Political correctness ramping up for Halloween season!

Posted on 2023-09-26 by TPOL Nathan

Everyone in the Fifty States that has visited a supermarket or drugstore or discount/big-box store knows that Halloween is less than six weeks away.

Like every other popular holiday in the States (and no doubt much of “Western Civilization”), Halloween has been commercialized and profit-maximized to what would once have been considered unimaginable heights. We’ve been seeing the displays of candy and costumes and especially (at least to us, the dread specter of “pumpkin spice” everything edible or drinkable) for weeks.

But it isn’t just merchants and manufacturers who seek to maximize profit (or its equivalent) from the holiday. So too are the SJW and Woke enemies of liberty. Especially those who wish to and work constantly to end freedom of speech in the world.

Recently, an associate of TPOL was told by her corporate headquarters that she can no longer use the word “spook” when talking to people at work. Either as verb or noun. She was corrected when she referred to this period as being the “spooky time” as the once-beloved holiday approaches. That, she was told, is a no-no.

Why?

Continue reading →
Posted in Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bees, wasps, cars, and governments

Posted on 2023-09-25 by TPOL Nathan

Consider the following little poster:

A long time ago (1957) Eric Frank Russell wrote the great science fiction novel WASP/

Both ideas are correct. Millions of bees (or wasps) cannot be withstood – even hundreds or dozens can incapacitate and kill a human. Russell’s story starts out with a news story about a car full of adult men killed in an accident because of the wasp in the passenger compartment. (Fact or fiction? We know personally of similar accidents.) A single wasp, bee, or person in the wrong (or right?) place can have unimaginable influence. (The novel, if you have not read it or want to read it again, is available free online as a PDF or ePub.)

For bad or good. For tyranny or… for liberty.

A wasp, a bee, can destroy a 2,000-pound automobile. At the right time and place, it can also save a vehicle, save a life, and more. We are more than insects. We are humans – and we are or should be free.

These memes are just as true in 2023 as they were in 1957, or 1000 BC. And liberty and freedom are just as precious, just as necessary to we humans.

“I am just one person” is an excuse for inaction. For accepting slavery instead of grasping liberty for ourselves and others.

In times of crisis and danger, we must seize the time, seize the opportunities, to stand up and say “I won’t” – and whether it is just one person, a family, a congregation, a community, or more – we can make a difference. If not the first time, then the next or the next.

We can.

We must.

Posted in Nathan's Rants, Short Takes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Change is coming – and maybe from the “top” – are we misjudging Uncle Joe on guns?

Posted on 2023-09-23 by TPOL Nathan

The Price of Liberty makes no bones about just we think of Beloved Senile Leader (BSL). As corrupt and (now probably titular) powerful crime lord, as a liar to rival Baron Munchausen, as a poster child for exposing abuse of the elderly and galloping senility, we think he is the epitome of success. And he seems determined to preside over the decline of a great empire.

It’s happened before, of course: consider the last Inca, or closer to home, Montezuma II. Centuries of work, power and advancement vanished in a matter of months. Or go back farther in time to the collapse of the Chaldean (Neo-Babylonian) Empire after the death of Nebbucannezer and untimely death of his successor. History is full of such successes.

But sometimes…

Maybe we have to give more credit to BSL (or his puppetmasters) than we have.

Continue reading →
Posted in Commentary on the News, Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Are you in a “food desert”?

Posted on 2023-09-21 by TPOL Nathan

Governments are known for the use of acronyms. To the point of craziness! But governments are also known for creating new phrases that have special meanings – often meaning that make little sense. Including many that don’t make a whole lot of sense. Even when they’ve been used for years.

You may be shocked to look at this map:

Is your town, city, or county one of the darker colors?

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) define a food desert as an area that has either a poverty rate greater than or equal to 20% or a median family income not exceeding 80% of the median family income in urban areas, or 80% of the statewide median family income in nonurban areas.

Continue reading →
Posted in Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Problems: readers, please help us figure out the problem

Posted on 2023-09-20 by TPOL Nathan

For the last 10 days, apparently, subscribers and casual readers have not been getting notified of postings. We are trying to figure out what is going on. If you get this message, please comment and let us know.

Thanks, Nathan and all at The Price of Liberty

Posted in Nathan's Rants | 4 Comments

It ain’t news – but it is another piece of the puzzle

Posted on 2023-09-19 by TPOL Nathan

Here we are, three and a half years after the pandemic (beer flu) and the Pandemic Panic.

But we still are trying to get the puzzle put together. Not just what happened, but why?

Several folks – libertarian or leaning that way – pro- and anti-government – have been chiming in recently. Among folks like Tom Woods and the good people over at Lew Rockwell, we even have Jim Rickards (Paradigm, formerly Agora) finding and sharing more of the pieces.

That there were really nasty things going on is not news. And neither is someone telling us that the CIA lies. They do it all the time.

Continue reading →
Posted in Commentary on the News, Ideas for liberty, Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Human rats and political roaches, like the real animals…

Posted on 2023-09-18 by TPOL Nathan

… run and hide when light is shined on them.

But light is NOT the same as transparency, is it?

We will argue that it is not. Transparency is supposed to be a “character trait” of organizations: they are willing and DO let people look at how they do things. But that is controlled by the organization itself. They can pay lip-service to the concept, but in reality deny outsiders the ability to see what is going on. And frankly, that is how most government organizations act. “Open meetings” and “Open records” laws to the contrary. There are always work arounds to those laws. And some are incredibly simple.

But shining a light at something is pretty much the act of a second or third party, and therefore NOT really under the control of the agency or action being lit up. They can, of course, attempt to block the light. Sometimes those open records and open meetings can help prevent them from blocking the light that exposes what is really going on.

Continue reading →
Posted in Ideas for liberty, Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Guest: The Democrat end game unravels in Albuquerque

Posted on 2023-09-16 by TPOL Nathan

TPOL is well-known for trashing New Mexico, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque.

Rob Morse wrote this commentary, and TPOL has some additional comments at the end.

What do you do when bad political decisions get set into dogma? If you’re a Democrat politician, then you ignore the facts and blame the people that your donors love to hate. That is exactly what we’re seeing play out in the violence in Albuquerque, New Mexico. To start, violent crime has been surging in Albuquerque for years. The first rule of politics is that you can’t appear powerless or irrelevant. Political realities rear their head and even the state governor is precluded from doing what works to reduce crime. So sad to be Democrat Governor Michelle Grisham.

The obvious thing to do is to arrest violent inner-city criminals who break the law. Unfortunately, democrat talking points claim that unfair law enforcement is a root cause of violent crime rather than the antidote to stop it. Democrats are supported by an urban voter base so they can’t arrest these violent criminals and risk alienating their demographic. Democrats had a narrow urban base of support in 2020, and Covid allowed millions of us to leave the city and work remotely.

The 2020 election map: Red GOP Blue Demo

Continue reading →
Posted in Commentary on the News, Friends of Liberty, Guest commentary, Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The old parties and their meat puppets

Posted on 2023-09-15 by TPOL Nathan

NOTE: This commentary was written on Monday, 11 September 2023, before the Libertarian Party filed for the conservatorship of Uncle Joe and Cousin Mitch. It is still worth reading and pondering. And acting on.

Years ago, Americans and Europeans used to make sport of the Soviet gerontocracy: the aged and often seemingly feeble rulers of the Soviet Russian Empire.

Today, the shoe is on the other foot.

Continue reading →
Posted in Commentary on the News, Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Pearl Harbor, Bloody Tuesday, JFK and Uncle Joe

Posted on 2023-09-14 by TPOL Nathan

It seems that the current regime – staffers in the White House who do not have Uncle Joe’s excuse of senility – lies simply for lies’ sake.

We have a disgusting example of that this week. As most readers probably know, our Beloved Senile Leader (BSL – Uncle Joe) was in Vietnam and then in Alaska for Bloody Tuesday – the 22nd Anniversary of the 9-11 attacks.

Not only did Uncle Joe state in his speech at a military base in Alaska that he was at Ground Zero in NYC the next day (he wasn’t – there is hardcopy and video proof that he was in DC the entire day), but one of his shills (or his controllers’ shills) told Reporter Peter Doocy that “When I asked a White House official why it is that President Biden was here [in Vietnam] and missing the 9/11 commemorations at the attack sites, the analogy that I was given is: 22 years after Pearl Harbor, U.S. presidents were not still going to visit Hawaii,” Doocy said.

Continue reading →
Posted in Commentary on the News, Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments