I’d rather have Armistice Day. “Prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace” seem far more appropriate to the occasion than a free car wash. Far more respectful, I feel, to all those whose lives have been cut short by war, and for that matter, to veterans in particular.
Tag: history
Sorry, Republicans: If You’re Not Cutting Spending, You’re Not Cutting Taxes
Republican “tax reform” theatrics have worn thin over many months of waiting, but I still prefer a more theatrical title. “A tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing” rings true. Four centuries later, Shakespeare’s MacBeth is a better description of the matter than any coming out of Washington, DC.
Will the Real Populism Please Stand Up?
Populism is quite easy to define. It is the separation of people into two warring classes. Let’s call them “the righteous masses” and “the power elites.” The populist, of course, sides with the righteous masses. It’s as simple as that. But the devil is in the details of defining those two classes.
The Boys are Back in Town! (1h29m) – Episode 092
Episode 092 welcomes Skyler’s oldest friends Chase Steffensen and Rob Alvord for a reunion chat. Topics include: free market libraries, favorite podcasts, growing up together, Rob’s band Fat Candice, the history of voluntaryism, cryptocurrency and Heleum, unschooling, Harry Potter, adolescents, Ron Paul, objectivism, buddhist meditation, atheism, the psychology of cults, trespassing as a hobby, Free to Choose, and much more!
Hard Questions About the Protestant Reformation
It’s tempting for libertarians to celebrate this time in history as a great victory for freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but the Reformation’s main fruit was over a century of horrifying warfare.
Oskar Schindler, Problematic Legacies, Imperfect Heroes, and the Immutable Good
There’s still a lingering depression when we consider that heroes like Schindler can backslide, or make stupid decisions, or make cruel ones (like abandoning a spouse) after having done something great and good. There has to be an antidote to that despair. Or what is the point of doing good in the world if it can be so easily lost?
This Halloween, Celebrate the Commercialization of Sweetness and Surprise
Have you ever noticed how no one complains about the commercialization of Halloween? Halloween is one of the most honest, self-aware holidays. It knows it’s about costumes, candy, parties, and fun scares. It knows money will be involved. And yet you won’t find too many people who don’t like Halloween.
Twitter versus RT: Which One is State Media Again?
Twitter is fast becoming a branch of US state media itself. For a company with such a large international user base, that seems like a bad business plan. And it’s certainly a bad thing from the perspective of achieving the not quite realized, but clearly to be pursued, promise that the Internet holds out to humanity — connecting people around the globe without kowtowing to the increasingly obsolete and disintegrating concept of national borders.
Public Schools Were Designed to Indoctrinate Immigrants
The myth we have been told about the history of American public schooling as a national treasure that nurtures our democracy is untrue. The reality is that 19th-century politicians and citizens were fearful of and overwhelmed by rapid societal change, as thousands of immigrants streamed into American cities in the mid-1800s.
Encryption: Christopher Wray’s “Huge, Huge Problem” is an Age-Old Inconvenience
Theoretically unbreakable encryption has been around since at least as early as 1882 when Frank Miller invented and described the “one-time pad.” A pen, a piece of paper, and a way to generate random numbers is all anyone needs to frustrate Christopher Wray’s desire to read our mail.