There is no such thing as a recovering political junkie. At least not in my house. Here at Mo Saoirse Hermitage, the entire household (with the exception of Ava-dog and the cat) have had their eyes glued to news screens even through days of post-election existential emptiness (“Biden has gained 34 new v*tes over Trump in Pencaronevia, while Trump’s lead in North Georgvania has slipped from 1.6662 percentage points to 1.6661!”). Why a free-market anarchist and small-town Outlaw should be so engaged with Stupid National Politics, I can’t explain. But so it is. And you know, the news isn’t all…
38 CommentsLiving Freedom Posts
I’ve come to realize that this (now darned-near mythical) blog post I’ve been promising, “In Praise of Men,” is a book, not an essay. And it’s a book I’m not going to write. So I’ll to try doing what I can in a series of posts. Today I’ll just state my premises and lay some groundwork. This step has been a stumbling block for me and I need to get it done so I can move ahead. Let’s get some basics down on pixels. Premise #1: BIOLOGY Sex is biological and overwhelmingly binary. Are there exceptions? Of course, and they…
31 CommentsYes, yes, I’m still working on “In Praise of Men.” Getting closer all the time. But meanwhile, life and blogging go on, however haltingly. And the topic of most immediate urgency is getting ready for what could potentially be a nasty winter. —– So Paratus, the holiday for preparedness, was in September (thank you, Commander Zero). But prepping is forever. Winter preps are vital this year. Because it’s 2020. And if that’s not explanation enough, 2021 is looming and shows no signs of being better. If the combined upcoming COVID-flu season is everything politicians and the media wish it to…
16 CommentsStill working on the rumored blog post “In Praise of Men.” I actually began putting words on pixels today, then decided I needed to consult with an actual male person. (Not on how I should write it, but about things going on in his head.) Might be a few days on that, as he currently has a LOT going on in his head. And his time. And every other part of his life. Meanwhile I thought I’d pop in and bitch. Or better yet, give you, my stalwart (and oh-so-patient) readers a chance to bitch. My question is this: Do…
32 CommentsI’ve never worked for months on a blog post before. I’ve been working on one since early summer. I have the title. It’s “In Praise of Men.” That’s been so since the beginning. But writing such a thing is complicated, both because of the strange age we’re in, when to be male is to be eeeeeeevil, and because of my own background. Men (as even men are likely to agree) are simpler creatures than women. But there is nothing simple in relations between the sexes and there is nothing — nothing, nothing — simple about being a man in a…
21 CommentsA small sign of the times The town at the foot of the hill had a crisis last week. It didn’t have to be a crisis. It began as a mere glitch — human caused, but easily human reparable, too. The city expected a contractor to notify residents of several streets about a planned water outage. The contractor didn’t do it. When residents quite naturally began contacting city hall (aka the water company), city mucky-mucks proceeded to make things infinitely worse. They spent an hour pointing fingers (“It’s the contractor’s fault! We have nothing to do with it! They lied…
62 CommentsI’m sorry for going so long without posting. I didn’t intend to, but for weeks every time I’ve thought of blogging, I’ve been overwhelmed with disgust. If my disgust were only about politics and the current woeful state of the world, I’d blog my way through that. That’s mere business as usual. Politics and its attendant idiocies, however, are only a minor component of the bile that rises in my soul. The much larger component of my disgust continues to be triggered by the depleted and degraded state of freedom in the minds of so many who ought to be…
27 CommentsThe “left” wants somehow to unite us all behind ideas that are inherently divisive. (“My life matters more than your life,” “I belong to more victim classes than you do,” and “If you don’t think exactly what I happen to think today, you’re evil and should die.”) A growing faction on the “right” (including, apparently, former quasi-pseudo libertarian Peter Thiel), wants to unite us all behind big-government nationalism. Here’s my bet: neither plan will fly, at least not outside of academia, think tanks, and their devotees. The only thing that will ever unite millions in the foreseeable future is a…
20 Comments… because I’ve been dismayed by the number of people, even here, who’ve begun substituting hostility, authoritarianism, and non-sequiturs for actual thought and discussion. There’s no point talking to people who are driven by propaganda, fear, or rage. All you can do — at least all I can do — is wait it out. This, the Time of Covid, is exactly like the months after 9/11. As then, some of the fearful and propagandized will be permanently changed and will drift into new philosophical or political realms where they’ll remain. They may give up philosophy or skepticism altogether in favor…
31 CommentsSilver writing. Hypoxia is a diminished supply of oxygen to the body. I’ve been trained about hypoxia – recognizing it, the dangers, contributing factors.
Hypoxia is extremely dangerous because it makes most people feel happy and overconfident. They act as if they are drunk. They deny that there is any problem, even as they lose the ability to perform simple tasks.
This video shows a pilot undergoing hypoxia training. He’s in a chamber where the pressure can be lowered to simulate various altitudes. The training simulates an explosive decompression, and while it doesn’t specify the simulated altitude, it’s above 26,000 feet.
64 Comments