Fellow BHM blogger Massad Ayoob asks whether Joseph Wilcox did the right thing, and provokes an interesting discussion. Is anybody surprised by the latest creepiness from F*c*b**k? And why do so many people not get that when the service is free, you’re not the customer; you’re the product? Kevin D. Williamson: Politics pays. …and ushers in the the Age of Oligarchy. Hornady — bless its bullet-shaped little heart — has style. When Amish get rich. The Supremes side (narrowly) with religious liberty over Obamacare.
11 CommentsMonth: June 2014
During those horrible late-teen years of not knowing what I wanted to do with my life but knowing I needed money to do it, I managed to grind my way through three weeks as a door-to-door salesthing.
My one good memory from those endless years of days was (tellingly, I suppose) a hand-made No Soliciting sign. It said:
GO AWAY.
I don’t want your magazines, your cookies, or your religion.
I was tempted to knock on the door just to tell the people how cool I thought it was. I figured I have my own someday.
Most of my life since then I’ve lived in places where few commercial peddlers and only the most determined religionists dare venture, so I’ve had no need for a No Soliciting sign on my various hermitages.
Now, however, I live where we have mobs of door-to-doorists. It’s time to take defensive measures.
32 CommentsHere are three longish reads to keep you busy just in case you don’t have anything better to do this summer Sunday: “Secrets of the Creative Brain.” Ninety-nine things that make people happy. The article itself is short. Following the links will take you down various informational rabbit holes. After several decades of increasingly warlike violence against Americans, the ACLU finally takes serious note (pdf). (H/T RL) —– Bonus read (to cheer you up after the ACLU report): My latest at JPFO, “What We Owe Ourselves Alone.” That one comes with a hat tip to MJR, whose comment here the…
10 CommentsI guess this has been around a while, but I just saw it: David Codrea’s Physician Liability Form. Print this out and hand it to any boundary-violating doctor who tries to poke into your gun ownership! I found that via Kurt Hofmann who delivers a hearty smackdown to Mike the anti-gun “Gun Guy.” Anti-gun Mike’s latest BS is that the doesn’t think disabled people should be “allowed” to defend themselves. Speaking of people who want to determine what’s good for you, the push to data-mine more of our health info is getting stronger and creepier. Larry Page of the increasingly…
10 CommentsYou’ve decided you need to say no. To new volunteer obligations. Impositions on your privacy. Visits from relatives. Extra projects at work. Co-workers who crowd you. Whatever. (Maybe even to government, but more about that another time.)
But somehow no never quite ends up meaning no. Because this request for your time is so vital. And that request is just one small thing. And because it’s easier to just do it than to put all that energy into refusing again …
Real change has to begin with an ultimatum to yourself: No means no. No exceptions. No special cases. Above all no “Just this one time, please?” No. Means. No.
Because the first time you make an exception, you are dead. After that, everybody knows they can get what they want from you. And worse, you know you won’t stop them.
If you haven’t given yourself an ultimatum even stronger than the ones you’ve probably been trying to give other people, you’re doomed. You might say no once. You might say no twice, but in the long run “Just this one time, please?” is going to win because you haven’t effectively said “no means no” to yourself.
I know this. I am an expert in this subject. I have a Ph.D. in the field from long years of failure.
21 CommentsThe man Jeff Cooper called one of the top firearms trainers in the world has died. He was my fellow writer at S.W.A.T., and he held the coveted last-page ground with his talent and wisdom. He was such a humble man that he didn’t even have his own Wikipedia page (and when you consider how many lesser people, like me, have Wikipedia pages, that’s saying something). Thanks to Rich Lucibella and Tam for the word. The world is a poorer place today than it was on Monday.
15 CommentsThe federal no-fly list is unconstitutional. So says a judge. Not (apparently) because the fedgov is arbitrarily and secretly denying people their right to travel, but because it’s not offering a good enough appeals process for arguing our way off. Don’t expect much to change. Gadzooks, it appears that the pampered darling Chelsea Clinton is even more out-of-touch than Mommy C. (Via Never Yet Melted) Church knowingly hires registered sex offender (pedophile) as pastor. The predictable happens. But I suppose you could say this dude was a step above their previous pastor. Or … um, maybe not. The security state…
7 CommentsThe government has finally gone too far! (Says Jim Bovard, a man who’s fond of a good cheap cigar.) Why time seems to speed up as we get older and some creative ways to slow it down. I hope Tesla’s recent bold move of open-sourcing its patents pays off. History and a good guess says it’s likely to greatly benefit the electric vehicle industry as a whole, but not Tesla, specifically. Off-grid goes upscale. Especially offshore. The naked self-interest of the managerial state. No surprises, but telling, nevertheless. 50 photos from the past that’ll get you thinking.
21 CommentsSo I was sitting at a window eating lunch when I looked up and saw … what? A horizontal rainbow???
Yes. A rainbow streaking in a level line across the southern sky. But when I got my camera and went to take a picture of it, I discovered I hadn’t seen anything yet.
10 CommentsIf you haven’t visited Earthineer in a while, you might want to take a new look. Dan Adams has recently added the long-awaited marketplace and barter sections where members can trade with each other. Though they’re still new and smallish, he’s got something quite promising there both for “rural engineers” and for foodies. Earthineer is a labor of love for Dan and it shows in the quality of the presentation. Among other things, he’s planning to build privacy into the trades, so only the parties involved will have long-term records of their transactions. Also, Dave Duffy has assigned me an…
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