Zack Sorenson

Bin Laden Has Won

by Zack Sorenson | Jan 8, 2020 | Blog

The Giant blinked. American power does not have the capability to deal with this situation in a way that won't end badly. As I said earlier, Islamic Civilization has intergenerational aspirations. Iran are not the "madmen" the neocons portray, but based on many recent articles by experts, it's clear that they do have enough of a long view to be willing to sacrifice the well being of the current generation for the long term prospects of their civilization. Eternal Western hegemony in the Middle East is not consistent with that long-view, but neither is national suicide. However, now the...

War At Dusk?

by Zack Sorenson | Jan 8, 2020 | Blog

Trump's emergency war cabinet meeting after the Iranian rocket attack was strangely anti-climatic. Trump has engaged in non-substantive, face-saving military actions in the past, so maybe this is more of the same? Iran and Trump playing an escalation game to its limits, but neither really having the balls to risk a real thing? I hope that's it. Somehow, however, I wonder if this is the "calm before the storm." Usually, Trump obscures empty gestures with big rhetoric. His rhetoric tonight is oddly measured. There's a real possibility that each side here is buying time and keeping a weak...

War Powers Resolutions Don’t Matter

by Zack Sorenson | Jan 7, 2020 | Blog

Marbury v. Madison took the written U.S. Constitution and superseded it with a British style system of an unwritten constitutionality. This was judicial review and it lasted until the New Deal when the jurisprudence of limited government figured out that the Executive Branch was just as able to modify the unwritten rules as was the Judicial. Oops. Do you really think the states and the people respectively would have allowed this Empire to come about? So, yeah, war powers under the "written part" of the Constitution matter. That doesn't mean there aren't exceptions to be found under the...

The Future Of Civilization Depends On Libertarian Morality

by Zack Sorenson | Jan 6, 2020 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism

The header image for this article comes from a mural featured at the library of the University of Oregon. It is set to be replaced because of an accusation of being ‘racist’. The incident is a reminder that our intellectual heritage as members of the ‘American race’ is no longer relevant to American intellectuals. Something has been lost. The forces of progress have created a particular dilemma for modern humanity. All our history, the stability of our societies has been based on evolving, powerful sets of traditions. At the very core of these traditions have been deeply...

Rome Doesn’t Need To Be Burning For The Fiddlin’ To Start

by Zack Sorenson | Jan 5, 2020 | Blog

I don't personally think WWIII is here just yet, but that doesn't mean we can't start the party. Without meaning to be pessimistic, I do think the 2020s will be very bad for everyone. With this in mind, I wanted to start things off with a bit of levity. There's this kid on YouTube who's pretty hilarious. He's not perfect, and who knows what his real beliefs are, but his heights of irony are world class. Dave Smith, do you read this blog? Would love to hear your comedian's review of this guy's stuff. Jreg.

Civil War – Inspired By Virginia

by Zack Sorenson | Dec 26, 2019 | Blog

So, there are some libertar-ee-uns who call the Civil War the war of "Northern Aggression" or "Between The States". Etc. But it was truly a Civil War. I can defend this. Both sides of the war celebrated the motherf***--- Fourth of July. Both sides named towns after "Columbia". Although New England had a sort of weird affinity for the mother country (England) after 1776, among the literary and religious elite, it was still a land with a sense of fierce independence (hence it's 1812 era secession from the USA movement). After the war? Tennessee Ernie Ford can be seen on YouTube (recorded...

I Think I Finally “Get” The Economy

by Zack Sorenson | Dec 12, 2019 | Blog

So more big Fed cash floods into the market? Back during QE2 you had partisan hack Krugman rationalizing it all (though QE had little to do with his Keynesian philosophy). Guys like Bob Murphy were saying, "Yep, this is it, get ready for the inflation." And then it didn't come. And yet, all this market interventionism, aren't there consequences. I mean, does money actually in fact grow on trees? It seems that by inflating three or four successive bubbles since the dawn of the fiat dollar, the Fed has created multiple classes of mutually-dependent over-inflated assets (housing, college,...

Admiral McJackass

by Zack Sorenson | Dec 2, 2019 | Blog

What a tool. Admiral McRaven's NY Times oped - in which we hear that an anonymous Army general has said: " 'I don’t like the Democrats, but Trump is destroying the Republic!' " McRaven explains which "republic" Trump is destroying: "Those words echoed with me throughout the week. It is easy to destroy an organization if you have no appreciation for what makes that organization great. We are not the most powerful nation in the world because of our aircraft carriers, our economy, or our seat at the United Nations Security Council. We are the most powerful nation in the world because we try to...