Blogs

In his movie "Unforgiven", Clint Eastwood says that to kill a person is to "take away everything a man has, and everything he is ever going to have." It is the worst thing anyone can do, the ultimate violation of someone's right to live his own life.
 
Somehow, I got the impression that that 1994 Rwanda genocide consisted of masses of ordinary people deciding spontaneously to slay their neighbors of a slightly different race.
 
Today's Zero Government Blog, subtitled Slaughters, shows who was really responsible.

This Learn Liberty video evaluates a terrifying conspiracy theory.

Can there be such a thing as too much tolerance?

Well, not many of us would tolerate someone raping our wife or strangling our children, so the answer has to be "yes." Today's ZGBlog is titled "Living and Letting Live" and suggests the line should be drawn a great deal closer than that.

The new President threatens an import tax on Mexican goods, so interfering with free trade. He may see a real problem, but is picking the wrong fix - as today's ZGBlog details, in Protectionism.

About a year ago, front and center on the STR home page appeared an appeal for $9,000 to bring Drupal up to date. It's the software driving this site.
 
Quite quickly someone pledged $2,000, and ever since the notice has appealed for the remaining $7,000.
 
But some time this month that notice disappeared. Does that mean the money has been found? In that case, might not the benefactor(s) be named and thanked? Or if it hasn't, what consequences follow?
 
I notice also that last week, the site's response performance was very poor, and this morning that comments about a "misfortune" said to have struck Samarami have appeared and disappeared, as if the site is unstable. Are these events related to an obsolescence in Drupal?
 
Inquiring minds would like to know.

To: Rebecca Balint, Jeanette White, and Emily Long:

As I am unable to attend Tuesday's scheduled event in Montpelier, I thought to write all of you in advance with regard to my position on S. 6.  And let's be candid right from the outset:

*  It is one more in a series of relentless and unending Bloomberg-funded attempts to begin the process of dismantling Vermont's long-standing tradition of unimpeded gun freedom -- even though VT is ranked as THE safest place in America.  Even though Vermonters have consistently and repeatedly shown we DO NOT WANT more gun laws.  Even though Phil Scott -- not Sue Minter -- was elected governor.

*  It will do NOTHING to fight or stop crime.  You already KNOW this.

*  UBCs/S.6 can ONLY be implemented if a gun registry is also implemented.  The very first step -- ALWAYS -- in eliminating gun ownership altogether.  And you know THAT, too.

I have nothing further to say.  I would like to think you will oppose S.6, but I already know you won't. To not do so would be to turn your back on both the agenda and dogma of leftist thinking -- which none of you are about to do.

In closing, this 2015 essay was directed towards Ms. Balint, but the principles apply equally to all of you:

http://strike-the-root.com/change-youll-have-to-do-better-becca

Most Sincerely,

Alex Knight

(Town)

(Phone number)

In a recent STR Comment thread, Will Groves suggested that automation will deprive low-skilled people of rewarding work opportunities. A lively exchange of views followed.
 
Neither he nor the author of the original article about this on mises.org considered the much larger effect of taking government out of the equation, so today's Zero Government Blog attempts to do so. It suggests that on the contrary, the outlook is very bright - so enjoy Low Skills in the ZGS.

Libertarian Jacob Hornberger details the difference between the ways statists and non-statists view crises in this The Future of Freedom Foundation video.

I just learned that Bradley Manning is to be released next May; outgoing President Obama has commuted 28 years of his vicious sentence. So at long last and in the very nick of time, Obama did something right!
 
Bradley was the subject of the very first edition of the Zero Government Blog, back on July 31st 2010 - so I'm particularly pleased. He had inter alia blown the whistle on the FedGov's funneling of taxpayer dollars to its alleged enemies, so as to prolong war and with it, the illusion that we need it for "defense".
 
The incredible stress he must have suffered since has messed him up so badly that he now calls himself Chelsea and wants to be a woman. I would like to see the Clinton Foundation pay for a course of gender-confusion treatment after his release, but it looks as if Trump may have missed an opportunity to cause that to happen - see #5 here. Snowden and Assange, meanwhile, have been passed over. But if one out of three is the best Obama can do, it's better than nothing.

Many myths are homely and harmless, as anyone who has read a bedtime story to a child is aware; but others are immensely damaging and in dire need of a bust.
 
One fast way to do that is to ask the mythologist to define his principal terms. Today's ZGBlog offers a couple of examples, so please enjoy "God" and "Income".