Freedom in the Stars

Starship looked good slicing through plasma in the atmosphere, yesterday. That's the smoothest reentry we've seen thus far.  Soon, we'll be exporting ourselves to other worlds.

It's amazing what one very driven person can accomplish when they surround themselves with motivated people.  The American Dream made manifest in 18 million lbs of thrust and multicolor plasma.  Let's hope we can maintain that opportunity for individual accomplishment in the future, in spite of our increasingly authoritarian governments.

Merry Christmas to All

 ...and to all, a goodnight!

Likker of Life

Pot liquor from black eyed peas is one of the pleasures of life.  It's one of the many reasons life is good.  Honestly, it's drinkable.

Memories of cornbread, white bread and anything worthy of sopping span a lifetime of days in goodness spent.  Woe to those with lives  lacking in pea juice.  Gotta go, now, and finish eating.

That's Gratitude

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving, yesterday, with kin and/or kith... and good food.  No matter what the situation, being thankful for what you have is a good thing.

Launch and Land

Blue Origin successfully launched and recovered an orbital launch booster, today.  This means there now two private companies capable of this feat.  Amazing.

Change? No, Change.

I've been to Aldi three (3) times in my life, now, and I'm still not impressed.  Never bought anything during any visit.  Prices seemed good, though... at least what I priced.  I thought about buying a few things, but the carts were locked, and I didn't have a quarter.  

Also noticed there were no bags.  Until Winn-Dixie closed, recently, there was a bagger who'd take your food out and help you load the bags in your vehicle.  Tipping them well meant they'd remember you next time and be even faster.  Now, we've no bags, and have to pay for the privilege of the using the buggy to carry it all out for yourself.

Good thing Wally World delivers groceries....

I drove to Cahaba, this morning, for the first time in a couple of years.  The first place I went, as usual, was the old family land.  It was 5 acres on the Cahaba river just before the river empties into the Alabama.  My parents always talked about building a river house, there.  Instead, they sold it to some conservation group decades ago.  It's all grown up and completely useless, now.

They've put up a bunch of historical markers that look like they'll probably last just about long enough for people to say, "Remember when they put up all those cheap markers?"  What was most noticeable were the gates, chains and warning signs everywhere.  I'm glad there's still something going on there, anyway, though.  They found a couple of cemeteries I don't remember from the last time I was over that way.  Maybe little family plots.  Come to think of it, the whole place kind of looks like a cemetery, now.

Free Indeed

There's been a significant increase in traffic to this blog, lately.  Like, 100x more traffic.  Since I haven't really been posting, that makes it seem a little odd.

The world has been busy since my last post.  Even more so since the last post regarding any topic relating to current events.  Thankfully, there are friends and cohorts to bombard with thoughts and opinions on those events.  As a result, there's really been no need to post about it.

Somewhere around the turn of the millenia, the veil of politics started to lose opacity, and the Liberty movement grabbed hold.  Both of the political parties currently in power in America were clearly corrupt and against the average American.  They simply viewed us as "feeders" to fill their corrupt coffers.  The Liberty movement offered an alternative.

Still, I voted for Bush in 2000.  I was too afraid of a nut like Al Gore, who claimed credit for the internet, and had some scheme to convince simple-minded people that the world would end if we didn't start paying them more taxes.  How taxes made the 'bad' in the environment go away was never clear, but, still, many easily persuaded people fell for it.  I was too terrified of that to flesh out the alternative.

After 9-11, it became clear mistakes had been made.  Laws were passed to steal the liberty and wealth of the nation.  It couldn't have been more damaging to American freedom if had been done by design.

Michael Badnarik was the first candidate outside of the two current parties in power to motivate me.  His lectures on individual liberty and the Constitution were eye-opening.  The internet opened up the world to the ideals of liberty in his campaign.

That was 2004.  Four years later, Ron Paul showed that others were waking up, as well.  Even though he was a Republican, he'd inspired many who saw the two parties in power as the corrupt, exclusive club of elites who saw us as tax slaves to recognize the importance of Liberty.

The first campaign was successful in planting the seeds of a political awakening.  Young people began showing up to rallies in large numbers.  They started political organizations, some of which would inspire others to do the same.

Four years after that, in 2012, the second campaign proved that the two parties would never allow the system to openly return to Liberty.  Some settled on trying to help another party.  Some lost hope and resigned themselves to try to survive the Republicans and Democrats completely destroying freedom and liberty.

Others did not.  Realizing Dr. Paul's steps to work directly inside the system could be thwarted, they reasoned it was more likely to work from the outside.  They'd influence politicians, taking two wins for liberty in exchange for an L.  Then, they'd take that L, and make it one of the two Ws in the next round.

Sadly, the system finally caught on.  Some losses are worth 100x more wins.  Now is the moment for exponential growth for the cause of Liberty.  We'll fight on.  FREEDOM is worth it.