I apologize for the “lite” blogging. As you may have noticed, I’m suffering the worst case of winter blues I’ve ever had (compounded by daily doses of the bad news I’m always recommending that everybody else avoid). I’m beat and need renewal. So I’m going to spend next week mostly away from the computer. Rather than let the blog go dark, I thought I’d preschedule some blogitude every day from Monday through Friday of next week. Here’s what I’d like to do: Pose a different question each morning about the state of freedom today (personal, political, global, First-Second-Fourth Amendment, whatever)…
Category: Practical Freedom
A broad category of things we can do, or things others are doing, to increase personal freedom
Nobody ever tells me these things. I hadda find out from Ragnar’s Freedom Outlaw F*c*b**k page. Anyhow, my cover story from the current issue of BHM, “Hiding a gun: The rule of threes,” is online. —– Also, Ragnar praises new-made Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence — not just for her acting, which is outstanding, but for her Capital-A Attitude. Amen, Ragnar! Lawrence always comes across as a regular person with a great sense of humor and wacky wit. Likes guns, too. And doesn’t like PETA. And jeez, she’s Katniss Everdeen. How much more perfect can an actress be?
In 2009, her young husband was killed in an accident. After the shock of coping with the planning he and she had left undone, Chanel Reynolds started a website whose name the New York Times is too proper even to print. It’ll help you Get Your Shit Together. We have met the 1% and he is us. (H/T S) Some people have doubted that the White House can give an interesting answer to one of those WhiteHouse.gov petitions. Think again. (Via several people including S, who offers to build a Death Star for a mere $450,000,000,000,000,000.) Stealth wear anti-surveillance fashion.…
Sorry about the “lite” posting. I’m deadlining this week and next, so “lite” may continue for a while. Tomorrow I’ll be going on an expedition with a friend as part of the research for the BHM hide-a-gun article. Packing up the rubber boots, shovels, and camera now. So I thought I’d leave you with something worth pondering for a few days: What are the five major things you’d like to accomplish in 2013? Realistic things, I mean. (“I’d like to personally restore the Bill of Rights” doesn’t count.) I’m a bit stumped on this myself. I’ve come up with three,…
Today, I’ll step aside and let Joel speak: The first rule of living on the edge is this: You’re in charge. You’re responsible. If something goes wrong, nobody’s going to come and fix it for you. There’s no point grumbling and waiting for the guy with the wrench, because the guy with the wrench is you. That brings things to a very basic and vital level. I used to be consumed with worry over things like who was undermining me at the office, or how badly a customer was going to screw me on draft revisions, or how to deal…
I’m a day late discovering this, but as a Christmas present to readers, BHM is giving away “Ask Jackie” Kindle books all this week. A different title each day. Today it’s Water Bath Canning. Tomorrow Pressure Canning. Thursday Food Storage. Friday Homestead Cooking.
So. The county recently had a sale on properties foreclosed for non-payment of taxes. I’ve never paid attention to such things before, considering any form of tax sale or asset-forfeiture sale to be out of moral bounds. This time somebody pointed out that two of the parcels up for sale were hilltop acreages near the end of winding dirt roads. Not far from this neighborhood in miles, but a world away in possibilities. I went so far as to look them up online and do some sighing over them. Of course I didn’t consider bidding. But I admit that was…
Tribes. (Aka help Tam, Queen of Snark, and maybe win some cool gunstuff.) Hm. Happy life? Meaningful life? Choices … choices … How to devise more secure passwords. (Yeah, we’ve been here before; always a good reminder, though.) I know some cynics think Obama and Eric Holder will kill recreational cannabis in Washington and Colorado. They’ll try. But this is a battle they’re going to lose. The new legalization is already making waves in Mexico. And having a very, very real effect on prosecutions in Washington state. Hey, look! Europe has turned the corner and is headed for financial stability!…
Community cider pressing pot-luck last weekend! I wasn’t there, but furrydoc took along a box of apples from my tree and took these pictures: First the apples were washed, either in a dilute bleach bath or a vinegar bath (for those who didn’t like the idea of bleach on their apples). Then into the grinder and the press. The juice went into buckets. The pulp was caught in cheesecloth and taken to the host family’s animals. The juice … … is incredible. And I’m not just saying that because it has my very own backyard apples in it. My apples…
From the BBC (and C^2): Apps that protect against police brutality. Money quote: “The cops aren’t protecting us [understatement] so we have to figure out ways to protect ourselves.” We’ve touched on this before. But in light of this morning’s first post, here’s something we can do that’s not difficult, but that goes well beyond a saucy gesture or angry keyboard pounding.