A "TruthTeller" tells lies

A liar on Twitter using the facetious handle "LJTruthTeller" didn't like my above meme, which I had sent to California's top political criminal in response to some anti-gun bigotry he'd posted.

The liar said "Your meme is a meme of lies and distortions of the 2nd Amendment. This is the TRUTH about it..." and posted this:

This is what the anti-gun bigots imagine is true? No wonder they keep getting everything wrong.

I would invite anyone with historical literacy and the ability to think rationally and logically to compare what I posted to what they posted and judge which one is honest and which is the lie.

And that's ignoring the fact that the liar skipped right over the truth that rights don't come from documents or governments, but are inborn in individual human beings-- which is shorthand for saying no one has a right to stop you from doing these things.

Again, I am left wondering, are these people really this ignorant or are they simply evil?

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Less government means more liberty

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for January 8, 2023)

You probably hear a lot of complaints about government corruption these days-- especially over these past several years. I don't see any corruption; I see government acting as it was designed to work.

When an institution is built on a foundation of theft, power, and coercion why act surprised when those things happen?

Even the Constitution is at fault, so you can't fix it by "going back" to the Constitution. As abolitionist Lysander Spooner once said, the Constitution “has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case it is unfit to exist.”

No one in politics wants the Constitution followed-- other than the parts they agree with. Modern conservatives want immigration control and modern liberals want "gun control", both of which are violations of the Constitution.

If government employees feel they are entitled to some of your property because taxation has been declared legal, why wouldn't they keep trying to take more? A little legal theft justifies a little more. Why stop at taking your money when they can get your house through eminent domain, your guns through new gun bans, and your car by passing "climate change" regulations? It's not corruption, it's government.

Were you surprised to discover the FBI is a tool of one of the big political parties? When you give a group power they will use it for their benefit. The FBI was never authorized to exist by the Constitution, yet here they are. The same goes for the CIA, the BATFE, and every other alphabet agency used against the liberty of Americans. How could this happen? It may look like corruption, but it's just government being government.

You can't turn poison ivy into a rose by picking off the aphids and dead leaves. You've got to dig it up by the roots. Yet, even a rose has thorns and will need to be dug up when it grows old, too large, and diseased. Keeping an old, twisted tangle of dead branches and thorns around for sentimental reasons isn't wise. Recognize government for what it is and stop imagining corruption when it doesn't work like you wish it would.

Instead of focusing on what you see as corruption, focus on taking away the power of government employees to do anything to people or their liberty. It would be more useful in the long run.

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Defeat the defeatists

I came across what may be the best description I've ever encountered of the control freaks among us in a book I'm reading: 

"...the centralizers, the closet statists, the we-have-no-choice defeatists for whom freedom is a mere trinket to be sacrificed to some 'practical' end."

And he was talking about people in a stateless society!

I'd use the word "liberty" rather than "freedom" in this context, but still, doesn't that just hit the nail on the head?

Some evil loser murders people. "Ban guns!"

Some liars fool lots of people. "Ban their speech!"

"Oh, no! Something bad happened! We need to ban something to make sure it never happens again!"

"We have no choice! We must act! For the children!" 

Yes, they are defeatists. They don't feel like arming the potential victims. They don't think they are able to counter lies with truth. The bad things didn't defeat them-- they surrendered without even trying. They want the state to save them from whatever they feel powerless against.

Liberty for these people only matters if it seems safe enough. If it aligns with what they want people free to do. The moment the dangers of reality rear their head they want liberty smashed "just a little". It's not that important to them; it's a mere trinket to be admired as long as it is comfortable. 

That's evil.

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UFO invasion

It's a lie. Why are governments lying about this, now?

These UFOs being shot down are only UFOs because political criminals are keeping their identities secret. You know they know what they are. They just don't want you to know-- they want the story to stay alive.

They haven't claimed they are alien craft, but it seems like they'd like for people to make that assumption. And see the military that shoots them down as fearfully powerful.

If they were alien craft (spacetime craft, dimensional craft, etc.), Earth military craft wouldn't be successfully shooting them down unless they wanted to be shot down. Decoys? Toys? Anything with technology that advanced probably wouldn't even need to fight back-- just let the pursuing craft destroy themselves while trying to take them down. It wouldn't even be a contest.

These UFOs are probably a big nothing. Just ordinary Earth hardware (or trash). Maybe from the Chinese government gang-- maybe from the US or some other criminal government gang. That's if they even exist at all. So why are they being focused on? What are governments wanting to distract you from?

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Cops and guns

Guns aren't a problem. The problem is bad guys with guns. A cop is a bad guy with a gun. A public nuisance. A threat to you.

In fact, you can forget about guns altogether. Bad guys are a problem. Guns are an effective way to handle bad guys, whether the bad guys have guns or not. No decent person will ever do anything to stand between good people and their guns. If someone is trying to make it harder for anyone to own and to carry guns, no matter their justification, they are not a good person. Any rule aimed at making it harder for bad guys to get a gun will affect good guys more. Good guys have a silly desire to obey even unethical rules; bad guys don't.

When anti-gun bigots go on and on about "kids and guns" not going together, they are focusing on the wrong people. Cops and guns don't go together. Cops aren't going to give up their guns, so the rest of us don't dare give up ours.

Kids and guns need to go together a lot more than they are encouraged to do so in today's society.

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Hope you can make best of new year

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for December 28, 2022)

As seems to happen more and more frequently, the curtain is dropping on yet another year. Rather than looking back at the year as it winds down, I want to look ahead without trying to predict anything.

I don't know if the past year was a good one for you, but I hope it was. Either way, you've about made it through. This is no finish line; only a checkpoint. The good news is, you're still here and you're still going forward.

If you want this next year to be an even better year, you've got to make it better yourself. Don't ask politicians to do it for you. Life is homemade.

Your own choices always make a big difference in how your life goes. Even when things happen outside your control, how you respond is up to you. It will make all the difference in how you feel about life. If you respond like someone who has some power over your life you'll do better than someone who sees themself as a powerless victim of circumstances.

Just recognizing that you are in control of your responses gives you some power over your circumstances. Seeing yourself as a pawn isn't a good feeling. What will a pawn do to make his life better? Waiting for someone else to rescue you will usually end in disappointment, and may mean you've waited too late to help yourself as the problem grows bigger.

Which do you think would be better: a world where everyone is waiting for someone else to rescue them, or a world where everyone does what they can to solve their own problems? Which world has more people able to help others?

If a dragon approaches and corners you, you can cry for help, or you can pull your sword and stand your ground. I know which one feels healthier. It's OK to ask for help, too. Maybe someone else will show up to stand beside you, but pull your sword first, then yell. Make this the year you refuse to be an easy snack.

I don't know what the next year holds, but whether the circumstances are good or bad, make sure you do what you can to make it the best it can be, whatever comes at you. At the very least, don't do things to make life worse. I hope you're able to face down the dragons, too.

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Update of updates, cat and human

Whiskers waiting for my daughter to come out of her room.
He doesn't realize she's not home.

I'll try to make this the last personal post for a while. Here's hoping nothing else crops up!

Whiskers the cat is doing better. He didn't have an intestinal blockage or a urinary blockage. Just a fever and signs of infection. That's concerning, since without a reason it brings up questions. I'll keep those to myself instead of worrying my daughter.

But he's on antibiotics and pain medication and got anti-nausea meds at the vet's office. He's back to acting normal again. Happy and loving. Not thrilled about the pill he's getting every 12 hours, though. I'm hoping he doesn't catch on to the schedule and start hiding when it's time for meds.

As for me, I'm still improving. Still coughing up whatever ended up in my lungs, but at least my throat is largely healed. It's a little sensitive, but it no longer hurts. Wednesday evening, I couldn't imagine the shredded remains of my throat ever feeling OK again. Even though I knew such tissues usually heal fairly quickly. Plus, I was just sure I would end up in the hospital with pneumonia. So far, so good.

So far I'm 50/50 at having rough complications after these procedures. I guess that could be worse.

But I also have the surgery hanging over my head, which really bothers me. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I now have a tattoo...inside my colon to mark the polyp so the surgeon will know which part to remove. I guess that makes it a temporary tattoo. In the long run, they are all temporary.

My daughter and her mom have headed off to the comic-con without me. Which is fine with me. I really still needed some time to recover. And now I'm on cat-medicating duty, giving Whiskers his antibiotics twice a day (at the same time I'm taking my antibiotics) and his pain medication once a day. They aren't staying two nights as originally planned, though. They were able to cancel Sunday night's reservation. My daughter is a little disappointed about that, but the cat is important enough to her that she was willing to give up something to make sure he got to the vet. They couldn't get a refund on tonight's hotel reservation or on the comic-con ticket anyway, so they might as well use them.

I borrowed the money for the vet visit, and I now have about enough donations to pay that back, so I thank all those who donated for their help.

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Cat emergency

We have a cat medical emergency and are on our way to the vet. Whiskers seems to have an intestinal blockage. If anyone can donate toward this, my daughter (and I) would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. Use this link for donating.

I feel awful even asking but I don’t have a choice.

Update, updated

That didn’t go as well as it could have. Still not cancer, but surgery will be necessary. In 6 months or so. Plus, there were some complications that are really kicking my rear. I still may end up in the hospital. 

Don’t expect anything from me for a few days. I sent in my newspaper column this morning before I left for the procedure, so watch for that on Sunday. I’ll post it if I can, if not you should be score able to find the link using older columns. I‘ll post before that if I’m up to it. 

Exercise your liberty, my outlaws. I love you guys.

Update 2-10: I'm still alive and feeling better. Not there yet, but in a day or two... 

The doctor scheduled my colonoscopy as his last of the day so he could take his time. And he took a lot longer than usual. He was disappointed that he wasn't able to get it all and apologized for that. Anyway, during the procedure, I developed some sinus drainage that filled my throat (pharynx, I suppose) and they had to suction it out. My pharynx was torn up and was pure agony-- especially after the effects of the anesthesia wore off. The doctor was concerned that I may have aspirated some, and I think I did. In that case, he prescribed antibiotics but with the condition of my throat I couldn't swallow anything bigger than a water molecule, so I had to ask for the prescription in liquid form. Thank goodness texting is a thing because I had no voice at all from about an hour after the procedure until Thursday morning. I napped a lot yesterday and never got dressed. I'm still coughing up a lot of gunk from my lungs but they are clearing up somewhat. And I actually slept fairly well last night. So, I'm doing better. Not looking forward to the surgery, though.

My daughter has a comic-con scheduled for this weekend-- back in the same town I was just in. I am not up to it, but she's already paid for her ticket and made plans long before the colonoscopy was scheduled. All I want is to stay home and rest. If I can, I may buy a box of ammo while in the Big City since that's kind of a tradition when I can afford it-- and that would give me something to look forward to.

Posting from my phone isn't ideal. Auto-incorrect inserts strange word choices and the phone interface generally makes everything harder, but I wasn't going to get out of my chair to get the laptop Wednesday night, so you got what you got. I've edited the original post now.

I'll try to have something scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Here goes...

This is it. The next 24 hours are going to be monumentally unpleasant and stressful for me. As this posts, I am taking my first gag-inducing dose of intestinal drano. The "fun" begins.

The doctor has changed plans somewhat-- he's not scheduling a surgery for tomorrow "just in case", anymore. I'm going to ask why he changed his mind (if I remember to ask), since this means I'll have to go through all this again if surgery is necessary-- and that doesn't make me happy at all.

This is also likely to be a financial disaster, even with insurance. Due to deductibles and whatnot. And who knows what insurance-related nightmares I'll have to wade through before they even go through with the procedure. The thought makes me sick, especially with recent experiences in that regard.

Keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

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"Rights aren't real"

In any conversation about rights, someone will always pop in with "Rights aren't real".

And they're correct.

When you say someone "has a right" what you're really saying is that others have no right to do something to that person.

There is no right to murder, to rape, to kidnap, to tax/steal, to trespass, to ban or regulate anything, or to govern others. However you wish to express this is fine.

Saying "You have a right to..." is just shorthand for saying "no one has the right to" do something to you. Some people get twitchy over shorthand. It doesn't make it incorrect.

You have the right to free speech (and "reee speech") because no one has any right to shut you up. No one has the right to archate in any way, for any reason. The imagined right to do so-- as an individual or a corporation/government-- is not real. It doesn't depend on the target having any rights whatsoever.

As long as those who say "Rights aren't real" understand this, they are correct. 

If they imagine rights aren't real because someone somehow "has a right" (that can't exist) to do something to other people, then they are being hilariously inconsistent and wrong. 

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"Listen, Little Ogg, the Stone Age is ending next week..."

If the world had advanced from the Stone Age to what we live in today in five years, what advice could you give a Stone Age youth, if you were his parent, to prepare him to live in 2023? 

I’m not talking about a situation similar to someone living isolated deep in the Amazon today who could possibly know of the modern world out there somewhere, but a parent living in the actual Stone Age, trying to prepare their kids for a world that doesn’t yet exist. A world they can’t possibly imagine.

I suspect that may be the human situation today. 

In that case, the best education you can give your kids is how to be adaptable. Anything else will be obsolete before it is used.

This is almost the case with everything I was taught as a youngster. It's only going to get more true.

It’s possible that the next few years will bring changes we can’t even imagine. If so, how can you be ready? How can you help young people be ready? What you would consider a good education might be worse than useless. It's something to at least consider.

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Shoot all balloons on sight!... no, don't do that

Next time I see a weather balloon, which happens once a decade or so, I'm going to assume it's a Chinese spy balloon. That seems a lot more fun than a boring old weather balloon out of Roswell or wherever ours originate from.

When I first heard about the one over Montana I thought "Seriously? No one in Montana has shot it down yet?" Then I heard that it was like a weather balloon and realized it would be out of range. 

I'd be willing to bet someone has shot at it already, though. Especially after the news came out that it was a Chinese spy balloon (not that this means that's what it really is-- I just wouldn't want to be flying in a balloon right now).

I saw someone asking who had "Chinese spy balloon" on their 2023 Bingo card. I didn't. 

I also saw someone else wondering why "our" government wasn't doing something to protect us from a spy balloon sent by "our existential enemy". But I thought it was sent by the Chinese government, not the US government. Maybe someone is confused about which government poses the greater threat to average Americans. It might be me, but I don't think so.

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Government and drugs

There's only one thing government can do about "the drug problem": Turn loose and go away. Release it and leave.

Letting government keep its fingers in the issue only makes it worse. There is no government solution and there never will be.

Don't add socialism or legislation and punishment-- which is what all government supremacists propose every time.

Handing out free drugs or needles is socialism. That's not going to help anything. You get more of what you subsidize. You have to steal money from people to pay for anything "free". You're making things worse.

Harsher legislation or more draconian punishment is just evil. And it doesn't work anyway. Prisons are funded with stolen ("tax") money. Even the pretense that prison is to protect you/society is a lie. You're making things worse.

I'm not talking about "legalization"; I mean stop letting government say or do anything about drugs. Any and all drugs.

Respecting the defense of person and property from any archator using any excuse-- drugs or "authority"-- would go a long way toward making the problems associated with drug abuse go away, too. This is something else government needs to release and leave.

Government is always the wrong tool. Trying to fix anything with government is barking up the wrong tree at an imaginary squirrel.

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It's the ideas that matter

It's interesting to me when I see someone getting attention for saying something I said on this blog earlier. Sometimes a year or two earlier. But it never really caught on when I said it.

I guess there's something to be said for saying something at the right time rather than too early or too late.

I have this experience a few times a year now. I doubt they ever saw what I wrote. But, even if they did, and it got into their head, I probably got the idea from somewhere else, too. There are very few original thoughts that haven't been thought of multiple times by multiple people. 

Great minds think alike. Great ideas make themselves be thought.

I don't care where the ideas come from. If they are good, I want them to spread. Even if I truly were the first person in human history to ever have the thought, if it's good it doesn't matter if I get credit, as long as it spreads. Right?

That's why I don't care if you copy and paste anything I write and claim an idea as your own. If you think it needs to have a life of its own, that's what matters. Some ideas would do better separated from me-- I'm not everyone's cup of tea. Hard to believe, I know! But it's true.

I'm not going to get rich off of any of my ideas. If they are useful and can increase liberty, that's the main thing. If someone else can get rich off my ideas (not that I believe it would happen), I might wish I got a cut, too, but liberty matters more. Liberty is more important than I am. Liberty > life.

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Censorship only drives evil into shadows

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for December 21, 2022)

I've realized most people don't understand freedom of speech. Not even experts.

Having freedom of speech doesn't mean you can force anyone to listen. It doesn't mean you'll escape consequences of your words. It doesn't mean anyone-- other than government-- is obligated to let you speak.

Of course, I believe corporations are an arm of government due to the cozy arrangements they share. Government puts pressure-- with implied threats of retaliation-- on corporations to ban speech government doesn't want allowed. This violates the First Amendment, which applies to what government is allowed to do.

Free speech means you have a right to falsely shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater-- politically motivated "expert" opinions aside. No one has the authority-- or the practical ability-- to keep you from shouting before you do. Government is even prohibited by the First Amendment from silencing you for "public safety".

There will be consequences, though.

You should be held accountable for any harm your speech causes. Either through some legal system shenanigans afterward or by someone present who sees the harm you are causing and acts to stop it. If someone needs to act to protect innocents from you, you have no one to blame but yourself when this turns out badly for you.

Choosing to ignore someone doesn't violate their freedom of speech in any way. I saw people get angry and cry "hypocrisy" after Elon Musk's Twitter purchase when he personally blocked them. Don't confuse someone's right to not listen to you for violating your right to speak. These are not the same. You have the right to stink, and people have the right to hold their nose in your presence.

I disagree with him banning accounts from Twitter, though. For anything. The other side of freedom of speech is the freedom to hear it. I understand the desire and the legal pressure to ban some accounts, but it still isn't the right thing to do. No one is right, or wrong, all the time.

I would always prefer to let nasty, dangerous people speak freely. I want them to feel free to expose who they really are so we'll know. This is how we can be ready to defend ourselves from them. Censoring them only drives their evil into the shadows where it can fester and grow, unexposed to the light of truth. Bad speech should be countered, not censored.

This is why I am a free-speech absolutist.

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Comply or die... Oops, I meant "and die"

Almost everyone will tell you that to reduce your chances of being murdered by a cop, obey cops quickly and completely. (Which is sometimes impossible, given the conflicting or physically impossible orders they are unintelligibly barking).

Some will tell you this, as a matter of fact, to try to keep you alive when bad guys unfortunately have the upper hand. As cops nearly always do.

A second type will tell you this as part of a dishonest narrative that cops are good guys who are just doing their job of keeping you safe, so you owe them your respect and immediate compliance.

Both admit that cops can and will kill you. This is objectively true and saying otherwise makes you look like an idiot who lives in a rotten log.

The second type is telling you a partial truth, but is letting you know he's your enemy.

This type will sometimes admit, when pressed, that immediate compliance is no guarantee because cops murder (innocent) people all the time, even when they are doing their best to comply fast enough to keep the cop from getting scared. Mistakes are made, but it's still the victim's fault because the other guy is a cop!

There's one long-time "expert" in the gun community and in gun magazines who will always take this second path-- or always did back when I paid any attention to him. He would tell you to comply (and how your compliance should be choreographed) and let the court sort it out later. (Or let your estate sort it out if the cops murder you anyway. But I doubt he would ever admit that as a possibility). 

He was always so over-the-top copsucking that I haven't paid him any attention in more than a decade-- maybe a couple of decades now. I just saw him pop up in a suggested video on YouTube. No, I'm not going to watch any video he's in. His pro-cop attitude (he's a cop or former cop) destroyed his credibility with me long, long ago. Now I hate even seeing his face.

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Business + government = failure

When you mix business with government, you don't improve either one.

Around mid-December, our town's contract with a garbage collection company ran out. The company that has had the contract for decades lost the bid. So before the end of December, they started hauling off the dumpsters around town.

The new company wasn't supposed to start collecting trash until mid-January.

So, we were without any trash collection for 2 weeks. The new company did put a large bin on the town's lot (where the water towers and other town utilities are) for people to use. I stashed my trash in my shed.

When we finally got a new dumpster, after being without one for over 2 weeks, instead of placing it in the ugly scar where the old one had sat for decades, they carefully placed it underneath the guy-wires of a utility pole, about a dozen or so feet away. Where, conveniently, the truck can't lift and dump the dumpster without hitting the wires. So they don't.

Total incompetence.

This means, we have a dumpster, but it is overflowing and hasn't been dumped since it was placed there. The others down the alley have been dumped twice. I'm using them, but my irresponsible neighbors will just keep piling trash on top of the dumpster. I know because it's what they always do. Often, they don't even bother to bag it. Then it falls off/out and no one will pick it up if I don't. Including the dirty toilet paper they dump loose in-- or on-- the dumpster. (OK, maybe you can't flush it for some reason, but put it in a tied bag!)

Back when I lived in a different state there was no monopoly on trash collection. I hired my own trash collector. If they missed my house, I could call and they'd come back and get it, and they'd apologize.

With this company only answering to the town government, they don't care. The government doesn't care. Yet, we are still forced to keep paying the fee for the service we aren't getting-- for more than a month now.

Yeah, I'm irritated over it. If I were this incompetent I'd have to pay a price.

UPDATE 1-31-2023: They moved it late this morning and used a backhoe to press down the trash so it didn't stick up. I guess enough people complained. It was the town that moved it, not the trash collector-- I'm sure they weren't going to travel 90 miles one-way to move a dumpster. I also think it was the town which placed the dumpster in the wrong spot to begin with. I had tried to walk the dumpster out from under the guy-wires the first time it got skipped, but it was too heavy to budge. Couldn't even rock it.

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Empathy

I have loads of empathy for some people-- victims, for example-- and zero empathy for other people-- thieves and aggressors, for example.

I have conditional empathy for others-- such as addicts.

If you started down a path you knew would likely lead to a particular destination, my empathy is shallow. I probably don’t want bad things to happen to you, but I’m going to balance that with “You knew where this was going”.

That's part of the reason I don't support prohibition. I don't want to harm everyone by trying to protect someone from themselves. I know that there's probably no one who decides to become addicted, but they knew the chance was there when they took their first dose. 

I'll save most of my empathy for those who didn't choose to start down the path they find themselves on.

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"Government should ban..."

Government should never be allowed to have the power to ban anything.

ANYTHING.

Nor to control or regulate anything.

Yes, there are things that probably shouldn't exist. There are things you should not allow in your life. There are things that can hurt or even kill you. 

Government power is one of those things. Probably the worst one among many. But government won't ban government power-- it would only ban lesser dangers.

It is your right and responsibility to ban things from your own life if you think you need to. Not from other people's lives; not as an individual nor through political action.

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