I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone here best wishes for Thanksgiving – and to convey to everyone here how thankful I am to have this forum and to have gotten to know many of you from our back-and-forths here on site. Some of you I have met in person and a number of you have become friends. I have become even more thankful for that over the course of the past almost-three-years now.
We all probably are.
Many of us found out, harshly, who our friends are – and are not. This cut deeply. But the pain was worth it, just the same as that associated with removing a bad tooth. Far better than leaving it in your jaw to fester.
I am thankful more people are awakening – not just to the evils of the past almost three years but to the evil underlying it. “COVID” would never have become what it became in a society that deeply respected facts. That respected the individual. There are thousands of such individuals gathered here – and if what they respect gathers strength and numbers, the evil tide will find it has come upon a granite breakwater. The daily gathering here has convinced me this can be built; indeed, that it is being built.
They have tried to atomize us and alienate us from one another. And they have succeeded. But they have also failed in a way that may and hopefully will be their undoing. More people than ever see – and understand. As that understanding grows, it hardens into resolve.
It is no longer about this – or that – affront. It is about implacable opposition to the affront. It has been defined many ways, by many people. It can perhaps best be summarized as not-leaving-people-be. Libertarians often express this as the non-aggression principle. However put, it means the same. If someone else hasn’t harmed you then you have no right to harm them. Indeed, you have an obligation to leave them be. Else they are under no obligation to leave you be.
This idea was the true basis of America’s founding, expressed by Jefferson as the pursuit of happiness. Which cannot come at someone else’s expense since everyone has the same and equal right to the pursuit of their happiness. Jefferson may not have lived entirely in accordance with his own idea, but a sound idea is not invalidated by the imperfection of its expositor.
The point is, America – however imperfectly – was uniquely founded upon the unprecedented recognition that the individual has rights that are not conferred upon him as privileges by the state. That these rights are inalienable – which means they cannot be taken away, even when the law attempts to do just exactly that. We know, in such a case, that the law is wrong. That no law supersedes a right. Indeed, that resistance to such despicable laws is an obligation.
I am thankful to all of you for affirming that I am not alone in holding onto this idea. In helping me to propagate it. That we can still speak. That resistance isn’t futile, for resisting evil is never futile.
It is essential.
Best wishes – again – to everyone. I hope all of you enjoy a day of Thanksgiving, in the company of friends and family.
With much appreciation,
-Eric
Hi Eric, et al,
A late response but next time I visit my brother in Richmond, I plan to stop by and buy you a beer or ten, whilst leaving a bit of clinking coin. You have proven a lucid and articulate champion of individual liberty in your writings and I have been reading your content and related comments in the relevant section for a long time. Lots of interesting characters in this community and that’s something worthy of giving thanks. Best of wishes in the coming months….
Thanks for your site and writing, Eric.
Curious if you would consider a topic/forum on your site for those of us that wouldn’t mind meeting the like minded people in our local area/region. It’s nice to converse with people no matter where they are, but it’s better to meet people of like mind around you, face to face with a handshake.
Just a thought.
Hi Ancap,
Thanks! And – yes – it is something I hope to be able to do when funds permit (it will cost a couple hundred to add this feature). But hopefully… soon!
I’m sending $200 pronto.
I’m thankful for all of you and your site!
Thank you For this great site Eric. Yours is the first article I read each day. Then the comments!
RS,
Eric’s is the last site I visit, since I usually get up between four and five AM, and he often hasn’t yet published.
Happy Thanksgiving Eric
Thanks for the space for conservative/libertarian discussion and for ice car lovers.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and I am grateful I do not live in the Zelensky run Ukraine shithole with Russian cruise missiles buzzing overhead taking out the electrical grid.
I bet no electric car is driving in the darkened Ukraine failed state tonight.
Imagine a pop art scene of a fearful man in an electric car trying to flee the Ukraine war zone when the lights went out.
The caption says, “I wish I kept my gasoline engine car”.
The message is clear, you too should keep your ICE car when you have the Biden thing in charge. Be sure to have a full tank of gas, a plan, a bugout bag, a place to flee to, like off the grid and away from restless hoardes. In fact you should live off the grid at your safe house and give up on civilization.
—————
A respected military commander, now pundit, says Russia has built up a 700,000 man force and will invade and level Ukraine as soon as the ground freezes in Ukraine.
https://thesaker.is/november-22nd-ukraine-is-about-to-be-annihilated-douglas-macgregor/
I fully agree with his prognosis, how can Russia allow Zelensky run Ukraine to exist, when it is shelling nuclear power plants.
This will be Biden’s second major military loss – right when the new Congress is sworn in.
The Biden thing needs to removed from office ASAP.
Morning, Jack!
This Ukraine (Keeeeeeeeev!) business is like a Sword of Damocles, hanging over the head of civilization. Well, of what’s left of Western civilization. I suspect the creeps-in-charge will not allow the loss-embarrassment you describe, for it is deeper than just that. Keeeeeeeeeve! is the epicenter of the current world disease. Putin is determined to not let it infect Russia – and good on him for that. I think he wanted only to neutralize Keeeeeeeevv! and re-establish what had been the status quo, more or less, prior to the installation of that Soros-puppet Zelensky. He did not seek to destroy Ukraine or occupy the entire area. He was very judicious, initially, in the use of force. That has failed. The spreaders of the World Disease cannot abide this failure; or rather, this Russian success. I dread what they may do next. I suspect they are willing to burn the world to a cinder rather than lose face – much less power.
Yukon Jack, Colonel Macgregor also stated that Ukraine has lost 100,000 fighting men. 8,000,000 Ukrainians have been uprooted and have fled the conflict.
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was born in Ukraine in Kalinovka, right about in the middle of the country, Putin is not going to let Ukraine be an independent state. Khrushchev died in 1971 on September 11th, interestingly enough.
It is a 44 minute interview, the analysis is spot on, Russia is probably going to invade.
Better to listen to the interview.
Zelensky is like the legless and armless black knight in Monty Python’s In Search of The Holy Grail.
Happy Thanksgiving Eric, and everyone here. It is truly a pleasure.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
-Edmund Burke
Eric: Thanks for doing good…
A very happy thanksgiving to you and yours Eric! Those of us who have survived the last almost three years have much to be thankful for. May our God watch over us all this winter and beyond.
Hi, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving this year and gets to spend it with family.
Greets from Scotland. Hope you all had a good day. Although we don’t celebrate here I did have my daughters at home today and I had a burger(vegan) and fries for din dins as a nod to my native country.
All the best for the future to all the people here.
Avery Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours Eric! Appreciate and thankful for your erudite and often humorous takes of the current state of auto and political affairs.
Thank you for all of your efforts, they are much appreciated
Thanks for hosting this “speakfreely,” Eric.
Cozy little place, indeed. 🙂
Thank you Eric for your infinite wisdom and everyone else that posts here. I have copied and pasted hundreds of many posts from readers here into a word doc that I can refer to when I need a comeback to someones ignorance. Sometimes it’s hard for me to put my thoughts into words and you all make it easier. Eric, you really have a way with words, quite articulate, you’re the first thing I read every morning!
Again, thank you everyone and Happy Thanksgiving.
I also mine the gold that is found here. Thanks all.
All well said, and much gratitude back to you, Mr. Peters! Happy Thanksgiving as well!
One of these days, I do hope to be down your way, and hopefully we can shoot the bull over a pint or something, huh?
I look at EPAutos as a place where lone wolves gather; not in a terroristic sense, of course, but in a powerful ideological sense. Your audience, Eric, is self-evidently elite in many ways, if I can say so while retaining any humility.
As I’ve often said, this must be a fashionable site. It’s drawn the finest people!
Happy Thanksgiving to the EP Autos community. Thank you, Eric. Thank you, all who post here, for being an island of sanity and intelligence. Best wishes to all, as we enter the holiday season.
Happy Thanksgiving, Eric. I’m grateful for your articles and wisdom. My browser always has an EPAutos tab open. I feel a kinship with you and I always learn something new from your posts, not to mention adding to my vocabulary as you are an awesome wordsmith. I’m blessed and your articles are one of my blessings. Thank you and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
James,
And if you don’t always learn something new, you probably learn a different way to think about what you already know
James,
“..Adding to my vocabulary as you are an awesome wordsmith”:
Isn’t that the truth? I learn a new word nearly every day!
Awww Eric, thank you so much for your site and your hard work posting well thought out articles every day. I have learned so much from reading/coming to your site. I also enjoy all the commenters, so many different viewpoints that gives one a different perspective on topics.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and all of your loved ones.
Thank you, too, Eric.
Happy Thanksgiving Eric!
Many people make a parting comment of “stay safe” to which I respond; “stay free”.
Hi Hans,
My impulse when people exhort me to “stay safe” (a recent and obviously conditioned social banality) is to say “Fuck off”. But, my inherent civility kicks in and I merely nod and stay silent. I will start using your response, it is cordial and well within the bounds of civility but also implies a subtle rebuke.
Bravo, Jeremy
Hope you and your lady have a great thanksgiving Eric. You were one of a few on the free range side of the digital fence who called it right from the start, standing against this dystopian medical tyranny. With all the dark clouds that are gathering, you fight the good fight, and seem to find the occasional silver lining. I for one appreciate it. Keep up the good work.
Eric,
I don’t post often, however I can’t express enough my gratitude for you and your site! It is an island of sanity (a growing island) in a sea of apathy and outright hostility to the ideas of liberty and freedom.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and others who frequent this website!
Steve
Happy Thanksgiving to you Eric!
I am especially thankful for this site and the posters here; an island of sanity and common sense amid a sea of hysteria.
Eric, I’m unable to express my thankfulness for you here. Words will not suffice.
“Jefferson may not have lived entirely in accordance with his own idea”
Who does? Do we not all, at least the sane, aspire to be more and better than we are? Do we all at times not fail to achieve it? It makes perfect sense to pursue that which we have not accomplished. What moral, ethical person does not reach for more than they can grasp?
Thank YOU Eric! Your site and efforts are what we need, and I(we) are very thankful for you. It takes guts to do what you are doing.
This year, I am thankful that my kids didn’t get the shot, stayed strong and battled through it. It was close, because of how hard their schools/peers pushed them, and what they ‘made’ them do to make them feel like leapers. A year+ ago they started saying “it just not worth it dad”. “I’m just going to do it”.
It was a constant effort for a long time.
But as you mentioned, they were associating and dis-associating with peers because of the extreme pushing/demanding. I think they started to see the pushing as extreme and most likely it raised their spidy sense. And they are better for it as you said.
Others in my town are now questioning ‘why are we seeing mid-life men dieing so much?’.
Thank YOU Eric.
Happy Thanksgiving
Knowing you’re not alone gives us all hope, we have brothers in arms, and that is something for which to be thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving Eric! It’s nice to see there are people out there who haven’t lost sanity during the past almost 3 years of COVID INSANITY.
Thomas Jefferson had another saying that is definitely applicable to the times we’re living in now…”If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.”
Happy Thanksgiving Eric! Your site has been a great benefit in my life. It’s helped me better understand and articulate issues and ideas that have become very important these days.
So many thanks and hope you’re doing well as can be under these circumstances.