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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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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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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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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The desperation of statists

The statists are getting desperate.

"If you don't v*te for our side, the other side will win!"

Yeah, so? Both of you are the problem. 

Both sides are socialists.
Both sides are authoritarian archators.
Both sides lie to get the v*tes, then do what they were always planning to do regardless.
Can they really be considered "sides" when they are no more different than they are?

Sure, there are differences. But they are both creeps who seek to rule. They both want to violate your individual sovereignty. They both want to impose their desires on you through counterfeit "laws". Both are despicable enemies of liberty.

I see what you DO, not what you SAY. It doesn't work to call your loyal opposition names- even if those names are accurate- while you behave in ways that are just as bad for liberty, but occasionally in slightly different ways.

It's not going to be different this time. 

Yes, I hate the thought of "their guy" getting elected, but I hate the idea of "your guy" getting elected, too. I hate them both. I don't need to be governed, I don't need anyone else governed on my behalf, and I don't appreciate you forcing your chosen political criminals onto my back.

You statists could choose to not be the problem, but instead, you choose to whine that I don't support your creeps, and you fabricate the fantasy that this helps the other creeps. Statists are delusional.

Politics makes people stupid, and usually at least a little bit evil (UT7). This is never more obvious than when they are campaigning.

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Be unreasonable

If it's unreasonable to expect government to abide by the rules that apply to it, then I'm happy to be unreasonable.

If it's unreasonable to demand that government not violate the very rights it supposedly exists to protect, then I'm unashamedly unreasonable.

If government doesn't do this bare minimum, then I want it abolished. If that's unreasonable, I'm OK with that.

If it's unreasonable to expect that natural human rights be respected, even if inconvenient, then I'm fine with being thought of as unreasonable.

If it's unreasonable to support the right of everyone to defend their life, liberty, and property from all violators, freelance and governmental, then I'm glad I'm unreasonable.

If refusing to go along with the weak and fearful crowd is unreasonable, so be it.

I've seen what passes for "reasonable" and I want no part of it.

If unwavering advocacy of liberty is unreasonable, then I'll be unreasonable forever.

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Feeling "safe"

I have a conundrum.

I feel utter contempt for people who support the existence of government because it makes them feel "safe".

But... part of the reason I hate government so much is that I know it makes us less safe. It's the primary violator of our rights; therefore, having it around makes me feel less safe.

So, am I as contemptible as those who want to govern me so they'll "feel safe"?

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The hobby of not collecting stamps

The Statanist call to prayer is blaring across America again: "Not voting is voting."

OK. Fine. I will do so by refusing to v*te for one of your anointed, pre-selected political criminals.

In this way, I will cast my v*te for liberty instead of for the status quo.

I choose to reject your options, which amount to more of the same.
I refuse to give my consent to your bad guy as a way to stick it to the "other side's" bad guy.
I don't need to be governed, and I don't need you governed on my behalf; to protect me from what you might do.

The criminal institution known as "government" will declare someone or something the "winner", with or without my help or consent. Nothing I do will change that. That "winner" will work hard to make all our lives worse.

Whichever "side" gets the offices, Americans are screwed until government is abolished and our rights and liberty are respected again; something no government will ever do. Respected because we have the will and ability to defend them from ALL violators. This is the only way they'll ever be respected. Government and its "laws" have been abject failures in that department, and so will it always be. That's because no matter how bad freelance criminals are, government is always the Prime Violator.

So, if someone is going to consider a refusal to play their rigged game as a play in their rigged game, that's a problem with their brain. Do what you want, but don't accept blame that isn't yours.

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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...read the rest...

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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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May I defend your life if necessary?

I was just introduced to an idea that was completely alien to me.

I had posted:

"Killing in self-defense, or in defense of others, at the moment of the attack, is 100% ethical.
Carrying out an execution for government is murder. It makes the killer just as guilty as the person being killed by the state.
https://kentmcmanigal.blogspot.com/2022/03/i-oppose-capital-punishment-and.html"

Someone responded that while he believes that killing in defense of yourself, your children, your pets, or your property is the right thing to do, he believes that killing in defense of others, without their prior consent to do so, or their post-defense consent to have acted in their defense, is murder.

That's not the point I expected pushback on!

OK. People see things differently. But I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one.

If you wait until you get permission to defend someone- or a whole mall full of people- from a credible threat, it's going to be too late.

No, I would just have to act and hope the people I defended are happy about it. If not, I'm willing to face arbitration.

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Pass the flame of Liberty on to someone

Part of me suspects that the few of us who still value liberty will have to keep the flame burning through a dark time, hoping that a new generation that wants liberty eventually comes along. A new generation that is willing to learn to value it like we do. 

I think we may be descending into a new Dark Age where the vast majority of people- especially young people- just don’t care. As long as they have entertainment, convenience, and the illusion of safety, that’s enough. They don't see any value in liberty. They are too busy dreaming up new ways to feel like victims. New mental illnesses to build their personalities around.

That won't last because it's unsustainable. But it has lasted too long already. Liberty has suffered as a result of this manufactured distraction.

The flame of liberty has been relegated to the corners of the room while all manner of anti-human ideologies and policies take center stage and get all the attention.

I think liberty will eventually rise again, in an upcoming generation sometime in the future. A generation that finally understands that the solution is never political. I wish we didn't have to wait.

If it turns out to be longer than a human lifespan before that new generation arises, I hope we can pass the flame on to a few holdouts so they can do the same when their time comes, just to give that future generation something to expand on. If not, I hope we leave a legacy they can discover and use to build upon. I hope I can contribute something to that future generation.

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Of two minds

I have two brains inside of me- well, we all do, but I notice it a lot.

Half of me gets really mad at all the stupid governing and bullying that goes on. At the spyware the regime is paying to have track us and (soon) read our lips. I hate that so many are so opposed to liberty. I'm frustrated over the monumental cowardice that leads to government. 

I want it all to fail, no matter the consequences.

The other half of me wonders how much it really matters. How real is any of this?

Do those who see themselves as "in control" and "running things" really have any control? Are they running anything? It doesn't look like it. What do they believe they are controlling and running? To me, it looks like they are flailing around, and the only people who see them as "leaders" are the weak-minded followers who'd insist on following someone, regardless.

Evil humans have been trying to govern others for a very long time. Eventually, the people being governed always have enough, and then heads roll. People find a way to exercise their liberty in spite of the best efforts of the evil government addicts. This arms race isn't going to stop- the tighter they grasp, the more of us who'll slip through their Imperial fingers.

I feel bad about how many innocents will end up harmed or dead before things settle down. But I'm not the one insisting that this path must be followed. 

I'm saying we should all respect each other's equal and identical rights to avoid this. If statist clowns demand otherwise, I'm afraid they'll get what they've asked for. 

Get good at ducking, sneaking, hiding, and/or sniping. 

With the second half of my brain, I think liberty will prevail in the end, but it might get very interesting on the way to that end. For us, and for the bad guys.

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Normalize self-defense

If you hide the solution, the problem will keep getting worse. Guaranteed. It can't go any other way.

If you don't allow people to say what the solution is, you are actively hiding the solution, and fewer people will understand; the situation will get worse. Every single time. You're the bad guy causing the problem to escalate.

Yes, the solution is sometimes violence- but never aggression.

This is the reality that needs to be spoken. Expressing it needs to be normalized, not punished.

If you punish people for saying so- for telling the truth- you're empowering the bad guys. You're picking the wrong side to defend.

I understand that the thought of being violent upsets many decent people. They want to see themselves as "peaceful" for some odd reason. They think suggesting violence, even when that's not really what was done, needs to be stopped. They confuse violence with aggression.

The thought of their intended victims being violent to stop a crime scares the bad guys and upsets political criminals and those trained to think like they do. There's a lot of overlap in that Venn diagram; it's basically a circle unless you go microscopic.

Find ways to speak the truth, even as the bad guys try to stop you. It's necessary. Normalize self-defense so completely that bad guys- freelance, governmental, and corporate- can't silence us all. Stop letting them hide the solution.

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There's no excuse; Self-defense isn't a crime

One of the most humiliating crimes government commits is stealing someone's gun after they defend themselves or others from a criminal. It's a crime on top of a crime.

This treats the defender as the criminal. And often, they never get their property back.

There’s never a reason for government to steal the defender’s gun after an act of self-defense. 

It's not "evidence". Letting government steal someone's defensive weapon as "evidence" in a crime they didn't commit, but stopped, is nothing but a lie told to disarm them. Any legitimate "evidence" could be collected at the scene without stealing anyone's weapon. 

Treating self-defense as a crime is the real crime.

It's a punishment for doing the right thing. A punishment for demonstrating that the cops were useless and unnecessary, and that "laws" don't protect the innocent from freelance criminals. It gives government criminals a foot in the door.

Sometimes, the criminals of the state add other punishments on top of "only" stealing the gun. This is the opposite of justice, and should come with tar and feathers, ropes and light poles, for the crooked judge, cops, and prosecutors.

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You can't starve the Beast or bleed it dry

There is no connection between the money government spends and the money it steals through taxation.

Before the Federal Reserve scam began, perhaps there was a connection, but not anymore.

The tax rate could be 100% or 0%, and government would spend the exact same amount. It simply counterfeits, through the Federal Reserve, all the money it uses. 

Even if government stopped spending money altogether, it would keep taxing. Taxation isn't for funding government; it's for impoverishing you, controlling your behavior, and getting you to incriminate yourself- all useful for government power.

The Federal Reserve's counterfeiting operation achieves the same result by inflating the money supply and stealing the value of the money you already have or are getting, while enriching those who get the first counterfeited dollars.

If you are hurting financially, and government offers you money or "benefits", it can control your behavior and get you to accept the lie that government is "essential". You might oppose any reduction in government, afraid that you'll lose the handout.

The biggest problem with taking "givernment's" handouts ("entitlements" and promised $ 5,000 bribes, for example) isn't that you're taking money stolen from someone else, but that it weakens you and might buy misplaced loyalty to the giver. If you are immune to this, congratulations- you are a better person than most.

The issue with accepting "government money" in exchange for a "job" or a government contract is that it strengthens and perpetuates government. 

Government is the arch-enemy of liberty. Government goes away when no one is willing to debase themselves by working for it anymore. If you value liberty, you shouldn't settle for anything other than no one working for government in any capacity. Not even to monkeywrench.

The understandable position that money handed out by government was stolen from someone else just isn't as true as it once was. It's no longer possible to starve the Beast, or to bleed it dry. Its "money" is disconnected from taxation, for whatever that's worth. Do with that what you will.

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Don't suggest real solutions or else

I'm in X jail because the algorithm hates the suggestion that there's a 9mm solution to being attacked by archators. An alternative to being a helpless victim. 

But, according to those who prefer criminals over the good guys, this suggestion promotes "violence", and self-defense is much worse than being the archator attacking innocent victims. We must protect the poor, aggressive monsters among us from their uppity victims. Right?

Anyone who reports this as "violent speech" needs to be locked out of their account. They are the ones promoting violence- that's what demanding that criminals be protected from their victims is. I've always thought that those who make the false reports need to suffer the consequences they bring onto their victims, but that never happens. Whether it involves false reports of content or false reports of a sexual assault. The karens who report others are treated as precious jewels who must be shielded from the consequences of their actions- just like the archators they apparently care so much about.

Censoring the suggestion that there's a solution to such attacks is not helpful.
Come on @X, do better. 

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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?..read the rest...

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