Boycott (and “buycott”) reinforce “bad” (and “good”) behavior. I personally hope and expect that Dick’s and Walmart will pay a price for their decision to discriminate against would-be gun purchasers and against 18- to 21-year-olds, and that non-bigoted businesses will profit. And please, politicians: Stop grandstanding, get out of the way, and let the people sort these matters out for ourselves.
Tag: constitution
Community Service Bill, Punching Nazis, Constitution as Socialism, & My Ethical Framework (39m) – Editor’s Break 065
Editor’s Break 065 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: his Utah bill to allow community service in lieu of paying a fine for an infraction or misdemeanor, the morality of punching neo-Nazis, why constitutionalism is a pure manifestation of socialism, why slavery is wrong according to his ethical framework, and more.
2nd Amendment, Voluntaryism, Laws Create Crime, & Pushing Boundaries (36m) – Editor’s Break 064
Editor’s Break 064 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: the so-called Founding Fathers and the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution, what voluntaryism is all about, why laws create more crime than they deter and how to adequately deter criminal behavior, creative verse destructive actions, the importance of pushing boundaries and civil disobedience, and more.
Words Poorly Used #130 — Militia
The emotionally driven “we can’t just do nothing” crowd is dragging out the very ambiguous “militia” wording in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, 2nd Amendment. The Amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” There is, to my knowledge, no definition of “Militia” in the Constitution. Furthermore, the addition of the dependent preambulatory clause, and the last comma render the passage ungrammatical.
The Tragicomedy of Russiagate
Let’s assume — purely for the sake of discussion since no evidence has been made public — that the Russians did it. Note, first, that the “it” looks like the product of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. I’m not going to do what Johnstone, Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Maté, and the late Robert Parry have done so well so many times, namely, catalog all the inane acts the Putin-guided Russian intel agencies are said to have committed in order to bring down America. (Start here.) Suffice it to say that if that’s the best Putin can come up with, we have little to worry about.
Why We Must “Politicize” Guns
Every time there’s a mass shooting, or even a particularly well-publicized single homicide, all of America’s political factions go directly to battle stations on the question of whether or not the violence can be reduced or eliminated with “gun control” legislation. As the debate rages on, the calls begin to ring out from different corners that whatever else we do, we must avoid “politicizing” the issue. Have you ever noticed that the “let’s not get political” talk always seems to emanate from the side that perceives itself as on the losing end of the argument at the moment?
Foolish Statists
Why would anyone be surprised that when the government investigates itself we the people do not hear the truth, insiders are rigging the investigation, and the deep state is never held accountable? This is not a flaw of the people (though they are all evil people), this is a flaw of the system.
The Transition from Slavery to Freedom
I sometimes hear people, including freedom advocates, pondering how society might “transition” from an authoritarian system to a stateless society. The implication is that there could be some sort of gradual, peaceful phasing in of freedom, and a phasing out of governmental controls. But that is not how things works, and not how things will ever work.
Nonsense on Stilts
An English proverb holds that a lie can be halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on. It also appears to be the case that a government can be shot through with corruption before the ink is dried on its Constitution.
Raining on the Parade
Some people have proposed that Trump’s parade be postponed until all the wars the U.S. government is waging are finished and the troops are back home. That would indeed be an indefinite postponement, and I wouldn’t want to see a parade even then. But if that’s the price for ending those imperial wars, I’ll take it.