Association must be voluntary, by mutual consent

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for February 11, 2026)

If you believe the best solution to any problem, real or imagined, is to give government more control, you're off base.

The government-created issue of "immigration" illustrates this perfectly.

Liberty trumps every other concern. Government solutions to "immigration" never enhance liberty but are a direct threat to it. Even if government is doing something you want it to do, and even if you believe the trade-off is worth the cost. Nothing is worth eroding liberty.

The New Mexico government recently barred state and local government-run facilities from contracting with ICE to provide detention centers. Good, bad, misguided, or pointless? This doesn't mean others won't choose to help ICE carry out its rights violations, but New Mexico governments won't be allowed to do so. It's still government doing government stuff.

Government has no business being involved.

As with most things, I expect some localities to ignore the legislation, hoping they'll get support from the federal government.

I'm opposed to concentration camps, whatever you might call them. I'm also opposed to barring people from living where they can make mutually consensual, voluntary agreements with the property owners.

Alternatively, I'm opposed to government participating in human trafficking; importing people from other countries and spending tax money to install them in communities.

Typically, you have people on one side who want government to ignore the Constitution and "control immigration" pitted against people on the other side who want government to import every basket case from every third-world country, and then support them for the rest of their lives on tax money stolen from the productive residents.

I want government out of the game altogether. Live where you want; make it on your own.

If you only want to hire people who were born in America- or in New Mexico- that's your right. Modern legislation might disagree, but if so, it's wrong. Again.

It's the same if you wish to discriminate on any basis for employment, housing, services, or whatever. Forced association is a violation of everyone's rights. If you don't want to be around me, why would I want government to force us together? That wouldn't be good for either of us. All association must be voluntary and by mutual consent. I wouldn't want to eat a cake baked by someone forced to "Bake the cake", to borrow a phrase from another case of forced association.

Government fouls everything it touches, including human interactions. It's never the solution.

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Simple, painless solutions

If you won’t wear a hat, I don’t want to listen to you complain about the sun in your eyes.

It's funny how often that translates into other areas of life, too.

A solution that is simple, costs almost nothing, doesn't take time or effort, doesn't hurt, is safe, and doesn't disrupt your life in any way- but people won't do it just because they don't want to. They don't like the solution. Complaining is more satisfying.

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Being useful or being used

It's interesting to me how many times I find it necessary to remind people that not allowing myself to be controlled is not the same as me controlling the person who wants to control me.

Refusing to be used by you doesn't violate your rights. You have no right to use others.

If you have a mutual understanding that you'll do some specific thing for someone, that's not what I'm talking about when I say "being used". That's just being helpful or useful, voluntarily of your own free will. Consent is the key.

As much as I hate mowing and yard work, I do it for my parents to be helpful. I don't resent it or feel like I am being used. They've done things for me, too.

Being used can create resentment and devalue you. It's akin to slavery. Being useful can make you feel good, even if it's not particularly enjoyable in and of itself.

Government employees don't get this distinction (almost by definition), but many freelancers also don't get it. Governing others is just another way of using others; of controlling them in ways no one has a right to do. It's not exclusive to bureaucrats and other political criminals. 

Refusing to be controlled, in this case, can be a valid form of self-defense. The control freaks won't like it.

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DST compromise

The past week, I have slept more hours, but have been more tired. It's always the same after "Daylight Saving [sic] Time" is imposed.

Just to prove how reasonable I am, I'll occasionally offer a compromise on something I feel strongly about.

Here's my compromise with supporters of DST (Government Wrong Time):

Stop changing the clocks for DST, but affirm and declare that any business that wishes to open and close an hour early, can- without penalty- so its employees can have an extra hour of daylight after work.

Who could possibly object?

It’s exactly the same as "observing" DST, without the lie of changing the clocks.

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The fate of government

You know things are upside down when government does what it wants, and the people have to beg government for permission to exercise their basic human rights. Government acts as though it possesses rights, and people don't.

It's getting worse.

Government counts on it always moving in this direction. That's a dangerous bet to make.

Government, you treat your superiors as the enemy, and they are likely to eventually get the message. And when they do, you're done. You're outnumbered. You may put a lot of stock in your fighter jets, bombs, and tanks, but people operate those tools. People give the orders. People you treat as the enemy as long as you aren't directly pulling their strings. People who have friends and family that you treat as your enemy. People who still depend on society made up of other people.

You can't win this war, even though it looks like you are winning the battles. To govern others is to fail.  To govern others while treating them as your enemy is to beg them to destroy you. Either directly, or by walking away and ignoring your tantrums. You only govern as long as people comply. It's time the people stopped complying; stopped obeying. You've earned this. It's your inevitable fate.

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Fighting to stay wrong

I saw a post where a woman was praising a good guy with a gun for stopping a recent attempted mass shooting.

An anti-gun bigot piped up, demanding she give him "a couple more" examples of this thing he claimed was incredibly rare- a good guy with a gun stopping a mass shooting. 

The original poster asked if he would publicly apologize if she gave him 2 examples.

He came back and said that 2 examples out of "500 mass shooting incidents per year" would be meaningless and would only show how rarely a good guy with a gun stops a mass shooting.
Hey, he was the one who specifically mentioned "a couple"; it's too bad if he suddenly got scared when he realized she could give him that, and more. As others pointed out.

In other words, he admitted he wasn't really interested in facts. He had his agenda, and he was sticking to the script, no matter what.

Other people tore his dishonesty and bad stats apart in the comments, but all he did was buckle down and deny, deflect, and try to move the goalposts (which he also denied doing).

I've watched the same thing happen so many times. They make a demand for evidence, but then change their demand as soon as they realize what they've stepped into. And usually, it's "No, that doesn't count!, It's not a source I trust because it doesn't affirm my beliefs!"

You're not going to argue something out of a position they weren't argued in to. You can't fight an illogical delusion with logic. 

It's funny to watch them fight so hard to stay wrong.

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He did that. He is still doing that.

I hate high gas prices because I can't afford them. I found the Biden "I did that!" gas pump stickers hilarious when Biden's governing incompetence caused gas prices to rise. 

Now, it's Trump's turn to accept the blame (as if politicians will ever do that) for his horrible government policies that have made my local gas prices go up a full dollar- from 2.59 to 3.59- in less than a week.

I was wondering if anyone was making Trump "I did that!" stickers, and yes. Someone is. I was able to find them listed in several places. I'm sad that I haven't seen any on gas pumps. Yet. That's probably due to the local political demographics.

I'm not going to buy any, just like I didn't buy any of the Biden stickers, but I'm glad someone is making them. Recognizing that politicians make our lives worse is the least we can do.

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Rights are identical for everyone

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for February 4, 2026)

There's nothing like a political showdown to help you discover who is on your side, who isn't, and who's been a phony ally all along.

All the people, organizations, companies, and politicians who say "I'm a Second Amendment absolutist, but..." are lying. The Second Amendment doesn't come with any "unless", "except", or "but".

Is the political Left on my side? Absolutely not. They want me to hate myself, they want to steal my money and give it away, and they want to vote away any rights they don't approve of. Just like the political Right wants to violate my right to associate with whoever I choose, to criminalize standing up against kidnappers as long as the kidnappers are said to have "authority" to kidnap, and they want to legislate away any rights they don't approve of.

H.L. Mencken wrote: “The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”

When President Trump said, “You can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with a gun. You can’t do that", he was wrong. No government rule or politician can overturn the Constitution or alter human rights, not even if the Supreme Court agrees.

Trump said those words because he was trying to gloss over a murder committed by a member of his gang. This will only work on those preprogrammed to believe it.

Trying to find loopholes so you can violate natural human rights, or violating human rights without such a loophole, is criminal. Violating rights is what criminals do; it's the definition of "criminal". Criminals excuse and justify each other.

Defending people from those who try to violate their rights can't be a real crime. Criminalizing defense and the proper tools with which to carry it out? That's the crime.

The Second Amendment isn't about who is allowed to carry what, when, or where; it's about prohibiting government from having any role in the conversation.

If you won't stand up for the rights of those you dislike, you don't really believe in rights at all. At best, you believe in privileges- things you can do as long as some government official agrees and gives you temporary permission to do it.

If this is you, at least admit it.

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An unfortunate rite of passage

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, 3 local teenage boys were in a high-speed wreck. A head-on collision with a semi, and a subsequent fire. Two are dead; one is in bad shape, facing possible brain damage, more surgeries, and months of painful recovery (he was thrown clear at the moment of impact). 

The deceased are being identified by forensics- you can probably guess why.

They were coming home from a party, and alcohol was involved.

The crash took place on the birthday of one of the dead teen's younger sisters. She'll never have another birthday without this dark cloud hanging over it.

My daughter knows two of them, including the one who survived. This is a small town- she'd known the dead one since kindergarten. She's pretty upset over the tragedy. I've been doing a lot of listening over the past couple of days. It's rough.

It seems like everyone I know has at least one story of someone they knew being killed in a crash in high school. It's almost like a rite of passage. A terrible one.

It happened when I was in high school. It happened to someone in my daughter's mom's class while she was in high school. Just about everyone has a similar experience.

When I remember the things I did at that age that could have killed me, I'm reminded of how lucky I was. And I wasn't a particularly wild kid or a partier. I just wasn't as smart as I could have been about taking unnecessary risks.

It's just part of being a teenager. Honestly, it's a little amazing that any of us survive to adulthood. Still, you really hate to see it happen. I hurt the most for the parents and other immediate family members.

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Whichever way the wind blows

I've noticed how some people tend to dip in and out of libertarianism. 

They'll be committed statists until things don't go their way in the government realm. Then they'll become libertarian until a politician or a policy gives them hope. That's when they'll hop back out of it and embrace statism again.

Or, someone will be a libertarian until they want a politician to control something they have no right to control, then they'll be a statist until that issue blows over.

This goes back and forth over and over again. It's what happens when someone tries on fashion instead of having principles.

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Socialist- delusional fascists eaten alive with envy

Socialists may just be the most delusional faction of authoritarian fascists.

They always believe only the undeserving rich (apparently everyone with more money than they have) will be forced to give up their money and property. Envy is their entire ideology.

They say they are only calling for "fairness" and "sharing". Sharing means giving someone YOUR property, not the property you've stolen from others.

They say they're only "giving everyone food and healthcare". By forcing others to pay for it.

They believe they are the opposite of fascists. While they act completely fascistic.

One told me to read Marx's "Capital", and when I admitted that I had, I was called a liar, since I said it was nonsense and Marx was wrong. I was told I am too stupid to understand it. I'll admit, I don't remember much of it anymore, because it was too ridiculous and obviously wrong to bother to commit to memory.

I guess I'm just not envious enough to be a socialist. I don't want to steal your stuff or have a gang steal it from you on my behalf. Seems like this is getting to be a rare quality these days.

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Recognize your enemy

Screw Trump.
Screw Israel.
Screw Iran.
Screw all governments, states, and politicians.
Screw statism.
Screw archation.

All of these things are making my life- and yours- less safe and more expensive. 

Gas prices here have increased from $2.59 to $3.19- 60¢, over 23%- in the past week. Largely because political criminals decided they wanted their cannon fodder to fight each other at our expense.

I can't afford these clowns. I'm betting you can't either.

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"Libertarian nationalism"

I keep running into people- well, one person, mostly- promoting the ideology of "libertarian nationalism". Something about that sounds a bit "off".

Just to make sure what was being advocated, I looked up the definition of "nationalism" on Dictionary.com. The most relevant definition was this one:

nationalism
(Cultural)

The strong belief that the interests of a particular nation-state are of primary importance. Also, the belief that a people who share a common language, history, and culture should constitute an independent nation, free of foreign domination.

Interests of "a nation-state"? That's just statism.

There were other definitions, but they all lead to the same place.

I don't buy the idea of non-state statism. I have a hard time imagining how anyone could. Well, there's one way I can imagine it.

I get it, though. Some people crave belonging to what they see as a strong collective. A nation-state can provide comfort to them. They just believe it's possible to have a coercive collective that respects individual rights. I am under no such delusion.

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A cascading disaster

Government is completely out of control.

This is primarily the fault of those who believe government can be limited. They are even more to blame than those who want government to run- and pry into- every aspect of your life.

"Limited government" people are not on the side of liberty; they are not on your side. They are on the side of keeping a little of the cancerous tumor around because they can't imagine life without it.

Expect government to keep growing out of control, at an ever-increasing rate, until it collapses. 

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Bigger government is enemy of liberty

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for January 28, 2026)

There is no "right vs. left"; no "conservative vs. liberal"; no "Republican vs. Democrat". These labels are deliberate distractions- tools used by the true culprit to keep people confused, angry, and divided.

The real conflict has always been simpler and more fundamental: the State against you and your liberty.

Anyone who helps expand the State, either by giving it more wealth, providing an excuse to gain more power, or cheering its growth, is an enemy of individual liberty and human rights.

Here's the reality: Storming churches during worship services to score political points is anything but noble. It violates individuals and plays into the hands of those who want more government power.

Plotting to annex Greenland as a step towards building a global empire is not about protecting America- it’s about concentrating government power.

Neither path serves you as an individual; both serve the State. Yet, this is the false choice we are given. "If you aren't with us, you're against us."

I'm against anyone who tosses liberty aside for any reason.

I'm pro-America. America is not the US federal government, just as you are not the tapeworm in your gut.

If you are in favor of government power, and especially more power over more people or more places, you're not on the right team.

It's the impulse to fight for a Bigger Government to use against everything they hate or anything they fear. It doesn't matter how they justify it, or which side they believe they're on. They are wrong.

The people wearing masks to hide their identity while working for the state, the people disrupting church services as protest theater, the people blocking cars of those who are only trying to go about their business, the people enforcing rules that directly violate life, liberty, or property- such as mandating a "kill switch" on your car- and anyone supporting any of these actions, are not the good guys.

Breaking the law in order to enforce laws is ridiculous and hypocritical.

Saying you're standing up for someone's rights while violating someone else's rights is absurd.

"It's for your safety" is the nastiest lie there is.

Evil succeeds when people stop caring about doing what is right.

I understand why people do these things. I can empathize with them. But understanding and empathy don't equal approval. They are still wrong.

In the choice between more government control and individual liberty, there's no compromise possible.

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The odds were in my favor

I know it's normal for a principled liberty lover to be called a "Democrat" and "MAGA" on the same day, but I recently got called a Leftist and a "sovereign citizen" (by different government supremacists) because of my stance on one topic.

It was because I don't believe governments have any "authority" to require driver's licenses or that cops have the "right" to demand to see them. (People are still free to disagree with me and be wrong...)

I'm pretty sure this double-whammy means I win the Libertarian Hunger Games.

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Does society need to be pushed out of its capitalist mindset?

I saw a video where a guy was talking about the need for post-apocalyptic fiction. He was explaining that it is needed to help push people out of their "capitalist" mindset.

Hmmm. 

I’m thinking he didn’t think this through very well. For one thing, he’s probably confusing corporatism for capitalism- a common error that people with a penchant for socialism make.

Post-apocalypse, you should be even freer to sell your merchandise or take jobs in exchange for pay than you are now. Because we don't have capitalism, but corporatism. Government prevents capitalism.

You’re either doing capitalism, or you’re someone’s slave. You either assert that you own your labor or you're accepting someone else's (imaginary) higher claim to it. TEOTWAWKI won't change that. 

Capitalism is more natural for normal humans than any form of socialism or slavery- although the bad guys have worked very hard, for millennia, to change that.  They've put a lot of effort into building systems to destroy capitalism and replace it with something lesser. A system where they end up being the warlords. They've also spent a lot of time trying to convince people that corporatism is capitalism, and the flaws with corporatism are strikes against capitalism. That's a lie.

Still, slaves always know something isn't right, and they'll yearn to be free- until they are free, in which case some of them will want to be slaves again. As it seems video guy wants.

He's welcome to it. I prefer liberty.

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The real WAR is for your brain

War is the ultimate political act. Politics makes people stupid. War makes people ultra-stupid.

You can tell how brainwashed a person is by how easily they fall for the justification for war- the propaganda.
How they argue over the details, while ignoring what matters.
By which political criminals they rally behind and which ones they condemn. It's a sideshow of politicized freaks.

Statists lust for war.
Statanists lust to hurt those who don’t.

It's OK. Just remember Unfortunate Truth #1 and keep your head above the rising waters of stupidity that threaten to swallow those who are political.

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Trying to complicate simplicity

Liberty.

Libertarianism, aggression, responsibility, Law, counterfeit "laws", ethics, credible threats, evil, etc.

It's not difficult, and if you try to make it difficult... or create straw men... so you can continue to advocate statism, it just makes you look weak and stupid.

The only way you'll not understand, especially once it's explained to you, is if you make an effort to not understand. Many do.

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Civilization or The State?

If you believe it's necessary to violate individual rights to "maintain civilization", you don't understand civilization. 

Whatever this thing is you're maintaining isn't civilized or worth maintaining.

Maybe you're confusing The State for civilization. Many statists do. 

If so, I can understand why you'd believe as you do. It is necessary to violate individual rights to maintain a State. They are coercive by nature and financed by theft- quite uncivilized behaviors.

Many statists are perfectly willing to sacrifice individuals, liberty, civilization, and society to The State. It's where their true loyalty lies. "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State."

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