Musings

And not one bit too soon for me ... Yesterday was wrapped up in traveling, so I used the road time for a lot of thinking on this past year. Not surprisingly (to those who know me and/or have read this blog from its beginning), I concluded that I fucked up a lot of things. I'm already working on ways to turn that around -- be warned, you may hear my new mantra (It will be better because I will make it better) a lot over the next few months.

Funny ... I've never made new year's resolutions (figuring if one wants to change, one shouldn't wait until the start of a year to do it) and never really attached much significance to the turning of the calendar numbers over to 1/1/whatever. But, this time, I'm truly glad to be on the cusp of seeing 2004 entirely in my rear view mirror.

Speaking of rear view mirrors, it's time to get back on the road .... lotsa miles still to cover to get home.

G'morning all!

I do apologize for the delay between spurts; t'was much longer than intended (and desired). Our last hotel didn't have wireless, and since then getting connected has been an interesting set of challenges. But, I'm now sitting in a wan Arizona morning, taking the chill off with a latte and trying to persuade my fingers to remember how to type.

Too many things to tell about this morning, and I've not the time to read the previous posts and links, although I'm aching to ... as much as I've enjoyed being Nature Girl, scampering around the mountains and through the washes, I do miss all my friends, all of whom I can connect with via email, or through places like this blog. Many eschew the online world as purely virtual, but they're wrong. The connections made through email, blogs, and web sites that a person values are just as real as friendships formed in meatspace. In my experience, they've the advantage of being based on shared values and interests, rather than happenstance ... the few friends I have remaining from high school/college days are those whose interests and/or ways of being mesh well with mine. And it is a very small number. But my online sphere of friends keeps expanding, as I find like-minded liberty-loving people and they find me ... sure, we don't always agree, and not all the friendships endure, but they -- for me thus far, at least -- are more genuine, more real than most of the meatspace-formed friendships I've had.

Enough rambling already ... I miss y'all, but I've been enjoying the quiet and solitude of the desert as well. I've been taking some notes, so perhaps when I return I'll share more details here, or in an essay. Hope everyone had a good Newton's birthday/Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/winter solstice celebration. I've been more reflective than I'd intended on this trip (I think Lobo was right -- I needed the vacation more than I realized); and one thing that's come out of that time is the conviction that 2005 will be a better year for me than 2004 was. It will happen because I will make it so.

Lobo, Snolfs, and Squinkies, I love you all lots -- please share a generous portion of snake pounces among yourselves as fill-ins until I return to deliver in person. All my other friends -- especially Cat, Tom, Susan, Elias & LL, RQ, and too many more to name 'em all -- I miss you too, and thank you for enriching my life with your many contributions.

My comments yesterday on consumer privacy violations have generated some interesting responses. While I understand and share Nathan's frustration with the apparent valuation of profit above everything else (that's what I'm reading in to his comment, and I'll slither corrected if I'm wrong about it), I also appreciate Mama Liberty's brief but powerful defense of profit and the free market.

That means, of course, I'm going to slither in here and toss my opinions around some.

Bob Wallace has written a reminiscence of his High School days and commentary on what government schooling has done to childhood, adolescence and our society. His essay is called Meaningless High School. It's a good essay and refers to a very good book that was reviewed a while back for LRC by a "denizen" here: Charley Hardman. That book is Farmer Boy and here's Charley's review. Farmer Boy was one of my son's favorites when he was just starting to read real books.

But wait there's more.... The movie in which Claramae Turner sings "When you walk through a storm" is Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel. It may be my favorite musical, although it is hard for me to pick favorites in an area where there is so much that is good. Anyway, I reviewed Carousel this week. It is a republication of one of the reviews I wrote when I edited a print newsletter, with some new material added at the end. Carousel is being shown on the Fox Movie Channel several times this month. Also, the DVD, easy to find for sale or rent, is digitally remastered and sounds very good even in "just plain stereo," without a full blown home theater system. Schedules (and links to further info) are on the Endervidualism "This Weekend" page.

That's all for now from me, enjoy.

Sigh ... I'm still battling a baffling computer problem which kept me from doing much of anything over the weekend. But it gave me a lot of decent thinking-time ... not that I made good use of that either. Lobo's recent entry captures some of what's occupying my mind, too ... there's always too many things to do for an engaged pro-freedom individual, and too little time (and for most of us, money). It doesn't help that I'm wrapped up in pondering the past, while I should be preparing for the future ...

However, this morning I broke out of my self-absorption and finished an essay/rant that I hope to see published soon. I'm going to be off in a few moments to make yet more fruit leather, and do other preparations for an upcoming extended camping trip. (That's why -- besides the fact that the snolfs love it -- all the fruit leather is being made.) I'm hoping to get a couple other essays out of my system before I leave ... we'll see how that goes.

Today it's white on white here ... we had a bit of snow last night, just enough to whiten the ground, and after the snow stopped it got foggy. Not a gray fog, but a white one. Very pretty, but still somewhat somber ... or maybe that's in my head. Guess that's my cue to stop, as I'm getting self-absorbed again.

Seems like there have been times in my life when I achieved some balance between work and the necessities of existence, on the one paw, and the time it takes to nurture a family and friendships, on the other. It also seems like it has been a long time since it has been that way ... not since I left Wyoming.

My new work is not as all-consuming as my fundraising work (when you're raising money for a non-profit doing valuable work with insufficient funds, there's no end to the number of places you could look), but is full of regular deadlines that pretty much fill my work week. What little time is left gets lapped up by the snolfs pretty quick ... most of my friends must think I've turned to dust and blown away in the autumn winds.

It's not very romantic, but friendship does take time -- were I to start new dialogs with all my friends online, I could easily spend more time on those conversations than I do at work. I'm reminded of that Kinks song, where the singer laments: "Love takes time, and time is money, and money is scarce." The heart rebels. Love should conquer all, or so our fairy tales teach us. But it doesn't. Poverty conquers love 99 times out of 100, or maybe that's an overly optimistic ratio. (Billy Joel floats up in my mind: "They started to fight, when the money got tight ...") So, for love's sake, as well as many other important values, you gotta do what you gotta do to pay the rent and keep food on the table. This year, I am not going to make it back east to visit with the folks over the holidays. Sigh ...

But I am working on reducing the pecuniary demands on my time, over time. If my friends will bear with me, I should be able to emerge from my work/family shell in less than a year, and be a more visible participant in my friendships once again.

I'm not unhappy, friends, just a little wistful that I can't fit 30/10 into 24/7.

Wolfy hugs to you all.

Another foggy day here; a good day for mulled cider and indoor games. Before I head off to play with the snolfs, I just rediscovered the site that's my featured link this week: Orwell Today. I don't agree with every view expressed there (e.g., the current JFK-worship getting a lot of space on the home page), but the site's a great resource for orwellian news from around the world.

And it's a sobering reminder that every day is Orwell Today.

However good the Swiss gov may be on RKBA, they stink when it comes to alcohol. From SwissInfo comes the news that the Swiss will have a tough standard for DUI come the new year:

Drivers are being told that the new 0.5 milligrams per millilitre limit equals one glass of wine or other alcoholic beverage, and that they may not exceed that level.

Police can stop cars randomly for alcohol tests ... and check out the penalties for overimbibing and driving: if the BAC is between 0.5 and 0.8 mg/ml (which is the current legal limit), a driver can get three months in jail and a fine of just under $4300 (U.S.)!!

It's for citizen safety, of course. Can't be that they want all the cash that could come rolling in under this new Prohibition program ... FYI, the article says that the 0.5 mg/ml legal limit is roughly one glass of beer or wine -- so what they really mean, apparently, is "Just Say No".

Now, just to be clear, I have no problem with being tough on individuals whose irresponsible behavior causes harm to another -- especially if the destroyer is a repeater. But coming after individuals solely for the mere presence of some molecules in the bloodstream is ridiculous -- and has only gotten more absurd, as this zero tolerance mindset regarding alcohol escalates.

Yes, I drink alcohol -- maybe a glass or two a night. Sometimes -- gasp! -- I'll have a rum and coke or a black Russian during the day. The combination of alcohol and caffeine helps my writing tremendously. But, unless I drink on a completely empty stomach, that amount of alcohol has very little effect on my driving skills. I know when I'm impaired enough not to drive, and I don't. Or, rather, I didn't. Now, of course, I don't drive if I've had anything to drink, since the JBTs are ever-vigilant against DUI. Funny thing is, if I were to take one of several decongestant medications widely available, I'd be so mentally foggy I wouldn't trust myself to do much beyond lie on my bed and watch the ceiling spin. But under this increasingly worldwide view of "good substance, bad substance", I'd be "safe" to drive.

With the anti-caffeine hysteria heating up, I wonder how long it'll be before driving while caffeinated will be outlawed ...

The Salty Pig and I (and I gotta say, that name tweaks my fancy in all kinds of ways) engaged in a bit of an exchange triggered by a recent blog entry of his. His point (well, one of them) is that "ego is the great killer of man". Although I didn't respond to that in my comment, it set me to thinking, and while I still don't have any clear answers, I want to explore this a bit here. More male/female stuff (but no hormones this time!) behind the magick link ...

I'm used to hearing rather tepid defenses of liberty from many of those involved with the LP. My term for these people is "Longer Leash Libertarians": they aren't unhappy being slaves, they just think that their masters should give them a bit more rein. Following the link that Sunni posted earlier to the ongoing argument at the Statrix, I soon found myself on another site reading the article that started it, entitled "The Quick Way To Lose Your Rights".

It seems that the quick way to lose our rights would be to actually attempt to use them...

I now find myself in need of a new term to describe those who call themselves Libertarians, yet think that their leash is plenty long enough already, and who urge their fellows not to tug too hard on their leashes, lest our masters get peeved and reel-in some of the slack they so generously allow us. Any ideas?

The accusations regarding vote fraud, particularly in areas that used electronic voting machines, continue apace. I've been keeping an eye on them with some interest, and also a healthy dose of skepticism. Thus it is that I wish my friend and former FMN colleague Tom Knapp would have provided more substantial information in his Right Before Our Eyes blog entry. He worked in the Badnarik campaign, and saw, as the election returns came in, a "systematic descent" in Badnarik's vote count.

It had struck me as odd that, with all the talk about third parties' importance this year, and many more nonvoting libertarians among my acquaintance than usual stating that they were going to vote this year, and vote for Badnarik, that his total was so low. Even more odd was the fairly uniform 1% total for Badnarik across all states ... I saw that in an early return and don't know if that's stayed the case (but here's a long Slashdot thread with some good signal amidst the noise if you want to look into it).

Tom's right that it doesn't require a massive conspiracy to effect this sort of thing. And, speaking as a rusty statistician, what he's describing seems very unlikely to happen by chance alone. But Tom doesn't provide much data to poke into.

Oh. Yeah. No complete paper trail to check. How convenient, that.

I'm studiously avoiding news sites this morning (with one exception that I'll get to in a moment), in part because I've been busy whittling down my backlog of work, but in larger part because the Fallujah "liberation" sickens me. How much more "liberating" can the Iraqis take? Reminds me of the link I saw (but didn't have the stomach to follow) over at The Statrix: www.freedom.gov. I kid you not. Since that entry, he's found some other appalling gov sites too. Bleah.

The news site I check 'most every day is Wired, because while they do cover mainstream news to some degree, they focus on stuff that matters to me. Civil liberties, tech and science news, privacy ... cool stuff and important stuff. The item that caught my attention this morning is the one on zero-energy homes. Makes me want to get back to Wyoming (or Montana) all the more ... Skeptical Man, you wanna be my home designer? :)

Meanwhile, I'm still arguing with myself about whether I should undertake the project that I'm considering ... I'd dropped off of forums and email lists, and quit Free-Market.Net, in large part to relax, but also to focus on creating greater personal freedom. But I seem unable to stay away from The Cause. And truth be told, I think my mind's already made up to proceed, but I just don't want to admit it to myself yet.

Almost added this paragraph to an essay tonight, but it seemed more appropriate for a less formal setting... ;)

Politicians like to think they can exercise power on behalf of their constituents. Oh? If your senator pees on your behalf, will you feel better? If your congressman eats dinner for you, will it fill your stomach? BS. The best they can do to relieve your pain is pass a law to make you to pee in a cup to prove you're not taking 'street' drugs, or invite you to a fundraising dinner at hundreds or thousands of dollars per head. The only power most "representatives" know how to exercise is power over people... I guess some people get into that sort of thing. Me, I'll exercise my own power and mind my own waist, etc.

Sigh. It's Monday again...

Now that I'm no longer Speechless, thanks to Vin's novel The Black Arrow, and now that I'm an unemployed slacker, you'd think I'd have more time to write. But no, I don't ... I'm still behind in obligations to folks (although I'm slowly making progress), and am doing contract work until I find/create another more permanent income stream.

Those things seem not to bother the idea generator in my mind, though, that has been cranking things out willy-nilly for the past couple of weeks. And, now that I've finished my last bit of work and need to let the feeling come back to a couple of my fingertips, I'm going to take today off from the computer and play a bit.

Meantime, here's Mike Rogers' observation on something of relevance to the next essay that emerges from my mind: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?.

And, a meme I've touched on before, but never in as clever a way as Morpheus from The Statrix has: Libertarian Brain Teaser #1.

My wonderful friend Fran Van Cleave sets up my topic for today’s rumination quite well, in her essay at LewRockwell.com titled Political Primate.

Yes, I’m going to talk about hormones. Unlike Fran, though, I’m going to talk mostly about wimmen’s hormones. TMI warning for the gents, and possibly for some femmes as well ...