Paradocracy

True wealth has less to do with the things you own than with the lives you touch; more to do with purpose than possessions; more to do with the way you own and define your life than with the way your possessions own and define you; less to do with the things that degrade than with the legacies that endure; and less to do with the things that we keep than with the seeds that we sow beyond the fruits that we reap.

As we approach the sixty-year mark since that fateful day in Dealey Plaza, I deem worthy some considerations surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I intend not to dishonor the thirty-fifth President of the United States, nor to distract from the solemn remembrance of November 22nd, 1963, but to shed some light on the lesser-known aspects surrounding that day and the assassination itself. It is important that we commemorate this historic tragedy and that we pay our respects to the lives lost on that day, including those of John Kennedy and Officer J. D. Tippit; yet it is also essential that we endeavor to unearth the truth surrounding those two murders, for the sake of their families as well as the sake of recorded history. As there has been but one trial surrounding the assassination, and not one in the case of Officer J. D. Tippit, it has been up to ordinary Americans, and other concerned persons of the world, to do their own research and to launch their own inve...

As the situation in the Gaza Strip further deteriorates under the threat of total war, I have deemed worthy a brief overview of the conflict between the states of Palestine and Israel. I thought I would share some relevant details so that, insofar as any person is eager to form an opinion on the subject, he or she will have some sense of the tensions between the camps, the longstanding feud between them, and some of the particulars pertaining to the situation at the Gaza Strip. First, it is essential to understand that the Jewish State of Israel has long been in the process of expanding its control over the region, claiming territory by displacing Palestinians and demolishing their homes to make way for Jewish Israelis — a process known as the Zionist movement, which has displaced Arabs across the entire region known as the state of “Israel”, as the Jewish State of Israel continues to support and finance the large-scale migration of Jewish persons from abroad.  The same has happene...

In a world wandering ever further into the abstract, the arbitrary and the subjective, it comes as no surprise that so many are confused on the meaning of “intrinsic value”.  When used at the personal level, the “intrinsic value” of any asset is in its use case, the properties it inherently possesses; at the market level, its “intrinsic value” is in its use case independent of sentiment and appraisal. In any other context, or under any other set of conditions, the metric is entirely useless, serving only as a form of rhetoric or foolhardy marketing.  As a metric or principle, “intrinsic value” serves to offer a floor, the minimum value of any asset; thereby serving as a reference point for any subsequent appraisal (or long-term market-clearing price). “Intrinsic value” is best described qualitatively in its immutable properties and use cases, and quantitatively by stripping the calculus of   any anomalous artifice, conditions, sentiment and speculations supporting current...

As fields of study, history, philosophy and economics are matters of perspective, fallible assessments of truth. In reality, they are the attempt at capturing the essence of life, the product of affection, avarice, preference, passion, and — in their highest forms — love. They are mankind’s best effort at seeking to understand, or otherwise distort, the most fundamental questions before us: what drives human action, and what is  our purpose on planet earth?

This short article is intended for a special reader of mine who recently sounded the alarm on the issue of climate change . As it appears here, the term is italicized for reasons that will become evident upon further reading. While I have tremendous respect for the reader who has sounded the alarm, and while I do not contend to offer an exhaustive assessment on the subject, I do believe that these points are both valid and worthy of consideration. I submit these out of admiration for said reader, and for due consideration by all others who take the slightest interest in this very important topic.  First, let it be known that there is good cause behind the phrase 1,000-year flood . Climate change is nothing you have to prove; it's always happening, and it always has happened. To sound the alarm about a natural and cyclical global phenomenon is, to put it delicately, disingenuous. Any focus on the temperature change in one part of the world ignores the fact that the average global t...

Human error and personal failure are inherent to the human condition. The question is how the costs shall be defrayed. In the case for liberty, there is certainly some tolerance for failure or error, as it is generally suffered by the individual, not brought upon anyone by design. However, wherever anyone seeks to empower government in an effort to meet these ends, one must be absolutely certain of its effects, as there is no margin for error behind the barrel of a gun.  One must remember that government is a monopoly on force and coercion. It is force and coercion not by spirit or intention, but in accordance with the letter, understanding and integrity of the enforcers in their own time. As opposed to a state of liberty, where mistakes, failures and crimes are unavoidable and still likely to happen, a state of socialism condemns the people to a state of misery, failure and crime by design .  A system so brutal, so uncompromising and violent simply cannot afford any measure ...

In 1960, Dorchester Productions released their hit film Ocean's 11 . The film featured an ensemble cast led by four of Hollywood's Rat Pack : Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Peter Lawford. A crew of eleven was assembled around one objective: to mastermind an elaborate New Year's Eve heist, targeting five casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. As sophisticated as it was, the heist would ultimately fail in the end. Why? It wasn't that the team failed to get their hands on the cash, but that they couldn't dependably store it or keep the people from figuring out that they had been robbed. As impressive a heist as it was, Ocean's 11 looks like child's play compared to the frauds in government who've masterminded the greatest heist in history: the nationwide heist in the name of the national bank . The concept of a national bank is one of the most insidious political devices ever conceived. Whether owned, operated, or strictly regulated by a nation...