No idea what government good for

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 27, 2020)

Many problems in modern societies happen because people confuse political government for something it isn't. They expect it to do things it can't do and isn't suited for. To do things right you need to use the correct tools.

A hammer is the proper tool for driving nails. A feather isn't a hammer; neither is a shotgun. Even though you might be able to use a coffee cup to drive a small nail-- don't try this with your favorite cup-- it's not a hammer either. Using things for purposes they aren't well-suited for will cause problems.

Even if something looks like a hammer, feels like a hammer, and can be wielded like a hammer, if it is made out of the wrong stuff it's not going to work well as a hammer.

After decades of observation I have yet to find any situation which requires government, or where government would be the best tool for the job. It doesn't seem to be the correct tool for doing anything helpful.

You probably disagree, so I'll stay out of your search for the proper use of political government and instead focus on what I know government isn't the right tool for.

Government is not your doctor. It is not a scientist. It's not an expert on anything other than how to push people around and steal their life, liberty, and property.

Government is not your parent. It is not your educator. It is not your moral guide. It is not your savior. It is not your friend.

Government is not your spouse, nor is it your provider. It is not your leader or your protector.

Government is not a genie from a magic lamp, granting your wishes. It is not your ATM. Anything it gives you has been stolen from someone-- often from your future self. Can future-you afford to support present-you?

Thinking of government as something it isn't won't turn out well for society. It's not healthy to treat it as though it is any of those things.

Even if you get away with using government as a tool, when you mix anything with politics you end up with only politics. It's like mixing poison with food.

As I say, I can't tell you what government is good for; I'll let you ponder the answer to that puzzle for yourself. For me, political government-- which is everything people usually call "the government"-- is an unnecessary evil. It's not a tool I would use even if I had no other.

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Government is a mafia

Very often when I say something about having no need of being governed, some "Jeenyus" will come back with "Then you are free to leave my country". Ignoring the rules about not leaving with your property and the fact that there is literally no free place left to go.

Nope. To government-supremacists, if you don't like the gang that controls your neighborhood, don't try to kick them out, just leave. Leave your property behind, leave your family, leave your friends, leave everything familiar. Because the gang has a better claim to your territory than you do-- according to their supporters. And if you resist, their hit men will murder you.

This is exactly the same option you'd have if the mafia has taken over. I mean, if another mafia has taken over.

Government is a mafia.

If you don't like the way they run the territory they claim-- the archation they commit-- you can leave. Giving up all your land and leaving behind most of your money as an exit fee. And to what gain? You've landed in the territory claimed by another mafia.

Maybe that's sometimes still the best you can hope for, but it's not the solution it's claimed to be by supporters of the government mafia.

So when some brilliant government-supremacist says "Love it or leave it" they are admitting that government is a mafia. Thank them for making your point for you.

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Don't tread on ... anyone

I'm not "Black". I can still tell when "Black" people are being violated, and I don't like it. I can also see when "Black" people are violating others and I don't like that, either.

I'm not conservative. I can still tell when conservatives are being violated and I don't like it. I can also see when conservatives are violating others and I don't like that, either.

It's the same for any other category of people. Who you are isn't the part that matters to me.

For me to only care about violations if I'm the one being violated would be childish. Yes, it's sometimes more personal than other times, but I care if anyone is violating you for any reason, even if it's not going to affect me. Probably even if the claim is made that it will help me.

Your equal and identical rights should be respected and protected from all violators. Your primary responsibility is to not archate. I expect everyone to live up to that responsibility.

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Square circles

A person on Twitter recently claimed to be a "big government libertarian". I'm less and less convinced it is possible to be a minarchist libertarian without doing some incredible mental (and moral) gymnastics, but I know for certain a "big government libertarian" is logically and ethically impossible.

It's actually like claiming to be a square circle-- just not logically possible by definition. No matter how much you'd like it to be.

No true circle would have corners. Of course, the lack of corners doesn't mean the shape is a circle, either, but the presence of corners does, really and truly mean it's not one. This is simply a statement of fact. It's not an insult to those with corners. Accept it and move on.

If you believe you are a "big government libertarian" you are lying to yourself as surely as if you believe you are a square circle.

Join us in reality. It's not always a happy place, but our problems aren't imaginary ones of our own making.

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The real Covid-19 heroes

I'm coming to the opinion that those who are risking getting coronavirus are serving humanity. If the riots are doing any good, that's it. Same for political rallies (a slow riot?) or any other gathering.

Maybe it's not good for individuals who are under greater risk of dying from it, but this thing is going to have to run its course. The only way that's going to happen is if most people get it-- and if the experts are right (Ha!) and immunity doesn't last long, most people are going to have to get it at roughly the same time to take away its power.

In fact, it's probably our responsibility to get out there regardless of the risks (if any).

It seems Covid-19 has already lost most of its power to kill. Until the past couple of days, none of the 3 counties in various parts of the country I'd been watching with personal interest had had a new death attributed to coronavirus in 3 or 4 months. That's right-- three or four months. Even as reported cases of the disease have skyrocketed. That ought to tell you something.

Even the two deaths which suddenly showed up after the long "dry spell" are suspicious to me for a variety of reasons. Could my prediction about a renewed push to get people to worry about conornavirus again be coming to pass?

The panicdemic has also lost most of its ability to scare all but the most politically susceptible and scientifically ignorant. Politicians and other political people are desperate for you to stay scared so you'll give power to the politicians, regardless of reality. Don't. No threat is so great that such behavior would be a good idea.

If you are worried about the virus, please take every precaution you can. Let the rest of us do what we need to do to make the world ready for you again. Please don't try to stop us or point and whine about us. Don't be a karen.

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Politics fears (or hates) reality

Reality seems to offend the noisiest people these days. It's not just that they don't like it, they want to deny it even exists. And they demand you go along with them.

Especially when it contradicts their political agenda.

To this way of hallucinating, science isn't real to them because it has too much "western, white male" influence. It doesn't lead where they want to go. Nor (the belief goes) can you expect others to behave ethically when that's not a path that their culture created.

And on and on and on.

Reality is reality even if you don't like it. Even if it goes against your desire to force other people to pretend otherwise while facing the guns of government or the censorship of corporations. Or the wrath of the W0ke.

Maybe humans can't really know reality in its deepest sense. It's possible that's how it is. I can still recognize non-reality when I encounter it. And some reality isn't that hard to figure out.

One reality is that every human being has equal and identical rights. Every last one of us. It can't be logically otherwise. No one can have the right or imaginary "authority" to violate those rights for any reason. No one has special rights just because they choose to see themselves as a victim or are otherwise mentally ill. You aren't obligated to act as though someone's mental issue dictates reality for the external world. Anyone who attempts to use force to achieve this goal is committing archation.

I get it: Sometimes reality sucks. I want to be able to time travel and change the past. I want a Firefly-Class spaceship and a real lightsaber and a collection of sci-fi guns of various kinds. And to easily accomplish something that earns me a billion dollars. But I'm not going to attack you just because reality is what it is and doesn't hand me everything I want. That would be stupid. That would be politics.

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"A few bad apples"

Do we debate terrorist corruption?

Do we argue that not all rapists are bad people; it's only "a few bad apples" making the rest look bad?

No. Not if we are sane.

Because you can't have something evil and pretend those who participate willingly aren't committing evil just by showing up.

Abolish the police!

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Market needs freedom to flourish

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 20, 2020)

The world's economy is being damaged by this pandemic, or, more accurately, it's being damaged by government reactions to the pandemic. The damage is adding up; getting worse with time. The only questions are: how bad is the damage going to be? and how long will it take to recover? I don't know the answers; no one does.

The economy will show scars of this time for years to come. Maybe forever. There are businesses which were forcibly closed and are never coming back. Whole sectors of the economy may die off from the damage. Sure, deadwood and weak branches were pruned away by the event, but there are some previously healthy limbs being torn off as well. The authoritarian shut-down was just more than some businesses could survive.

The shut-down may turn out to be an economic extinction event, like an asteroid wiping out the dinosaurs, and if so, there will be lots of vacant economic niches waiting to be filled. Perhaps they are waiting for you to fill them.

So it's not all bad news.

The automobile may have killed off the buggy-whip market, but look at all the new markets it created. We wouldn't have rear-view mirror pine tree air fresheners and thousands of other products if cars hadn't reshaped the market.

Things change. We will recover. We will be different; stronger.

Some economic barriers have fallen away during this pandemic. Mostly bureaucratic nonsense like licensing and such-- one example is letting doctors practice across state lines. Government may try to put the barriers up again when this is over. Don't let them. Anything which gets in the way during a pandemic also gets in the way during normal times, although it may not be as obvious. Use your new knowledge to oppose those barriers being restored and notice other barriers which should be removed.

Those who can adapt will do better than those who can't. Some people may be surprised to discover whether or not they are good at adapting. There are always opportunities around you. Learn to spot them, and find ways to act on them. This is something I'm not especially good at-- my hope is that you are better at it than I am and that I can learn to do better.

The market will prevail if allowed to flourish in freedom. Only political parasites would try to hold it back. Watch carefully to see which side those with political power choose.

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Dealing with cops

Treat any encounter with a cop as if you are dealing with an armed, mentally ill serial-killer (who may or may not have murdered yet) who belongs to a huge, nation-wide gang of the same sort of people.

Because that is who you are dealing with.

I once had an encounter with a person like that who didn't wear a badge. I was polite, cautious, and prepared to kill him. Since the person wasn't a cop with "qualified immunity" he didn't escalate his aggression to the point where I would have been forced to act to stop the attack.

If he had been a cop, there's a good chance I wouldn't have survived the aftermath of the encounter.

Cops know they are largely immune from consequences of their actions, since killing one in self-defense is punishable by death. Is that knowledge likely to make them act better or worse? You know the answer if you know anything about human nature.

Abolish the police.

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Extended contact with a cop

Even if you pretend the legislation enforcers of the Blue Line Gang are somehow good or necessary (they aren't), if a cop can't settle a situation in less than a couple of minutes, he needs to just let his victim go.

The recent murder of Rayshard Brooks is a prime example. For over 40 minutes the cop kept molesting him, until he couldn't take it and ran-- only to be murdered by the subhuman failure in a badge.

I once sat in a convenience store in the middle of the night and watched a cop force a guy to do sobriety test after sobriety test-- for well over half an hour-- until the exhausted guy finally "failed" one and was arrested. It should have ended with one test, if it was necessary at all.

In the same town a few years later, there was a case where a cop (possibly the same one, but I'm not sure who I watched molest the guy) hassled a guy for a long time on suspicion of driving drunk. Finally, the victim had had enough and told Officer King he was leaving. "You know where I live; come get me if you want to arrest me" and he left his car to walk home. This caused the cop to flip out and electrotorture the guy excessively which resulted in a lottery win for the cop's victim. On the backs of all local victims of government.

These are cases where the cop wanted to commit a kidnapping and couldn't think of a reason to justify it, so he molested his victim long enough to find something. This is evil. And it is rampant.

It's no wonder people run after 30 to 45 minutes of an armed goon in their face trying to find a reason to kidnap or rob him.

The only potentially "good cop" is an ex-cop. Cops are scum. Yes, all of them, even your nice Uncle Bob the cop.

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I may need a lawyer

I hope not, but...

I've been trying to find a way to make some Time's Up items. I wish I could get some flags made but that always goes nowhere due to the expense of a run big enough to bring down the price of individual flags so that they would be affordable.

Anyway, I was going to make some Time's Up items through TeeSpring. I worked for hours getting products ready. Immediately when I "went live" they disabled my products, saying my design was subject to a copyright claim.

I filed a counterclaim, and never saw a reply (it said it could take 14 days) so I filed another one.

They wrote back that time and said "Time's Up" is trademarked and they will not be reinstating my products.

I've looked through the government's trademark office database and found nothing.

I've asked them who has trademarked it, since it is my original creation. But if they don't respond with a real answer (or not at all) I might have to do something to be able to make products with my own design on them. And this pisses me off greatly.

Does anyone know a lawyer who would do this pro bono? Or they could sue and keep most of the money as long as I can make my stuff.

I've never minded if someone makes a Time's Up product, and have given permission to several people to do so over the years. My problem is if someone has actually trademarked/copyrighted MY design to prevent me from making things. Or if TeeSpring is lying to me.

Also, tonight Patreon gave me a warning about running a raffle. Which I'm not. And never have and don't want to.

UPDATE: I am told these people "own" the words "Time's Up".

UPDATE 2: They have ignored every message I've sent them. So, I guess I'm not going to be able to use TeeSpring to make Time's Up products. I'll try to figure out something else. This is one of the problems with "intellectual property", to pretend someone can own words so that no one else can use them.

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Legislation is never good

All legislation has negative consequences. Even "laws" you might like.

Concealed carry legislation might sound like a good thing-- the more people who carry, the better. But by making it seem as though government gets to decide who is armed, it makes people accept anti-gun legislation more readily.

It works the same way with every other type of legislation. Even if you can't imagine how that could be true.

Legislation is always a bad idea. Don't patch bad "laws" with more "laws"; abolish the bad "laws".

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Anarchy Day 2020

It's Random Acts of Anarchy Day again.

Do something right. Without "official" permission or a license.

Thank you!

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"Classical liberalism"? Yuck!

For years, I've noticed the more refined "libertarian-leaning" elites out there have claimed to be, not libertarians, but "classical liberals". This may be to distinguish themselves from the unwashed masses like me.

Once upon a time, I felt a little guilty that I couldn't be part of that elite. I eventually came to accept that it simply isn't possible. I don't fit.

I can't be a "classical liberal" because I don't accept any justification for political governance. Ever. Politics makes people stupid.

Sure, maybe it's better to be a "classical liberal" than to be fully on board with whatever police state dystopia the pro-government extremists lust for. Still, it's a matter of degree, not a difference in kind. Once you accept just a little political governance, how will you stop it from growing out of your control? History has shown that you can't. Or won't.

How liberal-- in the antique sense of the word-- can you be when you still advocate stealing "just a little" to prop up your "minimal government"? "Just a little slavery" to empower the "night watchman" state? Even if this "minimum state" doesn't immediately do what political governments naturally do and metastasize out of control. Supporting such a state of affairs doesn't seem generous/liberal; it seems greedy and self-centered to me. They want "just a little" government so badly they'll sacrifice your liberty to have it.

No "classical liberalism" for me! It relies too heavily on politics.

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Don't be timid

So many people seem reluctant to dive in. They want to tiptoe around the edges.

If you're going to do something, and you're sure it's the right direction-- or at least not the wrong direction-- go big!

Don't just have shaggy hair, grow it long.

Don't just listen to music, sing karaoke!

Don't be a lukewarm political libertarian, be a real libertarian.

Society has enough wishy-washy people who are afraid to stick their necks out. No one needs any more of them.

If something is worth doing, it's worth going for. Moderation is OK as long as you don't overdo it.

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Time to let people take own risks

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 13, 2020)

I would expect, given the record of failure, this coronavirus experience would cause people to reconsider their belief in the credibility of government. From past experience, I know hope-- or something darker-- springs eternal. Most people are desperate to believe government is capable and credible in spite of 5000-plus years of evidence to the contrary.

As face masks become mandatory in more places, don't forget those same government experts were ridiculing people who were wearing masks early; insisting masks didn't work-- and telling people to stop buying or wearing them-- just weeks ago.

They have also been encouraging businesses to limit their hours of service which forces more people into a business during fewer available hours, and they're closing campgrounds and other places where people could physically distance in the healthy outdoors. Both policies are the opposite of helpful.

People choose to not remember the deadly errors, but view them as government taking decisive action to "flatten the curve".

I understand the call to "flatten the curve"-- especially in the early days of the pandemic when everyone was just guessing what might happen. We now know that's not going to work. It's time to let people make their own choices and take their own risks.

This will solve itself if people let it; faster if government stops dragging it out.

There's not going to be a vaccine-- not a real one, anyway. This virus is going to have to go through its natural cycle. If you're going to catch the virus, it's going to happen sooner or later. Since eighty percent of cases don't cause symptoms, you may never know. You may have already had it.

Let the virus spread and naturally lose strength over time, as these types of viruses always do.

No, that's not "safe". Nothing is. Americans are giving up their liberty for promises of safety. Promises which were lies from the start. "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin wrote those timeless words on November 11, 1755.

Soon you may be forced to decide which is more dangerous-- the virus, the government, or economic disaster-- and act accordingly.

Every non-governmental job is essential! It's time to do the adult thing and get back to normal life. Lead the way and force government policy to play catch-up, as it usually does. Recovery is, and has always been, up to you. Let's get to it!

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Tearing down statues

I have no personal attachment to monuments to military/political people or events. You could say I even hate most of them. You probably understand why. Every historical figure is almost surely someone's Hitler.

However, art-- even when ugly or offensive-- is art. And older art is historical. Destroying historical art because it has unpleasant connotations is ignorant. The "reasons" are irrelevant. I opposed it being done in Iraq and I oppose it being done in America.

Not only is art being destroyed, but the vandals are also burying history. Hiding something doesn't change what happened, and often helps some people pretend it didn't.

Tearing down monuments is the book-burning of our time. At least until book-burning comes back into fashion.

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Your autonomous zone

Autonomous zones are suddenly all the rage.

I'm all for setting up autonomous zones, but not if you steal other people's private property to do it. That's what political governments do, and it's wrong. (Government "property" already belongs to you so it can't count.)

Your property is-- or should be-- an autonomous zone, whether it's your house or your business. You rule that zone as supreme dictator (if living with others, as supreme co-dictators)-- at least until you choose to voluntarily open it to others, in which case you can't just violate visitors' rights because you want to. If you do this you're no different than any other political government.

But as long as it's your legitimately-owned private property and you don't open it to visitors, it should be yours to control completely.

No representatives of any other government allowed in unless you explicitly permit it on a case by case basis. No cops. No "tax" collectors. No inspectors. None of them. They have no right to violate your autonomous zone in an "official capacity" for some other organization that has no legitimate claim on your property (like a town, county, state, or country).

A "property tax" is a yearly ransom imposed by these thieves who have no legitimate claim to your property-- but who will steal it and murder you for resisting. Be careful dealing with this kind of robber. Their gang is large, stubborn, and heavily armed.

If you use your property to violate the life, liberty, or property of others, they have the right to defend themselves from you. You can't make a rule to take away their right to do so-- again, this is a tactic political governments try to get away with. So, act wisely and ethically, unlike they do.

You might even join with others to create a larger autonomous zone-- as long as it is by unanimous consent. That's more difficult, and not necessary.

No one has a higher claim on your property than you do-- not even if legislation and policies pretend otherwise.

Your home is your autonomous zone; your castle. Never forget it. How you choose to act on this knowledge is your business.

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Statist dishonesty

A while back I listened to a Left-Statist preaching against Religious (Christian) Nationalists.

You know I'm not a fan of religion, of nationalism, nor of Right-Statism. But I am a fan of truth, and this podcast had very little truth in it.

I've never heard such a collection of dishonest Straw Men and outright untruths in one place-- by someone who seemed otherwise intelligent and well-meaning-- in my entire life as I heard in one hour of listening to this Left-Statist author and the show's host.

Straw Men, false dichotomies, lies, mischaracterization (about both Right-Statists and Left-Statists). It was hard to listen to. It was full-on fanatical government-supremacism from beginning to end.

She (and the host) pretended that government handouts financed by theft are the same thing as charity. They pretended that democracy is laudable (as long as their side [sic] wins). They focused on how these Right-Statists get out the news of the candidates they like while utterly ignoring how the Left-Statists use the entirety of the national mainstream and alternative media (including social media) to campaign for their candidates. The only reason that's OK is that their side [sic] uses it. They lied about government indoctrination day-prisons to equate them with education.

I can't even list all the dishonesty they packed into that hour. It was vile.

But it's a good way to remind myself how these people think and the superstitions they believe and base their lives on. I couldn't do this very often though. Yet, this is why libertarians are better informed than statists-- we hear and evaluate both sides, honestly and often. They don't even hear the other side.

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Defense for the incapable

A common tactic from those who want to at least appear to have an argument against abolishing the police is to either claim that they themselves are incapable of protecting their own life, liberty, or property, or to try to scapegoat someone else as being incapable.

Nonsense.

Plus, when you try to blame others for your desire to keep "employing" the gang, it's rude!

I've seen enough examples of kids, small women, the elderly, and the disabled protecting themselves and others from archation (and so have you) that I don't buy that anyone who isn't completely helpless is incapable. It's a coward's lie.

Maybe some don't want to accept the responsibility, but they can.

It's not your job to coddle those who refuse, but you can if you want-- at your own expense. It doesn't give anyone the right to enslave everyone else for their imagined weaknesses.

Yes, there are some who are truly incapable of defending themselves, feeding themselves, or wiping their own butts. Nice people take care of this kind of person, sometimes for money-- but society doesn't revolve around their inability. That would be like living in a prison established to make certain that no one could be any more capable than the least capable among us. I'm not going to live that way.

Refusing to consider abolishing the police based on the lie that people who are otherwise capable can't protect themselves is antisocial, unethical, and statist (but I repeat myself).

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