Category Archives: History

Catching Up With Capt Jill

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Well, it’s been a little while now since I finished up the November Post-A-Day Challenge (National Blog Posting Month). I needed the break. I actually got home from work the day after Thanksgiving (and missed the big feast). 🙁

As usual it took me a few days to catch up on everything.

First couple of days wasted just trying to catch up on SLEEP. I hate switching over from 6-6 nights! It’s SO hard this time of year, both mentally and physically. Never see the sun, no one is awake at home, never get your body in tune with your meals and sleep schedule, etc.

Since I’m home and finally have a chance to get caught up, I thought it might be a good time to write a little about who I am, what I do and what I’m hoping to do with this blog.

OK, so, here goes… I work as a merchant mariner (Merchant Navy for the Brits). For those of you who don’t really know what that means, it’s simply someone who works on a commercial vessel. Anything from small ferries, fishing vessels, to the largest VLCC or drillships. Usually work is in one of 3 departments: deck, engine, or stewards.

I grew up on the water and started working for my father when I was very young. He had an old sailboat that he used as a commercial fishing vessel for a while and he used to make me go out with him. I HATED it!!!

As soon as I could, I got a job down the street on one of the party boats (head boats). I would go out with them on the weekends. I had a great time on those boats. I worked mainly in the galley (kitchen). I sold the passengers sandwiches and drinks.

Sometimes I helped the deckhands with the passengers. I would help them bait hooks, untangle lines, get the fish off their lines, string them up and put them on ice. When we got to the dock at the end of the day, I would help clean up the boat and get everything ready for the next trip. Maybe clean and fillet some fish for tips. I was doing pretty good for a kid and plenty to live on but I wanted to do more.

Way back then (sarcasm), the commercial fishing fleet was where it was at! The fishermen could go out for a week and come back fully loaded. Flush with cash, they were living the good life.It was wild! I wanted some of that too! But, of course, I was a girl. Not possible, or so they said. 🙁

I tried to get a job on some of the better boats. The ones who consistently brought in a good catch and treated their crews well. I got nowhere with that. I tried and tried and couldn’t find much of anything.

I finally did go out with a friend. It was a horrible trip for a lot of reasons. We did manage to catch fish but that was the only good part of it. I might go into all that at some later point, but for now, just say that was the turning point for me. I was fed up with everything going on around that place and sick of my life. Everything I wanted to do, I was told was impossible, cause “girls can’t do that”. 🙁

To cut this short, I was getting into a lot of things I probably shouldn’t have. What finally happened was that I was very lucky (tho I didn’t know that at the time) and was offered the chance to completely change my life.

I went off to school with the Oceanics and never really looked back. I may not have known at the time, but I was hooked from the minute I got off the plane in Athens and was smuggled from the airport to the hostel we stayed at in the back of a bread truck.

We spent a few months sailing around the world on traditional sailing ships. Studying things like seamanship, navigation, celestial navigation, oceanography, cultural studies, Greek, Russian, Spanish, etc. Part of our day was always spent working on the ship while we were aboard.

I learned to LOVE it! I decided before I came home that I wanted to be a ship captain and sail around the world (and get paid for it). 🙂

My grandmother was really upset! Before I went away to school, I had planned to be a doctor. She never forgave me for changing my plans. I’m sure I made the right choice, even if she never thought so. 😉

The woman who ran the school was such a great help to me (and many others). She set me up in a school in Texas where I could get started toward my goal. A small Jr College in a small town, you would never expect to find such a great deal here.

I moved to Texas to join the Ocean Marine Technology program at Brazosport College in 1978. I managed to complete the 2 year program in only 5 years! I switched from fishing to working in the oil field and now work in all kinds of different areas offshore. Lately as a DPO (dynamic positioning operator).

In school, I learned to work in both the deck and engine departments (and could work stewards dept if I wanted). In the Gulf of Mexico it gets really HOT in the summer! I was working on small boats: crew boats, production boats, standby boats. Their engine rooms were small, smelled strongly of diesel fuel, and HOT all the time! I regret it now, but I never stuck with the engine department. I never even tested for my QMED. 🙁

I still had my sights set on becoming a ship captain one day. I fought hard for a long time to get the sea time I needed to work my way up. I’ll get into that some other time. I finally managed, just a couple of years ago, to get my unlimited masters license (whoo hoo!!).

Now, I work freelance. I work mostly for a couple of temp agencies. I like it since it gives me a chance to ‘try before I buy’. It’s also nice to see how different companies run things, to see the different vessels and meet different people.

One of the best things about working freelance is that I can pretty much make my own schedule. One of the bad things is, if there is no work, I’m stuck at home with no money. Too bad I never know beforehand. 🙁

When I went back to freelancing a couple of years ago, I took the opportunity to catch up and do a lot of things I’d been wanting to do but never could (since I was always offshore when they happened). I went to a few classes and conferences, I took a couple of nice long vacations. It was great! Til the work slowed down and I wasn’t able to get right back to work when I was ready to. 🙁

Now, I’m having a big debate in my mind. Should I stick with freelance? Or, should I go back and get a regular, permanent job again? It’s SO nice to be able to take the time off when I need it, but things are changing a lot with new rules and regulations and the temp agencies are not really keeping up with all that.

I have so many things I’d like to be doing when I’m NOT working. I’ve been trying for a long time to work less and spend more time doing what I like. I’d retire now if I could afford it and I’m working hard towards being able to do that. I have a couple of side businesses.

One is vending machines. I thought that was a great idea. A way for me to slowly work up to having enough income to be able to stop sailing all the time. That didn’t work out for me. I still think it’s a good plan IF I had the time to go find good placements for my machines.

One is real estate. I’m a slumlord like my father was. 😉 No, just kidding. I buy old, run down properties (cheap) and fix them up to rent them out. I started out just buying a place on the water to put a boat (that’s another story). I bought a nice beach house but then wound up renting it out. I’m actually in the process at the moment of fixing it all up again. Hoping to find some new tenants soon. 🙂

I met a really great Realtor while in the process of getting that house and she’s been helping me ever since. I’ve got a few properties now and they do keep me busy while I’m home.

I love to read, I’ve always got a book in my hand! I’ve just finished ‘Half the Sky’, a very good book but kind-of depressing. It’ll stir you up, but then has suggestions for what YOU can do to work off that anger you felt while reading. Right now I’m reading something different,  ‘Choose Yourself’ by James Altucher (who has a blog I also follow).

I like to go to local events like the beach cleanup I wrote about earlier or the JaGa Fest for the great reggae music. That’s where I took those fireworks photos (http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/11/30/weekly-photo-c…ight-celebrate), or the Biker and Blues Fest I plan on doing a post on (soon).

I love to go sailing. I joined a local club called Sail-La-Vie and go out with them when I can. It’s always a lot of fun. I also started my own meetup group, called Mariners Meetup. It’s a way for us old salts to get out and about, do something other then just hang around the house watching TV.

I try to keep up with politics, I’m into FREEDOM and trying my best to keep from losing any more of it here. If I’m home I go to the Campaign for Liberty meetings every Tuesday night. We have a bunch of projects we’re working on like our community garden (on hold for winter) and movie night. Last week we were talking about alternative energy and how to get off the grid.

I LOVE to travel (yes, eventually I will get around to posting some travel posts- I promise!). I like to write and take pictures, and enjoy going to workshops about that kind of thing. In fact, that’s how I started this blog.

I went to the AWAI travel writing/photography workshop in Boston back in August and they had a little bit about blogging. I started this blog right before I went up there so I could ask lots of questions and hopefully learn how to make a good blog. Actually, I heard that you could earn money from blogging and I wanted to learn how to do THAT!

So far, I haven’t learned how to do that. 🙁 I’m still trying to figure that part out. If you noticed, I put a link to Amazon down towards the bottom right. I haven’t figured out how to make that work properly tho. It’s supposed to be an Amazon blog and show the posts, but all it shows is the link to 4-5 different links on Amazon. Maybe some of you know what I’m doing wrong and can help me? 😉

I am trying to improve all the time. On here and in real life. 🙂 Now you know what I do when I’m working and when I’m home. Now you know why sometimes I don’t feel like posting for a little while. I do really enjoy it, but sometimes I just get run down. I don’t want this to wind up feeling like a chore, like something else I HAVE to do.

I hope I can keep this interesting and entertaining for all of us for a long time. Thanks for visiting me. 🙂

The saddest school lunches we’ve ever seen

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These are the saddest school lunches we’ve ever seen | Grist.

My curiosity got the better of me and I had to take a look at this. Especially after reading all the stories in the news lately about how parents are being fined and even arrested for trying to feed their kids healthy lunches instead of the kind of SH*T (to put it nicely) they get at school. Don’t try to pawn off your leftover turkey sandwiches on the kids anymore, who knows what may happen. 🙂

Don’t you wonder WHY??? Why is it all the sudden such a big deal that the ‘authorities’ would resort to FORCING these kids to eat their crap food? Why is it so wrong for kids to bring lunch from home like we all did since the beginning of public schools???

Are the schools going broke because so many kids aren’t buying school (free) lunch (no, they’re broke because they spend too much money on things other than teaching)- Or are they in cahoots with big agriculture (through FDA and other big government programs)- Or are they buying into Obamacares premise that they can FORCE even our bodies into their mold?

I don’t know what to think about all this yet, but a couple of things I DO know. They are NOT doing this from the goodness of their hearts and they are NOT doing it for the kids benefit! Time to take another look at your kids schools, check out the report at FedUp (www.fedup.dosomething.org/fedup).

What Would a Free Society Look Like?

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What Would a Free Society Look Like? | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

I liked this article by Jacob Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation (www.fff.org). I used to belong to them and got these neat little books every month. They always had some great essays by Hornberger, Sheldon Richman and others. I still have a few around the house.

Hornberger is a great advocate for freedom and this short little essay of his is an example. It asks some good questions and at least gets you thinking. At least it did me and I hope it will others. 🙂

You must know enough about me by now to know that I am VERY much in favor of a free society. 😉 I have been a Libertarian for years, working to restore this country to some semblance of the free society we USED to have. I would REALLY like to see the USA return to its founding principles of freedom and liberty for all.

No, we were never perfect, but our principles were (are) sound. Our most basic principle is that of self ownership. Freedom to decide how YOU want to live YOUR life! Since we fought the American Revolution to ensure that one basic human right, our people have fought constantly for freedom.

We have fought against slavery, for womens’ rights, for workers rights, for minority rights, etc. Even today, our soldiers are fighting for what they were TOLD was someones freedom (regardless of whether what they were told was a lie, those soldiers believed it when they left home to fight).

These principles, which hold that the individual is important, are no longer respected in America. Even though it was our support for individual liberty that formed the basis for the most free and prosperous country in the history of the planet. 🙁

Since we stopped following those principles and no longer have any respect for individual liberty, we’ve been going backwards in every way. Most people here don’t agree with me.

They’ll come up with all kinds of excuses and false premises as to what’s wrong with this country. They’ll grasp at any straw to avoid the fact that we have lost most of our liberty already and what’s left of it is fading fast.

They have been manipulated by the government and the media to believe that they are better off trading their freedom for security.

Ben Franklin said it best over 200 years ago…

“Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

I agree with Ben! He was a pretty sharp guy and he sure as hell knew what he was talking about when he made that statement!

I am NOT willing to trade my freedom for any kind of security, it’s NOT worth it! I will take my chances with whatever the world brings my way. I only want the FREEDOM to be able to live MY life the way I choose, just like everybody else should be able to do.

I can think of SO many things I could do if our government had not grown so big. Rules and regulations everywhere. Nit picking and harassing me every time I try to break out of the mold and try to do something different. New ideas for businesses, etc. I can imagine that expanding to all the other people around me and the absolute explosion of creativity, which will foster prosperity, which will foster peace.

I can imagine with that freedom that people would be much happier, much more productive, much more friendly open and caring. Just think for a minute what would you do if you had a 30-50% raise.

Would you spend the extra money on something useful or enjoyable? Go back to school, take a trip, buy a bike, etc? Would you spend it on charity? Would you use the TIME instead to spend more time with your friends and family? Would you take the time to relax and just enjoy life?

Just think how much better off we’d all be with less stress in our lives! I’m pretty sure a LOT of that stress comes from work. How many people are just working for the money? I know plenty of people like that. They HATE their jobs, they’re miserable but they can’t quit. They need the money.

Wouldn’t it be great if we all could work at something we loved and didn’t need to worry about the paycheck?  If we cut government back down to its constitutional limits, you would GET that raise! We might even be able to stop choosing jobs only for the money. Imagine!! 🙂

What do YOU think a truly free society would look like? Would you like it? Or do you think you wouldn’t like it? Why?

Fruit Tree Projects

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Communities Grow Stronger with Fruit Tree Projects – Community – Utne Reader.

I think this is a great idea and hope it spreads even further. I’d like to see it ‘go viral’, spread world wide, everybody getting involved! It has already spread from Santa Cruz, California all the way to Vancouver, to Australia, and even Fiji! 🙂

I have always hated to waste anything. Especially food. Maybe it has something to do with growing up where my parents always insisted I clean my plate. They warned about the ‘starving children in Africa’. I never figured out how my clean plate would help those starving children, but had to play along anyway.

I’m still a member in good standing of the ‘Clean Plate Club’. I’m sure I’m fatter then I should be because of it. I am working towards creating less waste in my kitchen and everywhere else.

I’ve tried to grow a garden in the past, but because I spend so much time at sea, I have not had much success. I do have a lime tree that is making plenty of fruit. Way more than I could ever use. I hate to see them just rotting in the driveway, so I already told my neighbors to just take whatever they want.

I think it would be a great idea if more people could do the same sort of thing. Like the article mentions, these fruit tree projects not only provide much needed and appreciated fresh fruits, but they build community in the process. They also teach useful skills and promote sustainability. I think they are probably fun too!

I’m not sure what the heck is going on in the US lately with the local vendetta on gardening. We used to encourage everyone to grow a garden. Now, we are allowing localities to force people to tear them up?!? WTF???

I remember a few years ago, my town forced my neighbors across the street to tear out the garden they had in their back yard. Supposedly it was illegal! Illegal to grow a garden? Behind a fence? On your OWN land???? In America, the land of the FREE??? I would have sued the SH*T out of them for a HUGE violation of my property rights!

If you want to tell me what I can do with MY land, then YOU can pay the mortgage and the taxes and every other expense. Then, and ONLY then, will it be your land. That’s when YOU get to decide what to do with it. After all, ownership implies being able to USE the thing you own. If you can’t use it, then you don’t really own it.

Apparently, this abuse of local tyrants citing ‘loss of property values’ as some kind of holy grail is spreading like wildfire around the nation. Here’s a link to an article from just the other day…http://www.care2.com/causes/why-are-cities-attacking-home-gardeners.html.

I really hope enough people are outraged by this kind of thing and will get out and raise holy hell with their city councils and homeowners associations and put a stop to this kind of thing.

Help out by signing the petition, Miami Shores: Let Couple Keep Their Vegetable Garden! – The Petition Site, watch the video and give a hand to the Institute for Justices’ Food Freedom Initiative (www.ij.org/foodfreedom) which is trying to help the couple involved in this latest outrage and by extension all the rest of us. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=avHrPbONTzE

Property values are NOT the be all and end all of the value of a neighborhood. In fact, they are probably far down the list for many people. Friendliness and community spirit are probably up there pretty high. I know they are for me. 🙂

The Vermont Sail Freight Project: Alternative Sail

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The Vermont Sail Freight Project.

I think it’s really wonderful that this group is trying to bring back commercial sail in the US. They’re also working in another area I like which is good food. The sailing barge Ceres is working with a great project bringing farm fresh food down to New York City.

I think there is a definite place for sailing ships even in these modern times. With all the attention being focused now on the environment, climate change, the high price of fossil fuels, etc., we should be taking a new look at sail (traditional or new improved models).

I’ve been keeping my eye on the Tres Hombres (Netherlands) which has been sailing since 2009. She’s a beautiful brigantine and sails between Europe and the Caribbean. She carries cargo that is not as dependent on a fast delivery time. She only carries about 35 tons so she makes it count with high value cargo such as rum and chocolate (yum). 😉

She can also carry trainees who will pay a fee in return for the adventure of a lifetime and a certificate to boot! With just a quick look at their website, I see that they will give you certificates all the way up from ordinary seaman to captain! Too bad they’re not recognized by any government. 🙁

Sailing General Cargo Schoenerbrik Tres Hombres

Even so, I’m sure the training you would get on board a ship like that would serve you well in any other. You’ll be better off then just going to work on any power vessel. You’ll also get an interesting, fun adventure, which is all but eliminated from the merchant fleet these days (at least in America). 🙁

I’d love to make a voyage on her myself. Or any of the other similar ships around the world. There are a few of them now, the Bessy Ellen and the Tres Hombres (both with Fairtransport) which are truly cargo ships along with the Ceres of Vermont Sail Freight Project.

The barque Picton Castle (home port Nova Scotia) is primarily a sail training vessel but also does some cargo work. She sails worldwide and is presently making her way across the Pacific.

New designs show promise as not only for pure sailing vessels, but as additions to the usual container and other modern ship types. The addition of sails or kites should help fuel consumption at least. Here’s a link to the Skysails website where you can learn more about that idea and how it works…

 http://www.skysails.info/english/skysails-marine/skysails-propulsion-for-cargo-ships/.

Others are working on more new designs to take advantage of the wind. I posted previously about one of them, the ‘Vind’…

 http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/blowing-in-the-vind. 

I’m really looking forward to seeing more of these ships in the future. I hope one day I will be able to take the time to sail on one of them again. There really is nothing like sailing on a real tall ship. Spending a day is just a small taste of what it’s really like. Get that taste and you WILL want more! 🙂 

Gov’t to gobble up your Thanksgiving

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Liberator Online: Gov’t to gobble up your Thanksgiving.

This is an interesting take on the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. I suppose it is pretty much just an American holiday. Not sure if other countries have it, but I wouldn’t think so.

The report cited in the article reminds us that of $10 billion we spend on Thanksgiving weekend, almost 40% of that is taken by government. Taxes on wine and beer, plane tickets and gas, and the food you enjoy will give the government approximately $3.6 billion in revenues. Hard for me to enjoy my meal remembering those numbers.

What I DO have to be thankful for is, as mentioned in the article, the growing liberty movement, including the Advocates for Self Government (www.theadvocates.org) whose newsletter is where I saw this article.

PS- if you scroll down toward the end of the link, you’ll see a link where you can get a FREE ebook ‘After the Welfare State”. There’s also an article and link to the winners of the Reason Video Prize where you can see the videos.

23 Petty Crimes That Have Landed People in Prison for Life Without Parole

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23 Petty Crimes That Have Landed People in Prison for Life Without Parole | Mother Jones.

I just read this article from Josh Harkinson for Mother Jones and I thought it was worth passing along. It’s informing readers of a new report put out by the American Civil Liberties Union (www.aclu.org).

In this “land of the free”, we now think it’s just fine and dandy to lock people up for LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE for things like…

POSSESSING a crack pipe!

POSSESSING stolen WRENCHES!!

Shoplifting 2 jerseys from an athletics store!!!

How in the HELL can anyone justify this??? I only listed 3 of the insane things they have been doing to people lately.

Try taking a look at the book: Three Felonies A Day by Harvey Silverglate (http://harveysilverglate.com/Books/ThreeFeloniesaDay.aspx). The list is long and getting longer every day. Piss off a cop and don’t have big bucks for a good lawyer, you ARE going to spend some time in jail! I keep telling people we live in a police state now and no one ever believes me.

Well WTF do YOU call it when they will lock you up for LIFE for something as minor as ‘siphoning gas from a truck’ or OMG ‘making a drunken threat to a police officer while handcuffed to the back of a police car”???

This is where we’re at today. Most of it is because of the war on (some) drugs. Look at the list they provide, TEN out of the 23 listed ‘offenses’ are drug offenses. Six out of those 10 are for simple POSSESSION! I don’t see where simple possession of ANYTHING should be allowed to deprive someone of their liberty for even one second! Much less lock them away for LIFE.

THIS is what the war on (some) drugs has done to our once free country! It has done the same thing that alcohol prohibition started to do, but so much worse since for some odd reason we still haven’t awoken to the brainwashing ‘our’ leaders have subjected us to.

Just like during alcohol prohibition, the drugs of choice of many people were outlawed by moralistic busybodies who had NO authority to do so. Instead of minding their OWN business, they decided they just HAD to run everybody ELSE’S life since they knew SO much better how to do it. (idiots!!!)

Because of the LAW, the drugs people wanted became harder to find. Because they were harder to find, some people (‘criminals’) found ways to supply them (for a profit of course- why take a risk without a reward?). The harder the ‘law’ made it to find their drug of choice, the more profitable it became for people to supply it. Because of the risk of going around the ‘law’, the profits grew.

Profits grew til it was worth it for the REAL criminal gangs to get involved and take over those profits. The only way to settle disputes outside the legal system was to take it to the streets. Thus, the machine gun shootouts where innocent people got killed in the crossfire.

The risk of getting caught with the prohibited items (beer/wine/booze) also caused a change in peoples drinking habits. Because beer was easier for the cops to find (basically because it was stored in bigger bottles), people started switching to hard liquor which was easier to smuggle and keep hidden. This was also why you hear stories of people blinded by ‘bathtub gin’. People had to take risks to get their supply.

The SAME thing is happening now, more people started using cocaine since it was easier to get busted with pot. Cocaine was processed into crack since crack was a less risky (from the perspective of getting caught with it) form of the drug. People started switching to things like meth and now they’ve created ‘krocodile’ , a truly dangerous drug (IF news reports can be believed).

And don’t forget how the spread of mandatory drug testing has caused people to switch from marijuana to harder, more dangerous drugs since pot stays in your system for much longer (even tho it has ZERO effect on you after the first day or so).

The invention of krocodile (and other dangerous drugs) is a DIRECT consequence of the WAR on (some) drugs! All those suffering people rotting from the inside out should place the blame squarely on the pandering power hungry THUGS we call politicians for trying to stop them from getting high every once in a while on a SAFE drug like marijuana and so instead they use dangerous drugs like krocodile!

No, I am NOT trying to say that people have no responsibility for their own actions. Of course they should have it. They should be ALLOWED to have it. They should be ALLOWED to make the proper choices for THEIR lives without force and coercion.

Telling people you are going to make their choices for them, for ‘their own good’ is NOT good for them or for anybody else! And if YOU are making THEIR choices for them, then how in the hell can you say they have any real responsibility?

Of course, throughout this whole ‘experiment’ of government ‘for our own good’, the criminals were making money hand over fist. To make sure they stayed out of jail, they bribed and corrupted anyone susceptible in the system to protect them, to look the other way. Ruining our police, courts and any semblance of justice.

Another way our country was hurt by the ‘laws’ against (some) drugs was the loss of general consensus that the law was worthy of respect. HUGE numbers of people came to understand that the ‘law’ was morally wrong and just plain STUPID in addition to being exceedingly harmful to individuals and society as a whole.

The ONLY difference we are dealing with today is that we are too stupid to learn the lessons we SHOULD have from alcohol prohibition! We somehow allowed ‘our’ leaders to prohibit certain other substances. They didn’t even bother to do it legally this time. They thought they could sneak it by us in congress without any real debate and no constitutional amendment (thus NO AUTHORITY)!

The results are as expected. Worse, since we have let it go on for so long. We have not only locked up more people per capita than any other country on the face of the earth, but we have used the excuse of the war on (some) drugs to completely trash the entire constitution!

The ONLY amendment in the Bill of Rights that we have NOT thrown out the window in order to prosecute the war on (some) drugs is the one about quartering troops in your house.

Thanks to Mother Jones and the ACLU for publicizing this issue. I hope it goes viral. My post here is my attempt to help with that. I REALLY hope people will start looking at the FACTS about drugs (all drugs) and STOP being so gullible to just believe what ‘our’ leaders are spouting out.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, they do NOT have our good in mind, they are only out for themselves! They are NOT authorities, they do NOT have any special knowledge! They are politicians, therefore they are all LIARS!

Official: Super Typhoon Kills 10,000 in Philippines

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Official: Super Typhoon Kills 10,000 in Philippines | gCaptain

I don’t know how they can call this official since they say right in the article they’ve only found 300-400 bodies. It’s still terrible. Hearing of things like this, I wonder how is that possible? I’ve never been to the Philippines but I would assume that just like everywhere else, they do have communications with the rest of the world.

There was plenty of warning that this storm was headed their way and that it was going to be VERY powerful when it got there! They had the warnings, why didn’t they leave? There’s a world of difference in outcomes for people who get the warnings (and so can/do act on them) and those who don’t!

The Galveston Storm of 1900 killed ‘more than 6000’ people (estimates range from 6-12,000 out of a total of about 37,000). Considering that Galveston is a very low lying, flat island and there was practically NO warning back then, they were probably lucky that ANYONE survived. Here’s a link to a Wikipedia article about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900_Galveston_hurricane.

I’m very sorry for the people of the Philippines and I wish them a speedy recovery, but I just can’t fathom why this sort of thing still happens. I expect many people were just too caught up in their daily lives to worry much about ‘what’s the worst that could happen?’ It happened here in the USA too. Remember Hurricane Katrina? It devastated New Orleans and many other coastal areas from Florida to Texas.

We had plenty of warning about Katrina too. Why did so many people stick around New Orleans when they should have known what would happen? After all, New Orleans is below sea level, it’s surrounded by water, and the levees are old and it had been stated many times in the past that they should not be expected to survive a bad storm.

Seems to me that most of the people who stayed in New Orleans were poor. Is it the same in the Philippines, that only the people who stayed in the low lying, storm devastated areas were poor (relatively)? I know the Philippines is a poor country, but what I’m wondering is: did so many people die there because of that lack of resources? Personal resources and community resources. Or were there other reasons? Why did so many people decide not to heed the warnings???

The reason I’m curious about that is because so many people here in the USA blame what happened in New Orleans on lack of resources. They say that the poor of New Orleans took the brunt of the damage that Katrina caused. They say that the poor had no way to escape the storm. They say that our government is responsible for causing the deaths of those people in New Orleans because they didn’t throw enough money and resources into the preparations.

I understand that the Philippine government does not have the resources that the US government does. Is that why the US government was blamed for the disaster in New Orleans? Is that why no one is blaming the government of the Philippines? Or is the difference in the people themselves???

What makes some people do EVERYTHING they possibly can do to take care of THEMSELVES? While so many others don’t?

 

PS-the question applies to more than just hurricanes!!

If You Like Your Health Care Plan, You Can Keep It

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cartoonF1108

Submarine Racing

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🙂

4 Foods That Could Disappear If New Food Safety Rules Pass

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4 Foods That Could Disappear If New Food Safety Rules Pass | Mother Jones.

Here’s an article from Mother Jones about the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Obama signed it into law in 2011 and I suppose nobody read this one either. If they did, they had to have been paid off by the usual suspects in favor of large scale factory farming.

Obviously, no one wants our food supply to be full of dangerous ingredients. We would all like to be able to buy safe, fresh, affordable, wholesome food. The problem with this law is the same as with every law like this, the ‘law of unintended consequences’. In addition to that problem, some others are already popping up.

For one, this is just one example of how BIG companies use the law to their advantage. They are much more easily able to comply with it, even if it DOES cost them big bucks. They can still manage to get by, especially when it wipes out their competition.

This sort of thing happens all the time in this country and is just one example of how we do NOT have a free market at all. No free market would permit companies to grow as large as we have here. They can only get that way because the laws allow it through special favors and manipulation of the market and the laws themselves. 🙁

Regardless of the name of this law (seems they’re always named the opposite of what they’re REALLY about), it will wind up hurting small farmers, organic farmers, food co-ops, and consumers concerned about healthy, safe food.

The article mentions just a couple of ways this will happen. Again, remember the law of unintended consequences! Those things they mentioned will probably just be the bare minimum of the problems that will develop.

Why do we always insist on the worst possible agency (the government) to take care of our problems? We always seem to think “there ought to be a law”! One size does NOT fit all and we really ought to be able to figure out ways to deal realistically with these things WITHOUT the use of FORCE. It’s especially galling when the use of force (government aid) is applied to the side that is hurting the people in favor of giant corporations.

Food safety is a pretty important subject, even if it’s not one we usually think about much. I hope some of you will think about it a bit. As they mention in the article, the FDA is still accepting comments until November 15. If this is important to you, you still have a chance to at least get the word out and hopefully your comments will be taken into account with the same weighting as someone from Monsanto or Kraft Foods would (yeah riiiiight). I said ‘hopefully’.

Are You on a Government Watch List?

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  • I’m sure I’m on at least one. 😉

Free Markets: Just What the Doctor Ordered

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Free Markets: Just What the Doctor Ordered | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

This is an excellent article by former Congressman Ron Paul on the problems with our health care system. He brings up a good point and one I have mentioned myself in previous posts about the confusion of language. How the arguments we use to discuss these important issues are skewed from the very beginning because the meanings of the words we use have been twisted.

Socialism, Corporatism, Facism, Capitalism, Democracy, Republic, Liberal… all of these terms have been used and confused. Purposely? I can’t swear to it, but I would say: YES! All of these terms have been used in discussions about American politics and all of them are in one way or another accurate but it’s getting very hard to have a discussion and use any of these words and have your intention understood.

When I talk to others about Obamacare and call it socialized medicine, I am meaning simply that it is NOT in any way a free market system which is what we SHOULD have here. What we DO have here is not in any way a free market system either. Not by a long shot! We have not had anything remotely resembling a free market in health care for a LONG time!

So when the supporters of socialized health care put down the free market as the cause of the problems we have, it is just incredibly frustrating, since it is actually the socialization of our medical system which is the root cause of our problems and NOT the free markets! Ron Paul does a fairly good job explaining all this in this article.

I would just LOVE to see a real, honest discussion about how to fix our health care system (along with all our other problems). A discussion with clearly defined terms, with facts and rational arguments ONLY allowed to be brought up, instead of anecdotes and emotions over-riding all logical conclusions.

It looks like that is never going to happen. Obamacare has already been forced upon us and the emotions (hope, greed, envy, etc) have won out over reason. 🙁

Civil forfeiture: The grabbing hand of the law

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Civil forfeiture: The grabbing hand of the law | The Economist.

I’m always amazed at how many people still don’t understand the way our government has changed. Our government that was formed ONLY to PROTECT our rights has somehow morphed into something intent on destroying them instead. Asset forfeiture or civil forfeiture as they call it in this article is just one particularly horrible example.

I started paying more attention to this issue years ago when I heard about a case where a man had his airplane stolen (confiscated) by the government. He spent years and thousands of dollars trying to get it back. It’s hard to fight the government when they’ve already stolen every asset you might have to pay for a lawyer to fight them with. 🙁

Since then, I’ve heard of SO many cases around the country. It’s really sad. The laws are written so that they are technically filing charges against the PROPERTY. Property is not a person. Property has no rights. Property can not defend itself. Property is guilty until proven innocent (which is VERY hard to do)!

We now have over 200 federal forfeiture statutes!! Any one of which could be used to steal everything you own. You are not likely to win any part of it back (unless you have big bucks hidden away someplace). Even then, good luck!

This article from the Economist concentrates on the Dehkos, who are fighting right now to keep their grocery store. Grocery store! Apparently the grocery store has been ‘money laundering’ for the last couple of years! Pretty obviously the grocery store is NOT guilty of anything, much less ‘money laundering’ (which is not a crime anyway since there is no victim).

This charge against the ‘grocery store’ leaves the Dehkos (who actually own/operate the store) in deep trouble. The government has already confiscated all the money they had in the bank. How hard do you think it is to run a business when all your money has just been stolen?

Thanks to the Institute for Justice (www.ij.org), the Dehkos might just have a fighting chance. They’ve stepped in to help fight government overreach and will try to help these people recover their money and their lives.

The article mentions a case involving a motel. This case was just recently settled. The Caswells spent almost 4 years fighting the attempted government theft of the property that had been in their family for generations. Thanks to the help of the Institute for Justice they were finally able to prevail. Here’s a link for more on that case http://www.ij.org/massachusetts-civil-forfeiture-release-3-15-2013. Its a pretty good example of the kinds of things going on around the country.

Sorry to say, most people in this country don’t have the help of the Institute for Justice. I wish more did. I’ve been a supporter of the IJ for years, I REALLY appreciate everything they do. Most people don’t have the resources to fight the government. So most people will lose.

It’s a legal fiction to charge the property. It is ONLY done to make it easier for the government to win its case. Cases that most probably could NOT be won if they had to play by the rules.

Take a look at some of the information posted by the Forfeiture Endangers American Rights Foundation (F.E.A.R.- www.fear.org). They’ve been at the forefront of this issue for years. They’re trying to make some very needed changes but seems they’re not making much headway. Here’s a link to a ‘position paper’ from F.E.A.R. on asset forfeiture http://www.fear.org/fposit.html.

I keep hoping that if more people only knew about all these violations of our rights. Of all the ways the government is stealing our freedoms. Of all the ways they are making our society poorer and meaner. Then people would stand up for themselves and put a stop to it. Say ‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’. I keep hoping…

 

Franken Berry, the Beloved Halloween Cereal, Was Once Medically Found to Cause Pink Poop

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Franken Berry, the Beloved Halloween Cereal, Was Once Medically Found to Cause Pink Poop | Food & Think| Smithsonian.

Another interesting Halloween story from Smithsonian. I dimly remember something about this growing up. I thought it was kind-of cool. I mean really? Pink poop? Sounds pretty cool to most kids I think. Parents panic, but what the heck. Maybe that was part of the fun of the whole experience?

PS- they even managed to find videos of the original commercials 😉

The World’s Fastest Failure

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The World’s Fastest Failure | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Great article by Jeffrey Tucker about Obamacare and why it is such a huge failure (at least a failure if you don’t think Obama was trying to ruin the country on purpose- there are plenty who DO think that and they have some good reasons).

It’s true that this program has degenerated faster than the rest of them. Maybe it’s just because its SO big? Maybe it’s just because people are waking up? Maybe it’s because some people actually understand economics and that Obamacare can NEVER work and they’ve been able to make some progress informing others? Maybe it’s just because government has already taken over so much of the economy already? Maybe it’s just that people are sick and tired of government encroaching on our freedom?

Mr Tucker compares the government to a start-up company which has to compete in the market. He shows why government can NEVER be successful in the markets. It’s just their nature and can’t be avoided. He doesn’t think Obamacare will ever be repealed. Instead it will just collapse eventually under its own weight. I hope not, I hope it will be repealed before it collapses and also takes down the rest of the country (and us) with it. 🙁

Its worth reading and thinking about it.

 

 

How the Shipping Industry is the Secret Force Driving the World Economy

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How the Shipping Industry is the Secret Force Driving the World Economy | Ideas & Innovations | Smithsonian Magazine.

I thought this was pretty good, despite the reservations I have from only seeing this article. It’s an interview with author Rose George about her latest book: Ninety Percent of Everything. She somehow arranged to spend some time sailing around on the container ship Maersk Kendal. I’m going to have to find a copy of this book to read. 🙂

a container ship underway

a container ship underway

She makes a lot of good points. That people who aren’t personally involved with shipping are totally unaware of the industry. That those of us living in ‘first world’ countries don’t know any seafarers personally any more. That the ports have been moved so far away from the cities that most people don’t have any awareness of them anymore. That people on the beach have absolutely no idea what it’s like to be a seafarer.

I do think she got a lot of that correct. She sees how isolating it is out here now. She mentions the lack of communication and that the ships don’t provide internet or phone access to their crews (because of the expense). I do agree that it is an expense. I do not agree that it is an ‘extra’ expense. I don’t think it’s very much to pay a couple of thousand dollars a month when that would be something like 1% of expenses on most ships (if that). Isn’t it worth that for such a HUGE increase in crew morale?

a tank ship underway

a tank ship underway

I don’t really know if she’s right in her assessment of how much or how little sailors have a ‘sense of romanticism’. She mentions that she thinks the captain has more of it then he lets on, that he still secretly loves the sea.

She seems to think that most sailors are only out here for the money. I might agree that most sailors from the poorer parts of the world go to sea for the money. They probably went to sea because it paid better than anything they could find at home.

I would agree that the great majority of seafarers are not in a great position at sea. Some of the conditions sailors work under are just horrible. A lot of shipowners do flag foreign just so they can cut expenses.

They all say that the cost of the crew is their largest expense so they cut it any way they can. They cut the crew size, they lengthen the hitch (2 YEARS or more), they skimp on groceries, they skimp on medical care, they refuse to pay for visas so the crew can’t leave the ship in port, etc.

That’s not even to start on the issue of crew abandonment. Rose George seems to think the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC) will help. I’ve seen in the news there have already been 3 ships detained, but I have serious doubts it will actually help the crews.

In spite of conditions like that, I believe most seafarers do still enjoy sailing (at least sometimes). 😉

romanticism of life at sea

romanticism of life at sea

I know I still do. Most of the time. 😉

The Enchanting Sea Monsters on Medieval Maps

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The Enchanting Sea Monsters on Medieval Maps | Collage of Arts and Sciences.

Another good one from the Smithsonian this morning. I always thought those old charts were so cool. I really loved the drawings.

Those people really had some great imaginations! 🙂

Gary Johnson at Stop Watching Me Rally

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Gary Johnson speaks at the Stop Watching Me Rally last Saturday. I wish I could have been there. Gary Johnson should have had the chance to speak during the last Presidential campaign, but like Ron Paul, he was shut out by the mainstream media and their bosses in the Democrat and Republican parties(y). Too bad. He has  lot of GOOD ideas. Listen for yourself…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1iljZltuc_w

The Phony ‘Fight’ And The Real Story

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The Phony ‘Fight’ And The Real Story : Personal Liberty™.

Another good article from Bob Livingston and Personal Liberty. This one is discussing the events of the last few weeks, the fight over the budget and Obamacare. The scare tactic to ‘shutdown’ the government, as if that is a bad thing we would never want. As usual, the politicians caved in for bigger government, more money and more power for them. 🙁

I agree completely with Bob on the idea that there is really only ONE party in this country. We might as well just call it the ‘statist’ party since every piece of it (every so called ‘independent’ party), whatever it’s called, is for BIG government.

As the latest vote in congress just proved once more, BOTH the Democrats AND Republicans are for BIG government and completely against the limited government this country is supposed to have according to our Constitution and all the rest of our founding documents!

ALL of those politicians are breaking their oaths of office to uphold the Constitution. EVERY ONE OF THEM, FROM BOTH PARTIES! The Libertarians are the ONLY political party (unless there is an anarchist party I’m not aware of) who is NOT statist and is for the limited government our Constitution calls for.

The latest ‘shutdown’ was just one more farce. The latest show put on for us by ‘our’ leaders to trick us into giving up even more of our power to them. 🙁 I just keep wondering just WHAT is it going to take to get the American people to wake up? To put a stop to this?

I managed to piss off a good friend of mine tonight. He’s a die hard Obama fan and just couldn’t take any more of my ‘ranting’ about how Obama (and all of our previous ‘leaders’ for the last few decades) has been ruining this country.

Well, sorry to him and anybody else who can’t/won’t see the truth. I’m no Tom Paine, but I think the more people put it out there (shout out for freedom/liberty), the more people will come to their senses.

 

I’m thankful to all the other people in this country and around the world who are fighting for Liberty. In any way. Thanks to the Libertarian Party, to all the small L libertarians, to the Free State Project, to the Advocates for Self Government, to the International Society for Individual Liberty, to the Young Americans for Liberty, for Ron Paul and all his supporters, for the ACLU, for the Gun Owners of America, for the Institute for Justice, for ALL the people fighting AGAINST statism and FOR liberty!

I’m thankful to WordPress, Facebook, Twitter and any other platform I have to spread the word. To get MY voice heard, out there to compete against the mainstream media who keeps on NOT doing their jobs. Dianne Feinstein can go to hell! Here’s to me and the rest of the (‘non-journalist’) bloggers out there!

Keep up the good work!! 🙂

 

Obama vs Nixon…

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Hard to believe he still hasn’t been charged with anything, he’s done a hell of a lot more to hurt this country then Nixon ever even thought of. He swore an oath to uphold the Constitution (or he SHOULD have) and he has done nothing since he’s been in office but work to destroy it. 🙁

He should have been MORE than impeached over this illegal spying. Don’t even try to tell me he didn’t know about it. He knew. Therefore he was complicit. As the leader of the Executive Branch, he was ultimately responsible. Since he was a ‘constitutional law professor’, he KNEW every bit of every one of those programs was unconstitutional (and so illegal) and it was HIS duty to destroy ALL of them! Period!!

Instead, he chose to destroy the constitution. He should be drug out of the White House on his ass, tarred and feathered and then thrown in a (regular) prison for the rest of his life! And yes, Bush should have had the same treatment for Iraq and the PATRIOT ACT. (But Obama has done NOTHING to get rid of that horrible ‘law’, and our people are STILL in Iraq and Obama could have brought ALL of them home years ago!)

I can’t think of ANY other reason he’s still in office and has evaded the trouble that even Clinton had except that Obama is ‘black’. Yeah, I know, I’m going to be accused of racism. Well, accuse away…

I know I’m not a racist and that anyone who brings that up is only doing it because they have nothing else to say. They have NO rational argument to make, so they start calling names. All those high hopes for our first black president from so many people. Obama has sure given the shaft to the next few dozen blacks who might want to run. It’ll take a LONG time to get rid of his ‘legacy’. I only hope this country can survive the rest of his term. 🙁

I am SO sad to see what has become of my once great country. ALL of our presidents for the last few decades (at least) have been working overtime to destroy that history but Obama is the one in there now and he needs to GO before he’s allowed to do any more damage!

The Founders Understood The Dangers Of Welfare And Redistribution Schemes

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The Founders Understood The Dangers Of Welfare And Redistribution Schemes : Personal Liberty™.

Along with my last post, here is one more example of how the meanings of the words have been corrupted and now we are basing our political system on misunderstandings.

I have had discussions with a lot of people who say that the ‘welfare clause’ in the Constitution authorizes the federal government to do what they do. That they can continue to spend any amount of money on any program they choose to invent as long as it is intended to ‘help’ somebody.

I disagree. I disagree vehemently!! This article has some direct quotes from Benjamin Franklin and James Madison proving that my interpretation of the word welfare in the Constitution is the correct one and anyone who uses that term to justify ANY of the welfare (for rich or poor) today is just plain WRONG!

Alienable Rights = Glorified Privileges

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Alienable Rights = Glorified Privileges.

Very good article by Kelly Diamond! I have been noticing for a LONG time that most people don’t have any kind of idea of what ‘rights’ are. This article does a good job of explaining what they are.

People now a days seem totally confused. They don’t seem to understand that there is a BIG difference between natural rights (which belong to everyone regardless of whether any person or even government recognizes that fact) and those ‘rights’ we enjoy because of the society we live in.

Because of this confusion, we are losing more and more of our natural rights. Our government, which was expressly created for the sole purpose of PROTECTING those rights is instead intent on chipping them away to nothing.

Diamond makes some good points about the ‘freedom of the press’ guaranteed to us by our Constitution and how Dianne Feinstein (and others) are working right now to restrict that freedom even more. As a blogger (and hopefully one day able to do more), I am NOT happy with the arrogance of ‘our leaders’ latest attempts to decide who can and can not be considered a journalist re: freedom of the press.

ALL of us should be considered able to publicize whatever we feel is news. That is what the internet has done for ALL of us! Who the hell does Feinstein think she is, to decide what can and can’t be published? Who can/can’t be considered a ‘real’ journalist? What information is OK or NOT OK to be publicized?

The reason the founders included ‘freedom of the press’ in the Bill of Rights was to ensure that we could always get information that the government might prefer to keep secret! The mainstream media has not been doing their job at all for the last few years (at least). Thank goodness for the internet and ordinary people posting to the internet!

 

Obamacare: A Parasite Intent on Killing Its Host

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Obamacare: A Parasite Intent on Killing Its Host | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

This is a VERY good article by former Texas Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul. I have to admit, I LOVE Ron Paul! 🙂 He has been my congressman for years and he is the ONLY politician I’ve ever met who REALLY tries his best to do the job he was elected to do.

That job is to PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION! NOT to pander to the public (like most politicians think). Regardless of how many people do or don’t want to do one thing or another, he ALWAYS did the RIGHT thing and fought to uphold the constitution and our rights.

We would be in SUCH a better place as a country if he had been elected instead of Obama. Too bad the media refuses to allow any other candidates to be heard. 🙁

I’m sure if more people actually listened to what he has to say, they would LOVE it! Just look at the reaction he gets when he visits any college campus around the country. These kids are open to new ideas, they’re not completely brainwashed yet. He gets a HUGE positive reaction from young people.

Ron Paul is absolutely correct in everything he says in this article. I know a lot of people refuse to open their eyes to the truth, but you can NOT evade human nature or the laws of economics for very long.

Obamacare IS a disaster waiting to happen. It just makes me sick that we have SO many people in this country now who, for whatever reason, still support this legislation which is completely in violation of ANY sort of respect for individual rights. Those same individual rights this country was founded to PROTECT (not to give, since we had them already-but to protect!).

In fact, the ONLY proper function of OUR government is just that, to protect our rights, PERIOD! With Obamacare, we have turned that idea inside-out and upside-down. Everything about it is a violation of our rights.

Our right to decide our own medical treatments is violated in every way! We can’t choose the price we’ll pay for those treatments. We can’t choose who we want to provide those treatments. Our privacy is totally eliminated!!

How can that mean anything other than that somebody ELSE OWNS YOUR BODY AND SO YOUR LIFE! How anyone could even imagine that it could possibly do anything but corrupt completely the principles this country was founded to uphold, bankrupt and destroy this country is just beyond belief!

I just don’t get it. Do these people who support it have some kind of switch in their brains that shuts off any logical thinking whenever the subject of Obama or his latest SCAM comes up? Or maybe they just never could think logically about anything to begin with. Or maybe its just greed that’s blinding them, the thought of all that ‘free’ stuff is just too much for them to cope with and they overload their brain cells?

They keep talking about how ‘all the other democracies have socialized medicine’ and that is somehow supposed to justify destroying ours. I don’t understand why they don’t just go to one of those other wonderful countries if they love socialism so much.

THIS country is a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC! It is NOT a democracy and it is NOT a socialist country! If you want one of those, you have about 180 of them to choose from. Leave THIS one alone to continue to be free and an example to the rest of the world. It is only your socialism that has been dragging it down for decades now!

Let us return to the FREE country this used to be and we’ll be able to recover and prosper again. Keep pushing the cronyism, corporatism, populist and socialistic fantasies and we will just keep on whittling away at our freedom and everything that once made this country the greatest in the history of the world will go away with it. 🙁

Look to England for America’s Future

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Look to England for America’s Future | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Good post on some history from across the pond. I would certainly think it would follow that we would wind up the same way if we follow the same path. It looks to me like that’s what IS happening here. WHY can’t we ever learn from history, instead of repeating the same mistakes? 🙁

‘Captain Phillips’ Torn From the Headlines, But Tells an Old Story

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‘Captain Phillips’ Torn From the Headlines, But Tells an Old Story | gCaptain

I did go see this movie the other day. I thought it was pretty good. Maybe its because I’m a sailor but I REALLY don’t appreciate the way the article tries to make excuses for the pirates. Yeah, they’re poor, so are a lot of other people around the world. That does NOT in any way excuse the violence, kidnappings, beatings, theft, etc of the pirates!

I thought the crew of the Alabama deserved more credit for their actions. It seems Captain Phillips got all the recognition. The crew actually managed to capture the pirate leader and traded him off for their captain. Good job!!

Remember, in the Merchant Marine, we are not allowed to defend ourselves with anything but fire hoses against these thugs with machine guns and RPGs! They still managed to take down a couple of the pirates! Good! I salute them!

I am REALLY sick and tired of hearing about how we can’t be trusted to defend ourselves, we somehow don’t deserve any kind of REAL protection when our companies send us to work in these dangerous waters!

The bigwigs sit in their penthouse air conditioned offices and debate how much we’re worth to them. Can they ‘afford’ to pay our ransom? The ransom payment is just another cost of doing business to them. It’s our LIVES on the line! We’re just out there trying to earn a living and should NOT have to put up with pirate attacks!

Seamen from all over the world are suffering severely from pirate attacks, even for YEARS AFTER they return home! There are HUNDREDS of them being held at this moment! According to the ICC International Maritime Bureau (http://www.icc-ccs.org/piracy-reporting-centre/piracynewsafigures), there have been 176 REPORTED incidents including 10 hijackings in 2013 alone!

No one is helping them. No one cares. The world depends on shipping. Over 90% of the worlds trade moves by sea, in the USA its over 95%! Yet, we mariners get a bare minimum of help from the worlds navies. 🙁

Where are the convoys like they had during WWII? Where are the marines who might be assigned to a ship to protect it? Where are the security companies and their trained armed guards??? WHY is there such an issue about giving us the protection we should have before we go anywhere near any pirate infested waters???

The ONLY reason the world even knows (or cares) about Captain Phillips and the Maersk Alabama is because it happened to be an American ship! There have been dozens of ships and HUNDREDS of sailors held in captivity by various pirate groups worldwide.

The pirates holding these mariners are NOT like Johnny Depp! They are mean, abusive, dangerous, desperate men! They have nothing to lose and they mean business!

WHY can’t we get some REAL protection? WHY can’t we at least arm our ships? It’s hard to believe but the powers that be expects us to be able to run away! If that doesn’t work (which it won’t most of the time since most ships are not very fast), then we are supposed to fight off the machine gun toting pirates with nothing but FIRE HOSES! If that doesn’t work (which it doesn’t), then we are supposed to run away and hide (again). The movie did a great job of showing just how effective those tactics are! (Totally useless! But they are the industrys’ ‘best management practice’).

I recommend the movie. It’s good entertainment if nothing else. I hope it’ll be more than that for the people who watch it. I hope it will help get people involved in trying to solve the problems of piracy. I hope it will give people ashore some idea of the things that are still going on out there in our world.

Young Adults and Obamacare

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Young Adults and Obamacare | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Another good article from Laissez-Faire. This one is another attempt to explain Obamacare. A simple explanation of insurance and markets and how Obamacare is not really either.

Personally, I think Obamacare is a purposeful attempt to screw up our health care system SO bad that everyone will soon be clamoring for a ‘single-payer’ system. Government health care in other words.

So, instead of paying attention to what really caused our system to become so totally screwed up, we just keep on proposing more of the same things that started the problem in the first place. We now have the most expensive and frustrating system on the planet. It didn’t used to be that way. We USED to have the best! It changed because of government interference in the market.

THAT is the ONLY reason our health care is so expensive, why people here fear losing everything if they get sick and don’t have insurance. Open your eyes to the true cause of the problem. Maybe then you will be able to see that Obamacare will NOT be any kind of solution. Neither will a complete government takeover!

Yeah, there are some places on the planet where government health care does (seem to) work. Costa Rica comes to mind. I haven’t been there, but from all I hear, it sounds like its a great system. Not so much the ones I hear more about: UK, Canada, even Sweden. They have serious problems with their systems too. So for getting taxed out the a$$, are they REALLY getting what they’ve paid for? Looks like that’s a no.

In case you didn’t know, Costa Rica does not have any army. We spend I don’t know how many BILLIONS on our military. So, that alone should tell you that we can NOT have anything like Costa Ricas health care system. 

Somebody has got to pay the piper at some point. We can NOT just keep on printing more dollars and hope to be able to buy whatever we feel like it. Sooner or later the bills are not going to be able to be put off any more!

If you’re REALLY interested in solving the problems in our health care system, then you had better start paying attention to history and the REAL cause and effects going on. Obamacare is a disaster waiting to happen. I’m sorry the Republicans caved, but I had no doubt that they would. Why did they sign the damn bill in the first place? Cause they’re all STATISTS, just as bad as the Democrats!

We need to get back to the LIMITED government this country was founded on! Government should NOT be interfering in ANY market and most certainly NOT interfering with something as important as health care! They do NOT have that power! In case you don’t know it, our Supreme Court has been wrong MANY times in the past and their decision on Obamacare is just one more instance of their ignorance of the true purpose of OUR government (to PROTECT our rights!).

I only wonder at this point how long it will take them to throw me in jail, since I won’t be signing up for Obamacare and I will be doing my best to keep my bank accounts empty and not getting any tax refunds so they can’t STEAL my money to pay for the ridiculously expensive ‘insurance’! I’ll probably get better health care in prison then I would under Obamacare. 🙁

Too bad I’ll be costing them 50 grand or so instead of them being able to STEAL that amount out of my pay. That’s what comes from FORCING people to do things they don’t want to do, have no good reason to do, and they’re principled enough to stand up for what’s RIGHT!

Actually, I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that. If I can manage to escape to another country, I won’t be forced to submit to this scam! I’m doing all I can to get out, I just wish I could somehow move faster!! 🙁

Our World Through Thomas Paine’s Eyes

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Our World Through Thomas Paine’s Eyes | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Excellent article by Jeffrey Tucker! I guess I’ll have to re-read Common Sense again. I liked it the first time I read it. I liked it more the next time. I’m sure my attitude toward it hasn’t changed, since my love of individual liberty is stronger than ever!

I wonder what will it take for us Americans to stand up and take back our liberty again. We did it once back then when Thomas Paine’s essay managed to stir up the people. Do we have anyone now who could do that job? I know people are trying, the internet is a big help- but most people still aren’t interested in paying attention.

We are in a much worse off position then the colonists were then. Back then, they were fighting the most powerful empire in the world. So would we be. But they were a heck of a lot more evenly matched! The King didn’t have any drones, or NSA spy programs to watch your every move, or even nuclear weapons to threaten with…

Our only real advantage now is the fact that our IDEAS are the better ones. How many people can honestly support tyranny over freedom?

How has tyranny ever lifted the standard of living in a nation? Compared to systems with some freedom allowed? How has tyranny encouraged creativity? Compared to freedom?

Even with the limited freedom we started with here (re:slavery, women, etc), we STILL became the most productive country with the best standard of living on the planet.It’s only as we threw that freedom out the window that we started going downhill.

Get the truth out there to people and they will no longer support “our” government. It HAS in fact become a tyranny.

“Tyranny- arbitrary or unrestrained use of power- oppressive or unjustly severe government.”

 

As the founding fathers fought the American Revolution against King George for such trivial things like a tiny tax on a few items like tea, WE have a much larger tax on EVERYTHING. As they fought against no taxation without representation, WE have no representation either (or do you REALLY think your congressman does what YOU ask them to?).

As they fought against their treatment by the Kings soldiers, we put up with daily harassment by the TSA strip searchers, DEA and police theft/destruction of your property and  NSA collecting EVERYTHING you do or say! How much worse is that then the Kings men occasionally looking through your (snail) mail? And yet no one today protests. 🙁

The government right now is in a ‘shut down’ which did not in fact shut down any of the things they use to oppress us (oh my wishful thinking that they would shut all that down!!). Things like the NSA, DEA, DHS, TSA, IRS are all still open for business (and NO, we do NOT need ANY of them!). They have only shut down the things that people actually ENJOY the use of from the government. Things like the National Parks and the WWII Monument.

They are ‘shut down’ in a fight over the budget and Obamacare. Obamacare is only one more HUGE violation of our rights and the budget is already TRILLIONS of dollars over what it should be! I just keep wondering: what in the HELL is it going to take for the main part of the American people to stand up and say ‘enough is enough’?

Einstein on Education

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I’m sure not going to say I’m anywhere near as intelligent as Einstein (duh!), but these quotes of his at least let me know I’m not as stupid (or crazy) as a lot of people think I am. I would much rather know Einstein agrees with me than a few yahoos on Facebook! 😉

I think everybody on this earth is in general equivalent. NOT equal, but equivalent. There is a difference! We all have brains in our heads and our capacity to reason is what makes us special (or at least a large part of it). We all have things we’re good at, things we’re not so good at, things we suck at. No one is perfect. We all have to work together to make a well functioning society. Each of us has our part to play.

One of the things I really like about shipboard life is that it’s very clear there that we’re ALL there for a good reason. We’re ALL necessary for the proper functioning of that vessel. The lowest man is just as important in the scheme of things as the master.

I think that general attitude should be more prevalent in general society. We’re all born with the same rights. We’re all equal under the law (except congress it seems- who can’t understand that they are ILLEGALLY exempting themselves from the ‘laws’ they create for the rest of us).

Our educational system has been going downhill for decades. Have you ever seen that test that’s been going around online? I think it was a grade school graduation test. I’m running out of time this morning, but I’ll try and find it and post it here tomorrow so everyone can check it out. I’ve got 2 college degrees and I would have a hell of a hard time passing it!

If you look at the history of our educational system, you’ll find that we were doing just fine up til the 1960’s or so. It took that long for the ‘public’ educational system we borrowed from the Germans to really take hold and ruin OUR system. It was based on training people to work in an industrial society.

Schools became little more than babysitters where kids were told to sit down, shut up and DON’T question authority! Back in the old days (before ‘public’ schools), everyone who wanted an education could get one. We had TRUE public schools then, founded and controlled by the COMMUNITY. Back then, people were taught to THINK for themselves!

Most people did fine without a college education. Most people TODAY would probably do fine without one (IF they could get a decent grade school and high school education).

I really hate to see so many young people get themselves into such humongous debt loads, especially when they’re just starting out in life. It’ll take them years to pay off their college loans. For what? How many people go to college now and don’t get a job in their field of study? I’m one. I’ve never seen a job in any way relating to my degree (math) since I graduated in 2001.

Our schools no longer teach people to think. They haven’t for a LONG time. Maybe we should take a long hard look at our educational system and see if we REALLY want to keep on training our kids to settle for being a ‘cog in the machine’, to fit into the corporate culture? Or do we want them to be able to develop to their full potential?

Why We Test for Drugs & Alcohol

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Why We Test for Drugs & Alcohol.

This is the first study I’ve ever seen on IF these tests do ANYTHING. I think some of the premises are false. Such as: using the post accident rates to determine if any drugs or alcohol were involved in the accident.

Just like in the Exxon Valdez incident, these figures can be totally misleading. As found after that investigation, Captain Hazelwood had NOTHING to do with that accident, so even if he WAS totally wasted, the accident had NOTHING to do with it,( if he was or if he wasn’t drinking). The fact that he had a couple of drinks simply allowed Exxon to use him as a scapegoat and get away with the FACT that it was THEIR policies which REALLY caused that accident.

I REALLY hate the fact that we use the excuse that someone, somewhere might be doing (some) drugs, to strip away the rights of millions of innocent people. There is NO authority in the constitution for either the outlawing of (some) drugs OR any sort of random drug testing to be forced on us by the federal government!

Is it worth stripping the 4th amendment, the 5th amendment from the constitution to allow these tests? Is it worth forgetting about the 9th and 10th amendments to even allow the federal government to have ANY say-so about what we choose to put into OUR bodies?? I say NO, I say HELL NO!!!

It is NEVER worth it to give up our rights! Not for ANY reason. And the fact that they haven’t even tried to show any kind of proof that their stupid rules do ANY good at all up until this just shows that they could give a flying f*&k!

Why in the heck are they even in charge of licensing us in the first place? Who the hell gave the federal government the authority to tell me if I can go to work, who I can work for, what hoops I have to jump through in order to apply for a job??? I sure as hell can’t find anything about that in the constitution. It’s NOT there. So, in fact, every single licensing law is unconstitutional and void!

Lets get the companies and the sailors together on this and eliminate the government out of the mix! Now would be a great time since they are ‘shut down” (yeah, riiiight- I only wish they really were)!

Lets come up with a scheme that would actually be sensible and affordable to the people actually involved (instead of a bunch of clueless bureaucrats). Maybe we could stop all our ships from moving overseas and get some jobs back for American sailors if we did that.

Too bad now we have to deal with the IMO. Maybe ALL the sailors around the world should get together on this. I’m sure they realize there is no one in any governmental position anywhere worldwide that is actually on THEIR side. Its always all about the money and we (sailors) don’t have any. ;-(