Liberty an unappreciated necessity

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for October 4, 2017)

It's a human tragedy that most of us lack real appreciation for life's necessities.

We don't appreciate things until it's too late.

Water is overlooked until you have to scrounge for every drop. I've been thirsty enough to sip water from a rotten stump's hollow, filtering it through a bandanna against my mouth to avoid swallowing mosquito larvae and globs of algae. I've been thirsty enough to drink water, peppered with rabbit pellets, from holes in rocks.

Yet, even I can take for granted that when I turn on the faucet, good water will come out. Occasionally I remember the times water was scarce, and feel appreciative.

You won't appreciate heat, light, or cooked food until you don't have the option of flipping a switch. The appreciation for those modern conveniences grows stronger when you've made every fire by rubbing sticks together.

Do this a few thousand times over several years and it will help you feel gratitude for technology-- even lighters.

In the same way, you'll never value liberty until you've had it and lost it. Almost no American appreciates liberty because they've never actually experienced it. They've been taught to believe Americans are free, and questioning the truth of this statement is labeled "ingratitude".

It's not. It's recognizing reality and demanding better.

Until you are free to live as you see fit, as long as you're not harming anyone else, your liberty is being violated. Until you are free to travel, trade, and protect your person and property without seeking permission from anyone to do those things, liberty is imaginary. If you are required to get licenses and permits to go about your life and business, you aren't free.

No one has the right to require the licensing of driving, carried guns, or businesses. No one has the right to take your money, using the excuse of taxation or fines. No one has the right to prohibit or regulate any part of your life until you tread on the equal and identical rights of others. It is your unrefusable* responsibility to not violate people by restricting their rights, and nothing can change that.

Those who support the violations and celebrate them as "freedom" are lying to you.

Yes, it could be worse.

I'm grateful for the liberties still allowed. I crave the return of those which have been criminalized through the error of allowing government to grow.

If you are grateful too, show it by defending liberty even when everyone around you would rather you didn't.

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A moment of silence-- owed by you and me, anyway

It's time for a moment of silence after an evil loser murdered a bunch of people in a Texas church.

Of course, this silence only applies to you and me. The anti-liberty bigots have decreed that only they are permitted to squeal loudly for anti-gun "laws" in the immediate aftermath.

But sane people must show our "respect" for the victims by keeping our mouths shut, no matter the lies spouted by the anti-liberty bigots. Lies which will inevitably result in more innocent victims.

The same old same old.

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Borderists don't understand property rights, part infinity

Borderism in bloom.

"In a fully privatized libertarian order there exists no such thing as a right to free immigration. Private property implies borders and the owner’s right to exclude at will. And 'public property' has borders as well. It is not unowned. It is the property of domestic tax-payers and most definitely not the property of foreigners. And while it is true that the State is a criminal organization and that to entrust it with the task of border control will inevitably result in numerous injustices to both domestic residents and foreigners, it is also true that the State does something also when it decides not to do anything about border control and that, under the present circumstances, doing nothing at all in this regard will lead to even more and much graver injustices, in particular to the domestic citizenry." - Bionic Mosquito

First off, "immigration" is a lie used to justify bigger, more powerful government. Government to be aimed at those the borderists want to aim it at, but bigger, more powerful government, regardless.

What was that main theme again? "In a fully privatized libertarian order ... 'public property' ... is the property of domestic tax-payers..."

Ummm. No. Sorry.

In a "fully privatized libertarian order" there would be no "taxes" to be paid by anyone, "domestic" or "foreign". If there were "public property", it would be owned by a group which VOLUNTARILY agrees to pay for its purchase and upkeep and allows the public to use the property at its whim. Not financed through theft. Not really "public".

And this has absolutely no bearing on the borderist argument, no matter how badly they wish it did. Borderism is anti-property rights, because they believe the State's spurious claim on my property trumps mine.

The last 3/5 of the paragraph wobbles between admitting government "border control" is a bad deal for the slaves (and others), and seeking to justify it anyway.

This is just one example of where the borderists go wrong; the examples are seemingly endless. And frustrating. All calculated to reach the conclusion that "feels" pragmatic and cozy, while avoiding the truth.

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