I aim to get back here tomorrow or Monday with some seriously random thoughts. But this has been a go-go-go sort of week, with little time to stop and cogitate, let alone write. So I’ll leave the thinking to someone else today. Here’s another of those in-depth and thoughtful articles from Ammo.com, this one on the distinction between freedom and liberty — and how those differences shaped history. A sample: To better understand what freedom and liberty mean, it’s helpful to look at the respective etymologies of these words, digging into their histories and how they developed. Freedom comes from…
Category: Government
Government evils — but I repeat myself
“The world lives by phrases,” said Herbert Hoover. He spoke in the era when men like Edward Bernays, advertising mogul J. Walter Thompson, and government propaganda czar George Creel were making manipulation of the public mind “scientific.” Not to mention all pervasive. Slogans and other simple phrases were handy for taking over people’s brains. One hundred years on, and with Twitter as our bible, we may be the most phrase-driven people ever. But no doubt the pithy quote, ringing slogan, or pseudo-wise saying has always driven humans — and often driven them to heaven knows what. “Hierosolyma est perdita” (“Jerusalem…
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…
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.…
Kudos to David Codrea, attorney Stephen Stamboulieh, Len Savage, and multiple friends. Their “complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief” is underway. You can read their filing here.