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 …
Category: freedom
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 …
Aug 18 2021
Defiance Or Gloom?
Your Curmudgeon isn’t sure what he’s hearing. Some voices are elevated in anger, furious about events in Afghanistan and seemingly resolved to expel the villains and incompetents in Washington who are responsible for the debacle. Many of these are persons who’ve expressed similar intentions for some time. But other voices speak in the …
Aug 15 2021
War Has Been Declared
…and there’s no such thing as a one-sided war: The United States Department of Homeland Security made a quiet and alarming announcement yesterday, creating the official position of the United States Government under the Joe Biden regime. [SEE DHS STATEMENT HERE] According to the statement, if you question the orthodoxy, mandates, or COVID-19 …
Aug 14 2021
Wedges
Most people who study physics at any level know the Inclined Plane as the first machine of their acquaintance. It’s the simplest machine I know of. It serves admirably to illustrate the fundamental nature and purpose of a machine: to make some human undertaking easier than it would otherwise be. The illustration commonly presented …
Jul 14 2021
Recourses
Things are being done to us that we seem unable to countervail. The destruction of the dollar. The strangulation of our energy supplies. Limitations on our travel. The privatization of censorship. The monitoring of our personal communications. We could see much of it coming from far off, decades ago. The explosive acceleration of …
Jul 04 2021
Happy Independence Day…
…if possible. For most American patriots, it’s a bit of a challenge under current circumstances. The greatest American put it quite plainly: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
