When I lived in civilization I used to like to go to plays and ballets and modern dance performances (Pilobolus! Alvin Ailey!) and even the occasional opera or symphony. Those days are long past. Remote living + elective poverty + a growing loathing of cities and crowds washed away my connections to “culture.” But now, although I’m no closer to or more fond of cities than ever, I have a new love (and old friend) in my life. I’ve been searching for a proper screen name for him and I think I’ll go for Rhett, after Rhett Butler. Rhett has…
27 CommentsLiving Freedom Posts
Carl “Bear” Bussjaeger is a long-time freedomista. He has his own blog. He writes for The Zelman Partisans. And he was instrumental (along with Bill St. Clair) in getting this site and its sister site online and working out their bugs. About two months ago, gruesome disaster struck — followed by equally gruesome medical bills. Bear is now selling possessions to cover as much as he can of those bills. First up: an AR pattern rifle and gear. Unfortunately, this is for local pick-up in Georgia only. If you’re not near there, please spread the word to gun-folk friends who…
4 CommentsWell, 2021 hadn’t even died its well-deserved death before the CDC basically created a whole new class of the unvaxxed insufficiently vaxxed. I wonder how many of the previously “fully vaxxed” will now be fed up enough to join the resistance? (I’m thinking of you, Neighbor J and Furrydoc.) In any case, totalitarianism marches on, this time on the excuse of a disease that’s generally been described as a bad cold. Does anybody doubt that 2022 — if it doesn’t bring more outright and serious rebellion from We the People — will bring us vaccine passports and harsher restrictions on…
128 CommentsBy special request — and because we could all use a little extra cheer at the dark days of this ChrismaKwanzaaHannukahYule season — I present the amazing doings of the newest member of our tribe, Trixie the Tailless Wonderdog. She climbs trees! She lies on beds of hot coals! Don’t worry; we didn’t let her stay in the fireplace very long. But she’s entranced by fire and pouts if we put up the screen between her and the flames. She lifts colossal weights! She hunts big game at great peril! Squirrels. She tracks squirrels to their lairs, risking either falling…
18 CommentsHave you heard of the misery index? (Stick with me; this does have to do with the very real violence we face.) Very simple: The misery index is the rate of inflation added to the rate of unemployment. It was invented by one of LBJ’s economists back in the 1960s and designed as an imprecise indicator of how Average Joe and Average Josie are feeling at any given time. The lower, the better. Index is 2.97? Happy people, happy country. That, BTW, is the lowest it’s ever estimated to have been, (presumably retroactively calculated) for 1953. Index is 21.98? Unhappy…
53 CommentsMike Hendrix, proprietor of the Cold Fury blog, is in dire straits in an ICU and losing limbs as we speak. He could yet lose his life. He is a great guy who runs a great blog. His physical condition is dire, and by the time all this is done, so will his medical bills be. Please help him if you can. The GoFundMe is here. The tragic, and ongoing, story can be found in several places including the GoFundMe page, but I got it from Bayou Renaissance Man. Good luck, Mike (my fellow Ravenclaw). Live long and prosper. UPDATE:…
7 CommentsThe other day I witnessed a conversation I could never have imagined. Picture two successful professionals, thoroughly decent people, respected (perhaps even revered) in their fields. Intelligent, moderate individuals, but outside what was once the political mainstream. They relax over glasses of wine, discussing a certain prominent “public health expert.” They discuss whether prison is too good for said expert, or whether dragging him behind a mule cart, drawing, castrating, quartering, and placing his head on a pike in a public square is more appropriate. And no, they hadn’t had that much wine. Both were embarrassed by their own words.…
91 CommentsYou can avoid reality, but you can’t avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. — Ayn Rand(ish) —– In what I hope (no doubt in vain) is peak reality-avoidance, the British Evening Standard has written an article attributing the dramatic rise in youthful heart problems to a new psychological malady, Post-Pandemic Stress Disorder. Suddenly, in 2021 — notably not in 2020, the first really traumatic year of the permademic — previously healthy young men are becoming so freaked out over COVID that they’re increasing the UK’s rate of heart problems by nearly five percent. The article doesn’t mention — not even…
43 CommentsOne October day in 1844, thousands of followers of William Miller awaited the return of Jesus in glory and their own glorious ascension to heaven. The non-event that followed became known as The Great Disappointment. It didn’t help that the whole non-believing world was laughing their asses off while the devastated Millerites grieved and tried to recoup. You’d think something called The Great Disappointment would have been the end of the Millerite cult. But only if you underestimate the self-justifying irrationality of human beings. Sure, some walked away. But many who walked simply became True Believers in a different sect…
19 CommentsComments on last week’s blog got me down. Between the vociferous guy who wanted the rest of us to start shooting (but who himself was best at standing on the sidelines verbally sniping) and the vociferous guy who complained that our brave, newfound allies in resisting government diktats weren’t philosophically pure enough for him, I despaired. Oh, as always there were also great comments — and a lot of them. But it’s like when your day goes 90% wonderful but is 10% overrun by a**holes … well, in that case it’s 100% overrun by a**holes. You don’t go home from…
31 Comments