When people talk about industries sowing doubt to avoid being scrutinized or regulated, people often say that those industries are using the tactics of big tobacco. It happens a lot with businesses the pollute and deplete a lot. I think they’re mostly relying on the book Merchants of Doubt, which wrote about how the tobacco industry created uncertainty and other tactics, not to defend themselves so much as to deflect[…] Keep reading →

This nation’s government says it’s just only if based on the consent of the governed. Consider Cancer Alley. Nobody consents to being given cancer. Nobody consents to being born with a birth defect. Yet Cancer Alley and other sacrifice zones are growing. I don’t deny that people can benefit from perks that come from activities that pollute and deplete, but as long as they pollute and deplete, they violate what[…] Keep reading →

I found a podcast episode from the Cato Institute, where I spoke last year and met some wonderful people: How Does Libertarianism Deal with the Problem of Pollution?. I’m posting quotes from them mainly for future reference. Sorry if the post isn’t my most readable, but my main response: Lack of hands-on practical experience leads them to opposed their own values. They think no pollution means the end of civilization,[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been learning more about America’s founders who opposed slavery, their personal actions on slavery, and their resulting views. Lately I’ve been learning more about James Madison so saved some comments on him by a biographer, Drew McCoy. I haven’t finished a full biography of him, so I’m just starting learning about him in more depth, but I’m coming to see his views on slavery versus liberty, freedom, equality, and[…] Keep reading →

Context: The United States has a region called Cancer Alley. Flint, Michigan is known nationwide, maybe globally, as a place where water is poisoned. We’re “solving” that problem with bottled water, which poisons others, so it’s more like kicking the can down the road. Actually, by accelerating a cultural distrust in municipal water, it accelerates bottling, so it’s more like accelerating a snowball or avalanche. Nobody consents to cancer, birth[…] Keep reading →

When I started doing Turkish Get Ups, I struggled with a 25-pound kettle bell. Over the years, I worked up to where I comfortably do them with a 28-kilogram one, which is 61.6 pounds. My next heavier kettle bell is 70 pounds, which is a big jump. I wondered if I would ever be able to do it. I dented my floor when I lost control of a kettle bell[…] Keep reading →

This restaurant is called American Bar although, with the government permitting this violation of its role to protect people’s life, liberty, and property, it’s violating the original intent of America’s founders. How? See how the sliding doors are wide open? Also, see the vents on the white wall facing the wide open window? Those vents are blasting air conditioning into the outdoors. Why should anyone care if they pollute and[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written before about my functional new word Enlightendigenous. In that post I shared what I learned about the evidence for the philosophy and practice of indigenous people in North America influencing and inspiring Europeans into what became called the Enlightenment. Europe at the time had little to no democracy or social mobility. Your status at birth—that is, the status of your parents—determined your place and role for life with[…] Keep reading →

Sanitation systems across the nation are on strike. It started in Boston: and expanded to the west coast in solidarity: Since people who are conservative and libertarian often don’t like strikes, which they may see as socialist, communist, or moving in that direction, Today I want to clarify for them: Sanitation systems are socialist and motivate waste, violate Enlightenment thinking and practice, and violate the original intent of the Constitution.[…] Keep reading →