I agree with Brian Keith’s fine analysis of the “carrots” and the “sticks” in the gun-rights movement. Except, of course, when one of the “carrots” actually goes over to the other side, pretends he can prevent what the enemy really wants, and collaborates by helping write tyrannical legislation. “The Oyster Shell Game.” The fedgov uses pseudoscience, lies, etc. to destroy a small business. From Ellendra in comments: have a “go to zero” month. (Kinda what I’ve been doing this month, except this family went much farther than I would. Maybe another month this summer …) “My Old Dead Drunk Self.”…
Category: Rural and small-town living
Life far from freeways, Starbucks, malls, and other benefits/distractions
Just catching up on a few overdue things …
Santa has been extremely, extremely good to me. Yeah, I know it seems sorta late to mention that, but not really. Apparently Santa hasn’t even finished with me yet.
What is time? It rules our lives, but who can define it? Here are 10 mind-blowing attempts at explaining time. (H/T ML) Dear Boston: Please say hell no to hosting the Olympics. Oh my. Such a problem to have! Washington state pot growers and retailers face a glut of legal product. (Tip o’ hat to jed.) Albuquerque cops finally facing murder charges for one of their most horrible caught-on-camera moments. In the rage over Islamist attacks on the west and western values, let us not forget that the worst and most helpless victims are Muslims and those who live in…
Every time I checked the weather between 4:00 p.m. yesterday and 7:00 a.m. today, it said current conditions here were “heavy rain mist.” Um … but that “mist” pounded so hard for all those hours that I couldn’t hear myself think. Sure enough, woke up this morning overlooking a river. The one house I can see across the former wetland below is in at least a foot of water (if not more) and my neighbors across the street (who are, like me, on a hill) are joking that they’re going to list their place for sale today as “waterfront property.”…
One Raymond, Washington, resident expresses his enthusiasm for the town’s new status:
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Washington state’s new recreational cannabis law is known for being a little less “wild westy” than Colorado’s. The Rocky Mountain High state rushed its implementation and has had some problems. Washington (which only legalized private liquor sales shortly before it legalized pot) went about things more slowly and bureaucratically.
You might think the above photo is terribly boring.
You would be wrong.
You’d know exactly how un-boring it is if you drove past that large blue building with the impressive air-handling equipment. The wafting aroma of cannabis will follow you for a quarter of a mile.
I recently made a little expedition to a town in Washington state that’s turning out to have quite a story. That building is part of it.
Okay, not hermitting yet. So here are some newslinks. Just vaporware so far, but Forbes thinks cops might soon add ‘Net-connected guns to their growing arsenal of monitoring gear. Nastiest political tactic of the year: siccing SWAT teams on your opponents and critics. A southerner apologizes for bigotry. But with the southerner being Fred Reed, things don’t quite come out the way northern liberals might wish. Nooz you can use (if you’re really into alternative housing): grain-bin homes. (I love the stuccoed one, but I’d like to know how you keep these things from getting hotter than the hinges of…
Not long ago, I rolled my eyes and said the tiny-house movement had jumped the shark. Then this morning, friend G. sent me to this site. And this 192-square-foot house, the Axia. While there’s a suspicious dearth of info (the link to TechDwell’s pdf brochure is 404), it’s a for-real thing. Portland, Oregon, is building a village of these for the homeless. If they’re as easy to build (and unbuild) as they say … well, that’s remarkable. On price, on tech, on a number of measures, they’d beat the usual overpriced tiny house hands down. (That is, if somebody doesn’t…
Going underground and keeping silent for 43 years after committing an illegal act of principle. This is a story of the “left.” But also the story of a bold & fascinating person and a creative life.
Thoreau famously went to Walden Pond to “live deliberately.” We know what that meant to him. What would living deliberately mean to you?