When it comes to individuals’ Constitutionally guaranteed rights, the lines are sharp and clear. The understanding of a right would not be possible otherwise, for a right divides the universe of actions into permissible and impermissible. Thus, it’s always possible to know when an individual’s right to his life, his liberty, or his honestly …
Category: government
Aug 30 2023
The Need For Clarity, Part 1
As attached as I am to it, I must nevertheless allow that Curmudgeonry is not enough. There must be clarity. We must say what we mean distinctly, openly, and fearlessly. I try to be as clear as possible…but others devote their efforts to muddying the waters, and it’s unclear which way the battle is …
Aug 18 2023
What Is Seen And What Is Not Seen
If memory serves, Frederic Bastiat was first to use that phrase. He employed it in a discussion of what’s usually called the “broken window fallacy,” an important example of how choosing not to look at some of the consequences of an event or a decision can fatally warp one’s perception of economic reality. Henry …
May 01 2023
Apropos Of “Homelands”
The following comes from The Man With the Miraculous Hands, the story of super-masseur Dr. Felix Kersten and his experiences in ministering to Heinrich Himmler during the years of the Third Reich: “Listen, listen to how brilliant it is,” [Himmler] cried. “We have taken Poland, but the Poles hate us. We need real …
Mar 25 2023
Money Today And Tomorrow
Good evening, and welcome to the Money Programme. Tonight on the money programme, we’re going to look at money–lots of it, on film and in the studio. Some of it in nice piles, Others in lovely clanky bits of loose change. Some of it neatly counted into fat little hundreds…delicate fivers stuffed into bulging …
Feb 08 2023
First Thought Of The Day
In Eric Drexler’s seminal Engines of Creation, the first book for laymen about the promise and perils of nanotechnology, he writes: States have needed people as workers because human labor has been the necessary foundation of power. What is more, genocide has been expensive and troublesome to organize and execute. Yet, in this …
Jan 20 2023
I First Saw This A Long Time Ago
…and I’ve only just found it again: It’s a brilliant visual encapsulation of a famous Lysander Spooner quote: The secret ballot is fundamentally wrong. Two elections in a row have demonstrated its perniciousness – and that’s for people who continue to think there’s anything good about government. Now consider that anyone …
Jan 02 2023
“Why” Is The Hardest, But “How” Runs A Close Second
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, whom I generally like and admire, recently Gabbed thus: Here we are in the land of “How?” And a most challenging land it is. The “How?” question is at the base of many of the evils embedded in federal taxation, spending, and policy. It’s thorniest when …
Dec 31 2022
Refunds
Long, long ago, though in this galaxy, I had as a friend a bright and enterprising fellow who enjoyed science fiction as much as did (and do) I. We parted company upon graduating high school and went our separate ways: I into the hard sciences, he into other sorts of studies and undertakings. Time …
Sep 06 2022
The Undiscussed Nationalization
Just a quick thought this morning, as I’ve decided to give today to people and things fictional. Fiction is a restful place for me. While our nation swells with lunacy and strife, I can compel my characters and the consequences of their actions to make sense. Ever since the World Wars, the attention …
Aug 16 2022
A Few Words On Classification
As this is likely to be a hot topic for the next few weeks – say, up to and possibly well beyond the DOJ’s near-inevitable attempt to indict President Donald Trump for something — I thought I’d throw what I learned about the classification system and the authorities pertinent to it into the pot. …
Aug 08 2022
A Spot of History
This comes from FEE, by way of our favorite Graybeard. It concerns the first important communications development of the 19th Century, the telegraph: In America, the first telegraph line was run by the federal government, from 1844 to 1846. As historian Burton Folsom explained, Cave Johnson, the Postmaster General, argued that the …
Jul 12 2022
The Lowest Steps
Mike Miles has provided another thought-provoking graphic: The “message” could hardly be more obvious. But what about its wider applications – that is, its applications to various aspects of social and economic mobility? Give it a moment’s thought while I finish my breakfast. *** We often hear of “social climbers,” usually …
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 30 2022
A Vignette About Government Subsidies
There are a whole lot of people, organizations, and industries fighting for a place at government’s feed-trough. In the main, governments are happy to have them there, for a simple reason: Money Is More Addictive than Heroin. That addiction can be used to control the behavior of nominally independent actors and organizations. Charles …
Mar 05 2022
Targets
If you need a demonstration of just how little intelligence, candor, and personal integrity are required to win a high public office, just look here: I totally forgot Bernie existed. And then I saw THIS gem today: We talk about being a divided nation. In many ways, that’s true. But, in some …
Feb 27 2022
The Fraying Part 3: Action And Reaction
Through the first and second pieces, the news has all been bad. Now it’s time to review the other consequences of the sociocultural assault on American norms: the ones that hold out some hope for a future of freedom and decency. *** As I’ve written before, word gets around. What people need to …
Feb 24 2022
“National Interest”
We interrupt this series of “Fraying” essays to address the question that seems to be on a majority of Americans’ minds at this time: Is Biden Out Of His BLEEP!ing Mind? Warning! Spoiler Alert! Yes. But this leads to a larger and ultimately more important subject: foreign policy and what constitutes the …
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 …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
