Traditions and Ideals

Prejudice, immature attitudes, and unbecoming behaviour have no place in any rational society. This goes along with the fact that members make such a society what it is in the eyes of non-members. Actions which bring criticism upon the members bring criticism upon that society.

Prejudice is a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue. An immature attitude lacks sensitivity or intelligence in outlook. Unbecoming behaviour impairs the quality of the actor's life or that against whom such behaviour is directed.

All Hail Heroic Actors

Definitions:

1. Hero = someone who saves, or tries to save, at least one life, even though such endeavor can, or does, lead to his own death.
2. Heroic = type of action by a hero to save, or try to save, at least one life, even though such action can, or does, lead to his own death. Used as a way of assigning virtue to the hero’s action, thereby elevating the esteem that others have of him.

Philosophic assumptions:

1. We who will die owe to others an obligation to delay their own deaths.
2. Those others who will die owe to us an obligation to delay our own deaths.
3. We owe an allegiance to a metaphysical thing defined by real estate property lines, because we live on such real estate with the permission of somebody, especially if we were born on it, or if we promised to obey somebody as a condition of permitted residency, or something like that. Frequently called a homeland, a country, a state, or a ‘hood.
4. We are required as a condition of living to adore heroes because somebody told us to. Since heroes save lives, or try to anyway, they deserve to be canonized, regardless of how they saved, or tried to save, lives.
5. We must prevent any possibility of death, however remote or close, even if such prevention exculpates other death.
6. Actions by individuals define collective character.
7. Collective character justifies individual tactics.
8. Assume does not mean to make an ass of you and me.

Let us assume that a government employee aka Our Guy (OG) deliberately lays on a grenade launched by a government employee aka Their Guy (TG), fatally absorbs its explosive impact, for the time being prevents the deaths of other OGs, and is posthumously lauded.

By definition, he is a hero. By definition, his actions are heroic. His actions define the survivors as heroes too. When the surviving OGs kill an aggregate of any number of TGs before they go home they too, must be adored. Who knows how many lives at home were saved by the deaths of any number of TGs?

Let us assume that an OG single handedly wipes out 4 TG machine gunners and saves 15 of his OG buddies from being killed by TGs.

He is a hero by definition. His actions define his buddies as heroes too. Since they’re heroes by association, their behaviour is heroic. If they kill any number of TGs they are saving any number of lives at home and deserve adoration by residents of the homeland or whatever.

Let’s assume an OG casts a puppy from a cliff. He is a hero because he is an OG. An OG is a hero by association because the buddies of the machine-gun-nest exterminator, heroes by association, are OGs. See how that works? Whatever he does is heroic. He is preventively saving your life by terminating any possibility that the puppy could infect you with rabies or some other lethal disease. Never mind that the puppy is on the other side of the planet, would not ever make its way to you, and therefore would not be able to infect you. The thought counts.

Let’s assume an OG in a chair remotely controls a combat drone into launching a missile into a wedding party. That’s OK. It does not matter that he killed people who were adjacent to the missile target. He is a hero because he prevented the possibility that any of the wedding party members could kill you. Never mind that they had never heard of you, had no interest in you, were all about their wedding, and were barely acquainted with the target. The thought counts.

Let’s assume that OGs come home and, at the direction of their supervisors, watch over you to protect you from TGs. The OGs direct your movements and your activities. They search you and your property at any time. They collect and safeguard your possessions, including firearms. They do this to save you from dying without permission from somebody else, even if this means killing you to get your cooperation. The thought counts.

Aren't these OGs wonderful? Don't you feel secure knowing that these heroes are willing to save lives by taking lives?

Warning: this essay contains Swiftian Analytical Logic Elements (SALEs). Readers who are deficient in SALEs acumen may be offended.

Reader indiscretion is not advised.

This essay is for entertainment only.

It has not been evaluated by any Federal agency, nor is it intended to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any condition.

2010.08.28

They're All Just Like That!

Folks have tried to demonise other folks by claiming that individual responsibility defines collective character.  They then claim that collective responsibility defines individual character.  This view conflicts with the axiom of self-sovereignty: that you own your own life.  Your actions define your character.  You are responsible for how you turn out. 

So, through the years, different groups of folks were blamed for misfortunes because some of the group members committed atrocities

• Jews who manipulated financial events for their own benefit, canibalised children, and want to take over the world.
• Catholics who molested boys, tortured believers who didn't practice the faith correctly, and want to take over the world. 
• Germans who practiced Occult procedures, killed Jews, and want to take over the world.
• Communists who made everyone equally poor, killed landowners, and want to take over the world.
• Mexicans who stole jobs, reproduced indiscriminately, and want to take over the world.
• Teenagers who consumed without end, copulated all the time, and want to take over the world.
• Muslims who abused women and boys, killed non-believers, and want to take over the world.  

In each example critics claim that everybody in the referenced group wants to take over the world.   In each example some folks committed acts that reflected poorly on the group of which they were members.  In each example critics want to use coercion to address the concerns they have about their targeted group.   

I read that a group of folks witnessed a man hanging a seven-year-old boy, and didn't intervene.  How about that?  So now, somebody else wants to kill everybody in the area in which this man killed the boy.  She wants to blow up the whole town as an object lesson to others about what will happen to them if they kill, or permit someone else to kill, a child.  The objects of her ire are adherents to a belief system different from her own. 

An estimated two dozen teenagers at a dance watched some guys beat, rob, and rape a girl their age(15 years old) over a two-hour period.  They took pictures.  They shared those pictures.  They texted about what they saw.  Some laughed and cheered.  They went back into the dance or elsewhere.  They just went on with their lives.   Isn't that wonderful? Outraged folks have demanded that these bystanders should be busted for allowing the guys to assault the girl.   Some folks have actually suggested that those who shared the pictures should be busted on child porn charges.

In each case, folks condemn the bystanders because they did not intervene to stop the actions by the perpetrators.  In each case folks want(ed) government employees to bust the bystanders.  Or to kill them.

A problem is that when government employees act, they do so using stolen money.  Money that government employees collected from folks by threatening to harm or to kill them.

• Robbery is seizing another's justly-owned property without the owner's consent.
• In taxation, representatives of government seize subjects' justly-owned property without their subjects consent-always under the threat of severe penalties if they refuse to comply.
• Therefore, taxation is definitionally and morally synonymous with robbery.

Why is using stolen money to bust or kill people moral? 


14.06.2010

A History Lesson

The fight for liberty will always be hard.


There is a story about a guy who took on a very physically imposing fellow who was well armoured and well armed. The guy's sponsor weighed him down with armour and weapons. The guy could barely move, let alone fight. So the guy shucked the gear, set out with his own improvised weapon, took the fellow down, and capped him using his own sword.


We who wish to advance liberty may need to learn from that story.


2010.06.09

Random Quotes

1. "Freedom in its most elemental state is the power to withdraw one's consent when the State-or anyone else-lays an improper claim to one's life or property." -Will Grigg 'Reflections on Resurrection Sunday: We're Commanded to be Free' ProLiberate 3.23.2008  http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2008/03/from-jay-robinson-actor.html
2. Garbage in, Gospel out -Howard Hayden
3. Sacred cows make the best hamburger. - Mark Twain
4. A man’s greatest pleasure is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them that which they possess, to see those whom they cherish in tears, to ride their horses, to hold their wives and daughters in his arms. -Ghengis Khan
5. Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.--Gandhi
6. How do we solve all the world's problems?  Get the hungry to eat the homeless.-http://www.jokes2go.com/qtoday.html
7. "We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing." --attributed to Mother Teresa
8. "Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
   Watch your words, for they become actions.
   Watch your actions, for they become habits.
   Watch your habits, for they become character.
   Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny."
   -Lao Tzu quoted by Monty Roberts, 'The Man Who Listens to Horses' 
9. 'But where everyone is blind-- who misses the day, who notices the darkness?'--Joan D Vinge, 'The Crystal Ship' 
10. 'Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own'--Robert Heinlein, 'Stranger in a Strange Land'
11. "Systems get improved to unusability". That's one of 'Converys Rules'. It applies to Nations as well as software. -Andrew Convery 
12. "To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality."--Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, 'General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century'
13. 'When then does humankind recognize that Freedom is a birthright of all, and that to ensure ones own birthright that one must fight not only for their own freedoms, but those of others as well?'--Two Wolf @ BikerorNot.com
14. "And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more—we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward."--Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago Vol. I, pg. 13 (footnote 5)
15. 'During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.'-Georg Orwell
16. ‎.....sometimes people don't want/need to be rescued from their storm they just need someone to ride out the storm with them!--Jane Bookham
17. What is individual freedom and what is the proper function of law? Liberty is the absence of human intervention with the endeavors of an individual to utilize his life, liberty, and property (and all adjunct rights flowing therefrom) as he sees fit and for the ends he desires, limited only by the equal liberty of all individuals in society.
    — Ridgway K. Foley, Jr., The Freeman [June 1971]
    
18. "One tragic fact is plain to see: There are too many Americans who simply fear Muslims more than they love or understand freedom."-Will Grigg, ‘Hysterical Blindness’ Pro Libertate 3.24.2011
    
19. The universe began with a word. But which came first: the word or the thought behind the word? You can't create language without thought, and you can't conceive a thought without language, so which created the other, and thus created the universe?--Tom Hood [December 2011] 
20.  "Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive." --Josephine Hart
21. .    “green” is really red – or brown.  And it’s all about control.--Eric Peters comment on August 5, 2012 at 9:39 am at http://ericpetersautos.com/2012/08/02/v2v-the-end-of-driving-by-you-anyhow
22.  Truth, the new hate speech.  ---Art Wilmeth on Facebook during a comment thread 2012.12.30
23. We fight cathartic battles, and win Pyrrhic victories. --Nash Montana at https://www.facebook.com/montananash/posts/653225644710569 
24. Now that freedom has been abolished in America you all hereby have my permission to shout “Bullshit!” at any member of the military, military veteran, or neocon blabbermouth on television who says the military is “defending our freedoms.” --Thomas DiLorenzo, 'This Proves that There is No More Need for the U.S. Military' at https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/this-proves-that-there-is-no-more-need-for-the-u-s-military/ https://tinyurl.com/yaqpb67b 

http://danceofthefuries.blogspot.com/2010/05/random-quotes.html                               

http://danceofthefuries.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/5-random-quotes/

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling on the Road to Sturgis

Every year at the beginning of August thousands of motorcyclists converge on Sturgis, a small town in western South Dakota, for the Black Hills Motorcycle Classic, an event often described as 'Mecca for bikers.' Daniel Moriarty and I were among the faithful who made the pilgrimage this year.

Dan, a combo driver, rode his new-looking burnt red 1983 Harley Davidson XLX Sportster. I rode 'Gomer,' a ratty black 1968 XLH Sporster chopper. We had both just gotten our bikes out of the Iron Eagle Shop in Castaic, CA.

We left Dan's house about noon on Friday, August 2, and got to Las Vegas nine hours later. Because we were riding in very hot weather and were still breaking in the engines to our scoots, we would ride for about an hour at 50-55 mph and break for a half hour.

We left the Vegas KOA early to try to beat the heat. That was the plan, anyway. But I screwed up in packing my goodies on Gomer and held us up for at least an hour securing and re-securing my load. As we got underway, my stuff would lean to the right at about a 45 degree angle, threatening to fall off. It was a bit unsettling, and frustrating, too. After the third stop, I was able to quit worrying and enjoy the ride again.

We went north on I-15 and saw several Viking triples going south as we rode along. Before we knew it, we were out of Nevada, through Arizona, and in Utah. We turned east at I-70 and camped for the night in Richfield.

Sunday morning we rode to Salina for breakfast and gas. We knew that we faced an intimidating 108 miles to Green River without any gas stations. No problem, we thought, we'll just buy a one or two gallon gas can with gas and carry it with us. Yeah, right. None of the places we checked had gas cans that small.

Fortune smiled on us, slightly. A trucker, hearing of our plight, dug up a gallon container of window wash, distributed the contents among his buddies, and gave us the container. I filled it, bungeed it to the back of Gomer, and we were off. Well, as it turned out, we made it to the next gas station 108 miles down the road on what we had in our gas tanks. I used the gas in the container, and threw away the container.

We got as far as New Castle, CO and camped at the KOA there, a beautiful campground nestled right next to a stream in an evergreen forest, with squirrels scampering up and down the trees and birds chirping in the branches. If you are ever in that part of the world, do camp there for the night. You'll be glad you did.

The next day, we were up at sunup. An hour later, Dan and I began riding through the scenic Rockies, with green trees, multi-coloured rock formations, fantastic clouds, and lots of blue sky. We rode through Denver and turned north onto I-25 heading for Cheyenne, Wyoming.

As we got to the Wyoming border, Gomer ran out of gas! Just then a group of bros heading up to Sturgis stopped to take pictures of the border sign; one bro transferred some gas from his bike to mine, and we were able to continue.

We gassed up in Cheyenne, and seeing a fireworks store next to the station, decided to buy a few firecrackers for later. When we bought the merchandise we had to fill out a bill of lading, and the paper bag in which the firecrackers were carried had to have a hazardous material label that said, 'Explosives-Class C!' Dan and I traded jokes about transporting HM on our motorcycles before resuming our journey.

We left Cheyenne thinking we were headed north. When we crossed into Nebraska, we realised we'd taken a wrong turn somewhere. Checking our maps, we determined that we could still reach Sturgis via Highway 385.

At our last daylight gas stop, I discovered that my headlight didn't work!?!. So Dan and I rode for an hour-and-a-half in the dark using just his headlight. Believe me, I stayed real close to Dan during that time!

Thirteen hours after leaving New Castle, we stopped in Hot Springs, South Dakota for the night.

Next morning, on our way to Mount Rushmore, we were in a paradise of motorcycles. There were more Harleys than any other make, but other marques were well represented on the road. I saw VW-powered trikes, sidecar-equipped dressers, choppers, old bikes, new bikes, etc, etc.

There was a feeling of excitement all around and everyone was so friendly to each other. When we stopped for gas, we'd chat with riders from all over. It was nice, let me tell you.

When Dan and I arrived at the parking lot of Mt. Rushmore, we found a place, among the hundreds of motorcycles there, to park and dismounted. I was quite impressed with the sculpture making up the Mt Rushmore National Monument. We took some photographs of the monument, gazed at it for a while, and hit the road for Deadwood City.

In Deadwood City, we went to the Number 10 Saloon where Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead while playing poker. Dan and I played the slots until we got tired of losing. We were just havin' fun, anyway.

We rode toward Sturgis, deciding to stay at the Buffalo Chip Campground just outside of town. For less than $20 per night, we each got camping, access to food and beverages, and concerts by bands like Steppenwolf, Charlie Daniels, and the Doobie Brothers, among others. We stayed three nights there.

During the day, we'd ride to Sturgis and walk around taking in the sights, looking at motorcycles, babes, motorcycles, babes... We went to Deadwood City again, wandering around and checking out the saloons up and down the main drag.

Our last day in the area we went to Rapid City to 'Shotgun Willie's' a bar featuring strippers. There were some real beautiful ladies there, and in stark contrast to some other places to which I've been, they looked like they were having fun.

Friday morning Dan and I headed west along with Phil, an owner-operator out of the Bay area. Phil was on a late model 80" Harley and set the pace all the way to Reno.

Along the way, we stopped just east of Wright, Wyoming to photograph a herd of bison. Our concern about stampeding the herd from the noise we might make kept us from getting any real good pictures, however.

When we got to Reno, Phil went on to the Bay, Dan stayed in town to do some sightseeing, and I headed home to plan next year's trip to Sturgis.

Any Vikings wanting to go along with Dan and me are welcome to ride with us. Just contact either of us at SFV. See ya, and ride safe!


Fall 1991 Independent Times, Viking Freight

Heads Up on Delayed Onset Headache

Happy Birthday.

Your head is killing you. You puke... nothing. You are out of synch with yourself. You are tired. You just wanna go back to sleep. Good luck with that. Every sound or flash of light just pounds on you. And you get real dizzy when you close your eyes.

You are hung over.

So what happened? You remember the folks yelling at you. You remember blowing out the candles on a cake. You remember the ice cream. You remember the two big pieces of cake. You remember that you got thirsty, so you drank...a sweetened ice tea, you think. Wait, you had a birthday celebration last night. But no booze?

How did that happen? How did you manage to get a HUMONGOUS ‘just-wanna-die’ hangover without drinking yourself under a table?

When you drink an alky drink, your body turns the ethanol (alcohol) into acetic acid. Through the breakdown of glucose, aka glycolysis, acetic acid produces acetyl CoA which reduces your blood sugar level. When your blood sugar level goes down enough you can get a headache, you can feel like puking, you can feel like crap [From crapulent, sick from gluttony, from Late Latin crapulentus, very drunk, from Latin crapula, intoxication, from Greek kraipale]

When you eat or drink sugar, your body breaks down the sugar to make glucose which breaks down into carbon dioxide and water; and energy is released. Once that energy is released, your blood sugar goes down. If you eat too much sugar, you can increase your blood sugar level way up, and when the level crashes you can get sick from gluttony and feel like crap.

You got this delayed onset headache syndrome from the sugar in the cake, and in the ice cream, and in the ice tea.

Bear in mind that your results from blood sugar changes may vary from those of other folks. Some folks can drink huge amounts of alcohol and not experience a delayed onset headache. Other folks can get sick right away from drinking. And there are other folks in between. The same considerations apply with sugar consumption.

The pain associated with a hangover is a result of your body's effort to cope with the systemic overload of sugar or ethanol.

If you are diabetic, you get to manage your blood sugar level. If you are not diabetic, you get to reduce or retime your consumption of sugar or ethanol. Or, you can continue to consume at your current level and live with the pain.

So, you can get a hangover from too much sugar or alcohol. Alcohol and sugar use can lead to blood sugar level decline; such decline can lead to delayed onset headaches.

4.20.2010

Update from Dr Raeburn Forbes MD(Hons) FRCP Ed FRCP Lond
Consultant Neurologist

Dear Doc
Thanks for your enquiry to http://www.severe-headache-expert.com. I am sorry that it has taken me so long to respond, but the amount of interest has been impressive and I still feel I should respond to everyone in person.
Before I go any further, please remember that this information should be shared with your own doctor, as it is not a substitute for proper medical care.
I suspect that the most likely reason for someone having headaches associated by large intakes of sugars is migraine.  Many people with migraine experience cravings for foods (often carbs) in the hours before a migraine develops.  This then makes them think (quite reasonably) that there symptoms are secondary to the sugary food.  In fact the ingestion of this sugary food is simply an indication that a migraine is due.
Would you please discuss this possibility with your own doctor?  If this is migraine then some simple measures such as regular, quality sleep, eating healthy food regularly (enough to avoid feeling really hungry), keeping hydrated, minimising stress, keeping a healthy weight and regular gentle exercise may be all that you need to do.  There are also many effective treatments for the pain of migraine and also severeal preventative treatments - but these all work best when you try to look after yourself physically and mentally to the best of your abilities.

Regarding hangover headaches - avoiding alcohol is the only proven measure, but there are others - search hangover treatments on the website.

8.13.2010

The Slaughter of the Willing

Government employees have lied to us right from the very beginning.  The lie that hostilities between people in different groups benefits at least one of the groups is a particularly odious example.  People indoctrinate children within prisons called schools to believe that government officials grant to them their rights and government employees defend their freedoms by dying.

Coming on the heels of the shooting spree at Ft Hood in Texas, local Veterans Day Celebrations in honour of government employees were telling examples of the immense disconnect between the rationale for their behaviours and the reality of their results.

Designated folks spoke about service, including human sacrifice to the purported benefit of protected people.  Folks told stories about bravery, and courage, and discipline, and on and on.  Speakers wearing costumes festooned with ribbons extolled killing other people at the direction of their masters as defending listeners’ freedoms. 

People living within the boundaries of the American Empire currently have less freedom than previously.  With the passage of legislation regulating health care, U S Constitutional restrictions on government actions will be gone. 

Poverty has increased from War on Poverty.  Drug use increased from War on Drugs.  Terror increased from War on Terrorism. 

But freedom, that light whose protection justifies war, has dimmed.  You can be snatched away, coercively interrogated, crippled, and even killed with no recourse to you.  You do not even have to pick a pocket or break somebody’s leg to be a target.  There are plenty of government employees who are willing to target you, to pick your pocket and/or break your leg at your expense.   

You are responsible for your safety.  You may delegate such responsibility at your expense to a willing agent.  You are still ultimately answerable for your agent’s actions on your behalf, and you are still ultimately responsible for your safety.  Unless you are a willing agent to whom another delegated the responsibility for his safety you have no standing to defend anyone else.

This means that you have no business going, in the name of eradicating certain behaviour, to faraway lands to kill folks who just happened to be unlucky enough to be in the area of your hostile actions.  Hostilities against behaviour become hostilities against folks.  These folks are just like you. 

3 January 2010