“Professor, I can’t understand you. I don’t insist that you call it ‘government’—I just want you to state what rules you think are necessary to insure equal freedom for all.” “Dear lady, I’ll happily accept your rules.” “But you don’t seem to want any rules!” “True. But I will accept any …
Category: freedom
Jan 21 2023
Tirade #2
Stand back, Gentle Reader. This could get ugly. I’m about to vent. *** Mostly, I eschew watching videos of more than two or three minutes’ duration. I read very fast, and I much prefer to absorb information that way. Thus, the time spent watching a video is almost always several times what reading …
Dec 07 2022
Life, Death, and Decay: A Coda
Old people think about such things far more frequently than young people…but now and then, a young person will think about them. It’s about mindset: The lecture hall had emptied, but Armand and Teresza remained in their seats. Armand had not moved since the closing bell, and Teresza was afraid to nudge him. …
Dec 05 2022
“Freedom: I Won’t!”
This will be an extremely trying day here at the Fortress, for doggie reasons: our Newf must go back under the knife yet again, this time to correct a dangerous abdominal hernia. So I doubt I’ll be posting anything much. Accordingly, I’d like to recommend that anyone who hasn’t yet read Eric Frank …
Nov 29 2022
A Direct Hit On The Jugular
Dan Gelernter’s column of today is a must-read. The Sunday punch: We—individuals, local governments, state governments—need to get off the drug of government money. Ultimately, it’s just our money but with all the freedom filtered out: We’re actually paying to be enslaved. I’d like to start a petition declaring a national federal …
Oct 27 2022
Desperation On The Anti-Free-Speech Front
This conference has raised something of a row: There’s mounting faculty opposition to an invitation-only, no-media-allowed academic freedom conference scheduled for next week at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. The conference, headlined by libertarian tech billionaire Peter Thiel and organized by the business school’s Classical Liberalism Initiative, has been criticized as pre-emptively …
Oct 27 2022
The Further Desiccation Of The Desiccated Remains
The late, great Clarence Carson wrote the following in 1964: [W]e are told that there is no need to fear the concentration of power in government so long as that power is checked by the electoral process. We are urged to believe that so long as we can express our disagreement in words, …
Sep 20 2022
My Horrifying Opinions
Time was, I studied the natural sciences: physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, even a little meteorology. It’s not a program I recommend to anyone else. You see, it made me socially unacceptable. Stop looking so shocked! The study of the sciences equips the student with facts, and you should know that the possession of …
Aug 10 2022
Torch Song Elegy
I’m on an “Internet retreat” at the moment, in case you’ve been wondering where the interminable essays have gone. But I want to post a quick word before returning to my fiction labors. Perhaps it will serve to explain why I’ve absented myself. You don’t need me to read the news to you. …
Jun 03 2022
The Need to Defeat Those Exploiting Insanity to Achieve Total Power — UPDATED
RESISTANCE PRESERVES LIBERTY AND DEFENDS SANITY IN THE PROCESS. Only then does social cohesion stand a chance of returning, and the advance of civilization with it — real progress and not the regression sought by Progs. • Screams for diverse goals are identified by social engineers. • Owning the means to amplify screams, they persuade …
Jun 02 2022
A Quick Thought On Government And Freedom
‘The Enemy, of course, has long known that the Ring is abroad, and that it is borne by a hobbit. He knows now the number of our Company that set out from Rivendell, and the kind of each of us. But he does not yet perceive our purpose clearly. He supposes that we were …
May 15 2022
Determinism And Its Antecedents
Were you aware that the hottest issue in the physical sciences today is whether there’s really such a thing as causality? Actually, it’s been the hottest issue for several decades already, ever since the codification of measurement uncertainty and quantum level indeterminacy. Physicists struggle to work with quantum systems that defy classical conceptions of …
Apr 14 2022
He Meant What He Said!
Elon Musk is my new hero: Elon Musk has launched a $41.39 billion hostile takeover of Twitter, the world’s most influential social media platform. On early Thursday, Musk made his “best and final” offer to buy Twitter Inc., stating that he intends to unlock the company’s “extraordinary potential.” As predicted by Rebel …
Feb 11 2022
When Enemies Are Revealed As Allies
You may have already heard about this offer of assistance: U.S. officials have offered to help the Trudeau government end an anti-vaccine mandate protest blockade that is sending ripple effects through the American economy and causing increasing concern in Washington. The White House says U.S. officials had multiple conversations on Thursday with …
Feb 03 2022
History And Its Lesson
“The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel I sometimes envision History as a teacher standing before a classroom filled with squalling teenagers. The kids are entirely uninterested in what Miss History has to say. Who cares about all that old …
Jan 31 2022
Why I Wrote And Promote The Spooner Federation Books
Regular Gentle Readers have noticed that I’ve been indirectly touting this novel recently. A couple have expressed curiosity about it: “If you’re going to sneak pitches for your novels into your op-eds, why that book? It’s one of your oldest.” One, whom I know more personally than most of my other readers, went even …
Jan 30 2022
Conditional Property
Have you ever seen the phrase above? I’ve encountered it only once, and that was in a fictional context: “What made you think that I’d accept a gift of this kind?” “It is not a gift, Mr. Rearden. It is your own money. But I have one favor to ask of you. …
Nov 16 2021
Is Freedom Possible And Achievable?
Among my heroes, the great Herbert Spencer (1820-1902) stands very high indeed, not far behind Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Jefferson, and whoever it was that invented pasta. At one time, Spencer was the most popular writer in the English-speaking world. Two of his books, Social Statics and The Man Versus The State, are considered indispensable …
Oct 30 2021
Scientism, Democratism, And Statism
The ism suffix particle most often indicates a faith, or a similarly faith-based system of beliefs. There are a few exceptions – bruxism, for instance, is dentists’ term for habitual grinding of the teeth, and a neologism is just a newly coined word – but the rule is usually reliable. Recently, we’ve had …
Oct 28 2021
The Remedy
I have a great deal to do today – yes, Gentle Reader, I have a life away from the computers, as implausible as that may sound – so this will be a brief piece. First, the response to: this essay, this subsequent one, and this brief coda …has been overwhelming. It suggests that …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
