"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority ... the Constitution was made to guard against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters." - Noah Webster


"There is no worse tyranny than forcing a man to pay for what he does not want just because you think it would be good for him."
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Friday, May 10, 2013

I'm coming back.  It may take a while to get back to feeling normal and posting as though I haven't been abused. But I'm coming back.

I walk the streets of Savannah and I take in the history and the scenery.  Yesterday, I stopped to talk to three young men from China.  Exchange students at SCAD  (Savannah College of Art and Design).  Wow.  What an experience.  In their amazingly good English, for those born in China, aged 21 to 24. 

They have been led to believe that they are getting more freedom in China.  But as we talked, and as I asked them about the things they were seeing all around them, did they still think they had real freedom in China?  They laughed.  They looked around nervously.  I asked about freedom of speech.  More of the same.  Then I talked about how I could speak blatantly that the asshole who currently resides in the big white mansion is a genuine communist and I was a bit more colorful with my language.

At that moment a man in a crisp white shirt and tie was walking through the park with a coffee from Starbucks and heard what I was saying.  He gave me a thumbs up and a "You got that right!" and kept walking.  The young men laughed. 

"You don't have that kind of freedom in China, do you?"

"Not at all."

All of this felt good.  We talked for about an hour.  I talked about real free enterprise and how the media had distorted what capitalism is.  They understood me.  I'm sure there was much more they wanted to say and to ask.  But a family of Chinese looking people walked into the park from the far end and everything suddenly got very awkward.  The looks of fear were pretty amazing and I just knew that it was time to walk away.  Don't know if there was anything to that or not.  Paranoia?  Who knows.  But I could see in the eyes of my new found friends that they were not about to risk finding out if they were doing something frowned upon.

I hope to get back to blogging and uploading pictures again.  I have a feeling that things are going to keep getting a lot more interesting.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

I am in Savannah, GA

Never thought I'd be here.

It's been a strange trip getting here.

I love the song by Kenny Chesney:  Pirate Flag and an Island Girl.

I will get back to blogging in the next few weeks, I hope.  I have been rode hard and beaten hard and put out to pasture with the expectation of dying.  But that's the way the world sees me.

There is so much to say, and I'm exhausted.  Today is May 8, 2013, but I intend to keep coming back here and posting or re-editing this post until I get out what I need to get out.

Get something firmly fixed in your mind.

At any point, people can turn on you and seriously screw your life up beyond all recognition.  Yeah.   You. 

Think it can't happen? 

Think you are a fine, law-abiding, upstanding citizen?

Got nothing to hide?

Do you know anybody who is on psychotropic drugs?  Has feelings of persecution or mildly bipolar, or thinks they have various diseases that nobody understands?

Run now.  Take the nearest exit.