Posted 1:46 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Chris Basten, the new star of
Back in September, I recruited Chris to start contributing to "No Force". Since then I've posted 21 articles he's written. On Friday, his "Why do we need a President?" was picked up by 3 libertarian websites. Because it was still on No Force Saturday and Sunday, it got readership over the weekend as well... close to 1,000 readers on those 3 days, and happened to take our total readership past the 50,000 level. We now have 50+ articles with over 1,000 readers, and Chris has 3 of the top ten.

Posted 8:22 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

SIXTY-FIVE?
In case you missed the notice on the home page, today is my 65th birthday. Sixty-five is sort of the official age of "old", isn't it? It'll qualify you for all the Senior menus in restaurants... the smaller "just-can't-digest-much-anymore" portions... or are they smaller to save us money?

I really thought that 64 was a neat age (damned sure better than 65), because it was 2 to the 6th power. The previous power of 2 age was 32 (not that I can remember that), and the next one would be 128 (heaven forbid).

Every couple of years I get a cold. Each time it lasts longer. My current one is from Xmas. I wonder at what age it will become a continual cold, lasting from one Xmas to the next? Colds now usually result in loss of my voice, which some people view as an advantage... to them, not to me.

Aging is a peculiar, often funny, process. Memory changes... short-term memory weakens, long-term memory seems to actually get better. That's interesting, but hardly useful, because the older you get, the less those around you care about what's in your long-term memory. Playing outdated versions of Trivial Pursuit is fun, but everyone else wants questions from the past 20 years or so.

Bellyaching is another popular geezer activity. :)

Posted 6:59 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

A day for records
Yesterday, the minimum number of Iraqi civilians "liberated" passed over the 8,000 mark, and the number of American casualties exceeded 500.

Minor by comparison, SMITH.MN moved back into the top 150,000 websites, according to Alexa ratings.

Posted 11:33 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

The Insanity continues
How much worse can the U.S. military insanity get before the general public begins to comprehend that it's pure and disastrous bullshit?

A war that was planned long before 9/11, but was blamed on 9/11.
A war that was justified on grounds of WMD that hadn't existed for years.
A war that has now cost 500 American lives.
A war that has wounded another 2800 Americans, many VERY seriously.
A war causing military personnel to commit suicide at alarming rates.
A war that is reducing reenlistments to the point of danger.
A war that the U.S. Army College say was ill-advised.
A war that has cost the U.S. taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
A war that has killed 8,000+ Iraqi civilians.
A war that has virtually destroyed the Iraqi economy.
A war that has turned most of the world against us.
A war that is dividing our nation.
A war that, in order to save face, could go on for a very long time.

The war in Iraq is insane, by any standards, but half of the American people still support it, in a disgusting demonstration of gullibility to government propaganda.

WAKE UP, AMERICA !

Posted 9:05 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Great news!
On Dec. 18th, I wrote about the potential loss of 57 homeowners and small businesses in Crystal, to a development project being considered by the city government.

The great news is that the city committee studying their options has recommended that the city not proceed with the action. Assuming the council takes that recommendation to heart, the crisis has been averted and the homeowners can go back to planning on staying in their homes.

Living under the threat of eminent domain is a horrible condition... not knowing what your future holds, believing that you might be uprooted from your own home and thrust out to find another. Even though this crisis may be nearly over, similar actions take place daily in other cities, for no good reason except to supposedly increase the tax base for city government. Because detecting such development plans early and preparing to fight against them is so important, I formed the PATROL organization and website with news and advice.