Libertarian Leanings is a column by by Peter Burrows, who blogs at silvercityburro.com and can be reached at elburropete@gmail.com.

It does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Grant County Beat.

Reparations Revisited

By Peter Burrows 3/16/23

Reparations revisited by Peter Burrows 3/16/23

Reparations are back in the news. San Francisco is considering paying every black citizen of the city $5 million dollars. That's a lot of money, and since many people believe in gender fluidity, I imagine there are also quite a few, such as Elizabeth Warren, who believe in racial fluidity. Thus, don’t be surprised If “black” people start moving to San Francisco in droves. Alas, because of my advanced age, I won’t be one of them. Doesn't matter. I'm not deserving of reparations. This is what I wrote a few years ago:

Reparations? No Thanks

By Peter Burrows 4/8/19 elburropete@gmail.com

Years ago, the billionaire Warren Buffett was asked about the secret to his success and he said something like, "Well, first, I was born in America. I won that lottery."

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Random thoughts from an Old White Demon – Part 1

By Peter Burrows -elburropete@gmail.com 3/13/23

A couple of years ago a friend of mine recommended one of my articles to his daughter, who replied, "Oh Dad, I don't have time to read something by an old white guy."

I wasn't offended in the least. We all make quick judgements like that. We categorize people to save time and effort. There are probably very few old white guys who have anything interesting to say, and quite a few people think that includes me.

But in this case, I think it also reflects something more basic. This gal, who's in her 40s, is a liberal who has been told all her life that white guys are evil, especially dead white guys, a group I will someday join. Surprisingly, this is NOT a recent phenomenon.

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Racist or realist?

 By Peter Burrows elburropete@gmail.comScott Adams, creator of Dilbert, is being called a racist when I think he's just being a realist. Watch this for five and a half minutes from 13:25 and make up your own mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6TnAn7qV1s&t=1149s

I think he's also being petulant. Plenty of GOOD blacks to side with, eg guys like Alan West, Bob Woodson, Glen Loury, Tom Sowell and ladies like Star Parker, Candace Owens, Carol Swain, Winsome Sears, Amala Ekpunobi (!) etc. etc.

Piss on the rest.

Adams has the wherewithal to move away from black neighborhoods. What about all the other good, law-abiding people who can't afford that luxury?

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Never trust a Muslim, especially a "moderate" Muslim

Never trust a Muslim, especially a "moderate" Muslim By Peter Burrows - 11/19/22 - elburropete@gmail.com

https://silvercityburro.com/2022/11/19/never-trust-a-muslim-especially-a-moderate-muslim/

Muslims hate dogs, but they LOVE little girls

 [Editor's Note: Some people may find this disturbing, but unfortunately, it is truth. See footnotes]

By Peter Burrows 8/23/22, elburropete@gmail.com - https://wordpress.com/home/silvercityburro.com

Muhammad, may he rot in Hell, once said the angel Gabriel wouldn't deliver a revelation to him because there was a dog in the house. Dogs thus became forbidden in Islam unless they were working dogs. In my unsubstantiated opinion, Muhammad was a petty little narcissist who resented the attention and affection given to a dog when he, Muhammad, was supposed to be the center of the universe.

Muhammad expressed his displeasure with dogs, and since he spoke for the eternal Allah, dogs suffer Muslim cruelty to this day. Recently, Robert Spencer reported in his Jihad Watch that Iranian officials raided a privately run dog shelter and killed 1700 dogs, much to the displeasure of the decent people running the shelter.(1) No matter, Muhammad rules now and forever. In fact, I'm surprised the people running the shelter weren't killed, too.

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Muslim Duplicity

By Peter Burrows 7/29/22 elburropete@gmail.com - silvercityburro.com 

Never trust a Muslim. They will lie to you and pass a polygraph while doing it. This is because Muhammad, who spoke for Allah, said it was not a sin to lie during war, and Muslims are always at war with non-Muslims, in one form or another: 

Al-Jihad, (holy fighting) in Allah's cause (with full force of numbers and weaponry) is given the utmost importance in Islam and is one of its pillars (on which it stands). By Jihad Islam is established, Allah's Word is made superior (which means none has the right to be worshiped but Allah), and his religion, Islam, is propagated. - - Jihad is an obligatory duty in Islam on every Muslim. (1) 

Since jihad against unbelievers is an "obligatory duty," it is also obligatory to lie to the unbelievers if that helps the jihad. Here is what The Reliance of the Traveller (sic), "A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law," says:  When it is possible to achieve (a praiseworthy) aim by lying but not by telling the truth it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible and obligatory to lie if the goal is obligatory. (My emphasis.) (2) 

Gas pump reality

By Peter Burrows 6/22/22 elburropete@gmail.com

I just took a quick look at Exxon Mobil's second quarter earnings. While Bernie Sanders and other morons rail on about the huge profits earned by the evil-dirty-bastard oil companies, the numbers show that America's biggest investor-owned oil company is about as profitable as the average electric utility.

Here we must distinguish between profits and profitability, a very important distinction that the average person should have some awareness of lest they be fooled by the Bernie Sanders of the world. Profits are in dollars; profitability is in percentages. For example, Exxon Mobile's 2Q profits were $8.8 billion, which is a helluva lot of money, but the annualized return on assets was only 10 percent.

That's about what Public Service of New Mexico, a regulated public utility, earns on assets.

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