A bitter old Scold

 

A long time ago (in internet terms), someone invited me to join the Nextdoor site. Supposedly, it lets you connect with local people to see what's going on in your town. I never get notifications or news about this town; only Clovis.

When I comment, usually taking the side of liberty and against the police state, there's this petti old karen who scolds me, saying I don't live in Clovis, so I need to mind my own business.

She treats the site as her own little fiefdom, threatening to ban anyone who expresses an opinion she doesn’t like- especially one about cops.

She is an unrepentant copsucker; apparently on a first-name basis with the police chief and whichever officers make the news on any given day. She reposts all the press releases the cops put out, as though it's her mission in life. She praises the cops whenever they do anything, and thanks them individually in her posts. She completely ignored the cop who recently caused a traffic accident and lied about it (but was found out and disciplined for lying)- as though it never happened. She defends Flock spyware relentlessly, because "crime". She gets angry and encourages people to report people to the cops for having any fun she doesn't approve of- and there's an awful lot she doesn't approve of. And, of course, she's afraid of almost everything she doesn't like or understand (which is nearly everything).

She's a busybody of epic proportions, inserting herself into almost anything, whether it's her business or not. It seems like the things that are none of her business excite her the most.

She's a really nasty piece of work.

Usually I ignore her, because she's not worth my time. (I've tried to mute her so I don't see any of her posts, but that hasn't worked.)

Recently, she got her panties in a wad because there's a "pot farm" next to the hospital, using "major water". (She's probably upset she can't report them to the cops!) I'll bet she doesn't have an issue with any Big Government project using even more water. Fortunately, several people knocked her down a notch, but I chimed in anyway. 

I asked, "Why is this any less legitimate than anything you do with water? There’s nothing unethical about farming."

I guarantee you that if she responds, she will be snotty about it and have some excuse about "the children", or that it used to be illegal, that she believes it's immoral, or that her cop buddies don't like it. (Even though the cop I knew best used to steal it from people and smoke it with his friends.)

I just can't relate to people like her. She disgusts me in almost every way possible. People like her are the reason America doesn't have liberty.

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The Statist fraud

Government is supposedly established to secure the rights to life, liberty, property, and "the pursuit of happiness".

It didn't work. Government has become the primary violator of those rights.

Abolish it.

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary", but somehow we're to imagine that those same non-angels become better individuals when given the power to "legally" violate others with very little risk to themselves. 

That doesn't work. The worst people among us are drawn to positions of government power. Government isn't necessary, but is clearly contraindicated under the same conditions used to justify it.

Abolish it.

"But if you'd just read this treatise, laying out why government is good and essential, you'll see why you have to accept it and work with it to get whatever scraps of liberty it is willing to let you have."

No. Delusional people writing down justifications for their delusions hold no interest for me. Liberty is superior to any system seeking to violate it. Even if it's a government you like and want to excuse.

Abolish it.

I know, abolishing government is hard. Maybe impossible (for now). So, in the meantime, at least stop pretending it has any legitimacy. Treat it as you would treat any freelance criminal gang. Do what you must to avoid being murdered by it. Protect your property from it in whatever way you can. Exercise your liberty in secret if it's too dangerous to exercise openly.

And don't buy the justifications that the statists are trying to sell you. It's fraud. It's a scam. Buyer beware.

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Feel free to assume your liberty

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for October 14, 2026)

Assume liberty.

Most people have been trained to automatically ask what government allows; what the rules say. They assume they don't have liberty; otherwise, they wouldn't wait to see what someone says they are allowed to do...read the rest...

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You know what's best for you

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for September 9, 2026)

I don’t know.

What don't I know? I don't know exactly how you should live or every detail of your situation. I don't know how to solve every possible random problem in the world. I don't know what complications might arise. I don't know solutions I can’t see or haven’t thought of. All the variables; the consequences of any potential solution. I don't know how, or if, society should be run.

I don’t know, and I accept it.

While I'm comfortable saying I don't know, there are also things I do know.

I know that no one else knows those answers, either. If they claim to, they are being dishonest. Those who make up legislation are often even more ignorant about the topics they legislate on than the rest of us. They are imposing a bad solution, forged on an anvil of ignorance with a hammer of imaginary political authority, and they'll hurt you if you choose your own path. They will punish you for knowing your own situation better than they do, and acting on the knowledge.

What kind of horrible person would do that?

I also know that no one has the right to govern another. I know there's no justification for violating other people's natural human rights.

I know real rights don't conflict. When they appear to clash, it's because someone is advocating so-called "positive rights"- the belief that someone owes you simply because you exist. Health care, for example, is a human right only if you're talking about treating yourself or reaching a deal with a provider. No one, including the DEA, FDA, or other government regulatory agencies, has the right or imaginary authority to interfere. Nor is healthcare something you can ethically force others to provide for you; that's slavery.

Those who hate the thought of everyone's liberty being fully respected will often ask me to explain, in minute detail, how to solve every possible situation which might arise. I can't. I don't know. The problem is, their favored solution fails if put to this test, too. They are careful to never let it be examined, but quick to turn the tables to hide the failure of the system they prefer.

It's dishonest, but you should now be able to see through it.

It's OK to not know everything, and to admit it. You can still know when something is wrong. These are two complementary sides of self-awareness.

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"Not logical or based in reality"

Typical interaction with a statist, copied and pasted:

(Story about some dire consequence of the War on Politically Incorrect Drugs.)

Drug abuse is stupid; prohibition is evil. Anyone supporting this has lost their compass.

“Your solution to such societal blight and expense upon the taxpayer for crime and welfare costs is what?”

Stop taxing people, and there’s no more expense upon the taxvictims.
End welfare for the same reason. (Charity works; welfare destroys.)
And what do you consider “societal blight”? I think if the stupid and evil War on Some Drugs is ended, a lot of the worst addicts will die off. The rest will either figure out how to be productive while abusing substances, or they’ll have to stop.
There’s really no downside unless you’re addicted to government and its “solutions”.

“You're an idiot and your village wants you back.”

That’s exactly the kind of response I expected. Thank you for confirming my hypothesis.

“You're living proof of your low IQ. Clearly you're told that often.”

And…

“Nothing to respond to. Your options are not logical or based in reality.”

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You be the judge. 

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Immune response

Hating government is not my personality.

Unless someone brings up government (or other career archators), especially in a fond way, they'll never know. I just don't think, or care, about it that much. 

Other than writing to try to break people out of the spell, I mean.

It's only when someone starts trying to impose it on me- or on bystanders- that I express my opinion on the matter. And that is often only after I've tried to change the subject.

It's like a form of self-defense. Or an immune response.

That happens more than I'd like. But don't say dumb things, and it won't come up. There are so many other things I'd rather talk and think about. Literally thousands of better topics! I can't figure out why so many people try to make everything political. It's a sick way to live.

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Living in the Age of Lies

It feels like society runs on lies. Ignoring or even repeating the lies is rewarded. You are certainly not to refute the lies with reason or reality! Telling the truth is seen as antisocial behavior. 

That doesn't sit well with me. 

So, I sometimes get in trouble for openly rejecting the social lies. I've even made other libertarians mad this way.

It's worth it.

If you can't be the one saying "The emperor has no clothes", then what good are you? 

It doesn't mean you have to call out every lie. That would be exhausting. But when you are expected to repeat a social lie, or to nod along when the lie is told, don't. Sure, you could say it's not true, and that would be the most powerful thing to do, but it's not always necessary. Sometimes your silence is enough to shock a social liar into fumbling with his train of thought. I've seen it happen.

This Age of Lies is an opportunity for the hero who values the truth, wherever it leads.

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Don't miss the "not"

Some of the strangest criticisms I get are from people who misread what I wrote and then think they disagree with me.

The picture I posted above was making the rounds without the second line, saying "Landlord is not a job". Well, that's not true!

I may not always like all landlords, but I've seen how hard a job it can be. I've always done my best not to be a problem renter. I've had great landlords, and I've had terrible ones, but the problem isn't that they are landlords. Sometimes the trouble was that the property was difficult to maintain. It happens.

So anyway, I had Grok add the second line to the picture above, and then I posted it in comments under some of the posts. I got a lot of agreement. 

But I had a few people jump on me for it- but not from the side you'd think. In every case, they just skipped the word "not" and thought I was making the argument that landlords are lazy. That's the opposite of what I was saying. I corrected them, pointing out that I'm on the same side, with a comment about reading comprehension, because I'm not perfect.

So, if you read something and think you disagree, read it again more carefully, just to be sure before you make an angry comment. It could save you embarrassment.

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A fan of the classics

I admit it. I am biased towards old methods, materials, and designs. Unless a modern improvement exists that’s better in ways that are important to me. 

Then, even though I'll admit their superiority, I'll still usually prefer the appearance of the old materials and designs. There's just something classic about them.

If there's a brass and glass version of something that's now usually made of various types of plastic, I'll probably prefer the brass and glass version unless the plastic version is a whole lot better. And some of them are.

I'm a big fan of my polymer and steel guns, but for style, they can't hold a candle to my wood, steel, and brass guns. I understand the pros and cons of each. But I like what I like, and not always for rational reasons.

One thing that bothers me is when they try to make plastic look like wood and brass- that's lying, and it looks bad. At least they don't do that with guns as much as they do with other products (although I do have a 1940s shotgun with an original "wood-like" plastic stock). I hated the old TVs that had a plastic case that had a "wood-grain pattern"- if you're going to make it out of plastic, just do it and don't try to make it look like something else. When they stopped doing that and just left the plastic black, it was an improvement.

I don't even mind honest modern reproductions of old things as long as they are made of the real materials and work like the originals did. (I'd prefer an original, but that's not always practical.)

Liberty is the original original. It existed from the beginning- long before crooked, power-hungry humans invented the warped idea that someone should govern others. None of the modern plastic substitutes for genuine liberty are worth anything. They are cheap (yet excessively expensive), ugly, and broken from the beginning. They are not an improvement on liberty.

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What? No new arguments?

It's insulting!

Statists seem to assume I haven't already heard all their justifications for government, and to believe that if they can just bring up the right one, I'll suddenly see the error of my ways and love Big Brother like they do.

No.

Maybe if they could come up with something new, but not when they just dredge up the same ones I first considered and rejected decades ago. And many times since. 

Repeating the same excuses isn't going to make me change my mind. Especially when those excuses can't stand up to scrutiny.

Maybe it's really an acknowledgement that they've got nothing, so they go ahead with their weak arguments, knowing they're firing blanks. Just to appear to others in their tribe like they at least tried.

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Another AmmoSquared promotion

AmmoSquared is doing another one of their special deals.

Refer a friend and you’ll both get $35 in ammo credit. That’s a $10 bump, now through December 31. 

Join through my referral link (also at the top right of this blog's desktop webpage), spend at least $20, and you and I both get an additional $35 in ammo! It's a good deal; they actually follow through, and I've gotten free ammo from past deals. It adds up. Give it a try.

Don't believe government necessary

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for October 7, 2026)

I can understand why so many people believe they need government. Many of them seem unwilling or unable to govern themselves.

Grocery stores are a good example of these bad examples...read the rest...

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Services can be provided sans government

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for September 2, 2026)

I don't want or need to be governed, but I still want a few of the things people claim government does or provides.

The difference is, I want these things provided voluntarily, without taxation or other forms of coercion. If something isn't essential enough for people to chip in and fund, it needs to go away. Forever, or until enough people decide to pay for it without being forced.

I want children to be educated. I don't want schools run by government, funded by taxation, or their standards established by government. A century and a half of this mistake has resulted in a population of functional illiterates.

Even if you support centralized schooling, there are better ways to do it. Come up with what works best for you. The only limit: you can't force others to pay for it, or force them to send their children to it just because you believe it's best.

Justice for crime victims is important. America doesn't have a credible system for providing justice. Governments have punishment systems, which they've fooled the population into confusing for justice. Justice means restitution, or a best effort at restitution. Government is good at punishment- less good at punishing only the guilty, and terrible at facilitating restitution. Restitution doesn't give government money or power.

Keeping accurate records of who owns what, in case of disagreements over ownership, is an essential service. It's a disservice to keep records of ownership so you can tax those belongings, or so you can later deprive someone of their property because a political criminal has written a rule making this property illegal. If you can't imagine a way to keep records without violating rights, you aren't trying.

Defending liberty is critically important, but government has proven itself utterly incapable or unwilling. It's too busy looking for loopholes around liberty. It's nearly impossible to find a government employee, including those tasked with defending liberty, who could give an accurate definition and explanation of the concept. They'd probably spend the time trying to justify their own job, instead.

I even want robotic probes, explorers, and colonists sent to other planets, but not enough to force you to pay for it. I can wait for a billionaire to find a reason to send them.

If there's something you want, why do you believe it's not popular enough that others would join you in paying for it voluntarily?

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Likes, dislikes, agreements, disagreements, and picnics

There are those I disagree with because they are too far Left.
There are those I disagree with because they are too far Right.

I like some individuals in both groups, depending on how they present their views and how they propose to act on them. 

Disagreement isn’t an automatic nail in the coffin.

Weirdly, I dislike some who basically agree with me on everything important, but their personality grates on me for some reason. That's a problem with me more than them. 

I'll readily support what they do and say because they are correct. I certainly don't wish them ill. I just probably won't be going to a picnic with them.

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Liberty- costly and worth it

Liberty isn’t free.

I don’t mean this the way statists usually do. 

What I mean is that I understand that liberty comes at a price. It’s dangerous. 

You can stand for the right to own and carry guns and get killed by an evil loser with a gun.
You can oppose mandatory vaccination and die of a disease.
You might oppose prohibition and sobriety checkpoints and lose a family member to an impaired driver.
You can oppose mass surveillance and be the victim of a crime that could be solved with more spyware.
You can oppose censorship and get called rude names.

Statists will laugh, because they don't get it. They can't see past their ignorance.

Bad guys aren't violating you because of liberty. Liberty doesn't include the "right" to violate others, and it doesn't shield you from random bad things happening. Life and death happen. The Universe isn't fair.

The price of liberty is that if you're consistent, you might find yourself facing a situation that slavery might have made less likely. 

So? Liberty is always worth the cost.

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"Just doing my job"

When a federal, state, or local government employee, doing government's bidding, violates life, liberty, or property, they should be held personally responsible for paying restitution. (They are responsible; they just aren't currently held responsible.)

They should pay the full price; not the tax cattle.

Or, if you believe in punishment/revenge as a facet of justice, they should be subject to whatever someone else, not working on behalf of any government, would face if they'd done the same sort of thing.

A government "job" doesn't absolve a violator of their responsibility or guilt. It never has. It's weird that anyone would believe otherwise.

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I've seen what makes them cheer.

I don't fit in.

I know that's not shocking news to anyone. 

Plus, when I see what passes for "normal", I'm not sure fitting in is a good thing. What others view as "normal" is nightmare fuel to me. Murder, war, revenge, slavery, obedience, surveillance, theft, and all the other things we're expected to accept as a normal price of living in a "civilized society". Yuck!

It's like that saying: "Your 'boos' mean nothing; I've seen what makes you cheer."

I have a hard time not recoiling at how horrible many people can be. ESPECIALLY when they get political. Especially when they let their feelings take the wheel. Especially when they get trapped in a false dichotomy. Especially when they form hard opinions based on a complete lack of understanding.

I don't fit in, and it sometimes makes me sad and lonely. But a little sadness is a small price to pay for not letting myself be a horrible person just so I'll be accepted by horrible people.

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I oppose human sacrifice

It needs to be repeated.

The ONLY ethical death penalty is carried out at the time and place of the attack by the intended victim or a bystander. I'd be thrilled if this were the outcome every single time.

Killing the killer later is revenge- it's even in the name: "capital punishment". Punishment is revenge, the opposite of justice. It's a capitulation to feelings, not rationality.

Restitution isn't possible in such a case, which feels unsatisfying to people who want revenge, but it's true.

It doesn't stop future murderers from murdering. They never think they'll get caught, or they act in the heat of the moment where conscious thought doesn't figure in. There is no preventative effect.

If you "execute" for the state, you are part of a conspiracy to commit premeditated murder. You are ethically identical to the person you murder. The threat has already been neutralized: they are in a cage. Murdering them won't bring their victim back. Legalistic word games like claiming "you can't murder a murderer" don't change the reality. (Try that line if you get caught doing it on your own and see how well it works.) Working for the state doesn't erase the individual responsibility.

I understand the lust for revenge- for punishment- because I've felt it myself. But I can't support it being institutionalized and made into a quasi-religious cleansing ritual of human sacrifice. Not on my behalf!

I don't trust government with the power to murder people. Unlike a lot of statists. Unlike some "libertarians".

I'm so serious about this that I don't even support this fate for politicians/police.

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Statism has consequences

If people don't get smarter- less political- things are going to continue to get "interesting" at an accelerating rate.

Just a few minutes of scrolling around on various websites has exposed me to many concerning opinions.

Many people want to:

Make it illegal to make "too much" money, and take the excess (or take it all) for government to use.
Limit how much you can own- of anything.
Punish success and subsidize failure.
Make sure no one but government has any effective weapons.
Track us all 24/7.
Punish us for any rule we violate.
Censor everything we say, write, and read.
Expand government's power in every area.
Make sure our vehicles (if we are allowed to have them at all) don't go "too fast" and don't allow us to do things with them that government would like to prohibit ("kill switches").
Make us all dependent on government handouts.
Control ALL money.
Allow only government to define and administer justice.
Turn the whole country into a big maximum-security prison.
Let government say where you are allowed to live, while it also imports people who want to kill you and forbids self-defense.
Keep raising the age at which people are still considered "children" when that benefits the government agenda, and keep lowering this barrier when that benefits the government agenda.
Marginalize normal human behavior as "outdated" and no longer acceptable.
Force racism and other bigotries into all our social and business interactions, in order to advance some and hold others back.
Pretend that one flavor of tyranny is good while the other flavor is bad.
Redefine "liberty", "freedom", "justice", "ethical", and whatever other concepts might become a problem for them.
Make us slaves to the whims of cops, ready to fall to our knees no matter what demand they make.
Pretend there's a way to v*te ourselves out of all this.

Statism is a disease. You can vaccinate your mind against it, but like a zombie virus, that only means you are less likely to catch it; not that you won't be devoured bit by bit by someone who is infected. 

Yeah, things could get more interesting than you'd like. Since I don't expect people to get smarter, I'm preparing for the worst (while hoping I'm wrong). I'll also do what I can to vaccinate people against statism- even if it feels like a fool's task.

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Avoid the unsafe, dark places

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for September 30, 2026)

The wish to feel safe is natural.

My desire to feel safe is why you won't find me wandering drunk down the middle of the highway on a moonless night. Or any other time. It's smart to adapt your own behavior for the sake of your safety.

What I won't be doing is looking for ways to control you and violate your liberty so I can feel safe. I know violating people's rights won't make me safe. It would also be wrong. And weak...read the rest...

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