I have withdrawn my books from print publication so that I can make them available free to readers via Google Drive. Here are the links:

Leftism, Political Correctness, and Other Lunacies

On Liberty: Impossible Dreams, Utopian Schemes

“We the People” and Other American Myths

Americana, Etc.: Language, Literature, Movies, Music, Sports, Nostalgia, Trivia, and a Dash of Humor

Hint: If you save a file in Word, you can then send it to your Kindle, though I don’t know how the formatting will look.

If you prefer a bona fide Kindle edition, they’re cheap:

Leftism, Political Correctness, and Other Lunacies ($0.99)

On Liberty: Impossible Dreams, Utopian Schemes ($0.99)

“We the People” and Other American Myths ($0.99)

Americana, Etc. ($1.99)

The Kindle books are free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

My latest book, Americana, Etc. — Language, Literature, Movies, Music, Sports, Nostalgia, Trivia, and a Dash of Humor, is available in paperback and on Kindle at Amazon.com.

Americana, Etc., is Volume IV of the series Dispatches from the Fifth Circle. The first three volumes are

Leftism, Political Correctness, and Other Lunacies

On Liberty: Impossible Dreams, Utopian Schemes

“We the People” and Other American Myths

There are links to and descriptions of Volumes I, II, and III in the four preceding posts.

Here’s some of the Introduction to Volume IV:

Volumes I, II, and III of this series are rather deep. It’s time for a break. The entries in this volume are sometimes serious, but the mood of the volume is light. It’s also rather random, jumping from baseball to movies to classical music to nostalgia, and so on.

I’ve included a long, final entry, “On Writing,” for want of a better venue. “On Writing” incorporates some of the ideas advanced in a few earlier entries, but it goes well beyond them. I commend it to you if you’re serious about becoming a better writer.

An annotated table of contents will give you an idea of the broad range of topics covered in Volume IV:

Political Parlance — A translation of words and phrases often used in politics.

Some Management Tips — A quiz to find out if you’re the pointy-haired boss.

Ten-Plus Commandments of Liberalism, er, Progressivism– What to believe if you want to be a good progressive (oxymoron alert).

Pet Peeves — The things that get my goat (and should get yours, too).

To Pay or Not to Pay — “Shakespeare” on taxes.

The Ghost of Impeachments Past Presents: The Trials of William Jefferson Whatsit — How Clinton’s impeachment trial should have gone.

The Good Old Days — Nostalgia.

Getting It Perfect — A satirical look at the Constitution’s amendments.

His Life as a Victim — Bill Clinton’s biography reviewed.

Modernism and the Arts — Why classical music and art went to the dogs in the 20th century.

Reveries — A remembrance of places past.

Thinking Back — The good and bad of technological change.

Thoughts of Winter — A selection of poetry for enjoying while sitting by the fire on a snowy evening.

Baseball Nostalgia — The Detroit Tigers “real” ballpark and great players.

Comix, Past and Present — The comic strips and books of my youth, some of which survive.

PC Madness — Why aren’t Norwegians up in arms about the Minnesota “Vikings”?

The Seven Faces of Blogging — A different take on Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages of Man.”

Christmas Movies — The best of the bunch.

Mister Hockey — Gordie Howe beats Wayne Gretzky, hands down, and I have the numbers to prove it.

The Passing of Red-Brick Schoolhouses and a Way of Life — The end of the age of innocence.

My Old Sears Home — Sears used to sell houses, and I owned one of them.

Baseball Realignment — Adding spice to the game, cutting off the cold ends of the season.

Wordplay — The vagaries of English pronunciation in a few lines.

Nameplay — Fun facts about the waxing and waning popularity of first names, with some excursions into president’s names.

Pride and Prejudice on Film — My favorite version, and others.

September Songs — Autumnal melancholia.

Testing for Steroids — McGwire and Bonds, guilty by the numbers.

Baseball’s Losers — Three long-suffering franchises.

The War: A Final Grade — How to feel guilty about winning the “good” war.

Did Roger Do It? — Probably, but not by the numbers.

Stuff White (Liberal Yuppie) People Like — You’ll like it if you aren’t a white liberal yuppie.

Baseball and Groundhog Day — Arcane facts about baseball standings.

The Seven-Game World Series — Not as suspenseful as it could be.

Presidential Trivia — More arcana about names, heights, longevity, etc.

The American League’s Greatest Hitters — Was Ty Cobb really the greatest of them all?

Driving and Politics — What a person’s driving habits (might) say about his politics.

A Trip to the Movies — The quality of films over the decades, with some bows to the best.

Men’s Health — Remedying an oversight in this age of feminism.

Arm-Waving and Longevity — Do conductors really live longer, and is arm-waving the cause?

So, Who Made You Laugh? — A tribute to the many great Jewish comedians and comic actors whose performances I have enjoyed for almost seven decades.

Hopefully Arrives — Language debasement with a stamp of approval (not by me).

Why Prescriptivism? — The constructive role of language rules.

I’ve Got a Little List — My updating of Sir William S. Gilbert’s lyrics.

Speaking in Foreign Tongues — Why is it hard for adult Americans to speak foreign languages properly?

A Guide to the Pronunciation of General American English — For foreigners, Southerners, and New Englanders.

Home-Field Advantage — It’s real.

Looking Askance — Satirical takes on military strategy, cabinet positions, politicians’ memoirs, and public education.

Competitiveness in Major League Baseball — There’s a lot more of it than there used to be.

May the Best Team Lose — The meaninglessness of baseball’s post-season playoffs.

“Than I” or “Than Me”? — I have the answer.

The Hall of Fame Reconsidered — How to cull the riff-raff from baseball’s “shrine.”

On Writing — How to and how not to write right.

 

 

I have cut the prices of the Kindle editions of my  books to $0.99 — that’s 99 cents each. Follow the links to take advantage of this deal:

Leftism, Political Correctness, and Other Lunacies

On Liberty: Impossible Dreams, Utopian Schemes

“We the People” and Other American Myths

My latest book is now available at Amazon.com

Paperback edition: $14.95

Kindle edition $5.95

From the Preface:

I decided to title this volume “We the People” and Other American Myths because there are so many misconceptions about the governance of the United States, beginning with the fable that the Constitution is somehow a product of “the people.” Following closely upon that myth is the be-lief that the Supreme Court — which has violated the Constitution countless times — is the final and sole interpreter of its meaning.

Two other myths that I address in this volume are the illegality of secession and the idea that secession is “bad” be-cause it’s associated with the defense of slavery. Secession is legal, and the South had good reason to secede, other than a desire to preserve slavery.

Also addressed:

• the constitutionality of the sacred cow known as Social Security

• freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and privacy as absolute rights under the Constitution

• feel-good attitudes, such as nation = society, active presidents are great presidents, and democracy is to die for.

There’s much more packed into the 49 essays comprised in the volume.

My new book is now available at Amazon.com,

in paperback or on Kindle.

The paperback version is priced much too high at $16.95, though it’s just above the minimum dictated by Amazon. The Kindle edition is only $6.95.

What’s in it? An introductory chapter and 56 essays drawn from posts at Politics & Prosperity and Liberty Corner.

Here’s the text of the introductory chapter, “What Lies Ahead” (1. INTRODUCTION, 2. UNDERSTANDING LIBERTY, etc., refer to the five parts into which the book is divided):

1. INTRODUCTION

The next two essays are “A Declaration and Defense of My Prejudices about Governance” and “Parsing Political Philosophy.” “A Declaration…” tells you where I’m coming from, if you haven’t already figured it out by reading the first volume, the preface to this one, or this introductory essay. “Parsing…” details my political philosophy (right-minarchism), puts it in perspective, and presages much of what follows in Parts 2 — 5 of this volume.

2. UNDERSTANDING LIBERTY

I begin Part 2 with essays which argue that liberty is a product of social intercourse, not abstract principles, and certainly not ratiocination. Liberty is a modus vivendi, not the result of a rational political scheme. Though a rational political scheme, such as the one laid out in the Constitution of the United States, could promote liberty.

The key to a libertarian modus vivendi is the evolutionary development and widespread observance of social norms that foster peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation. And that is liberty. The state’s sole legitimate role, other than procedural ones (e.g., the administration of voting) is the defense of liberty from foreign and domestic predators.

Is my claim that liberty is a modus vivendi based on social norms an endorsement of moral relativism? It is not, as I explain. There is also much in Part 2 about civil society, the institutions of which (family, church, club, etc.) are the keepers and transmitters of social norms. The second part also addresses the relation of liberty to science, religion, and democracy. There are several essays on the state of liberty in America (and many more in Volume I [my previous book]).

3. RIGHTS: NEGATIVE, POSITIVE, AND “NATURAL”

Liberty enables a person to exercise rights, which are the subject of Part 3. Those rights derive from social norms, which set the boundaries of permissible behavior. Social norms arise from the operation of the Golden Rule. Rights are “natural” only in the sense that they result naturally from social intercourse; they are not mysterious essences that inhere in human beings.

In a regime of liberty, rights are negative rather than positive; that is, they oblige others (including the state) to leave a person alone when his behavior is within the boundaries established by voluntarily evolved social norms. Positive rights, by contrast, entitle certain identifiable groups to benefits, the costs of which must be defrayed by everyone else. This is a fool’s game, of course, because it spurs the creation of additional positive rights for yet other groups, leaving almost everyone in the position of paying, indirectly, for benefits received. But it’s not a zero-sum game because the “house” — government — rakes in a percentage of the take.

4. LIBERTARIANISM, TRUE AND FALSE

In Part 4, I explain why traditional conservatism is true libertarianism. I also detail the vacuousness and fatuousness of the doctrines that commonly pass for libertarianism, anarchism among them.

Standard leave-me-alone libertarianism (based on the harm principle) is a form of rationalism: an undue reliance on pure reason, without regard for the realities of nature and human nature. Rationalists are fond of conjuring “perfect” political arrangements that simply won’t work.

Part 4 also exposes the essential authoritarianism of some so-called libertarians — oxymoronically called left-libertarians — who are intolerant of liberty when it yields the “wrong” results. In that respect, many so-called libertarians are like modern liberals (i.e., leftists). So, I end the Part 4 with some essays that trace the descent of modern liberalism from classical liberalism, and illuminate the parallels between modern liberalism and the “libertarian” left. (The sins of modern liberalism are treated at length in Volume I.)

5. SOME MORE “ISMs”

The final part explores Objectivism, anarchism, utilitarianism, and fascism. (I will tackle another prominent and relevant “ism” — “libertarian” paternalism — in a later volume.)

I address Objectivism because it is often confused with standard leave-me-alone libertarianism. Objectivism is a cult whose members swear fealty to “reality,” in the name of an unrealistic, sophomoric philosophy. It might as well be standard leave-me-alone libertarianism.

As long as I’m writing about unrealistic, sophomoric philosophy, there’s anarchism. I address it fleetingly in Parts 1 – 4. I return to it in Part 5 just to drive home my arguments against it.

Utilitarianism isn’t to be confused with consequentialism, which simply holds that liberty and its concomitant, negative rights, are desired (and thus desirable) because of the superior social and economic consequences of peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation. (Liberty is desired and desirable on its own account, of course.) Utilitarians are wont to evaluate social and economic policies from the standpoint of a dictatorial actor (though utilitarians don’t seem to grasp this implication of their practice). The conceit of utilitarianism is the (implied or express) existence a social-welfare function which (somehow) sums the happiness and unhappiness of a relevant portion of humanity (the portion in which a utilitarian is interested). A policy or program is favored if it yields a greater sum of happiness (“the greatest amount of happiness altogether”), even if that greater sum includes a rise in A’s happiness at the expense of B (who is unlikely to be amused by the outcome).

Finally, I come to fascism, which seems to be the inevitable fate of representative democracies. Popular imagery to the contrary notwithstanding, fascism isn’t jack-booted despotism; rather:

Fascism is a system in which the government leaves nominal ownership of the means of production in the hands of private individuals but exercises control by means of regulatory legislation and reaps most of the profit by means of heavy taxation. In effect, fascism is simply a more subtle form of government ownership than is socialism. Under fascism, producers are allowed to keep a nominal title to their possessions and to bear all the risks involved in entrepreneurship, while the government has most of the actual control and gets a great deal of the profit (and takes none of the risks). The U.S.A. is moving increasingly away from a free-market economy and toward fascist totalitarianism. [Linda and Morris Tannehill, The Market for Liberty, p. 18]

Fascism usually is described as a right-wing phenomenon, but with respect to liberty there’s no difference between the extreme right and the extreme left. They are merely different manifestations of despotism. In the United States, fascism takes the form of a “soft” despotism, one that is outwardly benign, but which suppresses liberty nonetheless.

The arrival of American fascism (“soft” despotism, if you prefer) was inevitable because representative democracy empowers government to act on behalf of “the people.” But government can do so only by stripping power from the people through taxation and regulation. Politicians hold onto their power by seeming to deliver special benefits to various segments of the populace.

That the benefits are largely illusory, as discussed earlier, matters little. The benefits are visible (to those who receive them), while the tax and regulatory burdens are diffuse. And so, “the people” keep asking for more, and the state keeps spending, taxing, and regulating to deliver it.

Thus does democracy destroy liberty.

On that cheery note…

NOW AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK — ONLY $4.95.

On sale now at Amazon.com (excerpts below):

Leftism, Political Correctness, and Other Lunacies

Excerpts:

Preface

This is a retired blogger’s version of John Henry Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua. It may seem immodest of me to suggest intellectual kinship with Cardinal Newman, but bloggers aren’t modest. If they were, they wouldn’t expose their innermost thoughts to the world.

It’s true that many bloggers choose to remain anonymous. But that doesn’t diminish their immodesty — or their credibility. Ideas should be judged on their own merits, not by their author’s reputation or rank.

If Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay chose to remain anonymous (to all but a few keen observers) when they wrote as Publius to urge ratification of the Constitution, why can’t a blogger emulate them in urging policies that would restore constitutional governance (as I do in many of my posts)?…

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Goodbye, Mr. Pitts

Politics & Prosperity, August 30, 2009

When I lived in the D.C. area and subscribed to The Washington Post, I occasionally read a column by Leonard Pitts Jr. This masochistic practice served two purposes. First, it exercised my cardiovascular system (i.e., raised my heart rate and blood pressure). Second, it helped me to keep up with what passes for wisdom among the race-card-playing set.

Mr. Pitts, who is a syndicated columnist operating out of The Miami Herald, comes by his race-card-playing naturally, as a black and — given his age (about 50) — a likely beneficiary of reverse discrimination (a.k.a. affirmative action). I should note that Pitts plays the race-card game clumsily, probably because his mental warehouse is stocked with gross generalizations and logical fallacies.

I was provoked to write this post by a recent Pitts column, to which I will come, where (in passing) he defends the socialization of medicine because other things also have been socialized. By that logic, Pitts would excuse the murder of his wife because millions of murders already have been committed….

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Our Miss Brooks

Politics & Prosperity, October 1, 2010

Some time back, Tom Smith of The Right Coast referred to the NYT columnist and pseudo-conservative David Brooks as “prissy little Miss Brooks.” Smith’s recycling of the appellation has not diminished its satirical effect — or its substantive accuracy.

Miss Brooks recently cringed when she contemplated an America without government, in the aftermath of a victorious Tea Party movement. Miss Brooks, it seems, is besotted with the manliness of limited-but-energetic governments

that used aggressive [emphasis added] federal power to promote growth and social mobility. George Washington used industrial policy, trade policy and federal research dollars to build a manufacturing economy alongside the agricultural one….

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Intellectuals and Society: A Review

Politics & Prosperity, December 8, 2010

Thomas Sowell‘s Intellectuals and Society is a rewarding and annoying book.

The book is rewarding because it adds to the thick catalog of left-wing sins that Sowell has compiled and explicated in his long career as a public intellectual. When Sowell criticizes the anti-gun, soft-on-crime, peace-at-any-price, tax-spend-and-regulate crowd, he does it by rubbing their noses in the facts and figures about the messes that have been created by the policies they have promoted….

The left’s essential agenda is the repudiation of ordered liberty of the kind that arises from evolved social norms, and the replacement of that liberty by sugar-coated oppression. The bread and circuses of imperial Rome have nothing on Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare, and the many other forms of personal and corporate welfare that are draining America of its wealth and élan. All of that “welfare” has been bought at the price of economic and social liberty, which are indivisible.

Leftists like to say that there is a difference between opposition and disloyalty. But, in the case of the left, opposition arises from a fundamental kind of disloyalty. For, at bottom, the left pursues its agenda because it hates the idea of what America used to stand for: liberty with responsibility, strength against foreign and domestic enemies.

Most leftists are simply shallow-minded trend-followers, who believe in the power of government to do things that are “good,” “fair,” or “compassionate,” with no regard for the costs and consequences of those things. Shallow leftists know not what they do. But they do it. And their shallowness does not excuse them for having been accessories to the diminution of America. A rabid dog may not know that it is rabid, but its bite is no less lethal for that.

The leaders of the left — the office-holders, pundits, and intelligentsia — usually pay lip-service to “goodness,” “fairness,” and “compassion.” But their lip-service fails to conceal their brutal betrayal of liberty. Their subtle and not-so-subtle treason is despicable almost beyond words. But not quite….

 *     *    *

Social Justice

Politics & Prosperity, February 12, 2011

The proximate cause of this post is a column by Nicholas Kristof, “Equality, a True Soul Food“ (The New York Times, January 1, 2011 ), in which Kristof pleads for less income inequality in the United States. His plea is based, in part, on the premise that persons of low status suffer because they envy persons of higher status (an assertion that’s based on research about monkeys)….

There is no theoretical or factual argument for income redistribution that cannot be met by a superior theoretical or factual argument against it. In the end, the case for (somehow) reducing income inequality turns on an emotional appeal for “social justice,” that is, for reshaping the world in a way that pleases the pleader. As if the pleader — in his or her pure, misguided arrogance — has superior wisdom about how the world should be shaped….

 *     *    *

In Defense of Wal-Mart

Politics & Prosperity, June 24, 2011

The U.S. Supreme Court’s finding for Wal-Mart in the case of Wal-Mart v. Dukes predictably set off a storm of criticism by Wal-Mart’s critics, who are legion. Those critics, predictably, are mainly upper-middle class professionals who do not shop at Wal-Mart, would not work at Wal-Mart, and fastidiously scorn the politics and religion of those who do shop and work at Wal-Mart….

I have news for Yuppies and other critics of Wal-Mart. There are no goon squads dragging unwilling people in from the streets to work in Wal-Mart stores. There are no Wal-Mart employees caged in their work areas. There are no secret prisons in Arkansas where they send Wal-Mart employees who elect to move on to more highly compensated jobs at other companies….

 *     *    *

The Culture War

Politics & Prosperity, November 26, 2013

“Culture war” is a familiar term, but one that I hadn’t thought deeply about until a few days ago. I read something about abortion in which “culture war” occurred. The fog lifted, and I grasped what should have been obvious to me all along: The “culture war” isn’t about “culture,” it’s about morality and liberty….

“Thanks” to the signals sent by the state — many of them in the form of legislative, executive, and judicial dictates — we now have not just easy divorce, subsidized illegitimacy, and legions of non-mothering mothers, but also abortion, concerted (and deluded ) efforts to defeminize females and to neuter or feminize males, forced association (with accompanying destruction of property and employment rights), suppression of religion, absolution of pornography, and the encouragement of “alternative lifestyles” that feature disease, promiscuity, and familial instability….

 *     *    *

Defending the Offensive

Politics & Prosperity, August 4, 2015

An image of the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia is displayed prominently in the sidebar of my blog. I do not display the flag to defend it, as one reader suggests. As I say in the text that accompanies the image of the flag, I display it to symbolize my hope for deliverance from an oppressive national government (the present one) and to signify my opposition to political correctness (of the kind that can’t tolerate the display of the flag for any purpose).

I certainly do not display the flag to defend the Confederacy’s central cause: the preservation of slavery…. But I do defend the legality of secession, as a constitutional right of States. Nor does the display signify racism on my part, because I am not racist. Clicking on the flag takes the reader to my “moral profile,” where the last entry strongly supports my claim of race-neutrality….

A lot of people just want to be offended, and they look for ways of achieving their aim. Take the controversies about the use of “niggardly.”…

Symbols of the Confederacy are the new “niggardly,” but on a grander scale. As suddenly and pervasively as the hula-hoop craze of the 1950s — and mainly because of a single act of violence in Charleston — it has become de rigeur to condemn persons, places, and things associated with the Confederacy. This is nothing but hysterical nonsense….

Clearly, the culture war has entered a new and dangerous phase, reminiscent of China’s Cultural Revolution under Mao.

UPDATED 10/12/15

I have posted only three times in August and September, and not at all since August 22. At first, I was occupied by moving my very old parents-in-law (ages 96 and 95), so that my father-in-law could receive proper care in a skilled nursing facility and my mother-in-law could have an assisted-living apartment in the same building. Just four weeks after placing my father-in-law in skilled nursing, he succumbed to his accumulated ailments. The planning of his funeral and the tying up of financial loose ends has taken up much of my time, and will continue to do so for a while longer.

On top of all that, it has been only three months since I dealt with my mother’s passing (at age 99) and closed our her (exceedingly modest) estate.

I shall return, but I can’t say when or with how much vigor.

UPDATE

Too much time has passed since my last substantive post. I have decided to suspend blogging, perhaps forever.

*     *     *

Related post: The Many-Sided Curse of Very Old Age