Freedom.

As I've mentioned, I have ferrets. 

This little guy isn't one of mine, rather, he was one of the ferrets that was for sale at my local pet store a couple of years ago.

When I'm there, I usually take the pet store ferrets out of the cage and play with them, to give them some time out. That's what this little guy was doing, camping out in this cat bed I was going to buy and really enjoying himself.

At home, I let my ferrets...currently, all 29 of them...out for several hours per day. It's hilarious when I let them out. One of my younger guys, Barack, always hops around happily chattering and Dooking as he revels in the freedom of simply being outside of his cage. Many of my other ferrets have similar little rituals or things that they do. Some inspect stash spots, others head for the corner by the door for their morning poop, still others bother the dog.

Ferrets like to have...and greatly enjoy having...their freedom.

Are we, or any other creature on this earth, any different?

Some days I wonder...

I saw on Twitter the other day that Republican senate candidate Roy Moore said that it was illegal to not stand for the National Anthem. (Here's a hint; the Law advises that people should stand for the anthem, it does not say that they must nor establish any legal penalty for not doing so. The law is an advisement of behavior, not a requirement of conduct.) Last night, I saw that he came right out and said "It's the law, if we disobey that, what else will we disobey?" Well, the Constitution, apparently. Setting aside the obvious Constitutional issues and the slippery-slope logical fallacy, I'll never understand these people's obsession with demanding outward displays of faith or patriotism when they're busy proposing things that would undermine (if not destroy) the very values that the Flag of the United States stands for.

Without those values, the flag is just a symbol, a tribal totem.

Like the Fundamentalist version of Jesus, it's reduced to being a dead rabbit on a stick, carried as a battle standard by a gang, in effect.

Perhaps more to the point, without some degree of values, what are we? Now I'm not talking about ascribing to a particular political philosophy or religion, I'm talking about basic human values, compassion, empathy, freedom...for everybody, not just a select few.

People like Donald Trump and Roy Moore, they talk about "Freedom" a lot. But, freedom to do what? (Mostly, in their minds, the freedom to do whatever the hell they tell you to do and that's about it.) They sure seem to like the freedom to have guns.

But what about something simpler, like (for example) the freedom to be alive, or to be able to walk down the street without having to worry about being shot by some nut?

What about the freedom of African Americans to not be abused, mistreated, or murdered by the Police?

What about the freedom of sick people to be able to have health insurance so that they can function as normally as possible, or even simply stay alive?

Sorry to point out reality, but freedom doesn't do one damned bit of good if you're not alive to enjoy it.

Freedom does not give one person the right to trample on another person's freedom or rights, either by force or by using the power of the State.

Yes, it is a freedom and a right to believe what one wants, as well as to be able to be armed that one may defend oneself and their beliefs or family or property if needed. It is not freedom, to try to force your beliefs on somebody else either at gunpoint or by using the power of the State in any way, shape or form.

I'm a gun owner, and I started out as a conservative.

The values I was taught as a Christian, a conservative and a young Republican effectively make me a Democrat today. Given what I was taught, it never ceases to amaze me that the only "freedoms" that matter to so many of these people today seem to be that they want the government, the nation, or even the world to be forced to mirror their beliefs or opinions, at gunpoint if needed. They don't seem to care if anybody else actually believes what they do...they just want to make everybody else go through the motions so that they can continue to feel good about themselves and their own choices.

I'm frankly getting tired of this bullshit.

A common sticking point is "religious freedom" which in modern right-wing nut-speak basically boils down to they want to claim religion as an excuse to be able to discriminate and force their bullshit on everybody else.

When Roy Moore says "the source of our morality" that's bullshit right there, a weasel word (no insult to weasels intended, but that's the term.) Then there was this bullshit:

 We have forgotten that our inalienable rights come from God, not Man. OK, theoretically, I can agree with that, but what Inalienable Rights? Define this. Show your work. If we're talking Constitutional rights, whether those rights as originally enumerated in our founding documents or as they currently stand, in their expanded form thanks to legislation and the courts?

Funny thing, on either count Roy Moore actually completely fails.

No, seriously, this motherfucker believes that the Bible, or at least his own twisted interpretation of it, ought to be the supreme law of the land.

...And he calls that "Freedom."

No, you son of a bitch. It's not freedom if you and your people, or your social class or you yourself are the only ones who have it.

Freedom, or what constitutes being free, is greatly relative depending on one's culture or situation.

I'm just saying, I sit here right now typing away on this and drinking a beer not long after reading about the fall of Raqqa and the collapse of the main body of the Islamic State. I saw the article on Twitter when I got home (having, for other reasons, already stopped at the grocery store and bought a single bottle of one of their oddball beer brands.) I Retweeted it so I could find it to read it later, and I've been thinking about just how deliciously ironic that set of coincidences turned out to be, not that I'm a big believer in coincidence.

I remember reading not too long ago, that Iraqi kids in Mosul have finally been able to go back to school after two long years. Surely, it must be freedom for those kids to be able to go back to school?

Awhile back, I read an article about the Kurdish fighters largely responsible for the conduct of the ground war against Daesh and I remember that the article said the Kurdish troops kept finding a lot of discarded Hijab made from black cloth. Obviously, for a woman in that sort of situation it must have been hell to constantly have to wear a head scarf, especially given that in Syria, many women do not veil in the first place.

Now, just a thought, but lets put the shoe on the other foot for a minute, and go a bit east. In the Chinese autonomous region of XinJiang, a predominately Muslim region of China that's wracked by a conflict between Uyghur separatists and the Chinese government, military and police, I can almost guarantee you that there's a lot that a Uyghur Muslim woman might give, to be able to wear that Hijab without the risk of being hassled by the Police. In turn, the Police might give somebody a hard time for things we consider so basic that it's literally nobody's business. A man might be harassed or even arrested for growing a beard, families get harassed for naming their sons Muhammad, and stuff like that. Also, those who serve in the military or the police or who work for the government are forbidden from religious practice. Public school students are also discouraged from religion, though it is not banned, and while private citizens officially have religious freedom, they face an unofficial but state-backed campaign of harassment. These people live in a pervasive surveillance state. I'm not joking, you can look this up for yourself. Yet the attacks, bombings, stabbings, the very occasional firefight, continue. Perhaps those who want to impose a totalitarian state in America might take note of this? No matter what the government does, people continue to resist.

At the same time, elsewhere in China the Hui Muslims have full rights and religious freedom and do not face any problems from the State...simply because they do not have a separatist movement and are not engaged in a conflict with the government.

I often communicate via Facebook with a man named Joseph, who lives in Uganda and works as a teacher, with farming and running a support program for orphaned children. This dude is a Christian and his program is run through a United Methodist church. The poverty he talks about that the kids, and his people more generally must deal with shocks me. Just supporting schooling for some of these kids at a time consumes an inordinate amount of this guy's time and energy. The amount of money I spend on ferret food would seriously go a long way toward supporting a person in Uganda. That is not an exaggeration. Now, for myself, and again speaking as a former conservative...is it freedom to have, or not to have, economic or educational opportunities?

Some rich people in THIS country seem to think that they should have the "freedom" to deny educational opportunities, or basic rights or decent treatment to American kids.

The only freedom that matters to these motherfuckers is the freedom to make money.

What good is freedom if you don't have the knowledge to exercise it properly, nor the knowledge to defend one's freedom and rights in the voting booth or through civic action and due process and political engagement??

A lot of these idiots, particularly on the low-class end of the spectrum, want to force a fight, because they think they'd win if it came to that.

Wrong. Not least because a hell of a lot of these fools are basing their opinions on bigotry and

stereotypes. Plenty of liberals have guns and would act rationally in a conflict. Some people know this and are afraid of it.

Chances are very good that, given the idiocy of a lot of these people...if they ever got their wish and forced their political opponents into open conflict, that they'd probably lose, because they are nuts. Unlike the Chinese, who as harsh as their measures might be they are still founded in rationality, were all over the place with our madness. But still, no matter what, there would be conflict and likely also excessive casualties...where in the conflict in Xinjiang, the casualty rate has been fairly low.

What some of these right-wing nuts want to do here, and indeed globally, would make the Chinese look like free thinkers and saints by comparison...and these people would call this "freedom."

This morning on Twitter I saw a post by some nut who apparently wanted to "meet liberals on the field of battle" thinking he'd get a chance to shoot women in pink kitty hats.

No, that's not how this works. On the field of battle the other side shoots back, war is horrible, and war is hell.

Here's the thing, every petty tyrant in the world, every dictator that has ever been...desires absolute freedom for themselves...and subjugation for everybody else.

In order for not only individuals, but a society, to be free...everybody has to give a little. In the United States of America, individual rights are being used as a club with which to beat on the rights of the overall population.

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

Think about that, take all the time you need.

 How do I feel? I feel joyless. My brothers remain behind. Imprisoned. Suppressed. I don't just mean my Muslim brothers; I mean every single man who will sleep in here tonight. Who is cut off from everything that he loves. Cut off from his own self. You know, as the word went around that the governor was going to give someone clemency, I saw a rift develop. As each inmate wished himself to be the chosen one. The longing to be free became as palpable as the food that we eat. But it is a meal I am being *served* right now. And I am Muslim, and Allah does not allow me to... swallow certain things. Allah does not allow me to take scraps from the hands of a man such as this. A man who is corrupt and immoral. A man who denigrates the gift of clemency just as he violates the principles of justice. A man that gave the order to cause the death of eight people. And so, Governor Devlin, because even the cost of freedom can be too high, I *refuse* your pardon! ~Kareem Said, Episode 8, Season 2 "Escape from Oz" from the HBO series "Oz."