Starship failure essential to its progress

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for March 12, 2025)

SpaceX's Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket (or flying machine) ever built, lost control and exploded soon after launch last week. Rocket nerds jokingly call this a "rapid unscheduled disassembly"; a RUD. When inventing something as unprecedented as Starship, it's to be expected and shows limits are being pushed.

People who don't understand what's going on called this a "test failure". If there were no explosions, it wouldn't be a rocket test. No test is a failure when it teaches something.

At this point in the test campaign, every new Starship has so many changes from the previous ship flown that it's almost a different vehicle altogether. Plus, the test ships are built with potential flaws on purpose, to see what they can survive. For example, they've even left off some of the heat shield tiles, which are there to protect the ship from the heat of re-entry from orbit, to see if losing a few during launch would doom the ship. The key point is that it is a test ship and will remain so for at least a few years. Every flight will test how far the envelope can be pushed, and to make real progress, many of them won't make it back down in one piece. It's simply how this works.

This doesn't stop people who don't understand-- or want to try to make a bad political point-- from misrepresenting what happened.

I saw commenters on social media mocking SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, telling him he can't even keep his rockets from exploding, so he needs to focus on rocketry and stop dismantling the federal government through The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). These people are wrong on both counts. I can't take anyone seriously if they act as though government accountability and eliminating waste and fraud are bad things.

Either government is chopped or America dies. There's no other alternative.

I have my own criticisms of Elon Musk, but with Starship and DOGE, he's doing the right things. Only ignorance or politics would make someone think (or pretend to think) otherwise.

To change things for the better, you've got to be willing to break something. Maybe everything. Government needs more RUDs, just like Starship does. Maybe it's time to make the "E" in DOGE stand for "Elimination". This would be an improvement those who don't understand rocketry or government would scream about. Which means it's the right thing to do.

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Politics causes the worst behavior

Politics causes people to vandalize cars.
Politics causes people to set fire to houses; to commit arson.
Politics causes people to protest in the Capitol Building.
Politics causes people to hate others.
Politics causes people to murder people.
Politics causes people to kidnap and cage people.
Politics causes people to defend those who do all the above.
Politics causes people to try to justify the inexcusable.

Yet, some people disagree with me that politics makes people stupid, and often evil, too.

The evidence is clear. There's no question, and never has been. Ignore reality if it makes you feel better, but reality doesn't care about feelings.

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Liberty is just "too negative" for slaves to accept

Did you realize telling someone who says it's government's one job to protect the rights of the people, that government's entire history has proven it utterly unwilling and incapable of doing so, is "too negative"?

Me neither.

But to statists, who are emotionally attached to a failed system, it is.

Government, mainly through the govshool version of history, has told them that without government, there will be nothing but chaos and death. So it must be true. Right? Government wouldn't lie to them to protect its own power, would it?

Pointing out that this doesn't have to be the case is "too negative". Showing people that they don't have to be slaves is "too negative". Telling people they have a choice and can choose liberty is "too negative". Trying to break through their Stockholm Syndrome is "too negative". They love Big Brother.

Lying to someone to protect their feelings, especially if they are in danger, isn't being nice. It seems a bit predatory.

Statists seem to think that if you say the government way of doing something is unethical, you're against any other way of doing that thing. No, I'm in favor of looking for a way to do everything that should be done without violating the life, liberty, or property of others. If an ethical solution makes everyone happy (other than archators), then that's what I want. Even if I'm not personally interested in participating.

It doesn't seem like it would be hard to understand that- unless someone has a vested interest in not understanding. Such as the vested interest someone who has their lips superglued to Trump's hiney (or any other politician's body part) might have.

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The fewer the better

The fewer government employees, the better. Zero being the best number of them to have.

The next-best situation, if government is allowed to exist at all, is only one government "employee", even if it's a lone dictator.

What can a dictator do if he has no underlings- government employees- to impose his will on the people? You can't have a police state without police, nor can you have a military state without a military.

Would the lonely dictator be killed, or would he be ignored because he would be irrelevant? 

His Supreme Potentate, General Dick Tater, would be utterly powerless. If he did start to find a way to impose his will on others, he'd either end up with more people helping him for favors, money, or power (more government employees, which is always bad), or he'd be eliminated the minute he became a threat. 

One way leads back to where we keep ending up; the other to a potential for liberty

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A trashy pirate fleet

One super easy and accurate way to know a cop is not on the side of the public (or liberty) is if it drives a car with those stealth markings. 

That shows it is unambiguously part of a theft ring, targeting people who are simply trying to travel around doing their daily business. A pirate, but not the cool kind. Just the trashy kind.

About half of the local cop cars (and sheriff vehicles) are of this type. They aren't the good guys. Neither are those who support them and excuse their crimes.

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"You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy"- MAGA edition

A "conservative" in my sphere started talking about tariffs. He told me that you can avoid the higher prices by only buying American-made products. 

I pointed out that this isn't true.

I told him that if a foreign product goes up in price, it will give the American product room to raise its price as well. If the foreign product goes up by 25%, why wouldn't the American product's price go up by 20% - or by whatever amount keeps it just slightly below the competitor's price? Who wouldn't raise their prices if the competition has to? Tariffs are anticompetition.

He admitted that this may be true, but you can still avoid the higher prices by not buying anything. He said there wasn't anything he needed to buy that much, and he could do without it.

I said, in other words, "You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy"- MAGA edition.

When I quoted Communist Klaus as my only reply, he had no response at all. He was speechless and changed the subject.

This isn't hard to understand, and if you're not brainwashed by Keynesian fake economics you will be able to understand. Otherwise, you probably won't understand.

Appendix:
I openly disagree with Right-statists in this way all the time, because they are all around me, and they can take it. Occasionally, they even admit I'm right.
On the other hand, I don't usually say anything to the Left-statists around me when they are wrong, because they can't handle it. They are too fragile and lose their minds (and shut me out) when challenged on anything. There's no debate.
This is just my experience, based on a small sample size in the few geographical regions where I've lived. Maybe it means something; maybe it doesn't.

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Nice doggy

I'm biased. If you have the chance to bring back an extinct animal, DO IT!

Maybe not if it's an extinct species of louse or flea, but if it's cool and impressive, yes, please! If it's potentially dangerous, that's even better.

I'm more than skeptical of the "de-extincted Dire Wolves". As far as I know, no one knows what Dire Wolves actually looked like, and they weren't closely related to Gray Wolves (and not even technically wolves), so I'm not seeing how they can figure that Gray Wolves are the closest living species to use in the gene manipulation. I think that's just the species they had handy, so they went with it.

I want to be wrong about this (I sure say that a lot!).

Whatever they are, the new wolves are still cool and interesting. 

I'm still waiting for the Woolly mammoth to be brought back. That's first in a long list of things I'd like to see roaming the earth again. And, yeah, that list includes some non-avian dinosaurs.

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Democracy no more than mob rule

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

Has your democracy been lost yet? Has someone stolen it?

Silly questions for a silly era asked of silly people who worship mob rule as long as they are on the majority side. They have no problem ignoring the will of those who disagree with them; they only wring their hands when they end up on the losing side.

America was never supposed to be a democracy. It was set up as a republic, limited in scope by a constitution which defined exactly what government is allowed to do to the population, regardless of what the majority wants. This failed.

Republics, including those defined and limited by a constitution, turn into democracies because people, in overwhelming numbers, want to violate the rights of others and vote themselves goodies paid for with taxes. With no one in power willing to say, "Hey, you can't do that no matter how popular it is because the Constitution doesn't permit it", things go haywire. You end up with a de facto democracy.

Democracies turn into authoritarian tyrannies since the push is to regulate what people are allowed to do a little more with each passing year.

Now we find ourselves in a situation where there isn't any part of our lives that isn't subject to arbitrary and absurd government rules which a majority of voters, or their elected representatives, thought were a good idea. 

Those rules were not good ideas. They were tyranny wrapped in democracy and shoved down our throats because we are outnumbered. As long as people believe they have to keep voting for "their side" no matter how badly it behaves, it will get worse.

Democracy is mob rule. It is "might (through superior numbers) makes 'right'". It means you are prohibited from exercising your rights if the majority of voters and their elected political criminals choose to ignore your rights.

Democracy is a lie. The choices you are allowed to choose between are selected by people who want to rule you and seize your property. Losing democracy wouldn't be the worst thing. It only matters what, if anything, replaces it.

You have a right to govern yourself, as an individual. You have no right to govern even one other person, nor can you elect someone to do something you have no right to do. Doing things you have no right to do is the wrong choice and puts everyone in peril. Choose to do right instead.

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Yes, they v*ted for this

Those who v*ted for Trump are not bothered by the things their opposition believes they should be bothered by.

It's wishful thinking and probably a lot of projection.

The anti-Trumpers are trying hard to push the narrative that there's regret over v*ting for Trump, but I haven't seen it. I suspect all those who they find to express regret are fake. Well, I'm sure there are a few out there, but I think they are rare and are the dumbest of the dumb.

Even the one in my family who lost her nice cushy govjob hasn't turned. This is what they v*ted for, and they knew there would be some pain. Plus, they knew Harris was a disaster, and they knew what Trump was like. They'd seen both in action for years- there were no mysteries either way.

Those looking for regretful Trump v*ters are the same people who watched Biden rotting in real time for well over four years and said he was fine; "sharp as a tack". Very few are willing even now to admit they were wrong or lying.

I don't support politicians, but I'm not shocked by what is happening. And, if I had supported the things Trump had said he would do (or try to do), I wouldn't be angry with him now. It seems odd to believe (or hope) otherwise.

Politicians always believe the answer is More Government- and that's literally never the solution to anything. Not when that government is "Right", "Left", or any other flavor. But if More Government is what they want, as long as it leans somewhat in their general direction, the supporters aren't going to regret v*ting for it. They'll always say the other outcome would have been worse.

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How to make everything worse

Government “solutions” invariably make things worse. Statists will spend a lot of time saying this isn’t true, because… well, mumble-mumble something.

Any real solution requires government to back off; to give up power and control. To be less meddlesome and intrusive. This goes against every instinct statists have. It kills them to even contemplate such horrors.

They believe everything can be solved with extra coercion, theft, authoritarianism, mass murder, and other things government is particularly good at doing. Just listen to them for a couple of minutes and you'll know it's true!

Leaving things alone goes against everything they believe and everything they want. No matter what they say to try to get you on their team.

So they advocate for "taxes", "tariffs", war, "law and order", legislation, borders, policies, interference, rules, rules, and more rules. Along with these barbarities, Left-statists also call for human trafficking, domestic terrorism, vandalism, and murder because they are trying hard to be worse than the rest (and right now, they may be succeeding).

People who understand and value liberty are caught in the middle. The statists can't be bothered to leave us alone.

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Choosing your target

I may be wrong, but I have noticed a pattern that seems to delineate the big difference between the political "Right" and the political "Left":
The "Left" is self-destructive, and the "Right" prefers to destroy others.

The "Left" focuses their hate inward; the "Right" focuses it outward. But it's still hate.

Of course, there's some overlap, some exceptions, and some interpretation involved, I'm just saying it looks that way in general. To me.

Often, the Left's self-destructiveness harms others (how could it not?), and often, the Right's penchant for destroying others ricochets and hurts them (again, what would anyone expect?).

Politics makes people stupid, and usually at least a little bit evil, too.

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A house divided

Living in a country infested with politics is like living in a house with people who hate each other. Even if you're not part of their drama, the others will make sure you're as unhappy as they can make you. You will be in danger.

It's an act of defiance to not play along- if you have the personality to give you that option.
If you have, or can develop, that personality it's an act of self-preservation, too. 

If they won't listen to you and start destroying each other, your primary responsibility is to make sure you come through it. The world will need you and people like you when the smoke clears.

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Under the influence... of politics

I often say politics makes people stupid, and usually a little evil, too. It's not a joke. For politicians, politics makes them evil; regular people are made stupid.

Politics is an intoxicant. In the long term, it poisons the mind as surely as alcohol or other drugs.

There have been people I liked, but who I didn't want to be around when they were drunk or drugged.
Politics is exactly the same. It can turn a decent person into a mean drunk. Into an abuser.

You can often tell by looking when a person is under the influence of a chemical intoxicant.
You can also usually tell by looking if a person is under the influence of politics.

Long-term chemical abuse leaves signs on the face and body.
So does long-term politics abuse. Both are addictive and can destroy you from the inside out.

You're not an addict if you're warning people of the dangers of alcohol or other drugs.
You're not being political when warning people of the dangers of politics.

Believing in political "authority" is just a facet of being under the influence. To molest people for being under the influence while you are under the influence of something just as destructive makes you a bad guy. Cops are hypocrites in more ways than one.

It's your choice to make. You have the right to put chemicals in your body, even if it kills you. If you kill or harm others, including while under the influence, you owe restitution you may not be able to pay.
If, while under the influence of politics, you harm or kill others, you owe restitution. Government may protect you, being a purely political monstrosity that seeks to exempt its abusers from consequences. But you are still in debt. The Universe won't forget or forgive. Whether the people do remains to be seen, but don't bank on it.

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Is it really a right?

I've noticed that when a lot of people mention "rights", they are just telling you how they want to violate you.

"____ rights are human rights". Well, OK, but in that case, there doesn't need to be a modifier. All humans alive have equal and identical rights. If what you're really demanding is an imaginary "right" to do things to other people that you have no right to do, an "extra right" beyond those shared by all, you can jump right off a cliff. And it does seem like this is what they are usually demanding.

Someone asked how to explain the concept that "food is a human right". It isn't, not the way they want it to be. 

Here is how food is a human right: You have the right to grow, harvest, hunt, and prepare your own food. Any government rules that get in the way of this are illegitimate. That includes "hunting licenses" and barring people from foraging and hunting for food on "public" (unowned) land. It includes property codes that demand you grow a grass lawn instead of edible vegetables. It includes property codes that ban you from raising livestock. It includes any rule that prevents you from (or licenses) engaging in trade so you can buy food. Government is the primary criminal preventing access to food.

Here is how food is NOT a human right: You don't have the right to go to a store and demand they give you the specific kind of food you'd prefer, nor to rob someone and use their money to buy food. It's the same as forcing someone to work in the fields and grow crops for you. 

You may not get exactly the kind of food you like. You may be eating "weeds" and sparrows rather than Twinkies and Big Macs. But that's as far as the right to food gets you.

You do have the right to ask for food or money with which to buy food. Again, it may not be exactly what you wanted to eat, but as long as it is food, your right is respected.

A right doesn't obligate anyone to do anything or give you anything. It doesn't entitle someone to anyone else's labor or property. It obligates them to not violate this right, just as you are obligated to not violate their equal and identical right. It's really not that hard, and most people who don't seem to understand don't want to understand or they would understand.

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True libertarians not on the Trump Train

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

I'm disappointed with how many former libertarians are now fans of big government just because Donald Trump is the president. Some have abandoned all pretense of supporting liberty.

If this is all it takes to make someone turn their back on liberty, were they libertarian to begin with? To me, it matters what you do, not what you say you are.

This includes some highly influential "libertarian" social media accounts which now seem to be nothing more than Republicans using "libertarian" in the name.

Some are even spending their time and energy to insult those who haven't tossed principles aside and jumped on the Trump Train. The insults fall flat, but they try.

"Libertarian" has a specific meaning; it means you reject the initiation of force, property rights violations, and fraud as ways of dealing with others; those are things no one has a right to do. Never, under any circumstances. It means you recognize that without liberty, humans are enslaved to some degree. How much slavery is acceptable to you? The correct answer is always "none".

It doesn't mean you hate those in power because the power is being used to violate rights, until you suddenly love those in power when they violate others in a different way.

I get caught in the middle because I neither suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome nor am I a Trump fan. He's just a politician like any other, who happens to be doing some good things no one else has been willing to consider, while doing some bad things which are not better in some way simply because he's the one doing them. He's neither a messiah nor a devil.

If you aren't able to acknowledge the good things someone does while condemning the bad they do, you're not thinking it through. It's the same if all you do is condemn them. Either way, you're jumping on a bandwagon. It's the easier path.

No one should have the power to govern others. It's never a legitimate power. As long as the majority believes in the most dangerous superstition-- political authority-- there will be people taking advantage of their belief and grabbing the reins of power. Everyone who wields this power will get some things right and get other things wrong. These days it's like a superpower to be able to see both sides. It's a superpower that is within your reach. Use this power well.

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Battle scars

I have scars. Some of those scars are from surgeries. Others are from living life. I prefer those I didn't get from scalpels.

I have a scar on my shoulder from a scuffle with an armadillo I had chased down. I have a long scar on my wrist from a cat who suddenly decided she needed to be on the other side of the house immediately and lept from my lap. I had scars from animal bites, but most have faded.

I have many scars on my left hand- because the knife was always in my right hand.
I have scars from getting injured while doing worthwhile things, like building stuff, exploring, and having fun. 

I don't try to hide my scars, not that most would notice them anyway.

These are my battle scars; signs I didn't just sit in a padded room dreaming of what I could be doing instead.

I also have psychological scars, but we won't talk about those.

If I drove a Tesla Cybertruck (or a lesser, pointless Tesla), I wouldn't have it refinished if it got scratched by members of the Mental Illness Drama Club acting out their issues and delusions. 

I would leave the scratched in swastikas, insults, and lines. If it got dents from being rammed with a scooter or kicked, they can stay. If it got set on fire but not destroyed, I would repair just enough to get it functional again, but I'd leave the scars. They are earned.

Those scars would be battle scars in the battle between the Far Left and literally everyone else. They would testify against those who believe it's OK to damage other people's property because the corporate media gave them their marching orders. NPCs carrying out their programming because they can't do otherwise. They are losers of the most useless sort.

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Defending scoundrels

"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." – H.L. Mencken

Once again, it is being hammered into my brain that defending liberty means defending scoundrels and people I don’t like, who are doing things I don't like, but that violate no one's life, liberty, or property.

Then there are those who are violating others, and demand I defend their "right" to do so. That's not going to happen.

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An eventful weekend

Yesterday was my dad's 84th birthday so my son and I took him to the shooting range to try out his new handgun. He has hand-strength issues and I've been trying to help him find something he can actually use. Still not sure we've got it solved, but we had a good time. 

I shot less ammo than I had planned due to working with him; that just means there's less that I need to replace. Gotta keep the stockpile growing.

Today would have been my daughter Cheyenne's 34th birthday (the tenth anniversary of the last birthday she had), so I'm having less of a good time with that.

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Patience...

I'm finding I have less patience with statists than is healthy. It's harder to not show it, too.

That's because-- "Left" or "Right"-- they are in my face more these days. 

Just keep that nasty stuff out of my life; keep your filthy government off me, my family, and my stuff, and we'll be fine.

But, nope. It's simple courtesy and they can't do this. They want to show you how awful they are and all the ways they demand you be violated. Plus, they dream up exciting new ways to violate people when the traditional ways aren't bad enough.

Statism is disgusting, and it is too bold. Imagine wanting to show the world that you're a creep. Wanting to display it in public.

Let them. Not my circus; not my monkeys. But I still have to dodge the flung feces-- even if they are mostly aiming at each other-- and it's getting irritating.

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Cops and all their "extra rights"

I make no secret of the fact that I hate police. One of the things I hate most about that gang is that they believe their "job"-- their badge-- creates "extra rights" for them.

It doesn't.

If you act as though police have "extra rights", you're creating a police state.

Cops walk right past "No guns" signs at the post office without taking off their guns. Yet they would kidnap or murder me if I did so openly. They believe they have "extra rights".

They drive past my house every day-- in a "school zone"-- "speeding", running the stop sign, and looking at their laptop to see if it gives them hints at who to molest. I've watched them stop and rob people for doing less. They believe they have "extra rights".

These are two examples out of dozens. Maybe hundreds.

Cops ignore private property, they lie to entrap people, they value their own life above the lives of anyone they are afraid of and will shoot someone in the back if that person chooses to walk away from them against their orders. Cops are scum.

There is no such thing as an "extra right". Every human alive has equal and identical rights. If anything, their "job" gives them extra responsibility, which means they may have to not exercise some of their rights while on the "job". Their responsibility it to die before they violate anyone's rights.

It astounds me that some people who claim to value liberty drool all over themselves to express their appreciation for police. Is it Stockholm Syndrome or something even worse?

If you believe cops are good guys, or believe you "need" police and can't protect yourself, I don't even know what to say. It's just sad.

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Keep the crook, punish the whistleblower

No, I'm not talking about DOGE. Or Edward Snowden or Julian Assange.

I know of a situation where the manager of a convenience store is incompetent and is doing unethical (and illegal) things to hide his incompetence-- and trying to intimidate the employees into also doing things to help hide the fact he is doing this sort of thing.

The company is aware of the situation, but instead of doing anything about the dishonest bully of a manager, they are transferring the employee who brought his dishonesty and bullying to their attention.

They can't (or won't) touch the bad manager because of his "race". Even though it is hurting the company. Holding him accountable might hurt the company even worse if he complained and cried "racism". 

Which he would do because he's already tried to use this against the employee who refused to do the unethical things he was trying to get her to join in on. She won't do the unethical (and illegal) things he wants her to do because she's "racist", according to him. She's not.

Knowledge of the situation is spreading through the company among the other managers of other locations. Apparently, everyone also understands why this manager is allowed to keep doing what he's doing without losing his position. If anyone takes the fall, it will be the peons under him.

I don't know if the guy is a DEI hire, but DEI or something like it is now keeping him in his job. It's certainly not his job performance.

The business can do what the executives believe is in the company's best interests. Even if others disagree and believe they are shooting themselves in the foot. Time will tell. I hope their blatant racism comes back to bite them. (And, no, the employee who is being transferred hasn't said it's due to racism, even though it clearly is. She only mentioned the "racism" angle when saying he'd thrown that in her face.)

I wouldn't want to work for a company that I know does something like this. I wouldn't want to trade with this company, knowing it keeps managers who are doing things that could potentially give customers food poisoning, just to keep a crooked manager from running to a lawyer, crying "Wa! Wa! Boohoo! I'm a victim of racism!" No, sir; you've been shielded from the consequences of your actions by racism. You're a beneficiary of racism, not its victim.

Racism is usually (these days) political, and politics makes people stupid, and usually a bit evil, too.

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Government – even parts you like – is problem

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

The most dangerous thing about the Trump presidency is its risk of causing some people to regain faith in government. This would be a mistake.

Of course, it's making the opposition lose faith in government. They wanted to be the ones imposing their will for the next four years, and this caught them off guard. It derailed their "progress", progress which others experience as a descent into the Dark Ages.

What I see as progress-- dismantling some of the federal government-- others call corruption. The case could be made that corruption is being rooted out and destroyed. This is also mistaken.

It's not corruption; it's government working exactly as designed. The problem is in the design, not in the implementation and not in the details.

Most people only complain about "corruption" when government isn't doing what they want. Once you understand this is how government works you can stop calling the other side "corrupt" and accept that it all needs to be brought to its knees.

Look at the politicians, government employees, and political addicts who are screeching the loudest about the fraud being exposed. Many of them have dedicated decades to governing you in the most authoritarian ways imaginable, and it has made them rather comfortable. Shutting them down is the right thing to do.

The politicians and programs you dislike aren't the whole story. The parts you like are just as bad.

The military and the Pentagon, border control, and all federal law enforcement must also be slashed along with all foreign aid, DEI, and welfare programs. Otherwise, nothing will matter. These things are a millstone around America's neck, dragging it into the murky depths to oblivion.

If DOGE could delete everything government does which isn't explicitly mandated by the Constitution-- which is nearly everything-- America might be salvageable. If Trump has no courage to do this, he's only kicking the can down the road. America will be doomed, all because some percentage of people believe saving the government from accountability is essential.

I can't afford to keep supporting government; neither can you. It needs to be slashed to the bone, and the bones turned into fertilizer for liberty. It's the only way America will survive in the long run. Political government has always been an existential threat posing as a savior. Now is the time to expose it for what it is: a major part of the problem, not a solution.

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Overlying the reality underneath

There's reality and it is unbothered by the opinions and values of mere humans. Think of it as a transparency on an obsolete overhead projector. Over this reality, each human places a transparency they've drawn that expresses their opinions and values and changes how they see and navigate the reality beneath.

We don't all use the same transparency.

For example, in one corner of the reality diagram, there's the observation "Humans are prone to seek to rule or be ruled". No wishful thinking will change this, but the transparency you place over it affects how you handle it.

Most people-- being statists-- would place a transparency over this that expresses their opinions as to who should rule or how they should rule. Much fighting goes on over different ideas of who should rule and how they should rule. This explains most of the statist infighting.

My transparency would observe that "There is no such thing as a right to archate; everyone has a right to defend themselves from archation". 

No one has the right to rule another, and everyone has the right to refuse to comply-- and resist-- if the rules/rulers are intolerable and violate their natural human rights. Besides overlaying the part that says "Humans are prone to seek to rule or be ruled", that corner of my transparency would also cover "Humans tend to take property from others", "Some humans murder", and so forth. It's really all the same thing, just framed differently. Liberty covers it all.

Statist transparencies automatically lead to arguments and to wars. They lead to theft, kidnapping, murder, and governing. They are deceptive and harmful to humanity. You can acknowledge they exist, but give them no further attention.

This Liberty Transparency is more congruent with the underlying reality and with human nature than the various versions of statist transparencies; there's less conflict and none of the heavy-handed trying to force things to fit.

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Be encouraged

You and I can't be totally protected from the statism of the government supremacists who surround us, but we can do things to make them less relevant. Less dangerous.

The first thing is to not care about their opinions. Remember, they've formed their opinions out of the lies they listen to and tell each other. You don't have to pretend their opinions are valid when they aren't valid.

Yes, they'll base legislation or "extra-legal" attacks aimed at us on their bad opinions, and you can care about that, and take steps to defend your life, liberty, and property from them, but their opinions are not worth fighting. 

If they could be reasoned out of statism, they wouldn't be statists. Statism is absurd and ridiculous; they've been shown the disproofs of the superstition they choose to stick with. They've rejected the truth multiple times because it's not what they want to hear. Their choice. You've got better, more important things to do.

Here's the nice thing: You can be a good, responsible person without their cooperation. It's what's great about the ZAP: it doesn't require the cooperation of the bad guys. It's all you. They can try to argue against it. No dice. They can try to dream up hypothetical exceptions. Wishful thinking. They can try to force you to go along- which means they've lost.

Don't comply if you don't have to. If you're looking down the barrel of their gun, do what you have to, but don't let them think you agree with them in any way when you don't. "Under duress" cheapens their victory, even if they pretend otherwise. And they can't watch you and me all the time. The more they tighten their grip, etc.

You can keep prepping, so as to be an asset and not a burden. Let the statists shirk their responsibility and be a burden if TSHTF. You'd think the lessons of 2020 would have stuck, but it seems like most of them had already forgotten before 2021. You can't teach someone who doesn't want to learn. If it means more of them die because they counted on Daddy Government to save them, well, maybe that increases liberty somewhat. Again, it's a choice they've made. You aren't responsible for them all.

If you're able to gather a few friends who know which way's up, all the better. It helps mentally and emotionally, if nothing else. And other people will always have strengths you lack; you don't have every piece of the puzzle.

Don't be too quick to trust too deeply, though. There will always be snakes in the grass who empower the enemy because of their cowardice, weakness, or ethical shortcomings. Don't rely on them and don't keep them in your circle once they've shown who they are.

I keep suspecting that harder times are coming. It can be depressing if you don't remember that we have strengths that are completely inaccessible to statists. The truth is on our side. 

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Statists' lies

Do statists really believe the lies they listen to and tell? How can they? 

Are they that gullible? Are they brain-damaged? Do they want those things to be true so badly that they choose to believe them?

I don't know. Maybe it's a combination of things. I mean, there are smart statists and dumb statists, so there's bound to be differences in why they wallow in the lies.

It can be amusing to observe statists wallowing in lies and seeing the smarter ones pretending they don't notice.
The scary thing is to think they may not be pretending!

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Whoosh- right over their heads

I try to be helpful, and people would rather complain and stick to their political side. They'll ignore everything you actually say so they can continue to air their hallucinations in the most clueless way possible.

On a post arguing against boys in girls' sports and on girls' teams, I made the suggestion:

"If they divided sports by strength, weight, and ability it would probably still work and be safe for girls. You'd have weak, scrawny boys on the same team with strong, capable girls. Regular guys would just be on teams with other guys."

Immediately I was swarmed by people telling me that males are inherently stronger, even the weak ones. That because of their weight, they'd have an advantage, and boys have more athletic ability, no matter anything else, because they are male.

One even decided this was his chance to embrace the "Televangelists' Deflection" for some bizarre reason.

Everyone was studiously missing the entire point I was making and the words I had written ("strength, weight, and ability") because they just wanted to keep hammering their bad point to death, parroting what they'd been trained to say.

One person did finally catch on. Even after he figured it out, that if you based divisions on "strength, weight, and ability" you'd end up with "girls' teams" again, without using words that toxic people want to quibble over. 

Everyone else just kept wanting to argue that, even with divisions based on "strength, weight, and ability", the boys in a league would be stronger, bigger, weigh more, and have more ability. 

Sigh. So dumb.

And that is the thought that keeps echoing in my mind: Can they really be this dumb?

I suppose it's an Unfortunate Truth. Or two.

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Crazy to care?

Never before have I felt that so few care about liberty; about basic human rights. 

Liberty is under attack from every direction and someone is cheering for every violation, no matter how horrible.

Life, liberty, and property are all in danger, often from "both sides" [sic]. The attacks seem to be ramping up.

It’s crazy. Or is it? 

Is it possible the few who care are the crazy ones?
I don't think so, but I wouldn't, would I?

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No "real world stuff" for her

I mentioned to someone that I had seen videos of a recent tornado in her area. Her response was that she didn't know about it because she doesn't "watch much actual real world stuff". It seems like you might know about a local tornado just by paying a little attention. But, she'd rather not.

If she weren't someone I feel somewhat responsible for, in a convoluted way, I wouldn't care that she lives in a complete fantasy world, hiding from anything real. As it is, I feel bad that there's no way to get through to her. Any attempt is instantly shut down with "I don't care about that".

Which might explain why she believes it's "too easy" to buy and carry a gun because there are "no laws" regulating it, why she's confident she can defeat any attackers with only her keys (while walking in Condition White, listening to headphones blasting angry music), and why she has fallen for all manner of things the w0ke want everyone to believe. Really harmful, ridiculous stuff. Because she doesn't like the real world.

Reality wasn't kind to her. She grew up in an abusive, neglectful home. Spent all her time playing video games and being angry and resentful. She hasn't really grown past that, even though she's nearing 40.

In the past I've tried to get her interested in real world stuff that she might find interesting. She won't even give any of it a try. She'd rather submerge herself in Marvel characters and obsessively collect their Disney merchandise. And watch gruesome, brutal horror movies-- she likes cinematic cruelty. She also dives into her job, which is good, except that she overestimated her competence (and dominance)-- and this is now coming back to bite her. She has run full-speed into painful reality. 

I won't write her off, but I also know I've tried and been rebuffed. People are ultimately responsible for themselves, even if they've had a rough past. Often, caring isn't enough.

I can understand why someone might not like reality. But it's there to affect you whether you pay attention to it or not. And, by not paying attention to it, you're going to get hit harder than if you see it coming and prepare. Or at least duck. But, if you refuse to acknowledge reality, how can you realize this?

Seeing what people online believe makes me think this may be a lot more common than I wish it were. Gird your loins. It's going to get worse before it gets better-- if it ever does.

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More government won't make it smaller

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for February 12, 2025)

If you have an unfriendly neighbor, do you threaten your own family in an attempt to force the neighbor to behave? What if he threatened his family first? If all your friends jumped off a roof, would you jump, too?

What if your threat works and the bad neighbor changes his behavior like you wanted? Most people would still see your behavior as antisocial. Is it different if you're threatening the entire country you rule and we call the threat a tariff? Does this change your act from abuse to a negotiation?

Don't get me wrong: I appreciate Trump's willingness to go beyond what establishment types have been willing to do. I don't trust him, or anyone who sits in a government office, but he is an accomplished disrupter, and government needs to be disrupted.

I'd like to see it all scrapped and the parts scattered to the winds or sold off to the highest bidder to pay for restitution, but I'll take what I can get.

I love the apparent dismantling of some of the worst parts of the federal government, and I keep hoping for much more. I am loving the exposure of USAID's schemes and the meltdowns of those who see their crooked money spigot being turned off.

It's been tolerated far too long. A federal government staying within the limits established by the Constitution wouldn't need much money-- income taxes or tariffs. Even if taxes are constitutional, they are unethical.

My fondest fantasy is for every piece of infrastructure and every record held by the ATF to be run through a woodchipper, the chips burned in a furnace, and its criminal mission disavowed. In addition, every agency or bureau whose function is not explicitly ordered by the Constitution needs to be gone. I don't care if people have gotten accustomed to it and expect it to be there. Burn it.

Once again, the problem is too much government, and it is not a problem that can be solved with more government. We need less, much less.

Maybe this administration can do it. None of the others even attempted to or were willing to say that government is too big and powerful.

Yet, the solution won't be found in Big Government programs like socialist border enforcement or communist tariffs. You aren't the good guy if you threaten your own home to make everyone else in town do what you want. Liberty works; government fails.

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It's the WORST

Government makes me think of "Lesters: America's Cheapest Ammunition". It also "usually" works. From a certain point of view.

When it fails, it fails big.
Although, sometimes the way it works is worse than if it hadn't worked at all.

Government was supposed to protect the rights of the people, yet it became the primary threat to those rights. No freelance serial killer or mass murderer could even come close to government's body count. No cruel slavemaster in history approached the indifferent cruelty of government toward those it acts as though it owns.

Government makes up rules it claims will protect people from criminals, but those rules make people powerless against criminals.

It says it is protecting the environment, but remains the worst despoiler of the natural world that the world has ever seen.

It "protects" private property from crooks by stealing a percentage of our private property- and ALL of our property if we fail to pay the entire amount of the extortion.

It makes up rules to "protect" children; rules which hand them over to their worst enemies to do with as they please.

It "protects" us by making sure there's nothing left to protect.

We would all be better off without this sort of "help".

As with all such examples, a comprehensive list would be endless.

Government is literally the WORST. No one needs it except the criminals who are too cowardly to go freelance.

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Not "Stranded in Space"

No, the astronauts who were scheduled to be on the International Space Station for 8 days, and who are still there over 8 months later, are not being rescued by SpaceX. It makes me wince and cringe every time I hear someone say this.

They were never really stranded or abandoned; their plans changed.

They were rolled into "Crew 9" months ago and are being replaced by "Crew 10"-- to come home soon-- as has been scheduled for months now.

I have very little (if any) respect for NASA and the MIC clods of Boeing. But this "stranded" and "rescued" business is just dumb. 

Now, it's possible there were some off-the-record discussions-- and probably some sneakiness and politics (but I repeat myself)-- but you and I will never hear the truth about all that. None of this is the breaking news it is being framed as.

Nothing new is happening that wasn't planned for and publicly discussed months ago. Only people who don't keep up with such things-- such as the media-- could think otherwise.

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Surrounded by the pod people

It’s painful for me to be around Trumpies and TDS sufferers. Worse, since it seems most people choose to be in one pod or the other, life has become really uncomfortable lately.

In my family, the TDS sufferers have mostly withdrawn into their own pod, probably due to how emboldened the Trumpies in the family have become.

The Trumpies are even trying to "gotcha" me with things that don't apply to me- "straw men". 

I still try to mind my own business. 

DemoCRAPublicans are right when they are right and wrong the rest of the time. It doesn't matter which government-supremacist pod they belong to. When they are on the side of individual rights and liberty, they are on the good side, no matter their other beliefs.

Remind me again why I don't live in a cave in the wilderness. Because this youthful wish of mine keeps looking like it would have been the wiser choice. Even though I would be dead if not for modern medical procedures.

I guess I need to find a wilderness cave to retreat to occasionally. Or dig my own.

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A blustery day, Pooh.

The wild Llano Estacado wind caused me to be without electricity for a bit over seven hours Friday. It gave me a chance to use some of my preps, and I discovered a hole. Literally.

I had some of those methanol food warmers and went to use one to heat some water and discovered they were all dry. No biggie-- I stuffed one with cotton, filled it with 91% rubbing alcohol... and discovered it had a leak in the bottom from a tiny hole. I switched the alcohol-soaked cotton to a second one that was also dry, but didn't seem to have a hole, and got a kettle of water boiling with it in seven and a half minutes. 

Of course, I also discovered that the improvised stand I place over the warmers to set cups or pans on is missing, so I had to make another. No clue where it went since I always keep it with the warmers and candles. It just wasn't there. I suspect that someone else in the house didn't know what it was for and moved it or got rid of it.

Everything else worked as I wanted. It's good to have a "prepper's drill" from time to time. My daughter found out she can survive without electronics-- but she doesn't enjoy it.

I would have been content to have the power stay off a while longer.

During the height of the storm, I ventured forth into the brown, gravelly wind to get the mail and check on my parents-- we also had no cell service. While I was there, a trampoline came over a fence into the alley. It later disappeared without ending up in my parents' yard.

There's plenty of damage around town. I had to chain a neighbor's gate in place before the wind beat it to pieces (it had already destroyed the latch)-- and I notice her shed roof is ripping off. My parents lost a section of rain gutter. I saw a trailer house that was losing its siding, exposing the insulation and studs. And a car port roof that broke apart and fell on the car parked under it. I saw a lot more damage.

I'm hoping I don't have any roof damage. (I'm not seeing any, but it's hard to see with the sand blowing in my eyes.)

The wind is still howling as I write this Friday evening. The house is creaking and the cats are upset- one keeps throwing up and I think it's from nerves. This isn't the worst wind we've gone through here, though.

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The intentional evil of "Swatting"

There's an uptick in attempted murder recently-- particularly the kind of attempted murder they call "Swatting".

I've seen 3 people reporting on X that they've been "swatted" in just the past couple of days. All of them on the "conservative" side.

Since their side is more likely to be licking the jackboots of the cops who do the swatting, it's tempting to say they shouldn't complain. But they do, and I don't blame them a bit. You don't do that to anyone. Not ever.

Calling the cops on someone means you're OK with them being murdered. Whether it's a "Swatting" or a "wellness check". Ignorance or desperation often leads to wellness check tragedies, but intentional evil leads to "Swattings".

Yes, "conservatives" are also doing evil things and encouraging evil policies. They are also sending legislation enforcers after people, risking their lives. Two wrongs don't make a right, and "swatting" someone is evil in the extreme. Politics makes people stupid, and often evil as well.

If you think it's a good idea to "SWAT" someone, it means you know you can't win as long as those on the other side are alive and free to speak. It's an admission of your failure as a human being. It's an admission of the failure of the ideas you espouse. It's the act of embracing evil.

"Swatting" someone-- attempting to have them murdered-- also means they have the right to defend themselves from the credible threat you pose to their life, liberty, and property. If you then reap the consequences of your actions, no one will grieve.

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