Don't believe government necessary

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for October 7, 2026)

I can understand why so many people believe they need government. Many of them seem unwilling or unable to govern themselves.

Grocery stores are a good example of these bad examples.

I see people and their children walking through the store eating the food. Maybe some of them paid for it, but I doubt most did because I see hidden empty food packages stashed throughout the store. I watched a mom send her kid off to hide a banana peel just a few days ago. Her brother was still eating a banana. It's child abuse to teach your kids to steal.

I see how many people won’t corral their shopping carts, but leave them to block parking spaces.

I see how much trash people toss out of their cars into the parking lot. I’ve watched them do it, intentionally and without any apparent shame. Sure, the food scraps make the scavenging birds happy, but they could do without the wrappers and bags. We all could.

I watch drivers zipping around willy-nilly with no regard for other cars. They damage parked cars and run from their responsibility.

I was there when a large woman got angry that she couldn’t easily squeeze through her car door. She decided the thing to do was to smash her door, over and over, into the side of the adjacent car- where I sat in the passenger seat. She rocked the car with her childishness. Then she noticed me watching and left. Her tantrum accomplished nothing- I got out and checked, and she didn’t even leave a scratch. I hope she felt better.

People like this are the reason the majority believe government is necessary. They're wrong. Government does nothing to prevent this or get restitution from these horrible people. No, it protects bad people from consequences. This is the other reason I think people believe government is essential.

Without government protection, irresponsible people would be on their own, facing those they violate: the property owners they cause harm to with their vandalism, trash, and theft. There are better ways of handling this than relying on a gang funded through theft and obsessed with making sure it faces no consequences of its own.

Those who are the problem don’t want this risk. Can you blame them?

When someone insists that government is necessary so we don’t live with crime, chaos, and destruction, it looks like a delusion or a self-serving lie.

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When the "laws" are wrong...

Perhaps it's time again for the reminder that you have no obligation to comply with any counterfeit "law", but that it's risky to ignore the opinions of the regional political criminals who impose them.

Statists will whine, "Who gets to decide which laws are counterfeit? You?", even when it is clearly spelled out for them. It's not arbitrary like their "laws" are. 

They don't like this because they love government more than they value liberty. And they fear other people more than they love liberty. They really are pathetic specimens. Largely because they don't understand liberty.

Both the Blue Nazis and the Red Nazis consider you a criminal. They always have. You've been "breaking the law" all your life, to the tune of "Three felonies a day". At least. 

You have nothing to lose by embracing your outlawry. It's all their doing. This is their greatest miscalculation.

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See clearly into the politicians' "brains"

A timely reminder:

"Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

"If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

"If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

"What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?"

-- L. Neil Smith

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Gold medal performance

Some days, triggering a statist is worth the minimal work that goes into it. Just to watch them try to justify their superstitions. 

Their mental gymnastics are impressive.

This should be an Olympic event. Statists would control the field.

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That didn't take long

The incoming swarms of governmental anti-gun bigots are already rubbing their hands together and plotting "universal gun registration". 

This is simply their first attack. I suspect they'll expose more of their schemes to disarm you and me over the next few months. Including getting courts to lie and say the Second Amendment doesn't mean what it says (like the previous anti-gun bigots have always done).

You can guarantee this means there will be some very high-profile mass shootings in the coming weeks. It is as predictable as the sun.

I'm concerned.

I'm ashamed to admit that I get more distressed when I am in their crosshairs than when I'm relatively safe for a while. It's very selfish of me. It's not that I don't care when other people's rights are under attack, but it does feel more personal when it's me.

So, stay armed always. Stay alert, especially in crowds. Watch your backtrail.

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A little progress

Yesterday, I spent a while waiting with my dad. We sat in a McDonald’s visiting, and I was also listening to others talking. A couple of guys were there talking politics. I usually do my best to avoid hearing such nonsense, but it couldn't be helped under the circumstances. (My dad isn't mobile enough to easily move for a trivial reason like my comfort.)

Interestingly enough, both of those guys were blaming Trump for the recent election outcome. And both sounded like former fans of his. They were talking about and listing all the things Trump did wrong, which was almost identical to what I've mentioned.

It was strangely refreshing.

Even my dad, who practically begged me to v*te "to keep the communists out", admitted I was right about the reasons Trump and his faction lost so much support.

Karma. Chickens have come home to roost. Trump worked hard to earn the scorn.

I told my dad that at some point you've got to stop rewarding the guy who keeps stabbing you in the back, even if it means someone else is going to stab you in the stomach. (You can defend yourself better if you see it coming.) If you keep choosing to be stabbed, the stabbing will never end. Why should it if there's no cost to being a stabber?

He finally agreed. Somewhat.

It felt like progress. If he weren't so scared, he could be an anarchist. (But that goes for everyone.)

Maybe there's hope. 

I just wish things didn't bode so badly for gun owners. I will be doing what I can to buy the one utilitarian tool I've wanted for a long time, which was unavailable for a few years, but is now up for sale again. At least, for now- I'm not counting on it remaining available for long this time since I think "laws" are likely to change again. Even Texas may go (more) anti-gun. I guess this means I'm selling some Bitcoin even with prices so low. It can't be helped.

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Remember, remember...

Time for the annual ritual.

Watch it again to remember what government is, and how it is to be dealt with.

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Perspective

Today, Democrats are feeling very pleased with themselves, just like Republicans were two years ago. Here’s my warning: If you feel hopeful for your political future, you’re deluding yourself. Political victories are fleeting and never deliver what you hope. Politics all leads to the same place.  

Government is like the climate; each election cycle is like the weather; elections are like a rain dance.

Weather changes. Umbrellas are good for both rain and excessive sun. Stack up.

How much does the political weather really affect your daily life, other than your feelings about things? Yes, the economy gets worse or better for a little while. A different set of self-important goons gets to crow and tell you "How things are and Shall be". New "laws" get passed that may criminalize some of your behavior. 

And? Will you stop doing what's right even if it's "illegal"? Did you in the past? Do you really care that much about the stupid opinions of political criminals? Why?

The next few years may be more dangerous for me personally, since I am nearly everything the Democrats tend to hate. I am a white male who has guns, values individual liberty, and hasn't ever knowingly used incorrect pronouns. And, even though I am not religious, I think (modern) Christianity is better for society than most of the alternatives.

Not that Republicans like me much more. I’m a lot of the things they hate, too. Oh well.

I didn't cause this defeat. Neither did you.

Republicans have only themselves to blame. Well, and Trump.

If I were a v*ter, I would point out a few things. Republicans can't win without libertarians/Libertarians who v*te; the "V*ting libertarians and Libertarians"- the VLs. That's never been more obvious. This is the support they worked so hard to lose. They act as though they are owed this support, even while they do everything possible to alienate it.  This is blowback.

Trump went after the few Republican politicians who were liked by the VLs and got them defeated (because they tried to hold him accountable). He threw his support behind the nastiest swamp creatures in government. Every chance he had to increase liberty, he fumbled. Then doubled down on his error. He broke his good campaign promises and only kept the bad ones. VLs noticed.

He probably still could have fooled a lot of VLs into supporting Republicans if he had kept his campaign promises- or even just refrained from mocking those same promises after he got elected and not targeted those who took the promises seriously. If he had just stayed out of the Middle East, released the Epstein files, and implemented the DOGE cuts. But he ran from that path. VLs noticed, and so did a lot of regular Republicans.

He was never going to win over large numbers of Democrats; the best he could have done was hold onto those v*ters he had already won. But he didn't.

Republicans also nominated the most unlikeable candidates imaginable, expecting v*ters to stay in line just because they weren't Democrats. It didn't work. Why would it?

Was this intentional on Trump's part? He is, and always was, a New York "liberal" Democrat. Maybe this was his sabotage game the whole time. That would be some of the 4D chess we've been hearing he plays.

I watched without comment as influential X users went from supporting nearly everything Trump did to opposing almost everything he did. In only two short years. I noticed the change. He didn't notice? Probably not. He was sheltered from reality, as politicians tend to be. And terribly impressed with himself- although this isn't a trait exclusive to politicians.

In the past couple of days, I've seen Democrats celebrating the end of the Republican Party. Saying Congress and the presidency will "never be Republican again". I remember two years ago when the Republicans were saying the exact same thing about Democrats. That didn't pan out. Political memories are the shortest, and it doesn't take long for political policies, when shoved through enthusiastically, to sour the v*ters on your faction. "Hands off" is always the best policy, but the hardest one for politicians to follow.

I also saw some celebrating that "Woke is back!" Don't count on it. The politicians and activists may believe that's the case, and they'll undoubtedly try to make it so, but I think many of us will never accommodate them again. Never again will we try to be nice about it. Just like the next pandemic or other mass manipulation. No! Will we suffer consequences for that? Probably. But it is what it is. Personally, I've been done with that nonsense for a long time- no matter who it upsets.

When the exciting new policies inevitably make things worse, Democrats will still blame Republicans; just as Republicans habitually blame Democrats. The politicians and influencers never take responsibility for their own disasters.

Interesting times. Again. You never know what will happen. Politics makes people stupid, and usually at least a little bit evil. You're living in it.

No one knows the future. I do predict record-breaking gun sales in the next several months, though. 

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The tough reality

Individuals have the right to destroy themselves. You may think this is a problem. I don't particularly like it, but that doesn't change the fact.

I've often had people angry at me, believing that my saying you have a right to do something means I believe you should do it. This could be seen as me encouraging someone to harm themselves. 

No. I'm not going to tell someone who is considering self-harm that they have a right to harm themselves, even though that's the case.

I face the fact that I don't have the right to control others. I don't have the right to protect people from themselves. I can try to persuade. I can offer alternatives. I might even ridicule that choice if I think that might alter their trajectory. In the end, you probably can't save someone who is determined to take a self-destructive path. The most you might be able to do is to delay it until they grow out of that ideation.

And, if I think it's important enough, I might even do something I have no right to do and physically intervene, hoping they'll forgive me later. But I'll know I was acting outside the lines of what I have a right to do and accept the consequences.

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Avoid the unsafe, dark places

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for September 30, 2026)

The wish to feel safe is natural.

My desire to feel safe is why you won't find me wandering drunk down the middle of the highway on a moonless night. Or any other time. It's smart to adapt your own behavior for the sake of your safety.

What I won't be doing is looking for ways to control you and violate your liberty so I can feel safe. I know violating people's rights won't make me safe. It would also be wrong. And weak.

Government, as the primary violator of rights, can't make you safe. You might feel safe while it violates the rights of others, but this safety is a costly illusion. Government enables police to violate rights without much risk to themselves, on behalf of people who don't feel adequate to deal with difficult situations. I have no respect for such people. Inadequacies are one thing; using them as an excuse to control everyone else is a major character flaw.

Do you feel better when people you're afraid of, doing things they have a right to do but which you don't like, have their rights violated?

If you can only "feel safe" by violating the rights of others, either individually or by asking someone else to do it on your behalf, then you have no right to feel safe. Your feelings have become a threat to everyone around you. Ironically, you have become the greatest danger to the safety of others while pursuing your own feelings of safety, making yourself less safe in the process.

This is like a paranoid dictator who surrounds himself with armed henchmen. Because of how he has treated his subjects in his attempt to gain and keep power over them, he has painted a target on his own back. This rarely ends well for the ruler, or anyone who acts like one. Trying to control others and limit what you allow them to do because you're scared of what they might do if you didn't, is an attempt to rule them. It leads to the same dark place.

If you want to feel safe, alter your own behavior. Change the way you live; take responsibility for yourself. Don't become everyone else's problem by trying to feel safe by denying them the right to do all the things they have a natural human right to do. That's how you feel safe while making yourself much less safe than you'd otherwise be.

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Bad information leads to political opinions

Bad information is everywhere. Political opinions are everywhere. Political opinions are usually based on bad information. 

If bad information leads you to believe inflation is caused by greedy businesses (or billionaires) rather than by government watering down the value of your money (by creating too much of the stuff), you’ll support bad policies based on this erroneous belief. You'll have a stupid political opinion based on bad information.

If the bad information you've been fed makes you hold the political opinion that police protect you from crime, you are less likely to do things that matter for your own protection. You’ll support bad policies that do nothing to fight crime, but limit your options for handling the problem yourself. You'll have a stupid political opinion based on bad information.

Support for government is based on bad information. If you had good information, and listened to it, you'd know government is an unnecessary evil. 

You can't avoid all the bad information. What you can do is install a BS detector in your mind and run all information through it before allowing it to color your opinions. It's hard, but essential. Otherwise, you'll be ruled by stupid political opinions based on the bad information you allowed through. Or invited in.

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It's up to you and me

Is everything hopeless? The dominant cultures around the world have gone insane. Dishonest ideas, presented as normal or "reasonable", are forced on us, and the young and the gullible seem powerless to resist. 

Social media makes the most diseased ideas seem trendy and cool.

Let them be wrong, but you aren't obligated to allow them to violate you with their wrongness. 

People have the right to make mistakes, and you have the right to defend yourself from the consequences of their mistakes- without violating their equal and identical rights. This is what liberty is.

Take care of yourself, because if you are unable to stand against the rising tide of insanity, who could replace you? Do your best to make sure you are okay, no matter what happens around you; no matter what disastrous paths society takes.

Don't allow yourself to be forced to act as though lies are truth. It's dangerous to stand your ground against armies of smug liars with power. Do it anyway. Speak the truth even when it costs you; even when those around you claim you're hurting someone's feelings by speaking the truth. If the truth hurts, it's more important than ever to say it. 

Don't suggest "there ought to be a law"- there are ethical ways of dealing with these lies, and legislation isn't one of them. There are ways which don't involve the other horrific lie: that political government is somehow legitimate in some circumstances. It's not.

People who haven't got a leg to stand on will always seek to make up legislation to force the world to appear to conform to the way they wish it were. Then they'll use those who enforce legislation to get what they want by violating you. Don't be like them. 

Legislation is the low ground; take the high ground. You do you, and let them fall off the cliff if this is what they are determined to do. If you try to save them and they pull you over the edge too, no one is better off. If you can keep someone grounded without following them into oblivion, though, do it, within the limits of what you have a right to do.

No one has the right to prevent you from doing anything which harms no other person nor violates their property. No one has the right to punish you for living in this way. A government job doesn't create this right, nor can a "law". To stand up against the insanity, you're going to need to become comfortable doing and saying things which are unpopular with "the crowd". 

You're reading this, so I have faith in you. You give me hope.

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Daylight Saving Clock

If you're upset that Standard Time has stolen hours of daylight from you, here's a clock custom-made just for you. 

Now the sun will never set before 9 PM, and it always rises at 6 AM!

Daylight Saving Clock

Dark mode

--:--:-- --

Real time: --:--:-- --

Enter postal code and country code

Sunrise/sunset data from sunrise-sunset.org

In search of brass

Here’s an odd request.

Keep an eye out for brass cases in .32-40 Win for me. New or once-fired, preferably.

The preloaded cartridges have become a luxury, and the cases aren't a lot better, but I’d like to have a few more for my old rifle. Both are about as rare as an honest politician.

If you find some (brass, not the politician), let me know where, and I’ll take a look. Everyone is out of stock now, and have been out of stock every time I’ve looked for quite a while.

Your help is appreciated.

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A life of denial

When people object to things I say about taking responsibility for themselves rather than relying on government, I see two main avenues of attack. Either they or a loved one is part of the problem (because of a government job), and they want to defend the job or the person who holds the job so that they aren't seen as a bad guy. They won't reconsider this position until circumstances force them to. I'm not in control of their circumstances, so there's no point in wasting much energy there.

The other category of objectors are those who fear what might happen without government.

They are clinging to government, based on fear and "what ifs". Demonstrating both an overactive imagination with regard to dangers and a lack of imagination with regard to solutions.

A problem with government lies with those who refuse to call a spade a spade, and who continue to excuse people with government jobs.

Almost everyone already follows the libertarian principle that they have no right to attack the innocent and no right to steal, vandalize, or trespass on the property of others (i.e., to archate). The problem occurs because they carve out large exceptions for people calling themselves government. Whether it is theft being called "taxation", or property violations called "codes", wrong acts are imagined to gain a veil of legitimacy if done by certain people under certain conditions.

But nothing can change a wrong act into a right one.

If they believe they need a gang of people, paid by theft- they'll call the gang "police" and the theft "taxation"- to protect the people from thieves, they aren't thinking too clearly. There are many more examples besides this obvious one. But to be scared of what freelance thieves might do in the absence of the official thieves is to live in denial.

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Those aren't migrants

Here's a scary thought for Halloween.

The recent events in France and elsewhere in the "western world" are not an immigration problem. Those aren't migrants out there burning, rioting, raping, and murdering.

Those are low-IQ criminals intentionally imported- trafficked- by criminal governments; both the sending and the receiving governments. The sending governments are not sending their best. Then, the receiving governments forbid the locals, the victims, to do anything to effectively defend themselves and their property from these imported criminals. 

To what purpose? There are a few hypotheses about that.

I suspect that since governments depend on fear, they will do almost anything to create fear. If it requires a plague of chaos and crime- riots, rapes, arson, and murders- to create the fear they need, that's what they'll encourage.

Fearful people often clamor to be governed for "safety". Even though it's government creating the problem, most people can't see this.

In this way, the population might accept the imposition of a police state and even more taxation to handle the problem.

Other hypotheses involve socialist governments importing new v*ters who'll keep choosing or demanding more government, more handouts, and more anti-liberty rules in every election. This also empowers the Rulers.

Whatever the reason, you can guarantee it benefits government, and not the people.

On a tangential note: Historic government buildings- especially beautiful ones- shouldn't be destroyed. They should be exorcised of government, then repurposed as a Museum of Government; a monument to educate visitors about our species' worst (or second-worst) mistake.

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How'd it get so backwards?

Cops misunderstand the assignment.

Their job is to protect the rights of the people, and to die if necessary to do so.

Somehow they've decided their "job" is to shake us down for money, to make us sit down and be quiet and not annoy them, and to do whatever it takes to keep us from having guns. And to murder us if that's what it takes.

Because of this, and more, it's past time to abolish the police.

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That chapter's end

So why no more newspaper columns?

I got "The Call" almost 2 weeks ago. I didn't get fired, and I didn't quit.

The paper's owners in Wyoming called the local publisher/editor and said to eliminate the local opinion columnists; they are choosing to go with nationally syndicated columns instead. It's cheaper for them.

The paper has been cutting expenses as long as I've been writing the columns. Going from a daily to a twice-weekly to a weekly. Getting rid of half the writers (and staff) every couple of years. Every time they did, I thought, "This is it", but they always kept me. Until now.

I rode it out to the end, just one month short of 16 years, and I'm happy with myself for doing so. I'm sadder over this ending than I thought I would be. 

Last year, I went through a rough spell where I dreaded the deadline and trying to come up with a column topic every week. I really wanted to quit writing the column. I just couldn't afford to. (On a related note, if anyone would consider subscribing to this blog, now would be an excellent time to do so because this additional setback puts me in a bind!)

I eventually got over that hump, and things have been going smoothly with the column since then. Until this happened.

The paper's publisher/editor was very apologetic and said he hated to let me go. He said I did exactly what he had hoped I would do. 

He also said they got a lot of emails about my column- mostly negative. He said I was "famous" locally and that the local officials hate me. I told him that if they didn't, I would know I was doing something wrong.

I appreciate that he stuck up for me. I got some of the hate mail he referred to. Some of it was pretty nasty. I got positive emails, too, though. Those took away the sting of the hate mail. Plus, seeing the kind of people who hate me has been like a compliment.

I thanked him for this opportunity. He wished things could be different and said if things change, he'd hire me again. (Things won't change for newspapers.) We parted on good terms, and that's that.

I'll still be posting the previous month's columns in full on Tuesday evening, as I've been doing, until they run out in a month. 

The blog continues.

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Authority- the definitions

One word; two unrelated meanings; confusion intentionally encouraged in order to cause mindless compliance.

Authority- expertise. Not dependent on external factors. Voluntary; tends to lead.

(Political) Authority- entitled, thieving bully with immunity, immunity which can be canceled once a different political faction gains power. Coercive- tends to shove.

See also: The Most Dangerous Superstition and Problems with "authority"

You own your life and property

(My FINAL Eastern New Mexico News column- October 28, 2026)

Those who depend on ruling others to make money, secure their position, or to gain power won't let it go. Respecting your natural human rights isn't in their interest. It's up to you to secure your rights- to assume your liberty in the face of all those who want to rule you...read the rest...

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You read that right. This was my last column for the Eastern New Mexico News. Details here. 

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