Back when the Vietnam war — and opinions about it — were raging, I volunteered to help conduct a door-to-door survey about it on behalf of a peace candidate. This was at the stage when being anti-war could still get you labeled a commie-pinko-traitor who ought to leave the country if you didn’t love its politicians and generals, so I got a lot of doors slammed in my tender little teenage face. I’ve long since forgotten all the door-slammers and insult screamers. But one woman, I’ll never forget. I knocked on her door, asked if she’d be willing to take…
Category: Mind and Spirit
Spirituality, moods, feelings, and thinking free to live free.
Enjoy a world of gifts. And be grateful that the Pilgrims learned from their socialistic disaster. Oh yeah. Eat lotsa good food, too.
I apologize. Between being busy and having computer troubles, I’ve been among the missing. Both the busy-ness and the estrangenesss are likely to continue for a week or so, but I’ll try to be better about the blogging. In the meantime … —– The thing I’m most busy with right now is an assignment from Backwoods Home. Not writing, but art. I’ve been doing small article illustrations for them for a few months. I knew that someday — probably a few years down the road — they’d ask me to try doing a cover, a much bigger deal. Don Childers,…
Sometimes when I write about freeing ourselves rather than joining mass movements or flinging ourselves into political campaigns, somebody will accuse me of being nihilistic or advocating me-me-me values. If you’ve been around long enough, you know that’s not the point. The point is, of course, that true freedom can only arise from within the individual and spread from there. All “political” solutions are just band-aids on a wound if we’re not prepared to live free, to accord equal rights of freedom to our neighbors, and to personally oppose tyranny. Still, it’s understandable that people who’ve always thought of freedom…
Okay, let’s start out with some nice stories. (The “nice” in this onecomes quite a ways below the headline.) A pair of Muslim cab drivers save a bagel shop. Anybody here use these emergency foods? “What do a bunch of old Jews know about living forever?” Looks like a useful book to keep on hand Sigh. “The more things change …” They were writing stories like this onejust before 9-11, too. And a coupla months later, the nation was full of robotic government worshippers. Truer words … “The science of lasting happiness.” I don’t usually have the patience to watch…
I’m not sure why yesterday’s Christmas tree tax story struck such a chord (with me and everybody else in the blogosphere, apparently). I mean, it’s a $0.15 tax on something you buy once a year. What’s the big deal?* A new USDA program would be set up and the secretary of agriculture would appoint a board to oversee promotion of live Christmas trees. That’s a PITA. But hey, what’s one more government program and 18 more pages of regulation among so many? “Got Milk?,” “Pork: The Other White Meat,” and “Beef, It’s What’s for Dinner” (among others) are already imposed…
… and preparedness (as we were in the previous post), here’s a sobering take on the subject from Brandon Smith. And from Rod Serling. Even though I repeat and repeat that I think the “zombie apocalypse” or even the all-out localized panic is a rare and unlikely occurrence for most of us and shouldn’t be the focus of our preps, I admit the Twilight Zone clip was too believable to watch, even all these decades later. (Tip o’ hat to J.)
Hm. Great minds. (You may recall this.) And almost great ones. (Funny how so many people come so close but miss the real point.) (Tip o’ hat to PT.) Oooh, da poo widdle snitch powice infowment. Him get his widdle feewings hurt. (Tip o’ hat to C^2.)* Weird stuff found in the woods. (Don’t click unless you have a lot of time to waste today.) A tad dated. But amazing Also amazing. Owl flying in for a kill at 1000 frames per second. Oh my. The Internet Movie Firearms Database. Search on a movie or TV show and learn all…
Still deadlining. Oy. But I’m beginning to believe that the light I see at the end of that tunnel might not be an onrushing train. This weekend I’m going to collapse in a happy heap. Meanwhile, the news … “Penn Jillette’s 10 commandments for atheists.” I’m neither an atheist nor a fan of commandments. Still, these are pretty good. (Tip o’ hat to PT.) Can any of you techno-hackers tell me if this might work at a distance of 50 yards or so? I’ve had this little problem … Six things nobody will tell you about MF Global. I mean,…
The road from self-reliance to self-pity. Whole gangs of “constitutional sheriffs” in Northern California? Wonders never cease. (Too bad this intriguing article never gets around to mentioning the very important state of Jefferson.) Via Wendy McElroy: You’ll never believe the latest group the FBI considers a threat. (I’m going to have to create a new topic category for Stupidity Above And Beyond the Call of Even the Government.) While I don’t agree with this writer’s snarky take on Occupy Wall Street, it sure does seem some young lefties are learning some real-life lessons. Including one right out of Atlas Shrugged.…