That's Libertarian National Committee secretary Caryn Ann Harlos on Dave Smith's "Part Of The Problem" Podcast, talking about perjurer John Brennan's characterization of libertarians as part of some right-wing terrorist axis.
As good a summation as I've heard of the Mises Caucus's recommendation for using the LNC and LPHQ for "messaging" purposes.Iif a picture is worth a thousand words, it's surely worth at least seven. So here's the graphic for the Harlos/Mises "messaging" campaign:
Nice to write something that's not about my damn wrist/thumb, even if it was inspired by my last post on my damn wrist/thumb.
Someone noticed that both the mouse I just ordered and the keyboard I'm considering are wired USB devices, and asks why I don't get wireless devices.
Thanks For Asking!, even if it's not a Thanks For Asking! thread!
For several years, I used a wireless mouse/keyboard combo. Two things made me give it up:
Is progress.
Which I think I'm making with the De Quervain's tendinosis. Using the hand as little a possible (I'm getting used to the left-handed mouse, etc.), taking frequent breaks from the computer, putting ice on it several times a day, etc.
I gave up on the speech to text thing. In addition to having to reboot my machine into Windows (I haven't been able to get any similar function to work in Linux -- I don't think it likes my microphone), I end up having to do so many corrections and such that I might as well have just typed the damn things in the first place. I may continue futzing with versions that work in Linux, but more for amusement than from an expectation that I'll use it a lot.
I haven't decided for sure, but I am probably going to "call in sick" for today's Garrison Center column. I really want to have this thing whipped by next Monday, and skipping one column seems like a reasonable concession to getting the hand tanned, rested, and ready. Especially since my left hand is starting to complain at being used in ways it's unaccustomed to.
Instead of, or in addition to, post-traumatic wrist arthritis, De Quervain's tendinosis seems to fit very well. Particularly the "snapping" or "catching" sensation when moving the thumb. Typing is a bit of a problem, but using the mouse is the real nightmare. I'm trying to take frequent breaks and either immoblize the area or put ice on it at every opportunity. I may need to take a few days entirely off the computer.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (OK, late 1980s) I was a Rush Limbaugh listener (if for no other reason than that my job allowed me to listen to radio while working and the local "news/talk" channel came in better than any decent music stations) and at least mildly a fan. He's also the topic of the lead essay in my 20-year ginormous compendium of same.
He died this morning.
I won't say I'll miss him, because I've paid no significant attention to him in 25 years or so. But I do wish his family, etc., the best.
I support complete separation of school and state. I understand that not everyone -- not even everyone who uses the word "libertarian" as a self-descriptor -- does. And that's OK, there's an argument to be had.
I think, however, that there's a dividing line between those who are serious in critiquing the problems with "public" -- i.e. government -- education and those who aren't. The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn that line pretty brightly in my opinion.
I'm seeing self-described "libertarians," as well as self-described "small-government conservatives," whining at high volume about how terribly important it is for government daycare centers / day prisons to reopen !!!!NOW-NOW-NOW-NOW-NOW!!!.
Many of these are the same self-described "libertarians" and "small-government conservatives" who a year ago were endorsing homeschooling (as do I), calling for getting rid of the US Department of Education (as do I), supporting "local control" of government schooling (better than federal/state control, I guess), and slamming the National Education Association for an agenda of indoctrinating the children in statist ideology (true).
I find that last point particularly telling. Now that the NEA is against herding the precious little chilllllllldren into the indoctrination centers and performing brain surgery on them, at least for the moment, these same people are against ... yep, still against the NEA, and suddenly for immediate return to maximum indoctrination schedules.
From their current positions, I can only conclude that either their previous positions, or their current positions, or both, are just a combination virtue signaling / moral preening and feel-good guff.
My column at the Garrison Center yesterday discusses the January 20 takedown of the White House's "We The People" page and urges its reinstatement, but I suppose it does lack a certain element of specifically libertarian grounding. How can I, as a libertarian, favor the state going back to doing something it was doing, then stopped doing?
Well, let's talk about that.
In my opinion, the "We The People" project served an objectively anti-state purpose, which explains why the state would discard it in, figuratively speaking, the dark of night when everyone's attention was on other things. As I put it in the column:
If Americans have an easy mechanism for demanding a presidential response to our grievances, and if the president doesn’t want to do what we’re asking of him, it puts him on the spot. He can tell us to buzz off, which no president really wants to be heard doing. He can offer a response that says nothing but feels good, or just ignore us, but we’ll notice.
To the extent that it makes the White House have to work harder to sell what it wants to do, versus what people are telling it should do, at least where those two things conflict, it's probably also a huge net cost savings to the taxpayer.
The "We The People" site almost certainly costs less than the price of one cruise missile fired -- hell, perhaps even one 500-pound dumb bomb dropped -- per year to maintain. If it raises enough controversy to delay the next US airstrike by even a day, there's your value proposition right there not just in human lives but in dollars and cents.
I'd rather not have a state to petition for redress of grievances caused by the state itself, but as long as such a state exists, I support making such petitions as easy as possible to create, sign on to, and compel responses to, for the much the same reasons that I support more dangerous activities like warning immigrants of impending ICE raids, putting sugar in the gas tanks of police cruisers, etc.
So pretty please with sugar on top, sign my petition (and share it, and sponsor/promote it).
So a few years ago, I bought an old (first or second generation, I think) Amazon Kindle for three bucks (IIRC) at a garage sale. And hey, it worked. Even came with a nice cover. I really liked it.
Then I misplaced it. I don't know if I left it sitting on a restaurant table or what. Just couldn't find it one day and oh, so sad I was.
So a few weeks ago I was screwing around on eBay and found a Kindle Paperwhite (2nd generation) for $30 plus shipping. I got it. Nicer than the original Kindle. It has lighting so I can read in the dim. It's got better resolution than the regular Kindle. Very, very nice. At some point, I may spring for the latest generation, though I don't really see much reason to until this one kicks the bucket.
The only thing I don't like about Amazon Kindle books is the "Digital Rights Management" that comes with most of them. On the other hand, that's not a big issue. I also have a Kindle Reader app for my computer screen, and could read on my phone if I wanted to (I don't).
Oh, and one other thing: That a lot of Kindle books from major publishers are damn near as expensive as print editions. But that's not a big issue either, because I just don't pay much for Kindle books. A lot of the books I want -- classics, old philosophy texts, etc. -- are free or at most a buck or two. As an Amazon Prime member, I get to select a free new release (from a curated collection) each month. I'm pretty sure (I haven't checked yet) that I can "check out" books in Kindle format from my local library. And I belong to several email lists that let me know daily about freebies and sales.
One thing I really like about Kindle books is that I can tell my Alexa speaker to read any title in my Kindle library. She doesn't do so nearly as well as, say, an Audible audiobook production, but I generally do that to go to sleep anyway. I'll crank up Bertrand Russell's Problems of Philosophy or Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy or whatever and I'm off to dreamland. Heck, maybe I'm learning nin my sleep!
As you can see, I didn't include any affiliate links -- I'm sure you can find the device you want at Amazon on your own if you're interested. I will, however, include a link to my Amazon Wish List because I've put a number of Kindle titles on it ;-)
And this time it seems to be (self-diagnosis here) post-traumatic wrist arthritis.
About 35 years ago, I broke my right wrist (specifically, IIRC, the scaphoid bone) in a moped accident (no, I'm not kidding).
Since then, I've had the occasional twinge, but not continuous pain ... until the last few weeks. At first I thought it might be due to the weather (my back will occasionally flare up when a storm is moving in, I guess because of changes in barometric pressure or something), but now I'm thinking it may end up being a chronic condition. It's been painful enough to make sleep difficult, etc. Last night I smoked a CBD cigarette before bed and put on a carpal tunnel brace that Tamara had lying around. I think both helped some. I'll probably order a stiffer brace and start using it every night.
I'm left-handed as far as handwriting goes, but I do a number of things (shooting, playing guitar, using a mouse) with my right hand.
I have no need to shoot right now and I've given up guitar since the pain started (it's difficult to grip a pick and I don't need to be flinging my wrist up and down). I spent a few minutes this morning trying out left-handed mousing. That would definitely take some getting used to. I may go for it this weekend, but I don't think I'd get much done trying to make the change on a regular work day. And I can't very well type one-handed either.
If the brace, the CBD, ice/heat, and perhaps some minor lifestyle changes aren't enough, I guess I'll talk to my doctor about steroid injections or even surgery.
What I really need is a full-body transplant.
I went in today for my second jab of either the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine or a placebo, with no way of knowing which I was getting.
At which point I was informed that they've introduced a new element to the Phase 3 trial of the vaccine in which I'm participating.
I've had two shots, and will be going in two weeks from now for blood work (presumably to check for antibodies, etc.).
At some point after that, I'll be receiving two more shots. If I got the vaccine this time, I'll get the placebo next time. If I got the placebo this time, I'll get the vaccine next time. I won't know which one was which.
The "why" wasn't explained, but my educated guess is that they're not getting as many volunteers for the trial as they need. Doing it this way doubles the number of results.
I don't class Black Sabbath among my favorite bands, but one can't deny their pioneer status in the creation of heavy metal as a musical genre. Their "occult" theatrics and graphics, outrageously presentated, and Tony Iommi's guitar sound (a side effect of a work accident as a teenager which cost him the tips of two of his fretting fingers -- he made false fingertips from plastic and de-tuned his strings to make them easier to fret) influenced, and continue to influence, several generations of bands. And they've sold more than 70 million records themselves, so it's not like they're an obscure influence.
Their debut album was released 50 years ago tomorrow, on January 13, 1970. It was recorded in a single 12-hour session in October of 1969. Black Sabbath included seven tracks, two of them covers. I've chosen one of those two -- "Evil Woman," by Minneapolis band Crow, as the track to feature.
See, this is what I mean about 1970 as the reason for this weekly feature. The year is just chock full of music that represents either the pinnacle of the '60s or the curtain-raising for the '70s.
... here are five prospective inaugural inductees.
When I was an adolescent sneaking peeks at "dirty" magazines friends had boosted from their fathers', uncles', or older brothers' stashes, Hustler was the "dirtiest" thing going at the mainstream newsstand level (in the back of a storage room at my first "real" job, I discovered evidence that my employer was into a whole different level of stuff you couldn't find at 7-11).
For anyone coming of, um, tumescence after 1990 or so, it's presumably a "so what" thing. These days, any kind of porn you want is a few mouse clicks away. Back then, you either had to get the stuff at second hand on the sly, or know a clerk at the local convenience store who was the older brother of a friend and didn't care whether you were 18.
Most "civil libertarians" profess to admire Larry Flynt for his several legal battles on behalf of freedom to publish whatever he damn well pleased, while decrying what he actually did publish (and not mentioning things like time he shouted "Fuck this court!" in the very sacred sanctum of the US Supreme Court itself and called its nine justices "nothing but eight assholes and a token cunt").
At least they notice that even after he was shot and paralyzed, he opposed the execution of the supposed shooter -- a racist serial killer who confessed that he'd been outraged by Flynt's interracial porn but was never charged with the shooting (he got the needle for eight other murders). And I suspect most Americans celebrated (fundamentalist Christians perhaps secretly so) when he caused Jerry Falwell "emotional distress" with an incest parody, then beat Falwell in court.
I don't know if he was a "good person," but he sure did some good stuff. And personally, I include the porn itself among that stuff. It was a lot more interesting than what passed for "sex education" in my day.
He died today, at the age of 78.
... if it's a general English reading comprehension deficit (perhaps not recognizing the meaning of the word "poppycock?"), or an unfamiliarity with Orwell, or both, or something else entirely, behind Newsweek's rejection of the following comment (on this Cato-sourced column) for "contain[ing] content that is in breach of our community guidelines":
Why is the Cato Institute putting out jingoistic protectionist poppycock like this piece these days? Did Trump drag y'all into a room and go at you until you begged him to do it to Julia or something?
"One of the most noteworthy aspects of the Kennedy assassination," writes Jacob G. Hornberger, "is the silence among conservative, reform-oriented libertarians on the national-security state’s assassination of President John F. Kennedy. What’s up with that?"
I'm not exactly sure what a "conservative, reform-oriented libertarian" is. But I do have some thoughts on why libertarians in general may not be as interested in the JFK assassination as Hornberger is.
And, I should state up front, Hornberger is very interested in the JFK assassination. He's written two books (not an affiliate link) about the autopsy on Kennedy's body. His organization, the Future of Freedom Foundation, has an upcoming conference on "The National Security State and the Kennedy Assassination." He frequently examines current events in light of the assassination on his blog.
As you might gather from the opening quote, Hornberger's position on the assassination is that it was a regime change operation carried out by, or at least by elements of, the national security state. And as you might gather from the linked blog post, he considers it still very relevant and is somewhat puzzled that at least some libertarians don't.
My own position on the assassination is as follows:
Not unusual. I usually am.
At the moment, I'm reading It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis (not an affiliate link).
The book came in for many, many mentions during the Trump years. I wanted to read it, and I specifically wanted to read it after Trump was gone rather than risk getting caught up in the heat of current allegory.
I'm about a third of the way through and finding it quite enjoyable. I thought you might as well, especially at $1.99 for the Kindle edition.
If you've read it or are reading it, I've got no objection to starting an informal "book club" exchange on it in comments. Fire at will.
... comes from Ron Paul, presumably by way of trying to give his idiot son Rand's idiocy some covering fire:
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who is required by the Constitution to preside, has by refusing to participate made it clear that he does not consider the upcoming action in the Senate to be a legitimate impeachment trial.
Emphasis mine.
The Constitution requires no such thing. Here's what it requires:
When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside ...
Donald Trump is not the President of the United States. Joe Biden is.
I'm really, really, really expecting to keep up the "one blog post per day on average" pace in 2021. But I did go for a few days without posting, so why not get a post out of explaining why?
As regular readers of the blog can easily confirm for themselves, I'm something of a frustrated novelist. "Frustrated" as in never completing a novel and seldom getting a very good start on one. The closest I came was very early in this century when I got about 20,000 words into a Ludlum-style "Nazis in South America" thing before the site I was serializing it on went tits up and I lost momentum.
So anyway, last week I was thinking about a genre called "flash fiction," or what used to be called "short short stories." I checked out a few sites and ended up submitting a Lovecraftian tale of horror to 101 Words, a site which publishes stories of exactly that length. I thought it was pretty damn good, and will be interested to see if they decide to publish it.
Having actually completed a story, however short, got me started on a Lovecraftian novel of horror that I've had in mind for a couple of years. I knocked out about 2,750 words (a little over 5%, assuming a final length of around 50,000 words) of the first draft in one sitting, and started in on some research required for the next bit over the weekend.
Here are the first 400 or so words. Let me know what you think of them!
THE AFFIDAVIT OF 2ND LIEUTENANT GERALD SPEAL, USMC, CONCERNING CERTAIN EVENTS IN AND AROUND CEDAR KEY, FLORIDA
PERSONAL AND TOP SECRET FOR THE EYES ONLY OF:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States
Henry Lewis Stimson, Secretary of War
William Franklin Knox, Secretary of the Navy
Lt. General Thomas Holcomb, Commandant, US Marine Corps
Colonel William J. Donovan, Coordinator of Information, Office of Strategic ServicesTo whom it may concern:
The following affidavit was authored over the month of December, 1942, under my direction and interrogation and with the assistance of Lieutenant Commander Dr. Jeremy Roth, the patient’s supervising psychiatrist during his confinement at US Naval Hospital, Jacksonville, Florida. It was personally sworn in my presence by 2nd Lieutenant Gerald R. Speal, under penalty of perjury per Article 41 of the Articles for the Government of the United States Navy should this matter come before court-martial or other applicable proceeding, and on attestation by Dr. Roth that his patient, while evincing belief in the truth of all claims herein, may be less than entirely reliable in his recollections due to the mental effects of what the doctor tentatively diagnoses as a severe case of Combat Stress Reaction. Where relevant official documents are mentioned in the affidavit, I have made every effort to requisition copies of such documents from the archives of the respective services and insert them in the affidavit itself.
Major Elias Campbell
US Marine Corps, Detached to Office of Strategic Services
US Naval Hospital, Jacksonville, Florida
December 31, 1942Dear Sirs:
I have been asked -- or, rather, ordered -- by Major Campbell to submit an after action report in the matter of the “training accident” near Cedar Key, Florida on the night of October 31, 1942. My lack of military education and instruction, due to the sudden, temporary, supernumerary, and short-term nature of my commission as a lieutenant in the United Marine Corps, not to mention the unique nature of the incident in question, precludes conformity with established formatting and procedure in such reporting. Instead, I will narrate, in plain prose and with chapter separations as seem needful, the sequence of events as I recall them, beginning with my conscription, commission, and assignment to Detachment Zebra, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division (detached for duty with the Office of Strategic Services).
Prior to my commission, I worked as an associate professor and field researcher in the Departent of Anthropology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, having taken my doctorate in that field from Miskatonic University, Arkham, Massachusetts under the supervision of Professor Tyler M. Freeborn.
What can possibly do justice to Morrison Hotel? Hands down the best Doors album, in my not at all humble opinion, with their debut a distant second. So far, it's the 1970 Album of the Week I've been most excited to feature. I'd rate seven of its 11 tracks as at least competitive for any "Top 10 Doors songs" list.
The band recorded the album at the close of a pretty dark period. Jim Morrison had been charged with indecent exposure following a Florida concert in June of 1969. They lost 25 tour dates, and their July release of orchestra-laden The Soft Parade hadn't played well with either critics or their fan base. About the time The Doors went into the studio to record Morrison Hotel, Morrison was again criminally charged -- this time with skyjacking, for causing a ruckus on a flight to Phoenix to see the Rolling Stones in concert.
Whatever dark magic was tearing Morrison apart (maybe it was just the booze), it got distilled and bottled as the band shed the strings and brass that unduly softened The Soft Parade. The stripped-down sound resulted in a strange and wonderful rock album featuring more of a blues feel than previous outings (the obvious example being "Roadhouse Blues," of course). They had help from (insufficiently appreciated) guitarist Lonnie Mack on bass and John Sebastian (flying under the radar as "G. Puglese" to avoid contract conflicts) on harmonica.
Morrison Hotel is 50 years old, and I doubt I've gone a week in the last ten years without listening to at least one track from it. It's just too damn good to not keep in heavy rotation on my personal playlists. The only real problem I've got with throwing it at you is picking a single song to feature. Through a process that did not involve flipping of coins but might as well have, I settled on "Queen of the Highway" ...
"Short Sellers Are Heroes," John Tamny tells us at the American Institute for Economic Research.
"There's Nothing Wrong with Short Selling," writes Gary Galles at the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
"There is nothing wrong with betting against a company," says Kel Kelly at the Foundation for Economic Education, "if one deems it to be an inferior competitor that will not survive."
And hey, maybe all of them are absolutely correct.
But that's not really the question that's up in the air at the moment.
The question on everyone's minds is whether brokerages like Robinhood should screw their customers, or whether politicians and regulators should intervene with trading restrictions (or maybe even direct bailouts), to save the short-sellers' "heroic" asses when their betting goes south on them and said asses end up in a crack.
And the answer to that is question is a big fat "no."
If you thought I forgot to put up the monthly Ask Me Anything thread, you thought right. I did forget.
But then, this morning, I remembered. So here it is.
Ask me anything (in the comments below this post). I'll answer (in comments, or in some other location with a link from the comments).
