I stumbled across some pages I had scanned from my notebook for my final semester or so of my first degree, my BSEE at LSU, Fall 1986 and Spring 1987 semesters. My courses included:
- Real Time Computer Systems EE 4770 (Dr. Klinkachorn, Docka Klink)
- Digital Integrated Circuits EE 4250 (Burke Huner)
- Introductory Sociology SOCL 2001
- History of Contemporary America HIST 4065 (Culbert) (with my friend Ben Favrot, or “Fartov”.)
I liked to doodle a lot and was at the time fascinated with Douglas Hofstadter’s “Ambigrams,” making words with mirror images of themselves. (Metamagical Themas; Ambigram (Wikipedia); My Life in Ambigrammia; Ambigrammia.) Nicknames and pet names like Faggot Lip, Smoochball, and so on. Many of my EE buddies were in these classes–Ben Favrot (“Fish”), Chris LeBlanc (“Duck Butter”), Damon Smith, Sal Bernadas, Jimmy1, Jimmy2, “Booger” Wayne LeBlanc, “Pretty” Wayne Speeg, Fat Wayne, and so on. Culbert is the one that had me read Charles Murray’s Losing Ground, Oswald’s Game (which persuaded me Oswald acted alone), and others.
It’s no wonder I went on to grad school and then law school; I loved EE but was sometimes distracted or bored. (For more, see Adopting Liberty: The Stephan Kinsella Story (2025) and various biographical pieces on my site.) 1
Good times.
- Such as Yearbook Hijinks, 1984 and 1985, “How I Became A Libertarian,” first published in LewRockwell.com (Dec. 18, 2002), also in Stephan Kinsella, Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023); KOL455 | Haman Nature Hn 109: Philosophy, Rights, Libertarian and Legal Careers, discussing my legal career and my avocation and experience in the libertarian intellectual movement; “KOL454 | Interview with my Patent Mentor, Bill Norvell, about Patent Law and Our Days Together,” Kinsella on Liberty Podcast (March 10, 2025); “Memories of Meeting Rothbard in 1994“; “What Sparked Your Interest in Liberty?“; “The Genesis of Estoppel: My Libertarian Rights Theory“; “My Failed Libertarian Speaking Hiatus; Memories of Mises Institute and Other Events, 1988–
20192025“; “Interview by The Libertarian“; “Stephan Kinsella on the Logic of Libertarianism and Why Intellectual Property Doesn’t Exist,” an interview with Anthony Wile, originally published in The Daily Bell (March 18, 2012), also in Kinsella, Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023); “Faculty Spotlight Interview: Stephan Kinsella”; “Libertarians & the Religious Right: an Interview with Stephan Kinsella,” interview by Alberto Mingardi, Laissez Faire City Times, v. 2.39 (1999); “On Libertarian Legal Theory, Self-Ownership and Drug Laws,” interview by Anthony Wile at The Daily Bell (July 20, 2014), also in Kinsella, Legal Foundations of a Free Society. [↩]
