Soooo … less than a week after I think I’ve cleverly gotten rid of Mr. Freeloader … knock, knock. It’s Mr. Freeloader’s oldest son (about 10). “Can I borrow $5?” Last time, Dad definitely sent the kids over to “borrow” money. This time, it’s not at all clear whether Dad did the sending or the kid has just learned Dad’s lessons and decided on his own that neighbors might be bottomless pits of favors. All I know is it’s damned hard to look an adorable urchin in the face and say, “No, you can never borrow anything from me again…
66 CommentsLiving Freedom Posts
Fedgov issues “healthy meal standards” for schools that are so bureaucratic they threaten an actual healthy meal program (that even teaches kids about growing their own food). Don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that shows so profoundly how tangled and deep the relationships of snitches can be with both handlers and targets. Wish Mr. Aoki had agreed to talk more before he died. Not that anything he said would have been believable. The Tesla Museum: closer to becoming a reality thanks to a cartoonist’s crowdsourcery. Two cases in which dogs died in hot cars, apparently because air conditioning systems failed…
9 CommentsFor your edification entertainment and h-wording pleasure, here’s a post all about dogs and funny stuff. Pit bull adopts lion cub. Marines’ top dog, Chesty, gets a promotion after dissing Panetta’s pooch. (This one’s for a young friend of the blog who’s currently at Twenty-Nine Palms getting his butt shot off via CAX) Boy wants to give his dying service dog a taste of the world. Well (farggle) that! (H/T PT) “Four-legged reason to keep it together.” (Tip o’ hat to Jim Bovard.) Barkour! (H/T Jim B.) Finally, you heard this week about the octagenarian woman who, with the best…
9 CommentsThis year has been the busiest I’ve had since back in my 20s when, for a brief, delusional few years I worked like a Silicon Valley maniac. I don’t approve of work. I discourage all my friends from doing too much of it (and “too much” can have a pretty liberal definition). So how did I get into this state? I ask myself that all the time as I bang nails and computer keys (mercifully not at the same time, but as tired as I’ve gotten a few days this week there’s some chance I might mix up the two,…
13 CommentsJim Bovard reminded me of an anniversary I thought I’d never forget: twenty years ago today, the federal government murdered Vicki Weaver. Twenty years ago yesterday, federal marshals kicked off the Ruby Ridge seige by killing a boy and his dog. I was already a freedomista before the Weaver monstrosity, but that was my radicalization. I knew from the moment I saw the fuzzy helicopter images of the Weavers’ cabin on the little antenna-driven TV I had then that something was rotten, foul, unspeakable, and more wrong than words could express. While attending parts of the trial, I also got…
28 CommentsI was going to just drop this into the comment section in the original post about my freeloading neighbor. But I forgot that webmaster Oliver has closed comments on old blog entries to deter spammers. So anyhow, here’s an update. It’s been five weeks since Mr. Freeloader has asked for any favors. I assumed (and hoped) that guilt over not returning things was keeping him from asking for anything else. It may have been. But this morning at 10:00 he showed up again. When I opened the door he was standing there with his hands tented under his chin in…
23 CommentsThe world is so full of bad, dangerous, ugly things. Or just demanding things. There’s so much that we’re told we need to care about, that we’re supposed to think about, that we’re supposed to worry about. But sometimes … you just can’t. Or you’ve reached a state of life where you just don’t. Maybe someone needs to worry about them, but not you. Herewith I present a random selection of things that I might have worried about once but that just don’t get to me any more. Feel free to add your own “don’t worry, be happy” in the…
22 CommentsPregnant woman is glad to learn her rape was illegitimate. (Via The Onion, of course.) Bait and switch. And here I thought cats were sneaky! I still think those feddies are up to no good no matter how they dodge the issue. Obviously, I’m not the only one. Oliver Stone. Yay. Michael Moore. Boo. But together they make an excellent case for Julian Assange and free speech. Whatever Assange did or didn’t do in Sweden (and the whole case seems to be a preposterous he said/she said over actions that wouldn’t be considered a crime anywhere outside of Sweden), the…
7 CommentsI’ve just begun reading Wendy McElroy’s new book, The Art of Being Free: Politics versus the Everyman and Woman.* Not far into it yet but on the very first page of the preface, I found a great quotable. Y’all know this already, but it’s good to be reminded: Whatever happens within society — from the free market to war — begins with the individual who agrees or dissents. The individual says “yes” or “no” and it is this lever of consent at which freedom lives or dies. You have the right to say “yes” or “no” on matters concerning your…
15 CommentsOne of my neighbors got hauled off in handcuffs this afternoon — not an everyday occurrence, but not an unusual one ’round here. Cops followed him into his driveway, pried him out of his car, then set Officer K9 dancing around the vehicle. I was walking Ava past the place and feared that K9, a cute black lab, would get excited about the passing dog and get the poor guy in worse trouble than he was already in. But those drug dogs are focused. Fortunately this one didn’t alert to anything. Anyhow, it was only a three-cop bust. Small as…
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