It used to be that roadside mulctings were primarily, even exclusively, motivated by simple money-lust. Traffic enforcement as a kind of random tax-raising effort.
Many towns and even cities in the United States are extremely dependent on the “revenue” – as it is styled – which is generated by the fleecing of motorists. This is why there are so many “infractions” – and it is why many of them are deliberately contrived so as to assure almost every motorist will be “guilty” of at least one “violation” every time he drives.
Examples include absurdly under-posted speed limits that are often functionally impossible to comply with – unless you want to get run over. And pedantic requirements about exactly where one must stop at a stop sign – and how long one must stop. The touching of a yellow line, etc.
But now the object now appears to be to punish driving as such. In order to discourage driving as such. To make it so teeth-grindingly unpleasant – and impossibly expensive – to drive that people will give up driving in favor of government/corporate controlled collectivized driving schemes.
Electric/automated cars are intended to play a major role in this “transition.”
People are soothed with images of a carefree future in which they’ll no longer be mulcted; in which they’ll be smoothly/quietly and speedily whisked to their destination, sleeping in transit if they want to.
And the check’s in the mail.
Is it a done deal? It may well be.
My sense of things is that car culture is in the same general back alley as being interested in the crazy ideas put forward in the Declaration of Independence and the entire backdrop of Enlightenment/humanistic thinking which preceded it.
Yes, of course, there are still people – including some young people – who are interested in cars and driving; who are not interested in becoming meatsacks gaping at cell phones while being transported by a pod under the control of the government/corporate nexus.
Who are as appalled by the idea of it as they are by the idea of being “assisted” in the bathroom.
There are also still a few people who believe in that old-timey idea, the pursuit of happiness – but don’t believe they have a right to have happiness or anything else at someone else’s expense. That they are owed happiness – and health care and housing, a college education, a “living wage” and maybe sushi once a week, too – by the beneficent Oz styled “government,” which gets them all those things by serving as a middleman-at-gunpoint, stealing the funds from others then redistributing them while keeping a portion for itself (along with the far more valuable prerogative to steal at will, legally).
Both species – the car guy (and car gal) and liberty guy (and gal) appear to be in the minority – which is very bad news when “rights” are a function of the vote.
Worse, though, is the daunting indifference to both cars and liberty.
A kind of paralysis of inevitability has set in. Both as regards driving (and its end, as an autonomous activity not under the control of the government-corporate nexus) and the mopping up operations directed at our remaining freedoms-of-action (including being free to speak and write our minds, decide for ourselves whether to be “covered” by health insurance and so on).
This is understandable.
As regards driving and cars, because it is no longer much fun to drive. Fun – these days – requires being furtive because most of the fun things you can do in and with a car are illegal and subject not only to a mulcting but to a Hut! Hut! Hutting!
What fun is it to drive a Corvette that you can’t legally drive any faster than a Corolla? You’re paying four times as much to go just as slow.
It’s still possible to have some furtive fun. Cameras aren’t everywhere yet. Just almost everywhere. What happens when they are everywhere? When it becomes impossible to have even furtive fun? What will be the point in owning a Corvette – or even a Tesla S, for that matter – when every single deviation from The Allowed will be immediately seen and automatically punished?
“Ludicrous Speed” isn’t going to be legalized, by the way. That is just a marketing ploy to sex up the EV – in order to further the objective of getting people out of their non-EVs.
At which point, of course, “Ludicrous Speed” will be programmed out of the EV.
People are deluded if they buy into the con that they’ll be meatsacking around at high speed, that speed limits will be raised – or even abolished – when we’re all nudged into automated electric cars.
They miss the point.
And as regards the rest – well, it’s hard to stay focused on the pursuit of happiness when you are required to provide for the happiness of others, at gunpoint. When the beneficent Oz styled “government” won’t leave you free to pursue your own. And makes it all but impossible for just that reason.
Might as well sign up for some “free” sushi, too.
. . .
Got a question about cars, Libertarian politics – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in!
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet (pictured below) in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a sticker – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
My latest eBook is also available for your favorite price – free! Click here. If that fails, email me and I will send you a copy directly!
Vonu, if you want to get a PO box without a physical address, you go to the post office, and tell them that you want to see about getting “general delivery”. In many cases, they will hand you a PObox key for free, otherwise, you just walk in every so often and ask for your mail.
Beyond the fact that general delivery is becoming much harder to receive in excess of 30 days at a time, the USA PATRIOT act requires one to have a physical address to get a postal service post office box or a private mail box. Fortunately I have friends that will let me use their addresses to do all the things that require a physical address under federal and state law.
When was the last time that you received general delivery in Parker, Quartzsite, or Ehrenberg in Arizona for longer than 30 days? In cities with more than one post office, general delivery can only be received at the “main” post office for said city.
Are you saying they won’t let you renew it every 30 days? I never had a problem with it when I was doing it. it was almost always a small box, and sometimes the junk mail would be crammed in so tight, I couldn’t get it out without having a bunch of it fall out on the other side of the wall. They would usually have a note to go to the desk to get the rest of it as well. I used to use marinas as a residence address as well, at least when I got the PO box set up. Then I could just anchor out a month or so later. I usually went to small towns to get my mail. They only had one post office.
The mail clerks never seemed to really care one way or another. I would just fill out the paperwork, hand them a key deposit, and they’d give me the keys.
All of the post offices in the small towns make you sign up for general delivery for 30 day periods, after which you have to go to another one for 30 days. One of them has told me that it is 30 days for life.
The Domestic Mail Manual, what the USPS uses as their bible, requires a physical address to get a PO box. It also gives the local postmaster dictatorial power over everything, so they can and do make up their own rules.
I just talked to my insurance agent about ‘going mobile’ here. Insurance for the vehicle is a bit of a issues as our government insurance scammers want an address for where you vehicle is registered. Different rates for different zones.
Insurance woman just looked up the address for a local provincial park office and entered into the data field. She said that would work, just have my PO Box as the contact method. Apparently this is how the buss/RV living folks do it.
Does bring up another issue regarding handguns though. Need an ATT to transport them legally and they are supposed to be secured in your home at all other times. What if my ‘home’ has wheels?
I have no idea what an ATT is, but here in the land of the fee and the home of the slave, transportation outside of the owner’s purview requires an FFL on both ends of the process. Since the constitution nominally requires that all the states provide the same rights as all the other states, and my domicile and winter homes both have constitutional carry, it doesn’t matter as long as I legally possess the gun in question, and I do, until the criminals in Washington pass a civil war provoking law.
ATT = Authorization to Transport. Required in Canada for moving restricted weapons. Carrying a handgun is basically impossible here for any mundanes.
Which is why I’m glad Canada wouldn’t let me move up there back in 1979. And also why I won’t visit again, although at least back then it was a beautiful and friendly place.
My original plan was to grow just for personal use as well, but I was pessimistic so I always grew way more than I needed. The first season, I couldn’t seem to find the right place, and had to keep moving my plants. One day I had five buckets in my back seat. All you could see in the rearview mirror was a jungle of pot leaves, and at one point there was a squad car barely visible behind them. I don’t know how I dodged that bullet either. Then the deer got to them. I had chicken wire wrapped around them, but anything that got through, was eaten. I didn’t know how to sex my first crop so I ended up fertilizing not only my plants, but another grower’s plants on the next foothill over. He had to harvest early, and he had some of the best purple sins in five counties. Everyone was waiting expectantly for his next crop, and he had to harvest early. I never told him that it was my fault.
I also grew roses as well. Me and a buddy used to go on these clandestine missions into the local botanical gardens to get cuttings, root stock, etc. Our biggest caper was to get some choice California native roses at the UC botanical garden in Berkeley. We both got some really nice root stock and propagated that stuff for years afterwards. I had roses everywhere back in California. I didn’t bring anything out with me to Florida though. Now I just have one row in front of my living room window. They were all on sale for a couple of bucks, but they’re some of the most beautiful and easy to grow roses I’ve ever had. I don’t spray them with anything. I don’t fertilize either. I just keep them trimmed, and cut them back to three or four canes each winter. So your neighbors spray with Round UP, and it kills whatever is at your place?
Eventually the Roundup will sterilize the soil it is used on, and a couple decades of enforced fallow will follow.
I’m hoping that this will occur in synchrony with the collapse of the greater economy, allowing those of us who don’t lose everything we have to paper to build 4-season hydroponic walapinis to corner local food chains with.
I took cutting from the original Seven Sisters that dated back to the 20’s on this place. I left those plants and started another bunch of them at the house. One a=hole crop sprayer killed the originals with 2,4, D and another ahole killed the ones here at the house along with several other expensive varieties with Roundup. He sprayed Roundup and some sort of exotic tree killer on my trees on the turnrow and around my house including my 30 year old pear tree. He doesn’t know it but when those trees don’t come back next year he’s getting sued and not in petty court and hopefully, not in this county. My neighbor had 6 acres of beautiful garden with all sorts of crops that were worth a great deal. He got $3,000 out of his suit, just a fraction of what it was worth and a good dose of Roundup to tide him over in his ground.
8south, Are you saying a crop duster flew over or near your place and dropped 24d? If so, it’s just another example of how difficult it is to find a safe place to live in the US anymore.
shnarkle, 2,4, D, that ruined our ground sample to get certified as “organic”. We get oversprayed with Roundup every year and more than once. But this year we got sprayed 3 times with some sort of tree killer…..maybe more since I’m not always here.
8south, a mailing address isn’t the problem. It’s a matter of whether or not I can have a residence (rather than a boat) which is then taxed as property rather than titled, registered, etc. If I own waterfront property, then they add that to the value of the property, but if it’s just some free floating dock with a building on it, then they have building codes to contend with. The boat option doesn’t have the same regulations. The inspection process is considerably more lax, but then I have tags to pay for each year. Lakes definitely won’t work as they all require some place to park it. I can’t just anchor out indefinitely like I can on the gulf, or most of the bays, inlets, etc.
I’ve got a boat anchored out right now in a really nice protected bay just off the gulf of Mexico. It’s still free to anchor, but one of these days they’re going to nix that and start charging; not sure what I’ll do after that.
Well, actually that’s one of the reason I want to get a pontoon boat, or build one from those poly barrels so I can get into the shallow water. The boat I have now drafts over 5′ which limits where I can anchor out.
It used to be free to launch a boat at the public marina, but now It’s $15.00 per day, and no overnight parking so I picked up an inflatable that I can launch about as easily as a kayak from any of a number other spots around the bay.
shnarkle, that entire debacle sucks. You have my sympathy. Greedy bureaucrats and pols have destroyed this country.
That’s yet another reason why I have this boat. I can just cruise it down to the Caribbean. Things are a bit more laid back down there. A buddy of mine went down to Jamaica for a week. He got so fried, he was in a hospital for 4 days. He was worried that he was going to be jailed, but they just laughed at him. He says he can’t remember ever having that much fun and not getting arrested.
Another guy I used to know came back after living down somewhere in Mexico for over a decade. He came back for a funeral or maybe it was a marriage. He was sitting in a restaurant and had to take a call outside. He took his beer with him because that’s what normal people do in a free country. He forgot he wasn’t in a free country anymore so he got a cited for open container.
There’s a great movie out on DVD called “The Mariachi”, and in the special features disk, they show a scene they’re about to shoot, but there’s a car coming down the street that they have to wait for. As the car drives by, they notice that it’s being driven by a kid that can’t be more than 7 or 8 years old. The cameraman filmed the whole thing. The car was full of these little kids.
The last time I was down in Mexico, a dog wandered out into the street of this surf town I was hanging out in, and just laid down in the middle of the street, and took a nap. A few years later, I was down in Columbia, and there was a similar looking dog who waltzed right into six lanes of traffic like he was a ghost. Everyone saw the dog. People in the US don’t see dogs in the street anymore. I never saw any road kill down there ever.
Another time, I was down in Santa Marta walking along the beach, and I look at this vacant lot where there used to be a skyscraper, and there’s a horse just wandering around in the middle of this beach front city. No one seems to care. I had no problem walking up to police officers to get directions or information. In the US, I know not to bother cops lest they get the bright idea to ID me and find some way to make a few bucks off me.
My sister got robbed, so she calls the cops, they come and take a report, and two weeks later, she gets a notice informing her that they noticed she had a security alarm system installed, but she didn’t pay for the permits that were required. It was a bill.
There’s a look you see in people’s eyes when you’re down in Central America. You don’t see it hardly at all anymore in the US. It’s this knowing smile you see in the faces of expats from the US. It makes you feel lucky, grateful, and kinda like the first time you got laid, and you give yourself that look in the mirror.
Damn, that sounds like a good time. Sometimes I wonder where everybody in the US left their balls. Wanderlust is long gone in this country. It wasn’t when I was a young man. I picked up hitchhikers and cyclists that were just out, going across the country to see what they could see.
My best friend and I had just harvested a crop of pot one day and it had rained like hell the day before. We were headed into town in his Vega station wagon that was stuffed full when we came across this long hair cyclist(was there any other kind?). We’d had to divert off the dirt roads due to such deep mud and get on a major US highway. We talked to him a few minutes and invited him to join us(jine us my friend). He said “Damn, Yall have a lot of balls”. We’d nearly forgotten the car was stuffed with fresh plants. Another half hour and we had plenty dried out via the gas cook stove. Old Grinmore was better than ever.
I think most are now wandering across the rest of the planet because it just isn’t safe in the US anymore. You get arrested, sued, caught in the crossfire, etc.., but the rest of the planet is pretty nice. I don’t know anyone down in Central America, Mexico, or even south American that wants to go venturing up into the US. They all say it’s full of drug addicts and people shooting everyone. You probably didn’t smoke the stuff. Using a stove was never something I ever saw anyone do. We always just hung the stuff out to dry. Half the time I would sell the stuff while it was still too wet to burn. Then it would get moldy, yuk. That’s another(legalizing dope) thing that may mark the end of the US as a brain trust. I had a house I was working on just before I left California for good. I was up on the roof one day with a buddy of mine, and he got all ticked off because the kids next door were watering their plantation. He was disgusted with them being pot heads, and so we sat down on the roof to take a break and watch this kid water his budding trees. He had a garden hose that he was filling up at the faucet, and then walking across the yard to the plants to water one at a time. He was giving each one a gallon or two, and then walking all the way back. I pointed out to my friend that the moron didn’t have enough sense to just take the hose over to the plants and water them all at once. He was probably making quite a bit of money back then as well; maybe over $100k. Now you can’t give the stuff away. I got a friend who has been pulling a few pounds off each tree, and he’s got well over 50 plants, and can’t find anyone who will give him much of anything for an oz. He finally just gave up and now has a real job paying taxes, etc. I knew a guy who did eighteen months for possession of an eighth back in the late 80’s. I got popped in 1990 with 150 females just about ready to start budding, and didn’t do any time at all. I still have no idea how that happened. The ironic thing was that I was living on the street at the time, and told the cops it was all mine, and to just take me to jail. They were pissed off because they were on overtime, and just wanted to go home.
When I appeared in front of the judge a month or so later, I asked if I could do time for the fine which was a little over $300.00. He said no, then said, “I’ll waive the fine. Time served, pay the clerk”. It was a $12.00 filing fee. I took that as an omen to never grow dope ever again, and now I see that it may be also suggesting that I leave the country altogether. Just my luck I get popped now for something I didn’t even do. I used to feel lucky and fortunate to live in the US, not so much anymore.
shnarkle, I didn’t grow it to sell. I grew it for myself. And being a horticulturist since I was a kid, I was always growing something. My mother and I would divide flower beds and while she grew a lot of flowers and such, I’d grow a lot of different roses which I liked.
I had a rose garden right here where I live that died from lack of rain water and overspray of Roundup. It was a beautiful garden for many years. I covered our propane tank with Seven Sisters roses, a local variety that I propagated from an old homestead on the place.
We have been plagued by Roundup for decades that’s destroyed our roses and other flowers as well as our garden. We used to have a good crop of dewberries but they were victims of drought and Roundup. I do love a dewberry cobbler but haven’t had one in a decade.
If I hadn’t been the recipient of lupus, I might not have grown what I did but it’s always made me much healthier. Of course once the state made it’s debut into “finding” drugs, I haven’t been able to drive a truck and smoke pot. I never did “drive and smoke” but I used it when I wasn’t on the road. Now that I suffer from Shingles and MRSA, it’s really no fun without it but staying busy and working my butt off helps a great deal.
What part of the rest of the planet do you have long enough experience with to be able to come to the conclusion that it is any different from the random occurance of 500 year floods?
8 S, In my new job as an ice hauler/vender, I commented to my partner about how I and my peers used to be seen playing outside all of the after-school time, but nowadays you almost never see kids outside! He is a former Game Warden and a military vet, so I did not expect to hear any anti-statist solutions from him at all! My low expectations proved to be correct! I am not criticizing the guy because at least he was being very honest to me I think! I really applaud him for that!
His answer was that children do indeed get kidnapped far more often than they used to be. I had suspected that the child/woman]human trafficking news was merely state propaganda. Now, I am no longer sure about that.
Brian, I always though it was bs with the child abduction but now I have read the statistics of how many people, esp. children, simply disappear every year. I don’t think the numbers are just made up. These are reported missing people/children. I have an old itchy feeling there are many more pedophiles and sex slave perpetrators than I could imagine. When I say “imagine”, I mean exactly that. I just can’t imagine kidnapping children and putting them into a sexual nightmare. It just wasn’t like that when I was young or the figures just weren’t there.
I suppose coming from a rural area where you know for sure if there’s a child missing I am not aware of how it is in cities. I suspect living in places where there people are massed together things are much worse than I could/can imagine.
I don’t expect po leez to do anything. If I were the one told about those things, I think I’d be better in finding those kids. I would have no compunction at all to do away with a kidnapper.
Sex slavery is just a variation on the long-time standard of general slavery. Both operate on the premise of the survival of the fittest. Those who aren’t fit to survive or protected by those who are are destined to become slaves for as long as they are productive, and the victim of public humiliation and execution afterwards as a motivation to their survivors.
I don’t trust statistics. Kids are more likely to be molested at school or in a church youth group than kidnapped.
It is exceedingly difficult for a cop to ID someone who never carries any.
Not doing so has never, to my knowledge, prevented an arrest if that is the officer’s goal.
SVB,
What kind of boat do you have? Is it power or sail? What size? I sailed back in my Navy days; i.e. I know the basics. I cut my teeth on a Widgeon; I raced and had fun on Lasers and Rhodes 19s and sailed both for fun; I sailed Cal 20s and a Catalina 22; and I crewed on a Columbia 26.
How do I know if I have enough experience to go cruise the Caribbean or points farther away? I haven’t sailed in a long time. What size boat would you recommend for living aboard and cruising? Should I get new or used? What’s the cost of cruising the Caribbean for a single guy and two cats?
Hey Marky, I’ve got a 43′ Marine Trader. It’s a twin screw CPMY. You’ve got more than enough experience. Just find something you like the looks of, and go for it. The cost to cruise is pretty much the same everywhere, especially if you’re sailing. I’d recommend getting a 30′ to 40′ sail or powerboat; whichever you prefer. Definitely buy used. I’ve bought new, and know a few people who have bought new only to find out that some defect is going to cost them their whole summer waiting to have it fixed. I bought a brand new MacGreggor 26x years ago, and had a few problems that were covered under the warranty, but it took almost a year for them to get around to sending the parts, and installing them. Are you sure your cats are going to be okay around the water? A friend of mine had a cat on his boat, and one day while we were hanging out, she freaked out and clawed the hell out of him. She got spooked and thought she was going to fall in, and the guy was on the verge of tears when it was all over. It was gruesome.
Why do you need any parking when you live on a boat at sea?
I’m not at sea. I’m anchored out in a bay 8 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. I don’t need parking, but then I prefer driving to walking, especially when it’s 100 degrees outside, and air conditioning cools the trip way down. Same thing for when it’s raining. There’s plenty of parking at the moment, and I can keep my parking spot if I time my trips right. I don’t go anywhere on the weekends unless I’m planning on not coming back until sometime after the weekend. I also have a place 30 miles inland that I picked up for a song. It’s also on the water, but it’s just a small lake. I have a couple of bikes I ride around the bay as well, and a trike I ride 30 miles inland. I don’t take the trike out to the boat because I paid quite a bit of money for it, and I don’t want it to rust.
And the local town doesn’t hassle you for anchoring out? Out east where I am, you have to be careful, because a lot of shore towns don’t like boats anchoring out; you’ll get fined at the very least…
Marky, where I’m at, the county wants people living on their anchored vessels. They prefer people living on them to those who don’t because those who don’t tend to abandon them after a while; sometimes immediately after they anchor them. However, they are cracking down on making sure the boats are up to snuff as far as having all their bells and whistles. It’s becoming a revenue generating proposition for the county. It’s in the name of safety, but it’s really about making money for the county. I just got popped for not having a registration sticker on my boat. It used to be that a documented vessel could get away without registration, but not anymore.
Hi Eric;
I honestly don’t believe that self-driving vehicles (or robotomobiles as I call them) will ever be a problem here i the USA (Or, rather, will never be a problem to freedom lovers; they will be a huge problem to the companies dumping billions into the technology.) I will tell you why.
First of all, these things operate on algorithms; not thought, or intuition, which actual human powered driving does. The difference is sort of like the difference between a graph paper, with neat orderly lines, and a cobweb. Human thought being the cobweb. There is absolutely no way an algorithmic device can possibly cope with the complexity of something as human as driving. How is the robotomobile going to handle a construction zone? An idiot cop waving his arms and “directing traffic” at an accident scene? A snowy day? Any number of a hillion jillion other things that a normal human can easily get around? It won’t be able to deal with it. And what is the default? Probably come slowly to a complete stop and wait for instruction from someone in an office somewhere. What’s going to happen on a snowy day when dozens stop at the same time?
Second, not only is the technology not there yet, it is very doubtful it will come about in the near future. We have had grocery scanners for almost 40 years now, and they STILL mis-scan items. Despite millions of users using it every day, Siri (and others like “her”) cannot even recognize simple voice commands and sentences. How is the passenger interface of a robotomobile ever going to do any better? Someone jumps into a robotomobile, asks to be taken to Boston Ave., and ends up with the car heading out to Massachusetts….
Lastly, how does the robotomobile deal with non-driving functions of driving? Who is going to fill it up with gas? Who is going to change a flat? Who is going to load a disabled passenger? Help a blind person get in and out? Deal with a parking garage (or worse, an open desert) where there is no signal?
Now, normal humans can and do handle every one of these things in their normal human “cobweb” fashion. These gurus at the robotomobile developers are going to have to come up with algorithms for every conceivable contingency. And they WILL mess it up, because the real world does not operate on a graph paper.
This will result in accidents, stuck robotomobiles, and just plain bad experiences. And it will be all over but the crying for the whole stupid robotomobile experience. Why? Because to humans, facts don’t matter. Perception matters. And the perception is always that “different” is “dangerous”. This is why we see Iran as a threat, and we don’t see the Canadians as a threat even though Canadians have much better weapons, a bigger and better trained army, and a common border with the USA. They have almost an identical culture to the USA., therefore it is not a threat Whereas the “different” culture of Iran IS a threat, facts not whithstanding.
Similarly, a normal car is not a threat. But a robotomobile is “different” and different is dangerous. Example: Any number of police cars were involved in minor accidents over the last weekend. It made only a minor blip, and only if the cop was injured in the crash. Happens in police departments every day. However, a couple days ago, a Tesla on autopilot smashed into the back of a police car in Hartford, Connecticut. BOOM! Instantly, the story was all over the news not just nationally, but internationally. That is exactly what is going to happen to the robotomobiles, too. As soon as one of these contraptions kills someone, every lawyer in the world looking to make a name for himself (which is every lawyer in the world) will be lining up to sue the pants off of Uber or Tesla or Waymo or anyone else involved in this debacle.
And no one is going to get in one.
This is going to be the biggest marketing disaster ever. It will make New Coke look like a wise move by comparison.
Ah, Paul… you innocent!
The goal is to herd people into rigid A to B transportation routes; to eliminate all the randomness and autonomy you write about. It took me awhile to understand that this is the end goal – I think perhaps because it’s hard for people who aren’t psychopaths to understand psychopaths – but there is no other sound explanation… precisely because of the things you’ve just elaborated. Meaning, they know this… and that begs a very ugly question.
eric, you may be right but I don’t necessarily think it’s a done deal for a lot of reasons. That AI car can’t get a brief glimpse of something down the way that sets off the ‘danger’ mode in my brain. Will it see the dog everyone else is braking for? Does it get that old feeling up its spine that there’s a fool there about to pull out in front of you? There are just so many situations they won’t be worth a damn with.
You may be correct about taking people’s ability to travel freely but I think pricing the ICE cars out of the reach of most people will be more effective than self-driving cars.
Do you have vision extending from infrared to ultraviolet? That which does can see things that you can’t at distances that you never could without optics.
Moving the vast majority of those who can’t afford to live outside of cities into them will make having ones own independent means of transportation impractical enough to cure most people of pursuing it.
Interpretation of what you’re seeing is what I was speaking of. It’s what’s kept me alive for 52 years of trucking.
The deal’s never done.
…He deals the cards as a meditation
And those he plays never suspect
He doesn’t play for the money he wins
He doesn’t play for respect…
… But those who speak know nothing
And find out to their cost
Like those who curse their luck in too many places
And those who fear are lost…
Eric wrote:
“Meaning, they know this… and that begs a very ugly question”
The answer to that ugly question is even uglier and is almost immediately dismissed by most people as a crackpot conspiracy theory:
The endgame for these psychopaths is genocide on a global scale.
The elimination of 7 to 8 BILLION people.
I would only add that it is voluntary genocide. I spent 20 years living in and around the San Francisco bay area, and most of the freaks in that hell hole would gladly join the CIA to go over to the middle east just to have some despot hang them by their ankles with jumper cables clamped to their testicles connecting them to the power grid.
I stand in line at the grocery store, and look at how the vast majority are so obese, the electric scooter they’re riding around in can barely move them from the ho hos to the checkout line. The crap people are eating is killing them faster than our government contractors can build bombs to kill people in the third world. 500k people die every year in the US alone just from heart disease. The number one killer of emergency personnel in the US is heart disease. Most of the calls they go on are for heart attacks. One in three women will get cancer, half of all men get cancer. I’ve had cancer half a dozen times already. No chemo or radiation which is why I’m still alive. As popular as abortion is, it’s still a great way to sterilize a woman. They’ve shown that rats forced to eat gmo will not only become impotent, but quickly lose interest in copulating, so we just foist ED pills on everyone to compensate. Ed pills are actually for heart disease. If you need an ED pill, you’ve got heart disease. Otto Warburg won the Noble Peace prize in medicine back in the early 30’s with his research on heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, and their link to sugar. Back then people were putting away a couple pounds of sugar a year. Now people consume over 125 lbs. a year. The absolute worst environment you could possibly live in is in a new home with new furniture. The glues outgassing alone is enough to do permanent damage to your endocrine system. They say the crap in these vape canisters does permanent damage the first time you use it. It seems like there’s some new gimmick, new drug to get addicted to every week. The last doctor I went to, told me that he was going to prescribe pain killers for me, and that once I started, I could never stop using them. I tossed the prescription in the trash and cancelled my health insurance. The US is the sickest country in the world. There’s an incredible documentary out called “Sweet Suicide” which shows natives of Papua New Guinea who are well into their 80’s and 90’s who look like their no more than 40. They’re seriously RIPPED, and none of them die of anything other than old age.
Hi AF,
This – “The endgame for these psychopaths is genocide on a global scale” – is something so titanically evil that normal human brains almost can’t deal with it. I include myself. Normal people seek other – sane – explanations for what is becoming less and less possible to pretend is something other than what it is.
How do you understand the mentality of a Stalin or Mao or Hitler? Or these people?
God help us.
The mindset of totalitarian dictators has always included the disarmament, demonization, and destruction of any populations that do not choose to follow and obey them.
Religions have done the same things to only a slightly lesser degree.
One of the most effective tools of such have always been the indoctrination of the concept that they are evil by those they seek to eliminate. Another has been the creation of a deity to keep those who will not obey it intimidated by its imaginary evil.
Just as with the Mafia, it has always simply been business.
Repetitive near extinction has been the routine on the planet since it came to support (supposedly) intelligent life. Extinction can come from natural causes or psychopathic genocide, and there is no advantage to the former aside from the fact that it can tend to eliminate the latter first.
I think it is much more likely that they will remove the very real human problems from the equation by driving all non-robot cars off the road.
I can only imagine that looking like one ton pickups with bear bars encountering smart cars without. It would be good for towtruck drivers…
The to dream the impossible dream goal o’ self loathing final solution authority force projection, “unrecognized” – cuz purposely well-hidden in bearding words despite they dovetail not at all with the actions *&* despite its eternal recurrence fishslappin’ every face – or maybe because of it? can concussion be congenital? sure: all starts with a big bang. — is gaol c(s)ells o’ phane “security” *for* the authoritarians…& “their” electing & propping up codependents.
♪ I’m thinking above me… Trapped with my ideals
I can’t contain
I’m wrapped in sellophane(3x)
And it knows my name…
Nobody told me obsessive needs were
always following me around…♪
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KZIHDVGV1w
The couch “serfin” is just the ink blotspots the archy’s other than an tater-project themselves onto, into. It’s “slumming,” sorta’…one o’ those pull-out couches for slummbering, could say.
Humanimal tried irony & most of ‘em said, “nah, gonna’ go with perversity.”
…Now the boys all thought that I’d lost my sense
Those telephone poles were like a picket fence
They said “Slow down, I see spots!”
The lines on the road just looked like dots…
…I don’t know how you were diverted
You were perverted too
I don’t know how you were inverted
No one alerted you…
If authority’s projection is slummee internalized-couched, it’ll be reflect•projected back – ink blotspot judo, not to mention the ouroboros hole circular dog-to-vomit thing — well, Captain & Tennille did Inkblot Love, didn’t they?
Muskrat Toni did eventually dump muskrat cap’n somewhere out sun city way, tho. Maybe she, & maybe Cher-like, too, decided to dance circles round their sonnies, a la Epictetus, via Rodney Crowell.
Projection’s a bitch that’ll bitecha’ you betcha’. Life is short & those buck teeth can take a big bite of yer one apple. In fact, lots of inner Adams swallow the forbidden fruit whole…well, try to. The swallowin’ aperature ain’t big enough to pass apples, so throated it stays…& this predates the old lady & the spider by just about forever.
…you can’t fix somebody, anybody, nobody – peeps ain’t ford(aily)s & only the shadiest of shade tree mechanics pretend-profess otherwise…it may be equal parts megalo & munchausens to think (mystical magical believe, actually) otherwise – ‘cept mebbe•just•mebbe yourownself (&, nope, makin’ projects o’ projection onto & outta’ others don’t, can’t, fix the projector…). So…
…you sure as hell can’t fix institutions full o’ anybody nobodies claimin’ somebodiness & authority to busybodiness.
If that corpus ain’t as habeus as habanero juice in yer eye, then you just might be a redneck, er, a redeye, er, a red in tooth & claw somebody-anybody-nobody-busybody “fixer.”
& which tells pretty much all ya’ need to know about the whys & wherefores o’ institutions. Cui bono?
Elimination of randomness, wildcards, is as possible as any other utopia – or it’s identical twin, dystopia — is. This is a worry best left to the beads, whether or not only the good die young.
….But, Virginia, they didn’t give you quite enough information
You didn’t count on me
When you were counting on your rosary….
Having driven taxicab out of an international airport for a couple of years on a CDL, and managed a self checkout section in a Walmart for 3 months, I understand the range to understand why you don’t understand scanners. Most of the problem with anything that is considered defective or ineffective that utilizes what is considered to be high technology is based on the negligence that has always been routine for technophobes.
Like anything else that can stop working, scanners are very sensitive to things that they can’t be designed to be insensitive to, non-existent maintenance and ignorant or deliberate sabotage.
Just as the Jacquard loom was demeaned for eliminating jobs, it dramatically increased the productivity of weaving, bringing the products into a wider distribution. It did the same thing in a similar way to Ford’s increase of the daily wage by reducing the drudgery while increasing customization of the products.
By networking the traffic controls with the automated vehicles, it will be possible to increase the throughput of the infrastructure by optimizing traffic flow through improved and adjustable traffic control. Since the self driving vehicles will have full time all-wheel drive, they will be able to sense loss of traction faster than humans can and pass the presence of the hazard onto other vehicles approaching it.
Iran wouldn’t be a problem if we hadn’t been trying to conquer it for decades. North Korea wouldn’t be a problem if John Bolton hadn’t tried to trick Kim into signing an agreement different from that agreed to, showing them that we can be as deceptive as he is brutal.
None of these problems involve marketing as much as they do engineering. I spent a decade building, maintaining, repairing, and upgrading broadcast radio stations that utilized robotic automation long before it was called that by the humans that routinely malprogrammed it. Those who know little about technology are not the ones that make it work better. They are the ones that complain about that which they can’t do.
Don’t you think that the EV phenom is a transition to the abolition of private transportation except for the privileged few? If it were possible to compute the resources that the nation puts into owning and operating motor vehicles (business vehicles like trucks that carried my uncle’s potatoes to market excepted) and, via confiscation, to redirect those resources to public trans, in rural areas as well as for metroplexes, there might be the possibility of getting people to where they want to go and return from somewhat efficiently. That begs the argument you’re making, I know. But if the future should be, “Keep your stupid guns, we’re coming for your Corvettes,” hopefully we won’t have to spend our remaining years bumming rides no less than hits on the pacifying bong.
On a slight tangent: Was anyone besides me wryly amused by the news account (I don’t recall from where) of a parade of electric cars that were stuck in a “charging line” for hours on Black Friday? Welcome to our collective future.
Ideas put forward in “the” declarative sentence string? Mechanics can do anything with a 52-card declaration. But the ideas *behind* the ones put forward – & the fact that those have never changed in the history of “we” — are the point of it all.
C’mon.
The signatories to the string theory – aka Lilliputians – that sought to tie up these here united states of unconsciousness was the same kited check signers that a few years later put their X’s to the bullseye better•preferred known as “the” constitution.
Coup one. Coup two.
Very soon after, the bottoms changed their minds about the tops, declared divorce. And found out it wasn’t a consensual marriage. Found out they was just fleshpots in harem.
Coup three.
“Ideas put forward” is what hank ford was referring to when he expressed contempt for history. If you’ve been (history)booked, you’ve also been printed, photographed &…coup’d.
Voting? For godsecular sake. Votin’s just like home ownership – an enabling narrative, a beard for the…to hide true natures, true conditions, true motivations, behind.
Eric, they won’t have to have cameras everywhere. They just put a transponder in every vehicle that is connected to skynet. I know I’m just reminding you of stuff you’ve already written about. That glorious utopian public transport will have a facial recognition camera and a turnstile. You don’t get aboard until the system has verified your identity and approved of your destination.
I think smart phones already serve this purpose to a lesser extent.
Smart phones are a universal application of the premise.
It’s the hunt for taxes and a desperate need by state and local governments that are going broke. I ran across a study that says that since the late 1940’s, the federal government has lost track of $21 trillion that seems to have disappeared. That’s about $300 billion/year. Governments have no need to be efficient and cost conscious like all businesses and households. A government just taxes more and finds numerous ways to charge fees and tolls to try and make up the differences. I would guess it takes about $1.30 in revenue to get a dollar of service, and that’s probably generous. Another new charge I have noticed is when you get cash back at the store…more and more they are charging fees for that. And when interest rates go negative, you will be paying the bank to keep your money. Overall, it seems like the Marxists are in full control and we will all be living in big old dirty, compacted cities in concrete bunkers, like Russia during the cold war, and transportation will be by EV and completely controlled. Your life as a human will be over.
they are stealing the money
You can always move to Hong Kong, where there are no taxes. The government gets its funding from leasing real estate, and less than 4% of the land is developed. You’ll need to be prepared to live in less than 150 square feet unless you are very well off. I live in less than half that.
Vonu, are you taking into consideration the number of people who live on the water in boats, floating homes, etc.? I’ve noticed this phenomenon just about every where I go. There are the extremely rich with their luxury motor yachts in the extremely expensive and upscale marinas, but there are also those living in poverty who are anchored out on rafts, boats, etc. or even those who simply drive a few piles down into the mud and build a house above the water. They live pretty well, and they pay no taxes.
I’ve had boats, on and off for years, anchored out, and pay no more than you do for a van’s yearly registration. I don’t pay insurance, and can drift all over the place with the tides. A pontoon boat that is just under 16′ long, and just as wide, requires no inspection, title, or registration. You can more than double your living space for free. Many municipalities also provide mobile pump outs for free or a price that that is so insignificant as to make the decision a no brainer.
Even the boat I have now which is just over 43′ long costs me less than $15.00 a year for title renewal. Solar is stupid simple so I can live practically with no bills at all.
I pay practically no taxes now as well. I pay only sales tax on things I purchase in stores, but I’m not buying that much in stores anymore. I pay taxes on my vehicles, but I’m cutting back on vehicles that can be taxed. I just sold two motorcycles and bought a motorized bicycle, and I’m looking at what it costs to keep a horse, and a light buggy to get around town.
Not sure where/how you could economically keep a horse along a crowded waterfront …? We have two but we live on 40 acres ten miles off of the highway.
The Marquesas Islands, maybe? They actually have quite a few horses there 🙂
Anon, I don’t live along a crowded waterfront. The waterfront is vacant land, but I also own some land, a home, as well as some ranch/farmland, or at least enough of an interest to let horses run on it.
Well, I had a dream of deep water sailing, or just living along the BC or SE AK coast. But one can only do so many things, especially after most of your years are gone working and raising a family. So we’re here on our “horsestead” in the icebox of eastern Montana.
I still drool over gaff-rigged cutters and schooners, and Scottish luggers. 🙂
If I was up there right now, I would be dead. I used to drive a truck through there, and as soon as I got out of the truck for anything I would immediately feel like just lying down on the ground and going to sleep. The urge was almost completely irresistible. If you got horses, you have to take care of them, but having land shouldn’t prevent one from sailing unless one has to continue working just to “own” it. There’s a lot of horse ranches down here in Florida as well, and if I’m not mistaken, they just raised the homestead amount from $25k to $50k, so anything at or under $50k is free from any property taxes.
That’s some beautiful country up there, but too cold for me to enjoy it.
The places I’m talking about, you can’t drive to at all. Or you could load your car on a ferry and get there and drive around a few miles but that is all. I don’t know about getting sleepy; the climate at sea level is about like Seattle most of the way up to Skagway. Doesn’t get cold like the northern plains but awful damp and dreary most of the time.
I’m not sure who is going to feed & water our horses while we were gone cruising for months or years, besides the fact that they are our babies and don’t even understand why we don’t spend more time with them in the winter. Then there is my cat that worships the chair I sit upon – LOL!
Back in the early 2000s, when I was working construction in the warm part of the year, I made a plan with (former) friend to travel to the east coast of Florida to find a boat that we could go sea with. He claimed to have experience living in the intercoastal and at high sea. Since I had no experience in salt water, he would teach me how to sail, and if I liked it, he’d jump off and find his own boat. If I didn’t, he’d buy the boat from me, although there was never any apparent source of income for him to do that with. We found a 19′ cabin cruiser that looked promising since $2500 was a the asking price and it had a new set of sails. After he talked to the owner and arranged a next day test sail, he called home and his wife told him if he wanted to be married, he’d better get his ass back to Louisiana. Instead of the test sail, we took a three hour cruise (under better weathat than Gilligan’s) during which I discovered that I not only had sea legs but also was good at tack. Anywhy, I took him home and never looked back. I’ve though about building a houseboat that I could pull around behind the van as I moved, but the money never came for the project, and I lost interest in living on water. Full time vandwelling has worked well for me since 1984 and the costs are nothing compared to renting, so I’ll just keep living my life of van vonu, pretty much as Rayo described it in Vonulife.
I’m looking at going with those 55 gallon poly barrels for floatation because they pass the inspection process and they’re only about $8.00 per barrel if you can’t find them for free. The framing shouldn’t be more than a few hundred dollars, and the decking could be done with pallet wood, but even plywood isn’t that much. I constructed a few small shelters, e.g. dog houses, chicken coops over five years ago using pallet wood, cardboard sheathing, and poor man’s fiberglass ,and they look as good as the day I painted them. No mold or rot, nor delaminating either. They’re rock solid. I could probably lash as many of them together as I want, and still not have to pay any taxes. Vonulife sounds interesting. I noticed a free pdf download. I may have to check it out.
I have a dock made of those barrels and so do many other people. The state keeps killing off easy stuff with laws designed to collect revenue and keep people from being free.
I recall in the 70’s being on Lake Waco in a house. It was an old house but stout and sat level. The hole in the large living room was a great crappie fishing place. The front and back porches with overhangs were great. It had an outboard on it and would hold quite a load. It also had a generator so that at night(I was on it at night)you could use the lights just like always. I doubt you can still do that now.
8 south, I see quite a few of them as well, all over the country. Most people seem to just strap them to the deck with metal bands, cables, etc., but some people are bolting or screwing them directly to the framework which looks like it might be a better way to go if I want to identify it as a boat rather than a floating home. I still haven’t figured out all of the loopholes yet to determine which option is the most cost effective. If I could just build a floating home without having to deal with building codes, regulations, I’d go that way because I know I could build it for less than a few thousand dollars which gives me a lot of cushion between that and the $50k limit for avoiding property taxes. The problem is that I need an address to keep it so I have to scratch that idea until I can find some cheap waterfront.
schnarkle, I suspect those laws vary, and probably, quite a bit, with every state.
I have no idea if you need land on the lake. If an address of any sort would work a P.O. box would suffice I’m sure you know.
How did you get a PO box without a physical address?
You can get a P.O. box without an address or lots of truckers couldn’t get mail. You don’t have to use the USPS either. Pak mail and UPS are two that will get you a box and a physical address. I’d rather go to UPS than the P.O. Pak mail does same. I don’t know all the rest but others do the same thing.
How many times I opt not to go for a drive because 40 is as fast as you’re allowed to go. No passing, period. And some douche that struggles with 40. It is already teeth grindingly unpleasant. And yet my insurance continues to go up. I need to replace the convertible with something that has a cow catcher on the front.
I probably should’ve left off the cow catcher part, I’m sure somehow my phone just reported me to my insurance company.
Hi Bob,
Yup. Imagine – and it’s coming – a time when speed cameras and smart cameras are watching our every move; when you can’t “get away” with any “violation” of traffic law, however inane.
I stopped paying my vehicle registrations this year – but I know it’s only a matter of time before they suss me out and apply the requisite punishment.
I’d stop paying for insurance, too – if I could “get away” with it.
Careful on that, Eric. Most states have criminal penalties for driving an unregistered vehicle after a statutory grace period. Getting mulcted with a fine is one thing, but getting locked up on the side of the road, your car impounded, and your dogs sent to be euthanized in 72 hours is not an experience you want to have. Trust me, it sucks.
Good advice, Jack…
I did put “Farm Use” tags on the truck… and it’s plausible… hopefully!
There should be plenty of room for farms after they close down all the shooting ranges.
Unfortunately, after they get all the guns, they’ll be coming for the gas guzzlers.
eric, can’t you just do the “non-operational” route instead? I’ve lived in a few states, but I can’t think of any that don’t offer that option. That way you can keep your vehicles, and cut costs drastically.
Years ago when I was in my early 20’s I would insure only one vehicles at a time, and then just call the insurance company and tell them to transfer my insurance from one bike to another, or one of my cars.
For a while I didn’t have a license so I would just buy a car that had new stickers on the plate. I think the insurance companies now report it to the government as soon as one stops paying their insurance.
Here in Florida, they have this deal where when you sell your car, you keep the license plate, and use it on the next car you buy. I know quite a few people who just simply use one plate on three or four different vehicles. One friend of mine has an old plate on his tow vehicle that he never gets new tags for because he always has a trailer behind him. He’s been doing this for years.
It’s ironic how some states never notice how well other states get so much money from their milk cows. California has different colored stickers to indicate which month they expire. In Florida, they’re all the same color. Some states now will not send out reminders to pay your registration, but they will send out one when you’ve missed it with the added penalties included. Smart. Perhaps one day they will simply just wait for you to figure it out on your own, and get you with a bill three times as high.
What does convertibility have to do with obstacle-clearing utility?
My daily driver and nightly sleeper has a channel iron front bumper for the attachment of a comparably heavy duty tow bar that can attach via a grossly over-rated pintle hook to a pinch plate. None of that prevents it having a 2 foot by 2 foot hatch.
A bumper crop of weed … ???
A 30 year Commercial Drivers License holder wouldn’t have much use for any of that.
I can deduce only two possible results of the current attempted suicide of the species. Either we will be brought under absolute big brother control, with the “deviants” summarily disposed of (executed), or the entire fantasy land structure the Sociopaths In Charge have created will collapse under its own weight. Neither would be a pleasant experience, but I prefer the latter. At my age, I would likely not survive either, but my children and grandchildren might survive the latter. They’ve already been too well educated to submit to, and thus escape the former.
You trained your children to fail to train your grandchildren?
Eric,
“the idea of being “assisted” in the bathroom.”
The idea of assistance in the bathroom has been mandated for many, many years now.
If you happen to use the public facilities that DON’T have automatic flushing, you might have noticed that the last user has left you a nice little gift floating in the toilet or a bit of yellow fluid to splash back in the urinal.
The idea of flushing after use is foreign to the majority of people these days.
But thank godvermint almighty that we have assisted faucets to wash our hands. At least 10% of the time the automatic soap dispensers ACTUALLY dispense soap and afterwards you might even be lucky enough to find a faucet that will allow you to rinse the soap off of your hands.
How much longer will we be FORCED TO WAIT until automatic tampon dispensers/inserters are mandated?
Hi T,
Yup – but why not Toilet Paper Assist in homes, too? It’s much too much trouble to deal with this oneself… like putting a key in the ignition switch, for instance!
The bidet is the toilet assist every butthole needs. Makes you not dread taking a crap
Anal retention always comes to a messy end.
Bidets were invented for houses of prostitution where cleanliness is as important as in hospitals, for the same reason, infection control.
There were more Americans that hadn’t seen one until Crocodile Dundee has its funny scene than Aussies, they being a more recently civilized member of the commonwealth.
Just until hysterectomies become as mandatory after birth as they are in animal adoption centers.
All of that automatic flushing uses a lot more water than manual does. Most of them flush every time you bend over or lean forward, and again as you are leaving.
From Eric: Electric/automated cars are intended to play a major role in this “transition “.
Latest news: GM and LG have partnered to build a new battery plant for an “all-electric, zero emissions future”.
It might be more economic to out source their batteries to Musk’s Gigafactories.
No need to be concerned about economics/efficiency when the taxpayers have your back through bailouts. Mary Barra, GM’s CEO, is pulling in compensation of $21 million annually – one reason for unaffordable vehicles.
The less spent on bailouts means more to steal.
“People are deluded if they buy into the con that they’ll be meatsacking around at high speed, that speed limits will be raised – or even abolished – when we’re all nudged into automated electric cars.”
A majority of Americans are too stupid to be deluded. Read an article the other day that Chinese students are 4 grades ahead then American students in math,,, probably the rest as well… whatever the rest is today.
Check them out,,, at airports and many train / bus terminals they remove their shoes, they and their kiddies go through all the scanning and other insults that normally would be considered sexual assault. They buy devices they know will be used to monitor / track them, they drive EV’s thinking how smart they are and they’re saving the world while many like Greta just laugh at the fools. They send their kiddies to the indoctrination centers called schools where they learn anal sex, transgenderism, sodomy, common core maff, and where many schools have even stopped teaching cursive while they learn to worship badged thugs with big guns. Then Parent 1 or Parent 2 put stickers on their EV bumper that reads “My child is an A student” and other nonsense.
How in the hell can you expect the above described to act in a civilized, intelligent and logical manner?
These morons are going to be even more pliable than today’s bunch. EVs are just as worthless as most college degrees but like the college degrees they’ll fawn over the EVs buying them up on ten year loans like they do $1200 Iphones.
if you take out all the non whites in USA dragging down the averages US would not be so bad
Poorly educated whites do better than poorly educated coloreds?
SPQ,
What to do with the Asians who drive up the average?
Jeremy
What would be wrong with the usual tactic of competing with them?
They vastly outnumber us globally because they’ve figured out reproduction and have moved onto financial independence.
Hi Vonu,
I don’t think anything needs to be done with them. Also, in a free society, competition and cooperation are linked. I made the quip to point out that some “race realists” are inconsistent, which reveals an irrational bias, rather than a “realistic” assessment of differences. Excluding “non whites”, as SPQ seems to favor, would exclude high achieving Asians and Jews, lowering the “average” from what it could supposedly be. His goal is tribal, identical to his imagined goal of the Jews. Why is this a sin when embraced by Jews but a virtue when embraced by “whites”.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy,
With all due respect, free societies are just as imaginary as free markets and unicorns.
Competition and cooperation are all about American fascism, whereas I’d stand with Samuel Adams: “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”
Hi Vonu,
Free societies (and markets) are an ideal to be strived for; the fact that they haven’t existed in a state of perfection doesn’t mean one should give up on the ideal.
Eric,
A state of perfection requires an act of faith like belief in a deity or exercise of a constitutional right.
To paraphrase a well-known saying, strive for perfection with one hand and defecate in the other and find out which one fills up first.
Hi Vonu,
If one restricts the meaning of society to to an aggregate under some political authority then you are correct. However, free societies exist all around us, and are so pervasive that most cannot see them. Every voluntary exchange, conducted for mutual benefit, without appeal to an authority, occurs in a free society. Every human interaction, done without force or regulated by authority, occurs in a free society. Every discussion among friends about evening plans occurs in a free society. Every charitable organization, if free of government funding, exists in a free society. I do not engage with “society” in fear, nor believe that my interactions are safe due to external authority. I don’t know anyone who does (outside of aberrant areas).
The mere existence of the State precludes the possibility of a free society or free markets in a political sense. But, both exist and we swim in them everyday. Just because the Statist tyrants revile freedom does not preclude us from creating and participating in a free society, we do it all the time.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Give my regards to your unicorn:-)
Hi Vonu,
What the hell are you talking about? You’ve never interacted freely with others? You’ve never been part of a group that is not organized around external authority? You’ve never traded with others outside of the regulated market? Of course you have. To deny that such societies and markets exist is absurd. I’m pretty sure that you knew what I meant, not sure what your point is other than contrarianism.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Oh…and check out this AGW hut hut hut raw footage just released. Sure you saw it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=UqU0OtbxJlE&feature=emb_title
Gang tattoos: Check
Pavlovian response to violent training: Check
Pack mentality: Check
Cyborg programming kicking in: Check
No regard for any human life: Check
Man, he jumped out of the car and unloaded his mag on that boy.
Taxpayers paid 4.1 million for that and another shooting by the same thug. This is not right. The badged thug retired and moved out of state from what I read. The police claimed they found guns in the car but who knows where they came from. Here is the article.
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2019/12/02/ceres-pays-41-million-to-settle-two-fatal-shooting-lawsuits-involving-the-same-officer/
This stuff is bordering on being worse than the Nazis ‘allegedly’ did.
Over 200 rounds was allegedly fired by Miami police on a busy freeway which killed the hijacked UPS driver and a innocent bystander in his her car waiting for the light. It looked like a Bonnie and Clyde movie. They surrounded the vehicle and forced a shootout with a hostage inside. I don’t see why they could not have backed off and followed the van by helicopter. Law enforcement said the perps were shooting at other cars but I’ll bet they were shooting at the cops and missing,,, hitting other cars. There was no reason to escalate this in busy traffic.
Law enforcement today is definitely shoot first and ask questions later. I am sure they will all be found to be acting in accordance with cops policy.
https://patch.com/florida/miami/multiple-people-killed-police-shootout-busy-highway
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/outrage-over-police-using-bystanders-human-shields-florida-ups-truck-shootout
Are we approaching the point where it’s more survivable to just start shooting at an AGW the instant it shows any interest in you?
Hi JWK,
That point is coming – unfortunately. I dread this and wish we could avoid it. But – as Bomber Harris once said – sow the wind…
Only if you are a better shot than the AGW is, with the same backup coming.
Fun and hot cars are no longer to be enjoyed thanks to the insane Agenda 21, George Soros, and NWO politicians. You can’t even go to a cars and coffee without “the law” cracking down looking for any little “illegal” thing to write a ticket for. If he can’t find anything, they’re there to harass. But nothing changes. Nothing. In the end, when it all comes down and the boot is down crushing the neck, by then it is too late. The general population is too lazy and apathetic to realize the danger we are currently in. They would just rather dismiss it as “oh that’s crazy conspiracccccccy talk”. Yea, well….we’ll see.
How much more fun can you have than with a electric car that goes from 0 to 60 in under 5 seconds?
We don’t have to worry too much about self-driving cars as long as Sophia is the most state of the art they have. In California, they could make one with a fold down bed where one could take a nap in the traffic jam.
“What fun is it to drive a Corvette that you can’t legally drive any faster than a Corolla? ”
It’s just a status symbol. I think it’s similar to why people brag about how fast their car is (and don’t race them). There is almost nowhere to drive at that kind of speed but you can just ride around feeling superior.
You’ve never been to rural Wyoming and Nevada?
dbb, I couldn’t begin to tell you how many cops and DPS I’ve outrun. Situational awareness and a good memory of where roads are at all times, where they go and what roads they run into. If you take a road that’s eventually going to return you to the road you left, you’re screwed unless you have knowledge of specific things such as driveways that show nearly nothing but their end, a bridge you know you can pull under and be hidden, a farmer who leaves his barn door open, etc.
Hidden switches for brake and running lights(separately) are a must. Once you commit, never let the thought of giving up cross your mind.
I was running away from a city cop once and he was hot-dogging it, wanting the glory for himself so he didn’t tell anyone. I was going to use a street I didn’t really want to go fast on and he wasn’t able to see me turn. I had a green light but there was a station that had run water all over the intersection so when I turned the corner, right in front of another cop. I did a little wiggle(it would have been an out of control for other people)and drove on down the street at the PSL. The cop comes across the intersection and lights me up after a few blocks so I pulled onto a side street where the houses were really close to the street I was on. He pulls in behind and makes a statement about me taking that corner too fast. I pointed out I wasn’t going “that’ fast since I didn’t lose it in the water, the thing that me the car squirrel around. He said something like “Yeah, that water there is a bit dangerous”. I concurred and said it was a safety hazard for the driving public since you couldn’t see it till you were right up on it. We bs’s a couple minutes and he let me go. In the meantime, I’m sure the other cop came hauling ass through there trying to see me.
You’d be surprised too, how hard it is to see a car in the dark with only headlights. The car blocks the light of the headlights and with no running lights or brake lights you can get lost in the dark really quickly. The main thing is to make sure you have a car that has a huge amount of top speed on the car you’re running from. I got away once in the daylight by pulling off the interstate into an area that was full of businesses and a truck stop. I went behind the truck stop and pulled into the bay of a muffler shop that didn’t face the truck stop. I shot the shit with the guys a few minutes about getting new exhaust. When I cranked up to leave they had big grins on their faces. That engine had a very unique specially ground Lunati cam and it was easily knocked off by people who knew something. The El Camino once made the run from Sweetwater, Texas to Wills Point in 3 hours. I would pass somebody who thought I’d be a good front door and would find out they couldn’t keep up. Those were the good old days with a Cincinnati Microwave Escort and no instant-on radar. 6 glorious years without a speeding ticket.
“But now the object now appears to be to punish driving as such. In order to discourage driving as such. To make it so teeth-grindingly unpleasant – and impossibly expensive – to drive that people will give up driving in favor of government/corporate controlled collectivized driving schemes.”
That pretty much describes today’s degrading “airport experience,” which is a mandatory part of every commercial flight. Yet the passengers keep coming in droves. Will drivers keep driving?
True, there are few alternatives to flight if you want to cover a lot of distance fast. And if you’re willing to put up with a lot of abuse, it’s not all that expensive. To avoid the dehumanizing treatment, you have to fly first class which is almost prohibitively expensive for middle class Americans.
My point is that indirect inducement, no matter how disgusting or pricey, probably will nor get too many drivers out of their cars. It’s going to take an outright ban. That will happen soon enough. Stay tuned…or go pro-active.
Motorists need an organization like the NRA to help preserve our rights. One thing for sure….AAA will not do this job.
I think that once again Jefferson figured this out two hundred years ago.
http://factmyth.com/factoids/thomas-jefferson-called-for-rebellion-and-revolution/
We’re seeing the reaction of the state when we elect a former regular on the Howard Stern show, a former Playboy magazine cover man (one of ten in the history of the magazine, and during a rather subversive editorial period), and all-around stupid do nothing jerk, to the most useless office in the land. Can you imagine how long a revolution coming from the Midwest might turn out? For sure the big media would miss the story completely. This reaction is perfectly normal, because the moron in chief is cutting regulations, not adding them.
If the impeachment shit show actually produces something other than hilarious sound bites, I think we will see a real revolution, not the little bit of rebellion we have today.
I don’t think that it will produce squat either way. We are too fat, dumb and comfortable to get out of our seats.
Our medical system depends on patients like that. It is easy not to be like that unless you insist on being lazy as well.
There are millions of skilled game hunters in the United States. They might not have the unlimited ammo belts of Uncle, but they’re really good at keeping game herds in check.
The problem is the absence of herds in need of check due to poor management leading to overhunting.
“Motorists need an organization like the NRA to help preserve our rights. One thing for sure….AAA will not do this job.” Mike, I agree with the sentiment, but not with the details. We already have the National Motorists Association, dedicated to protecting the rights of drivers. On the firearm side, the NRA is always willing to sell out, so we don’t need another such organization. Much more to be relied upon are Gun Owners of America and Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership. Both are uncompromising.
Mike, big thumbs up in agreement!
The NRA has become a Republican Party front group and AAA loves Big Brother.
if it wasn’t for jews in the senate and house and their billions like Bloombergs we would not have such a big anti gun lobby. so I piss on jews for firearms. they only care for their tribe no one else
Ah, another “aryan” asshole crawls out from under his rock.
This is the way it is, honkie – you would have the exact same situation if there weren’t Jooooos in the Senate. There are plenty of good White Christians looking to disarm the American public in order to grow the power of centralized government as well as their own. There really are none who can outdo whitey when it comes to sheer greed, avarice, and the lust for power. You are worthy of nothing but derision and contempt.
I piss on you cowardly “aryan warriors”. You care only for your own tribe and no one else and seek to blame others for your own many foibles and failures.
(Errata: The phrase “You are worthy of nothing but derision and contempt” should have been at the end. It applies to “aryan warrior” maggots, not to Caucasians in general.)
Collectivist condemnation much? Are ALL U.S. citizens at fault for the crimes their government commits? There exists thousands or millions of Jews who oppose Zionism just like there are millions of people in the U.S. opposed to a wide range of things! I oppose Zionism and Statism very much, but I do not cast blame at entire populations for the evils that some among them do! I also look at the entire picture. I applaud JFPO even though most of them are probably Statists.
Brian, I don’t know but always felt like the JPFO wasn’t entirely statists or even mostly.
We have Zionist of all sorts these days(and have had for who knows how long).
15 years ago I got a good dose of being blamed for the endless egregious wars and conflicts caused by the US when I was in Mexico. People would hiss something behind my back. They wouldn’t confront me directly, chickenshits they are, but make remarks to equate me with shrubco. I could have debated them if they had any guts but they didn’t. I could point out all the things the Mexican govt. did to them they didn’t agree with but were powerless to affect.
I couldn’t believe how many of my old college friends bought whole hog into the lies. They weren’t hard to see if you cared to use the internet and not just watch the lying fools on mass media.
Blaming the general population for the over-reaches of the prevailing PTB could be done with every country. Too many gutless, mindless TeeVee watchers. I agree with everything you have said. BTW, I’ve been a JPFO watcher for 15 years. I feel they have exactly the same goals as the GOA and NAGR. I don’t include the NRA since they have written some of the worst legislation to come down the pike. They’re ready to throw any group to the control dogs for some of the most ridiculous trade-offs.
The makeup and the agenda are clearly delineated by the name of the organization, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, which never had an interest in any other methodology than education, which could be carried out very effectively by their publications. They have never had a lobbyist in their organization, which was started by two rabbis.
Those who have never read their books shouldn’t be respected for their ignorance.
JPFO uses its members as lobbyists. It’s as effective or maybe moreso, than having an organization sending an email in your name.
I was a member for years but after Aaron died, it just about died with him. But his wife revived it and lots of writers like Claire Wolf and L. Neil Smith among others. I suspect they do a great deal of good. I was glad to begin receiving their emails again.
They said the same thing I’ve said since 1980 when I dropped my NRA membership that the NRA would like to be the organization to “allow” you to have a gun and keep the records and control gun ownership.
The NRA has written some really egregious “law” as in the bs that was written by the Clintons in which the NRA wrote the “spray and pray” clause that made it a felony to have a firearm, working or not, in the same location as any illicit substance. And that’s not just the drugs most people think of as being illicit. There’s a huge list of substances that are on the list and probably it is updated as needed. No doubt if you had a some Thorium and some fool like a member of the ATF identified it, you’d be looking at that long felony for your old hand-me-down non-working shotgun your great grandfather had you inherited and hung on the wall.
So I’d say the JPFO is a great organization and you certainly don’t need to be a Jew to be an effective lobbyist.
Why would JPFO need lobbyists that they publically and routinely eschew since education is their sole mechanism?
Have you ever read any of their materials?
I had a couple of very pleasant telephone conversations with Aaron Zelman. He was always right up front about their having no interest in lobbying anyone in elective office. Sadly he died long before his time.
JPFO members lobby congress just like I do. You only need the crooked pols DC address.
The NRA has never had any problem traversing to any gun control scheme after its ILA has garnered enough contributions to bribe the politicians, but kept the money for cushy shooting ranges and lots of PR.
I was an annual member of the NRA until they threw themselves under the Columbine bus when they cancelled their convention in my then hometown, Denver (1999). I was planning to become a life member at that convention, so they saved me from wasting a lot of money supporting the controlled opposition.
True.
Equally true, too, of every other PACkaging. All of them.
Political peons, trained (not taught) from birth, & entrained from conception, to be crash test meat puppets & to punch so far above weight that star chambers are all they can see…is damn near all that can be seen, from sea to shining sea.
“They would not listen, they’re not listening still
Perhaps they never will.”
Links lynx hungry today…Vincent, Don McLean, goes here.
But…all this linearizing is just training, of the trainable, too.
God is in the straight lines, to the straightened & annealed people.
Irony. There ain’t no god\s & there ain’t no straight lines.
Trees don’t grow to the sky. Babbel Tower tumbles down, every time.
But the en-cargo’d cultists just keep staring up, projecting into the Rorschach up, up & away in their beautiful, terrible, balloons.
…whose names were never called when choosing sides for basketball… ♪
At Seventeen, Janis Ian, here…
…when after all it was you & me…”we”
Sympathy For The Devil, montage from Jericho Mile, here…
Tyson, age 13: there is a photo – look it up
Set aside the cray-cray fight club “oneness” reality.
Pretend the we•amese twins conjoined in e pluribus unum bodies are separate & separated entities.
What does it say about “tysons” that they’d glove up & en-ring with 98lb weaklings?
And what does it say about the vice versa weaklings, too?
One thing it don’t say is “linear.”
Barnes kills “his” own big tent schizoid ass, every time. Tho not by ballistic solution equation.
So, subjective as value is, it’s still objectively a waste of life to close the barndoor before – but after, too — burning begins & then sit there & wait on the cremation. Betcha those self-immolating zen monks *still* take some credit, tho, as do some of those war protester demonstrators.
Would it were that simple:
despite ya’ can’t rollerskate in the buffalo herd, you can be happy if you’ve a mind to, Roger Miller, here…
The NRA lost me in 80 when they told their members they MUST vote for Ronnie. Yeah, the same Ronnie who went off the deep end for gun control because he was scared of black people with guns. Of course that bill metastasized it’s way to every other state via the Fed.
Ronnie’s “aw shucks” bullshit never impressed me.
I have been a member of the National Motorists Association for 33 years. I joined the moment I was able. In late July, 1986, my dad forwarded me a direct mail letter from them to join. They used to publish a pretty kick ass newsletter. It still is pretty badass. I was termed a “stalwart” by the organization’s founder, James Baxter. They have managed to stay around for almost 40 years now. I hope that more people join. They were the biggest player in getting rid of the 55 mph national speed limit. By far. That’s why I’m still a member and activist.
http://www.motorists.org
What, no associate advertising to pay for your membership, which is $42 a year, which is $42 more than I’ve paid in traffic fine in the last 45 years? This is easy to do if one merely obeys the laws, assuming they aren’t the scofflaws that their high insurance rate indicates.
I only paid $312 for insurance this year, up from $296 last year, mostly because of aggressive drivers who cause accidents that their insurance company will raise their premium because of claims on. I haven’t had an accident, regardless of blame, since the 1970’s, but my premium keeps going up because of crappy drivers with comprehensive coverage and inflation. After a slot of sub-prime auto loans fail, the reduction in demand will lower premiums for those who don’t have accidents. The free market will always win, regardless of thieves in the system.