Under the influence... of politics

I often say politics makes people stupid, and usually a little evil, too. It's not a joke. For politicians, politics makes them evil; regular people are made stupid.

Politics is an intoxicant. In the long term, it poisons the mind as surely as alcohol or other drugs.

There have been people I liked, but who I didn't want to be around when they were drunk or drugged.
Politics is exactly the same. It can turn a decent person into a mean drunk. Into an abuser.

You can often tell by looking when a person is under the influence of a chemical intoxicant.
You can also usually tell by looking if a person is under the influence of politics.

Long-term chemical abuse leaves signs on the face and body.
So does long-term politics abuse. Both are addictive and can destroy you from the inside out.

You're not an addict if you're warning people of the dangers of alcohol or other drugs.
You're not being political when warning people of the dangers of politics.

Believing in political "authority" is just a facet of being under the influence. To molest people for being under the influence while you are under the influence of something just as destructive makes you a bad guy. Cops are hypocrites in more ways than one.

It's your choice to make. You have the right to put chemicals in your body, even if it kills you. If you kill or harm others, including while under the influence, you owe restitution you may not be able to pay.
If, while under the influence of politics, you harm or kill others, you owe restitution. Government may protect you, being a purely political monstrosity that seeks to exempt its abusers from consequences. But you are still in debt. The Universe won't forget or forgive. Whether the people do remains to be seen, but don't bank on it.

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Is it really a right?

I've noticed that when a lot of people mention "rights", they are just telling you how they want to violate you.

"____ rights are human rights". Well, OK, but in that case, there doesn't need to be a modifier. All humans alive have equal and identical rights. If what you're really demanding is an imaginary "right" to do things to other people that you have no right to do, an "extra right" beyond those shared by all, you can jump right off a cliff. And it does seem like this is what they are usually demanding.

Someone asked how to explain the concept that "food is a human right". It isn't, not the way they want it to be. 

Here is how food is a human right: You have the right to grow, harvest, hunt, and prepare your own food. Any government rules that get in the way of this are illegitimate. That includes "hunting licenses" and barring people from foraging and hunting for food on "public" (unowned) land. It includes property codes that demand you grow a grass lawn instead of edible vegetables. It includes property codes that ban you from raising livestock. It includes any rule that prevents you from (or licenses) engaging in trade so you can buy food. Government is the primary criminal preventing access to food.

Here is how food is NOT a human right: You don't have the right to go to a store and demand they give you the specific kind of food you'd prefer, nor to rob someone and use their money to buy food. It's the same as forcing someone to work in the fields and grow crops for you. 

You may not get exactly the kind of food you like. You may be eating "weeds" and sparrows rather than Twinkies and Big Macs. But that's as far as the right to food gets you.

You do have the right to ask for food or money with which to buy food. Again, it may not be exactly what you wanted to eat, but as long as it is food, your right is respected.

A right doesn't obligate anyone to do anything or give you anything. It doesn't entitle someone to anyone else's labor or property. It obligates them to not violate this right, just as you are obligated to not violate their equal and identical right. It's really not that hard, and most people who don't seem to understand don't want to understand or they would understand.

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Liberty: Mortal enemy of government

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for April 2, 2025)

It isn't "political" to keep government-- its employees, agencies, and rules-- out of our lives. Politics imposes those things on others. Liberty isn't political, but violating liberty is.

If you want to be governed, I'll respect your right to act like you have no rights. If you want someone else to be governed, you're on the side of slavery and tyranny. You're doing something no one has a right to do, which is a better definition of crime than "breaking laws"...read the rest...

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True libertarians not on the Trump Train

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for February 26, 2025)

I'm disappointed with how many former libertarians are now fans of big government just because Donald Trump is the president. Some have abandoned all pretense of supporting liberty.

If this is all it takes to make someone turn their back on liberty, were they libertarian to begin with? To me, it matters what you do, not what you say you are.

This includes some highly influential "libertarian" social media accounts which now seem to be nothing more than Republicans using "libertarian" in the name.

Some are even spending their time and energy to insult those who haven't tossed principles aside and jumped on the Trump Train. The insults fall flat, but they try.

"Libertarian" has a specific meaning; it means you reject the initiation of force, property rights violations, and fraud as ways of dealing with others; those are things no one has a right to do. Never, under any circumstances. It means you recognize that without liberty, humans are enslaved to some degree. How much slavery is acceptable to you? The correct answer is always "none".

It doesn't mean you hate those in power because the power is being used to violate rights, until you suddenly love those in power when they violate others in a different way.

I get caught in the middle because I neither suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome nor am I a Trump fan. He's just a politician like any other, who happens to be doing some good things no one else has been willing to consider, while doing some bad things which are not better in some way simply because he's the one doing them. He's neither a messiah nor a devil.

If you aren't able to acknowledge the good things someone does while condemning the bad they do, you're not thinking it through. It's the same if all you do is condemn them. Either way, you're jumping on a bandwagon. It's the easier path.

No one should have the power to govern others. It's never a legitimate power. As long as the majority believes in the most dangerous superstition-- political authority-- there will be people taking advantage of their belief and grabbing the reins of power. Everyone who wields this power will get some things right and get other things wrong. These days it's like a superpower to be able to see both sides. It's a superpower that is within your reach. Use this power well.

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Battle scars

I have scars. Some of those scars are from surgeries. Others are from living life. I prefer those I didn't get from scalpels.

I have a scar on my shoulder from a scuffle with an armadillo I had chased down. I have a long scar on my wrist from a cat who suddenly decided she needed to be on the other side of the house immediately and lept from my lap. I had scars from animal bites, but most have faded.

I have many scars on my left hand- because the knife was always in my right hand.
I have scars from getting injured while doing worthwhile things, like building stuff, exploring, and having fun. 

I don't try to hide my scars, not that most would notice them anyway.

These are my battle scars; signs I didn't just sit in a padded room dreaming of what I could be doing instead.

I also have psychological scars, but we won't talk about those.

If I drove a Tesla Cybertruck (or a lesser, pointless Tesla), I wouldn't have it refinished if it got scratched by members of the Mental Illness Drama Club acting out their issues and delusions. 

I would leave the scratched in swastikas, insults, and lines. If it got dents from being rammed with a scooter or kicked, they can stay. If it got set on fire but not destroyed, I would repair just enough to get it functional again, but I'd leave the scars. They are earned.

Those scars would be battle scars in the battle between the Far Left and literally everyone else. They would testify against those who believe it's OK to damage other people's property because the corporate media gave them their marching orders. NPCs carrying out their programming because they can't do otherwise. They are losers of the most useless sort.

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Defending scoundrels

"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." – H.L. Mencken

Once again, it is being hammered into my brain that defending liberty means defending scoundrels and people I don’t like, who are doing things I don't like, but that violate no one's life, liberty, or property.

Then there are those who are violating others, and demand I defend their "right" to do so. That's not going to happen.

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An eventful weekend

Yesterday was my dad's 84th birthday so my son and I took him to the shooting range to try out his new handgun. He has hand-strength issues and I've been trying to help him find something he can actually use. Still not sure we've got it solved, but we had a good time. 

I shot less ammo than I had planned due to working with him; that just means there's less that I need to replace. Gotta keep the stockpile growing.

Today would have been my daughter Cheyenne's 34th birthday (the tenth anniversary of the last birthday she had), so I'm having less of a good time with that.

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Patience...

I'm finding I have less patience with statists than is healthy. It's harder to not show it, too.

That's because-- "Left" or "Right"-- they are in my face more these days. 

Just keep that nasty stuff out of my life; keep your filthy government off me, my family, and my stuff, and we'll be fine.

But, nope. It's simple courtesy and they can't do this. They want to show you how awful they are and all the ways they demand you be violated. Plus, they dream up exciting new ways to violate people when the traditional ways aren't bad enough.

Statism is disgusting, and it is too bold. Imagine wanting to show the world that you're a creep. Wanting to display it in public.

Let them. Not my circus; not my monkeys. But I still have to dodge the flung feces-- even if they are mostly aiming at each other-- and it's getting irritating.

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Cops and all their "extra rights"

I make no secret of the fact that I hate police. One of the things I hate most about that gang is that they believe their "job"-- their badge-- creates "extra rights" for them.

It doesn't.

If you act as though police have "extra rights", you're creating a police state.

Cops walk right past "No guns" signs at the post office without taking off their guns. Yet they would kidnap or murder me if I did so openly. They believe they have "extra rights".

They drive past my house every day-- in a "school zone"-- "speeding", running the stop sign, and looking at their laptop to see if it gives them hints at who to molest. I've watched them stop and rob people for doing less. They believe they have "extra rights".

These are two examples out of dozens. Maybe hundreds.

Cops ignore private property, they lie to entrap people, they value their own life above the lives of anyone they are afraid of and will shoot someone in the back if that person chooses to walk away from them against their orders. Cops are scum.

There is no such thing as an "extra right". Every human alive has equal and identical rights. If anything, their "job" gives them extra responsibility, which means they may have to not exercise some of their rights while on the "job". Their responsibility it to die before they violate anyone's rights.

It astounds me that some people who claim to value liberty drool all over themselves to express their appreciation for police. Is it Stockholm Syndrome or something even worse?

If you believe cops are good guys, or believe you "need" police and can't protect yourself, I don't even know what to say. It's just sad.

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Keep the crook, punish the whistleblower

No, I'm not talking about DOGE. Or Edward Snowden or Julian Assange.

I know of a situation where the manager of a convenience store is incompetent and is doing unethical (and illegal) things to hide his incompetence-- and trying to intimidate the employees into also doing things to help hide the fact he is doing this sort of thing.

The company is aware of the situation, but instead of doing anything about the dishonest bully of a manager, they are transferring the employee who brought his dishonesty and bullying to their attention.

They can't (or won't) touch the bad manager because of his "race". Even though it is hurting the company. Holding him accountable might hurt the company even worse if he complained and cried "racism". 

Which he would do because he's already tried to use this against the employee who refused to do the unethical things he was trying to get her to join in on. She won't do the unethical (and illegal) things he wants her to do because she's "racist", according to him. She's not.

Knowledge of the situation is spreading through the company among the other managers of other locations. Apparently, everyone also understands why this manager is allowed to keep doing what he's doing without losing his position. If anyone takes the fall, it will be the peons under him.

I don't know if the guy is a DEI hire, but DEI or something like it is now keeping him in his job. It's certainly not his job performance.

The business can do what the executives believe is in the company's best interests. Even if others disagree and believe they are shooting themselves in the foot. Time will tell. I hope their blatant racism comes back to bite them. (And, no, the employee who is being transferred hasn't said it's due to racism, even though it clearly is. She only mentioned the "racism" angle when saying he'd thrown that in her face.)

I wouldn't want to work for a company that I know does something like this. I wouldn't want to trade with this company, knowing it keeps managers who are doing things that could potentially give customers food poisoning, just to keep a crooked manager from running to a lawyer, crying "Wa! Wa! Boohoo! I'm a victim of racism!" No, sir; you've been shielded from the consequences of your actions by racism. You're a beneficiary of racism, not its victim.

Racism is usually (these days) political, and politics makes people stupid, and usually a bit evil, too.

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No excuse for Tesla vehicle vandalism

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for March 26, 2025)

To intentionally damage or destroy someone's personal property is wrong. To vandalize it because you don't like the company that makes the item is both wrong and stupid. There's no excuse; it makes you the bad guy...read the rest...

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Government – even parts you like – is problem

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for February 19, 2025)

The most dangerous thing about the Trump presidency is its risk of causing some people to regain faith in government. This would be a mistake.

Of course, it's making the opposition lose faith in government. They wanted to be the ones imposing their will for the next four years, and this caught them off guard. It derailed their "progress", progress which others experience as a descent into the Dark Ages.

What I see as progress-- dismantling some of the federal government-- others call corruption. The case could be made that corruption is being rooted out and destroyed. This is also mistaken.

It's not corruption; it's government working exactly as designed. The problem is in the design, not in the implementation and not in the details.

Most people only complain about "corruption" when government isn't doing what they want. Once you understand this is how government works you can stop calling the other side "corrupt" and accept that it all needs to be brought to its knees.

Look at the politicians, government employees, and political addicts who are screeching the loudest about the fraud being exposed. Many of them have dedicated decades to governing you in the most authoritarian ways imaginable, and it has made them rather comfortable. Shutting them down is the right thing to do.

The politicians and programs you dislike aren't the whole story. The parts you like are just as bad.

The military and the Pentagon, border control, and all federal law enforcement must also be slashed along with all foreign aid, DEI, and welfare programs. Otherwise, nothing will matter. These things are a millstone around America's neck, dragging it into the murky depths to oblivion.

If DOGE could delete everything government does which isn't explicitly mandated by the Constitution-- which is nearly everything-- America might be salvageable. If Trump has no courage to do this, he's only kicking the can down the road. America will be doomed, all because some percentage of people believe saving the government from accountability is essential.

I can't afford to keep supporting government; neither can you. It needs to be slashed to the bone, and the bones turned into fertilizer for liberty. It's the only way America will survive in the long run. Political government has always been an existential threat posing as a savior. Now is the time to expose it for what it is: a major part of the problem, not a solution.

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Overlying the reality underneath

There's reality and it is unbothered by the opinions and values of mere humans. Think of it as a transparency on an obsolete overhead projector. Over this reality, each human places a transparency they've drawn that expresses their opinions and values and changes how they see and navigate the reality beneath.

We don't all use the same transparency.

For example, in one corner of the reality diagram, there's the observation "Humans are prone to seek to rule or be ruled". No wishful thinking will change this, but the transparency you place over it affects how you handle it.

Most people-- being statists-- would place a transparency over this that expresses their opinions as to who should rule or how they should rule. Much fighting goes on over different ideas of who should rule and how they should rule. This explains most of the statist infighting.

My transparency would observe that "There is no such thing as a right to archate; everyone has a right to defend themselves from archation". 

No one has the right to rule another, and everyone has the right to refuse to comply-- and resist-- if the rules/rulers are intolerable and violate their natural human rights. Besides overlaying the part that says "Humans are prone to seek to rule or be ruled", that corner of my transparency would also cover "Humans tend to take property from others", "Some humans murder", and so forth. It's really all the same thing, just framed differently. Liberty covers it all.

Statist transparencies automatically lead to arguments and to wars. They lead to theft, kidnapping, murder, and governing. They are deceptive and harmful to humanity. You can acknowledge they exist, but give them no further attention.

This Liberty Transparency is more congruent with the underlying reality and with human nature than the various versions of statist transparencies; there's less conflict and none of the heavy-handed trying to force things to fit.

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Be encouraged

You and I can't be totally protected from the statism of the government supremacists who surround us, but we can do things to make them less relevant. Less dangerous.

The first thing is to not care about their opinions. Remember, they've formed their opinions out of the lies they listen to and tell each other. You don't have to pretend their opinions are valid when they aren't valid.

Yes, they'll base legislation or "extra-legal" attacks aimed at us on their bad opinions, and you can care about that, and take steps to defend your life, liberty, and property from them, but their opinions are not worth fighting. 

If they could be reasoned out of statism, they wouldn't be statists. Statism is absurd and ridiculous; they've been shown the disproofs of the superstition they choose to stick with. They've rejected the truth multiple times because it's not what they want to hear. Their choice. You've got better, more important things to do.

Here's the nice thing: You can be a good, responsible person without their cooperation. It's what's great about the ZAP: it doesn't require the cooperation of the bad guys. It's all you. They can try to argue against it. No dice. They can try to dream up hypothetical exceptions. Wishful thinking. They can try to force you to go along- which means they've lost.

Don't comply if you don't have to. If you're looking down the barrel of their gun, do what you have to, but don't let them think you agree with them in any way when you don't. "Under duress" cheapens their victory, even if they pretend otherwise. And they can't watch you and me all the time. The more they tighten their grip, etc.

You can keep prepping, so as to be an asset and not a burden. Let the statists shirk their responsibility and be a burden if TSHTF. You'd think the lessons of 2020 would have stuck, but it seems like most of them had already forgotten before 2021. You can't teach someone who doesn't want to learn. If it means more of them die because they counted on Daddy Government to save them, well, maybe that increases liberty somewhat. Again, it's a choice they've made. You aren't responsible for them all.

If you're able to gather a few friends who know which way's up, all the better. It helps mentally and emotionally, if nothing else. And other people will always have strengths you lack; you don't have every piece of the puzzle.

Don't be too quick to trust too deeply, though. There will always be snakes in the grass who empower the enemy because of their cowardice, weakness, or ethical shortcomings. Don't rely on them and don't keep them in your circle once they've shown who they are.

I keep suspecting that harder times are coming. It can be depressing if you don't remember that we have strengths that are completely inaccessible to statists. The truth is on our side. 

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Statists' lies

Do statists really believe the lies they listen to and tell? How can they? 

Are they that gullible? Are they brain-damaged? Do they want those things to be true so badly that they choose to believe them?

I don't know. Maybe it's a combination of things. I mean, there are smart statists and dumb statists, so there's bound to be differences in why they wallow in the lies.

It can be amusing to observe statists wallowing in lies and seeing the smarter ones pretending they don't notice.
The scary thing is to think they may not be pretending!

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Whoosh- right over their heads

I try to be helpful, and people would rather complain and stick to their political side. They'll ignore everything you actually say so they can continue to air their hallucinations in the most clueless way possible.

On a post arguing against boys in girls' sports and on girls' teams, I made the suggestion:

"If they divided sports by strength, weight, and ability it would probably still work and be safe for girls. You'd have weak, scrawny boys on the same team with strong, capable girls. Regular guys would just be on teams with other guys."

Immediately I was swarmed by people telling me that males are inherently stronger, even the weak ones. That because of their weight, they'd have an advantage, and boys have more athletic ability, no matter anything else, because they are male.

One even decided this was his chance to embrace the "Televangelists' Deflection" for some bizarre reason.

Everyone was studiously missing the entire point I was making and the words I had written ("strength, weight, and ability") because they just wanted to keep hammering their bad point to death, parroting what they'd been trained to say.

One person did finally catch on. Even after he figured it out, that if you based divisions on "strength, weight, and ability" you'd end up with "girls' teams" again, without using words that toxic people want to quibble over. 

Everyone else just kept wanting to argue that, even with divisions based on "strength, weight, and ability", the boys in a league would be stronger, bigger, weigh more, and have more ability. 

Sigh. So dumb.

And that is the thought that keeps echoing in my mind: Can they really be this dumb?

I suppose it's an Unfortunate Truth. Or two.

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Crazy to care?

Never before have I felt that so few care about liberty; about basic human rights. 

Liberty is under attack from every direction and someone is cheering for every violation, no matter how horrible.

Life, liberty, and property are all in danger, often from "both sides" [sic]. The attacks seem to be ramping up.

It’s crazy. Or is it? 

Is it possible the few who care are the crazy ones?
I don't think so, but I wouldn't, would I?

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No "real world stuff" for her

I mentioned to someone that I had seen videos of a recent tornado in her area. Her response was that she didn't know about it because she doesn't "watch much actual real world stuff". It seems like you might know about a local tornado just by paying a little attention. But, she'd rather not.

If she weren't someone I feel somewhat responsible for, in a convoluted way, I wouldn't care that she lives in a complete fantasy world, hiding from anything real. As it is, I feel bad that there's no way to get through to her. Any attempt is instantly shut down with "I don't care about that".

Which might explain why she believes it's "too easy" to buy and carry a gun because there are "no laws" regulating it, why she's confident she can defeat any attackers with only her keys (while walking in Condition White, listening to headphones blasting angry music), and why she has fallen for all manner of things the w0ke want everyone to believe. Really harmful, ridiculous stuff. Because she doesn't like the real world.

Reality wasn't kind to her. She grew up in an abusive, neglectful home. Spent all her time playing video games and being angry and resentful. She hasn't really grown past that, even though she's nearing 40.

In the past I've tried to get her interested in real world stuff that she might find interesting. She won't even give any of it a try. She'd rather submerge herself in Marvel characters and obsessively collect their Disney merchandise. And watch gruesome, brutal horror movies-- she likes cinematic cruelty. She also dives into her job, which is good, except that she overestimated her competence (and dominance)-- and this is now coming back to bite her. She has run full-speed into painful reality. 

I won't write her off, but I also know I've tried and been rebuffed. People are ultimately responsible for themselves, even if they've had a rough past. Often, caring isn't enough.

I can understand why someone might not like reality. But it's there to affect you whether you pay attention to it or not. And, by not paying attention to it, you're going to get hit harder than if you see it coming and prepare. Or at least duck. But, if you refuse to acknowledge reality, how can you realize this?

Seeing what people online believe makes me think this may be a lot more common than I wish it were. Gird your loins. It's going to get worse before it gets better-- if it ever does.

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Principles more important than politics

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for March 19, 2025)

If you put your faith in any politician, sooner or later, you will be betrayed. Whether you admit you've been betrayed depends on how fervent your faith in this politician is.

The same goes for loyalty to a political party...read the rest...

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More government won't make it smaller

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for February 12, 2025)

If you have an unfriendly neighbor, do you threaten your own family in an attempt to force the neighbor to behave? What if he threatened his family first? If all your friends jumped off a roof, would you jump, too?

What if your threat works and the bad neighbor changes his behavior like you wanted? Most people would still see your behavior as antisocial. Is it different if you're threatening the entire country you rule and we call the threat a tariff? Does this change your act from abuse to a negotiation?

Don't get me wrong: I appreciate Trump's willingness to go beyond what establishment types have been willing to do. I don't trust him, or anyone who sits in a government office, but he is an accomplished disrupter, and government needs to be disrupted.

I'd like to see it all scrapped and the parts scattered to the winds or sold off to the highest bidder to pay for restitution, but I'll take what I can get.

I love the apparent dismantling of some of the worst parts of the federal government, and I keep hoping for much more. I am loving the exposure of USAID's schemes and the meltdowns of those who see their crooked money spigot being turned off.

It's been tolerated far too long. A federal government staying within the limits established by the Constitution wouldn't need much money-- income taxes or tariffs. Even if taxes are constitutional, they are unethical.

My fondest fantasy is for every piece of infrastructure and every record held by the ATF to be run through a woodchipper, the chips burned in a furnace, and its criminal mission disavowed. In addition, every agency or bureau whose function is not explicitly ordered by the Constitution needs to be gone. I don't care if people have gotten accustomed to it and expect it to be there. Burn it.

Once again, the problem is too much government, and it is not a problem that can be solved with more government. We need less, much less.

Maybe this administration can do it. None of the others even attempted to or were willing to say that government is too big and powerful.

Yet, the solution won't be found in Big Government programs like socialist border enforcement or communist tariffs. You aren't the good guy if you threaten your own home to make everyone else in town do what you want. Liberty works; government fails.

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It's the WORST

Government makes me think of "Lesters: America's Cheapest Ammunition". It also "usually" works. From a certain point of view.

When it fails, it fails big.
Although, sometimes the way it works is worse than if it hadn't worked at all.

Government was supposed to protect the rights of the people, yet it became the primary threat to those rights. No freelance serial killer or mass murderer could even come close to government's body count. No cruel slavemaster in history approached the indifferent cruelty of government toward those it acts as though it owns.

Government makes up rules it claims will protect people from criminals, but those rules make people powerless against criminals.

It says it is protecting the environment, but remains the worst despoiler of the natural world that the world has ever seen.

It "protects" private property from crooks by stealing a percentage of our private property- and ALL of our property if we fail to pay the entire amount of the extortion.

It makes up rules to "protect" children; rules which hand them over to their worst enemies to do with as they please.

It "protects" us by making sure there's nothing left to protect.

We would all be better off without this sort of "help".

As with all such examples, a comprehensive list would be endless.

Government is literally the WORST. No one needs it except the criminals who are too cowardly to go freelance.

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Not "Stranded in Space"

No, the astronauts who were scheduled to be on the International Space Station for 8 days, and who are still there over 8 months later, are not being rescued by SpaceX. It makes me wince and cringe every time I hear someone say this.

They were never really stranded or abandoned; their plans changed.

They were rolled into "Crew 9" months ago and are being replaced by "Crew 10"-- to come home soon-- as has been scheduled for months now.

I have very little (if any) respect for NASA and the MIC clods of Boeing. But this "stranded" and "rescued" business is just dumb. 

Now, it's possible there were some off-the-record discussions-- and probably some sneakiness and politics (but I repeat myself)-- but you and I will never hear the truth about all that. None of this is the breaking news it is being framed as.

Nothing new is happening that wasn't planned for and publicly discussed months ago. Only people who don't keep up with such things-- such as the media-- could think otherwise.

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Surrounded by the pod people

It’s painful for me to be around Trumpies and TDS sufferers. Worse, since it seems most people choose to be in one pod or the other, life has become really uncomfortable lately.

In my family, the TDS sufferers have mostly withdrawn into their own pod, probably due to how emboldened the Trumpies in the family have become.

The Trumpies are even trying to "gotcha" me with things that don't apply to me- "straw men". 

I still try to mind my own business. 

DemoCRAPublicans are right when they are right and wrong the rest of the time. It doesn't matter which government-supremacist pod they belong to. When they are on the side of individual rights and liberty, they are on the good side, no matter their other beliefs.

Remind me again why I don't live in a cave in the wilderness. Because this youthful wish of mine keeps looking like it would have been the wiser choice. Even though I would be dead if not for modern medical procedures.

I guess I need to find a wilderness cave to retreat to occasionally. Or dig my own.

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A blustery day, Pooh.

The wild Llano Estacado wind caused me to be without electricity for a bit over seven hours Friday. It gave me a chance to use some of my preps, and I discovered a hole. Literally.

I had some of those methanol food warmers and went to use one to heat some water and discovered they were all dry. No biggie-- I stuffed one with cotton, filled it with 91% rubbing alcohol... and discovered it had a leak in the bottom from a tiny hole. I switched the alcohol-soaked cotton to a second one that was also dry, but didn't seem to have a hole, and got a kettle of water boiling with it in seven and a half minutes. 

Of course, I also discovered that the improvised stand I place over the warmers to set cups or pans on is missing, so I had to make another. No clue where it went since I always keep it with the warmers and candles. It just wasn't there. I suspect that someone else in the house didn't know what it was for and moved it or got rid of it.

Everything else worked as I wanted. It's good to have a "prepper's drill" from time to time. My daughter found out she can survive without electronics-- but she doesn't enjoy it.

I would have been content to have the power stay off a while longer.

During the height of the storm, I ventured forth into the brown, gravelly wind to get the mail and check on my parents-- we also had no cell service. While I was there, a trampoline came over a fence into the alley. It later disappeared without ending up in my parents' yard.

There's plenty of damage around town. I had to chain a neighbor's gate in place before the wind beat it to pieces (it had already destroyed the latch)-- and I notice her shed roof is ripping off. My parents lost a section of rain gutter. I saw a trailer house that was losing its siding, exposing the insulation and studs. And a car port roof that broke apart and fell on the car parked under it. I saw a lot more damage.

I'm hoping I don't have any roof damage. (I'm not seeing any, but it's hard to see with the sand blowing in my eyes.)

The wind is still howling as I write this Friday evening. The house is creaking and the cats are upset- one keeps throwing up and I think it's from nerves. This isn't the worst wind we've gone through here, though.

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The intentional evil of "Swatting"

There's an uptick in attempted murder recently-- particularly the kind of attempted murder they call "Swatting".

I've seen 3 people reporting on X that they've been "swatted" in just the past couple of days. All of them on the "conservative" side.

Since their side is more likely to be licking the jackboots of the cops who do the swatting, it's tempting to say they shouldn't complain. But they do, and I don't blame them a bit. You don't do that to anyone. Not ever.

Calling the cops on someone means you're OK with them being murdered. Whether it's a "Swatting" or a "wellness check". Ignorance or desperation often leads to wellness check tragedies, but intentional evil leads to "Swattings".

Yes, "conservatives" are also doing evil things and encouraging evil policies. They are also sending legislation enforcers after people, risking their lives. Two wrongs don't make a right, and "swatting" someone is evil in the extreme. Politics makes people stupid, and often evil as well.

If you think it's a good idea to "SWAT" someone, it means you know you can't win as long as those on the other side are alive and free to speak. It's an admission of your failure as a human being. It's an admission of the failure of the ideas you espouse. It's the act of embracing evil.

"Swatting" someone-- attempting to have them murdered-- also means they have the right to defend themselves from the credible threat you pose to their life, liberty, and property. If you then reap the consequences of your actions, no one will grieve.

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Fix things vs fix you

I believe one reason statists aren't receptive to liberty is that, while it is offered as a "fix things" suggestion, they take it as a "fix YOU" command.

Advice on how to fix things is usually appreciated. You are trying to replace a defective whatchamacallit on your widget, and you're stuck. Online videos haven't helped. So, you reach out and people offer suggestions on how to fix it. Either it works, or it doesn't. It's either within your ability, or you know to pay a more experienced person to do it for you.

But, when things are messed up in your life, most of the advice isn't that helpful, even when well-meaning. Unlike a widget- the exact specs of which are known, or accessible, to many- there are circumstances about your life you haven't made public. What works for one person in a different situation may be impossible for you to do under your individual circumstances. 

I think this is one difference in how statists see libertarian solutions.

We know the solutions will work if put into play. Repecting liberty always works. We are offering advice on how to fix a broken widget (a system).
Statists believe we are telling them how to fix themselves. 

Sometimes this is because they are so invested in the broken widget that they feel it is a part of themselves. They want a government to work because they identify with it. "Our country", "my president", "our government", and other not-so-subtle hints will expose this feeling they have.

It's hard to get someone like this to admit there's a deeper problem than just having the wrong politicians in power today. They feel like you're telling them there's a problem with themselves.

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Starship failure essential to its progress

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for March 12, 2025)

SpaceX's Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket (or flying machine) ever built, lost control and exploded soon after launch last week. Rocket nerds jokingly call this a "rapid unscheduled disassembly"; a RUD. When inventing something as unprecedented as Starship, it's to be expected and shows limits are being pushed.

People who don't understand what's going on called this a "test failure". If there were no explosions, it wouldn't be a rocket test. No test is a failure when it teaches something...read the rest...

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Respecting liberty seems too radical for our [sic] government

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for February 5, 2025)

Whenever President Trump does something to reduce the size and scope of government, I applaud him. Offering a payout to encourage federal employees to quit is a great idea. It's one of the best ideas any politician ever had. The more of them who quit, the better off America will be. I wish all of them would take the offer and go out into the market to find productive jobs.

On the other hand, it would be best to abolish the agencies and bureaucracies they work for, and to cause everyone to reject government employment as an option; to see government work as unethical. Dig out the root rather than thrash at the leaves. Something no politician seems capable of thinking or doing.

There's no such thing as an essential government employee or a critical government function. Not at any level.

At least this incentive to quit the job is a move in the right direction. I wish this were the only direction he was taking.

Whenever Trump does something that increases the size or scope of government, he's on the wrong side. He's acting against liberty, even if you like what he's doing. Increasing the size and power of government is never the right thing to do. This is what he's doing with his deportation initiative. It takes a vastly more powerful and intrusive government to enforce national borders as tightly as the border socialists want them enforced.

I know, you'll point to the crimes some of those he's deporting have been committing. Aggressive thugs will get no sympathy from me. There's an ethical way to solve this problem without more government: government could stop criminalizing defense and the proper tools with which to defend life, liberty, and property. Government should prioritize property rights against all violators, including government employees doing their jobs.

Acting within your rights can never be a real crime, no matter what legislation is enacted. Government is enthusiastic to treat this like a crime, though. I've known people, personally, who have been punished for defending themselves from those who intended them harm. This rewards bad people and is antisocial.

Respecting liberty always seems too radical to government officials, but it's the only real cure for the problems we face. Anything else will either make things worse or shift the problems to another area. America needs a net increase of liberty, not just a different balance between liberty and tyranny.

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I'm available to test one

If I had the money, I would buy a Cybertruck. 

Yes, I know they are ugly-- to me, that's part of the appeal: the Mad Max factor. 

I also know politically addled stupid people are attacking Cybertrucks around the country. I don't think anyone around here would do so. I think it would be a mistake on their part to mess with anyone's vehicles of any type in this region during daylight, with cameras rolling. I think they would be cured of their stupidity real quick. It could be interesting, though.

I've heard people say Cybertrucks seem cheaply made. Is this real, or just an anti-Elon hoax? I'd say it's likely to be true. But if I had that much money, I would buy one to try anyway.

Mostly, I'm very curious about their durability, with regards to zombie hordes. It seems the opportunity to test them has now presented itself, and they seem to be holding up well, from what I've seen. Plus, the Brandon Herrera modification appeals to me very much.

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Truth is truth regardless of the source

I've gotten to where I believe fewer and fewer alleged quotes by historical figures. Especially the ones that seem the most true and smart. Someone will always inform you that "it's not a real quote-- he never said that", as if this proves something useful.

I also have gotten to the point where it doesn't matter to me whether that individual said that exact thing or not. If it's true and smart, someone either said it or wrote it, because I'm reading it. It doesn't matter to me who that someone was.

Whether it's the alleged quote from a Japanese admiral about the impossibility of invading America because there would be a "rifle behind every blade of grass", which has been fact-checked to death as not a real quote, or Lincoln's quoted warning to not believe everything you read on the internet, which is obviously real.

Truth is truth, wherever it comes from. Wisdom is wise whoever says it. Keep the truth and wisdom; put less weight on where it came from. Because that part doesn't even matter.

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How to be the most wrong

I know people get tired of hearing me say "Politics makes people stupid (and usually evil, too)", but this is a message that is critical to hear.

It's completely true, and the faster you learn it, the faster you can avoid problems. Those caused by others or yourself.

No matter the topic, the people trying the hardest to make it political are invariably the ones who are most incorrect. And they are almost always advocating evil.

So, it you want to have the worst possible take on any subject, or if you want to seem like a supervillain, make it political and you'll be most of the way there.

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More RUDs, please

SpaceX Starship has lots of RUDs ("rapid unscheduled disassembly"). That’s how they learn and build the technology. It's how they get better.

Government needs to experience even more RUDs. If it is to be successful, that’s what DOGE will do- help government RUD.

It is essential for humans to become multiplanetary if the species is to survive. For that to happen, government must be stopped from having the power to keep us trapped on earth. 

I have my issues with Elon Musk, but it’s just as important that government parasites lose their “jobs” to DOGE as it is to rapidly iterate Starship- even if that means lots of RUDs (rockets and government). 

Elon can and should do both.

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Helping Butters (with updates)

I'm heading to the vet with one of my older cats. Butterscotch ("Butters") is having mouth pain and odor. She'll probably need dental surgery. She's 12.5 years old now, so I'm a little worried about her.

If anyone feels led to help with the expense, I would appreciate it. If not, that's fine. 

PayPal.me/dullhawk   or  Venmo

Thanks.

UPDATE: She’s having dental surgery on Thursday. They gave her long lasting antibiotic and steroid shots. Her age makes anesthesia more dangerous, but it’s worth the risk to fix her mouth.

UPDATE 2: She's home and feeling pretty good. She was very happy to see us when we picked her up this afternoon. She had 6 teeth left; 4 of those were removed. She only has her top canines left-- and I kind of wish they'd removed those, too. just to prevent future problems. She has another dose of transdermal pain medication for tomorrow afternoon.

Are statists even conscious?

The aborted insult of "You're just a communist because you don't support my political party", when thrown my way by someone literally talking about "my country" or "our government" while advocating for government power, is too funny for me to feel insulted.

Then they claim I'm wanting Utopia while telling me "we" can only be saved by v*ting for their preferred political criminals.

These people have zero self-awareness.

I had one the other day ask what problems his party had caused in the past 150 years. So I gave him the first example I could think of. He then said it was really the fault of the other party's policies.

So I gave him another example. Again, he blamed the other party and their policies.

So I gave him a third example. He claimed it only became a problem once the other party was in power and started abusing it.

Then he started repeatedly demanding I give him specific examples to back my claims-- studiously pretending I hadn't already given multiple specific examples. And, of course, saying I'm a statist and a communist because if I don't v*te for his party I'm guaranteeing the other party will gain power. 

He can't see that both "sides" work together against the people. This is just how it works.

I told him I've had the exact same conversation with people in his opposition party. Over and over again. And it was no more convincing when they did it. So he called me a communist again.

I muted the conversation at that point. Not playing pigeon chess with him any more.
Zero self awareness whatsoever.

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Democracy no more than mob rule

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for March 5, 2025)

Has your democracy been lost yet? Has someone stolen it?

Silly questions for a silly era asked of silly people who worship mob rule as long as they are on the majority side. They have no problem ignoring the will of those who disagree with them; they only wring their hands when they end up on the losing side...read the rest...

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New prez won't change politics as usual

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for January 26, 2025)

Are you tired of overwrought political drama? Can we stop hyperventilating over the political hysteria of the past and get on with real life again? I hope so, but I've seen an awful lot of panic on social media over the past few days. Some people are coming unhinged and could become dangerous. If you think the world will end-- or has been saved-- because there's a different president, you put too much faith in politicians.

Now that there's a new (or perhaps "recycled" is a better word) president, how are you feeling? Optimistic? Doomed? Wondering "What's a president?"

I'm glad Biden is gone, but now the work to point out the bad things President Trump will do begins. Again.

The only promise Trump made that I cared about was his promise to free political prisoner Ross Ulbricht on "day one". He technically broke the promise but got around to it the second day. Better late than never. Politicians never care about their promises as much as we care about them being kept to the letter.

Whatever else Trump does, I'm grateful he followed through with this one.

As for the rest, I expect politics as usual when it comes to liberty. Politics is easy; liberty is hard for politicians. It goes against their instincts and makes the other government functionaries angry. They'll look for any excuse to avoid respecting liberty. It's why they prefer to use the watered-down word, "freedom".

Some of the things conservatives want from Trump would be a good change for liberty. Others are as disastrous as the things the Biden administration was doing, just in different directions. Authoritarianism of any flavor is always the wrong way to go.

Maybe I'm jaded. Maybe there will be a positive change. I would love to be pleasantly surprised. Whatever happens, we aren't out of the woods. As long as there's a political government designed to violate your liberty, as they all are, and politicians willing to be the ones committing the crime of governing others, there will be work to do.

Protecting liberty-- your freedom to do everything you have a right to do because it violates no one else-- is a never-ending task. It's one no politician is capable of doing. Or willing to do. Defending liberty is something only you and I can do. I intend to do my part; I'm counting on you to do yours.

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