I’m going to say something. It will only take a moment. And my time is at least as valuable if not more so than the state’s, the court’s, or that of the officers’.

You see, I understand something very important.

I understand that the state’s only power is violence. That power comes from its claim to a geographic monopoly on violence. That is what a state is. A group of men who lay claim to a monopoly on violence. All actions which compel a person to do other than he wishes in the use of his property, his body and his time in the peaceful and honest exchange of goods, services, information and affection, are acts of violence. Consequently, there is no action that a state needs to take, and therefore no action a state can possibly to take, by the application of law, that is not an act of…

(NOTE: I have turned this blog into my diary and place to emotionally vent. I use my other blogs for serious work. This post is both emotional, and serious, but it doesn’t fit anywhere else, so it goes to SN.)

On Hannibal Lechter, Psychology, Role Models And Wisdom

At lunch today, Amanda smiles at me over her salad and and thanks me for the conversation we had last night. It was largely psychological, and another example of the fact that if you can get somone to trust you, then you can give advice that they would otherwise reject. In most cases, you can dramatically change a person’s mind about his or her life, if you get the timing right.

Usually I can figure out pretty quickly what will ‘fix’ a person’s thinking. But getting the opportunity to give that advice requires that you demonstrate pretty uncondtional love for a pretty long time.…

I had a conversation with a woman over dinner. She doesn’t like discussing politics. In the end her personal philosophy is to focus on her own life and leave others to theirs. She finally asked me “why are you involving yourself in the stuff of others”.

I thought a bit.

I asked her “You parent your children, don’t you? Why? You don’t have to.”

She said “Because I have to.”

I said “You mean because of the consequences if you don’t.”

She thought about it then agreed. I could sense that she wanted to talk about some sort of social responsibility but quickly understood that it would have been a futile argument. So she said “Yes”, with some emotional reservations.

I said “I parent humanity, or at least, my civilization. I don’t have to. But I do because of the consequences if I don’t.”

And that’s the answer.

I am not a victim of judeo-christian submissiveness. I…

Huntington is often quoted: ‘The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.’

(Listen to podcast audio of this posting.)

 

 On Huntington And Western Violence: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

And while that’s true, I’m not sure it doesn’t have a dual meaning, or even a meaning opposite from what he intended: the west also spread technology, institutions, and prosperity and the greatest revolution in standard of living since the invention of farming. And the institutions, at least the cooperative institutions for calculation and property, if nothing else, are now adopted nearly universally, even if the remaining values are not.

By contrast, the monotheistic mystical religions, at least, as it appears, spread poverty, suffering and ignorance peacefully, without mastering violence at all. It appears that pacifist social orders just an avenue to deterministic failure.

Despite the fact that we…

Spengler wrote (paraphrased) “white man will export his technology to the ‘colored races’ that will use it against him.” This has somewhat been true in Asia. We haven’t seen it in Latin America, Africa or Islamic civilization.

This was the only discord that kept bothering me while reading the book. I agreed with Friedman. But it seems such a rationalist position to take. It is very white and very asian. In the sense that it approaches the world very politically. Organized as if by people who are educated, historical and politically empowered.

Civilizations do not fall from without. They rot from within, and then are conquered. The easiest way to conquer a people is by immigration or assimilation, depending upon your viewpoint as the occupier or the immigrant.

Civilizations hold onto their vitality, their ability to expand, by shared ethos, myths and cooperative economic need. There is very little evicdence that…

Poost Baug Sokranit Tsar! (”May God Save The King!”)
Poost Baug Spasti Korolya!

Under the last czars, Russia had political parties, unions, social services, a rapidly expanding economy approaching western standards, and predictable laws. She had pulled herself out of the despotism of the ancient nobles, and built a western kingdom. Russia became strong and near greatness.

Europe, and America, indeed all of western civilization, needs a strong and determined Russia.

With the suicide of Europe, and the fall of Germany, and her failure to take on the mantle of western civilization, the egalitarian fantasies of the Aglo branch of the European family, have left a hole that only Russia can fill.

So please, Russia, build tanks, armies, navies, and missiles. Be intolerant of your borders. Be intolerant of religion. Be intolerant. Tolerance is surrender.

But most importantly. Restore the Czar. You have done so in practice. Now do so in form.

Make Putin Czar. Bring back…

It’s hard to be masculine. Rather, it’s hard to be ‘macho’.

I have this big log house. It’s on a river. It’s decorated in nice warm masculine colors. I have nice cars, and a macho pickup truck.

This year we had a snow storm. We don’t get them often: 2006, 2003, 1996. This kind of thing is pretty commonplace elsewhere in most of America at our latitude. But not here. If we get a storm in Seattle it’s between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It usually includes wind (we call them windstorms but they have hurricane force winds) and either rain or snow. Because the northwest is blanketed with trees (west of the mountains at least) and those trees are next to lots of power lines, power outages are sometimes a lengthy problem. We have no snow removal equipment, so the roads are awful until the snow melts. Usually it takes a couple of…