Just one new chapter from Jake MacGregor this week. But it’s a sweet one. Good on you, Canadians, especially all you patient gun-rights activists. It seems you’re finally, really and truly to be rid of that ridiculous long-gun registry. (D’you suppose the gov will actually wipe all trace of it from existence, though? Only if your politicians and bureaucrats are more honest than ours.) The real contagion risk from Europe or how the U.S. treasury market might go blooey. (Tip o’ hat to D.) A man of principle. Scott Olsen’s condition is improving and he is now conscious, but he’s…
Category: Mind and Spirit
Spirituality, moods, feelings, and thinking free to live free.
Some ammo for the next time some statist tells you that laws should be obeyed just because they’re there. Give ’em something to think about. This has been around a few months, but it’s pretty interesting if accurate: “Real-Life Rearden Metal?” A Lyttony of bad writing: Every winner of the Edward Bulwer-Lytton contest, 1983 to the present. That’s the contest where entrants write just the opening paragraph of a really, really, really bad novel. (Thank heaven that’s as far as they go!) Speaking of really bad, these guys (source) look like like something from the opening scene of a really…
The word “awakening” came up twice yesterday, once in a very good article by Michael Needham and Tim Chapman, the second time in a less clear context in the comment section. Awakening is a concept that’s been on my mind lately, too. Needham and Chapman say that “a great awakening is sweeping the nation.” I think a great awakening is trying to sweep the nation. But so far (for most people) it’s only reached that early a.m. stage where you know something is strange in your dream but you haven’t yet gotten conscious. But then, that’s the way awakenings are.…
From Just Waiting in a recent comment section: You made your money writing books about freedom and revolution, now you’re proud to declare you’re hiding in your cave once it begins? For someone who promotes freedom, you’re more condescending and dismissive than the Fox News puppets about the Occupy movement. Theatrics and a yeah, good luck with that? People are living in the streets to protest for your, mine our freedom. And you’re in a cave. Good luck with that too. I’m not an anarchist or utopian dreamer, I’m a realist and a staunch supporter of my and others’ self-sovereignty.…
You remember the globe-traveling Klaf family, mentioned here (and here) a while back? Well, from Gabi Klaf comes “10 Families, 7 Continents: How They Afford It.” Maybe you don’t have the slightest interest in roaming the world with a passel of kids. I sure don’t. Me, I’m a nester. But every one of these families is doing something that common wisdom says is “impossible” or “too difficult” or “impractical” or “foolish.” And in doing it, they’re giving themselves and their youngsters vital experiences and vital creativity. We all have an “impossible” something we’d like to do. These folks are a…
Everybody, but everybody, wants to get in on the Occupy Wall Street act. Since the leaderless, focusless band of creative protestors began getting media coverage, all manner of commentators have commentated. Multitudes claim to know what OWS really is or really ought to be. Political people who may have something or nothing in common with the vague aims of OWS or the vague band of jugglers, gypsies, drummers, retro-hippies, sincere-if-ignorant fogheads, and genuinely angry activists are cautiously trying to bend OWS to their own purposes. The third-biggest bonehead ever to win a Nobel Prize, Paul Krugman, demonstrates what an old…
A good man died last week. Al Woodbridge. Although he was only one of many abused by the ATF in the 90s (and by federal kangaroo courts), he was one of the toughest. H/T to JJ. I really like the way James Altucher thinks. This guy, on the other hand is edging toward the real answer but is still way sidetracked. Will he ever get the Real Clue, do you think? (But Occupy Wall Street is seriously interesting, isn’t it?) Common sense and enlightenment raise their battered heads once again in the world of mind-altering drugs. A good article on…
Yesterday, I wrote about a foster dog who came to us with an extensive birth defect in his urogenital system. He was supposed to be neutered and partially repaired today, but when she realized how major the problem was, our wonderful vet started making calls. She’s looking either for advice or for a veterinary surgeon who might take the case pro-bono. The condition — perineal hypospadias — is unusual enough that even a vet from a clinic in the Big City (and in this case, I really mean The Big City, not just the place I laughingly call The Big…
A while back we talked about “it” — The Day, The Moment, the trigger event, the one unmistakable signal that the house of cards is really, truly commencing to fall. Will there ever be such a moment? If so, will we recognize it when it happens or only spot it in retrospect? Or will there be no “it” — just be a dreary slide? Jim B. points out that Rome didn’t collapse in a day. Ellendra asks, apropos of nothing and everything whether politicians joking (?) about suspending elections might qualify as a sign. I don’t know whether we’ll ever…
“Where is Spartacus?” So asks David A. McElroy, while making himself crazy with political frustration and setting himself up for more. But Spartacus is … right there in your own mirror. If you can only recognize the reflection. McElroy’s frustration makes me want to propose the five stages of freedom, to match the famous Kubler-Ross five stages of grief. Hers are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. For freedomistas I propose: 1. Oblivion: I love my country — which is exactly the same as saying I love my government. Sure, it needs a few tweaks. Yeah, maybe it’s slipped a bit…