Category Archives: Freedom

Quote of the day—Tal Bachman

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Wokism is now the official state religion of the United States of America.

By constitutional standards, this means something has gone wrong. The United States isn’t supposed to have a state religion. The First Amendment specifically prohibits the establishment of a state religion. Yet it now has one, and its name is Wokism.

Tal Bachman
May 7, 2021
We Have Met the Enemy, part II
[And as everyone should well know Theocracies are some of the most dangerous forms of government known. Combined with socialism/communism, as this one is, and the deadliness is indisputable.

Take appropriate action.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Karl Popper

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Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.—In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.

Karl Popper
1945
The Open Society and Its Enemies
[See also Paradox of tolerance.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Signal

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Signal doesn’t have access to your messages; your chat list; your groups; your contacts; your stickers; your profile name or avatar; or even the GIFs you search for. As a result, our response to the subpoena will look familiar. It’s the same set of “Account and Subscriber Information” that we provided in 2016: Unix timestamps for when each account was created and the date that each account last connected to the Signal service.

That’s it.

Signal
April 27, 2021
Grand jury subpoena for Signal user data, Central District of California
[Good to know.

See also here.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jen Psaki

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There’s no reason anyone needs to have an assault weapon. There’s no reason that there shouldn’t be universal background checks to ensure guns don’t get in the hands of people who should not have those guns.

Jen Psaki
White House Press Secretary
April 19, 2021
In first White House TikTok Live, Jen Psaki talks gun control, police reform
[Don’t let your opposition control the topic of the debate. If you’re defending your losing. Turn the above into something like:

There is no reason for common sporting firearms to be banned. There is no good that can come from background checks. If someone cannot be trusted with a gun why are they allowed in public without supervision? The Second Amendment is absolute. If you are working to infringe the right to keep and bear arms I hope you enjoy your trial.

If you only play defense the enemy gets to choose when, where, and how to attack. You need to attack on your terms.—Joe].

Quote of the day—Stephen P. Halbrook

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Tyrants, conquerors, and dictators of every breed disarm their subjects in order to dominate and exploit them. It’s an iron law of history.

Stephen P. Halbrook
September 6, 2019
Recalling the Tragic History of Gun Control
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Randall G. Holcombe

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The debate on the effectiveness of gun control measures to reduce firearm violence distracts attention from the real motive behind gun control. Nobody wants more gun violence, so focusing on gun violence shifts the debate in favor of gun control. What the proponents of gun control really want is control, and the gun violence argument is merely a means to the end that they actually seek–a disarmed population.

Randall G. Holcombe
April 16, 2021
Isn’t About Reducing Firearm Violence; It’s About Control
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

He left out a profession

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I am quite perplexed. The first thing I thought of when I thought of the “most durable professions” isn’t even on the list:

Durable Trades: Professions That Have Stood the Test of Time for Hundreds of Years:

The top 10 durable professions, according to Groves, are:

  1. Shepherd (rancher, livestock farmer, dairyman)
  2. Farmer
  3. Midwife
  4. Gardener (arborist, vinedresser, landscaper, flower farmer)
  5. Woodworker (cabinetmaker, finish carpenter)
  6. Carpenter (a builder of structures)
  7. Painter (siding contractor, wall covering specialist)
  8. Cook (chef, caterer, restauranteur)
  9. Brewer (winemaker, distiller)
  10. Innkeeper (hotelier)

Groves follows up the top 20 list with dozens of professions that received “honorable mentions.” The author cautions that his research focused on historical data rather than projecting which professions might be important in the future. Still, the longevity of professions that made the list are certain to give the readers pause before writing off trades in favor of more modern professions.

Even if he did purposefully (it had to be on purpose, right? Who could forget it?) ignore the world’s oldest profession, it’s still an interesting list.

Quote of the day—Sensing Online

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That is where we are: politics in America is the literally religious-type quest for power – and for nothing else at all. We are way past (I say years past) the times when effective, enduring compromise was possible. It is not.

I do not see any way to reverse this. I am reminded of a disease I read of some time ago, that once it becomes symptomatic, it is too late to treat it. I think that politically that is where we are now. It seems clear to me that we no longer live in the “United” States of America, and I see no way to regain that.

The question is whether the United States will survive in its present form, or will some kind of dissolution come to pass. Personally, I am not optimistic.

Sensing Online
March 22, 2021
The Priesthood of Politicism Offers Only Damnation
[I’m probably more optimistic than this. But a good case can be made for a pessimistic outcome as well.—Joe]

Quote of the day—U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl

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My colleagues and I are working hard to protect the 2nd Amendment. One measure I’ve taken is cosponsoring the Gun Owner Registration Information Protection (GRIP) Act, which would put an end to these two sweeping gun control measures. The GRIP Act would clarify existing law prohibiting the federal government from storing information acquired during the firearms background check process. Additionally, it would clarify the prohibition on the use of any federal funding by states or local entities for the storage or listing of sensitive, personal information related to the legal ownership or possession of firearms.

Jerry Carl
U.S. Representative Alabama’s First Congressional District
April 12, 2021
Carl: The fight to protect the 2nd Amendment
[Even if successful this would hardly “protect the 2nd Amendment”. It would be little more than a gesture in the correct direction.

This is not to say that Rep. Carl and his colleagues are enemies of the 2nd Amendment or even that they do not understand the problem or are not doing the best they can given the current situation.

But what is ultimately going to be required is the repeal of thousands of the laws that infringe the 2nd Amendment and the prosecution of those in government who have, or conspired to, violate our rights. Sure, it would have an extremely low chance of passage at the Federal level today, but how about introducing legislation providing for the funding of Federal law enforcement and prosecutors to investigate and prosecute state officials who have advocated for, passed, and enforced some of the most egregious gun control laws?

Just introducing such legislation will move the Overton Window and be a “shot across the bow” of the current course of gun grabbers.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Charles Hugh Smith

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The lesson of China’s Cultural Revolution in my view is that once the lid blows off, everything that was linear (predictable) goes non-linear (unpredictable, fragmented, contingent, emergent, prone to extremes, uncontrollable). If America experiences a Cultural Revolution, the outcome won’t lend itself to tidiness or predictability.

To use an analogy from previous blog posts, if the pendulum is pushed to an extreme, when it’s released, it will reach an equivalent extreme (minus a bit of friction) at the opposite end. That could be an unexpected but entirely foreseeable Cultural Revolution.

Those who claim that can’t happen in America are safely outside the pressure cooker, protected by a delusional confidence that since I’m doing great, everyone is doing great. Since real political agency is no longer allowed, then the pressure will find release outside the political system. It’s just Wetware 1.0 running defaults few recognize.

Charles Hugh Smith
April 9, 2021
Is a Cultural Revolution Brewing in America?
[Interesting hypothesis.—Joe]

ATF director nominee Chipman at Ruby Ridge and Waco

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According to Daily Mail REVEALED: Biden’s nominee for ATF head is an anti-gun lobbyist who was at the Ruby Ridge standoff and Waco massacre – and lied about cult members shooting down helicopters.

The picture below is from the article. I’ve also seen this image several other places (here for example—H/T to John S. for the email):

DavidChipmanWaco

That is the smoldering ashes of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco Texas and 76 of its residents in the background. It takes a special type of person to pose in front of that.

That he also apparently played a part the murders of innocent people at Ruby Ridge should make it clear what type of agency President Biden wants the ATF to be.

Prepare appropriately.

Quote of the day—Ron DeSanti

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It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society.

Ron DeSanti
Florida Governor
March 29, 2021
Gov. DeSantis to Take Executive Emergency Action Against Vaccine Passports
[If internal passports hadn’t been so widely misused in the 20th Century I could see why people, in general, might think they were a good idea. As it is I can’t imagine why anyone other than tyrants and those ignorant of history could think they are a good idea.

I glad at least one politician has a clue.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Kurt Vonnegut

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THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law.
They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking
than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the
211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the
United States Handicapper General.

Kurt Vonnegut
October 1961
Harrison Bergeron
[I had read this short story sometime long ago but I can’t really say when. A private post on Facebook caused me to go looking for it.

While the story has elements of truth in the trajectory predicted I don’t think this is in our future. I expect before things go much further something more like a USSR dystopia or a forceful reset to something resembling a meritocracy is far more likely. And I expect to see the outcome long before 2081.

But still, it puts into words the unarticulated fears many of us have.—Joe]

Update to Boots on the Ground

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Via email from Rofl: The Mathematics of Countering Tyranny by James Wesley Rawles.

I updated my blog post Boots on the ground with a link to the Rawles post.

My post was written in 2013. Rawles wrote his in 2018. In addition to having more up to date information it also has a lot more detail.

Quote of the day—Kevin Baker

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Progressive Leftism is a religion, with all the attendant characteristics: Dogma, the treatment of heathens, heretics, and apostates, indulgences, all of it. Government is God, legislators are the angels (remember, Satan and his demons were once angels), the “news” media are the clergy, and we proles are the laypeople, the heathens, the apostates and the heretics. And they will drag us, kicking and screaming if necessary, into their promised Utopia.

Or kill us, if they deem us too deplorable to save.

Kevin Baker
February 27, 2021
Immanentize the Eschaton!
[This is entirely consistent with the rise of other leftist states like the USSR, Cambodia, Venezuela, etc..

I hope we can take a less bloody path back to a government respecting the rights of the individual to worship, or not, whatever religion they so chose. But my assessment of the situation is rather grim.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Rob Natelson

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Sen. Donovan’s effort to turn back the clock 327 years reminds us that so-called “progressives” are deeply regressive. Constitutional government that protects human freedom is a fairly modern phenomenon. The unlimited government most “progressives” seek is as old as the pharaohs. Scratch the typical “progressive” and you find a hidden totalitarian.

Rob Natelson
March 24, 2021
Leading Colorado Democrat Introduces Bill to Censor Internet Communication
[I don’t see that to do any scratching to discover that. They aren’t bothering to hide these days.—Joe]

Quote of the day—MTHead

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The real problem I see is. Were in the middle of the, Might is Right phase. But our side hasn’t figured that out yet.

Law is a crap pile the communist rooster climbed upon to crow. Law is for civilization. And those that understand it’s purpose in upholding civilization.

And communist don’t get it. Their never going to understand it. It matters not why.
Talking law to a communist is like explaining quantum physics to a cerebral monster. We should stop, lest we prove own insanity.

Whatever happens is going to be lawful. Why? Because the WINNER is going to write the story. Period.

MTHead
March 11, 2021
Comment to Bypassing all Federal gun laws
[There is more than a little truth in this.

I’m reminded of:

  • The unification of the Hawaiian Islands where the aggressors of one island massacred the rulers and troops of the other island. Today, the natives celebrate the day of the massacre.
  • The U.S. Civil war where many of the people of the southern states thought of it, and many still think of it, as the war of northern aggression. The people of the northern states think of it as the preservation of the Union and the freeing of the slaves.
  • Today WWII in Europe is almost always described as the liberation of nations from German domination. At the time many of the German people thought of it as the unification of Europe to bring peace and, to a much lessor extent, “The Final Solution to the Jewish problem”.
  • The USSR promised a classless society and equality for all. For nearly 70 years they insisted that the utopia was only a few years away. The clearly desirable goal was to everyone according to their need and from everyone according to their ability. The west sees the USSR as dictatorship which murdered 10s of millions of their own citizens and oppressor of the neighboring nations.

A generation from now what will the narrative in the U.S. be? The nation was cleansed of the racist, sexist, gun worshiping, bigoted Republicans? Or, the U.S. Constitution, liberty, and the rule of law was restored?—Joe]

Good point

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From a private post on Facebook:

Name ONE time in human history when the group fighting to ban books and censor speech were the good guys.

I’ll wait…

Update: I found the original post here.

Quote of the day—Chuck Schumer

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Let me tell you, I think it’s good when somebody is trying to influence government for their purposes, directly with ads and everything else, it’s good to have a deterrent effect.

Chuck Schumer
US Senator
July 23, 2014
[See also:

Spoken like a true tyrant.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Petr Svab

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Censorship in America is peculiar in its form as it’s largely not the doing of the government. It’s not even necessarily the result of government pressure, though that now seems to be underway as well. Rather, it’s based on actors both in and out of government across the American society aligning with an ideology that’s totalitarian at its root.

It’s unlikely that Americans can rely on somebody pushing against the ideology from the top. In fact, the ideology appears to now be endorsed by a majority of the government.

Yet it may be that government measures wouldn’t offer a solution as long as a significant share of the population still subscribes to the ideology or is willing to go along with it.

As Judge Learned Hand said in his 1944 speech “The Spirit of Liberty”:

“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.”

It appears Americans’ stand is now to rekindle that spark of liberty in the hearts of their peers.

Petr Svab
March 9, 2021
Communist Tactics to Force Self-Censorship Sweeping America
[I know it’s tough for a lot of people to do, but it’s important. Speak up for freedom of thought, religion, assemble, association, and speech. Let people know you are proud to keep and bear arms. Stand up for liberty.—Joe]