Yesterday, I ran into a fresh Clover patch – the enstupidation of what had been a commendably Libertarian-minded entrance/exit to the main shopping center in my small-town Burg of Roanoke, VA.
Previously, there were two entrances – which also served as exits. This facilitated efficient getting into – and out of – the shopping center. Because if you saw a Cloveritic driver ahead who – being a Clover – had trouble making a left turn into the shopping center against oncoming traffic, you could make your turn at the other entrance. And be parked and in the store before Clover succeeded in executing his turn.
Naturally, this infuriated Clover – probably, several of them. And they did what Clovers do: Enstupidized the entrance (and exit) to the shopping center by making each (former) entrance/exit one way-only. With a double row of potted plants and a line of huge boulders (literally, big rocks) physically separating what had been a free-flowing (either direction) system into two separate ones.
In – or out. That’s it.
Now, all incoming traffic is at the mercy of any Clover who bollixes up the line. Which makes the line to get in much longer. And to get out, too. Instead of turn – and make your way through the path of least resistance – it’s now queue up behind the Clover conga and proceed through the prescribed maze Clover has laid out for himself. And for everyone else, too. We all get to drive at his pace – and in accordance with his abilities. Or rather, lack thereof. 
Which is just how Clover likes it.
They have even put up flashing yellow lights – and stern signs. Plus a cop – there to make sure everyone toes the line. Clover’s panties must be moist by now.
Almost ten years ago, we fled Northern Virginia – mainly, to get away from Clovers. For an all-too-brief-time, we enjoyed a relatively Clover-free life, at least compared with what life had been like in Northern Virginia. Here, there were passing zones. And winding roads that were both challenging and enjoyable. You could just hang a left at whatever opening presented itself to access the shopping center downtown. People figured it out – without “help” from Clover. The general level of competence was higher, because the environment required it. People had to exercise judgment – and those who could not exercise it could be dodged. Pass them, avoid them – get around them. Leave them to sit and sputter in Clovertic outrage.
It’s all going away.
First, the passing zones. I count at least five along my normal driving routes that have been painted over – probably out of pure spite by the Clovers who control the paint trucks. I doubt a legitimate traffic survey was done. Instead, I suspect a Clover bitched about “dangerous speeders” passing him – and if government is good at anything, it is excellent at accommodating the plaintive cries of Clovers.
Next up for reconstruction – literally – the windy roads. Clover can’t corner – and gets upset when more able drivers stack up behind him because he can’t corner. Rather than pull over, Clover whines about the “dangerous” roads. The local pols are only too happy to oblige him – especially when there are Obama Bucks on the table to be grabbed. So, the formerly scenic and fun-to-drive windy secondary road (US 221 a few miles north of Bent Mountain) is in the process of being replaced by an epic (and epically ugly) construction project that will end in a four lane (two each way) broad avenue of blight (pity the poor homeowners whose front yards were eminent domained) that will nontheless be posted at 35 MPH even though the old two-lane (one each way) was posted 45 – and everyone (except Clover) was running 55.
Clover is of course ecstatic. He savors the pending prospect of not having to pay much attention to the road. And all those dangerous “speeders” will get theirs, too – because the new avenue leaves plenty of room (and better sight lines) for cops to run radar.
The entrance to the shopping center, though, may be the canary in the coal mine development for me. It is so … Northern Virginian they maybe ought to rename the place Tysons III (or some such like that).
Meanwhile, Bland County – the next county over and still depopulated and so probably possessed of a lower Clover Count – begins to look more and more appealing. Maybe the Dakotas, even. There’s got to be someplace left where a man can hope to live out his days without coming up against Clovers – and Cloverism – every day of his life.
PS: Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Here’s to hoping next year – or maybe the next year – we’ll have more to be thankful about.
Oh, you poor man. Let us note that you give example after example after example after example (and fine and accurate they are) of the fat lady warming up. And yet, you persist in hoping?
Hope is a disease, even among the libertarian minded. Its connotation is failure. I prefer that you never use the word again.
Watch the s**t hit the fan through your living room window or on TV comfortably enjoying an adult beverage? As an intelligent reasoning person, you already know what you need to do. You repeatedly make hints at it. I am quite sure you are capable of researching a proper course of action.
Expatriate living is fantastic. Come to think of it, I believe our founding fathers were expats.
Yes, I know you have arguments for staying, all the hard work you have contributed to make your community, county, state, country better. So, if you do decide to stay until it is too late, please stay out of the way of the train.
You friend,
freedserf
Well freedserf, I know that expatriation sounds attractive to many folks (myself included). But I think you miss Eric’s point on staying. It’s not about community, county, state our country. It’s about the hard work we’ve put into our homes, land and vehicles. The hardwork setting ourselves up to be as self sufficient as we can. The networks of friends and acquaintances we’ve built over the years. The things, some with tremendous sentimental value, we’ve amassed. To some of us, we’d rather be shot down right here in our own front yards defending what is rightfully ours than to dump our stuff for a substantial loss and bail out. And with the UN ever reaching deeper and deeper into every country there’s no guarantee their tentacles won’t eventually grasp you no matter where you are in the world.
That’s it exactly – thanks Boothe.
I’m not going to walk away from literally everything I’ve spent my life working for. Not without a fight, anyhow. It’s the last thing I want, I hasten to add – short of having everything I’ve spent my life working for taken from me by the FSA and/or its representatives. Sometimes, there’s not much choice. You’ve got nowhere to run anymore – and more, are tired of running. At which point, it’s time to turn around – and fight.
Again: I pray this can be avoided. All I want – like Ron Paul, like other liberty-minded Americans – is to be left in peace, to live my life and enjoy the things that are mine. I dread that this may not be possible, unfortunately.
Hi Freed,
Thanks for the kind words – and, I do “get it.” But here’s the problem (well, one of them):
There is literally no place to go.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but is there – anywhere on this earth – a country where the individual’s rights are formally (and actually) recognized? Something even remotely approximating what America was like say 30 or 40 years ago? Not perfectly free, mind. Just a place where – for the most part – not only is the individual left to his own devices, but the system can be relied on (generally) to back him up, if need be? Where you have a legally protected right to your property? Where your right to defend yourself and your property is admitted by the law?
What is the benefit of moving from a first-world kleptocracy (US) to a second or third-world one? Sure, it’d be less formally kleptocratic in the second or third world country – for awhile. And as a practical matter, you’d probably enjoy more liberty in your everday doings… for awhile.
But your rights are just as much on the table – maybe more so, given these countries have even less of a residual memory of liberty and respect for individual rights.
So, I’m staying. And I will try to step out of the way of the train!
You’ve got it surrounded Eric. Not everyone can move to Switzerland and live out his life with the wealth s/he has banked there. Besides, PAYBACK ought to be much more fulfilling.
Remember Nuremberg
tgsam
Someplace where the government has not become as efficient as the US government. Most third world countries won’t even know how to find you. Better yet, most of them will treat you like a permanent tourist.
You gentlemen have the capacity to land on your feet wherever you decide to venture.
You don’t have to leave it all behind. Simplify, liquidate, divest. Come and go as you please. Lose the anchors if you want to be free.
Check your premises, are the things you are counting on to help you, going to turn out to be just the opposite. Do you have well developed networks that you are going to count on in a time of need? When that time comes, what makes you think they won’t be counting on you. The blind leading the blind.
Don’t accept the incrimentalism and then find that someone has painted a sign on your front door, because then all your carefully gather stuff will be worthless. Sure, you will have a gun to defend it with. What kind of living is that?
By the way, your cigars are next.
Use reason, discount feelings,
freedserf
Completely off topic but I figured I was toss this out there. Thanksgiving wasn’t a celebration of how the Indians saved their asses. It was a celebration of how free markets saved their asses. The Pilgrims were almost wiped out by a form a socialism. In each town everyone who made anything, hunted, fished farmed whatever. Had to put everything into the town coffer. From this coffer or POT everyone would simply take what they needed. The problem of course was that anyone could at anytime take without have given. So before long the lazy people simply took and the hard workers started moving away so they could keep what they had worked so hard for. They almost all starved to death before new ships arrived with supplies but also with a new idea. Each person or family was given a plot of land and each person was allowed to sell or barter the fruits of their labors. Within a short period of time prosperity returned with the motivation caused by profit.
So no, greed is not good if it comes from simply taking. but greed that comes from profit saved the day.
Brad,
Yes, indeed. I should have published the true story of Thanksgiving; thanks for the reminder. It is a lesson the entire country, just about, has forgotten – or never knew about. In my entire life, I can’t recall anyone ever telling the story. I did not find out about it myself until I was a young adult in college, by stumbling onto a written account in a liberty-minded publication (might have been from FEE).
It’s tragic that not one out of 1,000 Americans (probably) is familiar with it.
I probably do more research than most and have for more than fifty years. I have come across but one account of the Pilgrims economic experiment. And I damned sure did not learn about it in school.
BTW, Ayn Rand’s THE VIRTUE of SELFISHNESS is an inexpensive and worthwhile Keeper.
Tinsley Grey Sammons
Eric, I learned the true meaning of Thanksgiving from my Dad.
We came to America in 1976 from South Africa, and he studied the history. Every Thanksgiving as we began eating, he related the tale of their miserable experiment with collectivism–and how they were saved by free markets.
I corrected one of my grade-school teachers who was mid-stream teaching us the bullshit version of the Indians saving the Pilgrims; she was not amused!
But as you said–how many know the real story?
How valuable it would be today if they did.
“the bullshit version of the Indians saving the Pilgrims”
Yes, and that’s only part of the bullshit contained in the Thanksgiving myth. The main thrust of the myth is to make the Pilgrims the FIRST AMERICANS. Plymouth was by no means the first English colony here, Jamestown preceded Plymouth, anyway.
My own view of that myth is that the “Pilgrims” were a bunch of insufferable religious fanatics, who made themselves pariahs in their native England. They came to what’s now known as New England and managed to establish their theocracy, which evolved into the fanaticism that eventually spawned the republican party and their first republican revolution, which they named the Civil War.
Today, their intolerant civic religion dominates both established political parties and that civic religion, which was once a bastardized form of Christianity, is now a bastardized form of Unitarianism based on the worship of an all powerful state.
This is why I ignore the national holiday called Thanksgiving. It’s just one of the myths of the all powerful state.
Yep. Pilgrims, America’s first control freaks as far as I know.
And -all- state holidays are based on bullshit as far as I can tell.
I’m convinced that most folks would rather be one of the controllers than to champion “liberty and justice for all.”
Consider the physical games you played when you were a youngster. Don’t know about the rest of Y’all but I played physical games like King of the Mountain. I don’t remember ever playing a game called “Liberty and Justice for All.”
Tinsley Grey Sammons (1936 –)
I’m inclined to agree. Human beings are by nature violent apes. Dominant – or submissive. Few – precious few – have made the intellectual/moral Great Leap Forward to conscious acceptance of the NAP. Until a sufficient critical mass does, we’ll all have to live in a world of dominance-submission hierarchies.
You’re all a bunch of heretics as far as I’m concerned.
Lunatic fringe conspiracy theorists.
Why can’t you all just believe and conform?
Yep–that’s why I love this site and the people who post on it.
In fact–that’s what I’m thankful for this week.
My daughter heard on the radio yesterday there was some special deal at Toys R Us going on this evening. Ya’ll know what that means right? My ass has to take her there. Shit! I’m sure it will be an event.
Years hence you will wish you could repeat the experience.
“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
–Omar Khayaam
tgsam
SOME experiences I wish to repeat but Black Friday will never be one of them… LOL.
For me the precious time for children ends at about age four.
Just think, nearly all the obnoxious assholes that you encounter were once small children. Hard to believe ain’t it.
tgsam
Like that saying “Everyone was somebodies baby at one time” How sad that some idiots who’d rain hell down on your head were once innocent children.
Not so sure there’s any decent places left. Colorado continues it’s slide toward becoming East California as those who can depart the doomed state.
Utah would be a good choice, but there’s a lot of strange rules and sin taxes, along with Mormon rule.
I used to think Nevada would be a Libertarian paradise, but it’s clearly run by the modern mob of unions and Democrats in Las Vegas.
Anyone know anything about Idaho?
I was stationed at Mt. Home, ID for four years during the F-111 era. Great place, good people. Most beautiful mountains to be enjoyed. Lots of places to roam, hunt, drive sports cars, snowmobiles, four wheelers, fly jets low level. Boise and surrounds are filled with clover, unfortunately. But, they have yet to spoil great places like Salmon, Riggins, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Mt. Home. They probably can’t find them.
Jim, whenever something becomes “convenient” you can count on it becoming spoiled. Whenever there is an uptick in “the arts” or any idle pastime there is a corresponding increase in Boobus Americanus.
I live in Oregon and I recently posted here asking about moving to Idaho for off grid living. No one from ID replied so I went there and spent a week. Given that brief exposure and ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, I concluded it is the best place to live in peace in the Western US.
That DOES NOT mean it’s perfect; it’s just better on the whole than the other western states when you consider taxes, climate, population density, cost of living, land prices, quality of life, government intrusion, Low Clover Density (LCD), etc.
Again, this is only for the Western US, which I feel confined to for family reasons. If someone has an opinion who knows something about ID, I’d sure like to hear it…
The columnist Chuck Baldwin moved to Montana – and IIRC he got other like-minded people to come along, with the goal of forming a community of liberty-minded people. Might be worth looking into….
http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/archives/2236
I’m not into all the god stuff, but I think Baldwin is (I think) a live and let live kind of guy.
Chuck is definitely one of the more palatable evangelical pastors in the he strongly rejects the statism that has infected (and IMO all but destroyed) the institutional Christian church in America.
That’s my take on Chuck, also. I think he’d be fine with a heathen such as myself for a neighbor. And I, he.
Thanks for the link! I checked it out and it looks as if Baldwin is way too religious for my tastes and he also seems to be planning for an imminent collapse of society. If he’s correct, Montana comes out #1. Imminent collapse is surely possible but, if he’s wrong, he’s picked a very hard life for his remaining years on this planet.
To me, the chances are greater that America will gradually continue to decline over many decades and I will be long dead before anything catastrophic happens. As such, I don’t want to live in MT for my remaining years.
I see that Chuck picked Idaho as his 2nd choice for the same reasons I made it my first choice. His main concern is that the damn liberals from big cities will infest Idaho quicker than MT and he may be right. But, I think it will take longer than I have left on the planet.
It was great to read his thoughts because he seemed to do a lot of research.
Hi Steve,
Happy to –
On Chuck: I’ve been reading his stuff for several years and based on that I believe that while he is very religious, he would not use force against me (or anyone else) who is not religious. He appears to believe that belief – or lack thereof – is a matter of individual conscience and free will, not something that is the business of anyone else – much less government’s business. I suspect that while he might not personally approve of, say, smoking pot (or selling it) he would not support criminal prosecution for those who do so. I know he does not support the current thug state and its various manifestations (Homeland Security, TSA). He is most definitely opposed to the income tax and taxes on real property.
In sum, he seems to be a good guy. That he has some personal beliefs I can’t understand much less agree with doesn’t bother me because he believes, it seems to me, in the thing that matters most: the non-aggression principle. In live – and let live. In liberty for everyone – no matter their personal beliefs about the existence and nature of the supernatural.
I don’t give a damn what anyone believes – or does – so long as what they believe (or do) causes no harm to others and so long as they are gracious enough to extend the same courtesy to others, who may believe (and do) things they look upon as odd or misguided.
Kookery is cool when kooks agree to live – and let live!
Eric, your response to Steve White was spot on.
I think your assessment of Chuck Baldwin being a live and let live guy is correct.
But more importantly, the rest of your comments summed up my own philosophy better than I could have myself!
Any updates on getting the anti-clover stickers produced?
Hi Skunk,
Thanks!
On stickers: Dom and I talked the other day; apologies for the delay getting back to you. It’s just the two of us (me writing, Dom doing all the heavy lifting tech stuff) so we often feel – and are – swamped. But we will get to it very soon!
Not sure on what exactly to make for the t-shirts, but the “no clovers” round sticker is a pretty cool idea. Here is the thread on t-shirts:
http://ericpetersautos.com/eric-peters-autos-t-shirt/
Steve, I believe I’ve commented before on Idaho, or Nevada, but if you can look past the large number of cops here you can generally find quiet places to scamper off to and be left alone. I’d even chose Montana where it’s reported that cops there are the least likely to harass you. Nevada being the worst! Here you can find a nice small town, a house that is affordable, and make do. But, of course, with Kalifornians fleeing the West Coast collective, they carry much of their collectivist thinking and habits with them. Still, I’ve found some who were so disgusted with the situation there that they came for all the right reasons: to be free of it all! I can’t blame anyone seeking to be free of collectivist nannies. The ones I despise are the ones who leave their respective hell holes and seek to recreate the shit holes they fled. They’re certifiably insane in my book.
That’s a real problem even here in Texas.
The Kalifornians migrate, like locusts who’ve stripped a field, to picturesque towns like Fredericksburg. They use their profits from overpriced Kalifornia real estate to bid up prices, driving out established residents by the higher property taxes…then proceed to implement the same idiotic nanny-state laws in their new homes.
A few years later, surveying the carnage, they wonder aloud “what happened here? This place used to be nice…”
Idiocy, indeed.
Sadly my sister’s parents-in-law are that exact class; and the worst thing is, I can’t move myself to hate them. They’re just so deeply deluded it’s un-fixable.
Interestingly, they’re originally Dutch.
Exactly.
The Clovers come here – to “the country” – but seem to hate everything that makes the country the country. For example, curvy back roads. They’re too curvy – too “dangerous.” Must be widened and straightened.
Traffic lights instead of stop signs at four-way intersections…
Then, they build disgusting McMansions in gated enclaves – and begin to lobby for higher real estate taxes to pay for “our schools” (that is, the schools they want), which has the effect of making what had been affordable land/homes increasingly unaffordable
They don’t like it that “there’s nothing to do” in small town USA – so they work overtime to commercialize everything. For example, in my little town, there had been informal gatherings on Friday/Saturday nights of the eclectic townspeople to hang out, maybe play some music. Very simple – “rednecky,” but real. Some Yankee carpetbaggers have transformed this into marketable McCulture ™… come see the “authentic” southerners – and buy, buy buy!
This is bringing more Yankees (I use this term to denote a mentality) into the area. It’s changing rapidly for the worse. In tens years’ time, this place is going to be another annex of Northern Virginia, I suspect,
We should have a conversation some time about the area in general. I’ve only a bit of experience with your neck of it, but would love to hear the back story.
You’ve nailed it about the local mall entrance. That area has always been (well, at least the past forty years or so) a bastion of ultra-Clovers. I’ve got lots of stories – but they’re not for the ‘net.
No need to tell me since I came from Midland and know all too well. The “benefit” of a place like West Texas is that it’s too damn ugly and inconvenient for lifestyle socialists.
Sad developments :/
Yup –
Growing up in the suburbs of Northern Va. back in the ’70s I saw the same damn things happening. Now it’s happening here. It’s a function of population – because our population is saturated with Clovers. If a few thousand people move to an area, it means a higher Clover Concentration. It only takes a few to screw everything up – just as it only takes a spoonful of shit to ruin a gallon of ice cream.
Eric, if I were you, I’d be tempted to treat “Clover invaders” from NoVA the same way I now treat Kalifornians who have invaded Southeastern Arizona: with undisguised hostility and contempt. For the most part these are creatures who, through their own Clover recklessness and arrogant ignorance, have made their original Motherlands uninhabitable and are now fanning out in search of new places to destroy. I’m making it a mission in life to make them feel as unwelcome and as uncomfortable as possible. (To be clear, I bear NO animosity whatsoever toward refugees from the PSDRK who come here to escape that hellhole and who are dedicated to minding their own business and leading their own productive lives without encroaching upon mine. It’s their meddling, nanny-state socialist fellows that I will NOT tolerate!)
Speaking of Kalifornia Kloverz, I drove from Arizona up to the San Francisco Bay Area yesterday to visit family for the holiday. Every time I go up there, it makes me gladder than ever that I left for good more than 30 years ago (I spent my teen years in the South Bay Area, my mother and brother still live there). The drive up wasn’t bad at all until I hit the L.A. area (you literally can’t get to ANYWHERE in Northern Kalifornia from points south without going through/around L.A.), at which point the very worst of Road Cloverism kicked in and didn’t end. 24/7 HOV lanes were the start of it; traffic-light controlled freeway on-ramps aggravated it, and finally “holiday traffic detours” from I-210 topped it off. Add to this the belligerent incompetence of SoKal drivers, and it’s a wonder ANYONE gets anywhere alive. But getting through L.A. wasn’t the end of it. Once you reach Grapevine on the other side of the Tehachapi Mountains, you’re still plagued by the Clovertards on north-bound I-5, most of which is two lanes in each direction through open farmland. Kalifornia Roadclovers have NEVER learned how to pass or adjust speed according to traffic volume and despite my best defensive driving efforts, there were several near accidents – at least two that would have involved HAZMAT trucks. Even once I reached San Jose, it didn’t end. This is, after all, the most densely populated and poorly planned city on the West Coast, populated by the most diverse bunch of Roadclovers in the Northern Hemisphere. SO, while I don’t anticipate doing much driving while I’m here, what little I do will be a rage-inducing ordeal. I suppose that on the plus side, if there is one, it keeps my “Clover-proofing” skills current.
By the way, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! (Pray for me – I get to eat my sister-in-law’s inedible cooking!)
I had to use google maps to see exactly what you were describing. It’s a rather odd set up to have two in and outs that close to each other. Clovers do lots of stupid things when they are close together.
I’ve learned to not approach shopping centers from their main entrance and leave by the main exit. It’s just asking for trouble. Most have secondary or even tertiary entrances and exits.
Using your photo as a guide it looks like you are talking about entering from a left turn off colonial ave (state route 720). Naturally I would use 23rd st SW to access such a shopping center but the clovers headed that off blocking left turns on to it from 720. So what I would do is turn left 26th StSW then a right on to Winthrop ave. Take this clear across 23rd and into the shopping center.
Yes, it’s a residential street. But it’s always better IME to be moving at 25mph than being stuck behind clover. Even if it gains no time it’s more pleasant. Odds are you’ll still be parked and in the store long before the clovers. That shopping center also has a back parking lot… perfect for avoiding clovers. If you can adjust your route of approach approach from the back side of the shopping center. there’s an entrance/exit back there off Brandon and free access to 23rd.
Clovers are dim-witted lazy animals. Do anything that requires an ounce more thinking or effort and you won’t find them there.
I take the back way to all public places whenever possible. If that means driving around the backside of buildings and extra distance I do it. It’s worth it!
It had been like that (the area in the picture now obstructed by potted plants and rocks was open and clear to traffic) for years. And it worked just fine. Then some idiot Clover (I know, redundant) had an “accident” – that is, his poor driving resulted in a crash – and down comes the curtain. No more use your judgment, look for an opening, enter the parking lot when it’s clear. Now we’re all herded one way in – and one way out. Because of Clover.
Yeah, I can get in by going around the proverbial block, to the back entrance. But this sort of thing is just what I moved 240 miles to get away from. I thought – I really had hoped – we could live here for the rest of our lives. But lately, I’m having the same kinds of thoughts I had 15 years ago. That the balance is shifting. That in the foreseeable future, this area will be very much like Northern Virginia: Overcrowded with Clovers, who will suck all pleasure out of driving (and riding) with their mere presence.
Viable rural enclaves seem to be getting fewer and farther in between. Sure, there are still vast open areas – but many are uninhabitable, or nearly so. Areas that are pleasant – and largely free of people (Clovers) – are getting harder and harder to find. And when you find one, it doesn’t stay pleasant for long. The Clover Clarion Call brings them in right behind you.
“Clovers are dim-witted lazy animals. Do anything that requires an ounce more thinking or effort and you won’t find them there.”
Out here in farm country, they’re usually overmedicated middle-aged welfare addicts (subsidized monocrop farmers) driving spanking new pickup trucks. Their habitual 40 mph driving habits create conga lines now that passing zones have been eliminated. When they aren’t stalling traffic in their pickups, they’re driving on the main two-lanes in farm equipment 16 feet wide at 14mph.
Moving out into a farming county didn’t help me get away from airheads driving like centenarians. To make it all worse, these rural “conservatives” (Foxnews addicts) out here got together and elected a retired state trooper for sheriff, who immediately bought several Dodge Chargers and hired young skinhead SWAT wannabes to man speed traps and to patrol the roads writing tickets.
Shit, I have to drive an hour to Richmond in order to be able to do any shopping and the city cops are much less likely to harass drivers than the ones in my rural county. So much for escaping the city for the countryside.
Go figure.
Ed,
Very similar deal in my rural VA. county…. the flag-humping, cop-snuggling Faux News types are everywhere. Question “the troops” – or fail to erupt in song when the rag is unfurled – and you can expect to be excoriated as a “liberal” and much worse besides. These people care about “our freedoms” about as much as the “liberals” they claim to despise. Both are mean-minded little authoritarians. They just quibble about the form that authoritarianism should take. And against whom it should be directed.
I wasn’t referring to moving away somewhere with that statement. Rather the notion of taking a more difficult path. Like you say, you find them on the main roads driving farm equipment, not the back roads. They can’t think of other ways of accomplishing things. Only what they’ve been told and done before. Which is why they ruin areas they move to.
Yes, I agree Brent. We moved out here in ’98, hoping to avoid the suburbs and their implanted populace of city fleeing statists. What we found instead was the entrenched, statist “farmers” who control the county and make of it an expanded version of a suburb.
Instead of thousands of little boxes on a hillside, on 1/4 acre lots, controlled by a central authority, we have a few thousand 40+ acre lots, centrally controlled by a few families who have 1,00+ acre holdings. We’re every bit as constrained as suburbanites are, as to the uses of our “property”, but with the added constraints of distance to commercial access and the necessity of providing our own water and sewage disposal at our own homes.
Couple this with hugely inflated property taxes, thanks to the now defunct housing boom, and predatory county police issuing tickets at every turn, and we’d really be better off living in the ‘burbs or in a city.
We can’t win for losing. Where there are politicians, there will be tax slavery and robbery. Our county commission, which used to meet quarterly and which once had the same authority as a neighborhood watch program, now remains in session year-round, issuing edicts and administering “programs”, while coming up with new ways to shear the sheep under their control.
Government reach is inescapable here in Virginia. The whole state is under the sway of the few northern counties around DC, which dominate the state government in Richmond. We could move into another state only to find the same situation in place.
In short, my family is stuck.
Ditto, Ed –
It’s very similar here.
The only upside to it is that – if you have some land – you can to some extent practice avoidance. Run under the radar. Though they can (legally) come onto your land, without your consent – and tax/regulate you to their hearts’ content – they generally don’t and so if you run a low profile, you’re still somewhat free to do as you wish on your land. Until they do notice, of course.
It’s going to take a wholesale douching of the country to change things for the better.
If you haven’t already, read Vin Suprinowycz’ “The Ballad of Carl Drega”.
I’m reading it now and it’s a bombshell.
But beside the excellent stories of men who had finally had enough, and fought back, are stories of people saying “No” firmly, forcefully, and finally–and winning, peacefully.
Methyl… I read Vin’s “Send In The Waco Killers” years ago. Another one of those books that raises my blood pressure too high.
@MoT:
Yeah, Vin’s a rabble-rouser of the highest caliber! His writing gets me riled, too; but in a good way that spurs me to action.
What I thought was funny about Vin was his contention that the public deserved to possess weapons up to and including anti-aircraft, heavy machine guns and artillery. If the cops and military have them then we damn sure should.
@MoT–
Or that your 12-year-old should be able to go to the pharmacy and pick up some heroin for his toothache.
Which he could have–less than a hundred years ago!
But I agree that no weapon should be off-limits to private ownership. After all, we can’t grant more rights to a government agent than we ourselves have; so why are those weapons verboten to us?
I’m no Mundane. And I bow to no Exalted One.
I view the increase or even the proposition of “mass transit” as a benchmark warning. When your city knuckleheads start clamoring for it you can bet your ass that they’re looking to further entrench themselves into everyones lives.
Sufficient, uninterruptable potable water, arable land, defensible perimeter.
Eric, my recipe used to involve looking for wide open spaces (e.g. the Dakotas, Wyoming, etc.) but it isn’t complete. You need a combination of wide open spaces and a poorly funded government. Believe it or not, an isolated spot in California might be a better choice than a well funded county in Wyoming, especially NW Wyoming. Sure, you’ll have to tolerate people in tie-dyed underwear telling you how cool Prius’s are, but they have no teeth. California can’t afford to re-paint roads to eliminate passing lanes in the rural countryside, and they can’t afford to put cops with radar rigs on them either. California is flat busted, they’ve siphoned off all the tax money into corrupt crony pockets and Teacher’s Unions (pretty much the same thing) and now they don’t have anything left for “public works” and “public safety”. They’ve been talking about closing State Parks (a proposal I was particularly fond of) until they discovered an “accounting error” that was hiding some agency’s $50 billion slush fund. My expectation is they’ll burn through the $50 bil later this year and they’ll start closing parks next year. I can hardly wait.
But I digress. Look for open land and a broke goobermint. I’m thinking about moving up to Argentina…
“You need a combination of wide open spaces and a poorly funded government.”
An excellent suggestion. How often we forget to thoughtfully consider the latter part of that sentence!
Lucky me so far. As of today we still only have one stoplight in our entire county and it blinks yellow starting at midnight. Not one four lane highway for a long ways. We get annoying flatlanders/clovers who come up North once in a while but they are generally ignored or put down.
“The one upshot is the ever-increasing Cloverism increases the value of our land.”
At some point, Eric, a reassessment and increased real estate property taxes will follow. Granted, that process may be measured in years. As sure as the sun rises in the East, though…
RE: Disappearing passing zones, etc.
I use my motorcycle as often as possible, even when it is demonstrably more appropriate and convenient to use my truck for a given errand. Doing the former means that I might not accomplish everything I wanted to do on a given journey. The trade-off is that I’m able to negotiate local roads and traffic in a manner that would be functionally impossible in an automobile. Doing so does sometimes require a bit of supra-legal maneuvering. In most instances, though, I’m simply using the bike’s small footprint and acceleration ability to thread my way through overly-restricted roads and the moving slaloms that are my fellow drivers.
The endorphins during and after the ride are always free. 🙂
Ditto –
I ride one of my five bikes whenever I can. Main limiting factor for me is not so much cold weather – but the gravel VDOT sprays everywhere at the first hint of snow….
Gravel?
It’s like every government road system is designed to destroy people’s vehicles. Gravel, sand, road salt….
I am sure there is some sort of melting and traction material that doesn’t destroy vehicles out there.
Amen James the MC prophet! I see the moto light brother! One of my acquaintances was on his way to work the other AM on his bike and passed an oncoming state highway fee collector “taking pictures.” As soon as he saw the light bar he nailed it (get ready to turn red and clench your fists Clover). He said he ran about 130 for the next three miles, downshifted so no brake light showed and made the turn onto the access road. We figure he was at work and having coffee by the time Officer Toll-collector surmised it was a ghost he was chasing. My buddy was pretty stoked on adrenalin, let me tell ya.’ And I even got a contact high listening to him tell it. 😀
Eric, as far as the gravel goes, it’s not a panacea but a KLR650 with Heidenau K60 Scouts on it does pretty well on loose gravel. There are still a lot of dirt roads around these parts and even after the county dumps a fresh load of “chat” and blades it out, I can still run up to 45 and 50 on it. After it packs in good and conditions are dry, I have no problem safely running “county roads” at 65+. The other thing about a dual-sport with good tires is you can turn off of pavement or hardpack and hit single track in an instant. Let Officer 82nd Airborne try that in a Crown Vic…
Love it!
And: Good suggestion in re the KLR650. I have a 250 – but it’s too small for comfortably riding on-road for any length of time (I mostly use it in our woods/trails). It would be nice to have a KLR650 set up with hard bags (for storage), high-mount fenders and tires like you mentioned. Go anywhere on one of these – including all the places Officer 82nd Airborne can’t!
Yea ha – Ride it like ya stole bro…
Someday people will hate one another simply because there are so many. -Philip Wylie (Finley Wren, pub. 1936)
Self-sufficient folks tend to limit their family size, so, what does government do? Wye, import more people of course.
A humane reduction in the population of the U.S. and the entire Planet is in order. Irresponsibly, political office holders and the media studiously avoid mention of overpopulation.
Why is that?
Real estate is finite. Trying to put ten pounds of feces into a bag made for one or two will have unpleasant consequences . . . always. Is that so difficult to understand?
tgsam (1936 –)
The one upshot is the ever-increasing Cloverism increases the value of our land. If we have to cash out and flee, at least we’ll be able to buy more land someplace else. A 200 or 300 acre estancia in Argentina is increasingly appealing…
Few members of America’s displaced and dying race have the wherewithal to simply move to another country.
I contemplated moving to Australia as far back as 1963 when my children were very young. Today, Australia is experiencing problems of its own with Boat People. They are directing them to places like New Guinea but it is probably only a matter of time before Australia too will be inundated. The Jakarta Globe publishes news of the The people seeking refugee status in Australia. Google Jakartaglobe.com.
tgsam
Actually, a lot of people have the means to move out – they just don’t want to leave their “comfort zone” no matter how bad it is.
You know there’s some truth to that but the way you say it makes it sound like “comfort” is a poor reason to stay. For someone just starting out in life I’d have to agree, but for a person with a 40+ year investment in building a comfort zone, the assertion borders on insult.
I have the means to leave, but I’d be leaving my life’s work at an age I’m unable to replace it. The goobermint would take 40% of what I own before they let me out the door, and that’s if I’m lucky, it could be much worse. Those of us with the “means to move out” can’t without losing everything.
There were a lot of Jewish in Germany during the early 1930’s who felt the same way. I had a 30+ working years in the US with a good retirement benefit, home, two cars, investments, etc. but I valued my freedom and privacy more than staying in a growing Police State.
This is the thought that occupies me all-too-much lately. Or perhaps, not enough. I, too, have a great deal invested in my life – in the US. A nice house, land; all my toys. But I realize these might be taken away in the very near future – in which case, I will have lost everything material anyhow. And my freedom.
The decision to flee would be much easier if I were in my mid 20s instead of my mid 40s….
I like the complaints about too many people. Who said the ancestors of those that are complaining had the right to come here? It is also funny to think that places like China have population controls. I wonder how that fits into libertarian ideals of the government telling you what to do?
Too many people like you, Clover. To many control freaks incapable of minding their own business – and determined to mind the business of other people.
PS: Before you buy my boat ticket, how about sending me that check for $1 million you owe me?
The most illogical, irrational, argument of them all has to be ‘love it or leave it’. The control freaks always insist that those who value liberty leave. It doesn’t make sense. It’s the other countries in the world, or practically all of them, that were established as control freak nations. The USA was established as a nation of liberty. If anyone should leave its the control freaks. They are the ones seeking to change the nation away from its published reason, they should leave to somewhere more of their liking instead of ruining it for those who want liberty.
Before I send you a million bucks Eric you have to explain and show me what I was ever wrong about. You know it might be worth a million bucks to get your kind out of the country. You complain about things without any kind of solution to the problems your changes that you want would cause.
How about that lack of any security that you want. How do you plan on getting people to fly after the first dozens planes go down?
Clover, you owe me at least three million bucks!
You’ve chickened out on my challenge to meet me at a race track for an objective test of our relative skills behind the wheel. You’ve bawk-bawked on everything else, too.
When presented with incontestable facts, what do you do? Sidestep, equivocate, change the subject… emote.
For example, in my response to your post in favor of “security” (that is, of the TSA), I pointed out the the TSA (and gate rape) does not exist in numerous other countries – and yet, planes are not “going down.” No answer from you. Because you cannot answer.
I also pointed out the fact that after people pass through the Gate Rape Gantlet, they are routinely allowed access to knives at restaurants within the “secure” area of the terminal… and never re-screened before they get on the plane. If your “security” is so essential, Clover… if Gate Rape has prevented “terrorists” from getting through with, say knives … then why haven’t they made use of the knives they can get after they pass through “security”? No answer from you – for the same reason.
I asked why, if “the terrorists” really are bent on killing large numbers of Americans, they don;t just hose down a public area with automatic weapons fire? Or if they want to drop a plane, why not just shoot one down with a disposable shoulder fired rocket as in Afghanistan? No answer from you – of course. Because you can’t answer such questions. Not intelligently, that is.
Quite right Eric. Clover can’t answer those arguments without agreeing with you and experiencing the cognitive dissonance that goes along with that. I routinely ask these questions: Why haven’t all these supposed terrorists just waiting to board “dozens of planes” dumped a few hundred pounds of roofing nails, in a coordinated effort during morning rush hour, on major metropolitan thoroughfares? That would screw up commerce for weeks, cause traffic accidents and the clean up would be nigh on impossible. Why haven’t just one of these “terrorists” lurking in the wings hit the unsecured side of a major air terminal whilst the masses are gathered there waiting to be sexually assaulted by the blue shirts?
The reason would apparently be that the only “terror attacks” since (probably including and prior to) “nine-uh-leven” have been bought, paid for and manufactured by the regime and its sycophants. The fact is and always has been that the “radical Muslims” don’t “hate us for our freedom.” They don’t give two shakes about Eric, Boothe or even Clover. They are pissed, and rightfully so, because Western fascist gun-vernments have invaded their countries with deluded young armed people to make it safe for the corporations (that own the gun-vernment) to “do business” there (i.e. take their natural resources and exploit cheap labor).
Clover can’t comprehend this because Clover doesn’t have “eyes to see and ears to hear.” Clover is willfully ignorant and probably on the dole to boot. Clover is the type of person that just wants people like us, that keep bringing up the Constitution, the Unanimous Declaration and the founding principles, to shut up or leave.
Clover’s archetype in gun-vernment is the reason we now have federal lawlessness. Cloverian politicians and bureaucrats should be tried for high crimes and treason against the several states and he / she / it knows this deep down. It can’t stand to have its evil deeds exposed to the light of truth and it can’t stand to be called out on its beliefs. The nanny / surveillance / police state is Clover’s “precious.” And exposing it for what it is won’t change Clover’s mind anymore than telling Gollum that the ring was destroying him would make him give it up. They are both pitiful creatures for similar reasons.
“First, the passing zones. I count at least five along my normal driving routes that have been painted over – probably out of pure spite by the Clovers who control the paint trucks. I doubt a legitimate traffic survey was done. Instead, I suspect a Clover bitched about “dangerous speeders” passing him ”
I think that the elimination of passing zones is just another revenue raising scheme, like speed limits and seat belt laws. Politicians don’t need the input of brain-dead drivers in order to criminalize what was formerly accepted driving practices.
What is probably next is for politicians to enact an obscure regulation empowering Porky to stop anyone for any reason and letting him write a ticket for reckless driving, based on nothing.
Porky, just like GI Joe/Jane, is the politicians attack dog. An attack dog will happily attack when ordered, or even when not restrained.
Well said eric! I’m told that, after they straighten out the road in that project, they are also going to erect a traffic light! All those taxpayer dollars so we won’t have to slow down to 20MPH, then put up a light???
I see it (the light) coming, too. It used to be a pleasant ride from our place in Floyd down the mountain into the county/outskirts of Roanoke. It’s not anymore. Thanks to all the construction, you can expect to be stuck behind a Clover Conga both ways. A traffic light will seal the deal. Cars will stack up at the light – and you can say good-bye to the formerly wonderful experience of having the road mostly to yourself, most of the time.
Totally disagree, tgsam. The problem is NOT a lack of land, or arable land. If we were to pack all the people of the world into a single city with the population density of say, Phoenix or alexandria Virginia, or other American suburban style town, that city would only take up an area of the lower 48 states, leaving the rest of the planet UNINHABITED. Look at a globe and see what that means. If it were efficiently cultivated, the world currently has enough arable land to feed all of us and far far more.
The problem is NOT overpopulation. The problem is the parasites that rob us of our freedoms, and destroy our capital, our property, and our lives. The problem is GOVERNMENT.
Exactly Paul. If the parasites and control freaks were out of the way people would be able to produce all that is needed. One of the reasons that food production is impaired in the USA is that government regulation and law favors these industrial farming methods that really don’t go with the flow, that is with nature.
Somewhere I came across a video from the middle east where people were just going with the natural flow of the weather and climate and were creating viable farmland out of a desert. Another was in an arid part of south america where archeologists and/or anthropologists were trying to learn about the ancient civilization that had been there. They convinced some people to try the ancient methods and they worked. Food production increased and then they knew how the civilization that had been there fed itself.
Much of what is considered useless land could be reclaimed for agriculture. It’s just that the same mentality that produced the dust bowl of the 1930s won’t do it. But to try these methods, to have the required innovation, we need a free market where people keep the fruits of their labor. People need to be free to try things and see what works instead of being regulated into a standard one-size-fits-all good for the insiders way.
Overpopulation is bunk. If the world becomes over populated a free people will terraform mars or find some other planet to grow into. Collectivism, pyramidal control structures, war, and so on is why people starve. Government is the problem. It is the institution that is most often the root cause of starvation. It’s also there to stifle trade that would solve starvation locally where it is the result of nature.
BTW:
There’s probably a reason why John Lennon was killed by lone nut.