I just finished having a debate with someone over the idea that receiving State welfare is aggression. I defended the stance that it is not inherently aggression (for the aggression is committed by the State when it taxes people, not by the welfare recipient), while he defended the idea that it is aggression. His argument was that when one receives money from the State, that money has a legitimate owner, and that at the very least one cannot receive more from the State than one has paid to it. [continue reading…]
Maksima is an inspiration community that is building a political, ideological and spiritual movement based on The Maksima Declaration.
Maksima will eventually launch a main project, in addition to four sub-projects. The name of the main project is The Progenitor Temple. The four sub-projects are The Real Jesus, War on Dullards, Free Brothels, and War on Levelers. Each project serves a specific purpose.
Walter Block sent me a draft article “Does Trespassing Require Human Action? Rejoinder to Kinsella and Armoutidis an Evictionism,” MEST Journal (forthcoming 2025) and “invited” me to respond, whatever that means (I guess it means: “please change your priorities to suit my goals and spend your time writing this the article I want you to write instead of whatever article you were planning on writing”), presumably in aid of his stated goal of publishing 1000 peer reviewed or law review articles. 1 I assume he counts “MEST Journal,” whatever that is, as peer reviewed even though it seems unlikely it is actually refereed (he has four articles in 2025 alone in that journal). 2 I know from personal experience editing Libertarian Papers for ten years and from other publishing and peer reviewing experience how difficult and time-consuming it is. There is no way MEST Journal publishes this many papers and actually has them peer reviewed. But no matter. [continue reading…]
My podcast consumption has varied over the years. Of late, here are the main ones I listen to when I find time—driving, walking, falling to sleep (some are only on youtube and do not appear to have a podcast feed or home, despite being referred to as a podcast). I listen to many others; these are the main ones in my current rotation.
Tom Woods Show — still the best and premier libertarian podcast
Haman Nature — Adam Haman; check out his crossover episodes with Bob Murphy
All-In Podcast — annoying mainstream techbros (Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg) 1 but I can’t help listening
I dub Labor Day the worst day of the year. Worse even than the Fourth of July 1 and artificial holidays like Christmas and Mother’s Day. No, not for typical libertarian reasons but because Locke and then Smith have corrupted our understanding of “labor” and its relation to property rights, value, wealth, and economics, with the hoary and stupid labor theory of property and the labor theory of value and countless confused arguments in favor of evil intellectual property.
One “Abraham Thomas” sent me a manuscript with this note:
Your work on intellectual freedom and principled liberty has been formative for me. In Truth, I take on the subject from a broader perspective, exploring honesty as the foundation of both individual dignity and collective flourishing.
It would be a privilege if you might consider endorsing my book.
I routinely get these kind of submissions and requests. Not aware that this is published or public, so I don’t post it here.
I fed it into Grok and axed Grok:
evaluate the manucrript Truth by Thomas Abraham attached. Summarize its approach and thesis, and compare it to the approach of kinsella, attached. How would Kinsella view this argument? Is it complete, coherent, successful, libertarian, and compatible with Kinsella’s approach? Does it cite or show awareness of the arguments of Rothbard, Kinsella, Hoppe?
In grad school and law school while at LSU (1988–1991) I wrote various columns and letters to the editor to the LSU Daily Reveille1 and also to the local paper, then The Morning Advocate, now The Advocate.
I just ran across one I wrote that was published Thurs., Sep. 28, 1989, under the title “Vote against taxes and power.” Like most of the things I published in those days it’s a bit cringe. In that letter, I went through 13 proposed amendments to the Louisiana Constitution coming up for a vote and suggested how to vote on them, and why. I basically said “vote not” if it seemed to increase taxes or restrict liberties. [continue reading…]
Bert Schwitters alerted me to his book Liberating Liberty and upon my request, sent me a PDF. The book is apparently available only here, not on Amazon, and not in ebook form, and not available in PDF, epub, or other form online either. He describes some of his views and his book here too: Liberty and Libertarians. The book appears to have a subtitle but it is not clear what it is—perhaps “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and The Creator of Man,” but it’s not clear. This is obviously an amateur effort.
Recent Comments