Living Freedom

Reflections on an un-conventionally conventional summer

Published July 26, 2016 2:08 am by Claire

Did you hear the one about the DNC apologizing to Bernie Sanders for ~~torpedoeing his entire campaign~~ “remarks made over email”?

It had to be a joke because they said, “These comments do not reflect the values of the DNC or our steadfast commitment to neutrality during the nominating process.”

Laugh a minute, those DNC flaks. ‘Cause you know, when your chairthing and everybody else spends months plotting the demise of one candidate and the accession of another, it’s pretty obvious your steadfast commitment … isn’t.

But what the heck. Words don’t actually have to mean anything these days. And I’m sure all the bad things happened because “mistakes were made” and everybody now sincerely regrets “giving the appearance of wrongdoing.”

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9 Comments

Healey for Harbor

Published July 25, 2016 11:15 am by Claire

Joel wrote about it: When the law is whatever one person says it is there is no law. Local media covered the protest at the state house. You may have heard about it. But heck, it was all the way across the country from me. And in Massachusetts, where they make outrageous anti-gun diktats six times every day before breakfast. So normally I’d have blogged it only as a linkday blurb. But happens I know somebody who was there and he took these. BTW, for those for whom Boston lore is mere history, “Healey 4 Harbor” means dump the dictatorial…

11 Comments

On foundations, bitcoin, and whether or not my color sense melts your eyeballs :-)

Published July 22, 2016 8:05 am by Claire

Well, dear people, the blog-foundation fundraiser swooped past two milestones yesterday: we passed that halfway point and we made it to the one-year mark.

Thanks to you, Living Freedom blog will move to its own dedicated site. And barring unfortunate incidents with my Lamborghini, it will live for at the very least another year on what you have already donated.

Now, if we can make it all the way to goal, we’ll not only have two assured years of bloglife, but He Who Fakes It Well and I will add interesting new features that take advantage of the very best thing this blog has ever had to offer: you guys.

34 Comments

Thank you!

Published July 22, 2016 1:48 am by Claire

Thank you to Joel and to Wendy & Brad. They promoted the blog-foundation fundraiser in the last couple of days and sent a spate of new donations my way. Thanks also to those who became that spate — no matter where you arrived from or what inspired you. I’ve sent thanks to nearly everybody now — though I’m still missing a couple. So if you haven’t heard from me yet, keep on being patient. No way will I forget you. 🙂

2 Comments

Binoc talk

Published July 21, 2016 1:39 am by Claire

When I first posted about TZP’s newest store item last month, I said the new binoculars offered by The Zelman Partisans were “compact.”

At that point, I’d only seen a photo of them that had nothing in it to indicate scale. I was going by what the bossman, Brad Alpert, told me.

Between then and now I got my own pair. And now I know what “compact” means. When the package arrived, I thought something had to be wrong. The box was no bigger than a double pack of playing cards. A slightly thick pack of cigarettes. How could that be?

But look at this:

2 Comments

Midweek links

Published July 20, 2016 1:33 pm by Claire

I’m online more than expected this week — coordinating on the website-to-be, thanking wonderful donors, chasing rainbows, keeping ahead of runaway trucks. You know, the usual. So I figure you guys might as well benefit from some extra posting while I’m at it. Three years — or more — for possession of an eeeeevil BB gun? Only in New Jersey. I hope this poor schmuck’s fight goes well. (H/T DB) I’ve always admired Peter Theil. So libertarian. So out-of-the-box. So creatively cheeky. But I didn’t realize he was the founder and chief investor in the ghastly, government-sucking, privacy-raping, Tolkein-savaging Palantir.…

23 Comments

Robbie came home yesterday

Published July 19, 2016 2:00 pm by Claire

… not in his old familiar bully-boy form, of course. But he’s home. The only other time I had a private cremation (for Jasmine), my dog came home in a plain cardboard box. This time, Robbie arrived in this sweet little tin. An envelope claimed his certificate of cremation was within. Skeptical me figured the pet cemetery was offering confirmation that this little box really did contain the mortal remains of my bully boy. After all, the potential trust issues with cremation are enormous. How do I know this is really Robbie? Not somebody’s cat? Or a mixed-up batch of…

9 Comments

The stars aligning

Published July 19, 2016 1:44 pm by Claire

Um … some of you have noticed my email going haywire in the last 24 hours. Sorry ’bout that. But this bad thing is actually a good thing. It signals that, behind the scenes, where the geeks and gremlins dwell, I (and more importantly, my expert helper, who may prefer to be known as He Who Fakes It Well) am moving toward having a dedicated website for the Living Freedom blog and eventually other features. Do not ask me about technical details of what’s gone wrong. Not if you value your own sanity or mine. Just know that the Internet…

5 Comments

We, the Monkeywrench

Published July 18, 2016 8:37 am by Claire

Today a convention begins in chaos, amid cries of law and order, that classic killer of freedom. Today, the media mourns three blue lives, as if the murder of armed agents of the state is worse than decades of police murders of the less politically protected.

18 Comments

Thanks will be on their way

Published July 15, 2016 6:55 pm by Claire

I haven’t yet sent personal thanks to everyone who’s contributed to the blog-foundation fundraiser. I’m already deep in your debt and getting deeper. I hope to say better thank yous over the weekend. But for the moment, just know that you great souls are in my thoughts.

Living Freedom Posts