Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 484
If a police officer has the right to do something – anything -- so do you. If you don’t have the right to do it, then no one does. Not police officers, CIA agents, bureaucrats, or presidents. A job or a position can’t create extra rights; there’s no such thing as an extra right. This is hard for many people to accept because those who benefit from the fantasy of extra rights work hard to brainwash the public into believing it. The only reason those jobs exist is to hire so...
The problem of the railroad crossing between Texico and Farwell has a logical solution. The various plans floated by state transportation officials aren’t it. The logical solution is for the railroad to be raised over the highway. I understand why the railroad doesn’t want to do this. It would be a huge engineering project and a serious inconvenience for them. It would be expensive and it’s easier to let the state soak the tax victims for the cost. They could claim they were...
Why do I keep returning to the natural right of each and every human being to own and to carry guns? Because when it comes to liberty, unless you get that right, you’ll get everything wrong. This right is non-negotiable, along with the right to free speech, freedom of association, and the right to own and use property. Anyone on the other side, or trying to keep a toe on the other side, is a danger to you. Governments and their politicians want exceptions. There aren’t any...
Everyone has weaknesses and faults. This includes you and me. We need to acknowledge our weaknesses and work on doing better. Your life will also be easier and you’ll be a better person if you’re tolerant of the weaknesses and faults of others. Up to a point. This doesn’t mean you have to sit quietly while someone’s faults are damaging your life. Communicate the problem and, when it needs to be said, tell them clearly where your line in the sand is. Be polite when possible. Yo...
The enemies of America just scored another major victory against us. Did you notice? The reauthorization and expansion of the deceptively named “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act” (FISA) is an anti-American act. Both Democrat and Republican politicians were in on this crime. Any government that gives itself permission to spy on you is not on your side. Whether it’s China’s government, the government of Iran, or the U.S. federal government, it’s your enemy and is telling y...
To say I’m skeptical of the institution of government is an understatement. If individuals make bad choices, a collective of people with an incentive to do bad things and very little chance of being held accountable -- unless they anger some opposing faction within this institution -- won’t do any better. Quite the opposite. Organized evil is worse in every way than disorganized incompetence. It doesn’t matter if this institution has been around “forever.” The same excuse wa...
In last week’s column, I said government had made up a new holiday and superimposed it over Easter. I suggested this may have been done as an intentional slap in the face to a major segment of the population, intended to provoke a reaction. I was wrong. Government made up that holiday — or official declaration — and set the annual date for it back in 2009. The only reason I heard about it this year was because it coincided with Easter, which generated the outrage that then...
Is government trying to provoke you? I believe it is. It’s setting a trap. If, by doing provocative things, government can trigger you into acting, your actions become an excuse to crack down harder -- which will trigger more people to act. Like a feedback loop. It’s part of the reason for anti-gun legislation. It’s part of the reason the two main factions of authoritarians love the fight over the issue of “immigration.” It’s why the real solution to crime is criminalize...
People admire different qualities in others. The traits each of us admires are shaped by our own values and experiences. What some see as a virtue, others see as a vice. Or worse. It seems most people admire obedience -- they voice admiration for those who follow orders without hesitation. This isn’t something I admire. Too much depends on who is giving the orders and what those orders are. This can include bad parents as well as people wearing uniforms or holding a p...
About the most hurtful thing anyone can say about me is to describe my writing as “political.” It wounds me more deeply than almost any other words can. Politics is what someone is doing when they encourage others to vote for or against something. Or someone. Politics is what people engage in when they advocate yet another law aimed at the rest of society or want existing laws enforced more violently. Politics says this politician will be better at running your life than som...
Politicians tend to get every answer wrong. They also ask the wrong questions because they view everything through the warped lens of government supremacy. Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, is a prime example. Politicians are squaring off for or against TikTok, an addictive digital drug from China. Some, including Crenshaw, are looking to ban TikTok in America or force it to become an American company. Like the other digital drug, Facebook. TikTok can be harmful to the...
“There ought to be a law.” I am disappointed every time I hear that sad phrase. It’s an admission of failure -- both intellectual and ethical. If the only solution someone can see is to call for more government violence -- through legislation -- either they aren’t thinking clearly, or their ethical core is broken. Either way, it’s a problem. Many times when I hear someone say this phrase, there is no real crisis, only something they don’t like. This is a problem, not with th...
What’s a liberty lover to do? Authoritarian government seems to be gaining by leaps and bounds. Again. Did humanity learn nothing over the past hundred years? This time authoritarian government is using captured corporations to crack down on liberty in ways it can’t usually get away with, at least in America, due to that pesky Constitution. Authoritarianism also uses the lies of “safety” and “national security.” A variety of tools, all leading to one miserable place. There is...
Much of the American public is understandably stirred up over the suspicious prison death of Putin’s critic, Alexei Navalny. Yet America’s anti-American prison industry is also filled with political prisoners. More than anywhere else in the world, by a wide margin. Including political prisoners like Ross Ulbricht. This doesn’t even count heroes like Julian Assange, held by other governments to appease the U.S. government. Or those heroes living under asylum in other count...
People don’t always do what you want. I’m not even talking about those who decide to rob others at knifepoint, which I’m sure you don’t want them to do. I’m talking about when someone chooses to do their own thing based on different values, preferences, and information. When they make a choice you wouldn’t have made. A choice you might think is a mistake, based on your values, preferences, and information. How we handle these situations says a lot about who we are. Some c...
I’m not watching television today. It’s impossible for me to care less about a sporting event -- a game -- than I do. A good thing about sports contests: it’s safe to not care. The outcome doesn’t grant the winning team power to threaten my life, steal my property, or violate my liberty. The winners will not inherit an army of career rights violators who imagine their job is to control how the rest of us live. I can ignore the event without danger. I wish all silly contests we...
It is often said there are two kinds of people. What kinds? It depends on the point being made. Yet, it’s usually true, if incomplete. In this case, I’m talking about two kinds of people where liberty is concerned. There are people who are authoritarian and people who are libertarian; those who want everyone else controlled and those who don’t feel any such need. Politics boils down to controlling someone in some way, so most politics is authoritarian. Maybe all politics. Both...
Like Thomas Jefferson, "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it." I also know there can be no such thing as "too much liberty" since liberty -- freedom tempered with responsibility -- is self-regulating. Jefferson knew this, too, since he was smarter than me, but he may have been trying to get his point across to someone less aware. There are also people who are scared of liberty. Liberty is...
Most politicians remind me of bungling bank robbers who get foiled in their clownish attempts to rob a bank. Rather than being sorry or changing their ways, they decide they’ll rob two banks tomorrow. Instead of robbing banks, though, they keep committing the greater crime of “gun control.” New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, seems to want to be on the Most Wanted list for gun-law criminals, right up there with the worst dictators in history. On one hand, how emb...
Respecting others’ liberty will go a long way toward freeing you. If you truly understand liberty, you’ll know why. There’s no reason to enslave yourself with the desire to control the rightful behavior of others. By encouraging you to respect other people’s liberty, I offer you the chance to increase your own, which eventually increases my liberty. It’s like a snowball rolling downhill. So is the opposite effect of looking to restrict -- to violate -- the liberty of others...
You are never obligated to cooperate with anyone trying to violate your rights. Never, for any reason. It will be dangerous to refuse to help them violate you, but in such circumstances, cooperation is just as dangerous. Once someone has decided to harm you, you’re not going to escape without a scratch. Especially when they claim to have the imaginary, magical quality they call “authority.” They’ll try to make you sorry you didn’t help them hurt you. They’ll do their best...
There haven’t been many years where, as New Year’s Day approached, I thought “I’m glad I survived this one; I wasn’t sure I would.” This has been one of those years. It was a year marked with unrelated random health emergencies, financial crises partly caused by those health emergencies, and general trouble. I’m glad to see the year end and I’m hoping next year will be better. If your past 12 months were rough, I hope the coming year is smooth sailing. If the past year has b...
Just about the most valuable gift any human can give another is to fully respect the other person’s liberty. As long as they aren’t harming anyone else’s life, liberty, or property you don’t interfere. Live and let live. You can do this for those you love and for those you only tolerate. You can even give this gift to people you don’t like at all; people whose way of life or politics is disgusting to you, as long as they aren’t victimizing anyone. The hardest part is being ho...
Most people don’t seem to want liberty. Many of them want freedom, but they aren’t interested in the responsibility that comes with liberty. A majority want to feel safe and comforted. They want guarantees. They want the familiar, even when the familiar is guaranteed to be harmful to them. They don’t want the uncertainties that come with liberty. Uncertainties are a fact of life, like it or not. Some of them would like liberty for themselves but are terrified of allow...
It would be nice if you could set liberty in motion and forget about it. Unfortunately, like a clock, you will at least have to keep winding it or replacing the battery. Or, if it has a cord, you must rely on someone else to keep the power flowing. As long as others insist on keeping government around, liberty will have to be maintained. Some consider this a flaw. I wonder if these people took one shower years ago and expect it to last. Entropy happens. Things tend to crumble...
