I try not to be paranoid. I really do. I laugh at Alex Jones-style alarms and snort haughtily when I see that a story originates with InfoWars. I believe myself to be above all that. I really do. I consider much alarmist “news” to be on par with reports that lizard-brained aliens are secretly running the country. (Human-brained aliens are quite sufficiently awful, thank you.) But then there are times …
Category: Resistance
Sometimes you need to say “no” to Big Brother
So you still don’t think Google Glass is creepy? Well how ’bout when New York City cops are testing it? (H/T MJR) “The repentant informant.” This article on liberty’s former friend Stacy Litz was published last year. The reporter (whose name really, truly is Jason Nark) interviewed me but forgot to tell me when the story hit, which is why I’m late with the news. I’m not quoted, but he does reference the booklet the Commentariat collaborated on: Rats! So pat yourselves on the back. You’re famous. 🙂 Cops do the usual no-knock dawn raid. On the usual word of…
Watched the SuperBowl last night. First football game I’ve seen in 20 years. But I used to love pro football and with “my” Seahawks playing (not to mention this being the Stoner Bowl), I had to tune in on the computer. Funny how the game seemed pre-ordained to go the Seahawks way from its first seconds. The instant that flubbed first snap flew over Peyton Manning’s head and the ‘Hawks fell on it for a safety just 12 seconds into the game (earliest score ever in a SuperBowl), the Broncos seemed out of focus, off their game — and doomed.…
So, do you think Phil Zimmerman’s Blackphone will become the smartphone of smart people? Or …? It could become a crime in Washington state to help the NSA. Government contractors or workers providing electricity or water to an agency violating the Fourth Amendment would be criminals. (They ought to do this in Utah, where that hellish data center gobbles millions of gallons of precious dry-state water.) H/T PT Another of the many ways in which Obamacare is helping. Clever or creepy? Yeah, depends on who (or which alphabet soupers) get their hands on these snake, worm, and otherwise creepy-crawly robots.…
This is so short and so delightful I’m reprinting it in full. If you wrote this and object to my reprint, please let me know. It’s been getting around a lot. —– Empathy Test By George R. Shirer The assessor is attractive in a button-down kind of way. Blonde hair, pink jumpsuit, digital makeup set to minimal. Her face is a sculpt, something from one of the mid-level catalogues. Attractive, but not too attractive. The same face you see on a thousand other people. Only her eyes, brown and liquid, are original. “You failed your empathy test, Mr. Clawford.” Her…
I can tell you what living boldly is not.
Living boldly is not flinging yourself randomly at every injustice or every cause. That may be bold. But it ain’t livin’. And it’s not effective at creating freedom. (To paraphrase the great trickster Abbie Hoffman: Random action produces random results: Why waste even a rock?.)
Living boldly is not being obedient while waving your arms and ranting about how bad everything’s getting. (Not even if you rant really, really forcefully and get lots of hits on your blog and have lots of followers on Twitter.)
Living boldly is not flipping off cops just to show you’re brave and defiant.
Living boldly is also not being forever strong and fearless. You can live boldly and still have weak moments, emotional meltdowns, failures, self-doubts and plenty of 3:00 a.m. fears for the future. (Ask me how I know.) Living boldly is what you do in spite of all that.
Living boldly is creating your own life in your own way, even if you’re depressed, discouraged, defeated, and downtrodden. Even if you fear — or are downright dead-solid certain — that the whole damn world is doomed.
Like the idea of states banding together to defy federal gun laws. And punish fed agents. Yeah, yeah. I know this doesn’t meet anybody’s anarcho-purity standards. Still … intriguing.
David Gross (a longtime reader and quiet contributor to this and my earlier blog) has just published his new book on successful tactics for tax resistance. I read an early draft of the book and contributed a blurb. I haven’t yet had a chance to read his final edit. The draft I saw was primarily directed toward groups who may use, or contemplate using, tax resistance as a form of protest. But even us lone wolves can take heart, inspiration, and ideas from the many, many historic examples of successful tax resistance campaigns Gross writes about. His book is a…
You wonderful people. You’ve seen me Definitely Not At My Best twice just since New Year. And … well, you wonderful people. That’s all I can say right now. There will be more soon on that and other things. But for now … on with the blogging, the linkage, the trivia, and the dogs … Um. Well. On the topic of that E.C. I so recently maundered about: How to deal with an existential crisis. Illustrated, yet. Thug sues Nike for not posting a warning on its shoes that they could be dangerous if used for face-stomping. Things you never…
This is a companion piece to Tuesday’s “Live deliberately.” Part I defines the problem. Part II is a challenge to become the solution.
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Twenty years ago, when the Internet was barely a thing, Jeffrey R. Snyder set Fidonet and Usenet groups afire with his essay, “A Nation of Cowards.”
Snyder demolished the then-common advice, “Don’t resist criminals. Just give them what they want. Your life is more valuable than your property.” He wrote in no uncertain terms that meek submission diminishes and devalues life. And personal character. And culture. He went on to nail virtually all “gun control” as hokum. Elitist hokum. Deadly hokum.
The 9/11 hijackings (in which the majority of those airline passengers fatally followed recommendations not to resist) put an exclamation point on Snyder’s message about handling criminals. Twenty years of gun-rights activism wrote Snyder’s message in bold and underlined it.
Today, violent freelance crime is down and every crook with half a brain knows that he may lose the other half to an armed homeowner, c-store clerk, or concealed-carrying pedestrian.
Yet more than ever, we are a nation of cowards.