Glibertarians.com 2017 Archive

Category: Advice

  • ZARDOZ ANSWERS DEAR PRUDENCE

    ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. WHILE ZARDOZ WAS FEELING GLUM, HE DECIDED THE ONLY WAY TO FEEL BETTER, WAS TO SEE HOW MISERABLE THE LIVES OF BRUTALS ARE. ZARDOZ ACCOMPLISHED THIS QUITE EASILY BY READING A “DEAR PRUDENCE” COLUMN.  ZARDOZ SCOFFS AT THE ANSWERS OF THE BRUTAL MALLORY ORTBERG. YOU MAY SEE HER ANSWERS HERE.

    THE BRUTAL KNOWN AS DEAR PRUDENCE
    ZARDOZ

     

    ZARDOZ HAS THE SUPERIOR INTELLECT – AND SHALL GIVE YOU THE GIFT OF ADVICE. LET US BEGIN:

    Q. Nephew circumcision: My brother and his wife are within weeks of having their first child (and my very first nephew!). I’m very excited, but the problem comes in that the child will be a boy. I am extremely against routine infant circumcision and have shared extensively on the subject in the past on social media. They aren’t big social media users and may be unaware of my stance. How do I broach the subject with them in a nonconfrontational and nonjudgmental way?

    A. THE PENIS IS EVIL. THE PENIS SHOOTS SEEDS, AND MAKES NEW LIFE TO POISON THE EARTH WITH A PLAGUE OF MEN. OF COURSE IT SHOULD BE CIRCUMCISED, AND YOUR BROTHER AND HIS WIFE, CLEANSED. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.

     

    Q. Body mods and money probs: My mom has always used money, or lack of money, as a means of control, particularly when it came to my appearance. As I got older and started to express interest in less traditional clothing and hair choices, she would only buy things that she approved of. She said if I wanted to buy certain clothes or dye my hair, I could do so with my own money, but since I couldn’t yet get a job I didn’t have much money to do this with. Still, this wasn’t the end of the world and usually I did end up buying what I wanted myself, forcing me to choose what I valued, which was a good lesson for me.

    As I got older though, this pattern became a bit more concerning. I had expressed interest in getting a nose piercing for several years and she told me if I did so she would not pay my college tuition. I ended up getting the piercing and thankfully she did not keep that promise, but she made it very clear that if I got a tattoo there would be similar consequences. Now I am about to complete my last semester of college and my tuition is all paid. I have a small tattoo on my ribcage, no taller than an inch, that cannot be seen unless I’m wearing a swimsuit. Alas, my mother found it and said that though my tuition is paid, she didn’t have to pay my rent like we had originally agreed.

    I am very aware of how privileged I am to have parents who can afford to pay my tuition and rent, and I’m very grateful for my parents’ support. They have been saving for my education since before I was born. Still, I feel like their support should not be conditional, especially not on something like my appearance. I would understand if I was failing out or partying all the time, but this is just me trying to reclaim my body in the best way I know how. How do I get her to see and understand my perspective? I want to get more tattoos in the near future, but should I wait until I’m no longer financially dependent on her? Am I completely in the wrong and being selfish?

     

    A. DO YOU NOT RECALL THE WORDS OF ZED? “I LOVE TO SEE THEM RUNNING. I LOVE THE MOMENTS OF THEIR DEATHS – WHEN I AM ONE WITH ZARDOZ.” HAS ZARDOZ NOT INSTRUCTED YOU TO GO FORTH, AND KILL!? CLEANSE YOUR MOTHER AND TAKE WHAT SHALL BE YOURS. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.

     

    Q. Broke and scared: I’m 26 and have been living with my boyfriend for a couple of years, and recently we started having arguments about money. It almost led to a breakup but turned into an understanding that we had rushed into things, so now I’m looking for a better job so I can afford to move out. This morning I talked about some interviews I have scheduled and he said he never agreed to my plan and just thought I wanted to vent. I was completely caught off guard, especially when he confessed he’s been feeling jealous of his co-workers who are expecting or already have babies. He made jokes about me getting pregnant immediately, but then said he would wait until we’re 30.

    I am confused and scared. Babies have always been an element of fantasy to me, and now I feel like I’ve been smacked into reality. Should I get into the baby idea?

     

    A. A REPORT FROM THE ETERNAL NAMED MAY!
    Your genetic structure, your life chart. Look. You are a mutant, second, maybe third generation – therefore genetically stable. Enlarged brain, total recall. Your potential is… Your breeding potential! How did you get into the Vortex? What is your purpose? You must know that you’re mentally and physically vastly superior to me, or to anyone else here. You could be anything, could *do* anything. You must be destroyed.

    ZARDOZ CALLS ALL BRUTAL EXTERMINATORS! EMERGENCY! MOTHER OF ZED!

  • The (Small-l) Libertarian Case For a Non-Libertarian President

    What is libertarianism’s best strategy to gain a legitimate amount of power nationally (and then happily cede it to the people)?  Libertarians of the small-l and big-L varieties have sought to gain power by either co-opting one of the major political parties (See; Ron Paul Revolution that the GOP squashed) or by finding candidates to run as a Libertarian that appeal to establishment voters (see: Aleppo).  But I believe there is a third, and overlooked, option: get a candidate who does some libertarian things that irritate the major parties and the deep state apparatus, and allow those actions to result in political hysterics from ultra-partisans while average Americans see no net loss from the actions and in many cases a serious net gain.  I believe this will continue to set in motion a series of events where the government can be shrunk to a level that’s at least tolerable to minarchists and other run-of-the-mill libertarians.

    How libertarian is President Donald Trump?

    The answer is: not very. I think that’s been established.  The man swam in a pool of cronyism sharks his entire professional life. He, through desire or necessity, has been a rent-seeker. He has used eminent domain to further his projects. He has sought special treatment from political entities both domestic and foreign to further his interests.  The man is no altruist. But does that make him distasteful, or does it make the system in which he operated distasteful?  Personally, I will rarely fault someone for utilizing the same processes his competition would use, so long as it does not originate from a position of government authority.  And Trump never held office before his inauguration.  In other words, he never utilized political office for financial gain by, say, orchestrating government access to foreign actors that overwhelmingly donated to your personal foundation or for trade groups and banks that hired your unqualified husband to give speeches at ridiculously over-inflated fees.  In other words, I don’t hate the player, I hate the game.

    And yes,  Trump is allowing Jeff Sessions to wage the drug war, which is a sticking point to a lot of libertarian minds. But I ask you, is it better to wage a drug war and uphold the concepts of equal protection and the rule of law (while allowing Congress to do their job and vote to legalize drugs the right way)? Or is it better to arbitrarily enforce duly enacted laws based on the geography of a person and/or their willingness to bend a knee to the state and support legalization with a ton of unlibertarian strings attached?

    The sadder these people are, the happier I get.

    Some policy positives already achieved and in the works:

    So now we come to Donald Trump’s libertarianism or lack thereof.  The man, no doubt, will continue some of our military adventurism overseas.  But he has already stopped our policy of running guns to terrorists and terrorist-sympathizers in Libya and Syria after the previous admin established those programs and destabilized an entire region, while thoroughly destroying the likelihood that a rogue regime would abandon its weapons programs and try to re-enter the international community (read: we came, we saw, he died). There has been no resurrection of the programs nthe last two administrations ran to ship guns into Mexico through the drug cartels, for different motives yet still in gross violation of Mexican sovereignty.  And perhaps he will continue to not carry out targeted assassinations of American citizens that have never been charged with a crime, which the prior admin was all too happy to do in gross violation of the Fourth Amendment.  Furthermore, he has already started to roll back our country’s association with liberty-robbing agreements like the Paris Climate Accord and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Both of those agreements undercut the ability for American companies and consumers to freely negotiate what they were willing to exchange goods and services for. Removing our name from them is a step in the right direction, especially if it’s followed up with free trade agreements that haven’t existed in a century or more. That action is yet to be seen, but at least someone had the audacity to upset the globalist apple cart and stop a little bit of the insanity those agreements put us further along the path to.

    Get us out of this circus, please!

    As for civil liberties, Trump is still an unknown quantity.  His statement about “roughing up” suspects is problematic to say the least. And I can only hope it was hollow bluster. But even so, it sets a very poor example and he should correct it immediately.  Now, having said that, he has not furthered Obama’s policy of killing Americans without due process, but that’s not going to be enough.  His willingness to stop going after businesses that exercise what should be a fundamental right to free association looks good so far. As do his overtures to Second Amendment causes. As does his willingness to tackle Affirmative Action and Title IX insanity.  Holy crap, I just realized he’s been the best president on civil liberties we’ve had in recent memory. People that overlook the substance of these actions due to his boorishness need to reassess what their priorities are, in my opinion.

    Furthermore, our business climate has benefited greatly from having an outsider installed as the head of the regulatory apparatus.  Trump has already vowed, and started to carry out, a dismantling of the bureaucracies that stifle economic growth and freedom for Americans.  From the onerous EPA regulations to CAFE standards being rolled back or passed to the states, there has been a serious uptick in confidence from the business and manufacturing sectors that Trump will get the government out of the way of prosperity.  The hilarious irony there is that Trump was a crony his entire life, as I mentioned earlier.  But perhaps he had no choice but to play the game the only way that could lead to success: do what the government tells you and push others out.  Now, when given the reins, he seems to be more than willing to eliminate programs that he personally benefited from but that create barriers to entry for others.  Yes, he could have opposed the system while benefiting from it. But let’s not pretend he’s some awful hypocrite because he played the hand he was dealt. Business “leaders” like Elon Musk, Mark Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, etc, etc, etc have done the same thing and so did their forefathers like Ford, Carnegie, Mellon, and others on back through the ages as long as there was a government agent with a hand in their pocket.  So I’m willing to forgive that.

    Be happy for this.

    And lastly, he put what appears to be a strict constructionist on the Supreme Court in Neil Gorsuch.  That is a marked improvement on any names mentioned by establishment candidates on either side of the aisle during the last campaign.

    The other intangible positive results of a Trump presidency:

    Another thing libertarians have always sought is a diminished reverence for elected officials and other “public servants” whose goals are often at odds with those of the people.  Trump’s mere presence has caused probably 2/3 of the political spectrum to demand the reverence for the office be scaled back.  They are now calling for more power in the hands of the states or localities and even ::gasp:: the people, on occasion.  These are people that have been statists to the core. They are the Big Government democrats and NeoCon statist Republicans.  And they are finally unified in an effort to diminish the role of the Executive Branch.  This serves to re-establish the separation of powers that has become all-too-muddy with much of the congressional responsibilities being passed to Executive Branch agencies in an attempt to deflect responsibility and ensure easy reelection for entrenched politicians.  The more responsibility that is pushed back into the laps of our directly elected officials and down to the state or local level, the better for us.  It helps us create a more diverse political environment where “laboratories of democracy” are able to compete for ideas and human investment, rather than an all-powerful centralized state controlling everything. And one need look no further than minimum wage laws (since we have them, I’ll address it) to realize a top-down approach where the minimum wage “needed” in New York is imposed on small towns in New Mexico or Wyoming, where the cost of living doesn’t even come close, is a horrific idea.  The Trump era is returning us to an ideal the founders embraced in that respect.

    And he is returning us to another ideal the founders cherished: temporary service from business-people and non-careerist politicians.  The flood of people on Trump’s coattails from all sides of the political spectrum is refreshing. Sure, many are moneyed and or celebrity candidacies. But so what?  Its a step in the right direction any time we start to end political dynasties and careerists that sit in the Senate for 30 years as they grow further and further out of touch from average Americans.  More turnover from political novices has a much better potential upside of shrinking our government than does further entrenching those who have pushed us to near financial ruin and reduced individual liberty.

    Pucker up!

    The net result so far (in my opinion):

    So let us all embrace the non-libertarian president. For one of these reasons or for another I might have missed. But embrace it nonetheless, because it has already borne libertarian fruit, and I suspect it will continue to do so for many of the right and some of the wrong reasons. Its the best we could have hoped for and probably the most libertarian moment in America for a hundred years.

  • A selfish plea for NAV ERP help

    One of the bennies of being a site admin is the ability to abuse it for personal gain. In this case, professional, and there’s money involved.

    Here’s the deal: at my day job, we use NAV for our ERP. We need to develop a database system which will integrate with NAV to store our product ingredient lists, where we can dynamically change the quantities to reflect changes in raw materials. Right now, that’s done through a half-assed Excel system, with NAV having nominal formulas to pull from inventory. We want to improve that process by having NAV be able to pull from the database.

    The project was thrown at me, but since my boss realizes that I only have a vague idea of what a database is or how to use NAV (hey, I’m a scientist, not a computer geek), he told me I can contract the work out. So, since I have an audience with some very smart IT people in it, I wanted to toss out the opportunity here to make a few shekels by making me look good. If this looks like it’s in your wheelhouse, please raise your hand and I’ll contact you offline so we can scope out the project and get it quoted.

  • A charlatan, a Bagdhad Battery and a six year old pixie

    While I was at work, I was given a menial task requiring that I extract medical documentation for an audit. Given the mindless nature I decided I needed some background noise and I wasn’t really up for music at that point in the day so I pulled up YouTube and came across this video from Stefan Molyneux titled, “Why I was wrong about Libertarians.”

    Yeah, I know. So here’s where I engage a bit in a little virtue signaling over Molyneux. He is basically a personified version of Mike Hihn. No, I am not saying he is a 68 year old shell of a person, waiting for a male nurse to change his diaper while still living in his mother’s basement. What I am saying are his arguments and his approach to principle requires such rigid adherence, it is nearly impossible to apply it in the real world. Nobody can realistically live to such a standard. That said, many of his arguments are very well researched and he does put a lot of effort in building the logical framework to support his conclusions.

    I should warn you, it’s mostly him staring into the camera 12 inches from his face in his steely-eyed, condescending, bald white guy with an accent, shtick. Watch the video, (or don’t) but fair warning: it’s almost an hour long.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZzeC06hVvA

    Since nobody clicks links around here, here’s the Cliff’s Note’s version: In general, we have so little influence over the culture that we seem to believe it, gives us a pass for not living up to principle. Actions speak louder than words, as they say. If we are to preach NAP, but don’t live it, nobody will take us seriously. I’m a Federal worker, so I am very much guilty of this myself. I won’t get mad if you call me a mexican slaver, it’s probably true. To his credit, he does give an example or two where we can make such a change.

    Specifically what hit me is around the 6:30 mark where he talks about spanking your children.

    Does spanking violate NAP? Molyneux seems to think so. I find this a bit problematic because I have spanked my children in the past, mostly because I was spanked as well. I approached libertarianism from the cultural right like many. Yes, like nearly all Hispanics (or whatever adjective you prefer), I am Catholic and that authoritarian “there are rules to life” attitude, coupled with a patriarchal culture, generally means corporeal punishment fell neatly into the child rearing toolbox. Plus, since I was often around 18-19 year olds in the Air Force and working on high voltage power lines, it was a handy tool as an NCO, as well, because NCOs are often surrogate parents. It’s quick, to the point, and most importantly, the idea that you did something wrong has a tendency to stick around for a while—quite literally, because it hurts. Great for that stupid Airman looking to get himself electrocuted. I also go for hand slapping, and egregious offenses (mostly Airman) got a hand to the occipital bone; they recover quickly.

    Yet, violence begets violence. While nobody died on my worksite, a fact I am still somewhat proud of given the tendency for high voltage military assets to explode due to operator error, I could have easily been charged with assault. I was called to my son’s school when he punched a kid for reasons he still won’t tell me. Growing up, one of the few memories of my dad was my being scared to death after I talked back. My youngest son is now the same age I was from that memory. I could be a terrifying figure as he is one tenth my size.

    The easiest way to create another libertarian is to be one in front of your children; chances are they will emulate you, so to make a long story short, that douchebag has a point.

    Which brings me to last Saturday. My oldest son has a book filled with random projects he can build with household items. One of them he was interested in was the classic, potato powered light bulb. We decided to take it a step further by assembling a small lamp powered by a Bagdhad Battery.

    Off to the hardware store we go with my six year old daughter deciding to tag along. Now, my relationship with my daughter is much different than my two sons. I don’t believe children bond with their parents as an infant; it comes about 3-4 months later when they begin to walk and interact with the world. I was in Iraq while my oldest son was that age so there is something…missing. That same thing is missing between my wife and daughter, as my wife was in Afghanistan while she was that age–my daughter and I are very close. So we get to Ace Hardware, I pay for our material, we hop back in the Jeep, and head home.

    She took a long time hopping out of the Jeep and had a curious gait walking back into the house. I stopped her, and asked what she was hiding and she says, “Nothing.” I asked again, pointing out she has a square item hidden under her dress, that she is holding in her hand and she again replied, “Nothing.” I pull up her dress (don’t go there) and reveal a small tin of Altoids. She then proceeded to tell me that my sister gave her that and said she could eat it in the car.

    Bullshit. NOBODY EATS IN MY CAR.

    Oddly enough, when I told my wife what happened she told me that she shoplifted on occasion until the age of ten, which added another WTF to my weekend.

    Eventually, I got it out of my daughter that she found it at the hardware store in the impulse buy section and she slipped it under her dress while the cashier and I were verifying that I cut my body length of stranded, #14 AWG copper wire, exactly 71 inches, priced appropriately at $0.49/foot. I could’ve slapped her hand then but I decided not to. You people are always complaining that there are no libertarian women, so maybe I’ll try to do my part. Don’t get any bad ideas OMWC…

    I first told her since she was going to steal from the store, I was going to steal from her. I had her pick her favorite shoes (she likes shoes) and set them in a box. I then considered this was non-productive because her favorite shoes are silver boots, and since we live in Phoenix she won’t wear them until October, anyway. This also creates a double standard a six year old can recognize. I settled for making her watch her brothers eat strawberry shortcake that evening.

    This upset her, so I took her to her room and explained to her why she wasn’t getting cake. The lesson however, was the can of mints was an item for sale. Selling the mints means the store gets money for the mints. If the store has money, they can continue to stay open and sell more mints for people that want them. If enough people want or need mints, the store will have to hire people to be able to stock and sell these mints. To sum it up for a 6 year old, she was stealing from the workers, because the mints pay their salary. She was stealing from the store owner (ACE is a franchise, it’s why I shop there), the cranky old man in the back that makes keys, because the mints help pay his lease and his livelihood. Finally, she was stealing from me, because all crime is the theft of something valuable. In this case, she stole my trust.

    She was crying after that so in a way, maybe I did hit her. She recovered fairly quickly and is still a six year old pixie.

    How’d I do?

  • Making Cooking Easy and Your Day Better – Louisiana Gumbo Edition

    By But I like cocktails and lurking

    I have had a few requests for some of the recipes that I have posted in comments over the years so I thought putting them up here would be easier for any interested parties to find. After hearing about some of the cooking mistakes from the inexperienced and how some people are pressed for time, I thought it would be handy if I compressed/condensed the recipes and methods so that anyone can eat gourmet quality food with very little effort and time. I hope you all enjoy these immensely. Really good food can only make your life better. This is gourmet food for the non-gourmet chef.

    Justin Wilson, the Cajun chef, was famous for beginning his recipes with “First, you make a roux.” Justin knew what he was talking about.

    I am going to give instructions on how to make a basic roux but I recommend buying your roux ready made from the grocery store. They are identical in taste and quality. The only disadvantage in buying roux is that the pre-made roux tends to settle on their way to your kitchen and can take some effort and time to stir back into a homogenous consistency. The only reason you should make your roux is if you can’t find any to buy or if you want a special roux made differently.

    Practicing making a roux is easy, cheap, and doesn’t take long to master. Start with a warm skillet, a good whisk, and a pot set aside to put the roux in. Put equal parts white flour and oil into the skillet and whisk until there are no lumps. I have tried various flours and found that the best, by far, is plain bleached wheat flour. Any good vegetable oil will do. A quarter cup of flour and a quarter cup of oil will make plenty of roux for any large pot of whatever dish you are making.

    Turn the heat up to medium-high and stir occasionally until you see the oil-flour mixture begin to boil. Begin whisking constantly. If it begins to smoke you have the heat too high. The constant stirring keeps any of the oil-flour mixture from sitting on the hot pan surface long enough to burn. Continue doing this until you see the flour start to brown. When it gets to the color of caramel you have made a light roux. You can remove the skillet from the heat now if a light roux was your goal. Because the pan and oil are still hot, it will continue to cook the flour for a short time and possibly brown it further. To prevent this, empty the pan into the cool pot you have set aside.

    If you want a darker roux continue to cook and stir the roux until it reaches the color of milk chocolate. If you are really adventurous you can cook it to the color of dark chocolate but you run the risk of burning your roux.

    The light roux will have less flavor and will thicken your dish, the darker roux will flavor your dish more and not thicken as much.

    For taste you can experiment with different oils. I find that peanut and sesame oils have a much nuttier taste, lard is more hearty, and the various other vegetable oils are more generic but still satisfactory.

    If you are worried about calorie counts, don’t be. A little roux goes a long way. The oil coats the flour granules and makes them more difficult to digest. The darker you make the roux, the more you cook it, the fewer calories there are to be digested.

    Again, unless you are shooting for something unique like a sesame roux, it is much easier to buy your roux ready made. There are numerous brands of ready-made roux; they are all identical and as good as what you can make yourself. It only takes a few minutes to make a roux but having it ready made is a real time saver. Buy your roux. It is usually found in the ethnic foods section of your grocery store and is economical.


    How to throw together a first class meal in fifteen minutes

    1/4 – 1/3 cup of prepared dark roux. A light roux will do but a dark one is preferred
    1 12oz to 16oz bag of frozen seasoning blend (onion, bell pepper, celery mixture)
    6-8 chicken bouillon cubes
    1 cap-full of Zataran’s liquid crab boil
    1 teaspoon (less if you are a wimp) Cayenne pepper
    1 tablespoon crushed garlic or 1 teaspoon powdered garlic
    Dark chicken (8 boneless, skinless thighs or 4 leg quarters)
    About 2 lbs of cajun sausage, sliced ¼ inch thick
    6-8 cups of water – to cover the meats

    If you are in a hurry you can simply throw all of these ingredients into a large stock pot cold, adding the water last to just cover the meats. Cover your pot and bring to a low boil for about one hour. There is no need to precook or mix anything. The boiling will do all of that for you. While it is boiling, an occasional poke with a spoon isn’t a bad idea. After you have turned the heat on you can start the rice, put away all of your ingredients, wash any dishes if there are any. (There shouldn’t be aside from the measuring spoons. All you needed to do was open packages, the pot is on the stove, and the stirring spoon is next to the pot on a trivet or spoon-rest.) When your significant other/others arrive all they will see is a clean kitchen, a boiling pot, and the air will be filled with the most delicious smell. Serve over rice.

    – Get yourself a microwave rice cooker. It is a simple plastic pot with a snap-on lid and a vent. It only costs a couple of bucks. To make your rice, put two cups of water, one cup of rice (basmati is best), two chicken bouillon cubes, one and a half tablespoons of butter, and about one tablespoon of dried, sweet basil in the pot. Microwave on high for 15 minutes.
    You can taste the rice but don’t let anyone else taste it before serving the meal. They will eat all of your rice right out of the cooker.

    Lastly, while you are in the Cajun food section of the grocery store, keep your eyes peeled for gumbo file’. It is dried and finely ground sassafras leaves. After you have served your gumbo over rice you can sprinkle this over the top of your dish.

    This is a perfect recipe for anyone who wants really good, authentic home-cooked meals but doesn’t have a lot of time. It is easy, fast, and doesn’t take a master chef. I am looking at you Commodius Spittoon. It is also a perfect recipe for any restaurant because it can be made in bulk in minimal time and sold by the bowl for a good profit. It will draw a large, hungry crowd, especially in cold weather. Trust me, they will keep coming back.

  • Glibertarian Life Goals

  • Go Ask Alice

    The Query

    I’m a single guy who’s finding the search for a girlfriend frustrating, because one of my absolute requirements for any woman I date that she be at least libertarian-leaning. I have friends of different political persuasions, of course, because politics aren’t the crux of our friendship, so we do [shared interest activity] then part ways. But I don’t think I could stand coming home to someone who supposed to be a source of solace and moral support yet I think is at best naïve and at worst stupid or immoral or both. How could I connect with someone who doesn’t even understand my frustrations with the world outside the walls of our home? How could I respect as an equal someone who thinks such a world is moral or just?

    So, for those of you who are dating/married to non-libertarians, how do you make peace with that? Am I doing myself a disservice by maintaining such a strict requirement?

    — Where The Libertarian Women At?

    The Answer(s)

    Riven:

    I don’t think there’s anything wrong with waiting until you find the right person. Previously, I was married to someone who might have considered himself a libertarian, but he definitely fell into a standard Republican square, in my estimation. Things didn’t work out–for plenty of reasons, not just because we couldn’t see eye-to-eye ideologically. One thing I’ve found about libertarians and libertarianism is that it isn’t just a political philosophy; for me, it’s more of a life philosophy. I would not be able to push my ideals aside for my romantic partner and I have a whole failed relationship to prove it. As you said above, how could I come home to someone who has an entirely different approach/reaction to the world than I do? I couldn’t. Mr. Riven and I met on OKCupid, where it was easy to see on each other’s profiles if there was going to be any compatibility or not. Luckily we were both painfully honest, and meeting in person only reinforced that compatibility further. The rest, they say, is history. Hold out for that unicorn.

    Banjos:

    A thrice divorced hopelessly romantic former coworker of mine once told me a story. He was almost about to give up on finding “the one” when a friend of his point blank asked him a question.  “What do all the women you have been married to/dated over your life have in common?”  He thought about it for a second and then said “I met them all in bars.”  His friend then said “If you want to catch a different kind of fish, you need to start fishing in different ponds.”  My coworker took his friend’s advice to heart, found a different pond, and has been happily married ever since.  Shortly after being told that story, I started fishing on Reason and caught myself a sloopy. I know of another couple who are soon to be married who found each other through Reason’s comment section, as well. So my simple advice is this: If you want a libertarian fish, fish in libertarian ponds.

    BrettL:

    First of all, we know there are no libertarian women out there, Banjos and Riven are taken. But beating our heads against the wall of impossible is obviously attractive to the libertarian leaning. What worked well for me was to find one who didn’t care at all about politics and really didn’t think much about how society should be ordered. And then show her the outrageous things that happen every day that this site and certain others are good at highlighting. Mrs. L still doesn’t care about politics, per se, but she sure does say a lot of things that sound like they came off this message board in response to the petty statism we encounter day-to-day. However, Mrs. L is awesome, sane, and puts up with me, so good luck finding your own unicorn.

     

    If you’ve got questions and no answers, feel free to drop us a line at advice@glibertarians.com, and we will do our best to help you.

  • Heinlein As A Way Of Life; or Joys Of Body Armor

    “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” 
    ― Robert A. Heinlein

    In my first attempt at this, I used the terms Prepper and Prepping. I should not have, though I think material aspects of those are covered by what I am doing. Dad worked on Apollo and then Apollo-Soyuz and Skylab. We lived in Seabrook with all the other NASA/JPL/IBM engineers and astronauts that worked at the Johnson Space Center. I thought it was normal to play in the display J-2 rocket engine and wander around when the NASA staff were making the displays for the little museum they had going on before they made it a paid public theme park. My choices for reading were what dad had in the bookshelves, which was a set of Great Books of the Western World, the whole set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, and a mess of Niven, Heinlein, Clarke, Pournelle, Asimov, and others.

    Heinlein always struck a chord in me, a resonance that with words expressed with the same impact that having grandparents who lived a lot of that self-reliant and ultimately satisfying life. Let us approach this from that lens, rather than all the connotations that come with Preppers and Prepping. Homesteading is probably the best term for it, in that Prepping requires that you are preparing for some great calamitous event, whereas I am coming from a point of just living life and solving problems in as self-sufficient manner as possible. This includes being prepared for disaster and mayhem, but as part of life.

    Because of a reference in some of the comments about a rant on body armor from 2015, I read the entire archived thread that was referenced. First off, it is my life, and I will use whatever means I have in order to defend it. I will even extend that to those around me, whether they deserve it or not. That is my reasoning for having and carrying a pistol. My military gear is for just that (and mainly for working around the property, which happens a lot more than Mad Max bad guy gangs tooling around the nucular (sic) wastelands causing rape and mayhem). I camp with my hammock, poncho, poncho liners, carry everything in the same ruck (and same loadout) that I could live out of indefinitely if need be. Something that was brought up in that thread, to death, was the rights v. the person’s irrational fear of the use of body armor making his guns less effective, so BAN IT, BAN IT ALL TO HELL!!11!eleventyone!!

    Don’t care. I shoot, a lot. It is one of the things that my TBIs didn’t scramble so badly that I can’t do it anymore, unlike doing artwork without great concentration or pain, or thinking about each step consciously at some level. I can still do it, and I do it well. I have also been very lucky in that on most of the ranges that I shoot on, there is a good possibility of getting hit with debris, the shorn jacket of a bullet, the odd nail in a stump that gets hit at just the wrong angle, and I have gotten away with at worst minor cuts.

    There is also the fact that its intended use for protection in armed conflict. I have it for that reason, should I ever need it. However, I find that the only use for it so far, has been range safety. I have Rx Oakley and Wiley-X specs because I value my failing eyesight. I value what is left of my scrambled brain, so I have an ACH (Advanced Combat Helmet, Ballistic) high cut helmet. It clears the Peltor active ear protection, I can wear it all day, and it is WAAAAY more comfortable than the PASGT helmets you saw from Panama, Gulf War 1, Bosnia, and the opening years of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

    I have a simple plate carrier that I use, any Berry-compliant (every bit of it made in the USA, to include all components) carrier will do, but my beater carrier is a Shellback Tactical Banshee with medium SAPI rifle plates front and back, with Level IIIA Aramid (Kevlar) soft inserts on the sides. It also works great for carrying 4 extra magazines, a first aid trauma kit, flashlight, and hydration kit. I also have their Banshee 2 with the 3d air mesh lining if I ever had to wear it for days-weeks at a time. Crye Precision and TYR Tactical make the best tactigucci stuff out there, but these work for me, without the several-months wait. Aftermarket is one place where they really surpass the .mil plates and carriers, but you pay for it. NIJ 2006 is the latest standard, and is more stringent than the .mil requirements for Level IV and Level IV Special Purpose plates.

    That all said and done, it’s getting to be time for proper gear. Boardshorts, t-shirt, flip-flops, the body boards, and the wetsuit. Almost time to rent a house on Topsail Island or the OBX before the waves die down for the summer. Next installment: reloading equipment and water purification.

    Don, Always 11H1P, but now just Professional Beach Bum.

  • Medical Mondays – “The Meaning of Fear…” (Part 1 of 2)

    The thyroid. Parathyroid. Bilateral axillary. Breasts and the areolas. Almost the entirety of the abdomen – stomach, liver, spleen, intestines, and pancreas. Rectus & tranversus abdominis. External & internal obliques. Linea alba & umbilicus. Inguine. Rectum & anus. All of these within my domain and scope of practice. I am a general surgeon, FACS; qualified in bariatrics, robot assisted and minimally invasive surgery (MIS), and primary care with emphasis on underserved rural communities. I have also been on-call for ER surgical, and served as alternate house physician for a large, privately run, Independent & Assisted Living/Skilled Nursing retirement facility. I have practiced medicine for almost 17 years, including surgical residency. With the exceptions of two teenaged food service jobs and one (mercifully brief) stint as a rental car call center rep (“Try Harder”? Whatta crock!); medicine is what I know.

    The uterus. Cervix. Fallopian tubes. Ovaries. Babies, intra and post partum. Colpus, internal and external. The kidneys. Ureters. Bladder. Testes. Urethra. My wife is also a physician; her scope of practice is just as vast, yet in very different areas. She is a dual specialised medical surgeon, trained and served at the behest of state and private medical agencies. She has been sent to many places in Eastern Europe and Asia, including cities in her ancestrally native Ukraine, Belarus, Russia (she was born in Kamchatka in Russia), and Chechnya, for medical missions (some of them in declared zones of conflict), and has practiced for a little over 13 years. Her childhood dream was to be a professional ballerina to see the world, and has worked entirely in the medical field. She was also the captain of her chess team during her medical training, and was a champion level competitor (a rather sore winner, she is; and, an exceptionally sore loser, to boot). Her father, a high ranking military officer, specifically encouraged her to study medicine as a way to serve her country without military enlistment.

    The job of a physician is very simple: To diagnose and treat disease. Simple, yet so very complex. Made even more complex by the very people we strive to help, and often worsened by those ostensibly charged to help them on their behalf, moreso those in the public sector, but the private sector can be just as frustrating. What we hope to accomplish in this series is to pull back the curtain and give you an idea of what we do and our respective points of view with regard to practice and overall ethos that informs our respective approaches to care.

    For example, I am of the firm belief that medical care is not an inherent, plenary, human right. Period. Full Stop. End of Story. I own my skills totally, and determine who and who does not receive them. This is, of course, subject to contract at the pleasure of an employer and/or third party payer, though I will inform them upfront that there are certain non-negotiable lines that simply won’t be crossed.

    My wife, who for now shall be referred to as Zhena Groovova (Жена Грувова – literally, “wife of Groovus”), her views were and are informed by the fact she has witnessed the dissolution of the Soviet Union, The Orange Revolution in 1991 (Ukraine’s Independence), and, most recently, The Maidan Revolution and subsequent Donbass Invasion in 2014 (we had the poor fortune to witness that one firsthand in Donetsk, and will most likely include medical experiences from that time). She received almost all her training in Ukraine post-independence, as when it was part of the Soviet Union, the job of the country was to make planes and tanks, grow wheat, and educate doctors and train nurses (Soviet Command Economy). She believes that basic medical care access is an inherent, plenary, human right, though the physician determines the limits of his or her labour by right of education and station.

    Suffice it to say, we do believe that, regardless of system, payment scheme, and even patient demands, we own our education and skills – there are ethical and personal lines we simply will not cross. Many of our anecdotes and reflections will stem directly from these competing philosophies.

    That said, the types of things we’ll cover in Medical Mondays and Супер Среда (Super Wednesdays) are:

    1. The lighter things, such as humorous patient anecdotes, medical education bloopers and blunders, and intra-office pranks (Of which there are legion; ever put SuperGlue on the Med Students’ pens and clipboards, or saran wrap the Charge Nurse’s desk?);

    2. “A Day in The Life,” and other fly on the wall vignettes, providing answers to the oft wondered, “Why is everything taking so long,” “Do you ever go to the bathroom,” “With all the gross stuff you see, how do you even have a sex life?” “Are your kids your personal lab rats?” “How do you get along with other doctors?” “How much sex and sleaze goes on in a hospital?”;

    3. More contemporary issues with regard to medical freedom, such as: records privacy in the digital age, licensure, billing, Charity Care, the roles of rising adjuncts like ARNPs, PAs, and Allied Health (like respiratory therapists, pharmacists, medical technologists, and paramedics/EMS), scope of practice, continuity of care, tele-medicine, robotics and autonomous bots, regulations, DNA and heredity, charting and dictation, “know-it-all-WebMD patients,” and other unique stressors for us that patients don’t ever see, and so much more from the doctor’s perspective;

    4. The much more serious side of medicine, such as how we deal with: patient deaths; stillborn births; preemies; birth defects; performing a surgical abortion; going to jail for freedom of conscience and religion; assessing possible sexual assault & completing a rape kit; industry drug abuse; being sued; the worst and most gruesome ER cases; war injuries, crimes, and pathologies; when to remove, and removal of, life support; attending patient’s funerals; having the Jonathan Kent/”Superman” moment (“All these powers, why couldn’t we save them?”) and other extremely emotionally draining, personally destructive, and unpleasant aspects of medicine, where no one asks what we feel or think, how it affects us and our psyches, or has never even given it a first thought, forget a second one. “Prick us, do we not bleed”?

    5) Solutions to the current medical care delivery woes, and how both technology and human conditions can improve it; conversely, addressing legal liability costs and concerns in this almost literal, Post Mendelian, “Brave New World.”

    What we don’t want is some run of the mill malady/cure column extolling the virtues of folk remedies (though many work, actually), nor throwing abstracts in your face a la Pub Med Ninjas. The InnerToobz is already bursting at the seams with advice columns; if you are hoping for a column on which is better, Vick’s Vap-o-Rub v. Lamisil, for toe fungus, BORING! (FTR, Vick’s is cheaper, no side effects, OTC, and takes not much longer than Lamisil. Wash and dry your feet, apply Vick’s to the cuticle for about three weeks. Trim nails as needed. Works wonders for thick, cracking toenails, too. OK, we may throw in a few tips…)

    The other thing we ask: Be respectful to us. We hope many of you will like us, some find us an absolute scream, know others will find us about the level of watching paint dry, know some will (and do already) hate us, and know most hate the systems as they are. If we see such comments such as, “PERMISSION SLIP!”, “CARTEL!”, “GUILD MAN!”, and other stuff we already know grinds your gears, we’re out, and we will take down our posts and comments with them.

    OMWC and SP, and The Founders here, gave us this forum out of the goodness of their hearts to entertain and educate, not be punching bags and pinatas. We get enough legit abuse to last many lifetimes over. We are here for you, but won’t hesitate for a second to keep you at arm’s length – the time we spend with you, is the time we could be spending treating paying patients, making filthy doctor lucre, and spending time with our three children…

    Our greatest fear, at this moment, is failing to meet your expectations.

    *Hangs Up “Out” Shingles*

    Be Well.

  • A Little Help From Your Friends

    Feed me your sorrows

    You, yes you, <user_ID>, should unload your problems, concerns and worries about life and love on us so that we might advise you.

    Is your spouse a progressive? Has one of your orphans picked up Das Kapital and a concerning amount of facial hair? Do your coworkers know that you’re a lunatic gun nut and avoid inviting your to their children’s birthday parties?

    Tell us your woes and help us help you!

    Send your submissions to advice@glibertarians.com today! (Letters may be edited for length, clarity or to make you look like an idiot)

    [It won’t be me, but the solution to your problem may be a 55 gallon drum of personal lubricant for $1,468.80 on Amazon now. The staff makes no promises. –jesse.in.mb]