Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ John Seater ∙ public schools ∙ charter school ∙ Philadelphia ∙ Boys' Latin ∙ David Hardy ∙ taxes

Tags: Cherokee ∙ New Echota treaty ∙ 1835 ∙ House of Representatives ∙ Amerindian ∙ delegate ∙ tribe ∙ protectorate ∙ Wild Hunt

If the current "red flag law" proposals are any indication, almost all the criteria will certainly be political.

Tags: uniform rule of law ∙ exceptions ∙ exemptions

““By the democratic principles we espouse, government cannot have a right that citizens do not grant it. There are certain things that a person has no right to do. A person has no right to murder or rape another. Therefore, people cannot grant government authority to murder and rape. Similarly, no person has the right to forcibly take the property of one person in order to give it to another. Therefore, people cannot grant government authority to do the same thing. If I forcibly took property from one person, for any reason, most people would condemn it as theft, an immoral act. Theft or any other immoral act does not become moral because it is done by government acting on behalf of a consensus or majority vote just as murder or rape does not become a moral act simply because of a consensus or majority vote.””

— Walter E. Williams

Tags: Walter E. Williams ∙ government ∙ authority ∙ citizens ∙ murder ∙ rape ∙ theft ∙ consensus

Ocasio-Cortez’s Chief of Staff: Green New Deal About Changing Economy

““Saikat Chakrabarti, chief of staff for New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D.), said that the Green New Deal was not about the climate, but rather about tearing down the economy and building a new one, according to a report from The Washington Post.

"The interesting thing about the Green New Deal is it wasn't originally a climate thing at all," Chakrabarti said, according to the Post. "Do you guys think of it as a climate thing? Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing."

Chakrabarti made the comments during a meeting with Sam Ricketts, the climate director for presidential candidate Jay Inslee.””
     — Graham Piro

Tags: clipping ∙ guest content ∙ Graham Piro ∙ Mark Mills ∙ green new deal ∙ Nature ∙ Saikat Chakrabarti ∙ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ Sam Ricketts ∙ Jay Inslee ∙ economy ∙ climate change

❝❝People don't do good because of the law. People do good because it's the right thing to do. People choose good because it makes the World a little better than it was. It's the choice and the action that makes a responsible adult.❞❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ do good ∙ right thing ∙ choice ∙ action ∙ responsibility

““Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting “Jesus Christ,” so that it would read “A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;” the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.””

— Thomas Jefferson

Tags: Thomas Jefferson ∙ Jesus ∙ Jew ∙ Gentile ∙ Christian ∙ Muslim ∙ Hindu ∙ infidel

““It's interesting that the people who believe that throwing a milkshake in someone's face shouldn't be considered assault are often the same people who believe that 'saying things' should be.””

— Ricky Gervais, Tweeted at 5:04 AM - 30 Jun 2019

Tags: Ricky Gervais ∙ milkshake ∙ assault

Yahoo pulls the plug on fake profiles used by British police

Tags: maxims ∙ goverment

❝❝Let's break the myth that government is the first, best, and last solution.❞❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ goverment ∙ first ∙ best ∙ and last solution

❝❝When government gets involved, count on costs going up, quality going down, and availability diminishing.❞❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ government ∙ costs ∙ quality deteriotes ∙ availability

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ FreedomToons ∙ Foundation for Economic Education ∙ health insurance ∙ health care

Tags: video ∙ guest content ∙ Lauren Chen ∙ Alyssa Milano ∙ sex ∙ sex strike ∙ Georgia ∙ Ohio ∙ feminist ∙ abstinence ∙ conservatives

❝❝I don't think government is the first, best, and last solution.

I don't think the emergencies are really emergencies. As long as there is a mechanism for government to act outside the law, government will act outside the law.❞❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ first, best, and last solution ∙ emergencies

❝❝Private property.

Take me for example. I pay for the domain name registration and the web hosting on my sites. I choose what I put there. I am no more required to give someone else access than I am required to let that someone else sell used cars off my patio or erect a Decalogue monument on my front lawn.

Having said that, if your company advertises and has built it's services on allowing people to speak or write their mind, it's hypocritical to allow one viewpoint without others provided no one advocates harming others, taking or destroying property, or breaking the law.

---

Private property still applies.

They can't do it in my place and I can't do it in theirs.

---

The road is a commons. The shopping mall isn't. The portals to the internet are provided by your ISP, not the social media.

Social media is something you choose to use. As the old saying goes, if you are not paying for the product, you are the product. Or at least your data and your access to the "cool sites" is.❞❞

Tags: private property ∙ domain registration ∙ web hosting ∙ choose ∙ speak or write their mind ∙ road ∙ commons ∙ shopping mall ∙ portals ∙ you are the product

❝❝I'm going to say this again. If the Democrats are afraid of what Republicans do with government power…

…if Republicans are are afraid of what Democrats do with government power…

…if independents don't trust either the Democrats or the Republicans with government power…

…and if libertarians don't trust government power…

…maybe, just maybe, the government has too much power.❞❞

— NeoWayland, comments from Leaks and Barr

Tags: maxims ∙ government power ∙ Democrats ∙ Republicans ∙ independents ∙ libertarians

Trauma Informed Investigations Stole My Son’s Future

““If you’d have asked me before my son was accused of sexual misconduct, I would have said that trauma-informed investigations were a good idea. Living through the '90s as a female college student, then as a woman motivated to be successful in a male-dominated field, sexual harassment, inequality, and forcible rape happened. It still happens today. Then so many victims were afraid to come forward as they are now. However, in our rush for justice, we are bearing witness to the creation of a new class of victim on college campuses and in the criminal justice system. The innocent.

These new victims aren’t given the presumption of innocence. They aren’t entitled to know the accusation against them. Evidence is withheld from them and their lawyers. Police officers ask deceptively leading questions, and school investigators are both judge and jury making life-altering sanction decisions based on the presumption that a ‘victim’ never lies. ””
     — A. Pebble

Tags: guest content ∙ clipping ∙ justice ∙ A. Pebble ∙ sexual misconduct ∙ trauma-informed investigations ∙ sexual harassment ∙ inequality ∙ forcible rape ∙ victims ∙ college campuses ∙ criminal justice system ∙ innocent ∙ presumption of innocence ∙ evidence ∙ lawyers ∙ police officers ∙ investigators ∙ judge and jury

Tags: video ∙ guest content ∙ John Stossel ∙ City Journal ∙ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ Green New Deal ∙ United States ∙ carbon emmissions ∙ James Meigs ∙ Mark Mills ∙ Popular Mechanics ∙ Manhattan Institute ∙ wind power ∙ solar power

Basically they didn't want another church telling their church what to do.

Tags: religious freedom ∙ American ∙ Christians ∙ tweeted ∙ English ∙ Protestant ∙ church ∙ compromise ∙ America ∙ UK ∙ Universal Declaration of Human Rights ∙ cross posted

❝❝Just to point out the obvious, previously language changed without being mandated or legally sanctioned or morally correct. It worked because people used it and decided that it worked.❞❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ language ∙ mandated ∙ legally ∙ sanctioned ∙ correct ∙ worked ∙ pronouns ∙ transgender

““He.” “She.” “They.” Have you ever given a moment’s thought to your everyday use of these pronouns? It has probably never occurred to you that those words could be misused. Or that doing so could cost you your business or your job – or even your freedom. Journalist Abigail Shrier explains how this happened and why it's become a major free speech issue.”

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ PragerU ∙ pronouns ∙ Abigail Shrier

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ John Stossel ∙ ReasonTV ∙ Venezuela ∙ economics ∙ socialism ∙ central planners

““I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don’t believe anything the government tells me. Nothing. Zero.””

— George Carlin

Tags: George Carlin ∙ rules ∙ believe ∙ government

❝❝I'm not going to talk about Trump and his failings or if he is substantially worse than the other presidents.

What I am going to talk about (again) is that all these efforts to nail Trump show that the Federal government has too much power and that rogue elements and actors are not held accountable.

Yes, Trump's office was bugged. But that is just part of a surveillance state that has been in turbo boost since 9-11. And 9-11 isn't a good excuse, it just codified and focused secret plans that had been drifting around since the 1970s.

The issue is not Trump. The issue is not the Republicans. The issue is not the Democrats. These ongoing struggles over which party is on the side of the angels and public perception over crimes and misdeeds, that's just the distraction. While we're arguing over who did what, there are unelected and unaccountable elements in government and high finance who are taking power and freedom away from you.

No, you didn't win. The game hasn't stopped. We are still being screwed. And the next bit will make this look like robbing a kid's lemonade stand.❞❞

Tags: maxims ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Federal government ∙ Republicans ∙ Democrats ∙ distraction ∙ tweeted

““It is no coincidence that the century of total war coincided with the century of central banking.””

— Ron Paul, End the Fed

Tags: Ron Paul ∙ central banking ∙ total war

❝❝Government, government agencies, and agents acting on behalf of governments do not have rights. Governments have powers. Just governments have powers to protect and defend individual rights. Unjust governments have powers to protect and defend privileges.❞❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ government ∙ rights ∙ powers ∙ privilege ∙ just ∙ unjust ∙ tweeted

❝❝There is nothing that prevents people from following religious law. But there is nothing that demands others follow those same religious laws.❞❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ religion ∙ cross posted ∙ Jews ∙ Christianity ∙ Buddhist ∙ faith ∙ Divine ∙ pagan garb ∙ Decalogue ∙ imposed ∙ Ethic of Reciprocity ∙ Story ∙ Journey ∙ pagan ∙ neopagans ∙ vodun ∙ blood sacrific ∙ sexual ∙ consent

❝❝Are you going to insist that Democrats are Democratic again?

---

Actually given the actions of the Democrat party leadership over the last century or so, Democratic is the last thing they should be called. It's always been about establishing an elite outside of the laws and rules that apply to everyone else. Often with veto power over the words and actions of others.

One recent example are the superdelegates. That is about as anti-democratic as you can get.

Just Newspeak in action. Again.

---

And you clearly didn't get my reference to Newspeak.

It's a brand name. It's no more democratic than Acme Company is "the best there is." Progressives and Democrats have a long undeniable history of coopting words into something that means the exact opposite. "Liberal" used to mean what we Americans call "libertarian" today.

---

And there we go. That's Democrat Tactic #45, Alinsky #13, and PeePeeTape #4.

Shift the focus away from the argument and towards the person who made the argument.

---

As I said, "with veto power over the words and actions of others."

Tell you what. I'll call them Brand D. That way you can ever so conveniently ignore the attempts to usurp language without being too obvious about it.

---

Do you really think you have the power to dictate my actions or words?

Do you really think that there is one person reading this site that will have any doubt whatsoever just which group I mean?

Brand D it is then.❞❞

Tags: Democrats ∙ democratic ∙ maxims ∙ elite ∙ laws and rules ∙ veto power ∙ words ∙ actions ∙ anti-democratic ∙ Newspeak ∙ brand name ∙ Brand D

❝❝As far as I am concerned, you have no business going after Republicans until you at least acknowledge that Democrats aren't perfect and are just as good at messing things up.❞❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: Democrats ∙ Republicans ∙ Barack Obama ∙ White House ∙ Trump Tower ∙ mainstream media ∙ trust ∙ overlook ∙ maxims

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ ReasonTV ∙ John Stossel ∙ taxes ∙ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ Phil Magness ∙ American Institute for Economic Research ∙ accountants ∙ tax lawyers ∙ Ronald Reagan

““I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power not longer susceptible of any definition.””

— Thomas Jefferson

Tags: Thomas Jefferson ∙ states rights ∙ Constitution ∙ United States ∙ powers ∙ Congress

““Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.””

— Abraham Lincoln

Tags: Abraham Lincoln ∙ goverment ∙ people

““… I believe that the maintenance of the rights and authority reserved to the states and to the people … are the safeguard to the continuance of a free government … whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it.””

— Robert E. Lee

Tags: Robert E. Lee ∙ states rights ∙ safeguard ∙ Republic

““Today neither of our two parties maintains a meaningful commitment to the principle of States' Rights. The 10th Amendment is not a 'general assumption' but a rule of law. States rights mean that states have a right to act or not to act, as they see fit, in areas reserved to them.””

— Barry Goldwater

Tags: Barry Goldwater ∙ states rights ∙ Tenth Amendment

““The State governments possess inherent advantages, which will ever give them an influence and ascendancy over the National Government, and will for ever preclude the possibility of federal encroachments. That their liberties, indeed, can be subverted by the federal head, is repugnant to every rule of political calculation.””

— Alexander Hamilton

Tags: Alexander Hamilton ∙ states rights ∙ state government ∙ National governent ∙ encroachments

““The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.””

— James Madison

Tags: James Madison ∙ states rights ∙ Constitution ∙ Federal government ∙ state government

America is not a rape culture.

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ ReasonTV ∙ Eugene Volokh ∙ Free Speech Rules

Washington Forced Segregation on the Nation

Tags: clipping ∙ guest content ∙ Richard Rothstein ∙ segregation ∙ 1940 ∙ Federal government ∙ African-Americans ∙ FHA ∙ civil rights

I'd argue that the writing was on the wall when marriage was legally defined and moved away from being a religious rite to being a secular right.

Tags: marriage ∙ religion ∙ secular ∙ Bookworm ∙ permissible ∙ mala in se ∙ mala prohibita ∙ damage ∙ undesirables ∙ interracial marriages ∙ force of law ∙ Constitution ∙ man ∙ woman ∙ English common law ∙ Bible ∙ 20th Century ∙ Emperor Nero ∙ Mesopotamia ∙ China ∙ John Boswell ∙ Orthodox Church ∙ Native Americas ∙ third gender ∙ two-spirit ∙ mating ∙ pairbond ∙ raising a family ∙ Divine ∙ Old Testament ∙ biological ∙ monogamy ∙ permissible ∙ choice ∙ privilege ∙ right to vote ∙ Christian

““Doubts raced through my mind as I considered the feasibility of enforcing a law which the majority of honest citizens didn't seem to want.””

— Eliot Ness

Tags: Eliot Ness ∙ doubt ∙ enforce ∙ honest citizens

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: trade ∙ Andrew Cuomo ∙ cannabis ∙ nun ∙ mistletoe ∙ James Comey ∙ transparancy ∙ Nancy Pelosi ∙ gun control ∙ gene editing ∙ Cuba ∙ Venezuela ∙ yellow vest ∙ middle class ∙ Donald Trump ∙ GOP ∙ government shutdown ∙ China ∙ Russia ∙ DNC ∙ Tom Perez ∙ voter data ∙ stadium scam ∙ Phoenix Suns

“Dozens of news outlets reported that America has the most mass shooters in the world. Many say that shows America needs more gun control.”

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ gun control ∙ John Stossel ∙ mass shootings ∙ media

Federal judge in Texas rules Affordable Health Care Act unconstitutional

VA Whistleblower Visited By FBI, Sent To Psych Ward, Set To Be Terminated From Job

FBI misses deadline to provide docs to Judiciary Committee probing whistleblower raid

Bare-Breasted 'Mariannes' Face Off With French Police; Tear Gas, Pepper Spray Used On Protesting Yellow Vests

Moscow To Set Up Military Base In Caribbean

The Green New Deal: eco pastiche

Personal Bank Accounts in Venezuela Frozen to “Fight Terrorism”

Every Bubble Is In Search Of A Pin

Will Half Of All Colleges Really Close In The Next Decade?

Mueller Destroyed Messages From Peter Strzok's iPhone; OIG Recovers 19,000 New "FBI Lovebird" Texts

Venezuela Joins the Social Credit Club

Million Plus NJ Gun Owners Defy State Law, Refuse to Turn Over Banned Gun Mags

New Jersey Magazine Capacity Restriction: Now What?

New Bill Prohibiting 3D Printed Firearms Introduced to Congress

One Year Ago Today, the FCC Killed the Internet

Tags: FCC ∙ internet ∙ net neutrality ∙ Congress ∙ New Jersey ∙ gun control ∙ defy ∙ social credit ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ Peter Strzok ∙ bubble ∙ Venezuela ∙ bank ∙ Green New Deal ∙ Russia ∙ Caribbean ∙ military ∙ yellow vest ∙ France ∙ protesters ∙ Mariannes ∙ tear gas ∙ Judiciary Committee ∙ Obamacare ∙ Affordable Care Act ∙ VA ∙ whistleblower ∙ FBI ∙ psych ward ∙ fired

The Anatomy Of Hillary Clinton's $84 Million Money-Laundering Scheme

I can't stress how important this is.

Trump has been accused, but Hillary Clinton did it.

Why was the special prosecutor authorization focused solely on the Trump campaign?

Tags: Hillary Clinton ∙ Clinton Foundation ∙ money laundering ∙ Donald Trump ∙ special prosecutor ∙ Trump campaign

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: New York ∙ police misconduct ∙ inauguration ∙ radical ∙ CBS ∙ #MeToo ∙ Eliza Dushku ∙ sexual conduct ∙ campus ∙ reason ∙ religion ∙ deep ecology ∙ doctrine ∙ Instagram ∙ social media ∙ Democrats ∙ pork barrel ∙ earmarks ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ Middle East ∙ Russia ∙ DoJ ∙ Peter Strzok ∙ Lisa Page ∙ San Francisco ∙ expensive ∙ restaurant ∙ Congress ∙ sexual harassment ∙ organic farming ∙ climate

❝❝I'm telling you to stop expecting the law to save you. And I'm telling you that law should be a last resort.❞❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ save you ∙ last resort

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: video ∙ ReasonTV ∙ Free Speech Rules ∙ First Amendment

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: RussiaGate ∙ criminalizing ∙ Belgium ∙ Netherlands ∙ Paris ∙ riots ∙ William Barr ∙ separation of church & state ∙ Antifa ∙ violence ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Portland ∙ Tumblr ∙ NSFW ∙ Silicon Valley ∙ morality police ∙ police misconduct ∙ Georgia ∙ arrested ∙ Florida

Their arguments among each other lead to pluralism, the American religious virtue that no one wants to talk about.

Tags: clipping ∙ Rich Haridy ∙ Australia ∙ encryption

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: China ∙ business ∙ excecutive ∙ gas taxes ∙ poor people ∙ France ∙ climate change alarmists ∙ nonviolence ∙ Clinton Foundation ∙ whistleblower ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ campaign contributions

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: California ∙ housing market ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Rod Rosenstein ∙ FBI ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ James Comey ∙ Human Rights Commission ∙ Christmas ∙ Presidency ∙ academic mobbing ∙ Marriott ∙ outrage ∙ commerce ∙ consensus ∙ United Nations ∙ Communism ∙ cool kids ∙ Facebook ∙ climate change alarmists ∙ Austrailia ∙ data ∙ privacy ∙ government power ∙ Michigan ∙ Republicans ∙ Wisconsin ∙ regulation ∙ crony capitalism ∙ tech companies ∙ media ∙ polls ∙ Democrats ∙ House of Representatives ∙ health care ∙ immigration ∙ jobs

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Intelligo ∙ privacy ∙ trusted ∙ employees ∙ background checks ∙ Jews ∙ tech companies ∙ EU ∙ copyright ∙ World Wide Web ∙ Emmanuel Macron ∙ France ∙ prohibition ∙ alcohol ∙ climate ∙ Intervene ∙ taxes ∙ Bill Clinton ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ Les Gilets Jaunes ∙ deep state ∙ secrets ∙ United Nations ∙ climate summit ∙ DJIA ∙ stock market ∙ women ∙ workplace ∙ taxpayers ∙ stadium scam ∙ Camden ∙ New Jersey ∙ insect ∙ disease ∙ DDT ∙ global warming ∙ Donald Trump ∙ G20 ∙ poker ∙ pop culture ∙ conservatives

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Illinois ∙ high school ∙ newspapers ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Supreme Court ∙ Utah ∙ public lands ∙ election ∙ trans activists ∙ women ∙ children ∙ funeral ∙ displayed in state ∙ national day of mourning ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ Michael Flynn ∙ economic collapse ∙ 2008 ∙ Havana ∙ tuna ∙ can opener ∙ Millennial ∙ sex workers ∙ census ∙ non-citizens ∙ welfare ∙ resources ∙ abundance

The Amazon Deal Shows Why We Must End Corporate Welfare

Top Ecuadorian Diplomat Destroys Guardian's Claim That Manafort Visited Assange

Migrant caravan hits tourism

Will Dems Protest Clintons, Too?

Macron Looks to Tax Measures to Curb

Truth Is What We Hide, Self-Serving Cover Stories Are What We Sell

Will Paris Riots Scuttle Climate Accord?

Revealed: Marriott's 500 Million Hack Came After A String Of Security Breaches

Paris protests reveal fracture between France’s haves and have-nots

Miseducated or Stupid?

I quit Instagram and Facebook and it made me a lot happier — and that's a big problem for social media companies

Is the FBI Raiding Whistleblowers' Homes to Protect Robert Mueller?

I deleted my Twitter account. It's a breeding ground for thoughtlessness and contempt.

Tags: Twitter ∙ FBI ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ Facebook ∙ Instagram ∙ social media ∙ Marriott ∙ data breech ∙ taxes ∙ Paris ∙ riots ∙ Paris Climate Agreement ∙ Democrats ∙ Bill Clinton ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ migrants ∙ caravan ∙ tourism ∙ Amazon ∙ corporatism ∙ Ecuador ∙ Guardian ∙ Julian Assange ∙ Paul Manafort

Youngest kids in class may be over-diagnosed with ADHD

Destroyed for Nothing

Exclusive: Google Employees Debated Burying Conservative Media In Search

Obama Tells Wall Street to Thank him for Making Them so Much Money

The work-from-home doctor will see you now

The Ignored Legacy of George H.W. Bush: War Crimes, Racism, and Obstruction of Justice

The Forgotten Legacy of George H.W. Bush That the Media Won’t Tell You About

Post Office Has Boom Year: Loses More Money Than Ever

San Francisco's Wealthy Leftists Are Making Homelessness Worse

G20 Summit, Top Agenda Item: Bye-Bye American Empire

Texas Bill Would Set Foundation for a “Gun Rights Sanctuary State”

Landlord Tells Harvard Student to Move Out Over Legally Owned Guns

Supreme Court Deals Unanimous, Welcome Blow to Administrative State in Frog Case

Curtains for the Clintons

The Cities That Amazon HQ2 Left Behind

Tags: Bill Clinton ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ Supreme Court ∙ administrative state ∙ landlords ∙ Texas ∙ gun rights ∙ G20 ∙ San Francisco ∙ homeless ∙ U.S. Post Office ∙ George H. W. Bush ∙ war crimes ∙ racism ∙ obstruction of justice ∙ Barack Obama ∙ telemedicine ∙ Wall Street ∙ Google ∙ conservative ∙ media bias ∙ ADHD ∙ public schools ∙ kids ∙ General Motors ∙ Detroit ∙ Poletown Taking

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: vaccine ∙ Federal government ∙ auto bailouts ∙ General Motors ∙ Maine ∙ food sovereignty ∙ Jerome Corsi ∙ Joshua Browde ∙ robot lawyer ∙ opioid crisis ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ home sales ∙ economy ∙ solar activity ∙ global cooling ∙ Veteran Affairs Department ∙ GI Bill benefits ∙ fuel tax ∙ Paris ∙ riots ∙ archive ∙ Wayback Machine ∙ Oregon ∙ solar equipment ∙ corporatism

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: General Motors ∙ eminent domain ∙ Poletown Taking ∙ Pennsylvania ∙ Kathleen Kane ∙ caravan ∙ MSNBC ∙ Twitter ∙ trans activists ∙ PG&E ∙ lawsuit ∙ wildfires ∙ California ∙ hypocrites ∙ news media ∙ tech crash ∙ 2000 ∙ Obama Administration ∙ tear gas ∙ border ∙ warming trend ∙ Canada

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: check your privilege ∙ discourse ∙ CNN ∙ fake news ∙ border ∙ debt ∙ serfs ∙ tax donkeys ∙ least bad ∙ Brexit ∙ politcal theatre ∙ Facebook ∙ big tech ∙ General Motors ∙ tariffs ∙ lay offs ∙ climate alarmist ∙ Obama Administration ∙ pepper spray ∙ Border Patrol ∙ migrants

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: insurance companies ∙ sleep apnea ∙ police misconduct ∙ victim's rights ∙ shooting ∙ tech companies ∙ regulation ∙ Theresa May ∙ Britain ∙ Brexit ∙ EU ∙ United States ∙ INF Treaty ∙ climate alarmist ∙ Mi6 ∙ classified intormation ∙ carbon dioxide ∙ plastic ∙ goverment ∙ Paris ∙ riots

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: subpoenas ∙ James Comey ∙ Loretta Lynch ∙ NASA ∙ SpaceX ∙ Elon Musk ∙ cannabis ∙ Thanksgiving dinner ∙ doctor ∙ heart patients ∙ Cuba ∙ Brazil ∙ exploit ∙ sociaism ∙ White House ∙ lethal force ∙ border ∙ wildfires ∙ global warming ∙ gun-free zones ∙ mass shootings ∙ medical devices ∙ data ∙ Clinton Foundation ∙ House of Representatives ∙ probe ∙ Julian Assange ∙ police ∙ union ∙ Orange County ∙ California ∙ election ∙ caravan ∙ Mexico ∙ Democrats ∙ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ climate change ∙ economy ∙ real estate ∙ Austrailia ∙ Muslim groups ∙ Philadelphia ∙ Amazon ∙ New York ∙ Scott Morrison

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: FBI ∙ Southern Poverty Law Center ∙ Antifa ∙ Proud Boys ∙ ACLU ∙ female genital mutilation ∙ Benson AZ ∙ San Pedro river ∙ election ∙ Mia Love ∙ Ben McAdams ∙ George Soros ∙ caravan ∙ Barack Obama ∙ lecturers ∙ students ∙ DJIA ∙ tech stocks ∙ public sector ∙ unions ∙ Donald Trump ∙ forest management ∙ logging rules ∙ Jerry Brown ∙ asylum ∙ border

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: caravan ∙ crimminals ∙ ritualized apologies ∙ Obamas ∙ sex offenders ∙ rights ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ mall retailers ∙ email probe ∙ title ∙ sexual assault ∙ investigate ∙ Eastern Michigan University ∙ transgender ∙ The Vagina Monologues ∙ healthcare ∙ economy ∙ Donald Trump ∙ bigotry ∙ Facebook ∙ Pentagon ∙ audit ∙ Toronto ∙ gold standard ∙ Chinese ∙ Romans ∙ Persians ∙ Aztecs ∙ Google ∙ surveillance ∙ smart city

In Democratic circles, anti-Semitism is becoming normal

The ACLU Condemns DeVos's Title IX Reforms, Says These Due Process Safeguards 'Inappropriately Favor the Accused'

Household debt hit a record high of $13.5 trillion last quarter

A Warm-Up For 2020: Arizona’s Maricopa County Just Stole The Senate Election

GOP Audits Elections Office In County That Swung To Democrats

Hanging On: Republican Congresswoman Mia Love Is Now Favored To Prevail In Tight Re-Election Bid

Stacey Abrams Acknowledges Loss In Georgia Governor's Race

Is an ‘Internet of Ears’ the next big thing for smart homes?

SAF, NRA File Federal Lawsuit Challenging Initiative 1639

Kansas City Health Department pours bleach on food meant for homeless people

Debra Messing Joins Alyssa Milano, Condemns Anti-Semitic Women's March Leaders

Gridlocked, in Fair Weather and Foul

Bubble Trouble: Seattle-Bellevue Metro Housing Market Goes South

Democrats’ Way Back: Is the Resistance rooted in reality?

Identity Politics and American anti-Semitism

Brenda Snipes submits resignation as Broward elections supervisor

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Liberal Scorned: The Media Turns on Facebook and Google

Trump backs sentencing reform bill he says will give ex-inmates 'a second chance at life'

The Institutionalization of Social Justice

There's a Good Reason Many Women Make Less Than Men

Loggers support Trump's claim that wildfires caused by 'poor forest management'

Global warming alarmists pissed off by Canadian gov’t report that nukes their narrative about polar bears

Tags: Donald Trump ∙ women ∙ Rick Scott ∙ Florida ∙ Senate ∙ global warming ∙ polar bears ∙ climate change alarmists ∙ loggers ∙ wildfires ∙ forest management ∙ wages ∙ social justice ∙ sentencing reform ∙ Democrats ∙ anti-Semitism ∙ Broward County ∙ media ∙ Facebook ∙ Google ∙ Brenda Snipes ∙ Betsy DeVos ∙ Title IX ∙ ACLU ∙ debt ∙ Arizona ∙ election ∙ Maricopa County ∙ Utah ∙ Mia Love ∙ Stacey Abrams ∙ Georgia ∙ internet of ears ∙ smart house ∙ Second Amendment Foundation ∙ SAF ∙ NRA ∙ National Rifle Association ∙ lawsuit ∙ Washington state ∙ Debra Messing ∙ New York ∙ snow ∙ housing market ∙ bubble ∙ Seattle ∙ identity politics

“Taylor Woolrich told her story yesterday at the annual conference of Students for Concealed Carry…”

I despise guns. I really do.

But I approve of this message.

No matter how I feel about guns, I can't help but notice that the people who obey the gun laws are not the ones we have to worry about. I can't help but notice that the folks making the most noise about gun control are the same ones I wouldn't trust to keep quiet about what anything. And I can't help but notice that the officials, agents, and policemen who proclaim that gun control is absolutely necessary to public safety are the same ones who don't want dash cams or the public recording them on cellphones.

Yes, I approve of this message.

---

*nods*

I used to be very anti-gun. Not quite out there carrying a sign, but close. Then someone pointed out Cramer’s The Racist Roots of Gun Control and I started looking into it and thinking hard. It was the last bit of libertarianism that I accepted, and the one that was most difficult.

The first time I ever did the reluctant advocate bit was in defense of concealed carry.

---

That's what started me questioning, but it wasn't where my studies stopped. I finally came up with questions I couldn't answer.

Why should someone who carries a gun decide if other people are allowed to carry? Why does his power trump their rights?

The answer is very simple. In a free society there is no reason.

Tags: Crux Files ∙ gun control ∙ Taylor Woolrich ∙ Students for Concealed Carry

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: caravan ∙ Gallup ∙ Central America ∙ U.S. ∙ Republicans ∙ ballot box ∙ House of Representatives ∙ Gab ∙ Pennsylvania ∙ subpoena ∙ DNS provider ∙ Women's March ∙ anti-Semitism ∙ DNC ∙ Democrats ∙ health care ∙ Barack Obama ∙ energy independence ∙ Facebook ∙ George Soros ∙ Donald Trump ∙ inmate ∙ justice reform ∙ Nancy Pelosi ∙ Speaker of the House ∙ Federal Reserve ∙ Jerome Powell ∙ Amazon ∙ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ conservatives ∙ universities ∙ climate alarmist

Maryland files federal court challenge asking judge to block Whitaker, install Rosenstein

Tags: Attorney General ∙ Maryland ∙ Federal court ∙ Matthew Whitaker ∙ Rod Rosenstein ∙ President ∙ Senate ∙ courts ∙ separation of powers

CNN sues President Trump and White House for banning reporter Jim Acosta

Tags: freedom of the press ∙ access ∙ Jim Acosta ∙ CNN ∙ White House ∙ Donald Trump ∙ government

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Amazon ∙ crony capitalism ∙ tax credits ∙ New York ∙ Virginia ∙ Title IX ∙ USC ∙ FOIA ∙ Nancy Pelosi ∙ libertarian ∙ democracy ∙ dictatorship ∙ FBI ∙ hate crime ∙ sunspots ∙ carbon dioxide ∙ climate ∙ weather ∙ scam ∙ police ∙ shooting ∙ security guard ∙ alcohol ∙ farm bill ∙ hypocrites ∙ Kyrsten Sinema ∙ Arizona ∙ Nazis ∙ Germany ∙ history ∙ identity politics ∙ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ farmers ∙ trade war ∙ China ∙ U.S. ∙ RVs ∙ nomads

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ John Stossel ∙ Chris Pope ∙ City Journal ∙ single payer system ∙ health care ∙ insurance ∙ employers ∙ Bernie Sanders ∙ Medicare ∙ Congress ∙ Medicaid ∙ reform ∙ individual citizens ∙ single-payer ∙ Democrat ∙ Germany ∙ France

Pelosi On Broward County: ‘There Is No Election Fraud,’ Just ‘An Honest Count Of The Vote’

Arizona Democrat's Lead Now 'Insurmountable'

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe

This is What Retail Investors Did with GE This Year as it Plunged

Google’s Highly Cited Scholar Wants a ‘Farewell to Free Speech’

Lhamon’s Confession: She Gamed The Narrative

God and Guns in the Synagogue

Understanding the Global Recession of 2019

Former Hillary Adviser: “Hillary will run again”

‘None of the above’ tops list of potential 2020 Dems, poll shows

Alabama Voters Pass Amendment to Display Ten Commandments at Public Schools

Should We Abolish the Electoral College?

Judicial Watch sues for records on overlooked House IT scandal

Tags: Nancy Pelosi ∙ election ∙ Broward County ∙ Florida ∙ General Electric ∙ Google ∙ Title IX ∙ Catherine Lhamon ∙ guns ∙ synagogue ∙ recession ∙ 2019 ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ none of the above ∙ Democrats ∙ Decalogue ∙ Alabama ∙ public schools ∙ electoral college ∙ Judicial Watch ∙ House of Representatives ∙ scandal

❝❝First, let's acknowledge that almost no one becomes a billionaire without active government intervention. Whether it's a patent, the existence of a corporation, or the exclusive right to sell colored sugar water, you can't concentrate money on a large scale without government.

Second, money depends on movement. Money stuffed in a mattress is just lumpy nesting material. It's cashflow that makes economies work. Yes, that dingus sells for $350, but there is the raw material cost, the manufacturing costs, the overhead costs like salaries and government fees, and so on. Very few things have a profit margin of ten percent, and most are well under five. So that dingus sells for $350, but most likely it cost the company about $333 to make and distribute. Money has to circulate or there is no value anywhere.

Third, you can't overlook competition. Well, at least not without government suppressing it anyway. A company has to compete for employees, just as employees have to compete for jobs. Multiple employers mean better wages and benefits. Regionally, multiple employers means that a town or city is less subject to the whims of a single company or the demands of a single industry.

As far as there being too few jobs, that kicks into government intervention again. In a healthy economy, there will usually be more jobs than employees.

Fourth (and this is the really important bit), companies expand by providing better quality goods and services cheaper, faster, and with more distribution than the competition. This instability is the keystone to the whole process. If a company can't compete, it loses money. More accurately, resources (including employees) are freed to other companies.

Companies want shortcuts, so they lobby and change the law rather than create new products and services. If a large company can pull it off, it's usually much cheaper. Again, this is government intervention. Short of government protection and favor, the only way a company can stay in business is by being at least as good as it's competition.

---

I should add that digital services and products throw a spanner in the works. On the one hand you have companies like Google offering "free services" by selling your data. On the other hand you have companies like Disney selling movies produced 25, 30 years ago for $20 a pop. We're still working out how all this will work in the long run.❞❞

Tags: billionaire ∙ government intervention ∙ patent ∙ corporation ∙ exclusive right ∙ money ∙ movement of value ∙ cIrculate ∙ competition ∙ employees ∙ better wages and benefits ∙ healthy economy ∙ cheaper ∙ faster ∙ distribution ∙ lobby ∙ Disney ∙ Google

❝❝There's also climate change. Some treat it very much as a religious issue, right down to attacking dissenters as heretics. Using the law to compel belief is wrong.

After all, if it is Divine Will, how can mere humans dare question it? Which gives non serviam some very interesting implications. By some interpretations, the absolute demands of monotheism may be less about the Divine and more about the political power of princes, potentates, and priests.

It's easy to laugh at those crazy monotheists until you see some demands of the RadFems, the trans activists, the environmental groups, the redistributionists, and anti-hate speech types. Always, Always, ALWAYS there is a Grand Cause that demands total submission and absolutely no denial "for the greater good."

Anytime you see "thou shalt not dissent," it should be a flashing red strobe and a triple siren.

---

Kosher certification for restaurants is one private alternative for food safety that has worked. One author, L. Neil Smith, suggested in one of his novels that insurance companies would do a better job with driver's licenses because they are liable if something happens. Obviously these are not the only possibilities. But with government, we end up with only one Official Solution® allowed.

Personally I prefer the free market and competition. And by free market, I mean no government to pick winners or losers, and no government to give advantages over others. Just voluntary exchanges between consenting adults. Many companies especially international ones owe their competitive advantages to special privileges from governments and/or government regulation and control.

The only times I think government should intervene is to protect life, liberty, and property. Beyond that, the only role I see for government is enforcing contracts and agreements, but even that could be done privately.

But that is just me.

I do believe that Meddling in Other's Lives For Their Own Good is one of the great evils unleashed on humanity.❞❞

Tags: climate change ∙ religious ∙ beliefs ∙ dissent ∙ Divine Will ∙ non serviam ∙ mere unbelievers ∙ monotheism ∙ absolute ∙ princes ∙ potentates ∙ priests ∙ RadFem ∙ trans activists ∙ environmental crusade ∙ redistribute wealth ∙ thou shalt not dissent ∙ kosher ceritificaiton ∙ insurance companies ∙ driver's license ∙ food safety ∙ competition ∙ government ∙ winners or losers ∙ voluntary exchange ∙ consenting adults ∙ special privileges ∙ government regulation ∙ life ∙ liberty ∙ property ∙ enforce contracts ∙ meddle ∙ for your own good

I called the U.S. House election wrong.

Tags: maxims ∙ trust ∙ enemy ∙ goverment ∙ power ∙ friend

But none of that is a reason to impeach him.

Tags: Jeff Thomas ∙ government ∙ control ∙ desire ∙ pursue ∙ extract ∙ history

If money was really speech, there would be no legal limit to campaign donations.

Tags: convention of states ∙ Constitution ∙ amendment ∙ New York ∙ Democrats ∙ guns ∙ Jamal Khashoggi ∙ dollar ∙ global reserve ∙ currency ∙ Common Core ∙ public schools ∙ small business owners ∙ hatefest ∙ Pittsburgh ∙ shakedown ∙ Portland ∙ Facebook ∙ Maine ∙ Paul LePage ∙ caravan

❝❝My idea for campaign finance reform.

You can't contribute to a campaign unless you reside in the area affected by the campaign. No one from Phoenix could contribute to a city council election in Tucson, no one from California could contribute to a proposition in Nevada, and so on.

No anonymous contributions. A current public list of all contributions must be maintained.

Any unused funds must be returned proportionally to all contributors or to a specified charity. If someone contributed .01% of the campaign's funding, then they would receive .01% of any monies left over.

Violating any of these rules would render a candidate legally unable to serve in any public office until the end of term for the office they ran for. If they ran for Senate, violation would make them ineligible for six years. In the case of a ballot proposition, the election would be voided and must be held again.

---

Money is not speech. No matter what the USSC says.

If they want to spend money, they can do so in their own home. If they want to speak against someone, they can do that where ever and when ever. But someone in Idaho doesn't have to live with the aftermath of an election in Illinois.

---

It's part of my SUPER SECRET PLAN TO DESTROY THE POLITICAL PARTIES.

Don't tell anyone.

---

People forget that the party system wasn't created by the Constitution. Yet they essentially control the nomination process. Take the cash flow and war chests and political action groups away and the parties collapse.

All without arguing over if cash is free speech.

Oh, and banning corporate campaign contributions. And union contributions. And political "matching funds."

*grins*

---

Money isn't speech any more than money is press. Money is a tool, a way of keeping score, and power, but it is not speech.

If money was really speech, there would be no legal limit to campaign donations.

If someone has more money, does that mean they have a bigger right of free speech or a bigger right of the press? If that is the case, we might as well do away with elections and just hold auctions.

It's telling that prior to campaign finance "reform," no one thought otherwise. It's also telling that the CFR was used to restrict speech.

Just because the law says something doesn't mean it's so. I'm still convinced that anyone born with a penis is a male.

Under my proposal, there are two restrictions on donating money. You have to be a voter and you have to reside in the area affected by the election. These are the two restrictions that every other proposed form of campaign finance reform tries to do away with.❞❞

Tags: campaign finance reform ∙ contributions ∙ Phoenix ∙ Tucson ∙ California ∙ Nevada ∙ charity

Changing the Rules

Why Is Social Media So Toxic?

Have we really wiped out half of all animals?

If Dems win the House, ‘climate committee’ will return – seeking energy taxes

Napolitano Teaches Basic Civics to Desperate ‘Fox & Friends’ Hosts

We Need a #MeToo Movement for Political Consent

How Trump Is Winning The Midterm Elections

Pakistan acquits Christian woman on death row

Surveillance Cameras Can Identify Anyone by “Talking to Their Cellphones”

Everything you need to know about economics you can learn in the pet food aisle

'Stalked within your own home': Woman says abusive ex used smart home technology against her

If You Liked 'Axis of Evil,' You're Gonna Love 'Troika of Tyranny'

Foxconn: Failure & Fraud

Tags: internet ∙ social media ∙ animals ∙ election ∙ Democrats ∙ climate committee ∙ energy taxes ∙ Andrew Napolitano ∙ Constitution ∙ Donald Trump ∙ political consent ∙ Pakistan ∙ Christian ∙ surveillance cameras ∙ economics ∙ pet food ∙ smart house ∙ tech abuse ∙ Cuba ∙ Venezuela ∙ Nicaragua ∙ Foxconn ∙ failure ∙ fraud

The FedGovs.

Tags: murder ∙ theft ∙ vandalism ∙ qualify ∙ labels ∙ bias ∙ complications ∙ lawyers ∙ experts ∙ justice ∙ system ∙ pass-alongs ∙ thoughtcrime ∙ intention ∙ hate ∙ proven ∙ politicos ∙ societal control

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Brett Kavanaugh ∙ Democrats ∙ media ∙ Koch brothers ∙ military action ∙ Yemen ∙ interventionism ∙ citizenship question ∙ birthright citizenship ∙ inequality ∙ caravan ∙ tolerance ∙ nuclear weapons ∙ Europe ∙ Democrats ∙ cultural differences ∙ national ID card ∙ sex

The FedGovs.

Tags: video ∙ guest content ∙ CGP Grey ∙ borders ∙ Statue of Liberty ∙ New York ∙ New Jersey

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Pittsburgh ∙ activists ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Muslim groups ∙ synagogue ∙ victims ∙ psilocybin ∙ FDA ∙ psychedelic ∙ medicine ∙ Human trafficking ∙ gangbangers ∙ Guatemala ∙ caravan ∙ tariffs ∙ protectionism ∙ Gab ∙ shooting ∙ excuse ∙ reason ∙ Brett Kavanaugh ∙ cannabis ∙ property values ∙ capitalism ∙ birthright citizenship

❝❝Understand that I am still torn on the subject.

But not every pregnancy results in live birth, even without abortions. Not every pregnancy comes to term.

Under those circumstances, it's hard to call abortion murder or killing babies.

---

I saw it. I also was treated to a film series in high school called Whatever Happened to the Human Race?

I come from a long line of farming stock. Death happens. It's not pretty. But it's a part of life.

Incidentally, the big reason why the US has a higher infant mortality rate than many other nations is because in other nations babies aren't always counted as "alive" until they've gotten through the first year or so.

There are a great many things that our country does that are not civilized. I'm pretty sure that if I were deciding what is and is not acceptable to society, there would be complaints. Public nudity wouldn't go over well. Neither would removing body parts from those who abuse children.

All that being said, if abortions were not government subsidized, I suspect there would be fewer. I think that is a more workable solution than banning abortions outright.

---

Well, that depends. For the most part, yes.

But let's acknowledge that is an artificial distinction. For example, my mother, stepsibs, and I in accordance with my stepdad's wishes from years before decided not to extend his life. Those last couple of years, he was on a feeding tube and incapable of communicating. Years before that, he had lost the ability to understand what was going on around him.

So yes, it was a death from willful causes. But at that point, what kind of life was it?

On another board, I've had talks with people with terminal illnesses who were considering assisted suicide.There were also surviving family members of people who had done that. What kind of life was it? Would you want someone to live with pain and having their body fall apart?

This is not a clear issue. We should accept that if nothing else. People die. Babies die. How much do we mourn? How much do we blame?

There's no absolute here. We should stop pretending that there is.

---

It is a distinction, but I am not convinced it has bearing. It's a while before a baby has awareness of self and even longer before the beginning of language.

I agree it's a fuzzy area and that there are many moral questions that can't be easily answered.

It gets even more complicated when considering the implications. If we accept the sense of self as the defining point of where killing is and is not ethical, what does that say about our companion animals? Or our food animals?

---

I'm not trying to justify abortion. I'm saying it's not easy to justify outlawing abortion and it raises certain moral issues.

The sense of self is different from perception. Humans develop a sense of self as we mature. We can also lose that sense of self.

---

Admittedly it is a fuzzy concept and psychologists argue over it. At it's most basic, it's a recognizing the distinction between "I" and "Other." It's a mental framework that probably arises from brain structure. It's the key to individuality.

As a libertarian, I don't give "society" an ethical justification to do squat. That includes ending lives and mandating clothes in public.

Here's the thing, if we do recognize rights, the only workable way is to make those rights individual rights. Not granted because of some label or gifted by government. You have rights because you are an individual and you share those rights with other individuals.

At that point, we're really defining "personhood" by individuality. That means you must be functionally an individual and accept that others are individual too.

Without individuality, we're hunks of flesh with automatic responses. With individuality,we can choose.❞❞

Tags: abortion ∙ individual ∙ choose ∙ Other ∙ rights ∙ terminal illness ∙ society ∙ justification ∙ infant mortality ∙ awareness of self

Report: 3,000 SNAP Retailers Used Social Security Numbers of Dead People During Obama Administration

China Targets Control Over Internet of Things for Spying, Business

Once Again, NBC Sits On Story Related to Sexual Misconduct Until After It Matters

Corporate Speech Police Are Not the Answer to Online Hate

'#WalkAway' movement renouncing liberalism marches through nation's capital

One of the Best Arguments Against Blocking Speech on Social Media....

Defensible Space

Deficits Do Matter: Debt Payments Will Consume Trillions of Dollars in Coming Years

U.S.-bound migrants enter Guatemala, others clash at border

Is Orwell’s Big Brother Here? Bezos & Amazon Team up With Defense, CIA & ICE

Murder in Pittsburgh and the Targeting of Alternative Social Media

Voters in Oregon Have the Opportunity to Create 10 “Gun Sanctuary” Counties

New Hampshire Privacy Amendment on the Ballot

Google’s smart city dream is turning into a privacy nightmare

Mexico offers caravan migrants benefits to stay; thousands refuse

Virtue-signaling and derangement in the wake of a massacre

Tags: SNAP ∙ Social Security ∙ dead people ∙ Obama Administration ∙ Guatemala ∙ China ∙ internet of things ∙ NBC ∙ sexual misconduct ∙ censorship ∙ speech police ∙ online hate ∙ #WalkAway ∙ liberalism ∙ megafires ∙ Pacific Northwest ∙ deficit ∙ trillions ∙ debt ∙ caravan ∙ Big Brother ∙ Amazon ∙ DoD ∙ ICE ∙ CIA ∙ Pittsburgh ∙ murder ∙ Oregon ∙ gun sanctuary ∙ New Hampshire ∙ privacy ∙ Google ∙ Mexico ∙ benefits ∙ massacre ∙ virtue signaling

Fargo Considers Whether to Turn Local Elections into a Voting System of Likes (and Dislikes)

““It's called "approval voting," and residents of Fargo (population: 120,000) are being asked in a ballot initiative if they'd like to be the first municipality in the United States to try it.

Rather than simply voting for one candidate, voters in this system are asked to approve or oppose each person on the ballot. The votes are all tallied, and the candidate with the most approval votes is declared the winner. Much like Maine's ranked-choice instant runoff voting system, this approach doesn't lock voters into supporting a single candidate. It thus allows voters to support third-party and independent candidates if they like them, without having to "throw their vote away" or spoil the chances of a major-party candidate they also support.

Approval voting is a pet project of The Center for Election Science, and the group has been involved in the education campaign in Fargo running up to the election. Polls show that support for this change is high, twice that of those who oppose the change. But more than a third of those polled say that they are undecided, so the center has some work ahead.””
     — Scott Shackford

Tags: Fargo ∙ election ∙ Scott Shackford ∙ approval voting, ∙ candidate ∙ approval ∙ Maine ∙ alternative voting ∙ ranked-choice ∙ The Center for Election Science

Will they tolerate similar "resistance" from conservatives?

Tags: progressives ∙ conservatives ∙ alt-right ∙ Democrat ∙ leaders ∙ Bill Clinton ∙ election ∙ 2000 ∙ 9-11 ∙ flyover country ∙ repressed ∙ campaign finance reform ∙ Bush League ∙ gun control ∙ political correctness ∙ gender issues ∙ global warming ∙ Portland ∙ rule of law ∙ KYFHO ∙ neighbors

Tags: John Stossel ∙ ReasonTV ∙ video ∙ Sweden ∙ Johan Norberg ∙ sociaism ∙ welfare ∙ pensions ∙ privatized ∙ competition ∙ taxes ∙ school choice ∙ wealth

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

An exclusive look at Cory Booker’s plan to fight wealth inequality: give poor kids money

A Law Intended to Protect Crime Victims Is Being Used to Shield the Identities of Police Officers

Dear Resistance, listen to my lived totalitarian experience – you have no effing idea what you’re talking about

Politico Report Says Russiagaters Should Prepare To Kiss My Ass

Methods and Tricks Used to Create and Perpetuate the Human-caused Global Warming Deception

Divided Democrats struggle to answer Trump's claims on migrant caravan

Watching a Country Make a Fool of Itself

Saudi dissidents fear 'long arm' of state after Khashoggi murder

A Texas Police Officer Is Charged After Mishandling 130 Sex Crime Cases

Georgia Mayor Has Plan To Round Up Town's Sex Offenders on Halloween

California company that hires protesters is accused of extortion

Previously Deported Illegal Aliens Join Caravan: ‘It’s Time for Me to Go Back’

Judge bars New Hampshire proof of residency requirement for new voters

Tags: Cory Booker ∙ wealth inequality ∙ police ∙ shield ∙ unintended consequences ∙ authority ∙ resistance ∙ RussiaGate ∙ global warming ∙ deception ∙ Democrats ∙ caravan ∙ Brexit ∙ Georgia ∙ sex offenders ∙ Halloween ∙ protesters

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

The truth about electric cars

When a DNA Test Reveals Your Daughter Is Not Your Biological Child

Will U.S. Success In Cutting Greenhouse Gases Kill The Paris Climate Deal?

Honduras's paid caravan 'refugees' exposed as frauds by Venezuela's real refugees

Emails Show Obama FDIC Struggled With Legal Basis For Operation Choke Point

Texas Democrats Caught Mailing Pre-Filled Voter Registrations To Non-Citizens

Elizabeth Warren's Other Cherokee Scandal: Her Fight Against Tribal Sovereignty

Khashoggi misinformation highlights a growing number of fake fact-checkers

Migrant caravan clashes with Mexican police, waits on bridge at Guatemalan-Mexican border

Black Trump Supporters Declare Their Independence From The Democratic Party

Tags: electric cars ∙ DNA test ∙ greenhouse gases ∙ Paris Climate Agreement ∙ Venezuela ∙ Honduras ∙ refugee ∙ Obama Administration ∙ FDIC ∙ Operation Choke Point ∙ email ∙ Democrats ∙ voter fraud ∙ Elizabeth Warren ∙ Cherokee ∙ tribal sovereignty ∙ caravan ∙ Mexico

““The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.””
     — Chief Justice John Roberts

Tags: John Roberts ∙ discrimination ∙ race

“Project Veritas Action Fund has released a third undercover video from campaigns during this 2018 election season. This report exposes how incumbent Senator McCaskill and individuals working on her campaign conceal their liberal views on issues in order to court moderate voters.”

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ Project Veritas ∙ Claire McCaskill ∙ gun control

“Project Veritas has released the second installment in an undercover video series unmasking the deep state. This video features a Department of Justice paralegal Allison Hrabar reportedly using government owned software and computers to push a socialist agenda. Also featured is Jessica Schubel, the former Chief of Staff for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the last Obama administration.”

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ Project Veritas ∙ HHS ∙ DoJ ∙ Allison Hrabar ∙ Jessica Schubel ∙ Medicaid ∙ Medicare

“Project Veritas has released the next in a series of undercover reports which unmask the Deep State. This report features a Government Accountability Office (GAO) employee and self-proclaimed Communist actively engaged in potentially illegal political activity. Natarajan Subramanian is a government auditor for the GAO and a member of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America (Metro DC DSA).”

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ Project Veritas ∙ GAO ∙ Natarajan Subramanian ∙ deep state ∙ goverment

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Elizabeth Warren ∙ Native American ∙ Honduras ∙ caravan ∙ Rush Limbaugh ∙ sexual harassment ∙ allegations ∙ Title IX ∙ Joe Arpaio ∙ New York Times ∙ Facebook ∙ Apple ∙ goverment ∙ DoJ ∙ Treasury Department ∙ Donald Trump ∙ gay ∙ Federal appeals court ∙ State Department ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ deep state

“I don’t give a s**t if that is a crime.”

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ deep state ∙ Project Veritas ∙ IRS ∙ Austin ∙ Washington D.C. ∙ non-profit foundations ∙ conservative ∙ goverment

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Elizabeth Warren’s DNA Test Is ‘Useless,’ ‘Inappropriate And Wrong’ Cherokee Nation Official Says

U.S. Has 3.5 Million More Registered Voters Than Live Adults — A Red Flag For Electoral Fraud

Saudis said ready to concede writer was slain in botched interrogation

A White Woman Falsely Accused a Black 9-Year-Old Boy of Groping Her

How An Amateur Rap Crew Stole Surveillance Tech That Tracks Almost Every American

The Next Generation Of Democratic Leaders Wants To Move Up, But The Baby Boomers Are In The Way

Washington Post: “Double or Triple” Fuel Prices to Solve the Climate Crisis

‘60 Minutes’ Was Outmatched by Trump (Column)

The FBI Doesn’t Want Users To Know Who Hacked Facebook

On Eve of Harvard Bias Trial, Dueling Rallies Show Rifts Among Asian-Americans

More Entrepreneurship Would Help Progressive Causes, But Progressives Do Not Understand It At All

Facebook Slams Independent Voices With Latest Political Purge

Understanding "Brazil’s Donald Trump"

Tags: Cherokee ∙ Elizabeth Warren ∙ DNA test ∙ registered voter ∙ electoral fraud ∙ Saudi Arabia ∙ interrogation ∙ false charges ∙ surveillance ∙ Democrat party ∙ Millennial ∙ Baby Boomers ∙ gas taxes ∙ climate change ∙ 60 Minutes ∙ Donald Trump ∙ FBI ∙ Facebook ∙ hack ∙ Harvard ∙ rally ∙ entrepreneurship ∙ independent ∙ purged ∙ Brazil

❝❝I'm telling you as a Genuine Tree Hugging Pagan that anthropogenic climate change is a scam designed to seize money and political power.❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ anthropogenic climate change ∙ pagan ∙ scam ∙ money ∙ power

❝❝Regulations exist so politicos can evade responsibility for unpopular choices.❞❞
     — NeoWayland, technocrat

Tags: maxims ∙ regulations ∙ responsibility ∙ choice

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

WATCH: #HimToo: Neil Patrick Harris Recalls Proposition From Whoopi Goldberg When He Was A Mid-Teen

Democrats agree to confirmations of 15 Trump judges

Sometimes I Just Go Full Potato

I Won’t Support An Elizabeth Warren Presidency While She Appropriates My Identity

We’re Not on the Brink of Civil War. Here’s Why.

How Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Finally United The Right Under Trump

Six Months Later, People Are Finally Realizing That FOSTA Actually Is Putting Lives At Risk

Top Ten Alternative Media Sites BANNED on Facebook and Twitter

First They Came for Alex Jones — We Told You We Were Next — We Were

What Sears’ Bankruptcy Says About Amazon’s Future

Tags: #MeToo ∙ Neil Patrick Harris ∙ Whoopi Goldberg ∙ radical progressives ∙ hate ∙ bullying ∙ rules ∙ society ∙ anarchy ∙ consequences ∙ Elizabeth Warren ∙ liar ∙ Civil War ∙ Brett Kavanaugh ∙ right ∙ Donald Trump ∙ FOSTA ∙ Facebook ∙ censorship ∙ banned ∙ Amazon ∙ Sears

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: students ∙ University of Southern California ∙ accusers ∙ lie ∙ politically correct ∙ Americans ∙ Google ∙ censorship ∙ resistance ∙ Never Trump ∙ Chicago ∙ Emanuel Rahm ∙ Alexa

““Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money.””
     — Margaret Thatcher

Tags: Margaret Thatcher ∙ socialist ∙ goverment ∙ financial mess ∙ other people's money

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Study: Economic Boom Largely Ignored as TV's Trump Coverage Hits 92% Negative

The First Amendment protects your right to not be a rat.

Two Students Hooked Up. It Was Clearly Consensual. He Still Spent $12,000 Defending Himself.

With corruption like this, it’s no wonder so many pension funds are insolvent

Antifa Arsonists Vandalize Pro-Trump Truck — THEN TORCH IT (Video)

Antifa Shut Down Major Intersection, Threaten Citizens with Violence If They Don’t Obey

Pennsylvania's Libertarian Senate Candidate Gets Invited, Then Snubbed From Televised Debate

Fearmongering Article Falsely Claims 'Halloween Is Christmas for Sex Offenders'

Data Showing Navy's Poor Aviation Safety Record Disappears From Website

Sex Workers Pioneered the Early Internet—and It Screwed Them Over

That sign telling you how fast you’re driving may be spying on you

A Florida Man Faces Prison for Making Grills Without a License

What Seems To Be Going on At @Tesla, and The Risks Of Buying (and Shorting) $TSLA Stock

Tags: Donald Trump ∙ economics ∙ boom ∙ First Amendment ∙ snitch culture ∙ consensual ∙ Title IX ∙ pensions ∙ Antifa ∙ arson ∙ violence ∙ Portland ∙ Oregon ∙ Pennsylvania ∙ Libertarian ∙ candidate ∙ Halloween ∙ sex offenders ∙ sex workers ∙ internet ∙ spying ∙ dental grills ∙ license ∙ Tesla

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Do Half of All Marriages Really End in Divorce?

NATO to Deploy 45,000 Troops Near Russian Border—Calling it a “Defensive” Move

China confirms detention of former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei

U.S. not invited to Canada’s upcoming trade meeting — only ‘like minded’ nations allowed

How the mushroom dream of a ‘long-haired hippie’ could help save the world’s bees

ACLU's Opposition to Kavanaugh Sounds Its Death Knell

BOMBSHELL: audit of global warming data finds it riddled with errors

Politico: 'After Failing to Stop Kavanaugh, Dems Wonder If It's Time to Be More Ruthless'

Former Google boss launches scathing Silicon Valley attack urging tech giants to end the delusion that it's making the world a better place

Trump Isn’t a Self-Made Man. His Wealth Is the Product of Years of Government Subsidies.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: 'Eliminate' Electoral College, It 'Undermines' Democracy

IPCC Report Reaches Dire Conclusions Based on Models that Overstate Rate of Warming

The Democrats' Complaints About the Senate Being Undemocratic Are Pure Whining and Excuse-Making: Here's Why

Tags: marriage ∙ divorce ∙ NATO ∙ Russia ∙ troops ∙ China ∙ Interpol ∙ Meng Hongwei ∙ Canada ∙ trade ∙ mushroom ∙ bees ∙ ACLU ∙ Brett Kavanaugh ∙ global warming ∙ Democrats ∙ Silicon Valley ∙ tech giants ∙ Donald Trump ∙ subsidies ∙ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ electoral college ∙ Al Gore ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ IPCC ∙ Senate

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: divided America ∙ wind farms ∙ unintended consequences ∙ DNC ∙ FBI ∙ RussiaGate ∙ surveillance warrant ∙ prison slavery ∙ EPA ∙ deregulate ∙ Seymour Hersh ∙ journalism ∙ Ted Koppel ∙ CNN ∙ MSNBC ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Presidential Alert ∙ Los Angeles ∙ gas taxes ∙ grievance studies

Big brother doesn't trust you.

Tags: Computing Forever ∙ video ∙ guest content ∙ privacy

People tend to repeat behavior that has been successful or will bring them an emotional high.

Tags: Bosnia ∙ politicos ∙ banks ∙ gunmakers ∙ Presidential Alert ∙ New Zealand ∙ privacy ∙ veteran ∙ Tim Cook ∙ Apple ∙ data ∙ JCPenny ∙ Sears ∙ Brookstone ∙ Maldives ∙ climate change ∙ Christine Blasey Ford ∙ polygraph ∙ Mike Pompeo ∙ North Korea ∙ Kim Jong Un ∙ NATO ∙ missiles

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

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People tend to repeat behavior that has been successful or will bring them an emotional high.

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Religions are created by people claiming to speak for the Divine.

Tags: religion ∙ Divine ∙ universal rules ∙ Ethic of Reciprocity ∙ E. E. Smith ∙ freely chosen ∙ invisible overlord ∙ responsibility ∙ secret of life

❝❝Did I ever mention how the income tax isn't designed to produce revenue, but to spy as needed on American citizens?

---

Yep.

You can start with how the IRS is the "go to" agency whenever someone does something the Federal government doesn't like.

You can continue with the fact that your employer and any financial institution you do business with are required "under penalty of law" to report any transactions on demand. There's a reporting threshold for "as they happen," but the IRS still has the (questionable) power to demand any and all going back for years.

Speaking of penalty of law, have you read that bit on the 1040? In fact, take a close look at the entire form. It doesn't say you are required to report your income, it just says that it must be accurate reported on the form before you sign.

No one, including the IRS understands the tax code. It can be manipulated and interpreted as needed. And remember, the first few levels of the tax courts are administrative courts run by the IRS with their own rules of evidence. The presumption of innocence doesn't apply. You have to prove the IRS wrong, and then you might get your seized money back.

By definition, a "standard" deduction means taxes are too high.

---

What, you wanted it stated in the authorizing law?

Everything I said was drawn from truth.

From Al Capone on, the IRS has been used against those the Federal government doesn't approve of. Or occasionally found politically inconvenient. Any other uncovered crimes are just a bonus.

Reporting financial transactions have proven so useful in so many cases that it has become literally the reason the IRS exists.

The 1040 form is unusually and carefully worded.

Since at least the 1970s, IRS agents and supervisors have been shown to have a very focused knowledge of the tax code and an appalling ignorance about the rest.

The IRS does have it's own court system with it's own rules of evidence. And you are not presumed innocent until proven guilty.

More importantly, look at how Presidents have used the tax code against their enemies.

---

Al Capone went to jail for tax evasion because they couldn't get anything else to stick.

You tell me, if you were a prosecutor and you knew you had a guilty man and you had the evidence, would you want to charge them with murder or tax evasion?

Prove me wrong instead of labeling it conjecture and innuendo. It's right there, I showed you were to look.

Remember, it took amending the Constitution to make a Federal income tax legal.

---

Going after him for tax evasion wasn't even part of the plan.

Pay attention, because that is a critical point.

Did you know that the IRS was used to enforce Prohibition?

That was a critical point too.

I understand your confusion. Many assume that Government is a Good Thing. It's not commonly acknowledged that taxes can be some of the worst abuses of government authority. Might I suggest Adams' For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization as a starting point?

---

No I am not.

I'm stating that law is not good in and of itself, and that law is more likely to be abused than not.

For example, people are usually taught that the progressive income tax in particular is a way to get the rich to pay "their fair share." That's not true and it never has been. We know that whole histories industries have grown up to help people use tax loopholes. What's more, we know that politicos and technocrats benefit from selectively applying the law.

Which returns to my comment, that the income tax as designed is intended to spy on American citizens. It's not uniformly applied. It's subject to change and political influence. And the majority of the public is locked out of changes. And for what? A mala prohibita law. Not paying taxes is does not harm someone, it's just bad because government has declared it to be bad.

The graduated income tax has done more harm and destroyed more freedom than any other law in American history. "Innocent under proven guilty" stopped because of the income tax and no longer applies in American law.

I should have warned you. Never argue taxes with a libertarian.

---

Yeppers.

That standard deductions line makes people think. And it should.

That's usually when I point out that if they are getting a refund, they just gave the government an interest free loan.

---

Oh my, that's just so adorable!

Look at it this way.

Taxable income = 100 dollars
Standard deduction = 17 dollars
"Taxed" income = 83 dollars

You are still paying taxes. It's only on paper that there is a difference. They messed with the rate, not with the tax.

They lie.

Don't even get me started on itemized deductions.

ETA: I'm the one with the line of "by definition, a standard deduction means taxes are too high." I'm proud of it, so I want credit.

---

Yep, and the claim stands.

The politicos and technocrats are playing word games to convince people that the IRS is looking out for the little guy.

They don't reduce the tax, they tell you that there is a standard deduction.

Speaking of which, let's look at that word standard. As in, everyone gets it. If it were really about "giving something" to someone with lower income, you'd think the deduction would be less for higher incomes. But then it wouldn't be a standard deduction.

Nope, we give everyone a standard deduction.

And that certainly looks like taxes are too high.

---

The fact is that the government hides to actual tax rate to make people think they are getting something for nothing.

The tax rate is too high, so they play word games.

The graduated tax is another issue.

The point is, the mere existence of a standard deduction means that the standard is to deduct. Hence, by definition and the admission of the government, taxes are too high.

---

That's the same form that is worded to hide the fact that they don't care about you paying your taxes as much as they don't want you to lie about it and make sure that it is correct, right?

The whole thing is deceptive from the payroll deduction to the falsity that a progressive tax that impacts higher tax brackets more to which deductions may be allowed this year if you are lucky enough to know about them.

Not to mention the undeclared interest free loan that many make to the government every year without realizing it.

If it were really just about the income, the whole thing could be done on half a postcard.

Including the instructions.

---

But this US doesn't do it simply. The code is created to distract, to obfuscate, to hide what government wants.

It's not about the revenue.

It's about tracking the flow of money. Something which isn't authorized by the Constitution.

The whole business of a "standard deduction" is just another way to confuse citizens and convince them that they are getting something for nothing.

It's three card monte by government regulation. You aren't supposed to look close.

Meanwhile there is a surveillance system that is the envy of tyrants all over the world. And Americans accept it even as they complain about it.

---

Tax income, but not track money.

The 16th was a product of the time, and NO ONE at the time expected it to be used against the poor and the (emerging) middle class. It was sold as a way to make the rich pay "their fair share." I'm pretty sure that if people knew then what the income tax would become, there would have been another revolution.

The graduated income tax was intended to foster class envy. At that point, the upper class did not have the political clout to protect themselves.

Don't you find it interesting that a sales tax doesn't require nearly the administration that an income tax does?

Don't you find it even more interesting that no one understands the tax code and just accepts that is how it is supposed to be?

And then there is the fact that in the name of "protecting" the poor, they still have to declare their income under penalty of law.

---

As I said and have shown, the American income tax system is more about spying on the American people than producing income.

All you are doing is saying that the system is necessary.

---

One of the things I quickly learned as a Corporate Clone is that the budget expands to consume the sales income. It's always easier to spend someone else's money.

Remember I said that taxes are too high.

Still, I stand by my point. The spying on the American public is more important than the revenues.

---

If you state a tax rate and then give everyone a "standard deduction," then taxes are too high.

Taxes are too high for many other reasons, but I agree that distracts from this argument.

---

A standard deduction goes to everyone, not someone on a graduated scale.

Deductions have nothing to do with a graduated tax, especially since most deductions go to the middle and high end income groups.

---

It's not a reduction of tax on graduated income, it's deliberately confusing what the rate is.

Which isn't necessary for the higher ends of the income scale who can afford to have someone do their taxes. On the very high end, that means hiring a professional accountant to minimize tax liability.

Deductions are not intended to help the poor. Even if they are standard.

Of course the easiest thing of all would be actually lowering the tax without deductions.

---

Not true.

The modern version of the income tax started as a class tax. It was not expanded to a mass tax until WWII. Even then (in 1944), the "standard deduction" started as ten percent of taxable income. When the standard deduction was changed to a flat fee, that fee deliberately wasn't linked to the rate of inflation. Which means that over time, people on the lower end of the income scale paid more. But that wasn't the justification in 1964 when the deduction was changed from a percentage to a fee.

Because the fee amount wasn't linked to inflation, inevitably people started falling through the cracks. Meanwhile the income tax provided an unprecedented (and expanding) monitoring of cash flow (not the economy). That monitoring power could not be sacrificed.

And that is where the Earned Income Tax Credit came from. A direct payment from government that did not interfere in the existing tax structure or the government's ability to monitor cash flow. If anything, it expanded the latter.

---

And if you lower taxes, you don't have to lie about deductions to convince people that they are getting something that they are not. The actuality is that it's easier to manipulate a fee than a percentage all while hiding that people are paying more and getting less while being told what a Good Thing it is.

Reagan signed the expansion of the EIC, but it was originally created in 1975. It's also constitutionally questionable.

---

And if you eliminate the standard deduction and lower the tax rate to 8%, they pay less.

Manipulating the process is not the answer.

---

Um,yes.

Because now we are going to talk about the unintentional side effects of a graduated tax system.

Higher taxes aren't just absorbed by businesses and those with more income. The higher costs are passed on. In the case of a business, that means higher prices. In the case of an individual, that means they will buy less, which means few jobs creating or selling.

All this results in lower economic opportunity overall, but especially on the margins. That in turn means that those trying to increase their income will be most affected, especially if they are on the lower end of the income scale.

These are well known second order effects. Look them up.

Simply put, modifications and exceptions to the rules usually benefit those most able to influence the system. Or, as I like to put it, government authority tends to be used against those least likely to resist.

The more complex and convoluted a law is (any law), the bigger negative impact it has on the lower levels of income.

---

Extra rent and utilities due to displaced costs $50 per month or $600 per year.

Extra costs of food $15 per month or $180 per year.

Extra costs of clothing and miscellaneous $60 per year.

Company downsizing and freezing salary, adjusted for inflation $200 per year.

Just for the stuff I've listed, $1040 additional costs per year due progressive and distributed taxes.

---

Taxes are costs. They certainly aren't revenues to the people who are paying them.

The costs I provided were approximately middling. See, it's not just the amount of the tax that is shifted. It's also the cost of collecting and administering the taxes. Not to mention all the other costs of government, from the salary of Congressional pages to the paperclip allowance in the Department of the Interior.

Economies are based on the movement of value, we usually talk cash flow as a shorthand. The movement of value acts a lot like water. You can block it off, you can divert it, you can tap it, and you can channel it. Every change influences the whole system, you can't isolate one bit from the other without removing the cash flow. Think water pressure and you're close to the mark. The more you mess with the pluming, the more unstable the system becomes.

Governments tend to use the myth that the economy can be managed and controlled. But it is a myth. The only reason some governments can get away with it is because the cash flow is usually high enough to compensate for the really stupid things.

But if the goal is more money and not lower taxes, then the people with the lowest cash flow (i.e. water pressure) will be most impacted by any changes.

That's why lower taxes alone is a false and misleading measurement.

---

If you reduce taxes and costs go up, then there is no benefit to a "standard deduction"

Manipulating the system at a higher cost is going to hurt the people the deduction is supposed to help. The government sells a line, "We're going to reduce your taxes." But the politicos never admit the obvious, it's going to cost more.

Revenues are not neutral, that is another lie. There is an increased cost to administer the system. Any changes in process will increase this cost. And government has no incentive to reduce this extra cost.

So in the name of compassion, the system screws the people least likely to resist.❞❞

Tags: spying ∙ taxes ∙ IRS ∙ tax code ∙ tax courts ∙ politicos ∙ Prohibition ∙ income tax ∙ technocrats ∙ goverment ∙ standard deduction ∙ Constitution ∙ Al Capone ∙ economics ∙ movement of value ∙ cash flow

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❝❝That is a phenomenally inaccurate and simplistic view.

---

"Run by blacks…"

They are run by Democrats who have spent the last 50+ years telling minority groups that they are victims and don't have to be responsible.

Gods, the absolute last last thing you should do is blame skin color.

Do you want to make things worse?

---

Of course you're blaming skin color.

Those "heritable characteristics" vanish when you start adjusting for quality of education, early childhood environment, and family support.

Next time read the disclaimers and qualitifications qualifications.

---

Yes, yes they do. Check the studies again. Better yet, follow it to the inevitable conclusion. If the "heritable characteristics" exist and are not modified by environmental factors, then by your logic "blacks" are inherently inferior.

Think about that very carefully.

---

The fact that you are relying on IQ tells me quite a bit.

The IQ tests are culturally biased. What's more, studies from the late 1970s forward have shown that the tests are sub-culturally biased. Those scores are significantly linked to quality of education, early childhood environment, and family support.

Yes, those things I mentioned earlier.

What's more, there's evidence of an inner-city sub-culture that is adamantly against doing well in school or on tests.

---

Look, here's the problem.

You're defining people by skin color, no matter what their individual accomplishments.

Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, Daniel Hale Williams , Booker T. Washington, James West, John J. Jasper, Daniel "Chappie" James Jr., Thomas Sowell, Huey P. Newton, Carter G. Woodson, W. E. B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, those are just some of the remarkable American men I remember off the top of my head.

---

Those averages only matter if you've allowed for all other factors.

For example, how many sub-Sararan sub-Saharan nations have a free market based economy? How many recognize the rights of the individual?

I already told you a third theory. There are significant cultural and environmental differences. What's more, put any skin color in unfavorable circumstances and watch how fast the "average" drops.

---

Unless a government recognizes & defends individual rights, corruption follows as surely as night follows day.

Those white South Africans you mention had special privilege and exploited people because they had the power to do so. When things changed, there was no living memory of anything except special privileges. The corruption stayed and the exploited targets changed.

A version of the same problem is happening in those Democrat controlled cities that you incorrectly insist on labeling "black run." Recognized rights have long given way to special privilege, and no one remembers anything else.

---

I didn't say anything about it not being their fault. I specifically said Democrats "have spent the last 50+ years telling minority groups that they are victims and don't have to be responsible."

Not so long ago, the Republican idea of race relations was to get out of the way and tell people to take responsibility. That's no longer the case.

I don't care about blame. I just care about fixing the problem. And you are making things worse.

You're making the Democrat case for them. You're saying that "blacks" will fail if left to themselves.

---

You mean other than the examples I gave you?

If you are interested in statistics, try the upward mobility of "blacks" between 1900 and 1960, before government interfered. The welfare statistics and the rise of single mother families are particularly telling. These have been well documented.

On the whole, two parent households do better over time. When the immediate cost of having children is reduced by government intervention, then a single parent household is less likely to move up the economic ladder.

---

I told you some of what was necessary for a society's success. Recognition and protection of individual rights. A free market economy. Those things are rare.

Those things are also not dependent on skin color.

I don't recognize "black" societies, I recognize human societies. Almost every single time when someone talks about "black" societies or "black"nations or "black" cities, it's about racism.

There's one race and it's human.

---

I said no such thing.

I talked about political systems designed to exploit victimhood and grant privilege.

That has almost nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with denying rights.

---

People designed those systems. Generations of people over centuries, trading, interacting, arguing, fighting, failing, and trying again. It wasn't because of one skin color even if you could define "white."

---

Because I said that people designed the systems, for good or ill?

Because I pointed out that it took generations?

Because I pointed out that you can't define "white" anymore than you can define "black?"

You lost this one the second you used skin color as a substitute for individual merit.

---

You haven't managed to identify any significant differences that aren't environmental in nature.

Instead, you keep focusing on skin color, a poor indicator under the best of circumstances.

There are hundreds of other factors, starting with how many parents the child has and if the child is raised in a loving environment. That doesn't even include the social factors I've already touched on.

As long as you focus on skin color, you're just perpetuating the problems.

The only way the question is reduced to a binary condition is by focusing on insignificant measurements such as skin color.

---

We've already established that IQ is culturally biased. There are also strong indications that IQ is sub-culturally biased as well. That means that part of what IQ measures is cultural conformity.

That's assuming that IQ is a relevant measure of intelligence to begin with. There are theories that one measurement of intelligence isn't nearly enough.

Like it or not, you have to allow for environmental and cultural factors in IQ scores.

---

Me and about two thirds of the researchers studying the possibility.

I suggest you do a web search for IQ cultural bias.

---

First, it's not the "warrior gene." A variant is popularly (and inaccurately) referred to as the "warrior gene." Technically the variant produces less MAMO MAOA .

Second, the evidences seems to show that the people with a low level of MAMO MAOA show higher levels of aggression when faced with social stressors such as ostracism, exclusion, or overwhelming loss.

You know, environmental factors.

ETA: Sorry about that, spell check fixed something I didn't want fixed.

---

With environmental factors, yes.

Would you like a list of genetic variations that are activated by environmental stressors?

---

I don't lie.

You keep stressing differences that derive from environmental factors.

Yet you keep blaming skin color.

---

Remember when I mentioned "family support?" Have you accounted for the incredible cultural pressure to succeed at schools and testing?

---

Yep, Obama was all about skin color. And his solutions worked out just so well for everyone, right?

There's a line I've been throwing around for a couple years now.

❝There were so many patting themselves on the back and proud that a black man had been elected President that no one bothered to ask if a good man had been elected President.❞

---

The politics are a much bigger part of the problem than the skin color.

It's the politics I blame.

---

And there's your problem.

You think it's about America.

It's about freedom.

---

Who said anything about pretending it's not there?

I'm disputing why it is there.

---

Actually I did. I talked briefly about incentivizing single parenthood and telling minorities that they are perpetual victims and how they don't have to take responsibility.

---

No, it wasn't the same environment.

I specified "telling minorities."

Politics are bad enough, but the politics are of victimhood are just despicable.

---

Because they don't have the same incentives.

Do you have any idea how much has been written and spoken about this over the last sixty years?

You might start with Goldwater's objections to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

---

I believe they are indoctrinated to believe that they could only be victims no matter what.

---

Talked with more than a few. Slept with a couple.

I'm a bilagáana born on the res. I grew up next to the Diné, the Hopi, and the Havasupai. Spent a lot of time in Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, and Albuquerque.

Still want to lecture me on the "races?"

---

Gods, you really are so ignorant that you can't be bothered to do a web search.

Roughly translated, bilagáana means "white man." There's more to it than that, especially for one born on the reservation. I'm what happens when Louisiana farming stock takes root in the Four Corners region.

---

Check again.

I never denied cultural differences, I just pointed out that they alone don't determine IQ or aggression.

---

I don't think I've done it in this thread, but I have pointed out that there is one race and it's human.

"Peoples" is a completely different concept and doesn't usually rest on minor genetic differences. The term is slightly more accurate than tribes.

Go back and reread what I wrote on this thread. I started by pointing out that what was being passed off as racial and genetic differences were actually due to environmental and cultural factors.

---

Ah, someone is making the right points.

First, IQ is not an objective measurement. One of my favorite examples is the Diné, their culture doesn't recognize time and distance as linear. With the possibility of multiple intelligences, things get more complicated. Gross motor coordination doesn't translate to spatial mathematical. Yes, I know the theory has problems like leaving out fine motor control, but this isn't the place.

We've not defined intelligence very well. There's a difference between following a recipe and walking in a kitchen just to whip up amazing food. IQ tests look for proven solutions, not for that creative spark. Sometimes that mostly works, sometimes not.

One set of parents can produce a musical genius, a good accountant, and a total slacker. It's impossible to say if a specific genetic line might produce. We know from domesticated animals that some traits will probably breed true, but we have to allow for environment and chance. We can't say that this family always produces good Rotarians and never any gamers. We can't say that every puppy from that Labrador will be good with kids. If you expand it to a group, the uncertainty grows too.

---

Interesting. You get to keep your preconceptions but I have to give mine up.

Okay, let's go back to basics. Part of science is eliminating variables.

The people we're comparing, are they on the same economic level? Did they have the same number of parents? Did they attend the same or comparable schools? Are they married? Do they have the same number of kids? Is their debt level the same? Is their education level the same? Do they live in the same or comparable neighborhoods?

We know that every single one of these environmental factors can influence someone's mental abilities, their tastes, their chosen activities, and their obligations.

And these are just the big ones.

Otherwise you're comparing apples from last year to next year's bananas. There's no way to establish a baseline.

There's no real comparison until you can account for most of the major variables.

---

I'm telling you (again) that until you can account for environmental differences, your measurements are useless.

There's a difference between a Walmart special and a finely made bookshelf. You can't just say that the one that is forty-one inches wide is better than the thirty-five inch one. You don't have enough information to judge.

---

It's a trick question.

It presupposes that there aren't any other variables that matter.

At the very least, acknowledge that the quality of schools makes a difference.

Mona Lisa Vito: It's a bullshit question.

D.A. Jim Trotter: Does that mean that you can't answer it?

Mona Lisa Vito: It's a bullshit question, it's impossible to answer.

D.A. Jim Trotter: Impossible because you don't know the answer!

Mona Lisa Vito: Nobody could answer that question!

D.A. Jim Trotter: Your Honor, I move to disqualify Ms. Vito as a "expert witness"!

Judge Chamberlain Haller: Can you answer the question?

Mona Lisa Vito: No, it is a trick question!
     — My Cousin Vinny

---

From my second response to you on this thread, I've pointed out again and again that you can not eliminate cultural and environmental factors.

The differences that you chose to highlight directly resulted in part from the culture and environment.

These are facts that we know and can easily be verified through a web search.

Children from single parent households tend to do worse at school and hold lower paying jobs.

Children from abusive households tend to do worse at school and hold lower paying jobs.

Single parent households tend to stay at lower income levels.

Some schools fail so much that most of their students can't read, write, or do basic math.

If children don't have enough to eat, they don't do well in school.

If people don't have shelter, they tend to have more health problems.

How much did environment and culture play a part? There is no way to know unless you can eliminate variables.

There's no comparison unless you can account for most of the major variables. This is true in science. This is true in statistics. This is true in life.

Your question makes no sense because there can be no comparison.

---

But you haven't presented evidence.

You've gone out of your way to dismiss the very idea that the culture and environment can have any possible influence on the differences you chose to highlight.

All you've done is lay out a premise that presupposes that no other factors can change what you choose to measure.

It's not science. It's not statistics. It's not even logically verifiable.

It's just prejudice.

---

You don't have evidence. You have observation, but you haven't shown cause or correlation because you have not allowed for environmental and cultural factors.

It's not even a matter of "interpretation." You've deliberately chosen one measurement and claimed that it defines the whole discussion. Can you say selection bias?

---

You can put tomato seeds in a salt shaker for nine months. That doesn't mean you'll be harvesting.

---

But I don't blame skin color at all. That's when I talk about this at all. Most people don't want to deal with uncomfortable truths.

I talk about politics, history, and the lies of government. Also basic economics and self-ownership.

---

Self-ownership and responsibility are a big part of what I write and talk about.

I also talk about strategy that exploits the politics of victimhood. I point out that the people who don't accept those lies from politicos and technocrats do better over time. Usually better than their parents. Which used to be a measurement of success in this nation.

A significant number of politicos (easily more than half) use the message that people are victims and their friend, the government, can help.

I tell people that government is not your friend, no matter how much the politicos say that it is.

That's not making excuses. That's showing that most politicos want problems they can stage manage. The politicos can't do that by solving problems.

---

It's a loaded question.

The premise is insufficient.

---

Neighbor, you're telling me that I am dealing in absolutes when I just listed seven major variables that we know affect intelligence and ability. These variables change everybody no matter what their skin color, nationality, sex, or ice cream preference.

---

I can stop you with nothing more than a few words.

Think about it. You're taking offense at what I write on a website when all I am really saying is "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…"

You would deny that?

---

I'm not defending today's mess.

I've written against it.

But (and this is the important bit), you're still defining people by skin color instead of what they are individually.

There's a phrase about "content of their character" that comes to mind.

---

I know, you keep defining people by skin color.

---

Tell me, what nationality are "blacks?"

If a "Chinese" has been granted American citizenship, when does he stop being "Chinese?" Three seconds after? Three generations? When he changes his name to Jones?

If Jesus Fernandez was born in Michigan and barely speaks Spanish, is he "Mexican?"

Or American?

---

I didn't say anything about stopping the Left with words.

I said I could stop you.

And I have.

---

Think you so?

Look at what's happened.

I've held my own against you and your "friend." Along the way, we've discussed history, psychology, morality, biology, and ethics. We've done it in real time for a few hours, and right now you are focused on taking me down, not in proving that "blacks" are inferior.

And all you can do is tell me that I don't deserve my citizenship.

You got stopped.

---

"The fact that blacks are not us."

Pretty sure my neighbors would disagree. Pretty sure your neighbors would too.

---

"Wait until your neighbors are Hindus, Muslims, Mexicans, or Asians."

Um, they are.

---

I could ask my across-the-street neighbor, but I'm pretty sure she's happy with her husband. I don't know their kids that well.

---

Because they are us.

The commonalities outweigh the differences.

These barriers, these labels that people like you keep using, they separate us. The labels keep us apart.

❝Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other.❞
     — Sojourner Truth

---

The Hopi are surrounded by all sides by the Diné. Can you tell me the genetic differences between the Hopi and the Diné? Good luck, because they've been intermarrying for a long time.

So what are their national characteristics?

As I said, I'm an American. I'm a mix. Part of my ancestry is Irish, part of it is English, part of it is Creole, part of it is German, part of it is Russian, and there's probably stuff on both sides of the bed that isn't officially acknowledged.

What are my national genetic characteristics?

I'm pretty sure I could father a child with any fertile human female if we tried hard enough. That's sort of how the species works.

And that's the important thing. We're one species, one "race." Throw us together and those distinctions fade. We get down and funky. We rut. We mix our genes.

It doesn't stop there. Ideas mix too. We argue with each other. We try to one up each other. We try. We look at what the other guy is doing. We borrow what works and tweak it a bit.

Synchronicity and syncretism happen, no matter how much you want "purity."

---

I'm not trying to change the labels.

I'm pointing out the truths.

Those labels are controlling your life.

---

"Truth and lies don't miscegenate."

Miscegenation has nothing to do with truth and lies and everything to do with sex and children.

Truth is subject to change. There was a time when people thought the speed of light was infinite. Now we know it's about 186,000 miles per second. In a vacuum. Put it through an atmosphere or water and it's something else.

We're human. That humanity matters more than any "racial" difference. It's why there are children of "mixed race." As time and people go on, the differences fade.

Until we meet a new population and it starts all over again.

I don't lie. I serve veritas.❞❞

Tags: Democrats ∙ minorities ∙ victims ∙ responsibility ∙ skin color ∙ cyberscare ∙ heritable characteristics ∙ MAOA ∙ cultural differences ∙ intelligence ∙ environment ∙ IQ ∙ culturally biased ∙ education ∙ family ∙ individual rights ∙ schools ∙ Republican ∙ two parent households ∙ single mother households ∙ human ∙ race ∙ racial discrimination ∙ racial identity

Ever notice when someone picks a scapegoat, it's because they think the scapegoat can't fight back?

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ Lauren Southern

As an Arizona resident who worked against his re-election the last four times, I wish he had retired years ago.

Tags: taxes ∙ government ∙ local government ∙ state government ∙ Federal government

Sen. John McCain, American ‘maverick’ and Arizona political giant, dies at age 81

I do not and would not wish death on anyone.

As an Arizona resident who worked against his re-election the last four times, I wish he had retired years ago.

Governor Ducey will be empowered by an act of the legislature to appoint a Republican to fill out the rest of the term. And yes, Arizona state law requires that the appointee be the same party.

I had my disagreements with McCain.

So did Barry Goldwater.

I stopped trusting McCain during the Keating Five mess.

I could say more, but I'll wait a month or so.

I don't speak or write ill of the dead in the first month after their passing. It changes nothing, and everyone deserves the right to deal with their passions and memories.

Edited to add:

McCain to lie in state at Capitol in Washington, Arizona

I know it's supposed to honor the “most eminent citizens,” but I still think lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda is political opportunism.

Tags: Senator ∙ John McCain ∙ passing day ∙ Arizona ∙ election ∙ Doug Ducey ∙ lying in state ∙ political opportunism

I'm not something less, I'm something else.

Tags: bureaucrats ∙ power ∙ government ∙ voters ∙ exploit ∙ government is not your friend ∙ advances ∙ culture ∙ technology ∙ plastic surgery ∙ kidney machine ∙ capitalism ∙ poverty ∙ competition

“Will Witt went to Santa Barbara to ask people what they thought of the new law banning plastic straws. Check it out!”

Tags: PragerU ∙ Will Witt ∙ Santa Barbara ∙ California ∙ plastic ∙ straws ∙ virtue signaling ∙ illegal immigrants

For something with no moral relativism, there's an awful lot or relative morality going on.

Tags: John Stossel ∙ Social Security

He speaks for himself.

Tags: AJ+ ∙ video ∙ guest content ∙ Cherán ∙ Mexico ∙ Michoacán ∙ politicos ∙ police ∙ crime

But they are hypocrites when they declare that they support free speech while applying selective censorship.

Tags: maxims ∙ lawyers ∙ legislators ∙ reality

❝❝Most of the claims of Republican racism are because the Republicans involved didn't see any reason to grant special privilege when people already had rights recognized by law.❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ Republican ∙ Republicans ∙ racism ∙ privilege ∙ rights

❝❝No, they are not monopolies.

When I sit down at a computer, I don't have to go through Facebook to check the weather or see what is happening at this site. If I wanted to message someone on my iPod or iPad, I don't have to use Twitter.

With AT&T, if you were in an area covered you had no choice. It was your regional Bell company and AT&T or nothing. The breakup fixed that, you could choose your phone company. And today, if I am not in range of the right cell tower, my phone still works as long as I am in range of a cell tower.

Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple, all got big by offering something the competition did not have. No one was forced. Competition is the only way to reduce their hold. And the competition, like all competition, has to offer something more than "just as good as."

For a while, iOS and macOSX had software hooks so that Facebook and Twitter had easier access. That's no longer necessarily true, some of Apple's customers didn't want their data shared by companies that weren't trustworthy.

Government intervention is the last thing we need. There are already politicos who complain about "fake news" that isn't fake, it's just not what the politicos want you to think about. From the news in the last couple of days, it seems Twitter is going after conservative and libertarian users. Do we really want a world where government decides what may and may not be said?

Oh, one other thing. Monopolies rely on government support and intervention. Start regulating and you just planted a monopoly.

---

I agree it's a mess.

To get a site, you have to register a domain name. Then you have to get server space. If you use a company like Wordpress, you agree to carry their ads on your site in exchange for a reduced rate or free use on their server space. If you go on your own, you find a web host (like MacHighway) and you have more control over the site and advertising.

Think of it like a storefront that you have to rent. Depending on the terms of the lease, that is how much service your "landlord" provides and how much you provide to your visitors.

If Twitter provides the ability to block people you don't like, I agree that it should be available to ALL users. But the platform is not public property. The "landlord" can block out who they want when they want. But they shouldn't be shielded from the consequences of their actions. They are liable if they provide different services and benefits to their users. If it's a "free" service, then all "free" users should have the same benefits as all other "free" users. The "landlord" can ban conservatives, but if they allow conservatives (or one specific high profile conservative), then that person should have the same rights and benefits.

ETA: The real question is if the platform should ban offensive content and how that should be defined.❞❞

Tags: virtue signaling ∙ Facebook ∙ Twitter ∙ Apple ∙ server space ∙ Google ∙ iOS ∙ domain name ∙ macOSX ∙ competition ∙ government intervention ∙ fake news ∙ politicos ∙ conservative ∙ libertarian ∙ government ∙ Wordpress ∙ MacHighway ∙ lease ∙ offensive

❝❝There was a late night bull session I attended. One very drunk person announced, very authoritatively, "Socialism is jealousy."

Then she passed out.

She may have had a point.

---

I'll go you one farther. There are studies that show primates have a strong sense of fairness. Some other studies show the fairness idea is linked to play in wolves and coyotes. I've seen speculation but no mention of studies that the idea exists in elephants as well. Taken together, these may indicate that it is part of the biology, at least for social animals.

---

I'd say it relies on control and orientation in time. Given that it's extremely difficult to control other's behavior except through force, someone who is past-orientated will choose coercion and false signals. Especially if their behavior was controlled in the past.

Future orientation and risk taking are more likely to depend on cooperation. Especially if one doesn't have the resources to pull off the future alone.

Going forward, power with beats power over. But someone stuck in the past won't see that. As for the "leaders," they're gaming the system and don't practice what they preach. "But just do as I say, don't do as I do," as the old Genesis song says.

---

❝Everyone who lives in America is a socialist to some degree.❞

True. But did they choose, or was it chosen for them "for the greater good?" In many cases before they were born? Did they ever have an alternative choice? Were they even allowed to think about it?

That's how socialism works. It's always involuntary except for those calling the shots.

❝It’s just that the rank and file among us don’t have $12 billion to buy votes from farmers we’ve screwed over.❞

If he had bought votes, the farmers wouldn't be screwed, would they? You've moved beyond mixing metaphors here, you're mixing conspiracy theories.

---

Your premise about vote buying is wrong. There's plenty to criticize about Trump's tariff strategy (which I've done), but there was no vote buying. That's the problem with most of the accusations against Trump. The loudest people ignore what Trump has done and blame him for things he hasn't done. You can't buy votes after the fact. And you keep overlooking all the other people adversely affected by the tariffs.

I used the word choosing because we are supposed to live in a representative government. Socialism removes choice. Socialism removes freedom. Socialism removes prosperity. The only reason why the United States works economically is because of the partial free market. The free market works. The free market works better than anything else in history. The only reason Americans can afford even partial socialism is because of the abundance produced by the free market.

So are Americans socialist? Yes, but not from choice. Someone had to do it to them. Someone had to lie to them about what they could get. Someone else had to pay the bills. Would Americans choose socialist programs? I don't think they would if they understood the costs.

I didn't claim you wrote anything about choice. I asked about choice. That's not words in your mouth, that's a question you don't want to answer.❞❞

Tags: sociaism ∙ choice ∙ primates ∙ fairness ∙ prosperity ∙ freedom ∙ wolves ∙ coyotes ∙ elephants ∙ biology ∙ control ∙ orientation in time ∙ coercion ∙ false signals ∙ future ∙ past ∙ power with vs power over ∙ involuntary ∙ bought votes

❝❝Liberty demands more than just deciding who is "in charge." If government means electing people who are kinda-sorta on your side on alternate Thursdays when there's no rain, what's the point?❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ election ∙ kinda-sorta ∙ alternate Thursdays ∙ no rain ∙ goverment ∙ tweeted

❝❝Since the last time I read your stuff, I've been racking my brain to remember any libertarians who "pandered" to pedophiles. I can't remember any. "Consenting adults" is a big priority.

As for "pandering" to homosexuals, well, we also "pander" to Jews, women, Rotarians, Red Sox fans, and classic car owners. Not to mention people with piercings, people with tattoos, people with nine toes, and almost anyone else you can name.

If you're threatened by "live and let live," by all means run away.

---

These are two different issues. The only one that I'm denying is that libertarians pander to pedophiles.

You want to use it as the modern political equivalent of blood libel.

It's probably because I am pagan, but I've found keeping minors at an arm's length when it comes to religion and sexuality solves more problems than it causes. It's one of those necessary compromises that keeps neighbors.

---

I think you'll find that most small "l" libertarians like me consider it a minor issue, if at all.

I will point out that the laws are not self consistent. Driving at 16 (some farm states allowed it at 14 in rural areas), voting and draft eligibility at 18, drinking age of 21, well, those are just some of the best known examples.

I've pointed out before that the whole extended childhood thing is mostly a post WWII American urban phenomena. Attitudes towards "child brides" were very different a few generations ago.

---

Can you tell me what the "American" position is on taxes? Does every single American agree with that? What about public schools? And immigration?

I call myself libertarian with a small "l" because when I say "classic liberal" most folks in the U.S. don't know what I am talking about. It has nothing to do with a political party and everything to do with liberty.

I believe that the freedom to choose is the mark of an adult human. Make of that what you will.

---

Classic liberalism predates the founding of the American republic. That is why I distinguish between "Libertarianism" and "libertarianism." Big "L" versus small "l." Party platform versus individual responsibility.

If you'll look closely at what I've written, I've always stressed "consenting adults" when it comes to sexual practices.

I pointed out that even the All Wise Forces of Government & Society® can't decide when a child is responsible or not.❞❞

Tags: libertarian ∙ pedophiles ∙ homosexuals ∙ Jews ∙ women ∙ Rotarians ∙ Red Sox fans ∙ classic car owners ∙ piercings ∙ tattoos ∙ nine toes ∙ driving age ∙ age of consent ∙ classic liberalism ∙ American republic ∙ consenting adults ∙ sex

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ ReasonTV ∙ FOSTA ∙ SESTA ∙ online freedom

““If you cannot achieve equality of performance among people born to the same parents and raised under the same roof, how realistic is it to expect to achieve it across broader and deeper social divisions?””
     — Thomas Sowell

Tags: Thomas Sowell ∙ equality ∙ performance ∙ social divisions

““One of the consequences of such notions as ‘entitlements’ is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.””
     — Thomas Sowell

Tags: Thomas Sowell ∙ entitlements ∙ contributed ∙ society ∙ owes ∙ nice enough

Tags: goverment ∙ rule of law ∙ Republican ∙ religious right ∙ progressives ∙ major parties ∙ politicos ∙ rescue ∙ false equivalence ∙ Their Cause Is Just ∙ expand ∙ government power ∙ increases taxes ∙ increased costs ∙ more laws ∙ more regulations

Tags: maxims ∙ religion ∙ children ∙ demonic realms ∙ faith

““Those who cry out that the government should 'do something' never even ask for data on what has actually happened when the government did something, compared to what actually happened when the government did nothing.””
     — Thomas Sowell

Tags: Thomas Sowell ∙ do something ∙ did nothing ∙ goverment

Tags: Thomas Sowell ∙ ridiculous ∙ decisions ∙ third parties ∙ wrong ∙ bright ideas ∙ Left

Tags: memes ∙ guest content ∙ capitalism ∙ corporatism ∙ competition ∙ company ∙ goverment

Tags: video ∙ guest content ∙ Roaming Millennial ∙ abortion ∙ sex ∙ birth control ∙ Roe vs. Wade ∙ Tomi Lahren ∙ Michelle Wolf ∙ pregnancy ∙ pro-life ∙ pro-choice

Tags: video ∙ John Stossel ∙ ReasonTV ∙ plastic ∙ child ∙ projects

Tags: Hernando de Soto ∙ clear title

❝❝I'm not demanding that you give up your faith.

I'm asking why religion should be enshrined in law.

Faith is between you and the Divine, no other person can change that. It's up to you and your choices.

I'm asking for no sacrifice unless you believe that your religion should govern the faith and religion of others.

And if that's the case, I'm asking why.❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ faith ∙ religion ∙ enshrined ∙ choice ∙ sacrifice ∙ govern

❝❝The U.S. Constitution doesn't mention the Christian God except in the date.

It's wholly remarkable in that it may well be the first document in history that didn't claim government power derived from the Divine.

Men of faith and men of reason deliberately chose not to make a public declaration of religion even as they acknowledged it's role in individual action.

They knew that faith must be chosen, not compelled.❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ Constitution ∙ government power ∙ Divine ∙ declaration of religion ∙ individual action ∙ choice ∙ compelled

❝❝The law is not moral.

That's up to us humans.

(Apologies if I offended any nascent AIs)❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ human ∙ AI

““Good men must not obey the laws too well.””
     — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tags: Ralph Waldo Emerson ∙ law and order

When the press shows that it can't be trusted with even some truths, why should the press be trusted?

Tags: rights ∙ privilege ∙ power ∙ goverment

❝❝WH, you are way off base with your opinion about Islam having no Constitution protections. Religion is between you and the Divine and no one else.

That being said, *ahem*





It may be a religion, but if it relies on force, any and all opposition is justified. And if someone chooses to walk away, that's their right.

If your religion depends on force, you're doing it wrong.

---

That's not your place to decide. And Story was wrong.

If you start excluding religions from protection, sooner or later someone else is going to exclude yours. No other nation has America's pluralism. It's what threatens all monotheistic Islam. Religious choice is exactly that, choice,

On the other hand, we must insist on an even playing ground. Islam gets no special treatment and no special protections.

I'd be perfectly happy seeing a law that required anyone, regardless of faith, who participated in an honor killing or female genital mutilation to be executed, wrapped in pigskin, boiled with pig dung, and buried under a pig farm. Of course, the pigs might object…

---

Religion is a hot button topic for me, if for no other reason than I have had Christians use theirs against me, and tell me in no uncertain terms that any religion except Christianity should not be allowed. I'm related to some of those people.

Story himself specifically excluded Judaism. Which is interesting considering (among other things) the history of the Newport, Rhode Island Hebrew Congregation.

Here's what both you and Story are completely overlooking. The English Civil War was relatively recent. No proto-American wanted another church telling their church what to do. But that is minor. No, the big thing is that for the very first time (that we know of) in the history of Western Civilization, the defining document did not say that government power derived from the Divine. Except for the date, there is no mention of any god in the Constitution.

The SCT made a mistake with the Mormon ruling. It wouldn't be the first or last time that the Court goofed. Kelo v. New London comes to mind, as does Pace v. Alabama. There is nothing in the Constitution that gives the Federal government authority over marriage, and certainly nothing that gives it authority over religion. Under the Tenth (and yes, I know politicos love to ignore the Tenth), that means the no power, period.

Most importantly, there were many things that did not exist in 1791. Radio, automobiles, telegraph, and baseball come to mind. There were many things that were unknown in 1791. No American had seen the Mariana Trench, the Grand Canyon, Mount McKinley, or a coyote.

---

Story was commenting well after the fact, he was not a signatory to either the DOI or Constitution. The fact that he excluded Judaism reflects on him and not the Founders. Jews may have been a minority faith, but they were a well established faith.

Using law to force the rules of your religion was wrong then and it is wrong now. I'm sure you'd object if Muslim prayer calls were enforced in American law, or if Kosher dietary restrictions were part of the legal system. Almost all of the mala prohibita laws have a religious basis. It's no secret that I believe most of the problems in American society are because of too much government and mala prohibita laws. If your religion says no shopping on Sunday or no selling liquor, that's up to you. Using the law to restrict other's choices based on your religion, well, that doesn't say much for your faith.

Start respecting the "commonalities of Christianity" and you're going to fast approach respecting the commonalities of faith. The Ethic of Reciprocity or "Golden Rule" is the keystone of Western Civilization. It is arguably the single most important and universal basis for human advancement and is the basis for all true liberty. But it did not begin with Judaism or Christianity.

Once you eliminate specific mentions of any god, pluralism between sects pretty much leads to pluralism between religions. It may have been an accident. I suspect some of those Deists took a hand, or pen as it were.

I can't stress that enough. That simple idea takes religion and religious choice out of the public sphere and puts it back into individual behavior where it belongs. The teachings of a faith should matter only to the individual, not to the state. I don't want a Congresscritter demanding that I observe the Christian sabbath, any more than you want another Congresscritter demanding that you participate in ritual sex with same sex partners under the next full moon. And no, I don't do that.

Because that sets up the next bit. Radical Islam demands that the state require and prohibit according to the interpretation of the imams. The state becomes an extension of Islam. There is no provision for other faiths except in very subservient ways. The state becomes religion.

The ideas of liberty expressed in the Constitution reflect the universal ideals well beyond "Judeo-Christianity." Parts of it originated with the ancient Greeks and the Roman Republic as you've pointed out. It's a good idea because it works and not because of it's origins.

When the Founders wanted to limit freedom, be it slavery, restricting the vote to male landowners, or originally not enumerating human rights, it was wrong and it failed miserably. There was no way the Founders could foresee what would follow. We celebrate the universality, the protection of liberty from government and those who would abuse government power.

❝We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.❞

---

It's not your place to decide if you require others to sacrifice their freedom for yours. And as a citizen of this country, that's something I will defend fight against.

Constitutional America was not founded as a Christian nation. Nations are not Christian, individuals are. Yes, even the nations with established churches. Just as one very obvious example, nations can't participate in the Christian rite of communion. If a "Christian nation" goes to war, does that mean that Jeshua ben Joseph signed the marching orders?

Story may have been closer chronologically, but that doesn't mean he was right. I've already told you the biggest piece of evidence. The Constitution clearly states that political power comes from the people and not the Divine. This was unheard of, as far as we know it had never happened before.

Protecting rights means protecting people from the whims of the majority. You don't stop having freedom of speech because your city voted for "free speech" zones.

As I explained to WH above, radical Islam means that the state becomes an extension of Islam. Pluralism is pretty much the only thing that can resist that and not become tyranny.

Radical Islam is depending on special privileges and protections not granted to others. They can't do it on a level playing field.

Since the practices I mentioned are exclusive to the more radical versions of Islam, then the rest of us don't have to fear that punishment, do we?

---

Story was still wrong on this. Veritas. No one person, no one group has all the answers. I distrust anyone who says that they do. I refer back to the source document. The Constitution remains one of the clearest pieces of English ever put to paper. There are reasons why the Founders, some of the best educated people of their time, deliberately chose not to include the Christian Deity in the Constitution. It's not because of their faith. It's not because they were not pious. It's because they didn't trust men when they claimed to speak for the Divine.

❝Religion can not be allowed the coercive power of the state and the state can not be allowed the moral justification of faith.❞ That's one of mine.

I'm not advocating paganism and especially not my version. I am saying that your religion does not govern my behavior. Just as mine does not govern yours.

Our nation was founded on principles that transcended Christianity. Some of them predate Christianity. The Founders were wise enough to know that they didn't know everything. The Enlightenment thinkers did not spontaneously create their philosophy, they drew heavily on history. There's no need to label these ideas as Christian or Hottentotten, it's enough that some very wise men found ways to pass along truths that worked. Civilization rises from wisdom after disaster. You're arguing over the labels so "your side" can take credit. Yes, Christian people (as opposed to Christianity) have done some wonderful things. And Christians have done some terrible things with huge costs to humanity. ❝The vice or virtue is not in the label, it's in the individual.❞ Labels borrow merit, although they do get blamed.

I didn't say the EoR was universal, I said it was the keystone of Western Civilization. Our best law and principles rest on the simple idea that we're fair to others because we expect them to be fair to us.

I've said it before, ❝Christianity is not the source of all that is good and righteous in our society.❞ Christians are better and nicer when they aren't the only game around. “One path among many” means Christians usually pay attention to what others say. It means Christians have to defend what they say and do without hiding behind scripture or a "higher truth."

Our law should not be defined in terms of A religion. Certainly not if everyone doesn't share that religion.

We should celebrate the ideas, not the labels.❞❞

Tags: faith ∙ religion ∙ Constitution ∙ force ∙ force of law ∙ Joseph Story ∙ Founders ∙ Christianity ∙ islam ∙ Christians ∙ pluralism ∙ Judaism ∙ Judeo-Christian ∙ English Civil War ∙ Western Civilization ∙ Divine ∙ Supreme Court ∙ Kelo v. New London ∙ Pace v. Alabama ∙ marriage ∙ mala prohibita ∙ Golden Rule ∙ Tenth Amendment ∙ Muslim prayer calls ∙ Ethic of Reciprocity ∙ public sphere ∙ individual ∙ behavior ∙ kosher

An argument against gun control has much wider application than I realized

Tags: maxims ∙ tax reform ∙ taxes ∙ national sales tax ∙ ten percent ∙ state and local taxes ∙ Federal government

❝❝I realize that this is going against the narrative, but the immigration mess predated Trump. The difference is that Trump has decided to mostly enforce the law while Obama decided to sometimes not. The Obama administration is on record telling Congress that it was a lousy law.

Democrats are remarkable at ignoring bad law if a Democrat is President.

If you don't like the law, change it. Don't go selectively protesting because a government functionary does their job. That's virtue signaling.

Where were the protests before Tump was elected?

---

It's bad law. It was abused before Trump decided to run and the only reason it's getting all the attention now is because a Republican is in office. This is literally being sold as evil Trump while almost no progressives are talking about changing or revoking the law. It's propaganda telling people that if a nice Democrat is in office, they won't have to worry about that bad old law because the Democrat President will have the moral courage to ignore it.

“Family separation was a frontline issue for immigration activists for the last decade or more. They warned of a generation of orphans scarred by the loss of their parents. They cautioned that Obama expanded deportation forces on his own to a degree that would be horribly exploited by a Republican president. (At the time, they were worried about Mitt Romney.)

The Obama administration conceded as much on the issue of separation in 2011, when Cecilia Muñoz, White House director of intergovernmental affairs, told PBS, “Even if the [immigration] law is executed with perfection, there will be parents separated from their children.”

Many liberals contend Obama never ripped babies from the arms of screaming parents. They should ask, for example, the over 150,000 immigrant children separated from their parents due to detention and deportation proceedings in 2012 if that’s true. Or the over 500,000 immigrant children, who experienced separation between 1998 and that year.”
➢ Separation Of Immigrant Families Was Part Of Deportation Under Obama—Now Trump Is Expanding The Practice

---

Again, it's bad law. Trump can only do what he has done because of laws on the books for years.

It's not just one law. We keep trying to fix the problem with more law which creates more problems which need more law.

---

Except it is the law.

Would you have government ignore the law if the politicos didn't think it was moral? Remember we have an AG who was spouting Bible quotes to justify his immorality.

If the law is wrong, it should be changed. Preferably removed. Anything else puts us at the whim of the politicos and bureaucrats. If we are to have freedom and protection by law, then the rule of law must be uniform. No enforcing it when this man is in office and ignoring it when that woman is in office.

I know you don't like what is happening and you blame Trump. But it it is the law. Selective enforcement just means the threat of tyranny is always there.

Change the law.❞❞

Tags: immigration reform ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Barack Obama

❝❝I don't have an easy answer. I do think a nation is obligated to protect it's borders and I do think it should be able to expel immigrants or visitors who break the law. I do think that part of the problem are government benefits, I think that anyone who comes here should be able to pay their own way. Beyond that… *shrugs*❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ immigration ∙ borders ∙ break the law ∙ government benefits ∙ pay your own way

““Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government-- in pursuit of good intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.””
     — Milton Friedman

Tags: Milton Friedman ∙ goverment ∙ military ∙ contract law ∙ mala in se ∙ good intentions ∙ morality ∙ special interests ∙ inefficiency ∙ motivation ∙ freedom ∙ referee

““There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.””
     — James Madison

Tags: James Madison ∙ freedom ∙ abridgment ∙ encroachments ∙ usurpations

The Right to Discriminate

““The left has created a macabre myth that runs counter to the whole experience of mankind. The left has persuaded the gullible masses of America, including, sadly, most conservatives, that "discrimination" by individuals and businesses is wrong and that it violates the Constitution.

Precisely the opposite is true. All serious cognition and all honest moral judgments involve discrimination. When individuals and businesses are not free to discriminate, then the power to determine what is true and false and good and bad becomes the sole property of the state – or that even more odious creature, that lobotomized Frankenstein monster, "society."

Instead of diverse opinions and actions freely manifest, which are what happens when the state and society are denied the power to force a certain viewpoint down the throats of private citizens and enterprises, what happens is that all debate, all differences, and all individuality are crushed based upon what those who run the state or manipulate society deem sacrosanct.””
     — Bruce Walker

Tags: guest content ∙ clipping ∙ Bruce Walker ∙ discriminate ∙ left ∙ America ∙ Constitution ∙ individual ∙ business ∙ society ∙ diversity

Tags: video ∙ guest content ∙ John Stossel ∙ ReasonTV ∙ Jordan Peterson ∙ social justice ∙ pronouns

Under what circumstances does the state or the people have the moral authority to compel someone to act against their beliefs?

Tags: kosher ∙ pork ∙ BBQ ∙ equality ∙ past wrongs ∙ equal rights ∙ granting privilege ∙ denying rights ∙ moral authority ∙ freedom ∙ Eric July ∙ discriminate ∙ mala in se ∙ mala prohibita ∙ goverment

At the same time, the privilege of being a protected class is regularly exploited to excuse behavior and escape responsibility.

Tags: James Meredith ∙ University of Mississippi ∙ 1962 ∙ racism ∙ privilege ∙ excuse ∙ behavior ∙ responsibility ∙ 1964 ∙ Civil Rights Act ∙ equal rights ∙ equal protection ∙ moral wrong ∙ oppression

“When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are ruled by criminals.”

Tags: memes ∙ guest content ∙ crime ∙ crimminals

❝❝So some religions should get protection and others should not? Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that if we start making those distinctions we've just sacrificed religious freedom.

---

There are times I want to discriminate.

There are people I do not want to have anything to do with. Yes, sometimes those people are Christian fundamentalists. But sometimes those people call for imprisoning climate deniers. Sometimes those people call for the redistribution of wealth. Sometimes those people call for the suppression of ideas they are "triggered" by. Sometimes those people want others removed from history because of things the others have been accused of.

So tell me, why should any of those people get their way?

We draw the line for a reason. No, it's not perfect and not everyone will be happy. But it comes down to parity. If I don't think someone has legitimate power to tell me how to think, what to say, or how to act, then I have no legitimate power to tell them how to think, what to say, or how to act. Which means that public accommodation and anti-discrimination laws are so much bunk.

Otherwise we're just raising one victimhood over another. Last week it was women, this week it is transgenders we're "protecting." Can't have equal rights because Black Lives Matter. If your faith offends, you aren't allowed. At that point, at this point, the only "solution" is to control the law so that you can control what is "allowed." Never mind that just sets up a future where you will lose control. You must be free, but the Other is not allowed.

---

Everyone should have freedom to discriminate.

The moment that the law declares this group of people off limits is the moment when you invite the law to be abused.

Look at the bill that sparked the original article. It's a "fix" of another law, which was a fix of a previous law, and so on.

The solution to government is always more government. And the definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results.

If Christians are wrong to enshrine their beliefs in the law, then anyone else is wrong trying to constrain them with the law.

The only practical solution is making sure the law gives no advantage. "Protecting" one group over others is just going to perpetuate the injustice.

---

As far as the rest, I don't blame labels. There's no vice or virtue in the label. "Christian" includes Roy Moore and MLK. It's not every Christian and we should stop declaring that Christianity is a threat to our chosen way of life. Like it or not, American religious pluralism made American paganism possible.

As far as scapegoats go, well, you (among others) are blaming Christians because they are Christians and not because of what the individual has done.

My point all along this thread is that the law should not benefit or harm any religion. There are some very vocal Christians who want the law to shield Christianity. There are some very vocal people who want the law to contain Christianity. Both groups are wrong.

---

Actually yes.

Starting with a big one. I'll repeat it for you.

If Christians are wrong to enshrine their beliefs in the law, then anyone else is wrong trying to constrain them with the law.

Freedom of religion is exactly that. Neither help nor hinder. You can't fix bad law by making more law. You can only repeal it. Politics is about control. Freedom is about choice.

---

Ah, but that isn't what people like Bill Nye, Lawrence Torcello, Mark Hertsgaard, and Brad Johnson said. They all said that the mere act of climate change denial should be a crime.

Behold the new heresy. You are not allowed to dissent.

And yes, that is every bit as authoritarian as anything any Christian fanatic demanded.❞❞

Tags: Christian ∙ fundamentalist ∙ climate alarmist ∙ imprisoning ∙ redistribute wealth ∙ trigger warnings ∙ history ∙ victimhood ∙ equal rights ∙ Black Lives Matter ∙ faith ∙ offends ∙ transgender ∙ women

We're so conditioned to accept public schools as a Good Thing™ that we resist looking at options.

Tags: public schools ∙ politicos ∙ technocrats ∙ private alternative ∙ private sector ∙ competition ∙ school year ∙ internet ∙ education ∙ quality of life ∙ Alexis de Tocqueville ∙ Republicans ∙ Democrats ∙ Clinton administration ∙ Obama administration ∙ affordability ∙ private companies ∙ choice ∙ truth

““More DOJ norms being eroded. Trump-a SUBJECT of the investigation-wants access to material related to the inquiry. His Congressional supporters want evidence connected to an ongoing investigation. Time for DOJ/FBI to simply say no-protect the institutions and time tested norms."””
     — Eric Holder tweet reported at Holder urges DOJ/FBI to unconstitutionally defy President: 'Protect the institutions'

Federal agencies and Federal agents serve at the pleasure of the President and Congress. That is directly from the Constitution. No institution may trump the Constitution. Democrats wouldn't stand for it if it were happening to a Democrat president or a Democrat Congress. There's more than a little hypocrisy here.

Tags: Eric Holder ∙ FedGovs ∙ institutions ∙ President ∙ Congress ∙ Democrats

❝❝One reason why the public school movement gained so much ground in America was in direct response to Catholic schools. Control over what should be taught in public schools is a distraction.

Hardly anyone asks if there should be public schools in the first place.

Mandatory school attendance is backed by the force of law. Much of it has degenerated into who gets to control the conditioning. Which raises some interesting questions. The Daily Caller reports that the Mountain Ridge Middle School in West Virginia requires students to write out the Shahada to practice calligraphy. There are no requirements to write out Christian or Jewish affirmations, and apparently those are not part of the curriculum. Obviously Buddhist and pagan beliefs aren't included either.

Why is this a big deal and a much bigger deal than is being reported? According to Islam, reciting the Shahada makes one Muslim forevermore.

I want to stress that the issue is not Christianity, Islam, or any other faith. The issue is public schools requiring faith lessons. If public schools force religion on the students, then most likely they are teaching other questionable propaganda as well. We notice the religion because as members of minority faiths that is one thing our antenna are tuned for, we overlook the other.

All of this returns to the question why have public and compulsory schools to begin with?❞❞

Tags: public schools ∙ Catholic school ∙ mandatory attendance ∙ Daily Caller ∙ Mountain Ridge Middle School ∙ West Virginia ∙ student ∙ Jewish ∙ Christian ∙ Buddhist ∙ pagan ∙ beliefs ∙ islam ∙ faith ∙ Muslim

❝❝I'm not a Trump fan. I don't trust him and I don't like him.

That being said, when some of us said we didn't like Obama, we were told to sit down and shut up. Obama won, and it was his ball game.

That alone should raise people's hackles.

Right after Trump was elected, there was the woman's march thing. I asked a very progressive group just what was it that Trump had said or done that presented such a threat to women in particular. The only real answer I got was something about woman's reproductive rights. That's when I pointed out that Trump supported Planned Parenthood.

One year later, the same group was talking about supporting the next woman's march. I asked what Trump had done in the previous year that was a particular threat to women. I got something vague about the judges he appointed. I asked how that was different than a liberal President appointing liberal judges.

The complaints about Trump not being legitimately elected are mostly recycled from Bush the Younger. The complaints about Trump being a danger to world peace and being totally incompetent are being recycled from Goldwater and Reagan. I know, I went back and checked. Progressive will complain about Trump tweeting from the toilet, but they can't tell you what he has done that they find repulsive. Except judicial appointments, of course.

We've reached the point where we're told that Trump is E-V-I-L, but they can't say why. And meanwhile with overwhelming bad news coverage, he still has an approval rating of more than 50%.

I don't like him. I don't trust him. I think he is going to make some very bad decisions that will be very bad for the country. But meanwhile, he's screwing up the established government traditions and driving the technocrats crazy. He's disrupting things that need to be disrupted. He's changing government. I have to give the man credit for that.❞❞

Tags: Donald Trump ∙ Barack Obama ∙ election ∙ Women's March ∙ Planned Parenthood ∙ Bush League ∙ reproductive rights ∙ judicial nominees ∙ World peace ∙ legitimately elected ∙ incompetent ∙ Barry Goldwater ∙ Ronald Reagan ∙ evil ∙ approval ∙ establishment ∙ disrupt ∙ goverment

Tags: memes ∙ rain water ∙ fishing ∙ ownership ∙ property ∙ business ∙ rennovate ∙ home ∙ vehicle ∙ marriage ∙ hunt ∙ weapons ∙ cut hair ∙ sell ∙ lemonade ∙ food ∙ grow a garden ∙ protest

❝❝Kafkatraps are THE keystone of victimhood politics and most identity politics. Without someone recognizing or assuming blame, kafkatraps cease to work.

Kafkatrapping centers on guilt. Don't accept it. Don't reject it. Act as if the accusation is so silly and undeserved it's not even worth discussing. They will repeat, and you still shouldn't pay any attention to the claims. Go on as if the accuser had said nothing of importance. Indeed, go on as if you are trying to keep them from embarrassing themselves further. You're doing them a favor if only they were rational/sober enough to know it.

Kafkatrapping came by way of certain Christian denominations and mala prohibita laws. "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."❞❞
     — NeoWayland, kafkatrap

Tags: maxims ∙ lexicon ∙ kafkatrap ∙ victimhood ∙ blame ∙ guilt ∙ accusation ∙ silly ∙ undeserved ∙ accuser ∙ important ∙ embarrassing ∙ Christian ∙ mala prohibita

“Delusions of Justice”

Tags: California ∙ secession ∙ Constitution ∙ American history professors ∙ politicos ∙ technocrats ∙ people ∙ state ∙ water rights ∙ Southwest ∙ Arizona ∙ Nevada ∙ Imperial Valley ∙ Mexico ∙ SCOTUS ∙ splitting the state ∙ treason ∙ MacGuffin ∙ Dred Scott decision ∙ Minersville School District v. Gobitis ∙ United States v. Rabinowitz ∙ First Amendment ∙ Tenth Amendment ∙ commerce clause ∙ individual citizens ∙ Thomas Jefferson ∙ Declaration of Independence

Bitter lessons 25 years after Waco, Texas, siege

““Fifty-one days before the FBI final assault, scores of federal Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents launched an attack on the Davidians’ home spurred by allegations that they had converted semi-automatic rifles to full-automatic capacity. The ATF’s lead investigator had previously rejected an offer to peacefully search the Davidians’ home for firearms violations. Four ATF agents and six Davidians were killed in the fracas on February 28, 1993. At least one ATF agent told superiors that the ATF fired first, spurring an immediate end to the official shooting review. But the media trumpeted the ATF storyline that its agents had been ambushed, entitling the feds to be far more aggressive in the following weeks.

What lessons can today’s Americans draw from the FBI showdown on the Texas plains a quarter century ago?””
     — James Bovard

Tags: James Bovard ∙ Waco ∙ Texas ∙ Branch Davidians ∙ ATF ∙ FBI ∙ Janet Reno ∙ massacre

“Since the end of the Cold War, SWAT teams have proliferated across the United States and the number of no-knock raids on private citizens has risen dramatically. Abby Hall and Chris Coyne explain that this is the result of the boomerang effect– the process by which, in the absence of strong formal constraints, tactics used in foreign interventions abroad are later used to limit the liberties of people back home.”

Tags: video ∙ Mercatus Center ∙ Cold War ∙ SWAT teams ∙ United States ∙ no-knock raids ∙ private citizens ∙ Abby Hall ∙ Chris Coyne ∙ boomerang effect

❝❝One flawed legacy of Keynesian economics is that government can control individual action by government. Taxes and budgeting are not the same thing and shouldn't be treated as such. Taxes on the revenue side of the ledger are calculated in terms of their cost (expense side of the ledger) to government. This is probably the most fucked up part of modern government accounting. It's not about how much money government has, it's about how much money government takes from people. Money is power and choice, the more government takes the less people have. Government can't create value, it can only divert it.

There hasn't been a real government budget in years. What there has been is a series of continuing resolutions, essentially a short term agreement to spend at least the same amount as before unless specifically changed by Congress. There hasn't been a balanced budget in even longer. There's no cost to Congresscritters for not passing a balanced budget. If it were up to me, I'd say that Congress and it's staff only gets paid in years that a budget is passed and the budget is balanced. In years that the budget isn’t balanced, a Congresscritter should pay it’s salary to the government with interest.

In the case of the tax cut, the original CBO scoring said that the cost to government would not be offset by the revenue it generated. The new CBO report says that the cost to government was offset. Since people like having more money, Trump's popularity went up. People don’t care about the deficit. People do care about money in their pocket.

I’m not “you guys.” I’m not cheering for massive deficits (which happen with Democrat presidents too). I specifically said that he gave the economy a (mythical) boot into growth and that the tax cuts have paid for themselves and boosted his popularity. This is not the action of a drooling idiot. It’s not smart enough and it’s only short term, but it makes Trump look good and gives people more power today.

What I am doing is pointing out that Trump plays the populist better than any recent president, possibly any President since Jackson. The reason he can do this is because government has become more and more oppressive, no matter what party is “in control.”❞❞

Tags: Donald Trump ∙ Keynesian ∙ economics ∙ Congress ∙ budget ∙ taxes ∙ cost to government ∙ money in pocket ∙ revenue ∙ expense ∙ government accounting ∙ value ∙ continuing resolution ∙ balanced budget ∙ Congresscritter ∙ CBO ∙ popularity ∙ deficit ∙ economy ∙ populist ∙ Andrew Jackson ∙ oppresive

❝❝Okay, let's talk about the ACA, a law so "good" that nobody was allowed to read it before Congress passed it. A law so well written that it had to be illegally modified by executive order again and again just to work. A law that was supposed to pay for itself, but was so dependent on government subsidies that states had to withdraw just so their citizens could have health insurance. A law deliberately designed to reduce the number of health insurance companies and choices available to consumers. That last bit and raising prices is the only thing that the ACA has accomplished.

The only reason government is involved in healthcare to begin with is because government enforced salary caps and companies had to offer something more to recruit and keep employees. Every part of healthcare that government has been involved with, costs have outpaced inflation, availability never meets demand, and innovation has been stifled.

If this is Obama's legacy, it has resulted in less medical care at a higher price and almost impossible to use. But it looks good.❞❞

Tags: Obamacare ∙ ACA ∙ Congress ∙ executive order ∙ states ∙ health insurance ∙ heathcare ∙ inflation ∙ Barack Obama ∙ legacy ∙ subsidies ∙ looks good

““Income taxes are the fine one pays for the crime of being useful and productive.””

Tags: memes ∙ Uncle Sam ∙ taxes ∙ fine ∙ useful ∙ productive

““The same government that has repeatedly violated privacy laws and illegally collects data from all it's citizens, is lecturing the CEO of a company about violating privacy laws and collecting data from all their users.””

Tags: goverment ∙ picture ∙ privacy ∙ data

“Tax Day gets a lot of attention, but John Stossel says that attention is misleading, because the April 17th deadline is only for income tax. That's just a fraction of the taxes Americans pay.”

Tags: video ∙ ReasonTV ∙ John Stossel ∙ taxes

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Facebook ∙ diversity ∙ census ∙ Electronic Health Records ∙ Second Amendment ∙ Paul Stevens ∙ Cambridge Analytica ∙ bad cops ∙ Android phones ∙ Microsoft ∙ offensive language ∙ Obama campaign ∙ Planned Parenthood ∙ Disney ∙ Europe ∙ refugee ∙ Silicon Valley ∙ internet ∙ conservative ∙ Parkland shooting

❝❝I never expected Trump to do anything except disrupt.

Pardon, but you're making the same mistake they did. You think that if the right person was in charge, everything would be okay.

Government is not your friend.

---

We will have a government regardless - until we replace it. The replacement may or may not work as well, it may or may not get better, but the ability to replace is inherent in the promise of America.

We've not had a "better" government in decades. Good government is not measured by how much government controls, but by how much it doesn't. It's no accident that America's greatest advances come from places that government doesn't regulate.

Sometimes (and more times than we'd like to admit), the best way to fix something is to replace it. Sometimes the only way to replace something is to destroy it. It works that way with food, clothing, houses. It works that way with cars, companies, and marriages. And yes, sometimes it works that way with government.

---

There is some opinion that NASA exists to keep other (and particularly American private interests) out of space. There a fair-to-middling novel Kings of the High Frontier, that explores that. I'm rereading it right now.

We understood the principles behind the internet years before. AT&T had adopted some of them years before to keep long-distance phone calls from being interrupted. Even after the internet became public, the real driver for bandwidth and video compression was porn. Netflix owes it's existence to horny men looking for naked pictures.

Building roads has always been easy. Maintaining roads is the hard part. There government has failed so much that "infrastructure" is a code word for raising taxes.

My faith is in the free market, not consumer capitalism.

Trump is changing things (and disrupting things), but he's only a small part of what is happening.

---

First of all, they were poor before Trump was even a candidate. And they weren't helped by Obama's war on the coal industry. If you read the article, state and local authorities had a hand in there too.

I haven't looked at this in depth, but I know there wasn't much of an economic base to begin with. Despite what is claimed, that's not something that any government can create. At a minimum, it requires good ideas and private investment.

Oh, and the jobs vanishing overseas? That's something the Democrats and Republicans share the blame for.

---

Like Venezuela?

I could give you pages of proof, but long story short, central control distorts the economy. The more pressure focused in one area, the bigger the disruption. On a small enough scale, you may escape second and third order functions. But if you are using a healthy economy to support massive intervention, you are pretty much guaranteeing those second and third order disruptions.

Think of it like tapping a water main without turning down the pressure. It will give way, it will require replacement, and while it is being fixed most of the system will have to be shut down. The only question is when.

---

I'm not a conservative.

I picked Venezuela because in just a few short years socialism destroyed a robust, expanding, petroleum based economy.

Your other examples aren't exactly socialist either. They are more progressive than the US, but they have not nationalized their means of production. Unlike say, Venezuela.

---

Have you taken a closer look at the Obama Administration? Cronyism, emotional appeal, basically everything that Trump does except it was (mostly) within the system.

Government is not your friend.

---

I repeat, have you taken a look at the Obama administration? A good, long, hard, unbiased look? Have you seen how many of his contributors benefited?

Nor is the Obama administration alone.

This is what annoys me. You're all set to blame Trump and the GOP for crimes against humanity all while excusing the crimes and excesses of the Democrats. And you are still calling for more government control.

Now if you really want, we can match abuse of power against abuse of power. I can tell you horror stories about Congresscritters and technocrats. I can show how almost everything you've been told about economics is designed to confuse you and keep you quiet. I can prove that almost everything government tells you is a lie just to convince you that government is necessary and that one flavor of politics is better than the other.

---

How about I tell you truths instead?

Government is not your friend.

Politics is about control, not truth, not compassion, not liberty, and not funding.

There's no Man on a White Horse riding to the rescue. You shouldn't trust anyone who looks like that because they are cosplaying.

The Republicans and the Democrats are about equally as guilty for the mess we're in. Each will blame the other, then you for not caring enough. Each will want more money and more power.

There's no objective difference between the party on the right and the party on the left. The only difference is who gets screwed now and who gets screwed tomorrow.

Blame Trump. Blame Obama. Blame Smith. It doesn't matter because government is the problem.

Government is not your friend.

---

Obama didn't reduce the debt. He reduced the deficit. That means the government didn't overspend as much as it had in previous years. Oh, and by the way, they printed more currency to "cover" some of the difference which raised the inflation rate and the interest on the national debt.

Trump didn't nuke North Korea. He responded to provocation, as Presidents at least as far back as Kennedy have done. And by the way, the Norks are willing to negotiate now.

I don't remember seeing anything about Trump going after gay marriage.

Before you defend the ACA, take a look at the costs of healthcare starting when Medicare became law. It's no accident that the costs have exceeded inflation every year since. Thanks to the ACA, dozens of states are scrambling to try to cover healthcare costs. Some are opting out of the program. Legally they aren't supposed to, but there is no way they can cover costs.

I'm not familiar with Golden Valley.

Only Congress can decriminalize marijuana. Since they are exploiting an opioid crisis created by government action, I don't expect them to act soon. Basically when Obama's DoJ stopped enforcing marijuana law, they were breaking the law.

The cities and counties who have the strictest gun laws are the same cities and counties who have the highest rate of gun crimes. Pay specific attention to Chicago and Baltimore. Most of those areas have had Democrat administrations for decades.

"Vote Democrat." Why? So we can fall off the left side instead of the right side?

Government should be smaller than absolutely necessary.

---

You mean the multinational corporations who pay both sides but mainly the left ones to pass laws and regulations that benefit them and shut out competition?

You mean the alt-right is a bigger threat than unaccountable race hustlers and movements like BLM who focus on events that fit the narrative and exclude things like "black" on "black" crime in the major cites?

You mean like the attacks on Christianity that happen just because someone professes their faith?

And let's not forget all those people who are only too willing to tell "white" people what they can and cannot say, what they can and cannot think, what they can and cannot do, because of "white privilege."

Government is playing all sides (not both sides, all sides) against each other, and the politicos just keep getting taxes and more power.

Like I told you before, if you want to keep the people you distrust from having power over you backed by government force, the only sure way is to drastically reduce government power. That way you can't mess with them and they can't mess with you.

---

But it is possible.

Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense: “Society is produced by our wants and, government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.”

Milton Friedman wrote: “Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government-- in pursuit of good intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.”

James Madison said: "There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

People are perfectly capable of making their own decisions. Those choices won’t always be ones you agree with. Sometimes those choices will be bad ones with terrible consequences. Still, freedom is based on choice. Without choice, there is no freedom. Without freedom, we aren’t human.

You are perfectly capable of making your own decisions. That is your right, that is what makes you human, and f*ck all to anyone who tells you different.

KYFHO now and forever. The only protection you should get is the certainty that NO ONE ELSE can use government to control you.

But, if you expect that right for yourself, you’d better damn well defend if for others. Even if you don’t like them. Even if you don’t trust them. Especially if you don’t trust them. Otherwise you will lose your choice.

Otherwise you will lose your freedom.

It’s simple. If you want to live free, you can’t meddle in other’s lives.

The second you start meddling is the second you sacrifice your own rights.

“The greater good” is just as big a tyranny as “for you own good.”

You only think it’s fantasy because that is what you’ve been taught by those benefitting from the current power structure.❞❞

Tags: Donald Trump ∙ disrupt ∙ government is not your friend ∙ NASA ∙ space flight ∙ internet ∙ AT&T ∙ Venezuela ∙ socialism ∙ Obama Administration ∙ abuse of power ∙ national debt ∙ North Korea ∙ Obamacare ∙ Congress ∙ marijuana ∙ opoid crisis ∙ DoJ ∙ gun control ∙ network ∙ infrastructure reforms ∙ Netflix ∙ pornography ∙ Barack Obama ∙ coal power

Tags: CDC ∙ opoid crisis ∙ Earth Hour ∙ Human Achievement Hour ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ DNC ∙ Cambridge Analytica ∙ healthcare ∙ hospital ∙ rural Americans ∙ Dodd-Frank ∙ Congress ∙ David Hogg ∙ Scott Walker ∙ Wisconsin ∙ welfare ∙ #MeToo ∙ due process ∙ Jann Wenner ∙ YouTube ∙ gun videos ∙ Facebook ∙ regulation ∙ Larry Krasner ∙ DA ∙ Philadelphia ∙ CLOUD Act ∙ Nobel Prize ∙ Barack Obama ∙ commercial real estate ∙ bubble ∙ Mary Magdalene

Tags: sports ∙ viewers ∙ FBI ∙ Attorney General ∙ Jeff Sessions ∙ FOSTA ∙ prostitution ∙ crimminal probe ∙ sucession ∙ Elizabeth Warren ∙ CFPB ∙ Southern Poverty Law Center ∙ conservative ∙ Congress ∙ budget deficits ∙ free range kids ∙ RussiaGate ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ Barack Obama ∙ Donald Trump ∙ special counsel ∙ labels ∙ pronouns ∙ power over speech ∙ Google ∙ Amazon ∙ EU ∙ Facebook ∙ NOAA ∙ climate change ∙ adjusted temperatures ∙ lawsuit ∙ David Hogg ∙ speech wars ∙ digitalships ∙ double standards ∙ diversity ∙ public safety ∙ Florida ∙ Palm Beach County

❝❝I promise you this, the second after America starts exiling, imprisoning, or permanently disenfranchising people for political opinions, conservatives will be kicked out the same as progressives. That "solution" depends on who controls the politics. What makes you think it will be people you trust who trust you?❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ conservatives ∙ progressives ∙ exiling ∙ imprisoning ∙ disenfranchising ∙ political opinions ∙ trust

❝❝Government action displaces private action. If government does something, it's not because they do it more efficiently or more humanely or whatever the justification is. It's because government uses the law and the implied use of force to keep anyone else from doing it.

We know that choice and the free market work because even a partial free market over time delivers things faster, cheaper, and with a wider distribution. The same can't be said for government❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ government action ∙ private action ∙ force of law ∙ choice ∙ faster ∙ cheaper

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: mental illness ∙ diversity ∙ viewpoint ∙ debt ∙ Peter Strzok ∙ diversity training ∙ Cambridge Analytica ∙ Michael Flynn ∙ Rudolph Contreras ∙ FISA ∙ currency collapse ∙ qualified immunity ∙ mental health reform ∙ Wells Fargo ∙ scam ∙ Irish ∙ immigrants ∙ California ∙ Northstate ∙ Jefferson ∙ China ∙ walk out ∙ Women's March ∙ Obamacare ∙ healthcare ∙ aIr traffic control ∙ Russian hack ∙ Trump campaign ∙ Facebook ∙ vitamins ∙ false charges ∙ City That Ate A Country

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: internet sales tax ∙ Obama Administration ∙ DoJ ∙ illegal immigrants ∙ Facebook ∙ conservatives ∙ New Jersey ∙ taxes ∙ Parkland ∙ deputy ∙ Keystone Cops ∙ Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School ∙ budget deficits ∙ diversity ∙ gun control ∙ secret deals ∙ government ∙ obesity ∙ surveillance

I am not going to go into gun rights here.

Tags: guns ∙ gun laws ∙ Keystone Cops ∙ Florida ∙ local government ∙ mass shootings ∙ gun ownership ∙ homicide ∙ concealed carry

❝❝I have mixed feelings on abortion. The one thing I am sure about is that it should not be paid for by government. There are many reasons, but the main one is that it's always easier to spend someone else's money.

Contraception is less complicated. Sex is (or should be) a voluntary act. You choose to have sex. Your neighbors should no more pay for your contraception than they should pay for your designer shoes. This is an example of what I was talking about. If government gives you benefits at the expense of others, it's privilege.❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ abortion ∙ contraception ∙ sex ∙ government ∙ someone else's money ∙ neighbors ∙ benefits ∙ privilege

❝❝I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on the internet. As nearly as I can tell from a fast scan, Federal case law says that states are responsible for setting voter qualifications within certain limits. Apparently you can't restrict someone from voting for something like not paying poll taxes, or by requiring them to pass a literacy test.

I'm pretty sure it can't be done by a city, but it looks like it may be possible for a state to create voters.

Gods, that's a huge loophole. It may well be legal to be a voter without being a citizen.

---

There's a small problem. I've looked over the Constitution, paying special attention to the 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendment.

It looks to me that Congress (and therefore the Federal government) has no power to deny people the power to vote, citizen or not. Congress only has limited powers to prevent the States from denying people the vote.

Which means that most Federal election law is illegal. And the loophole remains. If a state permits non-citizens to vote even it's a Federal election, there's nothing the Congress or the Federal government can do.❞❞

Tags: voter ∙ citizen ∙ FedGovs ∙ states ∙ Congress ∙ Constitution ∙ Federal election law ∙ election