Kitten update #5

Whiskers is a furry ball of dynamite. Full of energy, and so playful. He is really sweet (even though he looks vicious, killing my hand in the picture above).

The other cats are still less than impressed, but Ghost, the outcast cat, loves to wrestle with him. They get a little rough and I have to step in sometimes, but at least Ghost has someone to play with now.

We take Whiskers on adventures almost daily. He loves car rides-- more than the destination. He prefers paved paths over grass, but we're working on that.

His right eye hasn't changed in several days-- as far as I can tell. It is still cloudy, but the surface seems smooth. If he'd hold still long enough for me to get a better look it would be helpful. I think the ointment did the trick. I don't think a cloudy eye would need to be removed, so I'm hoping that surgery has been avoided.

We still have to deal with the hernia. Maybe we'll find out more about that next Thursday when he goes for his follow-up appointment. I'm hoping for good news on the eye, at least.

I've still got his GoFundMe up and running to cover the cost of the hernia surgery and follow-up vet appointments. Please share that link if you want to help. Thanks.

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 A person would have to be a real festering pile of slimy feces to sign up to be an enforcer of legislation.

"He's stealing from the government!" is one of the least inspirational rallying cries I can imagine. The murderous Giga-Mega-thief is being pick-pocketed by a worthless punk. Yawn. It's not going to bring me to action.

What does "not failing" look like?

I've been thinking a lot about the "libertarianism fails in practice/in the real world" claim that I see so often.

I wonder what those who make that claim would see as "not failing".

To me, it doesn't matter what technological wonders you have, or how "safe" you feel, if you don't have full liberty, it's a failure. For this reason, I see the entire history of political government as one monumental failure from beginning to end. 

So, the disagreement must center around a difference of opinion as to what "failing" means.

This may also mean we want different things. Or, maybe we want the same things, but we disagree as to how they can be achieved.

I want relative peace. I want everyone's property to be secure. I want everyone to be free from molestation as long as they aren't violating the life, liberty, or property of another individual.

Sure, nothing can guarantee this, but the failure is built right into political government from top to bottom and side to side. That's unacceptable to me.

If the only way I can get what I want is to violate others with taxation, legislation, etc., it's not worth it. It's exactly the same as admitting that if the only way I can have sex is to commit rape, it's not worth it. Statists think violating others is "a necessary evil" if they consider it in any way negative. If it's necessary, it can't be evil, and if it's evil, it can't be necessary. And political government is evil.

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A person would have to be a real pile of feces to enforce runaway slave "laws".

Be "that guy", but...

...keep in mind it's going to embarrass the Family. And we can't have that!

In the past, I've embarrassed them because I refuse to participate in National Socialist ritual pole quilt worship. I've embarrassed them on occasion by refusing to go into places with "We don't care if you die!" signage by the door. Now I embarrass them because I'm done with mask mandates.

Family doesn't want you to be that guy. They want you to go along obediently, with whatever "the Authorities" dictate. Don't embarrass them. Don't make a scene, even if you don't make a scene, by being different.

Well, I'm not a particularly obedient person. Especially when I see the harm in obeying.

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A person would have to be a real pile of feces to enforce anti-gun legislation.

A person would have to be a real pile of feces to enforce mask mandates.

When you thought you had the opposition beaten...

The headline on Reddit said "Conservatives are turning school boards into a battleground for culture wars. Struggling to push their agenda in other arenas, conservatives are bringing their buffet of grievances to schools - turning board meetings into an endless parade of ignorance, misinformation and just plain hatred."

That is a lie.

School boards have always been a battleground in culture wars. Children's minds (and futures) are the casualty.

There should be no such thing as government ("public") schools. Especially not compulsory ones. That they exist means they are automatically political through and through-- they can't be otherwise as they are tied to government. 

Someone is going to use them to advance their political agenda-- it's just that the Left-Statists thought they had that control in the bag. In the cases where their Right-Statist opponents are pushing back, the Left-Statists are squealing.

No statist faction has a monopoly on "ignorance, misinformation, and just plain hatred.". That describes Critical Race Conspiracy Theory to a "T", but the Left-Statists are happy to promote it.

The solution to toxic indoctrination isn't to let someone else indoctrinate your kids.

Abolish kinderprison. Education over indoctrination.

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A person would have to be a real pile of feces to enforce taxation.

The constant companion

Whatever paths I travel down or explore, libertarianism (or, if you prefer: abolitionism, Voluntaryism, or anarchism) goes with me. It's part of the journey. 

I can't leave it behind. I can't embrace the life of an archator no matter what I'm doing. Whether it is writing on completely unrelated topics, rescuing a kitten, socializing, or shopping. 

It is part of me so it's part of all I do.

It would be just as difficult for me to leave that behind-- to believe anyone has the "right" to archate-- as it would be for me to pretend to believe in leprechauns. I would be only pretending either way.

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More in common than you think

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 21, 2021)

Even when we seem to disagree, we have more in common than you might think. I probably want many of the same things you want.

I have no respect for those who violate private property. Even less, if possible, for those who harm the innocent. Wouldn't you agree?

Then why would you and I ever be on the opposite sides of an issue?

Perhaps you tolerate methods of getting what you want that I can't tolerate. I don't believe politics or legislation is ever the right way to do anything.

If I want a car-- or even desperately need one in order to survive-- I know I have no right to steal yours. Hiring a professional thief to steal one for me doesn't make it moral.

No matter what I need, or how badly I need it, having a politician impose a tax or entitlement to benefit me at your expense is wrong. I can't have any right to ask them for this favor.

If I don't like something you're doing-- something which doesn't actually harm anyone's life, liberty, or property-- I have no right to kidnap and cage you to make you stop. Nor do I have the right to shoot you if you resist being kidnapped. Hiring legislation enforcers-- with money that wasn't mine to spend-- to catch or shoot you on my behalf in the name of "the law", when you aren't violating anyone, is no better.

If I don't have the right to do something, I can't have the right to ask anyone else to do it on my behalf. I don't have the right to ask that money stolen from you through taxation be spent on things I want. I don't have the right to stop you from doing things I don't like if they don't violate anyone. I don't have the right to ask others to impose my will on you as a way to keep my hands clean. My hands would be bloody either way.

I'm not going to gang up with others and vote to forbid you from exercising your rights, even when I dislike what you do. Not even when this is seen as legal and called a civic responsibility or imagined to be a right.

There are limits to what I have a right to do, even when others refuse to respect those limits. I'm not willing to do wrong-- to use politics-- to get what I want.

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A person would have to be a real pile of feces to enforce prohibition.

Pre-existing conditions and Covid

Covid 19 exposed a lot of people's pre-existing conditions. Not necessarily medical conditions, though.

Many people seem to have been suffering from undiagnosed cowardice, authoritarianism, obedience, and social anxiety... and Covid gave them the permission they needed to express those shortcomings fully, with fawning approval. 

Now those people expect the rest of us to manifest the shortcomings they suffer from, under threat of punishment if we aren't as broken as they are. 

I think I'll pass.

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Supposedly, New Mexico is back to mandating masks indoors. I went to a few stores today and didn't wear a mask, was never asked to put on a mask, and I saw other maskless people (maybe 25%). I think the Branch Covidians are finished.

Legislation's result

Those who say "there oughta be a law", concerning anything, must LOVE outlaws. What else could explain their drive to make more and more of them?

Every "law" creates an outlaw. Or millions of them.

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"Anarchy, like communism, fails in practice"

"Conservatives" like to pull some statement of this sort out of somewhere dark and musty: "Anarchy, like communism, sounds good on paper but fails in practice."

Really?

I've never seen anarchy fail when it is followed. Not once. Of course, it's not a political system, and those who try to make it one will see it fail every time. It's like trying to use the family SUV to get to Mars. You're doing it wrong!

That's also why communism always fails when imposed as a political system. It might work OK as long as you don't try to make a government out of it-- keep it 100% voluntary and let anyone opt out at any time for any reason without punishing them. But once politics enters the picture, it's going to be bad, just like when politics is mixed into medicine/science or anything else-- nothing is left but politics. 

And why the pathetic attempt to always tie anarchy and political communism together? Might it be due to government school indoctrination? I'm sure it is.

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It's up to you, every day

In the old Twitter thread with the anti-gun bigot I've talked about several times, a pro-gun, but also pro-cop, "conservative" justified his support for police (and legislation) by saying, "I don’t want to have to protect my life & stuff *every* day."

Well, sorry Bub, but that's just how reality works.

Cops aren't there to protect you or your stuff. They are there to make a report after you've been violated and kidnap your violator if your violator happens to fall into their lap. Protecting you or your stuff isn't their "job". It is your job and it always has been and always will be. Always. Your wishful thinking and bootlicking doesn't change it.

In fact, cops steal more than freelance thieves now, and have for several years. Are these really the people you think protect you?

Things like that are why I can't be a "conservative".

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Kitten update #4

Whiskers finally got in to see the vet today. The news is mixed.

He still has an ulcerated cornea in his right eye. They gave me a new ointment to try to get that healed. If it's unsuccessful he may have to have that eye removed. I'm hoping the ointment works.

He also has an umbilical hernia (I had felt it but thought other issues were more important) that they say they will repair when he goes in for his neutering.

Other than that, he seems in pretty good health. He's making friends/chasing the other cats and my daughter is just in love with him. So much kittenergy!

He'll still have a few more vet appointments in the near future, though.

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Due to the upcoming appointments and procedures, I am starting a GoFundMe, but since you've already donated to help, just share it if you care to. 

It's long past time for the U.S. to withdraw its forces from the rest of the countries it occupies. Including, and especially, America.