Militant Left Getting Their Way as I Go Galt
Had an interesting conversation yesterday. I happened to be almost home at the end of a jog when a car pulled up. It was our family doctor. We have become good friends, and beer-drinking buddies. He quickly convinced me that a beer was just what I needed at the end of a jog so I stopped by his place (we're neighbors). He was bringing home some beer from a local brewpub that has gained the attention of the militants. Recently, the owner of the pub said on his facebook page something less than supportive of the women's march. I don't know the details. Well, now they are threatening to put him out of business, attack him, etc. I joked that if Doc and I walk in there we might get punched in the back of the head (ala Trump rally). Then, we started discussing how the left really is getting more aggressive...ultimately, how they are becoming more like...Nazis. We actually do fear entering some businesses, saying things publicly that we might have said a few years ago, etc. Sad thought. In that regard, I suppose the new, more threatening tactics are effective. I note this symbiotic relationship between slipping away and self-preservation while I slowly go Galt. Doc was very clear about the need to keep our mouths shut. We sat out on his porch enjoying a wonderful rye as the sun dropped low...enjoying the peace.
Yeah...given the players pushing this militant stuff I'm not anywhere near convinced it can be stopped, and that it must run its course.
travel in Arizona...nothing but Trump signs...cross over into California...Bernie Sanders and Hillary signs...and Cal will vote in 2018 to leave the union...paradise lost...working in Yellowstone this summer...see how that goes...90%+ of the RV crowd is libertarian...happy campfires...
I think a Great Wall would be in order...
i have finished 77 marathons...Boston 13 times...i was at the founding of the Libertarian Party in Ft Collins in 1970...
from quartzsite we travel to Temecula and the boutique wineries (45 of them...more than i can do in one day...ha, ha), which is 60 miles east of San Diego...
I was having dinner with a good friend / business partner and his wife the other night... and was lamenting the observation that so many trail runners and mountain climbers are overt modern liberals / progressives. But, I suspect that it's really a matter of libs being highly vocal (rather noisy actually) ... whereas libertarians and conservatives (live and let live / keep your beliefs personal) tend to be on the quieter side. My next door neighbors are total lib: she is a govt teacher (teaches disadvantaged and troubled kids), he is on SSDI. They are good people -- but if the topic of 'politics' comes up, I hold my tongue. I will never change their minds, not with math (economics), logic, reason. At this point in time, however, I have decided not to just let their nonsense slide. If they decide to talk politics, I will shine the bright light of objectivity and reason on their economically absurd nonsense and conceit-enriched hypocrisy. It may cost a 13 year friendship ... so be it. Soon, I will be among like-minded individuals (retirement) and I think that will reduce some of the stress in my life.
Well done on being party to the founding of the Libertarian Party. I was at a few of the early Tea Party rallies ... but that has sort of evaporated ... talking to other Party attendees, we have too much to do (careers, running our businesses, raising families, building a future) -- and don't have the time or priority to be marching, chanting, throwing rocks and bottles ... Looking forward to being among the reasonable and sane in the coming years. Cheers.
Lib Party has been totally gutted of any consistency....for freedom and liberty...most disgusting...
i got kicked out of the online forum of the Tea Party for pointing out the contradictions of the conservative movement...and told not to come to tea party rallies because i was too logical...unbelievable...
got a girlfriend that i am on the same page with...we are in our late 60's...been retired 15 years...tired of sitting around on the beach waiting to die...bought RV...will be workcampers till we can't....
Boston is a great experience...participate in as many activities as possible...bring a book to read and food in Hopkintons until the race starts (noon...you are bused out at 8 am)...wear layers until the race starts then you will take clothes, book, and food to bus in a carry bag with your number on it for collection at the finish line...if you still can, sign up for tour of Hopkinton and the route...girls at Wasser is like running a gauntlet...Newton hills will destroy your legs...Heartbreak is 20/21 mile marker...then long downhill and then flat death march to finish line...Boston College and Boston U. students will offer you beer...and will throw you back on the course if you try to walk off....great fun...
As for Boston .... that is this coming weekend. I am heading over with a friend that has run it a few times already, so he already has the logistics set... more advice is welcomed though, and I appreciate your words. Layers, book and extra grub for pre-race enjoyment sounds like a plan. I am looking forward to the beer offerings and will make every attempt to get thrown back onto the course. It will be a slow race... I am a slow runner, this will likely be my first and last Boston... the idea is to enjoy it to the fullest extent possible. Cheers!
I have a ton of respect for pilots. Back in 2008, I took ground school then soloed. Life got hectic, the weather got lousy and I never completed my GA Cert. I continue to contemplate getting back top-side... maybe when I "retire" -- that's in quotes because I can't imagine ever just sitting around... I am organizing a Grand Canyon R2R2R crossing with some friends along with a summit of Mt. Adams and long hike through the Enchantment Lakes for this summer. It would be a kick to become a part-time adventure guide... stay "connected to the Earth" in terms of other people, commerce... and have side-line income from a few duplexes. In any case -- I wish you continued happiness in your RV and camping adventures. It's a bonus to be able to share that time with one special person that has a similar mindset. Cheers.
we have spent the week in the RV park in Laughlin, Nevada, just relaxing along the Colorado River...we start our drive to Yellowstone Saturday...still a little chilly up there (90s here)...I am mostly raw vegan...grow my own food...I have a dozen trays started...wheatgrass, pea, and sunflower sprouts...do 2 ozs of wheatgrass first thing in the morning...followed by 16 ozs of greendrink...with every green veggie I can find...all juiced...then again in the late afternoon...my current girlfriend came to me 5 yrs ago with breast cancer...she knew I had a healthy lifestyle...her mother had died of breast cancer and her husband had died of cancer...I put her on an intensive juicing program...shrunk the tumor in 1/2 in three weeks...she had the rest removed surgically and has been cancer-free ever since... I have 150 ilbs of seed in the trunk of my car to grow in Yellowstone all summer and into the fall...we leave mid-oct.
there are 1,000 miles of hiking trails in Yellowstone...my goal is to do all of them...if you get close drop me a line mia767ca@aol.com or call...561-307-0704 ....but be warned...cell phone reception is very poor and internet is dial-up...john
when my girlfriend was here by herself 10 years ago, there are very poor internet dial up and no cell phone reception...we will go to Cody, Wy on our days off (nearest movie theater, cell phone reception, and Walmart)...so I will catch up on messages...
john k
What is a "humanist" and what does atheism have to do with any of this?
Atheism means rejection of the supernatural, which includes all kinds of people, including Ayn Rand. Saying that someone rejects the supernatural does not say what he does believe or why. Denouncing leftists as "atheist" misses the point of what they are and typically tries to package-deal rejection of religion as such with collectivism. O'Hair in particular was a socialist, not just "atheist". Her views had nothing in common with Ayn Rand or a lot of other people who rationally reject religion.
Screw You All"
That's horrible. I'm sorry to hear that. I don't think we should take actual threats lightly. People think our Constitutional gov't is so stable that there's no real need to worry about it devolving into some form of mobs. I'm not paranoid about it, but considering how widely the Constitution has been interpreted, it could fall apart. Then some people will tell you that's okay because whatever comes next couldn't be worse than our current gov't. This is the flood myth to me. If it devolves into mobs, things could and probably would get MUCH worse.
I have the human urge to deny it because I wish it were not true. I hope it's not true, anyway.
Of course is the most likely place for mistakes in math and science. I don't have evidence, but it really doesn't ring true for me. As I said below, I the criminals look over their shoulder for an immediate deterrent and hardly give thought to national politics.
Do you think this is really happening though? It seems like crime happens, and now it's easier to publish a media site or social media feed saying without evidence the crime is part of a trend of rising crime and that it's related to who is president. It just doesn't ring true to me that people committing crimes take into account national politics. I think they look over their shoulder for a cop or anyone else who might stop them immediately.
"the race baiting by Obama and the left, including their attacks on the police departments"
I think those to whom that notion (i.e. that President Obama or President Trump are fomenting riots/crimes) makes any sense at all are a minority, and it's a small fraction of those who would actually act on it. People who believe this crap are generally not those who get stuff done.
The leftist intellectuals who took over the universities are now in all realms of education, the media and political power (e.g. Obama and Clinton). They are leading the drones who are less intellectual but who have absorbed the same premises and sense of life. If those engaging in anarchy in the streets, as opposed to the rest of it, were not still in a minority the country would be in chaotic anarchy instead of its current state of pandering to it. That doesn't make it unserious either now or for where it is headed.
I could be wrong. Every other day when I'm home I hear some anecdote about President Trump's supporters bringing back racism and homophobia. I don't see these redneck idiots or leftist hippies managing their way out of a paper bag. And when I think about the underlying disputes, they seem less intense than in the past. Integration was a big deal. Now what issues are these "drones" and their intellectual vanguard fired up about? I say nothing. There are always people who can get stuff done and want to blame it somebody else. So I don't buy it. If you're right, then people are forming violent factions over what appears to me to be nothing.
It is well known that leftists anarchists have engaged in street violence for decades. It includes the university violence of the late 1960s to today, the World Trade Organization 'protest' anarchy in Seattle, and the upsurge in mob street violence throughout the Obama administration and continuing today rejecting the outcome of the election against them. It comes in waves depending on the plans of the agitators and their funding as they try to foment and exploit discontent over whatever is handy and they can get away with at the time. Look at the Black Lies Matter organized violence and the most recent outbursts from the anti-free speech movement shutting down speakers on university campuses. It's not about "nothing", it's about their ideological agenda of egalitarian nihilism and their totalitarian mentality.
Pre-New Left activists in the "Red Decades" were in fact openly communist and communist-sympathizers, not "boogie-men". So was much of the leadership in the union violence and mass strikes before that.
The early New Left was openly sympathetic or worse towards communism, which could be heard daily on prestigious university campuses, including from some of the faculty. Some of them were the same "protestors" inciting and leading well-planned "spontaneous" violence in the streets and "non-violently" removing by force university officials from their offices and shutting down classes.
When support for the Soviets was too embarrassing they New Left pushed Mao and China as their examples. Especially since the later fall of the Soviet Union explicit support for communism became too embarrassing for most of them to state in public. But we are seeing a resurgence in open support for socialism by name as they come back out of the closet, now getting people to more widely "reconsider" it as ignorance of history is exploited.
The entrenchment of leftist ideology in influential positions in education, the media, other professions, and in politics and 'non-profits' is more obvious all the time, whether or not they are part of or openly sympathetic towards violent "protests". They dwarf the numbers of outright "hippies" who do nothing. Obama, Clinton and the rest of the Obama administration are examples. They came from the New Left of the late 1960s and 1970s and its subsequent influence.
The big difference between now and the beginning of the New Left is that radical leftism now intellectually dominates education throughout the curriculum, teaching, and discussion. It is so dominant now that they don't see it among themselves as anything radical, just the way 'educated people are supposed to be' in contrast to all their 'ignorant and obstinate opponents' promoting 'boogie-men'. Your daughter and everyone else that age are in big trouble with the nature of the 'education' they face. They aren't the first.
That's my point. The issue of racial integration was huge 60 years ago. I understand what people were fighting about.
I do not understand the stuff you write about "New Left", Maoist, and communists committing violent crimes. President Obama and President Clinton do not give off the public persona of radical ideologues. President Obama, at least in his public persona, reminds me of people I know and like.
If you are right, though, violent factions are forming along the lines of talking heads yelling at one another on Crossfire, except unlike talking heads these people are not getting paid and are genuinely angry enough about public policy to commit violent acts. How do we get them to chill? That sounds glib of me, but if by some chance you were right about a factional violent conflict brewing, I have no doubt one of the results of such a conflict would be more gov't.
You don't seem to know anything about the rise of the New Left, what it has done, and the ideological motives for it. The New Left was was a break with the old left in that it began deliberately and openly using physical force in politically demanding submission. This was demonstrated in spades with the violent "demonstrations" at universities beginning with Berkeley in the mid 1960s and escalating across the country for the next ten years. It was widely called the "New Left" because it was so obviously a major change. The same kind of violence is now on the rise again on university campuses. The leftist thuggery shutting down 'undesirable' speakers has been on the rise for years and was seen yet again just a few days ago in Vermont in an astonishing ideological outburst.
Neither Obama nor Clinton are anything to respect or like. I judge those two and the rest of them based on what they think and do, not their sophisticated personalities. I was never fooled by their smooth, manipulative manner in the name of intelligent sophisticated behavior. It's high brow thuggery.
Obama's 'golden tongue' that he first learned in a private high school in Hawaii was a big part of his rise to stardom in community agitation and politics. For all his smooth demeanor honed at Columbia and Harvard, he has no substance worthy of admiration or respect. Likewise for Clinton who was known as "Slick Willie" in Arkansas. Both of them were radical left ideologues in college and law school, and (along with Hilary) have been pursuing radical left politics transforming the political system of the country ever since.
This isn't about talking heads yelling at each other on tv. The irrationalism, collectivism and statism of the left is inherently coercive by its nature. It isn't something that just happens to be someone's "anger" over "public policy". That their policies and means to impose them are violent is not an accident. It isn't going to "chill" under the dominant bad ideas spreading throughout the universities and the culture in general, for the same reason that their predecessors pandered to the "student activists" and Obama pandered to the mob race riots within the last few years instead of treating them like the criminals that they were and are.
There is no common base from which to appeal to ideological thugs, as was just shown again in the videos of the forced shut-down and subsequent personal attacks on public speakers, and the embarrassingly futile appeals to stop it by college officials, last week in Vermont.
Proper protection against crime perpetrated in the name of politics is not "more government", it is what government is supposed to do to prevent escalation of government and more use of force. But protection against such outright crime can only come from whatever is left of acceptance of civilized principles, it will not stop the intellectual causes.
Read Ayn Rand's analysis of the beginning of the New Left and its intellectual cause in essays like "The Cashing In: The Student 'Rebellion'", "The Chickens' Homecoming", "The Left: Old and New", "From a Symposium", and "'Political' Crimes" in her anthology Return of the Primitive.