Our rights are imaginary? Don't be barbaric

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for February 4, 2024)

It is often said there are two kinds of people. What kinds? It depends on the point being made. Yet, it's usually true, if incomplete.

In this case, I'm talking about two kinds of people where liberty is concerned. There are people who are authoritarian and people who are libertarian; those who want everyone else controlled and those who don't feel any such need.

Politics boils down to controlling someone in some way, so most politics is authoritarian. Maybe all politics. Both major parties and most, if not all, minor parties are included. Controlling other people is politically popular.

The only type of legitimate control is when someone is stopped in the act of violating another-- including violating them with political control.

Any legislation which seeks to control behavior which doesn't violate life, liberty, or property is itself a violation. It is illegitimate control. Anyone who seeks to pass or enforce any such legislation is a violator. They are fundamentally the same as any mugger, attacker, kidnapper, or murderer. They are doing something they have no right to do.

No one has the right to violate anyone's right to exercise their liberty. Not for any reason.

Having the power isn't the same as having the right, but most people, as long as politics or government are involved, won't understand the distinction.

I've heard people say rights are imaginary; all that matters is whether someone has the power to do something. This is both ridiculous and barbaric. The whole reason crime happens is because someone has the power to violate someone else. Their power doesn't excuse them from doing wrong.

As I've pointed out in the past, if rights are imaginary, then no one can claim the right to govern others. I'm fine with this outcome. For some reason, this obvious conclusion makes those who want to rule people or be ruled change the subject.

It wouldn't even be a problem if the authoritarian people could keep it between themselves and leave the rest of us out of it. Rule each other all they want, but don't try to spread their toxicity beyond their ranks. Sadly, part of being authoritarian is the antisocial inability to live with that boundary.

This means the rest of us, those who understand and value liberty, must continually find ways to drive around avoiding the debris and potholes of authoritarianism on the road of life. It keeps us on our toes.

-

Liberty is the greater good!

If you want to support what I do, you will. If not, you won't.

PayPal -- Venmo -- GiveSendGo

Thank you.

Also this or this

Government Wrong Time starts tomorrow

Don’t forget to mis-set your clocks tonight, to appease the control-freak morning people who can’t just go to work an hour earlier, but believe they are entitled to force their preferences on everyone else. No matter the cost in lives.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

From the frying pan into the fire?

About a month ago, my 16-year-old daughter decided to re-enroll herself in govschool. I was disappointed, but I believe in letting her make some of her own decisions/mistakes. Maybe it won't be as much of a mistake as I feel like it will be.

She disliked homeschooling and unschooling. She doesn't like having me help her in any way, even though I (believe I) can be very unintrusive. She won't ask a question if she doesn't understand something, and she doesn't want me to offer unsolicited help. This makes it difficult for me to really help.

Plus, she wanted to be able to go to the prom in a year or so, and she wanted to know the people she'd be going with. She realizes she can't seem to be social without having it forced on her, which is an admirable level of self-awareness. This is why she decided to go back.

I understand her reasons, even if I disagree with them. I told her the responsibility is on her to get up and get to school on time, to do her school work, and do it well. So far, that has gone OK.

I'm still disappointed. This has taken some enthusiasm out of me recently.

At least the school seems to take safety seriously, according to the signage. I'm hoping they deal with the bullying better this time. Or, that there isn't any bullying this time.

We'll see how it goes. Wish us luck.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

Nice, and slightly disturbing

On Monday of this week, on my daily walk around town (I'm lying, my walk only encompasses half of the town) a town employee called me over to his pickup. He handed me a walking stick saying he'd gotten it "somewhere" and thought of me.

A brand new walking stick, with the tag still on it. It was a nice gift. I have a glut of walking sticks but I switch them up depending on my mood. And this one has a metal defensive spike under the rubber tip! So I do appreciate it.

I thanked him and continued on my way.

But I must admit, I'm a little uncomfortable with government employees thinking of me in any context. 

I know I'm a bit of an oddity, and I stand out. I'm going to get noticed. I'm friendly with everyone I encounter on my walks, which sometimes leads to pauses of a half hour or more as I talk to someone who just needs someone to listen. But I don't know this guy. I was totally caught by surprise. At least he isn't a cop.

My walks bring a lot of interesting things into my life. You ought to try it if you don't already.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

Making happy, loyal customers

In the past few days, I've had to deal with customer service/tech support on three separate, unrelated occasions.

Two times it was stuff that just went wrong, at no fault of theirs, that I needed help with. Both of those people were excellent. They were helpful and sounded thrilled to be helping me. One (at the local internet provider) actually sounded like I had rescued her from boredom.

Both of these customer service/tech support people solved my problems and then actually offered to go above and beyond their jobs with extra assistance. If every customer support experience were like this I wouldn't dread calling them.

The third experience was a little different. 

I was calling their attention, by email, to an expensive mistake they'd made. A mistake in my favor. They acted as though I was to blame, and I had to ask to be reimbursed for the direct expense their mistake had cost me. They tried to weasel out of reimbursing me, saying they had "no way to do that". They punished me for their mistake. I wasn't impressed.

How you interact with customers makes a huge difference in how customers feel about the business you work for. The business you represent. I now have good feelings about two businesses, and a bad feeling about another.

I'm not going to put the companies' names out there, but if anyone asks me specifically about my opinion of any of those companies, any time in the future, you know which ones I'll say good things about and which one I won't.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

Whee!

I think my new favorite spectator sport is watching the price of Bitcoin when it's going up. And Dogecoin, too. At least it has been for the past few days. I try to ignore it when it's going down.

I'll never be rich in Bitcoin (or anything else), but it's fun to dream. That's why people buy lottery tickets. 

At least this way doesn't fund The State like lottery tickets do. I don't want to help fund the Ancestral Enemy any more than is necessary.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

How open American "borders" could save the world

If having open "borders" is a magnet for criminals, as the borderists like to claim. that could work to the advantage of all decent people, all over the world. If it is allowed to. 

All it would take is to turn America into a meat grinder for criminals. 

Let everyone in-- as is ethical-- then respect the natural human right to own and to carry weapons everywhere we go, and the concurrent fundamental human right to use those weapons in defense of life, liberty, and property against ALL violators. 

If criminal migrants are a real issue, this would solve it almost immediately. With the bonus of solving the problem of home-made criminals at the same time. All it requires is for government to stop being criminal.

That's because the real issue is people who archate, not where those archators were born or which government pretends to own them.

Eliminating the bad guys at scale will benefit the entire human race. The countries of origin will be better off. The people in America will be better off. Everyone wins! Well, everyone except for criminals (including politicians).

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

Liberty dangerous, but essential to life

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for January 28, 2024)

Like Thomas Jefferson, "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it."

I also know there can be no such thing as "too much liberty" since liberty-- freedom tempered with responsibility-- is self-regulating. Jefferson knew this, too, since he was smarter than me, but he may have been trying to get his point across to someone less aware.

There are also people who are scared of liberty.

Liberty is messy. It’s not as tightly structured as authoritarianism. Liberty is water; authoritarianism is a  crystal of potassium cyanide. Both can be dangerous, but only one is essential for life.

I'm a libertarian; I recognize that no human being has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human, nor to advocate or delegate its initiation..What does this mean?

"Initiate force" means to throw the first punch; to attack someone who isn't harming your life, liberty, or property. Nor does anyone have the right to hire someone, such as a politician or a legislation enforcer, to do this on their behalf. This is 'delegating" the initiation of force.

This is what "libertarian" means when stripped of all the political frippery.  It's an easy concept; even most children get it.

It is also a promise of what to expect from me. In the unlikely event I violate my principles and throw the first punch in the absence of a credible threat, it's with the realization that I am doing something I have no right to do; something wrong. I would owe restitution.

I have difficulty imagining such a situation, but I suppose anything is possible.

My view comes down to this: I believe in maximum liberty. Since there is no "but" qualifying my stance, this means I am also an anarchist. I do not believe in the legitimacy of any form of government which is imposed on anyone. You have a right to govern yourself, but no one else. Not as an individual, not as part of the majority, and not by delegating someone else. You can't establish or support a government without initiating force.

This puts me at odds with political Libertarians who have a big "But". I've heard from plenty of them about this exact issue. They can do what they want, but they have more in common with Democrats and Republicans than with me.

-

Liberty is the greater good!

If you want to support what I do, you will. If not, you won't.

PayPal -- Venmo -- GiveSendGo

Thank you.

Also this or this

If someone isn't an anarchist

If someone isn't an anarchist it tells me one of three things is probably true about them.

They don't know what anarchism is, having fallen for the statist lie crafted to fool people into hating or fearing anarchism...

They want to continue having power over you, to control what they'll allow you to do...

Or, they hope to have power over you when the tables turn.

So, it's a sign they are either ignorant or evil.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help out.

Statists are experts

One thing statists are really good at, I have noticed, is justifying evil. They'll usually say they are being pragmatic or "realistic".

You need to murder a million people in some country that you don't care about, to maybe save a government you work for? Tell people there's no other way. Tell them it actually saves lives in the long run. Tell them it's the only way to save their life and the lives of those they care about. 

Divert that trolley into the people you are willing to sacrifice for the "greater good". A "greater good" which isn't good, and isn't great, unless you mean in size. A gigantic evil.

Statists are experts at justifying evil because they get so much practice. It's the only way to justify political government, so it's something they must do all the time.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

A little childlike openness would benefit us all

Yesterday I was out and about, and in one business there was a woman with a little girl, about 5 years old, in tow at the register. The little girl was staring at me. I noticed and looked her way, at which point she waved excitedly at me. I waved back and she was so thrilled when I did that she started jumping up and down, yanking on her mom’s jacket. 

Years ago I had a friend whose son, who was around 4 or 5 at the time, would get so excited every time he’d see me that he’d start yelling “My cowboy!” and run to me to show me the toy he was carrying or tell me some important news. 

That sort of thing has been common.

I’ve never been a “kid person”, but they have always been drawn to me anyway. Often when I didn’t think I had the time or inclination to engage with them. 

People have told me that it may be because I don’t talk down to kids. And I’m willing to do things like show them how I make fires without a lighter, pick apart owl pellets to find bones, or look at bugs under a magnifying glass. Things they aren’t normally exposed to by “normal” adults.

The same things that catch the interest of kids have often made adults unable to connect with me. Or so it seems. 

In my experience most adults would rather talk about their team— sportsball or politics. Things I can’t really discuss intelligently (by their standards), and which quickly bore me anyway.

However, that sometimes changes when a kid’s parent sees whatever I’m showing their child through their child’s eyes. Suddenly they are open to something they wouldn’t have been open to before. I’ve made friends this way, when I probably wouldn’t have been able to get to know the parent otherwise.

And, even in other cases, I hope I’ve made some positive impact on the kid. Maybe given them a spark of curiosity they wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Or, even just brightened their day because an adult took notice and waved back.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

The domestic threat

It's true in every country around the world. It's especially true in America: Government is the biggest domestic threat. Yet, government is a foreign power. 

The US government is not American-- even if (bad) Americans are the majority of its workforce. It is an occupying force with interests not aligned with the life, liberty, or property of ordinary Americans.

If Chinese saboteurs replaced every government employee, you probably wouldn't see much difference-- it would still be a foreign power being the biggest domestic threat to America. 

Except that none of your neighbors would care if you defended yourself-- your life and your liberty-- and your property from the replacements. 

The amount of theft, kidnapping, and general archating might even go down because the veil of legitimacy would be gone. There would be nothing for the crooks to hide behind. It's hard to see a downside.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

Cops vs good people

I am a better person than >95% of police officers, and I'm betting you are, too. 

Depending on how ethical you believe working for the state is. I believe it’s completely unethical, but that’s a discussion we’ve had many times before.

Police departments don't even want good people. Or smart people. 

Good people won't enforce counterfeit "laws", and smart people know when a "law" is counterfeit, and are less likely to obey bad orders. Smart people are also less likely to stick with the job of legislation enforcement, which is why police departments won't hire people with IQs above a certain level (room temperature?). That's not the raw material they want in a recruit. No, they want shining examples like Acorn Cop.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

Don't submit to crime of 'gun control'

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for January 21, 2024)

Most politicians remind me of bungling bank robbers who get foiled in their clownish attempts to rob a bank. Rather than being sorry or changing their ways, they decide they'll rob two banks tomorrow.

Instead of robbing banks, though, they keep committing the greater crime of "gun control".

New Mexico's governor Michelle Lujan Grisham seems to want to be on the Most Wanted list for gun law criminals, right up there with the worst dictators in history.

On one hand, how embarrassing for anyone to support such a politician! On the other hand, I prefer when people tell you who they are and what they are plotting to do to you. It's why freedom of speech is non-negotiable. Leave bad people free to incriminate themselves. It's better than a sneak attack by someone you thought was a decent person.

The stack of anti-gun rules perpetually on the agenda-- dishonestly labeled "gun safety laws" today-- always makes things worse. People who won't hesitate to murder anyone who stands in their way aren't going to let another slew of silly laws stop them. Believing it would make a positive difference is a political hallucination which tells more about the believer's mind than about the real world.

People understand this until it comes to politics, then they shut off their brains and parrot the party line.

What about "crime" and "gun violence"?

Crime's solution is known: don't get in the way of anyone trying to defend themselves from those violating their life, liberty, or property. Anything else helps the criminals.

"Gun violence" is a lie; a false distinction crafted by political criminals for the purpose of enslaving you. If they can use manufactured fear to control you-- to rob you of your self-ownership-- that's what they'll do. It's not somehow worse to be harmed by a bad guy using a gun than by a bad guy using a fist, a brick, a car, or a law. Only a political liar would want you to believe otherwise.

No one ever calls for you to be disarmed (or inadequately armed) for your benefit. If you believe their lies to the contrary, you've given yourself over to the enemy. The only reason anyone wants you disarmed is so they can do things to you which you wouldn't allow if you were armed. It's your warning a crime is being planned, and you're the intended victim. Don't go along.

-

Liberty is the greater good!

If you want to support what I do, you will. If not, you won't.

PayPal -- Venmo -- GiveSendGo

Thank you.

Also this or this

Climate assumptions and manipulation

I hear it more and more these days: “As weather threats intensify”, “as the weather gets more extreme”, “as climate change causes more disruption", etc. 

I don’t see intensifying threats, more extreme weather, or more disruption. Do you?

Which of us is most likely to be hallucinating, the one who sees something that isn’t there or the one who doesn’t see what someone else claims is there?

Those who say these things in this way are "thinking past the sale"; making assumptions that they hope you won't notice. 

It's a trick, regardless of whether AGCC is real or imaginary-- I'm agnostic about that-- a dishonest tactic. Just keep in mind what they are doing every time you hear them use one of those phrases. It's not because they are trying to give you correct information. It's because they are trying to manipulate you. 

They want you to give up liberty, or they mean to take it from you by force.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

The antidote

I intend everything I write to be a therapeutic against the infection of statism. 

Or an antidote for all the shady political poison that has sickened the people tricked into drinking it and damaged the society made up by those poisoned individuals.

If I can rescue just one person, it's all worth it. I'm going to try to help more than that.

I'm obviously not the only one doing what I can to counteract the poisons and fight the infections. There's not just one entity causing the harm; it is going to take more than one person to fight it. It's probably best if people double up. Or take a full complement of treatments, formulated by a wide variety of antipolitical alchemists. There's no such thing as an overdose of liberty.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

Invasion of the Howlers

If, every time I walked out my door, I encountered werewolves, I would probably think about them a lot. 

If werewolves put up signs all around my neighborhood and constantly insisted that I structure my life to accommodate them and their wishes, I would grow to hate them. 

I would tell anyone who'd listen that they aren't obligated to let the werewolves control them or eat them.

I would advocate silver bullets for everyone. I would remind people they have a right to use silver bullets against any werewolf that stands in their way, threatening them.

Anyone who complained and told me to stop talking about werewolves would be exposing themselves as on the side of the werewolves.

Now, replace fictional werewolves with government and you'll see the reality of the situation.

*Just a note-- this is my first time to use an AI. This one: pixlr. I used it to generate the picture above. I used the prompt "Werewolf in a ragged business suit, standing on a suburban street at night under a full moon." I probably should have said "aggressively crouching" instead of "standing", but I don't want to use up my entire free trial on one post.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

Live free to spite the Rulers

In the course of writing my newspaper column for Sunday, I realized this is a planet of political prisoners.

All of us, everywhere on the planet, are being held as political prisoners.

We are held captive by those who mean to rule us with politics. No escape is allowed; they'll kill anyone who tries and looks like they might succeed.

If you don't believe me, just build your own interplanetary spaceship and launch without getting government permission.

This realization is not nearly as negative or defeatist as it might seem at first glance. It depends on how you respond.

That this is how they see you doesn't mean you have to accept your imprisonment or behave like a prisoner. That's up to you. By living free (embracing your outlawry) in spite of the schemes of the political criminals, you spit in their eyes.

We are better than them. We are more ethical than they are. Show them, if they dare to look.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

Dig out the diseased root

When I dig into any social or societal problem, I find government underlying it. Am I hallucinating?

Even if it's true that government is beneath every social or societal problem, this doesn't mean there's not something even more fundamental than government below that. There could be a root cause that expresses itself as government, which then causes the higher-level trouble.

If that's the case, address the disease that causes government.

But government is still a common factor in all the social problems I've looked at. No matter what else people may try to blame. 

It's just not a good strategy to try to govern anyone but yourself. It's going to cause more problems than it solves, every time. You can deny it, you can dispute it, but you can't refute it.

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful

Conditioned to accept ridiculous evil

If humanity were free and someone thought up the idea of government today, would anyone fall for it?

I doubt it. It takes a population slowly and relentlessly conditioned over generations to certain absurd beliefs to fall for such an obvious scam. 

Humans have been undergoing this conditioning for thousands of years. Maybe longer. Most members of our species are well conditioned to accept the unacceptable-- to allow someone else to govern them instead of governing themselves like healthy individuals do. Don't judge what healthy humans would accept based on what you see around you. It's not even comparable.

It's interesting to me that the roots of political government reach back to the prehistoric era when people were probably the most superstitious and fearful they have ever been. (Although today's humans seem to be trying to compete for that dubious distinction.)

Unscrupulous characters used this superstition and fear as a way to get their gullible fellow humans to submit to something that wasn't actually good for them, but that they were told was good for them. And necessary.

It must be true because the holy men told them this is what the spirits required. Funny how well this worked out for those holy men.

Just like it works out for the filthy holy men of modern politics. 

This is why I say political government is The Ancestral Enemy. This isn't something new. It has been around as long as there have been crooked people who'd rather govern everyone else than mind their own business-- there's more profit in it. It's ancient. But it has grown and mutated into something with a dishonest veneer of civilization as it becomes more evil in its reach and abilities.

I trust that you see through it; you see it for what it is. If you didn't, you probably wouldn't be reading these words now. Right?

-

Here are some of the 

best ways to help me feel useful