You should read this small diatribe from Ken White (aka PopeHat): In Defense Of Free Speech Pedantry. Yeah, it’s Substack, but the Internet’s in turmoil right now and sometimes even smart people make bad hosting decisions. The important part is…
Free Association: The Freedom To Discriminate
I posted a while ago about non-discrimination laws being incompatible with freedom of conscience. Today let’s look at how they’re incompatible with freedom of association. Though, frankly, this should be obvious. Freedom of association requires that the State not be…
Utilitarianism: The End Justifying The Means
Utilitarianism is the dominant philosophy in public discourse in the United States. And it’s nonsense. Utilitarianism claims that the morally correct action is the one which results in the greatest good. All this does, from a decision-making perspective, is kick…
Followers: The Problem With “Leadership”
Business leaders, political leaders, thought leaders; “leadership” is an aspirational word in these United States. It shouldn’t be. Sure, many of the qualities people mean by it can be good: decisiveness, confidence, charisma. These are fine things in someone trustworthy…
A Just War: Christmas Has Gone Too Far
Thanksgiving is Ukraine to Christmas’ Russia: I wouldn’t normally be particularly interested in it, though it seems fine (if a bit problematic), but its annoying neighbor just won’t stay inside its own borders. Christmas is the expansionist wannabe empire of…
Twitpocalypse Now: An Opportunity To Improve
You’ve probably heard that Elon Musk is having some … minor difficulties in his takeover of Twitter. Ya know, just some small things. Small things like being unable to disable access for former employees because all the employees who used…
Former: The Most Important Word In Government Titles
The most important thing to keep in mind about having a role in the State is that it ends, and then you go home and you’re just another citizen again. This is really important. My father, with whom I agree…
Royalty: You Just Can’t Get More Un-American
Elizabeth Windsor died today. This will be the subject of a lot of news coverage in the coming months, along with the installation of her successor. That’s fine: she was the Queen of England (among many other titles). She was…
Colorful Speech: We’re Doing This Again?
So, this weekend it came to light (in a rather dramatic fashion) that some folks think “colored” is a racial slur. Not just problematic, but an actual slur whose use warrants expelling a panelist from a professional conference. That’s gonna…
Still Going: The Energizer Pandemic
Even if you follow the news, you might be forgiven for thinking that the SARS-COV-2 pandemic was largely in the past. You’d be wrong, of course. It is still very much with us, and has been growing steadily since (shortly…