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Patrick says

Finished The Law by Bastiat. It's very short, only 67 pages in a small format.

His themes:

- The sole purpose of government is to ensure justice, so that no one may plunder or otherwise harm anyone else.
- Taxing some citizens to give to other citizens is still plunder and is unjust.
- Normally, the few plunder the many, using government as their instrument.
- Under communism, everyone is attempting to plunder everyone else at the same time, using government as their instrument.
- Legislators invariably see themselves as superior to the plebeians, who are to them merely clay to be molded according to the legislators' ideals.
- Legislators are not in fact any smarter than other people, and often make truly horrible mistakes with disastrous outcomes.
- When the masses of people expect the government to "give" them things, they tend to revolt when they don't get them.

He's the proto-Libertarian. He would not have the government provide schools...

“If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?”― Frederic Bastiat, The Law

Patrick says

FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut says

Hi Patrick is this the one? I saw several different books with that title, just want to get the right one, same one you reading basically.
https://www.amazon.com/Decline-Fall-Roman-Empire/dp/1354279492/

@FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut No, it's this one:

Thank you

Now I'm on to The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. Even longer than Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and much more dense. I'll see how it goes, not promising myself that I can finish it.

Ironically, those two books came out just about the same time, and use the same florid and convoluted English - Edward Gibbon was a fan of The Wealth of Nations!

Good quote from The Wealth of Nations:

It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of the two parties must, upon all ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the dispute, and force the other into a compliance with their terms. The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more easily: and the law, besides, authorises, or at least does not prohibit, their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen. We have no acts of parliament against combining to lower the price of work, but many against combining to raise it. In all such disputes, the masters can hold out much longer. A landlord, a farmer, a master manufacturer, or merchant, though they did not employ a single workman, could generally live a year or two upon the stocks, which they have already acquired. Many workmen could not subsist a week, few could subsist a month, and scarce any a year, without employment. In the long run, the workman may be as necessary to his master as his master is to him; but the necessity is not so immediate.

Relevance to today: the oligarchs can conspire against the rest of us much more easily than the reverse, and they can hold out much longer in any dispute.

Yes, one of my favorite bits of WON - the kind of bits that Free Marketeers like to gloss over.

The most deliberately misrepresented statement in the book:
By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he [every manufacturer] intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.

In other words, by pressuring the government to IMPOSE tariffs to help HIS business, the manufacturer does good he does not intend - in his own self-interest to draw more business to himself and AWAY from foreign manufacturers, he creates more wealth and jobs and larger tax bases for fellow Britons. Free Marketeers have long distorted the context of the Invisible Hand to promote preferring Foreign Imported Goods, which reduce jobs and tax bases, if not overall Wealth, when Smith claimed the very OPPOSITE; that Tariffs were Good.

I mention this one because actually reading the WON and coming across this passage was like a slap in the face, back when I was very Free Market. We could never support the Trade Deficit and mass importation we have in place now WITHOUT a fiat currency running on maximum printing speed; we'd be long out of Specie by now.

Is Mein Kampf on your list yet?

https://www.cnet.com/news/hitlers-mein-kampf-a-brief-kindle-best-seller/

MisdemeanorRebellionNoCoupForYou says

In other words, by pressuring the government to IMPOSE tariffs to help HIS business, the manufacturer does good he does not intend - in his own self-interest to draw more business to himself and AWAY from foreign manufacturers, he creates more wealth and jobs and larger tax bases for fellow Britons.

Ha! Looking forward to running across this. A good argument to slap those tariffs on cheap Chinese goods.

Booger says

Is Mein Kampf on your list yet?

https://www.cnet.com/news/hitlers-mein-kampf-a-brief-kindle-best-seller/

Yes, and I intend to read it in the original German, otherwise what the hell is my German degree for? I need to find a paper copy in German though.

I also have a copy of Das Kapital in German. I intend to read that too.

Patrick says

In my early retirement, I've decided to read at least an hour a night in real paper books. So far, I've read:

- my dad's old college English book (always felt I needed to improve my grammar)
- Candide by Voltaire
- Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche
- The Politics by Aristotle

Now I'm reading The Prince by Machiavelli, and really enjoying it. One tip: before invading, look for minorities who will help you because they resent their current elite. They may in fact invite you in to help them overthrow their own country. This makes me think that the Chinese have read The Prince and are using BLM, gays, and militant feminism as allies in their fight against America.

https://mondopolitico.com/library/thelaw/thelaw2.htm

On my reading list! so relevant today!
The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing Paperback – February 25, 2015
by Joost A.M. Meerloo

can add Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Patrick says

Booger says

Is Mein Kampf on your list yet?

https://www.cnet.com/news/hitlers-mein-kampf-a-brief-kindle-best-seller/

Yes, and I intend to read it in the original German, otherwise what the hell is my German degree for? I need to find a paper copy in German though.

I picked Mein Kampf up from the library when I was in high school. What a boring book! I think it was one of those books, like Obama's "Dreams of my father", that was not meant to be read but to be bought and put on the shelf to signal your virtue and financially support der Führer.

Google Leaks book - by the whistleblower one is the one I'm planning to read next. Want to know all the evil shit evil empire does inside.

Onvacation says

I picked Mein Kampf up from the library when I was in high school. What a boring book! I think it was one of those books, like Obama's "Dreams of my father", that was not meant to be read but to be bought and put on the shelf to signal your virtue and financially support der Führer.

I heard that the most commonly sold English translation is horribly botched (and there is even a conspiracy theory going around that it was intentionally promoted over a better translation).

Onvacation says

I picked Mein Kampf up from the library when I was in high school. What a boring book!

Yeah, Hitler should have ranted YouTube style in the book. It wouldn't have hurt if he had mentioned skullfucking his enemies a few times as well.

How about reading something a little more enjoyable...LINCOLN by Gore Vidal...The Journeyer by Gary Jennings (about Marco polo)....Shogun by James Clavell....or Jack London's collection. Maybe try Michael Lewis,,,,,,,Liars Poker about the people who came up with the idea of monetizing mortgages back in the 80s.

I did read Liar's Poker way back when.

komputodo says

Shogun by James Clavell

Strongly second this recommendation.

Jack London short stories,,,,To Build A Fire and A Piece Of Steak,,,seems to me that the movie Cinderella Man was loosely based on the latter.

The Man Who Lives with Wolves
by Shaun Ellis,

For well researched novels, read Michener's books.
Alaska
Tales of the South Pacific
The Source
Chesapeake
Hawaii
and many others.

richwicks says

Rules for Radicals is a particularly hated book that I was told was filled with horrifically immoral, dastardly devious advice. The simple truth is, there's a lot of people that don't want you to read it.

I've been saying this to deaf ears for a long time. The book was mostly forgotten till Obama mentioned it and a couple of authors even rewrote it for modern conservative readers around the time Occupy Wall Street was kicking off. I've seen a lot of people criticize the book, usually to the depth of using the title and author as pejoratives, but never have I seen a critique that addresses even a single sentence of the book's actual content. One of the key concepts has become ever more relevant as the middle class is squeezed out. People are polarized into binary categories of haves and have-nots. A lot of working people consider themselves "Haves" and assume the "Have-nots" are their mortal enemies. However, Alinsky points out that many hardworking folks are in a category of "Have a little, want more" thus have much more in common with the have-nots, yet are conditioned to treat them as mortal enemies while fellating the actual "Haves" who are systematically dismantling their way of life with the "Have-a-littles'" active and eager participation.

Automan Empire says

I've been saying this to deaf ears for a long time. The book was mostly forgotten till Obama mentioned it and a couple of authors even rewrote it for modern conservative readers around the time Occupy Wall Street was kicking off. I've seen a lot of people criticize the book, usually to the depth of using the title and author as pejoratives, but never have I seen a critique that addresses even a single sentence of the book's actual content.

It's wonderful, it's how the Left took over with those tactics. That's why Community Organizer instead of the more traditional/widespread "Agitator" or "Political Activist" was used as a job title.

Making your enemy live up to his own standards is a good one.

That's why I think everybody should be chalking slogans and watch the local DA, including alleged "Republican" ones pursue charges with ferocity, while the ACLU that defended BLM/Antifa Vandalism, Arson, and Rioting under the "Speech and Protest" rubric refuses to acknowledge somebody is being overcharged with multiple crimes for chalking "Biden Illegit" on a Wall or Sidwalk.

Automan Empire says

I've been saying this to deaf ears for a long time

Well said.

I just finished Jack London's WHITE FANG. A great short story about a wolf/dog through its eyes. They made 2 movies based on it. One with Ethan Hawke.

komputodo says

I just finished Jack London's WHITE FANG. A great short story about a wolf/dog through its eyes. They made 2 movies based on it. One with Ethan Hawke.

His books were pretty good, also great reads for the kiddos to redpill them. London would look in disgust about the leftoid retard snowflake mess the US, and specifically CA (Glen Ellen) where he built his lodge, has become. Based.

Yes, I loved White Fang when I was in middle school. Great book.

Onvacation says

For well researched novels, read Michener's books.
Alaska
Tales of the South Pacific
The Source
Chesapeake
Hawaii
and many others.

Great author...Great books.

Lets not forget about John Steinbeck.....All his stories about CA especially The Grapes Of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and Cannery Row.

Ran across a brilliant passage in The Wealth of Nations, where he talks about merchants (whom he calls "dealers") and regulations:

The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is
always in some respects different from and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen
the market and to narrow the competition is always in the interests of the dealers. To widen
the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the public; but to narrow
the competition must always be against it, and can serve only to enable the dealers, by
raising their profits above what they naturally would be, to levy, for their own benefit, an
absurd tax upon the rest of the their fellow citizens. The proposal of any new law or
regulation of commerce which comes from this order ought always be listened to with
great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully
examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It
comes form an order of men whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the pubic,
who have generally an interest Ito deceive and even to oppress the public, and who
accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.

And of course I think of the current corrupt Big Phama/government complex "widening the market" for the jab by making it mandatory, and in the process deceiving and oppressing the public, when a simple dose of Ivermectin is likely to be more effective and far cheaper.

Perfectly sums up the current situation

Hi Patrick,
In case you want to read something in German, Eugen Richter, a German politician wrote 1890 a dystopian novel. "Zukunftsbilder des Sozialismus"
a warning against state control and any kind of Socialsm. Maybe Germans should have read it instead of Mein K(r)ampf (Krampf is also a slang word for nonsense). Richter completely nailed any kind of socialistic nightmare which would happen in the 20th century, people thought he was crazy
Here is the English translation of Richters book:
https://mises-media.s3.amazonaws.com/Pictures%20of%20the%20Socialistic%20Future_Vol_2_2.pdf

Reading the great book "Rubicon" by Holland.

He properly starts it with Marius vs. Sulla, most accounts start with the Cataline Conspiracy or the Triumverate. Sulla was the first revolutionary - in the sense he came to power by force rather than first a Senate nomination - Dictator.

Anyway, here's what the Romans believed was at threat during the last century of the Republic:

* Women were naturally sensual and given to pleasure first - hence their omission from all leadership.
* High Cuisine was decadent, too much luxury foods were coming to Rome.
* Dandyism was decadent. Plain dress was right and proper; too much oriental fashion was coming to Rome.
* There were too many passive, feminine males.
* There were too many "Publicans" - or Corporate Bosses and Bankers, squeezing and corrupting the system.

MisdemeanorRebellionNoCoupForYou says

Reading the great book "Rubicon" by Holland.

LOL! Just substitute 'MKULTRA' for the lead poisoning form the utensils of the Roman elite, and you can see where things headed.

I ran across an interesting statement by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations to the effect that the risk-adjusted returns of stock and the general interest rate must necessarily be approximately equal. If, say, there were more money to be made in stock than in lending, people would borrow to invest in stock, driving up the price of stock (and thus lowering its return in the future) and creating demand for loans, which would drive up interest rates. And this would continue until the two kinds of returns equalized.

But at the present, there is clearly much more money to be made in stock than in lending. So you would think that people would borrow to invest in the stock market.

Hmmm, maybe they are doing exactly that, but interest rates are held artificially low by the Fed's lending at extremely low rates. So the Fed is in effect subsidizing the stock market.

Patrick says

So the Fed is in effect subsidizing the stock market.

Yes, low rates subsidize both stocks and housing. Haven't you noticed that the biggest fans of the Fed keeping rates low are stock brokers and realtors?

Patrick says

Hmmm, maybe they are doing exactly that, but interest rates are held artificially low by the Fed's lending at extremely low rates. So the Fed is in effect subsidizing the stock market.

Yep. I had a friend who got a 0% interest Credit Card and did just that.

The government of an exclusive company of merchants is, perhaps, the worst of all governments for any country whatever.

Adam Smith
Chapter VII, Part Second, p. 619. - The Wealth of Nations (1776) - Book IV

And yet that is exactly what we have now. Corporate rule.

Reading Hollands' "Shadow of the Sword".

Some takeaways:

* The buffer zone east and south of Roman Occupied Judea and Syria were full of Arabs
* The Arabs - The Saracens from Arabic "Shirkat" - were not strange to the nearby inhabitants, regarded maybe as cowboys to the cityfolk in Saint Louis driving in the cattle annually.
* Ghassanid Arabs were a coalition of Arab "Foederati", paid by the Romans to patrol the frontier and save them money and manpower, just like many German tribes were.
* Lots of syncretic stuff happened between the border Arab Foederati and Rome, and especially Heretics like Monophysites and Nabateans
* There's absolutely no evidence that Mohammed was from Mecca, Mecca is not mentioned ONCE in the list of Arab Cities, despite multiple resources from Roman Governors surviving at this time, which contained lists of Oasis, Meeting Places, and Arab Tribes. Mecca first mention a century after Mohammed.
* Yet further away locations, like Himyar, are mentioned extensively in Roman records (South Yemen today) for both trade and political purposes: Roman vessels often stopped there on the way to India, there were official agreements between the Romans and Himyar Monarchs (some of whom were Jews!)
* Very little date material in the Quran.
* Heavy use of Syriac/Arab loan words FROM Latin and Greek used by Romans. For example: Qayash = Qaysar = Caesar. Mohammed may have been from a tribe aligned with the Caesars - ie Rome.

And much more.

Thanks, interesting to fill in some details.

This book also has a lot of details omitted by mainstream Muslim history:

https://archive.org/details/WhyIAmNotAMuslimIbnWarraq

I finished The Wealth of Nations and am now reading Walden by Thoreau. Great quote about housing:

If it is asserted that civilization is a real advance in the condition of man,—and I think that it is, though only the wise improve their advantages,—it must be shown that it has produced better dwellings without making them more costly; and the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. An average house in this neighborhood costs perhaps eight hundred dollars, and to lay up this sum will take from ten to fifteen years of the laborer’s life, even if he is not encumbered with a family;— estimating the pecuniary value of every man’s labor at one dollar a day, for if some receive more, others receive less; —so that he must have spent more than half his life commonly before his wigwam will be earned. If we suppose him to pay a rent instead, this is but a doubtful choice of evils. Would the savage have been wise to exchange his wigwam for a palace on these terms?

Oh Patrick, Georgism still beats in my heart.

"No government may restrict the use of RVs or homes over 250 sq ft. on any property over 1 acre, except it be inside of an incorporated city of over 50,000 persons."

There's no health or safety reason why it shouldn't be.

We all know it's because of Developers, Realwhores, and Ladder Kickers, many of whom lived in an RV/Volkswagon Camper saving money to build a real house on their property.

Like all the boomfucks who quit and became consultants at the same place, and later executives, at 2-3x their old pay, advising companies never to hire consultants that "aren't on a special list of people we know and list entrance is a mystery".