Secession often is desirable

Posted on February 17, 2026 by TPOL Nathan

A New Mexico state representative has again filed a constitutional amendment that would allow three or more contiguous counties in the State to vote to secede if at least 15% of the counties’ electorate sign a petition to put the question on the ballot and then there is a simple majority vote. While no one expects the bill to even get out of committee, it shows that secession from States is still considered a valid and desirable action in many States.

For example:

  • Counties in true Northern California and Southeastern Oregon have long dreamed of a State of Jefferson, freeing them from the tyranny of both Sacramento and Salem.
  • A few years back, a dozen counties in Colorado, mostly in the Eastern Plains and Western Slope, attempted a referendum to secede, as a separate State of Northern Colorado. Though voted down, the movement is still alive: the overwhelming dominance of the Metro Denver area (including Boulder) and the increasingly regressive rule in cities such as Fort Collins and the I-70 corridor in the Rockies drive this.
  • Nearly two-thirds of the land of Oregon are in eastern and central counties actively seeking to secede and join a Greater State of Idaho. Some counties in Eastern Washington State and even Northern Nevada are interested. Again, the tyranny of Salem, Olympia (together with Seattle), and Carson City (read Las Vegas) pushes this.
  • A number of counties in Virginia along its boundary with West Virginia have explored how to secede from Virginia (Richmond, the DC suburbs, and more) and join the State of West Virginia. Which of course, exists because DC supported its succession from Virginia in 1863 over the issues of Secession and Slavery. (Ironic, huh? The counties that did not want Virginia to secede from the Union were willing to secede from their own Commonwealth.

There are, of course, other historical examples, stretching a long ways back. Kentucky, for example, also really seceded from Virginia in the 1700s. Just as Tennessee did from North Carolina, winning only after the failure of a first effort to establish the State of Franklin. And Maine seceded from Massachusetts, aided by Congress in the Compromise of 1820 to balance slave and “free” states.

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Looking back on “Presidents’ Day”

Posted on February 16, 2026 by TPOL Nathan

The history of “President’s Day” is a convoluted one. (Isn’t everything with government?) Legally, for the FedGov, it is officially still “Washington’s Birthday” and just the calendar date was changed back in 1971, from 22 February to the third Monday in February. (Many States have officially changed the name; the common title reflects the popular belief that it also replaced any celebration of Honest Abe’s birthday (12 February) honored “all POTUS.” Yup, even Nixon.)

But since most of us treat this like “All Presidents’ Day” (and absolutely nothing to do with the idea behind All Saints’ Day), let us look back at one of the few POTUS that has some really good things to say about him. Thomas Jefferson. In particular, let us look at TJ and the First Amendment. (This is a rewrite of an old commentary on TPOL.)

History has a funny way of getting twisted by people who weren’t there. When a distortion has centuries to fester, they become very dangerous. Such is the case of the Danbury Baptists.

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Valentine’s Day greetings!

Posted on February 14, 2026 by TPOL Nathan

Yes, the 14th of February is a major benefit-generator to all kinds of commercial, money-grubbing enterprises: candy, flowers, dining venues, greeting cards, candy, beverages, even nightwear, and did we mention candy?

Valentine’s Day has a romantic and affectionate tone, is connected with red and pink (contrasting white in the middle of Winter), and is very popular. Hence, the reason the peddlers of all that stuff (did we mention candy?) pile it on.

Here at The Price of Liberty, we don’t accept the common wisdom that love is just an emotion and can wane and wax for any number of reasons. Regardless of the source of love, it should be an “action verb.” (We know, grammarians tell us that all verbs involve action.) To love someone means that you are concerned about their welfare, their trials, their needs.

But as we see so much in politics, the word love is bandied about. (Ditto in commercial enterprises and advertising. It is so American to “love hot dogs” or “love apple pie” and in the same breath say we love our mother!)

So, today, examine yourself, and see what you can do to express your love (romantic or not) to someone. Nothing really wrong with candy, or nice dinners, or flowers. But look and see what you can do to really show someone (or many folks) that they are special, and that you love them not just for what they do but for who they are, and tell them as well as finding a way (or two or three) to show them.

By the way, the same thing applies when we say “We love liberty” and “We love freedom” and “We love our homeland.” Show it!

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The growing divide among the States

Posted on February 13, 2026 by TPOL Nathan

Headlines this week continue to illustrate the growing de facto secession taking place in the “United States” in 2025.

As Tom Knapp pointed out, many States that are labelled red or blue are not reliably so. But the big urban areas drive the train. Smaller communities in the rural and frontier areas (outside the big metro zones) are dragged along, often kicking and screaming but unable to make any impact.

State boundaries are easy to use to emphasize differences, but it is too easy. Still, we see the divide growing. Somebody in Ferndale, California or Milford, Oregon may be disgusted by what the politicians in Sacramento, supported by San-San denizens, or in Salem, supported by Portland and much of the Willamette Valley do, but have no choice. The same for the inner urban cores of Houston and Dallas and El Paso (and even Austin itself) when the numerous smaller cities are less blue: Odessa, San Angelo, Waco, etc.

There are many issues over which to divide: let us look at just two.

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More thoughts on “the pizza caper”

Posted on February 12, 2026 by TPOL Nathan

Yesterday, we published a long, perhaps apocryphal story about a 2nd grader who was punished for being kind to a classmate. For trying to share his lunch with the classmate who was served the “cheese sandwich of shame” because his parents hadn’t paid for the “regular” meal.

No doubt some will claim that the solution to that situation is what is being done now in, for example, Colorado. Where all school lunches (and presumably, breakfasts, snacks, and more) in the public schools (government-run, tax-funded) are free. Or what likely is the case in New Mexico, where now childcare is free. Of course, we mean “free to those eating the food, and being cared for” and in the case of many, free even to their parents.

But they are not free: it is just that someone else besides the child benefitting (and their family) is footing the bill. That is, the taxpayers. Current and future. Or whoever is left holding the bag with the whole corrupt and bankrupt system fails cataclysmically. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

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One of the evils of public schools and our system is …

Posted on February 11, 2026 by TPOL Nathan

Readers, this story is longer than most commentaries; we hope you will still read the whole thing.

We do not know if the following story is true. But some of us here at TPOL have personally seen incidents like this and have heard of others very similar. This was shared by a brother in Christ, on social media. I suspect similar stories are behind the news stories we sometimes hear about someone paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to settle up bills. Please read and share the story and then read the comments below the story. And share them and add to them, as well. Tyranny can be very tiny things.

———————————

The Pizza Caper

I was doing eighty on the highway because the Vice Principal said my second-grader was caught “distributing contraband” in the cafeteria. I thought he had drugs. I was wrong. It was pepperoni.

I walked into the administrative office still wearing my work boots, drywall dust on my jeans. The secretary looked at me like I was going to track mud on her carpet. I didn’t care. I just wanted to see Leo.

I found him sitting on the “Cool Down Chair” in the corner of Vice Principal Miller’s office. He didn’t look scared. He didn’t look guilty. He looked confused. His hands were folded in his lap, and there was a smudge of tomato sauce on his chin.

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Guest commentary: SCOTUS looks at Hawai’i

Posted on February 10, 2026 by TPOL Nathan

From Rob Morse, as we again note how the States are dividing themselves along lines of freedom and tyranny. (Edited; comments/additional thoughts from TPOL in brackets.)

We note again that the so-called Blue States (such as Hawai’i, California, New York, etc.) no longer appear to believe that they are bound by limits in either the United States Constitution or their own State constitutions.

Attorney Alan Beck presented oral argument before the US supreme court. The case challenges a gun-control law from Hawaii. It is both the state law and the 9th circuit decision supporting it that are being challenged. The Hawaii law requires you to obtain expressed [stated] permission before you can enter private property with your legally concealed gun. That law applies even if that property is open to the public. That means every gas station, every grocery store, every shop or car dealership requires prior permission to enter. In theory, you need permission from the gun shop before you bring your gun into the shop to have it serviced. Note that the property line does not have to be marked. That means you broke the law when you pulled off the road onto the tire shop’s parcel to repair a flat tire, not when you opened the door at the tire shop.
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Too little, too late… at least for the victims

Posted on February 9, 2026 by TPOL Nathan

Government is, first (and perhaps foremost), a tool for predators to use to feast upon their desired victims. Even while government claims to protect people from predators. Sometimes, we fail to understand, or even comprehend, the depth of the depravity which the predators and their enablers have. The entire idea of males who should be females, and females who should be males, is such an example of predation. Not just allowed by governments, but actively pushed by governments, “non-governmental organizations,” and advocates of anything and everything.

There are people who are different from the normal run of humans. Like all humans, they should be respected and protected from being abused and discriminated against because of what they are. But we submit there is a great difference between that and encouraging and aiding anyone in acts of aggression, including taking advantage of people (especially the young) for political and personal gain. But that is normal for human governments, is it not?

A correspondent reports this:

At last a mainstream medical association — far too late, and far too timidly — repudiates “gender transition” surgeries for minors. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) just declared:

When evidence regarding benefit is limited, natural history is uncertain, and fully informed consent a challenge, ASPS believes that plastic surgeons should adopt a posture of heightened caution, enhanced documentation, and explicit uncertainty disclosure, recognizing that their role is not simply technical but ethical.

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Libertarian philosophy and New Testament christianity

Posted on February 8, 2026 by TPOL Nathan

A friend recently shared this dialogue with us here at TPOL:

We’ve encountered this attitude for decades, as followers of the Messiah (Jesus the Christ). And not just from “secular people:” people in denominations sometimes have a similar attitude.

But we’ve also encountered a very similar situation with many people with different political philosophies (or just ideas) other than libertarian. Especially those who reject the ideas of free-market anarchism. Sometimes it is precisely analogous to the above. But other times, it is the other side of the coin:

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Political impacts on migration and population shifts within the States

Posted on February 7, 2026 by TPOL Nathan

The US Census Bureau has recently published this map:

The various comments online about this of course concentrate on the (politically) red and blue State divide. And to a degree, there is a definite correlation – and indeed, direct cause and effect. That was heightened by the impact of the panic over the Beer Flu (COVID-19) in 2020 and 2021. But by no means as clear cut as many tout.

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