Statement of Purpose

I decided to create this blog to share my thoughts on political philosophy and current events, particularly as they relate to the North American region of Cascadia, from a libertarian perspective.  My plan is to regularly post reviews of the various political and economic books I read, lectures I view, and perhaps comment on various news stories and issues of the day as they are relevant.  I would also like to get some of my libertarian minded friends to guest author some posts as they are able.

A little background on my perspective:

I guess I'm what they call the "minarchist" flavor of libertarian, meaning that I think that a minimal state, one which provides for the common defense and the rule of law but otherwise leaves its citizens alone, is the optimal form of government.  I first discovered that I was a libertarian when I heard the great professor Walter E Williams on the radio guest hosting the Rush Limbaugh show back when I was in high school.  For some reason this epiphany was revealed to my extended family members, one of whom bought me a copy of Charles Murray's "What It Means to be a Libertarian," which was a wonderful introduction but probably written at a much higher level than my thinking at the time.

My interest in economics began with the first (and only!) class I took on economics at Columbia Basin Community College.  It was an online summer class, so we didn't really have lectures, but I devoured the textbook.  To this day, through all 8 years of taking college classes, I can say that it is the only class in which I read every single assigned reading.  And then some.

I didn't really do much in relation to libertarianism or economics at any point during my undergraduate career.  Then, during my first semester of graduate school, I remembered how much I connected with that economics course at CBC and I picked up Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics (3rd ed.)" and read it, cover to cover, treating it basically as a self-study course in economics.  From there my interest was sparked.  I began to pick up the pace on my reading and listened to probably hundreds of lectures online (mostly on various youtube channels, the Cato Institute, or the Mises Institute).  Each new book I read or lecture I listened to seemed to lead to 2 or 3 others that I was interested in.

I'm currently reading at a pace of about a book a week (ok, probably more like a book every 2 weeks, depending on the length) and I subscribe to Reason Magazine, the Peter Schiff Show, and the Larry Kudlow Radio Podcast.  My amazon wishlist is about 100 books long and growing at an alarming rate.

I'm hoping this blog will encourage me to keep chipping away at my reading list, help me to organize my thoughts, and maybe even provide a little bit of value to readers.