Skip to main content

A small Libertarian moment...

... because life really is about a lot more than politics and policies.

There is a creek about thirty feet wide that runs through the center of town in Breckenridge, Colorado. The water, which rushes swiftly, varies between six inches and maybe two and a half feet deep [there are a couple of small holes that are deeper]. There are rocks and boulders strewn around--some jagged, some slippery, some flattened and nicely rounded.

What you do in Breckenridge on a sunny July day is go down and sit by the creek and watch your kids and grandkids from about age four on up wading in the creek and jumping haphazardly from rock to rock.

Sometimes a kid slips and busts his or her ass on a rock. On very rare occasions a smaller child will lose footing and be swept along pell-mell for five or ten feet before some other kid or a nearby parent snags the sputtering tyke.

Everybody laughs.

There is not a single sign from the town of Breckenridge to remind you that there is no lifeguard, that you enter the water at your own risk, or that parents should remain within arm's reach of a non-swimming child.

There's no trash in the creek.

Everybody just sort of watches out for their kid and any other kids in view.

Amazing: social self-organization without the State.

Obviously this has to be stopped.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Steve, I appreciate you visiting our state. But we don't like to advertise these things to the world. If everyone finds out what it is like, more people will come here and try to ruin it.

So, in the future, please turn all blog posts regarding Colorado into something like the following:

1. It snows constantly and there are blizzards year round. It is routinely -15C in July as the high.
2. You'll immediately get altitude sickness and you'll be dizzy and sick the entire time.
3. The mountains are covered in trash and the roads are barely maintained.
4. We have a serious Velociraptor problem, even in the towns and cities. No one is safe if they go to Colorado.

Thanks,

Libertarian in Colorado
Anonymous said…
Breckenridge is a gorgeous place. we were there in october about 8 years ago visiting friends and went through town and we stopped into a small little cafe for hot chocolate and started talking to the owners who were from hockessin.

golden is also a beautiful place.

Popular posts from this blog

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba