One of the most personal reasons for contempt of government is that government forces people to act against their own consciences. As you know, I’m not a believer, but I think what Obamacare is about to force on the people who own Hobby Lobby is beastly. When Catholic institutions objected to provisions of Obamacare that went against their principles, the fedgov carved out a feeble and bureaucratic “religious exemption.” However, Hobby Lobby — being a business run on religious principles but not being a specifically religious institution — doesn’t fit into the loophole. So government inflicts pain to get “compliance.”…
Category: Mind and Spirit
Spirituality, moods, feelings, and thinking free to live free.
The following letter comes from Helen, who lives in Greece. “William” is a reader of this blog who has spent years urging preparedness on her. She writes about the demonstrations and riots in her country and how quickly the unnatural can become the natural, the abnormal the normal. Pundits debate endlessly about whether the U.S. economy is going to end up like or unlike Greece’s. Whichever way you bet, the future doesn’t exactly look rosy. Might as well listen to voices of experience, just as Helen listened to William’s warnings about preparedness. I’m reprinting this with thanks to Helen, who…
Tribes. (Aka help Tam, Queen of Snark, and maybe win some cool gunstuff.) Hm. Happy life? Meaningful life? Choices … choices … How to devise more secure passwords. (Yeah, we’ve been here before; always a good reminder, though.) I know some cynics think Obama and Eric Holder will kill recreational cannabis in Washington and Colorado. They’ll try. But this is a battle they’re going to lose. The new legalization is already making waves in Mexico. And having a very, very real effect on prosecutions in Washington state. Hey, look! Europe has turned the corner and is headed for financial stability!…
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it And spills the upper boulders in the sun, And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. — from “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost —– The first polls are closing on the East coast as I start this. We know that, come January 20, some statist will occupy the White House and believe he’s the lord of us all. He’ll preside over the growth of the welfare state and the warfare state. He’ll claim the right to kill us at will or lock us up without due…
And why? The comments on my earlier “V for Vendetta Day” post — two Gary Johnson supporters immediately speaking up — got me wondering. So if you don’t mind me asking (or even if you do), here’s a two-parter: * Are you voting or have you already v*ted in tomorrow’s election? * And what value do you realistically expect your v*te to produce? Not trying to dis anybody here. Though I’ve been a non-v*ter for 18 years, v*ting was hugely important to me from the time I was a little kid & I understand the urge to do it and…
This has nothing directly to do with any of the usual topics. It started out to be a short vignette in a group of short vignettes. Then it grew. It won’t be to everybody’s taste, but it’s something I needed to write. To my mind, it has as much to do with freedom as anything else I write, but not necessarily in an obvious way. —– The summer I was five, my family drove to the train station — a very exotic thing in itself! — to pick up an old lady none of us had ever met. I remember…
This one’s sort of a rant. Don’t be a Flutterbudget. In L. Frank Baum’s novel, The Emerald City of Oz, Dorothy Gale and some of her friends are touring the hinterlands of Oz. They visit various villages whose inhabitants are distinctive, to say the least. As they approach one community, a woman rushes at them, screaming in panic, “Save my baby! Please, please save my baby!” Since the party can see that the baby is safely tucked into Mother’s arms, they’re befuddled. When they point out that her child seems to be just fine, the distraught woman cries (I’m going…
New short-story collection; really strange good Did you like David Young’s Shiver on the Sky? Well then, you’ll be glad to know that prolific S.O.B* … erm, author is already back with a short-story collection, What Happens in September… Just $.99 on Amazon. I read all seven of September’s tales in manuscript last week. Once again, David (now billed as David Haywood Young because every writer with a standard-sounding moniker needs a middle name) has produced something that’s both genre-bending (crime-fantasy-humor-SF fiction) and filled with life — even when its subject is bloody murder. If you buy (and better yet,…
“Random political acts produce random political results. Why waste even a rock?” — Abbie Hoffman —– In comments yesterday, a reader noted that he had the habit of lifting the digitus impudicus every time he saw a cop car. Not meaning to pick on you, faithful commenter, but you raise something else along with that middle finger — the issue of useful (and non useful) actions on behalf of liberty. Raise a finger and what do you get? A cop who thinks you’re an ass***e and who’ll remember that should you ever run afoul of him. Are you more free…
Weekend read: “Legitimizing Unrighteous Dominion.” Unrighteous dominion is a Mormon term. The author of the linked essay is LDS and so is the friend who sent it (thanks, JG!). The origins of the phrase are interesting. Having been a victim of mobocracy — state sanctioned crowd violence — Joseph Smith wrote: We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men [italics mine], as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:39). No matter what you think of Smith…