Category: Uncategorized

The Grand Lodge of Tennessee recently kicked out a Brother because he advocated for his gay friends and associates. It’s madness. Tennessee has long been a problem in this area, having kicked out a couple of gay Brothers in 2016. I don’t understand the kerfuffle other than it being a manifestation of generalized bigotry, which also keeps Prince Hall Lodges out of recognition in now a small number of jurisdictions. I wish the now alleged former Brother well.

Well, I wrote this in July 2021 and never published. I’ll hit publish now …

There is no more tiresome post than the apology for absence. Right behind that is the heartfelt promise to continue writing / posting / recording more. It’s all empty until its actually done. So I’ll avoid that and move directly to a random series of thoughts, I hope more coherent than the average Larry King USAToday column. (Zing to a dead guy and his twenty year old product!

As my social media consumption asymptotically approaches zero, I am listening to more podcasts and I am enjoying Jonah Goldberg’s The Remnant. Not only is it a reference to a classic Albert Jay Nock article, but Jonah has been absolutely on fire in his assessment of the collapse and utter miserable state of the Right in present day America. Even when Goldberg is wrong (Snowden is no traitor), he’s cogent and educational.

You should also be listening to Social Evolution with Max Borders and Michael Porcelli. Max was a colleague of mine at FEE and a friend and is now doing mind-blowing work at Social Evolution, his own research institute.

Farewell to Steve Horwitz. A friend, social media dynamo and occasional sounding board to me. He will be missed by many, many people and his role in the libertarian world will not be easily or quickly filled, to our detriment.

• More
  • fat
  • protein
  • metformin
  • ozempic
  • reading
  • goodreads
  • walking
  • podcasts
  • sleep
  • public library
  • travel
  • work
  • cryptocurrency
  • saving
  • freemasonry
  • writing
  • music
  • chosen communities

• Less
  • social media
  • weight
  • news
  • debt
  • the fray
  • forced communities
  • stuff

Last month I had a short review of Jackie Robinson’s first book up on EconLog. Check it out, just in time for spring training.

In Amadeus, Antonio Salieri rejects his father’s bourgeois commercial life and offers himself (?) in exchange for art and fame.

While my father prayed earnestly to God to protect commerce, I would offer up secretly the proudest prayer a boy could think of: Lord, make me a great composer. Let me celebrate Your glory through music and be celebrated myself. Make me famous through the world. Dear God make me immortal. After I die let people speak my name forever with love for what I wrote. In return I will give You my chastity, my industry, my deepest humility, every hour of my life, Amen.

After a month of quarantine and economic lockdown, I offer that Antonio was wrong about the relative diginity, fame, and importance of mere commerce. Commerce is what in fact makes the flourishing of art possible to the degree that 18th century Vienna experienced.

Three cheers for Old Man Salieri and his trade. And while Antonio may be the patron saint of mediocrities everywhere, he may also be the blessed patron of those who cannot see upon whose shoulders they stand.

The longer this goes on, the more I will be focused on the local and the narrow. While I’ve been less and less concerned with news over the last decade, this is really speeding up the process. I find myself occasionally jumping in but not caring pretty fast. Spending precious energy and time on things which I cannot change is not valuable.

Here are my general rules now that we are about a month in:

Long walk, started up a private discussion forum for my Lodge, wrote 600 words, made a simple dinner, made fry bread. Getting the hang of this now.

Minnesota goes into full shelter-in-place at midnight tomorrow (Friday night). We’ve already been socked away for about a week so I don’t think we’ll see much of a difference. I’ll need to run to the store tomorrow or Saturday which I imagine will be a bit of an ordeal. Mostly just for fresh things. Dry goods are in good supply.

Still plenty of work to do. Belt tightening is on the mind at my various places of work, but no action yet. Money is already being saved with the dramatic reduction in travel expenditures.

The full two week experiment is now on, from the President on down, across the country. Not much will be revisited until that period is over. In the meantime, we’ve spent an obscene amount of money on what we aren’t sure. And for what, isn’t clear.

Everyone will be poorer (or dead) when this is over. There’s no disputing that. We’re just arguing about degree now.