Is your right to sell your very own used stuff in peril? Jennifer Waters’ Consumer Confidential says: Tucked into the U.S. Supreme Court’s busy agenda this fall is a little-known case that could upend your ability to resell everything from your grandmother’s antique furniture to your iPhone 4. The short version: In the U.S. courts have long recognized that once we buy something — whether it’s a Van Gogh painting or a Toyota — it’s ours and we can re-sell it. Not so in some other parts of the world — or at least not without paying obeisance to the…
Category: Mind and Spirit
Spirituality, moods, feelings, and thinking free to live free.
Okay, here’s a little exercise for you. What is the logline of your life? In script writing, the logline is a single sentence that sums up the story or the premise of the story. But it’s not a barebones summary. It’s a sentence that “sells” the whole, that sparks interest, that stands out from the crowd, that encourages people to think your story matters. Here are a couple examples from recent movies. You’ll notice they’re unique enough that nobody needs to explain which movie they refer to: A young man and woman from different social classes fall in love, then…
The difference between Lee Boyd Malvo and Nate Phelps. Both held under the sway of a powerful villain. One chose to become a monster. One chose to become human.
Oy. That vacation was WERK! You know I took the week off from writing to focus on the Organizing of Stuff. A lot of gear has sat heaped in garage, attic, closets, and laundry room these last two years while I’ve focused on home improvement. Some of it never really got unpacked after the move; some has accumulated since then. I blame garage sales. Accumulation is totally not my fault. Clutter and I are enemies. I figured: one week and clutter is dead. I, Bold Clutter Slayer, will Overcome All. Sigh. I forgot that the Organizing of Stuff requires the…
Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Obama. We eat this stuff??? Occasionally, there is justice of a sort after a puppycide. But no real justice until the cops know they’ll have to pay personally. Otherwise, it’s just more of the usual from thugs, cowards, and incompetents. Gold bars salted with tungsten: not just a paranoid rumor any more. Beloved service dog Bingo Hein has died, leaving a legacy of giving. J.D. Tuccille takes apart that report on the angelic innocence of Eric Holder. Or at least the media coverage of it.
“A Most Extraordinary Life.” (H/T F) You heard about the woman who got charged $83,000 for two doses of anti-scorpion venom worth $100 per dose. Here’s some background on why — and how Obamacare is only going to make it worse. What do you do when your beagle eats your cash? (Hint: It’s easier, though no less unpleasant, than getting your cash back from asset-forfeiting govthugs.) Survival preps: A week in a bucket. BusyPoorDad posted this is this morning’s comments. A very good idea, though I’d aim for a less grain-heavy mix of foods. Sometimes you see a claim that’s…
By the magnificent Maggie McNeill, via fabulous Fred. Damn, I wish I’d written this! Given these facts, how is a moral person to act? The answer is, by one’s own conscience. Any resemblance between the laws and moral behavior is now purely coincidental; this is not a problem for those of us who have always relied upon our own moral compasses rather than guidance from authority figures, but those whose personal senses of right and wrong have been stunted through reliance upon external dictates will be much slower to adapt. It’s true that, as Voltaire said, “It’s dangerous to be…
I wasn’t going to write anything to mark this anniversary. I can’t stand the annual rehashing, the verbal digging up of the dead, the demand that we always remember, remember, remember — but somehow never analyze, reflect, or correct. Then Jim Bovard reminded me of something that really matters. He noted that Thomas Szasz, who just died, was one of the prominent libertarians who stayed true to his principles after that handful of villains wrought their havoc 11 years ago. So many didn’t. So many people who claimed to be libertarian tossed their alleged principles out the window as fast…
Thomas Szasz has died. He was 92. He was a great intellectual freedom fighter who carved out a unique niche. (Thank you, Jim Bovard for the news, sad though it may be.)
Walking the dogs to town today, I spotted this: That’s the Freeloader family’s house. Looks as if they’ve been evicted for the second time in a year. All their sad stuff — including the little kids’ bikes — tossed to the roadside. Exact repeat of what happened when the church kicked them out of the (free) place they lived in before. Just when I was wondering where they could go from here, I passed one of the local drug houses (at least I assume it’s a drug house; we do have several and this house is a profile-fitting tumbledown with…