I was e-talking the other day with the Infamous Oregon Law Hobbit. Turns out he and I both had the same thing on our minds: the problem of long-term thinking. Or rather, the problem of people who don’t do it. People who won’t (can’t?) consider that Action A will lead to Consequence B. Case in point: My freeloading neighbor. His family needs help, sometimes urgently. A few neighbors have given it. His response: he alienates the helpers. Never keeps his word. Never returns stuff he borrows. Never reciprocates. Always just expects more. Of course, this is one reason his family…
Author: Claire
Had a visitor last weekend. An old online friend, S, whom I’ve been privileged to meet before in the real world. S knows a lot about many things including, unfortunately, cancer. One of the topics of our wide-ranging discussion was my local friend, J, who’s undergoing chemo for a pancreatic tumor. S had plenty to say and I asked him to put some of it in writing when he could spare some time from his travels (he’s a busy guy and was on a business trip when he stopped by my place). S drove away. But quicker than I’d ever…
Last week I interviewed Terry Bressi, the gutsy Arizona man whose nine-year effort won him a victory against the goons who dragged him out of his vehicle and illegally arrested him at highway checkpoint in December 2002. While it wasn’t a complete triumph because none of the individual miscreants were punished and drivers continue to have their rights violated, it was still a serious win. Terry notes, “Although I didn’t get the ruling/clarification I wanted from this legal action, my attorney reminds me that we squarely trounced them in the 9th circuit, pissed off the lower court judge to no…
For many of these links, H/Ts to MJR, PT, H, JS, WL, and I hope I’m not forgetting anybody else! First and best, this statement by MamaLiberty has been getting around — but deserves to get around more. “I Carry a Gun — Get Over It.” This one has also been getting around, and for the opposite reasons. At least one person in this DEA horror show seems to have gotten his just deserts. Appears the fedgov’s IP thuggery might soon be affecting our health. Silent Circle. From Phil Zimmerman & friends. Collect water on your own property, go to…
Yesterday I began a post about the novel Alif the Unseen with this quote: “We’re living in a city run by an emir from one of the most inbred families on earth, where a few censors can throw someone in jail for writing things on the Internet and falling in love with the wrong person.” Dina reached out to be helped to her feet. “It went out of control a long time ago.” The book is about a young hacker of East-Indian and Arab extraction doing his best to foil the security state — and paying a price for it.…
With a little help from my friends I’m just about done drafting the snitch book. Booklet, actually; looks like we’re succeeding in keeping it short. (It’s a miracle!) By the end of this week or early next, it’ll be ready to run past four or five reality checkers. (Hobbit and jw, I’ll be asking you soon; after the contributions you’ve already made, I ASS-U-ME you’ll say yes.) Right now we aren’t ready for proofreaders or copy-editors. That will come a little later. What we could really use at this stage are people with the voice of experience. We’ve got a…
Alif jerked his backpack over one shoulder. “I just feel like this whole thing is getting out of control.” “We’re living in a city run by an emir from one of the most inbred families on earth, where a few censors can throw someone in jail for writing things on the Internet and falling in love with the wrong person.” Dina reached out to be helped to her feet. “It went out of control a long time ago.” —– Alif the Unseen By G. Willow Wilson Grove Press, 2012 Alif (not a name, but a letter of the alphabet) is…
The responses to yesterday’s post on Terry and the checkpoint goons — about evenly divided between “Good man, Terry!” and “He really didn’t win” (Or “Good man, Terry! But he really didn’t win”) got me thinking once again about the different styles among Freedom Outlaws. I suspect that this blog tends to attract a big share of Ghosts — people who’d rather quietly — but determinedly — go around Authoritah than confront it. But clearly there are plenty of Agitators hereabouts, also. I’m curious. Which type of Freedom Outlaw best fits you? Ghost? Agitator? Mole? Or Cockapoo? And what actions…
Click for Part II Three thousand four hundred and fifty-one days after being dragged out of his vehicle & arrested at an illegal roadblock conducted by Tohono O’odham tribal police (with the assistance of U.S. Customs agents and the U.S. Border Patrol), Terry Bressi settled his lawsuit. He received a $210,000 check. From the moment he filed his suit, he fought for exactly 3,087 days — all the while driving in the same area and becoming a target of enforcer rage. It wasn’t a complete victory. No individual officer paid a penalty. No principle of law was changed. Nevertheless, he…