Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-09B: Bogus science and new religions

Posted on 2013-02-27 by TPOL Nathan

Bogus Science
Peak Oil Production Still Ahead
(The American via Daily Policy Digest)  Global crude oil extraction between 2001 and 2011 rose by 10.8 percent to just 5 million metric tons shy of the 4 billion metric mark…

Nathan: I cannot recall how many different articles I’ve read over the past five years decrying AT LAST the arrival of Peak Oil.  And lo and behold, it STILL isn’t here.  And I do not think (barring the collapse of Western Civilization) that we will see it for a long time.  Why?  First, petroleum is NOT a “fossil fuel” in the scientific definition of that term:  oil is of abiotic origins and continually being produced deep in the earth and rising.  Second, technology is advancing constantly, and if not for the vicious, government-inspired and -caused inflation, prices would be dropping constantly, even as the technology improves.  Third, if the government will leave us alone long enough, we’ll be producing “synthetic” oil in ever-increasing quantities that will drive solar (including corn- and soy-based petroleum substitutes) out of the market for mobile fuels, even while fusion and fission (including the “new” nickel-hydrate low-energy fusion) come on-line, probably in decentralized forms, to handle stationary power requirements.  If we do not destroy liberty AND civilization totally in the next few years, we will be generating and consuming 5-10 times as much energy per capita within a decade.

Public lies
U.S. Roads in Good Shape
(Reason Foundation) Between 1989 and 2008, all states lowered their highway fatality rates and 40 states reduced their percentages of deficient bridges…

Nathan: In other words, once more we’ve been fed a lie – a pack of lies – about how the infrastructure is deteriorating beyond repair and we MUST throw more and more money at the problem.  And those of us able to remember the 1950s and 1960s CAN (if we want to) think about how much worse the highways of those days were, and even into the 1970s, as compared to the luxury we enjoy today.  As with education and most other services, it is not HOW much money you spend, but HOW you spend the money and HOW you manage the resources.  Although it does not seem like it, we actually are moving the transportation system somewhat more into a private, not public, mode.

Government-run, tax-funded schools
Student not allowed to wear abstinence tee shirt
(Political Outcast)  [The tee shirt read:] “Don’t drink and park… accidents cause kids” Summer believed in what the shirt said and was proud to wear it to school the next day.  Everything was going well for her at Clearlake Middle School until just after lunch.  On her way back to class, the 8th grader was stopped by the vice principal who told her to go to the office and change her shirt because it was inappropriate.  She was given a t-shirt that read: TOMORROW I WILL DRESS FOR SUCCESS…

Nathan: As the student asked, “why can we talk about this in sex-ed but not read it on a shirt?”  (There were no pictures, just the words in a stop sign shape.)  One more example of how GRTF schools make their inmates – excuse me, students – miserable.

Stupid government
Homeless can’t eat deer meat in Louisiana
(Townhall.com) The Louisiana Dept. of Health and Hospitals would rather the homeless go hungry than let them eat deer steaks provided by generous hunters. That law has hunters across the Sportsman’s Paradise outraged after health officials ordered a rescue mission to destroy $8,000 worth of deer meat because venison is not allowed to be served in homeless shelters.

Nathan: Can’t eat Bambi – or his dad, either.  A lot of us grew up on venison and other game, but never mind that:  the Health department says even properly processed, it is wrong to feed that “junk” to the homeless and it MUST be destroyed lest animals eat it.

Mama’s Note: And did the several thousand (or however many) people who understand what BS this “ruling” truly is march down and beat the snot out of the “officials” making the rules? Did they offer to take the homeless to their own houses and feed them the venison? No? Oh, ok. Guess that means it’s not that big a deal to the protesters. They want government to do something about it, I suspect. Lots of luck.

Government attack on religion – Nazgul
DOJ attorney tells federal judge his wife can’t practice her religion
(CNSNews.com)  While presenting an oral argument in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last fall, a lawyer for the U.S. Justice Department told a federal judge that the Obama administration believed it could force the judge’s own wife—a physician—to act against her religious faith in the conduct of her medical practice.

Nathan: Gee, the judge ruled against them.  And not out of spite – corporations are made up of people.  If we cannot exercise our freedoms as a group in a corporation, then why can we exercise them as a political party (often itself a corporation) or any other organization?

Commentary of the Week: Let’s replace the tax code with a national lottery
(Godfather Politics)  The United States has an all-voluntary military, so why not an all-voluntary taxing system? Aren’t liberals all about freedom of choice? Their sloganeering includes the operating premise “My body . . . My choice!”  So why not expand the notion of what’s mine you can’t touch to property. “My land . . . My choice.” My money . . . My choice.” … I propose that we start a national lottery. If you believe that big government is good for America, then you can show it by purchasing more lottery tickets. The people who really believe this nonsense that the spending is not the problem, then they can act on that belief by buying more lottery tickets and encouraging their friends to do the same.

Nathan: Gary DeMar is one of those people that you have to take carefully.  But here, he has a potential winner – a blast from the past that worked well for decades in early America.

Home front
Will Obama Confiscate Guns and Gold?
(Dollar Vigilante – by Wendy McElroy) Gold confiscation would likely begin with pension accounts because the state mechanisms to do so are already in place. Moreover, as with the gold in FDR-era bank vaults, the location and quantity is known; the organizations holding it would cooperate fully. (Again, more reason to make sure your IRA is self-directed and that you can internationalize the assets therein.) Direct confiscation from individuals would be more problematic, and not merely because of its comparative anonymity. Direct confiscation returns us to guns. Given the personality of the typical gold bug and the simmering state of society, Obama must know that gun confiscation is a political prerequisite of a direct gold grab. On February 13th, the UK Market Oracle predicted for 2013, “The collection programs for guns will be eclipsed by collection of private pension funds and perhaps gold itself.” Guns and gold are blurring.

Nathan: Wendy’s conclusions are startling to many people, but her logic seems sound to me.  Both of these events are moving closer to being executed.  Ladies (Lady Susan, Claire, Wendy), do you not think that it IS TIME?

Mama’s Note: Claire and I have had some interesting discussions on this, both privately and with the other commenters on her blog. Depends on what you think it is time FOR.

We pretty much agree that it is long past TIME to stop pretending that there is any political solution to the problems we face. And, in that same light, it is long, long past time for the people who claim to want liberty and prosperity to give up the notion that they can, in any way, live at the expense of others or at peace with “the system.” In other words, it is past TIME for people to take full responsibility for their own lives and safety and seek solutions to life’s normal problems that involve voluntary association and cooperation instead of any kind of government coercion.

It is TIME to resist each and every act of aggression, theft and fraud with integrity and sober judgment. Just exactly when it will be TIME to shoot the bastards is something that each of us will have to decide for ourselves when facing the need to resist. We’ll be double fools if we wait for someone else to tell us.

Claire says she sometimes regrets making that statement, and now says, “Don’t ask me!”

Local tyranny – Hoplophobes and hoploclasts
Washington State: Dems back off from police search and seizure
(By Kurt Nimmo | Infowars) Democrats in Washington State are in full retreat after it was reported they are working on legislation that would nullify the Fourth Amendment rights of citizens who own firearms designated as “assault weapons” by the state. “In order to continue to possess an assault weapon that was legally possessed on […]

Nathan: They may have back off for now… but expect the legislature (and NOT just Demons) to try again, soon.  And sooner or later, bar the counter-counter-revolution, they WILL negate ALL of the Fourth Amendment rights.

Stupid government – the “messiah”
Obama’s Paycheck Exempted from ‘Sequester’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: A life-long Democrat talked to me about this:  he is still more angry at the Republicans but his anger at the “messiah” and the Democrats is growing;  He figures (as do many people) that he and his wife already gave 2% and more at the beginning of the year, and so this sequester is just insult to injury, and wants to know when the denizens of DC will pay their part.

Mama’s Note: Obama’s paycheck is a drop in the bucket compared to the other costs of this imperial presidency. His monthly (or more often) “vacations” cost many millions EACH. The secret service guards for him and his family, specialized “health care,” and all the special perks of living in the White House – probably many more millions we’re not aware of. This is MONTHLY and ongoing. And a lot of that will continue after he leaves office, of course.

Theft by government – World wars
Real Defense Department Spending Up 54 Percent in 10 Years
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Say it ain’t so!  Most of this is pass-through money: to contractors and suppliers and foreign nations where the soldiers etc. get sent, and despite all the hoopla about troops and DoD civilians getting so much (and believe me, they do), the vast majority of the money comes right back into the hands and pockets of the buddies of DC.

Islamic wars: Afghan front – Theft by government
U.N.: 50.1 Percent of Afghans Bribed a Government Official in 2012

Nathan: Bad as we are here, this is an incredible record – but I am SURE that OUR bureaucrats will figure out a way to beat it.  Of course, we don’t call them “bribes” here, at least not when the official is an elected one:  they are campaign contributions.  And of course, there is the REVERSE flow: usually called “fraud.”  As the next story touches on.

New religions: environism – Theft by government
EPA Discovers Its ‘Renewable Fuels’ Program Is Vulnerable to Fraud

Nathan: Sure they “discovered” this – most of the EPA types directly involved have known this fraud was there for years.  Indeed, go back to the Clinton era and even past that and you will find the program was essentially CREATED to facilitate fraud on a massive scale.  Like most other government programs, the sticky fingers are on both sides of the bargaining table and the counter.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-09A: Hackers and Sequestrations and Other Stupid Ideas

Posted on 2013-02-27 by TPOL Nathan

American front – Border jumpers
Former Mexican Official: Recession, Traffickers, Better Mexican Economy Account for Drop in Migration
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: To say nothing of the fact that the American side of the border is collapsing around our ears with the federal-state war on guns, the continuing war on some drugs, the upcoming ObummerCare mandates, the screams about Financial Armageddon with the sequestration cuts, and people talking about secession.  Who wants to go to the trouble of finding a coyote to help them sneak into Arizona or California only to find Arizona or California seceding and applying for statehood in the United Mexican States?

Islamic wars: Persian front
More Evidence Emerges of Worldwide Iranian-Backed Terror Plotting
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: You know, once upon a time it was Americans who went around the world plotting revolutions against despotic regimes and preaching the Gospel to the poor benighted locals and doing all this stuff labeled as “terrorism.” Today, there isn’t enough evidence around to convict any American of trying to subvert evil regimes to free the oppressed – but indeed the opposite.  If we really believed in liberty and in God, we’d have the Iranian and Pakistani and Iraqi and Saudi and Syrian jails filled with American “terrorists” teaching the truth about liberty and freedom and justice and mercy.  Instead, we have the Muslims doing what we should be doing: plotting to overthrow what they believe is evil.

Theft by government
Federal Gov’t. Spends Over $2 Million on Bike Trails in Colorado
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This is, of course, just a drop in the bucket.  When you are trying to cut $85 billion or $100 billion from the government spending, THIS is what you start with, but no… pork like this is sacrosanct and the worshipers of the state must be given this sort of sop to their whinging.

World wars: Business and tax (government theft) front
U.S. Tire CEO to French Gov’t: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Sorry, the French KNOW how stupid we are.  As several Russians have remarked, we voted the communists [Tranzis] in, and we stupidly voted for bread and circuses instead of freedom.  France and other socialist governments figure our businesses and individuals have rolled over and played dead for the “messiah” so why not for them?

Theft by government – Corruption
Issa Investigating: IRS Funneled Nearly $500M in Contracts to One IT Firm in 2012; IRS Staffer Had Personal Relationship With Owner
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Yeah, the staffer is claiming “no personal relationship”  and that they just happened to be in the same picture in the same bed without any clothes because there was this horrendous mix-up about motel reservations and lost luggage and a bellhop who was way too slow.

Seriously, when we are looking for things to cut, it seems like IRS IT contracts is a GREAT place to start – and an across-the-board pay cut for every IRS employee above GS-5.

Stupid government tricks
Kerry: ‘Be Ready to Join Us’ in Fight against Climate Change
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Never mind the “long war” (the war on terrorism), never mind fighting for liberty, never mind Hilary’s pet “war on AIDS” and “war for Feminist privilege,” this is now top priority  And remember, if you are not with us, you are against us.  Expect the USAF to get new target lists any day now:  all those evil coal-fired power stations and oil refineries are such perfect targets.  Every one taken out reduces carbon emissions by millions of tons a year!

Mama’s Note: I’ll bet none of these “green” folks ever has, or ever WILL spend a moment without all the light, heat, cooling, transportation, electronic information/entertainment and refrigeration their little hearts desire. Austerity, and a return to the 1900s is only for the “little people.”

Theft by government – Nazgul
For-Profit Businesses Have Right to Religious Liberty Too, Lawmakers Tell Court in Hobby Lobby Case
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: What, you expect the Nazgul to listen?  Next thing you know, you’ll be telling the courts that ordinary human-type people have a right to life, liberty, and property.  And then what will happen?  Seriously, how can a corporation have a right to free speech (protected by the First Amendment) and NOT have a right to religious liberty protected by the First Amendment?  Of course, the right of COMMERCIAL free speech disappeared long ago – when did you last hear or see a cigarette commercial?

World wars: Hacker front and East Asian front
China Says U.S. Is Making Hacking Claims to Lobby for More Money, Legislation
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: You know, they may have put their finger on it.  I’m not saying that China isn’t trying to breach cyberspace defenses, but the screams of anguish sound so very like previous attempts to create an excuse for more spending and more control that you have to wonder.

Mama’s Note: Who knows? I think this is one of the cases where it is wisest to “fence them out.” People who want privacy have the obligation (and the best chances) of providing it for themselves instead of counting on someone else to guarantee it.

Theft by government
White House State-by-State List of Sequestration Impacts
(Washington Post)  This is taken directly from the White House documents: “press-release journalism” at its best.  Someone spent a lot of time summarizing the claimed deadly effects of the “automatic” sequestration on 1 March.

Nathan: As several people pointed out, there isn’t much scary about this – in large part because they are trying to make it sound so scary: children will go hungry and grow up illiterate, and without vaccines.  People with HIV will go undetected (South Dakota will not be able to give 800 HIV tests).  Then hundreds of thousands of DoD employees (civilians) will not have jobs or pay for a short time, and on and on and on.  There is not a DIRECT threat of violence, but a strong hint that criminals will go on a rampage, cops and teachers won’t get paid (and presumably, not be able to get unemployment benefits and I guess, go on a crime spree to get money to live on).  I’m not buying the horror stories.  The next story explains one of the reasons.

Theft by government
Real Federal Spending Up $822.90 Per American Since 2008
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: As one sardonic commentator pointed out, these sequestrations will roll fedgov spending back to 2010 or 2011 levels, or (assuming a steady growth) about half of this or $412 per American.  Everyone remembers (as the commentator pointed out) how desperately short of money government agencies were then (and in 2008 under the evil Bush):  we had cabinet secretaries out panhandling in front of Subway shops and on street corners claiming that they needed gas money to go visit their dying mother, and taking the money and instead using it to pay bureaucrats’ salaries and buy more cruise missiles.  The cruelty of Americans – especially the Tea Party movement types and those awful libertarians – knows no limit: they would again revel in the spectacle of Eric Holder begging for money to keep his FBI agents off the streets (and their families, too).

Mama’s Note: Unfortunately, any paychecks not issued during this fake “crisis” will be made up for once the congress allows more money to be printed and more borrowing to go on. Not a penny will be cut in actual spending. They will manipulate their double set of books for a little while, and entrench themselves even more in their own perks and powers, and economy will continue to rot as before.

Our right to self-defense – Stupid government tyranny
Frederick Douglass Society President: ‘Direct Correlation Between Gun Control and Black People Control’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: And how long has JPFO and SAS and SAF been preaching this truth?  How many black Americans died for lack of ability to defend themselves?  How much of the current black-on-black violence developed because the black sub-culture was damaged and corrupted by a simple lack of ability to defend themselves against parasitic aggressors?

Stupid government – Theft by government (2 stories)
LaHood Seeks to Convince ‘People in My Own Party’ to Avoid Air Travel ‘Calamity’

Transportation Secretary on Budget Cuts: Over 100 Air Traffic Control Towers May Be Closed
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: The second of these stories actually was published several days ago, but got fresh life because of LaHood’s begging.  We have yet another example of fearmongering by high administration officials (they are so high they are almost at curb height!). LaHood may once have been less than an outright socialist, but I doubt it.

Stupid people – Hoploclasts and hoplophobes
Russell Simmons: ‘Guns Are Not for People to Have in Their Houses’
(CNSNews.com) The hiphop artist claims that we don’t need to worry about the Redcoats, so let us all get rid of guns.

Nathan: Once more example of an idiot trying to prove that his brain and knowledge are even more miniscule than we thought they were.  How many people believe him?  Even one is too many.  But in some places, they think this guy is not just stupid, but nuts: as we see in the next story.

Self defense
Texas home/gun-owners take toll on evildoers
(Godfather Politics)

Nathan: a series of short stories about people defending themselves, worth sharing with others.  Will the other folks listen?  Probably not, but try anyway.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-08E: Culture wars, otters, and VA letters

Posted on 2013-02-25 by TPOL Nathan

Stupid government tricks – Culture war: women in combat
Females in Combat Can Use Birth Control to ‘Regulate or Eliminate Their Periods,’ Advocate Says
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Of course, THAT will solve ALL the problems of women in combat – and in combat units.  No worries about hygiene, privacy, rapes, casual sex and jealousy, upper body strength, male response to female in danger or anything else.  Better yet, why not just neuter them – emmasca can do just fine.

Home Front – No Defense
Four people, including gunman, dead in California shooting spree
(Digital Journal)  Tustin police told reporters that Syed, who was unemployed and attending Saddleback College, did not have any criminal history. It is currently unclear what, if any, motive he had.

Mama’s Note: What, no background check to stop him?

Nathan: There HAS to be a motive for someone to do this. It may be a stupid motive, it may have been increased in motivation by drugs or psychological damage, but there is never an action without some motive.  I suspect that he MAY have had a background check to identify him as a suitable pawn in this game of kill and be killed, outlaw and be outlawed.  But NONE of the victims were armed or had anyone armed protecting them, as near as I can tell.  Something tripped a switch in his brain.

Mama’s Note: Of course, which is my point. Background checks are pointless if the goal is to prevent people from killing others.

Stupid government
Chemicals linked to problems with otters’ penis bones
(BBC) “Experts studying the reproductive health of the mammals in England and Wales were concerned to find a decrease in the weight of otters’ penis bones.” … “In order to prove the link, scientists will now need to measure theEDCs present in the otters and their habitat.”

Mama’s Note: Oh, oh… the supposed “link” isn’t proven yet at all. But that’s not what the headline says.  Another earth shattering problem for the busy scientists to solve… and another excuse for the luddites to further corrupt science, of course.

Nathan: Gross and disgusting, as well.  If they have time to measure the weight of these things – and enough of them to develop a trend, frankly, someone is paying these “experts” too much and they have too much time on their hands.  Beyond that, is there ANYTHING to indicate that a reduction in weight has ANY impact on the health or sustainability of the species?  Maybe it is a natural adaptation (microevolutionary) to some new element of the environment?  And the BBC is not reporting – they are advocating.

The “messiah” – Politics 2012
Obama: Republicans’ Refusal to Raise Taxes on the Wealthy Is What ‘Binds Their Party Together’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Maybe he is right – but I think it is more their progressive ideals, inherited from Fremont and Lincoln and the ’48ers.

The first minion – Hoploclasts
Gun Rights Advocate: Biden’s ‘Buy a Shotgun’ Remark Shows VP’s ‘Complete Ignorance’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: And the complete ignorance of the mainstream media and too many others who take this man’s mouthings as gospel.

Mama’s Note: Willful ignorance, actually. Most of us call that STUPIDITY, the deliberate refusal to learn. This is something that affects more than just politicians, of course. It’s not that people are dumber, it’s that stupidity used to be more painful.

Government-run, tax-funded schools
HHS: Head Start Students Do Worse in Math Than Non-Head Start Students
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: I hope no one is shocked or offended by this little tidbit.  What I’ve seen of Headstart places it a distant second to 8 hours a day of Sesame Street in the 80s.  It is a babysitting service and not much more.  Of course, since it IS a government program, and we know that high government officials, including most of Congress, cannot do math, should we be surprised?

Theft by government – Stupid government (spending)
U.S. Taxpayer Money to Be Spent on New Website ‘Offering Messages of Hope’ for Afghanistan
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: How about offering legitimate messages of hope for the un-United States of America?  How about letting the Afghanis do what they want, as long as they leave the rest of the world alone?  And finally, how about WE leave the rest of the world alone as long as they don’t bother us?

Mama’s Note: Well, there is part of the problem, Nathan. It depends entirely on the definition of “bother.” The US government is “bothered” by anything it can’t control.

Home front – Stupid government tricks – Hoploclasts
Veterans Receiving Letters Prohibiting The Purchase, Possession, Receipt, Or Transport Of A Firearm Or Ammunition…
(RedFlagNews.com) (Michael Conelly) …I have a copy of such a letter right in front of me. It is being sent by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of America’s heroes. In my capacity as Executive Director of the United States Justice Foundation (USJF) I have been contacted by some of these veterans and the stories I am getting are appalling. The letter provides no specifics on the reasons for the proposed finding of incompetency; just that is based on a determination by someone in the VA. In every state in the United States no one can be declared incompetent to administer their own affairs without due process of law and that usually requires a judicial hearing with evidence being offered to prove to a judge that the person is indeed incompetent. This is a requirement of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that states that no person shall “… be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law…”.

Nathan: One more step in the disarming of America, and in further slavery.  We’ve seen the start of this months ago with the veteran in Virginia; now tens of thousands can be expected to have their liberty to defend themselves stolen by nameless bureaucrats – if not simple computer programs.

Mama’s Note: Only if they allow it. Only if WE – the rest of us – allow it.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-08D: Guns on campus, more

Posted on 2013-02-24 by TPOL Nathan

Home front – Alternatives to Self Defense???
Public Schools Installing ‘Panic Buttons’
WGCL-TV reports that these “panic buttons” will immediately place a call to 911 when pushed by school officials.“Once that happens, we send everybody we have to that school until wecan determine what the exact cause of the threat is,” Marietta Police Officer David Baldwin told WGCL.

Mama’s Note: Will be interesting to see how many innocents are shot by cops in the ensuing confusion – whether the call is real or the result of an accidental activation.

Nathan: Panic buttons, even without false alarms, are pretty worthless, because all too often no one can get to them.  Just read a story of an interview with University of Nevada student as a follow-up to that idiot Joe Salazar’s claim that women would panic and think that they were being raped and pop off at anyone on campus.  She was raped at gunpoint in a parking garage about 50 feet from a campus police station (closed for the night) with those “call boxes” (blue-light poles with the panic buttons) there in the garage.  She was attacked from behind by a hidden rapist who later raped three more women, killing the last one.  She had a CCW card in her wallet but not a weapon because they are banned on Nevada campuses (just as Salazar is trying to do in Colorado as related in the next story).  The rapist, of course, ignored the rule.

Mama’s Note: (regarding the panic buttons): Well, they fixed that, don’t you know! They’re going to wear the panic button around their necks. That ought take care of it…

Nathan: Of course: technology to the rescue.  Far better to carry a small derringer or even a dagger around your neck.

Mama’s Note: All you say is so true… and yet, I can’t help but think that women have far more choices than it might seem. Just why would any self respecting woman, willing and able to defend herself, actually allow herself to be disarmed that way? Why would they go to such a place to start with? As much as I hate the “gun free zone” idea, people must take responsibility for themselves and simply NOT GO THERE!!! Or if they do, they must go armed regardless of the “law.” We can cry about the “law” and the restrictions all we like, but until people take charge of their own lives and actually DO SOMETHING about it, it’s all noise.

Nathan: They allow if for the same reason men also allow themselves to be put into positions where they cannot defend a woman – or themselves.  And of course, the same reason that more and more men are predators who go out and rape and kill:  They have been taught to be dependent and to give up their strengths for the weakness of being permanent children if not outright slaves.  They have been taught a false morality that says “obeying the law” is more important than life or anything else, and they have not broken the conditioning that enforces that evil belief.  And because they believe that “obeying the law” is the number-one priority, most of those who break the law do so furtively and on their own.  I suspect that if, on one of the mega-state-u campuses there were a hundred or two hundred students who openly carried, all at the same time, all together, that the powers-that-be would NOT be able to go and individually charge them and arrest them.  It might be wise to wear V masks or something like that, but even the largest university could not deal with that – not a mass protest, but simply walking and going to class and study and library and student union and such wearing weapons openly.  Not one or five or ten people – those could be dealt with.  But a hundred or two hundred or five hundred might be the crack in the system.

Salazar has apologized for his comments
(Daily Caller) Democratic Colorado state Rep. Joe Salazar apologized Monday for suggesting some women are so unjustifiably afraid of being raped that they are liable to start shooting wildly. Salazar, arguing in favor of disarming college students, said Friday on the Colorado House floor that women fearing rape may suddenly and haphazardly ”pop a round at somebody.”

Nathan: Salazar, whom I believe is part of the big political-gangster family from southern Colorado, knows better – he is not an idiot.  But he knows that he can persuade a lot of idiots to support his cause of outlawing effective self-defense on campuses.  Forty years ago, a LOT of us carried weapons openly on Colorado campuses, and rapes were a lot less frequent – to say nothing of other violent crime.  Meanwhile, do we see a change?

Police Advocating Resistance to Shooters
(Political Outcast) …U.S. Capitol Police… advocate taking out the shooter with “whatever means you can”:  ”You must be committed to the actions you will take, and your attack must be explosive and violent. You must do whatever it takes to survive and not worry about the consequences. You want to disable the offender with whatever means you can. This could involve throwing items or using objects to strike, stab or slash the subject.”  … USA Today reported that “police officials said they were not advocating arming teachers, students, office workers or others to prepare for such attacks.” DHS recently made a parody of itself by advising office workers to use a pair of scissors to confront a mass shooter, but again, only as a last resort, because scissors are very deadly, and you wouldn’t want any unnecessary carnage. Law enforcement agents across the country are actually calling this change in advice “extreme.”

To quote Political Outpost: Well, it sure is “extremely” stupid. Advising people to confront a mass murderer with a pair of scissors or a metal folding chair is ridiculous. You might as well confront the shooter with a piece of paper in hopes of “slashing” him with a paper cut and then pouring lemon juice on it (but only as a last resort). At least that would give you a chance of survival.

Nathan: It is not a change, then, just a way to keep them from losing ALL credibility, and to provide “alternatives” that the Tranzi-brainwashed can cling to.  Oleg Volk has several good photos to illustrate this point:  people who do not have the size and physical strength to defend themselves against evil monsters (like Biden and Salazar) and nutcases who are drunk or drugged to the eyelids DO have a simple way to defend themselves and others: the very item that Biden, Salazar, and the “messiah” and their minions in DHS, police forces, and Tranzi groups around the nation want to steal from them: firearms.  Little strength, easy to carry, easy to learn to use, and relatively inexpensive, guns save lives.

From the Oleg Volk blog.

Politics 2012 – Stupid government
U.S. Gov’t ‘Cancer’ Research: Tobacco Industry Helped Create Tea Party
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Desperate to be “relevant” I guess, or paying off grants “in-kind.”  The reasoning on this is just plain bizarre, but it is obvious it is a way of trying to demonize the tea party movement.

Tyranny – Unlawful search and seizure
13,753 Gov’t Requests for Google E-Mail Data in 2012, Most Without a Warrant
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: How many ways do we have to find to show that the Bill of Rights is a dead letter?

Stupid government – private business
MA: New England fishermen protest federal regulations
(Fox News) “New England fishermen facing a dire future for their industry asked Congress in a letter Tuesday for immediate help surviving deep and impending cuts to their catch limits. The letter, signed by 173 fishermen in ports from Connecticut to Maine, came as the industry prepares for May 1 catch reductions that fishermen warn could finish off the fleet. A 77 percent cut in the catch limit for cod in the Gulf of Maine and a 61 percent decrease in the cod limit in Georges Bank, off southeastern New England, are the most significant in an array of 2013 catch reductions on bottom-dwelling groundfish.” [editor’s note: Hooray! For once, an industry asks, not for a subsidy, just a removal of an oppressive mandate! – SAT] (02/20/13)

Mama’s Note: A new trend?  (Asking for removal of a mandate, not a subsidy.)

Nathan: If it is, it is unlikely to be considered a good trend by government. Governments have been dictating more and more cutbacks in fisheries for years, always citing studies and such that are created by other government agencies – and which seem to be increasingly suspect.

The protests will get the results that most protests do (except those that are planned and coordinated as part of a justification for government actions): no results at all.  And will probably put all these fishermen on a no-fly-list and other fun lists.  For six hundred years, the Grand Banks, George’s Banks and other prime fisheries were essentially private fishing areas, kept so by the secrecy of the fishermen from the British Isles and Brittany who harvested them: year after year, century after century.  But when discovered and subjected to the law of the sea – that they were commons, it took a fairly short time to over fish them, and they’ve now gone through cycle after cycle of collapse and recovery.  This is the latest:  government has firm control and will give them to their buddies and supporters (cash, please).  Everyone else can die.

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Nathan’s rant – Guns and other rights

Posted on 2013-02-23 by TPOL Nathan

Liberty is a precious gift, and of course it doesn’t come from government – ever!

The reason that the American colonists formed a government (under the Articles of Confederation) was because their EXISTING governments had taken away many of their liberties “as Englishmen” and as the old song goes, “United we stand, divided we fall” – or to quote Mr. Franklin (a canny old monster) “We must all hang together or we shall surely hang separately.”  But by the mere formation of even as loose a government as the Confederation, they lost some liberty.  Joining in the Constitution, not just the states but the people themselves, they lost even more.

After that, it was a steady downward progression: the Whiskey Rebellion, the Sedition Act, and on and on, leading to the Indian Wars, the persecution of the Latter-day Saints and other religious groups, the discrimination against the Irish (and others).  As little as thirty years later, Americans were seeking new homes and more freedom in exotic places like Texas, and in less than three decades, places like California and Deseret.  It was liberty, and the seeking of MORE liberty (or restoration of that which was lost) which led to such things as the Colt revolving pistol, steam-powered machinery, and Conestoga wagons. But of them all, weapons trace that liberty, and the attitude towards weapons  shows the attitude towards liberty.

In all of Europe, only four places seem to have developed an understanding and culture in which weapons were seen not as the sole right of the nobility, the equites of Ancient Rome, but as the right of every free man – and indeed evidence of that very freedom.  Sadly, in two of those places, that lamp of liberty was extinguished.  Those places were the Iberian Peninsula, where a conquered population sought religious and personal liberty from their Moorish conquerers; the Alps – the mountainous birthplace of the Swiss who developed a national identity fighting against a serious of “noble” and “imperial” families and a feudal system; Scandinavia, where liberty at home was ultimately extinguished by ever more powerful warlords and the mass of free people sailing for better and brighter horizons; and finally, the British Isles.

It was there, through multiple “accidents” of history amid a clash of cultures and peoples that lasted nearly two millennia, that a logical understanding and theory of liberty developed for the first time since the days of Ancient Israel and Ancient Greece.  “Native” Britons and Romans and Celts and Saxons and Angles and Danes and all the rest stealing land and trying to gain dominance and trying to live peaceful lives and live free and all the rest created a harsh and insanely demanding environment in which the lessons of liberty could be learned and tested and relearned.  Especially the lessons of arms.

And to a very large degree, it was the lessons of arms – and the development of small arms – that found its greatest expression in the England and Scotland and Ireland and Wales of the 1200-1600s: just prior to the settlement of most of North America by the descendants of these people.  The number one lesson:  free people are ARMED.  Slaves don’t have arms (except under the control and with the permission of their owners and masters).  Free people arm themselves and carry and USE those arms to defend themselves, their families, their homes and property, their livelihood, community, county and – if the rulers deserved it – to defend those that they accepted as their rulers and leaders.

It was also in the British Isles that other lessons of liberty were learned.  In most of Europe, the decadence of the Roman Catholic Church led to the Protestant Reformation, but it was a conflict determined by, and settled by, the ruling class.  If the ruler in one principality was a Lutheran (Evangelische), then EVERYone in the principality was a Lutheran.  When he died and his heir (or the conquerors) were Reformers (Calvinists), then everyone was supposed to become Reformers.  If the heir was Catholic, then everyone went back to being Catholic.  Top-down religion.  It did not work out that way in Great Britain, or even in Ireland.  People wouldn’t change unless THEY saw a reason to change (other than the king or queen doing it).  The king or queen was not all-powerful: it wasn’t just the nobles who could resist and refuse: the common people could as well.  And did.  And weapons were used in the midst of it.

Lesson number two:  liberty must be defended in order to survive, just as with all the other things.  And lesson number three:  Liberty comes from God.  It is not something that someone human “gives” to anyone, and it is not something that any human has any authority (or right) to deny to other humans.  To do so, like murdering someone (taking their life) or stealing someone’s property, is a violation of God’s law – or if you are not a believer, natural law.

Even the fight for freedom of religion quickly became an actual fight involving arms.  If the availability of firearms to the general population – especially in England and Wales and Scotland – had not existed, it is unlikely that religious liberty would ultimately have survived in the past 400 years.

But is it the case today?  Are we too civilized to need firearms to defend our liberties?  The evidence says that we are not.  Government has been busy for decades stealing away our freedoms, and the pace has picked up in the last two decades.

The Thursday headline on USA Today touts that “Americans” favor the “messiah” over his GOP opponents in regards to gun control and the budget, claiming a Pew poll shows declining support for “gun rights” and increased worry about the impacts of what is now proclaimed as a drastic and arbitrary 2.4% cut in Federal spending.

Of course, there is no doubt that this poll (if we are to even trust its numbers, for I have my suspicions about whether the questions were fairly worded, much less that the sample was accurate) was heavily influenced by the tsunami of stories on the pages of USA Today and most mainstream media outlets.  Headline stories talking about the cataclysm to hit next week on March 1st:  hundreds of thousands of DoD civilians to be laid off, the FBI to let criminals go as agents and clerks are furloughed, tens of thousands of children denied the benefits of Head Start and other federal programs, and -gasp- delays in gun background checks keeping us from buying weapons before the new gun bans are passed and go into effect in state after state.  What an example of opportunism.

But FINALLY, more and more people are waking up to the fact that Congress cannot take away what it did not grant.  The right to keep and bear arms was NOT invented in a drafty old building in Philadelphia in 1787 or in the Bill of Rights drafted in Congress and ratified by the states a few years later.  It has existed since we were created, since Cain killed Abel, since Noah and his sons no doubt had to defend their work on the Ark against angry neighbors and code enforcement agents, since innocent and peaceful people had to defend their liberty against Nimrod, since Abram rescued the captives (including his nephew) from Amorite raiders, since Moses struck down an Egyptian overseer abusing Hebrew slaves, and on and on.

Let Congress and the various legislatures pass what gun control “laws” that they will, let the “messiah” and evil (even if elected) governors sign those:  they are patently immoral, and constitutionally wrong.  WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEFEND OURSELVES, OUR FAMILIES, OUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS, OUR COMMUNITIES, OUR FREEDOM, and OUR PROPERTY as WE see fit, provided we do not aggress against others in doing so, and GOVERNMENT IS NOT GOD TO TAKE OUR LIBERTY AWAY.  (Not that God would do so.)

The problem is, all the so-called “defenders” of our rights: these puffed-up GOP politicos, the NRA, too many columnists and the rest, seem to be perfectly willing to negotiate and compromise as if the right to defend ourselves WAS a privilege granted by the government.  As discussed above, history shows otherwise.

When will we resist the constant compromise?  The rights of the people to have the means to defend themselves against threats to life, liberty, and property have been bargained away again and again, a slice here and a slice there:  the bare bones have been gnawed at and finally, we come to little or nothing left.  This isn’t just about arms, but about protections against government tyranny in every aspect of life: self-incrimination, search and seizure, detention, double-jeopardy, and virtually EVERY identified and general right.

Isn’t it time to “reset” and restore ALL our liberties?  And how is that to be done if the people – you and me and our families and friends and neighbors – do not use weapons of war to defend ourselves against those who would be our owners, our masters, and… indeed, our gods?

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-08C: Tyranny and Nazgul

Posted on 2013-02-23 by TPOL Nathan

Tyranny – Hoploclasts
Chicago Police Chief: 2nd Amendment Supportors Guilty of Corruption
(Vision to America)  On a Sunday talk show, as reported by the Illinois State Rifle Association, police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy said that firearm owners who lobby their representatives, or who donate money to political campaigns, for pro-Second Amendment issues are guilty of corruption and of endangering public safety.

Nathan: Inventive, aren’t they?  There is just one step from this to accusations that “Second Amendment supporters” are just terrorists. Of course, the Daily Kos/Huffington Post gang have been saying that already, (for example, the Iowa columnist who labeled the NRA as a terrorist organization) so I assume that they are just waiting for the right time to have officials say it.  Maybe Biden can start the ball rolling?

Nazul – Tyranny
Ohio: Cop home invasion to capture traffic violator okay, court says
(The Newspaper.com) The Ohio Court of Appeals on Friday upheld the police use of a battering ram on the home of a suspect who failed to properly signal a turn. The court majority also took the unusual step of noting that they disagreed with their own decision and called on the state Supreme Court to overturn the precedent.  On December 12, 2011, Dayton Police Officers Michael Saylors and Randy Beane saw the gold Oldsmobile Intrigue belonging to Jeffrey Lam near the intersection of Hodapp and Lorain Avenues. While the officers were following Lam to his home at 645 Creighton Avenue, they noted he allegedly failed to use his turn signal. Lam had a history of running from police, so the officers waited until he came to a stop before turning on their emergency lights. Lam ran out of his car into his home and locked the door. After failing to kick in the door, the officers used a battering ram and knocked it down. In the course of a search of the house for “officer safety,” drugs were found.

Nathan: This is PRECISELY the sort of police/government abuse that small formal actions like warrants and limits on home invasion, search and seizure, and all the rest of that constitutional claptrap was meant to prevent.  And for this court to take this “we wash our hands” and “Gee, won’t someone save us from ourselves” attitude is dereliction of duty – and one of the reasons for juries to exist.  This sort of criminal behavior is coming to a home near you:  next time it may even be YOU who is the evil perp that “deserves” to be treated like this.

Nazgul – Tyranny
Supreme Court: “Dog Sniffs” are okay
(Reuters) The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that “the sniff is up to snuff” in a Florida case on how police may use dogs to track down illegal drugs. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court gave law enforcement authorities greater authority to use dogs to uncover illegal drugs, upholding a police dog’s search of a truck that uncovered methamphetamine ingredients inside.

Nathan: In other words, the Nazgul say that technology negates personal liberty:  if you can use technology (as dogs are) then it doesn’t matter whether you supposedly have a right to privacy or to be protected from illegal search and seizure.

Mama’s Note: Not to mention that “ingredients” is a seriously flimsy pretense to start with. Even if one thought the “drugs” should be illegal, which I don’t, the idea of this sort of persecution for mere ingredients is insane. What’s next? “We knew he was thinking about making some meth.”

Hoplophobes – Home Front
New Law Would Require Arizona Cities To Become Gun Dealers
(Arizona Daily News) In Arizona, where guns are allowed in bars, and concealed weapons can be carried without a permit, state lawmakers are moving to force police to sell – not destroy – firearms they collect after Tucson scrapped more than 200 last month.

Nathan: An infamous piece of “news” with built-in commentary, thanks to Scott.  Defenders of our right to self-defense, who oppose the various forms of gun control being practiced and rammed down our throats, are evil people who worship guns as sacred objects, and selfless benefactors who pay for gun buyback programs out of their own pockets while serving on city councils are so abused and disrespected that one changed from Republican to Democrat.  At the same time, some libertarians seem to claim that making cities sell guns collected in buyback programs (instead of chopping them up) is encouraging governments to compete with private gun shops.  As if selling scrap metal isn’t competing with scrap dealers?  Perhaps selling abandoned cars collected off the streets is competing with auto dealers?

Home front
Man Accused of Running Over Three, Killing One in Domestic Dispute
(KATV)

This from Darryl; his comment: Cars don’t kill people…people do:

Nathan: Considering how the media and the professional doomsayers howl and screech over death by gun, and given the hatred of the environists and Tranzis, This is simply justification for calling for a ban on privately-owned trucks – only people with CDLs who have valid jobs with REAL trucking companies should be allowed to drive anything with more than four wheels or six cylinders.

Sequestration – Theft by government
Thanks to Steve for this cute letter, which he got from a friend.

 

Dear Steve:

We recently learned that our disposable income is going to be reduced by eight per cent this year due to the increase in our health insurance premiums.  So we decided to address it exactly the way in which the Administration is going to address “sequestration”.

What we are going to do is to cut everything by eight per cent “across the board”.  In other words, we are going to pay just ninety-two per cent of our scheduled house payments, ninety-two per cent of our utility bills, ninety-two per cent of our satellite TV bill and ninety-two per cent of our phone bills and insurance premiums.  We are also only going to pay ninety-two per cent of our subscriptions to House and Garden and Architectural Digest, ninety-two per cent of our Titans tickets, ninety-two per cent of our subscription to the Nashville Symphony and we are going to order eight per cent fewer pay per views, because we are serious about cutting our budget!

I hope that you realize that while I am serious about our situation, I am not being at all serious about how we’re dealing with it, nor would we actually be allowed to behave in this way if we were actually irresponsible enough to attempt it. Only government could ever attempt anything that stupid with the expectation of being allowed to get away with it. Frankly, in our case the Titans tickets and the Symphony are long gone, and we put a bigger deductible on our homeowners policy.  We never really did take those two magazines, and we generally don’t take any pay per views.  We are eating out even less than we used to.  And of course, we are paying all of our utilities in full and on time, as we did before.  In other words, we knew that some of our expenses were more crucial than others.  So does every other household with common sense when confronted with a situation like this.   And this is what we face as a nation.  If we as a nation truly need to send an aircraft carrier to the Middle East, the constitutional mandate which calls for the Federal Government to engage in  necessary national defense should trump any assumed obligation to pay for a welfare mother’s fifth child by the fourth different man, or translation services into an obscure Guatemalan Indian dialect for some illegal alien who obviously should not even be in the country.  Instead, the government is going to talk about laying off meat inspectors and airport guards, close national parks and monuments, and do other, similarly nonsensical things because this is to demonstrate to us, the “masses”, that it is impossible to cut any aspect of government in any meaningful way and that we just should all quietly acquiesce to the massive tax increases required to provide for whatever our masters in Washington deem it necessary to supply us with.

The majority of American voters have obviously already demonstrated that they do NOT really pay attention to much.  If they consent to this without confronting their elected representatives over it, then it will be very hard to say that the results are undeserved.

Mama’s Note: Sounds good… if you accept the premise that “voters” truly are able to  authorize spending other people’s money, or control of any aspect of other people’s lives. Until individuals take back ownership and responsibility for their lives themselves, and refuse to be robbed or coerced, this will simply go on as before.

When some people are given power over other people, tyranny is the inevitable result.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-08B: Culture wars, gun wars

Posted on 2013-02-21 by TPOL Nathan

Congress in action – Culture wars
Pelosi: ‘Enough with the Public Nudity. Please. We Have Our Standards’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: She supports the San Francisco ban on public nudity, which went into effect on 1 FEB and in the next breath urges people to come see the SF Gay Pride (gag) Parade in June – yes, even gutters have standards, just not very high ones.  But then we’ve known that about her for years, and same for San Francisco.  And frankly, plain old nudity is a BIG step up from what parades up and down the streets on Gay Pride Day in Babylon-by-the-Bay.

First Minion – Hoploclasts
Biden’s Chief of Staff: Gangsters Smuggling Guns from Suburbs into Chicago
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Sounds like the City of Chicago needs to set up more border-control checkpoints for their Stasi to filter these out, eh?  Frankly, it seems to me not enough guns are getting through; as Debby points out, a LOT of people need guns in Chicago to protect themselves from these criminals that go around breaking the law and killing people.

Congress in action (Sequestration)

Nathan: No, “sequestration” is NOT the same thing as defenestration (which is the legal and medical term for throwing people out windows). The next several stories talk about the vast evils associated with cutting the Federal budget a SHOCKING 1.4%, and show how endangered we all are without the careful oversight and gentle aid of the FedGov.  My stomach twinges at the thought of not having food or a roof over my head because the government is not able to afford that 1.4%.

Kerry Warns About Cost of Sequestration to State Dep’t, Mum on $2.4 Billion For Pakistan
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Seems to me like the State Department could cut a LOT of money by consolidating and closing consulates and even embassies.  Or automating them: seems like a lot of their work could be done with a good secure, vandal-resistant terminal (or several) and a decent wifi connection to the internet.  I would bet its got to cost a million or more per year for every State Department employee overseas, but I bet that a terminal system would cost under $100 K – that is 90% savings right there – not counting the price the old embassy building and grounds would fetch.  Better yet, privatize the whole thing, country by country.  Let ExxonMobil bid for and pay for getting to have one of their people be the Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and staff Saudi Arabia with their own people.  Maybe Gus Hall’s old outfit, the CPUSA, would bid for North Korea and Vietnam!  The possibilities are mind-staggering.

Mama’s Note: I’ve got an idea… forget the whole thing. Aside from government skulduggery, I see no purpose for “embassies” at all.

HUD Chief: Sequester Could Expose Thousands of Children to Lead Poisoning
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This is even more far-fetched. This lead boondoggle has been going on for more than 20 years – it is more than time to turn it over to local and private firms.

Mama’s Note: Again, I have a better idea. Leave it to the individuals actually involved. The whole “lead poisoning” scare has been as seriously overblown as the one about asbestos.

Duncan: Sequester Could Kick 70,000 Children Out of Head Start Preschool
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: And this would be bad how? Time to let parents once more decide, and have local volunteers and groups provide this sort of thing.  Like all of these, the tall tales are designed to put pressure on political opponents by using special interest groups – I am amazed that the State Department didn’t come up with some justification that their budget is “for the children.”  Meanwhile, in a Federal Reserve near you:

Greenspan: Odds of Sequester ‘Very High’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Yeah, right.  Like he can predict when the sun will come up tomorrow! (I’ll admit he might be right once a week or so).

Congress in action – Politics 2013
Sessions: Dems’ Portrayal of GOP is Wrong — and ‘Hurts My Feelings’(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Fortunately, I know he is being sarcastic.  At the same time, it DOES hurt – to see such idiots in power.

Congress in action – Tyranny – New religions: global warming
Waxman: Obama Should Regulate Oil Refineries, Household Appliances to Stop Global Warming
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Funny, funny.  Of course, the FedGov DOES already regulate refineries: literally regulates them to death pretty often.  As they do refrigerators and stoves and washing machines and dishwashers and coffeemakers and toasters and …  Waxman has to know this, but that doesn’t keep him from spreading fear in at least two places: one, his district’s voters, just sure that without dear Uncle Henry to protect them, their household appliances would turn on them and fill their houses (apartments) with evil greenhouse gases and they would cook in their own beds; and two, the manufacturer’s and importer’s trade groups who will write big campaign donation checks to help convince him not to make the “new regulations” too much more harsh, and to make sure that the regulations keep competitors from… well, competing!

Culture wars: killing babies
Cardinal Arinze: ‘Personally’ Against Abortion Is Like Saying ‘Personally’ Against Shooting Members of Congress
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Oops, is he in trouble now: Capitol Police on their way to arrest him now.  I’m sure he won’t go to trial:  “shot while attempting to escape” or “shot while reaching for the assault weapon hidden under his cardinal’s cap” is more likely.

First minion: hoploclasts
Biden: ‘Buy a shotgun’
(Washington Post) In a Facebook town hall meeting hosted by Parents Magazine, Vice President Biden on Tuesday had some advice for Americans who wish to protect themselves with an assault weapon. “Buy a shotgun! Buy a shotgun,” Biden said.

Nathan: From a technical point of view, the argument over shotguns versus semiautomatic rifles and carbines for home defense is overshadowed by the argument for handguns.  But for this current phase of his massa’s plan, this argument is intended to muddle the entire debate over liberty.  This is obviously a planned follow-up to the picture of the “messiah” trying to shoot skeet.

American front – Hoploclasts
Mexico Asks US for List of Gun Owners
(Prison Planet) The Mexican government is asking the U.S. government to hand over a list of all gun [sic] owned by residents in Border States.

Nathan: IF this is true (you know my opinion of Alex Jones) this is just one more argument – secondary, of course – to why registering weapons is an incredibly stupid idea.  There IS no list of all guns owned by the residents of TX, NM, AZ, and CA.  Fortunately.  But if there were, does anyone doubt that this administration would not find a way to turn it over to Ciudad Mexico where the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and cops would sell it to the highest bidder?

Mama’s Note: I’m still trying to figure out what such a list would do for the Mexicans. Why would they even care?

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-08A: TSA, Guns, and G-d

Posted on 2013-02-20 by TPOL Nathan

Work and family demands are cutting my writing this week, as they did last week.  Still I am accommodating demands by my faithful readers (BOTH of them) to continue to comment on things.

Due to some technical glitches, the denizens of Ursa Minor Five seem to be reading #13-07D and #13-07A.  BUT none of the rest of us can.  So moving right along, and getting the Powers That Be (PTB) mad at us, right now, I’m in Denver which seems to be one of the dens of the Evil Ones committed to stealing more and more liberty from us.

Home front – TSA Thuggery
Man Sues TSA over Arrest for Natural Peanut Butter
(Political Outcast) [The man carrying a jar of natural peanut butter where the oil had risen to the surface was questioned by a TSA agent about the strange heavy, dark liquid, and after explaining what it was, the man teased about the TSA not letting him transport his ‘explosive’ substance.] The TSA agent reacted by calling the police, and Hannibal was detained for about 25 hours, during which time he was ironically fed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, probably not made with peanut butter of the “natural” variety, but rather the partially-hydrogenated soybean oil variety and jelly infused with high-fructose corn syrup and sodium benzoate. He was being charged with “falsely reporting an incident,” which is a felony.

Nathan: So the guy is suing the TSA!  Good for him!  For many of us, excess peanut oil from peanut butter (Army-issue peanut butter in C-rations years ago was also not homogenized) does cause “explosive” results from the body.  So it was an innocent “funny” – about equal to remarking that the new stage play “bombed” on opening night.  Those of us who have had to travel by air under the watchful, all-controlling eye of the Thousands Standing Around – or who read news from other than the mainstream – know that TSA agents have their humor gland removed at the same time they have their lobotomies, but this guy didn’t get the word.  Of course, during that 25 hours the TSA detained him (habeas corpus, anyone?), according to tests, the TSA let 2-5 REAL guns, REAL explosive devices, and REAL knives and nail clippers with sharp files get aboard aircraft.  But we were safe from peanut oil and natural peanut butter.

Mama’s Note: If it didn’t happen so often, it would seem impossible. Actually, if I was going to fly again, I’d much rather do it with everyone (or at least me) well armed. Someone with peanut butter oil gas would be annoying, for sure, but bearable. Those making long transcontinental flights might wish to make a deal with such a person… so they’d sit under a vent of some sort, perhaps – near the lavatory.

Politics 2012 – Hoploclasts and Hoplophobes
Gun background-check nightmare in Colorado
(WND.com)  Four anti-gun measures moved through the Colorado General Assembly lower house on Monday and moved to the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Thanks to Darryl for this one.

Nathan: The various bills introduced will make Colorado as bad as New York or California.  A LOT of people are upset and many, including some sheriffs, have already vowed to disobey the law.  One manufacturer has already stated they will move out of state if the magazine law is passed – and more may follow.  As you can imagine, the General Assembly have condemned Magpul strongly.  The background check fee (starting at $10) will lead to lost sales, especially in the Front Range (close to Wyoming and not that far from the Black Hills) and border regions.  Some of the more extreme bills (which could pass, given the hysteria) could make criminals of many brethren and many relatives in Colorado.

Evil days indeed are upon us. The State wants to become or replace God; too many people want to trade their liberty for a false sense of security.

The “messiah” – Home front
Obama using new political freedom to tackle domestic agenda
(Washington Post) PALM CITY, Fla. — In a gym usually home to the Hyde Park Academy Thunderbirds, President Obama spoke about his own home late last week — and the trouble it faces.  He warned students and teachers that the fragility of families, the easy violence of guns, and a threatened education system are failing Chicago’s South Side, where he once worked as a community organizer and began his family.

Nathan: Although I still read the WaPo’s daily political summary, most of the stories aren’t worth commenting on:  you can only spend so much time finding things to say about the dotty and rather fatuous statements by an old, gray-headed bag lady with Alzheimers.  But this one is worth noting for the “messiah’s” wording:  “the easy violence of guns.”   This may herald a new meme he and his minions and handlers are trying to embed:  Fist violence and knife violence and kick-em-in-the-head violence is HARD work – and today’s lazy society isn’t as likely to spend their energy if they have to do more than lift a 10-ounce handgun and exert 5-10 foot-pounds of force on the trigger.  Right.  Of course, that IS the point of handguns:  they are easier to use, so the 90-pound beauty (or grandmother) being assaulted by the 250-pound, six-five would-be rapist has a better chance of NOT getting raped.  Brilliant.  But obviously NOT something at least one Democratic congress-thug cares about:

Congress in action – Hoploclasts
Dem Congressman: Women Should Use Whistle Instead of Gun to Defend Against Rape
(Vision to America)

Nathan: Is it possible for someone to really be this clueless?  Or does he know better but lies to push their agenda?  How many women, facing a rapist, and having both a whistle and a gun will use the whistle?  How long will we allow stupid people like this (or lying powermongers) say this sort of thing?

Mama’s Note: All criminals, official and otherwise, want their violence to be “easy.” And it is easy for them all when the victims are unarmed, helpless and frightened.

Politics 2012 – Our right of self defense
Feds Admit: Gun Laws Won’t Slow Crime
(Vision to America)

Nathan: This has been known for some time, but too few people are aware of it.  Those who support the restrictions on government to dictate weapons spend far too much time “defending” gun rights because they automatically and unthinkingly buy into the concept that some gun control does prevent crime.  Instead, history and data shows that in those very rare cases where new gun control laws passed and there was a drop in crime, there were OTHER, more relevant factors which caused the decline.

Mama’s Note: The whole argument itself is immaterial in the long run. Where does legitimate authority over people’s lives and property originate?

And it’s the most important question we can ask ourselves. Do we own our lives, or have we given our sovereign and natural authority over ourselves to the rulers and politicians?

Those who have freely consented to be controlled by the constitution and the layers of ruling class and bureaucracy it created do not need my permission or my blessing. They are free to do so. The problem is that they feel equally or even especially free to impose that on me, even though I have NOT consented to be so ruled. By their own words, they must have the “consent of the governed,” but not one of them is willing to entertain the fact that not consenting -simply opting out – is possible.

Theft by government
Feds Paid Average of $4,000 in ‘Means-Tested’ Benefits to Households Earning $35,500
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Meanwhile, I know personally of households with earnings of LESS than $10,000 per year who get nada from the Feds (or state);  If you don’t form part of a bloc which is being courted, you stand a good chance of getting ignored.

World wars
No End in Sight for the Long Struggle to Define Terrorism
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: The major problem for the statists – even the minarchists – is that any rational definition of terrorism will include many if not all activities of the governments that they love so much.  Like people who claim to be “Christians” yet accept that governments (masses of people, or people who have “power”) do not have to be judged by the same moral standards as individuals, their attitude and position are illogical and contradictory.

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By what legitimate authority?

Posted on 2013-02-17 by MamaLiberty

Not a “conspiracy.” A pogrom. “A massacre or persecution instigated by the government or by the ruling class against a minority group, particularly Jews.”

Only instead of “Jews,” this time it is independent thinkers, productive people who would rather not be robbed, those who can and will defend themselves and their communities. Free people of all kinds. And if we are too afraid of being seen as “conspiracy nuts,” I guess the pogrom, once again, will be a success.  But I don’t really think that challenging the “official story” of these atrocities is the central need. “Conspiracy” is too pat. There’s just so much more to it than that.

The question not being asked by most of us is: By what legitimate authority? How does anyone legitimately gain authority to control the lives and choices of other people against their will?

Did you ever ask a politician, a gun grabber, a public school teacher, a bureaucrat… “By what legitimate authority do you demand, order, enforce, do these things?”

I have. Most, of course, cite the “constitution” and/or “the rule of law.” I then ask them how those things can confer LEGITIMATE authority. Where does legitimate authority over people’s lives and property originate?

So far, NONE of them can answer that, and most become extremely angry when questioned at all. Yet I would think that is the most important question we can ask.

And it’s the most important question we can ask ourselves. Do we own our lives, or have we given our sovereign and natural authority over ourselves to the rulers and politicians?

Those who have freely consented to be controlled by the constitution and the layers of ruling class and bureaucracy it created do not need my permission or my blessing. They are free to do so. The problem is that they feel equally or even especially free to impose that on me, even though I have NOT consented to be so ruled. By their own words, they must have the “consent of the governed,” but not one of them is willing to entertain the fact that not consenting -simply opting out – is possible.

Ask the question. Ask yourself first. Act accordingly.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C. S. Lewis
English essayist & juvenile novelist (1898 – 1963)
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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-07C: The State of the Union is Wrong

Posted on 2013-02-15 by TPOL Nathan

Home front – Self defense
Robbery Victims Shooting Attackers Called ‘Alarming Trend’
(Godfather Politics)  There’s an alarming trend in Detroit … In the span of a week, two separate robberies were thwarted when the victims, who both had conceal carry permits and a gun, managed to defend themselves by shooting their attackers.

Nathan: Gasp! What will these poor people do?  They go out to work putting themselves in harm’s way to make a decent living (or any living) and suddenly people are changing the rules of the game.  I think the survivors need to sue, together with the families of those killed by these madmen who refuse to be victims.  And OSHA complaints are certainly appropriate, also: in part against the city and the state who are not ensuring a safe workplace for hold-up artists and muggers.

Theft by government – Welfare victims
Food Stamp Rolls in America Now Surpass the Population of Spain
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Of course, I suspect that the SPENDING on SNAP (Food Stamps) in the US probably exceeds the total budget of the Royal government of Spain.  Of course, it is Spain’s fault for allowing so many Spaniards to escape to the Americas in the past.

Stupid government – Tranzis
Kerry Took More Security on Trip to Arlington, Va., Than State Dept. Posted in Benghazi
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Well, of course.  The hide of the “messiah’s”  latest Foreign Minister is worth a lot more than any dozen state department weenies – much less red-shirt security personnel.

The “messiah”
Poll: Americans Don’t Really Like the Job Obama’s Doing
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Someone sent me a nice video presentation on this poll.  If I believed in polls, it would make me feel better.  Point is, it doesn’t matter if he is uniformly running at 10% approval – because of vote fraud or stupidity or whatever, we are stuck with the man for just under four more years – and probably for the life of a united States…

War on some drugs – Home front
Cuccinelli: ‘It’s Appropriate’ for States to ‘Experiment’ with Legalizing Marijuana
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: As long as the big federal nanny is there to slap them down if they go too far, of course.  From the conservative point of view, this is like locking the young teenagers in the basement with all the booze and pot and sex they want, because they are “safe” at home and can’t go drinking and driving – and then wondering why they drink and smoke and get PG outside the home later.

The “messiah” – Government attack on religion
Obama–Sued by Catholic Church for Attacking Religious Freedom–Boasts of His ‘Work Together’ With Pope
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: What is that stench?  An opportunist?  It goes along with the egotism, I suppose.  Of course, there is something rather pathetic about a guy in his position who thinks he has to be a name dropper.  Next he’ll be boasting he met the Queen of Canada… or whatever tinpot elected dictator is running Venezuela by the end of the summer.

Home front – Disgusting behavior
D.C. Ranked First in Extra-Marital Affairs – For Second Time in a Row
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: In other words, it isn’t just the pieces of trash elected to Congress and the political-appointee minions of the “messiah” that have the morals of an abused alley cat or a Hollywood starlet: their staff and the lobbyists and the other worthless parasitic denizens of DC are no better.

Theft by government – The “messiah”
Obama: Budget Cuts Could Force Small Businesses to Close Doors
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Well, we know for sure that high taxes and a high deficit coupled with inflation is sure forcing a lot of small businesses to close – and stimulus spending certainly hasn’t helped.  Perhaps it is time to try something different?

Durbin: Obama’s Sequester Designed As a ‘Threat’ to Get Tax Hikes
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: In other words, Democrats are admitting this is a big, made-up, for TV type “crisis” and political posturing.  Admitting it, even though we already know it.  How stupid can you get?

Congress in action – Stupid people tricks
Rep. Corrine Brown: ‘Don’t Confuse Me With Any Facts’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Heaven forbid, Miz Brown, that we would do that.  Stupid is as stupid does:  Durbin, Brown, Rangel, all the rest at least are making the appearance of having the intelligence of a grape squished on a sidewalk.

Self-defense – Home front
Washington: Chehalis homeowner shoots intruder
(KIRO TV)A homeowner shot an intruder in his Chehalis home early Sunday morning, said officials with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. … [Sheriff states:] “My office works very hard in ensuring people feel safe and secure in Lewis County. However, people have to be prepared to protect themselves in situations like this in their own homes.  Our response times are as fast we can make them, but there may be a time when you are by yourself and you are forced to make a life or death decision to protect yourself and your family, like this man did,” said Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield. “About the only thing I can say that the victim could have done differently (is that) he could have fired sooner, he could have fired more often, and he could have used a better brand of ammunition,” Mansfield said Monday at a news conference.

Mama’s Note: I think some of these law enforcement folks are starting to get the idea…

Nathan: Yes, indeed.  And giving GOOD advice, not “tips on using school scissors as an improvised weapon,” or some such.  Sadly, the next person had no such advice and did not have the wherewithall to defend his family.

“Self-defense” FAIL – Home front
Miami dad dies protecting daughter, 11, during home invasion
(Fox News)

Mama’s Note: Of course, no mention that he had a gun or knew how to use it. So he had nothing to protect her with except his bare hands. Brilliant.

Nathan: And in Miami, he could easily have gotten one.  And unable to defend her and himself, these two murdering thugs are still roaming the streets.

The “Messiah” – Theft by government  – Lies – Bootlicking
Obama Seeks 29 New Programs: ‘Nothing I’m Proposing Should Increase Deficit by Single Dime’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: What a crock!  “The State of the Union is stronger.”  “Yes, ma’am, your husband’s heart is failing, his liver stopped working, he can’t remember beans, but… he’s stronger this morning.”  Frankly, “the State of the Union is wronger” than it was a year ago, and this is a steady pattern.  And sadly, people believe him when he speaks like this.  So we see the worshipful attitude:

Bootlicking
Rep. Maloney Praises Obama: ‘FDR is Back’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, F. D. Roosevelt, all rolled up into one stupid package.

Congress in action
Sen Graham: Use of Drones “Highlight” of Obama’s Term,
(Politico) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will offer a resolution next week commending President Barack Obama’s use of drones and the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki. “Every member of Congress needs to get on board,” Graham said. “It’s not fair to the president to let him, leave him out there alone quite frankly. He’s getting hit from libertarians and the left. . . . “The process of being targeted I think is legal, quite frankly laborious and should reside in the commander in chief to determine who an enemy combatant is and what kind of force to use,” Graham told reporters on Wednesday. . . . “If this ever goes to court I guarantee you it will be a slam dunk support of what the administration is doing. I think one of the highlights of President Obama’s first term and the beginning of his second term is the way he’s been able to use drones against terrorists,” Graham said.

Nathan: Figured I was reading a Union article.  Then I thought maybe Graham was being really, really sarcastic.  But apparently, he is such a neo-Con that blood and more blood cannot quench his thirst.  What I REALLY find bizarre is that Graham claims that the “messiah needs to be protected from Libertarians!  I don’t know any Libertarians who carry a drone around with them and that has threatened the “messiah” – no aircraft carriers flying the black A-circle or the yellow Gadsden flag with warheads ready to frag him.  At least I don’t think so.  But maybe Graham has one of those super-secret clearances and knows something.  Maybe, but I think he is just a boot-licker.

Theft by government
CBO: If Debt Not Addressed, Stimulus Spending Will be a ‘Drag’ on Future Economic Growth
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: How much more can we spend?  Even some (very few) Congressmen finally realize that it has to end… just not while they are still around, as the next story seems to say:

The “messiah”
Obama’s Speech Offers Little Substance on Foreign Affairs
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Or anything else – a great campaign speech, with an agenda that is as scary as anything he said on the real campaign trail.  What a WASTE of an hour (no, not for me: I scanned the transcript later, I had work to do.)

Crash of 2009 – Theft by government
Price of Gallon of Gas Up 96% Under Obama
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Yes, far more than most other commodities – but inflation and stupid government policies have their usual results.  Gas went up overnight in the Four Corners another dime to $3.459 (diesel has been the same for the week at $3.959 – lovely!)  Yes, prices go up and down, but this is up overall and long-term.

Mama’s Note: And, of course, the price of gas and diesel are reflected in the price of everything else eventually. It’s not the amount, even, the problem is the theft.

East Asian front
‘Treat North Korea as Criminal Enterprise,’ Scholar Argues
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: I have no problem with that, since virtually EVERY government here on planet Earth right now is a criminal enterprise.  North Korea is just the national criminal equivalent of the really scummy neighborhood junkie who rolls tramps and steals their cigarette butts.

Home front – Stupid government
Intact Families – Not Government Social Programs – Most Beneficial to Children and Society, Group Finds
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: No!  Say it isn’t so!  Families are evil and disfunctional and destroy children’s lives.  EVERYone knows that!

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