Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Today is the first day of Winter—which explains why it is so cold outside around here. Probably around where you are too. And Christmas is coming up. So let me wish you and yours a Very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year too, since we usually take the week between the two off here in Libertarian Enterprise Land.

 

 

Well, y'all, I don't know what is is, but our local country/rural internet is getting slower and slower and SLOWER all the time. Soon it will take all day to fetch email or something. There are a couple of outfits providing fast wireless access, but for $$$, and satelite access also for $$$. DSL is fast closer to town, but while we are inside town limits, we are just on the east boundry of town and our little copper wires are too far from the phone company for much speed. Dang it.

 

Various interesting, informative, funny, outrageous, or just plain silly-scary articles:

Plant Compounds Used to Successfully Treat Alzheimer’s in Mice Now Shown to Prevent Other Effects of Aging
by Good News Network

There are two drugs that have been developed by Salk Institute researchers to successfully treat Alzheimer’s in mice—and now, they have found that the very same drug compounds can also slow the aging process in the brains of healthy older mice.

[Read More]

 

A Former NASA Astronaut is Building a Plasma-Powered Mars Rocket
by Dan Robitzsk

Space agencies are locked in a hotly-contested race to send a crew to Mars, with NASA and SpaceX both working on vehicles to reach the Red Planet.

But it may be a third group, Ad Astra — no relation to the Brad Pitt movie — that pulls ahead, thanks to the plasma rocket technology it’s working on, according to CBC. If it pans out, the plasma engine would enable a larger crew to reach Mars in a third of the time it would take a conventional rocket, utterly changing the landscape of space travel.

[Read More]

 

And a former director of the FBI says Criticizing the FBI threatens the rule of law. Uh … whot? So, this is just like critizing the Soviet or Chinese government then? Not allowed? What? see [Read More]

 

From the good ol' Foundation for Economic Education we find:

 

What Rand Meant by Altruism
by Gary M. Galles

In modern America, February 2 is best known as Groundhog Day. But it also marks the birth of one of the most praised and criticized thinkers of the past century – Ayn Rand.

Rand sold more than 30 million books. Atlas Shrugged has been ranked behind only the Bible as an influence on readers’ lives. She has also been stridently attacked for issues such as her militant atheism. But perhaps least understood has been her full-bore rejection of altruism. On her birthday, it is worth reconsideration.

Modern usage has eroded the meaning of altruism from Rand's hated concept to a mere synonym for generosity.Altruism has commonly been held up as the standard for moral behavior. But Rand rejected it, asserting it was “incompatible with freedom, with capitalism, and with individual rights,” and therefore “the basic evil behind today’s ugliest phenomena.”

[Read More]

 

One of the most difficult things about talking to people about ethics (morality), is "you keep using those words, I don't think those words mean what you think they mean". Yet if you try to carefully define those words, people call you tedious and stop paying attention. Some people. Have shit. For brains. No joke.

 

Woo Hoo! Some good news for a change:

‘The Far Side’ Is Returning… But Can the PC Crowd Handle It?
by Annie Holmquist

[Read More]

The URL for the new Far Side website is https://www.thefarside.com/

 

Wikipedia Blacklists Epoch Times, Gateway Pundit for Russiagate Criticism
by T.D. Adler

China critics the Epoch Times and conservative outlet the Gateway Pundit have been banned from use as reliable sources on Wikipedia in the latest cases of news outlets that support President Trump being banned from the online encyclopedia. The Epoch Times ban proposal cited NBC’s hit piece on the site over its coverage of improprieties in the Russia investigation, commonly called Spygate, which prompted smear efforts against the outlet on Wikipedia. Gateway Pundit was proposed for a ban shortly after Epoch Times.

The Epoch Times Wikipedia ban proposal was apparently prompted by one of its articles being cited on the Wikipedia page for Joseph Mifsud, a key controversial figure in the origins of the discredited Russia investigation. Gateway Pundit’s ban was in response to the outlet being cited for past media silence over Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election

Over the past year, Wikipedia editors have been on a banning spree targeting conservative news sources. Having previously banned the Daily Mail as a source, the following year marked the beginning of an acceleration of the process. Since then, editors have imposed similar bans on fifteen other sites aside from Epoch Times and Gateway Pundit. While some data-focused sites and state-owned outlets in Venezuela and Iran have also been banned, the bulk of the sites banned have been conservative-leaning news outlets. Breitbart News was blacklisted as a “reliable source” on Wikipedia in 2018.

[Read More]

 

Don’t use that fascist Wikepeder thing, go use Infogalatic instead. Don’t use that stupid Trwidder thing, go use GAB instead. (Assuming you bother with “Social Media”). Why support people who want to enslave you? Seriously!

 

Space Force Will Start Small But Let Trump Claim a Big Win
by Associated Press

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Friday celebrated the launch of Space Force, the first new military service in more than 70 years.

In signing the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that includes Space Force, Trump claimed a victory for one of his top national security priorities just two days after being impeached by the House.

It is part of a $1.4 trillion government spending package — including the Pentagon’s budget — that provides a steady stream of financing for Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border fence and reverses unpopular and unworkable automatic spending cuts to defense and domestic programs.

[Read More]

 

The Politicization Of Veganism
by Duggan Flanakin

The average American ate some 220 pounds of red meat and poultry in 2018, according to the US Department of Agriculture, surpassing a record set in 2004.

But some politicians have joined anti-meat and climate change activists in a massive effort to restructure the American diet – and to ensure … and mandate … that the rest of the world will be stuck with a mostly plant-based diet.

Last March, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio shocked America’s meat producers by announcing the expansion of “meatless Mondays” to all New York City public schools.

The reason? “To keep our lunch and planet green for generations to come.” So now they claim eating meat also threatens the planet.

[Read More]

 

They want to make us stop eating meat. Can you say “Fuck you you fucking fucks!” boys and girls? I knew you could!

Stay deplorable, my friends!