Liberty Drip

 It's early morning and the gray is giving way to what will be a clear but muggy South Florida day. I am the eleventh person in one of lines formed on the sidewalk outside the Pembroke Pines DMV. I have business inside and although I have arrived two and a half hours before the office opens, I know there is a chance I won't get in. Readers who live in South Florida will understand that not having a driver license and a car is just not an option down here. I need to drive to feed my family, to run my business. Our lousy, unreliable public transportation system just doesn't cut it. I stand out there for close to two hours. Luckily, I brought my iPad and I'm reading to pass the time. Others are watching videos on their phones or listening to music or striking up conversations with their neighbors. I like to read. So I read. Around 8:30, I am now standing outside the building and a Very Mean Woman who works for the DMV is yelling at people, telling them they'd better ha...

In Florida, our preferred grocery store chain is Publix, "Where Shopping is a Pleasure." The stores have always been bright, clean, and well-stocked. The employees were always friendly and helpful. They smiled when you spoke to them. They cared... these people are a memory.  Publix was the last best hope for people like myself, who worked in customer contact positions all their lives and were trained to treat customers well, to underpromise and overdeliver. We were trained to be good to our customers, or we were shown the door. I miss those days. I miss walking into a place of business and not being treated like an inconvenience. I'm here to spend my money and help you keep your job so you can have money, too. Don't be so ungrateful about it. I was aware of a steady, subtle decline in the quality of not only Publix's service, but the quality of their products, too. I was prompted to sit down and write this because the half & half I bought from Publix not a wee...

 My generation was among the last of the free-range kids. We played outside. Our parents had no idea where we were unless we were hungry, hurt, or in trouble. We were out with the sunrise and in with the streetlights... sometimes. We were free in a way my kids can only imagine and my grand-kids will never believe possible. Times were different, they were simpler. We really were free. All in one lifetime. All in one lifetime. We didn't know it but we were bobbing in the wake of the 60's counterculture revolution and Vietnam and Watergate. I remember the Iran Hostage situation being on the TV at night and on the front pages of newspapers and the covers of magazines. I remember the image of a blindfolded man and each day, the number was higher. And then there's Ron. He turned it around, didn't he? Well, maybe not but he got the hostages back and gave America hope again. He put us on the path to prosperity. At least, that was how it felt. Reagan was cool. He was happy and o...

By Adolfo Jimenez I am a small business owner. Small, of course, is a relative term. While my business is not as big as Amazon or AT&T, it is pretty big to me. I own two corporations with four distinct lines of business. I work quite hard, even when things are slow and there is not much to do. In my life as a business owner, I have created jobs, and I’ve fired people or let people go. I have created millions of dollars in value, I have served countless customers, and I have, of course, paid more than my fair share of taxes. It’s okay, I’m happy to help those less willing than myself.  I can live with the taxes. No, I can’t. No need to lie, it doesn’t further the story or prove anything. I pay taxes because I would rather not have the problems that come with not paying taxes like going to jail or having my stuff seized by the state. Makes sense, right? But taxes are only one of the unfair burdens placed on business owners in the land of the free. The burdens people don’t talk ab...

  The voters of the state of Florida passed a law which will result in a $15 minimum wage by 2026. The bill passed with just over 60% of the vote. Some will say this is a victory for workers’ rights, and equality and fairness and all that blah blah blah. I am willing to bet it will be the opposite. Full disclosure: I am a business owner. I have hourly employees. All of them make more than the current minimum wage. Not all of them are at or above $15 per hour. I have a problem with the minimum wage that has nothing to do with how it may affect my business. See, I will treat payroll as I treat every other expense. I will pass on the additional cost to my customers. I hope they will benefit from the wage increase as well, because they’re going to pay more for everything they buy and every service they contract. Actually, I take that back. I hope they don’t benefit from the wage increase. I hope they don’t see themselves as minimum wage people. I hope they believe in themselves a littl...

  By Adolfo Jimenez for The Liberty Block In 2018, New York Attorney General Letitia James called the NRA a terrorist organization and vowed to shut them down. This is not the first time that a radical anti-freedom Democrat has  referred to the NRA  in such a way. Now, it looks like she’s now trying to make good on her promise. In the lawsuit announced Thursday, she referred to the NRA’s “charitable mission.” Perhaps she was just using the accepted term for how an organization with the NRA’s tax status describes what it does, but I do not think that she deserves  the benefit of the doubt. Are they charitable (non-profit) or are they terrorists? Not sure the line between the two is a fine one. It would seem that Ms. James is flexible in her terminology. She’s an attorney and as such, language is the bat she swings, but there should at least be some consistency in her messaging. Wouldn’t you agree? The lawsuit alleges that NRA leadership, including long-time chief exec...

No, not the lockdown. In some ways, that will never end without a serious uprising, and when I say serious, I'm talking about the real people in the world, not the basement-dwelling Ivy League commies pooping in the streets of Portland. But I digress. I mean, when are we going to cancel the cancel culture? Every day we hear more stories about a celebrity or a CEO or even some poor schmuck being cancelled because of something he said or did a lifetime ago. A museum curator was fired for saying he would collect the works of white painters. He didn't say he would exclusively collect white painters, he mentioned that he would buy Caucasian canvases in addition to the works of oppressed minorities. That's it. His crime was to say he would do what the Cancel Commandos claim to want to do: include all people regardless of race or whatever other labels these no-labels hypocrites stick on people. I have to wonder if anyone has really looked into who the cancelers are. I wonder if th...

I arrived at the airport in Bozeman, Montana. I check in. I go through security and the surgical metal in my right knee gets picked up by the machine. A man touches me. I’m part of a group of eighteen travelers, thirteen of which are teenagers, two of which are my daughters. I am not wearing shoes. I turn and a female TSA agent is about to touch my daughter. I rush up to make my presence known. My daughter is fourteen years old. We move on to the next indignity. I am called aside. They ask questions about my wife’s carry-on. There are a lot of things in there. Are they all mine? No, they are for five of the people in the party.  The guard is particularly focused on a small jar of huckleberry jam. (Yes, huckleberry is a real thing and it is delicious.) It’s wrapped tight in bubble wrap and she can’t get it open. I tell her to use the scissors if she has to. She does. Sure enough, huckleberry. I videoed the violation of my privacy. I repack my bags. I am in a bad mood and I still hav...

MAY 23, 2020: I began to write this piece and never finished. Full disclosure: I work at home. My business has been affected by the illegal government shutdown of “non-essential” businesses, but I am still getting by. My wife is apparently an essential person, too. She is working from home as well. Our income has taken a pretty severe hit. We’re losing about sixty percent of our income. Our daughter, who worked her tail off to graduate high school a year early, has been denied her prom and her senior class trip. She is lonely and distanced from her friends. This is harder for all of us because she will be leaving for college in the fall.  Our government’s severe overreaction to the Coronavirus has resulted in a 26% unemployment rate. What is this doing for the mental health of the people who were struggling to get by? How many people will commit suicide when their economic situation becomes unbearable? How many already have? How many marriages will crack under the strain? Any stat...

Graduation season is in full swing as economically illiterate Hollywood celebrities belly up to university lecterns across the country inspiring graduates with optimism and hope that will propel them into the real world.  The celebrity speeches may not help prepare these grads for adulthood but, at least, they’ve only wasted 15 minutes – a better investment than made by those who watched the Emoji movie or majored in Kardashian Studies or the like. I’ve come across surveys that show a significant majority of Millennials hold a favorable view of socialism.  The favorable viewpoint is highest in the 18-24 year-old age demographic although many of these young proponents have difficulty defining socialism.  In my highly unscientific surveys of 20-somethings, the definition often boils down to, “I want free stuff. I want others to get free stuff”. How is this generational amnesia possible?  After 17 years of schooling, these 20-somethings do not know that free stuff...