Category: Uncategorized

Rather uneventful week, thankfully.

I don’t know what to do, really.

I do have some more ideas, thankfully, that might work well.

We’re still looking at buying a house. This is in spite of bad news coming out about where the housing market’s probably headed.

I’m hoping we can get to the point where we’ll be able to almost pay cash for somewhere.

Maybe I’ll be at the point where I can just pay outright, and not have to really worry about a lot.

I need to figure out what to write about next month. I’m also curious what I wrote about, if I wrote, during my first trip after leaving radio.

Me, that is.

I have two things I need to write about.

I really meant to write about this (Voluntary Vixens Ep. 96) late last week, but I forgot. I guess my initial take is along the lines of where I am with so many other things lately.

People get so accustomed to preparing (for anything!) one way that they don’t take into account changes that’ve happened in the world.

The Emergency Preparedness information is certainly familiar to me. It sounds like my youth background is very similar in terms of the Boy Scouts.

But things have changed.

The US Army deactivated its last MASH unit in 2006.

There’s no need to do a ton of things in the field anymore. If shit really goes down, they get you to a place where you can be cared for away from the imminent danger.

The US just pulled out of Afghanistan after twenty years. If a servicemember was injured in the field there, he/she would be stabilized for helo transport to a place that’d be acceptable for transport to a full hospital somewhere else.

The corporate press here combined information from the first Gulf War in 1991 with the modern wars’ statistics.

We’re pretty damned good of keeping track of people these days. If someone is hurt or killed, they’re not just left on the battlefield like they were previously.

What I’m saying with the emergency preparedness efforts is: understand what modern tools entail. I traveled to NYC earlier this week. I had two credit cards, a debit card, my paratransit card, a $20 bill, and a phone. When I got back to DC the next day, I had the same.

Did I ever want for something that would have been in the gargantuan wallet I used to carry? No. Would that have been the same in 2005? No.

Out of curiosity, I decided to search back, and see if I’d mentioned Bob Zubrin here before. Yes. July 2014. What he was writing about was his inspiration for Martian exploration based on the historical examples from polar exploration.

You have to go light, and you have to be able to move. If there’s something you need along the way, you can probably find it if you look around.

This is almost antithetical to the ultra-prepared crowd.

Will you be able to get somewhere safe? Almost certainly. So unless there’s something you will die without, pick it up along the way.

It’s very difficult to communicate this sort of thinking.

---

Now I should write about the trip and the debate.

First, I did not carry my vaccine card with me. No, you don’t need to scan my card. Sorry. You can see a photo of it in my phone unlockable to anyone who doesn’t have my thumbprint. If they hadn’t let me in, I probably would have disputed all the charges for the trip with my credit card company.

But they were satisfied, so it was a non-issue.

As for the debate, itself, I registered my vote as undecided at the outset. As I wrote Saturday, I really was.

As a refresher, the resolution was: A willingness to intervene, and to seek regime change, is key to an American foreign policy that benefits America.

Despite a couple of notable questionable assertations, the neocon of all neocons cleaned the floor with Horton.

While Krystol didn’t really do a ton to support it, he did spell out some instances of American intervention that have benefitted humanity.

As my friend and I discussed later, were Grenada and Panama really black eyes for America? Did either really talk about those? No.

I was also thinking about where we didn’t even do the bare minimum, to loan Bradley Fighting Vehicles to end the slaughter in Rwanda.

The default position should be one of non-intervention

But can positive things come from military action? Absolutely.

I think a lot of that would be short of regime change.

Neither of them really argued to that. Horton was digging up things completely irrelevant to, well, anything.

I get earwormed by Duran-Duran’s “The Reflex” when I hear him speak about the Middle East; he’s reflexively pro-Shiite.

On balance, is the world a better place because the Shah was removed?

I don’t think so.

I’ve volunteered to discuss it with a few podcasters I frequently consume. We’ll see if any of them take me up on it.

Going to hit the wayback machine to revisit what will be five years ago in November.

---

Halftime. When was/will be the halftime of your life?

This was a rather dark prompt now that I look at it again.

Do I think I’m past the halfway point? I don’t know. Am I there in other aspects of my life? Yes. My professional career? Yep. This particular job? Certainly.

On so many things I ask myself why I continue on. Maybe NoJoMo should be one of those.

I will probably write next year; I don’t just quit, even when I have good reason to. I’m a Saints’ fan, so I’m watching Buddy Ryan Jr.-B’s defense get a good start on serving up the fortyburger in FedEx Field……

So, a bit of freewriting as the Redskins score, what am I looking forward to the next few few months?

1. Thanksgiving. For the first time in a very long time, I think I will be able to actually enjoy eating this year. Actually being hungry for the first time in almost twenty years is something new.
2. Travel. My wife and I are planning a trip, and I’m excited about that. The only details I’ll reveal are that French food will be consumed.

That jewelry commercial was more than a little hetero-normative……

---

Listening to this, and nodding vigorously.

Difficult to know what the halftime of my life is, really. If I’m only in the third quarter,

And if it’s very late, I don’t really care. I’ve done what I can do.

Going to fail the segue on this, too, but it’s a big like I feel about so many things.

Yesterday I was more than a little upset that the corporate press wasn’t covering an earthquake in Haiti.

I don’t even know.

I’m going to finish this streak, then try to get through until…..

I didn’t have a prompt for this one, so I’m going to repeat something from November 2015.

The prompt, then, was actually from the sixth; the fifth didn’t really fit, here.

---

Nov. 6, 2015, midnight

What are your plans for this weekend?

---

I have a virtual event on Friday night, then I’m going to see a comedy show Sunday.

Otherwise, no idea.

What I wished for in that entry, however, was just some time to relax. I’m kinda there right now, actually.

I’m sortakinda off on Monday. I’ll hop on for our normal team meeting, then I have my Monday night maintenance window.

Maybe I’ll get motivation to do more with these mailing lists…..

Getting some feedback on OD about my last two entries.

Yes, I don’t think the way a lot of people do. Understood. But I do aim for consistency, adherence to underlying principles.

Maybe my life would be easier if I played for “one of the two” political teams. Sorry, I can’t do that.

I only can do what ultimately makes me feel comfortable.

I also admit that I can make incorrect pronouncements; I’m willing to hear other arguments if they’re well thought-out.

Very little of what I’m seeing with what’s happening in DC today points to that, however.

The Machiavellian curiosity is just about how corrupt the folks in the “mainstream” are when it comes to exercising power.

Maybe it’d be better to ask directly, firmly, what do you think it’s always unacceptable for government to do?

The news cycle is moving so incredibly quickly. I know, I know, it’s dangerous that I get my news from multiple sources, Chuck Todd, but I am paying attention to what’s happening in New York because I’m supposed to go up there in October.

Their wonderful mayor was touting some new vaccine passport yesterday that’ll allow you entry to bars/restaurants/clubs/etc.. This afternoon/evening, there’s been a full backpeddle from some of his political allies.

Like the mayor of Boston. Hm. How’s that work, now?

We’re finished. You failed. Move on to something different.

Meanwhile, I’ll cross my fingers, and hope that there’s no issues with my trip to NYC in October. And DC this weekend.

This is sort of a writing-a-day-early thing.

I wasn’t feeling well last night, and decided to go ahead and try to take some of the copious leave I have.

So. What’s up.

Well, my left-handed comment last week to Brian McWilliams get a lot more punctuation. (Link to long, very disjointed Twitter thread…which will probably not work a few months after I initially write this entry. I periodically go back and delete all of my Tweets. Not because I regret many of them, but because things can come back and be misconstrued out-of-context). The discussion, however, did affect even my way of thinking about things.

Government does a couple of things well — breaking things, and killing people. Everywhere else, private industry does a better job.

If you knew of someone who needed immediate help with a problem, would calling some bureaucratic agency, or starting a Go Fund Me be more effective?

The host of the Peddling Fiction Podcast had a friend whose daughter was in the hospital with an unknown medical issue. Johny put out a request to listeners like me, and we gave money to support child and mom as they dealt with whatever the problem was/is.

Complicating matters, there, is that John, and his friend live overseas.

How long would it have taken to get things organized through government?

Much longer, I’m certain.

Would the money have gotten there with more taken off-the-top? Of course. That’s not a good thing.

People want to help. Paying a thug with a gun and a badge doesn’t increase generously.

But, back to the disagreement I was having with Brian, the way he was describing it is making the focus on the consumer when pitching Libertarianism.

No, that’s a pitch to a shrinking segment of the population. But that segment of the population, historically, seemed enormous, and the educators coming from that segment, focus on those like them.

Think Globally, Act Locally. Things will work out better than if you’re worried about what others are doing.

Maybe more tomorrow, but I should go do my daily stuff.

I am, but it’s really all I can do at this point.

Monday (the Federal holiday for Independence Day, as the 4^th actually fell on Sunday), I took the train down to see my mom. Overall, the trip went okay, though I did manage to lose my glasses on the trip back up.

Just now, I bought a replacement pair. $12.95. Yeah. I can deal with that even if I have to essentially throw them out when I finally get a replacement prescription.

But, largely, I didn’t do much of anything. I did get to Waffle House on Wednesday before I scrambled back to NoVA early to avoid the tropical storm.

I checked email when I got back on Wednesday night, then did some things on Thursday, but largely I’ve been off.

Am I re-energized, ready to get ack to the grind? *shrug*

Thankfully, the news has slacked off a bit this week.

Listening to this Podcast, there’s ads from Facebook advocating new Intertubes regulations.

So that they can make themselves bigger, more indispensable.

No. I am not in favor of anything that’d do that.

I need to figure out what my topics are going to be for my summer writing compulsion session.

A buck short. Maybe.

Lots of stuff swirling, and I’m looking forward to my “vacation” back to Tidewater after Independence Day.

I’m trying to remember the last time I had a vacation with nothing to do.

This won’t be one of those, unfortunately. I have a ton of old computing and electronics stuff that I need to clear out of my mom’s house as she prepares to finally move to somewhere more appropriate.

It will also give me an excuse to hit Waffle House.

I’m listening to this. One of my moments of clarity Friday was that the host should never be President. I haven’t heard anything, here, that is really moving me off of that position.

This was interesting.

The corporate press just ignored the FOIA releases of Dr. Fauci’s emails.

To quote President Biden, this is a big !@#&ing deal. But the press your relatives might be watching say it’s all good.

No. It’s not. It’s probably even worse than what Clapper did in 2013.

Obviously, Senator Paul is doing a lot of fundraising off of it, but who’s seeing it?

If you look at the numbers, it’s basically nobody.

You can leave. But does that do any good? Who knows.

I could write more about what I’m doing, personally, but it’s a curiosity only for a few.

So. What’s on tap for this week?

Well, I have an appointment with my neurologist on Monday. On Tuesday, I’ll vote in the party of Jim Crow’s primary for Virginia governor, and vote against some of the worst candidates.

The rest of the week, I have no idea. I should see if my wife will cut my hair; it’s getting hot outside.

Background is this song because it was something often spinning in my CD player as a young guy.

While I understood the sentiment, even with my rather-limited relationship status at the time, I disagreed with it.

I was looking for the written-version of this, but the audio version is fascinating.

No one owes you anything.

I’m carrying on listening to the podcaster’s analysis of the article. I don’t have any kids (and I can say that was near-absolute certainty), but I do understand where he’s coming from. But my interactions are almost entirely with adults. No, I’d say that all of my interactions are with adults.

How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World has been at the back of mind for me for a long time.

One of the things that’s been bouncing about my scarred brain lately has been one of the things that Browne wrote about with the rights trap. In one of the PF discussion sessions last week, there was impassioned discussion of using the state to protect intellectual property.

Another article talking about the rights trap.

Much of my thinking about it is flavored by some of the sentiments in the Free Software movement. I can’t recall, and can’t find, the phrase that used to pervade, “I don’t believe in imaginary property.” Flavored by things like this.

I get bound up thinking about when is it okay to use the force of the state to compel others to respect your rights?

I’m in the camp, that for the most part, it’s never permissible.

One of the things that was drilled into my head in school is that there are three separate elements of “intellectual property” — patents, copywrites, trademarks, and trade secrets.

Patents provide you, a creator, exclusive opportunity to manufacture, license, or sell a particular invention for a fixed amount of time.

Copywrites have similar limitations.

Trademarks are essentially perpetual, but you have to spend energy to protect them.

Trade secrets you have to keep secret forever. Think about Colonel Sanders’s herbs and spices, or the recipe for Coca-Cola.

So. When is it appropriate to force others to respect your rights?

To me, the answer on that is never.

Do what you do, and you’ll be rewarded for it. No one owes you anything.

You do owe others to avoid aggressing against them.