This whole debacle with McCain's funeral is a prime example of how Trump is never going to be right no matter what he does, in the eyes of the media and the left. 

Trump is not attending McCain's funeral, and the media and the left sure seem to have a lot to say about it. The thing is... McCain and his family asked that Pence attend but not Trump. So Trump is doing what was asked of him by the family. And apparently the media and the left can't stand it.

Had Trump decided to go anyway, we'd be hearing about how awful it is that he chose to disrespect the wishes of the family and McCain himself. 

I swear, the media and the left have turned our country into one giant episode of The Kardashians. 

Well, he's gone. As per usual, I'm not going to crap talk the man. I know a lot of people have a lot of opinions, but right now, I just want to offer my best wishes and prayers for his family. I'm glad he went quickly and I hope he didn't suffer. And I hope his family is able to find peace. 

R.I.P., sir. 

Not going to lie, it feels really weird. But today I filled out the paperwork and have declared myself unaffiliated instead of libertarian. 

Does that mean I won't ever vote libertarian again? No, of course not. If they present a candidate worth voting for - which is becoming less and less often - I will vote for the candidate. There's a local libertarian running in the midterms, and I plan to vote for her. I think she's a great candidate. I just wish the libertarians ran more candidates like her. Heck, I wish they ran more candidates, period! My ballots here are almost always devoid of libertarians. 

I do still consider myself a "conservatarian." Nothing has really changed about my political views, I just decided it was time to move on from the party. I wrote an article and did a video about my issues with the libertarian party some time ago. So the general break down of my grievances can be found there. 

To be honest, this has been some time coming. In the two above links, I talked about asking questions about immigration and the libertarian reps laughing at me after the democrats, republicans, and green party all took the time to answer my questions. That really was the beginning of the end for me. I didn't feel welcome in the party anymore. And since then I've had several unpleasant interactions, both online and off, with libertarians. 

When I no longer feel welcome or wanted, I move on. I was going to wait until after the midterms to change my affiliation, but I found myself today standing at a table at a craft fair (no really) where they were registering people to vote, and before I knew what was happening, I had signed my voter registration card with the change to "unaffiliated" and was handing it over to them. I walked away and got a beer so I could let it sink in. It was done. It was over. I actually walked away from the party. The long standing battle in my mind was finally over, and believe me, that battle has been raging on for over 2 years. 

​So here I am... unaffiliated. 

I just posted something about Silent Sam the other day. I also discussed the other statue they want removed... a giant spider. But it appears Silent Sam has been torn down. 

The issue here is that this is a replay of another torn down statue in Durham, NC. These people will be paraded into court, given their liberal martyrdom, and let go because "I was offended" is a valid defense in 2018. 

I called it back when they let the others go... more statues will come down. And more will follow Silent Sam. Of course, everyone is going to have a side here, and you'll hear them all a thousand times, so I'm going to give you the side no one is going to talk about.

Eventually, they are going to pull one of these statues down on top of one of their comrades. Someone is going to either be crippled for life or killed. At that point, the family will sue the state, it will probably be settled out of court, and someone is going to get rich off of our tax dollars for being stupid. And we'll be told it's completely just because only three things on Earth aren't racist now, and this isn't one of them. 

Anyway, as I said before, considering the danger to life this is creating - plus the fact that the students at this same school are screaming for the removal of a giant spider statue - I call for the immediate removal of all statues. I don't care who they are, or even if they are people. I don't care what they are made out of, either. Remove them all, replace them with nothing. We can't predict what people will be offended by in coming years, and with the pulling down and repeated vandalism of these statues, they are now posing a threat to life and limb and tax payer dollars. Remove them all immediately. 

The news has been spending a lot of time on the empty spaces left behind by the confederate statues that have already been removed, while other battles rage on to get others taken down. And I have to say... I think there is an easy solution.

Replace them with nothing.

I have been saying this since the controversy began. We cannot predict what people are going to be offended by in 5, 10, 15, 20 years. And these replacements cost money, especially when people vandalize the statues - and the state tells them it's alright to do so - to make a point only they get. 

People laugh when I say these things, but I had my point proven last weekend while talking to attendees of the feminist training. 

A local college campus here has been under fire because of a confederate statue the students want taken down. "Silent Sam" has been big news for a very long time, and as of today, he still stands on the campus. 

Somehow, "Silent Sam" became part of the break discussion, and one of the students was there. She told us a new statue was erected on campus. A giant spider.

This made me laugh, at first thinking they were kidding. Once it was established they were not, I looked it up. Truth be told... it's a spider, alright. But it's actually not a bad looking one. I think the artwork on it is actually very creative and it's sort of natural looking. 
​
My first thought was, of course, that this was an excellent idea. Having natural looking artwork of wildlife is the most non-offensive thing I could think of, and maybe this would be a better idea than replacing statues with nothing. I mean, it still gives some decoration to the areas, and it would employ local artists. We have a bad track record with "art" around these parts, plastering areas with the most hideous sculptures you could imagine, creating eye sores that no one wants to call out in fear of being called uncultured. But if they could keep on the same track as this spider, it would really add something to the grounds! 

Then my ears heard what I didn't believe they would ever hear. A lot of the attendees were offended. By this big, benign spider. They would like it removed. 

One woman suggested moving the spider so it looked like it was eating "Silent Sam." And for the pure humor of that concept, I was 100% behind that! That's funny, right there! 

But no. The other women wanted to remove it because the campus is a safe space, and those who fear spiders won't feel safe there. 

Never mind that the campus has a lot of open, natural areas... and there are actual spiders everywhere. Heck, a lot of those spiders are venomous. I don't think the giant spider sculpture is what they should be afraid of! He's friendly, non-venomous, and doesn't eat much. And he's a statue.

I suggested flower pots to replace the statues but was reminded about people with allergies. So I am back to replace them with nothing. In Durham, where they tore the statue down, I'd blast the words off the stone and then leave it. Open alcoves where statues were removed... remove the others and leave all the alcoves empty. Remove all the statues. All of them. Don't care who or what they are. Leave empty spaces, barren pedestals, and bald lawns. Approve no artwork or sculpture to be put there at all, for any reason. Any put up without approval should be removed immediately. And when people ask, be honest. We can't predict the ever changing landscape of deep offense, and to save tuition money/tax payer dollars/etc., we have decided to leave these spaces completely barren to avoid the cost of appeasing everyone's sensitivities.