Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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When it’s important, when it’s life and death, when it matters most — that’s precisely when you don’t need government involved. This is when you don’t need politicians and bureaucrats dictating a one-size-fits-all standard, backed with the threat of violence. This is when government power is most dangerous to society. I’m not only talking about unusual or emergency situations. The same applies to ordinary everyday matters, which are important for your health, safety, and gener...
Any time a court sides with a government employee, giving government more power over your life, liberty dies a little. There isn’t much liberty to spare; the last remnants are circling the drain, washed down with public apathy. Or approval. Such is the case with the recent Supreme Court of New Mexico ruling that allowed a police officer to question a vehicle passenger -- a suspected thief. You may approve of the officer’s actions, but it isn’t good for your future right...
If you depend on government -- or anyone else -- to save you from danger, you’re risking your life unnecessarily. The tragic wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui are awful beyond words. I hate when horrible things happen to people who are just going about their lives. Unfortunately, the fires were probably far more deadly than they would have otherwise been because too many people have been conditioned to be dependent on someone else to tell them when they are in danger a...
A good idea is a good idea even if it comes from the worst person on Earth. Good ideas can come from both the political right and left; conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats. When anyone on either side has a good idea I’m happy to agree with them. I’m just as eager to disagree with the bad ideas either side offers. Respecting everyone’s equal and identical rights, no matter who they are, is the best idea humans have ever had. Both political sides wade caref...
Do you ever get a tune stuck in your head; playing on a loop in your mind whether you want it to or not? Hopefully, it’s something you enjoy. For me, the sound of “liberty” is always playing in the background. Besides being something I love, it drowns out the competing songs of “safety,” “victimhood,” and “nationalism.” Those who hear those alternate songs can’t usually hear “liberty.” At best, they’ll hear the cheap substitute, “freedom”* (*void where prohibited). I try to r...
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” This quote is often attributed to George Washington, but scholars insist he never said it. Scholars consistently fact-check away intelligent quotes that support liberty. The most accurate quips and observations are usually denied as ever having been said. That’s too bad; if Washington had said...
If you don’t understand, love, or want liberty -- fine. If you’d prefer having powerful governments take most of your money, tell you what you are allowed to do, and watch your every move, go for it. It’s not my place to deprive you of what you want. I draw the line when you don’t return the consideration. When you say I am required to live under your conditions when I don’t place the same constraints on you. When you are willing to throw people in a cage for preferrin...
You’ve probably been told you should try to make a difference in the world. This is stated, especially to the young, as if it were undeniably true. Who pauses to clarify that it’s vital to make the right difference? Before you try to make a difference you need to think about whether the difference you want to make would be helpful. Every mass-murdering head of state has unquestionably made a difference. Millions dead, and millions more enslaved to an authoritarian gov...
Sometimes the ignorance and childishness of those living among us shocks me. It probably shouldn’t after this many years of life, but it still can. I don’t believe the phrase “hate crime” has any real meaning. It means whatever those who use it want it to mean; to serve a purpose they want served. It’s a government fiction used to justify extra punishments -- in other words, additional revenge. Some things called “hate crimes” aren’t even actual crimes at all. An act has to b...
I miss Independence Day. Independence Day was once a celebration of liberty; a tribute to revolution, insurrection, and secession. It has mutated into a day to worship government and its employees. It has become a parody of itself. Maybe this is why it is more commonly known today as “the Fourth of July.” This downplays its anti-government roots and dismisses independence. Of course, most of this happened before I was born, so what I miss is the idea of an Independence Day I’v...
It frustrates me that we so often allow the worst people among us to dictate how we live our lives. We arrange society according to their whims and behavior. I’m not only speaking of traditional politicians but of freelance bad guys like those who caused the Draggin’ Main “Saturday Night Cruise” event to shut down early. Recently, a shooting incident between motorcycle gang criminals in Red River caused officials there to end their Memorial Day weekend motorcycle rally e...
I’m no fan of former President Donald Trump. I’m also no fan of those who keep trying to prosecute him. It’s a stale rerun no one cares about; no one other than those who keep trying to sell it as something new. It’s past time to move on. They won’t. Is it an obsession or a vendetta? It appears to be both. His main crime, of course, is keeping their Anointed One -- Hillary Clinton -- out of the White House. Even if they deny it, I’ll always believe this is why they can’t...
I need more money. I think it’s time I raise my debt ceiling. The creditors get no vote. I’ll still be broke, but as long as I can spend someone else’s money I won’t notice. I’m accustomed to a certain standard of living and it would be unreasonable to expect me to be more responsible with my spending. After all, people make demands of me and I can’t just say no. There might be unpleasant consequences! So every year or so I’ll increase the amount of debt I allow myself to be...
I oppose allowing tornadoes to terrorize people and destroy property. Think of the children! Any politician who doesn’t support common sense weather regulation has blood on his hands. Politicians must pass a law saying tornadoes are not permitted within city limits, but only in rural areas without structures, crops, or livestock and strictly between the hours of 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. That should fix it, or at least be a good first step toward banning them entirely. Then, when p...
It’s going to take either climate change or a technological breakthrough to keep this region livable, as far as water is concerned. Drilling more wells into a shrinking aquifer or relying on pipelines connected to vulnerable reservoirs, which in turn depend on unreliable precipitation, isn’t a viable long-term strategy. Neither approach is a solution; only a temporary patch. Maybe patching the problem can get us far enough into the future for a proper solution to be fou...
The reality of not being trapped in the Republican/Democrat quicksand is that everything you say will upset one side or the other. Sometimes both. The side you upset will automatically assume you align with the other side. This is because they can’t see another option. Their range of possibilities has been pruned to nothingness. It’s like believing every movie has to be either a Star Wars movie or a Marvel superhero movie; allowing no other option to be considered. If thi...
There is a common weapon of mass murder on our streets; nearly everyone has at least one sitting around. They’ve probably been used to kill more people in total than any other weapon. They are routinely left in yards, on the streets, and scattered around town; unattended and often unlocked. One was used to kill my older daughter. Knowing this, do I believe they should be banned or regulated? No, because I’m not an idiot. I’m talking about cars. The argument to ban guns or mo...
It seems everyone falls into one of two categories: those who want everyone rigidly controlled and those who aren’t afraid of others -- those to whom this kind of control is unnecessary or even intolerable. Those who want everyone controlled have their excuses. “Life is dangerous. People aren’t responsible. There’s uncertainty in every situation.” Plus, power over others is profitable. This kind of control, using threats of government violence to force compliance, is built...
You can tell how seriously someone takes property rights by whether they support “code enforcement.” “Code enforcement” is a euphemism for government violating residents’ property rights. It’s an inexcusable justification for government to steal property or to violate other rights. Government has no rights and can never be a victim, so government isn’t owed anything for a violation. A “fine” is nothing but legalized theft used to punish. Yes, it’s a common practice but “commo...
When the residents of an area allow crime and societal decay to go unchecked, there’s nothing politicians or police can do about it. Just look at what has happened to so many of the big cities around the country. It’s not about “too few police,” as if that were even a thing. It’s about the regular people who live there allowing bad things to happen and simply accepting it or expecting someone else to do something about it. Part of the problem is lifelong training to “let the...
Is everything hopeless? The dominant cultures around the world have gone insane. Dishonest ideas, presented as normal or reasonable, are forced on us and the young and the gullible seem powerless to resist. Social media makes diseased ideas seem trendy and cool. As long as you don’t allow someone to violate you, let them be wrong. People have the right to make mistakes and you have the right to defend yourself from the consequences of their mistakes -- without violating their...
The last few years have been especially rough for those of us who aren’t fans of tyranny. Or who won’t tolerate it at all. It seems like the authoritarian control freaks of the world decided they could get away with anything. By the look of things, they might be right. No, I don’t believe they all got together in a secret supervillain conclave and decided this was their chance. I think they just did what they have always wanted to do, and the people let them do it harde...
Many situations come around on a regular basis. Christmas, summer heat, days of blowing dirt, utility bills, and election seasons with their political schemers all come back time after time like clockwork. Expect them. I don’t understand the people who seem genuinely surprised every time one of these regularly occurring events crops up again. Do they have no long-term memory? These are the people who are scrambling around in a panic when one of these things is happening t...
Whenever a government program is failing, the instinct of those who work in government is to do more of it. They insist on spending more money on it; finding ways to be more involved and controlling. It’s a bad instinct and leads to bigger failures. Eventually, failures so big they cause a collapse. It’s only a matter of time and degree. One recent example in the news involves public schools. Schools fail to educate adequately, so government sentences the school inmates --...
How concerned are you when it looks like the banking system is teetering on the verge of collapse? Do looming nationwide economic disasters worry you? Banks are encouraged, perhaps even required, to follow government’s poor financial policies. Sometimes this is going to come back to bite them and hurt their customers. It’s smart to have alternatives. It’s fine to keep using government’s money -- the equivalent of Monopoly “money,” if you know what money is -- as long as it...
