Since we are talking about government power and police states, Solzhenitsyn seemed a good choice for a quote today. “The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918- ) Russian writer, Soviet dissident, imprisoned for 8 years for [...]

Rather than continue hijacking Brad’s post on Air Travel Security, I thought I’d move the discussion that developed there into its own post. And, I’m trying to consolidate the discussion on two different blogs into one. To see what I mean, look at this post on Eric’s Grumbles. There are some points that really ought [...]

Not long ago, CATO unveiled their blog: CATO Unbound. The premise is that they will have a primary essay every month, responses from other prominent bloggers and provide trackbacks and links so that the rest of the blogosphere can respond too. Because December was so insane, I didn’t get a chance to play with the CATO concept as they debuted with The Living Constitution.

Thomas DiLorenzo wrote an excellent article back in November on the consequences of government price controls. There’s an interesting underlying theme here. DiLorenzo catalogs more than 2500 years of government price controls and the disasters they brought about, all the way up to modern times and the energy crisis of California. And the thing that [...]

Carnival of Liberty XXVII is up and running at Louisiana Libertarian. Head on over and check out some good stuff related to Life, Liberty and Property!

I was chatting with Robert about technology. As I mentioned on my own blog, I got a couple of cool geek toys for Christmas. One is kind of passive, but awesome for audio/video geekery; a DVD recorder. Not only does it play DVD’s (and music and picture CD’s) very well, but it records just about [...]

I think the insanity is finally coming to an end. I have had a major project at work that was going on right through the holiday, but we seem to finally be in the homestretch. As a couple of people know, I’ve been working 15+ hours a day since about the Dec. 12th, give or [...]

I suspect that many of my readers, and, indeed, many of the people I read, have never heard of Alfred Korzybski or General Semantics. I would highly recommend, before reading and commenting, that you familiarize yourself with the idea that the “map is not the territory” and the “word is not the thing”. Better yet, [...]

I’ll give you your first hint. Or several even. The Second Amendment does not exist so that gun collectors can buy antique muskets. Nor so that Elmer Fudd can keep on trying to bag Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny.

Over the years, I’ve had many dialogues with people about inherent rights and constructed rights, and why they are different. I’ve also tried to distinguish between capitalism and corporatism, and why the are different. The issue that continues to crop up is that most people, even though they have taken classes on politics in high [...]

Carnival of Liberty XXIII is up at Below the Beltway. There is, as always, a bunch of really great posts on the topic. In reading through it so far, I’ve already discovered some great posts from folks such as Coyote Blog and Eidelblog. I know there’s a lot more great stuff, I just haven’t had [...]

And take into consideration who wrote it. “The fact that people sort themselves out in many ways is not usually a big problem—except to those people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do. Government programs to unsort people who have sorted themselves out have produced one social disaster after [...]

For roughly the first 150 years of the Republic judges in this country made legal rulings based on the intent and meaning of the Constitution as it was written. This concept, at the time, was not called Originalism. It was considered the norm for a country founded on the principle of the rule of law.

The Cato Institute will be launching their own blog, called Cato Unbound, on Monday, December 5. They will post a new essay, and reactions, every month. From their About page: Each month, Cato Unbound will present an essay on a big-picture topic by one of the world’s leading thinkers. The ideas in that essay will [...]

Light, and not so light, reading for a Saturday evening.

That cigar my father-in-law and I smoke at Christmas apparently puts us in the evil tobacco users club. Per WHO, one of us is going to die. Wooohoooo, that means one of us isn’t going to die. A cigar a year is a small price to pay for a 50% shot at not dying!

In a day and age where individualism is tossed in favor of collectivism, where inherent rights are infringed upon daily, where economic liberty is set aside in favor of egalitarian mediocrity, those of us who treasure liberty must make common cause with a lot of strange bedfellows.

Pretending that something is a drug as a 10 year old’s prank is heinous, an absolutely unconscionable act. We can’t have these 10 year old girls running around doing this sort of thing. But it was just pretend marijuana, you protest? Yes, but we all know where that leads, don’t we?

Interesting reading to check out in your spare minute a day.

“True liberty cannot exist apart from the full rights of property, for property is the only crystallized form of free faculties… ” – Auberon Herbert (1838-1906) English author Without property rights, everything becomes a privilege, granted you by a generous collective. If you are not able to own your property, defend it, be private within [...]