Author: Bionic Mosquito

The Great Heresies, by Hilaire Belloc It has always seemed to me possible, and even probable, that there would be a resurrection of Islam and that our sons or our grandsons would see the renewal of that tremendous struggle between the Christian culture and what has been for more than a thousand years its greatest opponent. So writes Belloc, as published in 1938.  Before considering the heresy and the history both before and since he wrote these words, perhaps it is worth considering the situation in Muslim lands at the time he was writing. 1938 After the Great War, what was … Continue reading →

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All the same we take our chances Laughed at by time Tricked by circumstances Plus ca change Plus c’est la meme chose The more that things change The more they stay the same –        Circumstances, Rush The Libertarian Forum, edited by Murray N. Rothbard; February 15, 1970. In this issue, Rothbard discusses “The Task Ahead”; what comes next for this growing libertarian movement, on what issues should we focus, with whom should we ally? This forty-seven-year-old issue offers some good news and some bad news.  The good news: the movement (if defined as the existence of several generally libertarian organizations) has grown significantly … Continue reading →

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The Great Heresies, by Hilaire Belloc In this book, Belloc reviews five different heresies.  As I have noted in the past on this general topic, my interest (at this blog) is not theological; it is in what such things mean for culture, tradition and governance. Belloc reviews the following heresies, dedicating one chapter to each: Arian, Mohammed, Albigensian, the Reformation, the modern age.  I don’t know how much time I will spend on the details of each, although given my interests I suspect the chapter on the Reformation will be of particular interest. In this post I will review his introduction – … Continue reading →

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Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel, by Alison Weir The United States has a moral prestige in the Near and Middle East unequaled by that of any other great power.  We would lose that prestige and would be likely for many years to be considered as a betrayer of the high principles which we ourselves have enunciated…. –        Loy Henderson, US State Department, 1945 Having recently completed a series on Hugh Wilford’s book, America’s Great Game: The CIA’s Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East, I have decided to go further into … Continue reading →

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From the comments to my post An Adult Enters the Room.  The dialogue was started by The NAPster December 20, 2017 at 9:36 AM, but I will pick up the conversation beginning with his comments at The NAPster December 23, 2017 at 5:13 AM: …is the fact that one is unable to get what one wants fast enough (or even ever) a philosophical justification for violating the NAP? I begin here because this point raises one of the foundational issues to the entire dialogue.  I have written far too many times: the idea of “open borders” cannot be derived from the non-aggression principle.  So … Continue reading →

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Luther and His Progeny: 500 Years of Protestantism and Its Consequences for Church, State, and Society, edited by John C. Rao. What I would like to demonstrate in this study is the unnatural “nature” of what has been labeled “negative liberty.” So writes Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula (to save myself much trouble, from here on I will refer to him as IBC).  In this post, I will not examine the background of why the author lays blame on the Reformation for the war on nature brought on by the spread of the idea of negative liberty; I will merely examine the ramifications … Continue reading →

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A Libertarian Theory of Free Immigration, by Jesús Huerta de Soto …libertarian doctrine traditionally declared itself, with no qualifications or reservations, in favor of the principle of complete freedom of emigration and immigration. From the title of his essay and this sentence in the opening paragraph, I approached this piece with some caution – given my view that one cannot derive “open borders” from the non-aggression principle.  Maybe I am just a bit jumpy, given recent discussions of the topic. I am glad, however, that I stuck to it and read the entire essay.  De Soto rightly points out the violations of … Continue reading →

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Luther and His Progeny: 500 Years of Protestantism and Its Consequences for Church, State, and Society, edited by John C. Rao. In this post, I will examine the concepts of property and contracts as understood during the European Middle Ages; this is based on a chapter written by Brian M. McCall.  I will say up front that there are concepts here that are confusing to me. Regular readers know that I view this period in Europe as perhaps the period that most closely approaches the non-aggression principle applied for any extended period of time.  So…I (and maybe libertarians in general who would … Continue reading →

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…or Principled Libertarianism from a truly Principled Libertarian. Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle –        The Three Stooges Nations by Consent, by Murray Rothbard I preface this essay: almost every time I read Rothbard I am struck by how he has resolved countless issues of libertarian theory and application decades ago, issues that I have only recently worked through.  The man developed many concepts and applications associated with the non-aggression principle out of whole cloth; it is amazing how well his work stands up to time. In this essay, Rothbard examines … Continue reading →

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The Socialist Phenomenon, by Igor Shafarevich Igor Shafarevich has written this book as an examination of socialism, from antiquity to the present age.  Who is Igor Shafarevich? Igor Rostislavovich Shafarevich (3 June 1923 – 19 February 2017) was a Russian mathematician who contributed to algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. He wrote books and articles that criticize socialism, and was an important dissident during the Soviet regime. Shafarevich’s book The Socialist Phenomenon, which was published in the US by Harper & Row in 1980, analyzed numerous examples of socialism, from ancient times, through various medieval heresies, to a variety of modern thinkers and … Continue reading →

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A review was conducted of the recent events in Charlottesville: Independent Review of the 2017 Protest Events in Charlottesville, Virginia (PDF).  The review was led by Hunton & Williams, a law firm founded in Richmond but with offices now around the world. The report examines three events in the city during 2017; I will focus only on the most recent one – the one that generated the most coverage, controversy and destruction. The report is 220 pages; I will not go through all of it, but draw a few excerpts from the Executive Summary and other selected sections. Jason Kessler obtained a permit to … Continue reading →

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I thank Jacob Hornberger for making my case regarding borders and property – and, therefore, immigration. Wedding Cakes Have Nothing to Do With Free Speech.  In this piece, Hornberger makes an exemplary argument – perfectly libertarian – on this issue of baking wedding cakes for gay couples, etc.  It isn’t a free speech issue – which is how most people argue it; it is a private property issue. The fact is that the wedding cake controversy has nothing to do with free speech. Instead, the issue is all about private property and the right to discriminate. Exactly.  Now, some background… My Case Regarding … Continue reading →

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Luther and His Progeny: 500 Years of Protestantism and Its Consequences for Church, State, and Society, edited by John C. Rao. What happens when tradition is forcibly overturned, when competing governance structures are eliminated, when the source of law is monopolized in a single physical sovereign?  We are offered a real-world examination of these questions in the transition from medieval Europe to Renaissance Europe; the fulcrum is Martin Luther. Inherently the examination involves Christianity and the Catholic Church – the Church was the foundation of the common tradition, it was the governance structure competing with the physical sovereign.  Certainly in the last … Continue reading →

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As a follow-up to my post on the left-libertarian non-libertarian critique of Jordan Peterson and his interpretation of postmodernism, I was sent an email by a somewhat regular commenter at this site with a couple of PDF attachments.  These captured a Facebook dialogue on this topic. Before I get to a couple of specific comments from the dialogue…. What an inane dialogue.  It has nothing to do with libertarianism (so why the original critique?); there is an attempt to connect it to Austrian economics.  I paraphrase, “well, Mises and Hayek cited a couple of these post-modernist thinkers, so they really were good guys; the idiot libertarians … Continue reading →

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Of course, I understand that the two need not be mutually exclusive.  Yet, when one reads an appeal to libertarians, it seems reasonable to expect that the issues presented have something to do with libertarianism. Recently a friend of mine sent me something written by an outspoken and reasonably well-known libertarian; I think it is fair to describe this individual as a left-libertarian.  I am not comfortable offering the name of the author as the original reference is to a Facebook post; as I am not on Facebook, I cannot directly verify the source.  Further, I am unable to offer a link.  I suspect … Continue reading →

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