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Enemies of
Liberty
Sam Aurelius Milam III An earlier version of this article appeared in the February 2004 issue of the Frontiersman.
For years, I've heard people complain about the failures of the government schools. Sadly, the complaints have usually been about things that aren't very important and that can be corrected in a student's later life. In all of those years, I've never yet heard anybody correctly identify the really serious failures. Here are some good examples of such failures.
If the government schools had failed only to teach the students to read or to do arithmetic, then that might have been tolerable. Their failure is worse than that. They have fostered the growth of generations of increasingly ignorant, misinformed, and gullible people thereby, almost single-handedly, enabling the growth of the police state. Sometimes, I think of the schools as brainwashers. When my mood is less generous, I think of them as enemies of liberty, which is exactly what they are. For PayPal payments, use Frontiersman@manlymail.net.
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Filtering
Out the Freedom
Sam Aurelius Milam III On Saturday, March 19, 2011, I spent an hour or so on the telephone with a good friend of mine, testing my email service. According to our observations, it seems that there's a filter on my outgoing email, presently provided by AT&T. This is how we arrived at that theory. I sent multiple versions of several email messages to him. He confirmed, via telephone, which messages arrived at his computer, and which messages didn't arrive. Each time that I sent a message that included the address of The Frontiersman Website, that message disappeared. It never arrived at his computer. When I sent messages that were identical except that they lacked the address, then they arrived at his computer within a few seconds. It didn't matter if the address was in the body of a message, in the signature file, or in an attachment. If the address was included in a message, then the message disappeared. I sent a message that was identical except that it contained the address of my friend's website instead of the address of The Frontiersman Website. That message arrived at his computer within a few seconds. Thus, it isn't the presence of a web address that's causing the messages to disappear. The disappearance is caused by the address of The Frontiersman Website. I might be wrong about this. There might be some other explanation. However, it appears that somebody has installed on my email service a filter that deletes messages that contain the address of The Frontiersman Website. When my friend sent to me a message that contained the address of The Frontiersman Website, I received the message within a few seconds. Thus, the filter seems to work only on my outgoing messages. I've been suspicious for some time that some of my messages weren't being received. There have been occasions when I should have received a reply, but didn't. My telephone conversation with my friend resulted from such an occasion. He didn't reply to a message that I sent. I called him to inquire. He hadn't received the message. That's why we started testing my email service. We already know that at least one person was recently prohibited from getting on an airplane because she had accessed The Frontiersman Website a few days prior to her planned flight [Letters to the Editor, February 2011]. So, maybe I've captured their attention. I'm flattered if they're taking me seriously. However, who knows what they might do next? This kind of attention can be frightening. They might be watching you, too, so stay alert. Question Everything: Determination of Sex Sam Aurelius Milam III Most people accept without thinking about it the notion that the sex of a child was determined by the child's father. The reason given is that the sex of a child is determined according to whether an egg is fertilized by a sperm containing an X chromosome or by a sperm containing a Y chromosome. Since the sperms come from the man, nobody gives the matter any more thought than that. If a man provided only sperms with an X chromosome or only sperms with a Y chromosome, then it would indeed be true that the sex of the child was determined by the man. However, such isn't the case. The fact is that a man provides both kinds of sperms. Thus, the determination of the sex of a child isn't made by the man. Rather, he provided a choice when he provided both kinds of sperms. The determination of the sex of a child is made within the woman. I don't know how the choice is made. Maybe a particular egg is more receptive to one kind of sperm than it is to the other kind. Maybe variations in the chemicals within a woman's body might, from time to time, favor one kind of sperm over the other kind. Maybe it's purely random. Whatever the mechanism, the fact is that it doesn't reside within the man. It resides within the woman. The man provides both kinds of sperms in abundance and his job is done long before the choice is made. Something within the woman selects one sperm or another. So once again, the researchers have made some correct observations, misinterpreted the observations, declared their misinterpretations to be fact, and promulgated a little more misinformation. I suppose that it's just another indication that we ought to stop relying so much on the experts as the sources of our opinions. Instead, we should listen to what they have to say and evaluate it for ourselves. That is, we need to learn to think for ourselves. For PayPal payments, use Frontiersman@manlymail.net.
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Acknowledgments My thanks to the following: SantaClara Bob; Lady Jan the Voluptuous; my mother; Dewey and Betty; and Joseph, of Northridge, California. editor
Court Quotes From Humor in the Court and More Humor in the Court, by Mary Louise Gilman, editor of the National Shorthand Reporter. Forwarded by Don G.
Thoughts Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by David, of Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Funny Quotes by Famous People Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by Millie, of Baltimore, Maryland.
Actual Labels on Consumer Products Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by David, of Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Frontiersman Subscriptions and Back Issues Printed copies of this newsletter, either subscriptions or back issues, are available by application only. Cancellations If you don't want to keep receiving this newsletter, then return it unopened. When I receive it, I'll terminate your subscription. Reprint Policy Permission is hereby granted to reproduce this newsletter in its entirety or to reproduce material from it, provided that the reproduction is accurate and that proper credit is given. I do not have the authority to give permission to reprint material that I have reprinted from other sources. For that permission, you must go to the original source. I would appreciate receiving a courtesy copy of any document or publication in which you reprint my material. Submissions I solicit letters, articles, and cartoons for the newsletter, but I don't pay for them. Short items are more likely to be printed. I suggest that letters and articles be shorter than 500 words but that's flexible depending on space available and the content of the piece. Payment This newsletter isn't for sale. If you want to make a voluntary contribution, then I prefer cash or U.S. postage stamps. For checks or money orders, please inquire. For PayPal payments, use Frontiersman@manlymail.net. The continued existence of the newsletter will depend, in part, on such contributions. I don't accept anything that requires me to provide ID to receive it. In case anybody's curious, I also accept gold, silver, platinum, etc. Sam Aurelius Milam III, editor
For PayPal payments, use Frontiersman@manlymail.net.
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