Liberty Relearned

Halloween is a lead-in to All Souls’ Day. Will the “soul” of the American ideal be one we lament in the future? Will 2021 be the year that future historians will cite as the Republic’s death? Halloween may be a scary day but 2021 may mark the beginning of a scary era for this country. The rise of authoritarianism, inflation, collectivism and shortages should scare the average American, and if the...

I'm not going to pick on Alec Baldwin here.  I'm sure he's genuinely beside himself with grief and remorse.  I will say that people who believe that guns kill people and not as the saying goes:  "Guns don't kill people, people kill people," will have a hard time understanding that they can be one of the "people" in that saying when they are around firearms.  When it comes to de...

When the left/Democrats accuse the Republicans of doing or being something, i.e. racist, fascist, etc, they themselves are guilty of it. They ALWAYS project their faults on others, and there are NO exceptions, even when they&...

America is a divided country. Most of that division is deliberate. The far left has adopted a divide and conquer strategy. They pit rich against poor, black against white, male against female, vaxxed against the unvaxxed, etc. From their own mouths, they have declared that the system needs to be burned down and built back better. They believe a collectivist Utopia will spring from the ashes of Wes...

A trip to the grocery store I got into my SUV, the same size as a large car, but designated as a truck to get around CAFE standards. Burned gas made more expensive in part by Biden's war on fossil fuels Found some items in low supply or out of stock because of supply chain disruptions due to Covid policies paying people to stay home and not work. Waited longer in the checkout line because unvaccin...

Let's Talk About Gen Milley General Mark Milley, current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is no stranger to controversy. He is the top-ranked military official who presided over the most humiliating military failure in modern American history-- the disastrous Afghanistan pullout that ended with hundreds of Americans left behind in enemy-controlled territory, subject to being used as hostages....

The left's abusive relationship with democracy "Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom... The subjection of individuals will increase amongst democratic nations, not only in the same proportion as their equality, but in the same proportion as their ignorance." ~ Alexis de Tocqueville If there is one thing the Democrat Party has taug...

The following are excerpts from President Biden’s “Vaccine Mandate” speech of September 9, 2021: “ …This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. And it’s caused by the fact that despite America having an unprecedented and successful vaccination program, despite the fact that for almost five months free vaccines have been available in 80,000 different locations, we still have nearly 80 million Americans...

The Afghanistan Debacle and why it matters. It has provided our enemies a tremendous windfall in advanced armaments. “The Taliban has seized US weapons left in Afghanistan worth billions — possibly including 600,000 assault rifles, some 2,000 armored vehicles, and 40 aircraft, including Black Hawks, according to reports. The US gave the Afghan military an estimated $28 billion in weaponry between...

Where did it all go wrong?  That is the subject of this week's podcast. I'm not talking about Afghanistan.  The Afghan exit debacle in this case is a symptom, not the problem.  (If you want to know what went wrong there, go back and listen to last's week's podcast where I talk about how and when the situation in Afghanistan went FUBAR.)  I'm talking about where, and more precis...

The Afghanistan Debacle We went there back in 2001 after 9-11 because that is where Usama Bin Laden, leader of Al Qaeda was spending most of his time training terrorists. We wanted to capture or kill Bin Laden We wanted to deny Al Qaeda the use of Afghanistan as a base of operations. We deposed the Taliban US and Coalition forces supported a newly created Afghan government President Trump promised...

COVID 19 measures Lockdowns proved counterproductive in many instances Drove people indoors, during the first wave most of the cases in NYC were people who were locked down Unintended consequences include: Social isolation, depression, increased drug abuse. Most masks don't afford much protection against COVID-19 KN95 masks afford the wearer the most protection, but only if properly worn Simple cl...

If you haven’t listened to the Liberty Relearned podcast in a while, I really hope you’ll listen to this one and the last. All of the major topics I’ve discussed since the inception of the podcast will be covered in a planned multi-part series. I’d like to think that the ideas I talk about are of value to the listener. I deeply value the opinions of my readers and listeners so I encourage you to s...

The lessons I hope you've taken from this Podcast so far: The ability to define conservatism , especially as it applies to American conservatism The belief in our Founding documents, and their underlying principles: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. All men (and women) are created equal The Rule of Law "The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen." – Dennis Prager A working conce...

The long-suffering people of Australia are once again being subjected to tyrannical restrictions of their individual freedoms in the name of fighting COVID. A recent AP article describes the recent protests of the COVID restrictions.  What's missing in the article?  Any mention about how the people of Sydney and other cities are made to suffer because of the revocation of their rights to...

The LR mission explained.  To engage in civil, enlightened debate on what political direction is best for the United States, promote a better understanding of conservative/libertarian principles, and effectively express them to others in a thoughtful and insightful way.  Liberty Relearned’s goal is to help bring back liberty as the chief American value and to counter the misleading...

What Makes American Conservatism better than any other way?  Pt II. Dedication to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What is the alternative?  Death, servitude, and the pursuit of pleasure. Life and liberty are the two pillars of ethical life. History shows us that as the two grow in tandem, human life improves. When either is suppressed, the human condition suffers. Compare N....

What's the difference between American conservatism and the left?  Power to the individual (conservatism/libertarianism) vs. power over the people (collectivism/progressivism) The pursuit of facts vs. the control of information Natural Rights vs. rights determined by the government or the elites.  The conservative notion of democracy as one legal voter, one vote vs. the left's concept of...

What was America really founded upon? Who are the true heirs of the American Revolution?  To hear it from some people, you’d think that America was a terrible place with a terrible history with few redeeming qualities. Some of their points are valid, but they do not give a balanced perspective on our nation. Our Founding Fathers were men of wisdom and courage who sacrificed much and were prep...

"Nothing can corrupt and disintegrate a culture or a man’s character as thoroughly as does the precept of moral agnosticism, the idea that one must never pass moral judgment on others, that one must be morally tolerant of anything, that the good consists of never distinguishing good from evil.” -- Ayn Rand We've all heard someone ask:  “Who are you to judge me?” or some variant of that questi...

Ayn Rand saw collectivism in all its forms as an impediment to human rights. "The good of society" cannot be the basis of rights, since society is merely a collection of individuals, and so the only proper rights are individual rights.  When we base rights on what is good for society, that begs the question:  Who speaks for society?  Throughout history, such people who claim to spea...

How did we get to the point of passing trillions of dollars in new spending while already $28T in debt? The $6T for “infrastructure” and new entitlements the President is proposing, just for the next budget, would be a nuclear inflation bomb. In addition to that, he wants to commit America to trillions in international aid over the next few years. In her book, The Virtue of Selfishness , Ayn Rand...

When Ayn Rand immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union in early 1926, she essentially brought with her the collectivists' playbook.  She had a thorough understanding of their worldview, philosophy, and motivations. She had an uncanny ability to cut through the propaganda and concisely depict through her writing the collectivist (read leftist) mindset.  Today, we can see the...

Memorial Day Message 2021 It's at this time of year that I reflect on those who made the ultimate sacrifice and why they did it. Moreover, what motivated the soldiers of America's past to take up arms and put their lives on the line? This, we cannot know, not in every case.  We can surmise though, that many might nod in agreement when Ronald Reagan said these words in his “ A Time for Choosin...

A clip from last year's Memorial Day message.