Today is Reformation Day

 

This Day in History: Today is Reformation Day, as it is the day that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517. This is important as this is viewed as a great victory for freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but the Reformation also immersed Europe in warfare for over a century. The Thirty Years' War killed eight million, and the French Wars of Religion claimed yet another three million lives. Keep in mind that Europe's population was dramatically lower back then...the Protestant wars decimated society.

The Reformation may have broken an often cruel strangle-hold that the Catholic Church had on society, but it replaced it with violent Protestant fundamentalists.

"The strongest case for the Reformation is simply that there was no other path to our modern, tolerant world. European civilization had two choices: Either stay mired in the grip of medieval superstition and tyranny forever; or endure a century-long bloodbath. But this story is grossly overconfident. Despite the Protestant challenge, the Catholic Church utterly prevailed in countries like France, Spain, and Italy. In the 20th-century, though, it was defeated not by rival religions, but by French, Spanish, and Italian apathy. And you can't help but notice: this defeat by apathy was almost perfectly bloodless. If you object, 'None of that could have happened without the Reformation,' I say you underestimate the power of apathy." ~Bryan Caplan

See also: 200 Books on DVDrom on the Dark Side of Christianity
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2015/10/200-books-on-dvdrom-on-dark-side-of.html

Libertarian Author Rose Wilder Lane on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: American journalist and author Rose Wilder Lane, died on this day in 1968. Rose’s mother was Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the beloved series of Little House on the Prairie books. We now know that Rose had much more to do with the success of those books than has previously been thought. After World War I she traveled the world only to be met by starvation everywhere, so she was initially attracted to Communism. In short time she realized that this ideology only made things worse. She embraced individualism as she found that people who were left alone and freed from government restraints fared better. 

"Rose’s opposition to government intervention strengthened as the years rolled by. She became a strenuous opponent of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Before Pearl Harbor she opposed our entry into the war. During the war, she refused to apply for a ration card, relying on honey for sweetening and canning her own garden fruits and vegetables. She even refused to accept a Social Security number. When a radio commentator asked his listeners for their views on Social Security, she scribbled on a postcard: 'If [American] school teachers say to German [Nazi] children, ‘We believe in Social Security,’ the children will ask, ‘Then why did you fight Germany?’ All these ‘Social Security’ laws are German, instituted by Bismarck and expanded by Hitler. Americans believe in freedom, in not being taxed for their own good and bossed by bureaucrats.'” The local postmaster, reading the message, considered it subversive and notified the FBI which sent a state trooper to investigate. Rose’s response was a newspaper article: 'What Is This—the Gestapo?'" ~Bettina Bien Greaves

Her philosophy on life was detailed in her 1943 book The Discovery Of Freedom which you can download here.

See also: The Encyclopedia Of Libertarianism

The Arpanet & the Myth of the Government-Created Internet on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The first-ever computer-to-computer link was established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet on this day in 1969. There is a persistent myth out there that government invented the internet, ergo, government is helpful and we need it. The government was interested in a network of computers talking to each other and it used funding to support that research. The the private sector was also interested in the same thing. In other words, we would have had an internet with or without the government, and perhaps sooner, as the government locked access to the internet until the 90's. Now think of all the components needed for the internet to work. Where did that come from?: 

"IBM and ATT had major labs and were vitally interested in computers talking to one another as early as the late 1950s and early 1960s. Bell Labs invented UNIX in 1969; it made the internet possible. IBM invented FORTRAN and hard drives in 1956. Bell transmitted packet data over lines in 1958. Texas Instruments invented integrated circuits in 1958. In 1961 Leonard Kleinrock published a paper on packet switching networks. Bell Labs made the first modem in 1961. The mouse was invented in 1963. Digital Equipment Corporation produced the first minicomputer in 1964. In 1965 time sharing at MIT and mail command started. Intel began in 1968. The year 1966 saw the first use of fiber optics to carry telephone signals."~Michael S. Rozeff

https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/the-myth-that-government-created-the-internet/

"If the government didn’t invent the Internet, who did? Vinton Cerf developed the TCP/IP protocol, the Internet’s backbone, and Tim Berners-Lee gets credit for hyperlinks. But full credit goes to the company where Mr. Taylor worked after leaving ARPA: Xerox. It was at the Xerox PARC labs in Silicon Valley in the 1970s that the Ethernet was developed to link different computer networks. Researchers there also developed the first personal computer (the Xerox Alto) and the graphical user interface that still drives computer usage today."

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/147177/ima

Would There Be an Internet Without the State?

Peter Hitchens on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: English journalist and author Peter Hitchens was born on this day in 1951. He is also the brother of Christopher Hitchens, one of the New Atheists and author of "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." Peter Hitchens is a Christian and a member of the Church of England, and he reviewed "God Is Not Great" which led to a public argument between the brothers. In the review, Peter claimed his brother's book made a number of incorrect assertions. 

Lately, Peter Hitchens came out publicly against the government lockdowns in response to the coronavirus. According to Wikipedia:

He has referred to the UK government's Coronavirus lock down policy after 24 March 2020 as "the Great Panic" and was shocked by the enthusiastic embrace of it by the British public. He joined other high profile critics such as Lord Sumption and Toby Young in arguing that the full restrictive lock down after this date would have serious negative consequences as a result of restricting civil liberties, locking down a healthy population, and stalling a healthy economy. He argues that the government should have carried on like Sweden because, “the evidence from Stockholm, which has so far pursued a rational, proportionate, limited policy, still suggests that Sweden will emerge from this less damaged by far than we will.”

He cited examples of what he saw as questionable advice and information that the UK government had taken in the final decision to go into full lock down on 24 March. There were many "dubious statistics”, especially those from Imperial College London given by Neil Ferguson who claimed that there could be up to 500,000 COVID-19 deaths if the government did not impose a full lock down. In his Mail on Sunday blog, Hitchens identified Ferguson as being “one of those largely responsible for the original panic”.

Another "dubious statistic” he sees is that there was an inappropriate recording of cases and deaths relating to the virus. This was a result of a lack of differentiation in the death certificates between someone dying “of” the virus or “with” it. In his Daily Mail article on the 28 March 2020, Hitchens pointed out that when a patient died, hospital staff recorded COVID-19 on the death certificate even when the patient had died of other causes. He argues that the statistics about how deadly the virus had been skewed by not making the distinction between those who die as a direct result of the virus, and those who caught it but would have died anyway, or whose death was related to it but not directly caused by it.

See also: The Price of Panic

Great Barrington Declaration

The Martyrdom of Michael Servetus on This Day in History

 

This Kindle book, The Dark History of the Trinity, is now available on Amazon by clicking here...and it is only 99 cents

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This Day in History: Michael Servetus was burned at the stake just outside Geneva on this day in 1553. Servetus was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and Renaissance humanist. He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation, as discussed in Christianismi Restitutio (1553). He was a polymath versed in many sciences: mathematics, astronomy and meteorology, geography, human anatomy, medicine and pharmacology, as well as jurisprudence, translation, poetry and the scholarly study of the Bible in its original languages.

He is renowned in the history of several of these fields, particularly medicine. He participated in the Protestant Reformation, but because he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, he was condemned as a heretic and had to die. Many men throughout history held similar theological and christological views, such as Milton, John Locke, Isaac Newton and Thomas Jefferson to name but a few, but these men never had to go up against John Calvin. As John Scott Porter wrote in 1853 "the great Reformer [Calvin], who, from a window, beheld him dragged to execution, was so overjoyed at the spectacle that he burst into an irrepressible fit of laughter; and even at the distance of eleven years, in writing to a friend, he avowed and gloried in the deed. “Servetum, canem illum latrantem compescui!”. —“I quelled,” he says, “Servetus, that barking dog!”

Calvin: “Servetus, that barking dog!

See also: The Murder of Michael Servetus by John Calvin, 50 PDF Books on CDrom

The Persecution of Michael Servetus by Charles McRae 1892

Pat Sajak on This Day in History

This Day in History: Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak was born on this day in 1946. I however know him mainly for his humorous tweets, of which there are many:

97% of practicing mediums agree that communication with the dead is real. #SettledSeance

Quiet day at the mall. Then, “Hey, it’s Pat Sajak!!” Confusion, pictures, autographs. I’m almost sorry I yelled.

In order to save our planet, I’m asking everyone in America who’s 73-years-old or older to join me in pledging not to have any more children. #SignThePledge

I used to be in the news business, but I moved into something more credible.

When I had minimum wage jobs, my goal was to better myself, not to better the minimum wage.

No one was recognizing me when I went out wearing a face mask. Had to resort to carrying an 8x10 glossy of myself. Celebrityhood can be challenging.

Surprised to learn that selling vowels is not an essential job.

Thank goodness we have social media during this difficult time to bring us thoughtful and helpful information free of rancor or political agendas.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get much worse, I learn that boneless wings aren’t even wings. They’re just small pieces of white meat chicken. I’m not sure how much more I can take.

I'm so disappointed in my new Peloton Bike. I was able to hang so many more clothes on my old machine.

Every election cycle I get asked to participate in “get out the vote” public service announcements. But I figure if a TV game show host has to convince people to vote, they probably shouldn’t.

Great news! #climatechange is now #glutenfree

Even though I told him it was settled folklore, my young nephew remains a Tooth Fairy denier. (Those kids today!)

To boost career, planning to post, delete & apologize for offensive tweet later. Blaming hackers or prescription drugs.

Please hold. Your call is important to us. Though not important enough to hire a sufficient number of people to answer the phones.

I was walking around my house this morning and I saw myself in a mirror. Now, although I know I’m not a young man, I decided then and there that I had to do something about what I saw. So I’ve had all the mirrors removed. 

German philosopher Max Stirner on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: German philosopher and author Max Stirner was born on this day in 1806. As with other German philosophers of the time, I'm not sure I really liked any of them. He is covered in Charles T. Sprading's book "Liberty and the Great Libertarians" although his "might makes right" philosophy and his repudiation of all moral principles including individual rights scarcely qualifies him as a libertarian in any sense of the word. He did say some great things however, such as “The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime.”

He also said something that people should think about during these lockdowns: "When one is anxious only to live, he easily, in this solicitude, forgets the enjoyment of life. If his only concern is for life, and he thinks 'if I only have my dear life,' he does not apply his full strength to using, i. e. enjoying, life. But how does one use life? In using it up, like the candle, which one uses in burning it up. One uses life, and consequently himself the living one, in consuming it and himself. Enjoyment of life is using life up." In other words, life is more than just mere biological existence, living means enjoying all the things that life has to offer.

Buy: The Folly of Socialism (40 Chapters) for 99 cents on Amazon

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See also The History & Mystery of Money & Economics-250 Books on DVDrom

Visit my Econ blog at http://fredericbastiat1850.blogspot.com/

For a list of all of my disks and ebooks (PDF and Amazon) click here

See also Over 300 PDF/Acrobat Books on Socialism, Communism and Economics and 300 Books on DVDrom for Libertarians, Objectivists and Voluntaryists