Anarchy: The Basis for a Civilized Society, Part 2 | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
Here’s the second part of the post I put up last night about Crispin Sartwell and his book Against the State.
The main part of the book is spent in destroying the classical arguments for the State, from thinkers like Hobbs, Locke, Hume, etc. Then he takes up the discussion of why anarchy?
There are plenty of reasons, not least of which, it has worked in the past and still works right now all over the world (example: bowling leagues, ‘invisible hand’ of the market, etc). That is the argument from utility. The other argument is from morality.
Is it better to argue for anarchy from utility or from morality? I agree with him that the moral position is better.
I think its pretty basic that (non masochist) people don’t want to have violence used against them. People are naturally OK with the Golden Rule. I think that’s a pretty good starting place for society. In fact, I think that’s pretty much the ONLY rule we really need to live in any society.
Sartwell talks about Lysander Spooner as a good person to refer to. Another writer/philosopher he talks about is Josiah Warren and his book The Practical Anarchist.
I would add Ayn Rand, her writing explained the reasons to value your self very simply. Try her book The Virtue of Selfishness. It’s very short. 😉 Self ownership is the basis for how I think humans should relate towards each other. Society is made up of individuals (duh). A strong, vibrant society is impossible without strong individuals who make it up. The only other alternative to self ownership is slavery and I will never agree with any form of slavery.
I hope more people start thinking about things like this, instead of just swallowing whatever they’re told in school or on the TV. It’s pretty important. If we don’t have any kind of basis, any foundation, any principles, then how can we expect our society to last? Like a house with a damaged foundation, it will fall down sooner than one with a strong one.
Our country was based on principles very close to anarchy. We had a VERY limited government, it was a minarchy. Now, we have a bloated beast of bureaucracy and it rules every tiny little detail of our lives.
I can’t count how many times people tell me that if I don’t like the government, I can move to Somalia where they don’t have one. OK, I’m not really up on the details of Somalia but I’ll give you my take anyway…
Somalia is only fighting over WHO is going to be in charge, not that there will or won’t be somebody in charge. So it’s not a stateless society at all, it’s a society with a competition of states. State is defined as the monopoly of the use of force.
So, Somalia is not a place to go if I don’t like government, it has an overabundance of them and will have to wait for the dust to settle and somebody wins. There’s no place on Earth that I’m aware of that has NO government, if there was, I would absolutely take them up on that and go there asap!
Anarchy: The Basis for a Civilized Society | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
In an interview with Crispin Sartwell discussing anarchy and his latest book Against the State, Chris Mayer digs into the questions of what’s really so wrong with anarchy?
I’d really like to know. I agree with them that the left-right paradigm is a big mistake (a scam). All it does is divide us into warring parties and allows the people who really run things free latitude to do whatever they want while we’re distracted.
The reason I posted the Worlds Smallest Political Quiz (http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/worlds-smallest-political-quiz/) as a sticky at the top of my blog was to get people to take the quiz and hopefully find out they might not really be what they’ve been labeled as. That there are other options out there other than just Democrat (left/liberal) and Republican (right/conservative).
It’s a real shame that our media has been taken over by the corporate world and so we never manage to get any real information about the choices we have during elections. Thank goodness for the internet. 🙂
We ALWAYS have more than just the Democrats and Republicans to choose from! We just have no way of finding that out until we see the other names on the ballot (if like most Americans, you get your information from the major media, TV, etc). By that time, it’s too late to make any kind of informed choice, so most people will vote for the same-old, same-old for no other reason than familiarity.
I’ve been a libertarian since I first heard of them. I’ve been fighting city hall since I was a kid. I believe in the principle of SELF ownership. I’ve always questioned authority and I find myself doing even more of that lately.
Who the hell says they’re authorities? Why?? How come the ‘authorities’ constantly screw things up yet still get treated as the best choice there is???? What makes them any better than the rest of us??? Why in the hell should somebody I’ve never even met who has NO idea what my life is like get to make ANY decisions about MY life????
OK, so maybe now I’m becoming an anarchist, even more than a libertarian. They are very close philosophically. I think its worth thinking about more. I definitely think the system we have now which is basically a corporatocracy (run by corporations) is terribly wrong and we need to get rid of it asap!
I don’t really think any sort of democracy is much better. Look what’s happened to our country since we all started acting like it’s a democracy (it’s NOT, it’s a Constitutional republic!). Democracy is really just 2 wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner. So who wants to be the sheep??
I don’t! Do you?
Homeless? No Food For You! : Personal Liberty™.
This is just outrageous! If I lived in one of these cities, I would be down there at city hall hounding those people mercilessly (and probably get arrested- again). Just who the HELL do they think they are??!!
These good people, these charitable organizations are on PUBLIC property (which being public belongs to THEM as well as those homeless people they are trying to serve!). They even went to the trouble of approaching private property owners and getting permission to help people out there. The cops STILL chased them away and threatened them with arrest!
WTF is wrong with these people. Both the city officials who would make such idiotic “laws” and the cops that will try to enforce them? Don’t they have any brains left? How about a bit of humanity????
They make the point quite clearly at the end and I couldn’t agree more. These people could care less about anything but CONTROL!
CDC Reveals Scary Truth About Factory Farms and Superbugs | Mother Jones.
Here’s a little update from the CDC on all those antibiotics they’ve been pumping into your food supply for years now. Turns out, they were wrong about how safe all that is. There actually IS a link between overdosing your factory farmed meat animals (cows, pigs, chickens, etc) to the escalation of antibiotic resistant bacteria (and resulting deaths) in humans.
OK, so now we know (for sure). What are they going to do about it??? Turns out, not much. Remember, here in the USA we rely on government to keep us ‘safe’. We could probably do much better if we would get rid of our government protection and create a system that really could and would do a proper job. Read the article, you’ll see what I mean. 🙁
Constitution Day: Celebrate it by Learning to Enforce It | Tenth Amendment Center
Constitution Day, September 17, 2013. Today is the day to celebrate the document which we hold responsible for ‘giving us our freedom’. If I was home, I would probably be trying to have some sort of party with my friends from our local Campaign for Liberty meetup group ( http://www.meetup.com/ronpaul-773/).
I’d like to be able to celebrate, but I find it hard now to find any reasons to celebrate. I feel a wake is more in order…
We have NOTHING left of the 4th amendment. Even before Edward Snowdens’ breaking the news of ‘our’ governments’ all encompassing spy programs, we had to put up with the DEA, TSA, IRS, FBI, etc. “Our” government has not paid the slightest attention to the 4th amendment for decades.
The 5th amendment has been totally trashed since we started using the ridiculous idea that ‘property’ is guilty and so can be stolen without even any charges being filed against the owner of said property. The government has been stealing BILLIONS of dollars worth of cash and real property using the tactic of ‘civil asset forfeiture’ for years-(check out the Institute for Justice on some of these cases www.ij.org). The (illegal, unconstitutional) drug war has done in the 5th amendment.
The 9th and 10th amendments were also victims of the war on (some) drugs. If anyone had ever paid any attention to either of those (9th- rights retained by the people)(10th- rights retained by the states), then there never could have been any drug war to begin with.
The 6th, 7th and 8th amendments were also victims of the war on (some) drugs. Because of the HUGE amount of people being arrested with no real crime committed, the justice system in this country has been completely corrupted and destroyed. Some ‘free’ country we are with more people in prison than anywhere else in the world by far! 🙁
The 2nd amendment is on the way out. With all the restrictions we have already on a RIGHT that “shall not be infringed”, it’s getting to be almost impossible for a law abiding citizen to “keep and bear arms”. The media works the public into a frenzy every time some nut job gets a hold of a gun and goes on a rampage. Hey, why not try to stop the crazies and not the rest of us??? Why not let the rest of us take out said nut job if he does manage to get hold of a gun??? These guys aren’t crazy enough to try their shit anyplace they might run into ARMED citizens! Who the hell said we have to get a permit to exercise a RIGHT??? A right NEVER needs any kind of permit in order to exercise it! Period!
When I get going on this stuff people always bring up the 1st amendment. Yeah, OK, we still have freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Yeah, I guess as long as you’re not a Rastafarian, or a Mormon, or OMG a Satanist!!! 😉 Of course the religious right says their rights are being infringed on too (by the atheists)- yep, that’s what they say. So, the freedom of religion is being eroded pretty badly too. You can still speak freely, except at work, or on a college campus, or unless you want to criticize the TSA for their bullshit NAZI tactics in the airport. It’s NOT freedom if you have to censor yourself!
Almost forgot about the 1st amendments guarantee of freedom of the press. Yeah, that mention of censorship reminded me. Freedom of the press, yeah right- they’re now all owned by the same big corporations and do NOT work in any way for our freedom. Sure, you have freedom of the press- if you have enough money to buy a major newspaper or TV station. Sure, that’s real freedom for the people.
So out of the first 10 amendments- our Bill of RIGHTS (which were NOT given to us by anyone- including any government!)- we can honestly say we have ONE left (the 3rd). I’m not aware of any soldiers being quartered in anyones’ houses (yet). One out of 10!
One out of 10??!! And no one seems to care. 🙁 I agree with the linked article, we need to do all we can right now, before it goes any further, and put a stop to this constant violation of our rights.
It is not going to happen in the ballot box (yes, if you can vote for a libertarian, then do- the rest of them aren’t worth the bother!). I hope it doesn’t have to happen through the cartridge box! Who wants that to happen??? We would be outgunned in a NY minute! We need to EDUCATE, we need to individually stand up and do whatever we can. NULLIFY!
I want the government people to get the hell out of my life, and yours. And the only way that’s going to happen is if we work together to nullify all of them into oblivion….Murry Rothbard
With this post, I feel like I’ve done what I can to help today. Make an effort… check out a couple of websites for groups that support the ideals of the Constitution. Here are a few to get started…
www.theadvocates.org The Advocates for Self Government
www.downsizedc.org Downsize DC
www.ij.org Institute for Justice
www.isil.org International Society for Individual Liberty
www.lp.org Libertarian Party
19 Real Sinister Conspiracies That Actually Happened | Cracked.com.
OK, I did get this from Cracked but I’ve seen a lot of this stuff before. I didn’t know about ALL of these, but I did already know about quite a few. The Lusitania for instance. The syphilis. Bikini Atoll. Caligula. The DEA/CIA thing. Tobacco.The Shah of Iran. DeBeers diamonds.
All of those have come to my attention for one reason or another in the past. I wasn’t even really looking for anything specific. I’m sure if anyone wants to look up this stuff, they can find plenty of evidence. Now that we have the internet it should be much easier.
Does the name calling (tin-hat conspiracy theorist) really prevent so many people from believing in the truth of this stuff?? I think it probably does.
Comments?
Zombies, Celebrity Sideboobs, and Smart Social Commentary = Web Gold | Mother Jones.
Just found out about this in an email from Mother Jones. 🙂 I used to get Cracked sometimes when I was a kid. I much preferred Mad magazine, but would read Cracked if it was around. I didn’t know it was on the web, never thought to check.
Here it is…www.cracked.com. It looks like its grown up a bit but still looks to be very entertaining. In the MJ interview, they mention they are now ‘one of the webs most popular humor destinations.’
I’ll be checking up on them for sure. I really like their agenda, ‘train yourself to question everything.’ Yeah, definitely my kind of people there. 😉
Arctic Sea Ice Up 60 Percent in 2013.
Read it and do your own thinking.
I said a long time ago, scientists can’t prove (yet) that we are in the midst of “man-made” global warming. They tricked me once when I was a kid when they were all in agreement that we would all be frozen into ice cubes by now.
At this point in time, I want proof that…
1. People are the cause of global warming.
2. There is something effective that people can do to stop it.
So far, I have not seen enough evidence of either one of those propositions to make me want to do anything about the issue. I’m still waiting…
Maybe if I wait long enough, they’ll decide we’ll be freezing again. I only wish the governments of the world would stop trying to use this issue to force us into their ridiculous ideas of how we need to live.
Yeah, riiiighht, like any of them really know anything about MY life. Or yours (assuming you’re not at least a millionaire). Or even how to really LIVE life. You don’t learn about that when your life’s ambition is to control other people!
Our Fossil-Fueled Future – Environment – Utne Reader.
Love the picture they start this off with. Right off the bat they make out Exxon as the cause of all the worlds suffering. Yeah, riiiighht…
OK, for the record, I do NOT think we need to stop using fossil fuels! I do NOT think we need to stop the rest of the world from developing up to first world standards. In fact, I think that will be one thing that could help solve everything.
OK, I bet some people are pretty skeptical…
First point: rising incomes = lower birth rate. Lower birth rate + rising incomes = more resources to give a shit about something other than bare survival. So, the first thing we should do if we want to ‘save the planet’ is to help everyone in the world move up the economic ladder asap.
Second point: all of this increase in productivity and rising incomes (time/effort/money spent on other things than energy) depends on CHEAP energy. At this point in time, alternative energy (sources other than fossils) are NOT cheap. They are not anywhere near as efficient and they are not practical (yet). (I DO agree with technology like solar ovens replacing wood burning stoves- that is a GREAT use of solar power in the developing world and a great example of how solar will be able to help)
Third point: they talk about how the entrenched energy companies (meaning fossil fuel companies) earn “staggering profits”, which makes them somehow evil and so they should be either nationalized (BAD idea) or have their ‘profits’ stolen “for the better good” (another really bad idea).
First of all, they don’t make anything like what I would call staggering profits. They only sound like that because of the way they are reported. Which is intentionally to make you feel like something is wrong with it. They are manipulating you to make you want to punish those ‘evil’ corporations. Please read this article to get a more balanced perspective… http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/10/20/big-oil-isnt-as-profitable-as-everyone-thinks/
And to end my review of this article, I would like to point out my personal favorite way to ‘save the world’ with the least pain and anguish for everyone (and everyTHING) on the planet… start using BIRTH CONTROL!!!
If you really think about it, almost every problem you can come up with is minimized if you cut down the amount of people running around the planet. Global warming for instance. If you say that global warming is caused by the actions of people, then it could easily be solved by reducing the amount of people acting. Right?
YES! So, wouldn’t it be better to just use some birth control rather than kill off the people that are already here (through starvation, disease, war, pollution)???
China has done the world a great service with their one child policy (the only problem is their use of force instead of persuasion). If everyone around the world would think about this and resolve to just have one child voluntarily, it would solve a LOT of our problems. War, hunger, pollution, would all be just about eliminated, or at least minimized to the greatest possible extent.
Yes, it would take a while. But in the same time period they’re talking about 2040, we could make a huge, lasting impact, especially if people really came to value the rest of the planet instead of only humanity.
Personally, I would LOVE to see the use of non-polluting alternative energy sources grow to overtake the use of fossil fuels. I DO value this beautiful earth and all the other creatures living here with us.
I would be happy to use wind, solar, ocean current, fuel cell, or anything else that can match fossil fuels in price and efficiency. I am hoping they will come up with new technology that will allow me to make that choice sometime soon. So far, that day has not come. I’m doing what I can see as feasible in the meantime. No, I’m not going to be a martyr.
A friend forwarded me an email a few days ago that had this post in it.Tonight I read it and I was like, oh yeah, GOOD stuff here…
I might nit- pick a little bit on his numbers, but the truth is, he is absolutely correct. Those of us who are still working for somebody else ARE basically slaves. Most people never think of it that way. I never really thought too much about the employer part of it, which is why I say I have some small issues with his numbers. But I’ve been aware of the fact that I am a slave to the government for a long time now.
Yes, he is right. The government takes between 40-50% of your income. I will argue with that and say it is even more. Just to be nice, lets say it’s ‘only’ 40%. OK, if some bandit held you up on the street and told you that they would take 40% of everything you earned for the next 50 years of your life would you think he was turning you into a slave?
Yes, right, he DID just turn you into a slave. Having the government do the same thing, means that you are a slave to them instead of just a single robber. Whooo- hooo! Big deal! OK, so now we know we are all slaves to the government, lets look at what Mr Altucher says about your employer.
I’ve been working with temp agencies for the last couple of years. In this capacity, it is very explicit that exactly what Mr Altucher is saying is true about the employer/employee relationship. I get a day rate when my company sends me out to work for a client. That client pays my employer a LOT more money then my employer pays me. Yes, it’s VERY clear! The money I (and everybody else working as temps there) earn has to pay for the entire upkeep of the company!
It works the same way at EVERY company. If you are not worth a certain amount of money to them, they’ll either not hire you, fire you, or just pay you less. The arguments going on (again) about minimum wage are very relevant here.
I LOVE what he says about owning your time, owning your work, owning the value you create for others! This is very basic stuff. This is at the bottom of all my political beliefs- SELF ownership.
I want to find out how to break free. I’ve been trying to for a long time now but just by following the usual paths. Work hard, save money, buy a house, etc…. it’s just taking too long. Now I understand more about why that is. OK, yeah, if 90% of what I earn is being taken from me before I even see it, then yeah, I can see why I can’t break free. 🙁
In the article, he mentions a book but he didn’t give a name. I looked Mr James Altucher up on www.amazon.com and found out he has a few books. I am assuming it is the one called “Choose Yourself!”. I just downloaded it for my kindle. It’s only $2.99!
I can hardly wait to read it! 🙂
Animal Food Checkoff Programs and the Economics of Meat Production – Politics – Utne Reader.
Here is an interesting article from Utne Reader on the new book by David Robinson Simon: “Meatonomics”.
This exert from the book is mainly about the food “checkoff” programs. Those are programs where the federal government takes a certain percentage of every product sold, say every pound of beef or pork, or a dozen eggs, or a gallon of milk. They then use that money to “promote” those products. In other words, to manipulate the public through advertising to buy more of those products.
Milk- it does a body good.
Pork, the other white meat.
What’s for dinner? Beef.
The incredible, edible egg.
I’m sure you’ve seen these ads, they’ve been around for years. According to the article, they’ve been VERY effective. For instance, the dairy producers report they’ve increased per capita milk consumption 12% to 620 pounds since their program started in 1983. More than 7 billion extra pounds of milk sold!
I don’t really have a problem with food producers trying to promote the sale of their products. If they all just got together voluntarily and threw their money in a pool to spend on advertising that they all agreed on, then fine.
Where I have an issue is that this program is mandatory. The federal government does not allow anyone to opt out and it forces ALL producers to pay for whatever it is that the government decides to say. We’re talking $557 million yearly, that’s a lot of advertising.
Why in the world do we even need the federal government to promote ANY product? Is this in ANY way consistent with the LIMITED government we are supposed to have according to our Constitution? It IS still the supreme law of the land, no matter how many ‘laws’ have been written into the books to subvert it.
Looks like nobody really cares. There’s already been a case where some beef producers disagreed with an ad campaign (Johannes v. Livestock Marketing Association) that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Basically, the court ruled that the statements (ads) were being produced by the government, NOT the beef producers and so they had no standing to object (I’m not a lawyer but that’s my take on it).
Tough titties in other words 🙁
It looks like a book worth reading if you’re at all interested in our increasingly corporate food system. The more I learn, the more I DON’T like what I’m finding out. There has to be a better way.
Charts: How Big Debt on Campus Is Threatening Higher Ed | Mother Jones.
If you read my earlier post on the college degree arms race (http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/disarming-the-college-degree-arms-race/), then you might like to read this as a follow up. It’s a little bit different take on the subject from Dave Gilson and Maggie Severns at Mother Jones.
They put out some good information. I’d like to see a chart there about how the amount of government aid correlates to increased prices for a college education. I have seen some work on that before. Maybe it was in a Reason magazine. Nope, I found it, it was in a Cato publication, heres a link to a summary page where you can read the whole thing if you’re so inclined (http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/making-college-more-expensive-unintended-consequences-federal-tuition-aid)
The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again 🙁
Liberator Online: There ought to be a law…?.
OK, I’m a little late getting this one out but here it is… the August issue of the Liberator Online, sent out by the Advocates for Self Government. As they say, it’s for “anyone who loves liberty”. 🙂
This one is pretty entertaining. I especially liked the articles on the “killer lurking in your kitchen”, and America’s nuttiest warning labels. There’s also a good video interview with Greg Glassman who founded CrossFit, along with the usual quotes, powerful pursuasion point, and libertarian response to corporate abuses by Dr Mary Ruwart. Enjoy…
“Privacy” Held Hostage By “Security” – Public Unimpressed | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
Another great article from Laissez-Faire. This one on the supposed conflict between privacy and security. I agree completely with Mr Leahy, the real issue is between control and liberty. I don’t know about you, but I will side with liberty EVERY time on EVERY issue!
“Coupon Constitution” Threatens Fundamental Freedom by Bob Barr.
I couldn’t have said it better. Everything he says is the truth. It’s so sad what we have allowed to happen, what we have done to ourselves. It wasn’t Al-Qaeda that destroyed America, it was US!
Through our FEAR, we allowed everything America stood for to be shot down along with our enemies. We allowed the government to run rampant, in complete contrast to our founders intentions of an extremely LIMITED government with only a few areas of authority.
I hope one day the American people will come to their senses and take back our country before its too late.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
What TSA Really Stands For | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
Thousands Standing Around, Trampling Several Amendments, Too Stupid for Arby’s, Touch Sex Army, Teaching Submission to Americans, Touchin’ Squeezin’ Arrestin’, Theatrical Security Agents, Touchin’ Sensitive Areas, Taking Scissors Away, Tough Shit America!, Totalitarian Security Agents, Tremendously Stupendous Arrogance, Taxpayer Supported Assault, Trampling Stupid Americans…..
Take your pick. I could go on (and on). They are nothing but a bunch of well paid (from our tax dollars) government goons. They have somehow been brainwashed to think (if I can use that word in this instance) that by violating our rights daily, they are actually doing some good. 🙁
To anyone who seriously believes that, I have a bridge to sell you!
Its all I can do to keep my mouth shut when I have to go to the airport. I’m sure one of these days they’re going to put me on the no-fly list and then that will be it for me. I’ll be unable to work and that will be that.
People tell me to just refuse to fly if I’m so against the TSA “keeping us safe”. Yeah, riiiiiiggght. Please tell me how I am supposed to get to work over in Singapore when I live in Texas without flying??? Oh, and by the way, the TSA is now in train stations, bus stations, ROAD BLOCKS, MALLS, STADIUMS, and they were even at the last presidential nominating conventions. So how the hell can I escape them???
The fact that they are shredding the entire constitution in the idiotic (impossible) quest to make us all “safe”, is not an issue to 99% of the people I see at the airport. I think THAT fact bothers me even worse then the TSA itself. That AMERICANS who are supposed to be so supportive of freedom that we will go halfway around the world to fight other peoples battles for them will not only accept these NAZI tactics, but cheer on the thugs. I can only shake my head and grit my teeth. What the hell has happened to us?
Yeah, the linked article is a little tongue in cheek but it does make some good points. Seriously.
I recently applied for the ‘trusted traveler’ program the Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) runs. Only so I can get through the lines faster. In hopes that will help me keep my “privilege” to travel for a while longer. It’s still in process (probably to be denied after this rant). The officer actually told me that because I have a criminal record (30+ years ago, another one 5+- neither of which had anything remotely to do with security) I might not be approved. WOW! She actually told me that my RIGHT to travel freely was NOT a right but only a privilege!
Well, NO! It is NOT a privilege! It IS a RIGHT!!!!
Despite the fact that I already have a TWIC (Transportation Worker Identity Card) which is given out by the TSA after a background check and is SUPPOSED to be so we can have UNESCORTED access through a PORT (airPORT), and also (had) a security clearance for work which also gave me a pretty thorough background check, I had to pay another $100 for the CBP background check for this program.
I asked the agent why with this being the THIRD background check, she was not able to see that I had been arrested and had a criminal record? Of course, she was not allowed to tell me that! 🙁
By this point I was getting pretty upset. She insisted I would have to trace down my own records and FAX them in to her within 30 days. OK, so I managed to get the records and tried for hours to fax them in. No luck, phone always busy. With all that money the government gets, they can’t do paperwork any other way but by fax? they can only afford one phone??? WTF???
I called and reached another officer (mine was off) and they gave me a different number to fax. No luck on that one either. So, here I am at work (offshore), we don’t have a fax. I have no mail or email that I can send the papers to. I only get off to go home the day before my time runs out. They sure make it easy to do something to help yourself instead of them. Yeah, riiiiiight. 🙁
Some free country we have… yeah, riiiiighhht. Sure you don’t want to take a look at that bridge?
Disarming the College Degree Arms Race – Politics – Utne Reader.
Although I found this article a little hard to read, I thought it made a lot of good points. Anyone thinking of going to college should read it through and really spend some time thinking about it. There are a few aspects to this issue that I haven’t seen come up anywhere else yet. I think we really should have some kind of national discussion about ‘credentialing’.
I noticed a long time ago how a high school diploma had warped into a bachelors degree. I mean, jobs you could get hired on for and do very well at with just a high school diploma back in the old days (before say 1990), now require at LEAST a bachelors degree.
I thought it must be because of how the schools have been dumbed down so much. I have a hard time understanding how/why a school would pass someone who failed all the tests. Someone who can’t either read or write. But apparently, the parents have demanded that their kids don’t deserve to fail. WTF???? If they failed the class, then yes, they DO deserve to fail!
The school systems gave in to the parents and pass pretty much everyone now. So a high school diploma has become pretty much totally worthless. I got a job tutoring people in college so that they could pass the remedial math and English classes, wow! Why were they accepted into college if they couldn’t pass BASIC math and English??? Now, anyone who wants a ‘decent’ job MUST go to college??!! So somehow we have to help them all get through it. Or at least that’s what we’re all told.
I have to disagree. I should NEVER have listened to my grandmother. She was one of those people who insisted “you’ll never be able to get a good job without a college degree”. I informed her that I already HAD a college degree (2 year AAS in Ocean Marine Technology). She insisted that “didn’t count”.
Why? I have no idea. I already HAD a ‘decent’ job. In fact, more than decent. It was a very well paying job, with way more than the usual time off, it had great benefits, and to top it off, I actually enjoyed it. I really looked forward to going back to work.
I was only a captain tho, and not on a cruise ship 🙁 Maybe if I HAD been working on a cruise ship instead of in the oilfield, my accomplishments would have been acceptable to my grandmother.
So, I quit my job as licensed master 1600 GT and went back to school. I started back at the local jr college where I got my AAS degree. I was going to go on to a university later for a degree in Chemical Engineering. Since I live in the middle of about a dozen chemical plants, I figured I would always be able to get a ‘decent’ job.
NOT the right thing to do!! I finally figured out that I was NOT going to be a chemical engineer after my 1st year at UT Austin! No way was I going to do that kind of work for the rest of my life! Now what? I had just spent 3 years in school (and a ton of money) and still no degree… I asked around and turns out that if I changed majors to math I would only need one more full year in school.
I was already BROKE again. I needed to go back to work. Back offshore where I could save some money again. So, I went back to the US Coast Guard only to find out they had changed the rules without telling anybody (which is against their own rules) and so I would have to start all over from the bottom.
I shipped out as an AB (on tankers) so I could start working my way back up again to only a 3rd mate unlimited license when the USCG had already given me a 2nd mates license (but then changed the rules and took it back). I did manage to earn my license and finally enough money to go back to school again.
I found that the University of St Thomas in Houston had a program where I could get almost all of my course work done without having to quit my job (offshore- 2 months on/2 off). I did have to quit finally to do one whole semester and got all my remaining math classes out of the way.
OK, so now I managed to FINALLY get an acceptable college degree! Whoo-hoo!! Did it do me any good at all??? NO!!! I have been on the lookout since I graduated (with honors) with a bachelors degree in MATH and I have not seen even ONE job advertised that would use it. Not even one!
Yeah, I could teach, but only if I went BACK to school for another couple of years for a teaching certificate! I’m sure my grandmother would love for me to do that so I could get a ‘decent’ job off the boats and live a ‘normal’ life. Get married, have kids and all that. She’s not around any more to tell me that so I do what I want with no guilt. 😉
Why in the world would I quit the job I have now to take one that pays only about 1/4 (or less), and works at least twice as much? It really doesn’t take a math major to figure out that equation just doesn’t work!
So, this whole idea of people having to go to college to get a decent job is a crock of sh*t as far as I’m concerned. Its too bad so many people (including me) have been suckered into spending so much time, effort, money for a piece of paper. People would probably be a heck of a lot better off finding something to do with their lives that they actually enjoyed doing. Maybe go to a trade school, or even ‘apprentice’ with someone. You don’t have to be in a school to learn something useful!
To anyone out there who’s thinking about college, take a lesson from me and don’t let anyone guilt you into something you’re not sure about. Take some time off- a gap year- and wander the world, think about life and what you want out of it. There are a million ways to earn a living, but you’re the only one that can figure out how you really want to do it. Go for it! 😉
Looking For Food Freedom In New York : Personal Liberty™.
First it’s cigarettes, then it’s sodas, now its food 🙁 Mayor Bloomberg is a creepy wanna-be dictator! I can’t believe the New Yorkers are still putting up with this idiot!
Why in the world would anyone allow someone else to tell them what they can eat or drink??? Have they all somehow mutated into some kind of zombie? They only LOOK like adults, but on the inside they’re still just whiny little babies that only want to be told what to do. They actually pay attention and follow orders just because someone else tells them its for their own good?
I used to spend some time around NYC when I was growing up. I graduated from the Oceanics School which was based in NYC. I used to help out there and would walk from the school down to the train station every day. I would stop and talk to people along the way. No, they were not all rude or dangerous. Most of them were friendly and really interesting to talk to. Very independent minded to say the least 😉 I can’t imagine how those people would react to this crap.
Have they all been somehow brainwashed? Maybe they all moved away due to the increasing infringements of their rights? I don’t know, but I would like see someone do a study on it. NY and CA seem to be the leaders of the rest of the country. I would HATE to see the rest of the states follow this leadership but I can already see it coming. Maybe if the study shows some kind of virus is eating up NYC residents brains, the rest of the country will quarantine that kind of ‘thinking’. I can only hope 🙁
Why Americans Can’t Die With Dignity | Mother Jones.
I thought this was a really good interview with Katy Butler. Author of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death”. I think its a very important issue that we just keep on avoiding. Even with all the talk about ‘death panels’ in Obamacare, we still don’t really get to the point. We need to have the discussion. We need to really do some deep thinking about how we want to deal with a major injury/sickness and death.
I’ve already been through the ordeal of losing both my parents. I was the one who had to make the decisions at the end for both of them. I do totally agree with Katy that we in America spend WAY too many resources on people who are in the last stage of life. Resources that could be much better spent on helping the quality of life rather than the quantity.
I myself would prefer to die before they put me on the machines, before I don’t know who I am anymore, or recognize my best friends. I don’t even consider that as LIFE! I hope I’m strong enough to just get it over with and off myself if I ever get to that point. I would hate to have to put someone else at risk of going to prison for helping me end my life with some dignity. Yeah, I say that now…
Reading the interview I was reminded of how my father changed his outlook once he found out he had cancer. The doctors at the VA hospital only gave him a few months to live. He had a rare form of cancer and so with a lot of help from friends was able to get treatment at MD Anderson hospital instead. It’s one of the best cancer treatment centers in the world. They did everything they could for him. It added probably a few more months to his life.
But he was sick as hell from the treatments. He was in pain most of the time. He was dying and he knew it but he was also determined to fight til the very end. He did. He died anyway (like we all will).
We were able to get some help for him at the end but it was too little, too late. I was trying to help deal with a lot of medical issues I wasn’t really prepared for (even tho I do have medical PIC- it’s harder to deal with someone you know and love).
Near the end, my father had no idea who I was. It would have been nice if he could have been helped by hospice at home, where he was comfortable and had his friends around. We were finally lucky to be able to put him in a hospice facility in Houston, he died there in only a couple of days.
I have no real idea of what all that cost. I just know it was a LOT and there was no way he could afford it. (And yes, I’m pretty sure those costs were passed on to the general public). No way anybody could afford all that! If he didn’t have that rare form of cancer, I’m sure he would have been ‘allowed’ to die a lot sooner. The hospital thought it was worth keeping him around so they could learn from his case. Hopefully they learned something to help someone else down the road.
I really should have had a discussion with my dad before he got sick. I would have felt better knowing what he really wanted. Not a decision made under that kind of stress. Some states have passed a Death with Dignity Act. I don’t think Texas is one of them. I would support it.
Bill To Define Journalist Will Get Full Senate Vote : Personal Liberty™.
Just got this in an email… URGENT to all bloggers and anyone else concerned with free speech. This bill will destroy it! Call and write your “representatives” asap. It’s very important to defeat this bill. There is no definition of what a ‘journalist’ is in the Constitution and they have NO need to make one up now. All this bill will accomplish is to silence those of us they don’t like for whatever reason. Speak up now before it’s too late!
Light it Up: Another Weed Ship Goes Up in Smoke | gCaptain
Wow! What’s going on in Tanzania lately?? Have they taken over from Columbia or Hawaii as the worlds leading pot producer or something?
For the 2nd time in a week, a Tanzanian flag ship has been lit on fire to avoid being caught and charged with smuggling marijuana. This time, the French are the ones chasing them down.
But again it looks like its the house burning instead of the cargo holds.
I wonder how many fishermen are hanging out in the smoke trail along with the French Navy? 😉
NSA’s Secret War Against Online Privacy Seekers.
Another interesting email from Global Wealth Protection this morning. I can’t say good, cause its NOT good. Its terrible! Its horrible that “our leaders” think of us as their “adversaries” now instead of their bosses (which we ARE)!!
It’s going to take a lot of effort on our part to have any sort of privacy now. I hope you take it into serious consideration. I’m not sure its worth it for me. I put a lot of my business right out in public (been posting on facebook for a while) and if they want to come and get me, they already know exactly where I am and what I’m doing. I’m a little surprised they haven’t come at me yet 😉
It still seriously bothers me that they’re doing this. Privacy is a basic human right (and NEED). We can not live together (peacefully) in society without it. The government has NO need! In fact, THEY are supposed to be open with what they’re doing. They’ve somehow managed to turn the tables and they hide everything they do and spy on everything we do.
They have absolutely NO authority (no matter what the hell they may try to scam you with)!! They are acting illegally and unconstitutionally and against every principle of a civilized society!
This kind of information gathering is about nothing but POWER and CONTROL (OF US). It has NEVER in the history of the world been used FOR the people, but ALWAYS against them! You give these power hungry psychopaths who fight tooth and nail to “get elected” to be “our rulers” this kind of power (“knowledge is power”) and you WILL regret it.
As they say in the article
“Make no mistake, this is the eye of Sauron. It is the empowerment of arrogance and power… and ultimately of death. You might think me dramatic but history doesn’t lie: Surveillance kills.”
Is it Safer to Work Offshore in 2013?.
Well, I don’t really know. I would like to see some statistics on how it compares to back in say the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s. Personally, I think its probably a LITTLE better. The companies I’ve been working with are constantly harping on safety. They go on and on til its coming out our ears. But I still hear of people doing really stupid things. Like that fire on the platform back in November last year , due to improper welding operations (http://www.blackelkenergy.com/news/67-explosion-and-fire-on-gulf-platform-occurred-during-welding-contractors-failed-to-follow-standard-safety-practices.html) . I mean, jeeze…
What the hell is it going to take?? I get sick and tired of being treated like a moron when I go to work. The company has to tell me how to get dressed in the morning? REALLY???
I’ve only been working offshore (professionally) since 1977! Having to re-take classes like BST (Basic Safety Training) or Rigpass really gets old. I mean, who forgets how to put on a life jacket??? What’s new in shipboard fire fighting? We have the same classes of fires we’ve always had (except they now label a galley grease fire as “K” for kitchen I guess- trying to make it SEEM like there’s actually something new). We fight them the same way.
I think the way to make things safer offshore is to concentrate on creating a culture of personal responsibility!!! Get people to understand that they can do what they’re going to do but THEY are responsible for their actions. They’ll pay attention if they know THEY are going to pay the price if anything goes wrong.
The fact is that we have all sorts of programs out here that SEEM to encourage safety. Instead, they take the ability to THINK about and then CHOOSE their actions away from people. Take away options from people and you take with it their responsibility. You can only BLAME them then, since you’ve taken away any REAL choices.
It seems to me these companies love to send people to these classes so they can tell the world, “it’s not OUR fault those people got hurt. After all, we sent them to training. They should have known how to do the job properly without getting hurt.” Yeah, like a day long class is really going to teach someone ALL they need to know to work safely out here. I don’t think so!
I’m NOT saying we need to go to any more classes!!! What I AM saying is that once a person goes through those very basic classes, they have only the bare minimum of knowledge. We can and should use the time spent in our weekly drills and safety meetings to train people PAST that bare minimum!
Those of us out here with some experience need to take into consideration that SOME of the people we’re working with are almost totally ignorant! From my perspective, it seems like a lot of the incidents are happening with relatively new people. We need to concentrate our efforts on training THOSE people! We need to keep a good eye on them. We need to take the time to really MENTOR them. We need to be generous with our time and our knowledge and not keep it to ourselves in fear of losing our jobs to the newbies…
It would help a LOT if we were not constantly having the crew size cut and cut and cut some more! OK, this below is referring to shipping and not so much drilling since I don’t know too much about drilling yet (but its probably still relevant)…
A typical ship used to carry a crew of 45-50 men. Now they sail with half that (and LOTS more work to do)! Some COIs (Certificate Of Inspection) will allow only 17 man crew (or less). This is for a 1000 ft long tanker!!! ATBs (tug/barge combination) which can run up to 600-700+ feet long, can be run with less than 10!!!
Check out the REAL results of the investigation into the Exxon Valdez incident. You’ll find that it was actually caused by the fact that the entire crew was exhausted and had NOTHING to do with the Captain at all. He could have been totally sober or drunk as a skunk and it wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference.
They passed the 12 hour rule after the Valdez spill to remedy that. There are work hour restrictions in US law and in the STCW. So it applies to pretty much ALL shipping worldwide. That does include all the larger oilfield support vessels. I don’t know how the drilling industry has escaped notice on this but I don’t know of anything similar that they have to abide by (I might just be uninformed on this point- any drillers to comment?).
Ask any sailor around the world how well they follow that rule. I can almost guarantee you they’re being ‘forced’ by their company policies to break it constantly. Of course, company will never admit it, will blame it on the crew if it ever comes up, and will deny they ever had any idea it was happening 🙁
Being tired is one of the leading causes of accidents. I would think that would be one very easy solution to vastly improve safety. But of course, it would cost some extra money to hire a few extra hands. Is that gonna happen any time soon???
Safety first??? I don’t think so 🙁
Organizations, Activists Lining Up To Sue Against NSA Surveillance : PersonalLiberty™.
I’m thrilled to see this lawsuit moving forward. In the case of First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles vs NSA, the court will be considering if it will allow the illegal, unconstitutional spy programs of the NSA (and other) goons to continue.
I would LOVE to see the courts throw this out and tell the NSA to shut its doors forever. I’m happy to see so many groups join in with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the National Lawyers Guild, Patient Privacy Rights, and many others to fight for our rights. I wish them complete success.
I have to say I have my doubts anything will really change even IF they manage to win a total victory in court. The people who work for these agencies have been brainwashed to believe that by trampling on our constitutional rights they will somehow save the country. Instead they destroy it with their police state tactics. 🙁
The “Domestic Terrorist” You Can Call a Hero | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” — Henry Ford
I don’t know about a hero, but I certainly do admire the guy. Anyone who would put his life at risk to do the right thing the way he did gets some high-fives from me 🙂
“Our” leaders have almost completely destroyed the value of the dollar since the congress abdicated their duty and turned it over to the Federal Reserve (a PRIVATE, totally unaccountable group). Here’s a link to a chart showing that.
http://tribes.tribe.net/2012the-end-times/photos/013e009e-f1eb-4021-8884-b13e7f477588
Here’s a guy trying to provide a very needed service to the public, and they arrest him! We DO need REAL money (and NOT the crap paper they try to pass off on us).
Bernard Von NotHaus with his Liberty Dollar and the anonymous inventor of bitcoins have done us all a great service. We NEED some competition with government money. Monopolies are usually not very good for the consumer of whatever product it may be. Government monopolies are even worse, since they are backed up by FORCE.
I could go on and on about the financial mess we’re in (and I will eventually) but I think I better take a break for now 😉 Read up on this post and let me know if you want to hear more. I’ve got LOTS of good information on this subject and its really something we should all be paying some attention to at this point in time.
Here’s an update on the Gold Star. The ship with the cargo of $80 million or so in hash/marijuana/weed. This one has a video to watch.
It looks like an ‘exciting’ chase. At least for the authorities. I can’t see how anybody could still be on the ship. Maybe there’s still someone in the engine room? The entire house is in flames! Looks a little strange to me. I have no idea what hash is worth these days but the cargo holds look empty…
The Rise of the Antiwar Libertarians – The Daily Beast.
I can’t agree with them calling either Justin Amash or Rand Paul Libertarians. They’re not. RON Paul was the only Libertarian we’ve had in D.C. for a LONG time.
I can say I’m glad to hear the word libertarian mentioned in some other context than in reference to a ‘nut job’ 🙂
I’m happy they’re both against the war on Syria. I would just like to see them actually follow some consistent principles of liberty. As long as they stick with the Republicans, that pretty much eliminates the chance of that happening. 🙁
I would LOVE to see these guys lead this country back to its founding principles of INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. In other words: Libertarian principles! I don’t see it happening until WE start pushing them that way.
All I can do at this point is to write letters of support when they DO manage to support the right side of an issue (one that supports individual liberty), and telling them why they were wrong when they supported the opposite.
I can only HOPE they actually read my letters. To think they might pay some attention and THINK about what I’m saying about principles and basing actions on them would be fantastic! Pipe dream? Probably 🙁
PS- try the Worlds Smallest Political Quiz at the top of my page and see where you land. I’m a libertarian 🙂 What are you?
Freeport LNG Signs 20-Year Supply Agreement with Toshiba | gCaptain
Good news for us 🙂 I live nearby and this should help our local economy out quite a bit. We’ve already had a few LNG ships in the port since they’ve opened this up.
Too bad they make it so hard for the sailors to get ashore. Our local Seamans Center will go to any ship in port and bring the crew to the center, to town, Walmart, the mall, wherever. They have a very nice facility and even offer free lunch on Mondays to all the port workers, truck drivers, seafarers, etc.
The companies need to stop being so obstructive. They’re just using 9-11 for a bad EXCUSE. It IS the law, both in the USA and international that they MUST provide safe access to the shore! Why are they still allowed to prevent it instead??? 🙁
Here Comes the Story of No Hurricanes | Mother Jones.
Here we go again with the global warming… Am I the only one who remembers back in the 70s when we were all supposed to be frozen into ice cubes by now. According to the almost unanimous scientific consensus, we should start shopping for parkas and load up on the firewood! Next it was global warming and now it’s ‘climate change’. Can’t these guys make up their minds?
I actually met one of these so-called experts a couple of years ago. I got off my tuna boat in Kiribati. They were having a meeting where I was staying. Here’s a link to an article written at the time- (http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2010/nov/09/kiribati-climate-change-conference-intro). The reporter even asked me what I thought about it for a man in the street’s opinion piece.
I asked a delegate why should I (or anyone else) believe him when the scientists were more in agreement about global freezing back in the 70s than they are about global warming now. I think I pissed him off. I mean, disrespecting his so superior scientific knowledge and all that. REALLY??!! He had NO idea what I was talking about! OK, he was a few years younger than me so he probably doesn’t remember all the hysteria personally like I do, but he’s supposed to be an expert. Can’t we expect the experts to know more than just the ordinary guy in the street???
Back ‘yard’ of the best hotel on Tarawa 2010