Fixed it

These nagging signs almost make me want to buy cigarettes for kindergarteners. 

Scary tobacco! Eeek! And an arbitrary age makes it magically OK. The government says so; it must be true.

So, I changed the sign to say what I always see when I notice them, anyway. It's better this way.

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Charity, not theft or slavery

A new post over at Dispatches from Libertopia.

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Bad guys win if we live in fear

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for September 6, 2017)

In the aftermath of the library shootings, the community seemed plagued by fear for days. Fortunately, it seems to have mostly passed. Yes, a very bad thing happened, but do you want fear to limit your life? It's your choice.

Every bad thing that happens, happens to good people. If it happened only to bad people, it wouldn't be a bad thing.

Bad things will happen to you. It's guaranteed. Your worst day will start off feeling just like every other day. You will never see that day coming.

Knowing this, isn't it reasonable to be afraid?

Maybe. I don't know. But, I'm not afraid. Unfocused fear is a waste.

What I suggest is to accept reality. Yes, bad things can happen, and will. You can still take steps to protect yourself. You can commit yourself to helping and defending others. You can listen to your gut, and when it says to avoid someone, follow its advice. Be ready to handle bad things when they arrive and can't be prevented. Nothing will guarantee your safety. It's still better than doing nothing.

Don't hurt people or take their stuff. It's kindergarten level philosophy, but it's still right for every person of every age, and often forgotten by adults.

Move beyond regrets. If there's something from the past you regret, deal with it if you can and let it go if you can't. Don't do new things you'll regret. If there's something you may regret, which you don't believe you can completely avoid doing, put it off until tomorrow. Then tomorrow you can put it off again. See, procrastination can be good for something.

Fear is a reaction to the unknown, especially unknowns that could hurt. Everything is unknown to some degree. It's a fairy tale to believe you really know what your day holds in store, no matter how carefully you have planned. Yet, your daily routine and plans probably help you keep fear at bay. So plan. Hope for the best while being prepared for the worst. In this way you have a chance to make the worst not quite as bad.

Wouldn't it be better to refuse to be afraid?

There are bad people out there who want you to be afraid. Your fear rewards them. Don't pay the fear tax they crave. If you are afraid, they win. If you restrict your life because you fear their presence, they win. I don't want the bad guys to win. Do you?

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Mourning the women who touched our lives

(A "special edition" Eastern New Mexico News Sunday column for September 3, 2017)

How do you tell your daughter, on her tenth birthday, that her friend has been murdered? There isn't a good way, but I was forced to give it my best shot last week. I know I wasn't the only one; a lot of grieving parents around here shared the same experience with their children.

My daughter grew up with Miss Krissie at the library. The love she showed all the kids who came to share her world of books and crafts made her a favorite. I sat through many a Preschool Storyhour, even after my daughter got too old to really be interested in the juvenile books which were read each week. She loved Miss Krissie and wanted to be there anyway, just to see her. Just to hug her and talk with her.

Life gets busy, children grow, routines change, and new activities replace old favorites. It has been a while since we sat on the rug in the craft room, facing the magical, colorful chair which served as Miss Krissie's throne while she read to the kids. But, still, every time we went to the library, Miss Krissie was the one my daughter wanted to see.

We didn't know Wanda as well, but it seemed she was always there. Always interested in anything my daughter had to say when we went to the counter. She asked questions and acted like whatever my daughter told her was the most important thing she'd heard all day. That kind of interest makes an impact on kids who may suspect most adults are only humoring them.

I grieve the two caring women who lost their lives, and I hope the four others who were injured recover as quickly as possible.

Acts such as this one, which robbed the children of Clovis of a wonderful friend, are often characterized as "senseless". But they are worse than that. Hurricanes and earthquakes and accidents are senseless. Murders are malevolent. There is simply no excuse which justifies it.

I might disagree with how libraries are commonly funded, but I have always valued them. And the people who work in them. This crime hurt.

I try to not be angry. Anger doesn't solve anything. Sadness probably doesn't help much, either, but I won't feel guilty for it. I'm just going to be sad with my daughter and help her through it the best I can. I believe it's what Miss Krissie would want.

Thank you for being my daughter's friend, Miss Krissie.

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Statism is extremism

It's strange to me how libertarians (we who are "aVal") are called "extreme" when the opposite is clearly the case.

For example:

One type of statist wants walls around everything. They don't stop with their houses, and private property, but want walls even around other people's property, in the form of "national borders" with actual physical walls, if possible.

The other type of statist doesn't stop at objecting to walls along "national borders", but doesn't even believe in private property, and therefore doesn't want you to exclude anyone from anywhere; it wouldn't be "fair".

Sure, there are degrees of extremism even among those poles of statism, but they are all comparatively extreme.

Only those who walk the line of reasonableness between the extremes manage to balance their principles where they need to be: walls around the property YOU own and control, and nowhere else.

The same goes for every other "issue" where liberty lovers are called "extreme".

Just look at any issue-- guns, drugs, trade, whatever-- and notice how extreme the statists are, and how reasonable, with regard to reality and human nature, libertarians are. This is because liberty is self-regulating. As it should be. And, that leaves the statists no room in which to rule the world, and they don't like it. Too bad; so sad. Reality doesn't care about anyone's feelings.

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Dragged around by your feelings

If you have thought things through, and done it right, your opinions won't change due to events.

Yes, new information that shows you were wrong on some point can (and should) change your opinion, but new events that don't have any actual new information shouldn't change your view of reality.

It doesn't matter if it was a "historic" mass shooting, a friend being killed in a local mass shooting, or your daughter dying in a car wreck caused by a guy on drugs.

If those things do suddenly make you change your opinion, my thought is that you weren't thinking before, but only feeling.

I know, that's probably harsh.

But, I'm tired of people suddenly becoming (or coming out as) anti-gun bigots because an event makes them sad or scared. The reality of the facts didn't change, only your perception did. And this means you aren't perceiving things accurately.

Anti-gun "laws" are still a net negative; they do more harm than good.
Anti-gun "laws" don't save innocent lives, and sometimes destroy innocent lives. More people are still saved by gun ownership and possession ("keep and bear arms") than are harmed.
Bad people who are not stopped by laws against murder aren't going to be stopped by any other "laws", either.
The kind of weapon doesn't matter when you are being murdered-- it isn't somehow "better" to be stabbed to death, strangled, or intentionally hit by a car than to be shot.
Guns are easy to make, and if you are going to the trouble of making one anyway, you might as well make a full-auto firearm (it's easier than a semi-auto, anyway), if the penalties are all about the same and that's what you want to make.
If ammo is banned, people will invent guns that don't need it, or ammo that is easy to make with stuff found around the house. Liberty ALWAYS finds a way.

But that's not even the issue.

No one has the right to forbid anyone else from owning or carrying a gun. Your feelings about the matter are irrelevant (sorry) and don't magically create that right. A "job" or position can't create that right out of thin air. A huge tragedy or act of malevolence can't create that right. A public outcry doesn't create that right. A right that doesn't exist can't be created just because you want it.

It would be nice to see people grow some principles, but that's probably expecting too much for members of a species that choose to be ruled by their feelings.

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Reaping what you sow

Just a little observation...

I've noticed a pattern: The people who are angry, bitter, resentful, suspicious, and "entitled" seem to get a lot of real-time payback.

They find the hair (or Band-aid) in their food. They get the cold, soggy french fries. They always encounter the angry customers and cashiers. They get stuck in traffic more often. People actually do turn against them, and enjoy their misery-- or at least do nothing to prevent it.

Then they get even angrier, more bitter and resentful, and just more negative in general.

And they'll believe it's justified, never seeing the connection.

It's a vicious cycle. A trap. One I take care not to fall into even when things happen that might make it seem reasonable. Because I've watched people like this and I see what happens to them, and I don't want to follow in their footsteps.

It's better to learn from the pain of others, than to insist on trying every experiment on yourself.

And, sure. It might be confirmation bias on my part. But if it is, it's a useful one that helps keep me from being a jerk to those around me.

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Echo chambers aren't an option

 I'm not going to stop writing to go to a video format, but just offer these as a bonus of sorts. I make more videos than I post here. If you haven't yet subscribed to my amateurish videos, take this opportunity to do so.

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"Conservatives" are just statists

My contempt for "conservatives" grows. Almost daily. Which is strange, since my own personal preferences would probably lean mostly toward what outside observers would call "conservative".

Most of the behaviors that would label someone a "liberal"/"progressive" hold no interest whatsoever for me.

I really want to have sympathy for "conservatives", but their hypocrisy makes this very hard.

And it really comes down to the way they want to impose their preferences at the barrel of a government employee's gun.

I understand that you don't want to smoke crack. I'm right there with you. But to then decide it's OK for government employees to kidnap, rob, and cage people who choose differently is vile. And the same goes for everything else "conservatives" feel entitled to molest people over. They want their values forced on everyone.

Look, if someone is archating, do what you have to. But if they are simply doing things you don't want them to do, without archating, you need to leave them alone (beyond trying to talk them out of it, perhaps). If you can't do this you have become the bad guy. The archator. Just don't.

Trying to convince me of your rightness, while using government to impose your preferences, is always going to fall flat. Your arguments are hollow. I see you as a bigger threat than just about anyone else out there. You could be so much better. Just let go of the superstition that holds you down and makes you wrong. Come to the good side-- we have liberty.

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Who causes most of life's troubles?

It sure would be nice if life could go the way I believe would be better. At least for a while. That's not usually how it goes.

It's not that there's usually anything particularly awful going on, just more of the same. A break seems like it would be nice.

Life brings trouble, so knowing the alternative...

It would be comforting to blame others for my troubles. It would be easy. And dishonest.

Whose fault are my troubles? Mine. Without a doubt.

Even when I can point to specific people who cause trouble for me, it is almost always my fault they are in a position to cause problems to me. Due to my previous bad decisions or other things.

And I also know my troubles are not the fault of statists, not even mass-murdering ones. I could manage to screw things up in my own life in a free society.

That's not to say statists don't make things worse with their "laws", theft, and aggression. Of course they do.

But most of the responsibility lies with myself. And I know this from experience-- when I lived in a freer place, I still managed to be my own worst enemy. That's why I don't still live in the freer place.

So, even though I write about external things the most, I focus more of my own time and effort on working on myself. I have no idea whether that's what I "should" do or not, but I do know I can't change other people; only myself. I'm a work in progress, and always will be.

I appreciate those who stick by me and encourage me.

Thank you.

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Make no mistake...

Everyone who wants any anti-gun "law" is promoting mass murder.

Any politician who proposes any anti-gun "law" is befriending mass murderers.

Any cop who enforces any anti-gun "law" is collaborating with mass murderers.

That is the simple fact of the matter, no matter how you feel about it.

Stating this fact during or immediately after a mass murder occurs, knowing what the anti-gun bigots will already be promoting, may not seem "in good taste" to those anti-gun bigots who want to preach without contradiction (or to the wishy-washy folks who enable them).
Well, neither is mass murder or encouraging it. SHAME on you!

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The "feeling people" say it's time to talk about gun laws

Yes, it is time to consider gun laws... and think of the innocent lives lost to them.

They ALL need to either be abolished or ignored. Permanently. And I really don't care which. Either one would have the same positive effect.

Again, the recent massacre occurred, and was more deadly, in large part because of the existence of "gun free zones" and because of anti-gun policies that made it less likely that good people in the hotel could respond quickly to an evil loser.

As it happened, 72 minutes was considered "quick response" for people with guns to show up to stop the evil loser.

Every anti-gun "law" only affects the good people who don't want to hurt innocent people; never the evil losers. It's like giving them a hall pass to kill.

It's time to end this evil loser-enabling "culture" once and for all. It's time to make a truly polite society rise from the ashes.

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Was the Las Vegas murderer an anti-gun bigot?

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"Ban all the things!"

Parenting. Fun fun.

A few days ago, my daughter was playing some online games, and came across one she has decided to hate. When she saw it she said "I wish they would ban that game!"

I asked if it wouldn't be better to just not play it if she doesn't like it. Leave it there for the people who do like to play it. I asked "How is it hurting you?"

This is how statism gets a grip. It's too easy to call for something you don't like to be banned. Even if something is wrong or harmful, banning it isn't the proper way to deal with it.

She moved on, and later even played the game she had wanted banned, with a friend.

I really try to not lecture-- although she considers anything I say to be a lecture. I hope she is learning to figure these things out for herself.

(She's still more mature than the anti-gun bigots proudly displaying their ignorance, stupidity, and evil in the aftermath of the Las Vegas mass murder.)

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Las Vegas concert "security"

Just look at the picture above and notice how safe those disarmed-by-law people seem to be. It must warm Nancy Pelosi's heart-like blood pump.

It has been reported that "security" was checking attendees for weapons as they entered the Las Vegas concert area.

Yeah, that worked. "Security". Theater. Magical thinking.

But the Mass Murderer Cheerleader Club is dancing in the blood of the dead and wounded, calling for more of what failed to save lives. As they always do. Anything these idiots propose would enable more evil losers to kill more people. It's the inevitable result of everything they cry out for.

Do I believe they have "good intentions"? Maybe. Some of them do. But others know enough to know exactly what they are advocating. They know where their path leads, and they don't care. They want it anyway.

Anti-gun "laws", rules, and policies NEVER make any innocent person safer, and sometimes make them less safe. Sometimes they lead directly to death.

In this case, the policies didn't make anyone safer, but didn't really contribute to the death and destruction, either. If you have a policy that doesn't help, but can hurt, you are stupid or evil-- maybe both-- to keep implementing it. You are definitely evil to advocate doing more of it, harder.

Yes, that's right: stricter "security" won't stop things like this, but will only make them easier to commit. "Security" could have made everyone strip and attend the concert naked after being probed, chemo-sniffed, and rape-scanned by TSA machines. It wouldn't have saved one life-- unless you count those who would refuse to be treated this way to attend a concert and went elsewhere.

Sometimes there's just nothing you can really do when some evil loser decides to kill people. But that's no excuse to keep doing the wrong things; things that never help and sometimes hurt.

Anti-gun bigotry is wrong. It is evil. It kills innocent people. Don't enable the bad guys by trying to restrict guns; fight back by refusing to be unarmed.

I know, pointing this out isn't nice. Sorry, but I'd rather be good than nice.

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Las Vegas mass murders- random evil

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Your responsibility to not archate

"Conservatives" are lukewarm about rights. They love the ones they love, and mock the ones they don't.

They get very excited about (your) responsibilities, but manage to gloss over or ignore one of the biggest responsibilities there is: the responsibility to not archate.

That is, the responsibility to not violate the rights-- the life, liberty, and property-- of others, even those rights you don't like.

Yes, that is a human responsibility that can't be eliminated, no matter how unhappy it makes you.

This trips them up every time. It's a good way to distinguish between libertarians and the "conservatives" who like to make liberty noises as long as things are going their way.

There are other responsibilities, of course. Some of which I don't particularly enjoy. But really, if you gloss over the responsibility to respect the rights of other people, you're not going to be a good person even if you live up to every other responsibility you have.

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Government can't protect you from disaster

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for August 30, 2017)

Each time there's some potential calamity on the horizon, I hope people will have learned this truth from history: government can't protect you. I am usually disappointed. 

Whether it's a hurricane, blizzard, disease epidemic, economic collapse, or the aquifer running dry, your safety is not government's responsibility; it's yours. In most cases they couldn't solve the problem if they tried. All they can do is spend money which isn't theirs to spend, hold meetings so they'll appear to be doing something, and issue orders you're expected to obey.

Sometimes those orders are smart; other times, not so much. Occasionally, following their orders brings disaster.

With hurricanes, for example, be smart enough to evacuate if that's what you need to do. Be prepared in case you can't get out. Realize every decision has consequences.

Governments can't distinguish between clueless people too stupid to know when they should evacuate, and people who know what to expect and who have prepared by doing what they needed to do to be able to ride out the storm.

Granted, there are more of the former than of the latter. But sometimes the prepared are driven from their homes-- at gun point-- along with the foolish, and put in situations more dangerous than those they are forced to leave behind. All because someone believes they know what's best, and is willing to force their beliefs on others. One size fits all in the eyes of the State.

This is wrong, even if it's "for your own good".

I'm not suggesting people stay put, then call 911 as soon as they realize they've bitten off more than they can chew, expecting to be rescued. No one has the right to put others at risk simply because they're stubborn, or because they made a choice which didn't turn out like they expected. "Never before" doesn't mean it never will.

Life isn't simple. You have to do the work. Even if someone volunteers to do it for you, no one values your life as much as you. It's your job to live it and defend it. No one can be paid enough to care as much as you do. No one knows your situation better than you do. It's up to you, and if you are hoping someone else will save you from the dangers of the world, or from your own poor decisions, you may have an unpleasant shock in store. Plan ahead. Don't be caught off guard.

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Some things are constant

It's good to be open-minded and remember that you might be wrong.

However, it's not really necessary to constantly re-evaluate whether you have the right to archate.

I mean, if it makes you happy to keep ruminating on it, go ahead.

But, just like you don't need to wake up each morning and test to see whether a dropped egg will still fall, you don't need to wonder if it's still not within your rights to walk around shooting random people or walking into their houses and taking what you want.

Some mental exercises are probably a waste of time. (Yes, I know that's a shocking statement, coming from me.)

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Live and let live... but...

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