All our Gentle Readers know what a password is, right? It’s an indicator to a guard – human or otherwise – that you have permission to go where you’re headed. It protects the destination from persons unauthorized to visit. If you don’t have the proper password, the guard will refuse to admit you. …
Category: rights
Feb 22 2025
A Critical Case Of Entitlement
The attitude that one is owed by a particular institution, that one’s status trumps the prerogatives of the institution and the claims of others, can be as damaging to a long-established news outlet as to any other kind of organization. Such a lawsuit can produce either a healthful clarification of the law or legal …
Jan 19 2025
Equality As A Bludgeon-Word
“Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. Section 3: This amendment shall take effect two …
Jan 06 2025
Building An Aristocracy
Do you remember this piece, Gentle Reader? A class is defined by its legal and social privileges. The aristocrats of medieval times were not distinguished by their lineages or their deeds, but by the things they were allowed to do, without penalty, that commoners were not. There is reason to believe that the …
Dec 02 2024
“Rebranding” And Other Weasel-Words
This got my attention a couple of days ago: Former Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat, has said that his party needs to “rebrand” in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s big win. […] “What does it mean to be a Democrat?” Ryan asked. “People want to trust us. They don’t want to …
Sep 25 2024
Cleverness In Support Of Evil
Now and then, the morons of the world will latch onto a clever phrase and put it to use: “I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,” Harris said in an interview that aired Tuesday morning. “And get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually …
Sep 10 2024
Why We Must Remember
Much of the propaganda and deceit that’s purveyed today, particularly by “our” political class and their boughten allies in the media, can be defeated by cultivating a retentive memory. In that regard, the Internet’s “memory” is a great aid, for the Internet remembers everything: right, wrong, or indifferent. I have a cassette tape …
Aug 25 2024
Maintain The Tension!
There are a lot of people out there hawking ways to reduce the stress in our lives. “Are you stressed? Are you tense?” the self-help gurus ask in unctuous tones. (Or in unctuous font, when their pitch comes in a printed form.) The relief they offer has immense appeal… though in practice it’s seldom …
Aug 21 2024
The End Of The Totalitarian Road
Power is a drug that doesn’t sate. – Me. It’s frustrating, having to make the same point over and over. Still, needs must. When Clarence Carson wrote: [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 …
Jun 21 2024
Even Conservatives Move Goalposts
Sometimes, we even forget to bring them onto the playing field. FAIR WARNING: One subject of this piece will be currently illegal drugs and the proper legal attitude toward them. It’s probably the most contentious subject roiling the Right. Tempers often flare over it. Many in the Right, daunted by its seeming complexity, …
Feb 21 2024
Killers Part 3
When force is made the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. – Ayn Rand If you’ve read the previous two pieces in this little series, you’ve probably got the idea that I don’t much like governments. You’re right about that. The State, the human organization defined by its monopoly privilege of using …
Feb 20 2024
Killers Part 2
An ancient principle of the law holds that he who aids or abets the commission or the concealment of a crime is as guilty of that crime as the perpetrator of the criminal act. Clearly, the abettor must condone the crime. Equally clearly, the abettor and the perpetrator share certain convictions, whether about the …
Feb 19 2024
Killers Part 1
The civility cherished by the civilized men had finally been defeated by their ideas, although they did not know that this was the cause. After years of preaching contradictions and of evading principles with an anti-ideological shrug, these men were astonished to see the nation conclude that man cannot live by principles, that reason …
Feb 18 2024
Apply The Logical-Ethical Cement
Pascal passed the following video along to me for my contemplation: Jordan Peterson has become a hugely important voice in the ideological war. There’s no question of his significance, nor of his reach. Why else would the Left be working so hard to destroy him? In the video above, he emphasizes responsibility as …
Jan 14 2024
Blue States’ Assaults On The Second Amendment Continue
We already know about New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom, Illinois’ Governor J. B. Pritzker, and New Mexico’s Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and their machinations against the right to keep and bear arms. But now Democrats in the state of Washington have gotten into the act: According to Jason Rantz …
Dec 21 2023
Discomfort On Display
I don’t know how to embed one of these YouTube “shorts,” but this one is worth your time. It’s a fine example of the kind of squirming that anti-Second Amendment activists will do to avoid a straightforward question. They cannot abide having their intentions displayed plainly. They will not answer a question with a …
Sep 20 2023
A Matter Of Units And Standards
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 …
Sep 11 2023
Sovereign Immunity
[The following piece first appeared at Liberty’s Torch V1.0 on June 14, 2016. And before you ask: No, I haven’t been to the kzinti homeworld since then. – FWP] Some years ago, a friend of mine who sought to pursue an action against his township for mistakenly demolishing his house was told, in …
Sep 10 2023
Where The Power Is
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. – William Pitt Who can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act. – The Talmud One of the most illuminating bits of the Game of Thrones series …
Sep 03 2023
The Drones Of Labor Day: An Unpacking
This tidbit should be inspiring more questions than it is at present: The New York Police Department will dispatch drones to monitor backyard parties and private social gatherings over Labor Day weekend in response to any complaints. However, some are saying that drone surveillance by police would be an invasion of privacy. …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
