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.

Government, as the primary violator of rights, can't make you safe. You might feel safe while it violates the rights of others, but this safety is a costly illusion. Government enables police to violate rights without much risk to themselves, on behalf of people who don't feel adequate to deal with difficult situations. I have no respect for such people. Inadequacies are one thing; using them as an excuse to control everyone else is a major character flaw.

Do you feel better when people you're afraid of, doing things they have a right to do but which you don't like, have their rights violated?

If you can only "feel safe" by violating the rights of others, either individually or by asking someone else to do it on your behalf, then you have no right to feel safe. Your feelings have become a threat to everyone around you. Ironically, you have become the greatest danger to the safety of others while pursuing your own feelings of safety, making yourself less safe in the process.

This is like a paranoid dictator who surrounds himself with armed henchmen. Because of how he has treated his subjects in his attempt to gain and keep power over them, he has painted a target on his own back. This rarely ends well for the ruler, or anyone who acts like one. Trying to control others and limit what you allow them to do because you're scared of what they might do if you didn't, is an attempt to rule them. It leads to the same dark place.

If you want to feel safe, alter your own behavior. Change the way you live; take responsibility for yourself. Don't become everyone else's problem by trying to feel safe by denying them the right to do all the things they have a natural human right to do. That's how you feel safe while making yourself much less safe than you'd otherwise be.

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That chapter's end

So why no more newspaper columns?

I got "The Call" almost 2 weeks ago. I didn't get fired, and I didn't quit.

The paper's owners in Wyoming called the local publisher/editor and said to eliminate the local opinion columnists; they are choosing to go with nationally syndicated columns instead. It's cheaper for them.

The paper has been cutting expenses as long as I've been writing the columns. Going from a daily to a twice-weekly to a weekly. Getting rid of half the writers (and staff) every couple of years. Every time they did, I thought, "This is it", but they always kept me. Until now.

I rode it out to the end, just one month short of 16 years, and I'm happy with myself for doing so. I'm sadder over this ending than I thought I would be. 

Last year, I went through a rough spell where I dreaded the deadline and trying to come up with a column topic every week. I really wanted to quit writing the column. I just couldn't afford to. (On a related note, if anyone would consider subscribing to this blog, now would be an excellent time to do so because this additional setback puts me in a bind!)

I eventually got over that hump, and things have been going smoothly with the column since then. Until this happened.

The paper's publisher/editor was very apologetic and said he hated to let me go. He said I did exactly what he had hoped I would do. 

He also said they got a lot of emails about my column- mostly negative. He said I was "famous" locally and that the local officials hate me. I told him that if they didn't, I would know I was doing something wrong.

I appreciate that he stuck up for me. I got some of the hate mail he referred to. Some of it was pretty nasty. I got positive emails, too, though. Those took away the sting of the hate mail. Plus, seeing the kind of people who hate me has been like a compliment.

I thanked him for this opportunity. He wished things could be different and said if things change, he'd hire me again. (Things won't change for newspapers.) We parted on good terms, and that's that.

I'll still be posting the previous month's columns in full on Tuesday evening, as I've been doing, until they run out in a month. 

The blog continues.

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You own your life and property

(My FINAL Eastern New Mexico News column- October 28, 2026)

Those who depend on ruling others to make money, secure their position, or to gain power won't let it go. Respecting your natural human rights isn't in their interest. It's up to you to secure your rights- to assume your liberty in the face of all those who want to rule you...read the rest...

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You read that right. This was my last column for the Eastern New Mexico News. Details here. 

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Don't violate others – problem solved

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for September 23, 2026)

Why are we forced to pretend not to know the solutions? To pretend solutions are mysterious or too hard? Because government doesn't benefit from solved problems. It loses power when problems are solved and people no longer beg to be rescued. Often, getting government out of the way is the solution.

Crime is a solved problem.

To pretend that no one knows how to reduce crime is a lie which only serves the criminals- both freelance and governmental. The solution is to stop criminalizing things everyone has a natural human right to do, including both what they choose to put into their bodies, and defense of person and property with the most effective tools ever invented for the purpose.

If an act doesn't violate the life, liberty, or property of a specific individual, it can't be a real crime. Pretending otherwise is a criminal act which artificially inflates the crime statistics and causes real crime to happen. Think of the crime wave in the 1920s, caused by alcohol prohibition. "Crime" gives government an excuse to violate your life, liberty, and property to make you "safe" from those who would violate those same things, but without a government title. It's not an improvement.

Inflation is a solved problem: stop letting government manipulate the money supply. The more "funny money" the Federal Reserve creates out of thin air, the less each dollar is worth; the more dollars it takes to buy things. If you're blaming businesses, you're blaming the wrong people.

Add to this the disastrous effects of government creating enemies all over the globe with its expensive and wasteful warmongering, which causes supply problems and worse. We can't afford to keep supporting government's addictions.

Every problem can be solved by respecting each individual's equal and identical rights to life, liberty, and property. It's the only solution.

This is only a problem for those who make a habit of violating life, liberty, and property. Either through ordinary crime or through the extraordinary crime of imposing government on the population. The effect is the same.

I've discovered that telling the truth and sharing solutions will get a person censored. Many platforms care more about the feelings and "safety" of the bad guys than about letting the truth be told. This shows beyond any doubt which side they prefer and where their loyalties lie. They don't want problems to be solved; they want them used to control you.

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Not always best to follow orders

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for October 21, 2026)

Most people value obedience more than I do. To me, doing the right thing is what matters...read the rest...

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Authoritarian government weakest of all

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for September 16, 2026)

Why do so many beg for a big, authoritarian government involving itself in every facet of their lives? Even when it violently destroys their liberty and violates their rights every day? What could possibly be going on in their minds to make this seem like a good thing?

Have these people not seen the results of this over at least the past 25 years? Has a bigger, more authoritarian government made life better or worse?

It appears that many people see authoritarianism as strength. I don't. I see it as weakness, relying on bullying tactics to make itself look strong to gullible observers.

If the authoritarians were actually strong, they wouldn't need to be authoritarian. Strength isn't threatened by opposing opinions. Strength can afford to allow people to live different ways; to opt out and take a different path. Strength doesn't try to censor speech. Strength does not need to spy on everyone all the time. Those are signs of weakness, cowardice, and a lack of confidence. They are an acknowledgement of incompetence.

Authoritarianism always chooses the weakest course.

I believe people who secretly see themselves as powerless, who are therefore afraid of almost everything, want a strong bully to defend them from all their hobgoblins. They are attracted to, or they become, authoritarians. Right and wrong are thrown out the window. It becomes acceptable to commit crime to prevent crime.

If you rely on a criminal gang to hold other criminal gangs at bay, you're only making the situation worse. You're shirking your personal responsibility because you don't believe you are "enough" to deal with dangerous things. You make things more dangerous for yourself and everyone around you by empowering authoritarians, believing this fixes your problem.

Whenever there's a situation and a person's first instinct is to call someone else to come save them rather than dealing with it themselves, I lose respect for the person. It's the same whether you're talking about things and events in the neighborhood or across the globe.

Then these people wonder why things keep getting worse.

"Leave it to the professionals" is the advice of someone who wants you weak and scared. Someone who wants you dependent on them, so you'll keep handing them your liberty and your money. I say the "professionals" and their authoritarian desires for control, surveillance, and "safety" are the problem. You, living your liberty to the fullest, are enough. You've got this.

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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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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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Don't cave to fear of (freedom from) government

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for August 26, 2026)

I used to wonder how people could still support the existence of government. It has failed its most basic supposed mandate for over 6000 years. It has never protected the rights of the people it ruled, or made their lives better than they would have been without it. It does have a skilled and dishonest public relations team working to convince its victims otherwise, though.

Government is obviously a criminal gang; unaccountable to the people it rules, and refusing to be limited by the rules which apply to it. Like in all criminal gangs, there is infighting. Sometimes the opposing factions fight and focus on someone who is also in government, but they'll ignore those who have done worse to punish someone who has stepped across a line the other politicians somehow notice and care about.

I used to wonder how people could be so blind to the situation and keep supporting the existence of government in spite of the evidence right under their noses.

I used to wonder, but I don't anymore.

It's fear.

Some openly admit it. They are afraid of what other people might do if their liberty is truly respected, or afraid of what will happen to them, personally, if government isn't there to dictate the allowable boundaries. They are afraid of what might happen without a government routinely violating their rights and their property for the stated purpose of protecting their rights and property.

They are scared of living without the largely imaginary government safety net propped up with coercion and theft, instead of a superior, and completely voluntary, social and cultural safety net. They prefer government "welfare" over charity. I guess consent isn't important to them after all.

The smarter government supporters will frame this desire for being governed in some way that sounds nice if you don't think about it too much. They hide the fear under pretty excuses and noble words. If you bother to examine it, it's still fear.

Everyone feels fear. No matter what you're afraid of, your fear doesn't give you any right to violate the rights of others in an attempt to feel safer. Doing so anyway doesn't make you a mature, reasonable, or good person. It makes you part of the problem.

Government uses your fear and works hard to create fear and fan the flames. Fear is government's most useful weapon against you. Don't sacrifice yourself to fear. Bravery and liberty look better on you.

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Actions more important than words

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for August 19, 2026)

To discover who someone is, you have to pay attention to what they do, not what they say. Words are cheap, and lies come easy.

This goes triple for government.

A government which talks about your safety but does things which will make you less safe is not on your side.

Sending an adventurous military abroad makes Americans less safe at home, and especially when they travel. People who have been displaced and lost relatives due to the US military conducting terror campaigns against terrorism will blame innocent Americans as much as they'll blame the US government. They don't distinguish between the two. This has resulted in many tragedies. This government behavior isn't for our safety.

Spy cameras installed to track you are not for your safety; they are for the convenience of those who want to find something they can call a crime and use against you. How is this safe for you? It isn't. The safety is a lie.

A government which talks about your rights, but violates them at every opportunity is not your friend. If a government continues violating your rights after being told to stop, it's not a government of the people, for the people, or by the people. It's an out-of-control occupying force of domestic enemies.

Never forget that freelance criminals are far less dangerous than government employees, especially unaccountable government employees who enjoy "qualified immunity" or who are the ones writing the legislation they'll apply to us and exempt themselves from.

Government promotes the myth of "consent of the governed", but when there is no consent, they govern anyway. You haven't taken up arms yet, so they'll take that as a sign that you consent to it. Whatever "it" may be. It's a dangerous standard for government to apply. Dangerous for the people and for the government which enslaves them for their own supposed good.

Observe how Congress names legislation, and you'll see that it matters more what they do than what they say. They could make up legislation mandating that kittens be killed at birth and call it the "Saving Kittens Act". It wouldn't even be the first time they've done something like this, as every anti-gun rule demonstrates.

If a politician speaks, assume it's a lie. Don't believe it. Government lies. Its lies are exposed by what it does. So, watch government's actions, but don't forget to live your life in the fullness of liberty.

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Problem? Government the worst solution

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for August 12, 2026)

Relying on government for anything essential seems foolish. It certainly never works out well.

Most of the western parts of America, including our local area, suffer water shortages created by government policies. The solutions government imposes won't solve the problem, either, but will only cause more problems.

New York City may soon learn what happens when you let government run grocery stores. I can see where it's headed. Can't politicians?

Roads are also a case in point. Government can't keep them in good repair, won't accept responsibility for poor maintenance, allows their badged highwaymen to target travelers, and will sometimes even vandalize the streets that we pay for by installing "speed bumps" we also pay for. We literally pay to have our streets vandalized!

Education is another prime example. After around a century and a half, government control of education has resulted in a nation of illiterates. Graduates who can't read, do simple math, or know about anything that happened before they were born-- unless it can be used to justify continued government intervention. Who could have seen it coming?

Even things most people see as intangible-- like liberty, security, and defense-- are better kept out of government control.

If you count on government providing something, before long you may not have it at all. It's the fox watching the henhouse. At the very least, government involvement doesn't stop the inevitable. If something is not sustainable, putting government in charge won't save the day.

When you allow government to interfere in the market, the businesses which depend on customers choosing to spend money with them get destroyed. Government can charge less and can continually lose money since people are forced to support it regardless. You'll be forced to pay for the government option, through taxes, whether you think their product or service is good or not; whether you use it or not. If you choose to patronize someone else when government also has a share of the market, you'll pay twice because not only will you pay to get what you want, you'll be taxed to pay for the government's inferior option you didn't want.

Not only will you never get what's promised, but you'll be robbed of what was yours to begin with. Your money will be confiscated through taxation and your liberty will be destroyed by legislation and other rules. Every time.

If something is important, it's too important to tolerate government involvement.

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Maintaining liberty your responsibility

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for August 5, 2026)

Every system people create takes effort to keep working. Someone must keep fixing the problems which otherwise pile up until the system fails. None are "set it and forget it". This is true for all systems of government: democracies, constitutional republics, monarchies, and communist dictatorships.

It even applies in the absence of a system of government, as detractors of anarchy like to point out while they carefully ignore how the same applies to the system they prefer.

Yes, in the absence of government, evil, power-hungry crooks, with the assistance of irresponsible cowards who prefer to live as cattle, will keep trying to impose a government. Just like those who manipulate every governing system to their advantage so they become the ones with the power and the easy wealth. Someone will have to stop them every time they try it.

Everything must be maintained as it breaks down. Nothing is permanent. You can't escape the need to fight entropy.

Why would people who justify not doing something because it isn't permanent brush their teeth, bathe, or eat? They must see no point in cleaning the house or washing laundry. The clean doesn't last forever, so why bother? They must not see why it's necessary to keep fueling their car, because they'll only have to do it again later. It's a strange, childish way to live.

Those who cry "but warlords will take over" in the absence of government ignore reality. It already happened. It's how we ended up replacing a free America with the United States empire through the Constitution. That was the time to rise up and maintain the liberty which was being stolen. Warlords took over, and the people cheered.

I have been blamed for not protecting the Constitution from domestic enemies who violated it and got away with doing so generations before I was born. It's an odd accusation.

The system we are currently living with is a trap. It wasn't properly maintained, plus the seeds of its own destruction were planted at its founding. It's not corrupt, because it's working exactly as designed; those who gain power from the system tried to hide the design from you.

Establishing a state was the mistake. The best part is no part; don't waste time trying to fix what shouldn't exist. The choice is between liberty and government, which can't coexist. Defending liberty against the entropy of those who would govern is your never-ending responsibility.

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Good rule of thumb: Mind your business

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 29, 2026)

People who believe they have a right to not see or hear something they don't like are one of the biggest roadblocks to liberty. They imagine they have a right to not be offended. This nonexistent right is more important to them than letting others use their own property as they wish.

Offense is subjective. What offends you doesn't offend others. Something about you offends someone. It sets a dangerous precedent to attack others based on what offends you.

Being offended is a personal character problem, not a condition which creates a right to control someone else. The obligation is on each of us to respect the right of others to do what they want as long as they aren't harming anyone.

If you're offended by the sight of someone's tattoos, piercings, opposite-sex cosplay, or by the words they use, you need to mind your own business unless they violate your life, liberty, or property in some way.

Some people are offended if you don't have a uniformly short, green monoculture called a "lawn" surrounding your house. I prefer seeing a healthy, diverse system of native grasses and other plants which don't require a dangerous waste of water to sustain.

If you're offended by someone's private property, remember it isn't yours to control. As long as it isn't breeding swarms of rats, flies, or other vermin to cause you actual harm, you have no claim against the owner. If it is causing you harm, you are owed restitution, but not control of their property. No one loses their rights because of how you feel about what they are doing.

Those who lust for the power to control others don't like this fact. They want to do what they want while preventing or punishing others for doing what they want. When this hypocrisy is pointed out, they'll lie about how this "offensive" view or "offensive" speech actually violates them in some way. It doesn't.

This applies doubly if you represent government interests and believe it gives you the right to control others and their property or their speech.

Remember, government doesn't legitimately own anything or have any rights. Everything it possesses is either stolen from the rightful owners or purchased with stolen or counterfeited money. If you want to be bothered by something, be bothered by that. Don't use this illegitimate gang as a tool to violate others. That's uncivilized and should offend everyone.

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Don't participate in violating liberty

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 22, 2026)

Liberty is a big jewel with many facets. All its facets are important, but you can pick favorites. I do. Even then, don't try to dull the shine of the facets which don't affect you as much. To someone, those are the important ones.

No one can focus on every important liberty issue. Pick a few that matter most to you, or the one most under attack at this moment. If the threat shifts, adapt.

Some people try to pass off cut glass or shiny plastic as jewels. Don't be fooled. If it obligates you to provide something for someone else, or requires someone else's life, liberty, or property to be violated, you have no right to it. Not to feel safe, to get something you need, or for your convenience. That's not liberty.

It's important to defend liberty, but more important to not violate it. Don't be the problem someone else has to overcome. Don't participate in violating anyone's life, liberty, or property, even if the current laws say you should.

If a job requires you to violate someone's rights, don't accept the job, even if you need the money. If you took a job, believing it would serve liberty and protect people's rights, but you discover it does the opposite, quit. Or at least refuse to participate in the violations. This is your primary human responsibility, even if you don't like the consequences. It's your responsibility to respect others' liberty just as it is their responsibility to respect yours.

You're responsible for defending liberty from all threats and violations, even those you personally approve of.

The biggest threat to liberty is, and has always been, government and its supporters. No other threat comes close. Even the freelance criminals you fear the most are a minor inconvenience by comparison.

No government job secures liberty; all government jobs violate natural human rights. Some are worse than others. The ones which provide a service the market would fill if government didn't are the most benign. Those no one would voluntarily fund if taxation hadn't been normalized are the ones which need to be abolished immediately. All the others fall somewhere in between, but they all need to be phased out.

Whichever facet of liberty you choose to polish and shine your light on, government is its biggest threat. If you don't spend most of your effort defending it from government, you're wasting your time.

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Takes time to build liberty cathedral

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 15, 2026)

There are times you’ll begin, or join already-in-progress, a project and discover it’s bigger, more difficult, and is going to take longer than you expected. Often, much longer. Sometimes you’ll realize it won’t be completed in your lifetime- if ever.

And it's still worth it.

Your part is to be a vital link in a long chain of people down through the years, working toward something you’ll never see the benefit of. Think of all those nameless laborers who helped build awe-inspiring Medieval cathedrals.

Such is the case with spreading liberty.

It turns out, spreading a love for liberty is a bigger job than I'd thought. A lot harder, too. As many before me had also discovered.

When I understood what liberty was and it clicked within me, I was sure it would click with anyone who wasn't brain-damaged, a criminal, or a politician. All it would take is exposing them to the knowledge and the self-evident concepts.

I may have been wrong.

Unlike many, I had no inborn bias toward being kept safe, being provided for, or needing decisions to be made for me. I had no compulsion to feel like I am part of a cruel gang which crushes anyone who stands in its way. I'm different.

Many people are too afraid to consider liberty. Too many are dependent on the state. Most believe the lies they were told in government schools-- and by people brainwashed by those government schools. It's not surprising that a group motivated by power would lie to protect the power it has gained. To sell itself as essential and good.

Some people fear that without Big Brother watching everyone all the time, others will be irresponsible, without realizing that responsibility is, along with freedom, half of liberty. Responsibility means defending yourself and your property from those who refuse to be responsible, while not being the one anyone else needs to worry about. It's liberating.

For whatever reason, liberty isn't a short-term project. It can't be advanced by violating its principles for transient success. You either get in for the long haul, play a small part and then step aside, watch from the sidelines, or you become a roadblock to liberty, helping governments turn humanity into cattle to be herded, corralled, branded, and sold for slaughter.

It turns out, being a nameless laborer working to build a love of liberty isn't as bad as the alternative.

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LPR (Flock) cameras are watching you

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 8, 2026)

One of the most important fights in our lifetime, a fight for the future of America, is shaping up right over our heads. It's the fight against license plate reader cameras and the related spyware that is already being used against you and your liberty.

This may even be more important and urgent than defending the natural human right to own and to carry weapons without government interference. These data collectors will be used to violate your right to bear arms and all your other rights as well. If this is to be stopped, it must be stopped now. Before long, it will be too entrenched to stop. Public attention is fleeting. Outrage fades. Political criminals will say, "But we've done this for years, and no one cared before."

Maybe you imagine this is only an issue in big cities you rarely, if ever, visit. If so, I have an unpleasant surprise for you.

If you check out the interactive map available at deflock.org, you'll see that they document 22 of these Fourth Amendment violations right here in Clovis, New Mexico. A flock of them, watching you, every time you pass one. Scooping up your data. Without a warrant. That's unacceptable,

Constitutionally, it's a criminal act.

Any politicians, including police department officials, who are using your confiscated money to steal your privacy are your enemies and a serious threat to your rights.

They claim it's "for safety", but you may have noticed how few real crimes are solved this way. Even if they were, it's not worth it. Not even close.

Instead, the spyware is being used to collect data to use against you. If not today, then next week or next year.

This is not for your benefit.

It would be better for you, your safety, and your liberty, if every one of these cameras-- and whatever comes next-- were removed from public spaces and placed inside government offices and chambers for all to see and record what goes on there. Watch the watchers, not the people. You have a natural human right to privacy; government officials have none.

Groups are organizing across the country to fight these unconstitutional spies. Find one and support its efforts. You might not realize how important this is, but your grandchildren and future generations will. Will you fight for them or betray them? You're making the decision now, whether you realize it or not. Choose wisely.

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Politics is Mr. Hyde without Dr. Jekyll

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 1, 2026)

Politics- and specifically political opinions- can turn people into monsters. It's almost guaranteed. No one is ever a better person because of their political opinions or because they're involved in politics.

In his story, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson was writing a morality tale about the good and evil within each individual and the dangers of drug abuse, but it could apply just as well to politics. Politics is a powerful drug, and it brings the evil within each individual to the surface.

Someone may be a decent person, but add some political opinions and they can turn into beasts who want people robbed, caged, or killed because they don't have a compatible political opinion.

The more I see it happen, the less I want politics near me. I wish I could inoculate people against politics. Political addicts are hard to reach and harder to help.

Politics comes down to fighting over how best to govern other people. Since no one has a right to govern even one other person, this is a fight over how to do something no one has a right to do; an imaginary right that can't be created. It's like arguing over the best way to run your slave market. The best way is not to be involved in slavery at all; to be an abolitionist.

Well, I'm an abolitionist.

You have the right to run your life as you see fit, as long as you don't violate anyone else's life, liberty, or property. You have the right to defend yourself from anyone who tries to violate you. Anything else invariably ends up violating someone's rights.

You can't change the nature of a rights violation by framing it as a political opinion. You can't make armed extortion ethical by calling it a tax. You can't excuse censorship in the name of safety without making it political. Politics can make someone accept unethical acts as if they are necessary or desirable.

You have the right to live your liberty to the fullest. The other half of liberty, alongside freedom, is your responsibility to not violate anyone's rights. No political opinion can change this. Nor does your fear of what they might do unless you violate them first.

Don't let politics turn you into something you wouldn't want to become. The first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem.

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Rich people are not a problem

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for June 24, 2026)

The most economically ignorant opinion ever is the call to tax wealth above a certain amount at 100%. The people calling for this don't understand how anything works.

Some excuse this by saying, "No one needs a trillion dollars". Some scale it down to a billion or even a million dollars.

Do you want to talk about "need"? What I need is for government to keep its hands out of people's pockets. Government doesn't need to steal money to pay for things government's supporters believe they need.

No one gets to decide what others need. As long as they aren't stealing it, it's none of your business.

If someone earns a quadrillion dollars by giving customers what they want and by filling a niche, they aren't a problem. It's a positive thing for society, and only ignorant people get upset over it.

It's trendy to hate rich people. It's also incredibly stupid. Most of the people upset over "excessive" wealth- such as the tax-addicted politicians and their followers- contribute nothing. Takers envy makers. 

For a millionaire politician to demand that a billionaire entrepreneur hand over some percentage of his money is dishonest. The entrepreneur contributes; the politician is a parasite who only takes.

It isn't "greed" to want to keep what's yours; greed wants to steal and hoard other people's property. The only rich people who can oppress anyone are rich politicians.

Yes, I realize there's no rich person in today's world who doesn't get a substantial portion of their wealth by helping government. Government is the problem, not the wealth. The solution isn't to steal a percentage of their wealth and hand it over to that same government.

Do these tax advocates really believe it's a good idea to tell an entrepreneur that one successful business is enough- there's no benefit in starting more, or even expanding his existing business? If there's no way to make and keep the profit from one's business, there's nothing left to put back into the economy. And no motivation to do so. It costs us all.

These political lies based on envy could destroy the future.

The only ethical level of taxation is, and has always been, 0%. It doesn't matter if you believe the people you're being manipulated to envy can afford it. Instead of begging politicians to rob others, start contributing something to the world. Then you can give your own money to whatever you like.

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