A temporary (?) glitch

I'm having a bit of an issue with PayPal at the moment, and am unable to access any of the money in my account. It's due to a glitch that they reluctantly admit is their fault. Mine is not the only account affected, I've found two other people already, but it takes a lot of pressure to make them admit anything is wrong. They keep trying to blame my bank until I tell them I have the receipts. Which I do.

They are "very sorry" this has happened, and "guarantee" it will be fixed ... in a month. Maybe less. Funny how fast they are to act if someone else makes a mistake, but how they drag their feet when the error is theirs.

If they don't fix it within that timeframe, or if they make me more angry than I already am, expect a scathing post about the whole fiasco. What is strange is that I've been unable to find anything online about this problem. I might fix that for them. This blog had over 207K views last month, and I'm sure people would be interested in what is happening. If you want to know what happened now, I have been documenting it all on X.

In the meantime, I need some operating funds. Probably the best way at the moment is Cash App ($dullhawk). Thanks.

PS: I can even return the money after PayPal fixes their mistake, if you'd like. Just label the money as a loan when you send it.

UPDATE: As of evening 9-4-2025 my account has been fixed. Nine days was better than a month or so, but I was concerned.

.

Our responsibility to defend ourselves

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for September 3, 2025)

Last week, another mentally ill individual chose to be an evil loser and shot into a church full of children, killing two and injuring many more.

The usual anti-gun voices immediately blamed guns and all the gun owners who didn't commit murder. They never place blame on the evil loser because that doesn't fit the agenda. Dancing in the blood of innocents is their only play, and they are experts at it...read the rest...

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip.

Liberty better than government overreach

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 30, 2025)

I've been told liberty isn't as important as making money or raising a family. If someone doesn't understand how critical liberty is to both of these tasks, and more, they might believe this.

Without liberty, you, your family, the economy, and society will suffer.

If you don't have the liberty to negotiate with a potential employer, you may not get the job you want. When government intrudes into the negotiations, you both lose. This has happened to me. I once saw a business I wanted to work for; they needed an employee, but couldn't afford to pay the government-mandated minimum wage. I was willing to work for less, for the experience, and to show the employer how I could help him. He wouldn't risk doing something which would have benefited us both because of government rules. We were both worse off because government was protecting us from liberty.

Then, when you have a job, government demands a percentage of the money you earn- or else. You've lost more liberty. Your family is poorer. Your employer is poorer because of the cost of complying with all the government rules involved in having an employee. You are cheated out of reaching your full potential because both you and your employer are forced to support this parasite.

It gets worse. Government wants your children held captive in its indoctrination centers. They used to claim this was about education, but few people are still falling for the lie. At best, schools babysit so parents can go out and earn money to be taxed away by government.

Government will threaten to take your children if you don't go along with the latest social trends. No matter how bad a parent may be, government isn't the answer. It sacrifices as many children as it saves, and so many slip through the cracks. You must have the liberty to protect your children from government help and other dangers.

Liberty works better than having government tell you what's best for you. Government wants you to believe it's your savior, but it's a deceiver. A liar. It's a thief in the night... and in the bright light of day. You may be violated by a freelance criminal someday, but it's guaranteed you'll be violated by government every day you live. If you don't believe this, you're living in denial.

Give liberty a chance. It is more important for every aspect of your life than you realize.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip.

The progression

To fight crime, tyrants ban certain people from having firearms. Most people beg for this, or are OK with it.

When that doesn’t work, they expand the ban to other people, certain types of guns, or guns in specific areas. 

When that doesn’t work, they try to ban all guns. 

When that doesn’t work, they start banning certain knives. 

When that doesn’t work, they ban more knives. 

When that doesn’t work, they ban swords or machetes. 

When that doesn’t work, they ban the next thing on their list. Then the next and the next. 

When that doesn’t work, and it never will, they ban self-defense altogether. 

Bad guys will always find something to use as a weapon, and government will always reach deeper to find something else to ban.

Tyrants- governments- will never be satisfied as long as you have hands and a mind capable of using anything as a weapon. They want you to be a fluffy, harmless pet. Their fluffy, harmless pet, loyal to the death.

It should have been stopped the first time some control freak made up the tiniest anti-weapon rule. Since it wasn’t, it needs to be stopped now, which means it is going to be harder, and it’s going to hurt them much worse. But it must be stopped. With finality and prejudice against it ever being allowed to happen again. Then this attitude needs to spread worldwide.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?

The solution to crime isn't more crime

Government is crime. More government means more crime.

When government "fights" crime, it is simply replacing some freelance crime with government crime.

At best, freelance crime perhaps decreases by 10% while government crime increases by 20%. I recognize that it seems most people are OK with this. They've been trained to not see government crime as crime. But it is.

You can have freelance criminals or you can have police criminals; government doesn't offer the option of less crime.

Ending all anti-defense rules would be the only way to get a net decrease in crime. This is why government won't consider this option.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?

Equal. Identical.

This can't be emphasized enough:

All humans alive have equal and identical rights. Rights can't be "lost"; they can either be respected or violated. Rights never actually conflict.

You and I have the exact same rights; no difference at all. It doesn't matter who you are, where you live, what you've done, or how I feel about it. This includes, but is not limited to, those rights sometimes referred to as "gun rights". Rights are rights, and all rights are essential.

There's no such thing as a "right" to violate others, including the act of governing others.

Archators have the exact same rights I have.

The mentally ill have the exact same rights I have.

A guy living in the gutter in Ghana has the exact same rights I have.

A heroin addict has the exact same rights I have.

People I hate, or who hate me, have the exact same rights I have. My enemy has the exact same rights I have.

The individual trying to kill me has the exact same rights I have- but I hope I prevail against his attempt, and I will do my best to make that happen. Because there is no "right to murder", but there is a right to kill in defense of self or others.

It is my responsibility to respect everyone's rights. I will stand up for everyone's rights.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?

Throw off the conditioning

Humans evolved to recognize mental illness in others- for self-preservation. 

You know it's true. If you've interacted with a beggar on a corner, you've probably experienced this effect. You can sense it when someone isn't right in the head. No degree in psychology is necessary.

One time, I was staying with a friend, and while she was gone, a guy she knew (but who I didn't) came to the door. I made the mistake of opening it to speak to him, and I knew instantly I was in danger because he was mentally ill. And drunk. (I was glad I was armed, and I was holding my defensive tool out of sight as I coaxed him back out the door.)

That's not the only personal example, and I'm sure you have some of your own.

Most people have been conditioned to be too polite to call it out when they encounter mental illness, and this keeps leading to tragedy. Throw off the conditioning. People will get angry at you. It's a small price to pay.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?

Criminals who are "tough on crime"?

Anyone who claims to be “tough on crime” while enforcing illegal anti-gun “laws” (which is all of them) is a hypocritical laughingstock.

They're not “tough on crime”, they’re a criminal who is tough on liberty. An enemy of human rights.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?

Scottish girls have the right to own and carry weapons

You can never trust "the news" to be entirely accurate or complete, so I have to be careful, but...

When I come to the defense of the 14- (or 13-) year-old Scottish girl who chased away molesters with a knife and a hatchet, some people take this to mean I am opposed to migrants.

No, I'm opposed to archators.
I am opposed to governments that protect archators.
I am opposed to governments that import people (human trafficking).
I am opposed to governments that treat defense from archators as a "crime".
I am opposed to governments that regulate tools.
I am opposed to governments that punish defenders.
I am opposed to governments because governments are always archators.

If the story is true as I read it, I am in 100% support of her right to use weapons in defense of herself and others against freelance archators who enjoy the protection of government archators. No matter where those archators were born, or what they believe is the proper way to treat 12-year old girls, like this brave girl's younger sister. Only a criminal government would seek to punish her for her act of defense.

Scottish girls, of any age, have the equal and identical right to own and carry weapons as every other human on the planet, regardless of the worthless opinions of the regional political criminals. And they have the right to use those weapons in defense of life, liberty, and property against all credible threats.

This right doesn't come from America's Second Amendment. It comes from being born human. No government legislation can overrule it. All the Second Amendment does (or tried to do) is make it a crime for the US government to impose any rules concerning weapons. It created no rights, only an obligation to respect a right that has always existed everywhere and always will. Including in 2025, in Scotland.

Any government that behaves like the Scottish (or UK) government behaves in example after example like this (a credible threat) needs to be overthrown immediately, in whatever way is necessary.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?

It's your job to defend liberty

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for August 27, 2025)

Liberty isn’t a gift handed to you by benevolent rulers; it’s your birthright to either exercise or lose. It won't be preserved by hoping someone else will do it for you- it’s everyone’s job, every day, to defend it. No exceptions and no excuses.

The greatest threat to liberty isn’t necessarily a tyrant’s jackboot or a lawmaker’s pen; it’s apathy. When people say, “Let government handle it,” they’re handing their power to their enemy. Every time you beg imaginary political authority to solve a problem you could tackle yourself, you’re sacrificing your own liberty. If you won’t stand up for your rights, why would anyone else take the risk on your behalf?..read the rest...

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip.

Best to live as though rights are concrete

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 23, 2025)

People who want to find a way to justify doing bad things to others will often claim rights don't exist.

"Can you touch a right? Can you smell rights?" No, but this isn't the "gotcha" they want to pretend it is.

Anti-rights people say "Rights are a social construct". Yes, they are. So?

If rights don't exist, then no one can have the right to claim another's body, life, liberty, or property. No one can have the right to rule others. This brings us back full circle, and I'm fine with that.

Rights are a useful social construct- something our brains have made up in order to navigate the world of other people. Just like the constructs of "justice", "duty", "kindness", and hundreds of other things we act as though are concrete so we can live among other humans without it becoming an extinction-level bloodbath of anti-social constructs on a daily basis everywhere we go.

All real rights are "negative rights"; things no one has a right to do to another. It's easier to say "You have a right to..." rather than "No one has a right to...", but the second way is more accurate if you want to nitpick.

"No one has a right to murder you" is a good example of a more accurate way to say "You have the right to live".

I have yet to find an example of a person who argues against the existence of rights who doesn't want to harm others in some way; by taking their life, liberty, or property. They are searching for a loophole.

They will say, "There are no rights; it's all about force or power". Who has the power to do what to whom? Who is able to use force on others to make them live as the stronger one wills them to live? This argument puts them on the same level as the murderer, even if they claim that's not their intention.

If "negative rights" are a social construct, they are still the only thing short of violent self-defense keeping the wolves-in-human-form at bay.

I will behave as though your rights are a concrete thing I can touch, see, feel, taste, and smell. I can't control how you'll treat me, but this doesn't affect my promise to you. I'm not looking for a loophole I can use to excuse violating you.

(The newspaper edited this one heavily when they published it. This is as written, not as published.)

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip.

The urge to control

One way I see people sabotage themselves is with their drive to control others. They want to control their family members, their friends, society, and criminals/politicians.

You need to control yourself. You don't need to control anyone else.

It's hard. It's frustrating! I struggle with this myself.

Reality is that other people are going to do things you think they shouldn't do. They might even be wrong- but so might you. Even if they are wrong, your responsibility ends at defending yourself (and other innocents) if necessary. You have no responsibility to control those you see doing the wrong thing; either unethical acts or just individually stupid behavior.

By constantly being frustrated because someone isn't letting you control them, you're messing up your own life. I can't control you and make you stop, but I can point out how you're damaging yourself and your peace.

What happens next is up to you.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?

Make war hurt only the warmongers

War is the health of the State.

It's true.
As long as this is true, States have no incentive to stop being warlike. To stop inciting war. To stop violating life, liberty, and property.

To change this, States have to be the ones to suffer from war. Not farms, peasants, storekeepers, homes, or infrastructure. States- government employees, generals, bureaucrats, politicians, and Deep State creeps. It has to hurt them more than it hurts "the regular people" whom they are willing to sacrifice to make war.

This means the only possible legitimate target in war is the politicians and government "assets". When this becomes the reality, States will stop pushing for war. Because then it will cost them more than they are willing to pay. Not before.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?

Appeasing the tyrant

You have no obligation to coddle or appease anyone who is scared of liberty. That's strictly their problem.

European governments have imposed censorship "laws"- in addition to their copious victim disarmament rules. The US government has no obligation to negotiate with these anti-liberty bigots. There's no reason to try to find a middle ground that works for both. 

Americans also have no obligation to coddle or appease the US government because it is scared of liberty. And it is scared of liberty.

Anti-liberty is ALWAYS the wrong side.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?

Statists depend on Straw Men for their arguments

Statists have nothing on their side other than straw men. No matter the topic or issue.

When you point out the rights violations inherent in “immigration [sic] control” they’ll pivot to arguing that you don’t care about government importing foreigners into a small town and overwhelming the population.

When you point out the rights violations inherent in anti-gun rules, they’ll claim you don’t care about murdered children.

Neither of those straw men are on the same page, or even on the same map, but that's where statists have to go because they can't address the actual issues without losing. Fast and hard. Statism is empty and illogical.

They simply can’t face any issue with honesty because that wouldn’t support their story.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?

Decoupling actions from consequences

Government appears designed (or implemented) to be a consequence short-circuiting device.

Government protects stupidity and evil from facing the natural consequences they have earned.

Government imposes harsh consequences for doing the right thing and for being smart.

Government's existence encourages stupidity and evil by making them safe choices, and makes it dangerous to be smart and ethical.

This doesn't end well if it continues. Which it will as long as government is tolerated.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?

Bans won't work

If you let rulers (politicians and bureaucrats) ban or "control" firearms, when that doesn't work (and it won't), they'll try to go after knives.

When that doesn't work, and it won't, they'll go after something more obscure.

When even that doesn't work- and it won't- they'll always find something else to ban or "control". Not because "Weapons!" But because they mean to control you!

No one has a right, or the imaginary "authority", to ban or "control" your tools/weapons. Not for any reason. 

If you allow them to do it anyway, it's not going to reduce crime, so they'll have to try something else. Since they don't want to try something that might accidentally work, they'll keep doing the stupid things. The evil things.

Here's a secret: They aren't trying to make you safer; they are trying to make you helpless against them and their plans for you. So, no ban will ever be enough as long as you aren't a helpless slave, relying on them for everything you need, and handing everything you own to them for "the common good". This is what they lust for. Don't give it to them for any reason.

All of these people are evil; some are also idiots. None of them are on your side.

Do not comply.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?

Liberty's not dangerous – it fuels progress

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for August 20, 2025)

Liberty forms the foundation of an ethical life and the basis for a worthwhile society. It isn't just a slogan for politicians on the campaign trail; it's the freedom to act, think, and live as you see fit, as long as you’re not harming others. 

Some people claim liberty is dangerous, that it leads to chaos or selfishness. They’re mistaken...read the rest...

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip.

Political drama – equally bad positions

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 16, 2025)

Half of the world thinks America has become a fascist state. Half of the world thinks America has finally turned away from fascism. Almost none of them can define "fascism". And I know all government is fascist at its foundation, no matter how it's set up or who's in charge of it.

Around half of the voters think the 2020 election was rigged; the other half thinks the 2024 election was rigged. I know all elections are rigged so government wins and individual liberty loses. As long as "None of the above; eliminate the office" isn't the default on every ballot, the election is rigged in government's favor.

Half of Americans will get in your face to tell you Donald Trump is the worst thing to ever happen to America, while half of them will scold you that he's going to save it. I think he's reversed course on some really bad policies, instituted other really bad policies, and that government shouldn't be allowed to have policies at all. Or exist.

This is why it's hard for those who believe there's an imaginary right to govern to have a useful conversation with those of us who know no such right can be created.

I don't believe in giving bad people the opportunity to prey on us while hiding behind a veil of legitimacy labeled "government". These are the people most attracted to government power. Human nature means the smartest bad people will choose to commit legalized crime, where they can steal from and molest their fellow residents using the law as their excuse. It's safer for them. It would be silly to deny human nature.

People are invested in their political team. They don't want it pointed out when their team, Left or Right, is on the wrong side, as they are at least half the time. Libertarians can see both the good and the bad. It's often more fun to focus on the bad- it may also be more useful since it's frequently more important to immediately stop doing the wrong thing than to start doing the right thing.

Most political drama is between equally bad positions. It's dangerous to get involved; you risk being pigeon-holed into a side where you don't belong. But it may be unavoidable for principled individuals.

Without someone bringing principles into the conversation, America would go off the rails even worse. Having worthy principles won't win you friends, though.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip.

Solving the crime problem

Solving crime would be simple.

But, one side can't break their cop addiction, and the other side can't shake the anti-gun habit. So crime thrives.

The answer isn’t more legislation or police. Those things increase crime.

First, you’ve got to stop calling mala prohibita acts “crime”. That would take a big bite out of crime all by itself. Every new "law" makes more crimes out of things that weren't crimes before, thus, more crime.

Next, you’ve got to respect the natural human right to defense of life, liberty, and property, and the right to own and carry the proper tools with which to engage in effective defense.

Then you have to stop making exceptions for government when it violates rights- they are criminals, subject to the same consequences as any other criminal. They don't have extra rights.

These are all hard for "lawnodor" drones to accept, as they are hard for "fairness" nuts, but they are essential. Unless you actually like crime and want more of it.

-

Thank you for reading.
Leave a tip?