French mob does what French mobs do

Posted on 2023-03-18 by TPOL Nathan

Or should we say “the Paris mob” instead?

Since about 1787 or so, mobs have been a seemingly inescapable part of the French system of government. Regardless of what they call it: democracy, republic, empire, monarchy. Fairly frequently, the streets of Paris (and I admit, sometimes other cities and even towns and villages) are filled with angry crowds of people who quickly go from protest (chanting and stomping and shouting) to mayhem and destruction: burning trash and furniture and building then destroying barricades, while beating on each other and getting beaten on and beating troops or whomever. The invention of automobiles just gave them more things to beat on and burn.

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The real “saint” Patrick

Posted on 2023-03-17 by TPOL Nathan

Today is “green” day – a green that has nothing to do with environism or Gaea-worship. Except that Ireland – Eire – is a beautiful green island, truly a jewel of the Atlantic.

Green, green, green. In school, St. Patrick’s Day demanded wearing something green in school to avoid getting pinched. (Now forbidden, officially, of course.) (Some choose to wear orange, of course. Green for Catholic, Orange for Protestant. Those who are neither Catholic nor Protestant, just plain christians, were stuck with white and needed excellent situational awareness!)

Why talk about Patrick in a political commentary? Because what is “known” about Patrick is a pack of lies and misinformation and misrepresentation. Just like much of history, and even more of the media stories about current events, right here in 2023.

And because what we DO know about Patrick indicates that he was a strong advocate for liberty, as well as being an important missionary, and in many ways, a major influence on today’s Ireland.

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Elon Musk – libertarian?

Posted on 2023-03-16 by TPOL Nathan

A while back, the Daily Mail article on the Musk-Marcon summit in New Orleans calls Elon Musk “the loose-lipped libertarian.” Really? Other media outlets have claimed the same thing.

Musk is a very divisive, outspoken, and prominent man. Both for his wealth and his business achievements. But also for his outspokenness and outrageous actions.

Now we lovers of liberty (which does include many Libertarians and libertarians – classical liberals) are a variegated group, certainly. But Musk?

You gotta be kidding me, right, Nathan?

Let’s think about that for a minute.

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Biden and the great “un-bailout”

Posted on 2023-03-15 by TPOL Nathan

The last five days have been an earthquake – a financial earthquake destroying billions of dollars. And the FedGov, led by dear old Uncle Joe (and his puppetmasters), isn’t responding to repair the damage, rescue the real survivors, and protect people.

Nope, of course not. Business as usual for the FedGov. Are you “fed up” yet?

As the folks over at Paradigm pointed out, the Sacramento thugs “protected us” by starting to shut down one of the banksters: Silicon Valley Bank, because their balance sheet was an incredible $2.5 BILLION in the red. And no way to come up with that money, apparently. We’ve been learning that this was another example, like that piece of work Sam Bankman-Friedman and the lost $32 billion, of the fraud and insane business practices and theft of the financial industry.

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It’s pi day!

Posted on 2023-03-14 by TPOL Nathan

In the last few decades, Americans have found a wide variety of odd holidays to celebrate. Usually though getting businesses to offer special sale promotions and nearly spontaneous events.

Today is one of those: in standard American dating, 3-14 is of course the first three numbers of the value of pi, 3.14. Engineers like us here at TPOL usually use a few more digits: 3.14159 but (hopefully, good engineering practice) round to just 2 or 3 digits. The more persnickety scientist types like this: 3.141592653589793238462643. There is even a bunch of flags associated with “World Pi Day.”

A “Republic of Pi” flag.

But in popular American and commercial culture, it is the opportunity to sell various things: pies of all kinds, especially pizza pies. One chain we’re aware of is offering their personal pizzas for $3.14 today – almost half the normal price. Other promotions and sales are common. Schools and colleges often promote it as a way of emphasizing math skills.

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Ramping up – tensions and liberty

Posted on 2023-03-13 by TPOL Nathan

The decline of liberty often seems to be a matter of increasing provocations, responses, and especially more and more extreme rhetoric. Which in turn escalates more physical actions: more cracking down on dissidents and perceived enemies, more small acts of violence and more efforts to distract from the growing tyranny.

Are we in that cycle now? Not just here in the Fifty States, but around the world? And worse, are the people in power incompetent to respond in a sane, effective manner?

Don’t make me laugh. It hurts!

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Slippery slope – for real?

Posted on 2023-03-09 by TPOL Nathan

Science Fiction is full of it – and sadly, so is human history.

What? Treating humans like animals. “Other animals” in the beliefs of many, including those we think would never act on it.

World Net Daily recently featured a story about medical doctors who support the idea of suicide to provide organs for donation and transplant. It was prompted by an article in Psychology Today. “Should you be able to give your heart away, literally?”

Really?

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Wiping out the memory of an “evil man”

Posted on 2023-03-08 by TPOL Nathan

Paul Craig Roberts recently posted his commentary on the erasing of history. He correctly points out that erasing a country’s history is erasing the country. And he attributes to people who want to do just that.

He uses the American Confederacy – the Confederate States of America – as an example, as a warning to what is happening to every State in the “Federal Union” cum Federal Empire of 2023. Please take time to read it. His example is an excellent one for us to remember in 2023.

It may make readers angry, just as this commentary may do the same. Among other things, Roberts points out the honor and gallantry and truth about Robert E. Lee, who even by most rational modern standards was NOT the evil racist he is proclaimed to have been, today.

Like any man, Lee was fallible and far from perfect. But for generations of American soldiers, black, white, and other colors, he was held up as an example of how a soldier, an officer, should behave. How he should live up to his oath, how he should treat his troops, his commander-in-chief, and his enemy troops and warriors. Even bloody-handed terrorists. (Lee fought AmerInd in the West, as well as Mexican troops and outlaw insurrectionists, and then, finally Union troops. All of these contained some men who would be labeled as terrorists today – and indeed may have been.)

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Worshipping God or the state (human government)

Posted on 2023-03-07 by TPOL Nathan

A recent news story reports about a controversial member of the Lutheran Church, specifically the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, a “conservative” Lutheran denomination with 2 million members in the Fifty States and 6,000 congregations across the land. It seems that an “alt-right fascist” who has unacceptable views about Adolf Hitler is disrupting worship assemblies of Lutheran churches in Tennessee.

Now, whatever the beliefs of this man and the beliefs of the Missouri Synod, these congregations have the right to assemble – and NOT assemble – with people. They can choose whom to worship with, study with, and whom to chose to lead them. According to God-given fundamental rights, even if what they are doing is contrary to the Bible (which they claim to follow) or their own creed.

As we understand it, the man was not committing any act of violence, or threatening any human action at all. But he riled up the good Lutheran folks. His teachings seem pretty nasty, at least by current standards. He advocates a lot of things that the people he was trying to teach are disgusted by.

So they called the cops. The story says he was was removed from church grounds for causing what his pastor called “harm and division to the body of Christ.” By the cops.

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Islands in the sea of reality

Posted on 2023-03-06 by TPOL Nathan

We used to refer to Boulder, Colorado that way.

Today, unfortunately, the water levels in the sea of reality aren’t rising. Apparently, they are dropping.

The latest example of this is a bogus “scientific” study featured by MSN, explaining how manmade global warming – the earth heating up – is to blame for increased gun-caused deaths. Thousands die, we are told, when the weather gets hotter. And we are reminded that temperatures are supposed to rise 3 to 12 degrees nationwide by the end of the century, and gun violence (not just gun deaths) will rise alarmingly as well.

Of course, even the limited data provided in the article (found online courtesy of Microsoft) doesn’t support the hysterical claims of the headline and opening sentences.

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