Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Are you ready for liberty? How ready? Few people are sufficiently ready for liberty to be willing to let go of government. At least not totally. Even while complaining about the corruption, expense, and incompetence that infects government at every level, they look for excuses to keep it around. They believe it can be fixed. I shake my head in wonder. What could they be thinking? Do they fear a free society? A society without someone else to run their life and make their...
In the aftermath of the Clovis library shootings, the community seemed plagued by fear for days. Fortunately, it seems to have mostly passed. Yes, a very bad thing happened, but do you want fear to limit your life? It’s your choice. Every bad thing that happens, happens to good people. If it happened only to bad people, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. Bad things will happen to you. It’s guaranteed. Your worst day will start off feeling just like every other day. You will never...
How do you tell your daughter, on her 10th birthday, that her friend has been murdered? There isn’t a good way, but I was forced to give it my best shot last week. I know I wasn’t the only one; a lot of grieving parents around here shared the same experience with their children. My daughter grew up with Miss Krissie Carter at the library. The love she showed all the kids who came to share her world of books and crafts made her a favorite. I sat through many a preschool sto...
Each time there’s some potential calamity on the horizon, I hope people will have learned this truth from history: Government can’t protect you. I am usually disappointed. Whether it’s a hurricane, blizzard, disease epidemic, economic collapse, or the aquifer running dry, your safety is not government’s responsibility; it’s yours. In most cases they couldn’t solve the problem if they tried. All they can do is spend money that isn’t theirs to spend, hold meetings so they’ll app...
If I were to give advice to the Leftist protesters across the country, it would include this: Ignore the monuments of your enemies. I have no love for those who built and strengthened the government. Any government. I consider it ridiculous to memorialize such people in bronze. But their statues can serve as reminders of past mistakes. Plus, they are useful pigeon roosts. When you remove statues and monuments, you haven’t erased bad events of the past. You’ve hidden their rem...
If they have to debate it, declare it, or convince the public it’s necessary, war is not justified. The only ethical war is the one where you have no choice; where you see the whites of their eyes coming down your street. Fighting them “over there” so you don’t have to “fight them here” makes you the aggressor; the invader. You have become what you claim to be fighting. If you want the thrill of war, and want to go help someone else defend themselves from invaders coming down...
When an innocent person falls victim to a tragic accident, I hurt along with everyone else. Yet I part ways with most others when they start calling for the blood of the person who caused the accident. Or the modern version of calling for blood — punishment imposed by the government’s laws and justice system. This isn’t justice. Accidents are never crimes. It doesn’t matter how much harm was done. It doesn’t matter how they make you feel. Accidents lack a key component...
The world has plenty of problems and something needs to change. Just about everyone agrees on this point, even if the details they’d like to change differ. Everyone probably believes they have some of the solutions, too. Assuming the change you want is actually good, and your solution would work, how do you put it in motion? How do you make sure you don’t make things worse if the change you want, or your path to get there, turns out to be disastrous? How about not trying to...
The belief that good things can come through government is based in the superstitious belief that the wrong thing can be done in just the right way. It’s a Utopian dream. Make no mistake, everything governments do is built upon a rotted foundation. I’m not Utopian. I know people aren’t angels, but I also know they aren’t as bad as believers in government make them out to be. People usually do what they believe is in their best interest. Belief in government makes stealin...
Contrary to enlightened opinion, I believe there are only two genders, male and female — with the occasional rare fluke of nature resulting in what used to be called a hermaphrodite. I don’t believe in the grab bag of genders that seems so trendy these days, nor do I believe in the validity of choosing non-binary gender identities, apart from those occasional rarities I mentioned above. I believe in biology. Yes, it’s a shameful confession, revealing one of my terrible short...
Mark your calendars — the Supreme Court got something right. Amazing, I know. What occurred on this notable occasion? They admitted the First Amendment protects “hate speech.” Of course it does. It’s absurd to think there was ever any question. They didn’t go far enough and still managed to miss the important point, though. It’s not because the Bill of Rights creates any rights — it’s because it recognizes that no government has the authority to violate rights, includi...
Besides being an experienced negotiator, I’m beginning to suspect President Trump might be an excellent magician. Or, at least an expert in misdirection. He gets observers to focus on one hand’s flamboyant flourishes, while doing the work he wants to accomplish with the hand they aren’t paying attention to. If you don’t believe this, notice how he says and does trivial, even silly, things that get all the attention. While people are laughing at him, he is doing things that cou...
I am completely in love with liberty. My own, yours, and everyone else’s. I want more people to understand it, love it, and live it. I am not afraid of you having and enjoying liberty to the fullest extent humanly possible. Freedom is not the same as liberty, although many confuse the two. While freedom can seem nice, it can also be a problem. Freedom is doing whatever you want to do, and some people want to do terrible things. Some even want to govern other people. While e...
A well-lived life is a journey to be a better person than the person you were yesterday. Perhaps, In the process, even to leave the world a little better for your having been here. How will you go about it? I suppose it depends on how you define “better person.” You can’t get there without knowing where you want to go. Nor can you get there by going in the opposite direction. To me, being a “better person” means being kind when you can. It means not being a burden on others...
Ayn Rand wrote “There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.” Welcome to today. You are guilty; you may not have been caught yet. When the laws are complicated, confusing, and contradictory, people will incriminate themselves by trying to stay “l...
Responsibility seems to be in short supply these days. It’s an endangered species; unpopular and under-valued. It doesn’t have to be this way. Being responsible isn’t hard. Don’t hurt anyone on purpose, and be accountable if you hurt someone by accident. Clean up after yourself. When you finish with something, put it back where you got it. Do what you say you’ll do. Do you live responsibly, or do you leave a trail of disgusted victims in your wake? If a person drives da...
It is important to know where you stand on issues, and why. It’s equally important to understand the position others take. Especially when those positions are the opposite of yours. To understand the other side, you need to talk to them, and to read things written from their perspective. It might be unpleasant, but it’s necessary. I don’t mean you should join them to participate in things you know are wrong. Never violate your principles, but learn why they believe what they...
It’s 2017, ObamaCare is morphing into TrumpCare, and it’s still not about “care.” Instead, it’s about government controlling a huge segment of the economy, taking away choice, and robbing people to pay for things they may not want. Government has no business meddling in medicine. People are also still arguing over whether healthcare is a right. All rights concern what others have no right to do to you, not what others owe you. For example: no one has a right to forbid yo...
I love libraries, parks and zoos. However, I'm not selfish enough to believe other people should subsidize things I enjoy. For me to force someone to hand over their hard-earned money to pay for something they don't want and won't use would be wrong. Every dollar I take is a dollar someone can't use for things such as food, the electric bill, toys for their child, or medicine. My wishes don't change theft into something moral. To have government do the taking on my behalf,...
Editor’s note: Vincent Heredia of Benton, Arkansas, last week pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in connection with the 2015 death of Cheyenne McManigal. He was sentenced to 72 months in prison. Kent McManigal’s letter was provided to the court in connection with sentencing: Dear Mr. Heredia, Your bad choices led to the death of my beloved daughter. But I don’t hate you, and I hope this tragedy serves as a wake-up call for you. I would like to see you turn your life aroun...
Tuesday was the day sometimes called “Tax Day.” It’s not exactly a holiday, and about as far from a “holy day” as it’s possible to imagine. Some people get tired of libertarians pointing out that taxation is theft. Particularly those whose paychecks depend on this particular form of theft. Whatever you call it, when someone demands you hand over some of your property, threatening to hurt you in some way if you don’t comply, it’s not the act of a good person. How excited wer...
Property rights is a pillar of civilization — a pillar that is crumbling from neglect, abuse, and misunderstanding. As long as your use of your property doesn’t damage other people or their property in a tangible way, it’s no one else’s business. This applies to trash, vermin, odors and dust, holes, and nuclear waste. What if your mess won’t stay put on your property? What about someone who drains the aquifer? Arbitration and restitution could ease these sorts of problems,...
Water is a necessary ingredient for life, second only to air in importance. Even our food supply depends on the ready availability of water. Our primary local water supply, the Ogallala Aquifer, is dwindling. Whether or not you believe this is an imminent threat, there is no doubt it’s not being replenished fast enough to keep up with demand. This can’t continue without causing real trouble at some point. For some people in the area, the future is now. Several factors ove...
Almost everyone seems to have opinions about what you and I should or should not do. Most are willing to impose their opinions through laws, which they are willing to have enforced with violence. Their opinions run the gamut: You should be patriotic. You should be compassionate to the underprivileged. You should be responsible. You should leave risky jobs to the professionals. You should pay any tax a government claims you owe. You shouldn’t own dangerous things. You should o...
Utopia isn’t an option. Even if you had the power to set up society the way you think it should be, reality would step in and make your Utopia imperfect. Expect the unexpected and remember it’s impossible to plan for everything. The most important thing to keep in mind: No one can design a society. The belief that it can be done is a conceit common to governments and people who believe in them. Societies grow from the bottom up, they are not designed or imposed from the top...
