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Frontiersman, February 2025
Dropout
Sam Aurelius Milam III
15x5 Page Background GIF Image Back during the 1980s, the Santa Clara County Libertarian Party started an electronic bulletin board, a BBS, called Liberty Bell.  Anybody who had a computer could log in, leave comments, and read replies to his own comments.  It didn’t take long for me to notice that the BBS was attracting nitwits.  During one of our discussions, I commented that we’re all slaves and that we just don’t know it.  One of the nitwits replied that it was a stupid statement and that he’d never even thought of such a thing.  I replied that I wasn’t surprised at his lack of thinking.  A local libertarian big shot, not previously involved in the discussion, jumped in and warned us to “lighten up or else.”  It seemed to me like an arrogant attitude for a so-called libertarian.  I’d expected that we could express our opinions on a libertarian BBS without fear of stupid threats from local big shots.  I was so annoyed that I wrote a condemnatory poem, Mark My Words, in reply to the threat.  Some of my friends accused me of “overreacting”.  I was less sure of myself, back then, so I allowed myself to be dissuaded from posting the poem on the BBS.  I should have posted it but I didn’t publish it until many years later, as an insert in the June 2015 Frontiersman.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image I eventually dropped out of the BBS.  Later, I dropped out of the entire Libertarian Party.  Its subsequent abandonment of its core principles suggests that I was right to do so.  See The LibertaRepubliCrats, in More Adventures of the Lone Raver, first completed on Thursday, October 10, 1991.  It’s available in Pharos.  The big shot stayed on, of course, continuing to exert his big shot influence.  He’s mentioned in my article Principle Failure, in the March 1999 Frontiersman.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image Later, Facebook came along.  One of my relatives joined and asked me to join and “friend” her.  I did.  It didn’t take long for me to decide to drop out.  It wasn’t easy but, eventually, I was able to cancel the account.  It seemed, at the time, like Facebook wanted me to be a permanent, captive subscriber.  Over the subsequent years, I haven’t had much contact with the social media platforms.  I make an exception for YouTube, where I can find useful videos about how to fix things.  Other than that, most of what I know about the social media platforms comes from comments about them and excerpts from them that I’ve seen on the various news programs.  It seems to me that they might be doing more harm than good, attracting nitwits, promoting big shots, perpetuating false assumptions and misinformation, and encouraging people to shoot off their mouths without thinking.  Regulation, the knee-jerk response of the authoritarians, will only increase the power of the police state.  See The Battle of the Internet, in the January 2012 Frontiersman.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image My experience on Liberty Bell taught me a lesson, later verified by the social media platforms.  I learned that my immediate response to nonsense isn’t always the same as my considered response to nonsense.  Now, I don’t usually release something as soon as I write it.  I usually wait a while, maybe overnight, maybe even longer.  After waiting a while, I often see a need for some changes.  That seems like a lesson that isn’t being widely learned, so I expect that we’re stuck with nitwits, big shots, social media ranting, and other such nonsense, whether we want it or not.  I can’t suggest a solution to the problem except, maybe, to turn off, tune out, and drop out.  That isn’t the way that Timothy Leary said it, and I suppose that it isn’t quite what he had in mind, but I can’t think of anything better to suggest.  Anyway, it works for me. 10x5 Page Background GIF Image Gun
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Additional Reading
•15x5 Page Background GIF ImageMark My Words, Thursday, May 19, 1988
http://frontiersman.org.uk/2015/2015-06/Insert/With_Links.pdf
•15x5 Page Background GIF ImageMore Adventures of the Lone Raver, first completed on Thursday, October 10, 1991
http://pharos.org.uk/Ravings_Essays/More_Adventures/More_Adventures.html#The_LibertaRepubliCrats
•15x5 Page Background GIF ImagePrinciple Failure, Frontiersman, March 1999
http://frontiersman.org.uk/1999/1999-03/1999-03.html#Principle_Failure
•15x5 Page Background GIF ImageThe Battle of the Internet, Frontiersman, January 2012
http://frontiersman.org.uk/2012/2012-01/2012-01.html#The_Battle_of_the_Internet10x5 Page Background GIF Image Gun
June 2025 Frontiersman,0c/o 4984 Peach Mountain Drive, Gainesville, Georgia  30507
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Letters to the Editor
Dear Sam,
15x5 Page Background GIF Image ... As usual your Frontiersman [May issue] is spot on.  In your article “Tools of Manipulation”, in today’s political climate, the misuse of terms is prevalent.  I’m in your boat.  What Israel is doing is wrong, and I’ve had people call me anti-Semitic.  Which is a crock of shit.  I don’t pretend to know enough to champion one cause over another but I know enough when I see, Israel is no longer “protecting” itself.  They’ve become the new “Hitlers”....
—S. H., a prisoner

Dear Sam:
15x5 Page Background GIF Image I am writing to express my opposition to the current attempt to break down the separation of church and state;  one that is being described as a fairer way to finance schooling for children.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image In one of the Bible-belt states, (it doesn’t matter which one) the legislature decided that giving subsidies to secular private schools, in the form of vouchers, was a type of unfair discrimination against religious private schools, and also against religious parents who might want to send their children to non-secular schools, but who lacked sufficient funds.  There is a case being considered by the Supreme Court, that will decide the issue.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image I must assume that people who support this proposal are very ignorant of history.  State support of religion often results in the support of one particular religion.  This means that other forms of belief are often violently suppressed.  Ugly, long-lasting conflicts can be initiated.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image It’s common for conservatives to say that the U.S.A. is a Christian nation.  That statement makes me wonder exactly what kind of Christian nation they mean.  There are dozens of religious sects in the United States who claim to base their beliefs on the teachings of Jesus Christ.  However, these sects contradict one another in many ways.  Each claims that its interpretation of the Bible is true, and that those who differ are ignorant or evil.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image As long as the government remains apart from these disputes, and does not use force to support religion, or one set of similar religions, there’s peace.  When the tax money taken from citizens is used to support religious organizations that they would not voluntarily support, it is not only a theft of money, but also a violation of the individual’s right to freedom of conscience.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image In a free society, such as the U.S.A. has long claimed to be, the only time restrictions are justified is to stop objective harm from being done to specific individuals.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image I think that law-makers and parents will have a hard time proving that any objective harm is being done by depriving children of state-funded religious education.  However, some of the current Supreme Court justices have shown themselves to be biased and illogical in their judgments.  Therefore, I tremble.
—Sir Donald the Elusive
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Additional Reading
•    The Power of Babel, Frontiersman, April 2024
http://frontiersman.org.uk/2024/2024-04/2024-04.html#The_Power_of_Babel
•    Another Separation, Frontiersman, June 2024
http://frontiersman.org.uk/2024/2024-06/2024-06.html#Another_Separation10x5 Page Background GIF Image Gun
Worldometer Population Clock
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
U.S. Census Bureau Population Clock
https://www.census.gov/popclock/world
Typical Population Curve
http://frontiersman.org.uk/Population/Curve.html
Looking Back at Looking Ahead
Sam Aurelius Milam III
15x5 Page Background GIF Image I recall a suggestion that I made to my father, while I was in high school.  I told him that if the United States would fly airplanes all over the world, and saturate the atmosphere with a chemical that would reduce human fertility to about one tenth of normal then, for the next 100 years, the United States would be the most hated nation on Earth.  After that, it would be the most revered nation on Earth.  He looked at me with a strange expression on his face, but he didn’t say anything.  At that time, the world population was about 3.2 billion.  Now, it’s about 8.2 billion, and still growing.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image Maybe my youthful suggestion, all of those years ago, was a little draconian, but at least I was thinking about the problem.  In all of the years since then, I haven’t noticed anybody suggesting anything that seems more likely to work.  Now, as I look around the world, it seems to me that the problem is beginning to solve itself.10x5 Page Background GIF Image Gun
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Additional Information
•15x5 Page Background GIF ImageWorld Population by Year, Worldometer
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/10x5 Page Background GIF Image Gun
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Earth Changes and Extinction Events
Sam Aurelius Milam III
15x5 Page Background GIF Image Think about a spinning figure skater.  If she extends her arms, then she reduces her rate of spin.  If she pulls her arms in, then she increases her rate of spin.  She has to do it with both arms at the same time.  If she moves only one arm at a time, then she redistributes her mass, changing her center of mass and relocating her axis of spin.  There are predictable relationships between effective diameter, rate of spin, mass distribution, and the location of the axis of spin.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image We’ve been increasing the effective diameter of our planet, redistributing its mass and, in addition, changing the weight distribution on the magma.  For example, we’ve relocated a lot of water to higher elevations than it would otherwise occupy, by storing it in reservoirs.  That might not seem like much.  It isn’t much, but it isn’t zero.  It increases the effective diameter of the planet, just a little.  It redistributes the mass, just a little.  See The Bright Side, in the July 2024 Frontiersman.  As sea level rises, the effective diameter of the planet increases by a little more.  As the polar ice melts, the mass is redistributed from the polar regions toward the equator.  The increased weight of the water in the oceans forces the sea floor down, increasing the downward force on the magma below, but only under the oceans, not elsewhere.  We’ve pumped so much water from the aquifers that, in some locations, ground level is actually sinking, reducing the effective diameter of the planet in some locations while it’s increasing in other locations, changing the mass distribution on the planet, and also changing the weight distribution on the magma below.  As the ice is removed from the polar land masses, the weight on those land masses is reduced.  The land masses rise, increasing the effective diameter of the planet in those locations while changing the mass distribution, and changing the weight distribution on the magma below.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image When the rate of spin of a spinning body changes, the angular acceleration will vary with the distance from the axis of spin.  The angular speed, further out, is faster.  Thus, for the spinning body to retain its internal configuration, the acceleration (or deceleration) near the surface must be greater than that closer to the axis.  In a non-rigid spinning body, the forces that are generated can deform the internal configuration of the spinning body.  Our planet isn’t entirely rigid, at least not within the mantle, which can behave as a viscous fluid.  That’s usually relevant only on a geological time scale, but some geophysical changes can happen suddenly, earthquakes and volcanoes for example.  Thus, changing the rate of spin of our planet, redistributing its mass, and shifting the location of its axis of spin might cause distortions in a time scale that’s relevant to us.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image As I noted in The Bright Side and as I’m also suggesting here, the changes that we’re making might affect the magma flow.  Maybe the locations of magma plumes will change.  Maybe some existing magma plumes will be severed.  Maybe new ones will be formed.  Iceland and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge are very active.  They might be pulled apart in our time, not just in geological time.  Reportedly, Yellowstone explodes about every 700,000 years.  It’s been about that long since the most recent explosion.  Maybe Yellowstone will explode in our lifetimes.  Tsunamis happen suddenly.  It wouldn’t take much of a subsurface change to cause the oceans to slosh back and forth, scouring the coastal regions, and stirring up a lot of debris and sediment in shallow locations, thus making the existing pollution even worse.  Maybe ocean currents will be distorted, with unknown consequences.  Maybe additional geothermal activity will contribute to the already ongoing chemical deterioration of the atmosphere.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image It all reminds me of Edgar Cayce’s prophecies about Earth Changes.  Maybe things won’t get as bad as I’ve suggested or, at least not right away.  On the other hand, look how skeptical people were about global warming.  That became a serious problem sooner than most people expected, worse than expected, and it just keeps getting worse.  Earth Changes?  As Barry Commoner noted, everything is connected to everything else.  Things might get worse than we expect, and a lot sooner than we expect.  Ask any dinosaur.10x5 Page Background GIF ImageGun
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Additional Reading
•15x5 Page Background GIF ImageWorlds In Collision, Immanuel Velikovsky, DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC., GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK, 1950
•15x5 Page Background GIF ImageDawn Behind the Dawn:  A Search for the Earthly Paradise, Geoffrey Ashe, A JOHN MACRAE BOOK/HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY/NEW YORK.  Copyright © 1992 by Geoffrey Ashe
•15x5 Page Background GIF ImageThe Bright Side, Frontiersman, July 2024
http://frontiersman.org.uk/2024/2024-07/2024-07.html#The_Bright_Side
•15x5 Page Background GIF ImageEarth Changes — Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Changes10x5 Page Background GIF Image Gun
June 2025 Frontiersman,0c/o 4984 Peach Mountain Drive, Gainesville, Georgia  30507
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15x5 Page Background GIF Image Nine times outa ten, the problem ain’t the bolts in the engine, it’s the nut behind the wheel.
—Sam Aurelius Milam, Jr.
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Acknowledgments
15x5 Page Background GIF Image My thanks to the following:  El Dorado Bob;  Betty;  Eric, of Stockton, California;  and Sir Donald the Elusive.
— editor
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Websites
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Ole and Lena Jokes
Original Source Unknown.  Forwarded by H. L., a prisoner.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image Ole was training to be a police officer.  During one of his training sessions the instructor asked him, “What would you do if you had to arrest your wife?”
15x5 Page Background GIF Image Ole replied, “I’d call fer backup!”10x5 Page Background GIF ImageInfinity Symbol

15x5 Page Background GIF Image Lena and her daughter Eva were out shopping when Lena saw an expensive fur coat.  She told Eva, “Dis year I tink I vill buy my own present instead of making yew and dad shop fer me.  And dis fur coat vould be perfect.”
15x5 Page Background GIF Image Little Eva said, “But Mama, some helpless, poor creature had to suffer so dat you could haf dis coat.”
15x5 Page Background GIF Image Lena replied, “Don’t worry Eva.  Yer fadder won’t get da bill fer a couple of veeks.”10x5 Page Background GIF ImageInfinity Symbol

15x5 Page Background GIF Image Ole and Sven were drinking at the local bar one afternoon when Ole said, “Ya know, my wife Lena says I yus don’t lissen as vell as I used ta.”
15x5 Page Background GIF Image Sven said, “Dat’s nottin new, and I’ve got da perfect answer for ya.”
15x5 Page Background GIF Image “Vats dat den?” asked Ole.
15x5 Page Background GIF Image “Vell, yust tell her dat you lissen, but yew’re done lissenin vay before she’s done talkin.”10x5 Page Background GIF ImageInfinity Symbol
Frontiersman
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15x5 Page Background GIF ImageCancellations — If you don’t want to keep receiving printed copies of this newsletter, then return your copy unopened.  When I receive it, I’ll terminate your subscription.
15x5 Page Background GIF ImageReprint Policy — Permission is hereby given 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 apply to the original source.  I would appreciate receiving a courtesy copy of any document or publication in which you reprint my material.
15x5 Page Background GIF ImageSubmissions — I consider 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.
15x5 Page Background GIF ImagePayment — 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.  You can use editor@frontiersman.org.uk for PayPal payments.  In case anybody’s curious, I also accept gold, silver, platinum, etc.  I don’t accept anything that requires me to provide ID to receive it.
— Sam Aurelius Milam III, editor
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