How can you sleep at night?

Merry Christmas, you fucking tool.

Isn't it always thus?

I live in Bratislava, Slovakia, where I work as a translator, editor and proofreader. My professional activities are detailed on my main website, www.gogulski.com.

I plan to renounce my American citizenship in protest of what has become an American Empire, a nation that I see riding an express train to police state dictatorship with flags flying, anthems blaring and deluded, complicit masses cheering it along the track. Hopefully, others will be motivated to do the same by my example, though I recognize inertia as the most powerful force in human affairs.

My political philosophy — which could be variously termed anarchism, anarcho-capitalism or individualist anarchism — informs this decision, but it is my disgust over what America has become — in bloody, murderous, thieving contrast to what it professes — which motivates it.

I have not attached a specific date yet to my renunciation, but I have lately (mid-May 2008) decided to no longer make it conditional on the US government opening its next atrocious act on the world stage. I had told myself as long as two years ago that I would renounce when the US attacked Iran, exploded a nuclear weapon, deployed a bio-weapon, declared martial law, annexed a territory or canceled an election. I became very involved for that reason in watching the news closely for signs that any of those eventualities might be approaching. In doing so, however, I’ve come to the realization that I need no more justification. The United States’ record, as a domestic and international governmental entity, is beyond appalling, and I need no further reasons to denounce it and renounce my association with it. Perhaps I am late in doing so.

Loosely, my plan calls for me to enter the US Embassy in Bratislava sometime between late August and early October 2008 and renounce my citizenship. I have some things to put in order meanwhile, both personally and to minimize or acclimate myself to whatever horrors await me on the other side of becoming an official unperson.

This website is my chronicle of the journey, my release for the disillusionment and rage I feel and, perhaps, my support group and sounding board. Stay tuned.

You can find full contact information for me on my professional site. Instant messaging from people I don’t know will be largely ignored. Flames will be responded to in kind. Donations to the cause are accepted graciously via my commercial data page, or via the various advertising and affiliate crap you’ll find around the site.