I’ve just begun reading Wendy McElroy’s new book, The Art of Being Free: Politics versus the Everyman and Woman.* Not far into it yet but on the very first page of the preface, I found a great quotable. Y’all know this already, but it’s good to be reminded: Whatever happens within society — from the free market to war — begins with the individual who agrees or dissents. The individual says “yes” or “no” and it is this lever of consent at which freedom lives or dies. You have the right to say “yes” or “no” on matters concerning your…
Category: Mind and Spirit
Spirituality, moods, feelings, and thinking free to live free.
Urge people to free themselves, or even offer a little good news about freedom, and somebody is bound to retort with some anti-freedom myth. Two big ones that have made appearances in recent comment sections here at Ye Olde Blog are: Government is so powerful it’ll stop us. (It’ll disarm us, cut off our ‘Net access, round us all up and put us in camps, etc.) Yes, but there will still be people who … (Want to take our guns, support government programs, can’t handle freedom, etc.) That second one doesn’t look like a myth on its face. There will…
Sorry for “lite” posting yesterday. I’m deadlining all this month while also trying to paint, trim, and partially re-side two walls of the house. I bought shingles and cedar boards in April in a wild-to-the-point-of-insanity fit of optimism. I dreamed spring would shortly yield to summer. Yeah. The supplies sat in the yard getting rained on. Now, we’ve got a brief eyeblink of dry weather. So I’m juggling: work-work in the a.m., improvement-work in the afternoon, dogs and housework … somewhere. I’m also getting to know a video camera sent by Terry Bressi The Checkpoint Beater. The only previous video…
(H/T furrydoc for that one. Great find, furrydoc. Hope it’s true the injured dog survived.) What information overload does to your brain. Speaking of which … how to deal with email overload. (Tip o’ hat to JG.) Another unimportant nobody who doesn’t trust the cloud. Some guy called Woz … Obamacare will create chaos. No sh*t, Sherlock. I know this is last week’s news and therefore happened in the ‘Netly equivalent of the Jurassic. It’s still marvelously weird. That angry farmer with the tractor deserves one more link’s worth of immortality.
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…
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…