Glibertarians.com 2018 Archive

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  • Outdoor Recreation for Liberty Valuing Individuals – Part 1

    The Glib community is full of people (and reptiles) with some amazing work and recreation skill sets.  I read the articles and comments in awe and trepidation of how many valuable skills sets are assembled in this small part of the “Certified Family Friendly” internet.  Someday, if the trends continue and Zombie Hillary becomes POTUS we will have to try to survive the HRC/antifa apocalypse then we will be doing nothing but trying to survive.

    But until that day arrives we all enjoy recreation in our downtimes. Sometimes that recreation is rumored not to include drinking, drugs or Mexican ass sex. This got me thinking about what outdoors recreation attracts liberty valuing individuals.  Many of us participate in or are at least familiar with hunting, fishing, home brewing and other activities that encourage these traits.  But I can propose two others for consideration by you, friends, or younger people- rock climbing and sailing.  Wait and hear me out.  All climbers aren’t hippies and all sailors don’t make Scrooge McDuck look like a welfare recipient.  In fact both sports favor those who don’t fit those stereotypes.

    PART THE FIRST

     

    Climbing (Or- How do they get the ropes up there?)

    Short answer: They bring it themselves.

    Bringing the rope up the steep side of the Yosemite’s Half Dome.

     

    Rock climbing is the usual gateway into the entire enterprise of mountaineering.  The basic skills that you develop on the rocks are adaptable to the other forms of climbing, but most climbers continue in rock climbing alone.  Most stay with shorter climbs since these offer plenty of challenges without adding the additional hard work and dangers associated with the deep dark corners of climbing like high altitude expeditionary, extreme ice/mixed, or even big walls.   Pat Ament, a famous rock climber from the ’70s, tried a winter mixed rock and ice climbing route one time and after that stated the only ice he ever wanted to encounter again would be in a cocktail glass. So this little essay will only use the “gateway drug” of rock climbing to expound on climbing and liberty.

    So why does climbing attract liberty lovers?  Trust and autonomous decision making are the simple reasons. People climbing together literally hold their partner’s life in their hands and are responsible for assembling systems to prevent each other from plunging to the ground.  They alone are responsible and they know it.

     

    Belaying is life. (Or- climbers, unlike skiers, do not return from the mountains with knee injuries- if a climber misjudges the situation they generally have the good grace to die.)

    I was 16 when I learned to rock climb and quickly discovered that if I fucked up, my friend and/or myself would be dead.  In my technical rock climbing classes I stopped the sandbag, and then caught controlled falls by fellow students (and they of me) all while being carefully watched by instructors.

    It was only a few months later, on a climb with a friend, that the seriousness of what we were doing really got imprinted in me.  We were climbing a pretty moderate route and I was belaying about half way up a 300 foot cliff.  My partner was slightly below me and moving sideways to get around a bulge so he could then come straight up to the belay ledge.  All of a sudden I saw his eyes get big and heard a strained squawk as he disappeared under an overhang below his feet.

    I locked up the belay, then felt the shock on myself and the belay anchors system as I caught him after he fell down and left and stopped with a snap and started swinging in a circle a few feet away from the cliff. Now I was holding my friend 150 feet off the ground as he tried to get back on the cliff after falling around 15 feet.  He recovered, got back on the rock and then climbed up to me.

    As we both let the adrenalin work through our system we took stock.  We could retreat, but hell no, we would get our heads back into the game and keep going up. As he prepared to start up the next stretch of the climb the seriousness hit me with a jolt.  If I hadn’t caught my friend he would have hit a ledge around 100 feet below and bounced off until the rope ran out about the time he would hit the ground. If I had screwed up the belay anchors it would have been worse. When the shock hit the system they would have ripped out and both of us would be finding out how much gravity sucks until we hit the ground and died.

    As it was, the rest of the climb went well and we stuck at the sport. Over the course of the next decades I fell many 100s of times and caught many 100s of falls.  Place into a person’s hands the responsibility of life and death and they tend to take other responsibilities more seriously.

    This is why you have the rope.

     

    Placing protection and arranging belays is life. (Or-Unravel the mystery or soon become history.)

    Some climbs take very little thinking to protect since you just clip your rope into existing protection and anchors.  This involves trusting other members of the climbing community since they and not any government agency is responsible for placing and maintaining these bits of metal.  But on most climbs the climbing party has to design, place, recover and use again the system that enables the rope to stop a fall.

    Climbers get proficient at a real life understanding of high school physics concepts such as forces, vectors, potential and kinetic energy.  The other thing they get good at is judging and balancing risks.  An old climbing joke is, “Judgment comes from experience and experience comes from poor judgment.”

    When a climbing party gets to the base of a cliff they look up and normally see a big old rock and a series of cracks.  To get to the top they’ll need to determine how to take a bunch of nylon and a small pile of aluminum shapes and use them in a manner that will prevent people from hitting the ground if they fall.  No government agency or larger group is there checking: do they have the right things, is the weather okay, do they have the permitted experience and strength to try the crack?  The decision to attempt this climb is totally on the two climbers and their judgment.

    Once they start it is up to the first person (aka “the leader”) to use the nylon and aluminum in a manner that will prevent him or her from falling farther than they want to if something goes wrong, while the other person is responsible for using the remaining materials to set up a belay that will hold the force of a fall and the combined impact of two bodies on the belay.

    While climbing, the leader evaluates risk and their meager pieces of aluminum and must always remember that they will fall twice as far as they are above the last piece of protection (aluminum bit) they placed into the crack.  When the leader decides he wants protection, he must find a place to stop that he can take at least one hand from the rock, then size up the crack with his eyes, unclip the hopefully correct size of aluminum, place the metal into the crack in a manner that won’t rip out under a shock but be removable by the other person, pull up slack rope and clip it to the protection and then start climbing again.

    This continues for the entire pitch (one section of a climb between belays) with the leader constantly judging the difficulty of the next section, how the crack changes size, how much stuff he has that will fit the crack and the knowledge that when he stops he must have enough stuff left over to set up the next belay.

    When the leader gets to the end of the pitch because the rope runs out, or it is a natural stopping place, the leader uses the remaining stuff to set up an anchor.  This anchor will protect the leader from falling to the ground and provide the second with a belay as they climb up removing all the stuff the leader left in the crack.

    Normally what happens next is the two people switch roles and the initial leader remains the belayer and the original belayer takes over the role of the leader.  This gets swapped back and forth until the top of the climb is reached.   Take a person and make them responsible for designing, using and recovering the system that will keep them alive and you get a person who learns to trust in their judgment and not the judgments of others.

    These pieces of metal and nylon are placed…

     

    in those cracks so the rope can work.

     

    Rappeling is Ugg (Or-great climbers die on rappel)

    Sometimes when you complete a climb you can just walk off, other times you must set up a rappel.  A rappel (or abseil for the Teutons in the crowd) is conducting a controlled slide down a rope normally using a device to provide friction and your hand to control speed.

    Most climbers instinctively dislike rappelling.  During a climb, if you never fall the climbing chain is a backup. The rope, protection, climbing harness and belay anchors are redundant because you never fully tested them because you never fell.  On an abseil, you are 100% dependent on all those items.  If one part of the chain fails- you die.

    Again, the rappel chain is entirely the responsibility of the climbing party.  They set it up, or inspect and use it- or they approve of an earlier anchor set up by parties unknown.  The climbers hook into the rope and friction device with only their approval, or after the quick inspection by their partner, and the party is responsible for recovering their rope at the end so it can be used again.   Independence is grown within people that learn to trust their own judgments on a regular basis for their continued life.

    If you screw up one of 4 different systems here- you die.

     

    You are Responsible for You (Or- did you know that a body falling from a great height can break a granite block by the force of the impact?)

    Some climbing takes place in intensely public places but most climbing takes place far from the madding crowd.  And even within popular climbing areas like Yosemite Valley, Joshua Tree, Mt Lemmon or the Shawangunks, there is a bunch of space, 1000s of climbs and relatively few climbers.

    If something goes wrong the chances are you are on your own for a matter of hours (or a day or more on a Yosemite big wall).  Go climb at a more remote location and you might be the only two or three people within hours, or even days, of the climb and you are on your own, period.

    Combine this with the decisions you make concerning the route you will go, the protection you will place and the chances that you’ll take with the weather or other dangers (avalanches, heat or cold etc.) and climbers tend to trust their own judgment and often are not willing listen to others without the same base knowledge of the subject and environment.  Looking at a scary move above a bad piece of protection looks a lot different a 1000 feet up a climb that is multiple days from the trailhead than it does where you can see the parking lot in Joshua Tree. People used to, and who enthusiastically embrace self judgment, tend not to see collective solutions for many issues.

     

    Protection math. The leader falls twice the distance he is from his protection. (Unless he screws up and a piece fails- then he gets the additional distance penalty.)

     

    A sub-set of “you are responsible for you” is “you are responsible for your decisions about your partner.” Since your partner holds your life in their hands and their decisions, you are vested in the determination you make about climbing with somebody.  There is no governing body to stamp them OK or to tell somebody you can’t climb because you are a dangerous fool.

    At best there is the reputation a climber will earn within a social network.  But because climbers travel and may not have their usual partner with them, it is not unusual to link up with a climber you don’t know well for a climb.  You watch the new partner on smaller routes and speak to see if styles and techniques mesh.  But ultimately it is up to you and nobody else to say.  “Yep, I trust her with my life.  Let’s go do this climb.” I have done El Capitan with a climber I knew only a few days and there were other climbers I knew for years that I wouldn’t tie into a rope with no matter how short and easy the climb.

    Your belayer and the anchors he set up. Your life is in his hands. Did you choose well?

    Another sub-set of “you are responsible for you” is self-rescue.  Climbers will go to great lengths to help other climbers but, and it’s a big but, they are incredibly judgmental of those they try to help.  If the accident involved something truly beyond the climbing party, it is a point of honor to help a fellow climber.  E.g. in 1980, Yosemite Valley was hit with a large earthquake and a party needed to be rescued from partway up El Capitan.  They were well equipped, but the quake changed the size of the cracks so much their gear didn’t fit and falling blocks from the earthquake had destroyed some rappel stations. They couldn’t go up or down so a rescue was mounted to enable them to retreat.

    If you need rescue because you didn’t follow basic climbing safety skills- you will be judged harshly.  Combine a climber’s inherent pride in their own abilities and responsibility with a desire not to look incompetent/stupid to their group, and people often take the initiative to learn self-rescue skills and figure out their own way out of a problem.  These type of people aren’t much fond of handouts.

     

    You Choose the Parameters (Or- This is my Everest so bugger off)

    Climbing has many sub-genres, differing levels of commitment and inherent skills, plus no scoring so how to tell a “winner” depends on the person involved.  Climbing does have internal socially accepted rules.  The most basic socially accepted norm (not a legal requirement) is the first ascent party sets the initial terms of a climb and if you can’t improve on that, don’t bring the climb down to you.

    Over the years and decades since technical climbing first started, climbing equipment, training, skills and experience have continued to evolve and improve.  Because of these improvements the average climber of today can accomplish more than their predecessors and the very best climbers can now accomplish climbs that were not even dreamed about when I learned how to climb in 1976.

    One of these world class athletes recently accomplished a free solo of El Capitan in four hours.  Translated: a guy climbed a 3300 foot high cliff that steeply overhangs for hundreds of feet in places with no ropes and no partner in under four hours.  (The film in theaters now is incredible.)

    The climb in question was originally done in the early 1960s in almost a week with lots of specialized climbing techniques that involve making a movable ladder, and even today most parties take 3-4 days while still using the same movable ladder technique.  It is still acceptable to climb that climb the older way or to improve on the older way at some point less than the free solo.

    What is NOT acceptable is to chip new holds or add permanent features the original party did not use.  Again there is no legal force to the prohibition, but there is a great deal of community pressure.  If you want to not face condemnation you don’t bring the climb down to you.  Back off and come back when you have the skill and the community will support you for that decision.

    Her Mt Everest for the day. It might be short but it ain’t easy.

    There is no scoring in climbing and the mountains don’t care that you are there.  Most times there is no other spectator to witness what you do on a climb and talk about afterwards.

    Some things are considered cheating, but only if you omit them.  What does that mean?  A leader placing protection and then having the rope pulled tight so they can rest is considered less than top form.  If you say, “I rested from a Hex placed right before the crux but then did the move clean.” No problem.  If you lie about that and are found out then people will color their judgments of you.

    All that being said, other climbers understand that skills deteriorate with age, work/family commitments etc., but the desire to climb remains in many of us.  In my best days I could do some intense climbing and frankly climbed some routes that today I have a hard time believing I did since they are so far beyond me now.   I climb more moderate routes with my nearly 60 year old body and still get great joy from doing so.  The rest of the climbing community realizes that every route can be just the right difficulty for a person and so enjoy the climb. (As long as the norms are not strangled).

    Climbing takes commitment (Or- summit or plummet).

    A person can learn the basics of belaying and rappelling in a weekend, but to learn how to be a safe and proficient climber takes extended periods of learning, physical training, and the ability to “get into the Zen of the suck.”  No matter your skill level there is always the next climb that makes you stretch beyond to increase your limits.

    That is one of the addicting things about climbing, there is always a new climb that will challenge you beyond your limits.  Whether that “next” climb is because of a harder difficulty, less chances at protection, danger from elements beyond your control, an extensive commitment of energy etc.   Even with basic climbs you will be working with muscular exhaustion and failure, fear, pain to the limbs and extremities, remaining focused during periods of intense boredom, heat/cold/wind/rain and even insects, birds or reptiles.  (Yes, a chuckwalla bit and opened up my finger that I stuck in a crack too near to it.  I had to quickly make a move up without falling while my blood was making the crack too slick to hang from.)

    As I told my kids (and others) when I was teaching them to rock climb, “Climbing isn’t necessarily fun, but it is enjoyable on balance.  Those are two different concepts.”  People who learn how to accept and manage fear or discomfort/pain while remaining focused on accomplishment tend to make their judgments on what a person should accept as a personal responsibility.

    Climbing opens up areas, vistas and experiences closed to others.  The first is the knowledge of what an amazing thing the body and mind are.  When you unlock the mystery of physicality and practical engineering that enable you to climb something new and just beyond your earlier abilities you feel great (maybe after you regain control of muscles and the taste of fear in your mouth subsides).

    Plus that great feeling is always there as a potential for you.  As an older climber, I have re-climbed routes that were easy for me years earlier, but with my current attributes the same route still had the same sense of individual accomplishment.

    Most climbing areas are outdoor wonderlands.  Being able to traverse these incredible spaces open up vistas to you that others simply can’t experience.  Watching the day end 1500 feet up a vertical cliff while having some food and preparing to sleep because you still have another vertical 1500 feet to go is like being in space and looking down on earth.  You are in a different place than the horizontal world below.

    Sometimes the experience is not as benign but just as incredible.   Huddling part way up a cliff on top of your nylon ropes trying not to touch any metal while in the middle of a sudden thunderstorm gets much more exciting when the St Elmo’s fire starts, you hear buzzing in the air and the simultaneous blinding flash from lightning and artillery like crash of thunder as you smell the ozone from the lightning strike one crack over.  With that experience you REALLY get an idea of the power of a storm.

    View from 2700 feet up Yosemite’s El Capitan. We spent the night here in hammocks and did the last 300 feet in the morning.

     

    Enjoying the route near Prescott, Arizona.

     

    If climbers are so cool and freedom embracing why aren’t they running the world? (Or- At both ends of the economic spectrum there is a leisure class.)

    So climbers tend to be self-starters who have a strong independent streak and intense desire to make their own judgments.  They enjoy working in small teams who rely on their combined skills (and equipment) to solve problems and realize that the mountains don’t care about their personal issues, and that they must resolve the dilemma in front of them.  There are many climbers who are doctors, engineers, run businesses etc.  But there are also climbers who are well named “climbing bums” as well.

    Climbing can be addicting for people who can’t get the emotional highs and physical rushes elsewhere.  The larger world seems too small and insignificant to what they receive from climbing.  A percentage of these people have the innate physical and developed emotional skills to drive the sport farther and standards higher.  Some push too far and die or suffer grievous injury.  The vast majority of climbers do balance the outside world and the climbing world and even if they give up climbing retain the lessons learned and apply them to life and business.

    For me, taking up climbing in high school did contribute to my outlook on life and a person’s relationship to society.  I embraced climbing fully and went beyond weekend rock climbing for decades.  By the time I entered college I had climbed big walls, some well-known mountains by challenging routes and was part of a mountain rescue group.

    There has been very little thrown at me by the “real world” that I hadn’t already faced. So IMHO my relative success in life was positively influenced by climbing.

    My advice is, tie into a rope yourself, or if a friend or younger relative wants to give climbing a go- tell them “hell yeah.”  They’ll have a chance to become a person with a well-developed sense of personal responsibility and most likely will be liberty and freedom embracing individual for it.

    Summit of the Grand Teton, Wyoming.

     

     

     

    **Note- Yes I have done the climbs pictured.

  • Monday Afternoon Links

    Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a good weekend. We went to a carnival at a local church and dropped $100 amazingly fast. My kids did get to ride a Ferris Wheel and none of the rides collapsed, so net win. Also, the Texans stole a victory in Denver. I’d say the Denver coach drastically over-estimated his kicker’s ability.

    I’m going to assume that “insensitive” in this context means “too effective”. “NBC backtracks, will no longer air controversial Trump ad”

    This is good news. Kids with “polio-like” illness able to walk again after new surgery. Fuck you, nature! Humanity is going to win!

    I’m not saying its Moties, but on the gripping hand, I’m practicing verbalizing  “Fyunch(click)”. Reference here for any sci-fi Luddites.

    Good luck, soldier. Even if you aren’t successful in crossing Antarctica alone, I hope you have Shackletons’s luck and come home safe.

     

    Here’s one from the archives on “how to front a band”

  • Trailing Clouds of Glory

    Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
    The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Start,
    Hath had elsewhere its setting,
    And cometh from afar:
    Not in entire forgetfulness,
    And not in utter nakedness,
    But trailing clouds of glory do we come
    From God, who is our home:
    Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

    William Wordsworth[i]

     

    This is the second in a three-part sub-series on the Plan of Salvation.


    Welcome to the World

     

    “Color is good, and …” the sound of the baby’s first wail echoes through the room, “a good strong cry.” The midwife puts a swaddled bundle on Alice’s chest. “Here she is, Alice. Say hello to your daughter.”

    Alice opens her eyes, takes hold of the infant, and looks at the small head poking out of the bundle. She smiles, and speaks in an exhausted voice. “Hello, Jennifer. Welcome to the world.”

    We come into this world naked and screaming. Our autonomic reflexes kick in and keep us breathing and our hearts beating. We start learning things almost instantly. We learn that Mom is the source of food and love. We learn that Dad is the transport vehicle to take us to Mom.

    By the time we’re two we’ve started to talk, and the word constantly on our lips is “Why.” Why is water wet? Why is the sky blue? Why is Daddy so tall? As we grow older, our questions begin to include the spiritual and philosophical as well as the physical. At some point, “Why am I here?” becomes the question of the day.

    Why am I here?

    In the previous article[ii], we discussed our pre-mortal development and touched on the plan to take us from spirit children of godly Parents to gods in our own right. Part of that plan sent us down into mortality with no recollection of pre-mortality.

    Why did the path lead through forgetful mortality? Because there are some lessons you only learn when you are on your own. We come here to gain a body and learn to control it, learn to exercise our agency by being tempted and making choices, and to be tested. Additionally, there are specific ordinances which are required in order to return to our Heavenly Parents. All of this is designed to give us the instruction we need to be able to realize our divine potential.

    Gain a Body

    In our pre-mortal life, we were spirits. We saw that our Heavenly Parents had bodies, and wanted to be like them. To obtain a body, we came to earth. Once here, we need to learn to control our bodies. This means not only learning to walk and talk and control our bodily functions, but it also means learning to control the urges our mortal body is prone to in its natural state. This isn’t just referring to biological urges. Our mortal bodies attempt to dominate our spirits, tempting us towards less spiritual destinations than we are aiming for.

    “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been since the Fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man”[iii]

    A god cannot be swept along by passions. He or she must be in control, and make proper choices.

    Exercise Agency

    We are here to learn to make those choices. The underpinning of the Plan of Salvation is personal agency. We chose to follow Christ rather than Lucifer in our pre-mortal lives. Once here, we are constantly confronted with the same choice on a regular basis. Not every choice we are confronted with is between good and evil, but many are – if on a smaller scale than the one which triggered the war in heaven. The cumulative effect of these choices, however, is just as important. The choices we make here help determine what will happen after we leave mortality. The goal is to be like the people in this story:

    John Taylor, the third President of the Church, reported: “Some years ago, in Nauvoo, a gentleman in my hearing, a member of the Legislature, asked Joseph Smith how it was that he was enabled to govern so many people, and to preserve such perfect order; remarking at the same time that it was impossible for them to do it anywhere else. Mr. Smith remarked that it was very easy to do that. ‘How?’ responded the gentleman; ‘to us it is very difficult.’ Mr. Smith replied, ‘I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.’”[iv]

    Temptation

    Both God and Satan tempt us. God, through his Holy Spirit, tempts us to do good, and make choices which will enable us to return to him. Satan tempts us to do the opposite. Satan’s goal is to make “all men … miserable like himself.”[v]

    So, if Satan’s goal is to frustrate God’s plan, why does God tolerate his interference? There are a couple of reasons. First, if you don’t have multiple options, it’s not a choice. The Book of Mormon prophet Lehi knew this when he said: “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.”[vi] Second, God “give[s] the Devil benefit of the law,”[vii] and the law is that judgement cannot be rendered prematurely. As with all of us, judgement will be rendered on Satan at the final judgement, and he will be sent to his … reward.

    Through trial and error, and based on instruction from parents and other respected adults, we learn to distinguish right from wrong and make correct choices. When we sin, and later repent, we learn about the costs of sin, and what forgiveness feels like. All of these things teach us to make correct decisions based on correct principles.

    Testing and Obedience

    “And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things the Lord their God shall command them.”[viii]

    This life is a test. How will we use our agency? Can we be trusted to control ourselves? When faced with trials will we stick to our beliefs or will we abandon them if it looks like we can get out of our troubles by doing so? This leads us back to my earlier question about why we had to have our memory blocked. If we could remember the ages we lived in the presence of our Heavenly Parents, it would invalidate the test. The Devil’s temptations would be of no effect because we would remember what we had left behind, and would know the way back.

    Trials

    One of the age-old questions is “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” The answer is that He doesn’t interfere. Our Heavenly Parents are not helicopter parents. They allow us to make our choices, and then expect us to deal with the consequences of those choices. This doesn’t mean that when someone finds themselves in unfortunate circumstances they’ve made bad decisions, much less are evil. Sometimes, people get caught up in the consequences of other people’s decisions. For example:

    During rush hour, a tractor-trailer driver misjudges the curve on a freeway on-ramp and winds up tipping over on an SUV in the next lane. The on-ramp is completely blocked. The SUV is totaled. The driver of the SUV escapes with minor injuries, and the truck driver walks away unharmed. Traffic in that part the city is snarled for eight hours, until they can get the truck off the on-ramp.

    The only bad decision was made by the truck driver. Everyone else simply decided to be on that on-ramp at that time.

    Ordinances & Covenants

    An ordinance is a religious ceremony in which the participant makes a sacred promise, and God promises blessings in return. This promise is called a covenant. To achieve exaltation, a person must receive certain ordinances and make the covenants which go along with them. The specific ordinances are baptism and confirmation,[ix] the temple endowment,[x] and temple marriage.[xi]

    Baptism is the familiar ordinance whereby the participant symbolically dies and is reborn. Baptism cleanses the participant of their sins, and prepares them to start a new life as a follower of Christ. In the Church, baptism is done by immersion, and not until the person being baptized has reached the age of accountability (the age at which they are responsible for their own actions) – defined as eight years old.[xii]

    The confirmation is a blessing in which the recipient is confirmed as a member of the Church and has the gift of the Holy Ghost conferred upon them. The gift of the Holy Ghost is the privilege of having the influence of the Holy Ghost with you always, on condition of worthiness.

    The temple endowment is a ceremony where members of the Church make a number of covenants with the Lord. “These covenants include obeying God and keeping His commandments, living the gospel of Jesus Christ, keeping yourself morally pure and virtuous, and dedicating your time and talents to the Lord’s service. In return, God promises wonderful blessings in this life and the opportunity to return to live with Him forever.”[xiii]

    The temple marriage ceremony is similar to a normal marriage ceremony, but instead of being “till death do you part,” marriages performed in the temple are for “time and all eternity.” This is because the temple marriage ordinance also seals the bride and groom together in the eyes of God.[xiv]

    Vicarious Work

    As I mentioned above, these ordinances are required in order to return to live with our Heavenly Parents. That would seem to leave the billions of people who have lived on the earth without the benefit of the gospel out in the cold. This is accounted for in our Parents’ Plan for us as well. You may have noticed that the Church obsesses over genealogy and family history. The genealogical information is used as documentation for the vicarious work members do in the temples.

    In the temples, members who have received their own ordinances perform those same ordinances as proxy for the dead[xv]. This does not force the dead into the Church. Force is not part of our Parents’ Plan. The work in the temple gives the dead the opportunity to live with our Parents again. The temple work in this life is paired with an ongoing missionary work in the next.[xvi] Those who never had the opportunity to hear the gospel (or heard it and rejected it), in this life will have the opportunity to hear and accept it in the next. Since they no longer have bodies, however, they cannot receive the required ordinances directly. Because of the proxy work being done in the temples by members of the Church, the dead will be able to accept the ordinances done in their names.

    Exit … Stage Left

    We enter this world naked and screaming, but we leave it in an infinite number of ways from the sublime to the ridiculous to the horrifying. At the end of the day, however, we all leave our mortal bodies and fortunes behind and enter the next world exactly as we left the pre-mortal world – with just our spirits.

     

    [i] William Wordsworth, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”

    [ii] And God Stepped out on Space

    [iii] Mosiah 3:19

    [iv] Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith p 284

    [v] 2 Nephi 2:27

    [vi] 2 Nephi 2:11

    [vii] A Man for all Seasons, Act I

    [viii] Abraham 3:25

    [ix] John 3:5

    [x] LDS.org About the Temple Endowment

    [xi] D&C 131:2

    [xii] D&C 68:25-27

    [xiii] LDS.org About the Temple Endowment

    [xiv] Helaman 10:7

    [xv] 1 Corinthians 15:29

    [xvi] 1 Peter 3:18–20, 1 Peter 4:6, D&C 138:28-31

  • Monday Morning Links

    You’re supposed to kick it through the uprights.

    Aaron Rogers spends half the game running from a collapsed pocket and Tom Brady sees pressure once as he’s tossing the ball to wide open guys and ESPN thinks the game showed who the GOAT is.  SMDH. Of course the Patriots won Your other NFL winers were: Chicago, Kansas City, Miami, Minnesoooooooooda, Hot-lanta, Carolina, the Pittsburgh Stillers, Houston (for the sixth time in a row after some people wrote the season off), San Diego Los Angeles (AFC), and New Orleans (over Los Angeles (NFC). The Cowboys pay the Titans tonight.

    Across the pond, your EPL that matter results were: Man City won big. Chelsea won big and Liverpool drew Arsenhole, as all three remain undefeated but Man City went top with one fewer draw.  Liverpool need to start closing games out like this if they ant to win the league this year.

    Gonna have to be better than that in East Lansing this weekend.

    And after catching fire for a few games, the Red Wings are back to sucking ass. Meanwhile, Tampa, Toronto and the Islanders are hot in the Wales Conference while the Predators, Flames and MINNESOOOOODA WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILD are riding high in the Campbell.  Still early days though, so don’t start planning those banner ceremonies, Nashville or Tampa.

    And on the CFB front, Alabama are proving to be worth the hype, Kentucky fell back to earth, Ohio State squeaked by a 2-7 shitty Nebraska team and Notre Dame have their destiny in their own hands. Also, the Pac 12 South is a dumpster fire of mediocrity.

    If you were born on this day, you share that distinction with the following: Socialist Eugene V Debs, Senator Strom Thurmond, one of the most beautiful actresses of all time (and a freak!) Vivien Leigh, cowboy Roy Rogers, wife-beater Ike Turner, musician Art Garfunkel, former basketball player and idiot of an announcer Bill Walton, rockers Rob Fisher, Mike Score and David Moyse, Canadian person Bryan Adams, mannish actress Tilda Swinton, actress Tatum O’Neal, guitarist Jonny Greenwood, weepy asshat golfer Bubba Watson, and overrated football player (and sexual assault victim at the hands of Lena Dunham) Odell Beckham, Jr.

    Creating chaos and family arguments for generations

    Its also the day on which the following events occurred: the Cubans taught Columbus about corn, Copernicus watched a lunar eclipse, Guy Fawkes tried to blow up King James I and the British parliament, Susan B Anthony first voted, the board game “Monopoly” was released, HOFer Jean Beliveau scored 3 goals in 44 seconds on HOFer Terry Sawchuk, the “Nat King Cole Show” debuted, George Foreman became heavyweight champion at the age of 45, Davey Johnson resigned…and was named AL Manager of the year two hours later, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death, and the Chinese government placed Ai Weiwei under house arrest.

    That’s all of that.  Now…the links!

    Dems and Repubs both brace for surprises as Election Day is almost upon us. They’ll do the same in two years when the next “most important election ever” takes place. Rinse and repeat every two years until the nation finally gets its shit together and has a (hopefully violence-free) civil war to break shit up.

    Looks like tensions with Iran are running high again. Sorry, Iranian leaders. Oil prices are still dropping and your threats are becoming more and more meaningless.  Have a nice time until your people finally rise up and throw you in the Persian gulf.

    I didn’t know assholes could be so stunning and brave.

    SNL’s new motto: when they go low, we make fun of the ones on the other side who lost an eye in Afghanistan to an IED.  Its a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for them.

    Are San Franciscans dumb enough to abdicate more of their rights as property owners?  Magic 8-ball says “Probably”. Actually, they’re not voting to give up their property rights. The people who don’t own property are voting to have the property rights taken away from the people who own it.  Because that’s what half of Democracy is: finding the percentage of voters you need in order to steal from the percentage that opposes you…and then holding an election.

    Chicago abandons plan to sell valuable painting in order to fund library upgrade. Decides he will shakedown residents instead.

    And more anti-Semitic attacks take place in that bastion of righter-wing extremism known as Brooklyn. No word yet which Dem politicians these attackers worked for, since they haven’t been caught yet. You know, because that’s what the last attacker’s deal was…although its been horribly underreported in the media.

    And as the Taliban start flexing their muscles again in Afghanistan, maybe it’s finally time that we leave that place to the Afghanis to settle.

    The first song I chose. The second song I chose. The third song I chose. I know there are some serious fans out there, but I never got all that into them. I consider them to be an adequate group with a catalog filled with mediocrity and the occasional gem…which I could say about a lot of groups.  Anyway, argue about it in the comments.

    That’s all she wrote. Have a great day.

  • SEA SMITH SUNDAY EVENING LINKS

    SEA SMITH HERE TO GIVE LINKS. HE HEAR THAT SUNDAY NIGHT HAVE BIG HOOMAN SPORTSGAME. BUT HOPE YOU CAN LOOK AT LINKS.

    “FIXER UPPER”
    1. SEA SMITH HOPE WAR NO MAKE IT TO SEA. DEPTHCHARGES GIVE SEA SMITH INDIGESTION. ALSO WONDER WHEN 4CHANTARDS MAKE MEME OFFENSIVE IN PORTUGUESE.
    2. SEA SMITH NO MORE GO ENGLISH CHANNEL. STAY AWAY FROM SILLY ISLAND. HOPE GLIBERTARIAN LAND HOOMANS STAY AWAY TOO.
    3. ISLAND SAYS “NON” – WANTS WINE AND WELFARE SENT. MAYBE SEA SMITH GO PAY VISIT. BY PAY VISIT, MEAN…YOU KNOW.
    4. MAYBE COUSIN STEVE SMITH STAY AWAY FROM BRAZIL FOR WHILE?

    COME ON IN. WATER FINE!

  • Vegan School: Turmeric Latte

    My electrophysiologist told me to eat more anti-inflammatory foods to help my heart problem. He recommended turmeric, ginger, and green tea (among others).

    This past week I’ve been drinking a cup of green tea and a turmeric latte daily.

    I was unhappy with the turmeric latte recipes I found, so I made my own. This recipe is quick, simple, cheap, and delicious. (Don’t worry: it doesn’t taste like curry.)

    I use fresh local honey as a sweetener. I buy turmeric in bulk anyway. I am partial to this brand of turmeric. And this brand of ginger.

    I currently use soy milk because that’s what I have in the house, but it’s delicious with Oatly oat milk.

    Turmeric Latte

    • 1/4 tsp turmeric
    • 1/4 tsp ginger
    • 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
    • 2 turns freshly ground black pepper
    • 1 dash iodized salt
    • 6 oz hot water
    • 6 oz non-dairy milk
    • honey (to taste)

    1. In a coffee cup add the spices, hot water, and non-dairy milk. Stir thoroughly. Add honey to taste. Enjoy.

  • I Love to sleep: the Horoscope for the week of Nov 4

    This week starts off really well by giving me an extra hour of sleeping, though in reality the whole idea that the gubbmint can dictate what time it is seems like one of those Canute-levels of arrogance that is unfortunately too common among the priestly caste.

    The big news is Venus(retrograde) being her bitchy self, but the rest of the sky working to keep her contained.  Specifically:

    She’s in alignment, but with the Sun (which is directly opposed to the anti-libido of V(r) and with the moon (which diffuses and deflects her retrograde effects).  Even better, in opposition to that alignment is Mercury (signifying oppositional/negatory change) and Mars (which is the counterpart to Venus and so puts the kibosh on the retrograde aspects.)  Furthermore, Venus(retrograde) is trying to pull her crap while being in Libra.  Libra, being the scales of justice, is having none of this backward-ass motion shit.    Venus(retrograde) is a terrible sign, but with everything else going on this week, she can just go pound sand.

    I know 11/12ths of you are getting irritated at all the attention that the universe is giving Scorpio, so I’ll get it out of the way first.  Congratulations on surviving your dry spell.  With Venus(retrograde) moving off into Libra, your home life should begin improving immediately.  And I do mean home life — having the moon conjoined with Jupiter indicates that any problem you are having with extramarital partners will lag behind your spouse resolution-wise.

    We’ve already talked about Libra having to play host to Venus(retrograde).  Ordinarily, this would be bad, but as mentioned above, all the celestial censors are doing their part to shield you.  So good news!  Your week isn’t going to suck as the primary signs would indicate!

    Aquarius still has to deal with Mars for another couple of weeks or so.  Expect less belligerence starting about Nov 15.

    Saturn in Capricorn is good for achieving your Glibfit goals.  Start making room in your waistband for Thanksgiving dinner now.

    Mercury in Sagittarius is an auspicious time for hunting.  Also, this indicates that I’ll finally be able to get my father’s pistol out of gun-jail.  About fucking time.

  • Sunday Morning Pre-Election Post-Erection Links

    And this is the state of the Illinois Libertarian Party. It’s a morning radio show.

    Gooooood morning, you delightful people! Welcome back to Ball, Bubba, Kash and Mike. We’re back, and we’ve been talking about the #1 search phrase on PornHub last week: it was a split between “costume+anal” and “pumpkin fuck.” What does that mean for America, Bubba?

    I think it’s obvious, Mike, America is obsessed with butt-fucking pumpkins. By the way, it’s currently 68° at 7:58 in Chicagoland. And try to avoid the Jane Addams this morning- an overturned tractor-trailer has spilled 3000 pounds of frozen pierogies into the center lane, and wow, it’s a real mess! Let’s go to our next caller who’s been patiently waiting. 

    And speaking of a real mess, the birthday list for today is absolutely pathetic. When the best you can come up with is Ralph Macchio and Kathy Griffen, then seriously, don’t be born on November 4. OK, one exception, maybe: SP’s favorite football player of all time, Vince Wilfork.

    Let’s get to the news.

    Or in this case, non-news. Remember the hoo-hah a few days ago about antisemitic graffiti at a Brooklyn Jewish community center? The outrage was plastered everywhere. And the perp was caught but for some weird reason, this news was nearly buried. And no wonder. This was NOT a planned part of the narrative- the perp is black, gay, a Team Blue activist and campaign volunteer, “pet” of the NY City Council. All of which took a lot of concerted digging to find out, since it doesn’t fit the narrative. I can’t imagine why people don’t trust the news media. Personally, I thought the back story from last year was very interesting and revealing.

    Months before that birthday, a Brooklyn couple learned about the possibility of fostering him. The couple, Josh Waletzky and Jenny Levison, said they had wanted to foster an “L.G.B.T.Q. youth” on the brink of aging out of the system. Children’s Aid, one of the eight beneficiary organizations of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, took over Mr. Polite’s case in early 2013 and facilitated the placement. Although Mr. Polite was not legally adopted — his relationship with his biological parents has improved in recent years — Ms. Levison called it a “moral adoption.” He says he considers the couple his second set of parents.

    But good luck finding any real coverage of this in WaPo, CNN, NYT, and the other usual suspects. But honestly, I feel sorry for that kid. He had a very tough and unstable life, then fell into the hands of a couple of leftist Jews who wanted the combination of tax break, no responsibility for actually raising a kid, and a gold-plated social signal. Shit, that would have turned me into an antisemite as well. I’m normally of the bent of “you do something, it’s your responsibility, not anyone else’s.” But this one’s completely on you, Josh and Jenny.

    On the lighter side, dog bites man isn’t news. Man bites dog is. But dog shoots man is definitely news.

    Investigators believe that Charlie, a 120-pound Rottweiler mix, slipped and got his paw caught in the trigger of the gun and fired a shot at his unsuspecting owner. “The gun was positioned in the truck with the barrel facing up, towards Mr. Gilligan,” Doña Ana County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Jameson told ABC News.

    The dog owner, who first told officers he had accidentally shot himself, said he had long forgiven Charlie. “Charlie did not mean to do it,” he said. ”He’s a good dog.”

    If I were a lawyer, I’d represent that dog pro bono. “Because he’s a good boy, yes he is, Your Honor.”

    Just when you thought it was safe to leave the house… well, you don’t even have to leave the house to risk severe injury from the latest discovered threat: instant ramen!

    The soups cause about one in five childhood scald burns, according to research to be presented Monday at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference. Those findings have led some experts to question the safety of the meals, which often come in microwavable cups.

    “It’s important for us to remember, and for parents to remember, that these are just thin containers with boiling water in them,” said Dr. Courtney Allen, a pediatric emergency fellow at Emory University who led the research. “I think there’s an assumption that these are safer than soups coming out of a stove,” she said, “when, in fact, they’re not.”

    But of course, where there’s a problem and lawyers, there’s an answer.

    In a 2006 study published in the Journal of Burn Care and Research, [Dr. David] Greenhalgh looked at the stability of instant soup containers and found that taller and thinner cups were easier to tip than shorter, stockier ones. Those findings could have implications for manufacturers hoping to reduce the risk of product-related burns.

    “What (companies) should do is make them like the Yoplait (yogurt) containers, where they’re wider at the bottom and thinner at the top,” Greenhalgh said. “It would be a very simple thing to design and change.”

    Translation: “My expert witness fee is $500 per hour.” Prepare for lawsuits, more useless warning labels, and reformulations so that your ramen can be prepared and served at a nice, safe, lukewarm temperature. And as I write this, I’m having a delicious breakfast of Sapporo Ichiban Miso Ramen, served extra hot, with an egg dropped in it to set (which requires the soup to be just barely under the boiling point). Of course, I am wearing full PPE gear in accordance with the MSDS.

    It’s unseemly of me to find this story (and the accompanying video) hilariously funny, but I do.

    An intern for Democratic Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum has been arrested and charged with battery after she threw chocolate milk on a group of College Republicans tabling on campus. [Groucho Marx impressionist Shelby] Shoup threw her drink on SFU College Republicans Vice-Membership Chair, Daisy Judge, and when another student passing by tried to de-escalate the situation, she threw the remainder of her drink on him, according to a statement released by the College Republicans at FSU.

    “You are supporting Nazis,” Shoup said in the video posted online. “Do you understand that?”

    The lesson here: We are, as a nation, in urgent need of common sense chocolate milk control. There’s no reason for civilians to be able to possess assault dairy products.

    Old Guy Music, and it’s a sad one today. My favorite living trumpet player is now no longer living. Roy Hargrove died this week at the unconscionably early age of 49. Here is his version of the gorgeous elegy for another trumpeter that we lost too early. Yes, I know, it’s a flugelhorn, but that’s the right tone for this piece and, holy fuck, the solos he takes are mind-blowingly beautiful and virtuoso.

     

  • Saturday Night Open Post & Coming Attractions

    Well, by now, the cool kids know this is where they can get a preview of the next week’s post lineup here at Glibertarians.com. Think of this as a glib TV Guide. Don’t forget to set your VCR so you don’t miss any important articles. Or, better yet, just tune in all day every day! We need that sweet, sweet ad revenue.

    Yeah, yeah, get on with it so we can get to the Open Post!

    First up, we’ve got the weekly astrological skinny from Not Adahn, then Web Dom gives us an easy and cheap vegan recipe. Monday, Gadianton is back with more inside info on what The Church believes and DblEagle has a harrowing/exhilarating libertarian activity suggestion for you.

    Tuesday is Election Day here in the US. There might be a topical midday post from SugarFree (no pressure, dude), but there will definitely be a political post from CPRM in the evening. Wednesday, we are hoping for even more SugarFree, although after the great run of double bills in October, he might be too burned out. But there will certainly be a GlibFit post from Mr and Mrs trshmnstr (yes, you are running out of time!), and my regular weekly poll returns Wednesday evening.

    Thursday, we’ve got an all Kitbash day! UnCivilServant takes the midday spot, and Yusef Drives a Kia is back with a new project in the evening. Friday, PieInTheSky takes us to a summer lunch in Romania, while Saturday, mexican sharpshooter returns with another review/not review.

    Along the way, you can expect Daily Links to ignore from Sloopy, Brett L, OMWC, and most likely the blockhead and the SMITH family.

    Want to contribute an article? Go find out how YOU can be added to the Contributing Writers page. We sincerely appreciate each and every community member who takes the time to write for the rest of us, even those of you who still have something languishing in draft stage.  😉

    Future programming note: on Sunday, November 18, there will be a(n American) Thanksgiving food post in the regular food spot at 1400. If you’ve got a special recipe you’d like to include, send it along to me: sp@ this website. I’ll be formatting each of them so they can be downloaded in pdf format for your cooking pleasure.

    Public Service Announcement: If you live in one of the numerous retarded locations that mess around with the damn clocks, set the stupid clock back an hour and gain an hour of extra sleep tonight. Or an extra hour for drinking and snarking on Glibs. Your choice.

     

    And now…drumroll, please…enjoy everyone’s favorite…SATURDAY NIGHT OPEN POST!

     

     

  • Everybody here is uninvited

    Today I wanted to talk about a local news story.  I thought it would be nice to cover a local story.  No story here is too local.

    This is my review of Deschutes The Abyss 2017 Release  (H/T:  Riven)

    This story starts when a boy from Tucson turned 6 years old.  He wanted to throw a party, and his mom thought it would be nice. The problem?  Nobody showed up so she did the sensible thing and shamed everyone invited on social media.  No seriously.*

    RANT ON

    I am not going to put a caption here to make fun of a child. BUT I WILL NOT STOP YOU FROM MAKING FUN OF A CHILD

    – My first problem with this:

    The reason the entire class was shamed on social media is because the entire class was invited.  Now this is a practice I encountered and I don’t particularly care for it.  It forces parents to invite children their child doesn’t like to parties because it may hurt the uninvited child’s feelings.  Okay, fine.  So I have to invite the snowflakes too.  Here’s an issue I had–planning around the idea that 30 kids will be attending this party meant financially allocating funds for a 30 person party.  Granted only 10 showed, after they RSVP.  If my kid wants to invite other people in his or her class to a party, everyone in the class must be invited.  Including the smelly one.

    I thought part of the reason we have schools is social immersion?  Lets be real, that’s what most people got out of school, it certainly wasn’t reading.  By doing this, it eliminates the possibility that a child can grow up knowing there are people out there they won’t get along with, or how to deal with these people.  After all, if you don’t want somebody’s company you don’t invite them over.  For a parent of a child that has few friends, this might seem challenging but I found a way around this by inviting a few relatives that had kids of their own.

    Otherwise if nobody wants to be around you, eventually you figure it out.  It makes you wonder if people act the way they do today is the result of poor adjustment to social interactions.  Say what you want about social media, but perhaps another issue is nobody ever learned to handle things like confrontation, dissapointment, or failure. When encountered by such things they simply resort to their lowest level of social training.

    – My other problem with this:

    Another problem I have with this is the kid’s mother went and posted this to social media.  Really Lady?  Your kid is having a terrible day, so lets take a picture and show the entire world how much you think other people suck.  Immortalize it forever.  Let me ask a question, is there perhaps a reason nobody showed up?  Perhaps the class is mostly girls and had no interest in going to a boy’s party?  Perhaps enough people in the class got sick and stayed home?  Perhaps your kid is the smelly kid?  Perhaps coddling your child is not going to do him any good once you are no longer there to protect him from the world?  Am I going to hear from Andrew Napolitano for imitating his writing style?

    “Hey everyone.  Check out how much this kid’s mom thinks he’s a loser.”  I am sorry, but that’s what I got out of your post.

    – The silver lining:

    If there is a winner in all of this, its the Phoenix Suns.  Yes, I know they suck but lets be real, they aren’t going to get too many real wins.  Somebody affiliated with the team saw this, pulled a few strings, and got the kid courtside tickets–to the Suns vs. Lakers game.  Pretty nice of them considering somebody would have paid real money for courtside seats to see LeBron play.

    RANT END

    So how is this beer?  I gotta hand it to them, I didn’t think tequila would go well with an imperial stout, but I admit I am wrong.  Tequila you see, is not aged nearly as long as whiskey (Anejo is only aged 1-2 years) so it doesn’t take on the properties of the oak barrel like whiskey.  This beer is more “woody” rather than “whiskey soaked.”  The stout is neutral, without overpowering chocolate or coffee notes.  Standard dry Irish style.  Good luck finding it.  Deschutes The Abyss 2017 Release: 4.2/5

    *The possibility of this story being a hoax was pointed out by the stellar editing staff at Glibertarians.com.  Should this be a hoax, it does not improve my opinion of these people.  Not only would they be liars, they got free courtside tickets to the Suns game and thus were rewarded for lying.  Screw that.