Hey everybody. I haven’t posted in a while because I’m happy right now. Life is good. I’ve been doing a lot of photography, and everything is just going my way these days. I hope it lasts.
Feb
12
The government cannot be trusted to police itself. Why would it? I was taught in school as I grew up that checks and balances built into the system prevent laws from being passed that unfairly restrict people’s freedom and that the bill of rights guarantee the most important basic human rights. I realized, though, that the basis of the power of the state is physical violence.
Money, the product of our labor, is taken by the government as taxes or fines for breaking laws. If you don’t pay what you’re ordered to pay when you’re ordered to pay it, armed thugs (police officers) find you and put you in a cage (jail). If you resist, it’s considered a crime as well, and the thugs will injure or kill you. The bottom line is that if you do not obey the government, it will hurt you or kill you (which may not necessarily hurt, but you’ll be dead).
We are told that the proper way to change the government is to participate in the voting process. We’re supposed to choose candidates who share our values and vote them into office, where they will pass laws that we agree with. This has been demonstrated many times to not work, and I’ve already explained why in other blog posts. Reason does not work when you are up against an organization that operates by using violence to achieve its goals. Standing up to a bully does not mean trying to convince him to stop taking your lunch money. If you are being violently attacked, you are perfectly within your rights to violently defend yourself, and if your attacker says you can’t have weapons that give you the ability to do that, then you shouldn’t listen.
Because of the government’s insistence on using violence to force people to submit to it, resistance must take the form of counterviolence.
Sidenote
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When I was on a jury about 7 years ago because I stupidly answered the summons, we decided that if a person sees a weapon on someone attacking them, whether they actually used the weapon as a part of the threat, it is aggravated assault because the person felt threatened by that weapon. Cops carry guns in plain view, and everyone knows they will use them if it’s the only way to get someone to submit. (They also carry them for self defense, which you would think would be applicable to anyone else as well, but somehow only cops can carry guns in plain view like that.) If a cop is asking you questions or ordering you to do something, he or she is committing aggravated assault, and you are within your rights to defend yourself any way you can.
Feb
07
I was just watching The Atheist Experience, and there was a section of the show where they talked about honor killings. In the united states, it is treated as first degree murder, but in other countries, the law actually mandates killing people for becoming too “westernized”. What the people of one country call murder another country calls justice.
When people get together to vote on a law, they are deciding that when people do a certain thing, they should be punished. They realize that it only applies to the land under the control of their government, but they vote based on what they think is right for everybody. A person who thinks gay people shouldn’t get married in the united states must also think that they shouldn’t get married in france or russia. If someone thinks his or her opinion is so important that it should be enforced with violence by people armed with guns, tasers, pepper spray, and clubs, then how can that person not think that it shouldn’t apply to all people everywhere?
Let’s say that the majority of people in sweden decide that people shouldn’t have to get their cars inspected every year, but the majority of people in the united states decide that people should. Clearly, the americans think that getting yearly car inspections is important enough to imprison people who don’t do it, so why should they think that swedish people should be able to get away with it?
If it’s simply that people think that what the majority decides is right, then the majority of people in the united states is waaaaay more people than the majority of people in sweden. But in that case, principles don’t actually matter, and neither does the opinion of the individual. Liberty takes a backseat to consensus, and I know that the majority of people disagree with that, at least in principle.
My point here is not simply that democracy is inherently unfair. It’s that the opinions of individuals should not be enforced with violence, including the opinion that we shouldn’t rob, kill, or rape each other. We should be restricted only by principles grounded in reason, the very first being the nonaggression principle. If it’s not right for me to attack someone because I feel justified in doing so, it is not right for anyone else to do it because they feel justified.
There is no reason why the nonaggression principle should not apply to all people everywhere at all times. If nobody ever aggressed against others, it would be a good thing. It’s undeniable. It’s a bad thing when people do attack each other, and this goes for people in england just as much as people in the united states. It doesn’t matter if the majority of the people think it’s all right. The majority can be wrong, and it often is.
Jan
18
I’ve made a lot of posts about my political views, but I’ve been told that my approach might be turning people off more than just the subject of anarchy itself. So in that spirit, I want to try to explain it in a way I’ve heard it explained by others. It’s among the arguments that won me over.
Ideally, the purpose of government is to create public policies that make it easier for people to live happy, safe and productive lives. This is what many people think that the american government does. Behind every proposed policy is a vote, and let’s say we all live in an ideal democracy where individuals vote on policies. A law is proposed that says nobody is allowed to wear jeans on Sunday. Some people agree with it, and some people don’t, and until the law is passed, both viewpoints are fine. That’s why it’s being put to a vote anyway. The measure passes, and suddenly it is illegal to disagree with the law in any meaningful way. If you wear jeans on Sunday, which was your right before it became illegal, you will be thrown in jail. A law is the forceful abolition of opposing opinions.
I have another example. Cathy thinks that free condoms should be available in all public restrooms and that the government should pay for them. That means the taxpayers pay for them whether they agree with condoms being available to people for free or not. Cathy doesn’t realize it, but she is saying that anyone who doesn’t agree with her about making condoms freely available should go to jail, and that includes her family and friends.
“But your highness,” I hear you say, “they don’t go to jail for disagreeing. They only go to jail if they don’t pay their taxes.”
Disagreement means nothing if you can’t act on it. Everyone who votes in favor a law, knowing that it will be enforced by fining and/or imprisoning violators, holds the position that no opinion but theirs matters and that opposing opinions should be silenced or punished. This is fine in the case of laws concerning assault, murder, theft, or rape. Nobody has the right to attack someone else. But when it comes to funding things like schools, roads, a police force, fire departments, wars, or anything else, disagreement should never ever be punished. All exchanges between people should be peaceful and voluntary, especially financial ones.
Jan
03
It’s a popular assumption that because Batman has a young boy as a crime fighting partner, they must be having sex as well. But it occurred to me that this assumption is clearly false, and you are about to find out why. Keep in mind that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being gay, though molesting children is certainly a questionable activity.
Batman does not fight crime because he has to. He does it because he wants to punish the people who killed his parents and destroyed his childhood. Rather than grow up like a normal person, Bruce Wayne spent his whole life brooding and training so he could get his revenge. He didn’t learn to get along with women because his only connection to the human race was Alfred. The only way he can identify with someone is if they, too, desire revenge on the criminal element. He’s gone through many Robins, but he also had Batgirl as a protege. Simply traveling with a young boy does not mean a person is gay.
If Bruce Wayne spent his nights fighting crime and his days sleeping, he would be known as a recluse, and it wouldn’t take much of a genius to figure out that he’s Batman. Many of Batman’s enemies are geniuses, so he must spend his days putting on an act that throws suspicion off his nightly activities. This means very little time for sleep, let alone having a sexual relationship with anyone.
Batman has many issues, but they don’t seem to include conflicts with gender roles or his sexuality. In fact, his relationship with Catwoman shows just how attracted he is to women. She is part of the criminal element he is obsessed with fighting, yet he still finds himself drawn to her.
So there you go. Bruce Wayne is completely heterosexual, though he does like to dress his male partners in skimpy outfits that show off their legs.
Dec
13
The Tankle Truck Stop was alive with customers browsing the well organized and well maintained aisles of merchandise for whatever they needed to make their long journeys easier, more comfortable, or both. The bright fluorescent lighting was harsh on the eyes, but it made the items easy to see, and that was their goal. Nobody’s eyes were on the shelves, however, when Josh and Happy Face entered the store. The first thing they noticed was that the man was wearing a straightjacket that “guests” of Peaceful Meadows were known to wear. Then they noticed the yellow flying button man.
“What’s going on here?” some of the people began to ask.
“Is that a balloon?” asked a woman with a voice that was rendered very gruff from a lifetime of smoking.
“I’m less of a balloon than you are,” Happy replied, setting off a great commotion. Some people ran outside in fear. Some readied concealed handguns. Most of them surrounded Josh and Happy asking questions that disappeared in a sea of noise.
‘We’re not going to be able to shop like this,’ Happy said to Josh telepathically. ‘Maybe we should used a disguise.’
‘Can you make us invisible to them?’ Josh asked.
‘Yeah, but we’ll still need to clear a path. I have an idea for that, actually.’
The crowd at the truck stop saw the man and the figment push past them and run outside. Most of them followed them until they reached the road, at which point the strangers disappeared. In truth, neither Happy Face nor Josh had moved at all. They found some t-shirts and coveralls that would surely make Josh look like a mechanic, but it was much better than looking like a mental patient. He also found some razors, some shaving cream, and a pair of scissors suitable for cutting hair. Nobody saw them take the items without paying for them, and Josh tried very hard not to feel guilty as they walked out of the store. He still failed though.
“We need to do something to pay for this,” he said.
By a strange coincidence, some shouting came from the distance. Josh wasn’t sure what they were saying, but when he saw a truck coming from just over a hill at high speed and making erratic turns, he assumed they were warning about that. The truck would collide with the truck stop in seconds. Happy became visible again and flew under the truck, supporting the front half with one arm and the trailer half with the other. Then he lifted it into the air, completely absorbing all of its momentum as he hovered there seemingly effortlessly before setting it down in a parking space. Even Josh thought it looked strange, but he was proud that he had a part in the heroic deed. He ran up to the truck along with several other people to see if the driver was all right.
Aside from being drunk, Boris “Sunglasses” Feldman was fine. He had passed out the moment his truck (a non-tankle) lifted into the air. Josh and Happy could smell the alcohol on his breath, and it angered them, but the distant sound of approaching cops mitigated their rage. This man would get what was coming to him. Their work was done.
Becoming invisible once again, the heroes took off toward Gamp, leaving a dumbfounded crowd to give reports to the police that they would have to alter unless they had any courage at all.
Dec
13
I consider myself to be a rather beautiful person, but I didn’t always, so I kinda identify with this.
From the pictures I’ve seen, the girl who posted this blog is not bad looking. Then again, I’ve been fooled by pictures before. Well, once. Actually, I’ve seen her youtube videos also, and she is far from ugly. Rejection messes with the mind, I suppose.
Nov
16
The cops stared up at Josh as he did what they had always thought was impossible except in comic books. When he was no longer in view, they looked at each other and agreed that the librarian’s tip had actually been a false alarm. They did not want to turn in reports that would get them investigated. They had been told that Josh simply escaped from Peaceful Meadows, not that he was carried out by a flying button man who could toss around reinforced steel doors like they were nothing.
Josh’s immediate reaction to the sudden flight was to clamp his eyes shut.
“Don’t do that!” Happy urged him. “Open your eyes. Nobody else in the world has ever experienced this. You’re perfectly safe.”
Josh opened one eye and then the other. Happy released the cocoon of telekinetic force he had around him so he could feel the wind all around him. It tickled the bottoms of his feet and blew his long hair back like a flag, flapping in the current of air that roared past his ears. He kept Josh’s eyes protected, and they both marveled at the world as it stretched out underneath them. They flew higher and higher until the clouds became like a fluffy carpet. Josh found that he had a degree of control over Happy’s movement. He could feel their connection. They truly were the same being, but they were also somehow separate. Each of them knew what the other was seeing, thinking, and feeling. Then Josh caught a glimpse of Happy’s power, like seeing light pouring out from around a door. It startled him out of his increasing synchronicity with his figment.
“What was that?” Happy asked. Josh could hear him perfectly over the noise of the wind even though Happy was speaking in a normal tone of voice. “It’s like we were merging, but then something scared you out of it.”
Merging was the psychological term for integrating dissociative personalities into one.
“I don’t know,” Josh lied. “I guess we’re just not ready to be one yet. Do we know how to get to Gamp?”
“We know the general area,” Happy said, letting go for the moment of the topic of whatever just happened. “We should get a map and some different clothes so I don’t have to keep tricking people into thinking you’re not wearing a loony bin outfit.”
“I could also use a shower,” Josh added. “Let’s fly lower so we can find a city or a truck stop or something.”
The trip through the thick layer of clouds nearly took care of the need for a shower. The ground beneath them became visible and revealed a long stretch of road that led to a cluster of buildings near the horizon.
“Civilization,” Happy said.
They continued to descend until they were flying just above the cars along the road. Happy wanted to fly beside them, but Josh reminded him that the spectacle could cause accidents. They traveled a great deal faster than even the little red sports car that weaved carelessly through moderate traffic on the three lane highway. Soon they arrived in a small cluster of buildings. The largest building was a truck stop called “The Tankle Truck Stop”, named after a particular kind of vehicle called the tankle truck. All kinds of trucks were welcome at The Tankle Truck Stop, but the establishment specialized in carrying equipment for repairing and maintaining tankle trucks.
Throwing caution to the wind for the first time as a super powered team, Josh and Happy landed in full view of a dozen people outside the truck stop. Everyone forgot their business and stared at the man and the creature accompanying him, but they didn’t move. What was happening was beyond any frame of reference any of them could possibly have. Taking advantage of their stupor, Josh and Happy walked past them and entered the building.
Oct
23
“So what did you find out?” Happy asked Josh so that only he could hear him.
Josh looked around to make sure nobody was nearby to hear him answer. A tall, broad-leafed tree stood nearby, shading the table from the bright sunlight, but it didn’t have ears, so with no other living things within 50 feet or so, Josh figured it was safe. He replied, “There’s definitely a movement, but they aren’t meeting up anywhere nearby any time in the foreseeable future. A few of them are getting together tomorrow afternoon in Gamp, but that’s… wait, you can fly us there, right?”
“That’s right. Gamp is only about 600 miles away. We can get there in no time.”
A great excitement welled up in Josh, and it pushed a smile up to his face. Then he looked at the food wrappers and stopped smiling.
“You can’t have paid for this,” he said.
“No, not really,” Happy told him. “But the kid at Burrito Gong thinks someone did. Real money is imaginary too. What I gave him just disappeared as soon as I stopped giving it form in his mind. I doubt they’ll even take it out of his paycheck. It’s just a few hundred credits.”
“I’d still rather not have to steal in order to eat.”
“I’m open to any alternatives.”
“We need a job. You can use your tricks to get our foot in the door, but I want to do honest work for honest pay. I also don’t want your existence revealed.”
“Why not? It’s not like there’s anything wrong with us. We have a huge advantage over everyone else. Why not exploit it?”
“Because people will want to study us or get jealous and attack us.”
“I don’t want to be kept a secret,” Happy complained. “I don’t want to hide who we are and what we can do. It isn’t fair.”
“Life’s not…” Josh didn’t quite finish the thought because he always hated it when people said that to him. It was the reason he compromised and accepted the software job in the first place, and it was the attitude that had guided him to avoiding risks his whole life. Why can’t life be fair? Because other people won’t allow it to be? Because authorities want everyone to obey their rules?
“Are you sure you can protect us?” he asked the figment of his imagination.
“Yes,” Happy replied. “And the more I learn about what we can do, the more sure of it that I am. I say we take what we need to survive from the system that’s taken our sanity and meet up with some the people who are waiting for a weapon like us to give them the leverage they need to really make a difference.”
“How about this? We take what we need, but we leave something behind or do something to pay for what we take. Other than that, we’ll live a life of travel and adventure, and whoever wants a piece of us can try to get it.”
They both smiled at the thought of such a life. Unfortunately, the prospect of violence was becoming an apparent reality as a cry of “NOW!” prompted the appearance of five police officers surrounding Josh and Happy Face. Josh was still wearing his clothes from Peaceful Meadows, and Happy stopped disguising him as soon as they split up at the library. The officers rushed toward him as quickly as they could, but a wave of invisible force knocked them all back several feet. They lay on the ground, the wind knocked out of them but otherwise unharmed, and Happy and Josh took to the sky.
Oct
11
They say that no system is perfect. A terrible system is certainly no exception, but it’s never enough to point out the flaws of a terrible system. It should be, but it isn’t. Fortunately, when the system is so flawed, coming up with a superior system is almost literally child’s play. I submit to you my alternative, which I call Lognotes.
The basic idea of Lognotes is that every individual creates his or her own currency and backs it up with the work he or she does and/or the products he or she produces. When someone purchases something from someone else, a note is made in a log kept by the seller recording that the buyer owes him/her the value in their individualized currency of whatever they bought. This note becomes a unit of credit, which is redeemable by its holder for an equivalent amount of whatever the issuer of the note can or has agreed to provide. In short, a lognote is a placeholder for the completion of a bartering transaction.
The value of an individual’s lognotes depends on the quality of that person’s work or merchandise, the individual’s reputation, and the individual’s ability to negotiate. A bag of high quality potatoes from a reputable grower would trade for much more than a bag of lower quality potatoes unless the seller of the lower quality potatoes is able to convince potential buyers to give more for them. In any case, each person’s wealth depends on his or her work, and the system cannot collapse because inflation is impossible.
Lognotes could be transferable or nontransferable depending on what the buyer and seller agree on. Transferable lognotes can be traded to others for their own lognotes or for transferable notes in their logs. Thus, a person could trade a bag of potatoes for a note from an apple grower promising a basket of apples on redemption of the transferable note and then trade the note for a basket of apples for an oil change. The person doing the oil change would then be able to redeem the apple note to the apple grower for the basket of apples originally promised to the potato grower, provided the original deal allowed for transfer of the note.
There are potential problems with this system. Someone who knows that someone else holds a transferable note could forge that note in his or her own log and redeem it to its issuer, completing the transaction at the expense of the legitimate note holder. For this reason, every note would have to be traceable by its original issuer. When a transaction involving transferable lognotes is being done, the recipient or redeemer of the note would check the network (or notework) to ensure that the note he or she is receiving is legitimate.
Another problem could be that people could issue notes that they cannot actually redeem or have no intention of actually redeeming. For this reason, there would have to be a rating system in place so that people doing business could check each other’s rating to ensure that they are doing business with a trustworthy person. Strikes against a person’s reputation would be difficult to overcome, and they would also have to be investigated by an impartial third party to ensure that they themselves are legitimate. Anyone who does not agree to having a strike against them investigated would receive the strike by default. Anybody unable to agree to having a strike against them investigated would be investigated by default. Likewise, anyone calling for a strike against someone else would be investigated to ensure that he or she does not have a history of calling for frivolous investigations.
Strike investigations would be done by agencies that are paid into by those who want their reputations protected. Anyone who does not subscribe to a strike investigation agency would look suspicious to anyone who is considering doing business with them, but they are otherwise free to not opt in to one. Strike investigation agencies would depend on their reputation for fair judgments. After all, nobody would want to pay for the protection of a strike investigation agency that does not actually protect its clients’ reputations. Payment to the agencies would be negotiable between the agencies and their clients.
A situation that would arise often is that the issuers of lognotes would die or become otherwise unable to honor his or her notes to potential redeemers. Elderly people or people with health problems or injuries would have problems finding someone willing to do business with them. This problem can be solved with charity. Charitable organizations, paid for with lognote donations from reputable people, would take on the debts incurred by people who find themselves unable to honor the lognotes they issued or unable to find someone willing to exchange for their lognotes due to problems unrelated to their reputation as honorable dealers. People or their family members would have to make arrangements with these organizations to ensure the honoring of their notes.
Additionally, there could be agencies that insure their clients’ lognotes in case of death or incapacity. These agencies would work similarly to strike investigation agencies, where uninsured people would have much greater difficulty doing business than insured people.
Lognotes are much more difficult to steal than other forms of currency, though any merchandise that backs them up would still be vulnerable to theft. A hacker could access other people’s logs and make transactions out of it, but those transactions could be disputed and investigated later. Investigations could reveal the hacker’s identity if he or she was careless enough to transfer notes directly to himself/herself.
Because of all the research involved in doing business with lognotes, the logs would have to be kept on computer networks. The administrator(s) of these network would have power similar to that of the chairman of the Federal Reserve, but their power would be checked by competition between multiple networks. Measures would have to be taken to ensure that people don’t switch networks to escape a negative reputation, such as a background check when a person applies to join a network. People above a certain age with little or no history to check would be regarded with suspicion or simply refused due to the possibility of people assuming new identities to bypass their negative reputations. Networks with an overall good history of peaceful, mutually beneficial transactions would attract more members than other networks.
The Lognotes system relies on voluntary transactions and acquired reputation on every level of its operation. It checks itself without any need for a centralized authority to regulate it. It puts individuals in control of their finances and their destinies. It is sustainable into the foreseeable future. Best of all, it does not give absolute, corrupting power to small groups of people whose decisions are made based on what is best for them and nobody else. Everyone, from the mighty administrators of lognotes networks to humble potato farmers, must play fair in order to continue to do business. It benefits everybody to please whoever they do business with.
