I get asked sometimes how I became consciously libertarian. More accurately, how I became a conscious anarchist in that I like the idea of rules agreed to (or not) by mutual consent but am very much opposed to government force, which is regularly exercised against people who’ve caused no harm by those who lust to control.
Two things come to mind.
The first was my arrest – when I was a sophomore in college – for growing pot plants. This was framed as “felonious manufacture of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.” I asked myself how it could be “felonious” to grow pot plants – even if I “intended” to “distribute.” Starbucks “distributes” coffee – which contains the drug caffeine. But this is not felonious. Neither is the “distribution” of the drug called alcohol. Well, provided the “distributor” pays the government for permission – and then pays the government the extortion called “taxes” on each sale.
I wondered at the arbitrariness and incongruity of it.
I also chafed at the stupid, malicious insinuation that my growing pot plants caused harm to others. That it was not legally necessary to produce someone – anyone – who’d been harmed in any way by my growing pot plants. That the only thing that mattered was “the law” – which meant what mattered was that I had affronted the authority of the government
This is the most serious crime one can commit whenever there is government. It is why, in many a “criminal” case, it is not Joe Smith vs. John Doe. It is Joe Smith vs. the United States (or the state of Virginia, etc.). As if the state can be a “victim” of anything – other than having its authority affronted. 
Those were the thoughts I rolled around in my head while I was in a jail cell – and while I was waiting for my court date. The day finally came and – lucky for me – the charges were reduced to a misdemeanor – “possession” of a “controlled substance.” I got fined and had to do a few hours of “community service” and that was that.
But for millions of others, it was a great deal more than that.
I was a middle-class white college kid; the kind of person the courts back then tended to go easy on. What if I’d been a poor black kid or a working class white kid from a trailer park? There would have been, probably, a much greater likelihood of a felony conviction – and months if not years in jail. After which a lifetime of stigma as a “felon,” who could not legally own a gun and who would have a much harder time getting other than a menial job, because most employers won’t take a chance on a “felon.”
Over growing pot plants. With “intent” to “distribute.”
This changed me forever. Or rather, it changed my outlook vis-a-vis the state and the harms it inflicts upon people who’ve not caused any. I saw how the principle applied, generally. As for example the way people who aren’t “drunk” nor have given any cause to suspect they might be whose right to be left in peace to go about their business is violated by subjecting them to random dragnets that force every driver to interrupt his travel and obsequiously produce ID and submit to an inspection of himself and his vehicle by an armed government worker, who will allow them to continue on provided they are sufficiently obsequious.
Disgusting. 
And that scaled to encompass people whose only “crime” is they wish to board a commercial airliner. And that is scaling to encompass people who say “hateful” things about objective reality.
It gets worse and worse – because worse is always inevitable when it comes to government for the same reason that weeds will displace flowers if allowed to.
Another thing that aroused my contempt for the government and its rules was the destruction – by the rules – of my favorite car company, Pontiac. The latter was once one of GM’s most successful divisions because it was a car company. Though part of the GM family, it once had its own engineering department that engineered Pontiac engines that went into Pontiac cars; these Pontiac engines made a Pontiac something more than a restyled Chevy. Just as – once – an Oldsmobile was something other than a Pontiac. Or a Chevy.
What happened?
The government’s rules made it difficult and expensive to “certify” different, brand-specific engines for sale each being different and so each having to be “certified” separately.
So GM eliminated the former engineering departments of Pontiac (and Oldsmobile) and put “corporate” Chevy engines into what became badge-engineered brands. The term refers to cars that are not engineered but, rather, marketed.
But once a “Pontiac” had become nothing more than a restyled Chevy sold under the Pontiac brand, there was much less reason to keep the Pontiac brand around. 
And that’s why it’s gone. So also Oldsmobile. And Plymouth and Mercury.
It is also why it is likely there will be even fewer brands in the years ahead, because there’s no reason to keep most of them around, either. Because the government’s rules are winnowing everything down to one battery-powered “choice.”
Government sucks the life out of life.
It eventually, inevitably, makes life itself impossible by making it impossible for life to flourish. Life requires freedom. To seek alternatives to things. To try new things. To engage in free interaction with others, to figure out what works best for each individual – as opposed to the small-minded limitations of one-size-fits all.
Government apologists characterize this as “anarchy” – and hope you’ll equate that with chaos. But the two are as unrelated as mRNA drugs and vaccines that immunize. Witness the chaos all around us – and note the correlation. Has there ever been more government -and more chaos – than there is now?
Rules establish good order. Government is not necessary to establish rules.
It is necessary to establish the rule of one-size-fits all.
. . .
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[…] Guest Post by Eric Peters […]
Surprised nobody mentioned, ‘Gilligan’s Island’.
‘Gilligan – How to be President’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vukIrceLvg
‘And that scaled to encompass people whose only “crime” is they wish to board a commercial airliner.’ — eric
This week I flew the unfriendly skies for the first time since before the pandemic. Of course, the TSA had digital face scanners deployed at every post. And of course, I politely opted out.
‘I don’t let them take my photo either,’ remarked the TSA guard, totally unoffended by my refusal. (Is she a secret admirer of Ed Snowden?)
Then, as gray plastic tubs with shoes, belts and backpacks went through the scanner, another TSA guard unaccountably waved a dozen people in line (including your humble correspondent) past the ‘hands in the air’ body scanner.
We could have been carrying guns or knives concealed in our clothing. But no one protested. All felt they had been excused from an unpleasant and humiliating procedure.
Inscrutable are the whims of the ‘authorities.’ We’s jus’ field hands on they national security state plantation, steppin’ and fetchin’ lak nobody’s bizness. Yassuh, it gits old …
Hi Eric,
Quote:
“That the only thing that mattered was “the law” – which meant what mattered was that I had affronted the authority of the government”
I see many cases of this. I also see poeple who kill drug criminals get bigger sentences than serial killers who kill random poeple.
The main problem is Narcisism and lack of bravery. Narcisists never ask themselves that question. Covards that want “order” and “stability” as well.
Poeples brains are just different. And covards and narcissists shouldn’t be in the same country as free men. Thats why separatism is a great thing.
This article segue’s well with yesterday’s Reason to Drink, from the Modern Drunkard:
“On this day in 1938, Bugs Bunny made his debut. You know, I always liked Bugs. He seemed like somebody you could have a drink with. In fact, I seem to remember a few of the cartoons with Bugs waking up with a hangover. I liked the self-sufficient anarcho-individualistic lifestyle he promoted, as opposed to the cartoons my kids watch, whose main ideas seems to be: You Can’t Do Anything Without Help, and Serve the Hive.”
https://drunkard.com/april-29/
And it’s true. So many shows today tout “Stronger Together!”, which not only is a tenet of communism, it is the central definition of fascism.
My path began at Shiloh Battlefield in the summer of 1981; 119 years after the battle. My grandmother took me there and we toured the battlefield. We came to the Confederate burial trench which is located in an out of the way spot. When you drive into the park you go through a massive cemetary under the union flag with neatly manicured individual graves.
With childish innocence I asked Grandma why the Confederates were here in a trench and the yankees were up there in the nice graveyard. I asked where the Confederate Flag was. She explained it to me that our ancestors lost the war. She told me that the victors write the history. She taught me to question everything. Thank you Grandma Mina!
‘Following a ruling of the State Supreme Court, the Commonwealth of Virginia approved the removal of Robert E Lee’s statue in Richmond. It was taken down on September 8, 2021, then sent to storage.’
Given that it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, this was a patently illegal desecration.
Never forgive. Never forget.
Just more Demonrats re-writing history in an attempt to hide their own criminal past. They replaced Lee with some minority woke aberration to appease the BLM rioters.
I find myself moving closer and closer to becoming a pure libertarian every day, though I can trace the my general leanings to one event in my childhood.
On November 27, 1974, my mom dad and I were headed up to Vermont on a ski trip. That very cold night, my dad was pulled over by a cop for traveling 72 in a 55 mph zone. He took dad’s license and registration and came back after what seemed like an eternity with a warning slip in his hand. My dad was warned for traveling 60 mph in a 55 mph zone. My dad was relieved, but I was pissed. He got a ticket for traveling 5 mph over the speed limit and the speed limit had been 65 mph on that section of road in Massachusetts a year earlier. I was still angry by the time we got to the hotel later that night. My dad explained that it wasn’t the cops fault, it was the 55 mph speed limit. I bought about half of what he was saying. The cop was to blame for issuing the ticket, but the 55 mph limit had to go. It became my purpose to get rid of the 55 mph limit somehow. Well, I couldn’t do it alone, but it had to get done somehow.
That attitude eventually extended to other laws that governments were passing such as seat belts, drinking and driving, and other ridiculous traffic measures.
Later, I became a believer in free markets as I understood how they worked. Such belief quickly changed my positions on things like the Gulf War of 1990, knowing that we would be able to get the oil no matter what. Saddam H had to sell oil regardless. The world didn’t need the US to be meddling with the Mid East.
By 1992, I cast my vote for the libertarian presidential candidate.
It has only been in the last 7 or so years that I have decided that debating issues on the left’s terms is a corossive idea. No matter how right you are, no matter what supposed benefits that we have had under say environmental regulation, a deeper look will reveal that these laws have nothing to do with environmental health. Same applies to auto safety.
We ascribe way too much benefit of the doubt to the EPA and the NHTSA. None of their regulations has resulted in a materially safer world or a better quality of life, while they are stripping and denuding us of our rights and freedom.
I have decided to work against any intitavive that involved government action except for one: free trade.
You can’t trade freely with people who’s labor is otherwise coerced. You have to operate on a similar playing field. It takes generations if not longer to undo a country like china. It’s better not to do business at all.
Quote:
You can’t trade freely with people who’s labor is otherwise coerced. You have to operate on a similar playing field. It takes generations if not longer to undo a country like china. It’s better not to do business at all.
This is what I agree as well. How can it be free market when everyome in the chain isnt free
The whole point of free market is for powerful poeple to feel consequences of their actions. Not outsource labor to some semi slave state.
Closed borders would bring prosperity and automatization instead of artifical scarcity and mass migration.
The most dangerous thing you can do with Marijuana? Get caught with it.
Grow some for your own consumption. Sometime ago when the de-criminaluzation, later legalization of Marijuana was debated, one of the objections raised was that since, unlike tobacco, growing Marijuana plants, curing the leaves , and having a decent homegrown smoke wasn’t too difficult for amateur gardeners, so it was quite possible for regular “tokers” to avoid paying EXCISE TAXES. Likewise law enforcement agencies objected, actually admitting that if Marijuana were legalized, it’d eliminate the unassailable assertions of reasonable suspicion (“I smell weed”, or the drug dog “alerted” to it) that they used to justify arrests.
I really can’t say exactly when and where I subscribed to libertarianism, but if I had to peg down an exact incident, it was in a course I had as an undergraduate in college called “Logic and Rhetoric” taught by a professor who was a libertarian.
We read the works of Karl Marx and dissected them to find various logical inconsistencies and fallacies. Among them was the idea that the solution to power imbalances between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat was to concentrate both political power and economic power in the state. Under Marxism, the state not only has the political power that comes from governments having the power of law and the power of police and military force, but also the power that comes from the ownership of the means of production.
Power is a dangerous thing: Concentrated power is even more dangerous.
I doubt you’d find a course like that on any campus today—and this was in 1993, not 1953!
Thats why I care more about decentralization than property rights. Free market needs decentralization to work.
“Government sucks the life out of life.”
LOL!! So true. Government is the antithesis to life. The farther you get away from government, the closer you get to real life.
But then how would private landowners be any different? History has shown it’s lead to clan warfare.
Gil,
Libertarians (and anarchists) do not offer utopia, though critics of libertarians and anarchists often use that argument against libertarians and anarchists. No society of human beings will ever be free of problems because human beings are themselves not free of the character and other defects that lead to such problems. What libertarians do offer is fewer legalized problems; less institutional corruption. And more honesty. In a libertarian society, those who take what isn’t theirs are thieves – not “public servants.” Property is owned by individuals, not the people who control the government and pretend that the property they control is “owned” by “the public” – and so on.
Isn’t that akin to “if I get beaten up a thug at least he was honest about it and never claimed any special authority or that he was doing it for my good” then?
Gil,
The distinction is the thug doesn’t get to pretend he’s not a thug. And that our right to defend ourselves is not in dispute. Government euphmizes thuggery – and makes it a “crime” to defend oneself against it.
The thug does not generally pretend to be my friend. It is almost easier to have more respect for him than the government. If I shoot the thug in self defense I have a chance of going free because I defended myself. Hell, I do that against the government they will just shoot me because I had the balls to stand up against them and defend myself.
Eric, you said something very important, that freedom doesn’t offer Utopia.
The leftists sell us collectivist Utopia. They compare their idealized version to modern day, corrupt capitalism.
The right sells us authoritarian Utopia. It’s not so different from collectivist, in that it’s authoritarian, but they wrap it in some “free market” lies that make it seem like people are free, but it’s run in a way to benefit the politically connected.
The libertarian ideal is a free society, as much as possible, where there is no institutionalized status quo, but rather, competition of some form.
We know this from history:
– Implementation of collectivism, which is always done by flawed humans, has led to hundreds of millions dead by poverty or murder.
– Implementation of right wing capitalism, has enabled enormous prosperity, but at the cost of being able to fund an incredibly oppressive military empire, due to the wealth generated. The problem isn’t the capitalism part, it’s the authoritarianism part.
Beware the politician that promises Utopia…he’s LYING. At least if he realizes that he’s lying, you can deal with him. It’s those that genuinely believe their own bullshit that are the most dangerous, because they’re irrational and quite often deranged.
Also, what the Hell does this mean?:
“Today, a Federal Order requiring testing for and reporting of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in livestock goes into effect under the Animal Health Protection Act.” …
https://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/daily-prayer-briefing?utm_source=daily_briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_briefing&utm_content=daily_briefing
…Stasi/Nazi knockin’ at your backdoor? “Papers, Please.”?
I grew up in the mid 70s and 80s. If that wasn’t enough to get you to lean libertarian I don’t know what would.
Growing up we had Mad Magazine. Mad was always making fun of authority figures. I learned who Spiro Agnew was because of a Mad “salute” to him in the late 1970s. I remember Watergate, but only because it interrupted Mr Rodgers’ Neighborhood. Then there was M*A*S*H. No, not the film, too racy for a young’un, but the TV series was on seven times a day thanks to the way the syndication deal worked. The early days when some stuffed shirt general would come in barking orders and the boys would knock him down a peg… that had a real influence on me. As did the old Bugs Bunny cartoons, a whole other genre of sticking it to the man. I never found the true “liberal” entertainers very interesting -Norman Lear was boring and predictable even for a 10 year old and the jokes just weren’t remotely funny.
Then later on in the 1980s I found dad’s Playboys, and started reading some of the editorials and interviews. Back then it was all about opposing the Reagan cabinet and the old southern Republicans, mostly to save Hefner’s money train, but what the hell did I know? Hef spoke of God given freedom to say and do whatever you wanted (I guess that included exploiting young girls), consume what you wanted and live how you wanted. Kind of hard for him to complain about being stifled while sitting in his massive Hollywood mansion, but again, at least someone other than Frank Zappa was standing up to Jesse Helms.
By the time of Clinton, I was pretty much ready for Libertarian thought. Watching the events of Waco live sealed the deal. After that and Kosovo, the unresolved questions over OK City and of course 9/11 I was pretty much soured to mainstream media. Luckily about then I found Ron Paul and here we are.
‘later on in the 1980s I found dad’s Playboys, and started reading some of the editorials and interviews.’ — ReadyKilowatt
I too read those magazines purely for their intellectually stimulating content. 🙂
Ah, yes. Rush Limbaugh. I remember listening to him on the A.M. dial in the 1990’s. IF ONLY he & his audience believed half of what was said.
Anyway, I wonder what you guys think of this interview:
‘Insane vs Sane – Demonic vs Divine – Catherine Austin Fitts’
https://usawatchdog.com/insane-vs-sane-demonic-vs-divine-catherine-austin-fitts/
She talks some good stuff about hooking up with your local farmer, then she talks about, The Last Line of Defense is your local sheriff, and I am reminded of the many articles the late Will Grigg would write about how sheriff’s are joined to the hip with The Feds in their asset forfeiture schemes, etc.
…Does that mean we’re all fucked?
Rush Limbaugh.
My dad was an AM radio guy, so got to hear plenty of Rush. It opened my eyes that there were other opinions than the network news out there (we didn’t have cable).
Joined the Navy after high school and got to see first hand what a waste of time, money, and materials the government really is.
Decided I wanted to understand more about colonial America, which led to economics, law, and political theory. Read whatever I could find on the subject. Inevitably led to St George Tucker, Calhoun, Locke, Spooner, Paine, etc.
Learned that what we have is not at all what was supposed to be. It’s not even legit. It doesn’t follow the rules. Almost all the power exercised is usurped. Everything we are taught growing up is a lie.
If this is the best system of government ever devised, it’s not for me.
Limbaugh was great until he wasn’t. Too easily swayed by the Bush/Clinton duopoly. I remember having all the AM presets programmed so I could follow his signal around when I was driving. Then when I was able, listening at the Corner Room in State College when I was in town.
I became pissed at Limbaugh when he was invited to the whitehouse in 1992. He also spewed standard media bullshit narratives about Pat Buchanan being racist and anti semetic. Garbage. That was early on. He was nothing more than amusing afterwards. He onlyngotnbetter B after 16. His main contribution was presenting a non mainstrèam view. Ill give him that.
I took a very different path from you all.
I grew up under full communism in a rural area of the Eastern Bloc. All my childhood, I was hearing about the heroes, the workers, about the worker’s unions and how success comes from people working together collectively. This is how families work, but it doesn’t scale outside of the family, because there’s nothing which ties random strangers together like blood does. My childhood is filled with memories of being told that capitalists are destroying nature, or that people in capitalist countries are more poor than we, because a coke costs a week’s wages for us (they conveniently didn’t tell us westerners make 100x as much). It was a lifetime of propaganda, and my family was lucky, because we could grow our own food. Having a full belly was the best one could hope for, and something not available to half the country.
Once I got a little bit older, my grandfather and my father helped me to see communism for the lie that it is. Marx waxed poetic about society arising from the proletariat, how a society based on their influence would be ideal, but this utopian ideal wasn’t what communism implemented. No, communism was authoritarianism which put the leaders into their own category of “haves”, while the rest of us “have nots” suffered and remained poor because the tiny trickle of economic output we had due to central planning wasn’t enough for everyone’s needs.
We managed to defect to the US after escaping, and arriving here in the early 1980’s, my mind was totally blown. There was so much color, and music and wonderful chaos of people doing what they want. The stores were full, an immigrant could live far better in their first month, having started from nothing, than after a lifetime of working under communism. It was hard to find a first job, and coming to a place where you don’t know the culture or the language was difficult, but people were willing to let my parents, and me, work under the table (because it takes months to get work permits). This experience made me an avid anti-communist, anti-leftist, but I didn’t know enough yet about why these two systems are so different. I learned English by reading tabloids, and the NY Times and NY Post, which I grabbed when I worked at a news stand. I was starting to lean Republican, but I liked neither party because they were too much pro-war. (I started voting for Bill Clinton’s first election. I’ll admit that I voted for Clinton. Then, he bombed the Balkans, and I did not vote again until 2008 for Ron Paul in the primaries and as a write-in, and I’ve not voted for president since).
Sometime around the late 90’s, a friend introduced me to Milton Friedman’s writings and “Free to Choose” videos, which made sense to me, but as I read more, I discovered the Austrians and von Mises and Rothbard. An so, I fell down the ancap rabbit hole, too deep to ever leave.
Today, I realize one can’t pontificate on the internet and expect things to change. So, I’ve run for school board, for the local board of supervisors, and I’ve been on a couple of local citizen’s oversight committees. It’s a thankless task and local government is so petty and corrupt that it’s ridiculous, but we’ve got to start somewhere.
There was a guy from then-Communist Russia (as well) who came over to Alaska, and saw the produce in the grocery store. He had to sit down and cry, all the while exclaiming, “they lied to me”. Sadly, he had believed the lies the Communist told him about Capitalism, and had grown up to believe the Marxist crap. Only when he saw for himself, did he realize how wrong his whole belief system had been.
Interesting. In Poland, where I am from, almost nobody believed this stuff in private, but in public, you had to, or you’d never be heard from again. There were a bunch of people who joined the party because it was a good career move, and others like my father, who uprooted his whole family rather than be forced to join and spy on people, even though our quality of life would have improved, because we’d be allowed to use the party member stores that were off limits to the average person. There goes that whole power of the proletariat thing…
Thank you for telling your story opposite lock. I have distant relatives who live in Poland. In the 90s they came to visit my extended family in Pittsburgh. Mother and daughter about 30 named Bozena. She was lovely and my grandmother sent photos. She wore a maroon pants suit in every picture. My grandmother told me she and her mother scraped by in a small apartment and Bozena was a piano teacher. She only had the one outfit for the visit which she washed each night.
Amen brother. When you do stand for election, and stand against local corruption and illicit power, you are doing God’s work. The only downside I have found is that once you are in, you become afraid to leave for fear of what will immediately fill the vacuum when a good guy steps down.
I always see a lot of influences from Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, Ludwig von Mises, Lysander Spooner etc. in more recent libertarian circles.
I didn’t begin this way.
I’ve always had a healthy disdain for authority, and government has always sickened me with its deleterious radiations. To seek similar thought patterns, I visited the local library, but didn’t end up reading Mises or Rothbard.
No, I began with such iconoclastic luminaries as Mikhail Bakunin, Pyotr Kropotkin, Emma Goldman and Errico Malatesta. Anarchism was my first love as a political philosophy. I didn’t divide that into “right” and “left”. To me, anarchism was anarchism. It was only towards the end of the 2000s that it began to be divided into “anarcho-communism” and “anarch-capitalism”. Towards that end, I would be closest to “AnCap”.
Then there was Ron Paul, who gave so many of us hope and brought me into the modern era.
Now, here I am, making a stand for personal autonomy with my wife and dog in the rural forest. A commoner with his own lands. Attempting to build my own little planet, away from the tentacles of the governmental Cthulhu.
I still have no hankering to read the works of economists, libertarian or not. I seem to gravitate toward the works of trouble-makers, and so here I am…
One indeed doesn’t need to read anything to understand Libertarianism. The penchant for liberty is innate. It is just that it has been driven out of many, or they simply trade it for trinkets and shiny things, or the call of liberty was never very strong in them to begin with and so they simply don’t realize that they are not free.
But for anyone with a penchant for liberty, it is quite clear and simple. Just like one doesn’t have to take talk-show host Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course to live within their means and budget their money.
When I first discovered Rothbard et al, I read a little because I was thrilled to see that there were others who thought like me. But I quickly grew bored because really, it all boils down very basic principles. We don’t need anyone to explain to us “Leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone”, and “Do unto others…”; or that the free market works just fine as it always had and still does in a few places arounbd the world where it is still in existence.
Now I must go and finish the book I am reading: “Advanced Techniques For Mastering Tic Tac Toe & the psychology and physics of the game” by Cpt. Kangaroo.
Sounds like a captivating read, Arthur.
And yes, I think it simply helps to find that there were others in history that refused to accept the BS that was thrust upon them.
Mutual Respect works for me. Respect me and I’ll respect you. no party affiliation necessary. Government only respects power,,, its power to kill you and others, thus it figures and demands all should respect it.
How many times have I heard “We’re the most powerful nation on earth…if you don’t respect us we’ll blow you to hell and back.” or how about “They can’t talk to the President like that” He is the most powerful man on earth!
To most Americans, America deserves respect simply because Americans believe it is the most powerful nation on earth. Any nation that considers itself equal and deserving of respect is an enemy needing destroyed.
Interesting story…..I reckon my path was originally based in being raised Catholic and my interpretation at the time was very much anti-war. This was the era in the height of the U.S. MIC’s action in Viet Nam. I also fancied myself a socialist, as many naively stupid 17 year olds did. Definitely in the minority. My brother turned my on to the LP back when it was much more based in principle. I remember the first LP candidates John Hospers and Tonie Nathan and of course Ayn Rand was in the mix in spite of her flaws. Got to meet Murray Rothbard sometime in the seventies…..interesting guy and an intellectual giant. My early support was due to the overarching principles of libertarianism, but the subsequent journey includes a lot of deep dives into the writings of Hayek, Rothbard, Hoppe, Tom Woods, DiLorenzo et al. Lots of sanity from the Ron Paul movement and the Mises Institute. If any of you get the chance to attend a regional meetup of a Mises Institute group, you will have a great experience. In the height of the Covid psyop I attended one in Birmingham…..sane people and not a face diaper to be seen anywhere. In any case, still anti-war…..nothing like a socialist and hoping that the protest movement against the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza bring a moment like the one brought by the anti-war protests related to Viet Nam. BTW, not a pacifist either. BTW, Eric, I am intending to drive up to Richmond on the 13th of May…perhaps we can do a coffee or a beer.
Your “enemy” is not in Moscow, Russia, or Beijing, China…
Or Tehran, Iran, or Pyongyang, North Korea…
Nor any other “Boogeymen” the (((FEDGOV))) creates…
Your true enemy is in WA(R)SHINGTON, DC…
And London, England, and Vatican City, Rome
Resist now when it’s easy, because when it gets hard, the only options will be Liberty or Death, as Patrick Henry said.
I began to hate the State when Hot Rod magazine published an article “Can They Outlaw Hot Rodding?” back in 1984. I became a big L Libertarian when Ron Paul ran in 1988 and saw him on Buckley’s show. Voted straight L ticket until 2008 when Ron didn’t get the republican nomination, and didn’t vote. I did vote for Trump in 2016 and didn’t vote in 2020. The Libertarians at that time were worse than the Democrats.
I did register Republican in 1996 to write in Harry Browne for the primary to show “at least there was one guy out there knows you Repugs are full of crap.”
What’s Aleppo?
I still read RP’s weekly column and get depressed every time I see him speak. Great man.
I was fortunate to have learned early on.
When I was about 15, my bicycle was literally stolen out from underneath me. Not by the local bully. Nope.
By the cops.
Why? Because it wasn’t properly licensed by displaying a city bike license sticker on it.
So the thugs (I mean the police) put it in their trunk and drive away. Leaving me to walk home just before dark.
They told me I could get it back that night if my parent came to station to prove ownership on my behalf and that we would have to buy a proper bike license.
Turns out cops rob and steal. First by stealing my bicycle, second by stealing the license fee.
Well by the time we got there the story had changed. Had to come back during normal business hours to claim it and to get the license and sticker.
Turns out – cops lie.
By next day, we got it back but of course now it had new scratches on it from banging around in the trunk, storage, whatever.
Turns out cops don’t care anything about your property.
I learned a lot from that one incident.
As soon as I was able to leave that city I did after graduating highscool. As did all of my friends. Don’t stay in a place that operates like this.
This was my earliest recollection that something was going seriously wrong in this country.
The only advice I have for anyone is move. Get away to a better place that doesn’t operate like this. No state is perfect but VA is among the worst of the police states. Personally, I avoid ever venturing into VA (and a couple other states) simply based on how they behave.
There are states that don’t (can’t?) run roadside sobriety dragnets (oops – checkpoints). There are states where driving 80 mph isn’t automatically reckless driving.
I’m sorry that is the reality but it is what it is.
You are right, Burn It Down. VA. is one of the worst, most tyrannical states, and is THE worst state for driving. Even worse than Calipornia.
The vast majority of arrests for other “crimes”, and the vast majority of “revenues” the scumbag donut-eaters collect are as a result of “traffic stops”. So they look for excuses to stop us for any little thing. Spot the tiniest little thing out of place, ca-ching$$$$$ “Let’s stop that guy”. Worst that can happen is they’ll mujlct you for a few hundred bucks. Best that can happen (for them) is a juicy drug bust, or an arrest for something else or finding the guy who has a warrant, and no matter what, your car’s getting impounded and you have to pay for it and for storage. Legalized thievery.
The few crimes and injustices that are actually prevented or rectified by having cops are exponentially outweighed by all the crimes the porkers commit.
Terrific piece, Eric.
I never had the Road to Damascus moment. It was really just a string of things: Iraq War l, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Iraq War ll and on and on. Small l libertarianism really appealed to me because of its simple and solid philosophies. Mises, Rothbard, Paul etc. It just made sense.
I have a lot of issues with the Libertarian party, but employing the bedrock principles in living your life will not steer you wrong.
It’s a nice day, so I decided to go for a drive down Riverside to finish out my lunch hour. Got “pulled over” by the OHP because I don’t wear my seatbelt.
Young kid steps out of the patrol car and tells me he pulled me over because he noticed I wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. I said “OK, I figured that’s why.”
Gave him my license. He askes me if I have insurance and if the license was correct. Yep. He hands it back and tells me to wear my seatbelt and to drive safe.
What an unnecessary interruption to my nice afternoon drive. When I’m in my Firebird, I’m back in the 70’s again. Seatbelts optional. I need an armed state agent at my window to snap me back into the goddamned 2020’s and to tell me to be safe or else? Excuse the language, but fuck off.
My own path started hearing this guy from Texas –an OB doctor– in 1988. I consider myself a libertarian in spirit. Have had some dealings with the libertarian party but those weren’t pleasant.
I never really had a specific libertarian epiphany. I was always temperamentally and politically conservative. I believed that cops who were arresting robbers and burglars were doing good. I believed that the military was defending us against commies.
Over time, though, my thinking evolved, because the government demonstrated time and time again that it did not act on any coherent set of principles. Rather, the government acted arbitrarily and capriciously, often on public hysteria, misinformation, or outright lies. Like the Pharisees in Mt. 23, the government is nothing but pure, shameless hypocrisy.
Nobody needs and assault weapon — EXCEPT the cops. Speeding is dangerous, except when the cops do it. It is evil to inhale tobacco smoke into your lungs — but not dope smoke. Gambling is immoral and you will get arrested for it — unless it is at a government-approved casino. Israel’s border is sacrosanct — but not our own. Germany must become democratic, but if they vote for the NSDAP in democratic elections, we’ll kill them. Trump catches felony charges for supposedly mishandling classified documents, but Hillary and Biden skate. J6 rioters get the book thrown at them, but BLM rioters actually get paid if they are arrested for torching cop cars and entire city blocks. We supposedly have “free speech,” but when Wilson was criticized for engaging in a foreign war we had no business being in, he threw his critics in prison. We supposedly have a Fourth Amendment requirement for a warrant — unless government thinks you’re a “terrorist,” then the warrant goes out the window. It’s OK for government to have short-barreled shotguns, but when Randy Weaver was accused of having a shotgun that was 17 3/4″ instead of 18″, the government shot his unarmed wife’s head off. It was evil for Germany to round up Jews and put them in camps, but it was OK for us to round up Japanese and put them in camps, and then nuke their country — twice, killing scores of women and children and grandmothers.
On and on and on.
I have no objection to principled, fair authority. Government is never principled or fair.
The Founders would absolutely have regarded the present government as far more tyrannical, arbitrary, capricious and hypocritical than anything George III did to the colonists.
Excellent X,
Kind of my journey too, add that despite taking an oath to “uphold and defend the Constitution” the president, whoever he is, can simply declare an “emergency” and run roughshod over our rights.
When you think about it, isn’t it just mind-boggling when you consider the evil done by all governments. The signs are everywhere and it occurs on every scale imaginable. Death, destruction, disruption, disorder & chaos to name just a few of the consequences of it actions. And yet, somehow, these people are seldom held responsible for their deeds. Why is this? This led me to further contemplation. . .
One of the most crucial objectives of govt employees & politicians in the past was to deflect attention away from themselves in order to evade taking responsibility for the huge number of problems they create. During their long-standing tenure in that exclusive club I dub “The Sammy Corps,” they became deeply committed to developing strategies and honing skills in the art of deception and disinformation. They constantly sought out new methods to deflect suspicion away from themselves and onto others, making it an ongoing project that never truly ended. They were motivated to be the masters of deceit and manipulation, and they worked at this on company time, meaning you paid for it with your tax dollars. This has been a colossal waste of human resources and the result has been a hell of a lot of malfeasance. The good news is the public has finally come to realize govt’s efforts to mislead them. The bad news is the govt is also aware of this realization and has changed its strategy.
While govt people tend to ignore what history has tried to teach them, they did learn one serious lesson though which they’ll never forget: A popular uprising by the common folk can have grave consequences. And once realized, it created a fear which drove them to take the necessary steps to avoid such upheavals. They understood that a serious rebellion could result in two significant and rather unpleasant outcomes: The loss of their ill-gotten power & wealth, and, potentially worse, an appointment with the hangman. Because of their deep-seated fear of rebellion, I suspect many of their worst nightmares have been images of that classic scene of the peasants storming the Bastille that kicked off the French Revolution. This helps explain why every modern-day government is armed to the teeth, along with an attitude and willingness to use those arms. It also explains why the govt is vigorously prosecuting the Jan 6 protesters for merely trespassing.
Fortunately for the govt gang times have changed, and those highly sought-after skills that were once essential for their success & longevity have now diminished in value. They no longer need to hatch schemes to try to deceive those beleaguered folks who work real jobs in order to pay taxes — which ultimately foots the bill for those public employee’s lavish lifestyles — into believing that they aren’t the bad guys in black hats. As mentioned, the plebs are now aware of those tactics which is forcing the schemers to alter their strategies.
Nowadays the government can count on the support of at least half the population (by my estimate) to stand by them if push comes to shove, thanks to their modernized ploy of buying off the plebs, which is quicker & more effective than trying to propagandize them. Quid pro quo, bribery, pay-offs, and promises of a govt job have now become the favorite tools of the Sammy Corps to recruit allies and supporters who they can count on in times of trouble. All paid for by, what else, taxpayer money. The hard reality is most adults today derive some or all of their income from government which is by no accident, and a sobering reality.
With the understanding that most people are addicted to govt money — a habit that’s worse than a Hunter Biden drug addiction — you begin to grasp the gravity of the situation and the challenges we face. No longer can we sit back and say our problems are due to those stupid Biden voters who suffer from a lack of education and are just too dumb to understand the situation. The fact is, whether those voters are dumb or not, Does, Not, Matter. They will never change their voting ways or their loyalty to those who provide for them to put food on the table. And that’s a VERY BIG problem.
“It’s time for serious people to come to grips with the fact that at least half of the current population of the United States is rotten to the core and mentally unstable to boot. Trying to “bring everyone together” does not work when you are dealing with malevolent, psychotic criminals.” — Robert J. Ringer, Feb 2023
By said reasoning if you led a popular uprising to overthrow the government you’d then have to execute around half of the population for being traitors.
Gil,
When a married couple finds they can no longer live together in happiness and harmony, they divorce and go their separate ways. Usually, peacefully. The problem with government-lovers is they are not willing to leave those of us who do not love government in peace, to go our separate way.
Why is that?
Why would you think supporters of a violent gang would leave you alone?
Gil,
I don’t. But I’d rather deal with a gang than the government. For one, because a gang is less dangerous. For two, because I can defend myself against the gang. It is a “crime” to defend myself against the government.
My awakening arrived when my dad asked me if I was going to be a minister, a man of the cloth, of God.
I decided right then and there that I wasn’t going to be a pastor of a church to lead a flock to salvation. Everybody is on their own when you have beliefs.
Hell NO! You need God, not some idiot’s message from God that says you need God, that’s your job, not mine. har
As one pastor said many moons ago, “God won’t make you rich, but He won’t let you starve.”
Number one son was more blunt, “I’m not listening to that creature anymore.”
For me, I’m not listening to those dumbass Jews anymore, they can go straight to hell. Right where they belong, easy to see hell is where they are now.
Who in God’s name maims and kills all day long like it is a sport? Hamas? Probably them too. Incorrigible black hearts like that have no escape, hell’s bounty awaits them, it’ll be an awakening then. Bibi’s black heart is in need of some surgical excising.
IDF? Hamas? At this point what difference does it make?
If you are lost, you can be found. An awakening, so to speak.
The injured arm I have is still on the mend, into the fifth week of healing.
Crippling pain like that is an awakening, a rude one, you are always vulnerable, you just don’t know it. Can happen to anybody. Happy to be alive, really.
The fog of war is thicker than the thickest London Fog.
drumphish: “IDF? Hamas? At this point what difference does it make?”
The big difference between them is that our taxpayer dollars are buying most of the bullets and bombs for one of the teams for the “sport”. (When you come to think of it, in 1948 “we” were partly responsible for providing the stadium.)
I like your reading your thoughts, Eric, on how you became libertarian. I hope everyone shares their story. I am sure many of them are pretty interesting reads.
Mine isn’t as exciting as yours. 🙂 I grew up in a conservative upper middle class house in rural Virginia. Lots of acreage, but we weren’t farmers. Houses were spread out and there were no kids our age…just my sisters and I. We had friends at school, but no one to run around the neighborhood with (since there was no neighborhood). So I spent a lot of time reading.
My mother, who actually is one of the coolest people I know, probably influenced me the most. Although, conservative she had a very “live and let live” attitude. When you mix this in with her music of choice (lots of CCR, the Beatles, Springsteen, the Stones, John Cougar Mellencamp, etc.) and a love for history the combo isn’t too surprising.
I am a bit more libertarian thinking than my parents. I am very anti war, hate taxation and welfare programs (including the defense budget), and believe government needs to keep their grubby hands out of people’s lives, etc. I knew by my mid teens that my thinking was a bit different. I blame Thomas Paine and Ayn Rand. My high school and college reports were always about government and how they had their hands in our wallets. My poor community college Civics teacher believed I was a lost cause and stated I was much too cynical for someone so young and not all of government was evil. I think my response was somewhere along the lines of “pfft.”
I signed up for the Libertarian Reform Caucus at nineteen. They were a bit more moderate than the currently established Libertarian Party, which couldn’t seem to get their act together and were busy arguing among themselves to ever get anything organized. At that point I started watching Ron Paul interviews and pretty much agreed with every point he made. I start reading more and more about economics. Holiday dinners became a lot more controversial as I was completely against the Iraq War and thought Dubya was an idiot and Cheney was the devil. I have gotten a lot of push back over the years on how I reared our children (a little from my husband, some from my parents or other relatives, etc.), but I wouldn’t do anything differently and I still (maybe foolishly) believe I am on the right side of history.
Sorry for the length….I didn’t mean to write a book.
No apology necessary, as your posts are always WORTH reading!
There is only one real silver bullet solution to this and ALL other problems. It is called the physical gold standard…
RG,
I agree with most of what you said here, but I’m not sure about the defense budget being a form of welfare. I think that national defense is one of the few legitimate functions of gov’t; I consider it a necessity. After all, there are bad people in the world, and if a nation or an individual is unable to protect themselves, others will assert their will over them; these bad people will take what is rightfully yours.
Now, if by welfare, you meant feeding the MIC, that might be a different story. If our armed forces concentrated solely on national defense (I.e. refrained from all foreign adventurism and forever wars), the defense budget would be a lot smaller. Then, it wouldn’t be a welfare program as it is now.
Hi Mark,
I have to disagree with you on defense not being the biggest welfare scam going. If you want to get your blood pressure up I would suggest reading the FY 2023 Budget Request Overview from the DOD. The FY 2024 is out, but I have not reviewed it, but I am sure the budgetary numbers used by the DOD are just as absurd, if not more so.
Biden signed the 2023 DOD budget totaling $816 billion in December 2022. If we just look at the four major arms of the military: Navy, Army, Air Force, and Marines for maintaining a militia the figures are as follows: $38B, $35B, $33B, and $12B. That totals $118B. The budget was $816B. That is a difference of $698B. Where’s the money?
I laugh when the IRS’s FinCEN division believes small businesses are money laundering….have they seem these figures? Reading through the report you can see billions are being implemented to new technology…except all of it is still in EMD phases. We are spending billions upon billions on R&D. Who the hell is overseeing this budget? Pfizer?
The rest of the money is siphoned off to keep the defense companies surrounding DC fat and happy. Less not forget the billions upon billions that we surrender annually so the rest of our world will be our friend. Ukraine, Israel, the African nations, China, hell I am sure Russia is being paid part of the pie, too, and we supposedly hate them.
Our defense budget is higher than the next 9 countries combined spend on their defense budgets. Our technology is behind the times. Our naval ships, our fighter jets, our bombers, etc. are still being produced by 1970s and 1990s innovations. So where are the billions going? The DOD can’t find the missing funds under audit and then they have the audacity to ask for more. So yes, it is nothing more than welfare for the wealthy under the biggest laundering scheme the world has even seen.
RG,
I beg your pardon, but I never said that the DoD’s budget isn’t welfare. I thought you were going to say something different than you did; I thought you were going to say it was welfare, but for different reasons. Since I wasn’t sure of your meaning, I thought I’d ask first vs. assuming your meaning.
That said, I stand by my contention that true national defense (I.e. defense of our nation and its borders, nothing more) is a legit function of gov’t; I base that on the premise that gov’t exists to protect life, liberty, and property. Because there are evil people in the world, we need to be ready to defend what is ours. For example, there are many countries who’d just love to take our oil or other natural resources from us; we must retain the means to ensure that our resources remain our resources. We need to be strong enough so that they don’t even THINK about trying to take our oil or anything else that belongs to us! If our defense budget were limited to just that, then the defense budget would be a lot smaller; for example, we wouldn’t need to support 11 carrier battle groups, which are a huge cash hog.
MarkyMark: “For example, there are many countries who’d just love to take our oil or other natural resources from us;”
You mean like we are stealing Iraqui and Syrian oil? Where does the Goose/Gander thingy start to apply?
Uh, where did I say that us stealing from others was ok? Where did I say that? Also, if our military were for national defense only, we wouldn’t be able to engage in such foreign adventurism.
I merely stated a fact: if you can’t stand up to bullies, you will be bullied-end of story. That applies both to individuals and nations. Hence, we need a military to protect our land and everything within its borders.
The area of the Pentagon that was “hit” on 9/11 was the area that had all the Pentagon records of spending. Schultz stated on 9/10 that there was $2 trillion missing from the audit. Form your own conclusions.
Hi To5,
It’s interesting that – to my knowledge – there is no video of the airplane we’re told flew into the Pentagon flying into the Pentagon. Why not? There are many videos of the planes that struck that towers striking them – and approaching them. The Pentagon is just outside DC proper DC always has thousands of tourists with cameras walking around on nice days. How is it that not one of them took video of the airplane flying towards the Pentagon? It is implausible to me. All we have is that brief clip of something striking the building at extremely high speed. So fast that you can’t tell what it was.
I live in the area at the time – and just after the strike, local TV had video of the damaged area. The hole was oddly small and there was no sign of damage on either side – where you’d think the wings (and engines) would have cut into the building, as they did to the WTC towers. Nothing above the hole, either. What happened to the vertical stabilizer?
I’m not saying it was a missile. But I’ve not seen evidence it was an airplane, either.
>But I’ve not seen evidence it was an airplane,
Oh, there was an airplane, alright. There are photos of one of the massive engines which made it through to one of the inner rings of the building.
Possibility exists that it had some “help,” though.
Hi Adi,
I remember seeing the remains of a jet engine turbine; but it didn’t look big enough to be a commercial heavy jet’s engine. Granted, I am not aviation expert. That said, look at this: https://i0.wp.com/www.winterwatch.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/911-Pentagon.jpg?resize=600%2C350&ssl=1
Hi, Eric,
Well, the photo I saw absolutely was the engine off a large commercial jet.
Please consider the following points:
1. The flight existed.
2. The aircraft and all its passengers were destroyed. If the plane did not hit the Pentagon, where did it go?
3. Reports I have read state that rows of streetlight poles on the final glide path were sheared off by the wings of the aircraft.
4. The aircraft, a multi-engine commercial jet, was allegedly piloted by an individual so grossly incompetent that he was refused to rent a single engine propeller driven Cessna.
5. At least one commercial pilot who is type rated on the aircraft in question, with hundreds of hours at the controls, has stated that he could not fly the trajectory as documented.
6. The flash in the impact photo appears to show a white light, which is characteristic of high explosives, not jet fuel.
I do not claim to know what actually happened on nahnleven. That said, IMO the official government explanation is pure horseshit.
Too many anomalies, pieces of the puzzle which just do not fit, of which those stated above are only a small sample.
Hi Adi,
Yup. I have a friend back in Northern Virginia who was a Navy (F4) pilot. He and I discussed the Pentagon thing and he was very skeptical the commercial jet was capable of the maneuvers attributed to it – and that he did not believe the amateur who purportedly flew it had the skill to fly a commercial jet literally feet off the deck into a building as we were told happened.
Like being hauled there on a truck for the photo op?
‘(lots of CCR, the Beatles, Springsteen, the Stones, John Cougar Mellencamp, etc.)’ — Raider Girl
Last week in our rural county, I attended a presentation by the current and pending (as of July 1) chief justices of the Arizona Supreme Court.
Since only a few dozen people were present, I got to chat personally with the next Chief Justice, Ann Timmer. Laughing, she described their tour of Arizona’s fifteen counties as the ‘He says goodbye, I say hello’ tour.
Then she admitted to seeing lots of blank faces among the younger members of her audience, who didn’t get the Beatles song reference.
I got a feeling that Arizona will be in good hands, as far as the judiciary is concerned.
I have always been the way I am now, even as a child (questioning “authority” and defying it when required by conscience). I just didn’t know the label for it. I thought I was just a bad person, an outlaw, an anarchist.
Hearing Ron Paul’s campaign speeches, the way he said things I had never heard a “politician” say before was the eye opener for me. He gave moral legitimacy to my innate feelings. He opened the door for me to pursue further reading on this “libertarian” subject. I found out I wasn’t a bed person, quite the opposite in fact.
Similar experiences here. What put me over the top was all the SS money I shoveled down the rat hole of the ravenous FedGov beasts blinkered gullet, in my prime working years of 1990-2012. As a small business paying double social security on myself, and occasionally half on an employee, once I added up ‘my voluntary contribution,’ it made me sick.
Even today, 2 and a half years from receiving ‘monthly payouts,’ I’d give up any claim to have the whole lump sum back in my hands. I’d turn it into Gold and Silver as fast as I could.
Along the way, Ruby ridge, Waco, Oklahoma City, Nine Eleven, broken borders, and now endless warfare/welfare has done nothing to inspire anything other than righteous contempt and non-compliance toward every level of our so called government.
It gets worse. We are no longer allowed to simply disagree and go our own way. For the sake of ‘muh dumbocracy’ everyone must embrace the states fake and gay narrative.
It started for me in 1972, when I became eligible for the draft, and the day of the lottery rolled around. The next big boost came when I heard Irwin Schiff succinctly explain that there is no legal requirement to pay personal income tax, and it became apparent to me that government, all of it, is the most criminal enterprise there is. It’s mission is much like that of the military, kill people and break things. Both are damned good at it.
Hi John,
My own personal awakening was in 2020. For years I’ve had the suspicion that the federal government was corrupt, but it wasn’t until when we had the “pandemic” going on that I ultimately learned just how corrupt the U.S. government REALLY is. For example, we’ve heard people on the left screech for years about the evils of Big Pharma and corporate capture of government agencies, but it was just over the past few years that that became so blatant to the point those people turned out to be RIGHT. And then of course, the Biden Thing trying to FORCE millions of Americans to take an experimental pharma product to continue working via vaxx mandates, which some people are probably still angry at those who pushed back against such mandates.
And now they’re pushing MASSIVE war in the hopes that it will keep Biden in for 4 more years.
There were also those who wanted to JAIL people who refused to comply with nonsensical government COVID diktats such as lockdowns, mask & vaxx mandates, and “social distancing”.
I’ve read comments elsewhere from people who are STILL angry at those who “got away with resistance to common sense health measures during the pandemic”. So these people are NOT angry at those who’ve LIED to them about COVID, face diapers, and experimental jabs…….they’re ANGRY at those who got COVID, face diapers, resistance to government diktats, and experimental jabs RIGHT.
Did you see where “our savior”[sic](very sic) Mr. Orange said that those who are anti-Zionist deserve the DEATH PENALTY?
Do you have an orange man link?
No, but I have read elsewhere that that MASSIVE “aid package” to Ukraine was passed partly with help from Orange Man.
It is ironic that these people are more mad that we were not fooled into the masks and jabs the way they were. And it is down right scary that they are so mad and just plain mean that we will not suffer the consequences of the jab the way they will, that they are hell bent on destroying us in other ways for not making that same choice. It just goes to show what kind of people we are walking amongst.
In the case of Oldsmobile, malfeasance on the part of GM played no small role. Much of that malfeasance, in particular the Oldsmobile diesel fiasco, was driven by heavy handed government policies, such as CAFE, as well as the corporate focus on next quarter’s earnings over the long-term health of the company.
FYI, the small block Olds V-8 with its Rochester Quadra-Jet remained part of GM’s corporate engine lineup until 1990–as the 5.0 liter (307) option in B-body Buick, Olds, and Pontiac sedans and wagons, and in Cadillac’s Fleetwood Brougham. Probably because it provided the low end torque needed to get and keep those beasts moving.
Waco was the last straw for me.
D.C. is utterly corrupt and can’t be reformed.
NIFO
When it comes to liberty, compromise is for fools or slaves.
And now a prosecutor who worked under the disgusting Janet Reno -one Marilyn Milian- has been a popular TV-show judge who is now worth several hundred mil. And the fools around us think she is just wonderful. And so brazen are the Hollywood tribe, that they now even have this Milian chick recite that she was a prosecutor under Rhino -I mean Reno- at the beginning of each show. And the older viewers who remember Waco don’t seem to care that this judgette has blood-stained hands (or worked furthering the goals of an evil agency that does), and the younger viewers are probably blissfully unaware of what Waco even was.
Excellent, Eric! This was succinct, relatable, and any sane person who’d had similar experiences should’ve come to similar conclusions.
Right now, I’m as excited to be successfully growing mesquite trees for future fuel production experiments as I was to grow a few pot plants, myself, as a yout’. 😉
Now to get back to work. I’m so relentlessly busy and under-the-gun with time constraints, I hardly have time for my EP Autos fix, these days.
Agreed, this was another epic article! Individual freedom, responsibility, property rights, I’m obsessed with them. I just can’t relate with people who don’t share a love of truth. Most folks just drift though life with their head up their ass not caring about anything other than themselves. What a sad and meaningless existence indeed.
I’m convinced we are on this earth, at this point in time, for a purpose greater than ourselves. Our task, in part, is to share our knowledge with as many as possible. Eric is reaching many with his work and inspiring us to do more ourselves. Thanks!