Ode to Anarchism

A statement from my distant past keeps coming to mind. The statement has been ingrained in all of us. We accept it as truth prima facia. But in reality it, like most everything we accept without question, is complete bullshit.

In a computer repair shop in Overland Park, KS, 20 years ago, a debate was raging. The subject was politics, and one of the techs said to another, "Ya, but you don't vote, so you have no right to complain". At the time I was 20 years old and it made perfect sense. I self-righteously agreed. After all, I was a VOTER, and I made a difference, right? Well, possibly, but not likely. After thinking on it a few years, I'd like to travel back in time and challenge the premise of the statement.

You see, the premise of the statement above is that if you choose not to participate in what is almost certainly a dispicable, corrupt game of posturing and grandstanding for control, you should be willing to surrender your basic human rights. I'm sorry, but in what amounts to a competition for control over pfiefdoms, where we are all to be serfs choosing our overlords I see no way to win. Most often elections present us with a false dichotomy of choices that have been offered by those who are in power simply because they are the best manipulators. So they ascend to prominence by becoming a cult of personality. And I am expected to think I owe one of the two of them something? These are almost always people who appeal to the most base of human instinct in order to seize power for themselves. They pit one group against another in order to claim their authority. But the reality is, if we all agreed and cooperated, they would be completely useless wastes of oxygen and gravity. With the advent of the internet, airline travel, and cell phones, we are all beginning to realize we are alike deep down. We don't need to kill each other over resources, languages, skin color, or religions. Without these fears, we need no leaders to "protect" us from each other.

So maybe I will vote and maybe I will not. But if I choose not to, it does NOT mean that I have no human right to complain, or fight back by any means necessary against power that is often illigitamate in the first place. The kings of the earth are no better than the lowest peasants by birth. Both are born naked into the world, both will die alone, and both will do whatever it takes to advance their own self interest.

In an ideal world, no government would be necessary. Until we reach that utopia, we should strive for the minimal amount possible. But whether we ever reach it or not, I reserve my rights as a human being - even if I choose not to participate in a system that is essentially corrupt at its core.

Pig Trail Harley Davidson in Rogers, AR 4th anneversary Celebration

I'm dumping facebook

As much as I love facebook, I have to dump it. Altough it is an incredible tool that has allowed me to connect with long lost friends and keep up with current friends, it has become an insidious thief that has robbed me of my time and substituted genuine human interaction with a series of virtual transactions that are just not human.

Keyboard commandos reign in cyberspace. They say things on my facebook they wouldn't have the balls to say to my face. People attempt to argue the deepest mysteries of life in a 2 inch box on a screen with someone they don't even know. Differences of perception are treated as falsifiable scientific problems, where barricades of links and evidence (99% bullshit) are hurled back and forth like 7.62mm ammunition from an m-60 machine gun.

Well to hell with it all. If you have something to say to me, call me, come by my house, or stop by my desk. If you want to see any of my pictures, links or anything else I'm interested in, I'll post it here. If you don't like it, go somewhere else.

The Libertarian Debate Club

The 2010 Libertarian National Convention has been a depressing disappointment. We had a chance to turn this debate club / issues organization / activist network / support group / educational think tank into a real political party, and we forecefully and quite rudely rejected it. Wayne Allyn Root brought some things to this party that no other candidate has - the experience, knowledge, networking infrastructure and passion needed to successfully market our brand. Yes, I said MARKET our BRAND.

You see I have this odd idea that elections are popularity contests. For some strange reason, I think that if you are going to have a political party, you should try to actually get elected. And to get elected, you need to have people skills, emotional intelligence, the ability to listen, compromise when necessary, and keep your mouth shut at least every once in a while. This convention proved to me beyond any doubt that this Libertarian Debate Club has none of that.

The detractors of Mr. Root were rude, beligerant, and childish. They heckled, they hurled insults, and disrupted his speeches like little children throwing a temper tantrum. He isn't pure enough. He is credentialed enough. He doesn't pass our litmus test. He's one of "them". He dared to NOT say something once. He dared to taylor his message to his audience. He actually wants to be RELAVENT. He wants to spend time adding members rather than polishing a platform that nobody but we understand or care about. In short, he wants to WIN ELECTIONS.

The LP purists, anarchists, and self-deluded superheroes of freedom proved they are still politically childish and naive, however, by their relentless campaign to purge Mr. Root for his lack of purity. What is he saying that is so against our principles? I asked that question throughout the convention to his detractors and came up with nothing.

We heard loud jeers and boos when he said he didn't want open borders until the welfare state was ended. Ooooohhhhh, that's just so anathema to our religion of liberty, isn't it? How dare he declare us a soverign nation that has a right not to bankrupt itself providing welfare to the world?

These people personally insulted Wayne, his family, his past, his friends, his convictions, and the cause of liberty itself. I am tired of being connected to a party of infantile, arrogant, rude, and out of touch activists who want nothing more but to argue with each other over the procedural rules governing whether the committees are allowed to change punctuation in the by-laws. And I'm certainly not interested in spending thousands of my dollars, days off, holidays, and evenings giving my life to a cause that does not want to be successful. It makes no sense to run a political party that wants to get people elected but doesn't give a damn what voters think.

Someone stop this juggernaut of unreason and let me off.

This life

Theme song from Sons of Anarchy

Ridin' through this world
All alone
God takes your soul
You're on your own

The crow flies straight
A perfect line
On the devil's path
Until you die

This life is short
Baby that's a fact
Better live it right
You ain't comin' back

Gotta raise some hell
Before they take you down
Gotta live this life

Gotta look this world
In the eye
Gotta live this life
Till you die

You better have soul
Nothin' less
Cause when it's business time
It's life or death

The king is dead
But life goes on
Don't lose your head
When a deal goes down

Better keep your eye
On the road ahead
Gotta live this life

Gotta look this world
In the eye
Gotta live this life
Till you die

Dear diary

7/5/2020

Dear Diary,

I can't believe it's this cold for a day in July, but the president says global cooling will only get worse if we don't lower the cap on Co2 emissions. I'm all for saving the planet but my electric bill is already over $700.00 per month. I guess even higher taxes is the only way we can really control the weather though.

And it looks like I won't be able to see my doctor for another 6 months, at least. The government hit the debt ceiling again and can't pay any of the bills. Now that the Chinese won't lend us any more money, the president says the federal reserve will have to monetize our debt. Well I don't know what that means, but he says it will pump more money into circulation and that's always good I guess. The president says the Chinese are mean and greedy now that they're rich capitalists. Anyway, he says we're so far in debt that the only way we can even pay the interest on it is to have the government give out more money. I sure am glad we have smart people in office because I would have never thought of that. If only we had more money for our publick schools maybe the would have taught me about that stuff.

My Spanish lessons are coming along nicely. My teacher says I'm starting to sound just like every other American! I even feel like I belong here now. And when I finally do go back to the doctor's office, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to fill out all the payment forms without any help.

Oh and I've got my eye on a new car. Yep, the Chevy celery stalk. It has a range of 20 miles and goes up to 35 miles per hour on the highway. My wife doesn't like it because it's so expensive, but it's union made, so I figure it's worth the $95,000.00 sticker price. Besides, there's a tax rebate of $75,000.00 on it so it's not that bad. I just hope I don't hit a deer in it.

Those deer are way overpopulated here ever since the Feinstein-Boxer omnibus child safety and adorable furry animal equality and anti-scary looking gun act was passed. But guns and hunting had to be outlawed to stop the holicost against animals every year. Just as soon as the government can pass a law to make more money, they'll hire veterinarians to catch the deer and move them to forests. They'll probably get eaten by coyotes or bears, but that's natural and sustainable so it's good. Besides, I'll be safe in the car. the government mandated automatic seat belts, helmets, knee pads, mouth pieces and jock straps. The car just puts them all on! And it has a dash cam with a live feed into the police station in case I forget something.

Well I have to get going. I need to take my obesity pill and get some rest now. Tomorrow I think I'll go see Michael Moore's new documentary: "How I got filthy rich bashing capitalism".

My first archery white tail harvest

Anyone who knows me knows I love to hunt. Never one to be content with watching life through a windshield or a TV screen, I have a strong desire to live it. And living it means being a part of the food chain. An ACTIVE part. Some people are happy to walk in to the supermarket and toss a steak into the cart. And that's not a bad thing, but it doesn't hold a candle to harvesting your own, in terms of quality, taste, experience, and certainly not satisfaction and the feeling of independence.

One of the reasons I was so willing to move to Arkansas was the hunting. Granted the state is probably not a match for Kansas white tails, but it does hold its own. So I figured that's what I'd start with down here since it's what I know best.

A little over 2 years ago I made up my mind I wanted to harvest a white tail with a bow. I love going primitive. The biggest buck I have taken to date was with a .50 caliber springfield hawken flintlock. There's nothing like it. 10 yards, eyeball to eyeball, with only one chance... and when you pull the trigger, just like any one of the 50+ men on the lewis and clark expedition in that long cold winter out on the frontier, the pan flashes, the fire passes through the touch hole, and the muzzle cracks. When the smoke clears, you hope you've put a lead round ball through your quarry. And I did! But I wanted to take it a step further.

So I spent a wad of jack on a really nice bow (started with a crappy one and realized it wasn't going to work!). I got a Ross Cardiac and set it up. I practiced and practiced. I was already familiar with the up close and personal hunting tactics from black powder hunting (modern rifle hunting really requires almost no skill, I'm sorry to say). I learned how to scout, how to stalk, how to outsmart one of the most woods-wise animals on the planet. But I did it the hard way.

Last season I spent countless hours in the stand. Sun up to sundown, with my thermos of coffee, my lunch (often deer jerky from another hunt), and my imagination. I had 2 chances to shoot. Both missed the mark, mainly due to the fact that I did not have surprise in my favor, which is CRITICAL with white tail hunting.

This year started off almost as badly. My first chance came a couple of weeks ago. It was twilight, and I was back in the woods when a nice sized doe and 3 fawns came strolling into my sights. By the time I got a clear shot, I had trouble seeing (yes it was legal, but barely, right at sundown). I missed. I nearly cried.

Last weekend fortunes changed. About 6:00pm, a medium sized 6 point buck strutted into my lane. He almost walked directly under my stand. He was so close I could have almost stuck him with an Arkansas toothpick! Having learned from my previous experiences how NOT to alert him to my presence, I waited. I waited until I had a clear shot, and he couldn't possibly see me in his peripheral vision as I drew the string back.

The string felt heavy. I've shot this bow a million times. I have a spring scale that measures the draw weight at 60 pounds. It may as well have been 600 I was so filled with adrenaline, because I WANTED THIS. And I was tired of missing.

At about 15 yards, he stopped and turned. My 20 yard pin was right on his front left quarter, just behind the elbow. Perfect alignment... and then.... SNAP!

The arrow flew at over 200 miles per hour. In an instant, the string popped, and he bucked. He literally looked like a Brhama coming out of the gate. Then he trotted off. He never knew what hit him. I waited to move, so as not to scare him and make him run farther, still not 100% sure whether or not I hit him.

Then I saw my arrow, stuck in the ground. I didn't understand what happened, because I was almost positive I hit him when he bucked. When I got out of my harness and down from the tree, I saw the blood on the vanes and the fur on the broadhead, and I knew I had him! The arrow had passed COMPLETELY through his vital area.

A frantic search began. Would I lose him after all this? Who should I call to help? Can he be found before dark? I send a text message to my wife to tell her. I called my daughter out to help in the search. I looked and looked. He was nowhere to be found. However, the area was surrounded on all sides by asphalt. I saw no blood on any of it.

I knew he was near. After a good 30 minute search, I found him. Friends there is no greater thrill in life than to see a buck dropped, waiting to be brought in!

Dragging him out of the woods was not easy, but I did it. My daughter helped me gut him and hang him up. That's the nice thing about having raised my kids "country", they've got frontier skills (and attitudes). She even identified most of the organs in the animal!

We were up until midnight working on him. We got him guttted, skinned and quartered. We hung the hide and tossed the quarters into the deep freeze (set to refrigerator temp). We worked on the meat, hide, and antlers again tuesday night until about 10:00, and some last night.

We have made jerky and sausage, hamburger and steaks. So far we've sampled the jerky and sausage and it is to die for! The part of the hide we saved is in the final stages of preservation. And I've ordered a chrome skull from bass pro to mount the antlers on (actually 2, one for that big buck I took with the flintlock!).

I cannot wait to share this experience with the next generation of hunters, which in this case is my step daughter. Since my own kids have no interest in hunting, it's my only chance to pass on my knowledge of the sport. In a few weeks she'll be down with her crossbow to claim her first hundred pounds of meat!