By now you’ve heard. Maybe you tracked yesterday’s events live on Telegram or X. However and wherever you heard, what happened yesterday afternoon and evening was monumental. IS monumental — even if, as we cynics must always note — it contains as much performance and politicking as true defiance. Although I still, and always, hope there’s no shooting war between freedomistas and domestic tyrants, safe to say the long, unendurable, seemingly endless Awkward Stage is over. —– Yesterday … First came Texas governor Gregg Abbott, not only keeping his word — a rare enough thing for a politician — but…
30 CommentsCategory: Privacy and self ownership
Owning our own information and telling Big Brother to get lost
That’s the answer. The question (asked on X by a podcaster and conveyed to me by Bill St. Clair) was, “Is Claire Wolfe still alive?” Bill told the inquirer that I was not only alive but still operating and posting on The Living Freedom Forums. Then he politely suggested to me that I should inform the wider world. So here’s “proof of life,” as Bill put it, and I hope to remain among the living for a long time to come. Since I’m here to announce the (hopefully) welcome news, I’ll take the opportunity to ramble a bit. —– The…
42 CommentsLast night I awoke at midnight and spent the next three hours skimming along the edge of sleep. Instead of discoursing with the demons that like to alight in those hours, I drifted in love and beauty. From a cocoon of comfort, my minds eye watched colors and shapes. Golden columns rose and dissolved. Waves of aqua and emerald and pink flowed and ebbed. Figures twisted into view before fading into mist. I understood that I was experiencing a history of art. Not viewing art from afar. Not learning about it academically, but being in art as its been created…
56 Comments(H/T Brad; from the early days of the convoy, but forever heartening) The aristos are scared. Question is: Are they scared enough? That is, do they finally realize it’s time — and past time — to heed the pleas of the peasants? Answer (of course): No. Sure, some of the lower level, more directly accountable ones — provincial and state governors — are grudgingly getting the message. (Thank you, Canadian truckers.) At higher levels, they still seem to think, as aristos always think, that a vigorous ass-kicking or a handy war will put an end to the uppitiness and afterward…
46 CommentsA friend of mine works in a field that’s on the cutting edge of the cutting edge. He’s a problem-solving genius and his reputation has taken him all over the world. This cutting edge business (like any industry) utilizes many types of experts. Some are experts in exciting new tech. My friend’s expertise, OTOH, happens to be in a specialty that, while absolutely vital, is old tech. It’s not “sexy.” Even the big schools associated with it no longer teach it. Lots of brilliant young people are never learning it even on a theoretical level, and have no idea it…
39 CommentsI’ve never been one for sentimentality or its fraternal twin, nostalgia. I’m a firm believer that the good old days were never all that good. Boomers tend to remember Davy Crockett hats, “Leave it to Beaver,” and how well-scrubbed and obedient children (allegedly) were in the 1950s while forgetting how their entire generation suffered through constant fear of being nuked to a crisp (“Duck and cover,” as if that would help anybody). Eighties kids no doubt miss big hair, big metal, and MTV “when it was the real thing” while glossing over the AIDS epidemic. Children of the seventies? Well,…
18 CommentsThe other day I witnessed a conversation I could never have imagined. Picture two successful professionals, thoroughly decent people, respected (perhaps even revered) in their fields. Intelligent, moderate individuals, but outside what was once the political mainstream. They relax over glasses of wine, discussing a certain prominent “public health expert.” They discuss whether prison is too good for said expert, or whether dragging him behind a mule cart, drawing, castrating, quartering, and placing his head on a pike in a public square is more appropriate. And no, they hadn’t had that much wine. Both were embarrassed by their own words.…
91 CommentsOne October day in 1844, thousands of followers of William Miller awaited the return of Jesus in glory and their own glorious ascension to heaven. The non-event that followed became known as The Great Disappointment. It didn’t help that the whole non-believing world was laughing their asses off while the devastated Millerites grieved and tried to recoup. You’d think something called The Great Disappointment would have been the end of the Millerite cult. But only if you underestimate the self-justifying irrationality of human beings. Sure, some walked away. But many who walked simply became True Believers in a different sect…
19 CommentsComments on last week’s blog got me down. Between the vociferous guy who wanted the rest of us to start shooting (but who himself was best at standing on the sidelines verbally sniping) and the vociferous guy who complained that our brave, newfound allies in resisting government diktats weren’t philosophically pure enough for him, I despaired. Oh, as always there were also great comments — and a lot of them. But it’s like when your day goes 90% wonderful but is 10% overrun by a**holes … well, in that case it’s 100% overrun by a**holes. You don’t go home from…
31 CommentsI’m pausing the “Our job” series to talk about what’s going on now, which is so bad it might become good. —– When you thought about your line in the sand I’ll bet you never thought about this. I bet you thought about gun confiscation or internment camps or invasion by blue-helmeted “peacekeepers.” Maybe you believed your line in the sand would be reached if your religion was outlawed or your son or daughter was drafted to fight in one of the empire’s future foreign wars. Your personal line in the sand could be any one, or two, or three…
50 Comments