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?..read the rest...

-

Thank you for reading.
Would you care to subscribe or donate?

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.

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

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...read the rest...

-

Thank you for reading.
Would you care to subscribe or donate?

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.

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

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...read the rest...

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

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.

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

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...read the rest...

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

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.

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

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...read the rest...

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

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.

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

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.

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

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.

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

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.

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

Find better solutions without government

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for June 17, 2026)

I hear a lot of people saying the local community should have this or that. Or pointing out things they believe should be improved. But they always seem to want government, or at least someone else, to provide what they want or to fix their problems.

If you have complaints about the local community, don’t wait for government to fix them. See what you can do for yourself, maybe with help from others, with or without government permission.

Government wants you to depend on it for solutions, but its solutions can be worse than the original problem. Plus, it will use your money for any solution it tries. It would be better and more efficient to use your money directly, rather than filtering it through the waste machine of government bureaucracy.

The responsibility is yours. It always has been. Keep in mind, taking responsibility can be dangerous.

If your solution is effective, government will probably try to punish you. Just like the people around the country who've been punished for repairing potholes that local government has ignored for much too long. In some cases, government crews even dug out the repair work and returned the road to its damaged condition.

When I lived in Colorado, residents were prohibited from plowing the snow off the road to their house if local governments insisted that the road not be plowed beyond a certain point. Some defiant souls did so anyway and were punished. Others left their vehicles abandoned at the end of the plowed road all winter and used snowmobiles to cross the distance between their car and house.

You aren't "authorized" to solve problems this way. This is how you can tell that solving problems isn't government's priority.

Government is not on your side. It always has sketchy justifications for what it does.

If you come up with a good solution or improvement, and you aren't punished for it, be aware government may try to take over and claim the credit before ruining it. Then you can start over.

One of the very worst things anyone can do is to take something good and hand it over to government to administer and ultimately squander. If you have something good, whether it's an invention, a solution, or real estate, don't give it to government. Take back your control. Stay silent and don't ask government for anything, and soon you'll realize it has always been an unnecessary evil.

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

The fear of liberty is irrational

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for June 10, 2026)

I've never considered myself a particularly brave person, but I've never been afraid enough to feel like I needed to be governed or to have you governed on my behalf. I've never been so afraid that I was willing to give up essential liberty for a false feeling of safety. I can't comprehend this level of irrational fear.

Fear makes people (and animals) unpredictable and dangerous.

Similarly, I'm not able to do everything myself. I lack the resources and skills for many important tasks. I've never seen this as justification for forcing others to do these things for me. I prefer cooperation over coercion.

If I can't afford to pay others to do things I can't do, I'll do without. Nothing is so important that I feel you need to be forced to help pay for it through taxation. It's no less a mugging if you promise that taking the money is necessary and it will be used for the common good.

If I'm unable to talk people into helping out, without threats or enslaving them, then I'll accept being on my own. Either I'll figure it out, or I won't.

I'm not willing to advocate for a government to help me force you to do things, or to force you to fund things, which I feel would be good for me or for society. Or because I'm scared.

Wouldn't it be nice if people returned the favor?

I have a hard time relating to people on the other side of these issues; the people who believe in government.

It's not a matter of preference. Preferring Pepsi or Coke doesn't harm people who prefer the other, or who prefer Dr Pepper or water. Preferring to govern others, for whatever reason, seems natural to those with this preference, but does hurt everyone else. The excuses used, even in good faith, don't diminish the harm.

If your system won't work unless you force everyone to participate, it's a failed system. If you're afraid of those who want to opt out, and you'd force them to abandon their homes to do so, your system is wrong.

Once upon a time, people couldn't see a way to keep society running without slaves. They figured it out once the option was off the table. It's going to have to happen again, sooner or later, with government. This is the next step in totally eradicating slavery. Even if it's scary.

-

Thank you for reading.
Show your support.

The 'rich' aren't the problem

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for June 3, 2026)

There's a lot of hostility toward "the rich". Especially billionaires. The hostility is misplaced.

The real divide is not "the rich" versus "everyone else". It is those who seek to rule, versus everyone they seek to rule.

Some of your enemies who seek to rule you are also rich; most of them are not. Even with the rich, it isn't the wealth itself causing the problem; it's how the wealth was amassed and how it is used.

If someone becomes rich by providing products and services people want and are willing to pay for, they are a benefit to us all. They are not your enemy, even if you don't like them as an individual. You are free to trade elsewhere.

Even as a child, I didn't understand the anger toward rich people. I hoped to join their ranks one day, but it didn't happen. It's not Jeff Bezos's or Elon Musk's fault I'm not a millionaire. It's weird how many people seem to imagine it is, like the economy is a pie and the size of someone else's slice means my slice has to be smaller. It doesn't work that way- the pie can keep growing exponentially. In a truly free market, there's enough pie for everyone.

Unfortunately, instead of a free market, we have governments.

Riches gained through politics are different. Political deals where your life, liberty, property, or data are the assets being traded harm you. You are violated by every one of these deals, even if you don't notice. Getting wealthy through the political means is cheating. The only real monopolies are maintained by government. You can't refuse to do "business" with those controlling the political realm.

It's not "the rich", but government, that makes you poorer.

It would be easier to build a successful business without government's roadblocks. Especially the taxes it extracts at every step of building a business, doing business, or trading. Honest businesses are forced to fund their adversary with the taxes extorted from their accounts.

Honest businesses don't use government to stifle competition, force people to do business with them, or chase government contracts. They don't help government control you.

I understand envy. It's possible to feel envy without wanting to hurt those you envy- those you wish you could join. Unless you're a "the grapes are probably sour, anyway" kind of person who thinks more money couldn't possibly do anything to improve your life- against all available evidence.

-

Thank you for reading.
Support this blog.

Political winners: Those who don't participate

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 27, 2026)

Every time there's an election- a religious ritual for those who believe in the imaginary authority of the state- the cheers and tears begin as soon as the votes are tallied. The reaction depends on whether the individual voter ends up on the winning or losing side. Either outcome means the state has won at the expense of liberty.

Politics is designed to divide people into winners and losers, and the only way to truly win is to refuse to play.

People who want you trapped will claim that if you don't vote, you're still voting for whatever the majority voted for. Nonsense. You're going to be handed that repulsive load regardless of what you do.

Democracy is mob rule; might (through superior numbers) makes "right". You say America isn't a democracy, but a republic? This only means it's a democracy with extra steps.

The Constitution, which was sold as the safeguard against America becoming a democracy, failed. Now the majority fetishizes democracy and demands government ignore the Constitution when it would prevent something they want. The political criminals are happy to oblige. But demand government obey the Constitution? They'll drag their feet for decades or more, until they can claim they've traditionally exercised this illegal power and it's too late to reverse course now.

Politics is what you use against your fellow humans when you can't convince them to go along with your harebrained schemes, so you cheat. Instead of using logic and persuasion, you default to threats of violence against those who would prefer a different path. Voters accept politicians, politicians make up laws, and laws are threats of violence. Do what politicians say, or government will steal your property, cage you, and escalate the situation to the point of killing you if you refuse to go along at any step of the process. A process weighted to favor the state and its opinions.

If you place your hope in a politician, you'll be disappointed.  A politician will never save you. Politicians are never the answer. Politicians can only ruin you.

Some politicians are a little better than others, and some are a lot worse than most, but none of them has the right to govern even one other person. Doing something you have no right to do, even if others approve, is the only rational definition of "crime". Why place your faith and hope in a criminal?

-

Thank you for reading.
Ways to tip.

Beware The Blob – its mission is creepy

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 20, 2026)

If you give government an inch, it will take a mile. Or, in most countries, 1.60934 kilometers. Some people refer to this as "mission creep"- government's tendency to keep moving the goal posts and grabbing more power over more things; things government has no business having any involvement with.

Those who originally justified a government with tasks like the armed defense of the territory's population and protecting the residents from criminals soon started believing government should also be involved in more things. Like "public health", education, animal ordinances, travel, property registration, and the economic lives of the people.

The idea of "the general welfare" was a cancer. It has metastasized to include anything the control freaks in government want power over. And, they want to be involved in absolutely everything; those few things they aren't yet meddling with, they'll point to and call "freedom". Until they also take that away.

Government pursues these arbitrary powers to the point where it neglects the things originally used to justify its existence, because, apparently, it's safer and more profitable to interfere with regular people.

As for those antiquated justifications for government? Now, government sends its military around the world, creating enemies out of thin air, ultimately threatening the safety of all Americans. They ignored Thomas Jefferson's advice of trade with all nations; entangling alliances with none, and we're paying the price.

Here at home, you're now more likely to have your life, liberty, or property violated by a government employee enforcing a rule or "law" than by a freelance criminal. Government has become the very threat it promised to protect you from.

Those who work for government now believe they need to watch everything we do, make sure they approve of all our activities, and verify our age and identity before we are allowed to do those things. You'll do nothing without government oversight, and possibly even a license.

Government keeps getting worse; its mission creeping like The Blob over more of our lives. This will continue until it collapses from its fatal arrogance. Some nabob will then wring their hands and say they need to try again, but they'll do it right this time. They won't. They'll make the same old mistake of not trusting liberty enough, and their new government will grow beyond any limits set for it. Any government mission will always creep because the lust to govern others is creepy.

-

Thank you for reading.
Ways to tip.

No good reason to reject liberty

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 13, 2026)

People find many reasons to reject liberty. Fear. Envy. Ignorance. Tradition. In fact, there are probably as many reasons to reject liberty as there are people on this planet.

Those whose careers depend on violating liberty will use any excuse they are handed.

If they use envy, they can impose socialism and raise taxes on the rich. They can make people believe they have a "right" to things which others must work to provide them. It can never be your right to enslave others!

Using ignorance, political criminals lie and hope that too few notice to do anything about it. It's how we get things like "assault weapon" rules, carbon credits, and the War on (some) Drugs.

They also combine ignorance with envy, so those cheated in the brain department will demand to be coddled to dumb down society so that no one feels stupid. Ignorance is simply a lack of knowledge; stupidity is a dedicated effort to remain ignorant.

Tradition, when applied to historical evils, is a particularly dangerous justification for rejecting liberty. Just because "it's always been done this way" doesn't mean it should continue to be done this way. When certain rights have been sacrificed in the past, it was wrong. It's wrong to violate rights now, even when ceasing to violate them is unthinkable. Slavery has been around for thousands of years, in every society all over the world. It was traditional everywhere. That's no reason to keep enslaving people.

Of all the reasons to reject liberty, fear may be the most common excuse, used even by some people who generally support liberty. Fear is the one thing politicians count on the most. They feed it, fan the flames, and lie about how much danger you'll be in if other people don't have their liberty crushed under the heel of The State. They'll construct nightmare outcomes they hope will scare you, so you'll beg for someone's liberty to be limited in some way. Liberty restricted is liberty violated. Nearly everyone has one fear a politician can use. You need principles to say "No".

The problem is, no matter what facet of liberty you want to consider, someone is deathly afraid of it. If your rights depended on not scaring anyone, you would have no rights. You would have no liberty to exercise.

Don't fall for any reason to reject liberty. Instead of rejecting liberty, reject the excuses used to justify violating it.

-

Thank you for reading.
Ways to tip.

Liberty not subject to majority rule

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 6, 2026)

My experience, gained from years of talking with many people, suggests that when most people talk about freedom, they mean "the freedom to do as I please, and the freedom to prevent others from doing the same".

That’s one way to express your freedom, but it's not good enough for me.

It’s why I prefer to talk about liberty- freedom tempered with the responsibility to not violate others' equal and identical rights. It's how liberty works, and it's awesome!

The problem some people have is that those rights include things they wouldn't choose to do, and would prefer others didn't choose to do, either. This doesn't change the fact they have a right to do those things. No legislation or rule can change this reality. Your natural human rights aren't subject to majority opinion or political edict, even if you've been trained to believe otherwise.

We are all free to make mistakes; we don't have the right to violate others to prevent them from doing something we believe would be a mistake. Or something we find offensive.

In exercising their liberty, some people will do things which offend you. Many people want you to believe if they've been offended, they've been violated somehow. They haven't. Being offended isn't the same as having your life, liberty, or property violated, even though weak people who want to control others often use this ploy. Don't play along.

If I try to stop others from doing what they have a right to do because I don't like their choices, how can I complain when they do the same to me? I would be a hypocrite of the worst sort. No matter what you do, someone is going to be offended by it. Guaranteed.

The majority of people don’t like this constraint of respecting others' rights. They want to be reassured that they have the imaginary right to control others. Telling them they have no such right angers them. It’s probably why they continue to vote for politicians who encourage them to deny their responsibility and who feed their lust for control.

Be big enough to support liberty. Do as you please, as long as you aren't harming others, and let them have the same freedom. Don't seek to violate their rights just because the system currently allows it. Any system which allows rights to be violated is wrong. Once upon a time, the system allowed slavery, too.

-

Thank you for reading.
Ways to tip.