My Quest for Truth and Liberty
By Me
First Webinar!
Feb 1st
I got done with my first webinar about 30 minutes ago. On this night of The Biggest Snow Storm of the Century I was happy to stay inside and talk about economics…a great way to spend a blustery and frigid evening. 
The first webinar was really great! I think everyone (including me) enjoyed it, and that’s the important part. What use is economics if you aren’t having fun?
Webinars are quite challenging, and it will take me a little time to get used to this different format. It is hard not seeing my audience or hearing them ask questions. Reading questions off a screen isn’t like listening to people ask them. And if I say something funny I don’t know if anyone else was laughing. In a way, it feels like I’m just talking to myself. And so at some moments I feel rather ridiculous and then remember, “oh, I’ve got people actually listening to me. That’s nice!”
Next week’s webinars will be on the history of economic thought leading up to the Austrians. I’m going to show why the Austrians were significant and what gap they were filling. I’ll talk about Aristotle and the importance of the Scholastics in early economics before I start bashing Adam Smith and all the terrible things he did. To be fair, he did say some right and good things, although as Rothbard noted, everything correct Adam Smith said was not original (he was a notorious plagiarist) and whatever was original was wrong. I’ll also talk about some of the less known early economists like Cantillon. It should be really fun. I’m already excited.
This week’s webinar was on the Austrian business cycle theory and the application to historical depressions in America. I’ll be giving it again on Saturday if you’d like to join it then. Please register here though, because there isn’t much room left.
Thoughts on Egypt
Jan 31st
I know that everyone is suddenly saying, “oh…I’ve got some thoughts on Egypt” or “I’ve always had a feeling about Egypt…” but hey, if you’re here reading my blog it is because you like what I say, so you might just appreciate my thoughts on the Egyptian crisis.
Frankly, I haven’t thought much about Egypt before. It is like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I vaguely knew they existed, but it wasn’t until everyone started talking about it that I got interested.
I was watching some of the footage from it last week. I have mixed thoughts about what’s going on there. The conventional, safe, “ordinary” side of me is thinking, “uh-oh. Watch out for those people. They are mad. And doing crazy things. I hope that never happens here.” But I was discussing the subject last week with a friend and our conversation led me to see it from another perspective. While we shouldn’t encourage violence and protests like that, at least the people recognize that they are enslaved and at least they desire liberty. Seeing all those people burning pictures of their “dear leader” (I forget his name…) and overpowering rows of police officers with black masks and all that, it does excite and inspire me a little. As my friend said, and I’m loosely quoting, “a few days of freedom, even with a little chaos, would be worth it.” If all the good people in America would rise up like the Egyptians, it would cheer my heart. But I’m afraid of something like that happening here, because you’d get the good and the bad rising up. We would have violent people who don’t respect others. We’d have entitlement-minded people interested only in looting others. There is no foundation of Common Law or property rights here, and it would get very wild very fast.
But I like seeing these bold people striking out against tyrants and upsetting the plans of world leaders.
On the writing of a novel
Jan 31st
I haven’t yet published my first novel (thought it is very close to publication by now) and I’m already planning my next one. This phase of writing is nearly as wonderful as the actual writing. Right now anything is possible. I can dream big dreams and create fantastic plots. I’ve learned many lessons from my first novel. So here’s what I’m doing different:
- The first ever novel I wrote had a plot and theme much too small. It would have made a decent short story, but not a novel. It was misery trying to drag that thing out enough. I ended up abandoning the whole endeavor. The second novel I wrote (Path of Grass) began as short stories but then I discovered that was too big for a short story. It fit into a novel much better than a short story. With this next novel I intend to start with a spacious plot and plan for a novel. It was so hard to get Path of Grass turned into a novel. It was like building a house and converting it into a cathedral. I’m going to start out with a nice big theme and plan my novel instead of the novel dragging me along.
- I’m going to develop my scenes and settings more. It is going to be something like a movie script, where you describe each scene in the movie. I’m going to do my background work on the location and settings. I want it to be colorful and realistic. It is a modern story set in a midwestern small town. This is on purpose, for this is what I know best. I’ve grown up in the midwest near a small town. Writers are always told “write about what you know.” While Path of Grass is set somewhat in the midwest, it does contain some exotic elements (war-torn Germany…futuristic Uzbekistan, etc…) that I’ve never experienced. So I hope that my next novel will be even stronger because of the setting. And this is a time when I long to be an artist. I wish I could draw. I have this deep desire to draw out my rooms. Sketch the furniture, the little knick-knacks, the coffee-cup, the carpet, the cat on the rug, all the things that make the story real. It would be so wonderful for me to create these images of my world. As it is, I have just words which are harder to use.
- I’m going to have deeper characters. I’m going to “live” my characters. This will be a little difficult because I have many characters. Not just many inconsequential characters but quite a few really important people. I guess this is what comes of reading too much Dickens. I want to know exactly how they look, how they think, what they feel, their life history, their dreams/hopes, fears, everything. I want to get inside them and know them before I even start writing.
- I want to have a story that wrestles with the reality of our absurdity as creatures alienated from our Creator. But I also want a story that presents the redemption that we can find through our Creator’s entrance into our little world.
- I don’t want a trite story. I hate trite things. I don’t like stories that reduce the Gospel to the equivalent of a child’s coloring book. I don’t want a story with easy, nice answers.
- I don’t want a story with nice characters. I’ve made it my motto to never have characters without some sort of fault. I want my story to be inspired by the many encounters Jesus had with “sinners.” He ate with sinners. He ate with tax-collectors and prostitutes. It was the “nice” people Jesus rejected. It was the self-righteous religious people who never realized their great sin and so never realized their need for Christ…and who never appreciated the grace of God towards sinful humanity.
I’m not going to spill anymore right now as I think this story will go through many variations and changes before it emerges to the public.
Incongruity
Jan 31st
Incongruity
In spring they make
small splashes through the slush
and hopeful puddles.
In summer they slip
softly over warm grass
and rejoicing earth.
In autumn they bump
through skeletons of summer leaves
and frenzied wind.
In winter they leave
rounded swirls in pure snow
and frozen dirt.
Garbage cans.
- Savannah Liston
Violence Against Cops
Jan 26th
There has been a lot of uproar about police officers being targeted by criminals lately. Apparently 11 officers have been killed in the last day or two. And this is troubling. Saddening. And wrong. But I want to offer a “middle ground” between two extremes that I’ve encountered.
Extreme 1: Government is evil. Cops work for the government. Therefore all cops are evil people. There’s this mentality of “well, they deserved it because they are government officials out to get my, ahem, illegal vegetation, or because I didn’t wear a seatbelt.”
Extreme 2: Government is wonderful. Cops work for the government. Therefore all cops are wonderful, angelic people. People have this idea that since police officers wear a special uniform, they are somehow better than the rest of us “proles.” As if a special position and uniform gave a police officer’s life more value than if one of “us” had been killed.
I know that I’m exaggerating these extremes a bit (they are, after all, extremes). But I’ve done this so you can see where the logic of these positions will take you.
And I’m going to offer a short rebuttal to each of these positions.
Rebuttal to Extreme 1: Although the institution of the state is immoral, those within it are not immoral. I know from personal experience that there are very good, moral people within the police force who would never think to taser a disabled child, or an elderly woman, as has happened before. Not all cops are out to beat the rest of us. Some are trying to do a good job of protecting the people. They respect our rights and take us seriously.
Rebuttal to Extreme 2: The government gives police officers more power than the rest of us have. Power corrupts. And it corrupts these cops. It is just human nature. They aren’t any better or worse than the rest of us because they have a special uniform. If I put on prison clothes, it wouldn’t make me a criminal and wouldn’t make me worse than other people. The occupation of a person doesn’t define who they are. There are bad officers and good officers. There are bad electricians and good ones. Bad dentists and good ones. No job is intrinsically “better” than others or gives people a special position. Some will say that officers are special because they have a dangerous job. I think there are many jobs that are more dangerous than being a police officer. One site lists fishermen as having the most dangerous job in America. Loggers are next. Police officers are #12. On another list fishermen are #1 and police officers are #10. I’m not picking sites that match what I’m trying to prove. I googled “what are the most dangerous jobs in America?” and clicked on the first two sites that showed up. So where’s the grief and mourning when fishermen get killed?
The question now is, what should be our response when a police officer is killed?
1) It is wrong to kill people unless in self-defense. Let me make this absolutely crystal clear. There is no place whatsoever for killing people unless they are directly threatening your life. It is wrong to kill police officers unless they’ve broken into your house and are threatening to kill you. Why? Not because they are police officers but because they are people. They have a God-given right to life, liberty, and property just as the rest of us have. It is wrong to take away their life just as it is wrong to take your neighbor’s life. It is a tragedy when any person is killed. And this brings me to…
2) How many people per year are killed by our government? Even just in America? I bet the number would surprise you. Or just, how many people are murdered every year in America? The Disaster Center says that in 2009, 1500 people were killed in the United States. Wow. Why don’t we post these numbers to our Facebook statuses too? Why don’t people mourn the number of children killed every year? This is also a deeply saddening thought. The death of police officers must be put in perspective with the deaths of others as well.
The loss of any life is a tragedy, whether they were wearing a uniform or not
Mr. Madison’s War
Jan 25th
I’m doing a history class this week on the War of 1812. This war has confused me and I’ve never been sure what to think of it. There are some very interesting things I’ve discovered so far.
- Madison knew he wouldn’t have a chance for reelection unless he found some way to unite the country and better his public image.
- The First Bank of the United States had just been disbanded, but the new owner of it (Stephen Girard) was very good friends with Madison’s Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Dallas. Girard funded about 95% of the War of 1812. And Dallas was responsible for getting the Second Bank of the United States approved. You think there’s any connection?
- The state militias in New England did not like the war as they depended heavily on trade with the British Empire. They even considered secession at the Hartford Convention of 1814. Some states refused to support the war and others did but only half-heartedly. And even Madison never questioned their right to secede from the union although it was in his interest that they stayed. At least Madison had more principles than that despot, Lincoln.
New Stuff
Jan 21st
Please sign up for my email newsletter/updates over there ————————>>>
If you do, you’ll get the latest before it goes public (like when my book is coming out…) and you don’t have to keep remembering to check my site. I really would appreciate you signing up, just to make me feel good. And of course, I won’t be sharing your info with anyone else.
Other news:
- Some time ago I did a “Shameless Self-Promotion” post which was much more popular than I anticipated. I converted that into a page that you can find under “About me.” It has links to the sites and newspapers where my events/speeches have been mentioned.
- Starting on February 1st to mid-March, I will be doing weekly webinars. You’re wondering what the webinars will be about? AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS! These 45-60 minute online seminars will cover subjects from The Austrian Business Cycle (and what it means for us right now) to the history of Austrian economics to Mises vs. Keynes. Oh, and did I mention that they are free? Yep. Absolutely free. Room is limited, so if you plan to attend, please register so your place is saved. Read more about these EconSense Webinars here.
- I changed the permalinks structure of my site. I didn’t really think about that when I started it, and then a couple months ago I tried to change to something easier, but my theme didn’t like it and ended up eating ALL my posts. Thankfully I convinced it to give them back, but I haven’t dared try it again until now. I think it works now because I have a plugin to do something to, well, I don’t know what, but I guess it is doing the right thing. You’ll see how much nicer this structure is than the confusing and clunky default way.
So, a recap of this post:
- Sign up for my email newsletter.
- Read all the articles about how great I am. 
- Register for the upcoming economics webinars.
- Appreciate the new and lovely permalinks.
Report on First Mises Academy Class
Jan 14th
If you know me on Facebook then perhaps you were following my saga last night which went like this:
12 hours before class: “Bad news: FB finally forced me to get the new profile. Dislike. 
GOOD news: Mises Academy class starts TONIGHT!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! ”
3 hours before class: “Class starts in 3 hours. I’ve got about 18 more pages to finish reading. This is really, really great though. I’m uber-excited!!! ”
10 minutes before class started: “This is great! I’m attending the first session of the Intro to Logic course!! It is AMAZING!! If you haven’t taken a Mises Academy course yet, you MUST do it!! ”
5 minutes after class ended: “I just left the first class of Intro to Logic from the Mises Academy. That was GREAT! And I mean, really, really, really, REALLY GREAT!!!!! ”
What I liked:
The spontaneity of the presentation. While there was order and purpose to the class, there was room for sidetracking depending on the students and their interest.
The interaction between the professor and students. About 2 minutes before it started some of the students started petitioning Professor Gordon to open with a logic joke. I don’t think he had time to come up with a good one then…perhaps next class he will.
The intellectual honesty of Professor Gordon. He didn’t say, “here, this book and this theory of knowledge is the only correct way to view the world. Everyone else is wrong. Just believe me.” He pointed out controversial ideas and explained why they were controversial and encouraged the students to study both sides and come to their own conclusions. I liked that a lot.
What I didn’t like:
The speed of the class. Personally, I like things to go a little slower. I’m used to taking recorded classes where I can pause it and take notes or think about it. Once when I was explaining this to Professor Salerno at Mises U, he suggested that I simply raise my hand during class and he would freeze until I motioned him to continue. Suffice to say, I didn’t do that. It is a little intimidating to raise your hand in that way in Prof. Salerno’s class. But anyways…I plan to watch the recorded video again when it is ready. Especially at the end when Prof. Gordon was introducing some specific examples of logical fallacies, I would have liked a bit more time to think it over and make it really solid in my mind. This is probably an entirely personal thing as it appeared that everyone else was picking it up fine. I’m just used to a little different style of learning.
The irrelevance of the instant messaging. Again, this is probably just me. I’m easily distracted and it annoys me to have any sort of distractions while trying to do any sort of mental exercises. Some of the students were talking the entire time about things not really relevant to the class. I would like to follow their conversations (like the condition of Afghanistan under US occupation) but not during the live class. So it would have been nice if the conversations could be limited to things pertaining to the class. There is a way to hide the instant messaging, but there are a lot of good comments and questions that I don’t want to miss, so I didn’t really want to do it that way.
I suspect that people coming out of a traditional school background would get over some of these problems better than I do. I’m used to learning at my speed in my own distraction-free (for the most part!) environment and so forth. But this is good practice for me because I won’t always have ideal situations.
Overall, the interest and enthusiasm was amazing. The other students are truly interested in this subject and have a deep desire to learn. I think that is what sets this apart from an ordinary college course. They’re not taking it for the credits. They’re taking it for the information and knowledge.
I also like the great diversity among the students. While at a traditional college you will see kids from all over the world, you usually don’t study with people of all ages from all over the world engaged in all sorts of occupations, from homeschool student to ambassador to soldier to retired mother, etc…
So while the class was a little challenging for me, it was GREAT and I can’t wait till next week!!! It is fun to learn with other people and not just little ole me.
Also, good news from Professor Gordon: We don’t have to write any essays this week. And we don’t have to know everything in the logic book he’s using. I spent about 3 hours reading and studying the assigned chapter, thinking “wow, this is going to be a tough course” because the book is quite dense and hard to read. I liked it, but it took a lot of thinking. Thankfully Prof Gordon said that he’ll only be using some of the main points from the text and skipping over some of the finer points.
Mises Academy Class Starts Tonight!
Jan 13th
I think the most exciting thing for me this week has been the prospect of taking this course on logic from the Mises Academy. As I’ve said before, I’m a little nervous about it, but I’m not in it to get the best grade but to learn, so even if my essays are horrible but I have learned from it, then it will be worth it. I’d like to see you at this class too, there’s still time to sign up!
On other subjects, I’m finally contemplating the idea of getting my driver’s license. I’ll be able to do it this summer, and could get my permit in a couple months. For people who ask or would like to ask, it has been a mutual decision between my parents and I. They had not great desire for me to drive at 16 and I really didn’t want to either. It is great having your own personal chauffeur, photographer, and promoter (ah-hem…I mean, my father). But there are things I’d like to do that I don’t want to burden my dad with (can anyone say, “weekly Mises Circles”?). And I will eventually have to drive. I’ve put it off for a couple years but I can’t do that forever. For those of you worried about being the friend of a rebel and potential lawbreaker, I will be getting a driver’s license. I rejected the idea of driving without a license. This doesn’t mean I’m compromising on my principles. This doesn’t mean I’m going back on some of my other crazy ideas. It is not easy for me to entertain the thought of groveling to the state, but I do take some satisfaction in the thought of using the system to undermine the system. “Haha, you think you’ve got me in your grips…well, you know what? I’m using my driver’s license to hold Rothbard Circles and teach people about the ‘anatomy of the state’!” So that’s the way I prefer to look at it.
I must be off to edit my book. This week has just slipped by and I’m resolved to spend this entire morning editing. Should make some good progress.
Hello!
Jan 10th
So far this is has been a good Monday. I’m only an hour into it, but it is quite promising. Usually by this time I would be only half an hour or less into the day (because I sleep in….) but today I got up early and that’s always comforting. Well, it is nice after you get up but not while you’re laying in bed wishing the alarm clock didn’t go off and you could just forget about it. Oh well.
Here’s my favorite quote from yesterday, “A big, sovereign God frees us to be little, humble people with bright eyes and laughing hearts.” (Tony Sumpter) The gist of the article was that there’s a type of pride which sets up super-high standards for ourselves and then we feel guilt and failure when we don’t live up to these perfectionist standards. But Christ has freed us from the pressure of trying to conform to a perfect standard, for He has done that for us. Because of Christ, His sacrifice and God’s love, we can accept ourselves and our foibles. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to be better people but I think the article was trying to correct the opposite problem, the problem of trying to hard instead of not trying hard enough.
You can read the article here. Note: I don’t agree with all the theology of this site, so just be careful while reading. I think this article is solid, but I can’t speak for the rest of the website.
