The terrorist attacks of 20 years ago were followed closely by much worse terrorist attacks committed by the U.S. government against Americans using the other terrorist attacks as justification. And they've only escalated since then.

Twenty years of constant terrorism

Twenty years? 

What a long strange trip it's been.

How much that particular year changed my life!

I was living in a strange new place I didn't like, where I didn't really know anyone, where I found myself without the ability to pursue any of my favorite activities, when I realized my newish marriage, which was the reason for all the above, was in the process of imploding in spectacular fashion, and then September 11th happened and gave me three months of paid vacation to dedicate to the pursuit of happiness (or decadence).

That topsy-turvy time in my life changed me in more ways than I can count. It wasn't pleasant while I was going through it (not most of it, anyway) but I guess it "built character". 

The terrorist attacks were also a turning point for me. It was when I truly began to see the U.S. government for the terrorist organization that it is, and I have never forgiven it... and I never will. The September 11th terrorist attacks were followed by 20 years-- so far-- of terrorist attacks by the U.S. government on your liberty and natural rights!

All-in-all, I'm still kind of grateful for that whole era-- personally-- while acknowledging it would have been far better if the US feral government hadn't caused "9/11" to happen in the first place with its nasty policies abroad, and if it hadn't decided to pursue a policy of terrorism against the American population forever afterward.

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Do your own research. Or don't.

Scott Adams frequently says that "you can't do your own research-- no one can; it's not a thing". He tends to claim that this is one of the most stupid things anyone can say. Well...

That depends on how you use the word "research".

I'll agree that most people are not good at doing their own research. 

Googling a topic isn't research. Not even if you go far down that rabbit hole. It can give you a starting place, but it isn't research. Maybe it can even help you discover the research others have done, but why should you trust them?

If you can't do your own research, then neither can scientists. Either humans can do research, or they can't. This doesn't mean that they are all good at it.

You don't need millions of stolen dollars to do research. In fact, that only guarantees you'll "discover" whatever it takes to keep those stolen dollars coming your way. You don't need million-dollar laboratories or libraries of obscure papers that are off-limits to the common people. Those might help in the same way Google could help, but unless you're good at doing research they are wasted.

You don't need a specific educational degree to do your own research. Someone who has jumped through the hoops to get a degree might still be able to think independently enough to do research, but these days that's fairly unlikely. Research takes intelligence, not schooling.

Yes, you can do your own research. It's not easy and most people don't. But to claim that no one can... that's either ignorant or dishonest.

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I triggered the bad guys... again

F-book is lying to you. I know, this isn't news. 

But I didn't promote "unapproved COVID-19 treatments". And WHO is part of the UN, a completely non-credible source.

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Those poor mild-statists

I think many mild-statists-- "normal" people who just want to keep believing political government is necessary or even good-- are desperate to find ways to keep justifying the state when it is so obviously failing them at every turn.

Discussing a perennial failure of the roads around here (one specific spot in particular) with one such person, I noticed an absolute unwillingness to admit that government control of the roads might not be the best idea. In spite of this person just complaining about how government was the cause of the problem they were talking about.

I see the same with people who still want to see cops as the good guys in spite of mountains of evidence to the contrary. You know these people-- some of them are gun owners who fly a Gadsden flag alongside a Coward's Swastika, not seeing the absurdity of their conflicting beliefs.

I still wonder whether the guy who wrote to scold me for warning readers of my newspaper column that inflation was coming can admit to himself yet that I was right. Probably not. He probably still sees no rising prices.

This doesn't even include the folks who imagine you can fix everything by v*ting in a "better" crop of political criminals to replace the ones currently committing acts of terrorism from Washington DC, state capitols, or city hall.

These poor mild-statists are so determined to keep believing in the State that they'll lie to themselves-- and to you-- to keep from recognizing the truth. How much longer will this burning house of cards let them keep their delusion? If they pretend hard enough, maybe they can keep themselves from seeing the truth indefinitely.

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NM mask mandate update

I've been mostly driving east from my house for business, deeper into Texas, ever since New Mexico's nutcase governor reimposed indoor mask mandates for everyone. She obviously prefers superstition to science. 

I mentioned earlier that compliance wasn't universal, but I'm done with masks so when given the choice I'll avoid conflict.

But the bank I visit most often is west of my house, in NM, and I needed to go there today.

On the front door of the bank was a sign announcing that the governor requires masks to be worn indoors, by everyone, regardless of vaccination status. The bank's sign didn't say anything about them requiring masks, just a factual statement about what the governor declared. I noted the political criminal's wishes and went on with my life. I didn't put on a mask.

Inside, the only other customer was also not wearing a mask. Both tellers had masks-- under their chins, not covering either their mouth or nose, The one other bank employee I saw was wearing a mask.

Again, mask compliance isn't high. This ends when enough of us refuse to play along.

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Don't automatically assume you know why someone is a statist. There are many reasons someone might be a statist. Some are statists because they are evil, some are cowards, some are lazy, or dumb, or misinformed, or greedy, etc., or some combination of those not-so-wonderful traits. You probably don't know exactly why any specific individual is, though.

Iverfiction

The Big Lie, part ??

The "news" story about how rural Oklahoma hospitals were turning away gunshot victims because of all the Ivermectin overdose cases-- "horse dewormer", LOL-- was obviously a lie from the beginning.

Rural areas don't have many gunshot victims. We aren't like Chicago or the other anti-gun places. A gunshot victim around here is news because it's rare. Now, just over the state line, in the town big enough to have a "bad part of town", it does happen every couple of months or so.

Otherwise, if it happens, it's probably either a bad guy who got shot by an intended victim (in which case, "Did you learn anything?"), and the story is soon forgotten because no one really cares, or it is someone who was stupid enough to call the cops, who then came and shot the caller (again: "Did you learn anything?") in which case the story will be memory-holed to protect the reputation of the Blue Line Gang.

It's not surprising that people who live in dystopian s##tholes would automatically believe something like this without skepticism. It reflects the world they've made for themselves that they live in every day. And they want to force this life on you, too.

But the Oklahoma story? Anyone with any sense knew it was fake before the retraction-- there was a retraction, right?

The delight shown by Branch Covidians over anyone who might suffer for not being sufficiently Of The Body is sick. It is literally, no joking, a cult.

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Crunch!

Don't worry. Not me.

A couple of days ago I was sitting in the car, kitten-sitting while everyone else was in the mall, when I heard a loud car-crunching sound. I looked behind me to see a car partially up on the curb, its front corner against a brick wall. 

The parking lot curved around the front of the mall, the driver hadn't curved enough. She drove the passenger side of her car (I hope it was hers) over the curb and into a brick wall that separated a dumpster accessway from the sidewalk. 

I watched as she backed off the curb, turned on her hazard lights, and got out for a walk-around to see the damage. The passenger-side headlight was freed from the shattered grill, the fender and that corner of the hood were crumpled, and lots of debris was falling off the car. She looked at it for a minute, looked resigned and confused, then got back in her car and slowly drove off.

Who knows why she drove into the wall. Surely she was distracted. Texting? Something else?

But, remember that these people are out there. All around you. They will not be responsible, so it is your responsibility to watch for them. 

My mindset when I drive, bike, or walk is that every other car or pedestrian is a wind-up robot with no conscious control whatsoever. Just a mindless object moving randomly and if an accident is to be avoided, it's completely up to me. So far that has served me pretty well.

I'm not saying I can't ever be distracted, but that by making that my default mindset, I've been able to avoid problems most of the time. I know how easy it is to get distracted by something. 

I'm not going to get caught thinking it's someone else's responsibility to not run into me.

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Government has no right to mandates

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for August 4, 2021)

New Mexico's government may be flirting with Covid 19 mandates again. Did you think government would just step aside when it became obvious it keeps doing pointless things?

I will not accept this "new normal" of endlessly recurring threats of mask mandates, shutdowns, and lockdowns. You do what you want, but I'm not going to accept going backward.

I hope businesses don't get targeted this time. I feel bad for business owners forced to choose between betraying their customers by enforcing the state's illegitimate mandates or risking punishment from the state.

Yes, an individual business owner has every right to require masks or even proof of vaccination, but I have the right to shop elsewhere. Which I will. I will not support those who help government violate people. The new Jim Crow era can't be allowed to stand.

I was more forgiving last year. Even though no one has the right to impose mask mandates or shutdowns, there were many unknowns in the beginning. But not now. At some point, the people have to say "I will not comply", whether it's as a customer or as a business owner.

Government is not your boss, you are its boss-- if you choose to employ it. Recent history has shown government doesn't accept this situation, but that's just how it is.

If enough people simply refuse to comply, government has to back down. It's how the worst aspects of alcohol prohibition came to an end in 1933-- there simply wasn't enough compliance, and even juries refused to convict scofflaws. In the case of mask mandates and shutdowns, there isn't a constitutional amendment nor even legislation, backing it up. You aren't in the wrong if you refuse to comply.

I don't care if you want to wear a mask. I do care if you force others-- even children-- to do so. I don't care if you accept an experimental vaccine which doesn't prevent the illness and doesn't prevent the vaccinated from spreading the illness. I do care if you demand others take the needle.

I understand that the vaccine may make the symptoms less severe which might reduce the risk of complications and hospitalization. However, I also understand no one can have the right or the imaginary political authority to force this vaccine-- if it can honestly be called a vaccine-- on others.

The mandates will end for good when enough people say "No, I won't".

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A mountainman tale from the past

Years ago-- sometime in the mid '90s-- I was at a mountainman rendezvous in the Rockies. One day somewhere in the next meadow over, a group of modern campers set up and started shooting semi-autos all day.

That was really no issue for us. After all, we had black powder contests going on all day (and most of us also had semi-autos in our bedrolls, but don't tell anyone). Some of the guys decided to play a little prank on the greenhorns, anyway. 

Super early the next morning, before dawn, they hauled one of the camp cannons (but only one) over to the modern guys' camp, and set it between their tents. According to the tales told around the breakfast fires that morning, the resulting "BOOM!" brought them out of their tents really fast.

But they had a great sense of humor about it. They even came over to visit our camp later in the day and got the VIP treatment.

Fun times...

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I like canteens

Not that I think this is in any way important stuff, but I like canteens, or any water storage vessels, really. I always have. I don't know why.

I have a hard time passing them up in thrift stores. Even those ubiquitous metal water bottles are hard for me to ignore.

I've had to fight the compulsion to buy kerosene lamps most of my life, but canteens come a close second. 

My first canteens were plastic toys, but they worked (just not very durable). I later (and briefly) had an aluminum military/boy scout-style canteen that did unsettling things to water-- sometimes making it fizzy! 

I've had beeswax-sealed wooden canteens-- which usually leaked badly until the wood swelled enough to make them water-tight, after which they only leaked a little. This left a refreshing wet spot on my side where the canteen rested. The water from these always had a pleasant woody/honey taste. All of those have disappeared over the years, though.

That gourd canteen above has served me well for a long time. Probably 30 years or so. But it is more fragile than the rest, so it doesn't get used too often.

The blanket-sided canteen above holds a gallon. It is plastic under the skin and originally leaked terribly. But I fixed it and it was worked well since then-- for 15 years or so now.

The Revolutionary War-style metal canteen was a thrift store find a year or so ago. It has a slow leak in a bottom corner, but I sealed the leak with melted spruce sap (in staying somewhat primitively correct) and it's fine now. Although I suspect the metal is historically incorrect stainless steel. I'll overlook that problem. It cost $10 and for that reason, I almost passed it up, but I'm now glad I didn't.

You might have noticed that leaks are a common denominator with many of my canteens. That's life.

If I see a canteen-- especially if it's a style I don't already have-- I'll check the price if nothing else.

At least, canteens are useful. And I sometimes even find them being given away-- as was the case with the plastic military canteen in the above photo that I found at a yard sale that was packing up and quitting when I got there.

I've found myself out on a walk without a canteen many times in my life. In such cases, I've sometimes ended up drinking water that you probably shouldn't even rinse your feet in (before water filtration straws). So, having a full canteen is something I value. I just think they are interesting.

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R.I.P. El Neil

I heard about the death of L. Neil Smith a few days ago from the Rational Review newsletter, but I needed time to process the news before I wrote anything. I wanted to take time to think about what I'd write.

The only way to sum it up: It hurts.

He helped make me who I am. In fact, he's the reason this is the "Hooligan libertarian" blog.

I've written before that I didn't know what "libertarian" meant before I kind of accidentally found his book Lever Action through an NRA magazine-- a lukewarm book review written by someone who was completely bewildered by the book and just didn't get it at all. But something about it struck a chord in me, anyway. I cut out the blurb and kept it on a table by my couch for months until I had the spare money to order the book. I've never regretted reading it.

I wish so badly that I still had that book review-- or knew where I have it stashed. It was from some time before the end of 2002. A muddled time in my life, for sure. L. Neil hadn't known about the review and wished to see it after I told him about it. I never was able to help him with that.

Anyway, before I read Lever Action I thought I was a "conservative"-- that's what schooled people had told me I was all my life, since I didn't like government. I discovered I had been misled. I finally felt like I was on the right track. I also began the long task of examining all I believed and tossing away the stuff that just didn't fit. A task that continues.

I spoke with Neil on the phone a few times over the years and emailed him even more often. I am more glad than you know that I was able to tell him how much he meant to me. A few years ago I asked if I could mail him my treasured copy of Lever Action to be autographed and he was happy to oblige. It has been priceless to me ever since.

When my older daughter died, he sent personal condolences and donated (as did so many of you) to help me travel to her funeral.

He always made me feel important; that I mattered. That my opinions mattered.

He had a stroke a few years ago, and I feared the worst. I was glad to see him get back to writing before too long.

The only thing we ever really disagreed over was Trump. He was a supporter, I wasn't. I understood where he was coming from, though. I never argued with him over the issue and it never came up when we wrote to each other. It just wasn't that important. 

Through it all, he always meant a lot to me.

I don't have heroes. I'm not sure I've ever really had a mentor. But he came really close to being both for me. I miss him already.

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The Constitution is a Trojan horse. It's been disgorging political statists who hate liberty into America for 230+ years.

Got your blood kayak ready?

Get ready for the roads in Texas to turn into rivers of blood today, as we have been repeatedly warned will happen. 

This is the day that Texans will be slightly more free-- our rights will be violated just a little less. Yes, today "Constitutional" [sic] carry is in effect.

Today I will be slightly less of an outlaw than I have been in decades.

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Banned for not lying

Alex Berenson wrote, "It doesn't stop infection[1]. Or transmission[2]. Don't think of it as a vaccine[3].

Think of it - at best - as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy[4] and terrible side effect profile[5] that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS[6]. And we want to mandate it? Insanity."

There are no lies there. 

You could substitute food for the assumed topic of the tweet to remove the triggering issue.

1- One meal today won't stop you from starving to death a year from now. 

2- No matter how well-fed you are, someone near you could still starve to death, especially if you steal all their food. You could "transmit" starvation even if you are well-fed.

3- Don't think of food as a vaccine against starvation.

4- At best, it is a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy. If you eat once, the starvation is only held at bay for a while. You'll have to eat again to keep from starving. 

5- You can get food poisoning, you can choke on food, you can break a tooth, you can have a fatal allergic reaction. For those who suffer these mishaps (especially those who die), this constitutes a terrible side effect profile. No one says everyone will have this experience.

6- You also have to eat before you die of starvation for the food to do you any good.

But this doesn't mean food is useless. To ban someone for pointing out these facts is a terrible disservice to society.

Alex didn't even explicitly say which non-vaccine he was referring to-- although we can assume we know. 

Herr Twitler (or a minion) claims this tweet is misleading and he imposes the Twutter version of the Final Solution on Alex and those like him for saying these accurate things.

If Twutter is a "private company", Twitler has the right to ban anyone for any reason or for no reason at all. If. It's still an incredibly slimy thing to do.

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One person's dystopia is another's Utopia. They'll fight to keep the dystopia that's killing you because it's their Utopia.

Is "long-haul Covid" confirmation bias?

Almost everyone in my family has had Covid. Of those, all recovered, including those with multiple serious co-morbidities, even though one developed "long-haul Covid". 

But here's the problem with that.

Her "long-haul" issues were in the same category of problems she's had for years. The only thing that makes it "long-haul Covid" is that she was diagnosed with Covid a couple of months before she the problem developed again. Before, it was just "You're not a particularly healthy person", but then it became "OMG! You've got long-haul Covid!" 

Hence, my skepticism.

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Government won't save you from being conquered

Why is it that people who fear "we" are going to be taken over by the Chinese (or whoever) always seem to think government has the solution? That a stronger government will prevent such a thing, rather than to help it happen?

Government is the problem.

Want to take over another land? 

If it doesn't really have a central government you're looking at decades of fighting to conquer every individual who doesn't want your "help". Do you really want it that bad? Is your cannon fodder really that dedicated to getting you what you want?

But if that land has a government you only have to defeat those willing to support that government. Then you slide into the bureaucratic infrastructure (and don its veil of "authority") and continue business with barely a hiccup.

If you rely on government to save you from being taken over by someone else, you've hitched your wagon to the mule that will walk you right into the enemy camp and hand you over.

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Let rich give humanity new frontier

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 28, 2021)

After Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos both went to space-- depending on how you define "space"-- within days of each other, in rockets built by their respective companies, outrage activists got upset.

Were people angry when Henry Ford first rode in a Ford automobile, or when Alexander Graham Bell made his first phone call?

It's not a matter of how wealthy Branson and Bezos are. It was their responsibility to ride their rockets.

When your company builds rockets, you, as the head of the company, need to put some skin in the game. How could you ask anyone else to ride if you're not willing?

I'm not envious of their wealth, anyway. Other things bother me more.

I'm not a fan when Elon Musk's SpaceX takes government payloads into space or seeks FAA permission to launch rockets or built a tower. When government hallucinates the authority to "allow" or "forbid" business, and backs it with threats of force, you do what you have to do. I still don't like it.

Don't suggest they pay more taxes, either. Only the economically ignorant want government to tax corporations more-- or at all. All corporate taxes are, and must be, paid by the customers, like every business expense. I can't afford to support government by paying more than necessary for things I want and need.

In space flight, as with anything else, the early users are going to be those who can afford the immense price. I'm not envious. Other people buy more expensive cars, bigger and better houses, and take nicer, longer vacations than I can afford. For me to envy anyone who can afford things I can't would be pointless.

In this case, they are also taking the greatest risks. By the time the cost of space travel has dropped to the point where people like me can afford a ride, most bugs should be worked out. I'm glad others are going first.

Building rockets to take people into space is essential for the future of our species, even if you don't want to go. NASA had its chance. Now others have stepped up to do what government failed to do.

The envious can't see that money spent on space travel is helping everyone on Earth. This money is better spent than most charitable donations, if you're looking at long-term benefits. Humanity needs a frontier more than most people realize. Let them give you one.

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