Respecting liberty seems too radical for our [sic] government

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for February 5, 2025)

Whenever President Trump does something to reduce the size and scope of government, I applaud him. Offering a payout to encourage federal employees to quit is a great idea. It's one of the best ideas any politician ever had. The more of them who quit, the better off America will be. I wish all of them would take the offer and go out into the market to find productive jobs.

On the other hand, it would be best to abolish the agencies and bureaucracies they work for, and to cause everyone to reject government employment as an option; to see government work as unethical. Dig out the root rather than thrash at the leaves. Something no politician seems capable of thinking or doing.

There's no such thing as an essential government employee or a critical government function. Not at any level.

At least this incentive to quit the job is a move in the right direction. I wish this were the only direction he was taking.

Whenever Trump does something that increases the size or scope of government, he's on the wrong side. He's acting against liberty, even if you like what he's doing. Increasing the size and power of government is never the right thing to do. This is what he's doing with his deportation initiative. It takes a vastly more powerful and intrusive government to enforce national borders as tightly as the border socialists want them enforced.

I know, you'll point to the crimes some of those he's deporting have been committing. Aggressive thugs will get no sympathy from me. There's an ethical way to solve this problem without more government: government could stop criminalizing defense and the proper tools with which to defend life, liberty, and property. Government should prioritize property rights against all violators, including government employees doing their jobs.

Acting within your rights can never be a real crime, no matter what legislation is enacted. Government is enthusiastic to treat this like a crime, though. I've known people, personally, who have been punished for defending themselves from those who intended them harm. This rewards bad people and is antisocial.

Respecting liberty always seems too radical to government officials, but it's the only real cure for the problems we face. Anything else will either make things worse or shift the problems to another area. America needs a net increase of liberty, not just a different balance between liberty and tyranny.

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I'm available to test one

If I had the money, I would buy a Cybertruck. 

Yes, I know they are ugly-- to me, that's part of the appeal: the Mad Max factor. 

I also know politically addled stupid people are attacking Cybertrucks around the country. I don't think anyone around here would do so. I think it would be a mistake on their part to mess with anyone's vehicles of any type in this region during daylight, with cameras rolling. I think they would be cured of their stupidity real quick. It could be interesting, though.

I've heard people say Cybertrucks seem cheaply made. Is this real, or just an anti-Elon hoax? I'd say it's likely to be true. But if I had that much money, I would buy one to try anyway.

Mostly, I'm very curious about their durability, with regards to zombie hordes. It seems the opportunity to test them has now presented itself, and they seem to be holding up well, from what I've seen. Plus, the Brandon Herrera modification appeals to me very much.

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Truth is truth regardless of the source

I've gotten to where I believe fewer and fewer alleged quotes by historical figures. Especially the ones that seem the most true and smart. Someone will always inform you that "it's not a real quote-- he never said that", as if this proves something useful.

I also have gotten to the point where it doesn't matter to me whether that individual said that exact thing or not. If it's true and smart, someone either said it or wrote it, because I'm reading it. It doesn't matter to me who that someone was.

Whether it's the alleged quote from a Japanese admiral about the impossibility of invading America because there would be a "rifle behind every blade of grass", which has been fact-checked to death as not a real quote, or Lincoln's quoted warning to not believe everything you read on the internet, which is obviously real.

Truth is truth, wherever it comes from. Wisdom is wise whoever says it. Keep the truth and wisdom; put less weight on where it came from. Because that part doesn't even matter.

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How to be the most wrong

I know people get tired of hearing me say "Politics makes people stupid (and usually evil, too)", but this is a message that is critical to hear.

It's completely true, and the faster you learn it, the faster you can avoid problems. Those caused by others or yourself.

No matter the topic, the people trying the hardest to make it political are invariably the ones who are most incorrect. And they are almost always advocating evil.

So, it you want to have the worst possible take on any subject, or if you want to seem like a supervillain, make it political and you'll be most of the way there.

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More RUDs, please

SpaceX Starship has lots of RUDs ("rapid unscheduled disassembly"). That’s how they learn and build the technology. It's how they get better.

Government needs to experience even more RUDs. If it is to be successful, that’s what DOGE will do- help government RUD.

It is essential for humans to become multiplanetary if the species is to survive. For that to happen, government must be stopped from having the power to keep us trapped on earth. 

I have my issues with Elon Musk, but it’s just as important that government parasites lose their “jobs” to DOGE as it is to rapidly iterate Starship- even if that means lots of RUDs (rockets and government). 

Elon can and should do both.

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Helping Butters (with updates)

I'm heading to the vet with one of my older cats. Butterscotch ("Butters") is having mouth pain and odor. She'll probably need dental surgery. She's 12.5 years old now, so I'm a little worried about her.

If anyone feels led to help with the expense, I would appreciate it. If not, that's fine. 

PayPal.me/dullhawk   or  Venmo

Thanks.

UPDATE: She’s having dental surgery on Thursday. They gave her long lasting antibiotic and steroid shots. Her age makes anesthesia more dangerous, but it’s worth the risk to fix her mouth.

UPDATE 2: She's home and feeling pretty good. She was very happy to see us when we picked her up this afternoon. She had 6 teeth left; 4 of those were removed. She only has her top canines left-- and I kind of wish they'd removed those, too. just to prevent future problems. She has another dose of transdermal pain medication for tomorrow afternoon.

Are statists even conscious?

The aborted insult of "You're just a communist because you don't support my political party", when thrown my way by someone literally talking about "my country" or "our government" while advocating for government power, is too funny for me to feel insulted.

Then they claim I'm wanting Utopia while telling me "we" can only be saved by v*ting for their preferred political criminals.

These people have zero self-awareness.

I had one the other day ask what problems his party had caused in the past 150 years. So I gave him the first example I could think of. He then said it was really the fault of the other party's policies.

So I gave him another example. Again, he blamed the other party and their policies.

So I gave him a third example. He claimed it only became a problem once the other party was in power and started abusing it.

Then he started repeatedly demanding I give him specific examples to back my claims-- studiously pretending I hadn't already given multiple specific examples. And, of course, saying I'm a statist and a communist because if I don't v*te for his party I'm guaranteeing the other party will gain power. 

He can't see that both "sides" work together against the people. This is just how it works.

I told him I've had the exact same conversation with people in his opposition party. Over and over again. And it was no more convincing when they did it. So he called me a communist again.

I muted the conversation at that point. Not playing pigeon chess with him any more.
Zero self awareness whatsoever.

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New prez won't change politics as usual

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for January 26, 2025)

Are you tired of overwrought political drama? Can we stop hyperventilating over the political hysteria of the past and get on with real life again? I hope so, but I've seen an awful lot of panic on social media over the past few days. Some people are coming unhinged and could become dangerous. If you think the world will end-- or has been saved-- because there's a different president, you put too much faith in politicians.

Now that there's a new (or perhaps "recycled" is a better word) president, how are you feeling? Optimistic? Doomed? Wondering "What's a president?"

I'm glad Biden is gone, but now the work to point out the bad things President Trump will do begins. Again.

The only promise Trump made that I cared about was his promise to free political prisoner Ross Ulbricht on "day one". He technically broke the promise but got around to it the second day. Better late than never. Politicians never care about their promises as much as we care about them being kept to the letter.

Whatever else Trump does, I'm grateful he followed through with this one.

As for the rest, I expect politics as usual when it comes to liberty. Politics is easy; liberty is hard for politicians. It goes against their instincts and makes the other government functionaries angry. They'll look for any excuse to avoid respecting liberty. It's why they prefer to use the watered-down word, "freedom".

Some of the things conservatives want from Trump would be a good change for liberty. Others are as disastrous as the things the Biden administration was doing, just in different directions. Authoritarianism of any flavor is always the wrong way to go.

Maybe I'm jaded. Maybe there will be a positive change. I would love to be pleasantly surprised. Whatever happens, we aren't out of the woods. As long as there's a political government designed to violate your liberty, as they all are, and politicians willing to be the ones committing the crime of governing others, there will be work to do.

Protecting liberty-- your freedom to do everything you have a right to do because it violates no one else-- is a never-ending task. It's one no politician is capable of doing. Or willing to do. Defending liberty is something only you and I can do. I intend to do my part; I'm counting on you to do yours.

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What is praiseworthy?

Your “race” is not something to be praised.
Your sex is not something to be praised.

These things are beyond your control, and none is better than any other. Praising (or rewarding) anyone for something like that is dumb.

Also, what you do with your genitalia is not something to be praised, as long as you aren't violating anyone else with what you do.

This brings up what is worthy of praise-- not violating the rights of others. When you don't stand in the way of their liberty. Regardless of the excuse you use, including if you use "race" or sex as your justification. This is usually better than "helping" them.

You can still speak out when you think (or know) they are doing something that will result in them hurting themselves. You can tell them, ridicule them, or beg them. Those things are within your rights, even if they don't like it. You simply have no right to initiate force to stop them. "Force" includes legislation; the threat to kill them with government.

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Thank you to those who ignored the rules

Back when I first began carrying a gun, it wasn’t “legal”, but I had no clue that it wasn’t. I didn’t think to check or ask about that. My boss suggested I get a gun (if I didn’t have one) and start carrying at work. My co-workers all carried. Not one person even brought up government rules.

I’m glad for that.

If I had thought about “legality” I might have hesitated. I might have acted guilty.

As it was, I understood that “concealed” meant "don’t talk about it" as much as it meant don’t flash it to people. So I didn’t. It just became a part of getting dressed and starting my day.

Now the rules have changed, but the ethics of it haven’t. I’ll be forever grateful to the people who encouraged me to begin carrying but didn’t take political criminals’ opinions into account.

It’s how I always try to approach liberty. As I say, “Assume liberty”, don’t assume you’re government property.

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Is there gold in them there vaults?

Is there gold in Fort Knox? If so, is it more than a plating of gold over tungsten bars?

My assumption, for decades, has been that either there's no gold there or any gold within is whatever amount it takes to fool anyone who walks through and looks.

I would have to take a random sample bar, test its weight to volume against real gold, cut it in half to see what's in the middle, and then do the same for other random bars before I would be convinced that there may be actual gold bars in Fort Knox.

Or maybe it holds gold-foil-wrapped chocolate bars.

I would probably never be fully convinced it holds as much gold as the feral government claims. I don't trust government, or anyone acting on behalf of government, to tell the truth. Why would I?

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Choosing which flavor of tyranny to live under

I've lived in a variety of places- places with widely different cultures. (Mostly rural, but still different.) I was okay in all of them, even though I was more comfortable in some than in others.

Personally, speaking only for myself, I am more comfortable in a "conservative" territory than in a "liberal" place. 

This doesn't mean I don't get angry at the stupid anti-liberty nonsense that is imposed in "conservative" places-- I do, and I speak out-- but those things don't generally affect me on a personal level. It's still enemy territory, but it's slightly more tolerable for me.

I don't use Cannabis, I'm not gay. I'm not an immigrant. Legislation that violates the rights of those affected is abhorrent to me, but it doesn't really impact my day-to-day life. I'm lucky in that way.

Oh, and I'm not looking for an abortion, either.

The one thing that makes the biggest difference in my own life is that my natural human right to own and to carry a weapon not be violated. Of course, it is violated everywhere to some extent, but not as badly here, now, as in other places I've lived at other times.

I loved Colorado, but I'm glad I no longer live there. The local sheriff was a flaming turd, but I never had a run-in with him. The bigger issue is that their current anti-gun rules are simply too oppressive. Even guns I bought when I lived there would probably be illegal to buy now. The place where I lived was pretty good about ignoring Denver's bad rules when I lived there, but from what I've heard, even they have drifted far left since. I don't think I could live there anymore, and I'd even be hesitant to visit now (even if I avoid the authoritarian slime pit of Denver). 

Pennsylvanians seemed to love guns, but they also were eager to lick jackboots and prove they were worthy to own them. And the local sheriff once threatened me with arrest if he ever caught me carrying a gun outside my door. Which was illegal for him to do, but I guess he was accustomed to getting away with it.

So I feel more free, and safer in exercising the rights I normally exercise, here than in other places I've lived. Especially now.

I realize that this is only my experience. Others who have different priorities would choose differently. That's okay. As people who value liberty in a world that hates and fears it, we have to figure out what works for us. At least, for now. I look forward to the day when we don't have to choose which flavor of tyranny we can tolerate.

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Don't statists get tired of their cult's failures?

Statists suffer one disappointment after another, and yet they never seem to learn.

Wednesday, after access to my X account was restored ($%@#!!) I watched as statists drooled over the news that the Epstein List would be released.

My thought was that if it did happen, nothing of any consequence would be released. Can't endanger the politically powerful! Plus, anything important would have been erased by now.

Thursday, I watched statists be disappointed that the list wasn't actually released; with great fanfare, they were given a substitute that didn't have any new information. Many of them acted surprised at this development. A few pretended this was what they were waiting for, but they were widely ridiculed for this delusion.

But it's always the same. Statists get their hopes up because they believe professional liars, they have the rug pulled out from under them, then they believe the next set of lies.

It keeps them v*ting. 

This seems like it would be exhausting and difficult to keep believing after all this time.

But, maybe I've been wrong all along and in the time between writing this post and you reading it, the REAL list has been released, without redaction, and all the names are known. I'm not holding my breath, nor does it really matter. Archators are archators, and the flavor of their particular archation isn't terribly important to the calculations.

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"Expanding" rights?

Rights can't be expanded. There is no such thing as "expanding rights".

It's an odd idea I hear from both "sides"; from those who hate natural human rights and want more violations to occur, and from those calling for rights violations to be curtailed and rights to be respected. Both say "... rights are being expanded" but this is complete nonsense.

Rights are rights. They can neither be added to or taken away. They can either be respected or violated.

If the feral government is, for example, forced to stop violating the right to own and to carry weapons, or to scale back the violations, "gun rights" are not being expanded; they are being violated a little less in some specific way. Nothing new is being created.

It's the same for any other right.

If a new "law" says your neighbor has the right to fight back and kill you if you try to kill him in his home, his property rights have not been expanded. It was always within his rights, whether government recognized it or not. 

If a new "law" says you have the right to kill someone because he got within 12" of your property line, your property rights haven't been expanded. A counterfeit rule has been invented that gives you "legal" protection for doing something you had no right to do.

Even if you wear a badge, and instead of stepping "too close" to your property, government said he was ingesting "illegal" substances or owned a weapon they claimed he wasn't allowed to own and sent you to rob and kidnap him.

Rights don't change with the times or the circumstances-- or with who we're referring to. They can't be expanded or abolished. Rights are immutable. Only the beliefs about them change, and those beliefs are often wrong.

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Government not here to help anyone

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for January 19, 2025)

After watching the devastation of Hurricane Helene and now the Los Angeles wildfires, do you understand yet that government isn't there to help you? Do you understand it can't help, and generally makes things worse?

It doesn't take a disaster. Government won't save you from poverty, from health problems, from crime, or from competing governments. It isn't designed to help you; it is designed to hold, and increase, power. You are its annoying pet, or livestock to be sheared or butchered.

Taxes aren't inflicted to fund government. The Federal Reserve can dream up all the funny money government wants. Taxes, including inflation, are imposed to make sure you don't have money available for what you want and need. Taxes are designed to change your behavior and to keep you from being self-sufficient. This way you might come crawling to government, begging for its help. Help you'd be less likely to need if you were able to keep and use your own money.

When government does provide a service, it's a dim shadow of what you would choose for yourself if you had the money.

Just like the wealthy homeowners in California who hired private firefighters to save their homes once they realized the government-provided service wasn't enough. Or those who rigged up their own fire suppression systems instead of relying on government.

There are still people in western North Carolina living in tents, in winter conditions, who thought government was there to help.  Not only is government not helping, but it's blocking those, like the Amish, who want to help. It considers its own rules more important than the lives of the victims. It has even informed its victims that their property tax bills will not be adjusted to reflect their new circumstances.

If you don't yet understand how evil government is, are you waiting until it affects you, personally? Even worse, you may decide "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and become part of the problem by entering government. As well-intentioned as you may be, you can't change the mafia from the inside. Chances are, good people who accept a government job will change more than they change government. If you've paid any attention, you've seen this happen time after time.

A smarter approach is to do what you ought to be doing in spite of government. Find workarounds to help those government is ignoring or mistreating. Be the help government can't be.

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Never trust government

If you don't trust government's actions, even if it seems like you should "in just this one case", you will be proved right eventually.

Distrust of government never fails to be the best choice.

Isn't it odd how it always works out that way?

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Doing the right thing isn't pain-free

I'm seeing an increasing number of posts from people who have lost government "jobs"; "jobs" they seem to believe they are entitled to. Their posts also seem to indicate that they believe I'll be upset over their plight". They believe I'll take their side.

What do they say about people being unable to "read the room"?

I want ALL federal employees to be unemployed-- unless they can find a helpful, productive job in the market rather than a harmful, destructive "job" like the one they've previously held. If they are (or were) a federal employee, I'm going to assume they don't have any useful skills-- it's up to them to prove me wrong. I hope they are able to add to society once they are freed from living off politics. That would benefit us all!

Then, I want all state and local government employees to find themselves in the same situation.

I don't care if it's DOGE or someone else eliminating those "jobs". Just delete them and find more to delete. Keep it going. Bring the chainsaw!

Yes, this will cause problems for the economy. I don't care. I never asked for those "jobs" to be created and filled. Just the opposite. Tolerating government "jobs" was inevitably going to cause problems (beyond those useless and damaging "jobs" being performed) eventually. We might as well deal with it now instead of five years from now.

Doing the right thing is not always pain-free. If you haven't figured this out, you haven't done the right thing enough times yet.

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A righteous trade-off

I would be willing to give up everything government can "give" me in order to free myself (and others) from the theft of liberty and property that government subjects me to.

How about you?

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Don't be boring

Supporting liberty is never boring.

Supporting the political Left or Right gets boring. At least, they bore me. I get tired of listening to those people. There are no surprises-- they are always going to fawn over political "authority". And it's always going to be the authoritarian who they believe is on "their side".

However, supporters of liberty can surprise you. Sometimes they'll see an angle you were missing. It may convince you or it may not, but it will nearly always make you think.

So if you enjoy thinking and being challenged you belong on the side of liberty. It's just more interesting here.

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What are you allowed to think?

We-- probably all of us-- are being trained in how to speak; what words to use so as to not offend the perpetually offended. It's not helpful.

I posted the above comment in reply to Elon Musk saying the Cybertruck is "Apocalypse-Level safe".

My reply was a joke- one I think Musk would have agreed with and appreciated if he had ever seen it (as far as I know he's never seen one of my posts, which seems normal).

That reply got me locked out of X for 7 days. Immediately, as soon as I hit "post". I had even censored myself by replacing the "o"s with zeros to avoid this very problem.
I noticed that when they sent me a copy of the offending tweet it looks like they put "o"s back in.

Now I'm angry that I censored myself at all. Ever.

As Orwell pointed out, you can control what people are able to think by controlling the language. Modern institutions and individuals are becoming so weak and pathetic they "need" to be protected from words that might make people think. Because you know it's not really government/corporations doing this without being pressured by weaklings to do it. You see it everywhere. It's automatic.

I rarely cuss-- I've told those around me that if I start cussing, they'd better start running the other direction. I do say things others find offensive. Pretty often. More offensive than mere cussing, apparently.

And when I say those things, it's often because I think they need to be said. Truth hurts. Censoring truth hurts worse.

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