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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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-44D: Home Front – Evil and Corrupt

Posted on 2013-11-24 by TPOL Nathan

Home front
Texas: Man pretending to be cop sexually assaults woman on I-35E
(WFAA TV) Police have asked the public to be on the lookout for the vehicle and if you believe you are being pulled over by someone who may not be a police officer, call 911 and drive to a well-lit location before stopping.

Mama’s Note: Oh sure… and if they are not fakes, you will be shot for your trouble. Catch 22 here. Years ago, I actually did refuse to stop, and they were real cops. This was shortly after a murder of a lone woman motorist just outside of Barstow by a CHP. He was caught and actually sent to prison – where he eventually died… But there were a lot of women who wouldn’t stop for a CHP after that, especially at night. I was coming home from Victorville one night, on that dark, empty road toward Lucerne Valley, and a CHP got behind me. He followed me for miles, then turned on his lights just before I got to town. I was truly terrified. I drove at speed limit into town and turned into the grocery store parking lot. Drove right up to the doors, where everyone knew me (and thank God they were still open!). The cop had turned off his lights at some point… drove slowly across the parking lot behind me, then turned up Hwy 18 and went on. Never had a clue what that was all about, but I didn’t quit shaking for hours. And that was long before they started to shoot at people who don’t stop!!

Nathan: Sometimes, it is not FAKE cops that do this and commit crimes against people, sometimes even at random.  And we know that this short of attack has been attempted even in Wyoming (over by Midwest, as I recall), within recent years. 9-1-1 only works IF (a) the idiots on the switchboard are trained (I think I told you what happened with us about three or four weeks ago), and (b) they aren’t in on the scam or plot.  And if you are in an area where they can respond! As in the next story, we see that this kind of meaningless crime – apparently for the sheer thrill of it and with no “need” (money, vehicle, etc.) but the need to abuse and terrorize and rape.  In the past, we have seen the coddled and privileged scions of the elite, the ruling class, do this sort of thing: since in essence MANY Americans are coddled and privileged today (especially the police forces, but including much of the lower class – free food and housing and entertainment) it should not be a surprise that it is growing more common.

Home front
Three “Knockout” Attacks Reported In Philadelphia Area
(CBS Philadelphia)

Mama’s Note: Seems to be increasingly a problem. Of course, all the victims are walking around totally oblivious of their surroundings and totally unarmed. I suspect that if these punks started getting shot for their crimes, it would stop. But of course then they’d be called evil, probably “racist” monsters for shooting these poor, unloved little boys… bleah

Nathan: As we’ve been discussing, this sort of thing is seemingly growing more common.  I personally attribute it to overcrowding (the “too many rats in the cage”) in the big inner city areas, a crackdown on gun ownership, ESPECIALLY in the big urban areas, as well as inbreeding and a total lack of any real moral teaching.  It is, of course, related to the last story and commentary:  the need for self defense is as great (or greater) than it was in 1813 or 1893.  There are many kinds of privilege and much coddling: welfare clients and juvenile criminals enjoy all kinds of goodies and “passes.”  They cannot and will not see the results of their actions as bad – and will not accept responsibility.  “That is someone else’s job.”  But when people allow themselves to become victims by failing to arm and defend themselves, this is the result.

Home front – Self-defense NOT, but good anyway
Alabama: Dollar Store Robbery ends in shooting
(Fox News via Last Resistance) In the process of trying to rob the place, he was taught the finer points of the Second Amendment, getting himself shot five times by a customer.  He did survive, however. For the time being, he’s been hospitalized, but when he’s good enough to be released, it’ll be into a jail cell. The man who shot White is remaining anonymous, … He told Fox’s Mobile affiliate what happened:  [White] had the gun to [a customer’s] head, he had him on his knees. [I] drew my gun on him and I said, ‘Hey, don’t move.’ At that point he swung around, and before he had a chance to aim the gun at me, I fired. An unidentified member of White’s family—probably his mom—reacted this way: If [X’s] life was not in danger, if no one had a gun up to him, if no one pointed the gun at him, what gives him the right to think that it’s okay to just shoot someone? You should have just left the store….[The man who ended the robbery, based on his hands and his voice, appears to be black, as is the hospitalized robber.]

Nathan: Yep, he could have left the store, could have left his unknown neighbor to the tender mercies of this 18-year-old criminal.  And the family member is wrong: young White DID point the gun at the good Samaritan.  But see, SHE is in line with the liberals, the statists, the Tranzi’s, and the peace-at-any-price cops and hoplophobes and hoploclasts:  Only the cops and OTHER thugs like her son can shoot people, or even have guns. I say that part of young White’s problem is the people who raised him to be a would-be murdering thug who believes it is acceptable to steal money from other people.  I also have to admit that it is too bad the good Samaritan’s five rounds didn’t finish the business, and that the taxpayers of Alabama have to pay for medical treatment, trial, and a jail cell.

Mama’s Note: So, what caused you to call this “not” self defense? Looks like it to me. And I agree that the good Samaritan needs more range time. Five shots at point blank range ought to have been more effective than that. Adrenalin is nasty stuff…

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Social Impacts on Government – A lesson in irony

Posted on 2013-11-22 by TPOL Nathan

A Lesson in Irony

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as the Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to distribute (in 2012-13) the greatest amount of free meals (and food stamps) ever, to 46 million people.

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, a part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us “Please Do Not Feed the Animals.” Their stated reason for the policy is because “The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.”

(Anonymous, edited by Nathan)
Scott’s comments: Must be why SNAP was reduced this November.

Nathan: I don’t recall who (perhaps Mark Twain?) it was that first said, “You get more of what you subsidize, and less of what you tax.”  We’ve been subsidizing “hunger” and dependence on government-supplied food for more than 150 years on the reservations, and nationwide since LBJ’s “Great Society” (almost 50 years ago).    It started out at 2-3 million, so yes, Virginia, government programs CAN be “successful” for certain definitions of success.  And for certain limited time periods.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-44C: Economic Impacts of Government

Posted on 2013-11-21 by TPOL Nathan

Free market – Theft by government
Is USPS ready to be sold off?
(Reuters by Edward Hudgins) “Last month in Britain, her Majesty’s government made an initial public offering of shares in the British post office, raising $5.3 billion. The government is only retaining between 38 percent and 49.9 percent of the shares, meaning that the three-and-a-half century old state enterprise soon will be guided by private hands. The Royal Mail will no longer be so royal. You might think this is a model to rescue the U.S. Postal Service, to help it compete with emails, tweets, and Facebook as means of communications. But not so fast.” (11/18/13)

Nathan: This is an opinion piece, obviously, but chock full of facts about the mess that the USPS is in – AND the entire business of privatization.  And what could make it even MORE a mess.   Despite being an MSM article, he points out that the major item of business is to END the monopolies.  And then the subsidies.  As MamaLiberty has pointed out, Americans demand choice, and monopolies and choices do NOT exist for First Class Mail these days.  In the Priority/Express “SuperFirst Class” categories, the USPS is competing fairly well with FedEx and UPS.  But with the improvements in technology (hint: 3D printing) more and more of THEIR services will be undercut by new technology and local, small, agile and innovative firms.  It is called “progress” and the same reason that there are not huge horse farms or ranches, major manufacturers of buggy whips and harness, and why all the livery stables got converted to garages and filling stations!

Home front – Privacy and liberty
Young people abandoning Facebook in droves
(Last Resistance) Facebook’s recent financial numbers don’t look that great. Apparently, the social media giant is going the way of MySpace and AOL chatrooms. They are failing to maintain the attention of Generation Z (that may or may not stand for “Zombie,” btw). Apparently the younger generation is far more concerned about privacy and real connections—they are currently popularizing private message services like WhatsApp and WeChat.

Nathan: No problem seeing a direct tie between Facebook troubles AND the USPS troubles.

Home front – Thuggish cop tyranny
SF Mission Residents Angered By City College Student’s Videotaped Arrest
(CBS San Francisco) Jensen said witnesses at the scene said Williams suffered a broken jaw and other injuries when he was attacked by police. He said when others joined in, it was out of concern for Williams. “People don’t get that upset for no reason. They were upset because they were seeing DJ getting beaten,” Jensen said. Police spokesman Officer Gordon Shyy said the incident started when Williams tried to flee into a residence after plainclothes officers tried to stop him for a vehicle code violation. A hostile crowd then gathered around the officers, two of whom suffered injuries in the scrum. One person tried to hit an officer with a cane while another bit an officer, according to Shyy.

Mama’s Note: I suspect these incidents will increase rapidly now, and become more violent. I wonder how long these cops will be willing to risk it to arrest someone riding a bicycle on the sidewalk.

Nathan: Bloody mayhem, triggered by stupid cops trying to enforce stupid laws that are designed only to bring revenue into city coffers.

Theft by government – Stupid government
Treasury Forced [sic] to Issue $1T in New Debt in First 6 Weeks of FY14

Nathan: Forced by WHOM?  The “messiah?”  The Fed?  The big banks (other than the Fed)?  Occupy DC?  Ron Paul? The Chinese?  Nobody is FORCING the Treasury to do this: they WANT to do this to keep their jobs and perks.  Congress WANTS them to do this because the Congress is filled with spendthrifts – drunken sailors with no concern for tomorrow OR today but to spend and spend and steal and spend.

Mama’s Note: No concern for the fact that it is all theft and coercion. That is the real problem.

Nanny State Tyranny – Holidays 2013
Gov’t Pushing Holiday Recipe Makovers: Nothing Canned or Salty
(CNS.com)

Nathan: So, can we expect a whole slew of additional Executive Orders (decrees) prohibiting us from buying or eating CANNED food!?  Or SALTY food?  But not sugary food or drink?  Hmmm.  Is this the reason there is a shortage of Butterball ™ turkeys in the land?  I’ll probably still stick to my Hormel ™ canned turkey, unless I can find someone who makes a sixteen ounce can.

Mama’s Note: Why in the world should anyone CARE what the cretins in government think or want? Why would anyone take dietary advice from liars, thieves and murderers?

The “messiah” – and his consort
Michelle Obama: ‘Barack Hasn’t Done Any of This Alone’
(CNS.com)

Nathan: Of course not – except maybe for all that singing in the bathroom…  He had millions of gullible, hoodwinked, and mostly very stupid (if cunning) people to do most of his dirty work.  See my commentary on his “handwritten” commentary on the Gettysburg Address (with three times the words?).

Abominable Act (ObummerCare) – Congress in Action
Rand Paul: Obama’s Attempts to Fix Obamacare Are ‘Unconstitutional’
(CNS.com)

Nathan: Well, since the Abominable Act is unconstitutional, the mere act of trying to “fix” it is also unconstitutional, regardless of the details. But MOST people just do not care – and it’s not like we have a working system to enforce the Constitution.  Any human invention should have a procedure for correcting malfs.

Abominable Act – War on Some Religions
Catholic Bishops ‘Stand United’ to ‘Resist’ Obamacare Rule on Sterilization, Abortion Drugs
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Would it not be miraculous if they would “resist” on the basis that the entire thing violates the concept and gift of human liberty as given to us by the Creator?

Stupid Congress in Action – Politics 2013
Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) charged with cocaine possession
(Washington Post)Freshman Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) has been charged with possession of a controlled substance. According to court charging documents, on Oct. 29, Radel “unlawfully, knowingly and intentionally possessed” a quantity of cocaine. The charges are as a result of a D.C. Superior Court Grand Jury indictment.

Nathan: One out of how many?  I strongly suspect that the percentage of drug users on Capitol Hill, especially among the 535 actual elected officials there, is significantly – even outrageously – higher than the national average (which was 5% in 1985 and 2.2% in 2012).  This evening’s news says that Radel pleaded guilty and is taking a “leave of absence” from Congress and donating his salary to “charity.”  No doubt, his sentence will be parole and a token fine (less than 1% of his annual income, or something similar).  The district in Florida deserves better – I agree that normally, people should not be imprisoned, but in this scumbag’s case…  He should resign, and the district should sue him for every dime he “earned” from the first time he shot up or snorted it. The entire nation deserves better that the felons (charged and uncharged) that “work” in DC.  Meanwhile, for only the third time in more than 3 years, a member of Congress was physically assaulted: an Democratic “Asian-American” Congresswoman from Queens, was mugged in a location in DC (East Market) that is avoided by anybody walking by themselves (and unarmed) after dark, no matter how blind drunk they are.  But there is no limit to the stupidity found among this demographic in DC.  Assuming (there are no witnesses) that she really was mugged and didn’t simply fall off the curb because she was two sheets to the wind.  But I suppose I’m being cynical.

Where can we go?  What can we do?  Options are disappearing.  We can no longer coexist with government.

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O and Lincoln – 150 years of “progress”

Posted on 2013-11-20 by TPOL Nathan

Obama says Republicans are ‘invested in failure’ of health-care rollout
From the Washington Post and other sources:

[Supposedly handwritten by the “messiah” himself – according to the WAPO.  They even provide a scan of the “original.”  Don’t seem to be any revisions: a neat, grade school paper and penmanship.]

In the evening, when Michelle and the girls have gone to bed, I sometimes walk down the hall to a room Abraham Lincoln used as his office. It contains an original copy of the Gettysburg Address, written in Lincoln’s own hand.

I linger on these few words that have helped define our American experiment: “a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Through the lines of weariness etched in his face, we know Lincoln grasped, perhaps more than anyone the burdens required to give those words meaning. He knows that even a self evident truth was not self executing; that blood drawn by the lash was an affront to our idealism; that blood drawn by the sword was in painful service to those same ideals.

He understood as well that our humble efforts, our individual ambitions, are ultimately not what matter; rather, it is through the accumulated toil and sacrifice of ordinary men and women — those like the soldiers who consecrated that battlefield — that this country is built, and freedom preserved. This quintessentially self made man, fierce in his belief in honest work and the striving spirit at the heart of America, believed that it falls to each generation, collectively, to share in that toil and sacrifice.

Through cold war and world war, through industrial revolution and technological transformation, through movements for civil rights and women’s rights and workers rights and gay rights, we have. At times, social and economic changes have strained our union. But Lincoln’s words give us confidence that whatever trials await us, this nation and the freedom we cherish can, and shall, prevail.

Nathan: It DO sound really pretty.  It’s homely (dare I say Lincolnesque?) and even pithy in places.  If we didn’t know the man, didn’t know what he’s done, what he’s tried to do, what he’s said, and how he lives and whom he emulates, we might even admire these words and honor him somewhat.

Instead, he brands himself as a hypocrite of the first water, and I suspect that if we knew who REALLY wrote this (how many speech writers and editors), we’d find even more self-service, two-faced hypocrites.  I wonder if they set up a teleprompter in the Lincoln Bedroom or the Oval Office so that he could copy the words from it for the “original.”

Anyone who read and remembers Mark Twain’s The War Prayer will understand the kind of hypocrisy exhibited in this little fantasy piece.

Like his “inspiration” Lincoln, the “messiah” actually is an impressive orator – as was Adolph Hitler and more than a few other tyrants down through the ages.  There were many things that Lincoln said and wrote that were in total opposition to his actions, and which blinded a good many people to his intentions, his goals, and his actions.  Fifty years ago, we had another man compared to Lincoln, but the current “imitator” exceeds even THAT man’s hypocrisy and malice and behavior.  Therefore, do not be surprised that I pray that nothing will cause harm to the present occupant of 1600, lest he, too, be made more a demigod than either Lincoln or Kennedy.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-44B: Tranzis, Communists, Tyrants

Posted on 2013-11-19 by TPOL Nathan

East Asian Front – Tranzis and Communists
Coercion and Abuses Remain at Core of China’s Birth-Limitation Policy
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: What WOULD be a proper “birth policy” for any nation or government to have?  “Let  them alone.”  Let the parents decide to have sex and therefore to have children, hold them responsible for their children (unborn and born).  It is not a right or power or privilege of the state to regulate birth or conception.  It is a HUMAN, God-given right.  Which is one of the reasons that the Chinese leaders fear letting people run their own lives.  Sick as it is, this is what many Tranzis in the United States want, like the nut job who wants to make abortion mandatory for 30 years or so.

Politics 2013/2014
Scott Walker: 2016 GOP Nominee Should Be a Former or Current Governor
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This comes as no surprise: looking at the last century, it is clear that overall, ex-governors (Reagan, Nixon) have done considerably less damage to the body politic (even counting GWB) than those who have been ex-Senators (Truman, Kennedy, Obama) or ex-Housemembers (LBJ, Ford) or ex-bureaucrats (FDR, Bush I). Not perfect, of course: Clinton and Carter show how bad they can be.)  The only group that MIGHT be better is ex-military (Eisenhower).  That is relative to EACH OTHER only. Frankly, they are ALL a  danger to liberty and NONE has been truly successful from the points of view of liberty, economics, or defense.  They ALL have blood on their hands, even Harding and Coolidge and Reagan, all darlings of modern minarchists.  So just getting a slightly better “quality” of candidate is NOT going to reform the presidency.  Indeed, it may not be possible to reform the presidency.  If we MUST have a federal government (not my position as a rational, free-market anarchist), we’d do better with a Swiss-style federal council in which the duties of the executive branch are split between three or five people.  Yes, committees are bad – but emperors and tyrants are worse.

Mama’s Note: You do know what a camel is… A horse built by a committee.

Theft by government – Abominable Act (ObummerCare)
$174K-Per-Year Congressmen Will Get Special Obamacare Subsidy
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Yup.  Some animals am jes more equal than other animals.  Of course, compared to the subsidies that their staff people will be able to get, this is small potatoes indeed.  It is the principle of the thing, of course, not the actual dollar amount.  People periodically circulate these proposals for new constitutional amendments to make Congressmen and women subject to the same laws they inflict on the rest of us.  Folks, here is what would happen across the board if that were part of the Constitution:  these thugs and theives know how to rob us blind, and will keep doing it UNTIL we remove their power to tax and spend.

Mainstream Media – The “messiah”
Obama Blames ‘the Balkanization of the Media’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: I’m sure that he prefers the imaginary “old days” in which the administration told the “senior White House correspondent” (usually the WaPo reporter) what to put out, and they did it.  This is like Marie Antoinnette, who wished that the people of France had but one neck to be sliced at will.  I am sure that this “messiah” feels the same way: he HATES and FEARS the bloggers, the Breitbarts and Examiners and Blaze and – yes, even maybe WND.  There is only so much the dying hardcopy papers and other mainstream media – even NPR and CPB – can do to support their beloved “messiah.”

Culture wars: the annual holiday war – Government-run, tax-funded schools
South Carolina: School Cancels Xmas Toy Drive for Fear of Litigation
(Townhall.com) A South Carolina charter school has canceled its annual Christmas toy drive after a group of self-described humanists complained that the project violated the U.S. Constitution and accused them of bribing children to convert to Christianity.Renee Mathews, the principal of East Point Academy in West Columbia, S.C., said the annual Operation Christmas Child project was halted because the American Humanist Association threatened to sue the school.

Nathan: This is distressing, first because a good cause should be axed because a group of fanatics put their religion ahead of a good thing to do for children.  Humanism IS a religion – one of the religions favored by the State – the FedGov and especially the Nazgul.  Second, the school administrators probably rightly figure that the courts, the Nazgul, (as well as the media and the DOJ and all the usual Tranzis) will support and sympathize with these humanists.  And third, these school administrators (remember, a charter school is STILL a government-run, tax-funded institution) either do not have the courage of their convictions OR they are also aligning themselves with the courts and the humanists to drive other religions out of the public forum.  If they had the guts to stand up for something as small but kind as this,… but they don’t.

Mama’s Note: The reason for this action is wrong, of course, but I have to say I’m sick to death of all these “toy drives.” There might be a few children in this country without a room full of toys, most broken or unused for some reason, but there aren’t many of them. Remember that even those people with the lowest income have homes, plentiful electricity, gas, water, etc. They almost all have color TV (often many of them), microwave ovens, cars, internet, smoke, drink alcohol, eat fast food constantly (not cheap at all) and indulge in every other expensive habit as a matter of course. And suddenly they can’t “afford” a few plastic toys for their children? What nonsense.

There is simply zero reason to collect truck loads of plastic crap so millions of children can have even more junk to wade through. If these people spent the time, effort and money working to build solid families, honest work opportunities and healthy environments for those same children… involving themselves in their lives with love and integrity, they would have the blessings of God hands down.

Nazgul – Freedom from fear and spying
SCOTUS declines illegal NSA phone spying case
(CNN) “The U.S. Supreme Court will allow the National Security Agency’s surveillance of domestic telephone communication records to continue for now. The justices without comment Monday rejected an appeal from a privacy rights group, which claimed a secret federal court improperly authorized the government to collect the electronic records. The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed its petition directly with the high court, bypassing the usual step of going to the lower federal courts first.” (11/18/13)

Nathan: Once more we see the naivety of even organizations like EPIC who are constantly disappointed when their fantasies of the Nazgul-in-Chief rescuing liberty from the tyrants and thugs are shattered.  But you can be sure that they (and others) will try again to figure out the magic words necessary to get back to Kansas.

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