❝Because LIBERTY demands more than black and white❞

blog entry list

❝Who Ya Gonna Call? Government or Ghostbusters?❞ by Foundation for Economic Education. Out of Frame
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“2020 was an ugly year and so far, 2021 doesn’t look any prettier.

With mass lockdowns still enacted, businesses failing by the hundreds of thousands, rising suicides and drug overdoses, and a pandemic that still has yet to subside, things may seem bleak.

Surprisingly, the 1984 comedy classic “Ghostbusters” can teach us a lot about the situation we’re stuck in and how we can get out of it.

Hint: More government is not the answer.”

❝How the Elite Trap You in Their Unfree World❞ by Joe Jarvis
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“The government is a big trap designed to keep people in its orbit.

You are supposed to work within the context the government provides to live your life, make money, and affect social change.

Or you're at least supposed to be too afraid of the government to step out of line.

But even rebelling against the government directly is part of the trap. It means you have accepted the importance of the government-- that it is capable of controlling you.

Harry Browne identified different "traps" like these that we fall into in his 1973 book, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World.”

❝They Say Scandinavia But They Mean Venezuela❞ by PragerU
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“What do Democratic Socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want America to look like? They say they want America to emulate Scandinavian countries like Denmark and Sweden. But do their proposed policies reflect that? Or do they point down a darker path? Debbie D’Souza, a native Venezuelan and political commentator, investigates.”

❝Wonder Woman Got It Wrong. Did You?❞ by Foundation for Economic Education. Out of Frame
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“Wonder Woman 1984 will be hitting theaters (or streaming services) soon. Gal Gadot was fantastic as Diana in 2017’s Wonder Woman, but… she didn’t get her worldview quite right. She had to learn a powerful lesson about how humanity actually works, and it’s time to explain what Wonder Woman got wrong and why it matters to you.

It’s tempting to oversimplify both great things and terrible things by assigning responsibility to one important player. Diana was convinced that Ares, the God of War, was the mastermind behind World War I. So, logically, killing Ares meant ending the war.

Unfortunately, Diana found out that it just doesn’t work that way.

And whether you’re celebrating or blaming Obama, Trump, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden or Jeff Bezos, chances are it’s a lot more complex than that. Understanding that it’s not as straightforward as ‘your guy = good, their guy = evil’ is something Diana had to come to terms with… and she almost got there.”

❝Disney and city of Anaheim putting pressure on state of California❞ by FreshBaked!
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“It sounds like Disney and the other theme parks in California have had enough. It sounds like they are starting to put some pressure on the state to get some REAL guidelines for reopening parks. CAPA, an organization representing California theme parks, has sent a formal request for these guidelines so that Disneyland and other parks can prepare for reopening...like nearly everything else in the country.”

❝The World Is Doing Better Than Ever. Here's Why You Never Hear About It.❞ by ReasonTV
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“A huge amount of progress has taken place that a lot of people just don't take into account, especially smart people who are attending to the real problems of the world," says Ronald Bailey, Reason's science correspondent and the coauthor, with Marian Tupy of HumanProgress.org, of Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know: And Many Others You Will Find Interesting.

For instance: In 1990, the World Bank estimated that about 1.9 billion people lived in "absolute poverty," defined as surviving on the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $1.90 a day. By 2018, the number had dropped to 650 million, even as global population increased. If current trends continue, less than 5 percent of the planet's population will be in absolute poverty by 2030.

Despite ongoing problems in the Amazon and elsewhere, forests are expanding on net across the planet. "If you look broadly across the entire globe," says Bailey, "what you find is forests have expanded since the 1980s to an area that's about the size of Alaska and Montana combined, basically 800,000 square miles of land." And the world is getting safer, too, especially for poor people. "The chance of a person dying from a natural catastrophe—earthquake, flood, drought, storm, wildfire, landslide, or epidemic—has declined by nearly 99 percent since the 1920s and 1930s," write Bailey and Tupy.

Other positive trends include continuing economic growth and rising living standards around the globe, far fewer food shortages and famines, a decline in the number of autocratic regimes, and a reduction in major armed conflicts.

Bailey tells Reason that this massive ongoing progress is largely ignored because politicians and the media have an interest in foregrounding bad news—and because human beings, at least in the past 200 years, tend to take progress for granted. He says that's a mistake. Progress is the result of implementing better ideas for organizing society. "Basically," he says, "the Enlightenment happened." With that came the rise of representative government, property rights and markets, and especially the free speech and open inquiry that are essential for technological and social innovation.


Ten Global Trends functions as both a counter-argument to doomsayers and a warning to the complacent. Progress, says Bailey, doesn't just happen. "What we're trying to do with this book is to not let people take it for granted," he says. "If we keep the same institutions that enabled this, then much more of it will happen in the future”

❝She's Politically Homeless. You Probably Are Too.❞ by ReasonTV
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“Bridget Phetasy on why Trump and Biden fail to inspire and how new media are reshaping politics.

Until the Republicans and Democrats start appealing to voters like her, they will have to eke out tighter and tighter victories by scaring partisans with insane claims. Despite that, Phetasy is optimistic because she thinks new media are staging a conversation that speaks to politically homeless independents.”

❝Cops, Karens, and the Coming Dystopia❞ by Foundation for Economic Education. Out of Frame
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“It's a scary time in America. In the last few weeks, we've seen police violence, protests, riots, snitch lines... all framed by the backdrop of a viral pandemic. It's not hard to see that a lot of people are hurting and angry. It's also not hard to understand why.


It's a formula for conflict involving cops, Karens, and the threat of a dismal, uncertain future -- and dystopian fiction has given us prescient previews.


With the coronavirus lockdowns and the fear they spread both causing massive economic and emotional damage in this country, Americans have been strained to the breaking point. This country's founding promises of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have every appearance of being betrayed. Three high-profile incidences of police (or police-adjacent) killings of unresisting people in just the month of May lit the fuse, but the explosion was primed and ready to go well before that.


The echoes of dystopia in today's reality are clearly heard. Movies like "V for Vendetta" and the genre of dystopian fiction in general are incredibly important to our way of thinking about and our reaction to the world around us. Here's why.”

❝The AUDACITY Of Oprah Winfrey - White Privilege??❞ by Lauren Chen
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“Oprah Winfrey is a self-made African American woman with a net worth of over $2 billion USD, and she has now taken the opinion that America is best viewed through the lens of a racial caste system. In this understand of America, even the poorest white still has innate white privilege and an advantage over other groups. But is her own success story possible in such an imagined world?”

❝The EARN IT Act Is a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing❞ by Decriminalize Sex Work
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“The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2020, also known as the EARN IT Act, is a dangerous bill introduced by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. If it becomes law, it will end private communication on the internet.

The EARN IT Act is part of a long history of using sex panics to expand state power. If we fall for it this time we may effectively end freedom of expression and open communication on the internet as we know it.

EARN IT threatens website providers’ and other intermediaries’ ability to provide end-to-end encrypted services. End-to-end encryption is critical to ensuring private communication and often personal safety.

Like so many of the save-the-children bills before it, EARN IT will not combat child sexual exploitation, but it will be the largest expansion of state surveillance powers in recent history, eliminating private communication on the internet."

Tip of the hat to The Honest Courtesan.

❝Dr. Stella Immanuel: We Don't Need to Die. There Are Treatments for COVID.❞ by PragerU
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“American doctors are holding a “White Coat Summit” in Washington, D.C. to address “a massive disinformation campaign” by the media about coronavirus.

Dr. Stella Immanuel has successfully treated hundreds of COVID-19 patients using Hydroxychloroquine. This broadcast went viral and Facebook DELETED this video off our page. This censorship is out of control!

Watch as Dr. Immanuel tackles the media's narrative about Hydroxychloroquine.”

❝Voice of Freedom❞ by Jim Kirk & The TM Singers
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“This song was played frequently on KVIL in Dallas back in 1980. Until today, I had feared that this song was lost. When i came across a recorded performance today I was elated! It is a wonderful song of patriotism that this country really needs! Please watch it and share it with your friends and help revive the song!”

❝Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness!❞ by John Stossel
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“This 4th of July, when you watch the fireworks, will you think about the Declaration of Independence?

We should. After all, the holiday is meant to honor the Declaration. It, and the Constitution it led to, help keep us free.”

❝The lost neighborhood under New York's Central Park❞ by Vox
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“If you’ve been to New York, you’ve probably visited Central Park. But there’s a part of its story you won't see.

It’s a story that goes back to the 1820s, when that part of New York was largely open countryside. Soon it became home to about 1,600 people. Among them was a predominantly black community that bought up affordable plots to build homes, churches and a school. It became known as Seneca Village. And when Irish and German immigrants moved in, it became a rare example at the time of an integrated neighborhood.

Everything changed on July 21, 1853. New York took control of the land to create what would become the first major landscaped park in the US -- they called it “The Central Park.”

In the Vox series Missing Chapter, Vox Senior Producer Ranjani Chakraborty revisits underreported and often overlooked moments from the past to give context to the present. Join her as she covers the histories that are often left out of our textbooks. Our first season tackles stories of racial injustice, political conflicts, even the hidden history of US medical experimentation.”

NeoWayland is a pagan philosopher, libertarian & part-time trouble maker. Keeping vigil, he shares beacons of individual freedom & responsibility while watching for threats to LIBERTY. There's more to life than just black & white.
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