- “Why can’t they just hire a lobbyist like everyone else?” That should go down in history along with “Let them eat cake.”
- Anybody familiar with this? Useful or not?
- Libertarianism and science fiction. Yeah.
- Just gets creepier.
- And creepier.
- And creepier. (But remember, not inevitable and potentially monkeywrenchable.)
- This looks interesting. (Tip o’ hat to C^2.)
- Bastards.
- But as always, always, always — ya gotta laugh at ’em. (Tip o’ hat to Kevin in comments.)
(Kudos to The Usual Suspect.)
Great links, thanks, esp. the one about Science Fiction. You probably already know, but your readers who read fic. may not: the Libertarian Futurist Society gives a Prometheus Award every year for the best libertarian Sci Fi book.
On another note, I refuse to watch GOP debates, but after reading the comments about it online, I had a hard time sleeping. I should not be surprised at the bloodlust and cheering for: war-war-war! but it is so sickening. Jefferson said: “I tremble for my country when I reflect God is just.” Tolkien said “The time of the elves is over.”
I’ve known what is coming for years.But still, it disgusts me that so many in the US have lost their souls.
I can attest to that libertarian-science fiction connection. I never liked sci-fi until I embraced libertarianism; then spontaneously (almost instinctively) I began to read sci-fi, and found I liked much of it.
Maybe the possibility of a free body stimulates the imagination of a free mind — or vice versa. Whichever… I began to see that many sci-fi scenarios could become reality, and very often were libertarian ideals, and not just weird fantasies of the author. (Of course non-libbers think libertarian ideals ARE weird fantasies, but that’s another issue.)
The Thompson book “Dead or Alive” is definitely worth a read. I’ve got a copy laying around that I read years ago. I remember it being good on basic self defense, but really quite excellent on awareness, aggression and psychology of confrontation. [Fair warning, it *may* have been another book by the same author I’m recalling. Thompson knows his stuff though…]
Water Lily: I love it when people make Tolkien references; I cannot imagine a more appropriate metaphor for state power in general than The One Ring. (I like it especially when I get the sanctimonious lectures on how we can only fix the problem of state power by having “good people” wield it. At that point I do love to remind the speaker that Frodo, in fact, failed at his moment of truth, and only got lucky by virtue of Gollum’s lustful overreach. There is just no part of that, that is not spot-on.)
I don’t know how many of this crowd follow Butler Shaffer (highly recommended!) but the “war-war-war” comment reminded me of the macabre giggle that I got from him when I first read his suggestion for a GOP theme song, to the tune of the Beach Boys cover of “Barbara Ann”:
“Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran…”
(No, I don’t know if that was originally Shaffer’s idea, but he’s usually really good at attribution, so I tend to credit him. And I’m sorry for putting that in your head here. 🙂
Just one small caution for those reading the “self defense” books… Unless you plan to train to this level more or less constantly, not all of it will apply to you. Much is interesting to know, and some of it is important, but in my experience, it’s vital to keep two things in mind:
Keep it simple
Do whatever you need to do to stay alive
If you read the accounts of people across the country who have successfully defended their lives – armed and otherwise – the defining element is the determination to live and the willingness to ACT on that. Very few of them have had any real training at all. It always astonishes me, but there it is… and I’m one of those people. I knew nothing about self defense or even much about the gun I used when I shot the man to save my life 30 some years ago.
The Thompson pieces are excellent, especially the later ones. His advice about stopping the attack, then getting away, is worth following. It’s also worth documenting that you’ve read that advice so that after defending yourself and running you can show that you’re not a fugitive from justice.
Your fellow blogger Massad Ayoob has great advice on these topics.