“But it shows what government can do when it tries to fix a problem.”

I prefer:

1. Define a problem, any problem.
2. Establish a government entity to address the problem.
3. Tie the budget of the entity to the size of the problem.
4. Watch the problem grow.

The first rule of ANY organism or organization is to survive. Why would you expect any organization to solve the problem when such a solution would result in the demise of the organization?

The second rule of ANY organism or organization is to grow. Why would you expect any organization to reduce the problem which would result in a decrease in the budget and thus a shrinking of the organization?

Good stuff, RL.

If you’re going to bid us farewell in Russian, shouldn’t we say, “See you on the kolkhaz?!”

A topic bobbing around in my mind is the Alien and Sedition laws of 1798. Like so many other things in the land of the not very free, “sedition” is what the government says it is. Are you aware that possessing books by Tom Clancy is considered having “terrorist” literature?

Freedom of speech isn’t even a polite fiction any more; saying what you think can get you tossed out of college, off the job, or into jail. If there were ever a thing that is clearly unconstitutional it is “hate crime” laws, although my least favorite is the Sacred Handicapped Restriction. Yes, decent people are kind to those less fortunate, but that doesn’t mean the “disabled” are “entitled” to “free” Social Security, every decent parking place in America, and to go to the heads of lines. What price equal treatment before the law?

At what point do we say “ENOUGH!” and at what point does the government agree with us…and send us to Gitmo? It is said that “they” “have a little list…of those who won’t be missed.” Habeus corpus (aaaargh, for my italics) is dead; we no longer have a right to face our accusers or be told what we are charged with. What right to an attorney? “Probable cause” is a meaningless joke. A young friend stopped to put water in his radiator a few months ago and was rousted by the local cops…who charged him with having a “concealed weapon.” It was his fish-scaling knife, locked in his tackle box, locked in his trunk.

Did you see the latest “locking the barn door” photo? Five soldiers patrolling a deserted street in the South following the shooting recently. There they are, in full battle regalia, with hastily-donned vests that say “Police” on the back. If you look at the photo carefully you will note something else interesting. It is impossible to be certain in the poor light, but at least three of the soldiers are black, and I’m pretty certain that at least one other is; it is iffy for the one in the worst light. What ante bellum mind came up with the notion that black soldiers are more likely to shoot whites…or is it just a strange coincidence? We knew that posse comitatus had been revoked, and there are the results: armed troops occupying a small town where a tragedy took place.

As for mortgages…the best solution is not to have one! Live within your means. Buy outright a house you can afford. Live in a three-thousand buck 30′ RV or motor home, if necessary, and save towards the day when you can buy your own plot of land to put it on. I returned to Texas after I was widowed and bought a house. The realtor advised me to get a mortgage, which I didn’t want. I wanted it even less after being told that as a widow I had no credit and the interest rate to me would be three points higher! I replied calmly that I didn’t need credit because I had cash and wrote a check. Good decision. I sold that a couple of years ago and moved back to the ranch, which is also free from encumbrances.

No, I don’t have my lovely 4400+ square foot house any more, but (as Epictetus would say) I still have my money as well as a roof over my head. How all of this is bound together inextricably! My relatives, especially my children, are aghast that I am living in a very delapidated slum that had had no upkeep for eighteen years when I moved in, but we are working slowly on renovations and expansion, doing them ourselves. The shabby walls and grafitti can be repaired and painted; the rug which appears to have had a motorcycle engine rebuilt on it has to be the last thing to replace. In the meantime, we are happy, not in thrall to the bank, and able to dismiss anyone shallow enough to judge us by the worst of our surroundings rather than the best. Let the Jones’ worry about keeping up with US. If anyone can prove to me that serenity and happiness flow from a MacMansion…I still won’t live in one. No matter how high class a ghetto may be, it is still a ghetto. I have luxuries such as letting my dogs roam free, and playing the grand piano at four a.m. or vacumming then if I choose. Our friends see only the joy and love that is here, and the pleasure we take in our leisurely lifestyle.

“Kind hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith than Norman blood.” Happiness is found in what we do, think, and are, not in our surroundings. Sure, I look forward to the day when I don’t cringe over clouded windows whose thermal seals have failed, and to tearing out the 1949 kitchen and turning two rooms into the kind I’m accustomed to, but those are pleasures I am glad to defer because the rest of my life is so good. Marble halls and crystal chandeliers are life’s consolation prizes.

I addressed this very theme in one of my first articles for Whiskey. I blamed the government, too, but that should come as no surprise to any of you Shooters. I got some e-mail responses to that one that insisted Baltimore’s problems ran a bit deeper — on a genetic level.

“Look at the ethnic majority in the most blighted cities,” they said. “Notice anything?”

Correlation is never causality, though it may leave lingering suspicions. I’m sure dependency and criminality can be bred, but I suspect they’re much easier simply to encourage…with the right sort of government inducements. The state will nurture the sort of iniquity in the human soul that even wanton and cruel Nature wouldn’t.

A Shooter asks:

“What are your thoughts about the risk of physical gold and silver being confiscated by the US government? Do you have suggestions as to how to best purchase in a manner that is not so trackable? Appreciate the perspective as always.”

Excellent question. You could just ask your any prospective sellers whom they inform of any transactions and how much detail they give, and then take them at their word. Then act accordingly.

The entire point of saving in gold and silver is to avoid the stealth tax of inflation. Yet the feds have the nerve to call that sort of thing a “capital gain” and insist on taxing you for not letting them leach away your purchasing power. Sometimes, they just insist that you hand them the gold and silver outright.

No good can come of bowing to tyranny, of allowing the state into your home and private affairs…like which substances you put into your body or how much money you make. But that ship sailed a long time ago.

So when they come for our gold and silver, will anyone resist? What about when they assign us all housing and tell us where and when to report to work?

See you on the farm, Comrade.

Do svidania,
Gary Gibson
Managing Editor, Whiskey & Gunpowder