Month: May 2023

29 May 2023

Many have seen them. They’re usually printed on business sized cards. Some pass them out at state and county fairs, at political events or around campus. Its few questions boil down respondents’ political and economic opinions and plot them across the sociometric spectrum. I think it’s actually a pretty fair representation of people’s attitudes.

Some people hate it; correspondent Jypent Moupvil asks, “Where’s American? What happened to anarchy? Is that in the middle? I guess the idiot who made this would put Nazi on the right when Nazi means National Socialist German Workers Party.”

Nazis are clearly in the “Authoritarian” quadrant nearest the bottom whereas we anarchists are clustered at the very tippy top.

Moup objects: “Anarchy is on the right. I’m a constitutionalist. I’m in the middle. I believe you must have balance and equilibrium. I don’t like the law of the jungle.”

Well I AM an anarchist, and that puts me at the very tippy top of that graph advocating for 100% economic AND 100% personal freedom. We are more libertarian than Libertarians, more conservative than Right-wingers, and more liberal than Leftists. Anything less is statism.

And of course I’ve said it for decades; libertarian anarchists look down equally on both the Left and the Right. And yes, I have been advised, by the eagerly aggrieved, just how dismissive and contemptuous it is to “look down” on others. Well, that’s just Mazel Tough! Down is the perfectly appropriate metaphorical direction to look upon the base and the corrupt.

17 May 2023

You were wrong, and I was right, and I’m sorry.
I’ve learned that some offenses can never be forgiven, and that being right, and therefore out of step with the rest of the world, is pretty close to the worst.

“About what?” one may ask. Take your pick: Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mitt McCain, Syria, Russia, Ukraine, the DEA, ATF, IRS, CIA, FBI, SARS, MERS, Wuhan Flu? I would love to have been wrong about any one of those issues. (Well, not about diseases I guess. I’m actually glad I was right about how relatively undangerous they were. If anything, there I was overly cautious.) But in matters geopolitical or interpersonal, I wish people could disappoint me more. That would be truly refreshing.

addendum 230518 — and draft registration, and the PATRIOT Act, and the Departments of Education, Energy, HUD, and the EPA….

addendum 230519 — AND you* killed my mom. And I’m still sorry.
(*via your ilk)

addendum 230524 — Creative readers and other cognitive failures may misconstrue my latest header as “suicide friendly.” That may be wishful thinking for all I know, but more sober readers should know that I am about as suicidal as Vince Foster or Jeffrey Epstein. But fortunately not as threatening to the Democrat party.
Continuing contraindications of suicidal tendencies are such data as my recent successful surgery (6 March 2023) to correct an inguinal hernia, whereupon both my surgeon and I were pleased to learn that I was NOT the anomaly that was going to spoil his perfect record. And today, I have finally lifted myself from the ground to my tenth floor suite by way of my own muscle power. I’d made it a policy to walk DOWN regularly since moving in here a year ago, but never took the time to ascend. The elevator is just so tempting! Still, I am naturally sedentary, so I must trick myself into exercise that is not mind-numbingly tedious. Walking is good for that. And to be perfectly honest, I may have cheated a bit. There are four stairwells in this building, and I use them all. Walking up today I would climb one flight, walk that floor to the next well, and repeat. I’ve yet to do all ten flights from the basement, but I am typically there with laundry and late at night after other work, so the grand tour seems less desirable. However, as a soothing palliative to my systemic “CDO” (in alphabetical order, the way it’s S’POSED TA BE), I’m just gonna have to gut that one out.
Your friend and mine, the non-suicidal Lethargy Lad
(aka Chef Laurent or Rector Lawrence or Gene Greigh or The General Cashier or, just recently, Safari Lehr*) ((*who bears a striking resemblance to The Gay Cowboy, but with a different hat))

4 May 2023

It’s funny. I’ve loved Eric Roberts‘ work since I first recognized him. “Fuckin’ A” did he deliver in “Runaway Train“! Julia Roberts however, I can barely abide, though I loved her performance in “Hook” (Essential aside: “Hook” is a stupid name for that film, irrespective of Dustin Hoffman’s reliable brilliance. The STORY is Peter’s, and would have been better named “The Lost Boy.” I know, I know, there was that earlier vampire flic starring those adorable androgynes with the similar name, but similar names abound, and the one has nothing to do with the other.) In most of her work, Julia’s characters didn’t seem to ring true, but she nailed Tink! Tinkerbell is pretty, charming, funny, fun, bright, vain, vindictive, vengeful, shallow, and jealous. Many alleged actors have a range limited to their own personalities, and I guess I hope that doesn’t include Julia Roberts. For all I know she is a perfectly nice person.