A question of rights

Reading this blog in a vacuum, one might conclude I have drifted away from writing of late, when I've just been writing elsewhere. I want to import one post that I tossed into the fray over at Sunni Maravillosa's place in a lively discussion of whether rights really exist or whether they are asserted in a process akin to blind faith:

It seems to me this question of rights boils down to the fact that the only actions I can control are my own. I can persuade or enter into contracts or (if I was someone else) attempt to do it by force, but in the end I can't make you respect my rights or property.

That's why the Zero Aggression Principle is so important to the free life. The more people adopt ZAP, the more likely it is that agreements will be honored and exchanges will be peaceful - or at least nonviolent.

The concept of rights presents a neutral, immutable appeal to a third party in conflicts - if we've agreed on what those rights are, we have something to gauge who's right and wrong. But it requires agreement on the basic principle.

I'm a Christian in part because I believe Jesus asserted ZAP when he said all law is summed up in two statements, one of which is "Love your neighbor as yourself." (You can accept the other statement or not; I do.) I'm a Browncoat in part because I believe in the words Joss Whedon put in Malcolm Reynolds' mouth: "I got no need to beat you; I just want to go my way."

I happen to think we'd all live better lives if we adopted that philosophy, but if I demand it, it won't work. I can't make you do anything. I can only try to persuade.

Carol of the Firefly

"Because Christmas ain't Christmas without Firefly."

How's the fish

Soundtrack (I should do this more often): "Nitty Gritty Surround," Jimmy Ibbotson & John McEuen with Jennifer Warnes.

While searching for some Favre art on my hard drive the other day, I found my fish icon and realized I haven't offered an update about the little guy who, back in March of ought-seven, I thought was thinking of making a premature departure from this earthly plane.

(Question: Is it "earthly plane" or "earthly plain"? I suppose it depends on whether you're flying or sowing corn ...)

The short answer is no pond fish have left the premises for some time now. This particular fish, you may recall, was lying on his side on the bottom whenever I approached the horse trough where we keep our finned friends during the freezing-water months. I thought he might be on his last, err, legs, but every time I tossed food into the water, he would jump up, struggle to the surface and eat like a fishy pig.

Nowadays, he is the most active guy in the pond, almost always scooting around and exploring his environs. It's interesting: I almost never find him down at the bottom during the spring, summer and fall, when he has plants and blue sky above him. But he does seem to sulk at the bottom of the trough, when he lives by artificial basement light.

Is this little white creature with a flash of red behind his gills subject to depression? Is his outdoors exuberance the equivalent of singing "You can't take the sky from me"? Or am I guilty of anthropomorphism?

Whatever. It's summer. The fish is having a ball.

Only one logical choice in November

Browncoats forever!

Clickie.

Civil war to revolution

My absolute highest recommendation — the one reserved for the likes of Firefly and V for Vendetta — is made for the second season of the television show Jericho. What's even better, you can access free viewings of the show via the CBS Web site.

My interest was piqued by the similar recommendation of fellow freedom lover Wally Conger, who enticed me with the image of the Gadsden flag flying over City Hall as the series closes with the beginning of a second American Revolution.

I admit, as someone who tries not to lock himself in front of the television screen, I was tempted but did not originally bite at the show's premise — the small town of Jericho, Kansas, comes to grips with the aftermath of a nuclear attack that destroys a couple of dozen U.S. cities. But I am very intrigued by the themes that developed in this second season, as a tyrannical new government emerges from the ashes.

The Allied States of America establishes its capital in Cheyenne, Wyo., as the remnants of the federal government gather in Columbus, Ohio, and the independent Republic of Texas mulls which side to choose. That's the big picture, though, as the drama remains focused on the little town of Jericho. And an intense drama it is, with all of the tension and heroic sacrifice you might expect from the tale of a small town under siege — and even a nod in the end to the concept that the initiation of force is a dark road we should never tread.

This is the most engrossing television I've seen since I discovered Firefly, and regular readers know that's the highest praise I can give. I'm going back to the beginning to watch the 22-episode first season and will add Jericho to B.W.'s permanent collection as soon as practicable.

Freedom time

I can't remember who I heard say this first, or when, but I think it was sometime in the mid-1980s when there were a whole bunch of movies involving time travel - or perhaps the movies all had an even narrower plot device, one where it would be hard to explain how so many similar movies were made at the same time, like the more recent glut of movies about penguins.

"It's just penguin time," the person would say. His theory was that forces in the universe build up to create an irrepressible need for penguin movies, for example - so they all get made.

It seems like it's freedom time. And maybe it's simply a reaction to the Ron Paul phenomenon, if it's really big enough to be called a phenomenon. I keep running into blog entries and other essays that come to the conclusion that we beat our heads against a brick wall by making the state's inexorable attack on freedom our focus - instead the focus should be on remembering that freedom begins and ends in our hearts and heads.

I was way overdue finding dare2befree's take on this, "Freedom - what are we waiting for?" A fragment of this gem:

WTF are we waiting for? What do you personally want to be freer in your life? What is preventing you from doing that? What would make things more enriching for your family? TPTB will never tell you that it is ok to live your life as you see fit. Go ahead, hold your breath until they do. They don’t give a shit about anything except more power, more control, more minions to bully. Why wait for them to give you permission to do what you want to do?

Sunni, today, draws attention to a brilliant cartoon that Dale produced over at Anarchy in Your Head, which opens up the same thoughts.

And I love and say amen to how dare2befree finishes:

I refuse to allow anyone to scare me into being a good little sheep anymore. I plan to live the life I want — not someone else’s version of what I should do with my life.

And of course my mind keeps coming back to the song I posted in my comment to Sunni:

Take my love, take my land,
take me where I cannot stand -
I don't care, I'm still free ...

What am I doing here?

It never hurts to review. So who is B.W. Richardson and why I am I writing this Montag blog?

Actually, who I am is irrelevant. I'm a writer with a job in the media industry. Why I'm writing this is much more interesting.

The purpose is to encourage people to live and think independently. Refuse to be afraid to be yourself. Refuse to be afraid to express yourself. Refuse to be afraid of government and any other authority that portrays itself as a way out of the scary stuff. That which they want you to fear is not as scary as the compromises to your Self that will happen if you turn responsibility for your safety and security over to someone else. Those compromises inevitability make you less free.

By the way, you should also refuse to be afraid of anything I say. I'm not trying to scare you; I'm just trying to make you aware of the fear mongers and fear-mongering, which is often done by well-meaning people. Fear is an emotion that short-circuits reason. Refuse to be afraid.

My purpose here is to emphasize the good news behind the bad news concerning the loss of our civil liberties. It's contained in the words of the theme song of the television show Firefly, which asserts forcefully, "Take my love, take my land, Take me where I cannot stand; I don't care, I'm still free: You can't take the sky from me." You can't be made a slave without your consent: "Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." My goal is to encourage people to be free despite the ongoing efforts to enslave us and further empower authority. Refuse to be afraid.

Won't get fooled again

I have a couple of reasons for not getting too excited over the Ron Paul for President phenomenon.

One is that I'm fresh from the one-two punch of Murray N. Rothbard and Frank Chodorov, so my faith in the American system of elections is at a low ebb. Even if a miracle were to occur and he became President Paul, there's only so much he could do. Ronald Reagan was the closest thing to a limited-government Constitution-respecting president we'll probably have in my lifetime, and the government got bigger, more intrusive and more imperial under his watch. However, a strong showing by Paul could give a boost to the notion that Americans have begun to notice how un-American our State has become over the past 100 years or so.

The other reason is Serenity. No, really. I remember the huge Internet buzz that accompanied the pending release of the best movie of the 21st century so far. I remember telling my friends that Firefly/Serenity was the next big science-fiction franchise, based on the incredible enthusiasm I found everywhere I turned on the Internet. I was astonished and disappointed when the film's actual box office numbers weren't good enough to debut at No. 1, couldn't even beat a lame Jodie Foster movie. (Hey, I love Jodie Foster sometimes, but this wasn't her finest hour.)

So I do not put a lot of stock in the huge Internet buzz for Ron Paul. I'm glad he's out there making noise, and it's fun watching the grass-roots volunteers at work, holding signs at highway overpasses and such. But after Serenity flew in on all that Web buzz and barely earned back its cost, I'll need more than Web buzz to be optimistic.

An internal gut check and reformation is going to have to happen before the United States becomes a free country again. Ron Paul can be a catalyst, but politics isn't going to solve what ails us.

To Be Giddy or Not To Be Giddy

... Now there's a question.

According to moviehole.net, copies of the Serenity Special DVD Edition have been flying off the shelves to the point where a second Firefly movie is not out of the question.

"Tudyk agrees that even if it was a direct-to-DVD movie, it’d still be worthwhile." And apparently all nine actors are excited about maybe coming back, even though, well, you know. And if you still haven't seen the best movie of the 21st century so far, I'm not going to spoil it for you.

This got me all a-twitter, needless to say. It would be disappointing not to see Serenity 2 on the big screen, but better direct-to-DVD than nothing, as long as Joss Whedon and friends keep the quality coming.

So I'm choosing to be more than a tad excited about the possibility. Just as Rick and Ilsa will always have Paris, though, the consolation in all this is that these folks did leave us with 17 hours of great, great work. Every so often I will pull out the Firefly set or the movie and we'll watch something over again. The other night it was "Out of Gas." The ending gets me every time. That reminds me, we're out of Kleenex ...

Big Damn Decision looms

According to the folks at a site called Big Damn Sequel.com, the actors' contract options for doing a second Firefly/Serenity movie expire in September 2007, so if a decision hasn't been made soon, it's about to be made: Fish or cut bait on an entertainment franchise that has drawn a passionate fan following.

There's no questioning the passion of us browncoats - but do we have enough numbers to make Serenity 2 a potential profit-maker? Apparently much depends on the success of the new "collector's edition" of the best movie of 2005. That seems silly; if the last two years haven't shown there's a demand, then the demand's not there. Something must be happening - I keep seeing Firefly stocked up at stores that mostly stock recent popular TV shows. Not many shows on their shelves that are five years old, unless they're Friends or The Simpsons - and if Firefly is in that category sales-wise, then a sequel seems like a good idea.

It'll be interesting to see what happens next. For what it's worth, the set is #10 among DVDs on Amazon.com this morning. So far so good?

She's pointing at me

Every so often I emerge from the haze and say, "This isn't the way I planned to live my life," down on my knees while the robbers circle around us. I reach back, trying not to be noticed, so that I can take action, but then one of them cocks a gun in my face and says, "You know what the definition of a hero is? It's someone who gets other people killed. You can look it up later." So I back down.

Then I hear Johnny Cash singing Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down," and so I run after the robbers screaming, "Take me with you!" But it's too late. And on top of that, they shoot me.

Then I wake up, thankfully, and I get up and go to work. But there, I realize, I work on my knees while the robbers circle us ...