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About theartfuldilettante

The Artful Dilettante is a native of Pittsburgh, PA, and a graduate of Penn State University. He is a lover of liberty and a lifelong and passionate student of the same. He is voracious reader of books on the Enlightenment and the American colonial and revolutionary periods. He is a student of libertarian and Objectivist philosophies. He collects revolutionary war and period currency, books, and newspapers. He is married and the father of one teenage son. He is kind, witty, generous to a fault, and unjustifiably proud of himself. He is the life of the party and an unparalleled raconteur.

The Score Since 2020: Tyranny, Everything; Freedom, Zero

Imagine if we had tried to defeat our enemies in WW II by holding elections run by Nazis, with results reported by a media who only published Nazi propaganda.

Imagine winning the Cold War if pro-Soviet Communists controlled nearly every American school board, every American television or movie production house, nearly every American media outlet and every branch of our vast, massively expanding federal government.

Today’s government and culture consists of people just as bad. They have no limits, other than seeing how much they can get away with. So far, and especially since 2020, they have gotten away with absolutely everything. On every single issue from lockdowns, to forced participation in government medical vaccine research, to FBI raids and arrests for political reasons alone, to legalized looting in city streets, to arbitrary executive edicts on everything under the sun, to mail-in ballots favoring one party only, to outlawing fossil fuels in 8 years, to outlawing gas stoves immediately, we are up against tyrants who oppose the side of liberty in EACH AND EVERY instance, and who are winning EACH AND EVERY battle in their relentless war against freedom.

So few of us act like we care.

They are not going to stop and this will not get better on its own. Think about what you’re giving up. Freedom is the moral and intellectual air we breathe. When all freedom is finally gone, we will all perish spiritually, if not physically. If you love life, yourself and your children, you should love your freedom too.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Today’s Tyrants: Maybe the Worst in Human History?

Tyrants never have credibility. They say one thing; and they do the opposite. It has always been this way, since the beginning of human civilization, or even before that. Nothing has changed.

Today’s tyrants are worse than ever. They detest capitalism; but they live off of billions, usually money made through theft or via political connections (case in point: the Biden crime family). For people who hate the system of wealth creation, they sure love their own wealth. They want their billions, but if you or I want another $50,000 in our private retirement accounts, honestly saved and earned … well, forget it. THAT money belongs to the government.

They claim to be religious or “spiritual”; yet they are ruthless and mercenary beyond description. I’m talking about the stuff they do right in front of our faces. Behind the scenes — we can only imagine. No “conspiracy theories” are necessary. These people are making laughing stocks out of the majority of us who keep rolling over and taking it because, “Why, if someone hears me saying or even implying something mean — well, they won’t like me, and I can’t have that!”

These tyrants of today scream about the evils of self-interest. Yet they sacrifice other people to themselves on a daily basis. And they LAUGH while doing it.

Let me be clear: Rationally speaking, there’s nothing wrong with self-interest. Self-interest is even a virtue, because we are all entitled to our own lives, and this requirement for self-preservation (when honored) makes us responsible for ourselves too. Paradoxically, the people who feel entitled to their own lives prosper better, and, in turn, feel more generous — even though that generosity is never a duty or obligation. It’s just something you want to do, when you can, and when you’ve done well yourself. That’s why economically free societies are far, far more generous than totalitarian, socialist ones. Even our own society, as it has become more socialist, has become more mean-spirited than ever before. That’s how it works.

Today’s tyrants are even worse than tyrants of the past. What I mean by that is they smirk, giggle and laugh as they destroy us. They know they’re hypocrites and while they don’t totally admit it, when busted they are not ashamed. They just triple down.

They’re openly, mockingly sadistic. It’s not possible for a decent person to comprehend the magnitude of the ruthlessness and evil we’re up against — sure, with the vast majority of our politicians, but also our corporate, woke “big business” socialists who (even if they made their money honestly) turn around (e.g. Bill Gates) and willfully, laughingly seek to bring the rest of us down. It’s psychopathic, cruel and every bit as evil as the Stalins and Hitlers of the past. Maybe even more so, if that’s possible. They demand that we take experimental vaccines, that we stop eating beef, that we stop driving cars, and they do it with a narcissistic, nasty, inflated sense of self-importance they expect us to take for granted. Was there EVER a royal dictator in history as bad as these corporate-political Communists of today?

We have to stand up for ourselves and, if nothing else, passively resist. Go on strike — morally, psychologically and in other ways, too. Otherwise, they’re going to bring us down with them. That’s what psychopaths do.

Get out of your slumber, people! This is not going to get better on its own.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Life Under One Party Rule: Biden Will Walk, Trump Will Not

In the case of Trump, a commentator said, “at least he had [classified documents] under lock and key, not sitting by his riding lawn mower.”

It doesn’t matter. This is not about national security. That ship has sailed. The occupation we still fantasize as the government of a free republic is only concerned with prosecution of political enemies.

Trump will be harassed and punished; Biden will not. End of story.

#NotMyDictatorship

P.S. Will the White House, Soros, Pelosi, Zuckerberg and Bezos kitchen stoves still cook with gas?

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

The 12 Most Useless College Degrees

Americans are increasingly questioning the assumption that every kid should go to college. While it’s still the right path for many, higher education is also failing many students, leaving them in piles of debt but with degrees that are pretty impractical.

Here are the 12 most useless degrees, according to Business Insider.

  1. Acting
  2. Film
  3. Anthropology
  4. Civilization Studies
  5. Philosophy
  6. Psychology
  7. Communications
  8. English
  9. History
  10. Interior Design
  11. Marketing
  12. Photography

What makes these majors the least useful? Well, Business Insider came up with the list by surveying experts about job prospects and starting salaries. Many degrees on this list are not actually necessary to work in the targeted industry they relate to, or, require multiple advanced degrees in the subject before one can do so.

Now, this doesn’t mean there’s no intellectual or moral merit to any of these fields of study. But it does mean that you shouldn’t drown yourself in subsidized government debt just to pursue one of these majors knowing the limited prospects that await you. If you really want to study English, great, but maybe don’t rack up $200,000 in loans to do so. Start at a local community college or affordable state school, instead.

Otherwise, you’ll end up like the 44% of college graduates who regret their choice in major, per a recent ZipRecruiter survey. (Surprise surprise, communications, marketing, English, and other majors from the Insider list are also among the majors most commonly regretted after-the-fact.)

There’s also a public policy dimension to this conversation.

As I explain in a new New York Post column, President Biden’s latest plan for student debt “relief,” aka debt-transfer to taxpayers, subsidizes the least productive degrees the most. On the other hand, it subsidizes the most productive, in-demand degrees like computer science and engineering the least. That makes zero sense.

We need to promote alternative paths to higher education, like training programs and apprenticeships. We also need to ensure that when young people do go to college, they make smart decisions aligned with market incentives. Otherwise, more young Americans will end up with useless degrees they regret and nothing but mountains of debt to show for it.

Business Insider

Nobody is Above the Law ? Seriously ?

Nobody is above the law. UNLESS they are a high official in The Party.

You’re about to get glaring proof that you don’t live under a rule of law or a Constitution. Not anymore.

Will BLM mobs loot and paralyze cities to protest Biden’s crimes?

Will Biden supporters & Democrats now be labeled “insurrectionists” and “domestic terrorists” by the FBI?

Will we see Biden’s tax returns?

Will Biden be twice impeached, like President Trump was?

You already know the answer. Just look at the last few years.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Ban on Gas Stoves

“A U.S. federal agency is considering a ban on gas stoves.” Nationally.

I wonder how woke chefs who appreciate the value of gas stoves will feel about this.

And I wonder about the payoffs behind the scenes.

Federal regulatory agencies should be defunded immediately. Put them all out of business. They are toxic.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

I Stand with Brazil

Maybe it’s time to adopt a new slogan: I stand with Brazil.

Most of the media doesn’t want to talk about Brazil right now. Or they choose to call it an “attack on democracy.” But it’s not democracy being attacked. It’s an openly criminal socialist-Communist regime being attacked.

What’s happening in Brazil is interesting. The government is run by an openly criminal socialist who’s likely an election fraudster. He’s imposing gun control, high taxation and further nationalization of the economy on a heavily unwilling population. The government has called all supporters of the prior, more conservative and more freedom friendly administration “terrorists” and insurrectionists. Sound familiar?

In America, most of us are putting up with it all. We keep saying the next election will take care of it, though it never does. Regulations, taxation, Orwellian health restrictions, reckless depreciation of the currency (i.e., inflation) for political purposes, and insane environmentalist restrictions all add up to a growing, hopeless mess. America is starting to look a lot like Brazil — or any other socialist/Communist-run society.

A lot of Americans — millions, in fact — feel the way the Brazilians who are storming their country’s capital feel.

Breitbart reports (today): National news outlets in Brazil, citing the federal police, reported on Monday that the riot resulting in the near-total destruction of the Congressional and Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) headquarters had led to over 1,500 arrests and dozens of injuries, including journalists.

I’m not suggesting violence is the answer. But I am stating openly that dictatorship and authoritarianism — with criminals or mobsters openly in charge of the apparatus of government — are NEVER the answer.

The real insurrectionists are those who promote and act on the initiation of force against peaceful people. Those who VOTE for dictatorships are also guilty terrorists, so far as I’m concerned.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason