First Principles

by on January 14, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I’ve addressed my First Principles the last couple days, in response to others asking what I really believe. Basically, I believe in all of us having the freedom to do what we want, and the freedom not to be forced to do something we don’t want. Fairly basic. As long as we don’t harm other people, of course.

So how does that affect my politics?

Well, for one thing, that rules out the Democrats. They are way to comfortable when it comes to working with socialists for me. National Socialists or Soviet Socialists. Nazi or Communist. Fascist or Marxist. Add in the Maoist revolution that created the Chinese Communist Party we all know and love today, and we have a fun little trifecta of crazy that has killed hundreds of millions of people. Depending on who you count as people, I’ve seen estimates as high as a BILLION souls who have been wiped out in the last hundred years. And they would have had children had they lived. The world we live in is far different than the world we could have had if socialism had not arisen. And the Democrats are just way too cozy with them for me to trust them with… well… any position. Including dogcatcher.

Then you have the Republicans, and a disturbing number of them ALSO like to tell people what to do. Though they do tend to rank lower on the Socialism meter, so that is a point in their favor. A point against them is that they love to campaign on all the stuff they will do, and then don’t do it when they get in power. They tend to be a bit too cowardly to stick to their guns when it comes time to put up or shut up. Hence my healthy distrust of the Republican party as well.

I’m far more libertarian than anything else, but the Libertarian party is more Democrat-light and they live in fiscal lala land. The Green party and the Sierra Club are just wingnut crazies, which leaves me closest to the classical Tea Party. A strong libertarian streak that brought a lot of Democrats over, while fiscally-concerned enough to bring in an equal number or so of Republicans. Not to mention a bunch of people in the middle who had long since felt betrayed by both parties. There is a reason the Tea Party did rather well for itself in Minnesota, a socially liberal but fiscally conservative State. But the Tea Party never did get past the “promising newcomer” stage into becoming a genuine major party of its own, and most of their people have gone back to their previous parties or lack thereof.

Which leaves me with socialists to the left of me and cowards to the right of me, with both establishments and their media allies doing everything they can to crush the American middle like all the lovely fascist and communist governments of the past have tried before. Sometimes they have succeeded. Sometimes they have not.

It is my supreme hope that they do not succeed this time. Because they violate basically ALL of my First Principles. Freedom to do what we want. And liberty not to be forced to do stuff we don’t want.

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First Principles

by on January 13, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I addressed my First Principles yesterday. My absolute first one is that I want everybody to be free to say and do what they want, as long as they don’t harm others. My First Principles also apply to the stuff I am against. The really short version is that I’m against forcing people to do anything against their will.

When somebody asks me what I want to do, and I ask in turn “what do YOU want to do,” I really mean it. I want to know what they want to do, because I don’t want to ask them to do something they don’t want to do. And when someone offers to do something, when I say “if you are willing to do it,” I really mean that as well. I take joy from doing things I want to do with other people that want to do that same thing. I don’t want to force people to do something they don’t want to do.

And that is why I oppose political efforts to do precisely that. Yes, that does include efforts by the moral majority to make laws forcing people to do stuff that follows their faith. The old moral majority did that too much when I was young, which is one of the reasons why I have such a healthy distrust of government busybodies. I simply disagree with forcing others to abide by a morality that is not their own. And I disagree with the NEW moral majority seeking to force us to follow THEIR moral guidelines for the same reason. Because I don’t want to force people to do something they don’t want to do.

I want you, the you who is reading this right now, to be free to do what you want to do, not be forced to do what someone else tells you that you should want to do.

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First Principles

by on January 12, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Early last week, when I wrote down some of the future of the Jack of Harts universe, I did not see the social media purge on Friday coming. I did not see the coordinated deplatforming of an entire social media platform coming. I mean, obviously based on what I wrote about the future of Jack, I DID see it coming. I just did not expect to see it within days of writing it. I did not expect to see it actually starting before the post went live, Saturday morning at midnight. So after watching it in real time, and having some people ask me exactly what I want, I’m just going to roll back to what people call our First Principles.

What are my First Principles? Well, I’m a big believer in the basics of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. We the People. Every single one of us individuals. All Men Are Created Equal. That would be the non-gendered version of the word, by the way. Everybody is equal, no matter where we keep our reproductive equipment or the color of our skin. Freedom of speech and actions, short of those that actually harm other people. The old “my freedom stops at your nose” clause. And the right of the people to peaceably assemble to demand redress from the government is sacrosanct.

Note the peaceably assemble part right there. No burning down homes and businesses. Don’t go off half-cocked and break into government buildings because some guy on a bullhorn is exhorting you to break in. Remember the standard common sense rule. The guy who’s suggesting you attack someone or something is the guy who’s trying to get you into trouble. But that’s another subject right there.

Back to my First Principles. Freedom to say and do what you want, as long as you don’t harm other people. Your sex, your race, don’t matter. Everybody is created equal. Don’t harm other people. Don’t break stuff you don’t own. Have fun and live your life as you want to. That’s my First Principle. That’s what I want for everybody.

That’s what I want for the you who is reading this right now.

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The Republic of Texas

by on January 11, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Texas Rangers have recruited the very best to their ranks over the centuries. Sometimes they have been elite warriors fighting the enemies of Texas. Sometimes they have been law enforcement officers. Sometimes they have been peace officers. At times they have even been disbanded entirely. The Texas Rangers have changed with the times, and the current version of them is a fusion of all the roles they have ever had. Their primary focus in the modern day is to promote the common peace in Texas and her various colonies. They enforce laws if the peace is broken, and are official law enforcement officers of Texas, America, and the Western Alliance under the various reciprocity agreements. And when the chips are down, they don their armor, draw their weapons, and do battle with those who threaten the common peace.

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The Republic of Texas

by on January 10, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Texas Rangers are the premier peacekeeping organization in the Republic of Texas and all of her colonies. They have been in existence since the first Republic of Texas, where they helped lead the fight against the Mexican Empire and served as keepers of the peace. The phrase “One Riot, One Ranger” came from that era, from a possibly-apocryphal incident concerning a riot in progress. The locals thought they needed more men to quell it. The Ranger disagreed and went in to deal with it by himself. He is the example Rangers have held themselves to ever since. The fact that they actually live up to it more often than not has reinforced the mystique of lone Rangers keeping the peace and dispensing justice in the wilderness for centuries.

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