Old Latest Blog

My latest column is now up , it begins: Over the last 12 months, I've read a total of 57 fiction books, and I'm on the premier of another 7-book series. I've also read approximately 15 non-fiction books within that same time span, and a countless number of columns, essays, and journal articles. Why am I reading so much? For starters, because I have a thirst for knowledge, which from both types of books I get more than I can retain. But more importantly, I believe that the moment we stop seeking the unknown, our lives become routine and boring. And that's neither what I want for myself, nor what I want to model for my wife and children.

My latest OVP column is now up , on the multiple meanings of words, it begins: There are words that have one meaning, and then there are words that have many meanings. When it comes to ideas, the latter seems to be the rule. Two people could use the same word and mean two totally different things. I'd like to examine some of those words as a voluntaryist. We'll sort them as "good" and "bad," or pro- and anti-voluntaryist meanings.

My latest at EVC is now up , it begins: Life continues apace. As much as my kids are learning about their various interests, I'm learning about mine. Unschooling, or life learning, is just that. It doesn't begin at school-age, and doesn't end at the onset of adulthood. Learning begins at conception (really) and should continue until your last breath. A phrase I use oft here is "over the last ten years," and that's because that time has been well spent, pursuing what's interested me most, understanding new things, and growing as an individual. I hope to live the rest of my life doing what I've been doing that last ten years. It's been a search for truth. And therein lies both my allegiance and my motivation.

My latest column is now up, it begins: The voluntary principle, that relations should be voluntary, or not at all, separates voluntaryism from other political philosophies in that it matters not the ethics behind some use of force, but in the setting aside of the use of force in lieu of persuasion and other methods of nonviolent action. In other words, voluntaryism can bring together libertarians, anarchists, mutualists, anarcho-capitalists, and left-libertarians under the same voluntaryist creed. Once united under the voluntary principle, their differences become questions for economics and legal polycentrism. What do I mean by that? Let's see.

My latest column, from the heart , it begins: My parenting has evolved considerably over the last two years. Where I'm at now is not where I thought I would be. When my wife and I decided to have kids, I figured that raising them would require a reasonable level of physical discipline, administered in the proper proportions based on their behavioral needs, as well as 5 years of having them with us all day followed by 13 years of dumping them off at school for 8 hours, most of the week, most of the year. In other words, what I signed up for was the type of life I had had, but for my kids. Yes, I wanted their life to be "better," but with the right combination of new gadgets and vacation destinations, sure, their lives could be considered "better." Instead, logical consistency and conscience have compelled me to scrapping all of that in lieu of a truly "better" experience. So I can honestly say that, "No, I did not sign up for this!"