How could this have been prevented?

Friday afternoon, the bodies of two women were found in a park I like to visit. One had been shot, the other's cause of death hasn't been released. A 5-year-old girl with serious injuries was found with them. Differing reports say the child might have been shot, beaten, or hit with a car. (They are now saying she was shot.) Also, her 10-month-old half-sister is missing. I'm hoping her body isn't in the nearby pond.

It might be unfair, but in cases like this, my first thought is always that they were probably involved in some activity, or with some individual, that led to this tragic outcome.

So far, in no local case I'm aware of, has this assumption proved to be wrong.

No, I'm not blaming the victims. I'm facing reality. They didn't deserve this, but their own choices might have played a part in it. In fact, it is almost guaranteed.

There have been times in my life when I knew I was around someone who wasn't good for me to be around, or when I found myself in social situations I knew could be dangerous for me. I usually got out of there quickly. Usually.

You can do a lot to increase your safety by staying away from certain people and situations. It's no guarantee, but it gives you better odds. 

It might have also helped had the women been adequately armed (which includes knowing how to use the arms). It certainly couldn't have made things worse for them, considering the outcome, regardless of the standard claims of anti-gun bigots.

The best way to use your keys for defense is to drive far away from bad people and dangerous situations. If that fails, you need a gun.

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UPDATE: The baby has been found and taken to the hospital to be checked out, and a suspect is in custody.

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Blind loyalty not a trait I admire

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for March 31, 2024)

People admire different qualities in others. The traits each of us admires are shaped by our own values and experiences. What some see as a virtue, others see as a vice. Or worse.

It seems most people admire obedience-- they voice admiration for those who follow orders without hesitation. This isn't something I admire. Too much depends on who is giving the orders and what those orders are. This can include bad parents as well as people wearing uniforms or holding a political office. I can't excuse anyone for obeying when the orders are clearly evil.

History's worst atrocities weren't committed by the disobedient, but by those who thought obeying orders should be automatic. They were, and are, wrong.

Every order must be weighed against ethical behavior before being obeyed. A shout to "Duck!" is rarely going to have negative ethical consequences and stopping to think about it could be a problem, so you can make an exception there.

If you are obeying orders to violate life, liberty, or property-- such as an order to enforce illegitimate legislation-- then obedience is the opposite of doing the right thing. Disobedience is the only ethical path in this case.

The same could be said for loyalty. Whether loyalty is admirable or not depends on who or what you are being loyal to. Too many people are loyal to the wrong things and the wrong people. Their loyalty makes the world worse.

If you are being loyal to a group of rights violators, or to the other members of this group, your loyalty is a destructive force you are adding to the world. Being disloyal in this situation would be the right thing to do. This is nearly always going to apply to politics. Loyalty in politics shows you aren't thinking.

The only thing worse than the Republican Party is the Democratic Party. Sometimes it's the other way around. Neither party has earned your loyalty.

I notice both of these traits-- obedience and loyalty-- are encouraged by those who want to use people for their own purposes. When those purposes are political-- looking to violate life, liberty, or property-- the result is nearly always horrendous. At best, it's not helpful.

This is why I have never admired obedient order followers or those who express unconditional loyalty. I prefer those who can think, even when they cause a little bit of trouble by doing so.

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It boils down to this:

Liberty is non-negotiable.

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Wouldn’t you like to be a rebel, too?

 

The extreme confidence of the clueless

I’m less self-assured while carrying a gun than some people I know are when they imagine they’ll use their keys to defeat multiple attackers.

Why is this?

It's the Dunning-Kruger Effect, where the less competent someone is in a specific domain, the more they overestimate their abilities in that domain.

With some topics, it's just embarrassing (or should be), but in the domain of self-defense, it could be deadly. But there's no way to suggest this to the people I'm talking about-- they WILL NOT listen. Their self-assurance knows no limits.

I understand that having the proper tools is no guarantee.
That intentionally not having proper tools because you feel overconfident is handicapping yourself. 

Some people do this because they don't like guns and don't want to admit they might need one.
Others, because they imagine themselves to be ninjas with superhuman abilities who would never need something as crude as a gun to defend themselves from mere human thugs. Too many Marvel movies, perhaps.

It frustrates and worries me.

Even defense with a gun requires training.
To defend yourself with a less effective tool requires much more training. Intensive training.

The most confident people I’ve met “don’t need a gun”, and yet have no idea how to defend themselves with any tool. They think they know what to do from movies and television, or the fantasies created in their own minds. Bad guys will obviously back down in the face of their determination.

I wish there were a cure other than harsh reality.

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Link to Voluntaryist- the comic series, from whence comes the illustration at the top of the post.

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When criminals die "in the act"

I don’t consider it a tragedy when criminals are killed in the act of archation. It’s probably the best outcome possible, under the circumstances. I'm including those legislation enforcers in North Carolina who were killed while committing the heinous crime of enforcing anti-gun legislation.

Only a copsucker could imagine it makes a difference whether a gang of home invaders-- kicking in a door to kidnap and rob, and with the intent to kill anyone who stands in their way-- have badges or not. Nope. It's the exact same picture.

I think every archator who is willing to use deadly force in the commission of his crime deserves to be killed in self-defense. Right where he stands.

But, "The Law!" When the "law" is illegitimate, enforcing it is a crime. An actual crime, like rape or murder; not a fake "crime" like possessing parts of a plant or owning/carrying any type of weapon you see fit against government's demands.

The North Carolina crime gang showed up at a house to enforce an illegal "law", completely prepared to murder the guy they were after. They did murder him, but it backfired and some of their gang bit the dust, too. Zero sympathy for crooks who die while committing crime.

When the cop in my local area was shot and killed after he stopped to help a stranded motorist, which is something he had a right to do, it was murder.

When a gang of cops is fired upon when they surround a house with the intention of committing crimes against the residents, something no one has a right to do, it is self-defense. Good riddance to bad trash. 

If this happened every time cops show up to enforce an anti-gun rule, it might cause fewer of these useful idiots to be willing to participate. That diseased herd could use culling.

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Another pro-slavery artist

A local "artist" makes fabric gun art as a way to advocate for "common sense gun laws" [sic].

Why advocate for something that already exists? How could he have missed "shall not be infringed"? Or even Natural Law that says you have a right to defend yourself and no one has a "right" to prevent you from doing so?

Anything else is just a dishonest and cutesy way to demand a return of slavery. What kind of horrible person-- or misguided victim of lies-- would demand that?

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If rights don't exist, neither does "wrong"

If rights don’t matter, or if rights don’t exist, then nothing you do to others can be wrong. Wrong means it violates someone’s rights.

Some say it’s not about rights, it’s about power. The power to do things to others. They usually say this to justify government actions that clearly violate individual rights (such as governing). 

But if this is true, it's true for freelance criminals as well. 

If you justify government this way, why claim a rapist is doing anything wrong? How could anyone make that claim? If there are no rights to be violated, by what basis can anyone say he shouldn't do what he's doing? He has power and is using it— and I hope his intended victim has the power to stop him. Permanently.

Saying rights don't exist, or don't matter because they are just a mental construct, is dumb and is setting yourself up for a really bad end.

People who don’t “believe in” rights had better watch their backtrails. Those who believe them might act on the belief.

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Not taking the smallest step

People just don’t think like I do. I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad.

My daughter was leaving the house. She had to run back in and blow her runny nose- I told her to put a bunch of Kleenexes in her pocket for later. She didn’t. I asked why she didn’t and she said she can just go to the restroom to blow her nose. Yes, but...

I don’t understand not wanting to be prepared.

Yet, she’s not the only one. All my life I’ve noticed that most people would rather wing it; take their chances. They'll avoid doing something simple, easy. and free to avert a problem just because they think they can deal with the problem later.

Maybe they can. 

Often, however, they act surprised when this lack of preparedness causes trouble. Yet, they never apply this lesson to next time. Why? And why not listen when someone gives a suggestion that could avert problems and isn't even inconvenient? I really don't get it.

It's in the same category as "I don't like/don't wear hats". I see it as "I like causing problems for myself".

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If I were rich...

What would I do if  I woke up tomorrow and discovered I had become rich? I've probably given this more thought than the "possibility" warrants.

But here's what I would do:

Pay off my medical bills.

Schedule my cataract surgery.

Buy my parents' house, put all the bills in my name, and let them stay there for the rest of their lives.

Have all the porch cats taken to the vet to be treated and spayed/neutered, then either placed in homes or released back where they live now (depending on their willingness to tolerate indoor life). Or, maybe build a sheltered facility where the more feral ones can live in safety without too much human interference.

Make donations to cat rescue groups and encourage, with bonus donations, some group to cover this area.

Send a couple of cases of premium ammo to a friend who just bought his first gun.

I have a short list of liberty advocates I would fund, and a few friends I would help.

Pay off my house.

Get a Cybertruck with the solar panel option.

Half-joking- I would never wear a pair of socks twice. I'd buy new socks, wear them once, then donate them to a homeless assistance group to wash and distribute as they see fit.

Sure, I would probably want to move into a better off-grid house, on acreage, which means I would need lots more ammo. I might (OK, would) buy more guns. But those things would have to wait until I take care of the things on the list.

What would you do?

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Politics opposite of what I try to do

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for March 24, 2024)

About the most hurtful thing anyone can say about me is to describe my writing as "political". It wounds me more deeply than almost any other words can.

Politics is what someone is doing when they encourage others to vote for or against something. Or someone.

Politics is what people engage in when they advocate yet another law aimed at the rest of society or want existing laws enforced more violently.

Politics says this politician will be better at running your life than some opposing team's politician. It leaves you out of the conversation, even though you are the only one with any right to control your life.

Politics is deciding how to divide the government's plunder-- taxes-- and how to most effectively violate the rights of your neighbors, friends, family, and even your grandchildren years into the future.

Politics never recognizes your sovereignty. Its advocates have made "sovereignty" a dirty word, except when applied to political criminals and the gang they work for. They claim these entities have sovereignty; you don't. This is utterly ridiculous because without sovereignty there's no way you could authorize anyone else to govern you.

Please don't misunderstand me. The claim of so-called "sovereign citizens" is equally ridiculous-- you can be one or the other, but not both.

Politics is the opposite of what I'm trying to do.

I encourage you to take responsibility for your own life. To do what's right without being forced to do it by government employees, and to do the right thing even when government employees threaten to hurt you if you do.

I try to show you that you aren't someone else's property. Government doesn't own you, even if it forces its tracking numbers on you and your children. This is a tactic of desperation; government hopes you don't realize this.

I remind you that liberty is your birthright, and government-- even the "best" government-- is the sworn enemy of liberty and your natural human rights.

If I were political I would be lying to you; telling you how to fix government. Telling you some politician or another has your best interests in mind. That he or she will defend your rights (while violating the rights of people you don't like with legislation and enforcement). I would be trying to prop up the outdated belief that government is a "necessary evil", rather than just evil.

Me, political? Never!

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Reasons government is illegitimate

One of the many things I despise about government is that you and I are expected to abide by the arbitrary rules it makes up and enforces on us, but it refuses to be bound by the rules which apply to it.

This is a clear sign that a police state is what we are living in.

That’s simply not going to fly.

You and I have rights; government has none.

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It's OK to be honest

Even if something is "just the way it is", and unlikely to change, it’s OK to point out when it’s wrong. 

Admitting it’s wrong doesn’t obligate you to change it.
It doesn’t implicate you if you’re a victim. 

If something is wrong, just say it. Don’t lie for the bad guy.

I've seen so many people reluctant to do this. They'll make excuses even while suffering. 

I had someone doing this while talking to me a couple of days ago. Even fighting to defend something they clearly knew was wrong, just because "that's just how it is". 
It's nuts!

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Government going too far

Do you ever wonder if government will ever go too far? Far enough that it loses the support of most of the (normally apathetic) public like it has lost mine (and presumably yours)?

I do.

I also wonder what "too far" would look like. What would it take?
And what response would it trigger?

I've seen apathetic people get riled up over one or more of the hoaxes perpetrated by the media in the last few years. But they don't usually stay riled up for long. I'm not sure if this is because the hoaxes don't pan out the way they are dramatized, or if it's just too much trouble to keep thinking about it.

What would it take-- either real or a hoax-- to get enough people angry enough to do something? Not to just v*te for "the other guy", but to do something useful? To either withdraw "consent" in a meaningful way or to yank the pedestal out from under Colossus?

I have no idea. But it could be interesting to watch.

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Governing "a moral people" is unethical

Those who insist that the answer to everything is "morality" sort of amuse me.

Yes, if "moral" meant the same to everyone, that could fix a lot of problems. If everyone agrees on the baseline, then it's going to work even if some people break the rules.

But morality is situational ethics-- it depends on your culture, religion, and experiences. So no one even agrees what's moral-- which is why they'd rather appeal to morality than ethics, except when they use the word "ethics" when talking about "morality" (which I see a lot).

The Constitution only works to govern "a moral people", but governing others is unethical. You can't force an unethical system on people, then claim it fails because the people aren't moral enough. And, by "moral" I suppose you'd mean they don't agree with your cultural/religious notions of how everyone else is to be governed. Well, you can claim that, but you'd look dumb.

If your idea of "moral" is that everyone submit to political "authority" and pretend it's legitimate, then I absolutely reject your morality. I'll stick to being ethical instead.

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Those who love Big Brother

Big, powerful government isn’t your friend. It's not your benefactor. It's incompatible with liberty.

It's evil.

It doesn’t make you safe. It enslaves you. It robs you. It may kill you.
It doesn't help you.
It does help political criminals-- both the regular politician-type and the Deep State parasites of the "intelligence" agencies (they are not on your side).

Wanting to fund such government is not ethical.
Wanting to further empower such government is monstrous.
Supporting such government in any way is horrible.

If you believe otherwise, you may be a government supremacist. Go in peace... but go. Maybe North Korea or China would suit you better.

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Silliness: When the other shoe drops

Which will lose enough True Believers to fall out of favor first? Climate Crisis or government?

I'm betting on Climate Crisis losing its hold on people's minds first. Too many gullible people still cling to the backward cult of Statism.

I shake my head in disbelief whenever I hear someone "thinking past the sale" on AGCC (Anthropogenic Global Climate Change). They've largely overshot the target. Rather than discussing the possibility of climate change, they are trying to make everyone believe it's a proven crisis. Impending doom and disaster. And that's where they lost me.

Climate changes and will never stop changing. A static climate might not even be good. I am fully willing to consider that humans might be able to affect the planet's climate. Might. 

But, I am not convinced that if it is real it would be a guaranteed net negative, that it could be stopped now, or that stopping it wouldn't be worse than adapting to it. Treating it like a disaster is jumping to conclusions-- conclusions that just happen to align with what the authoritarian control freaks want to do to you.

I am not stupid enough to believe that more government control is the right answer to any problem. Government-- the worst environmental disaster since at least the asteroid that killed off the non-avian dinosaurs; maybe ever!-- is going to save us all from climate change? Ha!

It's not a foregone conclusion that every bad weather event, every new disease, or every novel phenomenon is due to "climate change". But that's what they are trying to sell. It's just dumb.

Yes, belief in government is just as ridiculous, but it has deeper roots. Even people who are skeptical about the scams being sold by government are still likely to believe government is necessary. It's an absurd belief, but it's going to take time for enough of them to see it for what it is.

So, expect the Climate Change narrative to collapse in your lifetime. And rest assured that government will follow. It may just take a little longer.

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Politicians just don't get Bill of Rights

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for March 17, 2024)

Politicians tend to get every answer wrong. They also ask the wrong questions because they view everything through the warped lens of government supremacy.

Texas representative Dan Crenshaw is a prime example. Politicians are squaring off for or against TikTok, an addictive digital drug from China. Some, including Crenshaw, are looking to ban TikTok in America or force it to become an American company. Like the other digital drug, Facebook..

TikTok can be harmful to the mental health of vulnerable people; it manipulates their minds in ways that are not good for the individuals or for society. It promotes toxic political ideologies and spreads destructive social contagions among young people. It's probably no worse than other antisocial social media. However, as a company based in China, it's subject to the control of the Chinese Communist Party-- a group which doesn't have your best interests in mind.

Do I think this is a problem? Yes. Do I think government should ban it? No.

Crenshaw opposes any objection on First Amendment grounds as he explained on the X platform."You’re not defending the First Amendment. Our First Amendment doesn’t apply to the CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY." In typical political fashion, he is both right and wrong.

Politicians don't understand the Bill of Rights. They continuously argue over who it applies to-- or doesn't-- and completely miss the only entity it does apply to. The First Amendment, like the rest of the Bill of Rights, only applies to the US federal government. It forbids this government from banning speech. Even speech controlled by enemies. There's no wiggle room in there, even if government employees keep hallucinating some.

Until politicians face this inconvenient reality, they'll keep getting the wrong answer to every wrong question. Especially if the question concerns what their job allows them to do.

Politicians seek government jobs because they lust for power. Power over your life. Power they have no right to possess. They'll misinterpret every question in whichever way gives them this power. They'll miss the correct answer because it would not allow them to run your life as they wrongly believe they have the right to do.

Any time any politician states that some amendment in the Bill of Rights doesn't apply to someone, agree with them. Then remind them they work for the only institution the Bill of Rights does apply to-- by removing its option to do most things politicians hunger to do.

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Once you see it…

…You see it everywhere.

I’m talking about all the problems people obsess over that have one core cause: government.

I’ve written about it many times, so no need to rehash it here.

I see it everywhere, from just about everyone. They see some of the problems (the ones that bother them), and they are resigned to the problems being unsolvable. Or they suggest approaches that will make it worse. All because they can't let go of the cause.

I suppose you could point out that the root cause is actually archation, but then I'd point out that archation has a known solution: defense. And I'd also point out that government is institutionalized and "acceptable" archation, which is said to be above any "violent" solution. Defending yourself from government is said to be wrong. (It isn't, but it may sometimes be unwise.)

So, the solution to all the problems they dwell on is off the table.

They'd much rather thrash at the branches (or the shadows of the leaves) than dig out the diseased root. That's how captured their brains are. They can't even see how silly they look.

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Non-rights: IP, corporate "rights", and government "rights"

There are a lot of weird notions about "rights" out there, causing a lot of problems.

"Intellectual property" (IP) is one.
The idea that corporations can have property rights is another.
The grand delusion that governments can have rights of any kind is possibly the most damaging weird notion of all.

Intellectual property? It's an economically useful idea, but it isn't true.
Thoughts are your property as long as you don't share them with anyone. Once you let the thought out of your brain, you can't control it, and if you can't control something, you don't really own it. You can ask government to punish others for being exposed to your idea and integrating it into themselves, but that's sick. The same goes for using government to regulate AI's programmer's use of the ideas of others. If you don't want your idea-- your brainwork-- out influencing the world or informing AI, keep it to yourself.

As someone who comes up with ideas and releases them into the public sphere, I would love for those ideas to make money for me. I kind of need for them to do so. I know it would be wrong of me to use government as a way to force others to pay me for using my ideas, or to use government to "protect" those ideas. If I don't want my ideas to spread, I can keep them to myself. (You should see all the adaptations/uses of the Time's Up flag I've run across over the years- some promoting downright anti-liberty messages.)

Corporate "rights" are similar to IP "rights", as in they can't make sense unless you are in a hallucination. They are also economically useful-- to a segment of the population, anyway.

Rights are individual. Human individuals have rights. Groups (of humans) have no rights. A corporation is a group of individuals, defined by government, and treated as though it were an individual by that government. None of this changes reality or creates rights. Each individual who is a part of the corporation has equal and identical rights to every other individual, but no more. There's no such thing as extra rights. (Cops' superstitions notwithstanding.)

If a corporation's individuals try to insist on having government enforce its IP rights, this is such a stack of lie upon lie that it is hard to see what's even going on. Other than lots of "someones" pretending that things that aren't rights are. It's a very government-supremacist way to operate.

What about the insane claim that government has a right to do anything?

Governments are groups. As such, governments can't have rights. They have no right to make up and enforce imaginary "rights" for other collectives which can have no rights. They have no right to do things to individuals based on protecting the "right" of government to do anything to anyone for any reason. There is no such thing, and there can be no such thing, as a "right" to violate the rights of individuals. Government has no property rights. Government is not alive and therefore has no right to live. Government has no right to exist or to act. 

To violate individual rights is evil. To violate individual rights based on some crazy notion of "rights" that can't exist is both evil and crazy. To begin to truly respect individual rights would eliminate any perceived "necessity" for these silly non-rights. Which is why government tries so hard to prevent it.

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