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The Top 5 Libertarian Christmas Gifts

By
Aducknamedjoe
– November 20, 2012Posted in: Commentary, Featured

It’s every capitalist’s favorite time of year; a time of Black Friday sales,  commerce, and cookies!

Ah!  But what should you buy for your lovable libertarian this year?  You’ve already lavished them with some of the best libertarian holiday gifts you can find, but now you’re fresh out of ideas!

Fear not!  AGL is here, like a bright-red-nosed ungulate on a stormy December 24th evening, to save the day.

Below we’ve compiled the very tippy-top 5 best libertarian Christmas gifts, so you can stop freaking out and go back to celebrating the beauty of voluntary exchange in a (kind of) free market! Read the rest of this entry »

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A Second Opinion, Chapter Seven: The More You Know…

By
Aducknamedjoe
– April 13, 2012Posted in: Featured, Original Works

This is chapter 7 of a serialized novella appearing on Ars Gratia Libertatis every two weeks.  Read from the beginning here.

Chapter Seven: The More You Know…

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? –Juvenal

The surveillance van was state of the art. No expense had been spared in equipping it with all the newest bells and whistles of the professional voyeur’s trade. Declaring that the van would be “fighting terrorism” the Health Board had kitted it out with full video and auditory sensing and recording equipment (including night and thermal filtering), a veritable hacker’s wet dream of phone and internet taps and signal boosters, and even some more exotic technology still in the experimental phase. Though budgets for life-saving drugs and new beds for hospitals lagged, for this, it seemed, there was always enough money.

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Interview with J. Neil Schulman

By
Aducknamedjoe
– March 8, 2012Posted in: Commentary, Featured

J. Neil Schulman is one of the giants of the libertarian novelists active today. His 1979 novel, Alongside Night, is a libertarian classic, with endorsements from Milton Friedman, Ron Paul and others. It has helped to almost single-handedly jump-start the Agorist movement, and is currently being turned into a movie starring Kevin Sorbo (Hercules, Andromeda).

Schulman agreed to sit down with AGL and answer some of our questions.

1. Why did you start [your film company] Jesulu Productions and how did you realize there was a market need?

Jesulu Productions is my one-man personal production company. I initially started Jesulu Productions to produce a film adaptation of my 2002 novel, Escape From Heaven, and that production is still in the pipeline for a tentative release toward the end of 2014. But since it was slow getting that production going I first produced Lady Magdalene’s and am now in pre-production on Alongside Night. Additional productions in the pipeline are listed on the website.

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Liberty in visual art?

By
Aducknamedjoe
– February 28, 2012Posted in: Commentary, Featured

Jon McNaughton is not afraid to inject some politics into his beautifully rendered paintings. That those politics are distinctly Tea Party is what makes his paintings so contentious amongst the snooty leftist sorts.

From a CBS Las Vegas piece on the Utah artist:

“For a long time I didn’t know if I wanted to paint this picture, because I worried it might be too controversial,” McNaughton explains in a voice over. “(T)his man (on the park bench) represents every man, woman, and child who is an American… he hopes to find the American dream of happiness and prosperity.

“But now because of unconstitutional acts imposed on the American people by our government we stand on the precipice of disaster”

The painting he is referring to is the first of a pair, and it is called “The Forgotten Man” (alluding, perhaps, to the Amity Schlaes book of the same name, a free market history of the Great Depression).  You can see it below, or in more detail at McNaughton’s website.

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Review: High Desert Barbecue by J.D. Tuccille

By
Aducknamedjoe
– February 1, 2012Posted in: Featured, Reviews

There is no shortage of novels devoted to the outdoors whose stories appeal to backpackers, campers and hikers (the granola sort, we call them in Colorado). It takes only a minute’s thought to conjure up such titles as Into the Wild, Hatchet, or Hemingway’s famous short story, Big Two-Hearted River. Many of these seriously and studiously explore nature as a vast healing power, a thunderous force not to be trifled with, or a dangerous coming of age challenge.

Rare are those stories that depict nature with a lighthearted chuckle, to be respected, sure, but also to be enjoyed by people who know what they’re doing in the Great Outdoors. Rarer still is such a story written from a free market, libertarian perspective. Luckily, author J.D. Tuccille has taken it upon himself to rectify that deficit with his new novel, High Desert Barbecue.

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Interview with Big Head Press’s Scott Bieser

By
Aducknamedjoe
– January 25, 2012Posted in: Commentary, Featured

If you have a passing familiarity with the cultural wing of the liberty movement, odds are you’ve heard of Scott Bieser. The prolific artist and writer has helped to put Big Head Press on the map as a great source for high quality, thoughtful graphic novels with a decidedly libertarian bent. AGL spoke with Scott about his work, Big Head Press, and libertarianism in the arts.

1. Why did you start Big Head Press and how did you realize there was a market need?

Big Head Press was started in order to publish The Probability Broach: The Graphic Novel, which was the GN-adaptation of L. Neil Smith’s first novel, which has sold something close to 60,000 copies since it was published, in three editions.

The market need — or more directly, the cultural need — we saw was for more stories promoting individualism and rationality versus statism and mysticism, and after The Probability Broach we sought more stories from various writers along these lines.

2. Describe the company and what you do a little.  How do you get the word out? Is it your primary job or do you do other work?

Big Head Press is my brother Frank, who handles the money and contracts and runs the website, and I, who get graphic stories created and formatted for print or e-publication. So I write, draw, edit (the other artists and writers), letter, and generally manage all aspects of production. And of course, there are our free-lancers, most of whom are also creator-owners of the works.

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Review: Withur We by Matthew Alexander

By
Aducknamedjoe
– December 30, 2011Posted in: Featured, Reviews

I just finished reading Matthew Alexander’s anarchocapitalist novel, Withur We. Was I entertained? Bored? Convinced to throw Molotov cocktails at government buildings? Continue on, dear reader, and find out.

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The 5 Best Libertarian Holiday Gifts

By
Aducknamedjoe
– December 15, 2011Posted in: Commentary, Featured

It’s that time of year again, and you’ve been tasked with braving the cold, the crowds, and the shopping mall Santas, and returning with the perfect gift for that Ayn Rand quoting, Gadsden Militia flag waving friend/relative/lover/frenemy of yours.

But what do you get someone who already has 3 copies of The Fountainhead, a Colt 1911 and gold coins with Thomas Paine’s face on them?

You’re about to find out!

Because below is AGL’s Libertarian Holiday Gift Guide: a random smattering of some of the best free-market schwag out there.  Put one of these under the tree, and you’re sure to bring a smile of joy to even the grinchiest Milton Friedman fan.

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A Second Opinion, Chapter Six: Thomas King

By
Aducknamedjoe
– December 12, 2011Posted in: Featured, Original Works

This is chapter 6 of a serialized novella appearing on Ars Gratia Libertatis every two weeks.  Read from the beginning here.

Chapter Six: Thomas King

Never doubt what small men will do for great power. –Paolo Bacigalupi

Thomas King had been ten the moment he first decided he wanted to be a bureaucrat. It had not been a conscious decision; he still said he wanted to be an astronaut, but deep down, where it counts, he didn’t. The young boy with the mousy brown hair, his midsection always a little too doughy, wanted to be a bureaucrat when he grew up.

It had happened the day Thomas was awarded the title of Recess Monitor for going a whole month without being tardy once. That recess was one of the least fun half hours the children at Oliver Wendell Holmes Elementary School would ever have to endure. But for Thomas King, it was a blast.

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The 5 Best Free Libertarian Novels

By
Aducknamedjoe
– December 5, 2011Posted in: Commentary, Featured

Let’s face it, novels celebrating the free market and individual rights are pretty hard to come by. Most everything in the fiction section of your local bookstore is some paean to collectivism, or diatribe against the evils of capitalism and the “soul killing” nature of consumerism.

But you don’t believe that stuff.

You know capitalism, mixed with a political system that protects individual rights, has been the single greatest force for good on the planet, lifting billions out of crushing poverty. You don’t want to read all that bilge about how you’re a bad, bad person for supporting it.

So what is a wayward libertarian to do? Especially when so much of your money is stolen by the government each year that you have very little left over to buy books?

Why, turn to the free stuff on the Internet of course!

Luckily I’ve taken the time to compile a list of the 5 best libertarian novels (in no particular order) that also happen to be free. Gratis. Sin dinero. The low, low cost of nothing. Just for you.

I’ve even included links to where you can download them.

I know, right?

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