Money – Page 43 – Living Freedom

Musings on fate, the future, and the struggle between central controllers and freedom lovers, part II

Published November 4, 2015 10:21 am by Claire

Take driverless cars, for instance. If we were in a less tech-perilous, tyranny-seeking time, I think most of us would be excited about them.

You and I may be skeptical about a specific new technology, but we tend not to be technophobes. We’re not ones who reject the new out of hand. We may not want to buy the first flying cars or be on the first ship to colonize Mars or the Moon, but we probably have friends who do want to and maybe even know a few who will. We jumped on computers years ahead of the average and were getting acquainted on BBSes before the Worldwide Web tempted slower adopters in.

So no, we don’t innately distrust tech.

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Oh heck, enough of my whining. Have some links.

Published October 29, 2015 8:54 am by Claire

Amish man sues to buy firearms without photo ID. Those secretive, usually warrantless stingray units? Turns out they can record the content of phone calls; not just act as a locator. (H/T MJR) Liberalthink: We MUST have the $15/hour minimum wage even if it puts people out of work. The news just gets more dire for Obamacare’s race to the bottom. Kevin Wilmeth asks, “How cool is Marilyn Williams?”, who defended her home with a precision air rifle (aka “sniper rifle” to the media). I’m not sure how the term “social justice warriors” (SJW) came into such popular use. But…

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Tuesday links

Published October 27, 2015 1:51 am by Claire

Wow. You know that woman who drove into the parade crowd in Oklahoma? Apparently at least some of the media seems more than usually pre-programmed to blame the non-existent gun. David Codrea points out that the car-killer babe is apparently an Obama fan, too. I don’t know about you, but this sort of vague, ill-reported United Nations “science” makes me want to go right out and eat bacon. Maple flavored. Crisp. Oh, I have no doubt processed meats don’t qualify as health food, but I also doubt that the big bacon and sausage eaters dying of cancer are otherwise noshing…

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Did somebody tell the gods it’s Monday?

Published October 26, 2015 10:09 am by Claire

Or did the gods invent Mondays in the first place just to spite us? Winter arrived yesterday evening and today we took our first dogwalk in it. That is, I stomped along determinedly while the dogs, in their rain jackets, stared at me aghast and demanded, “Can we go home now?” While winter here in the NorthWET doesn’t involve six-foot drifts of snow or 30-below temperatures (ah, fond memories of Wyoming and Minnesota!), it tends to arrive as suddenly as if someone up there dropped it on our heads. Cold needles of rain are here to stay. —– And of…

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Weekend links

Published October 24, 2015 9:49 am by Claire

It’s just talk so far. And European talk, at that. So take it FWIW. But if banks impose negative interest on customers, controls on withdrawals won’t be far behind. NSA-proof wallpaper? Faraday cages for all! (H/T Laird in comments) We must have common-sense sword control NOW! Fedjudge says DEA raids on legal dispensaries in California are against the law. The more news and studies that emerge about Obamacare, the more horrible that horrible program looks. (When companies can manage to get around federal regulations, this is the way humane and profitable health care gets done.) Peter Schiff writes an eloquent…

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Midweek links

Published October 7, 2015 1:31 am by Claire

Even a gun controller calls Obama’s response to the UCC campus killings a tantrum and correctly states that nothing Our Glorious Leader wants will end violence. Here’s a pretty good fisk of Hillary Clinton’s latest opportunistic anti-gun knee-jerking, too. Again, it’s by somebody who’s hardly a pro-gun purist. Here’s another good one. I’d expect this sort of thing in over-regulated, over-zoned cities, but when rural Colorado tries to keep people from living off-grid on their own land, we’re truly in a pickle. (Via jed in comments) Have you ever complained about how some arbitrary credit score governs too much of…

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Friday linkathon

Published October 2, 2015 7:28 am by Claire

An anxious space geek makes good in Hollywood. It’s just common sense that you should be free to shoot illegal home invaders. No matter who employs them. Even when they are “legal” they are still sometimes scum who should not be welcomed in anything that calls itself a civilization. While it’s not as unique as this article implies, the Anevay Frontier Stove looks like cool beans for preppers, campers, and small-house dwellers. Doctor punches out pesky (and phony) ER patient. (I wonder if Japan has laws like ours that forbid doctors to turn anyone away from the ER.) Do not…

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Life’s losers and making our own beds, part II

Published October 1, 2015 1:57 am by Claire

Continued from yesterday …

Moi

As I was saying, we all have ways in which other people can look at our lives and say, “Why can’t she see how obviously she’s messing up?” I have mine.

One of them is doing things to keep myself from making much money. Although I deeply admire people who’ve accumulated a pragmatic amount of wealth and can be happy, prudent, and generous with it, I have a top beyond which I’m not comfortable going. It’s my ceiling. And it’s low.

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Life’s losers and the eternal question of whether the beds we lie in are really those we make for ourselves

Published September 30, 2015 1:55 am by Claire

Part I. Part II runs tomorrow. Really. It’s already written and in the post queue.

I ran into T. the other day. I was arranging to buy two heavy bookcases at an estate sale and he was there helping the lady who held the sale move gigantic sofas and king-sized beds.

For many years T. has been the area’s go-to guy for yardwork and miscellaneous donkey hauling.

Thing is, T. is a fragile little guy, well into middle age now. To see him, you’d think he belonged in the third desk from the right in some bureaucracy, but he’s … just not there.

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Monday links

Published September 21, 2015 12:16 pm by Claire

Parishioners ensure that three counts of attempted murder didn’t become something much worse. Would love to know more details about how this guy hid out in plain sight. Man vandalizes own truck for money, blames Black Lives Matter. No comment. L.A. freelancers. In an … um, interesting tax situation. Ahhhh, free enterprise. In Pakistan, it seems, you can rent yourself a mob from people who specialize in this “valuable public service.” And this! Spy-agency contractor will pay $1 million for an iPhone hack. Some of us predicted this way back in the 90s: sensors in drugs that can report to…

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