Are You Part of the Reason Liberty is Dying?

Personally, there are a lot of activities I don't like. Guess what... my opinion is less than worthless. As long as you are not harming another innocent person I have no right to stop you, nor does government. In fact, since government is not a person, it has no "rights" at all.

Suppose your neighbor likes to get together with a group of like-minded people and lick stinging nettles and straddle electric fences on their own property. You may think they are crazy. You may decry the fact that they are harming themselves. You may even be disgusted at the fact that your neighbor gets a sexual thrill from his chosen activity. You can question the reasons behind it. You can try to convince your neighbor that he is damaging his body. But the second you try to use coercion, either personally or by attacking him with the state, you are doing wrong.

Now substitute a real-world activity for the nettles-and-electricity scenario (not claiming no ones does this, just that there are others easier to imagine). Do you love liberty enough to defend the right of the person doing the thing you hate the most, as long as they are not harming others? If not, why not?

Do you seek to throw the state at others in any way? Do you have any pet project that uses the state, but that you defend "just in this one instance"? Do you fall for the propaganda that serves to divide freedom lovers and empower the state as it attempts to control every aspect of our lives? Do you defend the speech rights of those who say hateful things, while still proclaiming that they are wrong, or do you seek to use the state to make them be quiet? If so, you are helping build government, not to dismantle it.

In this time of mega-state Big-Brotherism, we must fight even harder against those who would infringe on even the most bizarre and unpopular victimless activity. Otherwise we are playing right into the hands of the worse enemy human civilization has ever known: government. They know the game of "divide and conquer" and they have been using it for millennia. Don't play their game. Join with your neighbors and smash the state.


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Extremists Defending Absolute Human Rights

The defense of absolute human rights is only an "extreme" position to those who wish to violate those human rights. Violating absolute human rights always leads to death. When you are called "an extremist", remember who is speaking.

Is your accuser dressed in black bullet-proof clothing; riding in an armored personnel carrier, carrying weapons that he would kill you for possessing?

Is the speaker sitting in an office thinking up new ways to take what belongs to you, while counting on those with the "prohibited-to-you" weapons to enforce the theft?

Is the speaker calling for you and your friends and family to be killed to make way for a new, enlightened world?

Is your accuser wanting to see a river of blood usher in his version of "justice"?

Can you tell the difference between extremism in defense of liberty and extremism in the cause of tyranny? Yeah? So can I.


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Threatening Your Values

My mother has a calendar from the conservative Christian organization Focus on the Family hanging in the house. Speaking about the group's activism, it has the statement "...when a moral issue threatens the values we hold dear...". That phrase makes me wonder: How can your values be threatened? Either they are your values or not. If you get new information which shows you that your values were wrong you can either change them, or go into denial mode. You may feel threatened by new information or different views, but your values are not.

There is some obfuscation at work here. They are not really worried about their values at all. What the group is really worried about is not being able to impose their values upon others who may have different values. My values recognize that as wrong. They should be worried; the era of legitimized coercion is coming to a close.

Anarchy: Freedom From Statist Filth

Your life is an empty vase. You fill it with things that add value. You try to keep the bad things out. Of course, "value" and "bad" are subjective and will vary from person to person.

As long as your vase is not contaminated by the excrement of "state" you are in a condition of "anarchy". You are free of state coercion. If you allow your vase to be smeared with the state, or allow a dollop of the state to be placed inside, you are no longer living in anarchy. Even a microscopic amount will cause your liberty-health to suffer.

It can be difficult to clean up the contamination, but the effort is well worth it. And once clean, you will fight harder against new contamination.


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Children and Guns: France and Beyond

I was recently asked my opinion of "children and guns" by a reporter from France. Here is the article: McKenzie, the 11-year-old who can field strip and reassemble a rifle in 53 secs.

Conformity

I have never been good at conformity. I figured that out at an early age.

I recently read an article in The Libertarian Enterprise that contained an admonition for men to stop cutting their hair short, as it is "the preferred hairstyle of imperialists and mass murderers throughout history". While I much prefer long hair (on men and women), and I have noticed a tendency for the worst Liberty Eradication Operatives (LEOs) to have that ridiculous tiny rug in the center of their otherwise scraped-bare scalp, I can't really condone a call for conformity in hair-cuts either.

Just because evil people have adopted a symbol does not make that symbol evil. Whether it is swastikas, suits and ties, or short hair. Still, with an entire history of fashion available to us today, why exclusively choose the incredibly unimaginative dress of mainstream society? And if your choice of hair-style and clothing can make the statists uncomfortable, why not go for it?

Liberty, remember?

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Note: The pic above was for my niece who wanted to see me in "pirate mode". I don't usually dress quite like that. Yes, she put eye makeup on me and then wouldn't help me remove it. The things I do for people!

Psychotic Libertarian Blog!

I am pleased to note that I was the 5th entry when someone did a Google search for "psychotic libertarian blog". Of course, the search results are based upon words in my blog, not peoples' opinion of me. Or so I believe....

Jury Rights Day, September 5th

Don't forget that September 5th is Jury Rights Day. Support the Fully Informed Jury Association!

What Do You Mean By "Freedom"?

Recently, on the War on Guns blog, MamaLiberty made an observation. I quote the relevant points:

"I had it all explained to me by a politician the other day. ....... He was
telling a room full of people ........that all of the laws are necessary in
order to preserve our freedom. .......Then it dawned on me. We are not using the
word "freedom" in the same way. What politicians mean by "freedom" is freedom
from risk, from being offended or challenged with any real responsibility for
ourselves or our lives. "

Sadly, politicians aren't the only ones. Listen to a song recorded since "9/11" that contains the word "freedom". Chances are the singer is singing about that same kind of false freedom. Ask a person on the street if they are "free". Then question them about their answer.

It has been said that if you tell a person that they are free long enough, they will believe you no matter what the truth is. Well, if you redefine "freedom" to mean the opposite of "freedom", I guess the result is the same.



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Choosing Your Enemies

I suspect it may be an unfortunate fact of being human that we all "need" someone to dislike. This is why racism, sexism, religious wars, and gay-bashing is a problem. But, not all "dislikes" are arbitrary like those.

If that is the case, that we all "need" someone to dislike, I am happy to choose to dislike those who choose to harm innocent people: the statists and authoritarians. Of course, the statists and authoritarians choose to dislike those who disagree with them, even though they harm no one. They even threaten to make a "river of blood" flow. Guess who is the dangerous, bad person. It isn't us "radicals" of the libertarian variety, that's for sure.

We libertarians would stand alongside those who are hated, belittled, or denigrated by the statists, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion, and fight for their right to live unmolested. By some peoples' standards, that makes us racists. Go figure.

The Tragic "Cop-ification" of Gun Magazines

Not all (or even most) honest gun owners are cop-worshippers. That is something gun magazines would do well to acknowledge.

I was a charter subscriber to Concealed Carry Magazine. After a few wonderful issues I even wrote the editor praising his avoidance of the term "legally licensed" which seems to always precede "concealed carry" in the other gun magazines I subscribe to. He wrote back expressing agreement and his disdain for the term. That was then, this is now.

Now, just like all the other gun magazines I get, it has been taken over by either cops, or cop-worshippers, judging by the articles. "Legally licensed" is scattered throughout the articles, and enthusiasm for cops, and belittling of real freedoms, is rampant. Their weekly email newsletter even highlighted a drug test for home use to "check out" friends and family members. Absolutely unbelievable!

These magazines need to realize that cops are not the friend of the average, peaceable gun owner. In fact, as Hurricane Katrina, as well as a thousand incidents in a thousand cities and small towns every day, should have illustrated, cops are worse enemies to us than are the "violent criminals" who we are told to fear and despise.

I let my subscription to Concealed Carry lapse after writing the editor once again, this time expressing my building disappointment. I got a response from an assistant, who said the message would be passed along. I heard nothing more. I have better ways to spend my money than to send it to enemies of real freedom.

Gun Giveaway

I shouldn't do this since it probably lowers my chances of winning, but if you haven't signed up for the Gallery of Guns monthly giveaway, you should do so. They have a new one each month. I have yet to win, and with my fuzzy resident status, it might be difficult to take delivery, what with all the illegal gun "laws" being enforced these days.

The "Bigtime"

I didn't make this joke video, but I like it anyway: Who is Kent McManigal? The sad part is, that generic "news" story is about as in-depth as the "real" ones get.

Thanks to The War on Guns.

A Really Good Time to Sneak Up and Say "BOO!"

Assuming that the guy's cap really indicates his employer. Which, judging by his intelligence, I'm guessing it does.

Agreement

As a libertarian/anarchist I believe that I should not attack or steal from other individuals. That isn't a very radical position. Except for sociopaths, there is little disagreement over this.

I think even most statists believe in the same ethics for individuals. Where they go terribly wrong is that they think that agents of the state are exempt and have a different ethical standard. They are desperate for a reason to justify this unjustifiable insanity. So they call those acts by different names. Or they simply ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist.

I refuse to do either.


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Liberty Works For Me

I have never run into a situation where liberty doesn't work. With all the nebulous "what if"s out there nothing has ever happened that "required" me to initiate force.

That doesn't mean that my life has gone perfectly. Just like everyone else, some things have seemed unsolvable.

In order to "fix" some things, people would probably need to commit murder. Since that violates just about every legal, moral, and ethical code in existence (not just my personal one) I can discount that "shortcoming". The unforeseen consequences would undoubtedly be worse than the situation which was "fixed". Plus, it would just be wrong. As they say "extreme cases make for bad law". So it is with personal philosophies. Since liberty continues to work, I will continue to live it. It is the right thing to do.

"Criminals For Gun Control" Video

Check out this video: Criminals For Gun Control. Obviously, this applies to the badged ones as well as the free-lancers.

Scared of a Plant

No government that is so afraid of a plant that it lies, kidnaps, and kills people deserves any respect. It deserves scorn and contempt. And not just from us anarchists, but from the statists, too.


I mean, your government is supposed to be such a big, strong daddy that it keeps you safe from "those other people" who are scary to you. It supposedly knows all the answers and tells you how to best live your life. But when confronted by a plant that has been used medicinally and recreationally for thousands of years without killing anyone (also used for rope that has killed countless people, both good and bad, but that's another issue) this big, strong state gets so scared that it behaves irrationally and spreads absurd propaganda about the feared plant through the national media; propaganda that knowledgeable people laugh at. And you still think your government is "big and strong"? Pshaw.

Keep Hoping, Statists

I think there are a good many people out there who are desperately hoping that libertarianism and its more radical child, anarchy, can never work. They have a lot invested in statism and keep looking for reasons why liberty "can't" work.


It is up to libertarians and anarchists to prove them wrong.

We can do this in our private and public lives on a daily basis. We can do this when we have a conflict between ourselves or with statists by taking the high road. We can do this by never initiating government contact when there is a conflict. If they initiate it, we can still deal with the situation in a principled way, though it may be harder.

Prove to the statists that the state is not only unnecessary, but undesirable, to us, at least. Show them that they are being ridiculous when they claim we will all kill one another without the guns of the state pointed at our heads; keeping us in line. Let them keep hoping while we keep proving them dead wrong.


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Libertarian and Anarchist

I have had a revelation. I have always maintained that libertarianism and anarchism are related, as in "Anarchism is libertarianism in full bloom". I think I just figured out a deeper relationship.

"Libertarianism" describes my interations with other individuals. I respect their rights and expect them to also respect mine.

"Anarchism" describes my interactions with Rulers of any sort. I ignore their illegitimate authority until the issue is forced, and then I regard them as the parasites upon civilization that they have proven themselves to be throughout all of recorded history.