Freespace

Tord Gustavsen's Christmas album

My favorite current jazz performer, Tord Gustavsen, has teamed up with singer Solveig Slettahjel to put out a beautiful, delicate, contemplative Christmas album, Natt I Bethelem. Very highly recommended. They're also performing various dates in the U.S., including Dec. 1-4 at the Mondavi Center in Davis. Looking forward to that concert a lot.

Midwest speaking tour next week

I’ll be speaking at an event sponsored by Missouri’s Show Me Institute on December 6th at 6 p.m. in downtown Kansas City, Mo. I hope I’ll see some of PLF’s many nationwide friends there! Click here for more information, and to register, click here.

On Dec. 7th, I’ll be speaking in Topeka at an evening event hosted by Americans for Prosperity. Details are still pending, but I’ll post them the instant they’re finalized.

On December 8th, at 7:30 p.m., I’ll be speaking at the Dole Institute in Lawrence, Kansas. I spoke there about my last book, Cornerstone of Liberty, some years ago, and had a great time. The Institute is a beautiful building with a very interesting museum. I’m looking forward to visiting again.

Then on December 9th, at 6 p.m., I’ll be speaking to the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. The location is still being finalized, so I’ll post that information as soon as it becomes available.

Finally, on Friday, December 10th, at 11:45 a.m., I’ll be speaking to the Wichita Pachyderm Club. That event is at the 9th floor of the Bank of America Building in Wichita.

Did I mention that The Right to Earn A Living makes a great holiday gift?

Some thoughts on Thanksgiving

at PLF Liberty Blog.

The story of Thanksgiving

Reason has a great video explaining why Thanksgiving is really a holiday celebrating private property rights.

Gov. Christie's Goldwater Institute speech

I was honored to be in the audience last week to hear New Jersey Governor Chris Christie give a fantastic speech to the Goldwater Institute. Video of the whole speech isn't available, but there's a nicely edited video here that captures about 10 minutes of the highlights.

Friday poem

THANKSGIVING (1956)
by E.E. Cummings

a monstering horror swallows
this unworld me by you
as the god of our fathers' fathers bows
to a which that walks like a who

but the voice-with-a-smile of democracy
announces night & day
"all poor little peoples that want to be free
just trust in the u s a"

suddenly uprose hungary
and she gave a terrible cry
"no slave's unlife shall murder me
for i will freely die"

she cried so high thermopylae
heard her and marathon
and all prehuman history
and finally The UN

"be quiet little hungary
and do as you are bid
a good kind bear is angary
we fear for the quo pro quid"

uncle sam shrugs his pretty
pink shoulders you know how
and he twitches a liberal titty
and lisps "i'm busy right now"

so rah-rah-rah democracy
let's all be as thankful as hell
and bury the statue of liberty
(because it begins to smell)

A nice article on Hitchens

From The Guardian.

A nice review of Richard Wilbur's new book

At the Weekly Standard. I agree that Wilbur is "the supreme American poet of the second half of the past century."

Hm...where have I heard this before?

"I am not very sure what a natural right is. The only natural right I comprehend, is that of force--I know of no other natural right.  The Senator owns a hat, not by a natural right, but by law.  So he owns land, not by a natural right, but by law."

--Senator Jefferson Davis, Mar. 8, 1850, Cong. Globe 31st Cong. 1st Sess. App. 287

No box is too small for Maru