope is taking control of their own lives and health. Alternatives to the wreck being made of western medicine are all around and have been for thousands of years. It’s up to each person to look, learn and accept responsibility for themselves.

Killing babies – Abominable Act (ObummerCare)
Congresswomen Can Spend $11K in Tax Dollars to Buy Obamacare Plans That Cover Abortion
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Shucks.  A lot of folks would love to get $11,000 a year to pay for health insurance, instead of having to pay out $12,000 or more from our own pocket.  But then, we are not thieves like these people in Congress are.

Killing babies
Pro-Abortion Groups Claim Women’s ‘Right to Life’ Includes Abortion
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: How twisted and sick.  Even more so than the next story.

The “Messiah” – Theft by government
Obama: Spending on Schools and Infrastructure ‘Makes Us All Richer’(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Like I said, twisted and sick.  Like so much this man and his minions and supporters and controllers do,  he promotes coercion and theft as good and proper.  We thought that “1984” was bad, but today’s FedGov and both the Dems and GOP have long surpassed Orwell’s predictions.

Killing babies – The “messiah”
Obama: ‘100 Million Americans Have Gained The Right for Free… Contraception’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: “Gained the right…” Yeah, right.  There is ALWAYS “free contraception” – it is called keeping your pants zipped up.  Barring rape, there is ALWAYS a way to keep from getting pregnant or getting someone else pregnant.  But not in the world of the tranzis and this occupier of 1600 PA:  they cannot control their sexual urges (or so they say) and so they figure that no one can.  Isn’t it interesting that (except for the peanut farmer) EVERY Democrat in the White House since 1932 has been unable to keep their pants zipped?

Mama’s Note: Rape requires a helpless victim… women who practice serious situational awareness, don’t go stupid places, do stupid things with stupid people such as getting drunk/high and naked with strangers… they are not likely to be raped even if they are not armed. Those who are armed may even have the chance to help clean out the gene pool.

East Asian Front – The “messiah’s” minions
Biden, Chinese President Avoid Public Comment on East China Sea Tensions
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: What?  Big-mouth Biden didn’t say anything in public?  Wonder if he said anything in private?  After all, he was supposed to be there to read the Chinese the riot act and make sure that Tokyo knows we’ll be on their side right down to the last Japanese soldier.  With him doing this, I wonder if it wouldn’t be a repeat of Saigon 1975 – Tokyo 2015?

Politics 2014 & 2016 – The “messiah”
Gowdy: Can Obama Suspend Election Laws Too?
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Yet ANOTHER person raising the same question several of us did for the 2012 elections, with more concern and serious issues.  As I recall, several of FDR’s advisors suggested suspending elections in 1944, but he was so insanely popular that they figured they didn’t need to.  Some Radical Republicans in 1864 also urged suspension, but a number of factors kept that from happening, including the threat of a SECOND armed rebellion in the Old Northwest states.  Would doing this lead to a rebellion in 2014 or 2016?  Don’t hold your breath.

Mama’s Note: Since the “vote” is an important part of keeping the sheep deluded into thinking that they have some control over things, and the obvious fact that the “vote” can be so easily manipulated, both electronically and with propaganda, I don’t see any real indication that a suspension of the elections is likely. But then, they do some really stupid things sometimes.

General: Hoploclasts and Hoplophobes
Recent news stories talk about the wonderful opportunities people have in Illinois, now that the State Police have issued mandates for the proper way to keep concealed weapons out of your business or other facility.  And the markets are responding.  Visit this website and enjoy McGruff the “Crime” Dog propaganda at its best. The entire website and the attitude expresses ensures that I will never purchase ANY sign from this company.

Go to this website to see the bad news about the current Illinois Police State Force. Apparently some people are so incredibly hoplophobic that they want much larger signs that they can put on their property to ward off all the evil monsters who would dare carry a firearm.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-46A: A slow start to the week

Posted on 2013-12-03 by TPOL Nathan

A slow start indeed to the week and the month, as we slip down to the Christmas-New Year’s season.  Lots of news but not enough time, so here are some interesting and perhaps important stories and comments.

Islamic wars – Evil religions, societies and governments
Pakistan: At least 56 women killed for bearing girls this year
(OpposingViews.com) Fifty-six women have been killed in Pakistan this year for giving birth to a girl rather than a boy, human rights activist I.A. Rehman said at a peace-promoting symposium Monday held in Lahore, Pakistan…. In addition to the deaths, there have also been 90 acids attacks on women, 72 cases of burning caused by other means, 491 cases of domestic violence, 344 cases of gang rape and 835 cases of violence between January 2013 to September 2013, according to Rehman. “Young girls are being raped in Pakistan and all we do is shout rather than do anything practical,” he said.

Nathan: What?  I thought that the United States was the center of world evil against women, NOT a nation that is part of the Ummah, the Dar al-Islam, land of submission and peace.  I thought that the Muslims were respecting of women, non-violent, and that the West was the cause of violence and harm.  I guess this must be because Pakistan is a US “ally.”  Seriously, people, this is one more reason to call Islam a death cult.  Keep in mind this is just what was reported – the total numbers are probably much higher.  Of course, women die in the US as well, but some have a better chance.

Self-defense – Home front
South Carolina: 76-year-old woman killed in gun battle
(OpposingViews.com) (Anderson County, South Carolina) Dorothy Hendrix returned home at about 1 a.m. when two armed men and one woman approached her attempting to rob her, coroner Greg Shore said. He said Hendrix pulled out a gun and fired at the suspects, and one of them returned fire, hitting her twice. One neighbor reported the gunshots to police. Hendrix, known as “Dot” to friends and family, managed to shoot one of the intruders in the stomach before she died at the scene. The other two suspects ran off.

Nathan: Not a good outcome, even though she obviously was somewhat prepared and went down firing.  Mama Liberty points out the need she had for more situational awareness, which is ALWAYS true.  But she TRIED and given the age difference (the three thugs were in their 20’s and 30’s), it certainly evened up the fight.  Why was she coming home at 0100?  Apparently, according to authorities, she was the bookkeeper and money-courier for an illegal gambling operation. She carried large sums of money home.  Gambling is NOT a victimless crime, because it should not be a crime.  Look, gambling is stupid, it is immoral, and its addicts can do great harm.  Putting it in the same category as drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, growing and smoking pot, and using cell phones and texting while driving.  But in SC it IS a crime, which adds a fourth perp to the three thugs that killed her: the state and its law enforcement.

Mama’s Note: Actually, greater “situational awareness” might not have been much help in this situation. Multiple attackers would challenge almost anyone. Add the inevitable loss of flexibility, strength and reaction time related to her age and sex, and she didn’t stand much of a chance. The thing that would have made the most difference is having a companion, someone to watch her back. Even another older woman being there might have changed the dynamics enough to change the outcome completely. And, if she had hit what she shot at the first time, decisively, that might have made a big difference too.

Even though I am well armed, and with as much training and experience as I have, I know my limitations. I will not go out alone after dark, even here. It is simply not enough to have a gun, however much better that is than having none.

Abominable Act (ObummerCare)  – Home front
Survey finds doctors rebelling against Obamacare, famous hospitals declining to join
(Washington Examiner)

Mama’s Note: Not a complete list, by any means, but includes many major population centers. Good indication what’s going on all over, and it is not looking good for obummer. People are finally starting to realize that having “insurance” guarantees nothing. Going to give insurance a very bad name before this is all over, and that’s a good thing.

Nathan: This kind of opposition and rebellion is good, but it is only a start, and not a sure start by any means.  We must expect these – institutions AND people, to buckle under to the Abominable Act and the rest of the mess sooner, not later.  They will NOT take the necessary action to protect themselves and their profession for fear of triggering a catastrophe, because they will not admit that all other courses of action are futile.

Mama’s Note: Maybe, and maybe not. We”ll have to wait and see. Not much they can really do to doctors and nurses who retire or quit… or leave the country.

Technology – Liberty
Cars can now be stopped with “radio pulse”
(BBC) A British company has demonstrated a prototype device capable of stopping cars and other vehicles using a blast of electromagnetic waves. The RF Safe-Stop uses radio frequency pulses to “confuse” a vehicle’s electronic systems, cutting its engine. … As the vehicle entered the range of the RF Safe-stop, its dashboard warning lights and dials behaved erratically, the engine stopped and the car rolled gently to a halt. Digital audio and video recording devices in the vehicle were also affected.  “It’s a small radar transmitter,” said Andy Wood, product manager for the machine.  “The RF [radio frequency] is pulsed from the unit just as it would be in radar, it couples into the wiring in the car and that disrupts and confuses the electronics in the car causing the engine to stall.”  He did not provide other specifics. However, the Engineer magazine has reported the device uses L- and S-band radio frequencies, and works at a range of up to 50m (164ft).

Nathan: Another war between the police and the driving public is now launched, with more serious consequences than radar-guns and jammers and CB radios versus police radio.  While I can see a military use for this, “police interest” has got to be many times the size of military use, unless the military take over the role of police in the UK or US.  The “rolled gently to a hault” might be true at 15 mph but is unlikely to be the case in a situation at 75 mph or more.  To say nothing of vehicles driven by innocents which get caught in the transmission as well. Notice that “recording devices” were also effected: PERFECT for the many scumbag cops who love to abuse people:  evidence now available by dashcams and phone cameras may not be as much a problem for them.  And unlike the standard EMP, this does not appear to permanently affect the electronics.  So… more jammers, and more shielding?  Which then become illegal?  What next?

Mama’s Note: “Rolled gently to a halt…” Well, except for the fact that the steering, brakes and other controls would not be functioning. If the vehicle were just going around a curve or needed to avoid a hazard, it would be just tough luck, I guess. And the idea of cops using this to destroy recordings is truly nasty. If you do record… make sure it is uploading live to a remote location.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-45D: Prohibition – an afterword, and the “Pope”

Posted on 2013-11-30 by TPOL Nathan

Prohibition – An afterword

Just after writing my article on banning of e-cigs, I was queried by a friend regarding information on what seemed to her to be a rash of actions by governments against people for growing vegetable gardens on their property in towns and subdivisions, especially in the front yard.

I have seen stories about specific instances of this in various news sources, including Freedom’s Phoenix.  These incidents date back several years and have been reported, usually by local news sources (mostly TV), from Florida to Ontario and California to Maine.

The “why” is a tough question.  I know some things, and suspect some others.  This is interesting in part because I just wrote an article yesterday about the growing numbers of bans on e-cigarettes, which are NOT cigarettes but which are feared by an incredible number of bureaucrats and politicians for vague and ill-defined “threats” to personal and public health.

First, we have the usual reasons (excuses):

1.  Demand for conformity and fear of impact on property values by neighbors, homeowners associations, Realtors, city and county officials.  Different is BAD.  Fear of drop in property values is directly tied to property taxes and sales taxes (from sales of real estate) and therefore a major cause of panic, resulting in passing regulations (or more harshly enforcing existing regulations).

2.  For the past 15-20 years, more and more local governments have been adopting the International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC) which is currently in the 2012 edition (many governments will have earlier versions).  This is a very detailed and lengthy code with lots of space for “tailoring” to a given jurisdiction, but also a way to very tightly control EVERYthing you can imagine about a property.  Since this sort of document is adopted by reference and the local governing authorities often don’t bother to read it through – or don’t understand what they are passing, local “code enforcement” employees can tinker with it and use it to gain more power, and more revenue (which the politicians don’t mind, of course).

3.  Legal fear: fear of being sued for failure to enforce the codes and allowing unsafe conditions or unsightly conditions to exist.  This is the case, I think, with the recent incident in South Dakota where the property management company, fearful that USDA would penalize them for allowing a girl’s garden, went way overboard.  Elsie didn’t do this, but it happened on her watch.  (Of course, she is serving one of her purposes being a convenient scapegoat, too, for the career bureaucrats and the Democratic leadership in DC and in SD.)

4.  Increasing UN and Federal attempts to control food production and “ensure” that food is safe and does not pose a threat to international trade and their backer’s profits, nor allow people to function off the grid in any way.  Here we are admittedly into the conspiracy path of thought, but we see enough of what is proposed and has passed and enforced regarding things like whole milk, raising of small food animals (and their butchering, etc.), prohibition on home-grown and prepared foods in schools, etc. to make this more than just paranoia.

Secondly, we have human nature.

1. Once we have set the foundation, as I discuss in my article on prohibiting e-cigs, we have evil human nature working:  prohibition for the sake of prohibition. “We prohibit X because we CAN prohibit X.  Fall down on your knees and obey us!”  Power and greed increase, as the nanny state dictates more and more things.  When combined with the NIMBYs and the Mrs. Grundys and taxation and sales prices and everything else, this becomes an easy fix for those addicted to power and control, and even money.

2.  The other part of human nature is what I call the “hammer syndrome.”  People (in and out of government) use laws as hammers to punish and retaliate against people that they are mad at or want to get revenge on.  (Or for other motives, like cops who are rapists.)  “I don’t like that Mr. and Mrs. Smith and their brats, because they complained about my kids’ loud party in 1995, and now I can use this code enforcement to get back at them, by complaining to the code official because their grass is always 2 inches higher than the code allows.”

Like everything else to do with government and society, we can expect this sort of thing to get worse.  At the same time, we have to remember that things like this have gone on for a LONG time, but when we were limited in our news sources, we never heard about 95% of them, even when they were local events.  Today, virtually EVERY news source is available worldwide, and so we know a lot more about what is going on.

Mama’s Note: Two other things (among many more possibilities) contribute to this situation, as I see it. Most of this is happening in large cities, and I think overcrowding contributes greatly to the problem. People are fearful of losing what little control they have left over their own lives, and can’t seem to recognize that destroying another person’s control over HIS life only makes the situation worse for everyone. This leads to the second part of the problem, which is the ongoing (intentional) degradation of the family, the extended family and the community. Rather than working together to reach mutual goals, they become adversaries working hard to curry favor with the overlords for that tenuous bit of control they might retain over their own lives. If they are “good” and turn in their neighbor for infractions, their own might not be noticed or punished.

Tranzis – Culture wars: Killing babies
Pope Francis: It’s Not ‘Progressive’ To Kill Babies by Abortion
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: For certain definitions of “progressive,” of course.  The use of the term is unwise, because of the connotations, but the Argentine pontiff seems to want to really push.  Killing babies, inside or OUTside the womb, is evil, and worse than barbaric: only “civilized” nations (Azteca, Canaanites, certain ancient Indian cultures) so forget basic morals and their humanity to do this – oh, and of course, the United States, European Union, Russia, and China… in the 20th and 21st Centuries.  Frankly, whenEVER I hear the term “progressive” being used, I think of exactly this:  baby killers (and not just in the womb, but those who would kill babies because their parents are enemies, or because they just can’t be bothered).  Progressives, whether national or international or transnational put ideology over life and liberty, and have been killing children since Moloch’s first idols were built.

This, like a good many other comments and proclamations made by this new pope, lend an ironic twist to that old comeback to a query about whether you are going to do something or react the way you always have, “Is the Pope Catholic?”  Today, is he?

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Did You Ever Lick a Knife?

Posted on 2013-11-29 by MamaLiberty

It’s not that people are dumber, it’s that stupidity used to be more painful.
(Author of quote unknown)

When I was about four years old, we stayed for a while with our Aunt Kay after father died. She had a mirror polished chrome electric percolator, and it sat in the middle of the table at every meal. She and mother drank a lot of coffee. My little sister and I used to sit there and make faces in our reflection, and one day my sister leaned too far forward, stuck her tongue out at the image and touched the hot pot. OUCH!!! She cried, screamed and fought as mother put an ice cube on her tongue and tried to comfort her. Eventually the pain went away, but the memory was permanent. Did she ever stick her tongue out at something she knew to be hot after that? Not that I know of. And neither did I.

Experience is the best teacher. Learning from the experience of others is even better, of course, but merely being TOLD such things is pretty useless unless a decent amount of actual experience has taught one the wisdom to listen and learn. Young children don’t learn well from lecture, usually, so the fact that both our aunt and mother told us endlessly that the pot was hot didn’t help much until we did have that experience. We might have easily had that touching it with our fingers, of course, but my sister has always done things the hard way.

I can hear people screaming that it would have been much better, then, not to keep the pot on the table! Remove the danger! Eliminate all threat, or as much as possible.  And, of course they could have done so. But let’s look at this a little more…

Most of the children I knew had roller skates then. We had a lot of cracked, heaved sidewalks and uneven pavement, but enough smooth stuff to really enjoy the skates. The process of learning to enjoy the good parts almost inevitably involved doing dumb things and getting knees and elbows scraped up trying to negotiate the bumpy parts. We wore out a lot of shoes and jeans.

We climbed trees and fell out of them. We played baseball in the streets and dodged autos and motorcycles. We rode bicycles and had to negotiate traffic and avoid some nasty dogs. We raced insanely built crates with wheels (and no brakes) down a steep hill with a scummy pond at the bottom. We swam in the scummy pond, captured endless polliwogs, ate the berries that grew around it, and learned quickly the difference between ripe and green.

Mother bought raw milk from a neighbor who had a cow. We made butter from the cream off the top. I can’t remember anything that tasted so wonderful, unless it was the butter on home made bread toast afterwards.

When we got older, we hiked out into the woods and followed the animal trails, and some of the boys were given single shot .22 rifles to hunt with. I don’t remember anybody getting hurt with the guns, but if they did something stupid they lost that privilege very quickly until they learned better.

Some of the older boys (and maybe a few girls) ventured farther out and spent some time along the railroad tracks that ran on the outskirts of town. They put precious pennies on the track, and went back to retrieve them after the train flattened them. Sometimes the train would stop and the engineer would let the boys climb onto the engine and even ride a few hundred feet if he was feeling mellow and wasn’t behind schedule.

We walked to school, even several miles, and all over town to the shops, the cinema, the park and the museums. It was a small town, so we didn’t have much to choose from, but I spent a good part of each summer and many weekends in the beautiful county library that had once been a gracious home. I adored the librarian, at least some because she did not try to limit me to the “children’s” section. I read about six grade levels beyond my years and it was torture to be limited to “Dick and Jane.”

It was a learning environment that has probably never been equaled. I don’t know just when people started to think that wasn’t important… Actually, I don’t believe most people thought about it that way at all. At some point they were railroaded into thinking only about “safety,” and gradually most of those things became forbidden or banned. Along with a lot of other things, of course.

Was it dangerous to be a child then? We had plenty of scrapes and cuts, bruises and even a few broken bones. I don’t remember any children dying, but I’m sure there were some. Good parents knew that children needed to experience life, risks and all. They knew that everyone had to be responsible for themselves. Parents who did not understand this usually raised spoiled brats who never understood personal responsibility. I suspect that’s were most of the politicians came from.

Is it less dangerous to be a child now? You tell me.

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E-Cigs: Canary of Immediately Dangerous to Liberty or Humans Conditions

Posted on 2013-11-29 by TPOL Nathan

“IDLH” is a common acronym in handling hazardous materials and wastes.  It means “Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health” and refers to atmospheres or chemical exposures (especially absorption through the skin) that will permanently damage your health or kill you in 30 minutes or less.

In the same way, there are certain conditions in society that are immediately dangerous to liberty or humans – human life and rights and peace.

In the old days, before all the monitors of today, miners used canaries to warn them of  IDLH atmospheres – especially a shortage of oxygen.  The small birds are far more susceptible to lack of oxygen than humans, giving a warning that allowed the miners to escape.

It appears that we have such a “warning device” today when it comes to Liberty.

New York City Council Plans E-Cig ban
(NY Daily News)

As feds ponder future of e-cigarettes, some colleges move against them
(Miami Herald) “While the federal government decides how to regulate electronic cigarettes, many university officials across the country are moving ahead with their own rules about e-cigs on campus. Several universities have already prohibited e-cigs or are set to ban them in upcoming years. At Idaho State University, Missouri State University and the University of Texas at Austin, for example, officials have updated their smoking policies to ban e-cigs. The products soon will be prohibited at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and all campuses in the University of California system.” (11/26/13)

Nathan: E-cigarettes, which contain NO tobacco and do not need to contain nicotine, are in the cross-hairs.  This trend illustrates more than anything I’ve seen recently that this sort of thing is NOT about health (private or public) or secondhand smoke or littering or even aesthetics.  It appears to be nothing but the latest example of that most immoral and perverse of human attitudes and actions: the desire to CONTROL others, directly or vicariously.

They prohibit actions and products and behavior for the most simple of reasons:  “we prohibit this because we CAN prohibit it.”  It seems that every month a new object or behavior is presented to some jurisdiction or the nation as the latest threat to society which must be banned, to which prohibition (that so-evil and discredited strategy) must be immediately applied, complete with G-men toting M4s and clad in black armor, together with the monarchical judge and the holding cells and rehabilitation courses and retraining classes and public shaming.  It is as if for every behavior once considered immoral and damaging to society and dangerous (homosexuality, polygamy, death cults, prohibitions on preaching and free speech) we must find a new “evil” (as defined by the special interest groups and “voters” or at least “authorities”) to substitute:  sugary soft drinks (or soft drinks in general), fatty foods (especially those evil transfatty acids), anything which is claimed to resemble marijuana (even while the real thing is increasingly decriminalized), and this.

The attitude is like that of the dictator, who having “won” the “free election” by a margin of 95% to 5%, must then round up and pen, torture, mind-rape, maim, and kill the remaining 5%.

As Reason points out in a recent story, there is NO justification for this except that old fallback of the statist and the reactionary: “But according to the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association’s Greg Conley, calls for regulation are “a perverse interpretation of the precautionary principle.” The precautionary principle holds that until all possible risks are assessed, new technologies shouldn’t be allowed to move forward.”

This reveals it for one of the things these schools and cities and towns and counties – and the states and fedgov all have in common: a need and the power to dictate the minutiae of life, not just waking but sleeping hours.  It should remind us all of the environist’s tricks.  Like those who believe that ANYthing which is not specifically allowed must be prohibited, these people long for the simplicity of life in XV Dynasty Egypt, when the ruler was a god and the elite (less than 1%) were godlings and half-gods or priests, and the other 99%+ were trash, peasants and slaves and unable to do anything but work, sleep, eat, and procreate for the glory of the gods.  It is an attitude that makes that of the Roman arena and the Haitian plantation slave pen look reasonable by contrast; that makes even the lager of the Dritte Reich seem almost sane.  How did colleges go from being places of adventure and learning and rationality to places that seem nothing more than test laboratories for the next cycle of the world’s concentration camps and totalitarian dictatorships?  And why have we allowed this to happen?  Eventually, as has already happened with tobacco products, someone will be killed by a cop for “smoking” an e-cig in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Similarly, it is not enough to just REFRAIN from criticizing the homosexual, the odd religionist (Muslim or Buddhist or Odinist or whatever), or the welfare parasite.  Now, we must praise them, embrace their perversion, celebrate their (often bogus) achievement and hold them up as icons for youth.  This is not an overnight development: we have seen it in the lavish praise heaped upon (certain) politicians, movie and television stars and singers, and sports “heroes,” and now to people just labeled as “celebrities” because they have money, or look good, or did something that attracted people to them.  And we allowed this to happen.

Eventually, if this is unchecked, if the pendulum does not swing back, just as with smoking and eating and preaching and now e-cigarettes, we will see the brute force of government (however “softened” by padded gloves) used to enforce the worship of deviancy by prohibiting its criticism: starting with politicians but continuing with sports and music and video celebrities and more.  It is time to stop it – no longer enough to “say it is enough” but time to take action to eliminate the power of government and the elites over the rest of us.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-45C: Religion, government, and headaches

Posted on 2013-11-28 by TPOL Nathan

Religion – Free Markets
Pope attacks ‘tyranny’ of markets, urges renewal in key document
(Yahoo.com)   In it, economic inequality features as one of the issues Francis is most concerned about, and the 76-year-old pontiff calls for an overhaul of the financial system and warns that unequal distribution of wealth inevitably leads to violence. “As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems,” he wrote. Denying this was simple populism, he called for action “beyond a simple welfare mentality” and added: “I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor.”

Mama’s Note: Sadly, he doesn’t seem to have any understanding of the free market, thinking this current system of crony capitalism is the same.

Nathan: I suppose this is the result of living in Argentina for 75 years.  I wonder what Siroco and others will say about this?  I guess you can look at “absolute autonomy” in several ways, but when he mentions politicians only and NOT “businessmen who are genuinely disturbed” then it is easy to see where he falls: back into old-school Roman Catholicism and its alliance with the state.

Mama’s Note: Yeah… with all the information resources at his fingertips, the blinders are just too tight to consider anything but what has failed for so many centuries. A darn shame. I like him for other things, but he can do real damage with this nonsense. Sigh.

Nathan: ANY archbishop or cardinal or pope needs to be a student of history, and their study should point out the obvious: that government cannot be trusted to restrain the free market NOR itself in any meaningful way for any period of time.  Indeed, it is the government that makes it possible for business to run wild, just as it is government and “politicians genuinely disturbed” that go out and create problems that harm the poor, the destitute, the sick, and the faithful.

The “messiah” – Tyranny: Home Front
Obama on executive orders to bypass Congress: ‘There is no short-cut to democracy’
(Washington Post) SAN FRANCISCO President Obama pushed back Monday against supporters who want him to sign more executive orders to overcome opposition to his policies from Republicans in Congress. After a man repeatedly shouted “executive order” during Obama’s speech at a fundraiser here Monday afternoon, the president said there is “no short-cut to democracy” and that he could not sign executive orders to bypass Congress.

Nathan: Please, don’t believe that the “messiah” is trying to play the democrat in this: I’d suggest that the entire thing was staged to give him a chance to piously whinge about how he is limited in power.  The truth is, he has used executive orders to bypass or overturn Congressional action time and time again, and has threatened to do so.  HE IS A DICTATOR, HE IS A TYRANT.  Just because he “restrains” himself a little bit is no reason to believe he is anything but a tyrant and dictator.  He is NOT an “absolute ruler” – but even so-called absolute rulers (the Louises XIV to XVII come to mind) have limits – self-imposed and imposed by the politics and the people’s willingness to bow down and lick the tyrant’s toes.

Theft by government
Inequities in Texas Telecom Taxation
(National Center for Policy Analysis)  The 10 most populous Texas cities generated more than $300 million in fee and tax revenue from cable television and telephone services in 2011, say Pamela Villarreal, a senior fellow, and Kyle Buckley, a former research associate, with the National Center for Policy Analysis… See also.

In many states, telecom and wireless services are subject to “double taxation,” in which both an intermediary good and the services provided are taxed. Currently 20 states exempt on at least one or more services (telecom, voice or broadband), whereas 30 states tax all three. However, Texas consumers continue to face a heavy tax burden that varies widely from city to city

Nathan: $300 million is more than “inequity” – it is more than just theft and robbery, it is the sort of loot that only the biggest dreamers can imagine.  It is obviously an important stream of revenue, which lets these governments grow bloated and powerful, and at the same time denying many human rights to those not able to afford the services because of the greater costs: 10-25% on top of actual costs.

Government-run, Tax-funded Schools – Stupid people
CDC: More Than 20% of 14-Year-Old Boys Diagnosed With ADHD
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: One in FIVE young teenage boys are mentally ILL?  OR the idiots who came up with ADD and ADHD are the ones who are ill, and power-mad as well.  ADHD is the excuse for more and more regimentation, drugging, and control in the Middle and High Schools of America, and one excuse for demanding more billions.  Enough is enough: get your children out of the schools.

Home front: Stupid people – TSA Thuggery
TSA Spent $900 Million on Behavior Detection Officers Who Detected 0 Terrorists
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Ah, but they found a LOT of radical (radicalized?) Americans who despise and fear TSA agents, and an excuse (among others) for arming TSA agents.  Unlike the Dritte Reich’s GeStaPo, the modern FedGov security and secret police are fragmented, compartmentalized, and specialized, and have very thick soft gloves over their stainless-steel, blood-soaked gauntlets.

Economy – Theft by government
Price of Chicken Reaches All-Time High in U.S.
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Once more, we see the government stealing in various ways: taxation, inflation, over-regulation, and campaign spending.  The entire mess is on the government’s hands, and as a result, we are sliding back to Great Depression and pre-industrial economic conditions.  The kind of conditions where meat is a luxury, and most people were expected to live on beans and corn and wheat.  Yeah, I know, it is supposed to be more healthy, BUT that is (or should be) a personal choice.

Mama’s Note: Unfortunately, the predominantly corn and wheat diet is not “more healthy” by any means. Meat, and a goodly amount of it, is truly a healthy part of a good diet. But corn is not a good feed for meat animals, and that has been a big part of their diets for a long time now. Again, all this controversy revolves around politics, power and propaganda, not truth. If you want healthy food, grow your own, or find someone who does.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-45B: Europe and Africa – hope?

Posted on 2013-11-26 by TPOL Nathan

Europe’s Hope – Wise People
Switzerland: Three Resounding Nos!!
(Le Temps via PressEurop) Swiss voters rejected three ballot initiatives when they went to the polls on November 24. Some 60.5 per cent voted against a plan to increase the annual motorway fee to CHF100 (€81.30) from its current level of CHF40.

A proposal, submitted by the UDC (Democratic Union of the Centre) to allow parents who care for children at home to benefit from the same tax deductions as those who pay for childcare was rejected by 58.5 per cent.

Last but not least, 65 per cent of the electorate voted against a plan to cap salaries at a ratio of 1:12; which had been proposed by the Young Socialists.

For Swiss daily Le Temps— … the Swiss did not want to introduce illusory government controls that are incompatible with the spirit of a free and democratic State.

Nathan: Outstanding!  Sometimes a strong majority of voters DO stand up for at least a little bit of liberty.  Imagine, they didn’t go along with the Socialists to demand that the government permanently cap salaries of officers and owners and board members.  Amazingly, most European observers were SURE that the Swiss would do this, and thus prove themselves NOT to be the savage barbarians in the middle of the continent (and set an “example” for the rest of the world).  Of course, by the standards of true liberty, the Swiss are well into the statist and liberal (but not Tranzi) mode.  Still, they are better off than Americans today in many, many ways.

African collapse – hope? – Islamic wars
Angola bans mosques
Xibaaru (French) (translation): In early October 2013 the Muslims especially the majority of Guineans living in Luanda in the municipality of Viana Zango were shocked to see the minaret of their mosque dismantled into pieces on the ground that it was done wrong and mounted without permission. On Thursday 03 October in the morning, the Angolan authorities decided to destroy the mosque Zango located in the urban district of Viana 17 km. The governor of Luanda Bento announced in a radio spot that radical Muslims are not welcome in Angola and the Angolan government is not ready for the legalization of mosques in Angola.

And before yesterday, Tuesday, November 19, is the minister of culture of the country that shows the radicalization of the country in the face of Islam. Minister of Culture, Rosa Cruz e Silva said: “As regards Islam, the legalization process has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice.” It should be noted as the Angolan government has promised to drop all mosques a priority. The only two mosques are located in Luanda have already received a warning document administration Viana signed by the mayor of the municipality of Viana José Moreno.

Nathan: Thanks to Freedom Outpost for this.  Angola, a former Portuguese colony, is 95% “christian” and 5% all other, including about 2.5% Muslim.  To American eyes, this is shocking, but Angola (or at least a large majority of Angolans) consider Islam in ANY form, but especially in the Wahhabi version) to be nothing but a death cult.  (And is there not ample evidence of that, in 1400 years and around the world, especially in modern times?)  So they see every reason to ban it.  Or at least to ban its outward evidences.  Apparently, they also believe that it is right to retaliate for the way majority Muslim nations generally treat their christian and jewish minorities, much less other religions:  the tenets of dhimmitude are well known:  among others, christian church buildings may not exhibit any outward symbols such as crosses or bells, and pre-existing meetinghouses may not be repaired, at least on the exterior.  Apparently, the law can be interpreted to require that singing of hymns and prayers may not be audible outside the meetinghouses, either.  So Angolans are treating the Muslims as the Muslims treat others.  Compared to much of Africa, Angola seems peaceful these days: no Mugabe dictatorship and starvation, no weekly killing of other religious groups as in Nigeria, etc.

Mama’s Note: Unfortunately, the “banning” of anything merely drives it underground where it can fester and erupt to cause greater damage later. Far better would be a vigorous self defense by the people, with ALL acts of aggression fair game. The radical muslim agenda can’t survive in that environment, especially without support and accommodation for their evil by government.

The “messiah’s” minions – World wars
Kerry Misleads in Saying There’s No Comparison Between Iran and N. Korea Nuke Deals
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This isn’t really news: Kerry misleads when he isn’t outright lying. Politicians are like storm sewers: there is no bottom to them, and no treatment plant:  the sludge just keeps going down, down, down – and gets recirculated for the next generation of gullible voters.  There is nothing to show that the US didn’t get taken by this deal, and much to point out that the US (and Western Europeans) DID get hornswoggled.

Congress in action
‘Do-nothing’ Congress on track for one of the least productive years ever
(NBC News)  With only a handful of legislative days remaining, the current Congress has passed a total of just 52 public laws – setting it up for one of the least productive sessions in modern history.

Mama’s Note: Wonderful! Maybe they can do even more nothing next year!!

Nathan: Of course, the MSM insists that the mark of a “good” Congress be determined by how many laws they pass.  Although it is still too many, I think that many state legislatures that limit the number of bills introduced by each member (and insist that the bills be single-subject) are better for it.  It might also be good to point out that this is NOT the end of “the current Congress” but just the end of the 2013 session: this Congress (worthless for a lot, but NOT for so few laws) goes on into 2014 with the same make up (barring a few special elections) and same leadership (disgusting as that is).  Like Mama Liberty, I pray they do even less next year: especially NO APPROPRIATIONS.  Fond dreams but no chance.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-45A: Stupidity in the news

Posted on 2013-11-25 by TPOL Nathan

Stupid people
Giant Boeing 747 freighter lands at wrong Kansas airport
(NBC News)

Mama’a Note: I don’t know why, but this strikes me as very strange… very unlikely. It just doesn’t seem possible that anyone so inept would be given control of an aircraft like this! I don’t think this wrong landing was accidental. Even in a blackout, with instrument only control, it would seem impossible to mistake one’s position like this, let alone believe one was landing at a major AFB instead of a local airport. Don’t these pilots use GPS or other location indicators? I just don’t buy it, and I’m certainly no expert.

Nathan: This big DreamLifter is a modified 747 that looks too pregnant to fly, but does.  But the pilots are – well, typical pilots, USAF or civilian.  As I have seen for thirty years, pilots (especially in big aircraft) often have little real sense of the terrain below them.  I’ve seen pilots confuse Detroit for Chicago – I mean, come on, who can’t tell the difference?  One reason why good jet jockeys make bad helicopter pilots, and a big beastie like this makes the ground that much harder to see.  Sure, they’ve got GPS and all the other things, but sometimes all the technology in the world is useless.  Real question here is what on earth the air traffic controllers at McConnell AFB and Mid-Continent Airport were doing – or NOT doing – to notice this bird being so far off course.  (By the way, Wichita GOP types want to rename the airport for Eisenhower, according to the Topeka Capitol Journal, and the state is balking at paying about a half-million for doing so.  Politicians can’t leave well enough alone.  This modern “honor everyone in politics” thing is incredibly stupid.  Even MORE stupid than pilots who can’t tell airports apart.)

Of course Mama Liberty raises a good point: there could have been SOMETHING being transported that could not be shown off at a large, active Air Force Base, and therefore had to be delivered using this silly little game.  Although the pictures show all the media out at the airport, there would still have been several hours to unload a whole lot of stuff, and the fact that the aircraft had no problem taking off from a pretty short runway is an indication that they were not carrying a full cargo – or something equally strange.

Congress in action  – Politics 2013
Reid, Democrats trigger “nuclear” option; eliminate most filibusters in party-line vote
(Washington Post) “The Democratically controlled Senate on Thursday struck down the long-standing filibuster rules for most presidential nominations, voting mostly along party lines to alter nearly 225 years of precedent. The rule change would allow federal judge nominees and executive-office appointments to be confirmed by a simple majority of senators, rather than the 60-vote super majority that has been required for more than two centuries.” (11/21/13)

Nathan: I had intended to comment on this last week, but lost it in the shuffle.  Probably because I am continuing to abstain from talk radio in all its forms, and don’t listen to the news.  Everyone in the blogosphere and media is all hyper about this, but it seems to be very much like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  It won’t do much good, it wastes time, and it is one more distraction from the real issues.

What are those real issues?  The acceleration in the increase in governmental power, the coup in all but name that the present administration is conducting that is making us an empire in virtually every way internally and externally, and the destruction of the economy and society.  Please name one major item of stupid legislation that the Senate filibuster has prevented in the past five – or even thirteen – years.  Yes, SOME appointments have been blocked, but the persons ultimately appointed have been no significant improvement from the original nominees.

Secondly we KNOW that Harry Reid is a dirty scumbag and has NO honor.  He is cunning, but brainless.  No doubt he figured he could get rid of this archaic procedure and never ever have to worry about anything but a Democratic majority in the Senate forever.

At the same time, this looks just like the Conscript Fathers of the Senatus Romana squabbling over their powers and privileges while Augustus sits back in his chair, listening and unable to decide between a groan of disgust and a “cat-got-the-bird” smile.  He knew that their cherished protocols were nothing but bumps on the road under his horses’ hooves and chariot’s tires.

Stupid economists – Theft by government
Increasing Infrastructure Spending Merely Shuffles Jobs
(Heritage Foundation) Infrastructure projects are capital intensive, not labor intensive; across the United States, just over 300,000 Americans work in highway, street or bridge construction — less than the population of Wichita, Kansas…

Nathan: Heritage is usually pretty careful on their data.  This number strikes me as low but I may be too close to the industry to judge accurately.  I don’t know if this includes “public” jobs at the city, county, and state level, or if it includes maintenance and repair or just new construction.  At the same time, construction does NOT provide “permanent” jobs, and the idea of shuffling them does make sense, especially given the way public infrastructure projects are funded by taxes.

Mama’s Note: One of the saddest and most pervasive myths is the idea of permanent, generational solid employment in any industry or culture. Adaptation and change are one of the most essential attributes of the free market.

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