Category: Do the Right Thing

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Why I Am Grateful That I Do Not Have Any “Constitutional Rights”

(A different kind of Thanksgiving post)

“Constitutional rights” implies that rights emanate from the government. They do not. No form of government anywhere, at any time, can or could grant rights. We have natural, inherent rights that the Constitution supposedly obligates the federal government to protect. As the seminal document of our country explicitly and correctly states,

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. . . ” Government’s only legitimate excuse for existence is to protect those rights. When it does not, it delegitimizes itself.

I believe this is an important distinction, one that should never be compromised or blurred in any way. So-called “rights” granted by a government are nothing but licenses and can be revoked. As Jefferson further said of but one inherent right, so all:

“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time. The hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them.”

The “hand of force” is ONLY ever legitimately deployed in defense of inherent rights, never in attacking them, for attacking inherent rights = attacking the very lives of those to whom they belong. BTW, this is key in understanding the libertarian–lowercase “l”–non-aggression principle: initiating violence against another is wrong. Responding with violence to someone (or some organization) that is violating one’s rights or the rights of another is not wrong; it is just.

So, given the tendency of governments everywhere toward anarcho-tyrrany, or just outright tyranny, I am grateful that it is God and not governments Who grants us our rights.

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Password Management

Is It Worth Paying for a Password Manager?

Maybe. Read what Dave Hatter has to say about it.

I have used Lastpass for quite some time, now, although I also keep an encrypted backup of my passwords (regularly updated with changes, as needed, including the password to my Lastpass account) on a flash drive stored in my safe. The pass phrase for THAT is derived from a 17th Century French art song (so, easy for me to recall), but is, of course, obfuscated/changed from the original lyrics. A separate encrypted file contains just that password, with no reference detailing what it is for, embedded in another text file and available to one person who owns that device but does not have access to the safe w/o a trusted third party.

If I am gone or merely “vegetized,” someone will be able to access my data, close out accounts, etc.

And no, that doesn’t make my data secure, just slightly less accessible.

N.B. You might want to also consider encrypting all your removable devices (flash drives, USB-attached drives, NASes, SIMMs in phones, etc.). Sure, it can be a very small hassle entering pass phrases and decrypting/re-encrypting drives, etc., whenever new sessions are initiated, but do you really want all your data to be “in the clear”? Heck, consider something like Proton email and encouraging family and friends to do likewise so all your email is also encrypted and thus LESS accessible to others. Privacy is your right, but YOU need to at least attempt to enforce it. Assess what you want to keep to yourself and take appropriate steps.

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Proposal for a Sane Society

Code duello: we need to bring it back. The trick would be to ensure one is the challenged party, in order to be able to specify the weapons used. There is a range of weapons I would not mind being able to specify, including pillows on one end of the range. “Death by pillow fight” would be a great thing to have put in a deserving fellow’s obituary.

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Car Tips Edition

Helpful Hints from Hairy Helpful

  • Handy-Dandy lil Tip: Eschew “power” windows and always have a sharp knife clipped in a handy place and those specialty “automobile escape tools” become redundant, completely unneeded.
  • Power Tip: Don’t trap yourself in a car wreck to begin with. Drive smart and keep your head on a swivel. 😉
  • Pro Tip: Don’t trust cops. There are easily at least as many corrupt cops are there are a$$h*les in the general population. Have TWO (minimum) car cams and use them. (You have–at the very least–a first amendment right to record cops in the performance of their duty. You may not have had  your due process rights infringed on in your location, so you may be able to legally record them at other times, as well.)
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“Why doest thou plague me so?”

I have thought about just why such things as comma splices committed by writers who expect to be paid for their writing irk me so. It all comes down to their sheer laziness and lack of respect for their readers. They appear to be either too lazy to either use a semi-colon or a conjunction (or, in many cases the better option, a simple period followed by a new sentence), or they are and have been too lazy to learn rather simple standards of orthography. Either way, it shows a lack of respect for any reader with at least a fifth grade reading level. *shrugs* Is it too much to expect someone who wants to be paid for his work to take the trouble to do it right?

And yeh, this holds for the lazy, disrespectful habits of some wannabe writers (and, admittedly, some well-established writers *sigh*) who have never bothered to become literate enough to know they are misusing words/terms, committing asinine grammar errors, irredeemably stupid failures to do their research on facts (or the math on their “research” or whatever), and all sorts of other completely unnecessary stupidities that distract from whatever they are attempting to convey, whether that is a research paper, a “news” story, an opinion piece, or a novel. If they want to be paid for their work, they should actually do the work.

Sterling #gagamaggot example from. . . just now: a writer with a character whose first person narrative presents him as exceptionally literate, former English teacher, Deep Thinker, always spouting “erudite” quotations, etc. CONSTANTLY committing egregious grammar errors, misusing words, and more. Kills suspension of disbelief.

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I’m With Michael Z.

On the passing scene. . . (the riots, looting, arson, assault, and murder that have gone unchecked by police). Cops who are essentially invoking “The Nuremberg Defense” (“I am just following orders”) and violating their oaths to uphold the law, also pleading safety, whether of their persons or their paychecks disgust me. Seriously. Michael Z. Williamson’s view on cops whose first priority is “going home safe at the end of my shift” applies, IMO:

I don’t want to hear some drunk and confused guy squirming on the ground playing “Simon Says” terrified you so much you had to blow him away. I don’t want to hear that some random guy 35 yards away who you had no actual information on “may have reached toward his waist band. Or that “the tree might fall any moment” or that “the smoke makes it hard to see.”

Near as I can tell, I don’t hear the smokejumpers, or the firefighters, or the disaster rescue people say such things.

But it’s all I ever hear from the cops. If you and your five girlfriends in body armor, with rifles, are that terrified of actually risking your life for the theoretically dangerous job you volunteered for and can quit any time, then please do quit.

You can get a job doing pest control and go home safe every night.

Until a bunch of fucking pussies with big tattoos, small dicks, body armor and guns blow you away for minding your own business.

Because what you’re telling me with that statement is, your only concern is cashing a check. That’s fine. But if that’s your concern, don’t pretend you’re serving the public. If you wanted to help people at risk of life, you would be a firefighter, running into buildings, dragging people out, getting scorched regularly.

If you’re cool with writing tickets, then there’s jobs where you can do just that.

If you want to tangle with bad guys and blow them away, fair enough. But understand: That means they get to shoot first to prove their intent, just as happens with the military these days. Our ROE these days are usually “only if fired upon and no civilians are at risk.”

That about sums it up: sign up o be a “public servant” designating yourself as a “law ENFORCEMENT officer,” then taking a paycheck to sit back and do nothing while watching rioters loot, burn, and kill, no matter WHAT the lame excuse is? Well, bugger on off boyos. You are more useless than “sammich fixins” at a feminazi rally. More at the link.

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Thanks for the Heads Up

Among other mind-boggling abortions of English literacy in a recently-read screed (including apostrophe abuses/neglects, comma splices, inexplicable “grammar” and syntax, & etc.) was this laughable phrase: “vest interest” (instead of “vested interest”) –attached to a comment that also had no basis in fact, of course.

I appreciated the writer going to such great lengths to let me know his opinion was worthless, so that I could forever after avoid his stupidity. Very helpful.