Do you agree with me yet that politics makes people stupid? And that by inserting politics into anything, you make that thing political and stupid and anti-science? Or do you need even more evidence? How much evidence will it take if you don't believe me by now?

Things that don't help

Yesterday I wrote about when and why I started carrying concealed and the job that encouraged it. Today I'll tell you about a co-worker from that job who probably wouldn't have been helped by concealed carry.

I had worked with this girl for a couple of years and really liked her. She had nearly died in a car wreck a few years previously, and her face had been completely reconstructed. You'd never know, except for a few insignificant scars. And her jokes about the metal plates in her head.

But she was a bit of a free spirit and got fired when she decided to go to a Grateful Dead concert a state away instead of coming to work after her request for time off had been denied. (This boss was bad about that, even though the store had plenty of employees and one being off for a couple of days wouldn't be a hardship on anyone-- turns out he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's.)

She immediately got hired at another pet shop in town, and later, when that shop decided to start selling aquarium supplies, she asked me if I would be interested. Since they were offering me 50% more pay than I was getting, and my current boss said he couldn't pay me more, I took the job.

After that job kind of fizzled I moved out of state. A year later a co-worker wrote to tell me my friend was dead. Murdered.

After I left she had been hired by a law firm and she started dating a guy who it turned out was a "resident" at the state mental hospital-- with a history of violence against girlfriends-- who would walk away whenever he felt like it. When she discovered this she broke up with him, but he refused to let her go. He was jealous. He said if he couldn't have her, no one could. He stalked her. After he painted threatening messages about her in the parking garage where she worked-- messages including "Lucifer wants your soul"-- her boss helped her get a restraining order. You know how useful those are.

Then one day, only a few blocks from the pet store we had first worked at together, this evil loser pulled up beside her at a red light and shot her in the side of the head.

This is a case where being armed probably wouldn't have saved her life. Yes, you can say she should have been more situationally aware, but who among us is that aware all the time? Even with a known threat lurking it would probably be impossible.

It still hurts to think about what happened to her, after all she'd gone through (which was a lot), to end like that. I still have newspaper clippings and magazine articles that were written in the wake of her death, but I haven't looked at them in years. She's one of the three friends of mine who were shot, and one of the two to die as a result. It's why I have so little sympathy for those who blame guns for innocent deaths, rather than blaming the evil losers who murder, and it's one reason I have no patience for jealousy. 

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I've always considered hunting to be the more ethical way to get meat compared to the slaughterhouse. Putting myself in the place of the animals, I know which I'd prefer.

And so, I began to "carry"

When I was a kid I used to carry either a lever action .22 rifle or a 20 gauge single-shot with me in the woods. When I carried a gun. Carrying those long guns was inconvenient, and usually, when I needed a gun, I didn't have one with me. I always had a knife or two on me, but sometimes a knife is the wrong tool for the job. I once spent a few hours up a tree because I didn't have a gun when I should have.

In my late 20s I got a new job at a pet store in the ritzier part of town, and when they hired me they asked if I had a pistol I could carry, and if not, they strongly suggested I get one and carry it. (And, no, it wasn't "legal" there at that time. The boss mentioned this, while encouraging me to do so, anyway.) They preferred all their employees to carry while on the job. Nice!

But I'd never owned any handgun before. Nor had I ever really handled one. That was an oversight that needed to be fixed.

I went to my favorite gun store and immediately put a used 5-shot .38 SP Charter Arms snub-nosed revolver on layaway, picking it up a few weeks later. $265. 

I've carried every day-- with a few exceptions-- since.

I soon saw why the bosses made the request. The store was in a strip mall, and the Subway* sandwich shop 2 or 3 doors down got robbed at gunpoint twice in the 6 months I had that particular job. Plus, employees had to go out back, after dark, to put trash in the dumpster that was in the shadows. If practical, no one went alone, but it wasn't always practical. It was good to be armed and situationally aware.

It was fun seeing what my coworkers carried. The big boss didn't only carry concealed; when he took the money bag to his car at night, he would stick a huge, heavy-barreled stainless steel revolver in his waistband.

At the other end of the gun spectrum, one co-worker carried a little .25 semi-auto in his back jeans pocket. I wondered about the definition of "concealed" since his pocket had a clear outline of that pistol worn into the demin, a-la the Skoal can ring so many guys of that time sported. 

I moved on from that job, and although I never specifically mentioned to any subsequent boss that I carry, it was always the case that if there was any situation of danger that cropped up-- and they did-- I was placed on the front line. Maybe they knew I was armed, or maybe I was expendable. It doesn't really matter either way to me.

Because I care about you, I want you to be armed at all times. Just in case. That's the loving, civilized position to adopt with regard to my fellow human beings.

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*I wonder if Subways are a popular target for armed robberies. When I lived in Colorado, a couple of armed robbers went down the highway across the state robbing Subways in each town they passed through, including the one across the street from my job. It was about an hour and a half between towns, and by the time anyone realized the pattern, they were finished. I never heard of them being caught.

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Arguments for government work against it

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 26, 2021)

Any argument against the idea of having a free society-- one free of political government-- also works against the idea of having such a government holding society down.

The only reason anyone still tries to make this argument is because crimes are called by different names when they are committed by government employees instead of by the self-employed.

When you pretend criminal acts aren't criminal, you can justify anything.

Theft is called "taxation", "asset forfeiture", or "eminent domain". Kidnapping becomes "arrest" or "sequestering", and slavery is called "conscription". Mass murder becomes "war", while murder on a smaller scale becomes "capital punishment", "collateral damage", or "department policy". Propaganda becomes known as "schooling", "patriotism", or "a government press release", and torture becomes "enhanced interrogation".

The biggest lie of all is when the warlords occupying your land are called "the government"  to hide what they are and to make them sound legitimate. Often, the warlords are dishonestly called "leaders" rather than "politicians" or "rulers". The lie doesn't change what they are.

You wouldn't put up with being treated by self-employed criminals the way politicians treat you. The only reason you turn a blind eye to those who violate you now is because they twist the language to favor themselves.

Most people generally believe government is necessary, or even good, because they've endured thirteen or more years of brainwashing in government-controlled schools. Getting them when they are young and gullible works wonders.

If you won't live peacefully among others without government looking over your shoulder, you aren't really a better person just because it exists. In fact, you could (if you're smart) get a government job so you can get away with the acts you want to commit from a cover of legitimacy. If you can call the theft you commit "taxation", and pretend it is in the victims' interest, you'll probably never face justice. Yet the act remains the same-- taking property which doesn't belong to you, from the rightful owner who would rather not lose it, under threat of violence.

As has been said, anarchy is no guarantee that bad people won't violate the natural rights of others, but government guarantees they will-- and will probably get away with it, too. Their offenses will be ignored or excused because it's all "legal".

If humans were angels, no political government would be necessary, but because they aren't angels, political government is a terrible idea.

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Science, or medical practices?

People trying to manipulate others into going along with a medical procedure by saying "trust the science" are lying.

Medicine isn't the same thing as science. Good medical practices have a solid foundation in science, but the practices inevitably lag behind science. 

And often, the science is unclear or seems to point in different directions so people have to make a guess. They may call those guesses "science", and try to convince you this is what it is, but they are still guesses.

To confuse medical practices with science seems to lead some people to make mistakes. 

I'd rather a doctor be honest with me and help me make informed choices, realizing we may get it wrong, than to lie and claim "science" when it isn't.

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Futurama predicted Covid-19!

People have talked a lot about the times it looked like The Simpsons predicted the future. Maybe that's not the only Matt Groening cartoon to see what's coming.

The Futurama episode "Cold Warriors" may not have exactly predicted Covid-19, but it is an eerily accurate parallel to the whole mess.

The fictional portrayal of the overreaction of the public, the media, and the government-- over a cold virus-- is cartoonishly similar to how things really went. It's almost as though Covid had already happened and this was a parody of past events.

Or, maybe, the writers just understand better than most how humans behave and extrapolate that into different situations so that when a similar situation comes along, humans do what they do and make the writers look psychic. Either way, you can learn a lot from certain cartoons.

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'm against imprisonment, even for murderous cops. I wouldn't want my stolen money ("taxes") going to keep him caged and fed. Let these creeps live among people who know who they are and what they did and see how that goes without the protection of their former gang.

If you confuse police for anything like "public safety", there's no lie too outrageous for you to fall for. You probably think "gun safety" means looking down the barrel while pulling the trigger to make sure the gun isn't loaded. Or tasting the sewage to see if it's safe to drink.

Anti-gun bigots' delusions

 

"Gun control" [sic] is anti-science. It is superstition. It is historical ignorance, technological ignorance, and sociological ignorance. It is racist, sexist, and government-supremacist. It is antisocial. It doesn't make anyone but the bad guys safer. Senile Grampa Joe embodies all of this and more (as has every president before him).

Without lies and ignorance, there is no way to advocate for anti-gun legislation. All justifications evaporate when exposed to reality.

It doesn't matter what guns were around when the Second Amendment was written because the Second Amendment doesn't address kinds of guns, it forbids government legislation or "policy" from touching those guns, The natural human right to own, build, sell, and carry weapons of any type already existed and will remain unchanged regardless of what political criminals do. Rights aren't subject to someone else's opinions, ever.

Maybe you don't have the right to own a nuclear weapon, but neither does any government. Rights, real rights which exist, are individual. Governments-- as collectives-- have no rights, and most definitely never have the "right" to regulate, ration, limit, license, or otherwise violate the actual rights of any individual. Personally, I don't believe it is possible to use nuclear weapons defensively-- there will always be innocents harmed. Thus, I don't think there can be a right to own nuclear weapons.

Neither is it just about deer hunting. Yes, the right to hunt game is important, but so is the right to hunt tyrants and otherwise defend yourself and others-- society-- from archators of every sort. 

I don't act as though anti-gun bigots have a point, because I'm not going to lie for their benefit. They are a danger to the human species and need to be treated as such. Their time is up.

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If you don't have an AR15, you need an AR15. Know how I know that? Because government doesn't want you to have an AR15 (neither do the government-supremacists). I was told, decades ago when I was a young adult, that any time government says you don't need X, you should go out and get X as soon as possible, because that's probably exactly what you need. I might be wrong, though. Maybe an AK-47 or an SKS would be what you need.

I doubt John McAfee killed himself. But if he did, he did it right by saying he never would kill himself and by saying who would be responsible if it looked like he did. Because now, no matter what, it looks like the murderous goons of the US feral government just committed another obvious murder and many people will never be convinced they didn't. Either way, thank you for your service, John.

No, I will not sneak your links into a blog post in exchange for the exact amount of money I have been secretly wishing would suddenly appear. Yes, I will do product reviews on free stuff I am sent to review-- that's no secret-- and I am brutally honest in those reviews; readers get my opinion, warts and all. But being sneaky about it..? No. Even if I were willing, and I'm not, my readers would see through it immediately. So, nope.

The lie that is "equity"

Equity-- "equality of outcome"-- is not only a bad idea, it's impossible. It's a lie. Lives will be ruined and wasted in the doomed attempt to secure it.

Even if the attempt was ethical-- and it isn't-- you can't guarantee everyone will have the same outcome. There are too many factors that can't be controlled-- or even known. 

Not only that, but I don't want the same outcome that someone else might want. Even financially-- I don't want billions of dollars, but I would like to have enough to buy whatever I need or want when I need or want it. Even acknowledging the near impossibility of that circumstance, I feel no need for extra beyond that. Taking away other people's money to bring them down to my level isn't going to improve my life a bit. Probably the opposite would happen.

Plus there are things that matter more to me than money. Guaranteeing that I'll have the same outcome as someone else who values money more than I do isn't going to make me happy. And there's no way to guarantee everyone is equally happy. That's why the pursuit of happiness was mentioned in America's real founding document, not the outcome of happiness.

I don't want the same life anyone else would want.

I don't want government involved in my life the same amount that it seems others do. Again, I don't want your equity, even if you think I'm being cheated out of something,

I expect equality. I already have it, as does everyone else, although it isn't respected by archators.

Equality is better and the only real equality is that every human alive has equal and identical rights. If everyone would simply respect that fact, it would be enough. That they don't just shows why the right to self-defense is essential. Even against a president who declares war on America-- in front of cameras-- maybe without even realizing he did so.

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It's too much fun to handle

This past weekend was a busy one for me. My birthday, my parents' anniversary, the new Holyday of JuneNineteenth, and Father's Day in the space of only 3 days. 

Much socializing-- more than someone like me is comfortable with. But I made it. 

With so much going on, I was forced to choose between all the celebrations, so I skipped JuneNineteeth this year. As I probably will every year since this part of June is already filled to overflowing for me. There's just not enough time. I hope I can be forgiven.

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Get Time's Up flags before they're gone (Expired)

(Expired: See message at the bottom.)

If you want a Time's Up flag, buy one in the next day. The shop is getting taken down if I don't sell 2 before the 23rd-- I lose money if I don't sell 2 per month and I don't have the money to spare if they aren't selling. Maybe everyone who wants one has one. If not, now's the time to jump on it.

Update: If you find yourself wanting a flag in the future, email me. I'm buying a couple to sell, and will probably offer a couple more on eBay.

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My economic confusion

Does everything economic seem really upside-down or backward to you? It does to me. But I'm no economist; I don't even pretend to be.

Still...

The feral government "created", out of nothing, a huge percentage of all the fiat "dollars" that have ever existed just in the last few years. Yet there is no hyperinflation.

The prices of gold and silver seem artificially low. So do the prices of cryptocurrency. Especially considering what seems inevitable with the creation of all those new dollars.

I realize there are financially powerful people who are able to manipulate certain things so they can continue to get richer while you and I don't. Is this all that's happening? What happens when they stop? Will they stop?

Or is it all caused by something else?
Or am I just wrong with my expectations and understanding? 

Is everything upside down, or is it fine? Have we already hit the iceberg but don't realize the ship is taking on water and sinking fast? Or, is there some voodoo that's buoying the ship when there should already be coral growing on the passengers' bones? I don't know. Do you?

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Government should have less control

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 19, 2021)

If you're going to tolerate politicians, and a political government for them to operate in, what should they be allowed to do?

Not much.

Their ability to control anyone should end at government employees. The rest of us shouldn't be touched by their policies and rules.

How would this work? Government can allow its employees to do this or that, or prohibit them from doing these other things-- but anyone not employed by government isn't government's business. If you believe this would make government pointless, welcome to my world.

Beyond this limitation on who it controls, what would I accept government doing? I would accept it acting as an advisor to society, as long as it was funded by donations rather than through taxation.

Here's what I mean.

I've criticized the political Covid-19 overreactions many times, but only because government approached it like a control freak.

I wouldn't have much of an issue with government warning people about a new cold virus spreading; one which seemed to be slightly more dangerous than most. I wouldn't have been bothered if they had made suggestions and recommendations based on what they believed were the best ways to avoid harm. Advice, not rules.

If they wanted to work on a vaccine or an experimental gene therapy to combat the disease, to calm those who were scared of it, I wouldn't stop them.

Once anything becomes a mandate, though, I'm out.

The same goes for fighting crime.

Make recommendations and give information, but don't try to forcibly remake society in a way they imagine would make things better. If your idea has to be forced on society, you've failed.

Prohibition, of every kind, only makes crime worse every time it is tried, whether it is trying to limit access to alcohol, drugs, or guns. If you want to make matters worse, try a new prohibition or double down on one which is already failing to improve the situation.

Other problems require the same approach. Government could still help those in poverty, but any real solution requires staying out of economic matters, not giving handouts. Get government out of the economy and the problem would largely solve itself. Poverty wouldn't go away, but it could shrink to currently unimaginable levels, levels where those who need help could easily get all they need.

This is the kind of government I wouldn't object to very much.

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The word "Juneteenth" sounds ignorant and uneducated. I thought that the first time I heard it and I still do. Like you can't say "June 19th" for some reason? It would embarrass me. Not only that, it memorializes when a president of one country "freed" the slaves in a completely different country, but not in the country he ruled. But any excuse to shut government offices for a day is fine with me.

They had more than enough time

Time's Up for statism. Government-supremacists and other statists have had 5,000 to 10,000 years-- depending on who you talk to-- to get it right. That's plenty long enough if there were anything worthwhile there. But, perfection is always just over the next hill (of corpses). No thanks. Statism is a failure.

Time's Up. It's time to throw it out. That's not bathwater and that's no baby floating in it. Reject politics and embrace liberty.

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Time's also running out for the Time's Up flags being for sale. I need to sell 2 flags in the next week-- by the 23rd-- to keep the site up where they are made and sold. I like having them available, but I can't lose money on it and 2 flags per month is my break-even point.

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