As you know, I've been very inconsistent in my posting for the last....well... time. I blame it on quitting smoking. Which I did two years ago next month. June 14 to be precise.
No need to tell me how great it is that I quit. Blah, blah, blah. I hear it all the time, and it's just a bore.
It wasn't hard. I just stopped one day. Which was really, REALLY weird because for the last decade at least, as the war drums against smoking and smokers got louder and closer...I got more militant and angrier in defense of people who choose to smoke.
In fact, I still am. I don't mind smoking around me. I can't stand assholes who flap their hands around their faces, objecting to smoke while outside 20 feet from some poor sucker who just lit up.
Then one day, I knew I had to stop. Cause, you know, it was killing me.
Literally.
I don't have lung cancer yet. Which is handy. But I won't be running any marathons anytime soon. (Yeah...like I'd do that anyway...nevertheless, it would be nice to imagine one could if one wished. Such is the wages of vice.)
Getting back to the point..quitting smoking made me unable to concentrate, depressed, lonely, unhappy, unmotivated, and of course, hungry.
Which made me fat.
Which made me depressed, lonely, unhappy and unmotivated.
So it's been a really fun two years.
One of the things I couldn't concentrate on was politics...which is enough to make you depressed, unhappy and suicidal...none of which I was willing to invite into my already depressed, lonely, unhappy, unmotivated life during that period.
But after two years...I think I might be coming out of the worst of it. Yeah...I know. They tell you that in a couple of months, you feel great!
They lie.
Or maybe they're talking about people who only smoked for 20 years. Fucking amateurs.
I smoked for 46 (and loved every cigarette), so it was a little harder. Until two years ago...I had NEVER had an adult brain NOT on nicotine. It's a serious transition, man.
The problem now? What to do! Everything has gotten worse since I quit paying attention. And I'm seriously behind the Eight Ball. Øbama has trashed the country. The Demo-crats are more like a Demo-lition team...doing everything they can to destroy what the Founders established, and generations of Americans have built.
The question is...is it possible to save it...or is it time to help it collapse so we can start the rebuilding sooner....and kick the shit out of the assholes that brought it down around our heads?
Oh....I have to blame Republicans too. I don't want to, but honesty requires it.
A pox on both their houses.
I am going to register Libertarian. As pathetic as that party is, in terms of power...at least they are honest. Like Ron Paul. Maybe a little crazy, but with true-blue integrity. And you know what...I've come to believe that that's more important than Money, Status or Power...the evil troika that has done our country in.
I just read "The Freedom Outlaw's Handbook: 179 Things To Do Until the Revolution" by Claire Wolfe.
She's very motivational. You know her. She's the one who said, "It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."
I love her.
She's a radical freedom junkie, who mostly encourages us to drop out of the system as much as possible to preserve our freedom by ceasing dependency on government.
Some of her suggestions are pretty out-there...and many I'm just flat unwilling to do. But one of the important things in the book is that it encourages one to THINK free. She says that freedom is ATTITUDE. And she's right.
She's the one who taught me that being a "good citizen" is bad...and being a "free citizen" is good. Think about it. The tyrant relies on you to police your own actions...being a "good citizen" means that you will follow the rules and regulations....because they are rules and regulations.
She taught me the difference between mala in se and mala prohibita and it is the fundamental distinction from which political freedom comes.
Mala in se is that which is bad in and of itself, like murder, rape, child-molestation.
Mala prohibita is that which is bad because it is prohibited, like walking on the grass, smoking in a state park, or carrying a concealed weapon without a government permit.
In short, mala in se defines a moral code, and mala prohibita defines a tyrants code.
Mala in se is "common" or "natural" law, prohibiting things that are universally accepted as evil.
Mala prohibita is regulatory law - prohibiting things that are not bad in and of themselves, but just what some politician wants to stop you from doing for his own controlling, power-hungry reasons.
My dear Claire suggests we stop voluntarily and blindly obeying laws that are mala prohibita. Indeed she suggests we violate them regularly...as often as possible—with joy and an triumphant grin—and get used to the freedom such rebellion awakens in our souls.
Stop being "Good Citizens"obeying the dictates of the Tyrant/Politician/Bureaucracy.
Start being "Free Citizens" instead.
Freedom is a state of mind.
I'm moving to that State.
The Gunslinger
Joebama American citizens 2024 print
9 months ago
I still smoke Gunny but the news is still, more often than not, depressing. Though the TEA party is making inroads to displace establishment Republicans, it is taking time we may not have, and has experienced its share of betrayals. What then to do?
ReplyDeleteI have not read Claire Wolf but I'll put that on my reading list. That being said however, I'm trying to determine how civil disobedience of laws that are mala prohibita does anything to break the grip of the statist tyranny. If there is joy in breaking trivial laws just to know you broke them, it escapes me. It just seems frivoluos.
Becoming more independent of government does have its rewards, but the leeches will still be there and always demanding more. Dropping out ala Atlas Shrugs will become more difficult as the leeches demand more tyrannical government to get more of what they want. Besides, it takes a certain amount of financial independence to say I'm not playing their game anymore.
There are two ways I know of to bring down a government short of "shooting the bastards", but what will take its place? Either way bankrupts government, but the dynamics get tricky. Let me see what Claire has to say first before I say anymore.
Again, Claire is radical, one of her ideas is to reduce your income to the point that you don't have to pay taxes...that the government can't take your suff...'cause you don't have anything left for them to take.
DeleteNot for everyone, obviously.
I think her point is not that you can break the grip of the statist tyranny all alone by small acts of rebellion...but that 1) you maintain you own sense of being a free individual in the face of tyranny, and that's a very good thing, and 2) if lots of people start to do it, it will eventually gum up the works badly enough that the system fails.
Maybe it's a pipe dream, but the alternative is to keep working within the system—and all you get is more system!
So Claire is a radical. What did Goldwater say about extremism in defense of liberty? Her reasoning, as you explain it fits one strategy to bankrupt government by cutting off its income, to which they respond with more and higher taxes. The other strategy, known as Cloward-Piven is to bankrupt government through massive entitlements. Both strategies can be mutually reinforcing. So we bankrupt government, then what? This is where the dynamics get dangerous.
DeleteAn entrenched government with an army of well compensated bureaucrats and politicians will defend their lifestyle with increasing brutality as the economy is ravaged by shortages and inflation. This is a pattern that has no history to follow. It is not like the Weimar Republic.
I'm just thinking out loud but I'll still check out the book.
The real question is: Will the Military defend the Politicians or the People (the Constitution)?
DeleteOn that, everything depends.
Pols and Bureaucrats can "defend" their lifestyle all they want...but without the Military, it's all just blowhard hot air.
(Police departments will have very localized impact, even if they opt to remain the Imperial State's Jackboot Enforcers.)
We could end up with a Military coup...which I hope would be temporary while we organized a new civilian Constitutional government. And I think there would be hope for that. If the Military stepped in to defend the Constitution and The People it obviously would demonstrate a loyalty to it and a belief in it.
Option 2 is nasty....the Pols/Bureaucrats with the backing the of Army...creating the Imperial State.
That leaves us as rebels against the Empire. Not quite how I envisioned my golden years...but what the hell. Might as well go out in a blaze of glory defending freedom...and fighting to insure it to the next generation.
Even if the best we can do is bequeath them the fight...and instill in them the REASON that fighting for freedom is worthwhile, I think we will have won. And our lives, losses and deaths will not have been in vain.
The real question is: Will the Military defend the Politicians or the People (the Constitution)?
DeleteOn that, everything depends.
Pols and Bureaucrats can "defend" their lifestyle all they want...but without the Military, it's all just blowhard hot air.
(Police departments will have very localized impact, even if they opt to remain the Imperial State's Jackboot Enforcers.)
We could end up with a Military coup...which I hope would be temporary while we organized a new civilian Constitutional government. And I think there would be hope for that. If the Military stepped in to defend the Constitution and The People it obviously would demonstrate a loyalty to it and a belief in it.
Option 2 is nasty....the Pols/Bureaucrats with the backing the of Army...creating the Imperial State.
That leaves us as rebels against the Empire. Not quite how I envisioned my golden years...but what the hell. Might as well go out in a blaze of glory defending freedom...and fighting to insure it to the next generation.
Even if the best we can do is bequeath them the fight...and instill in them the REASON that fighting for freedom is worthwhile, I think we will have won. And our lives, losses and deaths will not have been in vain.
It's so difficult to tell how bankrupting government will work out because there is no historical parallel. But keep a few things in mind.
DeleteIf government goes bankrupt, the military does not get paid. If that goes on long enough, it has historically led to mutiny, but that was in monarchies and empires where the soldiers felt their rulers had abandoned them. How would that work for a semi-constitutional and faltering republic?
The militiary, if Obama is re-elected, will undergo even more cuts as the bureaucracy continues to grow and arm. Don't forget about Obama's civilian security force which is to be as strong and well armed as the military. Civilian security force? Loyal to who?
The dynamics become more complicated if Mitt Romney is elected. I have already accepted as fact that he will not end the Imperial State but just tidy it up a bit. What if that government goes bankrupt?
This is like trying to write a script for a movie with ump-teen alternate paths and endings.
If it comes down to a fight, count me in. I'll send my wife back to Brazil. If it comes down to massive civil disobedience, arrest and jail, I'm in, but again I want to spare my wife as much difficulty as possible. I reconciled with God long ago and my fate is in His hands. Whatever He has planned is fine with me.
We need some laughs Gunny so I hope you don't mind that I'm posting this little diddy I started - sung to the tune of the Ballad of Davy Crockett:
DeleteBorn in a hospital in Mombasa,
an east coast city in Af-ree-ka,
raised in Kenya so he knew his Pa
and told by his mom he would go far.
Barack Hussein Obama, King of A-meri-ka.
Barack Hussein Obama, Son of Af-ree-ka.
Made him a trip to Indonesia,
Got himself a brand new Pa,
learned to read the latest fatwa
and changed to Sotero from O-ba-ma.
Barack Hussein Obama, King of A-meri-ka.
Barack Hussein Obama, writing a new fatwa.
Got him a passport and off again
to the Muslim land of Pakistan
studied up on Is-a-lam
and started making his big plan.
Barack Hussein Obama, King of A-meri-ka.
Barack Hussein Obama, making them suf-fa.
Off to America he did go
with Islamic seeds for him to sow
but met him commie on the road
and dropped Sotero to be the Big O.
Barack Hussein Obama, King of A-meri-ka.
Barack Hussein Obama, making them suf-fa.
I may finish it one day.
This is GREAT! I could totally hear the tune in my head. I just read a pretty good argument that it was not the "born in Kenya" promotion by his publisher that was the lie...but the newer manufactured "born in Hawaii" that was—so he would qualify to run for POTUS.
DeleteIt's hard to know for sure. But without further info, it does seem sensible. Either way, he's proved to be a big, fat, liar whenever it's good for his career. And, frankly, that's bad enough.
The problem is that our critical mass, those who value freedom over slavery, have been slowly reduced by enemies domestic as we looked for enemies foreign. Our schools were the first to go, now we have generations of leftists who were bred right here in our institutes of learning.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't get into this mess all of a sudden, and we aren't going to fix it that way either. We have to start small, at the local level, and the first step on that path is to convince our own children that freedom, even though it is scary, is preferable to the safety of slavery.
I quit smoking a couple of years ago myself, but I had incentive.
Shakespeare said, "First kill all the lawyers". I'm tempted to substitute "teachers" as the first in a list of things necessary to save the nation.
DeleteCongrats on quitting. (All I'm gonna say. I hate all the fawning about it I usually get, like I did something heroic or saintly. Just pisses me off. )
Oh....I had incentive too: Breathing.
Delete:-)
I'm an advocate of home schooling, which is what we did for my step son. He knows a hell of a lot more about American history and our Founders than most high school graduates, and my step son isn't even a citizen yet (soon). He's a conservative too.
DeleteI always thought that unless conservatives offered an alternative to public education, the battle could never be won. Home schooling is fine but won't work for many parents where both must work thanks to liberals wrecking the economy. Private schools funded by conservatives is a start and perhaps pilots in several conservative friendly states would give that a good launching.
One of the ideas that has been floated is a voucher program that lets parents take their kids out of failing schools and put them into other schools that are better. It keeps getting shot down. Racism, don't you know.
DeleteHell, I'd be happy if they would just let me deduct the cost of my son's tuition from my income tax.
I don't think vouchers will go anywhere because that would amount to government funding the competition. My thought was to take a moderate size southern city and start a private school system to compete in parallel with the public schools. It would need outside financial support at first. If it draws students away from public schools, they will eventually be forced to reduce their budgets and consequently lower tax rates. Those tax reductions might allow parents to start picking up tuition costs gradually until the schools are self-sustaining.
ReplyDeleteThese schools would have to be a first class, both educationally and operationally. It's a small start but intended as a pilot.
How about a simple cooperative? A few families get together, with some of the parents running a small school, to which the parents of the other students contribute.
ReplyDeleteSort of like residential daycare....but instead of stopping when the kids go to school, continuing through their high school years.
Remember the single room schoolhouse?? My dad actually went to one, and he got a GREAT education.
I'm in favor of ANYTHING that will provide a real education and break the government indoctrination gulag called "public schools." I suppose I need to do some research and see what efforts are already underway aside from home schooling.
Delete