Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 2392

Anthem

It is a sin to write this.
–        Anthem, Ayn Rand

Blasphemy.  The debate about the national anthem, standing, kneeling, sitting, troops, the NFL, Trump, Goodell.  Kneel to protest police brutality of minorities and in support of social justice; stand to honor the country and the troops.  These are the two sides, and this reality – that these are the only sides – is pounded into us all.

Even those who kneel say that they support the troops.

Trump Embraces the Culture War, by Patrick J. Buch...

Messing With Mythology

Star Trek: The Next Generation showed a fascinating and creative episode where an alien culture spoke in shortcuts.  They would say “Shaka, when the walls fell,” instead of “You know, I think that’s a really stupid idea that’s likely to get the both of us killed in a very bloody and painful fashion, so how about you let me do the thinking for both of us.”  The entire episode was about finding bridges between the culture of the Federation and this other, completely alien civilization.

But that...

The World’s Shortest IQ Test

Getting into Mensa involves taking a test with dozens of questions, but apparently, there’s an easier way to check if you have superior IQ.

The Cognitive Reflection Test is the world’s shortest IQ assessment and contains just three questions, which appear relatively simple at first glance.

Published in 2005 in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, the test has resurfaced online following US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson’s challenge to Donald Trump to ‘compare IQ tests’ after reports he ca...

A Love Affair with Books

Welcome back to our series on the libraries of great men. The eminent men of history were often voracious readers and their own philosophy represents a distillation of all the great works they fed into their minds. This series seeks to trace the stream of their thinking back to the source. For, as David Leach, a now retired business executive put it: “Don’t follow your mentors; follow your mentors’ mentors.”

When digging in to the best novels and authors in the Western genre of literature, th...

The Next Bernie Madoff Operation

Jim Grant, author of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, first hinted last week that not all is well when it comes to the world’s biggest hedge fund, Ray Dalio’s $160 billion Bridgewater (of which one half is the world’s biggest risk-parity juggernaut). Speaking to Bloomberg last week, Grant said he was “bearish” on Bridgewater because founder Dalio has become “less focused on investing, while the firm lacks transparency and has produced lackluster returns.”

Grant slammed Dalio’s transition from...

10 Historic Reasons Catalonia Is Fighting

On Sunday 1st October, a referendum for independence – deemed illegal by the Spanish government – was held in Catalonia, an autonomous Spanish region, with 90% of Catalans choosing independence from Spain. So what is at the root of this intense drive for separation? Putting modern political reasons aside for just a moment, let’s delve into Catalonia’s historic past to understand why many Catalans are adamant that they will one day achieve an independent state.

Where is Catalonia?

Catalonia is...

Jumping the Shark

A key distinction between propaganda and journalism is that manipulative propaganda relies on exaggeration and deceit while honest journalism provides context and perspective. But what happens when the major news outlets of the world’s superpower become simply conveyor belts for warmongering propaganda?

That is a question that the American people now face as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and virtually the entire mainstream media hype ridiculously minor allegations about Russia’...

Ayn Rand Was All Wet

One of Ayn Rand’s most notorious claims is that Europeans and their descendants were justified in driving Indian tribes off their lands because aboriginal Americans “did not have the concept of property or property rights,” and because they “wish[ed] to continue a primitive existence.” Rand also claims the Indian tribes had no right to the land they lived on because “they didn’t have a settled society,” and “had predominantly nomadic tribal ‘cultures.'” Rand even uses scare quotes around “cul...

American Power Corrupts Everything

“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.”― Frank Herbert

Power corrupts.

Worse, as 19th-century historian Lord Acton concluded, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about a politician, an entertainment mogul, a corporate CEO or a police officer: give any one person (or government agency) too much power and allow him or her or it to be...

The Auto Industry Goes Left

Most people don’t know that the term, politically correct, has its origins in Stalin’s Soviet Union. Back then, it meant more than just excommunication from the Party. It often meant excommunication from this veil of tears – a la Trotsky, via an icepick to the head.

Well, it may come to that here as well.

It is certainly headed that way.

Of all things – and of all places – the car business has become hag-ridden by politically correct orthodoxies and while the penalty for running afoul of thes...