The question for today: You’re writing your autobiography. What’s the opening line or lines? Whether this is strictly a “freedom question” or not depends entirely on you. What sums you up? What introduces you to people who may have no idea who or what you are? Where and how are you rooted? What’s the biggest grabber of your life? (Or something like that.) The writer William Alexander Percy’s autobiography opens, “My country is the Mississippi Delta, the river country.” Given that Percy was the scion of the family that developed and for decades ruled the delta, and that his status…
Category: Books and Movies
Over the weekend, I had a dream about George Potter. For you who don’t know (and that includes most of the world), George Potter was the most sublime writer the modern freedomista world ever produced. Then, damn him, he up and dropped dead five years ago at the tragically young age of 41. Fortunately, Bill St Clair archived most of George’s available writings for posterity. You can also find his works at The Mental Militia Forums, the place where most of us first encountered him, back when TMM forums were still The Claire Files Forums. George was my brother from…
When I went to once-a-week (or whatever it’s eventually going to be) blogging, I said I hoped my less-frequent posts would contain meaty content — but that the posts would reflect whatever the week brought, for good or ill. Recent days have brought lots of reading, sparking thoughts too formless and unorganized yet to blog. So here’s a little tale about how I plunged down the Reading List Rabbit Hole. NOTE: This piece has Amazon Associate links to the best or most eagerly awaited titles of my rabbit-hole adventure, but I’m not trying to sell you books. I’m just having…
Ah, spring. Okay, not quite. But it finally stopped snowing here (after one of the coldest, snowiest PNW Februaries on record — which you Midwesterners will no doubt dismiss as a gentle dusting, barely worth a mention) and I’m making only a quick stop at the library before heading out into the sunshine. —– If I owe you an email, you’ll no doubt notice I’m getting behinder every day. That’s not a new thing for me, but with home Internet gone, I’m really, deeply, almost sinfully indulging in the privilege of not responding to email. I hate to admit it,…
Note: After drafting this at home all day, I’m posting it in the cold outside a closed library. I usually do a lot of revisions when blogging something I’ve written offline. So if it has more than the usual amount of typos, poor editing, or rambling passages, please forgive it. It’s been snowing and I’m not staying out here in the car much longer to give it the usual polishing. Reflections on two recent books and a tragic ancient history whose spirit is rising again I’m reading two books right now that have absolutely nothing to do with each other.…
VONU: A Strategy for Self-Liberation By Shane Radliff July 2018 Liberty Under Attack Publications 126 pages This part is actually something like a book review. Mostly. So there I was, idly seeking any good reference to long-ago disappeared Rayo and his writings on the VONU life. And while most of the ‘Net seemed to have forgotten that pioneer of modern liberty, one site — one shiny site called The Vonu Podcast — was entirely dedicated to reviving Rayo’s ideas and advancing and popularizing them for the 21st century. Better yet,
VONU: A Strategy for Self-Liberation By Shane Radliff July 2018 Liberty Under Attack Publications 126 pages This is inspired by the above book, and I’ll have more to say about that great new read later. But keep in mind that this is not exactly a book review. —– Slip back in time roughly 50 years. Ayn Rand had shaken the foundations of the political world with Atlas Shrugged — and awakened a whole lot of intelligent, isolated young people. These young men and women knew they were neither “conservatives” nor “liberals,” but they hadn’t recognized there was a coherent philosophy…
I’ve been pretty far out of it for most of two weeks. I’m returning to the land of the living now, but don’t know whether I’ll ever catch up on obligations — particularly email. The least I can do now that my brain has decided to move back into my head is say a few overdue thanks. Here goes: To SF and RW for the shipments of medicinals and immune-system boosters. I thought I had an okay immune-system routine going, but this illness really shook me. To Ellendra for patiently and specifically answering my questions about specialized herbals. And to…
The winner of the survival/prep/adventure book contest, that is: It’s T.F., who lost his home and all his possessions to a forfeiture action, and has been rebuilding his life and library. I received a wealth of impressive book-contest entries. You guys made your cases well — eloquently, persuasively, factually, with humor, “gud speling,” and in one case even with a limerick. One clever soul wrote a generally very strong entry (one of the top three), then noted that in addition to eloquence and reason, he was adding ass-kissing, just in case. He didn’t win, but I appreciated his thoroughness. 😉…
The survival/prep/adventure book contest closed January 10, with many wonderful entries coming in. I had hoped to announce a winner on Monday the 14th, but got derailed by a slight case of the plague. Much better now. I’ll be reviewing the entries in the next few days and try again next Monday for the announcement. I was also trying to acknowledge all entries as they came in, but I failed with the last three or four (things started going south just before the contest’s end, and I wonder now if I was already feeling the plague precursor a few days…