… & Reflections & Jokes… As posted on Facebook or Twitter since 2010 (TRIGGER WARNING)

With all the family he had, he often thought he was living in a aunted house. (November 25, 2021)

Poverty is getting out of breath when chasing running water. (November 25, 2021)

Mon tigre m’a demandé à boire. Je lui ai dit d’aller voir dans l’Euphrate si j’y suis. (November 24, 2021).

I should have suspected that shoulder holsters are rather uncomfortable since James Bond used to drop his on the bed before having a glass of milk. (November 23, 2021)

It’s difficult to have a Hayekian abstract order in a concrete tribe (or nation). (November 21, 2021)

OMG, GMO! (November 21, 2021)

Medicare advises the old: “This flu season, protect yourself and your loved ones by getting the flu shot.”  It should be “from,” not “and.” (November 19, 2021)

I did not see a soul on the trail, not even any body. (November 18, 1021)

Insensitive speech is necessary to the future of mankind. (November 1, 2021)

En général (et au mieux), les Québécois parlent un français scolaire que l’école a mal enseigné. (October 30, 2021)

At least, Hillary Clinton would likely have played tyranny by the rules. (October 30, 2021)

The secret of hunting is to go where the animals are. (October 23, 2021)

Tolerance means to be tolerant of other individuals’ own preferences, not to be tolerant of tyranny, which is the ultimate intolerance. (October 17, 2021)

It’s often useful to retreat in one’s head, for those who have a non-empty one. (October 14, 2021)

I’m a bit too intolerant of ignorance. At least it also applies to mine (I think). (October 12, 2021)

If your argument is etherous, nobody can poke holes through it. (August 13, 2021)

People now need their computers when they want to have a bite. O tempora, o mores! (July 28, 2021)

Everybody has at least one post-existing medical condition. (July 1, 2021)

With gender transitioning, I am happy that my old male friends can now be missed without passing away. (June 22, 2021)

Instead of a chick magnet, I have become a tick magnet. (The tick season is pretty bad this year.) (June 21, 2021)

Instead of a chick magnet, I have become a tick magnet. (The tick season is pretty bad this year.) (June 21, 2021)

Donald Trump is certainly one of the few dictators-to-be in history to have an election stolen from him while HE was the one in power. (May 9, 2021)

If you substitute “humanity” for “mankind,” which word will you use to replace “humanity,” which does not mean the same. (May 3, 2021)

Après des décennies d’alcool frelaté, le foie du charbonnier était très amoché. (April 17, 2021)

I wonder if God speaks English with a British or American accent. (April 17, 2021)

Sailors have a short life expectancy at berth. (April 4. 2021)

Remember your Greek roots? If you are not woke, you’re awoke. (April 4, 2021)

I think I’ll create an NFT. If only I knew what it is. (March 21, 2021)

Le woke, on le sait, est une langue extrêmement concise. Par exemple, « je le (ou la) trouve con (conne) et artificiel (artificielle) » se dit simplement « Me find zir conia. » (March 17, 2021)

In the cemetery, a zombie was walking Shrödinger’s cat. (March 10, 2021)

Stakeholders are only good for killing vampires. (March 6, 2021)

I thought that even mild socialists favored (coerced) social fusion, not social distancing. (February 6, 2021)

I’m like “oh, I’m not like.” (February 4, 2021)

Hunting crows around a corn field today, I did not see any and harvested none. To compensate, I decided to kill corn, but it was already dead. Hunting with a revolver (which is quite an enterprise), I also looked for a crow bar where they would congregate, reflecting that, especially when tipsy, they would be easier to shoot. (January 23, 2021)

I hope Trump supporters now understand that they have been cheated and deceived by a dictator-to-be or, at the very least, by a muddled ignorant. (January 6, 2021)

The oldest members of your team are teamagers. (December 23, 2020)

If my car spoke to me, I would tell it: “Don’t speak unless spoken to.” (December 2020)

One would think that socialists would be dead set against social distancing. (December 15, 2010)

With his proud ignorance, weathervane ideology, in-your-face dishonesty, deep delusion, and empty narcissism, Donald Trump was the opposite of what had made America great in many ways. It is a tragedy that he made some people believe that he represented capitalism and liberty. (December 5, 2020)

If some of your opinions are only defended by cranks except for you, you should put these ideas under heightened scrutiny. (November 28, 2020)

Life is an underlying condition. (November 18, 2020)

The people is breathlessly waiting for the result of the fight between two intellectual and moral titans, into the winner of which it will be incarnated. (November 3, 2020)

Ceteris paribus n’a rien à voir avec la RATP. (October 30, 2020)

Many people don’t dye with a nice color. (October 25, 2020)

Is God a hypothesis more implausible than quantum entanglement? (October 3, 2020)

Populists and socialists want “the will of the people” to prevail. They will get it good and hard. (September 27, 2020)

I wonder how socialists can be in favor of social distancing. Their usual business is to force social amalgamation and regimentation. (September 26, 2020)

Il y a un siècle, les Québécois étaient, sauf exception, ignorants mais libres. Aujourd’hui, ils sont ignorants et serviles. Il y a des exceptions. (September 17, 2020)

I am so much looking forward to the resurrection of the dead bolts. (September 15, 2010)

A machine to remove junk from interstellar space is called a vacuum cleaner. (Only women are intelligent enough to run it.) (September 11, 2020)

White grievance, black grievance, woke grievance, wall-to-wall grievance with cries for more government authoritarianism. What about individuals who want to be left alone? (September 7, 2020)

When rational arguments don’t work, one way to deal with those who define themselves in terms of group identity and flock to mobs is to tell them “flock you!” (September 5, 2020)

René Char inventa la charcuterie. (August 31, 2020)

It’s a stretch to have elastic opinions. (August 31, 2020)

If, in a given area, you don’t have at least a faint idea of what you don’t know, you have no way to be relatively confident of the truth of what you think you know. (August 25, 2020)

You cannot unread something, which is why some people don’t take the risk. (August 23, 2020)

As Trump would say, poor little Americans! Two centuries and a half of exploitation by their own liberty and free markets (or at least by what their own governments permitted of that)! Wasn’t it much better in imperial China and in the Soviet Union? (August 21, 2010)

Occam is not a sort of webcam. (August 6, 2020)

Chimney sweeps are not there to soothe people. (August 4, 2020)

Le cul-de-jatte ne peut travailler d’arrache-pied. (July 28, 2020)

We could have expected both the woke and the Trumpians, with their deep knowledge of reason, science, and history, to have been utterly terrified by the apparition of Neowise in the sky. (July 16, 2020)

We know, at least since Nero and more recently Adolf Hitler and Hugo Chavez, that an idiot can rise to the helm of the state, even the democratic state. (July 14, 2020)

With all this coronavirus fuss, we forgot the Mexican rapists and the women and children attacking the border. (July 13, 2020)

Alchemy: How to transmute weeds into a lawn? Mow them close to the ground. (July 11, 2020)

Except as an expression of empathy, we are not really or ultimately “all in this together.” We are in this individually, and the more so as the government tries to control the allocation of goods and the travel of persons. (July 5, 2020)

One is at least as happy after death as before birth. The problem with death is in the process. (June 30, 2020)

Accounting is a series of rules to consistently classify and record data from the past. Economics is a set of theories to analyze and predict which effects will follow which causes in the future. (June 23, 2020)

Isn’t it surprising that individuals who love government so much hate so much the statues erected by governments? (June 23, 2020)

It has to be fair, social, and sustainable. (June 20, 2020)

What is good for the transgender is good for the transgoose. (June 15, 2020)

It is strange that some people on the right welcome government as an arena for a fight to grab resources, and think that they will win. (May 29, 2020)

I learned a new word: “crozier.” As for me, my shotgun is my crozier. (May 2, 2020)

The patriarchy has conditioned us to speak of a mailbox while it is obviously a female box. (May 2, 2010)

Maurice Ravel’s devouring fear was that everything would start to unravel. (April 27, 2020)

Pandemic humor: Imagine Van Gogh with a face mask. (April 24, 2020)

L’énigme du mois: Pourquoi deux videurs qui travaillent ensemble sont-ils particulièrement dangereux? (April 24, 2020)

Try to see how what you do and what you observe in what you do fit into the general adventure of mankind. (April 13, 2020)

To be left ahead is not necessarily better than to be left behind. (April 12, 2019)

Social distancing is one advantage of fast cars. (April 7, 2020)

Un Anglais qui n’aime pas le thé s’appelle un athé. Une Anglaise qui a les mêmes goûts est une athée. (April 7, 2020)

To find out if there are binding price caps imposed by government, it’s simple: just look and see if there are shortages (lasting longer than until the next truck delivery). (April 6, 2020)

What happened when the French government capped wheat prices in the 18^th century? What happened when the Venezuelan government capped consumer prices? What is happening at your grocery store in America now that prices are capped? (April 5, 2020)

Some of us still believe that it is better to die a free man than to live as a slave. (April 2, 2020)

Leviathan: Who believes that the state will nicely abandon its new control powers after this epidemic, until it increases them one notch again at the next emergency? (April 1, 2010)

All of American politics seems focused on one goal: Make America Soviet a Gain (MASAG). (March 28, 2020)

Covid-19 will probably reduce sexual harassment although not complaints thereof (complainants’ reduced incomes may increase them). (March 22, 2020)

The incipit of the Aeneid, “Arma virumque cano,” does not mean that the armed virus has been canned. (March 16, 20120)

As Heraclitus would say, you never step twice in the same river. (The coronavirus would translate: You never step twice in the same mucus.) (March 16, 2020)

If they go under, they won’t stay above. (March 15, 2020)

We are just individual bundles of zeros and ones. (March 15, 2020)

There is nothing against having an ignoramus at the head of the state, IF AND ONLY IF the power of this state is SEVERELY CONSTRAINED. (March 14, 2020)

What is needed is a CONTAINMENT AREA for politicians and bureaucrats. Stop regulating people to death! (March 12, 2020)

Death is not that bad: for most people, it happens only once. (March 12, 2020)

I spent my whole life practicing social distancing. (March 12, 2020)

God sent Trump to punish Americans. Seeing that it was not sufficient, He sent a coronavirus. (March 12, 2010)

BREAKING NEWS: Gaia has tested positive. (March 12, 2020)

I’m looking for closure with an open mind. (March 10, 2010)

I finally found my keys! I had been trying so hard to think out of the box while they were right in it. (March 8, 2020)

Ovid is not the name of a viral disease. (March 7, 2020)

Why can’t moral and political philosophers test positive for covid-19? Because they can only test normative. (March 5, 2020)

Chicken is just chicken. But then, there is chicken Riesling, chicken tandoori and, at the top of the food chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken. (March 4, 2020)

It is naïve to deny that lying is a constant feature of politics; it is dangerous to believe that it should be a political ideal. (February 28, 2020)

I wonder how many times a day Trump gets screened or searched? For he is, for now, the most dangerous American. (February 25, 2019)

A problem in life? Just go to a checkpoint and get screened. (February 25, 2019)

The problem with the midlife crisis is that it gets worse as time passes. (February 20, 2020)

As Socrates would have said, a life without Microsoft Excel is not worth living. (February 19, 2020)

What are “we” going to do with all these genderual predators? (February 15,2020)

It is because of the “enforcement” in “law enforcement” that the “law” should be strictly limited. (February 9, 2020)

A trick I reveal as a public service: If I don’t remember where I put my wallet, I just need to look where I left my holster (which, of course, a man never forgets). (February 8. 2020)

Thank God for the only three dimensions of the observable universe! Otherwise, imagine how much time it would take to remove the snow on one’s pickup. (February 6, 2020)

It’s difficult to conceive of nothingness, except perhaps if you think of Donald Trump or Elizabeth Warren. ()

Nothingness doesn’t hurt, provided nothing happens. (January 28, 2020)

Who sells a lot of nostrums can be described as a seller of mare nostrum. (January 27, 2020)

Better to be high on high rye than low on ammo. (January 26, 2019)

Better to have a lot of bliss for little trouble than a little bliss for a lot of trouble. (January 22, 2020)

The more I read or hear Republicans and Democrats, “liberals” and “conservatives,” Republicrats and Democlicans, the more I see libertarianism as an essential antidote. (January 22, 2020)

Partisan follower when his idol is caught lying: “All politicians lie. It’s normal. And I believe him.” (January 21, 2010)

I must read Cicero’s *De Senectute* before it’s too late. (January 13, 2020)

If you never say anything clear and precise, you will never be blamed for being wrong. (January 5, 2020)

The main stress (and opportunity) in intellectual life is that you are constantly reading new things that deflect your thinking and that you wish you had read before. (January 1, 2019)

The funniest thing in the obsessive polarization of America is that the Republicans are identified with the color red, the color of communism and socialism, and the Democrats with the color blue, representing heaven. (December 29, 2019)

Why do Republicans never work at night? Because they want to have nothing to do with blue light. Why do Democrats never go to corridas? Because, like the bulls, they would see red. (December 29, 2019)

Pedagogy of calculus: What is the difference between the first and second derivative? First derivative: you grow older. Second derivative: at an increasing rate. (December 29, 2019)

The only reason angels do not fear sexual harassment in heaven is they don’t have a sex. They only have a gender (an infinite gender, like the universe). (December 29, 2019)

One trans to the other trans: “Let’s have gender.” (December 29, 2019)

Before Mary delivered, Joseph did not call a midwife because he already had a midghost. (December 24, 2019)

Pour latinistes seulement: En perdant des recrues, les monastères deviennent monasbis. (December 22, 2019)

Bed is the place for blanket statements. (December 22, 2019)

Saint-Nectaire is the nectaire of the gods. Even Beaujolais Nouveau tastes good with it. (December 20, 2019)

If an individual thinks his own vote counts in an election, let him try and vote for a minority government (in the British system) or for a Congress equally divided. (December 5, 2019)

Don’t waste your time with a newspaper that never publishes errata. (November 28, 2019)

One rule of thumb (imperfect but most often useful) to distinguish credible and non-credible news sources: see how often they publish errata. The fewer errata, the less credible. (November 28, 2019)

If somebody has a good idea for the wrong reasons, he can easily switch to a bad idea for other wrong reasons. (November 28, 2019)

I am happy: after a few years of politically correct life, I have started hunting again. (November 19, 2019)

Soyez patient, l’éternité ne fait que commencer. / Be patient: eternity is just starting. (November 19, 2019)

If you have a stroke, it better be one of genius. (November 10, 2019)

Fly fishermen and waterfowl hunters are often wading for Godot. (October 28, 2019)

Reading Walter Scheidel’s *Escape from Rome*, I might be moving to the following position: It’s not that the nation is loveable; it’s that empire is even more despicable. (October 21, 2019)

The best (or second best) way to flatter a man is to compliment his pickup. (October 18, 2019)

Besides respecting the basic rules of logic, an essential rule of rational discourse is to quote other persons exactly. (October 2, 2019)

Why is it virtually never men who accuse women of having groped them? September 30, 2019)

The sequence of government promises: (1) It’s in your interest. (2) Bear the short-run costs, long-term gains will follow. (3) Paradise will come when man has been reformed; now get in line. (September 23, 2019)

Perhaps the gods long decided
Which man, which gun will be paired (September 17, 2019)

When Trump said, in a March 2, 2018 tweet, that “trade wars are good and easy to win,” his statement (as often) had no foundation in theory or history. He might as well have said, “unicorns have paws in pure gold.” (September 6, 2019)

The dead are very silent. Too bad because they would have more interesting things to say than many babbling idiots I hear. (September 6, 2019)

The substitution of “gender” for “sex” is part of Newspeak, whose function is to prevent the wrong thoughts. To have sex is subversive; to “have gender” is compliant. (September 5, 2019)

What’s difficult in rational thinking, as opposed to doing poetry, is the logical necessity of maintaining coherence. (I have nothing against poetry, on the contrary. But not if it is used for coercion or building bridges.) (September 2, 2019)

Liberalism: For private individuals, everything is free that is not explicitly and legitimately prohibited. For the state and its agents, everything is prohibited which is not explicitly and legitimately permitted. (September 2, 2019)

It’s strange how some people can be lied to again and again, and still ask for more. (August 30, 2019)

The dyslexic bureaucrat’s motto: “If it can save only one file!” (August 24, 2019)

The right to laugh at religious symbols, especially the handicapping ones, is as important as the right to embrace them. (August 17, 2019)

Whether for a good or a bad reason, everybody turns in his grave occasionally. (August 16, 2019)

Drugging into inactivity politicos and 17- to 24-year-old young men would have a good chance of reducing the problem of violence. (August 6, 2019)

Where is the medical or historical evidence that mental disease, to the extent that it exists, is less a problem with politicos than with eccentric teenagers or young men? (August 6, 2019)

The injunction “live and let live” applies to mass killers, of course, but also to governments (politicians and bureaucrats) forbidding self-defense or aggressing or surveilling people who do no harm to anybody else. (August 6, 2019)

Lightning is not going to fall on my watch (and it wouldn’t matter anyway because it’s just a Timex). (August 6, 2019)

There is an alternative to white nationalism or whatever its color. It’s called individualism. (August 5, 2019)

It is generally a good rule not to blindly follow an idiot. (July 15, 2019)

A mechanic—especially one not very strong in English—will not want to obey the New Testament by keeping the wheat and throwing away the shaft. (June 29, 2019)

Grave matters: I hope my grave is not too narrow for when, probably often, I need to turn. (June 29, 2019)

War is peace, freedom is slavery, and border-crossing assistance is human smuggling. (June 21, 2019)

I wouldn’t win a pistol shooting competition, but don’t come closer than 50 feet. (June 18, 2019)

Do the Deplorables shop at Walmart because they (wisely) want to buy inexpensive imported goods, or because they hope to meet Trump (or Warren or Ocasio-Cortez or Sanders) when he does his own shopping there? (June 14, 2019)

He must be sad who defends theories so inconsistent that he cannot find a line of great Western thinkers who defended them. (June 13, 2019)

He must be sad who has painted himself into a corner of theories that have been defended mainly by advocates of tyranny or by ignoramuses. (June 13, 2019)

Suppose that one distinctive characteristic of man over animals is X. Is it a good reason to tax X? Now, read Adam Smith on the “propensity in human nature to truck, barter, and exchange.” (June 13, 2019)

Hating haters makes you a hater. (June 6, 2019)

An economist has problems saying, “He’s just an idiot.” It would sometimes come handy, though. (Jun 3, 2019)

Everything is relevant to everything, but not directly. (May 28, 2019)

Ah ! que le 20e siècle a passé vite. (Et ça ne s’améliore pas pour le 21e.) (May 26, 2019)

Many Christians talk at cross-purpose. (May 20, 2019).

I don’t generally succumb to spoilerphobia. On the contrary, I would often prefer to know the end before the beginning. (May 20, 2019)

“Winter is coming.”
“No. Lent is coming.”
“Hey! Not so fast.” (May 18, 2019)

If a country grows rich by exporting, imagine how rich it would get if it exported everything produced by its residents. Find the economic error. (May 14, 2019)

Trump is not only the King of America; he is also the king of bullshit. (May 11, 2019)

If you lack motivation, go to the automotive department. If your life is empty, go to a fulfillment center. (May 9, 2019)

A philosopher-king is bad; other things equal, a non-philosopher king is worse. At least, discussion is possible with the former. (May 1, 2019)

The cook decided to use a Franciscan friar. (April 26, 2019)

Many people have near-life experiences. (April 25, 2019)

Can a sugar daddy give you diabetes? (April 25, 2019)

Jour de la Terre : Un seul hêtre vous manque et tout est dépeuplé. (22 avril 2019)

King Kong, who was on a diet, stopped eating belfries. (April 18, 2019)

Running the government is one thing. “Running the country” is another thing, which is impossible in a free society. A free society cannot be run by anybody: it is a contradiction in terms. (April 4, 2019)

If you only read people who tell you that you are right, you have no way to know whether this is true or false. (April 3, 2019)

Life is the leading cause of preventable death. (March 13, 2019)

Yoni soit qui mal y pense. (March 10, 2009)

Supernatural selection: When Saint Peter makes a decision at the Pearly Gates. (March 10, 2009)

I think I am becoming nicer with age, but it was not difficult. (February 28, 2018)

Today, the Right looks pitiful, and the Left triumphant. They still share a common denominator: emperors of both sides are naked and betray their blind followers. (February 27, 2019)

The typical Pakistani is as blindly convinced that his country represents the best of all mankind in time and space, and glowingly proud of it, as the typical Indian thinks exactly the same of his own collective. Asperger nationalism. (February 27, 2019)

If your offspring is lethargic, put it on. (Februray 26, 2019)

We read stuff to stumble upon things. At least partly for that reason. (February 23, 2019)

I repeated to my one-year-old grandson that he cannot put a larger cup into a smaller one. “Look here, you have to put the small one into the large one.” It’s also what I try to say in my writings. (February 23, 2019)

I once hoped to become rich and then start living a life of frugality and voluntary simplicity. I have now decided to skip the first step. (January 31, 2019)

Since space and time are a continuum, one can have a waist of time. (January 29, 2019)

I misspoke. I said yes when I wanted to say no. (January 26, 2019)

Like all politicians, Trump’s first pursuit is his own interest. Since he has no organized ideas, however, this pursuit is not mediated by any quasi-logical coherence. It is pure, raw, brazen self-aggrandizement through demagogy. Not the first time in history. (January 26, 2017)

God and women have probably been the greatest inspirers of music and poetry. From now on, of course, it will be the state and non-binary beings. (January 25, 2019)

With some luck, the Trump presidency will show people how the emperor is naked and dangerous. With no luck, the electorate will go from Charybdis to Scylla. (January 20, 2019)

I stopped being a perfectionist roughly one or two years ago. (January 3, 2019)

The dyslexic was scared of people licking him. (January 1, 2019)

With a contract ready to be signed, the snowflake prudently suggests to the other snowflake: “Let’s have gender.” (December 22, 2018)

Life is the only thing that, when used as intended, kills 100% of its users. (December 21, 2018)

The problem is not unmanned aircraft, but unwomnaned aircraft. (December 16, 018).

If you love democracy only when it produces results that you love, you don’t love democracy, you only love what you love. (December 15, 2018)

It is one thing to disobey a law that you believe to be liberticidal and immoral; it’s another thing to break a law that you are happy to see applied to everybody else. (December 12, 2018)

Some asteroids are milestones, others are bigger. (December 9, 2018)

Environmentalists love the solar plexus (but not the ordinary one). (December 8, 2018)

All deaths are premature or “postmature”; none is right on time. (December 3, 2018)

Trump had a few good intuitions and a lot of bad ones. But they were just that, intuitions, with no basis in economics or general culture, not to speak of classical liberal or libertarian culture. (November 29, 2018)

Political rulers are dangerous. Many are also ridiculous. (November 28, 2018)

Everybody can be wrong. Some can also be ridiculous. (November 28, 2018)

Security is very useful: once you have it, you can obey the government. Right? (November 15, 2018)

A good lobbyist’s philosophy is limited to the distinction between mine and dine. (November 10, 2018)

A real environmentalist and Gaia worshipper would hunt heretics with an arrow of thyme. (November 10, 2018)

All self-described victims should be believed, including of course the victims of accusations by self-described victims. (November 5, 2018)

Authoritarians believe that individual liberty is the mother of all loopholes. (November 4, 2018)

Tyranny of the left or tyranny of the right: imagine if that were your alternative when you buy a car or (to give an example closer to an individual voter’s impact on the market) one tomato. (October 31, 2018)

Insensitive comment of the week: If a man has a pistol, a pickup truck, and a woman, what else does he need? (October 26, 2018)

Not being an ignorant is not a sufficient condition for not being a tyrannical political reader, but it is quite certainly a necessary condition. (October 20, 2018)

Everything is a matter of degree, including this very statement. (October 20, 2018)

If people think that Trump is a free trader, they risk turning against it, because he has no idea what it means. (October 11, 2018)

To deal with death, one needs rules of tomb. (October 4, 2018)

Disagreement on the benefits of free exchange has two sources: (1) different ethical values to evaluate public policy (for example, redistributionist or not, or collectivist or not); (2) ignorance of economic analysis. Sometimes, the two reasons combine. (October 4, 2018)

Alea jacta est: I threw away ONE of the unknown keys that I have conserved for decades just in case, one day, they revealed their use for accessing long forgotten treasures. (September 29, 2018)

The fact that people are or should be allowed to sell snake oil—including intellectual snake oil—does not mean that you are obliged to buy it. (September 28, 2018)

Could you recognize a witch-hunt if one was happening and most people did not see it? Could you identify the hunted witches? The hunting mob? (September 26, 2018)

The main difference between “the Left” and “the Right” has become more and more obvious: they bring bricks of different colors to the construction of the Police State. (In case of free trade, the brick colors have become indistinguishable.) (September 24, 2018)

After the salmon judgement, all the fish were silent. (September 22, 2018)

A “stakeholder” who stakes a claim often, in fact, claims a steak that does not belong to him. (September 22, 2018)

Team work asymmetries:
“Are we saying that we are firing me?”
“Yes, you are fired.”
“We are fired?”
“No. *You* are fired.” (September 20, 2018)

Paradoxically, four-stroke engines don’t die more quickly than two-stroke ones. (September 18, 2018)

Stakeholders are dead vampires. (September 18, 2018)

Ultra PC types don’t eat broth, only cis. (September 12, 2018)

To follow a smaller tribe instead of a larger one is not the definition of individualism. (September 11, 2018)

Socialist fish, who practice socialist solidarity, always stand chowder to chowder. (September 9, 2018)

Do you want eternal life?
[X] Yes
[ ] No

When?
[ ] Now
[X] Later

(September 7, 2018)

Can an amputee sue for severance? (August 20, 2018)

The shoemaker is certainly a sole proprietor. (August 20, 2018)

Half of mankind thinks that God is very silent, while the other half believes he speaks nonstop. (August 17, 2018)

Il est urgent de faire des transports en commun des transports en propre. (August 9, 2018)

The capacity of demagogues to persuade people that they are freeing them while they are imposing new constraints and gaining more power is fascinating. (July 25, 2018)

It used to be that, except perhaps if you were an author or if your spouse recalled what you said, your jokes and mots d’esprit would be quickly forgotten, for better or for worse. Now, with the social networks, they may survive. The last man on this planet may read one of them before closing the last eyes of mankind forever. (July 21, 2018)

We don’t have problems anymore, only issues. “What brought you here,” Saint Peter asked. “I had a little health issue,” the newcomer replied. (“But,” Saint Peter quipped, “why did your issue turn into an exit?”) (July 21, 2018)

“Better red than dead,” said the environmentalist looking at the tide. (July 21, 2018)

You can always hope to persuade somebody who is wrong (or perhaps you’ll be persuaded by him?). There is much less hope with somebody who doesn’t know how to think and is moved by emotions and delusions. (July 18, 2018)

Is there anything more insulting than a state dog sniffing you? Are the reigning politicos dog-sniffed? (July 15, 2018)

The collective is a mass hole. (July 14, 2018)

If everybody is a victim, who victimizes them? (July 6, 2018)

I decided to be born out of an abundance of caution. (July 6, 2018)

In “artificial intelligence,” the first word is much more defining than the second, and will probably remain so forever. (July 6, 2018)

Why should Americans work to produce stuff for foreigners instead of for Americans? If you can answer this question in a way that is not self-contradictory, you are on your way to understanding the economics of trade (or you already understand). July 1, 2018)

Give an inch to Leviathan, he (or she) will take a mile. (June 26, 2018)

The logical-epistemological puzzle of the weekend: I am the youngest of my old friends. (The disturbing implication of my underlying definition is that I am also the oldest of my young friends.) (June 23, 2018)

The chef was condemned to thyme served. (June 16, 2018)

Everybody should be prosecuted, including the prosecutors. (June 16, 2018)

Every newborn baby in America is an evil immigrant. (June 15, 2018)

It’s so simple that I don’t know how intelligent people can miss it. The universe is made of two radically different sorts of matter: Republican and Democratic. One is good and produces freedom and honey. The other is bad and causes tyranny and cancer. (June 14, 2018)

Is Trump the American de Gaulle (without the culture)? There are some similarities: nationalism, protectionism, militarism, authoritarianism, aggrandizement of the executive, all that within a glorified and personalized conception of the state. (June 13, 2018)

If “it’s true in theory but not in practice,” it is not true in theory, because the theory is wrong. (June 5, 2018)

Today’s hermits are not difficult to spot: they work on Linux computers and carry six-shooters. (June 3, 2018)

I am looking for the box out of which I need to think. (May 27, 2017)

If you don’t have an IT department doing it for you, switching form one (main) computer to another is as stressing and frustrating an experience as it is exciting. I wonder how non-geeks do it without losing part of their lives or part of their minds. (May 22, 2018)

The majority of the Deplorables and the majority of the Honorables are two faces of the same problem: they want to rule. (May 20, 2018)

Populism is good if it overthrows tyranny, not if it brings new bricks to its construction. (May 19, 2018)

Cleavage is just cleavage. (May 19, 2018)

What’s the difference between the wares and the whereabouts? The former can easily be found on Amazon. (May 19, 2018)

Would making Denmark great transform the Danes into Great Danes? (May 16, 2018)

It is striking how the Right is as unable as the Left to identify tyrannical demagogues. (May 16, 2018)

To understand the world, it’s more important to be educated than “trained”; the first term may include the best of the second one. (May 16, 2018)

We must keep our minds open. Some unexpected events can happen. Perhaps pigs will fly [but not across borders] and Trump will contribute to the advance of individual liberty. (May 16, 2018)

The problem with protectionism is its intended consequence: it raises consumer prices for the benefit of special interests. (May 16, 2018)

When I receive a pollen alert from the Weather Channel, I wonder if St. Paul is back. (May 13, 2018)

A single shoe is a lost sole. (May 9, 2018)

If your butcher sells meat at prices you find attractive, why should you decide not to buy from him because he doesn’t buy anything from you? (May 9, 2018)

Do you favor free enterprise, free trade, and free speech? Or are you on the side of fair enterprise, fair trade, and fair speech? (May 7, 2018)

Collectivists and crypto-collectivists love to suffer together, which is why they form commonwelts. (May 6, 2018)

A too tight band-aid gave me a big welt, but it’s a welt of nations. (May 6, 2017)

Democratic procedures are not good until they elect the people democrats want to elect. In other words, “democratic” is what they think is good. (♣♣April 18, 2018)

For the rest of my life, I am taking a leave of presence. (April 23, 2018)

If you have a good cause but need to contradict or ignore the truth to defend it, you don’t have a good cause. (April 20, 2018)

You cannot help the poor by taxing the inexpensive goods they import. (April 18, 2018)

You cannot help the poor by forbidding them to buy inexpensive goods. (April 18, 2018)

If you think that the problem was Obama, you will soon think that the problem was Trump, and then you’ll swear that the problem was Elizabeth Warren, and so forth, in an absurd obsession with mere symptoms of the same disease: trust in Leviathan. (April 16, 2018)

Suppose your boss took a cut on the price of what you buy from Walmart. Suppose your government imposes a special tax on what you buy from China. Find the difference. (And would you say, “Thank you, boss”?) (April 4, 2018)

If the Democrats were in favor of the 2nd Amendment or if Trump were in favor of the 1st and 4th, it would be close to paradise. (April 4, 2018)

Free speech creates many problems, but nothing compared to speech reserved to those in power and their courtiers. (April 2, 2018)

A guinea pig is disgusting miser who would do anything for gold. (March 28, 2018)

The political and legal system should be so designed that it does not really matter if a crazy is at the helm. (March 28, 2018)

Free enterprise is so fragile that it needs to be helped and directed by Trump. Can you imagine? (March 28, 2018)

Instead of coming back from France loving wine and hating military parades, Trump came back indifferent to wine and loving military parades. (March 28, 2018)

Try to close your account with Facebook and try to close your account with the government, and you’ll see who is the most dangerous for your privacy. (March 25, 2018)

Are they “inclusive” those who want to exclude individuals doing peaceful activities that the inclusive crowd does not like? (March 25, 2018)

Seen many times before in history: Perhaps Trump positively wants war, for this would boost his power and ego? This hypothesis could (further) explain why he attacks international trade, which creates peaceful commercial relations that undermine his agenda. (March 23, 2018)

If private companies used to free-market competition cannot compete with state organizations, better close the shop and install a Chinese sort of government in Washington. (March 20, 2018)

Reciprocity: A voluntary exchange is reciprocal by its very nature: one party pays for something it thinks is worth more than the payment; the other party gets a payment that it thinks is worth more than what it sells. (March 20, 2018)

Find the error: The government of a free country should prevent its citizens from trading with the subjects of a non-free country. (March 19, 2018)

Editors see a silver lining to a serious accident—and especially when the accident happens in Oxford, because they fall into an Oxford coma. (March 16, 2018)

Snow blowing is much easier since I embraced imperfection. (March 13, 2018)

“You prevent your subjects from importing? In retaliation, I will also prevent my subjects from importing. Take that!” Such is the logic of protectionism. (March 11, 2018)

If an ignorant wants to lead you intellectually and especially to rule over you, it is prudent to decline, even if he has one or two congenial ideas. (March 10, 2018)

To understand Voltaire, one needs to understand the Enlightenment. But to understand the Enlightenment, it may be necessary to understand Voltaire. Hence the difficulty of learning. (March 8, 2018)

There are two sorts of populism. The first one would aim at stopping government intervention in ordinary people’s choices. The second one aims at letting ordinary people—or a subset of them—dictate what others individuals must do. (March 6, 2018)

Without “sexual misconduct,” where would mankind (including womankind) be? (February 28, 2018)

When your body is ill, it becomes a body politic. (February 27, 2018)

Crazies don’t only shoot children sometimes; they often influence or decide government intervention. This is why the scope of the latter should be strictly limited. (February 24, 2018)

When the US president or other political leaders use the expression, does “our citizens” mean “the citizens’ citizens” or “the government’s citizens”? In both cases, there is a big problem. (February 22, 2018)

Foreign workers’ lives matter: Textile workers dye every day. (February 17, 2018)

Just as you think you got the worst possible democratic rulers, there come some worse ones. This is unavoidable under totalitarian democracy. (February 17, 2018)

There is a difference between being lied to subtly by a politician, and being lied to openly and brazenly. In the last case, it is clear he thinks you are a total idiot. (February 12, 2018)

Being a libertarian, even only at 50%, is a good safeguard against becoming a stupid and authoritarian “liberal” (in the American sense) or a stupid and authoritarian conservative. (February 7, 2018)

Diversity is a natural consequence of individual liberty, not a precondition for it. (February 6, 2018)

As a move against sexism and patriarchy, the pope should be called the “mope,” and the “e” has its importance. (February 6, 2018)

As politicians know, the problem is to pin down the right pin-up. (February 3, 2017)

If this sort of generalization is justifiable, nobody exploit women’s bodies (flectamus genua) more than women themselves. (February 3, 2018)

Si cette sorte de généralisation est permise, personne n’exploite le corps de la femme (flectamus genua) davantage que les femmes elles-mêmes. (February 3, 2018)

Quelle sorte d’imprimante les couvents, monastères et abbayes achètent-ils ? Une imprimante religieuse. (February 2, 2018)

It is a bit simpler to be a hermit. (January 31, 2018)

A software engineer walks into a bar code… (January 28, 2018)

If you are losing your hair, relax! It could be worse. It could be your heir. (January 25, 2018)

Quand on approche les sept décennies, c’est là qu’on doit choisir entre la France et la Suisse. (January 25, 2018)

When I arrived in heaven, the screen flashed: “Installing updates. This could take a while.” (January 25, 2018)

Stakeholders should focus on vampires and leave us alone. (January 23, 2018)

Government should be so limited and its powers so counterbalanced that it wouldn’t matter much if a fool were at its helm. (January 23, 2018)

While others turn in their grave, I’ll be turning in my light. (January 22, 2018)

Should political brinkmanship be replaced by political brinkwomanship? (January 22, 2018)

If everybody is diverse in the same way, especially if he is forced to, there is no real diversity. (January 18, 2018)

God said, “I haven’t said my last world.” (January 18, 2018)

When you are young, you may be annoyed that, in order to gain immortality, you have to mix your genes with somebody else’s. When you are old, you may be very happy you did. (January 18, 2018)

What’s nice with small children is that you can talk about yourself at the third person. (January 17, 2018)

Après le tabagisme, il faut cesser le mangisme, l’alcoolisme (y compris le vinisme), le sexisme et le bonheurisme. (January 15, 2018)

The main argument for limited government is to minimize the damage that a very stable genius like Trump or Obama can do. (January 11, 2018)

In many ways, Trump is a postmodern of the right: he makes up reality as he goes. (January 6, 2018)

Why Trump is (or was) adulated by the Plebs may reminiscent of why, in the 15th to 18th century, the Plebs turned to the king against the nobles. See Bertrand de Jouvenel on this topic. (January 6, 2018)

People who yearn to belong would have been happy slaves. (January 6, 2018)

There is an argument that, in Trump’s deeds and intentions, we should not throw out the baby with the bathwater. The danger is serious because the baby is tiny. (January 5, 2018)

An economist arrives at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter says: “You’ve not be very Mother-Teresa-like, especially with such producers as Wirlpool, SolarCity, and Boeing. What solution do you think this leaves me with?” “There are no solutions,” the economist answers, “only trade-offs.” (January 3, 2018)

When I say “my neurons,” whom does the “my” refer to? (January 3, 2018)

Wondering whether, tomorrow morning, I need to put butter in the pan, I decided instead to put batter in the pun, and you see the result. (January 3, 2018)

Bonus pun for New Year’s Day: The sea is magnificent, and so is the forest but not quite as much, as reflected by the fact that we never say the Holy Forest. (January 1, 2018)

For dyslexic bureaucrats, black files matter. (January 1, 2018)

The worst thing for a man going out is to decide which holster to put on. (December 31, 2018)

When I buy staples, it is difficult to believe, except from experience, that the big box will one day be empty. Of course, an estimate of daily use and a quick calculation would also reveal the future. (December 28, 2017)

My resolution for the New Year: continue to strive for the optimal mix of virtue and vice. (December 23, 2017))

Being is certainly sustainable because it is incredibly light. (December 23, 2017)

Philosophical pun of the week: Aquinas is guilty of substance abuse. (December 18, 2017)

Touche pas à mon post. (December 16, 2017)

Breakfast was good: a hen’s ovula with pig shavings. (December 16, 2017)

Ceteris paribus, of checks and balances, I prefer the former. (December 11, 2017)

Many people assume that the horn of a unicorn is a tool of love. (December 4, 2017)

When I was young, I was a bit like Trump (even if slightly less ignorant). (November 30, 2017)

Inclusiveness excludes the non-inclusives. (November 25, 2017)

Whining about somebody else’s exercise of his individual liberty is despicable. (November 23, 2017)

« Publié en exclusivité sur notre site » signifie « pas capable de le publier ailleurs ». (November 22, 2017)

It’s more important to have a valid theory of where to draw the line than to know exactly where to draw it in given circumstances. (November 21, 2017)

Dating: Beware of a surgeon who invites you to go out on a limb. (November 21, 2017)

It’s even easier for a surgeon to go out on a limb after an amputation than before. (November 20, 2017)

The danger with blogging is rant-seeking. (November 19, 2017)

On floodable commercial streets, shoplifters are badly needed. (November 19, 2017)

Pour paraphraser Lamartine (et trahissant l’alexandrin), « un seul pistolet vous manque et tout est dépeuplé ». (November 19, 2017)

Failed pun of the week (no need to laugh): I suspect that Virgil, with the name he had, was often accused of sexual harassment. (November 18, 2017)

Dying in small steps is a good idea or, at least, it’s the best we can achieve. (November 18, 2017)

Google can teach neither how to ask the right questions nor how to interpret the answers with valid theories. (November 17, 2017)

« Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas. » (Virgil) « Le chat qui ronronne dans sa potion se cogne sur les causes » ? (November 16, 2017)

Le videur, sur son lit de mort, peut se dire heureux d’une vie bien vidée. (October 29, 2017)

In my opinion, nobody can be said to favor liberty if he does not support free trade and the 2nd Amendment. (October 28, 2017)

Like France and Canada (two countries I also know well), America would be great without its governments. (October 28, 2017)

I am not telling you “I told you so.” Errare humanum est. (October 26, 2017)

I will need a big grave so that I can turn in it regularly. (October 24, 2017)

N’y a-t-il d’alternative que la culture du viol ou la culture du voile? (October 19, 2017)

Why are ordinary people “soft targets,” but politicians are not? (October 18, 2017)

Why did the kitchen cross the road? Because there was a dyslexic on the other dice. (October 18, 2017)

If you don’t see the witch hunts around you, you are not alone: few contemporaries ever saw them. (October 17, 2017)

In His infinite goodness, God asked freshly-created Adam: “What would you like?” Adam, who was a practical but poor man, said, “I would like a check.” God, who had invented the pun just the day before, gave him a chick. (October 13, 2017)

I ate typos. (October 7, 2017)

As demonstrated by 2500 years of Western civilization, rational inquiry is essential. Poetry, religion, or ideology cannot replace it. (October 3, 2017)

Perhaps, in a free society, some eccentrics or losers become mass murderers. In a less free or tyrannical society, they become Hitler, Stalin, Maduro, or Kim Jong Un. (October 3, 2017)

Onion rings the end of French fries. (October 1, 2017)

When you stake a claim, you don’t necessarily claim a steak. (September 21, 2017)

Half of the infinite happiness you see in heaven comes from preachers looking down at the damned souls in hell and saying “I told you so.” (September 21, 2019)

With the snowflakes on the left and the national-hysterics on the right, where is the future of reason and liberty? (September 19, 2017)

Those who dress in a national flags should wonder where there critical rationality has gone, if it ever existed. (September 19, 2017)

Latin pun of the week: Mens rea in corpore sano. (September 17, 2017)

One thing that wisdom teaches you is that most people are not interested in you. (July 24, 2017)XX

If you think the other side is made of barbarians, you need to know what your own side must do not to fall in the same category. (September 11, 2017)

It’s better to have many obsessions than a single one. (September 5, 2017)

It’s time to replace the selfie stick with an altruie carrot. (August 27, 2017)

I never promised you a prose garden. (August 23, 2017)

The problem is not the ideas and opinions that people have. It’s when they want to impose them on others. Otherwise, live and let live. (August 22, 2017)

Even a short seller can walk tall. (August 20, 2017)

Terrorists, nearly by definition, attack soft targets. And the state often if not usually makes sure ordinary citizens are the soft targets. (August 20, 2017)

On rencontre parfois le démon de midi à quatorze heures. (August 17, 2017)

Nothing is perfect, but there is imperfect and imperfect. (August 17, 2017)

One-third of the American electorate voted for Trump, one-third for Clinton, and one-third did not vote. Conclusion: limit the state! (August 16, 2017)

There is one sure thing with an idiot: he will disappoint you. (August 16, 2017)

Don’t try to erase history, and advance individual liberty. Some people, it seems, push for the exact opposite. (August 16, 2017)

It’s quite banal to say, but rewriting history and silencing speech does not help reason and liberty, quite the contrary. (August 14, 2017)

Summer is so nice. Email, Twitter, and Facebook slow down. And calm studies seem easier without boots on. (August 14, 2017)

The Arabs are a danger to civilization. They have even imposed their Arabic numerals on us. (August 13, 2017)

According to the legend (the fake news of the time), Caligula named his horse consul, probably after he ran out of generals and billionaires. Now will he attack North Korea? Note that I do not necessarily oppose decapitating the North Korean tyrannical regime, but I don’t like emperors. Note that horses have since been replaced by golf carts. (August 7, 2017)

A large percentage of Americans, I suspect, believe that, in the Garden of Eden, what Eve showed to Adam was her “cleavage.” (August 4, 2017)

American and European consumers are so greedy that they would willingly import from China the moon and six pants. (August 3, 2017)

Perhaps there are two Americas and the one libertarians love is in between. (July 30, 2017)

The art of the deal should be taught at Trump University. (July 30, 2017)

Rationally ignorant voters don’t necessarily recognize a bullshitter when they see one. (July 30, 2017)

Many are left behind, others are right behind. (July 29, 2017)

Inclusive exclusion is the way the statists treat those who have different preferences and a different conception of the good life. (July 28, 2017)

Fortunately, “garbage in, garbabe out” is not a reversible truth. (July 26, 2017)

What is good for the transgoose is good for the transgander. (July 26, 2017)

After an eternity in hell, you get used to the pain; if it stopped, the pleasure would kill you. (July 25, 2017)

If the alternative is between globalism and tribalism, the choice should be clear. (July 24, 2017)

Instead of straight eternal life, God gives dyslexic bureaucrats the reward of eternal file. (July 22, 2017)

The world is full of imperfections. (July 18, 2017)

The dyslexic suicide bomber was literally flaggerblasted. (July 15, 2017)

Nihilism is good for nothing. (July 14, 2017)

What nationalist rulers don’t understand is that every other nationalist ruler also thinks he incarnates the greatest political “we.” (July 7, 2017)

You cannot defend Western civilization by coercively restraining Westerners from exchanging with each other. (July 7, 2017)

July 7 of 777 AD was more unique. (July 7, 2017)

If someone points a gun and says “I am going to shoot you,” you have the right to shoot first. But you hope it’s not Narcissus who will hold your own gun. (July 4, 2017)

What do you do if you are stalked by broccoli? (June 30, 2017)

As far as we know, there was no wine in Plato’s cave. (June 24, 2017)

It’s often easier to live from paycheck to paycheck than from non-paycheck to non-paycheck. (June 21, 2017)

Should a man open the door for a gender-fluid? (June 17, 2017)

A dyslexic atheist walks into a bar with his god… (June 17, 2017)

Is a Christian obliged to turn the other cheek even on Twitter and Facebook? Is a Muslim obliged to blow himself up at the first blasphemy? (June 17, 2017)

The success of Facebook must partly come from the fact that it allows even the most humble to have his own full-color newspaper. (June 17, 2017)

There is no such thing as private; everything is pubic. (June 16, 2017)

The Cistine Chapel will be rechristened the Transtine Chapel. (June 15, 2017)

Going forward, I may go back. (June 12, 2017)

You never step twice in the same Rio Grande. (June 8, 2017)

Jesus enjoined to accept any FB friend request, but He did not order to keep fraudsters or small talkers as friends. (June 8, 2017)

I stared at nobody and nobody stared at me, so this flight was not a flight of stares. (June 7, 2017)

Public-health theory for dyslexic bureaucrats: “If it could save only one file…” (June 5, 2017)

It must be frustrating for a physician to die so old that he cannot say he saved the life of anybody alive. (June 1, 2017)

Some individuals know things that others don’t. It does not mean that they should rule over others, but neither should the ignoramuses. (June 1, 2017)

Individuals in the tails of the distribution are people too. (May 28, 2017)

To answer the question “What can go wrong?” one needs imagination, a quality in short supply. In politics, that means imagining tyranny. (May 28, 2017)

It’s perhaps the first time Trump is among bullies like himself, but they are not ignorant bullies. Will he dig his heels, start to think, or be eaten alive? (May 28, 2017)

The real deplorables are the ones who want the freedom to import stuff from where they want at the best terms they can get on the market. (May 26, 2017)

Although it may appear to, the π never gets bigger. (May 26, 2017)

I have an amazing talent at finding other people’s typos. (May 26, 2017)

The joy of clicking has eluded mankind for tens if not hundreds of millennia. (May 26, 2017)

It is striking how many people want to teach you what they don’t know. (May 26, 2017)

To do social theory (or any sort of theory), imagination is required because one must make unrealistic or questionable assumptions. (May 26, 2017)

Have you hugged your government today? The state is so lovable! (May 26, 2017)

There is something worse than the liberticidal establishment: it’s a more liberticidal establishment. (May 26, 2017)

I wonder why US president does not carry a real flag instead of just wearing a lapel pin. (May 26, 2017)

Agriculture bureaucrats are strong on pear review. (May 24, 2017)

If the difference between a free and an unfree society is that majoritarian elections are held in the former, that’s not much. For in an unfree society, the tyrant also needs and gets majority support (at least tacitly). A free society is about INDIVIDUAL liberty. (May 18, 2017)

Learning anything new is like, say, learning a new language. Nothing makes much sense until suddenly it makes a whole lot of sense. (May 16, 2017)

Learning is difficult because it is challenging. One cannot see the import of new knowledge before it is acquired. (May 16, 2017)

Learning is difficult because it is challenging. One’s whole outlook is subject to change. (May 16, 2017)

If one has never learned how to learn or has not cultivated learning, he won’t learn much after 30 or 40, and certainly nothing after 60. (May 16, 2017)

Trump will not change. Few people learn new things at 70 (Keynes said after 25-30), except those who have made learning a life-long passion. (May 16, 2017)

Vincere scis, Hannibal Trumpe, victoria uti nescis. (May 16, 2017)

Entomology is the science of putting ideas in big tomes. (May 16, 2017)

One reason one tries to build a reputation of reliability and respect for truth is to be believed in important cases. (May 15, 2017)

One advantage of limiting (and dividing) government is that an ignorant or even an idiot or a malevolent ruler can’t do much harm. (May 15, 2017)

This is very offensive. I am very offended. (May 12, 2017)

Voters have to choose between tyranny & tyranny light, or tyranny light & tyranny light. Rationally ignorant, they don’t care much anyway. (May 12, 2015)

Many angels are dancing on the top of my pen. (May 11, 2017)

God has no opinion about Trump. He is just laughing His ass off about government in general. (May 6, 2017)

If Trump did not speak baby-talk, it would be easier to understand what he means, and perhaps for him too. (May 6, 2017)

Divided government is not a bug; it’s a feature. (May 6, 2017)

Rebooting is the universal solution. (May 5, 2017)

The most stupid pick up line: “I don’t overbook more than United.” (April 28, 2017)

To repeat Thomas Jefferson’s dilemma: Virgil or Homer? But here is a trilemma: Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach? (April 16, 2017)

An act of faith is not necessarily a fact of hate. (April 16, 2017)

Do NOT do LMAO: there would remain only an asshole. (April 16, 2017)

The gunnut’s dilemma: Either he shoots often, and his guns are generally dirty; or his guns are always clean, and he can’t shoot. (April 15, 2016)

We must not throw out the baby of individual liberty with the bathwater of the establishment. (April 13, 2017)

Reverse engineering: reading a book or an article from the last section to the first. (April 13, 2017)

In a clash of civilizations – in the present case, between a civilization and barbarians – don’t forget the individuals. (April 9, 2017)

Collective liberty consists in ordinary people dictating to others how to live; individual liberty is ordinary people (in fact, any individual) preventing others from dictating them how to live. (April 8, 2017)

If you understand the benefits of international trade, you know that the freedom to import is more important than the capacity to export. (April 7, 2017)

Do American politicos ever wonder why other world leaders don’t wear their flags as lapel pins? Perhaps they just think that the others are ashamed of that their countries. (April 4, 2017)

Trump is blinded by his lack of ideology. (April 4, 2017)

Most people are ordinary people. (April 4, 2017)

If you don’t give a fig, you won’t get a date. (April 1, 2017)

If we lived twice, it would be better the second time around, but competition would be fiercer. (April 1, 2017)

The rock is called Charybdis; the hard place, Scylla. (April 1, 2017)

If somebody intelligent and not deluded tells you obvious lies and expects you to believe them, he must think you are an idiot or a minion. (April 1, 2017)

Rednecks, who are respectable people when they mind their own business, are being compromised by Trump. (April 1, 2017)

Allah Snackbar! (March 30, 2017)

I often meet dogs walking humans. (March 27, 2017)

If you have one foot in the grave, you still have one in the light. (March 23, 2017)

In order to kill a buffoon, you reach for the jocular. (March 19, 2017)

Like Adam and Eve, the night is falling. (March 14, 20117)

“De gustibus non est disputandum” should not mean that you may not give an opinion or recommendation. (March 14, 2017)

Flectamus genua. (I am thinking about Gaia.) (March 14, 2017)

If inflation is a general rise in the price level, independent of changes in relative prices, “core inflation” is a meaningless construct. (March 10, 2017)

Liberty does not mean gullibility. (March 8, 2017)

If the deplorables knew Saint-Nectaire, that’s how they would drink their milk. (March 8, 2017)

“Pat-down,” “check point,” “inspection,” “stop-and-frisk”… Orwell was right. Tyranny needs its own sanitized vocabulary. (March 5, 2017)

Alternative fact: Trump was not wiretapped by good Americans, but by Mexican manufacturing workers and rapists. (March 5, 2017)

Those who think that liberty fell with Hillary Clinton, or that it is championed by Donald trump, know little about liberty. (March 5, 2017)

The United States population is made of 30% deplorables, 30% anti-deplorables, 10% libertarians, and 30% “officers.” (March 5, 2017)

The “level playing field” is a tool for both the left and the right to expand state power and exploit the citizens (and the foreigners). (March 3, 2017)

The beacon of liberty is becoming the beacon of whining. (March 1, 2017)

Except if I am mistaken, I don’t have a single monk among my Facebook friends. One would think that FB, for its silence, would be the Cistercian’s best friend. It is true, on the other hand, that it does flash some of the temptations of the world. (March 1, 2017)

It’s OK if you are jealous of the economists’ knowledge. I am myself jealous of mathematicians, cosmologists, and poets. (March 2, 2017)

Brave New World: I have been vetted, therefore I am. (March 1, 2017)

Subjectivism in the social sciences and nihilism in philosophy are not synonymous. (March 1, 2017)

Same elementary logic: “Most criminals are American citizens” does not imply that “most American citizens are criminals.” (February 24, 2017)

Elementary logic: “Most terrorists are Muslims” does not imply “most Muslims are terrorists.” (February 25, 2017)

If one doesn’t know everything, learning always requires some acts of faith. For an adult, these acts of faith must of course be limited, provisional, and falsifiable. (February 22, 2017)

Pauvre, on est dans la gêne. Riche, on se retrouve dans la géhenne. (Sauf pour les tout petits riches, qui passent par le chas de l’aiguille.) (February 20, 2017)

I have so much to learn. Fortunately, I know a few individuals who know everything. (February 20, 2017)

A good teacher has to be patient, and patience must be an exponential function of his pupils’ age. (February 20, 2017)

One way to gauge the basic intelligence of somebody must be that he tries to at least look coherent. He won’t simultaneously say both A and ¬A. (February 18, 2017)

A more ignorant and more anti-free-trade ruler is more dangerous than a less ignorant and less anti-free-trade ruler. (February 17, 2017)

Betting on ignorance in power is not a good bet. It’s a terrible bet given the indecent power of the contemporary state. (February 17, 2017)

It’s ok to have many obsessions. The problem is to having only one. (February 15, 2017)

It is one thing for an ignorant ruler to say “Do what you want” (under abstract laws). It is another thing for him to say “Do what I want.” (February 12, 2017)

We are entering a new Dark Age where rulers and their courtiers think they are inventing the wheel while they are just reinventing tyranny. (February 12, 2017)

Reformulating Mencken: Democracy means that the common people know nothing about what they vote for, and deserve to get it good and hard. (February 11, 2017)

If you have to choose between Charybdis and Scylla, you don’t have to embrace one or the other. (February 11, 2017)

Perhaps I am wrong (but it’s unlikely to be on everything). (February 7, 2017)

It used to be that goods cleared customs. Now, for the state, people are goods too. (February 6, 2017)

And God created a ticket; and it was so. (Genesis) (February 6, 2017)

If you are inclusive, what are the others? (February 6, 2017)

There is a difference between a revolution and a runaway train. (February 5, 2017)

The problem with a national government imposing international sanctions is that they impose a ban on the government’s own subjects. (February 3, 2017)

Qui aime les taches de rousseur n’est pas nécessairement gourou. (February 3, 2017)

The carrying capacity of the planet certainly accommodates a 9mm semi-auto. (February 3, 2017)

À cheval donné, on ne regarde pas la ride. (February 3, 2017)

Rednecks and deplorables are honorable and have the right to live as they want. But they must not dictate to others what to do and how to live. (February 3, 2017)

Increasing polarization is strange: it is, in most cases, about relatively small differences between similar political parties and platforms. (February 2, 2017)

Who will vet the vetters? (January 29, 2017)

The majesty and exhibitionism of the American and the French governments are very similar. (January 31, 2017)

Why not put everybody in jail and release them on a case-by-case basis? (January 28, 2017)

Americans being pitied all over the world (as opposed to being envied) won’t make America great. (January 28, 2017)

Americans being hated all over the world won’t make America great. (January 28, 2017)

Except in a tribe, tyranny is divisive. The more tyranny you have, the more discontent, division, and conflict you can expect. (January 27, 2017)

The excuse for protectionism: my tribe is better than yours, it’s the only true tribe. In practice, it amounts transferring money from domestic consumers to domestic producers (and the best at lobbying among them). (January 27, 2017)

Terrorists are butchering people, the Surveillance State is advancing, Leviathan is running loose, and what does the president of the United States want to do? He wants to BUILD A WALL ALONG THE MEXICAN BORDER! (January 25, 2017)

For the rulers, security details have become the most important. (January 24, 2017)

The only sure way to get a sense of belonging is to be a slave. (January 24, 2017)

We should not have to choose between bigots of the left and bigots of the right. (January 23, 2017)

The Great Wall of China did not make China great. (January 21, 2017)

A priest is God’s altar ego. (January 20, 2017)

Protectionism: “You hurt your subjects? I will retaliate against mine. Take this!” (January 20, 2017)

As Descartes said, I snowblow, therefore I am. (January 18, 2017)

The more investors believe in “technical analysis,” the more it will be false (because people will have arbitraged it away), however voodoo it was to start with. (January 18, 2017)

Who opposes free trade is either an ignorant or an authoritarian. (January 18, 2017)

Whales are trying to keep up with the Jonases. (January 14, 2017)

When a politician says he is humbled, he usually means humbled by his own stature. (January 11, 2017)

A redneck’s thought: A snow blower is a very imperfect substitute for guns: it makes noise but no neat holes. (January 9, 2017)

Sovereignty – which is the power of a state to do what it wants – is the problem, not the solution. (January 7, 2016)

The question is whether statist populism will be defeated before it brings world economic crisis or nationalist wars, and what will replace it. (January 7, 2016)

If it’s right in theory but wrong in practice, you are using a false theory. (January 1, 2017)

A depressed goose is said to be down. (December 31, 2016)

My last banality of 2016: Knowledge is cumulative. (December 31, 2016)

Having many handguns must feel like polygamy. (December 31, 2016)

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. When do we celebrate New Year’s Adam? (December 30, 2016)

It was a good storm. It helped me overcome, albeit imperfectly, snowblowing perfectionism. (December 30, 2016)

Some seem to argue that because free trade is only imperfectly realized, it should be made even more imperfect with more coercion. (December 27, 2016)

Puisqu’on dit d’un mort qu’il s’est éteint, ne devrait-on pas dire d’un fœtus qu’il s’est allumé ? (December 25, 2016)

Last night, I dreamed of good and bad regression results. The ways of God are unfathomable. (December 25, 2016)

As the number of checkpoints and searches between point A and point B approaches infinity, the probability that a terrorist or common criminal will pass through the net approaches zero. But, at the same time, the probability that a government agent will commit a crime approaches one. (December 23, 2016)

If there is one thing that should be forbidden, it is to pledge allegiance to a state. (December 23, 2016)

If it embraced free trade and the 2nd Amendment (over the next 8 years?), the Democratic Party would become the party of liberty. (December 22, 2016)

Perhaps one can define “the will of the people” as 51% or 48% of a vote, or 35% of the electors, but it is only a definition. Or else it is the conclusion of a demanding contractarian theory. (December 21, 2016)

I do say “Merry Christmas!” If somebody wants to hear that as something else, I can’t object: aren’t we living in a free country? (December 18, 2016)

When in his former life Trump said “we,” he meant “I.” The problem now is that he thinks he includes all of us in his grandiose “we.” (December 18, 2016)

Checking my white privilege this morning, I felt happy to have a snow blower. (December 17, 2016)

It would have been better to get the moon and six Pence than one Trump and one Pence. (December 15, 2016)

An editor walks into a bar and asks for a draft. (December 12, 2016)

Nobility titles: Soon, in America, everybody will be a “doctor” or an “officer.” (December 12, 2016)

An algorithm is not a tango with Al Gore. (December 10, 2016)

Relax, everything can happen. (December 9, 2016)

If you can’t speak about politics without one “we” every second sentence, you should reflect on methodological and political individualism. (December 9, 2016)

I wonder if one can get a tactical toothbrush (say). (December 7, 2016)

This morning, it was softly snowing. Now, it’s hardly snowing at all. (December 5, 2016)

Expensive socialism: As Jesus said, we must always show the other check. (December 5, 2016)

Mercantilists prefer that domestic workers produce goods for foreign importers rather than foreign workers sweating for American importers. (December 1, 2016)

As Paul Samuelson could have said, when I see “community indifference curves” or “social indifference curves,” I reach for my revolver. (December 1, 2016)

On peut toujours se consoler en se disant que demain sera pire. (December 1, 2016)

It is impossible for a government to be “inclusive” if it intervenes in people’s lives, for some won’t agree. (November 21, 2016)

Horse trading is the art of the political deal. (November 21, 2016)

Going forward, I think many people are going backward. (November 19, 2016)

Why is it bad to be a white nationalist but good to be a nationalist? The two ideological strands are essentially collectivist. (November 17, 2016)

Before you say a Hail Mary, think about the damage it will do to your car. (November 15, 2016)

There must be nothing more frustrating than to die just after buying four new snow tires. (November 15, 2016)

Trump is doing all this for his hair apparent. (November 15, 2016)

God is half-deaf because the Pope has His ear. (November 13, 2016)

To be against the establishment is not enough. Also needed is the will to oppose any new authoritarian, anti-individualistic establishment. (November 9, 2016)

Many people believe that Charybdis is a rock and Scylla a hard place. (November 7, 2016)

The adventures of a meta-trans: I am a transtrans, which means that I am totally normal (in this general area, at least), as two negations equal an affirmation. (November 3, 2016)

To understand something, look at the incentives. A good explanation has to be incentive-compatible. (November 1, 2016)

Ce n’est pas demain la veille que l’éternité finira, et la nuit des temps n’était pas hier. (November 1, 2016)

If so many people violate natural rights and get away with it, how natural are these rights? (October 31, 2016)

There are so many laws on so many things that, it seems, any debate can be reframed in terms on who violated which laws. (October 31, 2016)

Perhaps death is just a reboot following a blue screen? (October 30, 2016)

Until you have solved the problem of cross draw vs. strong side, admit it: your life is in shambles. (October 29, 2016)

With Linux, you nearly get into the bowels of the beast. And the only smell is that of zeros and ones. (October 29, 2016)

Contrary to what happens in life, you can always, on a computer, undo what you have done. (October 27, 2016)

The tragedy of the Trump adventure is that it will have persuaded many people that the only alternative is between socialism and stupidity. (October 26, 2016)

The black box I broke open
Everything inside was black (October 24, 2016)

For more than two decades, I have characterized your humble servant as an intellectual redneck. I would now emphasize the intellectual part of it. (October 16, 2016)

Asked about what he thought of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the bear replied: “That’s otter nonsense.” (October 16, 2016)

Clinton, at least, seems not totally opposed to free trade. Trump, at least, seems favorable to the 2nd Amendment. What a fantastic choice! (October 16, 2016)

Cognitive limitation: virtually every voter is persuaded that without his vote, the team he roots for will be defeated. (October 16, 2016)

Those who claim that consumers’ cognitive limitations generate market failures should look at voters. (October 16, 2016)

You typically don’t know whether a sexual advance is unwanted until you try it. That’s why it is called an advance, not a backup. (Of course, it can be civilized, even if risky, or bullying and vulgar.) (October 15, 2016)

You see: politicians are just ordinary men and women. Why be in awe before them? (October 14, 2016)

Quand ils sont angoissés, les cannibales, dit-on, broient surtout du blanc. (October 13, 2016)

Comme il fallait s’y attendre, la baïonnette vient de Bayonne. (October 13, 2016)

The dash spread in cars and then, like a virus, invaded the English language. (October 13, 2016)

Understanding the formula, not remembering it, is what’s important. And it is often impossible to remember if you don’t understand. (October 13, 2016)

Where is the box so that I can think out of it? (October 13, 2016)

Wishful thinking: Savage laws should never be savagely enforced. (October 13, 2016)

Gropethink is less dangerous than groupthink. (October 12, 2016)

Politicians throw mud at each other and they deserve it. (October 8, 2016)

An expresso is like life: it tastes good and you drink it in two sips. (October 8, 2016)

Political correctness is a great step for beingkind. (October 8, 2016)

Autumn is when the summer takes a leaf of absence. (October 8, 2016)

Eternal life is looming but it can take its time looming. (October 8, 2016)

Man is an unsatisfied animal. (October 8, 2016)

I saw an ant on the trail. She turned her back on me. As a punishment, I crushed her. (October 7, 2016)

Realizing that perfection is a mirage should not lead one to embrace imperfection as ferociously. (October 6, 2016)

My automatic transmission does a shifty job. (October 6, 2016)

Normative statement: A dragon spitting fire should not be foaming at the mouth. (Septermber 25, 2016)

If you don’t know what the problem is, the solution will be hard to come by. (September 25, 2016)

When you are old, you never step twice in the same river, because you drown the first time. (September 19, 2016)

“The media” is a scapegoat of the right just as “multinational corporations” or “neoliberalism” is a scapegoat of the left. (September 18, 2016)

Of course, putting “of course” in a sentence can be subliminally misleading. (September 18, 2016)

The ultimate example of voluntary simplicity: using a Linux machine and carrying a Glock. (September 17, 2016)

Can you imagine that 6,000 generations have lived without computer viruses and crashes? (September 16, 2016)

Economic growth is flying solo. (Economist’s joke. Don’t try to understand if you are not one.) (September 8, 2016)

As the totalitarian say, too much choice comes with individual liberty. Each time I prepare to go out, I have to ask myself, Which pistol and which holster am I going to wear? (August 30, 2016)

I bought my new sustainable bicycle at a local shop in my own galaxy. (August 30, 2016)

If you love the state and identity politics, you must be enamored with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. (August 30, 2016)

Buy local: buy on earth! (Or at a minimum in your own galaxy.) (August 30, 2016)

Most people think that discrimination is good only if done by the state. On the contrary, it can be good only if done by individuals. (August 30, 2016)

A taste of wine is not a waste of time. (August 29, 2016)

Get a pistol. Battery not included. (August 27, 2016)

Gaia est une sacrée gaillarde. (August 26, 2016)

Even if your pistol jams, it’s not recommended to eat it for breakfast. (August 26, 2016)

To be honest with you, I want your wallet. (August 26, 2016)

If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing. (August 21, 2016)

An editor slaves away at the galley. (August 21, 2016)

La vieillesse est une fuite en avant. (August 17, 2016)

Diagnostic test for wishful thinking: the patient does not see his own typos although he is very good at catching others’. (I reread this post several times.) (August 16, 2016)

Whether Clinton or Trump wins, half of America will wish that government had been more limited in order to minimize damage. (August 16, 2016)

Gender parity is a good idea. Every bed should have it. (August 16, 2016)

I like chatty silence. (August 15, 2016)

Easy things are not difficult to do. (August 15, 2016)

The main argument against immigration restrictions is they imply forbidding “citizens” from inviting in loved ones, employees, and friends. (August 12, 2016)

Political power must be so limited that neither a Trump nor a Clinton can do any significant damage. (August 10, 2016)

An editor walks into a sidebar… (August 8, 2016)

A Summer weekend pun: In Games of Thrones, they are better at willing a dwarf than building a wharf. (August 7, 2016)

There is nothing wrong with poetry, quite the contrary. But it doesn’t help demonstrate Arrow’s impossibility theorem. (August 7, 2016)

I am one day ahead in my short-term work, and 50 years late in my long-term work. (August 2, 2016)

I don’t know a single person (except for some unborns) who is not under a death sentence. (July 31, 2016)

Principle one of gastronomy as I see it: You don’t drink wine or coffee to rehydrate yourself or to rinse your teeth, but because if tastes good. If you want to rehydrate yourself or rinse your teeth, you drink water (preferably good, non-government water). (July 28, 2016)

We cannot win the war against tribalism by opposing “our” tribe to theirs. (July 28, 2016)

It would be much better if religious fanatics played Pokémon. (July 17, 2016)

My life has been a long streak of augmented reality. (July 13, 2016)

In Ancient Greece, tyrants were also often elected. (They had fewer bodyguards, though.) (July 12, 2016)

Will Trump be successful in flashing his wealth and lust for power and buying the Plebs support? Clinton is not recommendable either. (July 12, 2016)

A society without violent crime is possible: look at the former Eastern Europe or North Korea today. There, only state officials commit them. (July 11, 2016)

Cyan lives matter. Any Cyan is guilty of the crimes of any other Cyan. (July 10, 2016)

Zero tolerance. We need a war on stuff. (July 6, 2016)

I understand why environmentalists never eat their tofu with coal slaw. (July 5, 2016)

Voyeurs like sea food. (July 5, 2016)

Instead of asking for the men’s room, a real lawyer looks for the mens rea. (July 5, 2016)

Instead of social cohesion, I propose social cohiba. (July 4, 2016)

The Sunday futility: I have a second shot, a third eye, a fourth molar, and a sixth sense. I only need a fifth wheel. (June 26, 2016)

In my view, both political elitism and political populism should be opposed – because of the “political.” (June 26, 2016)

Obesity makes America great again. (June 24, 2016)

The more I learn about “hate crimes,” the more I love hate. (June 24, 2016)

Brexiters and Brexremainers are two warring street gangs. They want their solutions for the wrong reasons and with dangerous intentions. (June 23, 2016)

Réflexion sur la naissance: “C’t avec du neuf qu’on fait du vieux.” (June 20, 2016)

Pre-crimes should be severely punished, and the greater the pre-crime, the tougher the punishment. What’s wrong with that? (June 15, 2016)

Your FB friends slowly increase one by one and, one morning, you realize you have quite a lot, especially with compound interest. (June 15, 2016)

Learning is challenging because you must admit that you have been thinking or doing wrongly before. (June 15, 2016)

“Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.” (Epicurus) The process of dying, though, from what I hear, is rather annoying. (June 14, 2016)

If you could live an infinity of lives, you wouldn’t have to read what other people have experienced or analyzed. (June 14, 2016)

There are no guns in a convent and few guns in jail. (June 12, 2016)

It used to be government employees who went postal. (June 12, 2016)

Americans are not very good at racial profiling. Increase border controls, and the ones who will be more harassed will be the naive little Whites. (June 5, 2016)

Un éléphant, ça Trump(e), ça Trump(e), un éléphant, ça Trump(e) énormément. (June 5, 2016)

Democracy (or at least populist democracy) is when “the people” love the king and, as a bonus, see him beg for their votes once in a while. (June 5, 2016)

Team spirit:
“I think we’ll have to fire you,” says the boss to an employee.
“I think,” replies the employee, “that if we fire me, we’ll be in trouble.” (June 2, 2016)

Culture is to be there and elsewhere at the same time. (June 1, 2016)

Progress: perhaps one day the father of your son will be the mother of my daughter. (May 28, 2015)

Ignorance is frustrating, especially on the part of others. (May 25, 2016)

The volume of writings worth reading is mind-boggling; but even more so is the volume of stuff not worth reading. (May 24, 2016)

Bilingual-pun trigger warning! Hercule était éditorialiste; la preuve: ses colonnes. (May 22, 2016)

Regarding political realism and the cognitive capacity to recognize tyranny, the “tobacco control community” is a “vulnerable population.” (May 19, 2016)

A socialist walks into a bar, trips, and falls. (The bar was set too high.) (May 16, 2016)

A mathematician walks into a bar. Before he has time to say anything, the barman tells him, “You’re all set.” (May 16, 2016)

In some cases, you can’t set the record straight without breaking it. (May 13, 2016)

Taking things seriously has disturbing implications. (May 13, 2016)

Il vivait à Aschères mais ne l’avait pas triste. (May 12, 2016)

The problem with being your own boss is that you are also your own employee. (May 11, 2016)

If you had not noticed before, the problem with rulers is that they can do a lot of damage. Hence the need to constrain the state. (May 10, 2016)

West Virginia rednecks deserve respect (of course), and they voted to get it good and hard. (With my apologies to H.L. Mencken.) (May 10, 2016)

Multi-asking is what state cronies do. (May 10, 2016)

Multitasking is very relaxing. (May 10, 2016)

The tyrant you know may be better than the one you don’t know. (May 10, 2016)

A Martian landing on Earth would observe two religions: one about God, the other against tobacco. (May 7, 2016)

Trigger warning: a very dull pun for my French friends. Les dinosauriens ne sont pas tous nihilistes. (May 5, 2016)

Lip service is not an extra. (May 5, 2016)

If you want meaning in your life, it may not be enough to choose a simple word. (May 5, 2016)

Embryos are the big ones; the small ones are called enbryos. (May 4, 2016)

Those who want to get even with society look odd. (May 3, 2016)

Eternal life will come but it may take an eternity. (This hypothesis would explain the deafening silence of the dead.) (April 29, 2016)

The Left wanted democracy and unconstrained government. They get their wish with Trump. (April 28, 2016)

Stakeholders are generally people who don’t mind their own business. (April 27, 2016)

Reading is nearly as stressful as writing because you can’t just read whatever you want. (April 27, 2016)

Man doesn’t live by bread alone. He also needs poetry. (April 24, 2016)

I roam over the social media, therefore I am. (April 23, 2016)

Once I have everything I want, I wouldn’t mind being poor. (From an economic viewpoint, of course, I wouldn’t be poor.) (April 22, 2016)

Nothing happens here. I am carrying mainly for aesthetic reasons. (April 17, 2016)

Who would have ever thought that the Pope would go to Lesbos? (April 16, 2016)

Elections are the only time we see so many great altruists vying for public attention. (April 15, 2016)

New proverb for our times: Ubi Santa Klaus, ibi patria. (April 6, 2016)

Two hours to kill but I think I will only wound them. (At Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport, April 6, 2016)

Before thinking out of the box, you must know where the box is. (March 26, 2016)

The state spends 40%-50% of what the people earn and crushes our liberties daily; yet it can’t prevent massacres by primitive terrorists. (March 22, 2016)

Our main hope may be that the major presidential hopefuls are lying through their teeth and that they are not as ignorant as they look like. (March 15, 2016)

On Facebook, horses are treated differently: they update their equestrian status. (February 21, 2016)

Bilingual pun of the week: Lent is slow. (February 16, 2016)

I am not a theologian, but I suspect that tobacco, wine, women, and the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau must be everywhere in heaven. (February 16, 2016)

Five years. FIVE years! It has been five years since I bought on Amazon a too small garbage can in order to save $30. And I have regretted it every single garbage day for five years. (February 16, 2016)

“Standing for something” is not a goal per se. It’s better to stand for nothing than to stand for something false or wrong. (February 15, 2016)

It’s easy to confuse government as a whole with government as a hole. (February 14, 2016)

Don’t break you neck diving in the gene pool. (February 10, 2016)

The problem is that most anti-establishment voters want more of the establishment’s tyranny, not less. (February 10, 2016)

I don’t necessarily like my discovery of the past few years: there are lots of gullible people around. (February 9, 2016)

To get things done is no good if the things are bad. (February 1, 2016)

State secrets: let’s exchange Clinton against Snowden. (January 31, 2014)

Pun of the week: People who try to keep a low profile give ground hugs. (January 29, 2014)

Economists are not very competent in economic forecasting, but non-economists are much worse. (January 28, 2016)

Life is partly an enterprise of accumulating junk. (January 27, 2016)

In the winter, an old Brit needs a chap’s stick. (January 12, 2016)

The patriarchy cannot be vanquished as long as we maintain our email conditioning. Email must be banned and replaced by efemale. (January 12, 2016)

If PC types knew ancient Greek, they would be up in arms against the label “Android” and would demonstrate for “Anthropoid.” Fortunately, they are ignorants. (January 11, 2015)

Under the modern Leviathan, everybody is left free “for lack of evidence.” (January 9, 2015)

Question for Occam: Can a friar go from the fire to the frying pan? (January 4, 2016)

A rat is not always angry. (December 29, 2015)

French fishermen, when they feel shortchanged, dig in their eels. (December 28, 2015)

Quebecers are Cajuns of the North with public health insurance and without guns. (December 28, 2015)

My resolution for 2016: “Re: Solution.” (December 27, 2015)

I just know how to ask questions. (December 27, 2015)

Christmas truism: Understanding things is not always easy. (December 23, 2015)

The inventor of the wheel did not spend any time behind it, except when he tried it on a slope. (December 23, 2015)

It is often safe to assume that the wheel has already been invented. (December 23, 2015)

When you know a bit about some topic and you hear what people who know nothing about it say, you become a bit careful on the topics about which you know little. (December 19, 2015)

Une cale en bourg ressemble aux chaussettes de l’archi-duchesse. (December 19, 2015)

Anglers must like global worming. (December 19, 2015)

When the chips are down, nothing works. (December 14, 2015)

Trump is like the typical French intellectual: he thinks that his telling a sentence with a subject, a verb, and a complement makes it true. (December 11, 2015)

The prophet had a crystal ball but the other one was normal. (December 9, 2015)

For “security” and against liberty: most of our rulers have been radicalized. (December 9, 2015)

It is not the first time that thugs appeal to political motives, but our epoch is reaching an apogee.

I used to produce offspring. I am now better at offprint. (December 8, 2015)

Have no fear. A no-fly (or no-anything) list does not apply to you. Until some bureaucrat puts your name on it. (December 6, 2015)

Bad things will always happen, but tyranny is the worst of them and other bad things continue to happen under it. (December 6, 2015)

As a vegetable, cannibals used to eat cold slain. (December 6, 2015)

It is just a random factoid that madmen and terrorists do not attack shooting ranges and hunting parties. (December 5, 2015)

Statistical justice: if the killers are Muslims, some collectivists will attack and want to regulate all Muslims; if the killers are not Muslims, other collectivists will attack and want to regulate all gun owners. (December 3, 2015)

If you don’t have infinite time at your disposal, don’t waste what you have by reading news from cranky websites. And please don’t re-post. (November 30, 2015)

People who use “cacti” as the plural of “cactus” should go and see a proctologist. (November 30, 2015)

Aristotle opposed multiculturalism, as can be seen in his Nicomachean Ethnic. (November 28, 2015)

Militarization of the police: the feds have been very tanks giving. (November 27, 2015)

Life is a loophole. (November 26, 2015)

At least, on a wheelchair, you are on a roll. (November 26, 2015)

Stages of life: you roll, you crawl, you walk, you run, you walk, you hike, you walk, you crawl, you roll. But you see: you discovered hiking! (November 26, 2015)

There are no free countries but, on some metrics, some are less unfree than others. (November 26, 2015)

The Beaujolais Nouveau smells very Green. So it must be good. (November 23, 2015)

A geek participating in a threesome or an n-some will certainly want to do a checksum. (November 22, 2015)

Even if, in your system of ethics, only consequences matter (as opposed to intentions, obligations, etc.), it won’t do to compare the number of individuals killed by bombings and drone strikes with the number killed by terrorists. The number of individuals that would have been killed by the terrorists killed in bombings and drone strikes must be included too. On the other hand, he number of future murders by Bataclan concert goers (or World Trade Center workers) is vanishingly small. (November 21, 2015)

En Grèce, les automobiles ont des calandres grecques. (November 20, 2015)

Tyranny is not an efficient way to fight tyranny. (November 19, 2015)

A fashion question: Do you put your explosive belt over or under your chastity belt? (November 18, 2016)

Droit de porter des armes pour se défendre: il ne faut pas prendre les enfants du Bon Dieu pour des canards sauvages. (November 17, 2015)

The first question of Saint Peter at the pearly gates will be, “Have you always cleaned your guns well?” (November 16, 2015)

A smell of seventh century has spread over the world. (November 14, 2015)

Even against enemy thugs, we must stick to our individualist values. (November 14, 2015)

Where you will be buried is a grave matter. (November 13, 2015)

There is always a meta-something, up to infinity. (November 13, 2015)

If you can’t find yourself, chances are your car keys are lost too. (November 12, 2015)

Some people seem to be against everything except the idea of being against everything. (October 28, 2015)

About 92 billion light-years in diameter, the observable universe contains 10 billion galaxies and one billion trillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars, plus so many black holes that it is impossible to count them. Life has evolved over 3.5 billion years on our little planet. Schrödinger’s cat may be both dead and alive somewhere on the infinite frontier between mathematics and poetry. And some want us to believe that God enacts minute regulations on how Mr. Smith puts his little thing into Ms. Doe’s small hole, and that He will to send them to eternal damnation if they break one tiny rule? (October 26, 2015)

Most media sell what most people want: entertainment and confirmation bias. (October 25, 2015)

When you check in at the Pearly Gates, the first question will be, “How many likes did you get?” (October 23, 2015)

One must be able to connect what one does with the general adventure of mankind. (October 23, 2015)

Packing a light suitcase to fly to California at a few hours notice, I could feel like Tintin and Capitaine Haddock, or Indiana Jones, travelling to some barbarous country, if only I could throw a pistol in the suitcase and not have to pass through police-state controls. (October 23, 2015)

When laws are multitude, crimes change by the day. (October 22, 2015)

Santa Claus used to be a grammarian (but he dealt only with holy writings). (October 21, 2015)

A fetus has a hard time just before he can think out of the box. (October 21, 2015)

A hunter devoured by a lion certainly has skin in the game. The hunter’s brother only has kin in the game. (October 20, 2015)

You are excited for good reasons if you used to be cited. (October 20, 2015)

The biggest tax loophole of all is that the American state lets people keep 60% of what they earn. (The loophole is about 50% in Europe.) (October 18, 2015)

My altruism will kill me, and I will be happy. (October 18, 2015)

Owning many holsters is to a man what having several purses is to a woman. (October 11, 1015)

Facebook does not allow me to update my statue. (October 11, 2015)

My apologies for apologizing. (September 21, 2015)

If feminism had not triumphed, 50% of graduates would have an almus pater instead of an alma mater. (September 17, 2015)

If you cry wolf every night, you will one day make a good forecast. (September 8, 2015)

There are three stages in life: birth, childhood, and pre-death. (September 6, 2015)

I wouldn’t say the same about sex, but I certainly enjoy the same text. (September 3, 2015)

Communisme: qui veut la faim veut les moyens. (September 1, 2014)

Once you have met imaginary numbers, even only furtively, life is never the same again. (September 1, 2014)

Imaginary numbers make the universe real. (September 1, 2015)

A newspaper that does not regularly publish errata is not credible. (August 31, 2015)

Comme l’écrivait Aragon, il n’y a pas de browser heureux. (August 29, 2015)

I am trying to suspend myself with pay. (August 29, 2015)

Ésaü, qui était photographe, a vendu son droit d’aînesse à Jacob pour quelques lentilles. (August 29, 2015)

I prefer a selfie carrot to a selfie stick. (August 29, 2015)

I would not mind being put on administrative leave. (August 29, 2015)

The night has fallen but her sin has been forgiven. (August 29, 2015)

Some accountants prefer their Champagne net. (August 29, 2015)

With the right entrée* and wine, humble pie may be quite eatable.

*“Entrée” means not the main course, as it is mistakenly used in America, but the first course: “entrée” means opening or entrance. (August 29, 2015)

A sin tax is not part of grammar. (August 26, 2015)

For every seller of a stock, there is a buyer. Stock prices drop because people change their minds on stock values. Buyers obviously think they gain. (August 24, 2015)

The altruist don’t have a different take on everything, they have a different give. (August 24, 2015)

To be poor would be OK if everything were not so trashy everywhere. (When I was a child, I thought that the only thing the poor lacked was food, that they otherwise lived in a spotless environment, that poverty was clean.) (August 24, 2015)

Entia non sunt ponenda sine necessitate. (Apologies for repeating myself.) (August 24, 2015)

What’s wrong with moral relativism, provided consent rules? (August 22, 2015)

Editors are under a spell. (August 20, 2015)

Monetary-theory joke: Voodoo recommends putting a dime under one’s tongue because it is the equivalent of a mint. (August 20, 2015)

Old age is when you downsize to .380. (August 19, 2015)

It is being a realist to think that (perhaps) most statements must be qualified by a “perhaps.” (August 18, 2015)

Trigger warning for financial joke: Islamists (and especially those whose strong field is not translation) are bullish because “Allah is long!” (August 17, 2015)

If you see a Brit farthing, it is recommended that, when reporting it, you do not pronounce your “th” à la française. (August 17, 2015)

If you don’t know what to say, you’ll find it’s difficult to say it. (August 14, 2015)

A race to the bottom is not necessarily bad. It depends on whose bottom it is. (August 12, 2015)

He who is always on Skype is never on Skype. (August 11, 2016)

I would become a boy again if only for the toys available nowadays, but perhaps for a couple of other reasons too. (August 7, 2015)

Each individual is a culture. (August 7, 2015)

“I am not a consequentialist. Consequently, I don’t study economics.” (August 4, 2014)

With growing obesity, we see more ignes fatui. (August 3, 2015)

Many would-be writers are guilty of rant-seeking. (July 29, 2015)

Hold your wrath and, if you are an environmentalist, your rat too. (July 29, 2015)

Bertrand Russell married four times because his day job was about tying the not. (July 29, 2015)

La résistance des chauffeurs de taxi contre Uber, ça leur fait une belle jante. (July 27, 2015)

The Brits colonized India because Indian food goes well with beer. (July 27, 2015)

Entrepreneurs know something that other people don’t but they can’t explain it. (July 27, 2015)

As could have been expected, homosexuals are replacing the rainbow with a raingun. (July 25, 2015)

Heavy things are unsustainable. (July 25, 2015)

Not a very useful piece of information (or should not be), but you can guess that a “spokesman” is a man and a “spokesperson” a woman. (July 23, 2015)

Vegetarianism: cabbage in, cabbage out. (But of course de gustibus non est disputandum.) (July 22, 2015)

Socialists are greedy. They love money, especially if it comes from other people. (July 13, 2015)

It is frustrating when you know something (even if only provisionally) to know that others don’t know it, even if it were just enough to criticize you usefully. (July 13, 2015)

If the Merchant of Venice had been a black woman instead of a Jew, the play would be forbidden in most places, or attacked as insensitive. (July 13, 2015)

Greek democracy in particular and the tyranny of the majority in general: ask the electorate to vote on a question that requires a Ph.D. in economics to be understood, then do the exact contrary of the vote results, and be hailed as a savior. (July 10, 2015)

A populist approves whatever “the people” (whatever that means) wants. A libertarian, on the contrary, favors the individual. (July 10, 2015)

A must: read the Declaration of Independence. And compare it with today’s George III. (July 4, 2015)

Most people think that the “long train of abuses” is an Amtrak train. (July 4, 2015)

I suspect that a large proportion of Americans are unable to read (and understand, which is the essence of reading) the Declaration of Independence. (July 4, 2015)

July 4: Remember that it was a revolution (re-vo-lu-tion), against a relatively mild tyrant. (July 4, 2015)

Don’t expect a “God bless” for a blog guess. (July 3, 2015)

Astronauts, I have heard, often suffer from asteroids. Hermeneuticians have a different disease. (July 3, 2015)

As somebody noted, the gay-marriage SCOTUS ruling gives homosexuals permission to ask for a marriage license. (July 3, 2015)

A blanket statement is not necessarily made under the sheets and does not suggest a cover-up. (July 1, 2015)

Being libertarian does not mean espousing all ideas voiced by all libertarians. This would be impossible anyway since many are incompatible. (June 30, 2015)

There is of course no shame in changing one’s mind, but it is more persuasive if ideas existed at the starting and ending points. (June 28, 2015)

Will the next Civil War will be between those who want to impose their civic religion and those who want to force feed their godly religion? (June 28, 2015)

Green lives matter. (June 27, 2015)

Democracy: any majority decision somewhere cancels any other majority decision somewhere else. (June 28, 2017)

Except at the very abstract level of Hayek’s Great Society (& perhaps at an even more abstract level), you don’t have to follow the majority. (June 27, 2015)

Why not oblige states to force women to admit that a man’s prostate is a uterus and force them to call it so? A question of equality? (June 26, 2015)

It seems obvious that homosexuals have the right to live under marriage-like contracts. But why call it “marriage”? Why force states to do so? (June 26, 2015)

If you have eaten all your food for thought, it was just fast food. (June 23, 2015)

A micro-aggression must be met with a decisive micro-defense. (June 19, 2015)

Pope Pius XII may have died of hiccup; Pope Paul II and Pope Alexander VI, of hook-up. (June 17, 2015)

War is bad but it is worse still not to defend oneself. (The meaning of “oneself” raises more questions, though.) (June 17, 2015)

I click, therefore I am. (June 16, 2015)

A micro-aggression is when you are attacked by a dwarf, and this includes an intellectual dwarf. (June 15, 2015)

We get used to everything, even ugly cars. (June 15, 2015)

La bêtise humaine n’est problématique que quand certains veulent imposer la leur. (June 13, 2015)

If it works in theory but not in practice, the theory is wrong or it is not used correctly. (June 13, 2015)

If reading does not challenge your ideas, you don’t know how to read. The same applies to conversation. (June 12, 2015)

Mind boggling is fun; blind mugging isn’t. (June 11, 12015)

Booze and sex are to Americans what private guns are to Europeans. (June 10, 2015)

The ranks of shoemakers would be decimated if the doctrine of the immortality of the sole were true. Et les rangs des armuriers seraient décimés si les âmes étaient immortelles. (June 9, 2015)

Many people in search of meaning get blown away by Islam. (June 5, 2015)

The problem is to find a church that has Catholic masses and Gregorian music, that is not obsessed by sex, and that does not espouse the Inquisition. (June 4, 2015)

Wises are not crimes. (June 3, 2015)

Liberals believe they can control everything without a police state. Conservatives believe they will control little with their police state. (May 30, 2015)

With political correctness, we must say Homo Sapiens, not Hetero Sapiens. (May 30, 2015)

An arsenal is not a storage space for arse. (May 29, 2015)

People prefer to be amputated because surgeons are better rested and less likely to make errors in the morning. (May 27, 2015)

If lying were an equal crime, most if not all politicians and high-level bureaucrats would be in jail. (May 27, 2015)

The Russian government can’t be both a rabble-rouser and a ruble-rouser. (May 25, 2015)

I wish all majorities, in Ireland too, were tolerant towards the LGBT community. I mean the Libertarian Glock Business Trading minorities. (May 23, 2015)

There are two Americas, or perhaps three. In the real spirit of American liberty, there would be 320 million Americas. (May 22, 2015)

Cachez ce saint que je ne saurais voir. (Bon, ça va, je disparais.) (May 22, 2015)

Medicine is like social science: it’s very easy to get scientific conclusions corrupted by one’s political values. (May 22, 2015)

Sisyphus was the first one to hear a Rolling Stone. (May 22, 2015)

A vow of chastity is not worth a chow of vast titty. (May 20, 2015)

Small calibers are for micro-aggressions. (May 20, 2015)

Contrary to a dice, a gun is always loaded. (May 20, 2015)

L’écrivain se gardera d’imiter l’escargot qui entre dans sa coquille. (May 20, 2015)

Culture is a difficult and dangerous concept. (May 19, 2015)

If you get ahead of yourself, you will necessarily fall behind. (May 18, 2015)

Un cancre pétulant cause plus de dommages qu’un cancre las. (May 15, 2015)

I request that idiots and fascists give me a trigger warning before saying anything. I can then compose and control myself. (May 13, 2015)

I am going to sue Microsoft. When Word asks me for “orientation,” the only two options are “portrait” and “landscape.” (May 12, 2015)

If Al Capone had met Al Pacino, it would have been a war of al against al. (May 12, 2015)

A misdemeanor is the demeanor of a young, unmarried woman. (May 11, 2015)

Perhaps political dynasties should be subjected to sperm limits. (May 8, 2015)

For bored people, time is running in. (May 8, 2015)

Geeks don’t get a life; they put it. (May 8, 2015)

Private guns are to Europe what booze and sex are to America: an irrational fear. (May 7, 2015)

How do you unmask an egoist? Simple. Instead of saying “here is my give on such or such topic,” he will say “here is my take.” (May 6, 2015)

Mystics hear invoices (which is slightly annoying for those who have taken a poverty vow). (May 5, 2015)

Instead of coming back to the fold, a mathematician always comes back to the manifold. (May 2, 2015)

To be mean or to be average, that is the question. (April 29, 2015)

Having a burnout can be useful in the seconds following a suicide bombing attack. (April 27, 2015)

Many men die with no hair apparent. (April 27, 2015)

Islamist terrorists are thinking of training deer for suicide attacks. The goal is to get the most bang for the buck. (April 24, 2015)

Poor Gaia, suffering from Hurt Day! (April 23, 2015)

Selfie sticks are immoral; try altrie carrots instead. (April 23, 2015)

Investors whine in a beer market. (April 22, 2015)

The war on plants is a war on citizens. (April 22, 2015)

A selfie stick is for taking a picture of oneself. A chapstick is for taking a picture of another chap. (April 19, 2015)

Malgré son nom, Périclès ne tournait pas autour du pot. (April 18, 2015)

A Panera salad comes in a box which, I assume, is called a Panera’s box. (April 17, 2015)

If Hillary Clinton had asked my advice on her electoral slogan, I would have recommended: “Yes we can, Sir!” (April 17, 2015)

Pour entrer, un intellectuel khâgne à la porte. (April 17, 2015)

Many of my opinions have changed, but only the wrong ones (I think). (April 17, 2015)

If you live in a trailer park, you will always know of the latest movies. (April 16, 2015)

A dyslectic secretary is inefficient because she always wants to get a life instead of getting the damn file. (April 14, 2015)

A dyslexic should get a life instead of getting a file. (April 14, 2015)

A police state is where the police are everywhere. (April 14, 2015)

I suspect that, on the other shore of the Styx, Jehovah Witnesses will go from throne to throne, in an infinite game of thrones. (April 13, 2015)

The more demanding recipes are those that need much thyme. (April 12, 2015)

You get used to be old, but it takes time. (April 12, 2015)

When a genius suffers a stroke, something very special happens. (April 11, 2015)

If you baptize you pen “Genius,” every annotation you make will be a stroke of genius. (April 11, 2015)

It must be annoying to pass through life without knowing what’s happening around you. But then you don’t know that you don’t know. (April 11, 1015)

Un pâté de maison qui comprend une église s’appelle un pâté de foi. (April 10, 2015)

A gun is a gris-gris that shoots. (April 10, 2015)

Childish pun of the week: Atlas after at last leaving LAX said EX-LAX. (April 10, 2015)

I met a man who knew Zauberman, but I lost track of that man too. (I don’t expect any of my friends to understand this reflection.) (April 10, 2015)

It should be legally mandated that new cars have a victimhood. (April 10, 2015)

If you don’t ask questions, you won’t have answers. (April 9, 2015)

The views expressed in this article are not personal; they are somebody else’s. (April 9, 2015)

Conversation is an art. (April 7, 2015)

No-brainer: A transparent government cannot have a “Secret Service.” (April 7, 2015)

We live in a world where bigots compete with homoglots and heteroglots. (April 5, 2015)

God must have an infinite sense of humor. (April 5, 2015)

Instead of “God Bless!”, Islamists say “God Blast!” (April 5, 2015)

I need a remedy for wishful thinking. (March 31, 2015)

Panacea are suspicious. They give a false peace of mind. (March 31, 2015)

Les bergères ont la foi du charbonnier. (March 31, 2015)

You have – or should have – the right to be a bigot, but you don’t have to be one. (March 30, 2015)

Le monde a changé, comme il a changé bien des fois au cours des derniers 20,000 ans. (March 28, 2015)

The world has changed, as it did many times over the past 20,000 years. (March 28, 2015)

Politicians generally lie in state. (March 27, 2015)

Plants are animals too. (March 24, 2015)

Quand on a déjà tout su et qu’on ne sait plus tout, on ne peut jamais plus tout savoir. (March 21, 2015)

Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead enter into a bar. “You’re all set,” the barman tells them. (March 18, 2014)

Le verbe « s’exprimer » ne signifie pas annuler son abonnement à Prime. (March 18, 2015)

Noah’s ark was a relation ship. (March 18, 2015)

Truth is asymptotic. (March 14, 2014)

C’est fou ce que tout le monde est devenu vieux sans qu’on s’en aperçoive. (March 12, 2015)

How could I ever buy a Glock, which is such an ugly pistol, devoid of design? Perhaps aesthetics will kill me. (March 11, 2015)

Theological discovery: heaven is fifty shades of white. (March 8, 2015)

Data without sources and surrounding debates are not worth the electrons they are coded with. (March 6, 2015)

You know that you think differently when most opinion poll questions make no sense. (March 4, 2015)

The very concept of a “marriage license” shows how the American idea of liberty has degenerated. (March 4, 2015)

When you read, you are having a conversation or a debate with the author. When you write, it’s a debate with yourself. (March 4, 2015)

If socialists did not love money, solidarity would have no purpose. (March 2, 2015)

Solidarity is when you need the money. (March 2, 2015)

The collectivist state is a glory whole. (March 2, 2015)

La nature a horreur du bide. (February 26, 215)

An unemployed mathematician could switch to raising chickens and open a Nth house. (So stupid it’s nearly funny.) (February 26, 2015)

No feminist would survive in a cockpit. (February 26, 2015)

Sorry, I can’t answer your call right now. I have a higher calling. (February 24, 2015)

Software is OK but I wouldn’t mind a hardware upgrade. (February 20, 2015)

I am looking for an alternative to death. (February 20, 2015)

Politicians’ cars have hot-airbags. (February 20, 2015)

I can’t dig double negations no more. (February 20, 2015)

Même si vous parlez franglais, il ne faut pas nécessairement tirer les morons du feu. (February 20, 2015)

The problem of education is that, in many cases, you are trying to teach something to somebody who doesn’t know he doesn’t know it. (February 16, 2015)

Thinking out of the box is difficult because you have to look for what you are not looking for. (February 16, 2014)

W. Somerset Maugham was the mother of no one. (February 13, 2014)

A criminological fact: the dead form the largest category of cold cases. (February 13, 2014)

I am happy that the International Labor Organization agitates for paid breastfeeding work breaks. I could take one or two. (February 8, 2015)

It is more acceptable to miss a pun than to piss a bun. (February 8, 2015)

Life would be simpler if were not so complicated. (February 8, 2015)

Today’s optimistic, but totally empty and inconsequential, reflection: More people have ever been born than have ever died; the global balance is positive. (February 8, 2015)

Statists of the left should love war because it is likely to increase the power of the state on the side who wins. (February 7, 2015)

The old idea of liberty was that if somebody is not seriously suspected of a precise crime, you leave him alone. (January 29, 2015)

The difference between the rich and us is that they have two copies of everything two dishwashers, two fridges, two identical hunting shotguns, etc. I am of two minds about that. (January 28, 2015)

All you need is glove. (January 28, 2015)

Life contains at least 4,500 carcinogens. (January 27, 20115)

We never step twice in the same river, but it’s better to be prepared with our boots on. (January 25, 2014)

A nonagenarian is still much taller than a nanogenarian. (January 25, 2015)

Capitalism is to communism what a splurge is to a purge. (January 22, 2015)

Sometimes, in order to understand A, you have to understand B; and to understand B, you first need to understand A. Only after repeatedly bumping your head on A and B will the light suddenly be. (January 20, 2015)

Uber libertas, ibi patria. (January 19, 2015)

A mathematician is the fox in the Nth house. (January 19, 2015)

USA is passé. The new ideal is USB. (January 18, 2015)

I am espousing voluntary poverty. I have to. (January 18, 2015)

Liberty is the ultimate value in society because people disagree on what is good. (January 12, 2015)

Who drives imprudently in the winter is bound to become a son-of-a-ditch. (January 12, 2015)

Man does not live by boobs alone. (January 11, 2015)

Defending liberty with words and demonstrations is useful but ultimately, as the Paris events have shown, guns are required against guns. (January 11, 2015)

The world is a rough place but the main security task is to “secure” the state and lock it down whenever it rolls over our liberties. (January 10, 2015)

Society is full of externalities. Only those that are good or bad for everybody (or nearly everybody?) need to be controlled. (January 10, 2015)

Organized religions are rather humorless. God must be laughing His ass off. (January 10, 2015)

After he died, God asked for a second opinion. (January 10, 2015)

Some take hippotheses in a cavalier fashion. (January 10, 2015)

Good multiculturalism is everybody being free to choose his own culture; bad multiculturalism is everybody thinking that he may impose his preferred culture on others. (January 10, 2015)

When you can’t legally claim that the Holocaust did not happen, expect intellectual problems arguing that it did. (January 10, 2015)

The average statistician is mean. (January 5, 2015)

People charged with rope must be hanged. (January 5, 2015)

God bliss you! (January 5, 2015)

Writing is 40% torture, 60% bliss. (January 5, 2015)

I would like a virtual machine (VM), like a virtual BMW. (January 2, 2015)

La femme de César aimait bien son jules. (January 1, 2015)

The paradox of education is that the educated-to-be must, in effect, tell the educator, “Please, teach me what I don’t want to learn.” (December 29, 2014)

A virtual machine is not immune to coffee spills. (December 29, 2014)

Being conscious of what there is to know is the beginning of learning. (December 28, 2014)

Croissants must be made with the flour of evil. (December 27, 2014)

In the department so-stupid-it’s-it’s-nearly-funny: Perhaps the case for God is just 12 lagers sacrificed to him. (December 27, 2014)

Pinot Noir serait la conséquence d’une taxe sur les relations sexuelles. (December 26, 2014)

Clicking errors are the easiest to make. (December 16, 2014)

Diogenes’s approach: Christmas is part of the cost of doing business. (December 14, 2014)

I am very committed to the environment: “For dust you are, and unto dust shall you return.” (December 14, 2014)

You can have your cake and eat it too, as long as it is not finished. (December 14, 2014)

A Silicon Valley witch is called a sand witch. (December 12, 2014)

Knowing which rules to follow and which rules to disregard may be the essence of wisdom. (December 22, 2014)

We follow rules not because they are always necessary, but because we don’t know when they will be indispensable. (December 11, 2014)

Multitasking is a difficult task. (December 11, 2014)

The Big Bang: perhaps our universe was created because God was a guy who liked to blow up things. (December 11, 2014)

I apologize profusely. (PS: That’s the best sort of apologies.) (December 10, 2014)

That the end does not justify the means signifies that it is not SUFFICIENT to justify the means, but it may be sufficient in conjunction with other reasons. (December 9, 2014)

We need to be more concerned about where restrictions of liberty lead to than about the consequences of liberty itself. (December 9, 2014)

My intellectual contribution to the Nanny State: roads should be painted red in order to abolish black ice. (December 7, 2014)

There is only one sort of person worse than an economist, it’s a non-economist. (December 2, 2014)

All the wisdom in life is to know how slippery the slope is. (December 1, 2014)

If there is a religious war, it would be preferable that it be about Beaujolais Nouveau. (December 1, 2014)

We are not in 2013, times have changed! (November 26, 2014)

With the Internet, we may be witnessing the rise of a new sort of ideologues, who define their ideology in contradistinction to that of their opponents whose presumed ideology is made of no-source and fabricated quotes. (November 20, 2014)

It’s interesting to observe how people who don’t read and think about things (I am speaking about theory and evidence, not about tastes, of course) often hold strong opinions. (November 19, 2014)

Little freedoms gained, big liberties lost, and Lenina is happy. (November 19, 2014)

Costs, benefits, and incentives: three keywords to understand the human world. (November 18, 2014)

I will espouse voluntary poverty when I am forced to. (November 17, 2014)

Not all evil is equal. (November 16, 2014)

You never step twice in the same driver. (An insurance estimate, no doubt; it can’t be a geek motto.) (November 16, 2014)

You never step twice in the same climate. (November 14, 2014)

Saying that the price of gold in dollars is low is exactly the same as saying that the price of the dollar is high in terms of gold. (November 14, 2014)

Avertissement de jeu de mots bilingue et difficile (et peut-être pas si brilliant que ça après tout): Il portait à sa boutonnière l’appel de la nation. (November 13, 2014)

One big advantage of Facebook is that, whatever your circumstances, you can, with the right friends, live humorously all the time. (November 13, 2014)

If God did not like boobs, he would have made them flat or even concave. (November 11, 2014)

It’s not because you are dating somebody that you need to carry a carbon-14 measuring instrument. (November 9, 2014)

If a voter can vote for a deadlocked government, he must also be able to choose whether in the House or Senate or both, and the percentage of each party. (November 8, 2014)

Something very basic: if you put a statement in quotation marks, it means that the quoted person said EXACTLY what’s between the quotes. (November 7, 2014)

In case of doubt, we must stick with the general presumption for liberty. (November 6, 2014)

A wearable vice may be as fun as a wearable device. (November 5, 2014)

If you want an education, read books under the guidance of someone who can tell you where to start. If you want only entertainment, then just go to the circus. (November 4, 2014)

Those who are always on Skype are never on Skype. (November 1, 2014)

He raised his voice so often that he became a soprano. (November 1, 2014)

Focusing on factoids reminds me of another disease. (November 1, 2014)

Instead of setting the record straight, I have moved on to CDs. (November 1, 2014)

Blessed are the gullible, for they shall be called children of the state. (October 31, 2014)

“I need closure,” said the farmer. (October 31, 2014)

It is not true that “there should be a law.” There is already one. (October 31, 2014)

The dead are very silent, but then who knows the unimaginable secrets of the universe? (October 30, 2014)

The number of old people is mind-blogging – er… mind-boggling. (October 29, 2014)

Except for economics, the transistor, and foie gras, everything was invented in ancient Greece. (October 28, 2014)

Yes and no, but I don’t want to violate the non-contradiction law. (October 28, 2014)

There is an argument against self-defense that does not work: if we don’t attack them, they will not attack us. The world is a rose garden. (October 28, 2014)

Un grand nombre de Romandes ont le bonheur d’épouser un vrai roman d’amour. (October 27, 2014)

Si vous avez un problème simple, appelez La Palice, pas la police. (October 27, 2014)

Lapalissade: Simple solutions to complex problems are better than complicated solutions to simple problems. (October 27, 2014)

Life is complicated, but death is not simple either. (October 27, 2014)

Reason, poetry, and humor: the first, to understand what is understandable; the second, to glimpse what is not; the third for more pleasure. (October 25, 2014)

Naming things is useful, otherwise you cannot talk, and perhaps not think, about them. (October 25, 2014)

I am surprised every day by the gullibility of mankind – although I readily admit that animals and plants are worse. (October 25, 2014)

Pun of the week: On Twitter, the way to get many followers is to promise to follow, not to swallow. (October 24, 2014)

There are some benefits of being an old crumb. But all and all, I would say, the costs outweigh the benefits. (October 23, 2014)

Small terrorist acts allow the state to show off its disproportionate power and entertain the admiring masses. (October 22, 2014)

Intelligence is under lockdown (not to speak of liberty). (October 22, 2014)

Would there be fewer cops shot if police stations were gun-free zones? (October 21, 2014)

I am not ostentatious. (October 21, 2014)

I cannot help wondering if there is a relation between “the gay divide” (The Economist, October 11, 2014) and the plumber crack. (October 17, 2014)

Crony capitalism is just socialism with a human face. (October 17, 2014)

Assuming you are right, to be intelligent may be a sufficient condition to agreeing with you, but it is not a necessary condition. (October 17, 2014)

If the war on plants was not also a war on citizens, it wouldn’t be that bad. (October 15, 2014)

You will LOVE Roquefort if you are in a good mould. (October 15, 2014)

As Cantor would have said, you’re all set. (October 15, 2014)

One difference between the socialists and I is that they soak the rich while I only soak my pistols. Another one is that I soak my pistols in solvent, while solvency is not the socialists’ strong point. (October 14, 2014)

If you are losing your site, go to your geek consultant, not to your ophthalmologist. (October 14, 2014)

We will soon run out of things to ban, if the preferences and lifestyles of the state’s courtiers are not attacked too. (October 11, 2014)

If you cry wolf every night, chances are you will end up being a good forecaster. (October 9, 2014)

To gun or to gun nut, that is the question. (October 9, 2014)

Baby boomers are not baby killers. (October 9, 2014)

I have been a turnaround consultant for all my life, with only one client. (October 9, 2014)

I am only a sentence craftsman. (October 9, 2014)

A gastroenterologist is a physician you see when you think you have stomach or intestines disorders. When you know it after the fact, you see a gastropostrologist. (October 8, 2014)

If one-sentence paragraphs help the reader, imagine what one word per line would do! (October 7, 2014)

Economists are usually the least gullible before faddish scares — peak oil, environment, public health, immigration, jobs destruction, etc. (September 29, 2014)

Variations:
The junkie to his wife: “I never promised you a dose garden.”
Picasso to his model (after she sees the painting): “I never promised you a pose garden.”
A Silicon Valley company to the NSA: “I never promised you a nose garden.”
The fireman to the firewoman: “I never promised you a hose garden.”
(September 28, 2014)

Some people are “highly trained” idiots. (September 25, 2014)

The terms “shibboleth” and “schmuck” are two great contributions to vocabulary. (September 24, 2014)

A good measure to help the poor would be to ban the purchase of any car that is not a BMW or a Mercedes. It’s done for other goods and services. (September 24, 2014)

Besides being well written, a good book has four features: (1) it answers questions; (2) it raises new ones; (3) it connects with things you have learned before; (4) it still has something to teach you when you reread it. (September 22, 2014)

Occam is the one who shaves the village barber. (September 21, 2014)

Why is it that separatists seem to be always more statist? (September 18, 2014)

The problem with “the people” is who are they? (September 18, 2014)

Tyranny, whether far or close to the people, is still tyranny. (September 18, 2014)

Of all (or the little) that I know, I learned one-third in college and graduate school, one-third during the past five years, and the last third in between. (September 18, 2014)

A really learned person must read English, French, Greek, Latin, and German. I am a sinner. (September 18, 2014)

To remember what you learn, you have to understand how it fits with other things you have learned. (September 18, 2014)

If Scotland Yard were downgraded to English Inch, perhaps English liberties could be restored. (September 17, 2014)

“Principled” positions must be consistent with facts and incentives. They must also be consistent with some basic value judgments such as the legitimacy of self-defense. (September 16, 2014)

Animal is an irrational man. (September 15, 2014)

Why the universe is logical (even if not any logical theory is necessarily valid) is a fundamental question. (September 15, 2014)

The state should impose RESTAURANT NEUTRALITY: force restaurants to let anybody eat as much as he wants, and send an equal bill to all diners. (September 11, 2014)

Man does not live by hardware alone. (September 11, 2014)

If Scotland secedes from the United Kingdom, what will happen to scot’s tape? (September 10, 2014)

Il est facile pour un manchot de mettre la dernière main à son oeuvre. / A one-handed man can easily put the last hand to his work. (September 10, 2011)

Somebody without a podium is said to be apodial. (September 7, 2014)

After a lawn fuck, the doe was hoping for fawn luck. (September 5, 2014)

A hacker is somebody who mows the LAN. (September 5, 2014)

Not being a cook, he did not mince his words. (September 4, 2014)

Why can we get old vinyl albums from private firms but not old liberty from the state? (August 31, 2014)

As the philosopher said, a life without pinging is not worth living. (August 29, 2014)

To make a blanket statement, today was a covered day. (August 21, 2014)

The difficulty with adult education is that they think they know. (August 21, 2014)

Fighting barbarism with barbarism can only lead to barbarism. (August 21, 2014)

If you continuously predict catastrophes of many sorts, chances are that you will be proven right once. (August 20, 2014)

The larger the number of policemen per inhabitant, the more policemen have to be feared. (August 19, 2014)

It is difficult for an economist to take seriously somebody who declares that “every vote counts.” (August 19, 2014)

Since the 1960s, it has been a crime of treason against politically-correct opinion to not blindly support Arab thugs against Israel Jews. (August 18, 2014)

I got a spam ad saying, “Take your sex life to a new level”. So I walked up to the second floor. (August 14, 2014)

A priest once played a stupid joke and blessed the water of the ocean. And so was born the Holy Sea. (August 12, 2014)

A dead vampire cannot be called a stakeholder. (August 8, 2014)

How do you call a witch who has built her whole theory of knowledge on the sand? (August 8, 2014)

If tyranny is progressing, a “step backward” is good. (August 1, 2014)

If you don’t believe that truth exists, you can’t criticize something for being false. (July 31, 2014)

Everything is a matter of degree, including this sentence. (July 26, 2014)

Don’t married couples who “renew their vows” thereby admit that they were not serious the first time or that their vows were valid only until the next renewal? (July 26, 2014)

The question “Am I being detained” has replaced “Am I under arrest” because now, in a large number of cases, one may be detained without being under arrest. (July 25, 2014)

“Company, halt!” shouted the officer. “Not necessarily”, thought private Turing. (July 23, 2014)

If you are not careful with the truth, only the gullible will believe you. (July 23, 2014)

An inclusive society broadly means that nobody should be excluded from tyranny. (July 21, 2014)

A couple sharing a smart phone is called a same-text couple. (July 14, 2014)

Anyway, football is better than war or protectionism. (July 14, 2014)

Things used to make sense; now they make sensor. (July 13, 2014)

There are two kinds of Police States: smiling and non-smiling. (July 10, 2014)

Philosophy is so complicated. In economics, at least, you can build a little model and derive a little conclusion. (July 10, 2014)

Since I wasn’t able to be a singer, I became a senior. That was relatively easy. (June 30, 2014)

The problem with chastity is that it will come someday. (June 25, 2014)

If you believe that there should be inflation and there is not any, question your theory instead of denying the facts. (June 24, 2014)

Polyglot (English-Latin) pun warning! A Latinist can easily tone his abs, especially if he is coming back from multiple places. (June 24, 2014)

I just discovered that Shakespeare is not only a brand of fishing rod. (June 24, 2014)

A layman is not a man who wants to be laid. (June 24, 2014)

Bilingual pun warning; parental guidance is advised. Tasked with increasing employment, the central bank has implemented a new maquereau policy. (June 24, 2014)

I am getting impatient with people who pontificate on things they know nothing about, and have no clue that they don’t know. (June 24, 1014)

Equal playing field generally means equal tyranny. (June 22, 2014)

Commencez avec la foi qui déplace des collines. (June 20, 2014)

Modest proposal to strengthen gun-free zones: that anybody illegally carrying a gun there must also be dressed in blaze green colors. (June 16, 2014)

A free society only needs freedom for its definition, an unfree one needs something else than servitude. (June 16, 2014)

Saying that many people are left behind also means that many people are left ahead. (June 16, 2014)

Ignorance can be either a beatitude or a springboard to knowledge. (June 13, 2014)

Allah would probably stop bullets and missiles in mid-air were it not that both sides invoke his name. What can Allah do? (June 12, 2014)

Low(er)-interest-rate credit is not the same as “free money”. Credit is not the same as money. (June 12, 2014)

The more time passes, the more there is to learn. Ask Montaigne or Pico della Mirandola. (June 12, 2014)

If you want to say something but can’t bring yourself to say it because it’s inconsistent with a non-falsified theory, you’re on the right track (except if you are a poet). (June 11, 2014)

Tribalism: Shias don’t want their Sunni side up. (June 11, 2014)

It’s banal (at least at a certain age) to be the youngest person on the planet, but it lasts only a few minutes; everybody did it once. It’s more difficult to be the oldest, but it can last for some time. (June 9, 2014)

Death alas cannot be posthumous. Except for environmentalists, who do it post humus. (June 9, 2014)

Book reviewers are the worst pirates ever. I know, I am one. (June 9, 2014)

I am too rough on myself. I need sensitivity training. (June 4, 2014)

He married a PhD in order to be in the know. (June 3, 2014)

It’s not always fun to be a geek. I, for example, got a big mosquito byte. (June 2, 2014)

The “right to be forgotten” will fuel the naïvety of believing that if something is on the web, it must be true. (May 30, 2014)

I once wrote that anarchy would only work if people held their knives and forks correctly. I would now add: and even then… (May 28, 2014)

Oedipus loved Greek, his mother tongue. (May 25, 2014)

There are three sorts of statements: true ones, false ones, and those whose truth value is unknown – and, as a probable subset, unknowable ones. (May 24, 2014)

I find offensivism very offensive. (May 22, 2014)

Cooks have many talents but never take an active roll. (May 22, 2014)

Memo to the soldier: the guy on the other side is as brainwashed as you are. (May 20, 2014)

Ludwig von Mises is like religion: you have to take some and leave some. (May 16, 2014)

Many things are too dangerous to tolerate, but we must live and make trade-offs, and have some fun. (May 16, 2014)

The contrary of “true” is not “evil”. (May 16, 2014)

Why did the kitchen cross the road? Because there was a big dyslectics meeting on the other side. (In fact, they called it the International Dyslectics Teaming.) (May 13, 2014)

The International Dyslectics Teaming is the annual world meeting of dyslectics. (May 13, 2014)

Ou, si on accepte une césure très mal placée, “qui voyage loin déménage sa tonsure”. (May 10, 2014)

I wonder how people who are children of abortion can be so favorable to it. (May 10, 2014)

Comme disait Racine, qui veut voyager loin ménage sa tonsure. (May 10, 2014)

Ave atque vale, and it doesn’t even rain. (May 6, 2014)

The problems of modern technology: I took a leaf from her book and the screen went blank. (May 4, 2014)

Statists eat oath meal. (May 4, 2014)

It’s more difficult to smash the state than to stash the mates. (May 4, 2014)

Warning: It’s difficult to report on statistical or economic research without graphic content. (May 4, 2014)

When there were two farthings in a halfpenny, farting was cheap for the Brits. (May 2, 2014)

Gaia is bipolar. (April 30, 2014)

Pistols are such a bore. (April 30, 2014)

No fish speaks Anglish. (April 29, 2014)

Go slow on fasting. (April 28, 2014)

Mieux vaut être luron que larron, même en foire. (April 27, 2014)

Hylas alas never came back
But not for him to say alack.
(With my apologies to Virgil) (April 25, 2014)

High-profile people should be careful when driving under an overpass. (April 22 2014)

In my experience, it’s easier to spell “casts” than to cast spells. (April 22, 2014)

Introverted of the world, stay alone! (April 22, 2014)

Vladimir Putin: easy to put in, difficult to put out. (April 21, 2014)

It’s good that anybody may call himself an economist. It’s good that quacks are normally easy to identify. (April 17, 2014)

Only if the earth is flat can Australians be raptured. (April 16, 2014)

It’s not because it’s written that it’s true. But this does not imply that it’s true because it’s not written. (April 15, 2014)

On se baigne jamais deux fois dans le même caniveau. (April 15, 2014)

Un caniveau n’est pas le produit d’un croisement chien-veau. (D’accord, d’accord, ce n’est pas très drôle, et vous n’avez pas à rire. Mais ouste! retourner étudier votre latin.) (April 15, 2014)

Imagine Janus phoning Apple Customer Support about her problems with FaceTime. (April 15, 2014)

L’État se dépense, et même davantage, pour nous. (April 15, 2014)

Truth and proofs are beautiful. (April 15, 2014)

An old car has under wear. (April 15, 2014)

I am two days late in my scheduled work, and about 40 years late in my intellectual production. (April 15, 2014)

Environmentalists oppose fracking for a very good reason: it is still another vindication of Julian Simon against Paul Ehrlich. (April 13, 2015)

The Welfare State’s safety net naturally morphs into a safety gross. (April 8, 2014)

Thoughtful persons are not trees. They are not always searching whom to root for. (April 7, 2014)

It’s always summer somewhere. Not my deepest reflection, I agree, but I need to decompress intellectually. (April 7, 2004)

Primo philosophare, deinde vivere. (April 7, 2014)

The fruits of the Tree of Knowledge are not always sweet, but the fruits of the non-tree are even worse. (April 5, 2014)

Now that journalists have instilled in the populace the idea that any signal is a ping, people will start pinging each other with no self-control whatsoever. (April 5, 2014)

Where is the safety net against tyranny? (April 5, 2014)

Next time you are in Switzerland and see a cow, make Emmental note. (April 5, 2014)

If you want to get ahead of yourself, try 3D printing, not the guillotine. (April 5, 2014)

Getting ahead of yourself is not a good way to contradict Zeno. (April 5, 2014)

While masturbation can make you deaf, unprotected sex will not necessarily make you mum. (April 5, 2014)

In planes, they are now asking, “Do you want a window or an alea?” (April 2, 2014)

Alea jacta est. But I am getting tired of these dice. (April 2, 2014)

Each man is a culture. (April 1, 2014)

Les canons n’ont pas une âme immortelle, mais presque. (March 31, 2014)

Extinction is a specious argument. (March 30, 2014)

Many people criticize the state for not achieving smart tyranny. (March 30, 2014)

Give me a black hole or give me death! (March 29, 2014)

Learning is in large part the product of criticizing oneself. (March 28, 2014)

I dream of a car that, instead of a stick shift, would have a paradigm shift. (March 27, 2014)

Save your thoughts for a brainy day. (March 27, 2014)

Zero tolerance for the state! (March 26, 2014)

Never mind the half full glass, I prefer the half empty bottle. (March 27, 2014)

I have been trying for many years to move behind a paywall. (March 26, 2014)

John Maynard Keynes, the perfect straw man, did make much intellectual damage, but is not responsible for global warming or the ebola virus. (March 26, 2014)

We are not restricted to choosing between Lenina and the Savage. (March 26, 2014)

If God had not created sexual pleasure, only the ascetic and the mortification-seeking would have procreated. Would this have had a good impact on the gene pool? (March 26, 2014)

Better to ping than to pong. (March 26, 2014)

Opponents to the 2nd Amendment prefer to keep and bear harm. (March 25, 2014)

Deflation does NOT mean an increasing standard of living, because wages fall too. (Moreover, debtors are harmed.) (March 25, 2014)

Breaking the government is a more realistic way to reduce rent-seeking than breaking the rent-seekers. (March 25, 2014)

Just as one sings a song, one must ping a pong. (March 25, 2014)

Instead of exchanging handshakes when they meet, people will now ping each other. (March 25, 2014)

Perhaps humor should be added to rational thought, poetry and music as a way to understand the universe. (March 25, 2014)

I killed Siri, and became a sirial killer. (March 25, 2014)

You can always get a bigger caliber, and the wheelbarrow to carry the gun. (March 25, 2014)

It is St. Augustine (even if apocryphally) who was the real inventor of fracking when he said, “Ama et frack quod vis.” (March 25, 2014)

An empire with a weak, non-Leviathan center, is, for most people, better than powerful local war lords. (March 25, 2014)

In the nation-state, the problem is not so much the nation as it is the state. (March 25, 2014)

The problem with (most of) the media is that they give people what they want: entertainment and confirmation of their biases. (March 25, 2014)

Many, perhaps most, errors in politics and the social sciences come from saying “we” and not having a clue about who that is. (March 24, 2014)

Exploited taxpayers review their tax data with a rotten-tooth comb. (March 24, 2014)

Adding “geo” to “political” does not make the state less political or less dangerous. (March 24, 2014)

If you refuse rational thought, you still have poetry and religion. But they also require some effort. Only entertainment requires little. (March 23, 2014)

Drugs: I never promised you a dose garden. (March 23, 2014)

Man is an animal who doesn’t drink water. (March 21, 2014)

It’s better to be in a holding pattern than in a holding cell. (March 20, 2014)

When you are in a holding pattern, take care not to drop yourself. (March 20, 2014)

En termes technologiques, vous êtes soit post-puce, soit prépuce. (March 19, 2014)

You are either against skin or foreskin. (March 19, 2014)

The end will come, of course. The question is when. (March 19, 2014)

The problem with “the world as it is” or “the real world” is to understand it. (March 18, 2014)

You live, you shoot a couple of boxes of ammo, and life is already over. (March 17, 2014)

With fiends like this, who needs enemas? (March 14, 2013)

An answer is only an answer if it does not reformulate the question with different words. (March 15, 2014)

A geek never stops working, even to have a byte. (March 14, 2013)

There are two kinds of nonsense: establishment nonsense and populist nonsense. They are locked in violent competition. (March 14, 2013)

Today’s gruesome and insensitive joke: Don’t get involved with gangrene: it’s a dead end. (March 13, 2014)

Economically and politically, Silicon Valley is a vale of ignorance. (March 13, 2014)

I find it offensive that you find it offensive. (March 12, 2014)

I may think that somebody has the right to think, or have faith in, something, & simultaneously that this idea is indefensible or stupid. (March 12, 2014)

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes” has nothing to do with diet – except for Leviathan’s diet. (March 12, 2014)

If picking one’s nose were made a felony, we could send much more criminals to jail. (March 11, 2014)

I am a standard deviant. (March 11, 2014)

I define “French intellectual” as somebody who thinks that because he writes it, it must be true. There are many, including in America. (March 11, 2014)

Writing is a life sentence. (March 10, 2014)

Giving to charity means accepting bids at negative prices. (March 10, 2014)

Selling something to the lowest bidder is not easy because a very large number of them will bid once the price has hit zero. (March 10, 2014)

My views are my own. (March 9, 2014)

Your false arguments won’t cancel your opponents’ lies, they will just destroy any credibility you had. (March 9, 2014)

Le silencieux est d’or. (March 7, 2014)

If there is such a thing as “ethical oil”, there must also be oily ethics. (March 7, 2014)

This is not my best one-liner. (March 6, 2014)

The three stages of learning and education: (1) ask questions; (2) learn answers; (3) ask questions. (March 6, 2014)

The problem with being old is that you have become evolutionary expendable. (March 6, 2014)

If you need an invalid argument to prove a truth, it is not a truth. (March 3, 2014)

Socratic dialogue can get you very far, even with only yourself if necessary. (March 1, 2014)

I am a criminal: I strained my uncle. (March 1, 2014)

Can you name one great moral principle that conspiring capitalists have subliminally written all over the place in Baboo English? Answer: Thou shall not kill your kin or, in Baboo English, “Done kin: do not.” (March 1, 2014)

Days are longer, nights are shorter, you can’t have everything. (February 27, 2014)

Une exoplanète doit être bien exoterrique. (February 26, 2014)

The layman protests, “I am not what you think”. (February 25, 2014)

The Amazons were suicide boobers. (February 23, 2014)

There are two ways to participate in conversation: bring good answers or ask good questions. (February 23, 2014)

If you are one-handed author, you have no choice but putting the last hand to your manuscript. (February 22, 2014)

Isn’t it obvious that a graphene condom would be better for writers? (February 21, 2014)

Except perhaps with poetry, you can’t put the whole universe in one sentence. (February 21, 2014)

Going ballistic is faster than going postal. (February 21, 2014)

Posting is better than going postal. (February 21, 2014)

When you don’t know something, it’s not easy to know what you don’t know. (February 21, 2014)

In the real world, everything is endogenous. (February 21, 2014)

The greatest danger of the 21st century is war and tyranny, not necessarily in that order. (February 20, 2014)

Typos are a scourge and should be forbidden by law. (February 20, 2014)

No need to tell children, but Snow White was hopeless at skiing. (February 19, 2014)

The two crucial inventions in the history of mankind were the wheel and the decocker. (February 19, 2014)

The ACLU can’t support the right to keep and bear arms perhaps because it doesn’t relate to something below the belt (where all ACLU’s concerns are focused). Perhaps they are just confused by the term “arms”. (February 19, 2014)

The Cold War was, at least in theory, about preserving (what was left of) freedom; the War on Terror is about who will crush it more. (February 18, 2014)

The danger of writing: IEDs of misunderstanding are hidden in each sentence. (February 18, 2014)

I am not the girl next door. (February 18, 2014)

If you have nothing to say, don’t say anything. (February 18, 2014)

If a salesman works hard to sell you an easy want to make a quick fortune, ask him why he is working so hard. (February 18, 2014)

The moon is made of blue cheese, not green cheese. (February 17, 2014)

Les hommes qui travaillent chez PETA sont, j’imagine, des pétas; les femmes, des pétasses. (February 16, 2014)

A shoemaker who denied the existence of the sole would not have much success in life. (February 15, 2014)

Un fat riche et bilingue aime nécessairement le suchi. Pourquoi? Parce que c’est du raw fish. (February 13, 2014)

As far as I know, sochi is raw fish. (February 13, 2014)

Man is an animal who discovers new sorts of pleasure. (February 13, 2014)

Demand for education means, “Tell me what I don’t know and perhaps don’t want to hear.” (February 12, 2014)

Différence entre un mal de dent et la colère au volant: le premier est une rage de dent; la seconde, une rage dehors. (February 11, 2014)

Bullish financiers don’t catch mad cow. (February 11, 2014)

Don’t be surprised if the Holy See commits the sin of voyeurism. (February 9, 2014)

The bull to her cow: “I never promised you a roast garden.” (February 9, 2014)

A radical should be able to extract a square root. (February 7, 2014)

When I see a British tire, I ask why? (February 6, 2014)

Amazon keeps abreast of retail bumps. (February 6, 2014)

With all this capitalist entrepreneurship and exploitation, people will soon have forgotten what the Amazons were. (February 6, 2014)

The guy who invents a gadget to prevent smoke/CO2 detectors from beeping to signal failure in the middle of the night (an integrated clock? a wifi connection to the network’s time?) will deserve a Nobel prize. (February 6, 2014)

Wishful thinking is what you do after the smoke detector starts, in the middle of the night, emitting periodical short beeps to signal failure. (February 6, 2014)

You are an economist if you can read (and understand) what economists write. (February 6, 2014)

What’s stressing about research and writing is that you are always second-guessing yourself. (February 5, 2014)

Writing a book is like snow blowing errors, one flake at a time. (February 5, 2014)

You did not crate that. http://teamster.org/content/port-division (February 4, 2014)

Note that the rock is Charybdis and the hard place, Scylla. (February 3, 2014)

The contrarian anticrastinates. (February 3, 2014)

It’s OK to procrastinate, up to a point. (February 3, 2014)

Bishops must be a compromise between heteroshops and homoshops. (February 2, 2014)

The difference between an aluminum smelter and February in Maine? Not much. In Maine, it’s melting. (February 2, 2014)

If only Boise, ID had a NFL team called the Famous Potatoes, this one would be worth rooting for. (February 1, 2014)

Polyphème avait acquis plusieurs femmes sans le dire à personne. (January 30, 2014)

I need a rapper to wrap a parcel. (January 30, 2014)

Times have changed. Islamists now attack America because it is a bacon of liberty. (January 30, 2014)

Between give and take, I prefer the latter. (January 29, 2014)

I suppose that sand witches must be consumed with sand wine. (January 29, 2014)

Once you discover that there is such a thing as truth, or at least such an adventure as the search for truth, it never leaves you. (January 29, 2014)

The SOTU speech is full of irremediable clichés because that’s what the median voter is by definition. (January 29, 2014)

“Mens rea” is not the men’s room in the court building. (January 29, 2014)

Why did the kitchen cross the road? Because he was a dyslectic. (January 28, 2014)

I am just an intellectual construction guy. (January 26, 2014)

Liberty is a loophole. (January 23, 2014)

Did Keynes really exist? The person presented as Keynes is so obscure compared to his interprets like Hansen (or Hicks or Bailey). (January 23, 2014)

The Zorcals were little monsters who, I told my young kids, stole socks that were not put away in their proper place. My sons of course knew that the story was just a fairy tale (lying to children is generally not a good idea). But now I wonder if Zorcals don’t actually wander in houses stealing earphones. (January 23, 2014)

I would hate to have been born in another tribe because it would then be my current one I would need to find inferior and hate. (January 23, 2014)

Tempora mutantur. We never step twice in the same river. To get action, it’s often easier to contact companies on Twitter. (January 22, 2014)

On dit que les sirènes aiment l’aqueux. Ulysse, en tout cas, semble l’avoir cru. (January 22, 2014)

A small problem, by definition, has a not very costly solution. (January 21, 2014)

Stakeholders can boost political correctness and kill vampires, but everything else they do usually creates positive and sustainable damage. (January 20, 2014)

Forget about the 72 virgins. Give me some wine and cheese. (January 20, 2014)

I need a good book on the history of infinity [from the beginning to the end, as it were]. (January 20, 2014)

Aux portes du paradis, je faisais la queue derrière un charbonnier tandis que saint Pierre, pour son déjeuner, dévorait un sandwich au pâté de foi grasse. (January 19, 2014)

S’étant dépassé, Zénon eut droit à un PV pour excès de vitesse. (January 19, 2014)

Of course, I can be wrong. It’s a constant potentiality. (January 18, 2014)

Try not to break a leg if you have bare-bones health insurance. (January 15, 2014)

Some people reject price indexes as meaningless, but embrace them when they want to argue that the currency has been debased. (January 14, 2014)

In Iowa and North Carolina, dishwashers must have a hogwash cycle. (January 14, 2014)

The number of Americans who drink their Camembert raw and untreated is staggering. (January 14, 2014)

Obama was tender meat for Leviathan. (January 13, 2014)

Adulation for, or respect of, The President is, in many ways, very similar in France and in the US. He is the King. (January 13, 2014)

New zealots don’t necessarily live in New Zealand. (January 12, 2014)

All excuses to attack individual liberty are good. After global warming, what? (January 12, 2014)

Cannibal principle: if you smoke a joint, make sure it’s not yours. (January 11, 2014)

After bodybuilding must come body deconstruction. (January 10, 2014)

We are all interested in “the real world”. But the question is, where is it? (January 10, 2014)

Show me an individual who decides on how many tomatoes he buys for his weekly groceries in order to influence the price of tomatoes. Then show me an individual who decides how to vote in order to change the election results. (January 9, 2014)

Don’t make love with a minuteman. (January 6, 2014)

The typical liberal and the typical conservative are blind to the general benefits of exchange. Each wants it only for the goods he likes. (January 5, 2014)

The inventor of the wheel did not spend any time behind it. (January 3, 2014)

“Étant pour le partage et la solidarité, je n’ai pas toute ma tête à moi.” (January 1, 2014)

From my upcoming book on jobs (at Palgrave-Macmillan): “Economically, an immigrant is the equivalent of a shovel-ready newborn.” (January 1, 2014)

Of what I know, I learned 40% decades ago, in high school, college, and graduate school; and 30% during the last five years. (January 1, 2014)

Les trois étapes de la vie: zizi, bobo, dodo. Et encore, c’est quand on est chanceux. Pour les autres, c’est zozo, bobo, dodo. (January 1, 2014)

“As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, ‘Take this and eat it, for this is my body.’ And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He read on the bottle: ‘According to the Surgeon General … consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems’.” – Matthew 26:26-27 (with some addendum from this FB author) (December 29, 2013)

Contrary to vampires, some Scots like Garlic. (December 29, 2013)

Wine: if it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me. (December 29, 2013)

Pastors have clean souls and go to heaven for the simple reason that they are, by definition, pasteurized. (December 29, 2013)

Hash functions are not only for pot smokers. (December 28, 2013)

The beauty of tribalism: “Shi’ite! I want my egg Sunni side up.” (December 28, 2013)

When laws are too complex, bureaucrats are the true rulers. (December 28, 2013)

In the beginning there was the Word, and then came Microsoft Word. (December 28, 2013)

I will return to the Catholic Church when they use Côtes de Provence rosé for the mass and communion wine. (December 27, 2013)

Avoid churches where, instead of eating the host, they eat the guest. (December 26, 2013)

I am multitaxiing. (December 26, 2013)

When you are out of your mind, take this opportunity to peek inside. (December 26, 2013)

An empirical way to measure one’s capacity for wishful thinking is to measure the proportion of one’s own typos that one does not catch. (December 26, 2013)

My version of the Zeno paradox: Every day that passes is a larger fraction of the number of remaining days of life. The last day of life (at least after noon) is an infinitely large fraction. Since an infinitely large fraction does not exist, there is no last day of life. (December 26, 2013)

A Turing machine is not a motor vehicle used for touring purposes. (December 26, 2013)

The problem, when you levitate, is landing. (December 26, 2013)

The old priests who taught us Latin and had problems justifying learning that (except for religious reasons, and except for the few of them who actually loved Virgil) have been vindicated as they could never imagine they would: you now can now listen to news in Latin on the Internet. They must have a Latin party in heaven. http://yle.fi/radio1/tiede/nuntii_latini/

N’en déplaise à Candide, tout n’est pas pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes. (December 24, 2013)

Squirrels who are haves are by definition have-nuts too. (December 23, 2013)

Looking at mankind, God must, most of the time, laugh His ass off. (December 23, 2013)

One question a day keeps the doctor away. Why? (December 23, 2013)

The problem with the golden calf is more the calf than the gold. (December 23, 2013)

I praise God and Mammon. One is nicer to me than the other. (December 23, 2013)

It is more useful to be a gun nut than a gun-not. The probability is close to zero that the gun nut will ever beg the gun-not to help him with his non-gun. But, of course, de gustibus non est disputandum. (December 22, 2013)

First rule: don’t get stuck in a dead end. Second rule: realize it when you are. (December 22, 2013)

Quant au Québec, Lord Durham avait raison. (December 21, 2013)

The slaves think it’s always fun to be free. For one thing, you always have to decide if you will carry a pistol, and which one to carry. (December 21, 2013)

La vie en société impose nécessairement des contraintes. La question est de savoir si ces contraintes résulteront de diktats étatiques ou de la liberté égale de tous les individus. (December 21, 2013)

The question, perhaps, is whether poetry and religion add to what we know from reason and mathematics. (December 21, 2013)

Limbo must be like a virtual McDonald’s where old zombies leisurely drink coffee and do small talk about how they died. (December 21, 2013)

When somebody talks nonsense about something I know, how can he expect me to believe him when he talks about something I don’t know? (December 20, 2013)

What is better after one’s death, the Styx or the carrot? (December 20, 2013)

I wanted to make a good impression, but had forgotten my printer. (December 20, 2013)

Détrompez-vous, le Père Noël n’est pas un fin Landais. (December 20, 2013)

You like your liberty? You can keep your liberty. Period. (December 19, 2013)

“Thanks for the heads up”, said Robespierre. (December 19, 2013)

Dead anglers don’t have deadlines. (December 19, 2013)

Death is the end of all deadlines. (December 19, 2013)

Death is presumably most annoying beforehand. (December 19, 2013)

People who don’t ask questions should not shout their answers too loud. (December 19, 2013)

The only way to escape the logic of total war is for people to refuse total identification with, and submission to, their own Leviathans. (December 19, 2013)

Caveat emptor doesn’t mean that the cave is empty, although Ali Baba’s will generally be. (December 18, 2013)

The Web is a dangerous place for the naïve or uneducated. (December 18, 2013)

If sovereign states don’t trust each other, why do their citizens trust them? (December 17, 2013)

Christians, no doubt, must carry cross draw. (December 17, 2013)

When you ask “what is wealth”, you are starting to be an economist. (December 17, 2013)

From my upcoming book: We work with models, that is, simplifications of reality, in order to better understand it. (December 17, 2013)

The general idea is to take small bites. (December 17, 2013)

Sailors abusing buoys should be put into sex offender registries. (December 16, 2013)

Le multiplicateur de Lagrange n’est pas un truc keynesien pour stimuler l’agriculture. (December 16, 2013)

Each time you buy something, you successfully bid against all the millionaires and billionaires in the world. (December 16, 2013)

Ordinary citizens have police protection. The rulers have security details. The difference is in the details. (December 16, 2013)

Just remove a little “r”, and the beautiful thing becomes a beast. (December 16, 2013)

Reviewing his patient’s medical record, the doctor saw that he had a history of life. (December 16, 2013)

A new cognitive bias: the idol cognitive bias consists in believing that everything your fans want to hear is true. Example: Paul Krugman. (December 14, 2013)

The fact that one is an ignoramus does not imply that everybody else is stupid. (December 14, 2013)

If somebody’s Skype is always open, it’s like it were always closed. (December 14, 2013)

What can be said in N words can be said in N-1 words, up to a point. The trick is finding the point. (December 14, 2013)

If they call a tax a fee, perhaps people could make a revolution and call it a kissing. (December 14, 2013)

When there is no logic in a written text, one-sentence paragraphs are OK. (December 14, 2013)

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodies” does not mean “Who will watch all the Americans in custody?” (December 12, 2013)

Boobs and booze are to Americans what private guns are to Europeans. (December 12, 2013)

Prime ministers became especially popular after Goldbach’s conjecture. (December 12, 2013)

For hologram you are and to hollow gram you will return. — Is The Universe A Hologram? Physicists Say It’s Possible http://huff.to/1fl43hj (December 12, 2013)

Question for business students: What’s the name of the company founded by two guys, a proctologist and a gambler? (December 12, 2013)

There is no shame in not understanding something, but there is some in not asking questions, and more in not knowing that there are questions to be asked. (December 11, 2013)

A persistent economic error is called a bubble; a persistent political error is called a war. (December 11, 2013)

All politicians lie in state. (December 11, 2013)

Government rats often smell a man. (December 10, 2013)

Doing things at the last minute usually means cutting corners, that is, doing less. [Not a very original remark, but so often pushed under the rug.] (December 10, 2013)

A woman in her kitchen is a counterian. (December 10, 2013)

Attached to every silver lining is a dark cloud. (December 9, 2013)

I asked him for the complete specs, and he gave me a plank. (December 9, 2013)

Don’t bug me, I see both the beam in my neighbor’s eye and the mote in mine. (December 9, 2013)

Most of the state’s business is money laundering by any other name. (December 6, 2013)

“Cheap money” is a misleading term. Although often frolicking together, money and credit are different animals. (December 6, 2013)

A reader of chick lit is a rant seeker. (December 6, 2013)

If there is such a thing as a social responsibility, buying bitcoins is part of it. (December 6, 2013)

One should not write books longer than what one has to say. (December 6, 2013)

I used to never take prisoners. Now, I love to take many. (December 4, 2013)

If my life ever gets meaningless, I’ll go and work in a fulfillment center. (December 4, 2013)

Perhaps the brother of Mother Jones was Mother Fucker? (December 4, 2013)

Nothing worse than a chipped razor blade. (I now understand Winston Smith.) (December 4, 2013)

There are many cages to shake. (December 3, 2013)

Comme dirait le Capitaine Haddock s’il revenait parmi nous, « Que le Grand Clic me croque! ». (Decembrer 3, 2013)

Paying bills, and not a single Dick. (December 3, 2013)

Au nom du Père et du Fisc et du Saint-Esprit. (December 3, 2013)

I never thought, when I was learning Latin in high school, that I would one day, decades later, converse in this language on Facebook. (December 1, 2013)

There are a thousand ways to say the same thing. But then, it is not exactly the same thing. (November 30, 2013)

I know people who have lived their whole lives without ever meeting a hash function. (I was like them until very recently.) (November 29, 2013)

God speaks Mathematics. (November 29, 2013)

If you don’t have a computer, you can’t have enough drive. (November 29, 2013)

Un tweeteur inconnu me demande — je vous le donne en mille: “Tu tweetes toujours en anglais, même pour commenter des news françaises?” (November 29, 2013)

Politicians and bureaucrats who could not scramble an egg play at scrambling fighter planes. (November 29, 2013)

The problem – and the opportunity – when you read something, is that it may make you change your mind. (November 28, 2013)

I have enough work, and can imagine enough fun, for the rest of eternity. (November 28, 2013)

If you are doing a paradigm shift, you want a manual transmission. (November 27, 2013)

Hell must be a place where you clean somebody else’s pistol for eternity. (November 27, 2013)

Not everything can go wrong (or, at least, the probability is low). (November 27, 2013)

Instead of losing my time trying to visit the Statue of Security in NYC, I should have gone and bought some bagels. (November 26, 2013)

I want a nest egg with bacon. (November 26, 2013)

By “Austrian economics”, many people mean “easy-to-understand economics”. (November 26, 2013)

The only way to learn is to ask questions, and asking questions shows that one is learning. (November 26, 2013)

Leviathan needs an exit strategy. (November 21, 2013)

If you like your gun, you can keep it. Period. (November 21, 2013)

The Fed is bubble gun. (November 20, 2013)

Remuneration has been a bubble ever since the Industrial Revolution. (November 20, 2013)

A good breakfast gives one a good reason to get up — despite Psalm 126: Vanum est vobis ante lucem surgere. (November 19, 2013)

“I am very tense,” said the verb. (November 19, 2013)

I used to work on the night shift but I am now on the paradigm shift. (November 18, 2013)

There is one thing worse than the pretense of knowledge: it’s the pretense of ignorance. (November 18, 2013)

Public virtues are private vices. (November 18, 2013)

“Aridum tene pulvem” is what you want to say, instead of “keep your powder dry,” in an intellectual meeting. (November 17, 2013)

Crude form of natural law: Man has headaches; therefore man ought to have headaches. (November 17, 2013)

How do beggars beg in eternal life? They ask, “Can you spare a time?” (November 17, 2013)

Ce n’est pas tout d’instruire les analphabètets, il faut aussi s’occuper des abêtabètes. (November 17, 2013)

Medicine is like economics: a useful tool for thinking, but full of controversies and often questionable in dealing with particular cases. (November 14, 2013)

The layman thinks that white cars attract black dust and black cars, white dust.
The neoclassical economist assumes that white cars attract white dusts and black cars, black dust — everything is optimal.
The Marxian economist knows that there is no car.
The Austrian economist repeats that there is no dust. (November 11, 2013)

Existential question: how do you determine if a hanged man is well hung? (November 11, 2013)

Mes pincettes sont très usées. (November 7, 2013)

On n’arrête pas la réglementation et le progrès social: une entreprise a été accusée de blanchiment de sépulcres. (Inspiration: Germain Belzile) (November 6, 2013)

Great social and law-enforcement progress: a dry cleaning business charged with clothes laundering. (November 6, 2013)

Grande avancée de l’État: un prêtre a été accusé de blanchiment d’âmes. (November 6, 2013)

We don’t always have to reinvent the wheel, and start learning from zero. (November 6, 2013)

Perhaps Bitcoin is a tulip, but it’s a beautiful and promising one. (November 4, 2013)

Except for ordinary citizens, most people in America are “officers.” (November 3, 2013)

It’s easy to lie with statistics, and easier to lie without them. (November 3, 2013)

If you believe you can count on the state, I have a website to sell you: https://www.healthcare.gov/ (November 1, 20013)

Mediterranean cuisine is made of low-hanging fruits and vegetables. (October 31, 2013)

Once you reconcile yourself to imperfection, everything becomes perfect. (October 31, 2013)

There is no panacea. (October 30, 2013)

The worst is not the US government spying on friendly foreign rulers, but spying on its own citizens. (October 24, 2013)

Immigration is a somewhat overrated issue, for (real) free trade in goods and services would accomplish much of what free immigration would. (October 23, 2013)

Since I left Maine, I have put only Kleenexes in my revolver pocket. (October 12, 2013)

Don’t be insensitive: please respect my gun-free zone. (October 12, 2013)

“Give me a brake”! says the old clunker. (October 12, 2013)

Do like me: never go to the Fryeburg Fair (even if that was your second dream in life after Disneyland)! Besides schools, courts, the feds’ buildings, and Mount Katahdin, it’s the ONLY gun-free zone I have seen in Maine. (October 6, 2013)

There was a time in what was the free world when, leaving for a trip, you could, as exemplified by Indiana Jones or Tintin, throw your revolver in your suitcase or put your Browning in your back pocket or purse. Alas… (October 6, 2013)

Leaving for Baltimore, NYC, and California. Since I will be disarmed by decision of the local tyrants, please note that I am hereby creating a 30-yard gun-free zone around me. (October 6, 2013)

Going to walk on the beach. Perhaps we’ll meet a shark and I can show that I have become a sharkshooter. (October 5, 2013)

Don’t look threatening towards those who protect you because they may kill you. (October 5, 2013)

It’s not because it’s written somewhere that it is true. (October 5, 2013)

If we have to say “herstory” instead of history, and “ovular” instead of seminar, why not replace evil by “shevil”? (I know, you need a French accent for the pun to work perfectly. But nothing is perfect.) (October 4, 2013)

A life without Google is not worth living. But then, I thought the same about Veronica two decades ago. We never step twice in the same river. (October 4, 2013).

If you have been productive, you get a zambonus; if you have very productive, two Zamboni. (October 4, 2013)

How many powerful praetorians does it take to arrest a disturbed or scared woman? An infinity. That’s why they must shoot her first. (October 4, 2013)

Liberty is a big loophole. (October 4, 2013)

If you lower the bar, customers will have more chances of falling in. (October 3, 2013)

I am furloughing myself to go hunting in Downeast Maine on October 18 and 19. (October 3, 2013)

The two most frustrating things in life: (1) conversing with somebody who is sure to have the right answers to everything; (2) cleaning one’s revolver. (October 1, 2013)

A model that does not predict the past correctly cannot be expected to get the future right.–Climate of Uncertainty http://on.wsj.com/15FwntH (October 1, 2013)

Dogs don’t need to know classical Greek to find the alpha male. (September 28, 2013)

For dry cleaners, no press is certainly bad press. (September 27, 2013)

Désolé de vous l’apprendre, mais Héraclite n’est pas l’inventeur de l’haltérophilie. Mère Teresa non plus. (September 26, 2013)

We never step twice in the same river, especially if it is cold. (September 26, 2013)

It’s not enough to question your beliefs. You must also ask questions within the questions. (September 25, 2013)

Don’t wait until the problem gets out of leg. (September 25, 2013)

Madmen very seldom try to commit mass murders in police stations or gun clubs. Why? (September 22, 2013)

Some people find themselves between a rock and a roll place. (September 21, 2013)

A Whig necessarily needs more wiggle room. (September 19, 2013)

Going naval is just the continuation of going postal. (September 17, 2013)

I am sure Aaron Alexis is not the only madman to have a security clearance. (September 17, 2013)

Bad intellectual-redneck pun: It’s more fun to shoot a few rounds than a few squares. (September 17, 2013)

I stepped in a different river. (September 15, 2013)

People think it’s always fun to be a free man, to always make decisions… Agonizing decisions. Now, which pistol am I going to carry to Bradbury Park today? (September 15, 2013)

Only a non-necessary evil is an evil. A necessary evil is a good. (September 13, 2013)

The rallying cry of Moslem lawyers: “Allah at bar!” (September 13, 2013)

There is no definitive answer. If you find one, it is most probably false. (September 13, 2013)

An “inspection” is nothing but a warrantless search. (September 12, 2013)

Each individual is a minority, often invisible. (September 12, 2013)

Writing with one-sentence paragraphs is like speaking with the same pause between sentences, no facial expression, and no gesture. (September 11, 2013)

I am making hay after the sun has set. (September 11, 2013)

To wish that violence will go away does not work. (September 11, 2013)

If you cut corners, you risk running in circles. (September 10, 2013)

The number of people eager to sell me things that I want is astounding. (September 6, 2013)

I would not mind moving up a bit in the food chain. (September 3, 2013)

Limbo is not always a bad place to be. (September 3, 2012)

Man is an animal who makes analogies. (September 3, 2013)

Don’t mess with a bi polar bear. He may just be bipolar. (September 1, 2013)

I am sure environmentalists prefer chemical lube to petroleum jelly. (September 1, 2013)

I am getting tired of people who have questions for their answers, instead of answers to their questions. (August 30, 2013)

To be ahead of one’s time is dangerous for it means early death. / Être en avance sur son temps est dangereux car alors on meurt jeune. (August 30, 2013)

“The [expletive] [expletive] told me, ‘[expletive] [expletive]’.” Any grammatical mistake in this sentence? (August 29, 2013) [The fucking son of a bitch told me ‘Fuck off, motherfucker’.”]

Tyranny is a matter of degree. Small tyrants are despicable, big tyrants very despicable. (August 29, 2013)

If the cost of tyranny is made higher for tyrants, there will be fewer of them. (August 29, 2013)

It is not because you can’t do everything that you can’t do something. (August 29, 2013)

“His argument really struck a chord”, the foetus thought. (August 29, 2013)

The difference between the CIA and the NSA seems to be that the former spies on foreigners and the latter, on Americans. (August 25, 2013)

The only hope for the US is to become a beacon of liberty again. It would be a long and difficult task. (August 20, 2013)

It is a very strange belief that extraordinary powers granted to the state and its agents will not be abused. (August 20, 2013)

There is no way a Leviathan can be an open government. You cannot have both at the same time. (August 16, 2013)

I too have decided that I will, from now on, issue forward guidance. (August 16, 2013)

Few people can beat the market, and those who can can’t explain how they do it. They are called entrepreneurs. (August 15, 2013)

It is more difficult to lie within a tight theoretical structure than from a sloppy set of intuitions. (August 15, 2013)

Economic growth is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for Pareto improvement. (August 14, 2013)

Instead of taking the fifth, politicians and bureaucrats should take the filth. (August 14, 2013)

The government should prosecute everybody, and then, in its loving wisdom, grant temporary exemptions to the most obedient courtiers. (August 13, 2013)

Some people believe that they are living in a free society, that some things they do that do not harm others do not harm others. (August 12, 2013)

The Moral State not only prosecutes you for mistakes, but it wants you to feel guity and confess before the large masses. (August 8, 2013)

It’s not always easy to carry the geek man’s burden. (August 8, 2013)

You never drown twice in the same river. (August 7, 2013)

A whistleblower is somebody who reveals something that will help the government. (August 7, 2013)

If you didn’t lift your little finger against it, don’t come and criticize evolution now. (August 7, 2013)

Conspiracies can explain everything. Take the price of hula hoops, for example. (August 7, 2013)

America: from beacon of liberty to leader in surveillance. (August 6, 2013)

It’s high time to humble the rulers, who are just politicians and bureaucrats, and put them in their place. (August 6, 2013)

I suspect that a conversation using only emoticons would be pretty empty. I already feel inadequate after using just one. (August 2, 2013)

Nothing is perfect, and choosing between two evils (or three when we are lucky) is part of the human condition. But, as Camus noted, Sisyphus may enjoy life when he is climbing down the mountain to pick up his boulder. (August 1, 2013)

The problem with predicting the future is that it is full of surprises, which by definition are impossible to predict. (August 1, 2013)

FISA “judges” are not really judges but ordinary bureaucrats in the structure of power. (July 31, 2013)

A “secret court” is not a court but an ordinary government bureau. (July 31, 2013)

Louis XIV could also claim that he was keeping his subjects safe. (July 31, 2013)

The worst “systemic risk”: the Surveillance State. July 31, 2013)

“Hey, what’s down?” asks the pessimist as a greeting. (July 31, 2013)

There is room between mandatory and forbidden: it is called liberty. (July 31, 2013)

It is strange how many people forget that there is a buyer for every seller, and vice-versa. (July 30, 2013)

An educator is different from a courtier or a parrot in that he is trying to persuade you of something you don’t believe is true. (July 30, 2013)

Since one cannot hate 24 hours a day, one must choose against whom to target his specialized hatred. (July 28, 2013)

Words cannot adequately describe how I don’t feel. (July 27, 2013)

If God wanted men to wear clothes, why did He make it so difficult for a belt to hold pants on a belly? (July 26, 2013)

My pun of the week: He loved women up to his last breast. (July 25, 2013)

In order to promote optimism, we should always emphasize the breath before last instead of the last one. (July 25, 2013)

Unlike everybody else, I hate contrarians. (July 25, 2013)

If nobody is interested in what you write, it is either because they don’t understand or because alas they do. (July 24, 2013)

I am looking at Bernard J. Turnock’s massive textbook, “Public Health: What It Is and How It Works.” Public health is a massive fraud. (July 24, 2013)

The future monarch of England will be male, as all kings of the United States, including the current one, have been. (July 22, 2013)

No discrimination in America: small and big criminals are treated equally harshly (with the exception of politicians and bureaucrats). (July 22, 2013)

Even intelligent dyslexics are hit by dim-age crises. (July 22, 2013)

It’s remarkable on Facebook how many serious people just like liars want us to take their word, and somebody else’s word, that quotes without citations are authentic. (July 21, 2013)

We should look closer into the politicians’ liberty-evasion and liberty-avoidance strategies. (July 19, 2013)

Should corporations hold hearings where politicos would be obliged to testify under oath about what they have done to get out of their way? (July 19, 2013)

Are you phobophobic or phobophobophobic? (July 16, 2013)

If God really loved man (and assuming he reviewed all the details of the creation), he would have created the cherries without the pits. (July 15, 2013)

Deux incendies semblables sont de la même eau. (July 14, 2013)

Perhaps Microsoft should change its name for Micronsaft. (July 12, 2013)

“Le Fonds de solidarité numérique : Une contribution à une société de l’information solidaire et inclusive.” Si le ridicule tuait, les socialos auraient déjà fortement contribué à la réduction de bilan carbone de l’humanité. http://tiny.cc/rzl4zw (July 12, 2013)

However endearing she is, your GPS is just a computer. (July 12, 2013)

What’s worrisome and anti-American is not what Snowden did but what all other bureaucrats did not do. (July 12, 2013)

La bureaucratie internationale est rigolote : une des agences de l’ONU s’appelle le FIDA (Fonds international de développement agricole). (July 12, 2013)

He who bucks the trend tucks the brand. (July 12, 2013)

La bureaucratie internationale est souvent rigolote : une des agences de l’ONU s’appelle le FIDA (Fonds international du développement agricole). (July 12, 2013)

If you do name-dropping, don’t forget to pick up what you left behind. (July 11, 2013)

Menthol tyranny is much, much more dangerous than menthol cigarettes. (July 10, 2013)

« Je vous souhaite, dit le philosophe, le paradigme à la fin de vos jours. » (July 10, 2013)

Ama et post quod vis. (July 10, 2013)

A judge who does not listen to the other party (“Audi alteram partem”) is nothing but an ordinary bureaucrat at Leviathan’s service. (July 8, 2013)

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court: Non audi alteram partem. (July 8, 2013)

Laws that once appeared not too dangerous become extremely liberticidal once the state’s power to enforce them savagely has increased. (July 7, 2013)

The tight grip of states on international travel illustrated by the Snowden case shows what government surveillance and ID papers lead to. (July 7, 2013)

The earth is round so that everybody’s birthday last two days. (Perhaps it should be called a “birth2day”.) (July 4, 2013)

“… it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new secret courts and secret orders for their future security.” (July 4, 2013)

“to secure these rights, secret courts and secret orders are instituted among Men.” (July 4, 2013)

“we have conjured them … to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.” (July 4, 2013)

As the Founders would have said, “if you want more checks and balances, add a secret court issuing secret orders”. (July 4, 2013)

It was called the American Revolution, not the American Smurfolution. (July 4, 2013)

Santa Clause is the mother of all grammars. (July 3, 2013)

The fact that people have different conceptions of the public interest implies that it can only be defined as an equal liberty to pursue private interests. (July 1, 2013)

That Leviathans spy on each other is not bad: it keeps them less dishonest. That they spy on their own citizens is liberticidal and despicable. (July 1, 2013)

Why are whistleblowers allowed, nay encouraged, by the US government to break their contracts in private companies but not in government? (June 25, 2013)

If your life feels empty, apply for a job at Amazon Fulfillment Services. (June 25, 2013)

Lot’s wife looked back and she became a pillar of the community (Genesis 9:23). (June 25, 2013)

Pardon this one, in the category “so stupid it is nearly funny”. (Just invented it under the shower.) What do Japanese fishermen (with a philosophical bend) tell every fish they catch? “Sushi seoton.” (June 25, 2013)

As the Founders said, we need to strike the right balance between liberty and tyranny. (June 25, 2013)

Have you noticed how the state is often a coward? For example, it attacks Edward Snowden but does not dare going after the Washington Post and the Guardian. (June 23, 2013)

Mathematics is a language like English, French or Latin. The words are different, the rules of grammar and syntax are more formalized, and the rhetorical (and perhaps poetic) content is zero. (June 23, 2013)

God may speak Latin but he certainly speaks mathematics. (June 23, 2013)

Gosh! I’ll have to clean my little pistol before I carry it in polite society. (June 23, 2013)

So many things happened when I was not yet alive or not attentive. (June 23, 2013)

Mathematics is like poetry, except that it proves things. (June 23, 2013)

L’anarchiste aime le pouvoir de l’anar; le minarchiste, le pouvoir du minet. (June 23, 2013)

Surveillance: it’s an interesting idea that in order to make something lawful you just have to create a secret court & issue secret orders. (June 23, 2013)

Complexity of language: sometimes, “certainly” is used to leave room for a doubt. For example, “because the OECD report was certainly written by a committee…” connotes a lower degree of certainty than “because the OECD report was written by a committee”. (June 21, 2013)

The worst insult ever, combined with the most blasphemous slur of all times, is so vulgar that I hesitate to write it down, so please pardon me: “motherearthfucker”. (June 20, 2013)

You never drown twice in the same river. (June 20, 2013)

If you know your way around the Windows registry, you can go anywhere in life. (June 17, 2013)

There is one sure way not to get ill: suicide. (June 17, 2013)

The Golden Gate Bridge should be rechristened Surveillance Gate Bridge. (June 15, 2013)

If you believe in the theory that the earth is flat, every plain becomes a confirming fact. (June 15, 2013)

There is such a thing as the confirmation bias. I see it all the time among my political enemies and alas! among my political friends. (June 15, 2015)

The DOJ loves our liberties and the unicorn’s horn is pink. (June 15, 2015)

You can sleep peacefully, the state is overseeing itself. (June 15, 2015)

It is still better to live in America than in China. The gap, however, has been narrowing over the past few decades. (June 15, 2013)

Paraphrasing Obama: You did not build the Surveillance State alone, we did. (June 15, 2013)

Sorry, it’s classified. (June 15, 2013)

The state must always be suspect, not citizens. “The authorities” now want us to believe the contrary. (June 15, 2013)

The principle of a free society was that, if you are suspected of no specific crime, the state leaves you alone. Full stop. (June 15, 2013)

Homosexuals are unfairly favored in TSA and police searches. But looking TSA bureaucrats, I am not so sure. (June 13, 2013)

Secret Service, secret surveillance, secret court (FISA does not even have a website), secret orders, secret justice: a long train of abuse. (June 13, 2013)

The NSA, TSA, CBP, and IRS are doubleplusgood. (June 13, 2013)

Obama should get a second Nobel Prize for saving peace a second time, with generalized surveillance. (June 13, 2013)

The two things in a geek’s life: apple pie and motherboard. (June 12, 2013).

J’ai perdu le do de ma clarinette / J’ai perdu aussi mon curseur avec (June 12, 2013)

It is not because you are right on something that you can meaningfully align any sequence of words on anything. (June 12, 2013)

Who can swear that the Peeping Tom Government has never used intelligence data for political purposes? (June 11, 2013)

As far as I can see, Edward Snowden is the best that America ever had, and still has, to offer. (June 10, 2013)

Obama has been eaten alive by Leviathan. He was an easy prey. (June 9, 2013)

I need a sharpener for my Occam razor. (June 9, 2013)

Why only schools? The whole government should be transformed into a gun-free zone, including a 100-foot radius around politicos and cops. (June 7, 2013)

Why doesn’t every American log a rough plan of his day every morning on a government website? Little inconvenience for great (Leviathan) benefits. (June 7, 2013)

It’s the job of government agents to get off their royal ass and track real criminals without infringing on the 4th Amendment. (June 7, 2013)

The rule of law is not merely the law of rules. (June 7, 2013)

There are good reasons (including free discussion) to believe that the earth is not flat, so don’t spend too much time on flat-earth theories. (June 7, 2013)

Checks and balances: government get the checks, we get the balances. (June 7, 2013)

Leviathan is out of control. (June 7, 2013)

“It’s not the Soviet Union here.” (June 7, 2013)

If people think they have nothing to hide, they soon will have a lot to hide as Leviathan will expand into new controls and new crimes. (June 7, 2013)

What’s good about an extended, bureaucratic, monstrous Leviathan is that he cannot screw a light bulb. (June 6, 2013)

Would you please, My Lord, stop spying on me? (June 6, 2013)

Why is it illegal to catch a signal that hits you? People can encrypt their signals to keep them private. (June 5, 2013)

Few people realize the deep significance of the fact that, over the past few decades, America stopped being the beacon of liberty it had been. (June 4, 2013)

Sometimes, on Linkedin, people recommend me for things like “report writing” and perhaps dish washing. (June 4, 2013)

The problem is that most people, if they understood the term “statist”, would take it as a compliment. (June 3, 2013)

You start being one Windows version late, and then two, and three… And then you die. (But skipping Windows 8 is probably worth it.)) (June 1, 2013)

Quand le torchon brûle, ce n’est pas le temps de laver son linge sale en famille. (June 1, 2013)

Liberty is messy, and is nice and efficient that way. (June 1, 2013)

Vaut mieux être envoyé en punition dans le bitcoin que dans le coin. (May 31, 2013)

Strange that there exist “public” places for veiled women only, and no “public” place for smokers only. The way to change is obvious. (May 31, 2013)

Manipulation of reality is part of reality. (May 31, 2013)

Is natural law worth more than the DNA it is written on? (May 28, 2013)

Instead of setting the wheels in motion, the government is better at wetting the SEALs in motion. (May 28, 2013)

My Erdös number is infinity. (Who can do better?) (May 28, 2013)

The most useful political principle is the presumption of liberty: in case of doubt, don’t ban and don’t regulate. (May 28, 2013)

If you like raw milk, drink it. If you don’t like it, don’t drink it. Simple. (May 27, 2013)

A monumental discovery of statistics was the paradoxical fact that in order to rationally calculate the error made in estimating a population parameter from a sample, the sample had to be drawn randomly. (May 27, 2013)

If there is a Surgeon General, shouldn’t there be a Surgical Patient General? (May 27, 2013)

An idea that is too difficult to defend may not be defensible. (May 27, 2013)

On a topic on which one knows something, a single sentence can be blown out into an article or a book. (May 25, 2013)

The first guy behind the wheel was the one who invented it—assuming he tried it on a slope. (May 24, 2013)

What would we not hear today if Hitler had called his movement “national capitalism”? (May 24, 2013)

Soldiers are just bureaucrats in uniforms. (May 24, 2013)

Population aging: the roaring nineteen fifties have become the snoring two thousand and tens. (May 23, 2013)

Easy prediction: the next financial crisis in any euro country will be accompanied by massive capital flight. (May 23, 2013)

Not understanding something is really annoying, but is not a sufficient reason to discard it. (May 23, 2013)

If a state agent with a badge asked people for their nasal print, most of them would obediently bow to sink their nose on the ink sheet and print it. (May 23, 2013)

Heureusement, l’ordinateur personnel a, sauf dans les grosses saisons, fortement asséché le « marais intérieur d’ennui » dont parlait Gustave Flaubert. (May 23, 2013)

The ACLU thinks 75% of all problems are below the waist, but they tend to be right on the other 25%. (May 22, 2013)

It’s not very difficult to be a statist: you just imagine that the state will be exactly as YOU want it. (May 21, 2013)

More choice is better than less choice because you can always move from the first to the second, but not necessarily from the second to the first. (May 20, 2013)

If sunk costs are sunk, sunk utility is sunk too. But it is not because you won’t worry about it in the future that you do not worry about it now. (May 20, 2013)

When the Department of Homeland Security attacks bitcoin, you start to understand what “homeland security” means. (May 19, 2013)

Cro-Magnons are known for their crolateral damage. (May 18, 2013)

The Cro-Magnon’s name comes from his only tool: the crowbar. (May 18, 2013)

The Presocratics did not leave their fragments on Twitter. (May 18, 2013)

When I say “literally”, I literally mean it. (May 18, 2013)

Soyez optimiste : le fruit est dans le ver. (May 18, 2013)

Solidaire, d’accord, mais avec qui ? (May 18, 2013)

Compliance should mean that the state complies with the citizens’ rights. (May 17, 2013)

Following the model of compulsory automobile insurance, statists should be forced to buy tyranny insurance (perhaps called “slippery-slope insurance”) so as to compensate non-statists if the risk of tyranny materializes. (May 16, 2013)

Men suffer from much inequality: there are haves and have-nuts. (May 15, 2013)

All in all, the risk of dying is pretty high. (May 14, 2013)

People who want to keep their own money are of course greedy, while those who want to take it from them are disinterested. (May 14, 2013)

Politics is dirty but life is not very clean either. (May 13, 2013)

La politique est sale, mais la vie n’est pas très nette non plus. (May 13, 2013)

If mind does not go to things, at least let things come to mind. (May 13, 2013)

Lots of things are learnable in finite time. For the rest, we have to wait a bit. (May 13, 2013)

Starting a witch-hunt is not difficult, provided you are part of the majority. (May 11, 2013)

No doubt that Islamist theocracy would produce an explosive population path. (May 10, 2013)

Only two solutions: learn topology or get a good sword. (May 10, 2013)

Faut pas être calé en topologie pour aimer les patates pliées. (May 10, 2013)

“Allahu Akbar” a été mal traduit. La traduction correcte se révèle être “Aloha, gland!” (May 8, 2013)

Despite its name, a spreadsheet is not what you write a porn message on. (May 8, 2013)

Research is like a spreadsheet: if you get a FALSE, review everything. (May 8, 2013)

Avec un pied dans la tombe, on a forcément des fourmis dans les jambes. (May 7, 2013)

La propagande socialiste et la publicité capitaliste vues par un anticapitaliste primaire : l’être et le néon. (May 6, 2013)

Si j’avais su que je serais jamais à l’article de la mort, j’aurais mieux étudié ma grammaire. (May 5, 2013)

Had I known that I would ever be in the article of death, I would have studied my grammar more seriously. (May 4, 2013)

The statist’s ideal: pay for pizza delivery with a background check. (May 5, 2013)

I found out there are four social classes: those who shoot on their private land; those who shoot on public land like national forests; those who shoot under power lines or in dumps; and those who don’t shoot at all. (May 4, 2013)

How do you call somebody who always postpones procrastination to tomorrow? (May 3, 2013)

For people who work the night shift, they have invented the evening-after pill. (May 2, 2013)

Collectivism: there is no such thing as a free bunch. (May 2, 2013)

In Cuba and elsewhere, it’s better to be an infidel than a fidel. (May 1, 2013)

« Il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux » ? Mais non, il n’est pas con, Sisyphe : à moins que son petit jeu ne l’amuse, il n’est pas heureux du tout. (May 1, 2013)

Not seeing one’s own typos (while being proficient at catching other people’s typos) is a clinical sign of the mental disease called wishful thinking. (April 28, 2013)

Given my fishing performance yesterday, I might as well have gone phishing. (April 28, 2013)

On a more optimistic note, everybody is, at best, a future has-been. (April 25, 2013)

To be a former has-been is no good if you are nothing now. (April 25, 2013)

He who bites the bullet will get a throat injury. (April 24, 2013)

Il y a certainement des musulmanes qui sont de vraies bombes. (April 23, 2013)

Sous toute burka, il y a un bikini qui s’ignore. (April 23, 2013)

The difference between a young geek and an old Luddite: the young geek has an app, the old Luddite has a nap. (April 20, 2013)

The real truth is that militarized police are, in the best case, just bureaucrats with assault rifles, sort of powerfully armed postmen. (April 19, 2013)

If this state of martial law and show-off by militarized police are needed to catch ONE madman, what would be needed to stop an army? (April 19, 2013)

Without the deployment of nuclear weapons, a state of emergency in a banana republic is not complete. And they are after ONE madman. (April 19, 2013)

ONE madman is loose and the militarized police of the banana republic imposes the equivalent of a state of emergency. And most people seem to find that normal. What would they do if it were a foreign invasion, or a full-fledged rebellion? Force everybody to stay in his bedroom? (April 19, 2013)

Ma dernière leçon de français: au Québec, il y a deux sortes de gaz, le gaz naturel et le gaz surnaturel. (April 18, 2013)

Chapter 1 of John Hicks’s Value and Capital (1939, 1946) should be compulsory reading for all economists. (April 17, 2013)

Don’t disturb me. I am unitasking. (April 16, 2013)

A book can be written in a literally infinite number of ways, so choosing which way to write it can’t be strictly or narrowly rational. (April 16, 2013)

If morality means anything, there is a big difference between killing civilians unintentionally and intentionally targeting them. (April 16, 2013)

Little piece of advice: don’t drop finger food in your digital wallet. (April 15, 2013)

Digital wallets are worth more than the paper they are written on. (April 14, 2013)

Philosophical fragment of the day: What is man without toner? Nothing but a splash of fleeting electrons on a flicking screen. (April 12, 2013)

“Pari passu” does not mean “passing by Paris”. (April 12, 2013)

Today’s idea-under-the-shower: A frontier is an advance on a baksheesh payable in three parts. (April 12, 2013)

The polite intellectual begs to differ while the tired homeless defers to beg. (April 10, 2013)

Les seuls mots sans danger dans la bouche d’un politicien: « Passe-moi le sel. » (April 9, 2013)

I am cooperating fully. (April 8, 2013)

A is A, of course. But it is often useful to know what elements belong to the A set, and how different they are. (March 28, 2013)

Saying that all individuals must be equal in X means little until you have defined X. (March 28, 2012)

Great day for the Earth: Cuban government launches first solar-powered missile. (March 27, 2013)

Today, Leviathan has much more power and capacity to enforce capital controls, including against small people. (March 26, 2013)

The difference between the typical Frenchman and the typical Englishman is that the former is full of hot air while the latter is full of hot water. (March 25, 2013)

Wind turbines move a lot of hot air. (March 25, 2013)

Is love of amulets an evolutionary-evolved feature of homo faber? At any rate, a pistol is a useful amulet. (March 25, 2013)

Contrary to people, pigeons don’t do name dropping. (March 25, 2013)

There is a difference between a bank failing by itself and people losing money, and the government actually stealing the money. (March 24, 2013)

It is 240 years this month that Patrick Henry, with Thomas Jefferson and Richard Henry Lee, let the Virginal House of Burgesses to create a committee of correspondence that contributed to the formation of the First Continental Congress. Give me Amity or give me Beth! (March 21, 2013)

There can be a moratorium on moratoriums, but it can’t be retroactive. (March 21, 2013)

Irai-je fumer des cigares avec mes fils ou garer des fumistes avec mes fées? (Je sais, je sais, il manque un “t”…) (March 21, 2013)

To be pessimistic is easy. To be optimistic is easy. What requires analysis is to be in-between. (March 20, 2013)

C’est embêtant : avant, on pouvait régler toute discussion en lançant un ou deux « social » ; maintenant, il faut ajouter quelques « citoyen ». (March 18, 2013)

You are a twenty-something, a thirty-something, a fourty-something, and so on – not much to query about. The big jump is when you are a 100-something. (March 17, 2013)

Red currant jam is much better than pistol jam. (March 17, 2013)

A good economics teacher is one who, when a student says “price”, immediately adds “relative price”. (March 15, 2013)

“The very purpose of falsely assigning a quote to a credible source is to trick you into lending credence to the statement.” (March 15, 2013)

“What works” is not a sufficient criterion. You have to find out for what purpose and with which consequences it works. (March 13, 2013)

Judging from its very name, Canon law must be favorable to RKBA. (March 13, 2013)

Nothing is better than a cassock for concealed carry; drawing, however, is a bit slow. (March 13, 2013)

You must assume that a quote without a precise and credible source is false and is thus an insult to your intelligence. (March 13, 2013)

A gigolo must have a good pay package. (March 13, 2013)

A modern fairy tale: she hoped UPS would deliver a package. (March 13, 2013)

We might regret the European Union after it has crumbled. (March 12, 2013)

If I had stuck to my childhood plan to be a priest, I would now be in the conclave speaking Latin and electing a new pope – or, of course, being elected. (March 12, 2013).

Powder to the people! (March 12, 2013)

The war on drugs is a war on people more than a war on plants. (March 12, 2013)

If winners of Nobel Peace Prize were rated in terms of drones instead of stars, Obama would be a five-drone winner. (March 11, 2013)

Many Europeans and Canadians are against cash-and-carry, because they believe people will start shooting at each other for the money. (March 11, 2013)

Naïve people are proud: they think the praetorians are their bodyguards. (March 10, 2013)

There IS a problem with assault rifles: they are not very efficient at shooting down drones. (March 10, 2013)

You never step twice in the same river but you will always come back to Beethoven. (March 8, 2012)

Those who don’t know Charybdis and Scylla will find themselves between a rock and a hard place. (March 7, 2013)

Cooking: a non-stick carrot would be an oxymoron. (March 7, 2013)

Tyranny is fast advancing, and what do the rulers want for their regulated people? An easier choice of browsers! http://on.wsj.com/14suWbD (March 6, 2013)

The reason to be humble is not that tyrants or tyrants to be don’t like us. The only reason to be humble is that we know so little. (March 6, 2002)

Banality of the century: What I don’t know is infinite, but what I learn is fun. (March 6, 2013)

For better or for worse, wishful doing is the next step after wishful thinking. (March 4, 2013)

We never step in the same river twice and the piranhas are never exactly the same. (March 4, 2013)

Three important things for an intellectual redneck: a good computer, a good gun, and a good woman. (March 3, 2013)

Happiness is the absence of unhappiness. (March 3, 2013)

Child pornography is another excuse for the voyeur Surveillance State. (March 1, 2013)

A pun for gunnuts: It’s worse to be out of grip than to be out of stock. (But probably a gun for pun nuts is more important than a pun for gunnuts.) (February 27, 2013)

Oh boy! Oh boy! So many things to explain… (February 27, 2013)

Most of what I have learned, especially as a young man, I learned despite myself. (February 26, 2013)

I only patronize churches with organic organs. (February 26, 2013)

At a certain level, everything is continuous and continuously differentiable. (February 24, 2013)

Why do feminist studies, women studies, gay studies exist, but not free individual studies? (February 21, 2013)

I am on a first-name basis with the Pope. (February 21, 2013)

Before upping the ante, ask yourself if you should not be downing the post. (February 21, 2013)

The problem and the opportunity with intellectual and artistic work is that it is never finished. Sisyphus at work. (February 20, 2013)

Politicians should have no bodyguard. In case of danger, they should vomit or urinate. http://news.msn.com/us/colleges-anti-rape-tactics-include-vomiting-urinating#tscptmf (February 20, 2013)

It’s pretty clear that Hormuz and Bering were straight. (February 19, 2013)

The number of unborn babies is literally infinite. (February 19, 2013)

If the Presocratics had not been stupidly brainwashed by environmentalists, they would have printed more than their fragments. (February 19, 2013)

On the topic of monetary policy, many confuse “money” and “credit”, like when they talk about “free money” to mean “[nearly] free credit”. (February 18, 2013)

If cooking made as much noise as a snow blower, I might enjoy it. (February 17, 2013)

What would Heraclitus have thought if he had been told that 26 centuries later, he would be heard from a smart phone through a car’s sound system? (February 17, 2013)

Any cardinal can become pope, but a chick cannot. (February 13, 2013)

Snow storm in New England: Who do these little governors who order people off the roads think they are? (Not in Maine or NH, thanks God). (February 9, 2013)

There is a large number of ways to measure inflation. (If there are W goods and Y consumers, one can devise as many as Y times W ways to measure inflation.) But there are not many ways to measure whether the typical consumer could afford now what he bought previously – which is what the IPC tries to do. (February 7, 2013)

Some people seem to believe that since inflation SHOULD BE higher according to their theories, the “real rate of inflation” IS higher. (February 6, 2013)

If government stimulus were effective, we would now all be as rich as Obama and Bush. (February 6, 2013)

Don’t forget that politicians and bureaucrats have a human side. (February 6, 2013)

In contemporary Newspeak, the adjective “social” sanctifies whatever it qualifies (except if the qualified thing was already very bad, in which case it is made even more disgusting), while “financial” automatically taints whatever it touches. (February 5, 2013)

Social justice is like apple pie. Its beneficiaries even eat it. (February 4, 2012)

I am sure I don’t have an oversize ego, but I was never able to measure it. (February 4, 2013)

The war on drugs is a war on citizens and a war on the rule of law. (February 3, 2013)

A quote without a credible source (like a page number) or a link to the original document is not worth the electrons it’s written on. (February 2, 2013)

Rich actors don’t live in trailers. (February 2, 2013)

I guess a smart-ass is an as with an app. (February 2, 2013)

A hungry prospector, especially a French one, learns to distinguish between mine and dine. (Take this one with a grain of salt.) (February 2, 2013)

There are two sorts of change: acceptable and unacceptable. (February 2, 2013)

For many people, wisdom starts (when it does) by realizing that nobody is interested in what they think. (February 2, 2013)

Culture is having a clue about where one dwells in time and space. (February 2, 2013)

To govern is to discriminate. (February 2, 2013)

That private ownership of firearms works against tyranny is shown by the universal drive of tyrants to disarm their civilian population. (February 1, 2013)

Groundhog Day is the day when you hug the earth. (February 1, 2013)

It is not because it is not written that it is true. (January 29, 2013)

The general naivety of people is only surpassed by their specific naivety in believing anything that confirms their biases. (January 29, 2013)

It it’s too good to be true, it’s probably not true. (January 29, 2013)

Do not believe any Internet quote that is not supported by a book and page number, or by an audio or video file. (January 29, 2013)

If the quote is not supported by a book and page number, or by an audio or video file, it is likely to be apocryphal if not fraudulent. (January 29, 2013)

I never realized that robots wear full metal jackets. (January 23, 2013)

Now that 3D printers are coming, we need to stop selling flat ideas. (January 22, 2013)

Finished working on Facebook. Now, I have to play for a bit. (January 22, 2013)

Every conspiracy theory has its meta-conspiracy whereby the original conspirators are the puppets of higher-level conspirators. (January 22, 2013)

I fear that some of my part-time ideological friends are flat-earth wackos. I console myself by observing that many of my ideological enemies are fairy-tale believers. (January 22, 2013)

Children and simple people naturally like fairy tales. Obama is today’s Prince Charming. (January 21, 2013)

Today is like the day of Prince William’s marriage. The difference is that Obama has the power to do much damage. (January 21, 2013)

“If it could save only one life…” Bureaucrats should stick to saving only one file, instead of saving only one life. (January 18, 2013)

We have to live with mankind as it is. (January 18, 2013)

People have the right to be ignorant, but not to boss the others around. (January 15, 2013)

Hetero homini lupus. (January 15, 2013)

“The answer is no, but please remind me what the question is.” Can somebody tell me if somebody said that before? Otherwise, I will homestead it. (January 14, 2013)

Attention à l’orthographe : celui qui marche avec une canne n’est pas nécessairement zoophile. (January 14, 2013)

It is stupid to assume that you enemy is stupid. (January 13, 2013)

What’s the difference between eroticism and government? Eroticism has many shades of grey, while government has many grades of Che. (January 12, 2013)

First rule on the Internet: it is not signed by somebody credible, and accompanied by a precise source, assume it is false. (January 11, 2013)

Si Dieu a fait des coquilles dans la Bible, il s’agit de coquilles Saint-Jacques. (January 11, 2013)

I am all for a “national conversation”, provided it remains a conversation. (January 10, 2013)

To gun or to gun not, that is the question. (January 8, 2013)

If you find that life is a bore, get some bore cleaner. (January 6, 2013)

In philosophy, politics, and economics, virtually all good ideas have already been had; alas! bad ones too. (December 25, 2012)

Reading is easy; understanding, more difficult. (December 24, 2012)

When gun nuts are outlawed, only outlaws will have nuts. (December 24, 2012)

Obviously, the government must do something. (December 24, 2012)

Research reveals that Claus is, in fact, the middle name of Santa Claus. His family name – and this is quite astounding given his job – is Trophobic. (December 24, 2012)

Discrimination: there is Christmas Eve but no Christmas Adam. (December 19, 2012)

With the continuous lowering of the age of mass murder victims, they will soon be killed in their mothers’ wombs. (December 19, 2012)

If some want to be net lenders, others have to be net borrowers. (December 18, 2012)

What seems to have disappeared as a moral restraint is the simple notion of self-control. (December 17, 2012)

Learning is in large part learning how to process information. (December 15, 2012)

Incredible lightness of being? Still nothing compared to the lightness of nothingness! (December 13, 2012)

Christmas gifts: I think there is a wrap in the space-time continuum. (December 13, 2012)

I am not better at wrapping than at rapping. (December 13, 2012)

On meurt un peu chaque jour. On vit un peu chaque jour. (December 13, 2012)

What I don’t like about zombies is how they boast about their sexual orientation. (December 11, 2012)

Like 380s, days are short. (December 11, 2012)

An antecrastinator has already done it yesterday. (December 11, 2012)

All bums should love music. (December 11, 2012)

“Fiscal cliff” is an oxymoron. (December 10, 2012)

There are reset buttons in life, but apparently no global one – and their number decreases with age. (December 8, 2012)

Rappel pour mes amis: il fait plus plaisir de donner que de recevoir. (December 8, 2012)

Le clou de la visite à l’Aquarium fut un requin marteau. (December 5, 2012)

Having once worked at a supermarket and being able to lure chance does not make one Chancellor of the Exchequer. (December 5, 2012)

Why do we say that a book is “misplaced” instead of “misterplaced”? (November 28, 2012)

With Adobe, you can write like an acrobat. (November 28, 2012)

In a flash, I suddenly remembered a sentence that was printed in my (rebellious) mind in high school: “In media stat virtus.” Perhaps I should have remembered before. (Or become a journalist.) (November 25, 2012)

Reading the owner’s manual, carrying the right pistol, rebooting, or changing the sparkplug provide solutions to most problems, although not always to the same one. (November 25, 2012)

Question: How does the typical Canadian or Englishman react to being asked a loaded question by somebody who is not a policeman or a soldier? Answer: He drops dead. (Explanation: He has a heart attack out of fear that the loaded question will fire.) (November 24, 2012)

A loaded dice cannot fire. (November 24, 2012)

It’s incredible how far imperfection will lead you. Unfortunately, I was never imperfect enough. (November 24, 2012)

If somebody asks “your wallet or your life”, don’t reach for the back pocket where your wallet is, but for the one with your pistol (it was called the “poche-revolver” in French for a reason). (November 24, 2012)

Why did the Pilgrims fish on their way to America? Because they wanted a common whale. (November 24, 2012)

In most movies, the state gets free product placement – bad for liberty! (November 23, 2012)

Re-watched “Live and Let Die” yesterday. Very good James Bond old-style. And you see where the War on Drugs leads? (November 23, 2012)

Dangerous consumption good: Life kills 100% of its users. (November 22, 2012)

What sort of balls does the Prince have? Crystal, of course. (November 20, 2012)

If you don’t continue to learn, you will soon have nothing more to say. (November 20, 2012)

Truth is my business model. (November 20, 2012)

“My phone is downloading a new OS” would have been impossible to understand just half a dozen years ago. (On the other hand, “4th Amendment” would still have made some sense a dozen years ago.) (November 20, 2012)

An individual has no duty to be loyal to his country; it is for his country to be loyal to him – if such collectivist talk makes any sense at all. (November 17, 2012)

Thinking largely means thinking about what you should not be thinking about. (November 15, 2012)

During most of my life, I sold matches, and did not write my name on them. (November 15, 2012)

Truism (with my apologies for the banality): Most of the time, the world moves along whether you follow or not. (November 14, 2012)

To say that you have been a has-been is not enough for a biography. (November 14, 2012)

Many a farmer starts his career as a has-bean. (November 14, 2012)

Old age is when you have no choice but to be a has-been. (November 14, 2012)

Another glaring social injustice: the thin are better able to conceal-carry in a belt holster without losing their pants. (November 14, 2012)

Who said it was no fun to be a bureaucrat? (November 14, 2012)

Bureaucrats: the more they sext, the less they vex. (November 14, 2012)

The Petraeus affair is more a text scandal than a sex scandal. (November 14, 2012)

Women incumbents are called succumbents. (Only understandable if you know about witch-hunts.) (November 13, 2012)

On a souvent besoin d’un plus petit que soi, mais un plus grand ne nuit pas. (November 13, 2012)

Americans are as rational about sex and booze as Europeans about guns. (November 12, 2012)

Other things being equal (including caliber and powder charge), as the weight of a gun goes asymptotically to zero, the recoil shoots towards infinity. (November 12, 2012)

In order to never forget my wallet home, I have decided to tie it to my pistol. (November 8, 2012)

From the vantage point of the day you are born, death comes much more slowly than life. (November 8, 2012)

Chain saws can cut concrete but not the abstract. (November 8, 2012)

If there is anybody who “wasted his vote” (i.e., who would have changed the election result by voting differently), I am interested to know! (November 7, 2012)

What gives one a better chance to get a Darwin prize? To literally explode, to be literally nailed up, or to literally cast one’s vote? (November 6, 2012)

The capacity of people to delude themselves into believing that they have found proofs for their hunches and biases is astounding. (November 5, 2012)

Don’t believe people who tell you to believe that somebody said something just because they tell you so. (November 5, 2012)

Guy Fawkes invented the injunction “F*c you!” (November 5, 2012)

The problem with the voting booth is that many use it as a voting boot. (November 5, 2012)

A random storm may well give the victory to Obama. Otherwise, perhaps his smile will do it. Do you still believe in totalitarian democracy? (November 5, 2012)

Why should the past generations not vote? They have done much more for us than the future ones. (November 3, 2012)

While they are busy campaigning for election, politicians do less actual damage. (November 2, 2012)

If you don’t have a question, your answer is not good. (November 2, 2012)

Undoubtedly because of complex evolutionary reasons, women have no efficient competitor in the kitchen, except with regard to the dishwasher. (November 2, 2012)

The best, and somewhat frustrating, feeling is to suddenly understand something that would have changed your thinking or your life had you known it before. (November 2, 2012)

ONE always wastes his vote, except in a moral way. (November 2, 2012)

Hypothesis: “team teaching” is a form of cartel where both teachers conspire to do as little as possible and be responsible for nothing. (November 1, 2012)

“Natural order” simply means that whatever happens happens. (November 1, 2012)

On the East Coast, people are waterboarding their houses. (October 29, 2012)

Federal government offices are closed today in DC. We are nothing. (October 29, 2012)

In Paul Samuelson’s time, “society” had to choose between guns and butter. Now, the choice is between knobs and gutters. (October 29, 2012)

Note of an indexer: the context is what a computer understands badly. (October 27, 2012)

Everything is related to everything. To which degree is what matters. (October 26, 2012)

A man should always ask before making an inside joke with a woman. (October 25, 2012)

Health and safety is the absolute goal in life. The first principle is: avoid being born. (October 25, 2012)

In America, there is probably a think tank for any think, and perhaps for any tank too. (October 25, 2012)

New egalitarian credo: everybody should have the right to cashew butter for the price of peanut butter. (October 25, 2012)

Where is the bull I have to take by the horns? (October 24, 2012)

Prometheus gave fire to mankind. Aiolos gave the leaf blower. (October 24, 2012)

There is always, along some other dimension, somebody more extreme or more moderate than you. (October 23, 2012)

For work, I prefer a suit to soot. (October 22, 2012)

Facebook results from a DARPA conspiracy aimed at preventing libertarians from working at their important pieces of work. (October 19, 2012)

Gaia n’est pas très gaillarde. (October 18, 2012)

Où y a de l’œstrogène, y a pas de plaisir. (October 18, 2012)

A leaf blower is the autumnal way to push the problem under the rug, provided that the problem is very dry. (October 17, 2012)

It seems to me that emdashes are getting longer and longer. One can envision a time when a book will appear which will be only one big emdash. (October 17, 2012)

The best of all worlds: rednecks should learn Latin. (October 17, 2012)

“Fiat voluntas tua” is not a Fiat slogan meaning “You want your Fiat”. (October 17, 2012)

Fibonacci (a.k.a. Leonardo of Pisa) was not the inventor of pizza. (October 17, 2012)

Persephone became addicted to pomegranate seeds. Worse than tobacco and drugs. http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Haides.html (October 13, 2012)

What is more dangerous, passive smoking or passive thinking? (October 11, 2012)

Most Europeans and Canadians (not to mention Asians and Africans) think that pistol jam is for breakfast. (October 8, 2012)

Spare ribs were invented when God created Eve. (October 8, 2012)

Social networks don’t make you crazy, but they can expose your craziness. (October 6, 2012)

What I have come to understand over the past decade is amazing. I hope the next one is as productive and fun. (October 1, 2010)

The state is very powerful and effective in doing some things. The problem is to know what these things are. (October 1, 2012)

For breakfast, no radical break with the past is necessary. (September 24, 2012)

Swing states don’t necessarily have more swingers. (September 20, 2012)

I wish Mohammed – or is it Mohammad? – will tell me once for all how to write his name. (September 20, 2012)

If “strategic voting” makes sense, there must be a voter who voted so that the two parties would get, say, 40% and 60% of the popular vote. (September 18, 2012)

The non-sexist version of “cutting the middleman” must be “cutting the midwife”. (September 18, 2012)

For sure, this one will not get many virgins — perhaps just a couple of old maids. http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2012/09/16/pakistani-protester-burns-american-flag-and-dies-from-smoke/ (September 18, 2012)

I do have a deep purse, but it is only because I carry a 9mm in it. (September 11, 2012)

Dying is so kitsch: everybody does it. (September 11, 2012)

Slaves think it’s fun to be a free man, but they forget how time consuming it is to clean one’s guns. (September 10, 2012)

Writing – and especially reviewing one’s edited manuscript – is making one crucial decision every three minutes. (September 10, 2012)

Perhaps we should create a “bad state”, will all the bad laws, and send all statists there? (September 6, 2012)

The son of a hands-off editor is called a stetson. (September 6, 2012)

Au Québec, les idées circulent aussi bien qu’une mouche dans un bloc d’acier. (September 2, 2012)

Dermatologists have skin in the game. (August 29, 2012)

We often forget that the value of gold, like the value of everything, is wholly based on individual preferences. Prices change because people change their minds. (August 27, 2012)

Il faut que vieillesse se passe. (August 24, 2012)

Here is a shovel-ready stimulus project: subsidize any American restaurant owner and chef who goes to France to learn how to make desserts. (August 24, 2012)

Tyranny with wifi is probably better than tyranny without. (August 24, 2012)

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object”: should be written in every air terminal of America. (August 24, 2012)

Air terminals are the Brave New World in action. George III would never have dreamed of such power. (August 24, 2012)

Tyranny with wifi is probably better than tyranny without. (August 24, 2012)

In America, governments try to emulate business, often with dangerous results; in France, businesses try to emulate government, alas with success. (August 23, 2012)

In France, bread is not, like it is in most of America, merely a support for jam or other food. (August 22, 2012)

Why do people who live under wall-to-wall welfare states look so stressed? Because they have to work VERY hard for it. (August 21, 2012)

Bars are usually on the first floor because they don’t want to set the bar too high. (August 19, 2012)

Prions pour les vivants, les morts, et ceux qui ne sont ni sur Twitter ni sur Facebook. (August 16, 2012)

Alzheimer is a hard disk malfunction. (August 16, 2012)

Before it became a cliché, it was totally brilliant. (August 16, 2012)

If you chew eight little bits off something, you can properly say that you have taken a bite. (August 16, 2012)

It’s more productive to be the man of the pun than the pen of the nun. (August 13, 2012)

Even for a chemical engineer, dying is not easy. (August 13, 2012)

Dying is impossible, or at least very difficult. (August 13, 2012)

Second Latin lesson of the week: A hiatus is not a classical yatch. (August 13, 2012)

Vampires hate stakeholders. (August 13, 2012)

Latin lesson of the week: “Fiat voluntas tua” doesn’t mean “I want your Fiat.” (August 11, 2012)

Breast feeding in public: the milky way. (August 10, 2012)

Si vous parlez toujours dans le désert, vous n’êtes peut-être pas à la bonne place. (August 9, 2012)

Labels are not arguments. (August 9, 2012)

I used to think that the term “senior” was nothing but political correctness, and that, say, “old crumb” was better. I am having second thoughts. (August 7, 2012)

Total security: If everybody were jailed preventively, you think there would be no crime? But who would be the jailers? (July 24, 2012)

Pun of the week: I hear that scientists are sequencing the human Jerome. (July 23, 2012)

Although everything known is made of zeros and ones, some bits are more important than others in daily life. (July 23, 2012)

One must understand what one professes to be against. (July 23, 2012)

We now discover that Keynesian automatic stabilizers are destabilizing, thanks to decades of welfare and regulatory state. (July 23, 2012)

I am a member of all conspiracies. Try to prove the contrary! (Saying that you never met me won’t do: it just means I out-conspire you.) (July 22, 2012)

You don’t need to speak Latin to buy ammo. (July 19, 2012)

My thought while shaving this morning: Bertrand Russell’s village barber is soap opera. (July 18, 2012)

I am looking forward to most things (with only a small number of exceptions). (July 13, 2012)

If pedophiles did not exist, the state would invent them: they are just too great a bonanza for surveillance and control. (July 13, 2012)

Mother earth is as dangerous as the fatherland. (July 11, 2012)

If you don’t understand your intellectual opponents and think they are all stupid, you should review your own beliefs. (July 10, 2012)

Pun of the decade (pardon my modesty): If Parmenides were right, potato chips could not exist. (Inspired by conversation with Charles Alan Kors) (July 10, 2012)

Marshall is an approximation of Pareto. (July 9, 2012)

Lobsters speak in tongs. (July 7, 2012)

Little arithmetic problem: if my two personalities are schizophrenic, how many am I? (July 7, 2012)

To learn, one must make oneself available or, like schoolchildren, be forced in some way. (July 6, 2012)

A theological problem has haunted Western thought for 25 centuries: Zeus did not punish Pandora because he knew what would happen. (July 6, 2012)

La cacahuète est un pastiche de la pistache. (July 5, 2012)

The main problem with ignorance is that one does not know what he does not have. (July 4, 2012)

My secretarial skills are pretty good, and my boss is very grateful. (July 4, 2012)

A microblogger can be a great man. (July 3, 2012)

Common sense is sometimes a good ally, but often a naive illusion. Knowledge is about distinguishing the two cases. (July 3, 1012)

The optimist is happy to catch a mistake in his manuscript. The pessimist is unhappy, for it indicates that more may have remained uncaught. (July 2, 2012)

In life’s lottery, I am a bread winner. (July 2, 2012)

Career advice: don’t invite has-beans under your tent. (July 2, 2012)

The state is so powerful and glorious. It can scramble fighter jets while ordinary individuals can only scramble eggs. (July 2, 2012)

When we hear “amazon”, we don’t think of breasts anymore. Socialists must blame capitalism; economists would call this a negative externality. (July 2, 2012)

I am ashamed of my straight fit jeans. People might think I am homophobe. (July 1, 2012)

I don’t have much time to hate people. Otherwise, I would find a large number of candidates. (June 29, 2012)

A fruit basket is useful for peer review. (June 29, 2012)

Today’s scientific pun: Do the walking dead use running water? (June 28, 2012)

In arithmetic, progressive schools teach three sums. (June 26, 2012)

Midwives are experts in married couples’ threesomes. (June 26, 2012)

Liberty is part of biodiversity, but it is a threatened species. (June 25, 2012)

I need a bailout too. (June 25, 2012)

In the adventures of Tintin, Captain Haddock has more than an ad hoc presence. (June 25, 2012)

Follow-up on the Little Red Book: Run globally, walk locally. (June 24, 2012)

Bullet points should be banned in Canada as they suggest that persuasion at the point of a gun is acceptable in a kindler & gentler nation. (June 24, 2012)

If people did not commit so many heresies on Facebook, I would have more time to keep focused on my work. (June 22, 2012)

Discrimination by terminology: “Why “gun nuts” but “gold bugs”? (June 21, 2012)

The financier walks into a barber shop, and says… (June 21, 2012)

When you already know what somebody will say, why listen? (June 21, 2012)

The number of books I have not read approaches infinity, but the number I really want to read is easily countable. (June 21, 2012)

Sexual discrimination is pervasive (continued): You can buy ant killer but not uncle killer. (June 21, 2012)

Sexual discrimination is pervasive: You can cry uncle but it won’t do any good to cry aunt. (June 21, 2012)

Please, dumb it up for me. (June 19, 2012)

If only the left understood economics! If only the right took individual liberty seriously! (June 18, 2012)

Sisyphus has just mowed the lawn. (June 16, 2012)

Ne confondez pas les plaisirs de la chair avec les plaisirs de la chaire. (June 16, 2012)

Les plaisirs de la chair mènent à Lachaise. (June 16, 2012)

From their Latin roots, I understand that a “device” informs you about vice, and that an “advice” takes you right into it. (June 14, 2012)

If you have a stroke, try to have one of genius. (June 13, 2012)

Les soi-disant progressistes sont des pro-grècistes. (June 13, 2012)

Social organicists (those who mistakenly imagine society as a biological organism) should logically equate what the French eulogistically call “social movements” (“movements sociaux”) with bowel movements. (June 11, 2012)

Bad joke of the month — Beggar to Obama: “You’ve got some change?” Obama: “Yes, and you can believe in it.” (June 11, 2012)

Death is probably overrated. (June 11, 2012)

A geek’s computer looks like a redneck’s front yard. (June 11, 2012)

I fear only an angler-philosopher can understand this one: Anglers cannot hide behind the vail of ignorance. (June 10, 2012)

Plants must be saved from animals as much as animals have to be saved from men. (June 10, 2012)

I find it easier to change my mind than to change my body. (June 8, 2012)

Asked how he would deal with the space-time continuum, God replied, “I’ll play it by year.” (June 8, 2012)

It’s your sole soul, so don’t walk on it. (June 7, 2012)

I can’t count the number of places where I am not quoted. (June 7, 2012)

Un apode ne peut être psychopathe. (June 7, 2012)

I am a high-class vagrant in the low five figures. (June 7, 2012)

The trick is to find the right balance between essential intellectual humility and necessary individual pride. (June 7, 2012)

One reason why Austrian economists have been shunned by others is their refusal to admit that Hicksian-Samuelsonian utility is ordinal. (June 7, 2012)

When an old-timer sociologist doesn’t know what to say, he repeats “social norm”. (June 6, 2012)

Were tacos invented by Tycho Brahe? (June 4, 2012)

Avec leurs cervelles d’oiseaux, ils font un bel effet de cerf. (June 4, 2012)

What can be said in 141 characters can be said in 140 (rhetorically, not logically). (June 4, 2012)

The 1960’s hippies aimed, no doubt awkwardly, at being non-judgmental; today’s “dissenters” are mostly moral and coercive busybodies. (June 4, 2012)

Castigat ridendo mores: a shower pun can help to shun power. (June 2, 2012)

This morning’s shower pun: I prefer to be due for a big class cigar than to be queued for a class-B guitar. (June 2, 2012)

Advice to statists: in general, there is no more reason to attack the poor than to attack the rich. (June 1, 2012)

Anglers don’t all speak English. (June 1, 2012) Version of December 19, 2015: Not all anglers speak Anglish.

Why do socialists love money so much? (May 30, 2012)

Marriage contracts make for same-text marriages. (May 29, 2012)

La réflexion sérieuse du week-end : Si j’étais hors de moi, il n’y aurait personne dedans. (May 17, 2012)

Lord Bacon and Field Marshal Haig are exploring Africa. One day, before dawn, they are captured by two cannibals. One cannibal asks the other: “What do you want for breakfast?” (May 17, 2012)

Sexual harassment: Indian cooks are constantly involved in pilaw talk. (May 17, 2012)

Antitrust and insider trading prosecutions required: people in the bedding industry are constantly involved in pillow talk. (May 17, 2012)

A joke I invented for my dentist: Why do neurosurgeons never operate on royalty? Because they would have to drill through the crown. (May 17, 2012)

People with high blood pressure should take it with a grain of salt. (May 17, 2012)

Free trade is possible. A European Welfare and Regulatory State is not. (May 16, 2012)

Somebody lives in Maine. I can prove it. (May 15, 2012)

I heard somebody say, “Nobody lives in Maine”. (May 15, 2012)

Suburbanites are mowers and shakers. (May 15, 2012)

Old age would be fun if one were still young. (May 14, 2012)

Beating a dead horse may be useful for practice or teaching purposes. Moreover, like Shrödinger’s cat, it might not actually be dead. (May 14, 2012)

A woman wearing a shirt was prevented from flying because she was on the no-fly list. (May 11, 2012)

J’entends un bruit de votes. (May 9, 2012)

Démocratie: au lieu de se faire botter le derrière, on se fait voter le derrière. (May 9, 2012)

The Greek state should repudiate its debt, correctly putting the blame on it politicos and bureaucrats, and leave the rest of us alone. (May 9, 2012)

Proletarians of the world, Trader Joe is the place to buy wine. Life without a Trader Joe nearby is not worth living. This company is quite interesting. It is not listed, is rather secretive, and owns many European wineries. And they have employees who know a lot about wine. (May 8, 2011)

Multitasking on a single task is called daydreaming. (May 7, 2012)

The real function of gun control is to increase state power. (May 5, 2012)

Pourquoi les subventions à l’agriculture sont-elles efficaces ? Réponse: À cause du multiplicateur de la grange. (Attention : pour comprendre cette blague, vous devez connaître les rudiments du calcul et, éventuellement, de l’économie. Le sens de l’humour aide aussi.) (May 4, 2012)

It seems to have been lost on the intelligentsia that Hitler’s party was called “national socialist” not “global capitalist”. (May 3, 2012)

Difference between a fox and a geek? No difference: a fox likes rabbits, a geek like raw bits. (May 3, 2012)

The decocker is one of the greatest safety inventions of the 20th century. (May 3, 2012)

There is no reason why corporations should determine education requirements. What people learn at school must be determined by both the demand AND the supply of labor. For certain families and students, education is a derived demand; for others, it’s a consumption good. (May 2, 2012)

Modern version of the old saying, “Don’t put your eggs in the same basket”: spread your genes in more than one container. (May 1, 2012)

Europeans who like redistribution should be sending more money from Germany to Greece, and even more from Greece and Germany to Africa. (April 30, 2012)

Bin Laden won: he made America a bit closer to what he likes. (April 30, 2012)

Is the public square in the public sphere? (April 30, 2012)

Why is it risky to offer a geek to taste one’s food? Because he will take a megabyte. (April 28, 2012)

Levis has certainly been successful in transmitting his genes. (April 28, 2012)

Blessed be the blistered for they will inherit the trail. (April 28, 2012)

I don’t “get it”, and don’t wish to. (April 27, 2012)

Any politician who voted for the creation of the TSA should be recalled (and waterboarded). (April 27, 2012)

Discrimination (against some groups, in favor of other groups) is the core business of government. (April 27, 2012)

Pop tents are now so light: obviously a product of the Enlightenment! (April 26, 2012)

I have a maid because nature abhors a vacuum cleaner. (April 26, 2012)

Talking is much overrated. (April 23, 2012)

How can an extremist accept that is post is “awaiting moderation”? (April 23, 2012)

A pure question of logic: not everybody can have a serious biographer. (April 22, 2012)

Sunday is the best day for cherries, because you can add one on it. (April 22, 2012)

Technical analysts are nothing but peaking toms. (April 20, 2012)

The trouble shooter needed at the Post Office would be a post-doc. (April 20, 2012)

However much you want to reduce traffic speed in your neighborhood, laws against cruelty to animals forbid goose bumps. (April 19, 2012)

Reading newspaper articles on the web has become more a case of love and gate. (April 19, 2012)

The queen’s dilemma: to bee or not to bee. (April 19, 2012)

Note to the ACLU (often doing good work but obsessed with everything below or under the belt): Feta cheese has nothing to do with abortion. (April 19, 2012)

Platonist beekeeper joke: The bee is in the eye of the bee holder. (April 19, 2012)

Difference between a terrorist and a hunter: the first one wants more bang for the buck; the second, more buck for the bang. (April 19, 2012)

Nothing is perfect, but imperfect liberty is better than imperfect tyranny. (April 18, 2012)

Twun™ (tweeted pun) of the week (and memo to TSA and imitators): Terrorists are not the only ones to pay with plastic. (April 18, 2012)

I once asked a confectioner in Montréal to inscribe “Down With Tyranny!” on a cake I was ordering. She asked me, “Does ‘tyranny’ take one or two N’s?” (April 18, 2012)

What has changed in Québec is the growth in the number of libertarians. But it is still a society that bends under any passing totalitarian idea. (April 18, 2012)

The mere thought that hiking poles could be useful is hard to admit since they were unknown in my childhood’s adventure books. (April 17, 2012)

Essential humility lies in understanding that generations of brilliant thinkers have struggled with the exact questions you try to answer. (April 17, 2012)

People who most enthusiastically endorse the mantle of democracy are often the same ones who clamor most loudly against the mass media. (April 16, 2012)

There is a large number of self-made ignoramuses. (April 16, 2012)

I am quite willing to rise to the occasion, but where is it? (April 15, 2012)

A round number can represent the perimeter of a square. (April 15, 2012)

Voyez comme le latin est concis : « De gustibus non est disputandum » = « Des hommes dégoûtants se disputent la nonne. » (April 15, 2012)

Le nombre de membres de la National Rifle Association équivaut aux 2/3 de tous les adultes au Québec (si une telle population existe). (April 13, 2012)

Plain packaging should be compulsory for all politicians’ and bureaucrats’ communications. (April 13, 2012)

When cornered, most libertarians will side with the right, but it’s because the left is even more hopeless. (April 12, 2012)

Improving “civil forfeiture”: make it a crime to breathe after committing a crime. Then arrest breathers whose crime can’t be proved. (April 12, 2012)

Wisdom’s itinerary: WTF-LOL-OMG (April 11, 2012)

I guess I should start saying “seniors” instead of “old crumbs”. (April 9, 2012)

Most government bodies should be corpses. (April 9, 2012)

Everything in the universe is made of zeros and ones, even rabbits. (Their very name confirms it.) Happy Easter! (April 8, 2011)

Finally (it was about time!), the truth about the myth of Sisyphus: his doctor had told him that he needed regular exercise. (April 5, 2012)

The problem with social solidarity is to determine with whom. (April 5, 2012)

Worst pun of the month (but containing some truth): better be a spinach investor than a Spanish investor. (April 4, 2012)

The problem in America is that bad laws and good laws are equally enforced. (April 2, 2012)

“Lemieux’s cat”: Does something I don’t write about, or think of writing about, exist? (April 2, 2012)

A wise Pole met in 1989 told me there are four things that any man loves: women, guns, cars, boats, and horses. In his crumbling communist country, he had been deprived of many of those. (April 2, 2012)

At McDonald’s, I met a little boy who was obviously a gerontophile. He smiled at me non-stop. (March 29, 2012)

As Leonard Cohen sings, America is “the cradle of the best and the worst.” (March 29, 2012)

One must discard a false argument even if it bolsters one’s opinion. (March 29, 2012)

The French culture has survived in Québec – if we can say it has – thanks to the Catholic Church until the mid-20th century, and to Radio-Canada for a few more decades. (March 29, 2012)

Ten years of wars for what? Humongous economic costs & costs in terms of growing state power, wall-to-wall surveillance, and lost liberties. (March 23, 2012)

Dull joke of the week: People on the middle-class fence are part of both the half and the half-not. (March 22, 2012)

As with Shrödinger’s cat, we have no way to know if somebody not on Facebook is dead or still alive. (March 22, 2012)

Instead of explicit theories, some people use a big-blob approach to understanding reality. (March 21, 2012)

There is a part of mankind – the 90% – who are not on Facebook or Twitter. Who are they? Where are they? What do they do? (March 18, 2012)

How do you sync without a USB cable and no network? Answer: just walk on the water. (March 18, 2012)

Le Bordeaux a été inventé par Merlot l’Enchanteur. (March 17, 2012)

The politicos are Charybdis, the bureaucrats are Scylla. (March 16, 2012)

“Easy rider” is not an insurance term. (March 16, 2012)

Debtors must observe Lent. (March 16, 2012)

Culinary ingenuity. Man is an animal who caponizes. http://www.afn.org/~poultry/capon.htm (March 16, 2012)

Je tweete, donc je suis. (March 13, 2012)

Dull joke of the week: The Kiwimanjaro is obviously in New Zealand. (March 13, 2012)

It’s for a reason that we call it “paperwork” and not “paperpleasure”. (March 11, 2012)

How can a Christian be anything else than “evangelical”? There must be many possible interpretations of the four Gospels. (March 9, 2012)

Arbitragers are paid and useful Sisyphuses. (March 9, 2012)

When somebody says that a society or a country “shares [some interventionist] values”, he doesn’t know what “share” or “value” means. (March 9, 2012)

With the TSA (and its equivalents elsewhere in the world), the state has graduated from groupthink to gropethink. (March 9, 2012)

One thing the Lloyd’s haven’t invented is comprehensive insurance against tyranny. Who is the fox and who the hens? (March 8, 2012)

A first step in creating jobs: ban snow blowers. (March 8, 2012)

Jeu de mots bilingue: Il fit monter la bonne dans sa voiture pour contrôler son bilan carbonne. (March 8, 2012)

Logic is not everything, but it can carry you a long way. (March 7, 2012)

Is Santorum on a first-name basis with God? (March 6, 2012)

I must admit it: I don’t like slogans or civil incantations. (March 6, 2012)

Look at how much energy is spent by writers and editors to avoid using the sinful “he”, “him”, or “his”! (March 6, 2012)

Many people talk of “creating wealth” while having no clear definition of “wealth”, and no clue as to how the blob is “created”. (March 6, 2012)

Nottingham is not a nihilist pig. (March 1, 2012)

Tyranny enters by any door it finds open. (February 24, 2012)

Dullest joke ever: a renovated old piece of furniture got a chair lift. (February 24, 2012)

Austrian economics would gain by moving from marginal utility theory to ordinal neoclassical theory of the Hicks-Samuelson variety. (February 22, 2012)

The relation between logic and reality is the deepest philosophical (and scientific) problem of all times. (February 22, 2012)

There is a terrorist or a pedophile – sometimes both – hiding under every parked car. (February 18, 2012)

Man is an animal who wears cologne. (February 17, 2012)

Hubris is to government what entrepreneurship is to the economy. (February 16, 2012)

La “TVA sociale”: si c’est social, ça doit être bon. (February 16, 2012)

If speculation, which tries to benefit from other people’s misery, is to be banned, so should medicine. (February 15, 2012)

We urgently need bum control – I mean, politician control. (February 13, 2012)

If the sun does not rise to the East, you have likely made a mistake localizing the East. (February 8, 2012)

To control people’s footprints, we need jackbootprints. (February 2, 2012)

Except for sacrificial lambs, we are all speculators. (February 2, 2012)

To be stoned is not the same as to be lapidated. (February 2, 2012)

There is a certain amount of faith in everything, including science. How much is too much, that is the question. (February 2, 2012)

Either God exists and it’s fun to die, or He doesn’t and it’s no fun. But there is more to say. (February 1, 2012)

Most illegal immigration is likely caused by the impossibility, or very high cost, of legal immigration. (February 1, 2012)

“Playing by the rules” is only an ideal if the rules are just. (February 1, 2012)

A long train of abuses has nothing to do with railroads. (February 1, 2012)

Most American politicians confuse capitalism with capitolism. (January 30, 2012)

For dinosaurs, the web is in a fourth dimension. (January 29, 2012)

Each time you put a big dark spot or section on a web page, more ink is used in printing it, and somewhere a baby seal dies. (January 27, 2012)

A dishonest statistician is an outliar. (January 27, 2012)

Infrastructure? Give me a definition and I will likely find something that, in your opinion, should not be included. (January 27, 2012)

I apologize in advance for everything insensitive and offensive I will say in the future. (January 27, 2012)

Eternity is long, especially if you get bored. (January 27, 2012)

The Welfare state wants to be your rose garden. (January 26, 2012)

Groupwork can lead to groupthink. (January 26, 2012)

An extrovert crook is an outliar. (January 26, 2012)

Is Keynesianism sometimes a convenient scapegoat that saves the trouble of asking questions? (January 26, 2012)

A bachelor’s degree in economics should be required for any aspiring politician. (January 25, 2012)

What I need to learn for my future books is to say it graciously when I don’t know something. (January 25, 2012)

To kill a glad buck, even a bad Glock should do. (January 25, 2012)

Captain Cook invented English cuisine. (January 25, 2012)

Facebook is good for the ego – and, I guess, for the shego too. (January 25, 2012)

Advice to cannibals: better to eat Pop Tarts than top parts. (January 25, 2012)

Abortion is only defensible in the case of future politicians or bureaucrats. (January 25, 2012)

Find the error: the difference between the politicos and us is that they are public-spirited and we are selfish. (January 25, 2012)

Stupid morning pun: A taste of wine is much better than a waste of time. (January 25, 2012)

The US government’s propaganda machine is terrifying, although it may still have something to learn from the French government. (January 24, 2012)

The problem with the extreme centrist is that he must always be on the move. (January 24, 2012)

Un Léviathan pressé se dira grand créateur d’empois. (January 24, 2012)

I want the 3.141592… in the sky. (January 24, 2012)

Ceteris paribus, a war may be preferable to an embargo, which hits the subjects of both the giving and the receiving states. (January 23, 2012)

French baguettes are purebred. (January 23, 2012)

State power: the difficulty is to stop before the slope gets too slippery. We are long past this point. (January 23, 2012)

Joke of the week: If you want to look under the hood, you must know whose hood it is. (January 23, 2012)

Idée pour mes amis du Québec: être « à droite du centre » n’est pas une philosophie. (January 23, 2012)

People who don’t know the difference between an average and a marginal quantity should refrain from expressing opinions about taxes. (January 23, 2012)

Reflection about the TSA: If you want to live, you have to obey state diktats. But you are not forced to. (January 23, 2012)

Centuries fly by so quickly! (January 21, 2012)

Optimality must be continuously pursued. (January 21, 2012)

Elections are a public show similar to a sports competition, if not a circus where the plebs applauds or boos the politician-clowns. (January 20, 2012)

I find it offensive that people find things offensive. Please be sensitive. (January 18, 2011)

People think it’s easy to be perfect. Believe me, it’s not! (January 18, 2012)

Govt regulation is the idea that piling up multiple, complex, inconsistent & liberticidal diktats efficiently promotes the public interest. (January 18, 2012)

My whole life is a charitable act, but I enjoy it. (January 18, 2012)

Collectivist perspective: the war on drugs does no harm because we are just arresting ourselves. (January 17, 2012)

You can’t be gay if you are the strait of Hormuz. (January 16, 2012)

What I love about toasters is that they are never buffering. (Incidentally, that’s an argument for Santorum.) (January 16, 2012)

Who wrote “The Moon and Tight Pants”? (January 16, 2012)

Two siblings sleeping together are called a napkin. (January 16, 2012)

News for old-timers: the pie in the sky can now be found in the cloud. (January 16, 2012)

I hope that the notice “that user is suspended” doesn’t mean that she was hanged and kept hanging. (January 15, 2012)

Was Tread the son of John Stuart? (January 14, 2012)

Don’t forget that the Boston Tea Partiers and the Founding Fathers were felons. (January 13, 2012)

L’homme qui laisse son nom à la prospérité doit éviter l’erreur de Vespasien (empereur romain de 69 à 79 A.D.). (January 11, 2012)

In veritate vinum. (January 9, 2012)

The problem in being a contrarian is, relative to what? (January 8, 2012)

By generating global warming in my backyard, the sun is baking up the wrong tree. (January 6, 2012)

Do Allah and Mohamed know that there is a North Koran and a South Koran? (January 6, 2012)

To be a non-geek in a geek world must feel like being a libertarian in a statist world. (January 4, 2012)

An editor walks into a bar, and orders, “A draft, please!” (January 3, 2012)

Going into one of his churches, God was incensed. (December 27, 2011)

With the war on drugs and labor regulations, established politicians have harmed the Blacks more than the words of Ron Paul’s minions could. (December 27, 2011)

Although labels do economize on information, they must not be used as theoretical arguments or refutations. (December 27, 2011)

Non-intellectuals often don’t realize, at their own risk and peril, that, in the world of ideas, you are what you sign. (December 27, 2011)

Making statistical comments about collectives is not collectivist or racist per se. But without the proper caveats, it is a bit risky. (December 27, 2011)

3D glasses are not necessary to see that public debt crises will create many problems, but also offer opportunities to starve Leviathan. (December 26, 2011)

Simple ideas are tempting but dangerous. (December 22, 2011)

Prices were reasonable in Hilbert’s hotel, but I had to switch rooms several times during the night. (Rather odd, and I couldn’t get even with him.) (December 20, 2011)

Chain smokers provide stimulus to the steel industry. (December 18, 2011)

Man is an animal that especially hates to die. (December 16, 2011)

We never step twice in the same moving truck. (December 16, 2011)

When Dominique Strauss-Kahn dies, they will try to notify his next of skin. (December 16, 2011)

Some people confuse declining prices in terms of wages, which is good, and declining prices in terms of money, which can be dangerous. (December 15, 2011)

A goal that’s unattainable without invasive search and seizure is simply unacceptable. (December 12, 2011)

If the color of your trash compactor is white, is it a white trash compactor? (December 9, 2011)

Will anybody claim that the sovereign debt crisis shows a failure of capitalism? (December 8, 2011)

Multiculturalism is good. Each man is a culture. (December 7, 2011)

As Gaia said with resignation, there is no such thing as a tree launch. (December 7, 2011)

Qui veut trop communiquer ne communique pas grand-chose. (December 7, 2011)

Those who want too much to communicate end up communicating nothing. (December 7, 2011)

Never leave a stone unturned and a button unclicked. But the secret of life is to distinguish between buttons and stones. (December 7, 2011)

Never leave a stone unturned and a button unclicked. (December 7, 2011)

How some people use their own misfortune or slavery to attack the liberty of others is properly obscene. (December 6, 2011)

The will is what you use on yourself. “Political will” is what you use against others. (December 6, 2011)

Like father, like sun. (December 4, 2011)

If they burn you at the stake, you can blame the stakeholders. (December 1, 2011)

I prefer the nap to the pan. (November 28, 2011)

Mens Rea is a friend of Casus Belli. (Inspired by what the judge said in one of the old Luky Lukes.) (November 28, 2011)

Fashion comment of the day: wearing glasses with a full niqab must be a pain. (November 28, 2011)

If the choice was between working & not consuming OR consuming & not working, what would you choose? Which is the goal, which is the means? (November 27, 2011)

Many people favor liberty except in what they deem crucially important. (November 27, 2011)

Voluntary non-simplicity on Black Friday: I HATE it when people grovel in base consumerism and kneel before consumption gods in packed stores — EXCEPT at Cabela’s. (November 25, 2011)

A man may live with many women provided he does not say he is married to them! (November 24, 2011)

A man may live with many women provided he does not say he is married to them! (November 24, 2011)

Dissenters used to invoke their individuality and originality; now they try to pass for 99% of the people. (November 13, 2011)

The measure of an action’s effectiveness is whether anything is changed whether it is performed or not. Is YOUR secret vote effective? (November 11, 2011)

Don’t pester me with pacifism, but don’t bug me with national wars either. (November 11, 2011)

From that time on, we never forgot: central planning, border controls, government surveillance, and the ever loving Welfare State. (November 11, 2011)

Euro, etc.: The mistake has been to try and make the EU a Super Welfare & Regulatory State, instead of a space for free trade and liberty. (November 11, 2011)

World War I, a power play among European sovereigns and a terrible waste, marked a major step in the decline of Western liberty. Look at it now! (November 11, 2011)

By and large, and except in exceptional circumstances, ordinary soldiers are either adventurous volunteers having fun or cannon fodder for the state. (November 11, 2011)

Obviously, Oral Roberts was a pervert. (November 10, 2011)

I would be happy to have learned economics just to be able to read Anthony de Jasay’s “The State”. (November 9, 2011)

When my children were kids, there were little monsters – I called them “zorcals” – roaming at night and snatching socks (and sometimes other small pieces of clothing) that children had not put in place. NOW THEY ARE BACK, stealing earphones. (November 8, 2011)

Tread was not John Stuart’s brother. (November 7, 2001)

“Papademos » est certainement un nom prédestiné pour un dirigeant d’État démocratique paternaliste. (November 7, 2011)

I have to contact a moving company. I hope I won’t weep. (November 5, 2011)

I was slightly upset by the 1,278,530th position of my “Somebody in Charge” (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011) on the Amazon Best Sellers list, until I found out that a Princeton professor’s 2001 book that looks very interesting is ranked 1,845,784th. (November 5, 2011)

An old air stewardess is called an airborne-again stewardess. (November 4, 2011)

Greek democracy against European democracy: there is always a democracy against the one you prefer. (November 2, 2011)

John Galt was part of the 1%. (November 2, 2011)

If you start your reasoning with a predetermined conclusion, don’t be surprised if few people believe it. (November 2, 2011)

Childish pleasure in Maine: instead of making my deposit at the drive-thru ATM, I went to the counter just for the pleasure of walking armed in a bank. (November 1, 2011)

Thanks to the Welfare State, Greece, the cradle of civilization, is back to the cradle. (November 1, 2011)

I love altruism so much that I wonder why people (at least the altruistic 99%) don’t give me their money. (November 1, 2011)

Nail clippers are one of the great inventions of mankind. They significantly improve the life of everybody, except perhaps suicide bombers. (October 31, 2011)

I vaguely remember nothingness: it was not fun, but it wasn’t painful either. (October 27, 2011)

Only 1% of books are bestsellers. We are the 99%. (October 26, 2011)

Mankind did not change much, from submitting to the warlord or shaman, to begging the central bank to take charge. (October 24, 2011)

Communism was the biggest bubble of the 20th century. But the mixed economy competed hard, and finally succeeded being the only bubble. (October 24, 2011)

I was surprised to learn that there exist “walk-behind snow blowers”. I never knew that some were walk-in-front. (October 24, 2011)

As the dyslexic would say, what came first, the kitchen or the egg? (October 24, 2011)

We don’t, or shouldn’t, have to choose between the mob and the autocrats. In a limited state, both are constrained. (October 24, 2011)

This page is intentionally blank. (October 24, 2011)

The injunction “Go fly a kite” has been replaced by “Go camping”. (October 24, 2011) (Following another end-of-the-world prophecy by Harold Camping)

I am working on my next worstseller. (October 24, 2011)

Is somebody who is not on Facebook or Twitter (and perhaps Google+) still part of the living? (October 24, 2011)

If nobody criticizes you, do it yourself. (October 23, 2011)

In infinite time, monkeys would indeed rewrite Shakespeare, an infinite number of times. (October 23, 2011)

Without analytical tools, it’s impossible to analyze anything. (October 23, 2011)

“And why seest thou a steam in thy brother’s eye, and perceivest not a bra which is in thine own eye?” (inspired by Luke 6:41) (October 21, 2011)

It would have been better to capture rant than to rapture Kant. (October 21, 2011)

Government greed led to the sovereign debt crisis. (October 20, 2011)

Incantations are no substitute for proof. (October 20, 2011)

Brutus realized the first Caesarian section. (October 19, 2011)

Any reform, even a radical one, has to start from where we are. It can’t start anywhere else. (October 19, 2011)

Governments’ “one-stop shop” regulatory services: by all the soft tyranny you need at only one place. (October 19, 2011)

Skimming through the New England Journal of Medicine, one discovers that there as many diseases as there are stars in the night sky. (October 18, 2011)

What are the current bubbles? Probably the Chinese economy and US government securities, and perhaps gold. (October 17, 2011).

Wall Street is sometimes bullish, sometimes bearish. The state is always leviathanish. (October 15, 2011)

With the sovereign debt crisis, perhaps there is a chance that “sovereign” will stop meaning “social and collective milk and honey”. (October 15, 2011)

Sovereigns are trying hard to hide their exactions & make taxpayers pay for them. (October 15, 2011)

A neglected haircut: how much will government defaults shave from the value of private pension funds? (October 15, 2011)

The sovereign created the housing crisis, which precipitated its own looming debt crisis. He is guilty of two crises in a few of years. (October 15, 2011)

The sovereign debt crisis is the sovereign’s debt crisis. (October 15, 2011)

The globalization of the Occupy Wall Street movement is another instance of importing the worst from America and eschewing the best. (October 15, 2011)

Play on words of the week: There are so many empty professors that some of them have to call themselves “full”. (October 15, 2011)

It is because of loopholes in tyranny that liberty survives. (October 15, 2011)

If you want to quit smoking, it’s very easy. If you don’t want to, it’s very difficult. (October 15, 2011)

Gaia is bipolar. (October 15, 2011)

Mot léger de la semaine: Surtout à notre époque d’obésité, le zizi est une arme de construction massive. (October 14, 2011)

The OECD talks about “the social pain of adjustment”. This social sort of pain, I can take as much as you want. (October 13, 2011)

If you don’t like the consumer society, it’s okay: just be content with working and producing. I’ll consume what you produce. (October 13, 2011)

The state should neither hamper nor encourage change: it should be change-neutral. (October 13, 2011)

Ultimately, the state can guarantee only what its subjects will pay, in taxes or in submission to regulations. (October 12, 2011)

Not everybody can save money: for some people to be net savers, others have to be net borrowers. (October 12, 2011)

European employment: if employees can’t be fired, nobody will hire them. (October 12, 2011)

Any tax take of less than 100% of GDP must indicate tax evasion or loopholes. (October 12, 2011)

“Tax the rich” is greedy. (Inspired by a FB post by Sheldon Richman.) (October 12, 2011)

Feeling ignorant is the beginning of wisdom. (October 11, 2011)

When the state can give or take everything, his courtiers are numerous and bear large gifts. (October 11, 2011)

A big part of current problems is that investors and banks are lending to gov’t or, more exactly, that gov’t is borrowing most of the money. (October 10, 2011)

Business executives – in oil, airlines, finance… – often claim that their industry is different from all others, and thus needs privileges. (October 10, 2011)

“Consent order” is an oxymoron. (October 10, 2011)

First-hand smoke is much better than the secondhand variety. (October 8, 2011)

Halloween is coming. I wonder if somebody can end up with so many transplanted and implanted body parts that it is them that reject what’s left of “him”. (My girlfriend suggests that some horror movies might have thought of this idea before me.) (October 8, 2011)

To decrease regulation, we would need a law decreeing that no bureaucrat can be fired or demoted if he leaks some regulatory absurdity. (October 8, 2011)

Logic of the state: by actively imposing a local creole, the Québec state has created a captive clientele for itself. (October 8, 2011)

A good illustration of the disaster of state intervention? Education in Québec since the state took it over in the 1960s. (October 8, 2011)

Only after you have learned it can you realize what you did not know. (October 7, 2011)

Stockholm syndrome in the sovereign debt crisis: investors trust the state, and feed the hand that bites them. (October 7, 2011)

A plumber needs to understand very little about the physics of fluids. A business manager needs to understand very little about economics. (October 5, 2011)

I’m a contrarian. No, I am not. (October 5, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: “Political appetite” refers to an uncontrolled desire to eat politicians. (October 5, 2011)

“People before profits”? What about people who want profits, or who want to purchase from, or work for, the latter? (October 5, 2011)

“Unintended consequences” is often a code word for the costs one wants to burden others with. (October 5, 2011)

Health is a state of imperfect diagnosis. (Did somebody said this before me?) (October 5, 2011)

The difference between those who claim to be your bodyguards and the political rulers’ bodyguards is that yours watch and search YOU. (October 5, 2011)

Investors are just ordinary men who trust the state much more than it deserves. (October 5, 2011)

Je croirai que le français a de l’avenir au Québec quand ils diront « centime » au lieu de « cent » – et ne se feront pas traiter de tapettes pour autant. (October 5, 2011)

Twun™ of the week – The Holy See: what you see is what you get? http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm (October 3, 2011)

If it had been possible, YouTube should have been invented before the wheel. (October 2, 2011)

Since socialists hate money, why do they want it redistributed to themselves and their friends? (B. de Jouvenel made that point before.) (October 2, 2011)

The term “stakeholder” should be banned everywhere, except at BBQs. (October 1, 2011)

Life is a pre-traumatic stress disorder. (September 30, 2011)

Je croyais que la TVA était sociale par définition, sinon carrément de droit divin. – La TVA sociale, une idée de droite ou de gauche? http://t.co/h9SqCSjN (September 30, 2011)

“Bull with me” is more optimistic than “bear with me”. (September 30, 2011)

Never, never ask a stakeholder to hold your steak for a minute. You won’t see it again. (September 30, 2011)

If the government bows to stakeholders, the one with the largest steak will win. And the largest steak is often the one to be stolen. (September 30, 2011)

I have always secretly liked ketchup with working-class food. (September 30, 2011)

Sensitive souls who were scandalized by the “social injustice” of underdevelopment now clamor against competition from India and China. (September 29, 2011)

Knowledge is attained through analysis, contemplation, and errors. -Illustration: Better Ideas Through Failure http://on.wsj.com/rrAsu6 via @WSJ (September 28, 2011)

11th Commandment: Thou shall not leave a button unpushed or unclicked. (September 27, 2011)

Capitalism doesn’t work. So let’s have Joe, there, rule over us. (September 27, 2011)

Sustainable sustainability is what counts. (Pardon the Newspeak.) (September 26, 2011)

Infinity can do anything and everything. The problem is to get there. — BBC News – Virtual monkeys write Shakespeare http://bbc.in/phdpx5 (September 26, 2011)

Twun™ (tweeted pun) of the week – The new sexual fetish: earpiece and love. (September 26, 2011)

Thin air, that is, zeros and ones, is the stuff the world is made of. (September 26, 2011)

“What are your deliverables?” the marketing consultant asked the obstetrician. (September 25, 2011)

I fear that Palestinians will get the state they want, hard and fast. (September 23, 2011)

“Demand is sluggish” or other such Keynesian pronouncements actually mean that individuals are incapable or scared of exchanging. (September 23, 2011)

Why may politicians and bureaucrats try to manipulate market prices while ordinary individuals may not? (September 23, 2011)

Don’t put all your megs in the same social basket. (September 22, 2011)

Politicos should respond to the second dip by saying that they intend to reduce their intervention and to put the public finances in order. (September 21, 2011)

Unfolding events are a matter of topology. (September 21, 2011)

It is impossible to step twice into the same river (Democritus). Sorry for the repetition. (September 21, 2011)

The state has its own “animal spirits”, much more dangerous than the ordinary variety. (See my “Somebody in Charge” on this.) (September 21, 2011)

France has remained, in some ways, a free society. You get into the country without any question, and check in a hotel without any ID paper. (September 12, 2011)

I spoke ill of the RATP bureaucrats: there is a smartphone app that calculates itineraries in the Paris métro and RER. Essential. (September 12, 2011)

It always amazes me how non-geeks can survive in our technological world. But then, perhaps they just choose the simple solutions. (September 10, 2011)

If I were not forbidden to carry my pistol on my flight to Paris tonight, I know at least one flight that could not be hijacked. (September 10, 2011)

I am NOT willing to give Al-Quaeda what remains of my liberty in the hope that they will not attack my flight of tonight to Paris. (September 10, 2011)

Instead of the Greek state providing collaterals, altruistic politicians and bureaucrats, who are used to sacrifice themselves for the public good, should offer to serve as hostages. (September 9, 2011)

Amazon is the greatest invention after the wheel and UPS. For $5, I got two chargers for my French cellphone, delivered just in time by UPS. (September 9, 2011)

Castigat ridendo mores. (September 9, 2011)

The immediate economic problem now, is that banks and investors are mainly lending to the state – instead of to honest people. (September 9, 2011)

I’ll be over the North Atlantic to commemorate the first hours of 9/11. The worst will be to pass the Police State controls at airport. (September 9, 2011)

European state defaults threaten banks, who were foolish enough to follow naked emperors. Debt Fears Mount in Euro Zone http://on.wsj.com/phM7I9 (September 9, 2011)

When you get French Catholic spams, you know that the Internet has really caught on. (September 9, 2011)

Create jobs (lots of walking jobs): ban UPS and Fedex! (September 9, 2011)

9/11: the state ordered to shoot down civilian aircrafts if necessary, while it had itself denied passengers the tools to defend themselves. (September 9, 2011)

“Out for delivery” are the sweetest three words on the web. (September 9, 2011)

“Social justice” is a code word and smokescreen for state injustice. (September 9, 2011)

A totally clean pistol is as rare as perfect happiness. (September 8, 2011)

Will somebody invent a web-based system whereby the wife/girlfriend will look into the fridge wherever she is, & advise her man what to eat? (September 8, 2011)

It’s not easy to be perfect in an imperfect world. (September 7, 2011)

Found on Google: “Locate Westbrook Taxi in Westbrook”. (September 7, 2011)

There are whole classes of people paid to say anything with no regard for the truth or even just logical consistency. (September 6, 2011)

French twun™ of the week: Halogène? Y’a pas de plaisir. (September 6, 2011)

Reflection on my recollections of Françoise Sagan’s “Bonjour Tristesse”: Melancholy is fun when it has no reason to be. (September 6, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: Assault (battery not included). (September 6, 2011)

The public debt and the senseless political “we”: If we owe it to ourselves, let us forget it. (September 6, 2011)

If hell exists, it must be for those who start Nigerian messages with “Dear beloved one in Christ”. Crime: impersonating a heaven officer. (September 6, 2011)

Pre-crime policing would require the immediate arrest of all rulers because they may, in the future, commit the crime of tyranny. (September 6, 2011)

9/11 could have been the occasion to reaffirm and reclaim our liberties; instead, it was an opportunity for a big step forward by Leviathan. (September 5, 2011)

Who was this Jackson whose hole is remembered every August? (September 4, 2011)

The fun with data is that it’s easy to be surprised. (September 3, 2011)

The bottom line is that those who have lent to governments shouldn’t have. (September 11, 2011)

One way to create lots of jobs would be to forbid computers, which shows that efficient production, not jobs, is the goal. (September 2, 2011)

Finding work is not difficult; finding income is more challenging as you must do something useful to others. (September 2, 2011)

Dullest joke ever: Two rhinoceroses meet on the road. “Let’s play chicken!” says one. (September 1, 2011)

The president of the United States should be unknown, as is the president of the Swiss Confederation. (September 1, 2011))

Ten days after the death of Canadian socialist politician Jack Layton, the nature of his cancer is still secret. Was it collective cancer? (August 30, 2011)

Aucun enfant ne devrait quitter l’école sans savoir réciter des alexandrins. (August 30, 2011)

A purely logical, a priori economic theory may apply in some worlds but not necessarily in ours. (August 30, 2011)

Second twun™ of the week: in an environment-friendly world ruled by Gaia, fruits would be judged by their pears. (August 30, 2011)

Twun of the week: fruit inspectors must do pear reviews. (August 30, 2011)

Followers of Ludwig von Mises often look like the People of the Book. (August 30, 2011)

Just considering the numbers, dying is rather banal. (August 30, 2011)

Ordered anarchy, even if not actually realizable, remains the standard. (August 29, 2011)

Nostalgie concernant le bon roi Dagobert : il y eut jadis des rois et des saints ; aujourd’hui, il n’y a que des politiciens et des nichons. (August 25, 2011)

Godot came, but I was out. (August 25, 2011)

Le bon roi Dagobert a mis sa culotte à l’envers. Le bon roi Jack Layton donne des culottes à la tonne. (August 24, 2011)

Gold is still $600 below than its inflation-adjusted level of early 1980. Neither a good nor bad omen, but beware of fetishes. (August 24, 2011)

Do you only realize how politicians love you? (August 24, 2011)

Only horses work smoothly. An intellectual geek’s job is messy. (August 24, 2011)

I hope there won’t be a tsunami in the Saco River. (It would then become a sacophagus.) (August 23, 2011)

To my Canadian friends: A nice thug, even if more smiling and slightly less thuggish than some of his colleagues, is still a thug. (August 23, 2011)

Contemporary, but pre-fax, interpretation of Augustine: Ama et fax quod vis. (August 22, 2011)

It is difficult to talk seriously about taxes without having read Brennan and Buchanan’s The Power To Tax (Cambridge U. Press, 1980). (August 22, 2011)

When a politician dies, the establishment and the plebs make a big show. Not surprising as politicians are in the show business. (August 22, 2011)

Publictreasaurus is a newly discovered dinosaur who was a close cousin of tyrannosaurus. (August 21, 2011)

Is committing senseless crimes the only way of young men to have some adventure in lives? Berlin Faces Car Burning Surge http://on.wsj.com/qClfql (August 21, 2011)

« C’est une expérience éternelle que tout homme qui a du pouvoir est porté à en abuser ; il va jusqu’à ce qu’il trouve des limites. » (Montesquieu) (August 20, 2011)

Horny soit qui mal y pense. (August 19, 2011)

The answer is no, but remind me what the question was. (And remind me if somebody wrote this before me.) (August 18, 2011)

Joke of the week: I am quite well-known but nobody knows it. (August 18, 2011)

Read the author you criticize. Otherwise, you may be criticizing the wrong thing. (August 16, 2011)

As Auberon Herbert would have said, British looters are “a purer essence of government, more concentrated and intensified”. (August 8, 2011)

London riots: Mounting discontent is unavoidable in a politicized society. The looters have taken “social justice” in their own hands. (August 8, 2011)

Twun of the week: I’d rather miss a call than kiss a mall. (August 8, 2011)

Contra Obama, the American political system is at least able to convey the deep dissatisfaction of a large part of the population. (August 8, 2011)

When the King is ill, the whole kingdom falls in disarray. (August 8, 2011)

Customs posts and cops summarize the nature of the state. If you love being in a customs post, you love the state. Otherwise, think again. (August 8, 2011)

Governments that rate banks, cars, taxpayers, food, tobacco, drugs, and lifestyles in general, are being rated. Good! (August 8, 2011)

Investors rush into Treasurys in order to protect themselves against government-inflicted havoc. O Brave New World! http://t.co/9qUe7Gr (August 8, 2011)

Our glorified social and collective states, who decide on how we live our lives, who crush our liberties with their coercion, are broke. (August 8, 2011)

Dow is down 2.9%. We have become so dependent on the state that it’s problems become ours. The state is too big for individuals to succeed. (August 8, 2011)

States downgrade their subjects all the time, so it is just fair that they be downgraded by some of them at least occasionally. (August 8, 2011)

For a man, there is only one thing in life worse than having to clean his guns: it’s to have no guns at all. (August 7, 2011)

The sovereign debt crisis is, even more (if it were possible) than the recent economic crisis, a crisis of statism. (August 7, 2011)

America, said John Quincy Adams, “goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy”. What are the Seals still doing in Afghanistan? (August 6, 2011)

If you are not surprised by what you learn, you are not learning anything. (August 6, 2011)

China: domain name registration banned for “Contents that are designed to harm the glory and interests of the State”. http://www.ygnetworks.org/chinesedomain.htm (August 6, 2011)

The terrible mirage of the 20th century: they imagined liberty brewing, but it was Leviathan flexing his muscles. (August 6, 2011)

« Politique » : drôle de terme français, datant du 17e siècle, pour révérer le politicien. Qui sont les « économiques » ? (August 6, 2011)

“Image sociale”, “SAMU social”… Il ne manque plus que l’automobile sociale et la société sociale. http://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/industrie/automobile/20110805trib000641120/psa-cree-une-fondation-pour-ameliorer-son-image-sociale.html L’image sociale de PSA (August 5, 2011)

Civil suits are a way for the state to avoid the burden of the proof that was set up to prevent tyranny. http://t.co/rWXbCYb (August 5, 2011)

The (annoying) captchas used by FB are brilliant and must be part of any Turing test. (August 5, 2011)

Read in the Acknowledgements section of a late 60s book: “The labors of typing my many drafts were cheerfully carried out by…” (August 5, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: an isocrat is someone who has the power to burn .iso files. (Agust 5, 2011)

Sur le Styx, Charon réclamait le droit de porter des âmes. (August 5, 2011)

Those who would give up liberty to purchase a little thin waist for somebody else’s children deserve neither liberty nor a thin waist. (August 5, 2011)

States are much more powerful to do harm than to do good. (August 4, 2011)

The sovereign debt crisis is much more serious than many people think. It will have defining consequences for the 21st century. (August 4, 2011)

Three words : world is binary. (August 4, 2011)

Si le capitaine Haddock revenait parmi nous, il s’exclamerait : « Que le Grand Clic me croque… » (August 3, 2011)

The difference between somebody who understands something about the world and somebody who doesn’t is that the former has explicit theories. (August 3, 2011)

Somebody on Facebook is offering 200,000 free iPhones. I asked if they would please include a fridge and two chickens. (August 2, 2011)

Cherries, chocolate and tobacco are proof that God loves us. But tobacco and chocolate may also show a story of love and hate. (August 2, 2011)

Animal rights: Vincere scis, animal, victoria uti nescis. (August 2, 2011)

Libertarianism is partly about believing in institutions that distinguish mobs and groups of individuals. (August 1, 2011)

Needed: libertarian skeptics. (August 1, 2011)

Murphy’s law: what a stupid piece of conventional wisdom! Some things are more likely to go wrong, others less. (August 1, 2011)

During decades, fashionable economists scratched their heads on how to fight under-development, ignoring a simple solution: liberalization! (August 1, 2011)

If any other political system were as sensitive to popular discontent as the American one, it would also be near-paralyzed over debt. (August 1, 2011)

Good news and bad news: our sacred cows are different from India’s. (August 1, 2011)

Continuously “unintended consequences” cannot remain unintended for long. (August 1, 2011)

What’s the optimal rate of following one’s followers if the goal is to increase followers? Optimal is low if goal is to read everything… (August 1, 2011)

If people could carry guns on airplanes, we know one thing: 9/11 would not have happened, and our liberties would not have been crushed. (August 1, 2011)

Of our mixed economy, some say that everything good is from capitalist half, everything bad from other half. Other side claims the contrary. (August 1, 2011

Remember that CBO projects the cumulative deficit (that is, the increase in the debt) over the next 10 years to be more than $6.5 trillion. (July 31, 2011)

The problem with the DC gerontocracy is not the “geronto” but the “cracy”. (July 31, 2011)

Two chambers in Congress, three readings of bills in British-type parliaments, complex procedures: (imperfect) ways to constrain Leviathan. (July 31, 2011)

Deciding whom to pay? With every law and regulation, government decides who will be privileged and who will be harmed. (July 31, 2011)

My prediction again: there will be a solution to lift the debt ceiling. After all, the politicians and their bureaucrats want to get paid. (July 31, 2011)

Why don’t the statists organize a flash mob to voluntary send checks to the US Treasury? (July 31, 2011)

People on the right often speak collectivist, just like people on the left. Naivety is not a good excuse. (July 30, 2011)

Private-sector trade unions are much less dangerous than the state. In fact, their danger comes only from their state-granted privileges. (July 30, 2011)

Anything is priceless if you don’t pay the price yourself. – On the Marines’ Wish List: A Pricey Jet Fighter http://on.wsj.com/o6EUVX (July 30, 2011)

To the dog, I give only government water – no Perrier. (July 29, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: A polar bear with mixed sexual preferences is called bipolar. (July 29, 2011)

Organizing icons on a smart phone screen is the new Rubik’s cube. (July 29, 2011)

The debt will hit the fan. (July 29, 2011)

The sky is the ceiling. (July 29, 2011)

Nihil novi sub sole: the king is begging parliament for money. (July 29, 2011)

When my doctor said that to nails grow slower than fingernails, I realized that doctors, like economists, know a lot of small useful things. (July 29, 2011)

As the taxpayers should know but NASA ignored, there is no such thing as a free launch. (July 29, 2011)

What you get is what you pay for, and information must also be paid for in order to know exactly what is obtained and what is paid. (July 29, 2011)

There are so many people who don’t know what they are talking about! It also happens to the best, but not on a continuing basis. (July 28, 2011)

There are simply too many laws, too many intrusive laws, and too many entrepreneurial and conceited “lawmakers”. (July 28, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: That haddocks have soles does not mean that they have souls. (July 26, 2011)

Une organisation ne peut avoir de porte-parole que s’il y a une parole à porter. (July 26, 2011)

Truism of the week (Montesquieu said it first): liberty is not the power to manage other people’s lives. (July 26, 2011)

“What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it his heaven.” – Friedrich Hölderlin

Like tribalism, nationalism is a scourge. (July 24, 2011)

If you are a collectivist, whether socialist or fascist, the children of your enemies are your enemies. (July 23, 2011)

Twun (tweeted pun) of the week: Monotheists don’t eat pancakes. (July 23, 2011)

Many journalists have no idea of the difference between semi-automatic firearms, automatic firearms, and rocking chairs. (July 23, 2011)

Senseless authority generates senseless violence. (July 23, 2011)

Why were there few mass killings fifty years ago? The more politicized and soft-authoritarian the world is, the more violent it becomes. (July 23, 2011)

Twun of the week: Somebody who brings others to the stake is called a stakeholder. (July 20, 2011)

Caesar was certainly born in August – and his mother did not have much imagination. (July 20, 2011)

The World Health Organization is the spearhead of the global state epidemic. (July 18, 2011)

All prices are relative prices: the price of something is what it costs in terms of something else (money or another numéraire good). (July 18, 2011)

« Quand Dieu ferme une porte, il ouvre une fenêtre. » Si la maison est climatisée, ça n’améliore pas le bilan carbone. (July 18, 2011)

The world is binary, so nipples must come in pairs. — History made as nipple is found on foot – The Sun – http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3701059/History-made-as-nipple-is-found-on-foot.html (July 18, 2011)

Gold is money if, and only if, and to the extent that, people want, given the constraints they face, to use it as a medium of exchange. (July 18, 2011)

Describing GDP as wealth, a common media error, confuses the return of an asset with the value of the asset itself. (July 16, 2011)

Gold is money if, and only if, most people think it is. (July 15, 2011)

I find the term “offensive” to be very offensive. Please be sensitive and do not use it in my presence. (July 15, 2011)

We are close to the day when somebody faking to be an idiot will be attacked as insensitive and offensive by real idiots. http://j.mp/qIbL1R (July 15, 2011)

We live in a Velcro world, yet liberty doesn’t stick. (July 15, 2011)

Even with other people’s money, altruism has its limits. The idea of default seems to be taking hold in Europe. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fdd18148-ad72-11e0-bc4f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1SNHEFoX5 (July 14, 2011)

The worst tax loophole is the permission given taxpayers to keep some money in their pockets. (July 14, 2011)

Money is a matter of degree. (July 13, 2011)

My prediction: this time, the debt ceiling will be increased before the federal government starts defaulting or running out of money. (July 13, 2011)

We need to do what the statists have done for decades: express our long-term radical goals, and accept half-measures until more is possible. (July 13, 2011)

Find what I think is a grammatical mistake in this sentence: “As the fiscal expert, Bruce Bartlett, has argued, the law requiring Congressional approval of extra debt might even be unconstitutional.” (July 13, 2011)

Twun of the week: Volkswagen alteram partem. (July 13, 2011)

In university, you have a few minutes to understand that bond yields vary inversely with bond prices, and you remember this forever. (July 12, 2011)

Reflection from the Maine woods: in the forest, BS means “bear shit”. (July 12, 2011)

Dans les forêts du Maine et du New Hampshire, on trouve beaucoup de hêtre mais pas de néant. (July 12, 2011)

Romulus and Remus founded Rome. Stimulus established Washington, DC. (July 10, 2011)

Stakeholders are simply state courtiers who want somebody else’s steak. (July 8, 2011)

Discrimination in favor of “stakeholders” is the new apartheid. (July 8, 2011)

Stakeholders (ie, state courtiers): put your steak back in your steak holster. -White House Readies Gun Control Stance – http://t.co/RFA4GdS (July 8, 2011)

Outrageous. Most American are as irrational in matters of sex (and booze) as most Europeans are in matters of guns. http://t.co/L4ErSh5 (July 7, 2011)

If you are always a spokesman for somebody else, don’t pretend you have an opinion. (This could be called the weak version of Emerson.) (July 6, 2011)

I prefer tall smoke to small talk. Okay, I know, it doesn’t work perfectly, but it does with the right accent. (July 6, 2011)

On my birthday, I discovered that Dominican Republic Cohiba cigars are as good as the Cuban “originals”, at a fraction of the price. (July 5, 2011)

A troubling trend towards one- or two-sentence paragraphs, as if paragraph and sentence were the same and rhetoric always trumped logic. (July 5, 2011)

Ten 10-wheeler truckloads of fine sand contain 14 trillion grains, the amount in $ of the federal debt. Counting would take 440,000 years. (July 5, 2011)

Trains have a good track record. (July 5, 2011)

Small things are to the creator what small talk is to the created. (July 5, 2011)

Does it matter for our approach to life and knowledge that a written mention does not anymore mean what is but what will be if we click it? (July 5, 2011)

The main problem in the US is that it is a monarchy too — albeit with many small czars. (July 4, 2011)

Creative destruction: International Talking Machine disappeared. International Business Machines is celebrating its 100th anniversary.International Talking Machine disappeared. International Business Machines is celebrating its 100th anniversary. http://j.mp/mNvXci (July 1, 2011)

Against a bartough, a bartender stands no chance. (July 1, 2011)

Hypothesis: one cannot understand language (& perhaps anything else) if one doesn’t like Rimbaud’s Sonnet des voyelles. (June 30, 2011)

Contrarians prefer antimatter. (June 30, 2011)

What’s difficult for a non-discriminating altruist is to consistently buy at the highest possible price. Selling at the lowest one is easy. (June 30, 2011)

In many (good) ways, a default on U.S. gov’t debt would amount to a balanced-budget amendment. (June 29, 2011)

I am too intellectual for the rednecks, and too redneck for the intellectuals. I like neither milk nor the establishment. Que faire? (June 29, 2011)

Good twitterers and facebookers (like me, to take an example at random) are private producers of public goods. (June 29, 2011)

Je ne déteste pas les litotes. (June 29, 2011)

Canada’s “Competition Bureau” does not pretend to be an “agency”, a glorified bureaucratese term, but simply an assemblage of bureaucrats. (June 29, 2011)

Only one carrion luggage per passenger. (June 29, 2011)

Carry and you won’t be a carrion. (June 28, 2011)

Depending on what you have done, it is often better to be a never-was than a has-been. In my case (to take a case at random), I never was a has-been. (June 28, 2011)

Fallopian tubes: don’t tie the knot before getting married. (June 28, 2011)

Second dip of my weekly twun (tweeted pun): Buying a house brings closure. (June 27, 2011)

Twun of the week (mocking sacred things): How do you call a surgeon who specializes in vasectomies? A duct hunter. (June 27, 2011)

Advice for teachers: it’s still better to bark madly than to mark badly. (June 27, 2011)

It must be difficult today to be a defense attorney and to maintain respect for the justice system’s claim to protect the innocent. (June 27, 2011)

I thought that concealed carry with a cross-draw holster was easier if you have a beer belly, but my girlfriend says she sees no difference. (June 27, 2011)

The real purpose of things: Patdown = à bas les pattes! (June 27, 2011)

I am getting somewhere. (Some wear and tear, at least.) (June 27, 2011)

The TSA is right to be suspicious of old people and to vigorously touch their junk. After all, they have known liberty. (June 27, 2011)

Socialist motto (like for health care in Canada): I am heading for the queue. (June 27, 2011)

“A spokeswoman … said the inspectors were just doing their jobs.” Interesting argument. They tried it at Nuremberg. – http://t.co/hw4ZE94 (June 27, 2011)

Intergenerational reflection: there are two generations, the Twitter-FB generation, and the other one. (June 25, 2011)

Once you believe that there exists something like “the national interest” (a mathematical impossibility), protectionism becomes justifiable. (June 25, 2011)

Condorcet, Dodgson and Arrow demonstrated that individual preferences cannot be aggregated into social preferences. Many still ignore it. (June 25, 2011)

I wrote to Amazon and their computer utterly failed the Turing test. (June 24, 2011)

“Horny soit qui mail y pense.” (June 23, 2011)

Twun of the week: For dictators, size matters. (June 23, 2011)

Anger is productive, but one should not spend too much time hating. (June 23, 2011)

Inciting hatred against people deserving it is not bad. Individuals who threaten our liberties deserve some proportionate hatred. (June 23, 2011)

Public zoning is to private development and restrictive covenants what apartheid is to discrimination. Synagoge’s plight http://t.co/VTQj0kL (June 22, 2011)

Did the Romans speak Latin with a French or an English accent? (June 22, 201)

Was Mohammed a North Koran or a South Koran? (June 21, 2011)

Useless Twun™ of the day: After all, it’s called the “Bible”, not the “Homoble” nor the “Heteroble”. (June 21, 2011)

Il ne faut pas se tromper dans ses prières : une info ? ou une nympho ? (June 21, 2011)

I care less about my carbon footprint than about my car fun bootprint. (June 21, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: Whether you are eating leftovers or rightovers, you will be underfed. (June 20, 2011)

If not rapidly corrected, “unintended consequences” are in fact intended, or at least considered as necessary costs (collateral damage). (June 20, 2011)

There will soon be so many menus, add-ons, and buttons that a lifetime won’t be enough, to see, let alone click on, everything clickable. (June 20, 2011)

À défaut d’un camembert lourd, voici un calembour mère. (June 19, 2011)

Mieux vaut être cancre reposé que cancrelat. (June 19, 2011)

“Food sovereignty” if for cannibals. — The NDP Convention: Got a resolution http://t.co/8r0qdUm (June 19, 2011)

“Intergenerational equity” means fighting for the liberty of future generations, in return of which they transfer some income to us, right? (June 19, 2011)

Je me demande pourquoi Québec Solidaire n’est pas solidaire avec moi. Discrimination. http://www.quebecsolidaire.net/ (June 18, 2011)

Hippies were terribly naive. Today’s youth are as naive, but more authoritarian. – Growing up with a father on the run http://t.co/n6VwjFt (June 18, 2011)

“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse” — James Madison (June 17, 2011)

Si “le Québec est ce que l’humanité a de mieux à offrir” (Jean Charest), les pistolets à silex sont ce que la physique moderne a conçu de mieux. (June 17, 2011)

Do not measure money supply with M1 or M2 when it suits your conclusions, and by the rate of interest when it suits them better. (June 16, 2011)

It is often those most subsidized by the taxpayers who plead for social justice and weep on those they are exploiting. (June 14, 2011)

Greek roots: a pancake is a cake for everybody. (June 13, 2011)

Double-dip twun™ of the week: I never had a cat but I could CAD a hat. (June 13, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: If I had a cat, I would call it Mandu. (June 13, 2011)

I wish I could see my own typos as well as those of others. Fortunately, the same cannot be said for my errors in general! (June 13, 2011)

If 8 decades of New Deal types of program have shackled the economy and destroyed individual liberty, how could a bit more bring salvation? (June 11, 2011)

Software menus used to propose the option “Jesus save”. A conspiracy led them to replace it with the mundane SAVE. (June 11, 2011)

Power corrupts… Give arbitrary power to anybody, and “bad judgment” cases will appear. TSA Admits ‘Bad Judgment’ – http://t.co/XiAUHJO (June 11, 2011)

A criticism is credible only when the critics can demonstrate that he understands what he criticizes. (June 9, 2011)

I suspect that if politicos were found guilty to all offenses to their laws, there wouldn’t be many of them around. http://t.co/DDjabtW (June 8, 2011)

When I think that my 80-year-old friend, Ralph Maddocks, discovered tinyurl before me I did (some years ago), I doubt my geek credentials. (June 8, 2011)

“Niche markets” indeed. In French, “boobs” are “nichons”! Passport to Beauty – Video Library – NYT – http://nyti.ms/er5apD (June 8, 2011)

I cannot imagine how a meeting can be held without me. Who will draw the camel? (June 7, 2011)

If one’s opportunity cost of time is low, or one’s tasks are very elementary, it may be a good idea to use Word without outlines and styles. (June 7, 2011)

“The message could not be delivered because the recipient’s mailbox is full.” Lost in the world, or amateurs of voluntary simplicity? (June 6, 2011)

Le problème n’est pas tellement que l’État est un panier de crabes, mais que c’est un panier de crabes armés. (June 6, 2011)

“Overrated” is overrated. (June 6, 2011)

Smoking is a very subversive act — subversive of the reigning soft tyranny. Every smoker thus creates a positive externality. (June 6, 2011)

Nothing to hide? Think twice. You may have something you don’t know about that you should hide. — http://t.co/8pyvMQy (June 2, 2011)

Environmentalists should emigrate to a Commonwhale. (June 1, 2011)

In the New England Journal of Medicine, I continuously discover the infinity of diseases, and how health is an incomplete diagnosis. (June 1, 2011)

Question is, did the raccoon wait in line before getting treatment? — Man arrested for attacking raccoons with a shovel http://t.co/FhTtFQz (June 1, 2011)

“Nanny-state overreach” is a double oxymoron. (June 1, 2011)

Twun™ for geeks only: Instead of updating one’s bio, it would often be better if one could update one’s BIOS. (June 1, 2011)

I used to have one or two efficient friends, and I wasn’t one of them. (May 31, 2011)

NYC aiming to be a con Dom. — Jose Andujar, vendor of Obama condoms, arrested for third time – NYPOST.com http://t.co/eQh4GuT (May 31, 2011)

No doubt about the defense of liberty: “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” (Mat. 9:37) (May 31, 2011)

The only public buildings in the UK where smoking is not banned are prisons. Oh, Brave New World! (May 31, 2011)

Il n’en est pas a-serbe pour autant. — Mladic transféré au Tribunal pénal de La Haye. http://j.mp/kaU07B

Imagine how surprising would be the existence of an academic journal called “Leviathan Control”. Yet, “Tobacco Control” surprises nobody. (May 31, 2011)

As I just wrote a redneck friend, “our friends can check the dictionary for ‘Kafkaesque’ if they don’t know the word; our enemies already know it”. (May 30, 2011)

Children born during the summer must be somebody’s offsummer. (May 30, 2011)

A book is a manuscript who wanted to be laid. (May 29, 2011)

If the Bible were supposed to be read more than twice, it would be called the Multible. (May 29, 2011)

Twun™ (tweeted pun) of the week: A semi-colon is a colon that has been operated on. (May 28, 2011)

Civil servants have become civil masters. (May 28, 2011)

If creating jobs is the goal, a ban on chainsaws is long overdue. (May 27, 2011)

With multiplication of laws, accused is typically charged with several offenses, and some are bound to stick with compromise-prone jurors. (May 26, 2011)

Twun™ (tweeted pun) of the week: A Winchester in every house is a win-win solution. (May 26, 2011)

“It’s not Soviet Russia here.” Indeed, they could not master such technologies. http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/1112.html (May 26, 2011)

France is a restaurant. America is a TV dinner. (May 26, 2011)

France is a museum. America is an experiment. (May 26, 2011)

First Commandment: Thou shall not lose thy bit locker key. (May 26, 2011)

If “we” were really the state, how could “they” own trademarks? – Walt Disney Surrenders to Navy’s SEAL Team 6 http://on.wsj.com/ig3np1 (May 26, 2011)

In actual practice, states are clubs of producers, not associations of consumers. In an economic perspective, consumers are what matters. (May 25, 2011)

In actual practice, states are clubs of producers, not associations of consumers. In an economic perspective, consumers are what matters. (May 25, 2011)

Large companies, including large banks, are very useful, provided they do not sleep with the state. (May 23, 2011)

Twun™ of late Sunday night: “How do you want your jets?” “Scrambled.” (May 22, 2011)

Last IMF annual report contains 104 “surveillance”. Its former Managing Director now knows what it means: he wears a surveillance bracelet. (May 21, 2011)

Don’t read anything in the fact that I make my harder jokes half an hour after the predicted event. (May 21, 2011)

Scoop: DSK was in fact attempting to rapture the maid. (May 21, 2011)

The Trojan war was caused by the rapture of Helen. (May 21, 2011)

Warning: Rapture not as fun as you thought. Before you are raptured, you have to go through a TSA junk and soul search. (May 21, 2011)

We can only hope that regulating bureaucrats, instead of being captured (by the regulated) as George Stigler thought, will be raptured. (May 21, 2011)

The rapture (at least on Eastern Daylight Time) will occur in 20 minutes. Make sure you stand outside lest your head hits the ceiling. (May 21, 2011)

If Strauss-Kahn had spent his life making hay bales, he would have been less harmful. – Ex-IMF Chief Makes Bail http://t.co/kvbTjhP (May 20, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: Minute Maid is not a Minuteman’s maid. (May 20, 2011)

Domestic outsourcing: actors will become only part-time actors. – Dropping Bodies Into Computer-Generated Films http://on.wsj.com/lBXr3M (May 19, 2011)

With his diplomatic passport, #DSK must have avoided TSA searches. Stay at Rikers Island has made up for that. TSA = the innocents’ Rikers. (May 19, 2011)

#DSK has spent his whole life exploiting the people. Now, he bugs us again by monopolizing our voyeurs’ attention. (May 19, 2011)

#DSK If guilty, his little tour at Rikers Island was an advance. If he is innocent, he has seen what is the state that he idealizes so much. (May 19, 2011)

Either DSK is found guilty, and it will cool down politicos. Or he is found innocent, and it will show the danger of prosecutorial power. (May 19, 2010)

Milk is just another body fluid. (May 18, 2011)

Libertarianism brings together the best of conservatism and the best of liberalism, and scraps the worst of both. (May 17, 2011)

French Kahn-Kahn will never be the same again. (May 17, 2011)

Cheap joke: Was DSK the head of the IMF, or the tail? (May 17, 2011)

Among Dominique Stauss-Kahn and Julian Assange, the latter, at least, did something not totally useless or harmful. (May 17, 2011)

Weekly twun™: Childless women get mammograms; mothers (especially Italian ones) get mammagrams. In America, they are all called mammoounces. (May 17, 2011)

If Dominique Strauss-Kahn is guilty, his penalty should include some lessons in civilization and commerce from Eliot Spitzer. (May 16, 2011)

Why is DSK’s daughter attending a private university in the US, not a public university in France, Canada, or Venezuela? http://t.co/MihAySr (May 16, 2011)

Even old and despicable politicians and bureaucrats are entitled to to the presumption of innocence. (May 16, 2011)

Fascinating times. Perhaps we’ll soon learn that the pope has been arrested for jumping a nun in the Sistine Chapel. (May 16, 2011)

I found a Frenchman who thinks there is no presumption of innocence in the USA. Many Americans think the same for France! Tyranny is elsewhere. (May 16, 2011)

Strauss-Kahn affair: Bailout chief caught trying to bailin (May 16, 2011)

Scoop: IMF and its member states promise not to screw anybody anymore. (May 16, 2011)

After the Strauss-Kahn case, only eunuchs should be admissible as politicians and high-level bureaucrats. Many birds killed with one stone. (May 15, 2011)

We now know which is the best NYC hotel where to send politicians and bureaucrats. (May 15, 2011)

It is a very strange case. Even a dirty old man, especially a politician, does not risk everything for a maid. — http://on.wsj.com/lgrNCb (May 15, 2011)

Conard, le barbant. (May 14, 2011)

Revolutionary lesson no. 1: A minuteman is not somebody who comes too fast. (May 14, 2011)

Inflation is a general increase in prices. Distinguish from a change in relative prices (some up, some down). http://on.wsj.com/kLEMmp (May 14, 2011)

If immigrants steal jobs, then any newborn is a ticking job thief. The bomb explodes when he starts to work. What about prohibiting new births or, at the very least, killing the immigrants from within before they reach 16? (May 13, 2011)

A dog can’t survive on RSS feed. (May 13, 2011)

Speculation and gouging – buying cheap votes to sell expensive policies – should be forbidden to politicians. (May 13, 2011)

Leviathan cannot survive without external or internal border controls. (May 12, 2011)

“National security letters” are George III’s writs of assistance. (May 12, 2011)

Intellectual capital depreciates rapidly with time. Without new investments in learning, its net value drops. (May 11, 2011)

Only in the human species are the females nicer looking than the males (from my humble viewpoint). In fact, it’s the same with angels. (May 11, 2011)

On a deserted path going through Gorham, Maine, tonight, we met two guys riding 4X4s, one of them carrying an M-16 (civilian version?) on his shoulder. I thought this was rather cool: after all, a free man travels armed, and this is America. Trisha later told me that she was a bit worried when they stopped to talk to us, and the older one stood grinning behind his openly armed companion. I must say I was not suspicious at all. Stupid me? Perhaps. But the little dirty secret is that I was also packing heat (the 9mm semi-auto pistol barely shows a bulge under my jacket), so there was no reason to panic. Indeed, the two guys were very friendly, as everybody is in New England. (May 11, 2011)

Twun™ (tweeted pun) of the week: It’s better to pack heat than to hack Pete. (May 11, 2011)

The battle against “civil” servants will be one of the main trends of the coming years. (May 10, 2011)

Timeo Danaos et dona accipientes. – Violence Mars Greek General Strike http://on.wsj.com/lFEaxR (May 10, 2011)

I am more and more persuaded that Austrian economics, in its orthodox and absolutist version, is a dead end. (May 10, 2011)

Who will save us? The Elohim or the “Hello her”? Be PC. — Rael: ‘Overpopulation is the true cause of Fukushima!’ http://t.co/ktNljen (May 10, 2011)

Que diable signifie « électricité patrimoniale » dans les documents du gouvernement du Q ? Pourquoi pas « électricité matrimoniale » ou, encore mieux, « électricité sociale » ? (May 10, 2011)

Important truism: If you don’t teach anybody anything, nobody will learn from you. (May 10, 2011)

La théorie des choix publics en action: lire la section intitulée “Aide aux propriétaires d’une résidence endommagée par la pyrrhotite” dans le dernier Plan budgétaire du gouvernement du Q. (May 10, 2011)

The world would be a much better place if people read instruction manuals! (May 10, 2011)

First thing to understand: Leviathan is mainly a redistributive machine. (May 10, 2011)

« La Route verte est un itinéraire cyclable qui s’étend actuellement sur près de 4700 kilomètres et relie les régions du Québec. Cette route constitue une infrastructure majeure pour le tourisme durable et elle est reconnue, selon la société National Geographic, comme le meilleur itinéraire cyclable au monde. » (Gouvernement du Q., Plan budgétaire 2011-2012) Rigolo. Durant l’hiver, c’est-à-dire la plus grande partie de l’année, la Route verte devient la Route brune à l’usage des motoneiges. (May 10, 2011)

It is very striking to see how much the state loves us. Thank you, mom! (May 10, 2011)

Avec le Plan Nord, Hydro-Québec participera à des « plans sociaux » du gouvernement du Q, émulant la pétrolière nationale de Chavez ! (May 10, 2011)

Very weak and old argument. What if I don’t want my daughter to be a truck driver? – The “Daughter Test” of Prohibition http://j.mp/iynAjB (May 10, 2011)

A creed claiming to be based on logic and natural law, but which is rejected by some humans proficient with logic, is not worth its salt. (May 10, 2011)

In jail because of lack of respect for a free-living non-human companion. – Animal ethicists call for new terminology http://natpo.st/mDlJ2I

Electronics has given many things a near-zero cost. For example, one can have 100 alarm clocks in one’s smart phone. (May 9, 2011)

One out 10 Americans is called “Officer”, another one “Doctor”, and most of the rest “James”. (May 9, 2011)

Should anybody on the govt’s “terror watch list” be allowed to speak freely if he passes a background check? – http://on.wsj.com/lPSL3t (May 9, 2011)

Leviathan is hungry. (May 9, 2011)

After the Canadian federal gov’t, the gov’t of Québec is creating an IRS-like revenue agency. Always borrowing the worst from America. (May 9, 2011)

The gov’t creates tax incentives to make people do what it wants them to do. When people do it, they are blamed for “tax avoidance”. (May 9, 2011)

Europe will become more of a centralized Welfare State, or will crack. The latter is more feasible. Greek problems – http://on.wsj.com/lFaQ23 (May 8, 2011)

Coptics need copters. – Christians Blame Islamists for Deadly Egypt Clash http://on.wsj.com/l7VjNH (May 8, 2011)

The problem now is that more than one American cop will think he is an interior SEAL. (May 7, 2011)

“Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!” – Patrick Henry (May 6, 2011)

White trash don’t like blue cheese. (May 5, 2011)

Doctor to patient: “Do you prefer the real thing or a placebo?” Doctors prescribing placebos to unwitting patients http://natpo.st/l5ju2w (May 5, 2011)

Lesson for bin Laden: use Fedex. (May 5, 2011)

Dull joke for the night. Allah welcoming OBL in paradise: “My son, this will seal our reunion.” (May 4, 2011)

“Spokesman” means it’s a man; “spokesperson” means it’s a woman. (May 4, 2011)

Torture degrades the torturers at least as much as the tortured. – (May 4, 2011)

Scoop: OBL was unarmed because he had been turned down after asking a firearms license to Canadian & British cops. http://on.wsj.com/mvlpqE (May 4, 2011)

Bin Laden went postal, and did it on a grand scale. (May 4, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: Seals or baby seals? (May 3, 2011)

What came last, the chick or the egg? (May 3, 2011)

A Moslem must be buried 24 hours after his death. What if the corpse changes time zone? What if he travels at the speed of light? (May 3, 2011)

The rumor is that bin Laden did not personally engage in the firefight. As he was from a wealthy family, perhaps he did not like guns? (May 3, 2011)

OK, many libertarians are crazy. But still far from the despicable establishment that governs us. (May 3, 2011)

Jean Duceppe et Osama bin Laden étaient un peu dépassés par leur époque. (May 3, 2011)

If bin Laden had not been buried, he would have become a living dead. (May 3, 2011)

Too easy to make but too tempting not to: the difference between Obama and Osama is BS. (May 3, 2011)

The King of Canada (like the King of America) is only the humble servant of the 15% of the electorate that work as government bureaucrats. (May 3, 2011)

Les Canadiens français ont toujours trop facilement pris la couleur de leur environnement, un peu comme l’espion de César dans Astérix. Thoreau l’avait remarqué lors de son voyage au Canada. Un petit mouvement de foule, et tout le monde suit. Ajoutez à cela des réfugiés pas encore déçus de toutes les tyrannies du monde, et l’occasion est trop belle de passer de Charybde en Scylla. (May 2, 2011)

Quite happy to have fled Québec. (And to have purchased an Android. So if you want to see where the future is, follow me!) (May 2, 2011)

All Canadian political parties love Leviathan. Some more than others. (May 2, 2011)

Individuals vote to make moral statements or to have fun (like at hockey game). Little scope for moral stance in the Canadian election. (May 2, 2011)

Canadian election: Will the winner be the Bush-light imitator, or the two Obama imitators with a vengeance? (May 2, 2011)

Don’t weep on bin Laden. Weep on the liberties he and his accomplices stole us – the TSA, the Patriot Act, the Real ID Act, etc. (May 2, 2011)

Is it the egg or the chicken that first started following me on Twitter? (May 2, 2011)

Any war fought by the gov’t should come with a compensation: “In return, this gov’t shall immediately return some of your lost liberties.” (May 2, 2011)

Whatever you think, note that it is not “the U.S.” that killed bin Laden. It’s (part of) the U.S. government, which is very different. (May 2, 2011)

There is probably no good reason to be incensed by the killing of bin Laden – if it was bin Laden. (May 2, 2011)

After the death of bin Laden, look at the state of our liberties and how the Police State has advanced everywhere. Who has really won? (May 2, 2011)

Very funny Facebook app asks whats the best price for gasoline. Any omniscient and omnipotent planner, please tell us poor mortals. (May 1, 2011)

Suppose you believe X. Is there a probability not too close to 0 that you could be proven wrong & change your mind? If not, it’s a religion. (April 30, 2011)

Libertarianism is not, or should not be, a religion. (April 30, 2011)

Give a free lance to a horseman, and you have a free lancer. (April 28, 2011)

The TSA and in general border controls illustrate the difference between a transparent society and a free society. (April 28, 2011)

Have a son who gives you trouble? Read Deut. 21. (April 28, 2011)

Gaia existe et j’ai un château à vendre en Syldavie. (April 27, 2011)

Anybody can get himself self-published, but he will likely have to self-read. (April 26, 2011)

If slopes were not slippery, nobody but the blind would want to take them. (April 26, 2011)

No dog ever got a Nobel Prize, because of the anti-animal bias of the Nobel Committee. (April 26, 2011)

The problem, sometimes, is that our side is as sloppy as theirs. (April 26, 2011)

Some statements would be worth criticizing if only they had ever been made. (April 26, 2011)

The big problem with Québec is that it soooooooooooo similar to the rest of Canada. (April 25, 2011)

Threatening terrorists and international thugs must be dealt with, but not at the price of liberty and justice. Kapitch, Ivanov? (April 25, 2011)

If government spending were cut by 75%, lots of busybodies would have to get addicted to something else. — http://on.wsj.com/e59rYg (April 25, 2011)

Keeping the Potemkin village socially hygienic. — This Blog Post Is Not Yet Rated http://t.co/h8ciNd0 (April 25, 2011)

Liberty: Canadian politicians are so despicable that Harper (leader of the “Conservative” Party) sometimes looks merely like a monster. (April 25, 2011)

Man does not live by chocolate alone. (April 25, 2011)

Often astonished by the lack of political culture (both historical and philosophical) of Quebeckers, perhaps especially young Quebeckers. (April 25, 2011)

Song of love and ate: I think I ate too much Easter Lindt chocolate. (April 25, 2011)

Democracy is good for throwing out the rascals, not for determining common values. – Vox populi or hoi polloi? | http://t.co/hUkiJnv (April 25, 2011)

The bilingual twun™ of the week about the upcoming Canadian election: under Al Layton, everybody in Canada will get free beer and free milk. (April 25, 2011)

Selfishness = ability to sell fish. A virtue. http://www.pewenvironment.org/uploadedImages/PEG/Campaigns/eone-harbor-fish-market-585-mfk.jpg (April 25, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: In our battery-powered gadget world, even assault often comes with battery included. (April 25, 2011)

Fortunately, in general, free speech is possible. (April 24, 2011)

Ham radio is decidedly non-Islamic. It must have been invented on Easter Day. (April 24, 2011)

It’s always sunny on Easter Day. (April 24, 2011)

Easter question: What came first, the egg or the chicken? (April 24, 2011)

What do you do if a FB friend of yours posts three lines with seven grammatical mistakes. If you agree with the idea — after reading the sentence three times — should you indicate you like it? (April 24, 2011)

Happy Easter! (Go Easter, young man!) (April 24, 2011)

That Earth Day falls on Good Friday must be blasphemy. God promises eternal life; Gail, dirt and green rot. (April 22, 2011)

Canadians take their meaningless elections very seriously. New jobs created in tire manufacturing. http://natpo.st/fffQ1I (April 22, 2011)

Flagrant lack of CSR: “Today is Earth Day”, reads the e-mail message. “Go outdoors with Casio!” No, you must eat dirt too. (April 22, 2011)

J’ai parlé à mon psy et il m’a dit d’aller voir mon upsilon. (April 22, 2011)

Yes, yes, I am going to eat quiche, and I am proud of it. (April 22, 2011)

Zero tolerance: Forbidding computers to government (while letting individuals have them) would constrain Leviathan. (April 22, 2011)

At least, before the fall of the communist empire, we could argue, “It’s not Soviet Russia here.” (April 22, 2011)

Because of self-selection, there must be more homosexuals in the TSA than in the general population. A little FOI request? (April 21, 2011)

Scanophilia is a crime, and those committing it should have their names put in the scanophile registry. (April 21, 2011)

The Surveillance State: a scan of worms. (April 21, 2011)

The Surveillance State: “Yes we scan!” (April 21, 2011)

How to sext without a smart phone? Go through TSA security. (April 21, 2011)

It’s difficult to argue with somebody who does not agree that all cannot be above average. (April 21, 2011)

It’s ifficult to argue with somebody who does not agree that 1+1=2 (except for well-argued epistemological reasons). (April 21, 2011)

Few things are more difficult to do, and more easy to criticize, than translation. (April 20, 2011)

My whole life is pro bono. (April 19, 2011)

Pun tweets and tweet puns: I have invented the twun™. (April 19, 2011)

True pun of the day: the genes are in the jeans. (April 19, 2011)

Immigrants are forever young as they never become senior citizens. The more illegal, the younger. (April 19, 2011)

Pow-wow corrupts, absolute pow-wow corrupts absolutely. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pow-wow (April 18, 2011)

When, several years ago, Lord Harris told me he did not remember if I was an academic or a journalist, I answered that I was too serious to be a journalist but not enough to be an academic. (April 18, 2011)

Il ne faut pas confondre le schibboleth avec la ciboulette. (April 18, 2011)

I don’t have all the answers but I have all the questions. (April 18, 2011)

Addiction is just another word for what we like to do. — All those tweets, apps, updates may drain brain http://t.co/R2LX9La (April 17, 2011)

First military-bureaucratic principle: there is no such thing as a free bunch. (April 17, 2011)

The AT&T DNS has been down for hours. Fortunately, there is this entrepreneurial company, opendns.com, and their free DNS service! (April 17, 2011)

“The excitement of the ideas must come first.” – John Gaskin’s preface to Hobbes’s 1651 Leviathan (April 17, 2010)

A spell checker blocks spells cast at you. (April 17, 2011)

Wine is a world in itself. There are so many worlds in themselves. (April 16, 2011)

One problem with the “Québec model” (“le modèle québécois”) is that nobody talks about it except in Québec; and Leviathan is happy. (April 15, 2011)

Pre-night wisdom: Not everything is dark and disgusting in the world. (April 15, 2011)

A book is like a car or a movie: a perfect assemblage of imperfect components. (April 14, 2011)

Air France now advertizes its trans-Atlantic flights with one-way prices. Will they soon advertize them with attractive mid-Atlantic prices? (April 14, 2011)

In a capitalist economy, you order goods and services. In a socialist economy, you beg for them. (April 14, 2011)

Occupational licensure is the trade unionism of the rich, and is even more despicable than the poor’s variety. — http://t.co/cKD8k72 (April 13, 2011)

PMS is one of the grave problems that the Welfare State still has to address. (April 13, 2011)

« On ne peut travailler à un ouvrage qu’après en avoir fait le plan, et un plan ne peut être bien fait qu’après que toutes les parties de l’ouvrage sont achevées. » — Benjamin Constant (April 13, 2011)

With some (much?) luck, we can hope that, in two centuries, most people will consider statism and nationalism on par with Lamarckism. (April 13, 2011)

Race to the bottom. America and France share one big drawback: heavy government bureaucracy and paperwork. (April 12, 2011)

We have such a statist, Rousseauvian language where “country” mean either, and simultaneously, the geography, the people, and the state. (April 12, 2011)

More and more, what taxes buy, in the best of cases, is the right to ask permits. (April 12, 1011)

Official paperwork is a sign of the rule of law, up to a certain point. This point is long past. (April 12, 2011)

By dumbing down your readers, you make yourself more difficult to understand (if there is something to understand) by the non-dumb-downable. (April 11, 2011)

Economic growth is good – for those who get it. (April 11, 2011)

“Matt 10:5” means that there 10 of you praying on 5 mats. (April 11, 2011)

Si vous ne lisez jamais en français ou ne le parlez jamais, vous ne saurez pas si, par exemple, « burqua » est masculin ou féminin. (April 11, 2011)

Secularism (“laïcité”) is meant to limit the state, constrain theocratic-thuggish majorities, chain Leviathan. May be useful in the future. (April 11, 2011)

The shoemaker’s fishy story: sole proprietorship does not mean ownership of a sole. (April 10, 2011)

If true (note small sample), Republicans are as stupid as Democrats. The word “ban” should be banned in politics. – http://t.co/542g3EI (April 9, 2011)

Natural law: love of gri-gris and resort to scapegoats may be hard-wired in the human brain. Such primitive leanings should often be fought. (April 9, 2011)

Federal budget cuts of $38.5 billion are 1% of this year’s expenditures, and 10% of the increase in expenditures since last year. (April 9, 2011)

Required leather care: the instructions for the hiking boots Trisha and I bought yesterday are as complicated as for cleaning a revolver. (April 8, 2011)

Grrr… I mistakenly ordered six jars of Bonne Maman blackcurrant jelly, instead of redcurrant, and have been eating it for a month. All that time, I was wondering what was wrong with my life, what I have achieved, what I will leave after me, where’s my pistol, and so forth. (April 8, 2011)

My desk: so many wires, not counting the wireless ones! (April 7, 2011) Added comment: “Well, brother, the British state is probably even worse.”

Dumbing down the reader appears to be the first principle of public relations and “communications”. Does he like that? (April 6, 2011)

Multitasking is high-class ADD. (April 6, 2011)

One good consequence of the Japanese catastrophes is that people now seem to realize that destruction does not create growth and jobs. (April 6, 2011)

If Sisyphus had been a redneck, the gods would have condemned him to clean his gun just to have it shoot a lead bullet, endlessly forever. (April 5, 2011)

Burning the Quran and killing infidels: God must be LOL, ROTF, and LHAO. (April 4, 2011)

A glass which is X% empty is (100-X)% full, and vice-versa. (April 4, 2011)

How does one say “unmanned drone aircraft” when it is unmanned by a woman? (April 2, 2011)

How does one say “poor workmanship” in politically correct language? (April 2, 2011)

In a dream, somebody asked me: “Do you live a different day?” I think it was a sort of code. (April 1, 2011)

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” (April 1, 2011)

“A very few—as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men—serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part.” – Henry David Thoreau (April 1, 2011)

“Trade and commerce, if they were not made of india-rubber, would never manage to bounce over obstacles which legislators are continuing putting in their way.” – Henry David Thoreau (April 1, 2011)

I bought a lanyard for my pistol. (There are lanyard buffs.) Very useful: no risk that the pistol falls from the holster while I am writing! (March 30, 2011)

“a mere Man of Quality, who on that Account wants to live upon the Public, by some Office or Salary, will be despis’d and disregarded.” Franklin, “To Those Who Would Remove to America” (1784) (March 30, 2011)

The problem with immigrants is that they tend to be too uncritical towards their new country and its state. (March 30, 2011)

“the two chief parties of the countries, warring over details, have come so close together that it has been almost impossible to distinguish them.” – Mencken (March 30, 2011)

“What is often mistaken for an independent spirit in dealing with the national traits, is not more than a habit of crying with the pack.” – Mencken, “On Being an American” (March 30, 2011)

“I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson (March 30, 2011)

Wait! Perhaps it is BECAUSE OF the softness of state institutions that liberty has resisted mounting tyranny for a time. http://t.co/tQbOulg (March 30, 2011)

Wave of the future: I think I am in the process of switching from Firefox to Internet Explorer after years and years of using the former. (March 30, 2011)

Right to work means right to try and sell your services to whoever wants to buy, not the right to work in a specific firm on your own terms. (March 30, 2011)

Politicians are the worst insider traders: they hunt and use non-public information to buy votes. (March 29, 2011)

Chicken wing often tastes better than right wing or left wing. (March 29, 2011)

Il est étrange que la « Société des hygiénistes de la province de Québec », qui a existé de 1943 à 1974, n’ait aucune trace sur le web, sinon dans des mentions rapides de son successeur, l’Association pour la santé publique du Québec. Ne sont-ils fiers de leur histoire ? Pourquoi ne pas publier les déclarations de la vieille association et faire état de ses activités de l’é poque? Y a-t-il anguille sous roche ? (March 28, 2011)

“most striking in the Maine wilderness is the continuousness of the forest … what a place to die!”– http://thoreau.eserver.org/ktaadn06.html (March 27, 2011)

“My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-reliance (March 27, 2011)

“The great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” – Emerson, Self-reliance (March 27, 2011)

I visited a strip club with Trisha yesterday. Funny: the strippers have to go outside (accompanied by a bouncer) to commit the smoking sin! (March 27, 2011)

Beethoven is addictive. (March 25, 2011)

« Mais priez Dieu que tous nous veuille absoudre. » (François Villon)

« Alors, ça boume? » dit un boomer à l’autre. (March 24, 2011)

On the pictures of the Libyan rebels, have you noticed how many of them smoke? Are we sure they are so pure? (March 23, 2011)

Nuclear: Promethean success or useless time bomb? Only way to know: stop protecting it against liability, and see if it can buy insurance. (March 23, 2011)

Unconscious surrender: dark historical humor marks the 1959 creation of the TSA — Texas Society of Anestesiologists. http://www.tsa.org (March 22, 2011)

Future generations are a big burden (http://www.pierrelemieux.org/artchildren.html) but they don’t bug us as much as the current one. (March 21, 2011)

Les générations futures ? Elles nous ont déjà assez cassé les couilles ! – http://www.pierrelemieux.org/artchildren.html

I will be having lunch. In case of social emergency [the worst of all emergencies], you will have to text me. (March 21, 2011)

Enfants, nous jouions avec des pistolets de plastique. Mon H&K USP Compact, qui est en bonne partie fait de plastique, me rappelle mes jeux d’enfant. (March 20, 2011)

Quebec has 1/5 of California’s population but its government spends 1/3 as much. Call of bankruptcy? (March 20, 2011)

Mandatory form for statocrat going to war: “In return, we will re-establish the following liberties to our subjects: [name at least three].” (March 19, 2011)

Not that I like the Gadhafi butcher, but… For his glory and the state’s power, every head of state needs his own Saddam Hussein. (March 19, 2011)

The TSA already tried a no-fly zone, but the populace discovered how to evade it: strip & fly. (March 18, 2011)

Maine: “Bug free or die!” — http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/14/title14sec6021-A.html (March 18, 2011)

Between updating his camera’s firmware and his Android’s OS, cleaning his pistol, and taking care of his woman, when can a man work? (March 18, 2011)

A strike against tyrant Gadhafi looks OK. Problem is, it will reinforce the authority and power of our own too-powerful states (and the UN). (March 18, 2011)

I wonder if, in America, bored people kill time by chatting with AT&T? In Québec, they go to the (free) hospital emergency room. (March 18, 2011)

There is no such thing as “collective wealth”, only wealth created by individuals for themselves or expropriated by others for themselves. (March 18, 2011)

Problems of life: difficult to find a place for phone holster when pistol already there. (March 17, 2011)

Black humor: Japan needs cool aid. (March 17, 2011)

As Prometheus would have said, liver and let liver. (March 16, 2011)

Home, tweet home! (March 16, 2011)

I think I prefer carrying to caring persons. (March 16, 2011)

We tend to forget friends who do not tweet or FB. (March 15, 2011)

“Trouver la mort”, quelle drôle d’expression : comme si on la cherchait ! (March 15, 2011)

“Officials Stabilize Damaged Complex” (WSJ). “Workers Strain to Retake Control After Blast and Fire at Japan Plant” (NYT). Which is the most sensationalist paper? (March 15, 2011)

The irrational fear of alcohol in America resembles the irrational gun phobia in most other countries. (March 15, 2011)

Ignorance is bliss only if you don’t know it. If you do, you know you are missing something. (March 15, 2011)

One of my childhood friends, G.H., has only four references on the web – regarding a Cub Scout pack we both belonged to. He must be a total failure! (March 13, 2011)

I met a fairy who granted me one wish. “I want to live forever,” I said. “Sorry” replied the fairy, “I’m not allowed to grant wishes like that!” “Fine,” I said, “I want to die when the state has become trustworthy.” “You crafty bastard!” she replied. (March 11, 2011)

During a routine eye exam, I told my new ophthalmologist in Maine that his mission is to make sure I can read, write and shoot until I am 95. Instead of thinking that I am crazy, as the average doctor in Canada or France would have thought, he said that I will find “many gun enthusiasts in Maine” and that he was himself an avid skeet shooter. I mentioned that I had been skeet shooting with my sons in California during this very past weekend. He highly recommended his preferred skeet shooting club in Scarborough, Maine. I suggested he should try pistol shooting. After all, this is America. (March 10, 2011)

Geek philosophy: anything clickable must be clicked. (March 6, 2011)

With reusable grocery bags, the shit is hitting the fans of Gaia. (March 6, 2011)

After ten years of surveillance, TSA, state aggrandizement, and crushing of our liberties: by the way, where is Bin Laden? (March 6, 2011)

I think that “ammo” comes from the Latin “amo” (“I love”). (March 1, 2011)

Little children think that adults are just proportionally blown-up versions of them. (Don’t take “blown-up” in its Jihad sense.) (March 1, 2011)

A most serious world problem: E-Mail This, the Wall Street Journal e-mail utility, garbles accentuated characters. (February 28, 2011)

Vulnerant omnes, ultima necat. (February 24, 2011)

Alligators must be Arab gators. (February 24, 2011)

Abolish trade union privileges, but for the unions of the rich too, i.e., professional corporations (physicians, lawyers, etc.). (February 24, 2011)

How does one say “yes man” for a woman in PC language? A yes woman? A yes person? A yes being? (February 23, 2011)

If you have nothing to say, better not to say it. (February 23, 2011)

What if these two couples had been armed? – Somali Pirates Kill Four U.S. Hostages http://on.wsj.com/fMPoLK (February 22, 2011)

I can’t understand why, despite the Green Book, trouble brews in the Green Square. – http://nyti.ms/ei0kIO (February 22, 2011)

It is not surprising that after decades of Newspeak came the TSA – Newpeep. (February 22, 2011)

It is not surprising that after decades of group-think came the TSA – grope-think. (February 22, 2011)

Stakeholders who mind their own business are found in steak houses. (February 22, 2011)

In the electronic age, secretaries are for wimps. (February 22, 2011)

The Protective Society: a warning under the trigger guard of my semi-auto pistol says, “WARNING refer to owner manual”! (February 21, 2011)

The problem with solidarity is simple: with whom and against whom? (February 21, 2011)

« Le goût de la tranquillité publique devient alors une passion aveugle, et les citoyens sont sujets à s’éprendre d’un amour très-désordonné pour l’ordre. » (Tocqueville) (February 21, 2011)

Parlé au Québec, l’« Oqlf » est une langue vernaculaire apparentée au créole, qui emprunte un peu au français ainsi que, beaucoup, à des normes arbitraires imposées d’en haut. (February 20, 2011)

Being libertarian should not mean asking only the questions that have been asked a thousand times and giving the same answers all over again. (February 15, 2011)

Au prix de leur santé, les gens (stupides individus !) s’adonnent au tabagisme, au vinisme, au gastronomisme et au sexisme. (February 15, 2011)

The ACLU (of which I am a member) seems to think that everything between the waist and the thighs should be heavily subsidized by the state. (February 14, 2011)

Dissymmetry: If you know something, you know how it felt not to know; if you don’t know something, you don’t know how it feels to know it. (February 14, 2011)

Histoire d’amour à l’âge informatique: la Belle et le Byte. (February 14, 2011)

The state must trust citizens, and the citizens must mistrust it – the exact opposite of the actual perverse situation. (February 13, 2011)

If my experience is any guide, don’t buy insurance from Allstate Canada: they will sell you insurance, then quickly cancel you policy. (February 11, 2011)

A revolution in 1789 too. The revolutionaries tried to marry fire with water, popular sovereignty with individual liberty (said Faguet). (February 11, 2011)

The Puritans came for worship, not whore ship. (Orthography is important.) (February 11, 2011)

Are the inhabitants of Qatar better at catharsis? (February 10, 2011)

UPS discretely left the package against 2 pellets guns an inch inside the garage. Gun shadow? In Canada, the SWAT team would have followed. (February 9, 2011)

Pierre-Esprit Radisson died in the Summer of 1710, but the 300th anniversary of his death was nowhere celebrated in Québec last year. (February 8, 2011)

Reflection inspired by the flu season: Islamist terrorists should be content to blow their noses. (February 8, 2011)

Why is Mubarak’s government having more trouble than the TSA? Because people in democratic countries think they are obeying themselves? (February 7, 2011)

Don Yuan is a contemporary seducer. (February 6, 2011)

Not everybody can be above average. (February 6, 2011)

Suburban life: errander humanum est. (February 4, 2011)

Should the US gvt support the actual friendly tyrant or the future perhaps unfriendly one? Unavoidable dilemma of international interventionism. (February 4, 2011)

Epitome of civilization: in Egypt, only state thugs have guns. Do you think the competing gang would change that? (February 2, 2011)

In former communist Romania, miners traditionally played the role of state thugs. Every society, even “free”, has its Romanian miners. (February 2, 2011)

Opponents of one tyrant are often supporters of another, that is, they support the one who will favor them. (February 2, 2011)

Tyrants have supporters. They couldn’t be in power otherwise. They favor their supporters and harm the others — the business of the state. (February 2, 2011)

The earth was cooling with the hole in the ozone layer. Remember? Then came “global warming”. Now it’s “climate change”. Hedge your bets. (January 31, 2011)

Seen on Google Alerts: “Online Guest Book for Pierre Lemieux. Sign and view the Guest Book for Pierre Lemieux, leave condolences, send flowers, or find funeral service information.” (January 30, 2011)

Game theory: an evolutionary stable strategy is to play hawk only if your adversary plays dove. But liberty is not for the doves. (January 30, 2011)

Reflection of an amateur linguist: the Arabs speaking on Egyptian TV today remind me of the accent I heard yesterday in a Québec McDonald’s. (January 30, 2011)

A bit of humor in a war among tyrants. The big question is Egypt: On which side is Rastapopulos? (January 30, 2011)

Egypt: an interesting WSJ editorial. America must remain – in fact, become again – a beacon of liberty. Tough job! http://on.wsj.com/e8W6vM (January 30, 2011)

Egypt illustrates that armed uprisings usually occur against weaker, not stronger, tyrants. When will they occur in Iran and North Korea? (January 30, 2011)

When bands of robbers & murderers are fighting for a monopoly, we don’t have to take a stance – except perhaps on purely prudential grounds. (January 30, 2011)

Mancur Olson’s question illustrated by Egypt: is it better to have a sedentary looter (the state) or competing gangs of roving looters? (January 30, 2011)

History suggests that tyrants only remain in power when they are willing and able to shoot at crowds of demonstrators. (January 30, 2011)

« Tu es silicone et tu retourneras silicone. » Gen. 3, 19

My little, proletarian, brand new car needed a software upgrade. Nous sommes bien peu de chose. (January 24, 2011)

“Total screening”: why not push the security perimeter up to private homes, and put a cop in each? Brave New World. http://on.wsj.com/dMfECc (January 24, 2011)

As the Surveillance State extends security perimeter out (up to our homes one day?), attacks just relocate. — http://on.wsj.com/iknzGx (January 24, 2011)

It’s soothing in a sort of wicked way to meet people crazier than oneself (except for the fact that the crazy attract the crazy). (January 24, 2011)

Numbers are so aesthetic, and number mills even more. (Mathematics and econometrics software packages are number mills.) (January 24, 2011)

This of course does not exhaust (no pun intended) the argument, but there is something Randian about the tar sands. (January 21, 2011)

Should governments be allowed to operate computers, and under which conditions? (January 17, 2011)

The best conditions to learn something are when you feel you have to. Then, even heteroskedasticity becomes fun. (January 17, 2011)

The presumption should be that gov’t information is public, or can be made public, and that private information is, well, private. (January 17, 2011)

The principle is simple: gov’t information should, in general, be available to the public; private information should not. And the press should be free. (January 17, 2011)

If we have to “harvest” game, we can shoot vegetables. (January 16, 2011)

You start dying just after being born. So, don’t have fun! — Smoking ’causes damage in minutes’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12193602 (January 16, 2011)

In fashionable (statist) public opinion: hate = not wanting to be bossed around; love = bossing others around. (January 15, 2011)

Needed: an application that would, from camera and/or GPS input, determine the shape of the driveway, calculate its size and, given wind direction and snow blower engine power, determine the optimal snow blowing path. (January 15, 1011)

An interesting example of false quote: http://clubunite.co.uk/the_art_of_woo.pdf. What I wrote was more polite than the milder reaction implied by the WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115801096324259803.html). (app. January 12, 2011)

La presse québécoise vient de découvrir que l’on peut écrire « K$ » et « M$ ». Il leur reste à découvrir que l’on n’écrit pas, dans un texte général, « 250 $ » (par exemple). Ça prendra du temps. (January 13, 2011)

Heraclitus was wrong: the snow blowing man often travels in the same snow. (January 13, 2011)

Animal rights: When rights have disappeared, rich kids create fake ones. — Foie gras conflict in Ottawa out http://natpo.st/g4v68B

Whatever one thinks of religion, it used to provide useful moral constraints for lost people (when they did not kill in its name). (January 9, 2011)

Moreover, a gentleman who knows his grammar does not shoot a woman. (January 9, 2011)

Breast feeding in a private store: when people have lost their real liberties, they clamor for fake ones. — http://t.co/UIEiHi0 (January 9, 2011)

Misfits become artists, entrepreneurs, geeks, criminals or Hitlers. In a free society, the last one is less likely. (January 9, 2011)

The more politicized society becomes (that is, the more individual behavior is controlled by politics), the more violent it must become. This violence can take different forms and be hidden in many ways. (January 8, 2011)

On a souvent besoin d’un plus petit que soi, mais ce n’est pas une raison pour encenser les politiciens et les bureaucrates. (January 6, 2011)

Should politicians (like Connolly) be forbidden to wear cologne as it makes them and their jihad more attractive? – http://nyti.ms/gMaaNA (January 4, 2011)

Many people would rather have straight checks than checks and balances. (January 5, 2011)

Marie de l’Incarnation about Des Groseilliers, who had moved to New England, in a letter of 1665: “A habitant of this country, but one who was not regarded well here because of his rebellious nature and bad disposition, withdrew himself to the English some two years ago…” – Quoted in Grace Lee Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness (1943), St. Paul, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1978, p. 92. (January 4, 2011)

The demise of the nuclear family would have the impact of a nuclear boob. (January 3, 2010)

My resolution for the New Year is measured in pixels. (January 2, 2011)

In line with Thoreau’s voluntary simplicity, I am anxious to get out of the house and be in my new car. (January 1, 2011)

Get information on Hank Paulson at https://ustreas.gov/education/history/secretaries/hmpaulson.shtml. Firefox says the U.S. Treasury site is untrusted. (December 30, 2010)

Nearly everything can be learned through googling. But one needs to know where to start and what to discard. (December 29, 2010)

One choice should be forbidden: the choice to coercively meddle in somebody else’s choices. (December 28, 2010)

An alluring ad (no doubt targeted) on Facebook: “Things to do in Portland before you die. One huge coupon emailed daily.” (December 28, 2010)

In intellectual discourse (as opposed perhaps to practical life), it is not sufficient to hold the correct conclusion. The reasons for it also count, for they are the criteria of truth. (December 27, 2010)

Life is so addictive that most people would like a second one. (December 27, 2010)

Second-hand smoke is so addictive that once you have had a smoking spouse, you can’t do without one. (December 27, 2010)

New England romance: Joe Blow meets Snow Blow. (December 27, 2010)

Learning has always been in large part a matter of clicking. At any rate, intellectual curiosity has always meant non-stop clicking. (December 27, 2010)

Try to pair an iPhone and an Apple-recommended Jawbone headset. After an hour, you will realize that Apple’s easiness is much overrated. (December 27, 2010)

Your chimney is part of your castle. Thanks to the Second Amendment, Santa has to explicitly ask permission to enter any American chimney. (December 24, 2010)

The smartphone is the intellectual’s Xbox. (December 24, 2010)

Merry Christmas to you (and to all my other Facebook friends)! (December 23, 2010)

When I die, I’ll be able to say, “This has been a good tweeting life!” (December 22, 2010)

American consumers love to be subsidized by coercing their fellow citizens but not through coercion of the Chinese? http://on.wsj.com/ffMSTo (December 22, 2010)

A smaller population, they argue, has helped fuel China’s astounding economic growth by reducing the demands on food production, education and medical care. (December 21, 2010)

Texting and smartphones: the rule of thumb. (December 21, 2010)

If there is global warming, it is alas not to the idea of individual liberty. (December 21, 2010)

The deeper one digs into the nature of the universe, the smaller the is-ought gap becomes, as it becomes senseless to change what is. (December 21, 2010)

Serious thought of the day: Computers are like toothbrushes – not to be shared. (December 20, 2010)

Red alert for antitrust bureaucrats: with Amazon’s competition, Santa Claus is not facing a level playing sky. (December 19, 2010)

People don’t like being subsidized by private advertising to others but don’t mind being subsidized through government coercing others. (December 19, 2010)

Nothing can be cooked. If cooking time is N seconds, it won’t make a difference to do (N-1) seconds, or (N-1)-1 seconds… & so on up to zero. (December 17, 2010)

Cheap Australian wines are disgusting. Yesterday, I brought such a wine: a $3.59 Merlot. Yet, it should remain legal. Caveat emptor. (December 17, 2010)

Deep thought of the month: round laces are difficult to tie tightly. Time to go for my walk, I guess. (December 17, 2010)

“Stakeholders” are people who want to eat somebody else’s steak. (Apologies for the repeat.) (December 16, 2010)

The “digital divide” that really matters is between zero and one. (December 14, 2010)

The War on Something is the health of the state. (December 14, 2010)

What would be nice would be wikileaks from a large number of other governments in the world. Let’s not discriminate. (December 10, 2010)

The guy put his hand on the girl’s thigh. “Luke 14:10”, she says. He immediately removes his hand. Question: why was he stupid? (December 9, 2010)

I suspect that God hates small talk. (December 8, 2008)

Would you say that smokers 1) die more often than non-smokers, 2) less often, 3) about the same, 4) doesn’t know or doesn’t want to answer. (December 5, 2010)

I need all my fingers to do an index. (December 4, 2010)

In this day and age, nothing much has changed. (December 4, 2010)

Remember when Americans could say that, contrary to Europeans, they did not have to pass a check-point before leaving their own country? (December 3, 2010)

Life is expensive but death is not without cost either. (December 3, 2010)

Time spent in a small nap is better than in a snap mall. (December 3, 2010)

If you are allergic to both wine and tobacco, life is not worth living. (December 2, 2010)

I have started reading Grace Lee Nute’s “Ceasars of the Wilderness”, on Radisson and Des Groseilliers, and I am totally seduced. (December 1st, 2010)

Still some freedom left: I ordered fois gras d’oie online. No Social Security Number or ID card required. (November 22, 2010)

“A long train of abuse” has more to do with air transportation than with railroads. (November 22, 2010)

Air terminals are reduced models of police states. (November 21, 2010)

Name me one American Founder who could have thought that the 4th Amendment could be consistent with groping people without probable cause. (November 21, 2010)

TSA’s rate of grope has been increasing. (November 20, 2010)

Insider trading is the “crime” of telling somebody something without simultaneously telling it to the whole world. (November 20, 2010)

They want to “grow the economy” and grope the people. The two must go together. – Obama Tries to Repair Damage http://on.wsj.com/9ij0vd (November 19, 2010)

Group think was bound to degenerate into grope think of the worst sort. (November 19, 2010_

Don’t touch my junk bond! (November 19, 2010)

Is Harry Potter a golf player? (November 19, 2010)

Fourth Amendment: the Fondling Fathers have replaced the Founding Fathers. (November 19, 2010)

Leviathan loves you so much that he wants to fondle you. (November 19, 2010)

Send the TSA to the junkyard of history – where the Soviet Union already lies. (November 19, 2010)

Ask not if you are fond of border cops, but if they may fond you. (November 19, 2010)

If you don’t profess to love Leviathan, your punishment will be to watch Janet Napolitano scanned naked. (November 19, 2010)

The feds are too well fed. (November 19, 2010)

Learning requires some humility. (November 19, 2010)

Two good lives for the price of one: if I knew that eternal life existed and that it would be fun, I would start smoking again. (November 19, 2010)

Does Leviathan love you or is he running loose? (November 19, 2010)

True, “there’s more to life than money”. That’s why the state is not only after our money. — http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11756049 (November 16, 2010)

There are still two sorts of people in the world: the screeners and the screened, the scanners and the scanned. (November 15, 2010)

People are proud of the border cops protecting them, and don’t think that the president is not scanned naked by his own bodyguards. (November 15, 2010)

Save your dignity and fight the Surveillance State: travel in your good, old individual car. (November 15, 2010)

Polygamy consists in living with many women, which is legal, and saying you are married to them, which is a crime. (November 14, 2010)

Forgive the most banal statement: the beginning of knowledge is to know which questions to ask. (November 14, 2010)

Power corrupts, pad down power corrupts absolutely. (November 12, 2010)

As Aquinas said, nature abhors a vacuum cleaner. (November 10, 2010)

Culture is to be elsewhere. (November 9, 2010)

Another deep reflection: the USB symbol looks like the Devil’s pitchfork. (November 9, 2010)

Yesterday, I was an airborne-again traveler. (November 5, 2010)

I would rather choose between Charybdis and Scylla than between a rock and a hard place (November 2, 2010)

There is no such thing as zero risk, and there is no such thing as zero opportunity either. (October 25, 2010)

Wonder why she did not come to deliver in Québec, under our social and collective state? – CBC Céline Dion has twin boys http://t.co/ZNvkGJ5 (October 23, 2010) CBC News – Music – Céline Dion has twin boys

Notwithstanding contemporary Newspeak, “stakeholders” are people who want other people’s steaks. (October 23, 2010)

What’s difficult in thinking out of the box is finding where the box is. (October 14, 2010)

Linux Ubuntu is really a great operating software. Too bad they don’t have software like the real Office and Quicken. (October 14, 2010)

Call for ideas: What are the greatest economic mistakes, that is, the worst mistakes people commonly make while thinking about the economy? (October 12, 2010)

Charlie, the smoking chimpanzee dies. He looked more human than most anti-smokers. Watch video. – http://www.cyberpresse.ca/_purl/01-4330135 (October 6, 2010)

We are making our soft police states more and more powerful, attractive and potentially rewarding for all sorts of barbarians to take over. (October 6, 2010)

We will soon need travel licenses. They will be easy to get on the web: “Your ID number and departure and return dates.” The state is nice. (October 6, 2010)

The magic potion: add “social” to something and whatever it qualifies becomes good against evil. What about a social stone? (October 6, 2010)

The main problem I see with entertainment is that it is seldom entertaining. (October 6, 2010)

If you’re generally late, your friends and business relations will always be. – Sick of This Text: ‘Sorry I’m Late’ http://on.wsj.com/crwQ7f (October 5, 2010)

Polygamy is the crime of saying that you are married with more than one of your concubines. (September 29, 2010)

Literary creation and the discovery of truth are the intellectual equivalent of an orgasm. (September 26, 2010)

Herbert Hoover (whose stimulus was as expansive as Roosevelt’s) believed that radio communications were to be regulated as a public utility. (September 25, 2010)

Hypothesis: if immigration between Europe and America were free, half the Europeans would move to America, and half the Americans to Europe. The European immigrants to America would be the productive, who are on the wrong side of the Welfare State wicket in Europe. The American immigrants to Europe would be the non-productive, who are already on the receiving side of the American Welfare State but want more of that. The result would be that European Welfare states would find themselves with recipients only, which of course cannot last long. For some to receive, others have to be taken from (by armed praetorians). Within two generations, Europe would be back to the Middle Ages. (Facebook, September 25, 2010)

The worst administrative chores have to do with satisfying Leviathan’s diktats. (September 23, 2010)

Buying a new rifle is not the way to realize economies of scope. (September 22, 2010)

Blessed be the non-geek, for they will have a simple life. (September 19, 2010)

God is too intelligent to micromanage the universe. (September 18, 2010)

A Buridan asshole is worse than an ordinary asshole. (September 16, 2010)

Useless pun: see, man, a seaman’s semen. (September 15, 2010)

Save canaries in coal mines, support PETA! (September 15, 2010)

Without its liberticidal gun laws (will they be liberalized after Heller?), California would be worth moving to. (September 11, 2010)

A “public good” is a public good for the group of individuals for which it is a public good. For others, it is not a good, and may be a bad. (September 11, 2010)

At airport, epitome of the Surveillance State. Will the time ever come back when people were able to travel without interior passports? (September 9, 2010)

“Human smuggling” is to immigration what marriage agencies (call them “prostitution” in Newspeak?) are to mating. – http://tgam.ca/x3X (September 8, 2010)

Muhammad – piece be with him. (September 7, 2010)

There are always good reasons to limit individual liberty – that is, good reasons according to some people’s personal preferences. (September 3, 2010)

Reading a 19th-century conservative, James Fitzjames Stephen – close to today’s liberals. As I would have said 40 years ago, he’s a fascist! (August 31, 2010)

I have to get ammo. Without ammo, what’s the 2nd Amendment useful for? (August 25, 2010)

Is self-defense legitimate only once the bullet has left the crazy tyrant’s revolver and is traveling towards you? (August 22, 2010)

You can always find people who have good reasons to want a general prohibition of something. (August 22, 2010)

The state either prohibits discrimination or encourages/enforces it, depending against whom and at which epoch. Can’t we just be left alone? (August 22, 2010)

Once you have said you are a conservative, you must still say what you want to conserve. The Welfare-Regulatory-Surveillance State? (August 22, 2010)

Once you have said you are a “liberal” (in the American sense), you must still say what you want to liberalize. Only what you like? (August 22, 2010)

I wonder how many germs are left on grocery counters by reusable bags, and how many people get ill and become sacrificial lambs to Gaia. (August 21, 2010)

Life kills as many people as death does. (August 21, 2010)

I tweet, therefore I am. (August 16, 2010)

The anti-immigration craze is mainly a diversion to hide or scapegoat mounting tyranny fuelled by the locals at home. (August 16, 2010)

As papers are cited under the name of the first author alphabetically, an equal academic playing field requires the same surname for all. (August 15, 2010)

The typical statist hates all brands of statism, except his own. (August 15, 2010)

I don’t know how non-geeks survive in this world. I barely do as a half-geek. (August 13, 2010)

Decline of civilization: in Mt-Laurier, Québec, the Internet café has been replaced by a sex shop. (August 12, 2010)

My “biological” bread is turning green. Next time, I will buy mineral. (August 11, 2010)

Carrying a long gun in a forest is hard for the old. If the Canadian tyrant really loved them, he would not ban them from carrying pistols. (August 11, 2010)

Krugman loves the state… as it should be according to his own preferences. (August 9, 2010)

“Security breach” is Newspeak for “Leviathan protecting itself”. – http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/08/08/14959991.html (August 8, 2010)

The problem with the rest of the world is that it imports everything that’s bad in America and nothing of what’s good here. (August 8, 2010)

Should the frocks of Orthodox priests be banned too? From the back, they look strikingly similar to a burqa — a man’s burqa. (August 8, 2010)

The first problem in politics is the Left; the second one is the Right. Or perhaps it’s the other way around. (August 7, 2010)

The problem with “the real world” is that we first need to figure out what it is. (August 7, 2010)

When Leviathan runs loose, politicians and bureaucrats should pay damages out of their own pockets. (August 6, 2010)

Antitrust theory is based on the idea that prohibiting freedom of contract helps free exchange. Bad economics. (August 4, 2010)

Washing wine glasses in the dishwasher: when there is a will, there is a way. (August 4, 2010)

Vanum est vobis ante lucem surgere. (Ps. 126:2) (August 1, 2010)

Injunction to statocrats: In case of doubt, do not ban. If you have no doubt, think twice. (August 1, 2010)

There is always a good reason to ban something. National security is a nice excuse among others. (August 1, 2010)

I am more or less ahead of my non-comprehensive schedule. (August 1, 2010)

In fact, everybody boarding a plane should strip naked, so that they learn who is the master and who is the servant. (August 1, 2010)

In a free society, it’s everyone’s right to smoke, be a homosexual, carry a gun, and have a Mac. (August 1, 2020)

To realize a big, complex project, break it into small pieces, and take them one at a time. (August 1, 2010)

Beware of any quote without a book title and a page number – especially if it comforts your opinion. It is quite probably apocryphal. (July 31, 2010)

If you need an oil change, don’t have a change of mind. (July 30, 2010)

People who defend freedom only in sexual matters are due for a double dose of soma. (July 30, 2010)

Under Mussolini, economists were less biddable and statist than statisticians. Not today in Canada. – Globe and Mail at http://tgam.ca/kpD (July 30, 2010)

“Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.” (Epicurus ~ Letter to Menoceus) Excuse me, Epicurus, the problem is not death, but dying. (July 29, 2010)

A man must know when to obey and when to disobey his GPS. (July 29, 2010)

While building together the Police State, the left emphasizes the second word, the right the first. (July 28, 2010)

Creative destruction: in Mt-Laurier, Qc, the closed GM dealership now sells Kias — cars that people want instead of cars made by the state. (July 28, 2010)

There is an alternative to the right’s Surveillance State and the left’s Regulatory State. It’s called libertarianism. (July 28, 2010)

There is an alternative besides the right’s populist obscurantism and the left’s elitist ignorance. It’s called libertarianism. (July 28, 2010)

Despite practising my signature for decades, I never got a signing bonus. (FB, July 28, 2010)

The septic tank truck just came, and I am happy to report that it did not hit the fan. (FB, July 28, 2010)

It’s not only the alleged terrorists who were waterboarded; government interventions in housing market also put many homeowners under water. (July 27, 2020)

From my upcoming book: There can be no race to the bottom excerpt if the “bottom” is what the final customer wants. (July 27, 2010)

To provide real good data to Leviathan and its courtiers, gov’t statistical bureaus should put a 24/7 surveillance bracelet on everybody. (July 24, 2010)

Science is sometimes more difficult to believe than faith! (July 23, 2010) (on http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727703.000-every-black-hole-may-hold-a-hidden-universe.html)

Raimondo underestimates Islamic danger, but brings rationality in argument by arguing for property rights vs Peikoff. (July 23, 2010)

A good case of rent-seeking. The equalizers are always less equal than the equalized. – (July 21, 2010, about WSJ story: 153 ‘VIP’ Loans to Fannie Cited http://on.wsj.com/dCYqeA

Conrad Black’s travel problems within the U.S. show how ID cards are now as required for everybody as traveling papers were for slaves. (July 21, 2010)

Isn’t it an odd theory that would justify by anarchism a further increase in the power of indecently powerful states? If we don’t live in a libertarian society, we must welcome a tyrannical state, nay, increase its power. So, if the Muslims became the majority, anarcho-capitalists would accept sharia law on the basis of their own ideals. (July 20, 2010)

Tell the rulers intent to crushing businesses that “double dip” is not a sort of coffee maker. (July 19, 2010)

Why doesn’t a consumer protection agency prohibit smoke detectors that beep in the middle of the night when their batteries get low? (July 19, 2010)

One economic fact of life: not everybody who buys insurance can get out more than he paid in. (July 18, 2010)

I am ashamed to think of how many times in my life I must have used an indicative instead of a subjunctive. But I erred only in English. (July 18, 2010)

Prohibit chocolate and you will soon see chocolate-trafficking gangs shooting men and women at parties. And the state will prosper in the meantime. (July 18, 2010)

WSJ confuses decrease in rate of growth of prices with drop in prices! Calculus or arithmetic class urgently needed. (July 18, 2010) [See “Inflation pressures remain muted”, July 18, 2010]

If you took all liberticidal policies in different Western countries and applied them in a single country, you would have hell on earth. (July 17, 2010)

One big advantage of knowledge and culture is that you are never bored. (July 8, 2010)

Walter Lippman on Calvin Coolidge: “Mr. Coolidge’s genius for inactivity is developed to a very high point.” The ideal president! (July 8, 2010)

I discovered that there is a firmware update for my camera. I wish there were one for my toaster. (Twitter, July 8, 2010)

Social networks are lot of fun for the asocial. They are probably fun for the others too. (Twitter, July 7, 2010)

Humbling fact for large organizations: Firefox works better than Microsoft’s IE on Microsoft’s own 64-bit Windows 7. No danger of monopoly! (Twitter, July 7, 2010)

Life is a big administrative matter. (Twitter, July 6, 2010)

If something is clickable, it must be clicked. What’s important in life is to know when not to click. (July 5, 2010)

There are two problems in politics: the left and the right. (July 4, 2010)

Part of the pleasure of drinking Perrier is to noisily throw out the glass bottle.

Everything is a question of degree, including this very statement. (Twitter, July 4, 2010)

Do not ask what you can do against your country, but what your country can do against you. (Twitter, July 3, 2010)

To celebrate Canada Day, every Canadian must shoot once in the air today. If you don’t have a gun, borrow one from a politician’s bodyguard. (Twitter, July 1, 2010)

Instead of the proverbial “free for all”, statists prefer a free for some (usually themselves). (Twitter, June 30, 2010)

Until it was too late, Jesus thought that Caesar was a salad. (Twitter, June 29, 2010)

Politicians should not have armed bodyguards. They should simply have the same right and tools of self-defense as their electors. (Twitter, June 29, 2010)

A licensing system for the subjects is the tyrant’s best friend. (Twitter, June 29, 2010)

Toronto praetorians won’t apologize for treating peaceful individuals as their subjects and crushing the Canadian tradition of liberty. (Twitter, June 29, 2010)

The Soft Police State is not soft on everybody, even if its supporters think it will always be nice to them if they keep on smiling. (Twitter, June 29, 2010)

Both liberals and conservatives love the Soft Police State, provided it is for a good cause. (Twitter, June 29, 2010)

Social inequality is unavoidable, if only because the equalized are necessarily less “equal” than the equalizers. (Twitter, June 28, 2010)

One can always find extremes such that his opinion is a moderate compromise. All the art of rational thought amounts to determining which moderate compromise to espouse. (FB, June 19, 2010)

What’s the difference between the Deepwater Horizon well and the federal government? Not much. The first one spits out crude oil and devastation with no obvious way to stop it alas! The second one spits out money and regulation with unfortunately no obvious way to stop it. (June 2010)

A “level playing field” (levelled by Leviathan, of course) is a socialist or otherwise authoritarian concept. (September 26, 2017)

Tombstone inscription: “He was live on FB.” (September 24, 2017)

Origins of CSR: When vampires attack the village, assemble all the stakeholders. (September 24, 2017)

When you stake a claim, you don’t necessarily claim a steak. (September 21, 2017)

Half of the infinite happiness you see in heaven comes from preachers looking down at the damned souls in hell and saying “I told you so.” (September 21, 2019)

With the snowflakes on the left and the national-hysterics on the right, where is the future of reason and liberty? (September 19, 2017)

Those who dress in a national flags should wonder where there critical rationality has gone, if it ever existed. (September 19, 2017)

Latin pun of the week: Mens rea in corpore sano. (September 17, 2017)

If you think the other side is made of barbarians, you need to know what your own side must do not to fall in the same category. (September 11, 2017)

It’s better to have many obsessions than a single one. (September 5, 2017)

It’s time to replace the selfie stick with an altruie carrot. (August 27, 2017)

I never promised you a prose garden. (August 23, 2017)

The problem is not the ideas and opinions that people have. It’s when they want to impose them on others. Otherwise, live and let live. (August 22, 2017)

Even a short seller can walk tall. (August 20, 2017)

Terrorists, nearly by definition, attack soft targets. And the state often if not usually makes sure ordinary citizens are the soft targets. (August 20, 2017)

On rencontre parfois le démon de midi à quatorze heures. (August 17, 2017)

Nothing is perfect, but there is imperfect and imperfect. (August 17, 2017)

One-third of the American electorate voted for Trump, one-third for Clinton, and one-third did not vote. Conclusion: limit the state! (August 16, 2017)

There is one sure thing with an idiot: he will disappoint you. (August 16, 2017)

Don’t try to erase history, and advance individual liberty. Some people, it seems, push for the exact opposite. (August 16, 2017)

It’s quite banal to say, but rewriting history and silencing speech does not help reason and liberty, quite the contrary. (August 14, 2017)

Summer is so nice. Email, Twitter, and Facebook slow down. And calm studies seem easier without boots on. (August 14, 2017)

The Arabs are a danger to civilization. They have even imposed their Arabic numerals on us. (August 13, 2017)

According to the legend (the fake news of the time), Caligula named his horse consul, probably after he ran out of generals and billionaires. Now will he attack North Korea? Note that I do not necessarily oppose decapitating the North Korean tyrannical regime, but I don’t like emperors. Note that horses have since been replaced by golf carts. (August 7, 2017)

A large percentage of Americans, I suspect, believe that, in the Garden of Eden, what Eve showed to Adam was her “cleavage.” (August 4, 2017)

American and European consumers are so greedy that they would willingly import from China the moon and six pants. (August 3, 2017)

Perhaps there are two Americas and the one libertarians love is in between. (July 30, 2017)

The art of the deal should be taught at Trump University. (July 30, 2017)

Rationally ignorant voters don’t necessarily recognize a bullshitter when they see one. (July 30, 2017)

Many are left behind, others are right behind. (July 29, 2017)

Inclusive exclusion is the way the statists treat those who have different preferences and a different conception of the good life. (July 28, 2017)

Fortunately, “garbage in, garbabe out” is not a reversible truth. (July 26, 2017)

What is good for the transgoose is good for the transgander. (July 26, 2017)

After an eternity in hell, you get used to the pain; if it stopped, the pleasure would kill you. (July 25, 2017)

If the alternative is between globalism and tribalism, the choice should be clear. (July 24, 2017)

Instead of straight eternal life, God gives dyslexic bureaucrats the reward of eternal file. (July 22, 2017)

The world is full of imperfections. (July 18, 2017)

The dyslexic suicide bomber was literally flaggerblasted. (July 15, 2017)

Nihilism is good for nothing. (July 14, 2017)

What nationalist rulers don’t understand is that every other nationalist ruler also thinks he incarnates the greatest political “we.” (July 7, 2017)

You cannot defend Western civilization by coercively restraining Westerners from exchanging with each other. (July 7, 2017)

July 7 of 777 AD was more unique. (July 7, 2017)

If someone points a gun and says “I am going to shoot you,” you have the right to shoot first. But you hope it’s not Narcissus who will hold your own gun. (July 4, 2017)

What do you do if you are stalked by broccoli? (June 30, 2017)

As far as we know, there was no wine in Plato’s cave. (June 24, 2017)

It’s often easier to live from paycheck to paycheck than from non-paycheck to non-paycheck. (June 21, 2017)

Should a man open the door for a gender-fluid? (June 17, 2017)

A dyslexic atheist walks into a bar with his god… (June 17, 2017)

Is a Christian obliged to turn the other cheek even on Twitter and Facebook? Is a Muslim obliged to blow himself up at the first blasphemy? (June 17, 2017)

The success of Facebook must partly come from the fact that it allows even the most humble to have his own full-color newspaper. (June 17, 2017)

There is no such thing as private; everything is pubic. (June 16, 2017)

The Cistine Chapel will be rechristened the Transtine Chapel. (June 15, 2017)

Going forward, I may go back. (June 12, 2017)

You never step twice in the same Rio Grande. (June 8, 2017)

Jesus enjoined to accept any FB friend request, but He did not order to keep fraudsters or small talkers as friends. (June 8, 2017)

I stared at nobody and nobody stared at me, so this flight was not a flight of stares. (June 7, 2017)

Public-health theory for dyslexic bureaucrats: “If it could save only one file…” (June 5, 2017)

It must be frustrating for a physician to die so old that he cannot say he saved the life of anybody alive. (June 1, 2017)

Some individuals know things that others don’t. It does not mean that they should rule over others, but neither should the ignoramuses. (June 1, 2017)

Individuals in the tails of the distribution are people too. (May 28, 2017)

To answer the question “What can go wrong?” one needs imagination, a quality in short supply. In politics, that means imagining tyranny. (May 28, 2017)

It’s perhaps the first time Trump is among bullies like himself, but they are not ignorant bullies. Will he dig his heels, start to think, or be eaten alive? (May 28, 2017)

The real deplorables are the ones who want the freedom to import stuff from where they want at the best terms they can get on the market. (May 26, 2017)

Although it may appear to, the π never gets bigger. (May 26, 2017)

I have an amazing talent at finding other people’s typos. (May 26, 2017)

The joy of clicking has eluded mankind for tens if not hundreds of millennia. (May 26, 2017)

It is striking how many people want to teach you what they don’t know. (May 26, 2017)

To do social theory (or any sort of theory), imagination is required because one must make unrealistic or questionable assumptions. (May 26, 2017)

Have you hugged your government today? The state is so lovable! (May 26, 2017)

There is something worse than the liberticidal establishment: it’s a more liberticidal establishment. (May 26, 2017)

I wonder why US president does not carry a real flag instead of just wearing a lapel pin. (May 26, 2017)

Agriculture bureaucrats are strong on pear review. (May 24, 2017)

If the difference between a free and an unfree society is that majoritarian elections are held in the former, that’s not much. For in an unfree society, the tyrant also needs and gets majority support (at least tacitly). A free society is about INDIVIDUAL liberty. (May 18, 2017)

Learning anything new is like, say, learning a new language. Nothing makes much sense until suddenly it makes a whole lot of sense. (May 16, 2017)

Learning is difficult because it is challenging. One cannot see the import of new knowledge before it is acquired. (May 16, 2017)

Learning is difficult because it is challenging. One’s whole outlook is subject to change. (May 16, 2017)

If one has never learned how to learn or has not cultivated learning, he won’t learn much after 30 or 40, and certainly nothing after 60. (May 16, 2017)

Trump will not change. Few people learn new things at 70 (Keynes said after 25-30), except those who have made learning a life-long passion. (May 16, 2017)

Vincere scis, Hannibal Trumpe, victoria uti nescis. (May 16, 2017)

Entomology is the science of putting ideas in big tomes. (May 16, 2017)

One reason one tries to build a reputation of reliability and respect for truth is to be believed in important cases. (May 15, 2017)

One advantage of limiting (and dividing) government is that an ignorant or even an idiot or a malevolent ruler can’t do much harm. (May 15, 2017)

This is very offensive. I am very offended. (May 12, 2017)

Voters have to choose between tyranny & tyranny light, or tyranny light & tyranny light. Rationally ignorant, they don’t care much anyway. (May 12, 2015)

Many angels are dancing on the top of my pen. (May 11, 2017)

God has no opinion about Trump. He is just laughing His ass off about government in general. (May 6, 2017)

If Trump did not speak baby-talk, it would be easier to understand what he means, and perhaps for him too. (May 6, 2017)

Divided government is not a bug; it’s a feature. (May 6, 2017)

Rebooting is the universal solution. (May 5, 2017)

The most stupid pick up line: “I don’t overbook more than United.” (April 28, 2017)

To repeat Thomas Jefferson’s dilemma: Virgil or Homer? But here is a trilemma: Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach? (April 16, 2017)

An act of faith is not necessarily a fact of hate. (April 16, 2017)

Do NOT do LMAO: there would remain only an asshole. (April 16, 2017)

The gunnut’s dilemma: Either he shoots often, and his guns are generally dirty; or his guns are always clean, and he can’t shoot. (April 15, 2016)

We must not throw out the baby of individual liberty with the bathwater of the establishment. (April 13, 2017)

Reverse engineering: reading a book or an article from the last section to the first. (April 13, 2017)

In a clash of civilizations – in the present case, between a civilization and barbarians – don’t forget the individuals. (April 9, 2017)

Collective liberty consists in ordinary people dictating to others how to live; individual liberty is ordinary people (in fact, any individual) preventing others from dictating them how to live. (April 8, 2017)

If you understand the benefits of international trade, you know that the freedom to import is more important than the capacity to export. (April 7, 2017)

Do American politicos ever wonder why other world leaders don’t wear their flags as lapel pins? Perhaps they just think that the others are ashamed of that their countries. (April 4, 2017)

Trump is blinded by his lack of ideology. (April 4, 2017)

Most people are ordinary people. (April 4, 2017)

If you don’t give a fig, you won’t get a date. (April 1, 2017)

If we lived twice, it would be better the second time around, but competition would be fiercer. (April 1, 2017)

The rock is called Charybdis; the hard place, Scylla. (April 1, 2017)

If somebody intelligent and not deluded tells you obvious lies and expects you to believe them, he must think you are an idiot or a minion. (April 1, 2017)

Rednecks, who are respectable people when they mind their own business, are being compromised by Trump. (April 1, 2017)

Allah Snackbar! (March 30, 2017)

I often meet dogs walking humans. (March 27, 2017)

If you have one foot in the grave, you still have one in the light. (March 23, 2017)

In order to kill a buffoon, you reach for the jocular. (March 19, 2017)

Like Adam and Eve, the night is falling. (March 14, 20117)

“De gustibus non est disputandum” should not mean that you may not give an opinion or recommendation. (March 14, 2017)

Flectamus genua. (I am thinking about Gaia.) (March 14, 2017)

If inflation is a general rise in the price level, independent of changes in relative prices, “core inflation” is a meaningless construct. (March 10, 2017)

Liberty does not mean gullibility. (March 8, 2017)

If the deplorables knew Saint-Nectaire, that’s how they would drink their milk. (March 8, 2017)

“Pat-down,” “check point,” “inspection,” “stop-and-frisk”… Orwell was right. Tyranny needs its own sanitized vocabulary. (March 5, 2017)

Alternative fact: Trump was not wiretapped by good Americans, but by Mexican manufacturing workers and rapists. (March 5, 2017)

Those who think that liberty fell with Hillary Clinton, or that it is championed by Donald trump, know little about liberty. (March 5, 2017)

The United States population is made of 30% deplorables, 30% anti-deplorables, 10% libertarians, and 30% “officers.” (March 5, 2017)

The “level playing field” is a tool for both the left and the right to expand state power and exploit the citizens (and the foreigners). (March 3, 2017)

The beacon of liberty is becoming the beacon of whining. (March 1, 2017)

Except if I am mistaken, I don’t have a single monk among my Facebook friends. One would think that FB, for its silence, would be the Cistercian’s best friend. It is true, on the other hand, that it does flash some of the temptations of the world. (March 1, 2017)

It’s OK if you are jealous of the economists’ knowledge. I am myself jealous of mathematicians, cosmologists, and poets. (March 2, 2017)

Brave New World: I have been vetted, therefore I am. (March 1, 2017)

Subjectivism in the social sciences and nihilism in philosophy are not synonymous. (March 1, 2017)

Same elementary logic: “Most criminals are American citizens” does not imply that “most American citizens are criminals.” (February 24, 2017)

Elementary logic: “Most terrorists are Muslims” does not imply “most Muslims are terrorists.” (February 25, 2017)

If one doesn’t know everything, learning always requires some acts of faith. For an adult, these acts of faith must of course be limited, provisional, and falsifiable. (February 22, 2017)

Pauvre, on est dans la gêne. Riche, on se retrouve dans la géhenne. (Sauf pour les tout petits riches, qui passent par le chas de l’aiguille.) (February 20, 2017)

I have so much to learn. Fortunately, I know a few individuals who know everything. (February 20, 2017)

A good teacher has to be patient, and patience must be an exponential function of his pupils’ age. (February 20, 2017)

One way to gauge the basic intelligence of somebody must be that he tries to at least look coherent. He won’t simultaneously say both A and ¬A. (February 18, 2017)

A more ignorant and more anti-free-trade ruler is more dangerous than a less ignorant and less anti-free-trade ruler. (February 17, 2017)

Betting on ignorance in power is not a good bet. It’s a terrible bet given the indecent power of the contemporary state. (February 17, 2017)

It’s ok to have many obsessions. The problem is to having only one. (February 15, 2017)

It is one thing for an ignorant ruler to say “Do what you want” (under abstract laws). It is another thing for him to say “Do what I want.” (February 12, 2017)

We are entering a new Dark Age where rulers and their courtiers think they are inventing the wheel while they are just reinventing tyranny. (February 12, 2017)

Reformulating Mencken: Democracy means that the common people know nothing about what they vote for, and deserve to get it good and hard. (February 11, 2017)

If you have to choose between Charybdis and Scylla, you don’t have to embrace one or the other. (February 11, 2017)

Perhaps I am wrong (but it’s unlikely to be on everything). (February 7, 2017)

It used to be that goods cleared customs. Now, for the state, people are goods too. (February 6, 2017)

And God created a ticket; and it was so. (Genesis) (February 6, 2017)

If you are inclusive, what are the others? (February 6, 2017)

There is a difference between a revolution and a runaway train. (February 5, 2017)

The problem with a national government imposing international sanctions is that they impose a ban on the government’s own subjects. (February 3, 2017)

Qui aime les taches de rousseur n’est pas nécessairement gourou. (February 3, 2017)

The carrying capacity of the planet certainly accommodates a 9mm semi-auto. (February 3, 2017)

À cheval donné, on ne regarde pas la ride. (February 3, 2017)

Rednecks and deplorables are honorable and have the right to live as they want. But they must not dictate to others what to do and how to live. (February 3, 2017)

Increasing polarization is strange: it is, in most cases, about relatively small differences between similar political parties and platforms. (February 2, 2017)

Who will vet the vetters? (January 29, 2017)

The majesty and exhibitionism of the American and the French governments are very similar. (January 31, 2017)

Why not put everybody in jail and release them on a case-by-case basis? (January 28, 2017)

Americans being pitied all over the world (as opposed to being envied) won’t make America great. (January 28, 2017)

Americans being hated all over the world won’t make America great. (January 28, 2017)

Except in a tribe, tyranny is divisive. The more tyranny you have, the more discontent, division, and conflict you can expect. (January 27, 2017)

The excuse for protectionism: my tribe is better than yours, it’s the only true tribe. In practice, it amounts transferring money from domestic consumers to domestic producers (and the best at lobbying among them). (January 27, 2017)

Terrorists are butchering people, the Surveillance State is advancing, Leviathan is running loose, and what does the president of the United States want to do? He wants to BUILD A WALL ALONG THE MEXICAN BORDER! (January 25, 2017)

For the rulers, security details have become the most important. (January 24, 2017)

The only sure way to get a sense of belonging is to be a slave. (January 24, 2017)

We should not have to choose between bigots of the left and bigots of the right. (January 23, 2017)

The Great Wall of China did not make China great. (January 21, 2017)

A priest is God’s altar ego. (January 20, 2017)

Protectionism: “You hurt your subjects? I will retaliate against mine. Take this!” (January 20, 2017)

As Descartes said, I snowblow, therefore I am. (January 18, 2017)

The more investors believe in “technical analysis,” the more it will be false (because people will have arbitraged it away), however voodoo it was to start with. (January 18, 2017)

Who opposes free trade is either an ignorant or an authoritarian. (January 18, 2017)

Whales are trying to keep up with the Jonases. (January 14, 2017)

When a politician says he is humbled, he usually means humbled by his own stature. (January 11, 2017)

A redneck’s thought: A snow blower is a very imperfect substitute for guns: it makes noise but no neat holes. (January 9, 2017)

Sovereignty – which is the power of a state to do what it wants – is the problem, not the solution. (January 7, 2016)

The question is whether statist populism will be defeated before it brings world economic crisis or nationalist wars, and what will replace it. (January 7, 2016)

If it’s right in theory but wrong in practice, you are using a false theory. (January 1, 2017)

A depressed goose is said to be down. (December 31, 2016)

My last banality of 2016: Knowledge is cumulative. (December 31, 2016)

Having many handguns must feel like polygamy. (December 31, 2016)

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. When do we celebrate New Year’s Adam? (December 30, 2016)

It was a good storm. It helped me overcome, albeit imperfectly, snowblowing perfectionism. (December 30, 2016)

Some seem to argue that because free trade is only imperfectly realized, it should be made even more imperfect with more coercion. (December 27, 2016)

Puisqu’on dit d’un mort qu’il s’est éteint, ne devrait-on pas dire d’un fœtus qu’il s’est allumé ? (December 25, 2016)

Last night, I dreamed of good and bad regression results. The ways of God are unfathomable. (December 25, 2016)

As the number of checkpoints and searches between point A and point B approaches infinity, the probability that a terrorist or common criminal will pass through the net approaches zero. But, at the same time, the probability that a government agent will commit a crime approaches one. (December 23, 2016)

If there is one thing that should be forbidden, it is to pledge allegiance to a state. (December 23, 2016)

If it embraced free trade and the 2nd Amendment (over the next 8 years?), the Democratic Party would become the party of liberty. (December 22, 2016)

Perhaps one can define “the will of the people” as 51% or 48% of a vote, or 35% of the electors, but it is only a definition. Or else it is the conclusion of a demanding contractarian theory. (December 21, 2016)

I do say “Merry Christmas!” If somebody wants to hear that as something else, I can’t object: aren’t we living in a free country? (December 18, 2016)

When in his former life Trump said “we,” he meant “I.” The problem now is that he thinks he includes all of us in his grandiose “we.” (December 18, 2016)

Checking my white privilege this morning, I felt happy to have a snow blower. (December 17, 2016)

It would have been better to get the moon and six Pence than one Trump and one Pence. (December 15, 2016)

An editor walks into a bar and asks for a draft. (December 12, 2016)

Nobility titles: Soon, in America, everybody will be a “doctor” or an “officer.” (December 12, 2016)

An algorithm is not a tango with Al Gore. (December 10, 2016)

Relax, everything can happen. (December 9, 2016)

If you can’t speak about politics without one “we” every second sentence, you should reflect on methodological and political individualism. (December 9, 2016)

I wonder if one can get a tactical toothbrush (say). (December 7, 2016)

This morning, it was softly snowing. Now, it’s hardly snowing at all. (December 5, 2016)

Expensive socialism: As Jesus said, we must always show the other check. (December 5, 2016)

Mercantilists prefer that domestic workers produce goods for foreign importers rather than foreign workers sweating for American importers. (December 1, 2016)

As Paul Samuelson could have said, when I see “community indifference curves” or “social indifference curves,” I reach for my revolver. (December 1, 2016)

On peut toujours se consoler en se disant que demain sera pire. (December 1, 2016))

It is impossible for a government to be “inclusive” if it intervenes in people’s lives, for some won’t agree. (November 21, 2016)

Horse trading is the art of the political deal. (November 21, 2016)

Going forward, I think many people are going backward. (November 19, 2016)

Why is it bad to be a white nationalist but good to be a nationalist? The two ideological strands are essentially collectivist. (November 17, 2016)

Before you say a Hail Mary, think about the damage it will do to your car. (November 15, 2016)

There must be nothing more frustrating than to die just after buying four new snow tires. (November 15, 2016)

Trump is doing all this for his hair apparent. (November 15, 2016)

God is half-deaf because the Pope has His ear. (November 13, 2016)

To be against the establishment is not enough. Also needed is the will to oppose any new authoritarian, anti-individualistic establishment. (November 9, 2016)

Many people believe that Charybdis is a rock and Scylla a hard place. (November 7, 2016)

The adventures of a meta-trans: I am a transtrans, which means that I am totally normal (in this general area, at least), as two negations equal an affirmation. (November 3, 2016)

To understand something, look at the incentives. A good explanation has to be incentive-compatible. (November 1, 2016)

Ce n’est pas demain la veille que l’éternité finira, et la nuit des temps n’était pas hier. (November 1, 2016)

If so many people violate natural rights and get away with it, how natural are these rights? (October 31, 2016)

There are so many laws on so many things that, it seems, any debate can be reframed in terms on who violated which laws. (October 31, 2016)

Perhaps death is just a reboot following a blue screen? (October 30, 2016)

Until you have solved the problem of cross draw vs. strong side, admit it: your life is in shambles. (October 29, 2016)

With Linux, you nearly get into the bowels of the beast. And the only smell is that of zeros and ones. (October 29, 2016)

Contrary to what happens in life, you can always, on a computer, undo what you have done. (October 27, 2016)

The tragedy of the Trump adventure is that it will have persuaded many people that the only alternative is between socialism and stupidity. (October 26, 2016)

The black box I broke open
Everything inside was black (October 24, 2016)

For more than two decades, I have characterized your humble servant as an intellectual redneck. I would now emphasize the intellectual part of it. (October 16, 2016)

Asked about what he thought of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the bear replied: “That’s otter nonsense.” (October 16, 2016)

Clinton, at least, seems not totally opposed to free trade. Trump, at least, seems favorable to the 2nd Amendment. What a fantastic choice! (October 16, 2016)

Cognitive limitation: virtually every voter is persuaded that without his vote, the team he roots for will be defeated. (October 16, 2016)

Those who claim that consumers’ cognitive limitations generate market failures should look at voters. (October 16, 2016)

You typically don’t know whether a sexual advance is unwanted until you try it. That’s why it is called an advance, not a backup. (Of course, it can be civilized, even if risky, or bullying and vulgar.) (October 15, 2016)

You see: politicians are just ordinary men and women. Why be in awe before them? (October 14, 2016)

Quand ils sont angoissés, les cannibales, dit-on, broient surtout du blanc. (October 13, 2016)

Comme il fallait s’y attendre, la baïonnette vient de Bayonne. (October 13, 2016)

The dash spread in cars and then, like a virus, invaded the English language. (October 13, 2016)

Understanding the formula, not remembering it, is what’s important. And it is often impossible to remember if you don’t understand. (October 13, 2016)

Where is the box so that I can think out of it? (October 13, 2016)

Wishful thinking: Savage laws should never be savagely enforced. (October 13, 2016)

Gropethink is less dangerous than groupthink. (October 12, 2016)

Politicians throw mud at each other and they deserve it. (October 8, 2016)

An expresso is like life: it tastes good and you drink it in two sips. (October 8, 2016)

Political correctness is a great step for beingkind. (October 8, 2016)

Autumn is when the summer takes a leaf of absence. (October 8, 2016)

Eternal life is looming but it can take its time looming. (October 8, 2016)

Man is an unsatisfied animal. (October 8, 2016)

I saw an ant on the trail. She turned her back on me. As a punishment, I crushed her. (October 7, 2016)

Realizing that perfection is a mirage should not lead one to embrace imperfection as ferociously. (October 6, 2016)

My automatic transmission does a shifty job. (October 6, 2016)

Normative statement: A dragon spitting fire should not be foaming at the mouth. (Septermber 25, 2016)

If you don’t know what the problem is, the solution will be hard to come by. (September 25, 2016)

When you are old, you never step twice in the same river, because you drown the first time. (September 19, 2016)

“The media” is a scapegoat of the right just as “multinational corporations” or “neoliberalism” is a scapegoat of the left. (September 18, 2016)

Of course, putting “of course” in a sentence can be subliminally misleading. (September 18, 2016)

The ultimate example of voluntary simplicity: using a Linux machine and carrying a Glock. (September 17, 2016)

Can you imagine that 6,000 generations have lived without computer viruses and crashes? (September 16, 2016)

Economic growth is flying solo. (Economist’s joke. Don’t try to understand if you are not one.) (September 8, 2016)

As the totalitarian say, too much choice comes with individual liberty. Each time I prepare to go out, I have to ask myself, Which pistol and which holster am I going to wear? (August 30, 2016)

I bought my new sustainable bicycle at a local shop in my own galaxy. (August 30, 2016)

If you love the state and identity politics, you must be enamored with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. (August 30, 2016)

Buy local: buy on earth! (Or at a minimum in your own galaxy.) (August 30, 2016)

Most people think that discrimination is good only if done by the state. On the contrary, it can be good only if done by individuals. (August 30, 2016)

A taste of wine is not a waste of time. (August 29, 2016)

Get a pistol. Battery not included. (August 27, 2016)

Gaia est une sacrée gaillarde. (August 26, 2016)

Even if your pistol jams, it’s not recommended to eat it for breakfast. (August 26, 2016)

To be honest with you, I want your wallet. (August 26, 2016)

If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing. (August 21, 2016)

An editor slaves away at the galley. (August 21, 2016)

La vieillesse est une fuite en avant. (August 17, 2016)

Diagnostic test for wishful thinking: the patient does not see his own typos although he is very good at catching others’. (I reread this post several times.) (August 16, 2016)

Whether Clinton or Trump wins, half of America will wish that government had been more limited in order to minimize damage. (August 16, 2016)

Gender parity is a good idea. Every bed should have it. (August 16, 2016)

I like chatty silence. (August 15, 2016)

Easy things are not difficult to do. (August 15, 2016)

The main argument against immigration restrictions is they imply forbidding “citizens” from inviting in loved ones, employees, and friends. (August 12, 2016)

Political power must be so limited that neither a Trump nor a Clinton can do any significant damage. (August 10, 2016)

An editor walks into a sidebar… (August 8, 2016)

A Summer weekend pun: In Games of Thrones, they are better at willing a dwarf than building a wharf. (August 7, 2016)

There is nothing wrong with poetry, quite the contrary. But it doesn’t help demonstrate Arrow’s impossibility theorem. (August 7, 2016)

I am one day ahead in my short-term work, and 50 years late in my long-term work. (August 2, 2016)

I don’t know a single person (except for some unborns) who is not under a death sentence. (July 31, 2016)

Principle one of gastronomy as I see it: You don’t drink wine or coffee to rehydrate yourself or to rinse your teeth, but because if tastes good. If you want to rehydrate yourself or rinse your teeth, you drink water (preferably good, non-government water). (July 28, 2016)

We cannot win the war against tribalism by opposing “our” tribe to theirs. (July 28, 2016)

It would be much better if religious fanatics played Pokémon. (July 17, 2016)

My life has been a long streak of augmented reality. (July 13, 2016)

In Ancient Greece, tyrants were also often elected. (They had fewer bodyguards, though.) (July 12, 2016)

Will Trump be successful in flashing his wealth and lust for power and buying the Plebs support? Clinton is not recommendable either. (July 12, 2016)

A society without violent crime is possible: look at the former Eastern Europe or North Korea today. There, only state officials commit them. (July 11, 2016)

Cyan lives matter. Any Cyan is guilty of the crimes of any other Cyan. (July 10, 2016)

Zero tolerance. We need a war on stuff. (July 6, 2016)

I understand why environmentalists never eat their tofu with coal slaw. (July 5, 2016)

Voyeurs like sea food. (July 5, 2016)

Instead of asking for the men’s room, a real lawyer looks for the mens rea. (July 5, 2016)

Instead of social cohesion, I propose social cohiba. (July 4, 2016)

The Sunday futility: I have a second shot, a third eye, a fourth molar, and a sixth sense. I only need a fifth wheel. (June 26, 2016)

In my view, both political elitism and political populism should be opposed – because of the “political.” (June 26, 2016)

Obesity makes America great again. (June 24, 2016)

The more I learn about “hate crimes,” the more I love hate. (June 24, 2016)

Brexiters and Brexremainers are two warring street gangs. They want their solutions for the wrong reasons and with dangerous intentions. (June 23, 2016)

Réflexion sur la naissance: “C’t avec du neuf qu’on fait du vieux.” (June 20, 2016)

Pre-crimes should be severely punished, and the greater the pre-crime, the tougher the punishment. What’s wrong with that? (June 15, 2016)

Your FB friends slowly increase one by one and, one morning, you realize you have quite a lot, especially with compound interest. (June 15, 2016)

Learning is challenging because you must admit that you have been thinking or doing wrongly before. (June 15, 2016)

“Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.” (Epicurus) The process of dying, though, from what I hear, is rather annoying. (June 14, 2016)

If you could live an infinity of lives, you wouldn’t have to read what other people have experienced or analyzed. (June 14, 2016)

There are no guns in a convent and few guns in jail. (June 12, 2016)

It used to be government employees who went postal. (June 12, 2016)

Americans are not very good at racial profiling. Increase border controls, and the ones who will be more harassed will be the naive little Whites. (June 5, 2016)

Un éléphant, ça Trump(e), ça Trump(e), un éléphant, ça Trump(e) énormément. (June 5, 2016)

Democracy (or at least populist democracy) is when “the people” love the king and, as a bonus, see him beg for their votes once in a while. (June 5, 2016)

Team spirit:
“I think we’ll have to fire you,” says the boss to an employee.
“I think,” replies the employee, “that if we fire me, we’ll be in trouble.” (June 2, 2016)

Culture is to be there and elsewhere at the same time. (June 1, 2016)

Progress: perhaps one day the father of your son will be the mother of my daughter. (May 28, 2015)

Ignorance is frustrating, especially on the part of others. (May 25, 2016)

The volume of writings worth reading is mind-boggling; but even more so is the volume of stuff not worth reading. (May 24, 2016)

Bilingual-pun trigger warning! Hercule était éditorialiste; la preuve: ses colonnes. (May 22, 2016)

Regarding political realism and the cognitive capacity to recognize tyranny, the “tobacco control community” is a “vulnerable population.” (May 19, 2016)

A socialist walks into a bar, trips, and falls. (The bar was set too high.) (May 16, 2016)

A mathematician walks into a bar. Before he has time to say anything, the barman tells him, “You’re all set.” (May 16, 2016)

In some cases, you can’t set the record straight without breaking it. (May 13, 2016)

Taking things seriously has disturbing implications. (May 13, 2016)

Il vivait à Aschères mais ne l’avait pas triste. (May 12, 2016)

The problem with being your own boss is that you are also your own employee. (May 11, 2016)

If you had not noticed before, the problem with rulers is that they can do a lot of damage. Hence the need to constrain the state. (May 10, 2016)

West Virginia rednecks deserve respect (of course), and they voted to get it good and hard. (With my apologies to H.L. Mencken.) (May 10, 2016)

Multi-asking is what state cronies do. (May 10, 2016)

Multitasking is very relaxing. (May 10, 2016)

The tyrant you know may be better than the one you don’t know. (May 10, 2016)

A Martian landing on Earth would observe two religions: one about God, the other against tobacco. (May 7, 2016)

Trigger warning: a very dull pun for my French friends. Les dinosauriens ne sont pas tous nihilistes. (May 5, 2016)

Lip service is not an extra. (May 5, 2016)

If you want meaning in your life, it may not be enough to choose a simple word. (May 5, 2016)

Embryos are the big ones; the small ones are called enbryos. (May 4, 2016)

Those who want to get even with society look odd. (May 3, 2016)

Eternal life will come but it may take an eternity. (This hypothesis would explain the deafening silence of the dead.) (April 29, 2016)

The Left wanted democracy and unconstrained government. They get their wish with Trump. (April 28, 2016)

Stakeholders are generally people who don’t mind their own business. (April 27, 2016)

Reading is nearly as stressful as writing because you can’t just read whatever you want. (April 27, 2016)

Man doesn’t live by bread alone. He also needs poetry. (April 24, 2016)

I roam over the social media, therefore I am. (April 23, 2016)

Once I have everything I want, I wouldn’t mind being poor. (From an economic viewpoint, of course, I wouldn’t be poor.) (April 22, 2016)

Nothing happens here. I am carrying mainly for aesthetic reasons. (April 17, 2016)

Who would have ever thought that the Pope would go to Lesbos? (April 16, 2016)

Elections are the only time we see so many great altruists vying for public attention. (April 15, 2016)

New proverb for our times: Ubi Santa Klaus, ibi patria. (April 6, 2016)

Two hours to kill but I think I will only wound them. (At Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport, April 6, 2016)

Before thinking out of the box, you must know where the box is. (March 26, 2016)

The state spends 40%-50% of what the people earn and crushes our liberties daily; yet it can’t prevent massacres by primitive terrorists. (March 22, 2016)

Our main hope may be that the major presidential hopefuls are lying through their teeth and that they are not as ignorant as they look like. (March 15, 2016)

On Facebook, horses are treated differently: they update their equestrian status. (February 21, 2016)

Bilingual pun of the week: Lent is slow. (February 16, 2016)

I am not a theologian, but I suspect that tobacco, wine, women, and the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau must be everywhere in heaven. (February 16, 2016)

Five years. FIVE years! It has been five years since I bought on Amazon a too small garbage can in order to save $30. And I have regretted it every single garbage day for five years. (February 16, 2016)

“Standing for something” is not a goal per se. It’s better to stand for nothing than to stand for something false or wrong. (February 15, 2016)

It’s easy to confuse government as a whole with government as a hole. (February 14, 2016)

Don’t break you neck diving in the gene pool. (February 10, 2016)

The problem is that most anti-establishment voters want more of the establishment’s tyranny, not less. (February 10, 2016)

I don’t necessarily like my discovery of the past few years: there are lots of gullible people around. (February 9, 2016)

To get things done is no good if the things are bad. (February 1, 2016)

State secrets: let’s exchange Clinton against Snowden. (January 31, 2014)

Pun of the week: People who try to keep a low profile give ground hugs. (January 29, 2014)

Economists are not very competent in economic forecasting, but non-economists are much worse. (January 28, 2016)

Life is partly an enterprise of accumulating junk. (January 27, 2016)

In the winter, an old Brit needs a chap’s stick. (January 12, 2016)

The patriarchy cannot be vanquished as long as we maintain our email conditioning. Email must be banned and replaced by efemale. (January 12, 2016)

If PC types knew ancient Greek, they would be up in arms against the label “Android” and would demonstrate for “Anthropoid.” Fortunately, they are ignorants. (January 11, 2015)

Under the modern Leviathan, everybody is left free “for lack of evidence.” (January 9, 2015)

Question for Occam: Can a friar go from the fire to the frying pan? (January 4, 2016)

A rat is not always angry. (December 29, 2015)

French fishermen, when they feel shortchanged, dig in their eels. (December 28, 2015)

Quebecers are Cajuns of the North with public health insurance and without guns. (December 28, 2015)

My resolution for 2016: “Re: Solution.” (December 27, 2015)

I just know how to ask questions. (December 27, 2015)

Christmas truism: Understanding things is not always easy. (December 23, 2015)

The inventor of the wheel did not spend any time behind it, except when he tried it on a slope. (December 23, 2015)

It is often safe to assume that the wheel has already been invented. (December 23, 2015)

When you know a bit about some topic and you hear what people who know nothing about it say, you become a bit careful on the topics about which you know little. (December 19, 2015)

Une cale en bourg ressemble aux chaussettes de l’archi-duchesse. (December 19, 2015)

Anglers must like global worming. (December 19, 2015)

When the chips are down, nothing works. (December 14, 2015)

Trump is like the typical French intellectual: he thinks that his telling a sentence with a subject, a verb, and a complement makes it true. (December 11, 2015)

The prophet had a crystal ball but the other one was normal. (December 9, 2015)

For “security” and against liberty: most of our rulers have been radicalized. (December 9, 2015)

It is not the first time that thugs appeal to political motives, but our epoch is reaching an apogee.

I used to produce offspring. I am now better at offprint. (December 8, 2015)

Have no fear. A no-fly (or no-anything) list does not apply to you. Until some bureaucrat puts your name on it. (December 6, 2015)

Bad things will always happen, but tyranny is the worst of them and other bad things continue to happen under it. (December 6, 2015)

As a vegetable, cannibals used to eat cold slain. (December 6, 2015)

It is just a random factoid that madmen and terrorists do not attack shooting ranges and hunting parties. (December 5, 2015)

Statistical justice: if the killers are Muslims, some collectivists will attack and want to regulate all Muslims; if the killers are not Muslims, other collectivists will attack and want to regulate all gun owners. (December 3, 2015)

If you don’t have infinite time at your disposal, don’t waste what you have by reading news from cranky websites. And please don’t re-post. (November 30, 2015)

People who use “cacti” as the plural of “cactus” should go and see a proctologist. (November 30, 2015)

Aristotle opposed multiculturalism, as can be seen in his Nicomachean Ethnic. (November 28, 2015)

Militarization of the police: the feds have been very tanks giving. (November 27, 2015)

Life is a loophole. (November 26, 2015)

Liberty are loopholes. (November 26, 2015)

At least, on a wheelchair, you are on a roll. (November 26, 2015)

Stages of life: you roll, you crawl, you walk, you run, you walk, you hike, you walk, you crawl, you roll. But you see: you discovered hiking! (November 26, 2015)

There are no free countries but, on some metrics, some are less unfree than others. (November 26, 2015)

The Beaujolais Nouveau smells very Green. So it must be good. (November 23, 2015)

A geek participating in a threesome or an n-some will certainly want to do a checksum. (November 22, 2015)

Even if, in your system of ethics, only consequences matter (as opposed to intentions, obligations, etc.), it won’t do to compare the number of individuals killed by bombings and drone strikes with the number killed by terrorists. The number of individuals that would have been killed by the terrorists killed in bombings and drone strikes must be included too. On the other hand, he number of future murders by Bataclan concert goers (or World Trade Center workers) is vanishingly small. (November 21, 2015)

En Grèce, les automobiles ont des calandres grecques. (November 20, 2015)

Tyranny is not an efficient way to fight tyranny. (November 19, 2015)

A fashion question: Do you put your explosive belt over or under your chastity belt? (November 18, 2016)

Droit de porter des armes pour se défendre: il ne faut pas prendre les enfants du Bon Dieu pour des canards sauvages. (November 17, 2015)

The first question of Saint Peter at the pearly gates will be, “Have you always cleaned your guns well?” (November 16, 2015)

A smell of seventh century has spread over the world. (November 14, 2015)

Even against enemy thugs, we must stick to our individualist values. (November 14, 2015)

Where you will be buried is a grave matter. (November 13, 2015)

There is always a meta-something, up to infinity. (November 13, 2015)

If you can’t find yourself, chances are your car keys are lost too. (November 12, 2015)

Some people seem to be against everything except the idea of being against everything. (October 28, 2015)

About 92 billion light-years in diameter, the observable universe contains 10 billion galaxies and one billion trillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars, plus so many black holes that it is impossible to count them. Life has evolved over 3.5 billion years on our little planet. Schrödinger’s cat may be both dead and alive somewhere on the infinite frontier between mathematics and poetry. And some want us to believe that God enacts minute regulations on how Mr. Smith puts his little thing into Ms. Doe’s small hole, and that He will to send them to eternal damnation if they break one tiny rule? (October 26, 2015)

Most media sell what most people want: entertainment and confirmation bias. (October 25, 2015)

When you check in at the Pearly Gates, the first question will be, “How many likes did you get?” (October 23, 2015)

One must be able to connect what one does with the general adventure of mankind. (October 23, 2015)

Packing a light suitcase to fly to California at a few hours notice, I could feel like Tintin and Capitaine Haddock, or Indiana Jones, travelling to some barbarous country, if only I could throw a pistol in the suitcase and not have to pass through police-state controls. (October 23, 2015)

When laws are multitude, crimes change by the day. (October 22, 2015)

Santa Claus used to be a grammarian (but he dealt only with holy writings). (October 21, 2015)

A fetus has a hard time just before he can think out of the box. (October 21, 2015)

A hunter devoured by a lion certainly has skin in the game. The hunter’s brother only has kin in the game. (October 20, 2015)

You are excited for good reasons if you used to be cited. (October 20, 2015)

The biggest tax loophole of all is that the American state lets people keep 60% of what they earn. (The loophole is about 50% in Europe.) (October 18, 2015)

My altruism will kill me, and I will be happy. (October 18, 2015)

Owning many holsters is to a man what having several purses is to a woman. (October 11, 1015)

Facebook does not allow me to update my statue. (October 11, 2015)

My apologies for apologizing. (September 21, 2015)

If feminism had not triumphed, 50% of graduates would have an almus pater instead of an alma mater. (September 17, 2015)

If you cry wolf every night, you will one day make a good forecast. (September 8, 2015)

There are three stages in life: birth, childhood, and pre-death. (September 6, 2015)

I wouldn’t say the same about sex, but I certainly enjoy the same text. (September 3, 2015)

Communisme: qui veut la faim veut les moyens. (September 1, 2014)

Once you have met imaginary numbers, even only furtively, life is never the same again. (September 1, 2014)

Imaginary numbers make the universe real. (September 1, 2015)

A newspaper that does not regularly publish errata is not credible. (August 31, 2015)

Comme l’écrivait Aragon, il n’y a pas de browser heureux. (August 29, 2015)

I am trying to suspend myself with pay. (August 29, 2015)

Ésaü, qui était photographe, a vendu son droit d’aînesse à Jacob pour quelques lentilles. (August 29, 2015)

I prefer a selfie carrot to a selfie stick. (August 29, 2015)

I would not mind being put on administrative leave. (August 29, 2015)

The night has fallen but her sin has been forgiven. (August 29, 2015)

Some accountants prefer their Champagne net. (August 29, 2015)

With the right entrée* and wine, humble pie may be quite eatable.

*“Entrée” means not the main course, as it is mistakenly used in America, but the first course: “entrée” means opening or entrance. (August 29, 2015)

A sin tax is not part of grammar. (August 26, 2015)

For every seller of a stock, there is a buyer. Stock prices drop because people change their minds on stock values. Buyers obviously think they gain. (August 24, 2015)

The altruist don’t have a different take on everything, they have a different give. (August 24, 2015)

To be poor would be OK if everything were not so trashy everywhere. (When I was a child, I thought that the only thing the poor lacked was food, that they otherwise lived in a spotless environment, that poverty was clean.) (August 24, 2015)

Entia non sunt ponenda sine necessitate. (Apologies for repeating myself.) (August 24, 2015)

What’s wrong with moral relativism, provided consent rules? (August 22, 2015)

Editors are under a spell. (August 20, 2015)

Monetary-theory joke: Voodoo recommends putting a dime under one’s tongue because it is the equivalent of a mint. (August 20, 2015)

Old age is when you downsize to .380. (August 19, 2015)

It is being a realist to think that (perhaps) most statements must be qualified by a “perhaps.” (August 18, 2015)

Trigger warning for financial joke: Islamists (and especially those whose strong field is not translation) are bullish because “Allah is long!” (August 17, 2015)

If you see a Brit farthing, it is recommended that, when reporting it, you do not pronounce your “th” à la française. (August 17, 2015)

If you don’t know what to say, you’ll find it’s difficult to say it. (August 14, 2015)

A race to the bottom is not necessarily bad. It depends on whose bottom it is. (August 12, 2015)

He who is always on Skype is never on Skype. (August 11, 2016)

I would become a boy again if only for the toys available nowadays, but perhaps for a couple of other reasons too. (August 7, 2015)

Each individual is a culture. (August 7, 2015)

“I am not a consequentialist. Consequently, I don’t study economics.” (August 4, 2014)

With growing obesity, we see more ignes fatui. (August 3, 2015)

Many would-be writers are guilty of rant-seeking. (July 29, 2015)

Hold your wrath and, if you are an environmentalist, your rat too. (July 29, 2015)

Bertrand Russell married four times because his day job was about tying the not. (July 29, 2015)

La résistance des chauffeurs de taxi contre Uber, ça leur fait une belle jante. (July 27, 2015)

The Brits colonized India because Indian food goes well with beer. (July 27, 2015)

Entrepreneurs know something that other people don’t but they can’t explain it. (July 27, 2015)

As could have been expected, homosexuals are replacing the rainbow with a raingun. (July 25, 2015)

Heavy things are unsustainable. (July 25, 2015)

Not a very useful piece of information (or should not be), but you can guess that a “spokesman” is a man and a “spokesperson” a woman. (July 23, 2015)

Vegetarianism: cabbage in, cabbage out. (But of course de gustibus non est disputandum.) (July 22, 2015)

Socialists are greedy. They love money, especially if it comes from other people. (July 13, 2015)

It is frustrating when you know something (even if only provisionally) to know that others don’t know it, even if it were just enough to criticize you usefully. (July 13, 2015)

If the Merchant of Venice had been a black woman instead of a Jew, the play would be forbidden in most places, or attacked as insensitive. (July 13, 2015)

Greek democracy in particular and the tyranny of the majority in general: ask the electorate to vote on a question that requires a Ph.D. in economics to be understood, then do the exact contrary of the vote results, and be hailed as a savior. (July 10, 2015)

A populist approves whatever “the people” (whatever that means) wants. A libertarian, on the contrary, favors the individual. (July 10, 2015)

A must: read the Declaration of Independence. And compare it with today’s George III. (July 4, 2015)

Most people think that the “long train of abuses” is an Amtrak train. (July 4, 2015)

I suspect that a large proportion of Americans are unable to read (and understand, which is the essence of reading) the Declaration of Independence. (July 4, 2015)

July 4: Remember that it was a revolution (re-vo-lu-tion), against a relatively mild tyrant. (July 4, 2015)

Don’t expect a “God bless” for a blog guess. (July 3, 2015)

Astronauts, I have heard, often suffer from asteroids. Hermeneuticians have a different disease. (July 3, 2015)

As somebody noted, the gay-marriage SCOTUS ruling gives homosexuals permission to ask for a marriage license. (July 3, 2015)

A blanket statement is not necessarily made under the sheets and does not suggest a cover-up. (July 1, 2015)

Being libertarian does not mean espousing all ideas voiced by all libertarians. This would be impossible anyway since many are incompatible. (June 30, 2015)

There is of course no shame in changing one’s mind, but it is more persuasive if ideas existed at the starting and ending points. (June 28, 2015)

Will the next Civil War will be between those who want to impose their civic religion and those who want to force feed their godly religion? (June 28, 2015)

Green lives matter. (June 27, 2015)

Democracy: any majority decision somewhere cancels any other majority decision somewhere else. (June 28, 2017)

Except at the very abstract level of Hayek’s Great Society (& perhaps at an even more abstract level), you don’t have to follow the majority. (June 27, 2015)

Why not oblige states to force women to admit that a man’s prostate is a uterus and force them to call it so? A question of equality? (June 26, 2015)

It seems obvious that homosexuals have the right to live under marriage-like contracts. But why call it “marriage”? Why force states to do so? (June 26, 2015)

If you have eaten all your food for thought, it was just fast food. (June 23, 2015)

A micro-aggression must be met with a decisive micro-defense. (June 19, 2015)

Pope Pius XII may have died of hiccup; Pope Paul II and Pope Alexander VI, of hook-up. (June 17, 2015)

War is bad but it is worse still not to defend oneself. (The meaning of “oneself” raises more questions, though.) (June 17, 2015)

I click, therefore I am. (June 16, 2015)

A micro-aggression is when you are attacked by a dwarf, and this includes an intellectual dwarf. (June 15, 2015)

We get used to everything, even ugly cars. (June 15, 2015)

La bêtise humaine n’est problématique que quand certains veulent imposer la leur. (June 13, 2015)

If it works in theory but not in practice, the theory is wrong or it is not used correctly. (June 13, 2015)

If reading does not challenge your ideas, you don’t know how to read. The same applies to conversation. (June 12, 2015)

Mind boggling is fun; blind mugging isn’t. (June 11, 12015)

Booze and sex are to Americans what private guns are to Europeans. (June 10, 2015)

The ranks of shoemakers would be decimated if the doctrine of the immortality of the sole were true. Et les rangs des armuriers seraient décimés si les âmes étaient immortelles. (June 9, 2015)

Many people in search of meaning get blown away by Islam. (June 5, 2015)

The problem is to find a church that has Catholic masses and Gregorian music, that is not obsessed by sex, and that does not espouse the Inquisition. (June 4, 2015)

Wises are not crimes. (June 3, 2015)

Liberals believe they can control everything without a police state. Conservatives believe they will control little with their police state. (May 30, 2015)

With political correctness, we must say Homo Sapiens, not Hetero Sapiens. (May 30, 2015)

An arsenal is not a storage space for arse. (May 29, 2015)

People prefer to be amputated because surgeons are better rested and less likely to make errors in the morning. (May 27, 2015)

If lying were an equal crime, most if not all politicians and high-level bureaucrats would be in jail. (May 27, 2015)

The Russian government can’t be both a rabble-rouser and a ruble-rouser. (May 25, 2015)

I wish all majorities, in Ireland too, were tolerant towards the LGBT community. I mean the Libertarian Glock Business Trading minorities. (May 23, 2015)

There are two Americas, or perhaps three. In the real spirit of American liberty, there would be 320 million Americas. (May 22, 2015)

Cachez ce saint que je ne saurais voir. (Bon, ça va, je disparais.) (May 22, 2015)

Medicine is like social science: it’s very easy to get scientific conclusions corrupted by one’s political values. (May 22, 2015)

Sisyphus was the first one to hear a Rolling Stone. (May 22, 2015)

A vow of chastity is not worth a chow of vast titty. (May 20, 2015)

Small calibers are for micro-aggressions. (May 20, 2015)

Contrary to a dice, a gun is always loaded. (May 20, 2015)

L’écrivain se gardera d’imiter l’escargot qui entre dans sa coquille. (May 20, 2015)

Culture is a difficult and dangerous concept. (May 19, 2015)

If you get ahead of yourself, you will necessarily fall behind. (May 18, 2015)

Un cancre pétulant cause plus de dommages qu’un cancre las. (May 15, 2015)

I request that idiots and fascists give me a trigger warning before saying anything. I can then compose and control myself. (May 13, 2015)

I am going to sue Microsoft. When Word asks me for “orientation,” the only two options are “portrait” and “landscape.” (May 12, 2015)

If Al Capone had met Al Pacino, it would have been a war of al against al. (May 12, 2015)

A misdemeanor is the demeanor of a young, unmarried woman. (May 11, 2015)

Perhaps political dynasties should be subjected to sperm limits. (May 8, 2015)

For bored people, time is running in. (May 8, 2015)

Geeks don’t get a life; they put it. (May 8, 2015)

Private guns are to Europe what booze and sex are to America: an irrational fear. (May 7, 2015)

How do you unmask an egoist? Simple. Instead of saying “here is my give on such or such topic,” he will say “here is my take.” (May 6, 2015)

Mystics hear invoices (which is slightly annoying for those who have taken a poverty vow). (May 5, 2015)

Instead of coming back to the fold, a mathematician always comes back to the manifold. (May 2, 2015)

To be mean or to be average, that is the question. (April 29, 2015)

Having a burnout can be useful in the seconds following a suicide bombing attack. (April 27, 2015)

Many men die with no hair apparent. (April 27, 2015)

Islamist terrorists are thinking of training deer for suicide attacks. The goal is to get the most bang for the buck. (April 24, 2015)

Poor Gaia, suffering from Hurt Day! (April 23, 2015)

Selfie sticks are immoral; try altrie carrots instead. (April 23, 2015)

Investors whine in a beer market. (April 22, 2015)

The war on plants is a war on citizens. (April 22, 2015)

A selfie stick is for taking a picture of oneself. A chapstick is for taking a picture of another chap. (April 19, 2015)

Malgré son nom, Périclès ne tournait pas autour du pot. (April 18, 2015)

A Panera salad comes in a box which, I assume, is called a Panera’s box. (April 17, 2015)

If Hillary Clinton had asked my advice on her electoral slogan, I would have recommended: “Yes we can, Sir!” (April 17, 2015)

Pour entrer, un intellectuel khâgne à la porte. (April 17, 2015)

Many of my opinions have changed, but only the wrong ones (I think). (April 17, 2015)

If you live in a trailer park, you will always know of the latest movies. (April 16, 2015)

A dyslectic secretary is inefficient because she always wants to get a life instead of getting the damn file. (April 14, 2015)

A dyslexic should get a life instead of getting a file. (April 14, 2015)

A police state is where the police are everywhere. (April 14, 2015)

I suspect that, on the other shore of the Styx, Jehovah Witnesses will go from throne to throne, in an infinite game of thrones. (April 13, 2015)

The more demanding recipes are those that need much thyme. (April 12, 2015)

You get used to be old, but it takes time. (April 12, 2015)

When a genius suffers a stroke, something very special happens. (April 11, 2015)

If you baptize you pen “Genius,” every annotation you make will be a stroke of genius. (April 11, 2015)

It must be annoying to pass through life without knowing what’s happening around you. But then you don’t know that you don’t know. (April 11, 1015)

Un pâté de maison qui comprend une église s’appelle un pâté de foi. (April 10, 2015)

A gun is a gris-gris that shoots. (April 10, 2015)

Childish pun of the week: Atlas after at last leaving LAX said EX-LAX. (April 10, 2015)

I met a man who knew Zauberman, but I lost track of that man too. (I don’t expect any of my friends to understand this reflection.) (April 10, 2015)

It should be legally mandated that new cars have a victimhood. (April 10, 2015)

If you don’t ask questions, you won’t have answers. (April 9, 2015)

The views expressed in this article are not personal; they are somebody else’s. (April 9, 2015)

Conversation is an art. (April 7, 2015)

No-brainer: A transparent government cannot have a “Secret Service.” (April 7, 2015)

We live in a world where bigots compete with homoglots and heteroglots. (April 5, 2015)

God must have an infinite sense of humor. (April 5, 2015)

Instead of “God Bless!”, Islamists say “God Blast!” (April 5, 2015)

I need a remedy for wishful thinking. (March 31, 2015)

Panacea are suspicious. They give a false peace of mind. (March 31, 2015)

Les bergères ont la foi du charbonnier. (March 31, 2015)

You have – or should have – the right to be a bigot, but you don’t have to be one. (March 30, 2015)

Le monde a changé, comme il a changé bien des fois au cours des derniers 20,000 ans. (March 28, 2015)

The world has changed, as it did many times over the past 20,000 years. (March 28, 2015)

Politicians generally lie in state. (March 27, 2015)

Plants are animals too. (March 24, 2015)

Quand on a déjà tout su et qu’on ne sait plus tout, on ne peut jamais plus tout savoir. (March 21, 2015)

Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead enter into a bar. “You’re all set,” the barman tells them. (March 18, 2014)

Le verbe « s’exprimer » ne signifie pas annuler son abonnement à Prime. (March 18, 2015)

Noah’s ark was a relation ship. (March 18, 2015)

Truth is asymptotic. (March 14, 2014)

C’est fou ce que tout le monde est devenu vieux sans qu’on s’en aperçoive. (March 12, 2015)

How could I ever buy a Glock, which is such an ugly pistol, devoid of design? Perhaps aesthetics will kill me. (March 11, 2015)

Theological discovery: heaven is fifty shades of white. (March 8, 2015)

Data without sources and surrounding debates are not worth the electrons they are coded with. (March 6, 2015)

You know that you think differently when most opinion poll questions make no sense. (March 4, 2015)

The very concept of a “marriage license” shows how the American idea of liberty has degenerated. (March 4, 2015)

When you read, you are having a conversation or a debate with the author. When you write, it’s a debate with yourself. (March 4, 2015)

If socialists did not love money, solidarity would have no purpose. (March 2, 2015)

Solidarity is when you need the money. (March 2, 2015)

The collectivist state is a glory whole. (March 2, 2015)

La nature a horreur du bide. (February 26, 215)

An unemployed mathematician could switch to raising chickens and open a Nth house. (So stupid it’s nearly funny.) (February 26, 2015)

No feminist would survive in a cockpit. (February 26, 2015)

Sorry, I can’t answer your call right now. I have a higher calling. (February 24, 2015)

Software is OK but I wouldn’t mind a hardware upgrade. (February 20, 2015)

I am looking for an alternative to death. (February 20, 2015)

Politicians’ cars have hot-airbags. (February 20, 2015)

I can’t dig double negations no more. (February 20, 2015)

Même si vous parlez franglais, il ne faut pas nécessairement tirer les morons du feu. (February 20, 2015)

The problem of education is that, in many cases, you are trying to teach something to somebody who doesn’t know he doesn’t know it. (February 16, 2015)

Thinking out of the box is difficult because you have to look for what you are not looking for. (February 16, 2014)

W. Somerset Maugham was the mother of no one. (February 13, 2014)

A criminological fact: the dead form the largest category of cold cases. (February 13, 2014)

I am happy that the International Labor Organization agitates for paid breastfeeding work breaks. I could take one or two. (February 8, 2015)

It is more acceptable to miss a pun than to piss a bun. (February 8, 2015)

Life would be simpler if were not so complicated. (February 8, 2015)

Today’s optimistic, but totally empty and inconsequential, reflection: More people have ever been born than have ever died; the global balance is positive. (February 8, 2015)

Statists of the left should love war because it is likely to increase the power of the state on the side who wins. (February 7, 2015)

The old idea of liberty was that if somebody is not seriously suspected of a precise crime, you leave him alone. (January 29, 2015)

The difference between the rich and us is that they have two copies of everything two dishwashers, two fridges, two identical hunting shotguns, etc. I am of two minds about that. (January 28, 2015)

All you need is glove. (January 28, 2015)

Life contains at least 4,500 carcinogens. (January 27, 20115)

We never step twice in the same river, but it’s better to be prepared with our boots on. (January 25, 2014)

A nonagenarian is still much taller than a nanogenarian. (January 25, 2015)

Capitalism is to communism what a splurge is to a purge. (January 22, 2015)

Sometimes, in order to understand A, you have to understand B; and to understand B, you first need to understand A. Only after repeatedly bumping your head on A and B will the light suddenly be. (January 20, 2015)

Uber libertas, ibi patria. (January 19, 2015)

A mathematician is the fox in the Nth house. (January 19, 2015)

USA is passé. The new ideal is USB. (January 18, 2015)

I am espousing voluntary poverty. I have to. (January 18, 2015)

Liberty is the ultimate value in society because people disagree on what is good. (January 12, 2015)

Who drives imprudently in the winter is bound to become a son-of-a-ditch. (January 12, 2015)

Man does not live by boobs alone. (January 11, 2015)

Defending liberty with words and demonstrations is useful but ultimately, as the Paris events have shown, guns are required against guns. (January 11, 2015)

The world is a rough place but the main security task is to “secure” the state and lock it down whenever it rolls over our liberties. (January 10, 2015)

Society is full of externalities. Only those that are good or bad for everybody (or nearly everybody?) need to be controlled. (January 10, 2015)

Organized religions are rather humorless. God must be laughing His ass off. (January 10, 2015)

After he died, God asked for a second opinion. (January 10, 2015)

Some take hippotheses in a cavalier fashion. (January 10, 2015)

Good multiculturalism is everybody being free to choose his own culture; bad multiculturalism is everybody thinking that he may impose his preferred culture on others. (January 10, 2015)

When you can’t legally claim that the Holocaust did not happen, expect intellectual problems arguing that it did. (January 10, 2015)

The average statistician is mean. (January 5, 2015)

People charged with rope must be hanged. (January 5, 2015)

God bliss you! (January 5, 2015)

Writing is 40% torture, 60% bliss. (January 5, 2015)

I would like a virtual machine (VM), like a virtual BMW. (January 2, 2015)

La femme de César aimait bien son jules. (January 1, 2015)

The paradox of education is that the educated-to-be must, in effect, tell the educator, “Please, teach me what I don’t want to learn.” (December 29, 2014)

A virtual machine is not immune to coffee spills. (December 29, 2014)

Being conscious of what there is to know is the beginning of learning. (December 28, 2014)

Croissants must be made with the flour of evil. (December 27, 2014)

In the department so-stupid-it’s-it’s-nearly-funny: Perhaps the case for God is just 12 lagers sacrificed to him. (December 27, 2014)

Pinot Noir serait la conséquence d’une taxe sur les relations sexuelles. (December 26, 2014)

Clicking errors are the easiest to make. (December 16, 2014)

Diogenes’s approach: Christmas is part of the cost of doing business. (December 14, 2014)

I am very committed to the environment: “For dust you are, and unto dust shall you return.” (December 14, 2014)

You can have your cake and eat it too, as long as it is not finished. (December 14, 2014)

A Silicon Valley witch is called a sand witch. (December 12, 2014)

Knowing which rules to follow and which rules to disregard may be the essence of wisdom. (December 22, 2014)

We follow rules not because they are always necessary, but because we don’t know when they will be indispensable. (December 11, 2014)

Multitasking is a difficult task. (December 11, 2014)

The Big Bang: perhaps our universe was created because God was a guy who liked to blow up things. (December 11, 2014)

I apologize profusely. (PS: That’s the best sort of apologies.) (December 10, 2014)

That the end does not justify the means signifies that it is not SUFFICIENT to justify the means, but it may be sufficient in conjunction with other reasons. (December 9, 2014)

We need to be more concerned about where restrictions of liberty lead to than about the consequences of liberty itself. (December 9, 2014)

My intellectual contribution to the Nanny State: roads should be painted red in order to abolish black ice. (December 7, 2014)

There is only one sort of person worse than an economist, it’s a non-economist. (December 2, 2014)

All the wisdom in life is to know how slippery the slope is. (December 1, 2014)

If there is a religious war, it would be preferable that it be about Beaujolais Nouveau. (December 1, 2014)

We are not in 2013, times have changed! (November 26, 2014)

With the Internet, we may be witnessing the rise of a new sort of ideologues, who define their ideology in contradistinction to that of their opponents whose presumed ideology is made of no-source and fabricated quotes. (November 20, 2014)

It’s interesting to observe how people who don’t read and think about things (I am speaking about theory and evidence, not about tastes, of course) often hold strong opinions. (November 19, 2014)

Little freedoms gained, big liberties lost, and Lenina is happy. (November 19, 2014)

Costs, benefits, and incentives: three keywords to understand the human world. (November 18, 2014)

I will espouse voluntary poverty when I am forced to. (November 17, 2014)

Not all evil is equal. (November 16, 2014)

You never step twice in the same driver. (An insurance estimate, no doubt; it can’t be a geek motto.) (November 16, 2014)

You never step twice in the same climate. (November 14, 2014)

Saying that the price of gold in dollars is low is exactly the same as saying that the price of the dollar is high in terms of gold. (November 14, 2014)

Avertissement de jeu de mots bilingue et difficile (et peut-être pas si brilliant que ça après tout): Il portait à sa boutonnière l’appel de la nation. (November 13, 2014)

One big advantage of Facebook is that, whatever your circumstances, you can, with the right friends, live humorously all the time. (November 13, 2014)

If God did not like boobs, he would have made them flat or even concave. (November 11, 2014)

It’s not because you are dating somebody that you need to carry a carbon-14 measuring instrument. (November 9, 2014)

If a voter can vote for a deadlocked government, he must also be able to choose whether in the House or Senate or both, and the percentage of each party. (November 8, 2014)

Something very basic: if you put a statement in quotation marks, it means that the quoted person said EXACTLY what’s between the quotes. (November 7, 2014)

In case of doubt, we must stick with the general presumption for liberty. (November 6, 2014)

A wearable vice may be as fun as a wearable device. (November 5, 2014)

If you want an education, read books under the guidance of someone who can tell you where to start. If you want only entertainment, then just go to the circus. (November 4, 2014)

Those who are always on Skype are never on Skype. (November 1, 2014)

He raised his voice so often that he became a soprano. (November 1, 2014)

Focusing on factoids reminds me of another disease. (November 1, 2014)

Instead of setting the record straight, I have moved on to CDs. (November 1, 2014)

Blessed are the gullible, for they shall be called children of the state. (October 31, 2014)

“I need closure,” said the farmer. (October 31, 2014)

It is not true that “there should be a law.” There is already one. (October 31, 2014)

The dead are very silent, but then who knows the unimaginable secrets of the universe? (October 30, 2014)

The number of old people is mind-blogging – er… mind-boggling. (October 29, 2014)

Except for economics, the transistor, and foie gras, everything was invented in ancient Greece. (October 28, 2014)

Yes and no, but I don’t want to violate the non-contradiction law. (October 28, 2014)

There is an argument against self-defense that does not work: if we don’t attack them, they will not attack us. The world is a rose garden. (October 28, 2014)

Un grand nombre de Romandes ont le bonheur d’épouser un vrai roman d’amour. (October 27, 2014)

Si vous avez un problème simple, appelez La Palice, pas la police. (October 27, 2014)

Lapalissade: Simple solutions to complex problems are better than complicated solutions to simple problems. (October 27, 2014)

Life is complicated, but death is not simple either. (October 27, 2014)

Reason, poetry, and humor: the first, to understand what is understandable; the second, to glimpse what is not; the third for more pleasure. (October 25, 2014)

Naming things is useful, otherwise you cannot talk, and perhaps not think, about them. (October 25, 2014)

I am surprised every day by the gullibility of mankind – although I readily admit that animals and plants are worse. (October 25, 2014)

Pun of the week: On Twitter, the way to get many followers is to promise to follow, not to swallow. (October 24, 2014)

There are some benefits of being an old crumb. But all and all, I would say, the costs outweigh the benefits. (October 23, 2014)

Small terrorist acts allow the state to show off its disproportionate power and entertain the admiring masses. (October 22, 2014)

Intelligence is under lockdown (not to speak of liberty). (October 22, 2014)

Would there be fewer cops shot if police stations were gun-free zones? (October 21, 2014)

I am not ostentatious. (October 21, 2014)

I cannot help wondering if there is a relation between “the gay divide” (The Economist, October 11, 2014) and the plumber crack. (October 17, 2014)

Crony capitalism is just socialism with a human face. (October 17, 2014)

Assuming you are right, to be intelligent may be a sufficient condition to agreeing with you, but it is not a necessary condition. (October 17, 2014)

If the war on plants was not also a war on citizens, it wouldn’t be that bad. (October 15, 2014)

You will LOVE Roquefort if you are in a good mould. (October 15, 2014)

As Cantor would have said, you’re all set. (October 15, 2014)

One difference between the socialists and I is that they soak the rich while I only soak my pistols. Another one is that I soak my pistols in solvent, while solvency is not the socialists’ strong point. (October 14, 2014)

If you are losing your site, go to your geek consultant, not to your ophthalmologist. (October 14, 2014)

We will soon run out of things to ban, if the preferences and lifestyles of the state’s courtiers are not attacked too. (October 11, 2014)

If you cry wolf every night, chances are you will end up being a good forecaster. (October 9, 2014)

To gun or to gun nut, that is the question. (October 9, 2014)

Baby boomers are not baby killers. (October 9, 2014)

I have been a turnaround consultant for all my life, with only one client. (October 9, 2014)

I am only a sentence craftsman. (October 9, 2014)

A gastroenterologist is a physician you see when you think you have stomach or intestines disorders. When you know it after the fact, you see a gastropostrologist. (October 8, 2014)

If one-sentence paragraphs help the reader, imagine what one word per line would do! (October 7, 2014)

Economists are usually the least gullible before faddish scares — peak oil, environment, public health, immigration, jobs destruction, etc. (September 29, 2014)

Variations:
The junkie to his wife: “I never promised you a dose garden.”
Picasso to his model (after she sees the painting): “I never promised you a pose garden.”
A Silicon Valley company to the NSA: “I never promised you a nose garden.”
The fireman to the firewoman: “I never promised you a hose garden.”
(September 28, 2014)

Some people are “highly trained” idiots. (September 25, 2014)

The terms “shibboleth” and “schmuck” are two great contributions to vocabulary. (September 24, 2014)

A good measure to help the poor would be to ban the purchase of any car that is not a BMW or a Mercedes. It’s done for other goods and services. (September 24, 2014)

Besides being well written, a good book has four features: (1) it answers questions; (2) it raises new ones; (3) it connects with things you have learned before; (4) it still has something to teach you when you reread it. (September 22, 2014)

Occam is the one who shaves the village barber. (September 21, 2014)

Why is it that separatists seem to be always more statist? (September 18, 2014)

The problem with “the people” is who are they? (September 18, 2014)

Tyranny, whether far or close to the people, is still tyranny. (September 18, 2014)

Of all (or the little) that I know, I learned one-third in college and graduate school, one-third during the past five years, and the last third in between. (September 18, 2014)

A really learned person must read English, French, Greek, Latin, and German. I am a sinner. (September 18, 2014)

To remember what you learn, you have to understand how it fits with other things you have learned. (September 18, 2014)

If Scotland Yard were downgraded to English Inch, perhaps English liberties could be restored. (September 17, 2014)

“Principled” positions must be consistent with facts and incentives. They must also be consistent with some basic value judgments such as the legitimacy of self-defense. (September 16, 2014)

Animal is an irrational man. (September 15, 2014)

Why the universe is logical (even if not any logical theory is necessarily valid) is a fundamental question. (September 15, 2014)

The state should impose RESTAURANT NEUTRALITY: force restaurants to let anybody eat as much as he wants, and send an equal bill to all diners. (September 11, 2014)

Man does not live by hardware alone. (September 11, 2014)

If Scotland secedes from the United Kingdom, what will happen to scot’s tape? (September 10, 2014)

Il est facile pour un manchot de mettre la dernière main à son oeuvre. / A one-handed man can easily put the last hand to his work. (September 10, 2011)

Somebody without a podium is said to be apodial. (September 7, 2014)

After a lawn fuck, the doe was hoping for fawn luck. (September 5, 2014)

A hacker is somebody who mows the LAN. (September 5, 2014)

Not being a cook, he did not mince his words. (September 4, 2014)

Why can we get old vinyl albums from private firms but not old liberty from the state? (August 31, 2014)

As the philosopher said, a life without pinging is not worth living. (August 29, 2014)

To make a blanket statement, today was a covered day. (August 21, 2014)

The difficulty with adult education is that they think they know. (August 21, 2014)

Fighting barbarism with barbarism can only lead to barbarism. (August 21, 2014)

If you continuously predict catastrophes of many sorts, chances are that you will be proven right once. (August 20, 2014)

The larger the number of policemen per inhabitant, the more policemen have to be feared. (August 19, 2014)

It is difficult for an economist to take seriously somebody who declares that “every vote counts.” (August 19, 2014)

Since the 1960s, it has been a crime of treason against politically-correct opinion to not blindly support Arab thugs against Israel Jews. (August 18, 2014)

I got a spam ad saying, “Take your sex life to a new level”. So I walked up to the second floor. (August 14, 2014)

A priest once played a stupid joke and blessed the water of the ocean. And so was born the Holy Sea. (August 12, 2014)

A dead vampire cannot be called a stakeholder. (August 8, 2014)

How do you call a witch who has built her whole theory of knowledge on the sand? (August 8, 2014)

If tyranny is progressing, a “step backward” is good. (August 1, 2014)

If you don’t believe that truth exists, you can’t criticize something for being false. (July 31, 2014)

Everything is a matter of degree, including this sentence. (July 26, 2014)

Don’t married couples who “renew their vows” thereby admit that they were not serious the first time or that their vows were valid only until the next renewal? (July 26, 2014)

The question “Am I being detained” has replaced “Am I under arrest” because now, in a large number of cases, one may be detained without being under arrest. (July 25, 2014)

“Company, halt!” shouted the officer. “Not necessarily”, thought private Turing. (July 23, 2014)

If you are not careful with the truth, only the gullible will believe you. (July 23, 2014)

An inclusive society broadly means that nobody should be excluded from tyranny. (July 21, 2014)

A couple sharing a smart phone is called a same-text couple. (July 14, 2014)

Anyway, football is better than war or protectionism. (July 14, 2014)

Things used to make sense; now they make sensor. (July 13, 2014)

There are two kinds of Police States: smiling and non-smiling. (July 10, 2014)

Philosophy is so complicated. In economics, at least, you can build a little model and derive a little conclusion. (July 10, 2014)

Since I wasn’t able to be a singer, I became a senior. That was relatively easy. (June 30, 2014)

The problem with chastity is that it will come someday. (June 25, 2014)

If you believe that there should be inflation and there is not any, question your theory instead of denying the facts. (June 24, 2014)

Polyglot (English-Latin) pun warning! A Latinist can easily tone his abs, especially if he is coming back from multiple places. (June 24, 2014)

I just discovered that Shakespeare is not only a brand of fishing rod. (June 24, 2014)

A layman is not a man who wants to be laid. (June 24, 2014)

Bilingual pun warning; parental guidance is advised. Tasked with increasing employment, the central bank has implemented a new maquereau policy. (June 24, 2014)

I am getting impatient with people who pontificate on things they know nothing about, and have no clue that they don’t know. (June 24, 1014)

Equal playing field generally means equal tyranny. (June 22, 2014)

Commencez avec la foi qui déplace des collines. (June 20, 2014)

Modest proposal to strengthen gun-free zones: that anybody illegally carrying a gun there must also be dressed in blaze green colors. (June 16, 2014)

A free society only needs freedom for its definition, an unfree one needs something else than servitude. (June 16, 2014)

Saying that many people are left behind also means that many people are left ahead. (June 16, 2014)

Ignorance can be either a beatitude or a springboard to knowledge. (June 13, 2014)

Allah would probably stop bullets and missiles in mid-air were it not that both sides invoke his name. What can Allah do? (June 12, 2014)

Low(er)-interest-rate credit is not the same as “free money”. Credit is not the same as money. (June 12, 2014)

The more time passes, the more there is to learn. Ask Montaigne or Pico della Mirandola. (June 12, 2014)

If you want to say something but can’t bring yourself to say it because it’s inconsistent with a non-falsified theory, you’re on the right track (except if you are a poet). (June 11, 2014)

Tribalism: Shias don’t want their Sunni side up. (June 11, 2014)

It’s banal (at least at a certain age) to be the youngest person on the planet, but it lasts only a few minutes; everybody did it once. It’s more difficult to be the oldest, but it can last for some time. (June 9, 2014)

Death alas cannot be posthumous. Except for environmentalists, who do it post humus. (June 9, 2014)

Book reviewers are the worst pirates ever. I know, I am one. (June 9, 2014)

I am too rough on myself. I need sensitivity training. (June 4, 2014)

He married a PhD in order to be in the know. (June 3, 2014)

It’s not always fun to be a geek. I, for example, got a big mosquito byte. (June 2, 2014)

The “right to be forgotten” will fuel the naïvety of believing that if something is on the web, it must be true. (May 30, 2014)

I once wrote that anarchy would only work if people held their knives and forks correctly. I would now add: and even then… (May 28, 2014)

Oedipus loved Greek, his mother tongue. (May 25, 2014)

There are three sorts of statements: true ones, false ones, and those whose truth value is unknown – and, as a probable subset, unknowable ones. (May 24, 2014)

I find offensivism very offensive. (May 22, 2014)

Cooks have many talents but never take an active roll. (May 22, 2014)

Memo to the soldier: the guy on the other side is as brainwashed as you are. (May 20, 2014)

Ludwig von Mises is like religion: you have to take some and leave some. (May 16, 2014)

Many things are too dangerous to tolerate, but we must live and make trade-offs, and have some fun. (May 16, 2014)

The contrary of “true” is not “evil”. (May 16, 2014)

Why did the kitchen cross the road? Because there was a big dyslectics meeting on the other side. (In fact, they called it the International Dyslectics Teaming.) (May 13, 2014)

The International Dyslectics Teaming is the annual world meeting of dyslectics. (May 13, 2014)

Ou, si on accepte une césure très mal placée, “qui voyage loin déménage sa tonsure”. (May 10, 2014)

I wonder how people who are children of abortion can be so favorable to it. (May 10, 2014)

Comme disait Racine, qui veut voyager loin ménage sa tonsure. (May 10, 2014)

Ave atque vale, and it doesn’t even rain. (May 6, 2014)

The problems of modern technology: I took a leaf from her book and the screen went blank. (May 4, 2014)

Statists eat oath meal. (May 4, 2014)

It’s more difficult to smash the state than to stash the mates. (May 4, 2014)

Warning: It’s difficult to report on statistical or economic research without graphic content. (May 4, 2014)

When there were two farthings in a halfpenny, farting was cheap for the Brits. (May 2, 2014)

Gaia is bipolar. (April 30, 2014)

Pistols are such a bore. (April 30, 2014)

No fish speaks Anglish. (April 29, 2014)

Go slow on fasting. (April 28, 2014)

Mieux vaut être luron que larron, même en foire. (April 27, 2014)

Hylas alas never came back
But not for him to say alack.
(With my apologies to Virgil) (April 25, 2014)

High-profile people should be careful when driving under an overpass. (April 22 2014)

In my experience, it’s easier to spell “casts” than to cast spells. (April 22, 2014)

Introverted of the world, stay alone! (April 22, 2014)

Vladimir Putin: easy to put in, difficult to put out. (April 21, 2014)

It’s good that anybody may call himself an economist. It’s good that quacks are normally easy to identify. (April 17, 2014)

Only if the earth is flat can Australians be raptured. (April 16, 2014)

It’s not because it’s written that it’s true. But this does not imply that it’s true because it’s not written. (April 15, 2014)

On se baigne jamais deux fois dans le même caniveau. (April 15, 2014)

Un caniveau n’est pas le produit d’un croisement chien-veau. (D’accord, d’accord, ce n’est pas très drôle, et vous n’avez pas à rire. Mais ouste! retourner étudier votre latin.) (April 15, 2014)

Imagine Janus phoning Apple Customer Support about her problems with FaceTime. (April 15, 2014)

L’État se dépense, et même davantage, pour nous. (April 15, 2014)

Truth and proofs are beautiful. (April 15, 2014)

An old car has under wear. (April 15, 2014)

I am two days late in my scheduled work, and about 40 years late in my intellectual production. (April 15, 2014)

Environmentalists oppose fracking for a very good reason: it is still another vindication of Julian Simon against Paul Ehrlich. (April 13, 2015)

The Welfare State’s safety net naturally morphs into a safety gross. (April 8, 2014)

Thoughtful persons are not trees. They are not always searching whom to root for. (April 7, 2014)

It’s always summer somewhere. Not my deepest reflection, I agree, but I need to decompress intellectually. (April 7, 2004)

Primo philosophare, deinde vivere. (April 7, 2014)

The fruits of the Tree of Knowledge are not always sweet, but the fruits of the non-tree are even worse. (April 5, 2014)

Now that journalists have instilled in the populace the idea that any signal is a ping, people will start pinging each other with no self-control whatsoever. (April 5, 2014)

Where is the safety net against tyranny? (April 5, 2014)

Next time you are in Switzerland and see a cow, make Emmental note. (April 5, 2014)

If you want to get ahead of yourself, try 3D printing, not the guillotine. (April 5, 2014)

Getting ahead of yourself is not a good way to contradict Zeno. (April 5, 2014)

While masturbation can make you deaf, unprotected sex will not necessarily make you mum. (April 5, 2014)

In planes, they are now asking, “Do you want a window or an alea?” (April 2, 2014)

Alea jacta est. But I am getting tired of these dice. (April 2, 2014)

Each man is a culture. (April 1, 2014)

Les canons n’ont pas une âme immortelle, mais presque. (March 31, 2014)

Extinction is a specious argument. (March 30, 2014)

Many people criticize the state for not achieving smart tyranny. (March 30, 2014)

Give me a black hole or give me death! (March 29, 2014)

Learning is in large part the product of criticizing oneself. (March 28, 2014)

I dream of a car that, instead of a stick shift, would have a paradigm shift. (March 27, 2014)

Save your thoughts for a brainy day. (March 27, 2014)

Zero tolerance for the state! (March 26, 2014)

Never mind the half full glass, I prefer the half empty bottle. (March 27, 2014)

I have been trying for many years to move behind a paywall. (March 26, 2014)

John Maynard Keynes, the perfect straw man, did make much intellectual damage, but is not responsible for global warming or the ebola virus. (March 26, 2014)

We are not restricted to choosing between Lenina and the Savage. (March 26, 2014)

If God had not created sexual pleasure, only the ascetic and the mortification-seeking would have procreated. Would this have had a good impact on the gene pool? (March 26, 2014)

Better to ping than to pong. (March 26, 2014)

Opponents to the 2nd Amendment prefer to keep and bear harm. (March 25, 2014)

Deflation does NOT mean an increasing standard of living, because wages fall too. (Moreover, debtors are harmed.) (March 25, 2014)

Breaking the government is a more realistic way to reduce rent-seeking than breaking the rent-seekers. (March 25, 2014)

Just as one sings a song, one must ping a pong. (March 25, 2014)

Instead of exchanging handshakes when they meet, people will now ping each other. (March 25, 2014)

Perhaps humor should be added to rational thought, poetry and music as a way to understand the universe. (March 25, 2014)

I killed Siri, and became a sirial killer. (March 25, 2014)

You can always get a bigger caliber, and the wheelbarrow to carry the gun. (March 25, 2014)

It is St. Augustine (even if apocryphally) who was the real inventor of fracking when he said, “Ama et frack quod vis.” (March 25, 2014)

An empire with a weak, non-Leviathan center, is, for most people, better than powerful local war lords. (March 25, 2014)

In the nation-state, the problem is not so much the nation as it is the state. (March 25, 2014)

The problem with (most of) the media is that they give people what they want: entertainment and confirmation of their biases. (March 25, 2014)

Many, perhaps most, errors in politics and the social sciences come from saying “we” and not having a clue about who that is. (March 24, 2014)

Exploited taxpayers review their tax data with a rotten-tooth comb. (March 24, 2014)

Adding “geo” to “political” does not make the state less political or less dangerous. (March 24, 2014)

If you refuse rational thought, you still have poetry and religion. But they also require some effort. Only entertainment requires little. (March 23, 2014)

Drugs: I never promised you a dose garden. (March 23, 2014)

Man is an animal who doesn’t drink water. (March 21, 2014)

It’s better to be in a holding pattern than in a holding cell. (March 20, 2014)

When you are in a holding pattern, take care not to drop yourself. (March 20, 2014)

En termes technologiques, vous êtes soit post-puce, soit prépuce. (March 19, 2014)

You are either against skin or foreskin. (March 19, 2014)

The end will come, of course. The question is when. (March 19, 2014)

The problem with “the world as it is” or “the real world” is to understand it. (March 18, 2014)

You live, you shoot a couple of boxes of ammo, and life is already over. (March 17, 2014)

With fiends like this, who needs enemas? (March 14, 2013)

An answer is only an answer if it does not reformulate the question with different words. (March 15, 2014)

A geek never stops working, even to have a byte. (March 14, 2013)

There are two kinds of nonsense: establishment nonsense and populist nonsense. They are locked in violent competition. (March 14, 2013)

Today’s gruesome and insensitive joke: Don’t get involved with gangrene: it’s a dead end. (March 13, 2014)

Economically and politically, Silicon Valley is a vale of ignorance. (March 13, 2014)

I find it offensive that you find it offensive. (March 12, 2014)

I may think that somebody has the right to think, or have faith in, something, & simultaneously that this idea is indefensible or stupid. (March 12, 2014)

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes” has nothing to do with diet – except for Leviathan’s diet. (March 12, 2014)

If picking one’s nose were made a felony, we could send much more criminals to jail. (March 11, 2014)

I am a standard deviant. (March 11, 2014)

I define “French intellectual” as somebody who thinks that because he writes it, it must be true. There are many, including in America. (March 11, 2014)

Writing is a life sentence. (March 10, 2014)

Giving to charity means accepting bids at negative prices. (March 10, 2014)

Selling something to the lowest bidder is not easy because a very large number of them will bid once the price has hit zero. (March 10, 2014)

My views are my own. (March 9, 2014)

Your false arguments won’t cancel your opponents’ lies, they will just destroy any credibility you had. (March 9, 2014)

Le silencieux est d’or. (March 7, 2014)

If there is such a thing as “ethical oil”, there must also be oily ethics. (March 7, 2014)

This is not my best one-liner. (March 6, 2014)

The three stages of learning and education: (1) ask questions; (2) learn answers; (3) ask questions. (March 6, 2014)

The problem with being old is that you have become evolutionary expendable. (March 6, 2014)

If you need an invalid argument to prove a truth, it is not a truth. (March 3, 2014)

Socratic dialogue can get you very far, even with only yourself if necessary. (March 1, 2014)

I am a criminal: I strained my uncle. (March 1, 2014)

Can you name one great moral principle that conspiring capitalists have subliminally written all over the place in Baboo English? Answer: Thou shall not kill your kin or, in Baboo English, “Done kin: do not.” (March 1, 2014)

Days are longer, nights are shorter, you can’t have everything. (February 27, 2014)

Une exoplanète doit être bien exoterrique. (February 26, 2014)

The layman protests, “I am not what you think”. (February 25, 2014)

The Amazons were suicide boobers. (February 23, 2014)

There are two ways to participate in conversation: bring good answers or ask good questions. (February 23, 2014)

If you are one-handed author, you have no choice but putting the last hand to your manuscript. (February 22, 2014)

Isn’t it obvious that a graphene condom would be better for writers? (February 21, 2014)

Except perhaps with poetry, you can’t put the whole universe in one sentence. (February 21, 2014)

Going ballistic is faster than going postal. (February 21, 2014)

Posting is better than going postal. (February 21, 2014)

When you don’t know something, it’s not easy to know what you don’t know. (February 21, 2014)

In the real world, everything is endogenous. (February 21, 2014)

The greatest danger of the 21st century is war and tyranny, not necessarily in that order. (February 20, 2014)

Typos are a scourge and should be forbidden by law. (February 20, 2014)

No need to tell children, but Snow White was hopeless at skiing. (February 19, 2014)

The two crucial inventions in the history of mankind were the wheel and the decocker. (February 19, 2014)

The ACLU can’t support the right to keep and bear arms perhaps because it doesn’t relate to something below the belt (where all ACLU’s concerns are focused). Perhaps they are just confused by the term “arms”. (February 19, 2014)

The Cold War was, at least in theory, about preserving (what was left of) freedom; the War on Terror is about who will crush it more. (February 18, 2014)

The danger of writing: IEDs of misunderstanding are hidden in each sentence. (February 18, 2014)

I am not the girl next door. (February 18, 2014)

If you have nothing to say, don’t say anything. (February 18, 2014)

If a salesman works hard to sell you an easy want to make a quick fortune, ask him why he is working so hard. (February 18, 2014)

The moon is made of blue cheese, not green cheese. (February 17, 2014)

Les hommes qui travaillent chez PETA sont, j’imagine, des pétas; les femmes, des pétasses. (February 16, 2014)

A shoemaker who denied the existence of the sole would not have much success in life. (February 15, 2014)

Un fat riche et bilingue aime nécessairement le suchi. Pourquoi? Parce que c’est du raw fish. (February 13, 2014)

As far as I know, sochi is raw fish. (February 13, 2014)

Man is an animal who discovers new sorts of pleasure. (February 13, 2014)

Demand for education means, “Tell me what I don’t know and perhaps don’t want to hear.” (February 12, 2014)

Différence entre un mal de dent et la colère au volant: le premier est une rage de dent; la seconde, une rage dehors. (February 11, 2014)

Bullish financiers don’t catch mad cow. (February 11, 2014)

Don’t be surprised if the Holy See commits the sin of voyeurism. (February 9, 2014)

The bull to her cow: “I never promised you a roast garden.” (February 9, 2014)

A radical should be able to extract a square root. (February 7, 2014)

When I see a British tire, I ask why? (February 6, 2014)

Amazon keeps abreast of retail bumps. (February 6, 2014)

With all this capitalist entrepreneurship and exploitation, people will soon have forgotten what the Amazons were. (February 6, 2014)

The guy who invents a gadget to prevent smoke/CO2 detectors from beeping to signal failure in the middle of the night (an integrated clock? a wifi connection to the network’s time?) will deserve a Nobel prize. (February 6, 2014)

Wishful thinking is what you do after the smoke detector starts, in the middle of the night, emitting periodical short beeps to signal failure. (February 6, 2014)

You are an economist if you can read (and understand) what economists write. (February 6, 2014)

What’s stressing about research and writing is that you are always second-guessing yourself. (February 5, 2014)

Writing a book is like snow blowing errors, one flake at a time. (February 5, 2014)

You did not crate that. http://teamster.org/content/port-division (February 4, 2014)

Note that the rock is Charybdis and the hard place, Scylla. (February 3, 2014)

The contrarian anticrastinates. (February 3, 2014)

It’s OK to procrastinate, up to a point. (February 3, 2014)

Bishops must be a compromise between heteroshops and homoshops. (February 2, 2014)

The difference between an aluminum smelter and February in Maine? Not much. In Maine, it’s melting. (February 2, 2014)

If only Boise, ID had a NFL team called the Famous Potatoes, this one would be worth rooting for. (February 1, 2014)

Polyphème avait acquis plusieurs femmes sans le dire à personne. (January 30, 2014)

I need a rapper to wrap a parcel. (January 30, 2014)

Times have changed. Islamists now attack America because it is a bacon of liberty. (January 30, 2014)

Between give and take, I prefer the latter. (January 29, 2014)

I suppose that sand witches must be consumed with sand wine. (January 29, 2014)

Once you discover that there is such a thing as truth, or at least such an adventure as the search for truth, it never leaves you. (January 29, 2014)

The SOTU speech is full of irremediable clichés because that’s what the median voter is by definition. (January 29, 2014)

“Mens rea” is not the men’s room in the court building. (January 29, 2014)

Why did the kitchen cross the road? Because he was a dyslectic. (January 28, 2014)

I am just an intellectual construction guy. (January 26, 2014)

Liberty is a loophole. (January 23, 2014)

Did Keynes really exist? The person presented as Keynes is so obscure compared to his interprets like Hansen (or Hicks or Bailey). (January 23, 2014)

The Zorcals were little monsters who, I told my young kids, stole socks that were not put away in their proper place. My sons of course knew that the story was just a fairy tale (lying to children is generally not a good idea). But now I wonder if Zorcals don’t actually wander in houses stealing earphones. (January 23, 2014)

I would hate to have been born in another tribe because it would then be my current one I would need to find inferior and hate. (January 23, 2014)

Tempora mutantur. We never step twice in the same river. To get action, it’s often easier to contact companies on Twitter. (January 22, 2014)

On dit que les sirènes aiment l’aqueux. Ulysse, en tout cas, semble l’avoir cru. (January 22, 2014)

A small problem, by definition, has a not very costly solution. (January 21, 2014)

Stakeholders can boost political correctness and kill vampires, but everything else they do usually creates positive and sustainable damage. (January 20, 2014)

Forget about the 72 virgins. Give me some wine and cheese. (January 20, 2014)

I need a good book on the history of infinity [from the beginning to the end, as it were]. (January 20, 2014)

Aux portes du paradis, je faisais la queue derrière un charbonnier tandis que saint Pierre, pour son déjeuner, dévorait un sandwich au pâté de foi grasse. (January 19, 2014)

S’étant dépassé, Zénon eut droit à un PV pour excès de vitesse. (January 19, 2014)

Of course, I can be wrong. It’s a constant potentiality. (January 18, 2014)

Try not to break a leg if you have bare-bones health insurance. (January 15, 2014)

Some people reject price indexes as meaningless, but embrace them when they want to argue that the currency has been debased. (January 14, 2014)

In Iowa and North Carolina, dishwashers must have a hogwash cycle. (January 14, 2014)

The number of Americans who drink their Camembert raw and untreated is staggering. (January 14, 2014)

Obama was tender meat for Leviathan. (January 13, 2014)

Adulation for, or respect of, The President is, in many ways, very similar in France and in the US. He is the King. (January 13, 2014)

New zealots don’t necessarily live in New Zealand. (January 12, 2014)

All excuses to attack individual liberty are good. After global warming, what? (January 12, 2014)

Cannibal principle: if you smoke a joint, make sure it’s not yours. (January 11, 2014)

After bodybuilding must come body deconstruction. (January 10, 2014)

We are all interested in “the real world”. But the question is, where is it? (January 10, 2014)

Show me an individual who decides on how many tomatoes he buys for his weekly groceries in order to influence the price of tomatoes. Then show me an individual who decides how to vote in order to change the election results. (January 9, 2014)

Don’t make love with a minuteman. (January 6, 2014)

The typical liberal and the typical conservative are blind to the general benefits of exchange. Each wants it only for the goods he likes. (January 5, 2014)

The inventor of the wheel did not spend any time behind it. (January 3, 2014)

“Étant pour le partage et la solidarité, je n’ai pas toute ma tête à moi.” (January 1, 2014)

From my upcoming book on jobs (at Palgrave-Macmillan): “Economically, an immigrant is the equivalent of a shovel-ready newborn.” (January 1, 2014)

Of what I know, I learned 40% decades ago, in high school, college, and graduate school; and 30% during the last five years. (January 1, 2014)

Les trois étapes de la vie: zizi, bobo, dodo. Et encore, c’est quand on est chanceux. Pour les autres, c’est zozo, bobo, dodo. (January 1, 2014)

“As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, ‘Take this and eat it, for this is my body.’ And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He read on the bottle: ‘According to the Surgeon General … consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems’.” – Matthew 26:26-27 (with some addendum from this FB author) (December 29, 2013)

Contrary to vampires, some Scots like Garlic. (December 29, 2013)

Wine: if it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me. (December 29, 2013)

Pastors have clean souls and go to heaven for the simple reason that they are, by definition, pasteurized. (December 29, 2013)

Hash functions are not only for pot smokers. (December 28, 2013)

The beauty of tribalism: “Shi’ite! I want my egg Sunni side up.” (December 28, 2013)

When laws are too complex, bureaucrats are the true rulers. (December 28, 2013)

In the beginning there was the Word, and then came Microsoft Word. (December 28, 2013)

I will return to the Catholic Church when they use Côtes de Provence rosé for the mass and communion wine. (December 27, 2013)

Avoid churches where, instead of eating the host, they eat the guest. (December 26, 2013)

I am multitaxiing. (December 26, 2013)

When you are out of your mind, take this opportunity to peek inside. (December 26, 2013)

An empirical way to measure one’s capacity for wishful thinking is to measure the proportion of one’s own typos that one does not catch. (December 26, 2013)

My version of the Zeno paradox: Every day that passes is a larger fraction of the number of remaining days of life. The last day of life (at least after noon) is an infinitely large fraction. Since an infinitely large fraction does not exist, there is no last day of life. (December 26, 2013)

A Turing machine is not a motor vehicle used for touring purposes. (December 26, 2013)

The problem, when you levitate, is landing. (December 26, 2013)

The old priests who taught us Latin and had problems justifying learning that (except for religious reasons, and except for the few of them who actually loved Virgil) have been vindicated as they could never imagine they would: you now can now listen to news in Latin on the Internet. They must have a Latin party in heaven. http://yle.fi/radio1/tiede/nuntii_latini/

N’en déplaise à Candide, tout n’est pas pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes. (December 24, 2013)

Squirrels who are haves are by definition have-nuts too. (December 23, 2013)

Looking at mankind, God must, most of the time, laugh His ass off. (December 23, 2013)

One question a day keeps the doctor away. Why? (December 23, 2013)

The problem with the golden calf is more the calf than the gold. (December 23, 2013)

I praise God and Mammon. One is nicer to me than the other. (December 23, 2013)

It is more useful to be a gun nut than a gun-not. The probability is close to zero that the gun nut will ever beg the gun-not to help him with his non-gun. But, of course, de gustibus non est disputandum. (December 22, 2013)

First rule: don’t get stuck in a dead end. Second rule: realize it when you are. (December 22, 2013)

Quant au Québec, Lord Durham avait raison. (December 21, 2013)

The slaves think it’s always fun to be free. For one thing, you always have to decide if you will carry a pistol, and which one to carry. (December 21, 2013)

La vie en société impose nécessairement des contraintes. La question est de savoir si ces contraintes résulteront de diktats étatiques ou de la liberté égale de tous les individus. (December 21, 2013)

The question, perhaps, is whether poetry and religion add to what we know from reason and mathematics. (December 21, 2013)

Limbo must be like a virtual McDonald’s where old zombies leisurely drink coffee and do small talk about how they died. (December 21, 2013)

When somebody talks nonsense about something I know, how can he expect me to believe him when he talks about something I don’t know? (December 20, 2013)

What is better after one’s death, the Styx or the carrot? (December 20, 2013)

I wanted to make a good impression, but had forgotten my printer. (December 20, 2013)

Détrompez-vous, le Père Noël n’est pas un fin Landais. (December 20, 2013)

You like your liberty? You can keep your liberty. Period. (December 19, 2013)

“Thanks for the heads up”, said Robespierre. (December 19, 2013)

Dead anglers don’t have deadlines. (December 19, 2013)

Death is the end of all deadlines. (December 19, 2013)

Death is presumably most annoying beforehand. (December 19, 2013)

People who don’t ask questions should not shout their answers too loud. (December 19, 2013)

The only way to escape the logic of total war is for people to refuse total identification with, and submission to, their own Leviathans. (December 19, 2013)

Caveat emptor doesn’t mean that the cave is empty, although Ali Baba’s will generally be. (December 18, 2013)

The Web is a dangerous place for the naïve or uneducated. (December 18, 2013)

If sovereign states don’t trust each other, why do their citizens trust them? (December 17, 2013)

Christians, no doubt, must carry cross draw. (December 17, 2013)

When you ask “what is wealth”, you are starting to be an economist. (December 17, 2013)

From my upcoming book: We work with models, that is, simplifications of reality, in order to better understand it. (December 17, 2013)

The general idea is to take small bites. (December 17, 2013)

Sailors abusing buoys should be put into sex offender registries. (December 16, 2013)

Le multiplicateur de Lagrange n’est pas un truc keynesien pour stimuler l’agriculture. (December 16, 2013)

Each time you buy something, you successfully bid against all the millionaires and billionaires in the world. (December 16, 2013)

Ordinary citizens have police protection. The rulers have security details. The difference is in the details. (December 16, 2013)

Just remove a little “r”, and the beautiful thing becomes a beast. (December 16, 2013)

Reviewing his patient’s medical record, the doctor saw that he had a history of life. (December 16, 2013)

A new cognitive bias: the idol cognitive bias consists in believing that everything your fans want to hear is true. Example: Paul Krugman. (December 14, 2013)

The fact that one is an ignoramus does not imply that everybody else is stupid. (December 14, 2013)

If somebody’s Skype is always open, it’s like it were always closed. (December 14, 2013)

What can be said in N words can be said in N-1 words, up to a point. The trick is finding the point. (December 14, 2013)

If they call a tax a fee, perhaps people could make a revolution and call it a kissing. (December 14, 2013)

When there is no logic in a written text, one-sentence paragraphs are OK. (December 14, 2013)

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodies” does not mean “Who will watch all the Americans in custody?” (December 12, 2013)

Boobs and booze are to Americans what private guns are to Europeans. (December 12, 2013)

Prime ministers became especially popular after Goldbach’s conjecture. (December 12, 2013)

For hologram you are and to hollow gram you will return. — Is The Universe A Hologram? Physicists Say It’s Possible http://huff.to/1fl43hj (December 12, 2013)

Question for business students: What’s the name of the company founded by two guys, a proctologist and a gambler? (December 12, 2013)

There is no shame in not understanding something, but there is some in not asking questions, and more in not knowing that there are questions to be asked. (December 11, 2013)

A persistent economic error is called a bubble; a persistent political error is called a war. (December 11, 2013)

All politicians lie in state. (December 11, 2013)

Government rats often smell a man. (December 10, 2013)

Doing things at the last minute usually means cutting corners, that is, doing less. [Not a very original remark, but so often pushed under the rug.] (December 10, 2013)

A woman in her kitchen is a counterian. (December 10, 2013)

Attached to every silver lining is a dark cloud. (December 9, 2013)

I asked him for the complete specs, and he gave me a plank. (December 9, 2013)

Don’t bug me, I see both the beam in my neighbor’s eye and the mote in mine. (December 9, 2013)

Most of the state’s business is money laundering by any other name. (December 6, 2013)

“Cheap money” is a misleading term. Although often frolicking together, money and credit are different animals. (December 6, 2013)

A reader of chick lit is a rant seeker. (December 6, 2013)

If there is such a thing as a social responsibility, buying bitcoins is part of it. (December 6, 2013)

One should not write books longer than what one has to say. (December 6, 2013)

I used to never take prisoners. Now, I love to take many. (December 4, 2013)

If my life ever gets meaningless, I’ll go and work in a fulfillment center. (December 4, 2013)

Perhaps the brother of Mother Jones was Mother Fucker? (December 4, 2013)

Nothing worse than a chipped razor blade. (I now understand Winston Smith.) (December 4, 2013)

There are many cages to shake. (December 3, 2013)

Comme dirait le Capitaine Haddock s’il revenait parmi nous, « Que le Grand Clic me croque! ». (Decembrer 3, 2013)

Paying bills, and not a single Dick. (December 3, 2013)

Au nom du Père et du Fisc et du Saint-Esprit. (December 3, 2013)

I never thought, when I was learning Latin in high school, that I would one day, decades later, converse in this language on Facebook. (December 1, 2013)

There are a thousand ways to say the same thing. But then, it is not exactly the same thing. (November 30, 2013)

I know people who have lived their whole lives without ever meeting a hash function. (I was like them until very recently.) (November 29, 2013)

God speaks Mathematics. (November 29, 2013)

If you don’t have a computer, you can’t have enough drive. (November 29, 2013)

Un tweeteur inconnu me demande — je vous le donne en mille: “Tu tweetes toujours en anglais, même pour commenter des news françaises?” (November 29, 2013)

Politicians and bureaucrats who could not scramble an egg play at scrambling fighter planes. (November 29, 2013)

The problem – and the opportunity – when you read something, is that it may make you change your mind. (November 28, 2013)

I have enough work, and can imagine enough fun, for the rest of eternity. (November 28, 2013)

If you are doing a paradigm shift, you want a manual transmission. (November 27, 2013)

Hell must be a place where you clean somebody else’s pistol for eternity. (November 27, 2013)

Not everything can go wrong (or, at least, the probability is low). (November 27, 2013)

Instead of losing my time trying to visit the Statue of Security in NYC, I should have gone and bought some bagels. (November 26, 2013)

I want a nest egg with bacon. (November 26, 2013)

By “Austrian economics”, many people mean “easy-to-understand economics”. (November 26, 2013)

The only way to learn is to ask questions, and asking questions shows that one is learning. (November 26, 2013)

Leviathan needs an exit strategy. (November 21, 2013)

If you like your gun, you can keep it. Period. (November 21, 2013)

The Fed is bubble gun. (November 20, 2013)

Remuneration has been a bubble ever since the Industrial Revolution. (November 20, 2013)

A good breakfast gives one a good reason to get up — despite Psalm 126: Vanum est vobis ante lucem surgere. (November 19, 2013)

“I am very tense,” said the verb. (November 19, 2013)

I used to work on the night shift but I am now on the paradigm shift. (November 18, 2013)

There is one thing worse than the pretense of knowledge: it’s the pretense of ignorance. (November 18, 2013)

Public virtues are private vices. (November 18, 2013)

“Aridum tene pulvem” is what you want to say, instead of “keep your powder dry,” in an intellectual meeting. (November 17, 2013)

Crude form of natural law: Man has headaches; therefore man ought to have headaches. (November 17, 2013)

How do beggars beg in eternal life? They ask, “Can you spare a time?” (November 17, 2013)

Ce n’est pas tout d’instruire les analphabètets, il faut aussi s’occuper des abêtabètes. (November 17, 2013)

Medicine is like economics: a useful tool for thinking, but full of controversies and often questionable in dealing with particular cases. (November 14, 2013)

The layman thinks that white cars attract black dust and black cars, white dust.
The neoclassical economist assumes that white cars attract white dusts and black cars, black dust — everything is optimal.
The Marxian economist knows that there is no car.
The Austrian economist repeats that there is no dust. (November 11, 2013)

Existential question: how do you determine if a hanged man is well hung? (November 11, 2013)

Mes pincettes sont très usées. (November 7, 2013)

On n’arrête pas la réglementation et le progrès social: une entreprise a été accusée de blanchiment de sépulcres. (Inspiration: Germain Belzile) (November 6, 2013)

Great social and law-enforcement progress: a dry cleaning business charged with clothes laundering. (November 6, 2013)

Grande avancée de l’État: un prêtre a été accusé de blanchiment d’âmes. (November 6, 2013)

We don’t always have to reinvent the wheel, and start learning from zero. (November 6, 2013)

Perhaps Bitcoin is a tulip, but it’s a beautiful and promising one. (November 4, 2013)

Except for ordinary citizens, most people in America are “officers.” (November 3, 2013)

It’s easy to lie with statistics, and easier to lie without them. (November 3, 2013)

If you believe you can count on the state, I have a website to sell you: https://www.healthcare.gov/ (November 1, 20013)

Mediterranean cuisine is made of low-hanging fruits and vegetables. (October 31, 2013)

Once you reconcile yourself to imperfection, everything becomes perfect. (October 31, 2013)

There is no panacea. (October 30, 2013)

The worst is not the US government spying on friendly foreign rulers, but spying on its own citizens. (October 24, 2013)

Immigration is a somewhat overrated issue, for (real) free trade in goods and services would accomplish much of what free immigration would. (October 23, 2013)

Since I left Maine, I have put only Kleenexes in my revolver pocket. (October 12, 2013)

Don’t be insensitive: please respect my gun-free zone. (October 12, 2013)

“Give me a brake”! says the old clunker. (October 12, 2013)

Do like me: never go to the Fryeburg Fair (even if that was your second dream in life after Disneyland)! Besides schools, courts, the feds’ buildings, and Mount Katahdin, it’s the ONLY gun-free zone I have seen in Maine. (October 6, 2013)

There was a time in what was the free world when, leaving for a trip, you could, as exemplified by Indiana Jones or Tintin, throw your revolver in your suitcase or put your Browning in your back pocket or purse. Alas… (October 6, 2013)

Leaving for Baltimore, NYC, and California. Since I will be disarmed by decision of the local tyrants, please note that I am hereby creating a 30-yard gun-free zone around me. (October 6, 2013)

Going to walk on the beach. Perhaps we’ll meet a shark and I can show that I have become a sharkshooter. (October 5, 2013)

Don’t look threatening towards those who protect you because they may kill you. (October 5, 2013)

It’s not because it’s written somewhere that it is true. (October 5, 2013)

If we have to say “herstory” instead of history, and “ovular” instead of seminar, why not replace evil by “shevil”? (I know, you need a French accent for the pun to work perfectly. But nothing is perfect.) (October 4, 2013)

A life without Google is not worth living. But then, I thought the same about Veronica two decades ago. We never step twice in the same river. (October 4, 2013).

If you have been productive, you get a zambonus; if you have very productive, two Zamboni. (October 4, 2013)

How many powerful praetorians does it take to arrest a disturbed or scared woman? An infinity. That’s why they must shoot her first. (October 4, 2013)

Liberty is a big loophole. (October 4, 2013)

If you lower the bar, customers will have more chances of falling in. (October 3, 2013)

I am furloughing myself to go hunting in Downeast Maine on October 18 and 19. (October 3, 2013)

The two most frustrating things in life: (1) conversing with somebody who is sure to have the right answers to everything; (2) cleaning one’s revolver. (October 1, 2013)

A model that does not predict the past correctly cannot be expected to get the future right.–Climate of Uncertainty http://on.wsj.com/15FwntH (October 1, 2013)

Dogs don’t need to know classical Greek to find the alpha male. (September 28, 2013)

For dry cleaners, no press is certainly bad press. (September 27, 2013)

Désolé de vous l’apprendre, mais Héraclite n’est pas l’inventeur de l’haltérophilie. Mère Teresa non plus. (September 26, 2013)

We never step twice in the same river, especially if it is cold. (September 26, 2013)

It’s not enough to question your beliefs. You must also ask questions within the questions. (September 25, 2013)

Don’t wait until the problem gets out of leg. (September 25, 2013)

Madmen very seldom try to commit mass murders in police stations or gun clubs. Why? (September 22, 2013)

Some people find themselves between a rock and a roll place. (September 21, 2013)

A Whig necessarily needs more wiggle room. (September 19, 2013)

Going naval is just the continuation of going postal. (September 17, 2013)

I am sure Aaron Alexis is not the only madman to have a security clearance. (September 17, 2013)

Bad intellectual-redneck pun: It’s more fun to shoot a few rounds than a few squares. (September 17, 2013)

I stepped in a different river. (September 15, 2013)

People think it’s always fun to be a free man, to always make decisions… Agonizing decisions. Now, which pistol am I going to carry to Bradbury Park today? (September 15, 2013)

Only a non-necessary evil is an evil. A necessary evil is a good. (September 13, 2013)

The rallying cry of Moslem lawyers: “Allah at bar!” (September 13, 2013)

There is no definitive answer. If you find one, it is most probably false. (September 13, 2013)

An “inspection” is nothing but a warrantless search. (September 12, 2013)

Each individual is a minority, often invisible. (September 12, 2013)

Writing with one-sentence paragraphs is like speaking with the same pause between sentences, no facial expression, and no gesture. (September 11, 2013)

I am making hay after the sun has set. (September 11, 2013)

To wish that violence will go away does not work. (September 11, 2013)

If you cut corners, you risk running in circles. (September 10, 2013)

The number of people eager to sell me things that I want is astounding. (September 6, 2013)

I would not mind moving up a bit in the food chain. (September 3, 2013)

Limbo is not always a bad place to be. (September 3, 2012)

Man is an animal who makes analogies. (September 3, 2013)

Don’t mess with a bi polar bear. He may just be bipolar. (September 1, 2013)

I am sure environmentalists prefer chemical lube to petroleum jelly. (September 1, 2013)

I am getting tired of people who have questions for their answers, instead of answers to their questions. (August 30, 2013)

To be ahead of one’s time is dangerous for it means early death. / Être en avance sur son temps est dangereux car alors on meurt jeune. (August 30, 2013)

“The [expletive] [expletive] told me, ‘[expletive] [expletive]’.” Any grammatical mistake in this sentence? (August 29, 2013) [The fucking son of a bitch told me ‘Fuck off, motherfucker’.”]

Tyranny is a matter of degree. Small tyrants are despicable, big tyrants very despicable. (August 29, 2013)

If the cost of tyranny is made higher for tyrants, there will be fewer of them. (August 29, 2013)

It is not because you can’t do everything that you can’t do something. (August 29, 2013)

“His argument really struck a chord”, the foetus thought. (August 29, 2013)

The difference between the CIA and the NSA seems to be that the former spies on foreigners and the latter, on Americans. (August 25, 2013)

The only hope for the US is to become a beacon of liberty again. It would be a long and difficult task. (August 20, 2013)

It is a very strange belief that extraordinary powers granted to the state and its agents will not be abused. (August 20, 2013)

There is no way a Leviathan can be an open government. You cannot have both at the same time. (August 16, 2013)

I too have decided that I will, from now on, issue forward guidance. (August 16, 2013)

Few people can beat the market, and those who can can’t explain how they do it. They are called entrepreneurs. (August 15, 2013)

It is more difficult to lie within a tight theoretical structure than from a sloppy set of intuitions. (August 15, 2013)

Economic growth is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for Pareto improvement. (August 14, 2013)

Instead of taking the fifth, politicians and bureaucrats should take the filth. (August 14, 2013)

The government should prosecute everybody, and then, in its loving wisdom, grant temporary exemptions to the most obedient courtiers. (August 13, 2013)

Some people believe that they are living in a free society, that some things they do that do not harm others do not harm others. (August 12, 2013)

The Moral State not only prosecutes you for mistakes, but it wants you to feel guity and confess before the large masses. (August 8, 2013)

It’s not always easy to carry the geek man’s burden. (August 8, 2013)

You never drown twice in the same river. (August 7, 2013)

A whistleblower is somebody who reveals something that will help the government. (August 7, 2013)

If you didn’t lift your little finger against it, don’t come and criticize evolution now. (August 7, 2013)

Conspiracies can explain everything. Take the price of hula hoops, for example. (August 7, 2013)

America: from beacon of liberty to leader in surveillance. (August 6, 2013)

It’s high time to humble the rulers, who are just politicians and bureaucrats, and put them in their place. (August 6, 2013)

I suspect that a conversation using only emoticons would be pretty empty. I already feel inadequate after using just one. (August 2, 2013)

Nothing is perfect, and choosing between two evils (or three when we are lucky) is part of the human condition. But, as Camus noted, Sisyphus may enjoy life when he is climbing down the mountain to pick up his boulder. (August 1, 2013)

The problem with predicting the future is that it is full of surprises, which by definition are impossible to predict. (August 1, 2013)

FISA “judges” are not really judges but ordinary bureaucrats in the structure of power. (July 31, 2013)

A “secret court” is not a court but an ordinary government bureau. (July 31, 2013)

Louis XIV could also claim that he was keeping his subjects safe. (July 31, 2013)

The worst “systemic risk”: the Surveillance State. July 31, 2013)

“Hey, what’s down?” asks the pessimist as a greeting. (July 31, 2013)

There is room between mandatory and forbidden: it is called liberty. (July 31, 2013)

It is strange how many people forget that there is a buyer for every seller, and vice-versa. (July 30, 2013)

An educator is different from a courtier or a parrot in that he is trying to persuade you of something you don’t believe is true. (July 30, 2013)

Since one cannot hate 24 hours a day, one must choose against whom to target his specialized hatred. (July 28, 2013)

Words cannot adequately describe how I don’t feel. (July 27, 2013)

If God wanted men to wear clothes, why did He make it so difficult for a belt to hold pants on a belly? (July 26, 2013)

My pun of the week: He loved women up to his last breast. (July 25, 2013)

In order to promote optimism, we should always emphasize the breath before last instead of the last one. (July 25, 2013)

Unlike everybody else, I hate contrarians. (July 25, 2013)

If nobody is interested in what you write, it is either because they don’t understand or because alas they do. (July 24, 2013)

I am looking at Bernard J. Turnock’s massive textbook, “Public Health: What It Is and How It Works.” Public health is a massive fraud. (July 24, 2013)

The future monarch of England will be male, as all kings of the United States, including the current one, have been. (July 22, 2013)

No discrimination in America: small and big criminals are treated equally harshly (with the exception of politicians and bureaucrats). (July 22, 2013)

Even intelligent dyslexics are hit by dim-age crises. (July 22, 2013)

It’s remarkable on Facebook how many serious people just like liars want us to take their word, and somebody else’s word, that quotes without citations are authentic. (July 21, 2013)

We should look closer into the politicians’ liberty-evasion and liberty-avoidance strategies. (July 19, 2013)

Should corporations hold hearings where politicos would be obliged to testify under oath about what they have done to get out of their way? (July 19, 2013)

Are you phobophobic or phobophobophobic? (July 16, 2013)

If God really loved man (and assuming he reviewed all the details of the creation), he would have created the cherries without the pits. (July 15, 2013)

Deux incendies semblables sont de la même eau. (July 14, 2013)

Perhaps Microsoft should change its name for Micronsaft. (July 12, 2013)

“Le Fonds de solidarité numérique : Une contribution à une société de l’information solidaire et inclusive.” Si le ridicule tuait, les socialos auraient déjà fortement contribué à la réduction de bilan carbone de l’humanité. http://tiny.cc/rzl4zw (July 12, 2013)

However endearing she is, your GPS is just a computer. (July 12, 2013)

What’s worrisome and anti-American is not what Snowden did but what all other bureaucrats did not do. (July 12, 2013)

La bureaucratie internationale est rigolote : une des agences de l’ONU s’appelle le FIDA (Fonds international de développement agricole). (July 12, 2013)

He who bucks the trend tucks the brand. (July 12, 2013)

La bureaucratie internationale est souvent rigolote : une des agences de l’ONU s’appelle le FIDA (Fonds international du développement agricole). (July 12, 2013)

If you do name-dropping, don’t forget to pick up what you left behind. (July 11, 2013)

Menthol tyranny is much, much more dangerous than menthol cigarettes. (July 10, 2013)

« Je vous souhaite, dit le philosophe, le paradigme à la fin de vos jours. » (July 10, 2013)

Ama et post quod vis. (July 10, 2013)

A judge who does not listen to the other party (“Audi alteram partem”) is nothing but an ordinary bureaucrat at Leviathan’s service. (July 8, 2013)

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court: Non audi alteram partem. (July 8, 2013)

Laws that once appeared not too dangerous become extremely liberticidal once the state’s power to enforce them savagely has increased. (July 7, 2013)

The tight grip of states on international travel illustrated by the Snowden case shows what government surveillance and ID papers lead to. (July 7, 2013)

The earth is round so that everybody’s birthday last two days. (Perhaps it should be called a “birth2day”.) (July 4, 2013)

“… it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new secret courts and secret orders for their future security.” (July 4, 2013)

“to secure these rights, secret courts and secret orders are instituted among Men.” (July 4, 2013)

“we have conjured them … to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.” (July 4, 2013)

As the Founders would have said, “if you want more checks and balances, add a secret court issuing secret orders”. (July 4, 2013)

It was called the American Revolution, not the American Smurfolution. (July 4, 2013)

Santa Clause is the mother of all grammars. (July 3, 2013)

The fact that people have different conceptions of the public interest implies that it can only be defined as an equal liberty to pursue private interests. (July 1, 2013)

That Leviathans spy on each other is not bad: it keeps them less dishonest. That they spy on their own citizens is liberticidal and despicable. (July 1, 2013)

Why are whistleblowers allowed, nay encouraged, by the US government to break their contracts in private companies but not in government? (June 25, 2013)

If your life feels empty, apply for a job at Amazon Fulfillment Services. (June 25, 2013)

Lot’s wife looked back and she became a pillar of the community (Genesis 9:23). (June 25, 2013)

Pardon this one, in the category “so stupid it is nearly funny”. (Just invented it under the shower.) What do Japanese fishermen (with a philosophical bend) tell every fish they catch? “Sushi seoton.” (June 25, 2013)

As the Founders said, we need to strike the right balance between liberty and tyranny. (June 25, 2013)

Have you noticed how the state is often a coward? For example, it attacks Edward Snowden but does not dare going after the Washington Post and the Guardian. (June 23, 2013)

Mathematics is a language like English, French or Latin. The words are different, the rules of grammar and syntax are more formalized, and the rhetorical (and perhaps poetic) content is zero. (June 23, 2013)

God may speak Latin but he certainly speaks mathematics. (June 23, 2013)

Gosh! I’ll have to clean my little pistol before I carry it in polite society. (June 23, 2013)

So many things happened when I was not yet alive or not attentive. (June 23, 2013)

Mathematics is like poetry, except that it proves things. (June 23, 2013)

L’anarchiste aime le pouvoir de l’anar; le minarchiste, le pouvoir du minet. (June 23, 2013)

Surveillance: it’s an interesting idea that in order to make something lawful you just have to create a secret court & issue secret orders. (June 23, 2013)

Complexity of language: sometimes, “certainly” is used to leave room for a doubt. For example, “because the OECD report was certainly written by a committee…” connotes a lower degree of certainty than “because the OECD report was written by a committee”. (June 21, 2013)

The worst insult ever, combined with the most blasphemous slur of all times, is so vulgar that I hesitate to write it down, so please pardon me: “motherearthfucker”. (June 20, 2013)

You never drown twice in the same river. (June 20, 2013)

If you know your way around the Windows registry, you can go anywhere in life. (June 17, 2013)

There is one sure way not to get ill: suicide. (June 17, 2013)

The Golden Gate Bridge should be rechristened Surveillance Gate Bridge. (June 15, 2013)

If you believe in the theory that the earth is flat, every plain becomes a confirming fact. (June 15, 2013)

There is such a thing as the confirmation bias. I see it all the time among my political enemies and alas! among my political friends. (June 15, 2015)

The DOJ loves our liberties and the unicorn’s horn is pink. (June 15, 2015)

You can sleep peacefully, the state is overseeing itself. (June 15, 2015)

It is still better to live in America than in China. The gap, however, has been narrowing over the past few decades. (June 15, 2013)

Paraphrasing Obama: You did not build the Surveillance State alone, we did. (June 15, 2013)

Sorry, it’s classified. (June 15, 2013)

The state must always be suspect, not citizens. “The authorities” now want us to believe the contrary. (June 15, 2013)

The principle of a free society was that, if you are suspected of no specific crime, the state leaves you alone. Full stop. (June 15, 2013)

Homosexuals are unfairly favored in TSA and police searches. But looking TSA bureaucrats, I am not so sure. (June 13, 2013)

Secret Service, secret surveillance, secret court (FISA does not even have a website), secret orders, secret justice: a long train of abuse. (June 13, 2013)

The NSA, TSA, CBP, and IRS are doubleplusgood. (June 13, 2013)

Obama should get a second Nobel Prize for saving peace a second time, with generalized surveillance. (June 13, 2013)

The two things in a geek’s life: apple pie and motherboard. (June 12, 2013).

J’ai perdu le do de ma clarinette / J’ai perdu aussi mon curseur avec (June 12, 2013)

It is not because you are right on something that you can meaningfully align any sequence of words on anything. (June 12, 2013)

Who can swear that the Peeping Tom Government has never used intelligence data for political purposes? (June 11, 2013)

As far as I can see, Edward Snowden is the best that America ever had, and still has, to offer. (June 10, 2013)

Obama has been eaten alive by Leviathan. He was an easy prey. (June 9, 2013)

I need a sharpener for my Occam razor. (June 9, 2013)

Why only schools? The whole government should be transformed into a gun-free zone, including a 100-foot radius around politicos and cops. (June 7, 2013)

Why doesn’t every American log a rough plan of his day every morning on a government website? Little inconvenience for great (Leviathan) benefits. (June 7, 2013)

It’s the job of government agents to get off their royal ass and track real criminals without infringing on the 4th Amendment. (June 7, 2013)

The rule of law is not merely the law of rules. (June 7, 2013)

There are good reasons (including free discussion) to believe that the earth is not flat, so don’t spend too much time on flat-earth theories. (June 7, 2013)

Checks and balances: government get the checks, we get the balances. (June 7, 2013)

Leviathan is out of control. (June 7, 2013)

“It’s not the Soviet Union here.” (June 7, 2013)

If people think they have nothing to hide, they soon will have a lot to hide as Leviathan will expand into new controls and new crimes. (June 7, 2013)

What’s good about an extended, bureaucratic, monstrous Leviathan is that he cannot screw a light bulb. (June 6, 2013)

Would you please, My Lord, stop spying on me? (June 6, 2013)

Why is it illegal to catch a signal that hits you? People can encrypt their signals to keep them private. (June 5, 2013)

Few people realize the deep significance of the fact that, over the past few decades, America stopped being the beacon of liberty it had been. (June 4, 2013)

Sometimes, on Linkedin, people recommend me for things like “report writing” and perhaps dish washing. (June 4, 2013)

The problem is that most people, if they understood the term “statist”, would take it as a compliment. (June 3, 2013)

You start being one Windows version late, and then two, and three… And then you die. (But skipping Windows 8 is probably worth it.)) (June 1, 2013)

Quand le torchon brûle, ce n’est pas le temps de laver son linge sale en famille. (June 1, 2013)

Liberty is messy, and is nice and efficient that way. (June 1, 2013)

Vaut mieux être envoyé en punition dans le bitcoin que dans le coin. (May 31, 2013)

Strange that there exist “public” places for veiled women only, and no “public” place for smokers only. The way to change is obvious. (May 31, 2013)

Manipulation of reality is part of reality. (May 31, 2013)

Is natural law worth more than the DNA it is written on? (May 28, 2013)

Instead of setting the wheels in motion, the government is better at wetting the SEALs in motion. (May 28, 2013)

My Erdös number is infinity. (Who can do better?) (May 28, 2013)

The most useful political principle is the presumption of liberty: in case of doubt, don’t ban and don’t regulate. (May 28, 2013)

If you like raw milk, drink it. If you don’t like it, don’t drink it. Simple. (May 27, 2013)

A monumental discovery of statistics was the paradoxical fact that in order to rationally calculate the error made in estimating a population parameter from a sample, the sample had to be drawn randomly. (May 27, 2013)

If there is a Surgeon General, shouldn’t there be a Surgical Patient General? (May 27, 2013)

An idea that is too difficult to defend may not be defensible. (May 27, 2013)

On a topic on which one knows something, a single sentence can be blown out into an article or a book. (May 25, 2013)

The first guy behind the wheel was the one who invented it—assuming he tried it on a slope. (May 24, 2013)

What would we not hear today if Hitler had called his movement “national capitalism”? (May 24, 2013)

Soldiers are just bureaucrats in uniforms. (May 24, 2013)

Population aging: the roaring nineteen fifties have become the snoring two thousand and tens. (May 23, 2013)

Easy prediction: the next financial crisis in any euro country will be accompanied by massive capital flight. (May 23, 2013)

Not understanding something is really annoying, but is not a sufficient reason to discard it. (May 23, 2013)

If a state agent with a badge asked people for their nasal print, most of them would obediently bow to sink their nose on the ink sheet and print it. (May 23, 2013)

Heureusement, l’ordinateur personnel a, sauf dans les grosses saisons, fortement asséché le « marais intérieur d’ennui » dont parlait Gustave Flaubert. (May 23, 2013)

The ACLU thinks 75% of all problems are below the waist, but they tend to be right on the other 25%. (May 22, 2013)

It’s not very difficult to be a statist: you just imagine that the state will be exactly as YOU want it. (May 21, 2013)

More choice is better than less choice because you can always move from the first to the second, but not necessarily from the second to the first. (May 20, 2013)

If sunk costs are sunk, sunk utility is sunk too. But it is not because you won’t worry about it in the future that you do not worry about it now. (May 20, 2013)

When the Department of Homeland Security attacks bitcoin, you start to understand what “homeland security” means. (May 19, 2013)

Cro-Magnons are known for their crolateral damage. (May 18, 2013)

The Cro-Magnon’s name comes from his only tool: the crowbar. (May 18, 2013)

The Presocratics did not leave their fragments on Twitter. (May 18, 2013)

When I say “literally”, I literally mean it. (May 18, 2013)

Soyez optimiste : le fruit est dans le ver. (May 18, 2013)

Solidaire, d’accord, mais avec qui ? (May 18, 2013)

Compliance should mean that the state complies with the citizens’ rights. (May 17, 2013)

Following the model of compulsory automobile insurance, statists should be forced to buy tyranny insurance (perhaps called “slippery-slope insurance”) so as to compensate non-statists if the risk of tyranny materializes. (May 16, 2013)

Men suffer from much inequality: there are haves and have-nuts. (May 15, 2013)

All in all, the risk of dying is pretty high. (May 14, 2013)

People who want to keep their own money are of course greedy, while those who want to take it from them are disinterested. (May 14, 2013)

Politics is dirty but life is not very clean either. (May 13, 2013)

La politique est sale, mais la vie n’est pas très nette non plus. (May 13, 2013)

If mind does not go to things, at least let things come to mind. (May 13, 2013)

Lots of things are learnable in finite time. For the rest, we have to wait a bit. (May 13, 2013)

Starting a witch-hunt is not difficult, provided you are part of the majority. (May 11, 2013)

No doubt that Islamist theocracy would produce an explosive population path. (May 10, 2013)

Only two solutions: learn topology or get a good sword. (May 10, 2013)

Faut pas être calé en topologie pour aimer les patates pliées. (May 10, 2013)

“Allahu Akbar” a été mal traduit. La traduction correcte se révèle être “Aloha, gland!” (May 8, 2013)

Despite its name, a spreadsheet is not what you write a porn message on. (May 8, 2013)

Research is like a spreadsheet: if you get a FALSE, review everything. (May 8, 2013)

Avec un pied dans la tombe, on a forcément des fourmis dans les jambes. (May 7, 2013)

La propagande socialiste et la publicité capitaliste vues par un anticapitaliste primaire : l’être et le néon. (May 6, 2013)

Si j’avais su que je serais jamais à l’article de la mort, j’aurais mieux étudié ma grammaire. (May 5, 2013)

Had I known that I would ever be in the article of death, I would have studied my grammar more seriously. (May 4, 2013)

The statist’s ideal: pay for pizza delivery with a background check. (May 5, 2013)

I found out there are four social classes: those who shoot on their private land; those who shoot on public land like national forests; those who shoot under power lines or in dumps; and those who don’t shoot at all. (May 4, 2013)

How do you call somebody who always postpones procrastination to tomorrow? (May 3, 2013)

For people who work the night shift, they have invented the evening-after pill. (May 2, 2013)

Collectivism: there is no such thing as a free bunch. (May 2, 2013)

In Cuba and elsewhere, it’s better to be an infidel than a fidel. (May 1, 2013)

« Il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux » ? Mais non, il n’est pas con, Sisyphe : à moins que son petit jeu ne l’amuse, il n’est pas heureux du tout. (May 1, 2013)

Not seeing one’s own typos (while being proficient at catching other people’s typos) is a clinical sign of the mental disease called wishful thinking. (April 28, 2013)

Given my fishing performance yesterday, I might as well have gone phishing. (April 28, 2013)

On a more optimistic note, everybody is, at best, a future has-been. (April 25, 2013)

To be a former has-been is no good if you are nothing now. (April 25, 2013)

He who bites the bullet will get a throat injury. (April 24, 2013)

Il y a certainement des musulmanes qui sont de vraies bombes. (April 23, 2013)

Sous toute burka, il y a un bikini qui s’ignore. (April 23, 2013)

The difference between a young geek and an old Luddite: the young geek has an app, the old Luddite has a nap. (April 20, 2013)

The real truth is that militarized police are, in the best case, just bureaucrats with assault rifles, sort of powerfully armed postmen. (April 19, 2013)

If this state of martial law and show-off by militarized police are needed to catch ONE madman, what would be needed to stop an army? (April 19, 2013)

Without the deployment of nuclear weapons, a state of emergency in a banana republic is not complete. And they are after ONE madman. (April 19, 2013)

ONE madman is loose and the militarized police of the banana republic imposes the equivalent of a state of emergency. And most people seem to find that normal. What would they do if it were a foreign invasion, or a full-fledged rebellion? Force everybody to stay in his bedroom? (April 19, 2013)

Ma dernière leçon de français: au Québec, il y a deux sortes de gaz, le gaz naturel et le gaz surnaturel. (April 18, 2013)

Chapter 1 of John Hicks’s Value and Capital (1939, 1946) should be compulsory reading for all economists. (April 17, 2013)

Don’t disturb me. I am unitasking. (April 16, 2013)

A book can be written in a literally infinite number of ways, so choosing which way to write it can’t be strictly or narrowly rational. (April 16, 2013)

If morality means anything, there is a big difference between killing civilians unintentionally and intentionally targeting them. (April 16, 2013)

Little piece of advice: don’t drop finger food in your digital wallet. (April 15, 2013)

Digital wallets are worth more than the paper they are written on. (April 14, 2013)

Philosophical fragment of the day: What is man without toner? Nothing but a splash of fleeting electrons on a flicking screen. (April 12, 2013)

“Pari passu” does not mean “passing by Paris”. (April 12, 2013)

Today’s idea-under-the-shower: A frontier is an advance on a baksheesh payable in three parts. (April 12, 2013)

The polite intellectual begs to differ while the tired homeless defers to beg. (April 10, 2013)

Les seuls mots sans danger dans la bouche d’un politicien: « Passe-moi le sel. » (April 9, 2013)

I am cooperating fully. (April 8, 2013)

A is A, of course. But it is often useful to know what elements belong to the A set, and how different they are. (March 28, 2013)

Saying that all individuals must be equal in X means little until you have defined X. (March 28, 2012)

Great day for the Earth: Cuban government launches first solar-powered missile. (March 27, 2013)

Today, Leviathan has much more power and capacity to enforce capital controls, including against small people. (March 26, 2013)

The difference between the typical Frenchman and the typical Englishman is that the former is full of hot air while the latter is full of hot water. (March 25, 2013)

Wind turbines move a lot of hot air. (March 25, 2013)

Is love of amulets an evolutionary-evolved feature of homo faber? At any rate, a pistol is a useful amulet. (March 25, 2013)

Contrary to people, pigeons don’t do name dropping. (March 25, 2013)

There is a difference between a bank failing by itself and people losing money, and the government actually stealing the money. (March 24, 2013)

It is 240 years this month that Patrick Henry, with Thomas Jefferson and Richard Henry Lee, let the Virginal House of Burgesses to create a committee of correspondence that contributed to the formation of the First Continental Congress. Give me Amity or give me Beth! (March 21, 2013)

There can be a moratorium on moratoriums, but it can’t be retroactive. (March 21, 2013)

Irai-je fumer des cigares avec mes fils ou garer des fumistes avec mes fées? (Je sais, je sais, il manque un “t”…) (March 21, 2013)

To be pessimistic is easy. To be optimistic is easy. What requires analysis is to be in-between. (March 20, 2013)

C’est embêtant : avant, on pouvait régler toute discussion en lançant un ou deux « social » ; maintenant, il faut ajouter quelques « citoyen ». (March 18, 2013)

You are a twenty-something, a thirty-something, a fourty-something, and so on – not much to query about. The big jump is when you are a 100-something. (March 17, 2013)

Red currant jam is much better than pistol jam. (March 17, 2013)

A good economics teacher is one who, when a student says “price”, immediately adds “relative price”. (March 15, 2013)

“The very purpose of falsely assigning a quote to a credible source is to trick you into lending credence to the statement.” (March 15, 2013)

“What works” is not a sufficient criterion. You have to find out for what purpose and with which consequences it works. (March 13, 2013)

Judging from its very name, Canon law must be favorable to RKBA. (March 13, 2013)

Nothing is better than a cassock for concealed carry; drawing, however, is a bit slow. (March 13, 2013)

You must assume that a quote without a precise and credible source is false and is thus an insult to your intelligence. (March 13, 2013)

A gigolo must have a good pay package. (March 13, 2013)

A modern fairy tale: she hoped UPS would deliver a package. (March 13, 2013)

We might regret the European Union after it has crumbled. (March 12, 2013)

If I had stuck to my childhood plan to be a priest, I would now be in the conclave speaking Latin and electing a new pope – or, of course, being elected. (March 12, 2013).

Powder to the people! (March 12, 2013)

The war on drugs is a war on people more than a war on plants. (March 12, 2013)

If winners of Nobel Peace Prize were rated in terms of drones instead of stars, Obama would be a five-drone winner. (March 11, 2013)

Many Europeans and Canadians are against cash-and-carry, because they believe people will start shooting at each other for the money. (March 11, 2013)

Naïve people are proud: they think the praetorians are their bodyguards. (March 10, 2013)

There IS a problem with assault rifles: they are not very efficient at shooting down drones. (March 10, 2013)

You never step twice in the same river but you will always come back to Beethoven. (March 8, 2012)

Those who don’t know Charybdis and Scylla will find themselves between a rock and a hard place. (March 7, 2013)

Cooking: a non-stick carrot would be an oxymoron. (March 7, 2013)

Tyranny is fast advancing, and what do the rulers want for their regulated people? An easier choice of browsers! http://on.wsj.com/14suWbD (March 6, 2013)

The reason to be humble is not that tyrants or tyrants to be don’t like us. The only reason to be humble is that we know so little. (March 6, 2002)

Banality of the century: What I don’t know is infinite, but what I learn is fun. (March 6, 2013)

For better or for worse, wishful doing is the next step after wishful thinking. (March 4, 2013)

We never step in the same river twice and the piranhas are never exactly the same. (March 4, 2013)

Three important things for an intellectual redneck: a good computer, a good gun, and a good woman. (March 3, 2013)

Happiness is the absence of unhappiness. (March 3, 2013)

Child pornography is another excuse for the voyeur Surveillance State. (March 1, 2013)

A pun for gunnuts: It’s worse to be out of grip than to be out of stock. (But probably a gun for pun nuts is more important than a pun for gunnuts.) (February 27, 2013)

Oh boy! Oh boy! So many things to explain… (February 27, 2013)

Most of what I have learned, especially as a young man, I learned despite myself. (February 26, 2013)

I only patronize churches with organic organs. (February 26, 2013)

At a certain level, everything is continuous and continuously differentiable. (February 24, 2013)

Why do feminist studies, women studies, gay studies exist, but not free individual studies? (February 21, 2013)

I am on a first-name basis with the Pope. (February 21, 2013)

Before upping the ante, ask yourself if you should not be downing the post. (February 21, 2013)

The problem and the opportunity with intellectual and artistic work is that it is never finished. Sisyphus at work. (February 20, 2013)

Politicians should have no bodyguard. In case of danger, they should vomit or urinate. http://news.msn.com/us/colleges-anti-rape-tactics-include-vomiting-urinating#tscptmf (February 20, 2013)

It’s pretty clear that Hormuz and Bering were straight. (February 19, 2013)

The number of unborn babies is literally infinite. (February 19, 2013)

If the Presocratics had not been stupidly brainwashed by environmentalists, they would have printed more than their fragments. (February 19, 2013)

On the topic of monetary policy, many confuse “money” and “credit”, like when they talk about “free money” to mean “[nearly] free credit”. (February 18, 2013)

If cooking made as much noise as a snow blower, I might enjoy it. (February 17, 2013)

What would Heraclitus have thought if he had been told that 26 centuries later, he would be heard from a smart phone through a car’s sound system? (February 17, 2013)

Any cardinal can become pope, but a chick cannot. (February 13, 2013)

Snow storm in New England: Who do these little governors who order people off the roads think they are? (Not in Maine or NH, thanks God). (February 9, 2013)

There is a large number of ways to measure inflation. (If there are W goods and Y consumers, one can devise as many as Y times W ways to measure inflation.) But there are not many ways to measure whether the typical consumer could afford now what he bought previously – which is what the IPC tries to do. (February 7, 2013)

Some people seem to believe that since inflation SHOULD BE higher according to their theories, the “real rate of inflation” IS higher. (February 6, 2013)

If government stimulus were effective, we would now all be as rich as Obama and Bush. (February 6, 2013)

Don’t forget that politicians and bureaucrats have a human side. (February 6, 2013)

In contemporary Newspeak, the adjective “social” sanctifies whatever it qualifies (except if the qualified thing was already very bad, in which case it is made even more disgusting), while “financial” automatically taints whatever it touches. (February 5, 2013)

Social justice is like apple pie. Its beneficiaries even eat it. (February 4, 2012)

I am sure I don’t have an oversize ego, but I was never able to measure it. (February 4, 2013)

The war on drugs is a war on citizens and a war on the rule of law. (February 3, 2013)

A quote without a credible source (like a page number) or a link to the original document is not worth the electrons it’s written on. (February 2, 2013)

Rich actors don’t live in trailers. (February 2, 2013)

I guess a smart-ass is an as with an app. (February 2, 2013)

A hungry prospector, especially a French one, learns to distinguish between mine and dine. (Take this one with a grain of salt.) (February 2, 2013)

There are two sorts of change: acceptable and unacceptable. (February 2, 2013)

For many people, wisdom starts (when it does) by realizing that nobody is interested in what they think. (February 2, 2013)

Culture is having a clue about where one dwells in time and space. (February 2, 2013)

To govern is to discriminate. (February 2, 2013)

That private ownership of firearms works against tyranny is shown by the universal drive of tyrants to disarm their civilian population. (February 1, 2013)

Groundhog Day is the day when you hug the earth. (February 1, 2013)

It is not because it is not written that it is true. (January 29, 2013)

The general naivety of people is only surpassed by their specific naivety in believing anything that confirms their biases. (January 29, 2013)

It it’s too good to be true, it’s probably not true. (January 29, 2013)

Do not believe any Internet quote that is not supported by a book and page number, or by an audio or video file. (January 29, 2013)

If the quote is not supported by a book and page number, or by an audio or video file, it is likely to be apocryphal if not fraudulent. (January 29, 2013)

I never realized that robots wear full metal jackets. (January 23, 2013)

Now that 3D printers are coming, we need to stop selling flat ideas. (January 22, 2013)

Finished working on Facebook. Now, I have to play for a bit. (January 22, 2013)

Every conspiracy theory has its meta-conspiracy whereby the original conspirators are the puppets of higher-level conspirators. (January 22, 2013)

I fear that some of my part-time ideological friends are flat-earth wackos. I console myself by observing that many of my ideological enemies are fairy-tale believers. (January 22, 2013)

Children and simple people naturally like fairy tales. Obama is today’s Prince Charming. (January 21, 2013)

Today is like the day of Prince William’s marriage. The difference is that Obama has the power to do much damage. (January 21, 2013)

“If it could save only one life…” Bureaucrats should stick to saving only one file, instead of saving only one life. (January 18, 2013)

We have to live with mankind as it is. (January 18, 2013)

People have the right to be ignorant, but not to boss the others around. (January 15, 2013)

Hetero homini lupus. (January 15, 2013)

“The answer is no, but please remind me what the question is.” Can somebody tell me if somebody said that before? Otherwise, I will homestead it. (January 14, 2013)

Attention à l’orthographe : celui qui marche avec une canne n’est pas nécessairement zoophile. (January 14, 2013)

It is stupid to assume that you enemy is stupid. (January 13, 2013)

What’s the difference between eroticism and government? Eroticism has many shades of grey, while government has many grades of Che. (January 12, 2013)

First rule on the Internet: it is not signed by somebody credible, and accompanied by a precise source, assume it is false. (January 11, 2013)

Si Dieu a fait des coquilles dans la Bible, il s’agit de coquilles Saint-Jacques. (January 11, 2013)

I am all for a “national conversation”, provided it remains a conversation. (January 10, 2013)

To gun or to gun not, that is the question. (January 8, 2013)

If you find that life is a bore, get some bore cleaner. (January 6, 2013)

In philosophy, politics, and economics, virtually all good ideas have already been had; alas! bad ones too. (December 25, 2012)

Reading is easy; understanding, more difficult. (December 24, 2012)

When gun nuts are outlawed, only outlaws will have nuts. (December 24, 2012)

Obviously, the government must do something. (December 24, 2012)

Research reveals that Claus is, in fact, the middle name of Santa Claus. His family name – and this is quite astounding given his job – is Trophobic. (December 24, 2012)

Discrimination: there is Christmas Eve but no Christmas Adam. (December 19, 2012)

With the continuous lowering of the age of mass murder victims, they will soon be killed in their mothers’ wombs. (December 19, 2012)

If some want to be net lenders, others have to be net borrowers. (December 18, 2012)

What seems to have disappeared as a moral restraint is the simple notion of self-control. (December 17, 2012)

Learning is in large part learning how to process information. (December 15, 2012)

Incredible lightness of being? Still nothing compared to the lightness of nothingness! (December 13, 2012)

Christmas gifts: I think there is a wrap in the space-time continuum. (December 13, 2012)

I am not better at wrapping than at rapping. (December 13, 2012)

On meurt un peu chaque jour. On vit un peu chaque jour. (December 13, 2012)

What I don’t like about zombies is how they boast about their sexual orientation. (December 11, 2012)

Like 380s, days are short. (December 11, 2012)

An antecrastinator has already done it yesterday. (December 11, 2012)

All bums should love music. (December 11, 2012)

“Fiscal cliff” is an oxymoron. (December 10, 2012)

There are reset buttons in life, but apparently no global one – and their number decreases with age. (December 8, 2012)

Rappel pour mes amis: il fait plus plaisir de donner que de recevoir. (December 8, 2012)

Le clou de la visite à l’Aquarium fut un requin marteau. (December 5, 2012)

Having once worked at a supermarket and being able to lure chance does not make one Chancellor of the Exchequer. (December 5, 2012)

Why do we say that a book is “misplaced” instead of “misterplaced”? (November 28, 2012)

With Adobe, you can write like an acrobat. (November 28, 2012)

In a flash, I suddenly remembered a sentence that was printed in my (rebellious) mind in high school: “In media stat virtus.” Perhaps I should have remembered before. (Or become a journalist.) (November 25, 2012)

Reading the owner’s manual, carrying the right pistol, rebooting, or changing the sparkplug provide solutions to most problems, although not always to the same one. (November 25, 2012)

Question: How does the typical Canadian or Englishman react to being asked a loaded question by somebody who is not a policeman or a soldier? Answer: He drops dead. (Explanation: He has a heart attack out of fear that the loaded question will fire.) (November 24, 2012)

A loaded dice cannot fire. (November 24, 2012)

It’s incredible how far imperfection will lead you. Unfortunately, I was never imperfect enough. (November 24, 2012)

If somebody asks “your wallet or your life”, don’t reach for the back pocket where your wallet is, but for the one with your pistol (it was called the “poche-revolver” in French for a reason). (November 24, 2012)

Why did the Pilgrims fish on their way to America? Because they wanted a common whale. (November 24, 2012)

In most movies, the state gets free product placement – bad for liberty! (November 23, 2012)

Re-watched “Live and Let Die” yesterday. Very good James Bond old-style. And you see where the War on Drugs leads? (November 23, 2012)

Dangerous consumption good: Life kills 100% of its users. (November 22, 2012)

What sort of balls does the Prince have? Crystal, of course. (November 20, 2012)

If you don’t continue to learn, you will soon have nothing more to say. (November 20, 2012)

Truth is my business model. (November 20, 2012)

“My phone is downloading a new OS” would have been impossible to understand just half a dozen years ago. (On the other hand, “4th Amendment” would still have made some sense a dozen years ago.) (November 20, 2012)

An individual has no duty to be loyal to his country; it is for his country to be loyal to him – if such collectivist talk makes any sense at all. (November 17, 2012)

Thinking largely means thinking about what you should not be thinking about. (November 15, 2012)

During most of my life, I sold matches, and did not write my name on them. (November 15, 2012)

Truism (with my apologies for the banality): Most of the time, the world moves along whether you follow or not. (November 14, 2012)

To say that you have been a has-been is not enough for a biography. (November 14, 2012)

Many a farmer starts his career as a has-bean. (November 14, 2012)

Old age is when you have no choice but to be a has-been. (November 14, 2012)

Another glaring social injustice: the thin are better able to conceal-carry in a belt holster without losing their pants. (November 14, 2012)

Who said it was no fun to be a bureaucrat? (November 14, 2012)

Bureaucrats: the more they sext, the less they vex. (November 14, 2012)

The Petraeus affair is more a text scandal than a sex scandal. (November 14, 2012)

Women incumbents are called succumbents. (Only understandable if you know about witch-hunts.) (November 13, 2012)

On a souvent besoin d’un plus petit que soi, mais un plus grand ne nuit pas. (November 13, 2012)

Americans are as rational about sex and booze as Europeans about guns. (November 12, 2012)

Other things being equal (including caliber and powder charge), as the weight of a gun goes asymptotically to zero, the recoil shoots towards infinity. (November 12, 2012)

In order to never forget my wallet home, I have decided to tie it to my pistol. (November 8, 2012)

From the vantage point of the day you are born, death comes much more slowly than life. (November 8, 2012)

Chain saws can cut concrete but not the abstract. (November 8, 2012)

If there is anybody who “wasted his vote” (i.e., who would have changed the election result by voting differently), I am interested to know! (November 7, 2012)

What gives one a better chance to get a Darwin prize? To literally explode, to be literally nailed up, or to literally cast one’s vote? (November 6, 2012)

The capacity of people to delude themselves into believing that they have found proofs for their hunches and biases is astounding. (November 5, 2012)

Don’t believe people who tell you to believe that somebody said something just because they tell you so. (November 5, 2012)

Guy Fawkes invented the injunction “F*c you!” (November 5, 2012)

The problem with the voting booth is that many use it as a voting boot. (November 5, 2012)

A random storm may well give the victory to Obama. Otherwise, perhaps his smile will do it. Do you still believe in totalitarian democracy? (November 5, 2012)

Why should the past generations not vote? They have done much more for us than the future ones. (November 3, 2012)

While they are busy campaigning for election, politicians do less actual damage. (November 2, 2012)

If you don’t have a question, your answer is not good. (November 2, 2012)

Undoubtedly because of complex evolutionary reasons, women have no efficient competitor in the kitchen, except with regard to the dishwasher. (November 2, 2012)

The best, and somewhat frustrating, feeling is to suddenly understand something that would have changed your thinking or your life had you known it before. (November 2, 2012)

ONE always wastes his vote, except in a moral way. (November 2, 2012)

Hypothesis: “team teaching” is a form of cartel where both teachers conspire to do as little as possible and be responsible for nothing. (November 1, 2012)

“Natural order” simply means that whatever happens happens. (November 1, 2012)

On the East Coast, people are waterboarding their houses. (October 29, 2012)

Federal government offices are closed today in DC. We are nothing. (October 29, 2012)

In Paul Samuelson’s time, “society” had to choose between guns and butter. Now, the choice is between knobs and gutters. (October 29, 2012)

Note of an indexer: the context is what a computer understands badly. (October 27, 2012)

Everything is related to everything. To which degree is what matters. (October 26, 2012)

A man should always ask before making an inside joke with a woman. (October 25, 2012)

Health and safety is the absolute goal in life. The first principle is: avoid being born. (October 25, 2012)

In America, there is probably a think tank for any think, and perhaps for any tank too. (October 25, 2012)

New egalitarian credo: everybody should have the right to cashew butter for the price of peanut butter. (October 25, 2012)

Where is the bull I have to take by the horns? (October 24, 2012)

Prometheus gave fire to mankind. Aiolos gave the leaf blower. (October 24, 2012)

There is always, along some other dimension, somebody more extreme or more moderate than you. (October 23, 2012)

For work, I prefer a suit to soot. (October 22, 2012)

Facebook results from a DARPA conspiracy aimed at preventing libertarians from working at their important pieces of work. (October 19, 2012)

Gaia n’est pas très gaillarde. (October 18, 2012)

Où y a de l’œstrogène, y a pas de plaisir. (October 18, 2012)

A leaf blower is the autumnal way to push the problem under the rug, provided that the problem is very dry. (October 17, 2012)

It seems to me that emdashes are getting longer and longer. One can envision a time when a book will appear which will be only one big emdash. (October 17, 2012)

The best of all worlds: rednecks should learn Latin. (October 17, 2012)

“Fiat voluntas tua” is not a Fiat slogan meaning “You want your Fiat”. (October 17, 2012)

Fibonacci (a.k.a. Leonardo of Pisa) was not the inventor of pizza. (October 17, 2012)

Persephone became addicted to pomegranate seeds. Worse than tobacco and drugs. http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Haides.html (October 13, 2012)

What is more dangerous, passive smoking or passive thinking? (October 11, 2012)

Most Europeans and Canadians (not to mention Asians and Africans) think that pistol jam is for breakfast. (October 8, 2012)

Spare ribs were invented when God created Eve. (October 8, 2012)

Social networks don’t make you crazy, but they can expose your craziness. (October 6, 2012)

What I have come to understand over the past decade is amazing. I hope the next one is as productive and fun. (October 1, 2010)

The state is very powerful and effective in doing some things. The problem is to know what these things are. (October 1, 2012)

For breakfast, no radical break with the past is necessary. (September 24, 2012)

Swing states don’t necessarily have more swingers. (September 20, 2012)

I wish Mohammed – or is it Mohammad? – will tell me once for all how to write his name. (September 20, 2012)

If “strategic voting” makes sense, there must be a voter who voted so that the two parties would get, say, 40% and 60% of the popular vote. (September 18, 2012)

The non-sexist version of “cutting the middleman” must be “cutting the midwife”. (September 18, 2012)

For sure, this one will not get many virgins — perhaps just a couple of old maids. http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2012/09/16/pakistani-protester-burns-american-flag-and-dies-from-smoke/ (September 18, 2012)

I do have a deep purse, but it is only because I carry a 9mm in it. (September 11, 2012)

Dying is so kitsch: everybody does it. (September 11, 2012)

Slaves think it’s fun to be a free man, but they forget how time consuming it is to clean one’s guns. (September 10, 2012)

Writing – and especially reviewing one’s edited manuscript – is making one crucial decision every three minutes. (September 10, 2012)

Perhaps we should create a “bad state”, will all the bad laws, and send all statists there? (September 6, 2012)

The son of a hands-off editor is called a stetson. (September 6, 2012)

Au Québec, les idées circulent aussi bien qu’une mouche dans un bloc d’acier. (September 2, 2012)

Dermatologists have skin in the game. (August 29, 2012)

We often forget that the value of gold, like the value of everything, is wholly based on individual preferences. Prices change because people change their minds. (August 27, 2012)

Il faut que vieillesse se passe. (August 24, 2012)

Here is a shovel-ready stimulus project: subsidize any American restaurant owner and chef who goes to France to learn how to make desserts. (August 24, 2012)

Tyranny with wifi is probably better than tyranny without. (August 24, 2012)

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object”: should be written in every air terminal of America. (August 24, 2012)

Air terminals are the Brave New World in action. George III would never have dreamed of such power. (August 24, 2012)

Tyranny with wifi is probably better than tyranny without. (August 24, 2012)

In America, governments try to emulate business, often with dangerous results; in France, businesses try to emulate government, alas with success. (August 23, 2012)

In France, bread is not, like it is in most of America, merely a support for jam or other food. (August 22, 2012)

Why do people who live under wall-to-wall welfare states look so stressed? Because they have to work VERY hard for it. (August 21, 2012)

Bars are usually on the first floor because they don’t want to set the bar too high. (August 19, 2012)

Prions pour les vivants, les morts, et ceux qui ne sont ni sur Twitter ni sur Facebook. (August 16, 2012)

Alzheimer is a hard disk malfunction. (August 16, 2012)

Before it became a cliché, it was totally brilliant. (August 16, 2012)

If you chew eight little bits off something, you can properly say that you have taken a bite. (August 16, 2012)

It’s more productive to be the man of the pun than the pen of the nun. (August 13, 2012)

Even for a chemical engineer, dying is not easy. (August 13, 2012)

Dying is impossible, or at least very difficult. (August 13, 2012)

Second Latin lesson of the week: A hiatus is not a classical yatch. (August 13, 2012)

Vampires hate stakeholders. (August 13, 2012)

Latin lesson of the week: “Fiat voluntas tua” doesn’t mean “I want your Fiat.” (August 11, 2012)

Breast feeding in public: the milky way. (August 10, 2012)

Si vous parlez toujours dans le désert, vous n’êtes peut-être pas à la bonne place. (August 9, 2012)

Labels are not arguments. (August 9, 2012)

I used to think that the term “senior” was nothing but political correctness, and that, say, “old crumb” was better. I am having second thoughts. (August 7, 2012)

Total security: If everybody were jailed preventively, you think there would be no crime? But who would be the jailers? (July 24, 2012)

Pun of the week: I hear that scientists are sequencing the human Jerome. (July 23, 2012)

Although everything known is made of zeros and ones, some bits are more important than others in daily life. (July 23, 2012)

One must understand what one professes to be against. (July 23, 2012)

We now discover that Keynesian automatic stabilizers are destabilizing, thanks to decades of welfare and regulatory state. (July 23, 2012)

I am a member of all conspiracies. Try to prove the contrary! (Saying that you never met me won’t do: it just means I out-conspire you.) (July 22, 2012)

You don’t need to speak Latin to buy ammo. (July 19, 2012)

My thought while shaving this morning: Bertrand Russell’s village barber is soap opera. (July 18, 2012)

I am looking forward to most things (with only a small number of exceptions). (July 13, 2012)

If pedophiles did not exist, the state would invent them: they are just too great a bonanza for surveillance and control. (July 13, 2012)

Mother earth is as dangerous as the fatherland. (July 11, 2012)

If you don’t understand your intellectual opponents and think they are all stupid, you should review your own beliefs. (July 10, 2012)

Pun of the decade (pardon my modesty): If Parmenides were right, potato chips could not exist. (Inspired by conversation with Charles Alan Kors) (July 10, 2012)

Marshall is an approximation of Pareto. (July 9, 2012)

Lobsters speak in tongs. (July 7, 2012)

Little arithmetic problem: if my two personalities are schizophrenic, how many am I? (July 7, 2012)

To learn, one must make oneself available or, like schoolchildren, be forced in some way. (July 6, 2012)

A theological problem has haunted Western thought for 25 centuries: Zeus did not punish Pandora because he knew what would happen. (July 6, 2012)

La cacahuète est un pastiche de la pistache. (July 5, 2012)

The main problem with ignorance is that one does not know what he does not have. (July 4, 2012)

My secretarial skills are pretty good, and my boss is very grateful. (July 4, 2012)

A microblogger can be a great man. (July 3, 2012)

Common sense is sometimes a good ally, but often a naive illusion. Knowledge is about distinguishing the two cases. (July 3, 1012)

The optimist is happy to catch a mistake in his manuscript. The pessimist is unhappy, for it indicates that more may have remained uncaught. (July 2, 2012)

In life’s lottery, I am a bread winner. (July 2, 2012)

Career advice: don’t invite has-beans under your tent. (July 2, 2012)

The state is so powerful and glorious. It can scramble fighter jets while ordinary individuals can only scramble eggs. (July 2, 2012)

When we hear “amazon”, we don’t think of breasts anymore. Socialists must blame capitalism; economists would call this a negative externality. (July 2, 2012)

I am ashamed of my straight fit jeans. People might think I am homophobe. (July 1, 2012)

I don’t have much time to hate people. Otherwise, I would find a large number of candidates. (June 29, 2012)

A fruit basket is useful for peer review. (June 29, 2012)

Today’s scientific pun: Do the walking dead use running water? (June 28, 2012)

In arithmetic, progressive schools teach three sums. (June 26, 2012)

Midwives are experts in married couples’ threesomes. (June 26, 2012)

Liberty is part of biodiversity, but it is a threatened species. (June 25, 2012)

I need a bailout too. (June 25, 2012)

In the adventures of Tintin, Captain Haddock has more than an ad hoc presence. (June 25, 2012)

Follow-up on the Little Red Book: Run globally, walk locally. (June 24, 2012)

Bullet points should be banned in Canada as they suggest that persuasion at the point of a gun is acceptable in a kindler & gentler nation. (June 24, 2012)

If people did not commit so many heresies on Facebook, I would have more time to keep focused on my work. (June 22, 2012)

Discrimination by terminology: “Why “gun nuts” but “gold bugs”? (June 21, 2012)

The financier walks into a barber shop, and says… (June 21, 2012)

When you already know what somebody will say, why listen? (June 21, 2012)

The number of books I have not read approaches infinity, but the number I really want to read is easily countable. (June 21, 2012)

Sexual discrimination is pervasive (continued): You can buy ant killer but not uncle killer. (June 21, 2012)

Sexual discrimination is pervasive: You can cry uncle but it won’t do any good to cry aunt. (June 21, 2012)

Please, dumb it up for me. (June 19, 2012)

If only the left understood economics! If only the right took individual liberty seriously! (June 18, 2012)

Sisyphus has just mowed the lawn. (June 16, 2012)

Ne confondez pas les plaisirs de la chair avec les plaisirs de la chaire. (June 16, 2012)

Les plaisirs de la chair mènent à Lachaise. (June 16, 2012)

From their Latin roots, I understand that a “device” informs you about vice, and that an “advice” takes you right into it. (June 14, 2012)

If you have a stroke, try to have one of genius. (June 13, 2012)

Les soi-disant progressistes sont des pro-grècistes. (June 13, 2012)

Social organicists (those who mistakenly imagine society as a biological organism) should logically equate what the French eulogistically call “social movements” (“movements sociaux”) with bowel movements. (June 11, 2012)

Bad joke of the month — Beggar to Obama: “You’ve got some change?” Obama: “Yes, and you can believe in it.” (June 11, 2012)

Death is probably overrated. (June 11, 2012)

A geek’s computer looks like a redneck’s front yard. (June 11, 2012)

I fear only an angler-philosopher can understand this one: Anglers cannot hide behind the vail of ignorance. (June 10, 2012)

Plants must be saved from animals as much as animals have to be saved from men. (June 10, 2012)

I find it easier to change my mind than to change my body. (June 8, 2012)

Asked how he would deal with the space-time continuum, God replied, “I’ll play it by year.” (June 8, 2012)

It’s your sole soul, so don’t walk on it. (June 7, 2012)

I can’t count the number of places where I am not quoted. (June 7, 2012)

Un apode ne peut être psychopathe. (June 7, 2012)

I am a high-class vagrant in the low five figures. (June 7, 2012)

The trick is to find the right balance between essential intellectual humility and necessary individual pride. (June 7, 2012)

One reason why Austrian economists have been shunned by others is their refusal to admit that Hicksian-Samuelsonian utility is ordinal. (June 7, 2012)

When an old-timer sociologist doesn’t know what to say, he repeats “social norm”. (June 6, 2012)

Were tacos invented by Tycho Brahe? (June 4, 2012)

Avec leurs cervelles d’oiseaux, ils font un bel effet de cerf. (June 4, 2012)

What can be said in 141 characters can be said in 140 (rhetorically, not logically). (June 4, 2012)

The 1960’s hippies aimed, no doubt awkwardly, at being non-judgmental; today’s “dissenters” are mostly moral and coercive busybodies. (June 4, 2012)

Castigat ridendo mores: a shower pun can help to shun power. (June 2, 2012)

This morning’s shower pun: I prefer to be due for a big class cigar than to be queued for a class-B guitar. (June 2, 2012)

Advice to statists: in general, there is no more reason to attack the poor than to attack the rich. (June 1, 2012)

Anglers don’t all speak English. (June 1, 2012) Version of December 19, 2015: Not all anglers speak Anglish.

Why do socialists love money so much? (May 30, 2012)

Marriage contracts make for same-text marriages. (May 29, 2012)

La réflexion sérieuse du week-end : Si j’étais hors de moi, il n’y aurait personne dedans. (May 17, 2012)

Lord Bacon and Field Marshal Haig are exploring Africa. One day, before dawn, they are captured by two cannibals. One cannibal asks the other: “What do you want for breakfast?” (May 17, 2012)

Sexual harassment: Indian cooks are constantly involved in pilaw talk. (May 17, 2012)

Antitrust and insider trading prosecutions required: people in the bedding industry are constantly involved in pillow talk. (May 17, 2012)

A joke I invented for my dentist: Why do neurosurgeons never operate on royalty? Because they would have to drill through the crown. (May 17, 2012)

People with high blood pressure should take it with a grain of salt. (May 17, 2012)

Free trade is possible. A European Welfare and Regulatory State is not. (May 16, 2012)

Somebody lives in Maine. I can prove it. (May 15, 2012)

I heard somebody say, “Nobody lives in Maine”. (May 15, 2012)

Suburbanites are mowers and shakers. (May 15, 2012)

Old age would be fun if one were still young. (May 14, 2012)

Beating a dead horse may be useful for practice or teaching purposes. Moreover, like Shrödinger’s cat, it might not actually be dead. (May 14, 2012)

A woman wearing a shirt was prevented from flying because she was on the no-fly list. (May 11, 2012)

J’entends un bruit de votes. (May 9, 2012)

Démocratie: au lieu de se faire botter le derrière, on se fait voter le derrière. (May 9, 2012)

The Greek state should repudiate its debt, correctly putting the blame on it politicos and bureaucrats, and leave the rest of us alone. (May 9, 2012)

Proletarians of the world, Trader Joe is the place to buy wine. Life without a Trader Joe nearby is not worth living. This company is quite interesting. It is not listed, is rather secretive, and owns many European wineries. And they have employees who know a lot about wine. (May 8, 2011)

Multitasking on a single task is called daydreaming. (May 7, 2012)

The real function of gun control is to increase state power. (May 5, 2012)

Pourquoi les subventions à l’agriculture sont-elles efficaces ? Réponse: À cause du multiplicateur de la grange. (Attention : pour comprendre cette blague, vous devez connaître les rudiments du calcul et, éventuellement, de l’économie. Le sens de l’humour aide aussi.) (May 4, 2012)

It seems to have been lost on the intelligentsia that Hitler’s party was called “national socialist” not “global capitalist”. (May 3, 2012)

Difference between a fox and a geek? No difference: a fox likes rabbits, a geek like raw bits. (May 3, 2012)

The decocker is one of the greatest safety inventions of the 20th century. (May 3, 2012)

There is no reason why corporations should determine education requirements. What people learn at school must be determined by both the demand AND the supply of labor. For certain families and students, education is a derived demand; for others, it’s a consumption good. (May 2, 2012)

Modern version of the old saying, “Don’t put your eggs in the same basket”: spread your genes in more than one container. (May 1, 2012)

Europeans who like redistribution should be sending more money from Germany to Greece, and even more from Greece and Germany to Africa. (April 30, 2012)

Bin Laden won: he made America a bit closer to what he likes. (April 30, 2012)

Is the public square in the public sphere? (April 30, 2012)

Why is it risky to offer a geek to taste one’s food? Because he will take a megabyte. (April 28, 2012)

Levis has certainly been successful in transmitting his genes. (April 28, 2012)

Blessed be the blistered for they will inherit the trail. (April 28, 2012)

I don’t “get it”, and don’t wish to. (April 27, 2012)

Any politician who voted for the creation of the TSA should be recalled (and waterboarded). (April 27, 2012)

Discrimination (against some groups, in favor of other groups) is the core business of government. (April 27, 2012)

Pop tents are now so light: obviously a product of the Enlightenment! (April 26, 2012)

I have a maid because nature abhors a vacuum cleaner. (April 26, 2012)

Talking is much overrated. (April 23, 2012)

How can an extremist accept that is post is “awaiting moderation”? (April 23, 2012)

A pure question of logic: not everybody can have a serious biographer. (April 22, 2012)

Sunday is the best day for cherries, because you can add one on it. (April 22, 2012)

Technical analysts are nothing but peaking toms. (April 20, 2012)

The trouble shooter needed at the Post Office would be a post-doc. (April 20, 2012)

However much you want to reduce traffic speed in your neighborhood, laws against cruelty to animals forbid goose bumps. (April 19, 2012)

Reading newspaper articles on the web has become more a case of love and gate. (April 19, 2012)

The queen’s dilemma: to bee or not to bee. (April 19, 2012)

Note to the ACLU (often doing good work but obsessed with everything below or under the belt): Feta cheese has nothing to do with abortion. (April 19, 2012)

Platonist beekeeper joke: The bee is in the eye of the bee holder. (April 19, 2012)

Difference between a terrorist and a hunter: the first one wants more bang for the buck; the second, more buck for the bang. (April 19, 2012)

Nothing is perfect, but imperfect liberty is better than imperfect tyranny. (April 18, 2012)

Twun™ (tweeted pun) of the week (and memo to TSA and imitators): Terrorists are not the only ones to pay with plastic. (April 18, 2012)

I once asked a confectioner in Montréal to inscribe “Down With Tyranny!” on a cake I was ordering. She asked me, “Does ‘tyranny’ take one or two N’s?” (April 18, 2012)

What has changed in Québec is the growth in the number of libertarians. But it is still a society that bends under any passing totalitarian idea. (April 18, 2012)

The mere thought that hiking poles could be useful is hard to admit since they were unknown in my childhood’s adventure books. (April 17, 2012)

Essential humility lies in understanding that generations of brilliant thinkers have struggled with the exact questions you try to answer. (April 17, 2012)

People who most enthusiastically endorse the mantle of democracy are often the same ones who clamor most loudly against the mass media. (April 16, 2012)

There is a large number of self-made ignoramuses. (April 16, 2012)

I am quite willing to rise to the occasion, but where is it? (April 15, 2012)

A round number can represent the perimeter of a square. (April 15, 2012)

Voyez comme le latin est concis : « De gustibus non est disputandum » = « Des hommes dégoûtants se disputent la nonne. » (April 15, 2012)

Le nombre de membres de la National Rifle Association équivaut aux 2/3 de tous les adultes au Québec (si une telle population existe). (April 13, 2012)

Plain packaging should be compulsory for all politicians’ and bureaucrats’ communications. (April 13, 2012)

When cornered, most libertarians will side with the right, but it’s because the left is even more hopeless. (April 12, 2012)

Improving “civil forfeiture”: make it a crime to breathe after committing a crime. Then arrest breathers whose crime can’t be proved. (April 12, 2012)

Wisdom’s itinerary: WTF-LOL-OMG (April 11, 2012)

I guess I should start saying “seniors” instead of “old crumbs”. (April 9, 2012)

Most government bodies should be corpses. (April 9, 2012)

Everything in the universe is made of zeros and ones, even rabbits. (Their very name confirms it.) Happy Easter! (April 8, 2011)

Finally (it was about time!), the truth about the myth of Sisyphus: his doctor had told him that he needed regular exercise. (April 5, 2012)

The problem with social solidarity is to determine with whom. (April 5, 2012)

Worst pun of the month (but containing some truth): better be a spinach investor than a Spanish investor. (April 4, 2012)

The problem in America is that bad laws and good laws are equally enforced. (April 2, 2012)

“Lemieux’s cat”: Does something I don’t write about, or think of writing about, exist? (April 2, 2012)

A wise Pole met in 1989 told me there are four things that any man loves: women, guns, cars, boats, and horses. In his crumbling communist country, he had been deprived of many of those. (April 2, 2012)

At McDonald’s, I met a little boy who was obviously a gerontophile. He smiled at me non-stop. (March 29, 2012)

As Leonard Cohen sings, America is “the cradle of the best and the worst.” (March 29, 2012)

One must discard a false argument even if it bolsters one’s opinion. (March 29, 2012)

The French culture has survived in Québec – if we can say it has – thanks to the Catholic Church until the mid-20th century, and to Radio-Canada for a few more decades. (March 29, 2012)

Ten years of wars for what? Humongous economic costs & costs in terms of growing state power, wall-to-wall surveillance, and lost liberties. (March 23, 2012)

Dull joke of the week: People on the middle-class fence are part of both the half and the half-not. (March 22, 2012)

As with Shrödinger’s cat, we have no way to know if somebody not on Facebook is dead or still alive. (March 22, 2012)

Instead of explicit theories, some people use a big-blob approach to understanding reality. (March 21, 2012)

There is a part of mankind – the 90% – who are not on Facebook or Twitter. Who are they? Where are they? What do they do? (March 18, 2012)

How do you sync without a USB cable and no network? Answer: just walk on the water. (March 18, 2012)

Le Bordeaux a été inventé par Merlot l’Enchanteur. (March 17, 2012)

The politicos are Charybdis, the bureaucrats are Scylla. (March 16, 2012)

“Easy rider” is not an insurance term. (March 16, 2012)

Debtors must observe Lent. (March 16, 2012)

Culinary ingenuity. Man is an animal who caponizes. http://www.afn.org/~poultry/capon.htm (March 16, 2012)

Je tweete, donc je suis. (March 13, 2012)

Dull joke of the week: The Kiwimanjaro is obviously in New Zealand. (March 13, 2012)

It’s for a reason that we call it “paperwork” and not “paperpleasure”. (March 11, 2012)

How can a Christian be anything else than “evangelical”? There must be many possible interpretations of the four Gospels. (March 9, 2012)

Arbitragers are paid and useful Sisyphuses. (March 9, 2012)

When somebody says that a society or a country “shares [some interventionist] values”, he doesn’t know what “share” or “value” means. (March 9, 2012)

With the TSA (and its equivalents elsewhere in the world), the state has graduated from groupthink to gropethink. (March 9, 2012)

One thing the Lloyd’s haven’t invented is comprehensive insurance against tyranny. Who is the fox and who the hens? (March 8, 2012)

A first step in creating jobs: ban snow blowers. (March 8, 2012)

Jeu de mots bilingue: Il fit monter la bonne dans sa voiture pour contrôler son bilan carbonne. (March 8, 2012)

Logic is not everything, but it can carry you a long way. (March 7, 2012)

Is Santorum on a first-name basis with God? (March 6, 2012)

I must admit it: I don’t like slogans or civil incantations. (March 6, 2012)

Look at how much energy is spent by writers and editors to avoid using the sinful “he”, “him”, or “his”! (March 6, 2012)

Many people talk of “creating wealth” while having no clear definition of “wealth”, and no clue as to how the blob is “created”. (March 6, 2012)

Nottingham is not a nihilist pig. (March 1, 2012)

Tyranny enters by any door it finds open. (February 24, 2012)

Dullest joke ever: a renovated old piece of furniture got a chair lift. (February 24, 2012)

Austrian economics would gain by moving from marginal utility theory to ordinal neoclassical theory of the Hicks-Samuelson variety. (February 22, 2012)

The relation between logic and reality is the deepest philosophical (and scientific) problem of all times. (February 22, 2012)

There is a terrorist or a pedophile – sometimes both – hiding under every parked car. (February 18, 2012)

Man is an animal who wears cologne. (February 17, 2012)

Hubris is to government what entrepreneurship is to the economy. (February 16, 2012)

La “TVA sociale”: si c’est social, ça doit être bon. (February 16, 2012)

If speculation, which tries to benefit from other people’s misery, is to be banned, so should medicine. (February 15, 2012)

We urgently need bum control – I mean, politician control. (February 13, 2012)

If the sun does not rise to the East, you have likely made a mistake localizing the East. (February 8, 2012)

To control people’s footprints, we need jackbootprints. (February 2, 2012)

Except for sacrificial lambs, we are all speculators. (February 2, 2012)

To be stoned is not the same as to be lapidated. (February 2, 2012)

There is a certain amount of faith in everything, including science. How much is too much, that is the question. (February 2, 2012)

Either God exists and it’s fun to die, or He doesn’t and it’s no fun. But there is more to say. (February 1, 2012)

Most illegal immigration is likely caused by the impossibility, or very high cost, of legal immigration. (February 1, 2012)

“Playing by the rules” is only an ideal if the rules are just. (February 1, 2012)

A long train of abuses has nothing to do with railroads. (February 1, 2012)

Most American politicians confuse capitalism with capitolism. (January 30, 2012)

For dinosaurs, the web is in a fourth dimension. (January 29, 2012)

Each time you put a big dark spot or section on a web page, more ink is used in printing it, and somewhere a baby seal dies. (January 27, 2012)

A dishonest statistician is an outliar. (January 27, 2012)

Infrastructure? Give me a definition and I will likely find something that, in your opinion, should not be included. (January 27, 2012)

I apologize in advance for everything insensitive and offensive I will say in the future. (January 27, 2012)

Eternity is long, especially if you get bored. (January 27, 2012)

The Welfare state wants to be your rose garden. (January 26, 2012)

Groupwork can lead to groupthink. (January 26, 2012)

An extrovert crook is an outliar. (January 26, 2012)

Is Keynesianism sometimes a convenient scapegoat that saves the trouble of asking questions? (January 26, 2012)

A bachelor’s degree in economics should be required for any aspiring politician. (January 25, 2012)

What I need to learn for my future books is to say it graciously when I don’t know something. (January 25, 2012)

To kill a glad buck, even a bad Glock should do. (January 25, 2012)

Captain Cook invented English cuisine. (January 25, 2012)

Facebook is good for the ego – and, I guess, for the shego too. (January 25, 2012)

Advice to cannibals: better to eat Pop Tarts than top parts. (January 25, 2012)

Abortion is only defensible in the case of future politicians or bureaucrats. (January 25, 2012)

Find the error: the difference between the politicos and us is that they are public-spirited and we are selfish. (January 25, 2012)

Stupid morning pun: A taste of wine is much better than a waste of time. (January 25, 2012)

The US government’s propaganda machine is terrifying, although it may still have something to learn from the French government. (January 24, 2012)

The problem with the extreme centrist is that he must always be on the move. (January 24, 2012)

Un Léviathan pressé se dira grand créateur d’empois. (January 24, 2012)

I want the 3.141592… in the sky. (January 24, 2012)

Ceteris paribus, a war may be preferable to an embargo, which hits the subjects of both the giving and the receiving states. (January 23, 2012)

French baguettes are purebred. (January 23, 2012)

State power: the difficulty is to stop before the slope gets too slippery. We are long past this point. (January 23, 2012)

Joke of the week: If you want to look under the hood, you must know whose hood it is. (January 23, 2012)

Idée pour mes amis du Québec: être « à droite du centre » n’est pas une philosophie. (January 23, 2012)

People who don’t know the difference between an average and a marginal quantity should refrain from expressing opinions about taxes. (January 23, 2012)

Reflection about the TSA: If you want to live, you have to obey state diktats. But you are not forced to. (January 23, 2012)

Centuries fly by so quickly! (January 21, 2012)

Optimality must be continuously pursued. (January 21, 2012)

Elections are a public show similar to a sports competition, if not a circus where the plebs applauds or boos the politician-clowns. (January 20, 2012)

I find it offensive that people find things offensive. Please be sensitive. (January 18, 2011)

People think it’s easy to be perfect. Believe me, it’s not! (January 18, 2012)

Govt regulation is the idea that piling up multiple, complex, inconsistent & liberticidal diktats efficiently promotes the public interest. (January 18, 2012)

My whole life is a charitable act, but I enjoy it. (January 18, 2012)

Collectivist perspective: the war on drugs does no harm because we are just arresting ourselves. (January 17, 2012)

You can’t be gay if you are the strait of Hormuz. (January 16, 2012)

What I love about toasters is that they are never buffering. (Incidentally, that’s an argument for Santorum.) (January 16, 2012)

Who wrote “The Moon and Tight Pants”? (January 16, 2012)

Two siblings sleeping together are called a napkin. (January 16, 2012)

News for old-timers: the pie in the sky can now be found in the cloud. (January 16, 2012)

I hope that the notice “that user is suspended” doesn’t mean that she was hanged and kept hanging. (January 15, 2012)

Was Tread the son of John Stuart? (January 14, 2012)

Don’t forget that the Boston Tea Partiers and the Founding Fathers were felons. (January 13, 2012)

L’homme qui laisse son nom à la prospérité doit éviter l’erreur de Vespasien (empereur romain de 69 à 79 A.D.). (January 11, 2012)

In veritate vinum. (January 9, 2012)

The problem in being a contrarian is, relative to what? (January 8, 2012)

By generating global warming in my backyard, the sun is baking up the wrong tree. (January 6, 2012)

Do Allah and Mohamed know that there is a North Koran and a South Koran? (January 6, 2012)

To be a non-geek in a geek world must feel like being a libertarian in a statist world. (January 4, 2012)

An editor walks into a bar, and orders, “A draft, please!” (January 3, 2012)

Going into one of his churches, God was incensed. (December 27, 2011)

With the war on drugs and labor regulations, established politicians have harmed the Blacks more than the words of Ron Paul’s minions could. (December 27, 2011)

Although labels do economize on information, they must not be used as theoretical arguments or refutations. (December 27, 2011)

Non-intellectuals often don’t realize, at their own risk and peril, that, in the world of ideas, you are what you sign. (December 27, 2011)

Making statistical comments about collectives is not collectivist or racist per se. But without the proper caveats, it is a bit risky. (December 27, 2011)

3D glasses are not necessary to see that public debt crises will create many problems, but also offer opportunities to starve Leviathan. (December 26, 2011)

Simple ideas are tempting but dangerous. (December 22, 2011)

Prices were reasonable in Hilbert’s hotel, but I had to switch rooms several times during the night. (Rather odd, and I couldn’t get even with him.) (December 20, 2011)

Chain smokers provide stimulus to the steel industry. (December 18, 2011)

Man is an animal that especially hates to die. (December 16, 2011)

We never step twice in the same moving truck. (December 16, 2011)

When Dominique Strauss-Kahn dies, they will try to notify his next of skin. (December 16, 2011)

Some people confuse declining prices in terms of wages, which is good, and declining prices in terms of money, which can be dangerous. (December 15, 2011)

A goal that’s unattainable without invasive search and seizure is simply unacceptable. (December 12, 2011)

If the color of your trash compactor is white, is it a white trash compactor? (December 9, 2011)

Will anybody claim that the sovereign debt crisis shows a failure of capitalism? (December 8, 2011)

Multiculturalism is good. Each man is a culture. (December 7, 2011)

As Gaia said with resignation, there is no such thing as a tree launch. (December 7, 2011)

Qui veut trop communiquer ne communique pas grand-chose. (December 7, 2011)

Those who want too much to communicate end up communicating nothing. (December 7, 2011)

Never leave a stone unturned and a button unclicked. But the secret of life is to distinguish between buttons and stones. (December 7, 2011)

Never leave a stone unturned and a button unclicked. (December 7, 2011)

How some people use their own misfortune or slavery to attack the liberty of others is properly obscene. (December 6, 2011)

The will is what you use on yourself. “Political will” is what you use against others. (December 6, 2011)

Like father, like sun. (December 4, 2011)

If they burn you at the stake, you can blame the stakeholders. (December 1, 2011)

I prefer the nap to the pan. (November 28, 2011)

Mens Rea is a friend of Casus Belli. (Inspired by what the judge said in one of the old Luky Lukes.) (November 28, 2011)

Fashion comment of the day: wearing glasses with a full niqab must be a pain. (November 28, 2011)

If the choice was between working & not consuming OR consuming & not working, what would you choose? Which is the goal, which is the means? (November 27, 2011)

Many people favor liberty except in what they deem crucially important. (November 27, 2011)

Voluntary non-simplicity on Black Friday: I HATE it when people grovel in base consumerism and kneel before consumption gods in packed stores — EXCEPT at Cabela’s. (November 25, 2011)

A man may live with many women provided he does not say he is married to them! (November 24, 2011)

A man may live with many women provided he does not say he is married to them! (November 24, 2011)

Dissenters used to invoke their individuality and originality; now they try to pass for 99% of the people. (November 13, 2011)

The measure of an action’s effectiveness is whether anything is changed whether it is performed or not. Is YOUR secret vote effective? (November 11, 2011)

Don’t pester me with pacifism, but don’t bug me with national wars either. (November 11, 2011)

From that time on, we never forgot: central planning, border controls, government surveillance, and the ever loving Welfare State. (November 11, 2011)

Euro, etc.: The mistake has been to try and make the EU a Super Welfare & Regulatory State, instead of a space for free trade and liberty. (November 11, 2011)

World War I, a power play among European sovereigns and a terrible waste, marked a major step in the decline of Western liberty. Look at it now! (November 11, 2011)

By and large, and except in exceptional circumstances, ordinary soldiers are either adventurous volunteers having fun or cannon fodder for the state. (November 11, 2011)

Obviously, Oral Roberts was a pervert. (November 10, 2011)

I would be happy to have learned economics just to be able to read Anthony de Jasay’s “The State”. (November 9, 2011)

When my children were kids, there were little monsters – I called them “zorcals” – roaming at night and snatching socks (and sometimes other small pieces of clothing) that children had not put in place. NOW THEY ARE BACK, stealing earphones. (November 8, 2011)

Tread was not John Stuart’s brother. (November 7, 2001)

“Papademos » est certainement un nom prédestiné pour un dirigeant d’État démocratique paternaliste. (November 7, 2011)

I have to contact a moving company. I hope I won’t weep. (November 5, 2011)

I was slightly upset by the 1,278,530th position of my “Somebody in Charge” (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011) on the Amazon Best Sellers list, until I found out that a Princeton professor’s 2001 book that looks very interesting is ranked 1,845,784th. (November 5, 2011)

An old air stewardess is called an airborne-again stewardess. (November 4, 2011)

Greek democracy against European democracy: there is always a democracy against the one you prefer. (November 2, 2011)

John Galt was part of the 1%. (November 2, 2011)

If you start your reasoning with a predetermined conclusion, don’t be surprised if few people believe it. (November 2, 2011)

Childish pleasure in Maine: instead of making my deposit at the drive-thru ATM, I went to the counter just for the pleasure of walking armed in a bank. (November 1, 2011)

Thanks to the Welfare State, Greece, the cradle of civilization, is back to the cradle. (November 1, 2011)

I love altruism so much that I wonder why people (at least the altruistic 99%) don’t give me their money. (November 1, 2011)

Nail clippers are one of the great inventions of mankind. They significantly improve the life of everybody, except perhaps suicide bombers. (October 31, 2011)

I vaguely remember nothingness: it was not fun, but it wasn’t painful either. (October 27, 2011)

Only 1% of books are bestsellers. We are the 99%. (October 26, 2011)

Mankind did not change much, from submitting to the warlord or shaman, to begging the central bank to take charge. (October 24, 2011)

Communism was the biggest bubble of the 20th century. But the mixed economy competed hard, and finally succeeded being the only bubble. (October 24, 2011)

I was surprised to learn that there exist “walk-behind snow blowers”. I never knew that some were walk-in-front. (October 24, 2011)

As the dyslexic would say, what came first, the kitchen or the egg? (October 24, 2011)

We don’t, or shouldn’t, have to choose between the mob and the autocrats. In a limited state, both are constrained. (October 24, 2011)

This page is intentionally blank. (October 24, 2011)

The injunction “Go fly a kite” has been replaced by “Go camping”. (October 24, 2011) (Following another end-of-the-world prophecy by Harold Camping)

I am working on my next worstseller. (October 24, 2011)

Is somebody who is not on Facebook or Twitter (and perhaps Google+) still part of the living? (October 24, 2011)

If nobody criticizes you, do it yourself. (October 23, 2011)

In infinite time, monkeys would indeed rewrite Shakespeare, an infinite number of times. (October 23, 2011)

Without analytical tools, it’s impossible to analyze anything. (October 23, 2011)

“And why seest thou a steam in thy brother’s eye, and perceivest not a bra which is in thine own eye?” (inspired by Luke 6:41) (October 21, 2011)

It would have been better to capture rant than to rapture Kant. (October 21, 2011)

Government greed led to the sovereign debt crisis. (October 20, 2011)

Incantations are no substitute for proof. (October 20, 2011)

Brutus realized the first Caesarian section. (October 19, 2011)

Any reform, even a radical one, has to start from where we are. It can’t start anywhere else. (October 19, 2011)

Governments’ “one-stop shop” regulatory services: by all the soft tyranny you need at only one place. (October 19, 2011)

Skimming through the New England Journal of Medicine, one discovers that there as many diseases as there are stars in the night sky. (October 18, 2011)

What are the current bubbles? Probably the Chinese economy and US government securities, and perhaps gold. (October 17, 2011).

Wall Street is sometimes bullish, sometimes bearish. The state is always leviathanish. (October 15, 2011)

With the sovereign debt crisis, perhaps there is a chance that “sovereign” will stop meaning “social and collective milk and honey”. (October 15, 2011)

Sovereigns are trying hard to hide their exactions & make taxpayers pay for them. (October 15, 2011)

A neglected haircut: how much will government defaults shave from the value of private pension funds? (October 15, 2011)

The sovereign created the housing crisis, which precipitated its own looming debt crisis. He is guilty of two crises in a few of years. (October 15, 2011)

The sovereign debt crisis is the sovereign’s debt crisis. (October 15, 2011)

The globalization of the Occupy Wall Street movement is another instance of importing the worst from America and eschewing the best. (October 15, 2011)

Play on words of the week: There are so many empty professors that some of them have to call themselves “full”. (October 15, 2011)

It is because of loopholes in tyranny that liberty survives. (October 15, 2011)

If you want to quit smoking, it’s very easy. If you don’t want to, it’s very difficult. (October 15, 2011)

Gaia is bipolar. (October 15, 2011)

Mot léger de la semaine: Surtout à notre époque d’obésité, le zizi est une arme de construction massive. (October 14, 2011)

The OECD talks about “the social pain of adjustment”. This social sort of pain, I can take as much as you want. (October 13, 2011)

If you don’t like the consumer society, it’s okay: just be content with working and producing. I’ll consume what you produce. (October 13, 2011)

The state should neither hamper nor encourage change: it should be change-neutral. (October 13, 2011)

Ultimately, the state can guarantee only what its subjects will pay, in taxes or in submission to regulations. (October 12, 2011)

Not everybody can save money: for some people to be net savers, others have to be net borrowers. (October 12, 2011)

European employment: if employees can’t be fired, nobody will hire them. (October 12, 2011)

Any tax take of less than 100% of GDP must indicate tax evasion or loopholes. (October 12, 2011)

“Tax the rich” is greedy. (Inspired by a FB post by Sheldon Richman.) (October 12, 2011)

Feeling ignorant is the beginning of wisdom. (October 11, 2011)

When the state can give or take everything, his courtiers are numerous and bear large gifts. (October 11, 2011)

A big part of current problems is that investors and banks are lending to gov’t or, more exactly, that gov’t is borrowing most of the money. (October 10, 2011)

Business executives – in oil, airlines, finance… – often claim that their industry is different from all others, and thus needs privileges. (October 10, 2011)

“Consent order” is an oxymoron. (October 10, 2011)

First-hand smoke is much better than the secondhand variety. (October 8, 2011)

Halloween is coming. I wonder if somebody can end up with so many transplanted and implanted body parts that it is them that reject what’s left of “him”. (My girlfriend suggests that some horror movies might have thought of this idea before me.) (October 8, 2011)

To decrease regulation, we would need a law decreeing that no bureaucrat can be fired or demoted if he leaks some regulatory absurdity. (October 8, 2011)

Logic of the state: by actively imposing a local creole, the Québec state has created a captive clientele for itself. (October 8, 2011)

A good illustration of the disaster of state intervention? Education in Québec since the state took it over in the 1960s. (October 8, 2011)

Only after you have learned it can you realize what you did not know. (October 7, 2011)

Stockholm syndrome in the sovereign debt crisis: investors trust the state, and feed the hand that bites them. (October 7, 2011)

A plumber needs to understand very little about the physics of fluids. A business manager needs to understand very little about economics. (October 5, 2011)

I’m a contrarian. No, I am not. (October 5, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: “Political appetite” refers to an uncontrolled desire to eat politicians. (October 5, 2011)

“People before profits”? What about people who want profits, or who want to purchase from, or work for, the latter? (October 5, 2011)

“Unintended consequences” is often a code word for the costs one wants to burden others with. (October 5, 2011)

Health is a state of imperfect diagnosis. (Did somebody said this before me?) (October 5, 2011)

The difference between those who claim to be your bodyguards and the political rulers’ bodyguards is that yours watch and search YOU. (October 5, 2011)

Investors are just ordinary men who trust the state much more than it deserves. (October 5, 2011)

Je croirai que le français a de l’avenir au Québec quand ils diront « centime » au lieu de « cent » – et ne se feront pas traiter de tapettes pour autant. (October 5, 2011)

Twun™ of the week – The Holy See: what you see is what you get? http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm (October 3, 2011)

If it had been possible, YouTube should have been invented before the wheel. (October 2, 2011)

Since socialists hate money, why do they want it redistributed to themselves and their friends? (B. de Jouvenel made that point before.) (October 2, 2011)

The term “stakeholder” should be banned everywhere, except at BBQs. (October 1, 2011)

Life is a pre-traumatic stress disorder. (September 30, 2011)

Je croyais que la TVA était sociale par définition, sinon carrément de droit divin. – La TVA sociale, une idée de droite ou de gauche? http://t.co/h9SqCSjN (September 30, 2011)

“Bull with me” is more optimistic than “bear with me”. (September 30, 2011)

Never, never ask a stakeholder to hold your steak for a minute. You won’t see it again. (September 30, 2011)

If the government bows to stakeholders, the one with the largest steak will win. And the largest steak is often the one to be stolen. (September 30, 2011)

I have always secretly liked ketchup with working-class food. (September 30, 2011)

Sensitive souls who were scandalized by the “social injustice” of underdevelopment now clamor against competition from India and China. (September 29, 2011)

Knowledge is attained through analysis, contemplation, and errors. -Illustration: Better Ideas Through Failure http://on.wsj.com/rrAsu6 via @WSJ (September 28, 2011)

11th Commandment: Thou shall not leave a button unpushed or unclicked. (September 27, 2011)

Capitalism doesn’t work. So let’s have Joe, there, rule over us. (September 27, 2011)

Sustainable sustainability is what counts. (Pardon the Newspeak.) (September 26, 2011)

Infinity can do anything and everything. The problem is to get there. — BBC News – Virtual monkeys write Shakespeare http://bbc.in/phdpx5 (September 26, 2011)

Twun™ (tweeted pun) of the week – The new sexual fetish: earpiece and love. (September 26, 2011)

Thin air, that is, zeros and ones, is the stuff the world is made of. (September 26, 2011)

“What are your deliverables?” the marketing consultant asked the obstetrician. (September 25, 2011)

I fear that Palestinians will get the state they want, hard and fast. (September 23, 2011)

“Demand is sluggish” or other such Keynesian pronouncements actually mean that individuals are incapable or scared of exchanging. (September 23, 2011)

Why may politicians and bureaucrats try to manipulate market prices while ordinary individuals may not? (September 23, 2011)

Don’t put all your megs in the same social basket. (September 22, 2011)

Politicos should respond to the second dip by saying that they intend to reduce their intervention and to put the public finances in order. (September 21, 2011)

Unfolding events are a matter of topology. (September 21, 2011)

It is impossible to step twice into the same river (Democritus). Sorry for the repetition. (September 21, 2011)

The state has its own “animal spirits”, much more dangerous than the ordinary variety. (See my “Somebody in Charge” on this.) (September 21, 2011)

France has remained, in some ways, a free society. You get into the country without any question, and check in a hotel without any ID paper. (September 12, 2011)

I spoke ill of the RATP bureaucrats: there is a smartphone app that calculates itineraries in the Paris métro and RER. Essential. (September 12, 2011)

It always amazes me how non-geeks can survive in our technological world. But then, perhaps they just choose the simple solutions. (September 10, 2011)

If I were not forbidden to carry my pistol on my flight to Paris tonight, I know at least one flight that could not be hijacked. (September 10, 2011)

I am NOT willing to give Al-Quaeda what remains of my liberty in the hope that they will not attack my flight of tonight to Paris. (September 10, 2011)

Instead of the Greek state providing collaterals, altruistic politicians and bureaucrats, who are used to sacrifice themselves for the public good, should offer to serve as hostages. (September 9, 2011)

Amazon is the greatest invention after the wheel and UPS. For $5, I got two chargers for my French cellphone, delivered just in time by UPS. (September 9, 2011)

Castigat ridendo mores. (September 9, 2011)

The immediate economic problem now, is that banks and investors are mainly lending to the state – instead of to honest people. (September 9, 2011)

I’ll be over the North Atlantic to commemorate the first hours of 9/11. The worst will be to pass the Police State controls at airport. (September 9, 2011)

European state defaults threaten banks, who were foolish enough to follow naked emperors. Debt Fears Mount in Euro Zone http://on.wsj.com/phM7I9 (September 9, 2011)

When you get French Catholic spams, you know that the Internet has really caught on. (September 9, 2011)

Create jobs (lots of walking jobs): ban UPS and Fedex! (September 9, 2011)

9/11: the state ordered to shoot down civilian aircrafts if necessary, while it had itself denied passengers the tools to defend themselves. (September 9, 2011)

“Out for delivery” are the sweetest three words on the web. (September 9, 2011)

“Social justice” is a code word and smokescreen for state injustice. (September 9, 2011)

A totally clean pistol is as rare as perfect happiness. (September 8, 2011)

Will somebody invent a web-based system whereby the wife/girlfriend will look into the fridge wherever she is, & advise her man what to eat? (September 8, 2011)

It’s not easy to be perfect in an imperfect world. (September 7, 2011)

Found on Google: “Locate Westbrook Taxi in Westbrook”. (September 7, 2011)

There are whole classes of people paid to say anything with no regard for the truth or even just logical consistency. (September 6, 2011)

French twun™ of the week: Halogène? Y’a pas de plaisir. (September 6, 2011)

Reflection on my recollections of Françoise Sagan’s “Bonjour Tristesse”: Melancholy is fun when it has no reason to be. (September 6, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: Assault (battery not included). (September 6, 2011)

The public debt and the senseless political “we”: If we owe it to ourselves, let us forget it. (September 6, 2011)

If hell exists, it must be for those who start Nigerian messages with “Dear beloved one in Christ”. Crime: impersonating a heaven officer. (September 6, 2011)

Pre-crime policing would require the immediate arrest of all rulers because they may, in the future, commit the crime of tyranny. (September 6, 2011)

9/11 could have been the occasion to reaffirm and reclaim our liberties; instead, it was an opportunity for a big step forward by Leviathan. (September 5, 2011)

Who was this Jackson whose hole is remembered every August? (September 4, 2011)

The fun with data is that it’s easy to be surprised. (September 3, 2011)

The bottom line is that those who have lent to governments shouldn’t have. (September 11, 2011)

One way to create lots of jobs would be to forbid computers, which shows that efficient production, not jobs, is the goal. (September 2, 2011)

Finding work is not difficult; finding income is more challenging as you must do something useful to others. (September 2, 2011)

Dullest joke ever: Two rhinoceroses meet on the road. “Let’s play chicken!” says one. (September 1, 2011)

The president of the United States should be unknown, as is the president of the Swiss Confederation. (September 1, 2011))

Ten days after the death of Canadian socialist politician Jack Layton, the nature of his cancer is still secret. Was it collective cancer? (August 30, 2011)

Aucun enfant ne devrait quitter l’école sans savoir réciter des alexandrins. (August 30, 2011)

A purely logical, a priori economic theory may apply in some worlds but not necessarily in ours. (August 30, 2011)

Second twun™ of the week: in an environment-friendly world ruled by Gaia, fruits would be judged by their pears. (August 30, 2011)

Twun of the week: fruit inspectors must do pear reviews. (August 30, 2011)

Followers of Ludwig von Mises often look like the People of the Book. (August 30, 2011)

Just considering the numbers, dying is rather banal. (August 30, 2011)

Ordered anarchy, even if not actually realizable, remains the standard. (August 29, 2011)

Nostalgie concernant le bon roi Dagobert : il y eut jadis des rois et des saints ; aujourd’hui, il n’y a que des politiciens et des nichons. (August 25, 2011)

Godot came, but I was out. (August 25, 2011)

Le bon roi Dagobert a mis sa culotte à l’envers. Le bon roi Jack Layton donne des culottes à la tonne. (August 24, 2011)

Gold is still $600 below than its inflation-adjusted level of early 1980. Neither a good nor bad omen, but beware of fetishes. (August 24, 2011)

Do you only realize how politicians love you? (August 24, 2011)

Only horses work smoothly. An intellectual geek’s job is messy. (August 24, 2011)

I hope there won’t be a tsunami in the Saco River. (It would then become a sacophagus.) (August 23, 2011)

To my Canadian friends: A nice thug, even if more smiling and slightly less thuggish than some of his colleagues, is still a thug. (August 23, 2011)

Contemporary, but pre-fax, interpretation of Augustine: Ama et fax quod vis. (August 22, 2011)

It is difficult to talk seriously about taxes without having read Brennan and Buchanan’s The Power To Tax (Cambridge U. Press, 1980). (August 22, 2011)

When a politician dies, the establishment and the plebs make a big show. Not surprising as politicians are in the show business. (August 22, 2011)

Publictreasaurus is a newly discovered dinosaur who was a close cousin of tyrannosaurus. (August 21, 2011)

Is committing senseless crimes the only way of young men to have some adventure in lives? Berlin Faces Car Burning Surge http://on.wsj.com/qClfql (August 21, 2011)

« C’est une expérience éternelle que tout homme qui a du pouvoir est porté à en abuser ; il va jusqu’à ce qu’il trouve des limites. » (Montesquieu) (August 20, 2011)

Horny soit qui mal y pense. (August 19, 2011)

The answer is no, but remind me what the question was. (And remind me if somebody wrote this before me.) (August 18, 2011)

Joke of the week: I am quite well-known but nobody knows it. (August 18, 2011)

Read the author you criticize. Otherwise, you may be criticizing the wrong thing. (August 16, 2011)

As Auberon Herbert would have said, British looters are “a purer essence of government, more concentrated and intensified”. (August 8, 2011)

London riots: Mounting discontent is unavoidable in a politicized society. The looters have taken “social justice” in their own hands. (August 8, 2011)

Twun of the week: I’d rather miss a call than kiss a mall. (August 8, 2011)

Contra Obama, the American political system is at least able to convey the deep dissatisfaction of a large part of the population. (August 8, 2011)

When the King is ill, the whole kingdom falls in disarray. (August 8, 2011)

Customs posts and cops summarize the nature of the state. If you love being in a customs post, you love the state. Otherwise, think again. (August 8, 2011)

Governments that rate banks, cars, taxpayers, food, tobacco, drugs, and lifestyles in general, are being rated. Good! (August 8, 2011)

Investors rush into Treasurys in order to protect themselves against government-inflicted havoc. O Brave New World! http://t.co/9qUe7Gr (August 8, 2011)

Our glorified social and collective states, who decide on how we live our lives, who crush our liberties with their coercion, are broke. (August 8, 2011)

Dow is down 2.9%. We have become so dependent on the state that it’s problems become ours. The state is too big for individuals to succeed. (August 8, 2011)

States downgrade their subjects all the time, so it is just fair that they be downgraded by some of them at least occasionally. (August 8, 2011)

For a man, there is only one thing in life worse than having to clean his guns: it’s to have no guns at all. (August 7, 2011)

The sovereign debt crisis is, even more (if it were possible) than the recent economic crisis, a crisis of statism. (August 7, 2011)

America, said John Quincy Adams, “goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy”. What are the Seals still doing in Afghanistan? (August 6, 2011)

If you are not surprised by what you learn, you are not learning anything. (August 6, 2011)

China: domain name registration banned for “Contents that are designed to harm the glory and interests of the State”. http://www.ygnetworks.org/chinesedomain.htm (August 6, 2011)

The terrible mirage of the 20th century: they imagined liberty brewing, but it was Leviathan flexing his muscles. (August 6, 2011)

« Politique » : drôle de terme français, datant du 17e siècle, pour révérer le politicien. Qui sont les « économiques » ? (August 6, 2011)

“Image sociale”, “SAMU social”… Il ne manque plus que l’automobile sociale et la société sociale. http://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/industrie/automobile/20110805trib000641120/psa-cree-une-fondation-pour-ameliorer-son-image-sociale.html L’image sociale de PSA (August 5, 2011)

Civil suits are a way for the state to avoid the burden of the proof that was set up to prevent tyranny. http://t.co/rWXbCYb (August 5, 2011)

The (annoying) captchas used by FB are brilliant and must be part of any Turing test. (August 5, 2011)

Read in the Acknowledgements section of a late 60s book: “The labors of typing my many drafts were cheerfully carried out by…” (August 5, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: an isocrat is someone who has the power to burn .iso files. (Agust 5, 2011)

Sur le Styx, Charon réclamait le droit de porter des âmes. (August 5, 2011)

Those who would give up liberty to purchase a little thin waist for somebody else’s children deserve neither liberty nor a thin waist. (August 5, 2011)

States are much more powerful to do harm than to do good. (August 4, 2011)

The sovereign debt crisis is much more serious than many people think. It will have defining consequences for the 21st century. (August 4, 2011)

Three words : world is binary. (August 4, 2011)

Si le capitaine Haddock revenait parmi nous, il s’exclamerait : « Que le Grand Clic me croque… » (August 3, 2011)

The difference between somebody who understands something about the world and somebody who doesn’t is that the former has explicit theories. (August 3, 2011)

Somebody on Facebook is offering 200,000 free iPhones. I asked if they would please include a fridge and two chickens. (August 2, 2011)

Cherries, chocolate and tobacco are proof that God loves us. But tobacco and chocolate may also show a story of love and hate. (August 2, 2011)

Animal rights: Vincere scis, animal, victoria uti nescis. (August 2, 2011)

Libertarianism is partly about believing in institutions that distinguish mobs and groups of individuals. (August 1, 2011)

Needed: libertarian skeptics. (August 1, 2011)

Murphy’s law: what a stupid piece of conventional wisdom! Some things are more likely to go wrong, others less. (August 1, 2011)

During decades, fashionable economists scratched their heads on how to fight under-development, ignoring a simple solution: liberalization! (August 1, 2011)

If any other political system were as sensitive to popular discontent as the American one, it would also be near-paralyzed over debt. (August 1, 2011)

Good news and bad news: our sacred cows are different from India’s. (August 1, 2011)

Continuously “unintended consequences” cannot remain unintended for long. (August 1, 2011)

What’s the optimal rate of following one’s followers if the goal is to increase followers? Optimal is low if goal is to read everything… (August 1, 2011)

If people could carry guns on airplanes, we know one thing: 9/11 would not have happened, and our liberties would not have been crushed. (August 1, 2011)

Of our mixed economy, some say that everything good is from capitalist half, everything bad from other half. Other side claims the contrary. (August 1, 2011

Remember that CBO projects the cumulative deficit (that is, the increase in the debt) over the next 10 years to be more than $6.5 trillion. (July 31, 2011)

The problem with the DC gerontocracy is not the “geronto” but the “cracy”. (July 31, 2011)

Two chambers in Congress, three readings of bills in British-type parliaments, complex procedures: (imperfect) ways to constrain Leviathan. (July 31, 2011)

Deciding whom to pay? With every law and regulation, government decides who will be privileged and who will be harmed. (July 31, 2011)

My prediction again: there will be a solution to lift the debt ceiling. After all, the politicians and their bureaucrats want to get paid. (July 31, 2011)

Why don’t the statists organize a flash mob to voluntary send checks to the US Treasury? (July 31, 2011)

People on the right often speak collectivist, just like people on the left. Naivety is not a good excuse. (July 30, 2011)

Private-sector trade unions are much less dangerous than the state. In fact, their danger comes only from their state-granted privileges. (July 30, 2011)

Anything is priceless if you don’t pay the price yourself. – On the Marines’ Wish List: A Pricey Jet Fighter http://on.wsj.com/o6EUVX (July 30, 2011)

To the dog, I give only government water – no Perrier. (July 29, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: A polar bear with mixed sexual preferences is called bipolar. (July 29, 2011)

Organizing icons on a smart phone screen is the new Rubik’s cube. (July 29, 2011)

The debt will hit the fan. (July 29, 2011)

The sky is the ceiling. (July 29, 2011)

Nihil novi sub sole: the king is begging parliament for money. (July 29, 2011)

When my doctor said that to nails grow slower than fingernails, I realized that doctors, like economists, know a lot of small useful things. (July 29, 2011)

As the taxpayers should know but NASA ignored, there is no such thing as a free launch. (July 29, 2011)

What you get is what you pay for, and information must also be paid for in order to know exactly what is obtained and what is paid. (July 29, 2011)

There are so many people who don’t know what they are talking about! It also happens to the best, but not on a continuing basis. (July 28, 2011)

There are simply too many laws, too many intrusive laws, and too many entrepreneurial and conceited “lawmakers”. (July 28, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: That haddocks have soles does not mean that they have souls. (July 26, 2011)

Une organisation ne peut avoir de porte-parole que s’il y a une parole à porter. (July 26, 2011)

Truism of the week (Montesquieu said it first): liberty is not the power to manage other people’s lives. (July 26, 2011)

“What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it his heaven.” – Friedrich Hölderlin

Like tribalism, nationalism is a scourge. (July 24, 2011)

If you are a collectivist, whether socialist or fascist, the children of your enemies are your enemies. (July 23, 2011)

Twun (tweeted pun) of the week: Monotheists don’t eat pancakes. (July 23, 2011)

Many journalists have no idea of the difference between semi-automatic firearms, automatic firearms, and rocking chairs. (July 23, 2011)

Senseless authority generates senseless violence. (July 23, 2011)

Why were there few mass killings fifty years ago? The more politicized and soft-authoritarian the world is, the more violent it becomes. (July 23, 2011)

Twun of the week: Somebody who brings others to the stake is called a stakeholder. (July 20, 2011)

Caesar was certainly born in August – and his mother did not have much imagination. (July 20, 2011)

The World Health Organization is the spearhead of the global state epidemic. (July 18, 2011)

All prices are relative prices: the price of something is what it costs in terms of something else (money or another numéraire good). (July 18, 2011)

« Quand Dieu ferme une porte, il ouvre une fenêtre. » Si la maison est climatisée, ça n’améliore pas le bilan carbone. (July 18, 2011)

The world is binary, so nipples must come in pairs. — History made as nipple is found on foot – The Sun – http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3701059/History-made-as-nipple-is-found-on-foot.html (July 18, 2011)

Gold is money if, and only if, and to the extent that, people want, given the constraints they face, to use it as a medium of exchange. (July 18, 2011)

Describing GDP as wealth, a common media error, confuses the return of an asset with the value of the asset itself. (July 16, 2011)

Gold is money if, and only if, most people think it is. (July 15, 2011)

I find the term “offensive” to be very offensive. Please be sensitive and do not use it in my presence. (July 15, 2011)

We are close to the day when somebody faking to be an idiot will be attacked as insensitive and offensive by real idiots. http://j.mp/qIbL1R (July 15, 2011)

We live in a Velcro world, yet liberty doesn’t stick. (July 15, 2011)

Even with other people’s money, altruism has its limits. The idea of default seems to be taking hold in Europe. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fdd18148-ad72-11e0-bc4f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1SNHEFoX5 (July 14, 2011)

The worst tax loophole is the permission given taxpayers to keep some money in their pockets. (July 14, 2011)

Money is a matter of degree. (July 13, 2011)

My prediction: this time, the debt ceiling will be increased before the federal government starts defaulting or running out of money. (July 13, 2011)

We need to do what the statists have done for decades: express our long-term radical goals, and accept half-measures until more is possible. (July 13, 2011)

Find what I think is a grammatical mistake in this sentence: “As the fiscal expert, Bruce Bartlett, has argued, the law requiring Congressional approval of extra debt might even be unconstitutional.” (July 13, 2011)

Twun of the week: Volkswagen alteram partem. (July 13, 2011)

In university, you have a few minutes to understand that bond yields vary inversely with bond prices, and you remember this forever. (July 12, 2011)

Reflection from the Maine woods: in the forest, BS means “bear shit”. (July 12, 2011)

Dans les forêts du Maine et du New Hampshire, on trouve beaucoup de hêtre mais pas de néant. (July 12, 2011)

Romulus and Remus founded Rome. Stimulus established Washington, DC. (July 10, 2011)

Stakeholders are simply state courtiers who want somebody else’s steak. (July 8, 2011)

Discrimination in favor of “stakeholders” is the new apartheid. (July 8, 2011)

Stakeholders (ie, state courtiers): put your steak back in your steak holster. -White House Readies Gun Control Stance – http://t.co/RFA4GdS (July 8, 2011)

Outrageous. Most American are as irrational in matters of sex (and booze) as most Europeans are in matters of guns. http://t.co/L4ErSh5 (July 7, 2011)

If you are always a spokesman for somebody else, don’t pretend you have an opinion. (This could be called the weak version of Emerson.) (July 6, 2011)

I prefer tall smoke to small talk. Okay, I know, it doesn’t work perfectly, but it does with the right accent. (July 6, 2011)

On my birthday, I discovered that Dominican Republic Cohiba cigars are as good as the Cuban “originals”, at a fraction of the price. (July 5, 2011)

A troubling trend towards one- or two-sentence paragraphs, as if paragraph and sentence were the same and rhetoric always trumped logic. (July 5, 2011)

Ten 10-wheeler truckloads of fine sand contain 14 trillion grains, the amount in $ of the federal debt. Counting would take 440,000 years. (July 5, 2011)

Trains have a good track record. (July 5, 2011)

Small things are to the creator what small talk is to the created. (July 5, 2011)

Does it matter for our approach to life and knowledge that a written mention does not anymore mean what is but what will be if we click it? (July 5, 2011)

The main problem in the US is that it is a monarchy too — albeit with many small czars. (July 4, 2011)

Creative destruction: International Talking Machine disappeared. International Business Machines is celebrating its 100th anniversary.International Talking Machine disappeared. International Business Machines is celebrating its 100th anniversary. http://j.mp/mNvXci (July 1, 2011)

Against a bartough, a bartender stands no chance. (July 1, 2011)

Hypothesis: one cannot understand language (& perhaps anything else) if one doesn’t like Rimbaud’s Sonnet des voyelles. (June 30, 2011)

Contrarians prefer antimatter. (June 30, 2011)

What’s difficult for a non-discriminating altruist is to consistently buy at the highest possible price. Selling at the lowest one is easy. (June 30, 2011)

In many (good) ways, a default on U.S. gov’t debt would amount to a balanced-budget amendment. (June 29, 2011)

I am too intellectual for the rednecks, and too redneck for the intellectuals. I like neither milk nor the establishment. Que faire? (June 29, 2011)

Good twitterers and facebookers (like me, to take an example at random) are private producers of public goods. (June 29, 2011)

Je ne déteste pas les litotes. (June 29, 2011)

Canada’s “Competition Bureau” does not pretend to be an “agency”, a glorified bureaucratese term, but simply an assemblage of bureaucrats. (June 29, 2011)

Only one carrion luggage per passenger. (June 29, 2011)

Carry and you won’t be a carrion. (June 28, 2011)

Depending on what you have done, it is often better to be a never-was than a has-been. In my case (to take a case at random), I never was a has-been. (June 28, 2011)

Fallopian tubes: don’t tie the knot before getting married. (June 28, 2011)

Second dip of my weekly twun (tweeted pun): Buying a house brings closure. (June 27, 2011)

Twun of the week (mocking sacred things): How do you call a surgeon who specializes in vasectomies? A duct hunter. (June 27, 2011)

Advice for teachers: it’s still better to bark madly than to mark badly. (June 27, 2011)

It must be difficult today to be a defense attorney and to maintain respect for the justice system’s claim to protect the innocent. (June 27, 2011)

I thought that concealed carry with a cross-draw holster was easier if you have a beer belly, but my girlfriend says she sees no difference. (June 27, 2011)

The real purpose of things: Patdown = à bas les pattes! (June 27, 2011)

I am getting somewhere. (Some wear and tear, at least.) (June 27, 2011)

The TSA is right to be suspicious of old people and to vigorously touch their junk. After all, they have known liberty. (June 27, 2011)

Socialist motto (like for health care in Canada): I am heading for the queue. (June 27, 2011)

“A spokeswoman … said the inspectors were just doing their jobs.” Interesting argument. They tried it at Nuremberg. – http://t.co/hw4ZE94 (June 27, 2011)

Intergenerational reflection: there are two generations, the Twitter-FB generation, and the other one. (June 25, 2011)

Once you believe that there exists something like “the national interest” (a mathematical impossibility), protectionism becomes justifiable. (June 25, 2011)

Condorcet, Dodgson and Arrow demonstrated that individual preferences cannot be aggregated into social preferences. Many still ignore it. (June 25, 2011)

I wrote to Amazon and their computer utterly failed the Turing test. (June 24, 2011)

“Horny soit qui mail y pense.” (June 23, 2011)

Twun of the week: For dictators, size matters. (June 23, 2011)

Anger is productive, but one should not spend too much time hating. (June 23, 2011)

Inciting hatred against people deserving it is not bad. Individuals who threaten our liberties deserve some proportionate hatred. (June 23, 2011)

Public zoning is to private development and restrictive covenants what apartheid is to discrimination. Synagoge’s plight http://t.co/VTQj0kL (June 22, 2011)

Did the Romans speak Latin with a French or an English accent? (June 22, 201)

Was Mohammed a North Koran or a South Koran? (June 21, 2011)

Useless Twun™ of the day: After all, it’s called the “Bible”, not the “Homoble” nor the “Heteroble”. (June 21, 2011)

Il ne faut pas se tromper dans ses prières : une info ? ou une nympho ? (June 21, 2011)

I care less about my carbon footprint than about my car fun bootprint. (June 21, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: Whether you are eating leftovers or rightovers, you will be underfed. (June 20, 2011)

If not rapidly corrected, “unintended consequences” are in fact intended, or at least considered as necessary costs (collateral damage). (June 20, 2011)

There will soon be so many menus, add-ons, and buttons that a lifetime won’t be enough, to see, let alone click on, everything clickable. (June 20, 2011)

À défaut d’un camembert lourd, voici un calembour mère. (June 19, 2011)

Mieux vaut être cancre reposé que cancrelat. (June 19, 2011)

“Food sovereignty” if for cannibals. — The NDP Convention: Got a resolution http://t.co/8r0qdUm (June 19, 2011)

“Intergenerational equity” means fighting for the liberty of future generations, in return of which they transfer some income to us, right? (June 19, 2011)

Je me demande pourquoi Québec Solidaire n’est pas solidaire avec moi. Discrimination. http://www.quebecsolidaire.net/ (June 18, 2011)

Hippies were terribly naive. Today’s youth are as naive, but more authoritarian. – Growing up with a father on the run http://t.co/n6VwjFt (June 18, 2011)

“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse” — James Madison (June 17, 2011)

Si “le Québec est ce que l’humanité a de mieux à offrir” (Jean Charest), les pistolets à silex sont ce que la physique moderne a conçu de mieux. (June 17, 2011)

Do not measure money supply with M1 or M2 when it suits your conclusions, and by the rate of interest when it suits them better. (June 16, 2011)

It is often those most subsidized by the taxpayers who plead for social justice and weep on those they are exploiting. (June 14, 2011)

Greek roots: a pancake is a cake for everybody. (June 13, 2011)

Double-dip twun™ of the week: I never had a cat but I could CAD a hat. (June 13, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: If I had a cat, I would call it Mandu. (June 13, 2011)

I wish I could see my own typos as well as those of others. Fortunately, the same cannot be said for my errors in general! (June 13, 2011)

If 8 decades of New Deal types of program have shackled the economy and destroyed individual liberty, how could a bit more bring salvation? (June 11, 2011)

Software menus used to propose the option “Jesus save”. A conspiracy led them to replace it with the mundane SAVE. (June 11, 2011)

Power corrupts… Give arbitrary power to anybody, and “bad judgment” cases will appear. TSA Admits ‘Bad Judgment’ – http://t.co/XiAUHJO (June 11, 2011)

A criticism is credible only when the critics can demonstrate that he understands what he criticizes. (June 9, 2011)

I suspect that if politicos were found guilty to all offenses to their laws, there wouldn’t be many of them around. http://t.co/DDjabtW (June 8, 2011)

When I think that my 80-year-old friend, Ralph Maddocks, discovered tinyurl before me I did (some years ago), I doubt my geek credentials. (June 8, 2011)

“Niche markets” indeed. In French, “boobs” are “nichons”! Passport to Beauty – Video Library – NYT – http://nyti.ms/er5apD (June 8, 2011)

I cannot imagine how a meeting can be held without me. Who will draw the camel? (June 7, 2011)

If one’s opportunity cost of time is low, or one’s tasks are very elementary, it may be a good idea to use Word without outlines and styles. (June 7, 2011)

“The message could not be delivered because the recipient’s mailbox is full.” Lost in the world, or amateurs of voluntary simplicity? (June 6, 2011)

Le problème n’est pas tellement que l’État est un panier de crabes, mais que c’est un panier de crabes armés. (June 6, 2011)

“Overrated” is overrated. (June 6, 2011)

Smoking is a very subversive act — subversive of the reigning soft tyranny. Every smoker thus creates a positive externality. (June 6, 2011)

Nothing to hide? Think twice. You may have something you don’t know about that you should hide. — http://t.co/8pyvMQy (June 2, 2011)

Environmentalists should emigrate to a Commonwhale. (June 1, 2011)

In the New England Journal of Medicine, I continuously discover the infinity of diseases, and how health is an incomplete diagnosis. (June 1, 2011)

Question is, did the raccoon wait in line before getting treatment? — Man arrested for attacking raccoons with a shovel http://t.co/FhTtFQz (June 1, 2011)

“Nanny-state overreach” is a double oxymoron. (June 1, 2011)

Twun™ for geeks only: Instead of updating one’s bio, it would often be better if one could update one’s BIOS. (June 1, 2011)

I used to have one or two efficient friends, and I wasn’t one of them. (May 31, 2011)

NYC aiming to be a con Dom. — Jose Andujar, vendor of Obama condoms, arrested for third time – NYPOST.com http://t.co/eQh4GuT (May 31, 2011)

No doubt about the defense of liberty: “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” (Mat. 9:37) (May 31, 2011)

The only public buildings in the UK where smoking is not banned are prisons. Oh, Brave New World! (May 31, 2011)

Il n’en est pas a-serbe pour autant. — Mladic transféré au Tribunal pénal de La Haye. http://j.mp/kaU07B

Imagine how surprising would be the existence of an academic journal called “Leviathan Control”. Yet, “Tobacco Control” surprises nobody. (May 31, 2011)

As I just wrote a redneck friend, “our friends can check the dictionary for ‘Kafkaesque’ if they don’t know the word; our enemies already know it”. (May 30, 2011)

Children born during the summer must be somebody’s offsummer. (May 30, 2011)

A book is a manuscript who wanted to be laid. (May 29, 2011)

If the Bible were supposed to be read more than twice, it would be called the Multible. (May 29, 2011)

Twun™ (tweeted pun) of the week: A semi-colon is a colon that has been operated on. (May 28, 2011)

Civil servants have become civil masters. (May 28, 2011)

If creating jobs is the goal, a ban on chainsaws is long overdue. (May 27, 2011)

With multiplication of laws, accused is typically charged with several offenses, and some are bound to stick with compromise-prone jurors. (May 26, 2011)

Twun™ (tweeted pun) of the week: A Winchester in every house is a win-win solution. (May 26, 2011)

“It’s not Soviet Russia here.” Indeed, they could not master such technologies. http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/1112.html (May 26, 2011)

France is a restaurant. America is a TV dinner. (May 26, 2011)

France is a museum. America is an experiment. (May 26, 2011)

First Commandment: Thou shall not lose thy bit locker key. (May 26, 2011)

If “we” were really the state, how could “they” own trademarks? – Walt Disney Surrenders to Navy’s SEAL Team 6 http://on.wsj.com/ig3np1 (May 26, 2011)

In actual practice, states are clubs of producers, not associations of consumers. In an economic perspective, consumers are what matters. (May 25, 2011)

In actual practice, states are clubs of producers, not associations of consumers. In an economic perspective, consumers are what matters. (May 25, 2011)

Large companies, including large banks, are very useful, provided they do not sleep with the state. (May 23, 2011)

Twun™ of late Sunday night: “How do you want your jets?” “Scrambled.” (May 22, 2011)

Last IMF annual report contains 104 “surveillance”. Its former Managing Director now knows what it means: he wears a surveillance bracelet. (May 21, 2011)

Don’t read anything in the fact that I make my harder jokes half an hour after the predicted event. (May 21, 2011)

Scoop: DSK was in fact attempting to rapture the maid. (May 21, 2011)

The Trojan war was caused by the rapture of Helen. (May 21, 2011)

Warning: Rapture not as fun as you thought. Before you are raptured, you have to go through a TSA junk and soul search. (May 21, 2011)

We can only hope that regulating bureaucrats, instead of being captured (by the regulated) as George Stigler thought, will be raptured. (May 21, 2011)

The rapture (at least on Eastern Daylight Time) will occur in 20 minutes. Make sure you stand outside lest your head hits the ceiling. (May 21, 2011)

If Strauss-Kahn had spent his life making hay bales, he would have been less harmful. – Ex-IMF Chief Makes Bail http://t.co/kvbTjhP (May 20, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: Minute Maid is not a Minuteman’s maid. (May 20, 2011)

Domestic outsourcing: actors will become only part-time actors. – Dropping Bodies Into Computer-Generated Films http://on.wsj.com/lBXr3M (May 19, 2011)

With his diplomatic passport, #DSK must have avoided TSA searches. Stay at Rikers Island has made up for that. TSA = the innocents’ Rikers. (May 19, 2011)

#DSK has spent his whole life exploiting the people. Now, he bugs us again by monopolizing our voyeurs’ attention. (May 19, 2011)

#DSK If guilty, his little tour at Rikers Island was an advance. If he is innocent, he has seen what is the state that he idealizes so much. (May 19, 2011)

Either DSK is found guilty, and it will cool down politicos. Or he is found innocent, and it will show the danger of prosecutorial power. (May 19, 2010)

Milk is just another body fluid. (May 18, 2011)

Libertarianism brings together the best of conservatism and the best of liberalism, and scraps the worst of both. (May 17, 2011)

French Kahn-Kahn will never be the same again. (May 17, 2011)

Cheap joke: Was DSK the head of the IMF, or the tail? (May 17, 2011)

Among Dominique Stauss-Kahn and Julian Assange, the latter, at least, did something not totally useless or harmful. (May 17, 2011)

Weekly twun™: Childless women get mammograms; mothers (especially Italian ones) get mammagrams. In America, they are all called mammoounces. (May 17, 2011)

If Dominique Strauss-Kahn is guilty, his penalty should include some lessons in civilization and commerce from Eliot Spitzer. (May 16, 2011)

Why is DSK’s daughter attending a private university in the US, not a public university in France, Canada, or Venezuela? http://t.co/MihAySr (May 16, 2011)

Even old and despicable politicians and bureaucrats are entitled to to the presumption of innocence. (May 16, 2011)

Fascinating times. Perhaps we’ll soon learn that the pope has been arrested for jumping a nun in the Sistine Chapel. (May 16, 2011)

I found a Frenchman who thinks there is no presumption of innocence in the USA. Many Americans think the same for France! Tyranny is elsewhere. (May 16, 2011)

Strauss-Kahn affair: Bailout chief caught trying to bailin (May 16, 2011)

Scoop: IMF and its member states promise not to screw anybody anymore. (May 16, 2011)

After the Strauss-Kahn case, only eunuchs should be admissible as politicians and high-level bureaucrats. Many birds killed with one stone. (May 15, 2011)

We now know which is the best NYC hotel where to send politicians and bureaucrats. (May 15, 2011)

It is a very strange case. Even a dirty old man, especially a politician, does not risk everything for a maid. — http://on.wsj.com/lgrNCb (May 15, 2011)

Conard, le barbant. (May 14, 2011)

Revolutionary lesson no. 1: A minuteman is not somebody who comes too fast. (May 14, 2011)

Inflation is a general increase in prices. Distinguish from a change in relative prices (some up, some down). http://on.wsj.com/kLEMmp (May 14, 2011)

If immigrants steal jobs, then any newborn is a ticking job thief. The bomb explodes when he starts to work. What about prohibiting new births or, at the very least, killing the immigrants from within before they reach 16? (May 13, 2011)

A dog can’t survive on RSS feed. (May 13, 2011)

Speculation and gouging – buying cheap votes to sell expensive policies – should be forbidden to politicians. (May 13, 2011)

Leviathan cannot survive without external or internal border controls. (May 12, 2011)

“National security letters” are George III’s writs of assistance. (May 12, 2011)

Intellectual capital depreciates rapidly with time. Without new investments in learning, its net value drops. (May 11, 2011)

Only in the human species are the females nicer looking than the males (from my humble viewpoint). In fact, it’s the same with angels. (May 11, 2011)

On a deserted path going through Gorham, Maine, tonight, we met two guys riding 4X4s, one of them carrying an M-16 (civilian version?) on his shoulder. I thought this was rather cool: after all, a free man travels armed, and this is America. Trisha later told me that she was a bit worried when they stopped to talk to us, and the older one stood grinning behind his openly armed companion. I must say I was not suspicious at all. Stupid me? Perhaps. But the little dirty secret is that I was also packing heat (the 9mm semi-auto pistol barely shows a bulge under my jacket), so there was no reason to panic. Indeed, the two guys were very friendly, as everybody is in New England. (May 11, 2011)

Twun™ (tweeted pun) of the week: It’s better to pack heat than to hack Pete. (May 11, 2011)

The battle against “civil” servants will be one of the main trends of the coming years. (May 10, 2011)

Timeo Danaos et dona accipientes. – Violence Mars Greek General Strike http://on.wsj.com/lFEaxR (May 10, 2011)

I am more and more persuaded that Austrian economics, in its orthodox and absolutist version, is a dead end. (May 10, 2011)

Who will save us? The Elohim or the “Hello her”? Be PC. — Rael: ‘Overpopulation is the true cause of Fukushima!’ http://t.co/ktNljen (May 10, 2011)

Que diable signifie « électricité patrimoniale » dans les documents du gouvernement du Q ? Pourquoi pas « électricité matrimoniale » ou, encore mieux, « électricité sociale » ? (May 10, 2011)

Important truism: If you don’t teach anybody anything, nobody will learn from you. (May 10, 2011)

La théorie des choix publics en action: lire la section intitulée “Aide aux propriétaires d’une résidence endommagée par la pyrrhotite” dans le dernier Plan budgétaire du gouvernement du Q. (May 10, 2011)

The world would be a much better place if people read instruction manuals! (May 10, 2011)

First thing to understand: Leviathan is mainly a redistributive machine. (May 10, 2011)

« La Route verte est un itinéraire cyclable qui s’étend actuellement sur près de 4700 kilomètres et relie les régions du Québec. Cette route constitue une infrastructure majeure pour le tourisme durable et elle est reconnue, selon la société National Geographic, comme le meilleur itinéraire cyclable au monde. » (Gouvernement du Q., Plan budgétaire 2011-2012) Rigolo. Durant l’hiver, c’est-à-dire la plus grande partie de l’année, la Route verte devient la Route brune à l’usage des motoneiges. (May 10, 2011)

It is very striking to see how much the state loves us. Thank you, mom! (May 10, 2011)

Avec le Plan Nord, Hydro-Québec participera à des « plans sociaux » du gouvernement du Q, émulant la pétrolière nationale de Chavez ! (May 10, 2011)

Very weak and old argument. What if I don’t want my daughter to be a truck driver? – The “Daughter Test” of Prohibition http://j.mp/iynAjB (May 10, 2011)

A creed claiming to be based on logic and natural law, but which is rejected by some humans proficient with logic, is not worth its salt. (May 10, 2011)

In jail because of lack of respect for a free-living non-human companion. – Animal ethicists call for new terminology http://natpo.st/mDlJ2I

Electronics has given many things a near-zero cost. For example, one can have 100 alarm clocks in one’s smart phone. (May 9, 2011)

One out 10 Americans is called “Officer”, another one “Doctor”, and most of the rest “James”. (May 9, 2011)

Should anybody on the govt’s “terror watch list” be allowed to speak freely if he passes a background check? – http://on.wsj.com/lPSL3t (May 9, 2011)

Leviathan is hungry. (May 9, 2011)

After the Canadian federal gov’t, the gov’t of Québec is creating an IRS-like revenue agency. Always borrowing the worst from America. (May 9, 2011)

The gov’t creates tax incentives to make people do what it wants them to do. When people do it, they are blamed for “tax avoidance”. (May 9, 2011)

Europe will become more of a centralized Welfare State, or will crack. The latter is more feasible. Greek problems – http://on.wsj.com/lFaQ23 (May 8, 2011)

Coptics need copters. – Christians Blame Islamists for Deadly Egypt Clash http://on.wsj.com/l7VjNH (May 8, 2011)

The problem now is that more than one American cop will think he is an interior SEAL. (May 7, 2011)

“Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!” – Patrick Henry (May 6, 2011)

White trash don’t like blue cheese. (May 5, 2011)

Doctor to patient: “Do you prefer the real thing or a placebo?” Doctors prescribing placebos to unwitting patients http://natpo.st/l5ju2w (May 5, 2011)

Lesson for bin Laden: use Fedex. (May 5, 2011)

Dull joke for the night. Allah welcoming OBL in paradise: “My son, this will seal our reunion.” (May 4, 2011)

“Spokesman” means it’s a man; “spokesperson” means it’s a woman. (May 4, 2011)

Torture degrades the torturers at least as much as the tortured. – (May 4, 2011)

Scoop: OBL was unarmed because he had been turned down after asking a firearms license to Canadian & British cops. http://on.wsj.com/mvlpqE (May 4, 2011)

Bin Laden went postal, and did it on a grand scale. (May 4, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: Seals or baby seals? (May 3, 2011)

What came last, the chick or the egg? (May 3, 2011)

A Moslem must be buried 24 hours after his death. What if the corpse changes time zone? What if he travels at the speed of light? (May 3, 2011)

The rumor is that bin Laden did not personally engage in the firefight. As he was from a wealthy family, perhaps he did not like guns? (May 3, 2011)

OK, many libertarians are crazy. But still far from the despicable establishment that governs us. (May 3, 2011)

Jean Duceppe et Osama bin Laden étaient un peu dépassés par leur époque. (May 3, 2011)

If bin Laden had not been buried, he would have become a living dead. (May 3, 2011)

Too easy to make but too tempting not to: the difference between Obama and Osama is BS. (May 3, 2011)

The King of Canada (like the King of America) is only the humble servant of the 15% of the electorate that work as government bureaucrats. (May 3, 2011)

Les Canadiens français ont toujours trop facilement pris la couleur de leur environnement, un peu comme l’espion de César dans Astérix. Thoreau l’avait remarqué lors de son voyage au Canada. Un petit mouvement de foule, et tout le monde suit. Ajoutez à cela des réfugiés pas encore déçus de toutes les tyrannies du monde, et l’occasion est trop belle de passer de Charybde en Scylla. (May 2, 2011)

Quite happy to have fled Québec. (And to have purchased an Android. So if you want to see where the future is, follow me!) (May 2, 2011)

All Canadian political parties love Leviathan. Some more than others. (May 2, 2011)

Individuals vote to make moral statements or to have fun (like at hockey game). Little scope for moral stance in the Canadian election. (May 2, 2011)

Canadian election: Will the winner be the Bush-light imitator, or the two Obama imitators with a vengeance? (May 2, 2011)

Don’t weep on bin Laden. Weep on the liberties he and his accomplices stole us – the TSA, the Patriot Act, the Real ID Act, etc. (May 2, 2011)

Is it the egg or the chicken that first started following me on Twitter? (May 2, 2011)

Any war fought by the gov’t should come with a compensation: “In return, this gov’t shall immediately return some of your lost liberties.” (May 2, 2011)

Whatever you think, note that it is not “the U.S.” that killed bin Laden. It’s (part of) the U.S. government, which is very different. (May 2, 2011)

There is probably no good reason to be incensed by the killing of bin Laden – if it was bin Laden. (May 2, 2011)

After the death of bin Laden, look at the state of our liberties and how the Police State has advanced everywhere. Who has really won? (May 2, 2011)

Very funny Facebook app asks whats the best price for gasoline. Any omniscient and omnipotent planner, please tell us poor mortals. (May 1, 2011)

Suppose you believe X. Is there a probability not too close to 0 that you could be proven wrong & change your mind? If not, it’s a religion. (April 30, 2011)

Libertarianism is not, or should not be, a religion. (April 30, 2011)

Give a free lance to a horseman, and you have a free lancer. (April 28, 2011)

The TSA and in general border controls illustrate the difference between a transparent society and a free society. (April 28, 2011)

Have a son who gives you trouble? Read Deut. 21. (April 28, 2011)

Gaia existe et j’ai un château à vendre en Syldavie. (April 27, 2011)

Anybody can get himself self-published, but he will likely have to self-read. (April 26, 2011)

If slopes were not slippery, nobody but the blind would want to take them. (April 26, 2011)

No dog ever got a Nobel Prize, because of the anti-animal bias of the Nobel Committee. (April 26, 2011)

The problem, sometimes, is that our side is as sloppy as theirs. (April 26, 2011)

Some statements would be worth criticizing if only they had ever been made. (April 26, 2011)

The big problem with Québec is that it soooooooooooo similar to the rest of Canada. (April 25, 2011)

Threatening terrorists and international thugs must be dealt with, but not at the price of liberty and justice. Kapitch, Ivanov? (April 25, 2011)

If government spending were cut by 75%, lots of busybodies would have to get addicted to something else. — http://on.wsj.com/e59rYg (April 25, 2011)

Keeping the Potemkin village socially hygienic. — This Blog Post Is Not Yet Rated http://t.co/h8ciNd0 (April 25, 2011)

Liberty: Canadian politicians are so despicable that Harper (leader of the “Conservative” Party) sometimes looks merely like a monster. (April 25, 2011)

Man does not live by chocolate alone. (April 25, 2011)

Often astonished by the lack of political culture (both historical and philosophical) of Quebeckers, perhaps especially young Quebeckers. (April 25, 2011)

Song of love and ate: I think I ate too much Easter Lindt chocolate. (April 25, 2011)

Democracy is good for throwing out the rascals, not for determining common values. – Vox populi or hoi polloi? | http://t.co/hUkiJnv (April 25, 2011)

The bilingual twun™ of the week about the upcoming Canadian election: under Al Layton, everybody in Canada will get free beer and free milk. (April 25, 2011)

Selfishness = ability to sell fish. A virtue. http://www.pewenvironment.org/uploadedImages/PEG/Campaigns/eone-harbor-fish-market-585-mfk.jpg (April 25, 2011)

Twun™ of the week: In our battery-powered gadget world, even assault often comes with battery included. (April 25, 2011)

Fortunately, in general, free speech is possible. (April 24, 2011)

Ham radio is decidedly non-Islamic. It must have been invented on Easter Day. (April 24, 2011)

It’s always sunny on Easter Day. (April 24, 2011)

Easter question: What came first, the egg or the chicken? (April 24, 2011)

Happy Easter! (Go Easter, young man!) (April 24, 2011)

That Earth Day falls on Good Friday must be blasphemy. God promises eternal life; Gail, dirt and green rot. (April 22, 2011)

Canadians take their meaningless elections very seriously. New jobs created in tire manufacturing. http://natpo.st/fffQ1I (April 22, 2011)

Flagrant lack of CSR: “Today is Earth Day”, reads the e-mail message. “Go outdoors with Casio!” No, you must eat dirt too. (April 22, 2011)

J’ai parlé à mon psy et il m’a dit d’aller voir mon upsilon. (April 22, 2011)

Yes, yes, I am going to eat quiche, and I am proud of it. (April 22, 2011)

Zero tolerance: Forbidding computers to government (while letting individuals have them) would constrain Leviathan. (April 22, 2011)

At least, before the fall of the communist empire, we could argue, “It’s not Soviet Russia here.” (April 22, 2011)

Because of self-selection, there must be more homosexuals in the TSA than in the general population. A little FOI request? (April 21, 2011)

Scanophilia is a crime, and those committing it should have their names put in the scanophile registry. (April 21, 2011)

The Surveillance State: a scan of worms. (April 21, 2011)

The Surveillance State: “Yes we scan!” (April 21, 2011)

How to sext without a smart phone? Go through TSA security. (April 21, 2011)

It’s difficult to argue with somebody who does not agree that all cannot be above average. (April 21, 2011)

It’s ifficult to argue with somebody who does not agree that 1+1=2 (except for well-argued epistemological reasons). (April 21, 2011)

Few things are more difficult to do, and more easy to criticize, than translation. (April 20, 2011)

My whole life is pro bono. (April 19, 2011)

Pun tweets and tweet puns: I have invented the twun™. (April 19, 2011)

True pun of the day: the genes are in the jeans. (April 19, 2011)

Immigrants are forever young as they never become senior citizens. The more illegal, the younger. (April 19, 2011)

Pow-wow corrupts, absolute pow-wow corrupts absolutely. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pow-wow (April 18, 2011)

When, several years ago, Lord Harris told me he did not remember if I was an academic or a journalist, I answered that I was too serious to be a journalist but not enough to be an academic. (April 18, 2011)

Il ne faut pas confondre le schibboleth avec la ciboulette. (April 18, 2011)

I don’t have all the answers but I have all the questions. (April 18, 2011)

Addiction is just another word for what we like to do. — All those tweets, apps, updates may drain brain http://t.co/R2LX9La (April 17, 2011)

First military-bureaucratic principle: there is no such thing as a free bunch. (April 17, 2011)

The AT&T DNS has been down for hours. Fortunately, there is this entrepreneurial company, opendns.com, and their free DNS service! (April 17, 2011)

“The excitement of the ideas must come first.” – John Gaskin’s preface to Hobbes’s 1651 Leviathan (April 17, 2010)

A spell checker blocks spells cast at you. (April 17, 2011)

Wine is a world in itself. There are so many worlds in themselves. (April 16, 2011)

One problem with the “Québec model” (“le modèle québécois”) is that nobody talks about it except in Québec; and Leviathan is happy. (April 15, 2011)

Pre-night wisdom: Not everything is dark and disgusting in the world. (April 15, 2011)

A book is like a car or a movie: a perfect assemblage of imperfect components. (April 14, 2011)

Air France now advertizes its trans-Atlantic flights with one-way prices. Will they soon advertize them with attractive mid-Atlantic prices? (April 14, 2011)

In a capitalist economy, you order goods and services. In a socialist economy, you beg for them. (April 14, 2011)

Occupational licensure is the trade unionism of the rich, and is even more despicable than the poor’s variety. — http://t.co/cKD8k72 (April 13, 2011)

PMS is one of the grave problems that the Welfare State still has to address. (April 13, 2011)

« On ne peut travailler à un ouvrage qu’après en avoir fait le plan, et un plan ne peut être bien fait qu’après que toutes les parties de l’ouvrage sont achevées. » — Benjamin Constant (April 13, 2011)

With some (much?) luck, we can hope that, in two centuries, most people will consider statism and nationalism on par with Lamarckism. (April 13, 2011)

Race to the bottom. America and France share one big drawback: heavy government bureaucracy and paperwork. (April 12, 2011)

We have such a statist, Rousseauvian language where “country” mean either, and simultaneously, the geography, the people, and the state. (April 12, 2011)

More and more, what taxes buy, in the best of cases, is the right to ask permits. (April 12, 1011)

Official paperwork is a sign of the rule of law, up to a certain point. This point is long past. (April 12, 2011)

By dumbing down your readers, you make yourself more difficult to understand (if there is something to understand) by the non-dumb-downable. (April 11, 2011)

Economic growth is good – for those who get it. (April 11, 2011)

“Matt 10:5” means that there 10 of you praying on 5 mats. (April 11, 2011)

Si vous ne lisez jamais en français ou ne le parlez jamais, vous ne saurez pas si, par exemple, « burqua » est masculin ou féminin. (April 11, 2011)

Secularism (“laïcité”) is meant to limit the state, constrain theocratic-thuggish majorities, chain Leviathan. May be useful in the future. (April 11, 2011)

The shoemaker’s fishy story: sole proprietorship does not mean ownership of a sole. (April 10, 2011)

If true (note small sample), Republicans are as stupid as Democrats. The word “ban” should be banned in politics. – http://t.co/542g3EI (April 9, 2011)

Natural law: love of gri-gris and resort to scapegoats may be hard-wired in the human brain. Such primitive leanings should often be fought. (April 9, 2011)

Federal budget cuts of $38.5 billion are 1% of this year’s expenditures, and 10% of the increase in expenditures since last year. (April 9, 2011)

Required leather care: the instructions for the hiking boots Trisha and I bought yesterday are as complicated as for cleaning a revolver. (April 8, 2011)

Grrr… I mistakenly ordered six jars of Bonne Maman blackcurrant jelly, instead of redcurrant, and have been eating it for a month. All that time, I was wondering what was wrong with my life, what I have achieved, what I will leave after me, where’s my pistol, and so forth. (April 8, 2011)

My desk: so many wires, not counting the wireless ones! (April 7, 2011) Added comment: “Well, brother, the British state is probably even worse.”

Dumbing down the reader appears to be the first principle of public relations and “communications”. Does he like that? (April 6, 2011)

Multitasking is high-class ADD. (April 6, 2011)

One good consequence of the Japanese catastrophes is that people now seem to realize that destruction does not create growth and jobs. (April 6, 2011)

If Sisyphus had been a redneck, the gods would have condemned him to clean his gun just to have it shoot a lead bullet, endlessly forever. (April 5, 2011)

Burning the Quran and killing infidels: God must be LOL, ROTF, and LHAO. (April 4, 2011)

A glass which is X% empty is (100-X)% full, and vice-versa. (April 4, 2011)

How does one say “unmanned drone aircraft” when it is unmanned by a woman? (April 2, 2011)

How does one say “poor workmanship” in politically correct language? (April 2, 2011)

In a dream, somebody asked me: “Do you live a different day?” I think it was a sort of code. (April 1, 2011)

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” (April 1, 2011)

“A very few—as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men—serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part.” – Henry David Thoreau (April 1, 2011)

“Trade and commerce, if they were not made of india-rubber, would never manage to bounce over obstacles which legislators are continuing putting in their way.” – Henry David Thoreau (April 1, 2011)

I bought a lanyard for my pistol. (There are lanyard buffs.) Very useful: no risk that the pistol falls from the holster while I am writing! (March 30, 2011)

“a mere Man of Quality, who on that Account wants to live upon the Public, by some Office or Salary, will be despis’d and disregarded.” Franklin, “To Those Who Would Remove to America” (1784) (March 30, 2011)

The problem with immigrants is that they tend to be too uncritical towards their new country and its state. (March 30, 2011)

“the two chief parties of the countries, warring over details, have come so close together that it has been almost impossible to distinguish them.” – Mencken (March 30, 2011)

“What is often mistaken for an independent spirit in dealing with the national traits, is not more than a habit of crying with the pack.” – Mencken, “On Being an American” (March 30, 2011)

“I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson (March 30, 2011)

Wait! Perhaps it is BECAUSE OF the softness of state institutions that liberty has resisted mounting tyranny for a time. http://t.co/tQbOulg (March 30, 2011)

Wave of the future: I think I am in the process of switching from Firefox to Internet Explorer after years and years of using the former. (March 30, 2011)

Right to work means right to try and sell your services to whoever wants to buy, not the right to work in a specific firm on your own terms. (March 30, 2011)

Politicians are the worst insider traders: they hunt and use non-public information to buy votes. (March 29, 2011)

Chicken wing often tastes better than right wing or left wing. (March 29, 2011)

Il est étrange que la « Société des hygiénistes de la province de Québec », qui a existé de 1943 à 1974, n’ait aucune trace sur le web, sinon dans des mentions rapides de son successeur, l’Association pour la santé publique du Québec. Ne sont-ils fiers de leur histoire ? Pourquoi ne pas publier les déclarations de la vieille association et faire état de ses activités de l’é poque? Y a-t-il anguille sous roche ? (March 28, 2011)

“most striking in the Maine wilderness is the continuousness of the forest … what a place to die!”– http://thoreau.eserver.org/ktaadn06.html (March 27, 2011)

“My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-reliance (March 27, 2011)

“The great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” – Emerson, Self-reliance (March 27, 2011)

I visited a strip club with Trisha yesterday. Funny: the strippers have to go outside (accompanied by a bouncer) to commit the smoking sin! (March 27, 2011)

Beethoven is addictive. (March 25, 2011)

« Mais priez Dieu que tous nous veuille absoudre. » (François Villon)

« Alors, ça boume? » dit un boomer à l’autre. (March 24, 2011)

On the pictures of the Libyan rebels, have you noticed how many of them smoke? Are we sure they are so pure? (March 23, 2011)

Nuclear: Promethean success or useless time bomb? Only way to know: stop protecting it against liability, and see if it can buy insurance. (March 23, 2011)

Unconscious surrender: dark historical humor marks the 1959 creation of the TSA — Texas Society of Anestesiologists. http://www.tsa.org (March 22, 2011)

Future generations are a big burden (http://www.pierrelemieux.org/artchildren.html) but they don’t bug us as much as the current one. (March 21, 2011)

Les générations futures ? Elles nous ont déjà assez cassé les couilles ! – http://www.pierrelemieux.org/artchildren.html

I will be having lunch. In case of social emergency [the worst of all emergencies], you will have to text me. (March 21, 2011)

Enfants, nous jouions avec des pistolets de plastique. Mon H&K USP Compact, qui est en bonne partie fait de plastique, me rappelle mes jeux d’enfant. (March 20, 2011)

Quebec has 1/5 of California’s population but its government spends 1/3 as much. Call of bankruptcy? (March 20, 2011)

Mandatory form for statocrat going to war: “In return, we will re-establish the following liberties to our subjects: [name at least three].” (March 19, 2011)

Not that I like the Gadhafi butcher, but… For his glory and the state’s power, every head of state needs his own Saddam Hussein. (March 19, 2011)

The TSA already tried a no-fly zone, but the populace discovered how to evade it: strip & fly. (March 18, 2011)

Maine: “Bug free or die!” — http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/14/title14sec6021-A.html (March 18, 2011)

Between updating his camera’s firmware and his Android’s OS, cleaning his pistol, and taking care of his woman, when can a man work? (March 18, 2011)

A strike against tyrant Gadhafi looks OK. Problem is, it will reinforce the authority and power of our own too-powerful states (and the UN). (March 18, 2011)

I wonder if, in America, bored people kill time by chatting with AT&T? In Québec, they go to the (free) hospital emergency room. (March 18, 2011)

There is no such thing as “collective wealth”, only wealth created by individuals for themselves or expropriated by others for themselves. (March 18, 2011)

Problems of life: difficult to find a place for phone holster when pistol already there. (March 17, 2011)

Black humor: Japan needs cool aid. (March 17, 2011)

As Prometheus would have said, liver and let liver. (March 16, 2011)

Home, tweet home! (March 16, 2011)

I think I prefer carrying to caring persons. (March 16, 2011)

We tend to forget friends who do not tweet or FB. (March 15, 2011)

“Trouver la mort”, quelle drôle d’expression : comme si on la cherchait ! (March 15, 2011)

“Officials Stabilize Damaged Complex” (WSJ). “Workers Strain to Retake Control After Blast and Fire at Japan Plant” (NYT). Which is the most sensationalist paper? (March 15, 2011)

The irrational fear of alcohol in America resembles the irrational gun phobia in most other countries. (March 15, 2011)

Ignorance is bliss only if you don’t know it. If you do, you know you are missing something. (March 15, 2011)

One of my childhood friends, G.H., has only four references on the web – regarding a Cub Scout pack we both belonged to. He must be a total failure! (March 13, 2011)

I met a fairy who granted me one wish. “I want to live forever,” I said. “Sorry” replied the fairy, “I’m not allowed to grant wishes like that!” “Fine,” I said, “I want to die when the state has become trustworthy.” “You crafty bastard!” she replied. (March 11, 2011)

During a routine eye exam, I told my new ophthalmologist in Maine that his mission is to make sure I can read, write and shoot until I am 95. Instead of thinking that I am crazy, as the average doctor in Canada or France would have thought, he said that I will find “many gun enthusiasts in Maine” and that he was himself an avid skeet shooter. I mentioned that I had been skeet shooting with my sons in California during this very past weekend. He highly recommended his preferred skeet shooting club in Scarborough, Maine. I suggested he should try pistol shooting. After all, this is America. (March 10, 2011)

Geek philosophy: anything clickable must be clicked. (March 6, 2011)

With reusable grocery bags, the shit is hitting the fans of Gaia. (March 6, 2011)

After ten years of surveillance, TSA, state aggrandizement, and crushing of our liberties: by the way, where is Bin Laden? (March 6, 2011)

I think that “ammo” comes from the Latin “amo” (“I love”). (March 1, 2011)

Little children think that adults are just proportionally blown-up versions of them. (Don’t take “blown-up” in its Jihad sense.) (March 1, 2011)

A most serious world problem: E-Mail This, the Wall Street Journal e-mail utility, garbles accentuated characters. (February 28, 2011)

Vulnerant omnes, ultima necat. (February 24, 2011)

Alligators must be Arab gators. (February 24, 2011)

Abolish trade union privileges, but for the unions of the rich too, i.e., professional corporations (physicians, lawyers, etc.). (February 24, 2011)

How does one say “yes man” for a woman in PC language? A yes woman? A yes person? A yes being? (February 23, 2011)

If you have nothing to say, better not to say it. (February 23, 2011)

What if these two couples had been armed? – Somali Pirates Kill Four U.S. Hostages http://on.wsj.com/fMPoLK (February 22, 2011)

I can’t understand why, despite the Green Book, trouble brews in the Green Square. – http://nyti.ms/ei0kIO (February 22, 2011)

It is not surprising that after decades of Newspeak came the TSA – Newpeep. (February 22, 2011)

It is not surprising that after decades of group-think came the TSA – grope-think. (February 22, 2011)

Stakeholders who mind their own business are found in steak houses. (February 22, 2011)

In the electronic age, secretaries are for wimps. (February 22, 2011)

The Protective Society: a warning under the trigger guard of my semi-auto pistol says, “WARNING refer to owner manual”! (February 21, 2011)

The problem with solidarity is simple: with whom and against whom? (February 21, 2011)

« Le goût de la tranquillité publique devient alors une passion aveugle, et les citoyens sont sujets à s’éprendre d’un amour très-désordonné pour l’ordre. » (Tocqueville) (February 21, 2011)

Parlé au Québec, l’« Oqlf » est une langue vernaculaire apparentée au créole, qui emprunte un peu au français ainsi que, beaucoup, à des normes arbitraires imposées d’en haut. (February 20, 2011)

Being libertarian should not mean asking only the questions that have been asked a thousand times and giving the same answers all over again. (February 15, 2011)

Au prix de leur santé, les gens (stupides individus !) s’adonnent au tabagisme, au vinisme, au gastronomisme et au sexisme. (February 15, 2011)

The ACLU (of which I am a member) seems to think that everything between the waist and the thighs should be heavily subsidized by the state. (February 14, 2011)

Dissymmetry: If you know something, you know how it felt not to know; if you don’t know something, you don’t know how it feels to know it. (February 14, 2011)

Histoire d’amour à l’âge informatique: la Belle et le Byte. (February 14, 2011)

The state must trust citizens, and the citizens must mistrust it – the exact opposite of the actual perverse situation. (February 13, 2011)

If my experience is any guide, don’t buy insurance from Allstate Canada: they will sell you insurance, then quickly cancel you policy. (February 11, 2011)

A revolution in 1789 too. The revolutionaries tried to marry fire with water, popular sovereignty with individual liberty (said Faguet). (February 11, 2011)

The Puritans came for worship, not whore ship. (Orthography is important.) (February 11, 2011)

Are the inhabitants of Qatar better at catharsis? (February 10, 2011)

UPS discretely left the package against 2 pellets guns an inch inside the garage. Gun shadow? In Canada, the SWAT team would have followed. (February 9, 2011)

Pierre-Esprit Radisson died in the Summer of 1710, but the 300th anniversary of his death was nowhere celebrated in Québec last year. (February 8, 2011)

Reflection inspired by the flu season: Islamist terrorists should be content to blow their noses. (February 8, 2011)

Why is Mubarak’s government having more trouble than the TSA? Because people in democratic countries think they are obeying themselves? (February 7, 2011)

Don Yuan is a contemporary seducer. (February 6, 2011)

Not everybody can be above average. (February 6, 2011)

Suburban life: errander humanum est. (February 4, 2011)

Should the US gvt support the actual friendly tyrant or the future perhaps unfriendly one? Unavoidable dilemma of international interventionism. (February 4, 2011)

Epitome of civilization: in Egypt, only state thugs have guns. Do you think the competing gang would change that? (February 2, 2011)

In former communist Romania, miners traditionally played the role of state thugs. Every society, even “free”, has its Romanian miners. (February 2, 2011)

Opponents of one tyrant are often supporters of another, that is, they support the one who will favor them. (February 2, 2011)

Tyrants have supporters. They couldn’t be in power otherwise. They favor their supporters and harm the others — the business of the state. (February 2, 2011)

The earth was cooling with the hole in the ozone layer. Remember? Then came “global warming”. Now it’s “climate change”. Hedge your bets. (January 31, 2011)

Seen on Google Alerts: “Online Guest Book for Pierre Lemieux. Sign and view the Guest Book for Pierre Lemieux, leave condolences, send flowers, or find funeral service information.” (January 30, 2011)

Game theory: an evolutionary stable strategy is to play hawk only if your adversary plays dove. But liberty is not for the doves. (January 30, 2011)

Reflection of an amateur linguist: the Arabs speaking on Egyptian TV today remind me of the accent I heard yesterday in a Québec McDonald’s. (January 30, 2011)

A bit of humor in a war among tyrants. The big question is Egypt: On which side is Rastapopulos? (January 30, 2011)

Egypt: an interesting WSJ editorial. America must remain – in fact, become again – a beacon of liberty. Tough job! http://on.wsj.com/e8W6vM (January 30, 2011)

Egypt illustrates that armed uprisings usually occur against weaker, not stronger, tyrants. When will they occur in Iran and North Korea? (January 30, 2011)

When bands of robbers & murderers are fighting for a monopoly, we don’t have to take a stance – except perhaps on purely prudential grounds. (January 30, 2011)

Mancur Olson’s question illustrated by Egypt: is it better to have a sedentary looter (the state) or competing gangs of roving looters? (January 30, 2011)

History suggests that tyrants only remain in power when they are willing and able to shoot at crowds of demonstrators. (January 30, 2011)

« Tu es silicone et tu retourneras silicone. » Gen. 3, 19

My little, proletarian, brand new car needed a software upgrade. Nous sommes bien peu de chose. (January 24, 2011)

“Total screening”: why not push the security perimeter up to private homes, and put a cop in each? Brave New World. http://on.wsj.com/dMfECc (January 24, 2011)

As the Surveillance State extends security perimeter out (up to our homes one day?), attacks just relocate. — http://on.wsj.com/iknzGx (January 24, 2011)

It’s soothing in a sort of wicked way to meet people crazier than oneself (except for the fact that the crazy attract the crazy). (January 24, 2011)

Numbers are so aesthetic, and number mills even more. (Mathematics and econometrics software packages are number mills.) (January 24, 2011)

This of course does not exhaust (no pun intended) the argument, but there is something Randian about the tar sands. (January 21, 2011)

Should governments be allowed to operate computers, and under which conditions? (January 17, 2011)

The best conditions to learn something are when you feel you have to. Then, even heteroskedasticity becomes fun. (January 17, 2011)

The presumption should be that gov’t information is public, or can be made public, and that private information is, well, private. (January 17, 2011)

The principle is simple: gov’t information should, in general, be available to the public; private information should not. And the press should be free. (January 17, 2011)

If we have to “harvest” game, we can shoot vegetables. (January 16, 2011)

You start dying just after being born. So, don’t have fun! — Smoking ’causes damage in minutes’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12193602 (January 16, 2011)

In fashionable (statist) public opinion: hate = not wanting to be bossed around; love = bossing others around. (January 15, 2011)

Needed: an application that would, from camera and/or GPS input, determine the shape of the driveway, calculate its size and, given wind direction and snow blower engine power, determine the optimal snow blowing path. (January 15, 1011)

An interesting example of false quote: http://clubunite.co.uk/the_art_of_woo.pdf. What I wrote was more polite than the milder reaction implied by the WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115801096324259803.html). (app. January 12, 2011)

La presse québécoise vient de découvrir que l’on peut écrire « K$ » et « M$ ». Il leur reste à découvrir que l’on n’écrit pas, dans un texte général, « 250 $ » (par exemple). Ça prendra du temps. (January 13, 2011)

Heraclitus was wrong: the snow blowing man often travels in the same snow. (January 13, 2011)

Animal rights: When rights have disappeared, rich kids create fake ones. — Foie gras conflict in Ottawa out http://natpo.st/g4v68B

Whatever one thinks of religion, it used to provide useful moral constraints for lost people (when they did not kill in its name). (January 9, 2011)

Moreover, a gentleman who knows his grammar does not shoot a woman. (January 9, 2011)

Breast feeding in a private store: when people have lost their real liberties, they clamor for fake ones. — http://t.co/UIEiHi0 (January 9, 2011)

Misfits become artists, entrepreneurs, geeks, criminals or Hitlers. In a free society, the last one is less likely. (January 9, 2011)

The more politicized society becomes (that is, the more individual behavior is controlled by politics), the more violent it must become. This violence can take different forms and be hidden in many ways. (January 8, 2011)

On a souvent besoin d’un plus petit que soi, mais ce n’est pas une raison pour encenser les politiciens et les bureaucrates. (January 6, 2011)

Should politicians (like Connolly) be forbidden to wear cologne as it makes them and their jihad more attractive? – http://nyti.ms/gMaaNA (January 4, 2011)

Many people would rather have straight checks than checks and balances. (January 5, 2011)

Marie de l’Incarnation about Des Groseilliers, who had moved to New England, in a letter of 1665: “A habitant of this country, but one who was not regarded well here because of his rebellious nature and bad disposition, withdrew himself to the English some two years ago…” – Quoted in Grace Lee Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness (1943), St. Paul, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1978, p. 92. (January 4, 2011)

The demise of the nuclear family would have the impact of a nuclear boob. (January 3, 2010)

My resolution for the New Year is measured in pixels. (January 2, 2011)

In line with Thoreau’s voluntary simplicity, I am anxious to get out of the house and be in my new car. (January 1, 2011)

Get information on Hank Paulson at https://ustreas.gov/education/history/secretaries/hmpaulson.shtml. Firefox says the U.S. Treasury site is untrusted. (December 30, 2010)

Nearly everything can be learned through googling. But one needs to know where to start and what to discard. (December 29, 2010)

One choice should be forbidden: the choice to coercively meddle in somebody else’s choices. (December 28, 2010)

An alluring ad (no doubt targeted) on Facebook: “Things to do in Portland before you die. One huge coupon emailed daily.” (December 28, 2010)

In intellectual discourse (as opposed perhaps to practical life), it is not sufficient to hold the correct conclusion. The reasons for it also count, for they are the criteria of truth. (December 27, 2010)

Life is so addictive that most people would like a second one. (December 27, 2010)

Second-hand smoke is so addictive that once you have had a smoking spouse, you can’t do without one. (December 27, 2010)

New England romance: Joe Blow meets Snow Blow. (December 27, 2010)

Learning has always been in large part a matter of clicking. At any rate, intellectual curiosity has always meant non-stop clicking. (December 27, 2010)

Try to pair an iPhone and an Apple-recommended Jawbone headset. After an hour, you will realize that Apple’s easiness is much overrated. (December 27, 2010)

Your chimney is part of your castle. Thanks to the Second Amendment, Santa has to explicitly ask permission to enter any American chimney. (December 24, 2010)

The smartphone is the intellectual’s Xbox. (December 24, 2010)

Merry Christmas to you (and to all my other Facebook friends)! (December 23, 2010)

When I die, I’ll be able to say, “This has been a good tweeting life!” (December 22, 2010)

American consumers love to be subsidized by coercing their fellow citizens but not through coercion of the Chinese? http://on.wsj.com/ffMSTo (December 22, 2010)

A smaller population, they argue, has helped fuel China’s astounding economic growth by reducing the demands on food production, education and medical care. (December 21, 2010)

Texting and smartphones: the rule of thumb. (December 21, 2010)

If there is global warming, it is alas not to the idea of individual liberty. (December 21, 2010)

The deeper one digs into the nature of the universe, the smaller the is-ought gap becomes, as it becomes senseless to change what is. (December 21, 2010)

Serious thought of the day: Computers are like toothbrushes – not to be shared. (December 20, 2010)

Red alert for antitrust bureaucrats: with Amazon’s competition, Santa Claus is not facing a level playing sky. (December 19, 2010)

People don’t like being subsidized by private advertising to others but don’t mind being subsidized through government coercing others. (December 19, 2010)

Nothing can be cooked. If cooking time is N seconds, it won’t make a difference to do (N-1) seconds, or (N-1)-1 seconds… & so on up to zero. (December 17, 2010)

Cheap Australian wines are disgusting. Yesterday, I brought such a wine: a $3.59 Merlot. Yet, it should remain legal. Caveat emptor. (December 17, 2010)

Deep thought of the month: round laces are difficult to tie tightly. Time to go for my walk, I guess. (December 17, 2010)

“Stakeholders” are people who want to eat somebody else’s steak. (Apologies for the repeat.) (December 16, 2010)

The “digital divide” that really matters is between zero and one. (December 14, 2010)

The War on Something is the health of the state. (December 14, 2010)

What would be nice would be wikileaks from a large number of other governments in the world. Let’s not discriminate. (December 10, 2010)

The guy put his hand on the girl’s thigh. “Luke 14:10”, she says. He immediately removes his hand. Question: why was he stupid? (December 9, 2010)

I suspect that God hates small talk. (December 8, 2008)

Would you say that smokers 1) die more often than non-smokers, 2) less often, 3) about the same, 4) doesn’t know or doesn’t want to answer. (December 5, 2010)

I need all my fingers to do an index. (December 4, 2010)

In this day and age, nothing much has changed. (December 4, 2010)

Remember when Americans could say that, contrary to Europeans, they did not have to pass a check-point before leaving their own country? (December 3, 2010)

Life is expensive but death is not without cost either. (December 3, 2010)

Time spent in a small nap is better than in a snap mall. (December 3, 2010)

If you are allergic to both wine and tobacco, life is not worth living. (December 2, 2010)

I have started reading Grace Lee Nute’s “Ceasars of the Wilderness”, on Radisson and Des Groseilliers, and I am totally seduced. (December 1st, 2010)

Still some freedom left: I ordered fois gras d’oie online. No Social Security Number or ID card required. (November 22, 2010)

“A long train of abuse” has more to do with air transportation than with railroads. (November 22, 2010)

Air terminals are reduced models of police states. (November 21, 2010)

Name me one American Founder who could have thought that the 4th Amendment could be consistent with groping people without probable cause. (November 21, 2010)

TSA’s rate of grope has been increasing. (November 20, 2010)

Insider trading is the “crime” of telling somebody something without simultaneously telling it to the whole world. (November 20, 2010)

They want to “grow the economy” and grope the people. The two must go together. – Obama Tries to Repair Damage http://on.wsj.com/9ij0vd (November 19, 2010)

Group think was bound to degenerate into grope think of the worst sort. (November 19, 2010_

Don’t touch my junk bond! (November 19, 2010)

Is Harry Potter a golf player? (November 19, 2010)

Fourth Amendment: the Fondling Fathers have replaced the Founding Fathers. (November 19, 2010)

Leviathan loves you so much that he wants to fondle you. (November 19, 2010)

Send the TSA to the junkyard of history – where the Soviet Union already lies. (November 19, 2010)

Ask not if you are fond of border cops, but if they may fond you. (November 19, 2010)

If you don’t profess to love Leviathan, your punishment will be to watch Janet Napolitano scanned naked. (November 19, 2010)

The feds are too well fed. (November 19, 2010)

Learning requires some humility. (November 19, 2010)

Two good lives for the price of one: if I knew that eternal life existed and that it would be fun, I would start smoking again. (November 19, 2010)

Does Leviathan love you or is he running loose? (November 19, 2010)

True, “there’s more to life than money”. That’s why the state is not only after our money. — http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11756049 (November 16, 2010)

There are still two sorts of people in the world: the screeners and the screened, the scanners and the scanned. (November 15, 2010)

People are proud of the border cops protecting them, and don’t think that the president is not scanned naked by his own bodyguards. (November 15, 2010)

Save your dignity and fight the Surveillance State: travel in your good, old individual car. (November 15, 2010)

Polygamy consists in living with many women, which is legal, and saying you are married to them, which is a crime. (November 14, 2010)

Forgive the most banal statement: the beginning of knowledge is to know which questions to ask. (November 14, 2010)

Power corrupts, pad down power corrupts absolutely. (November 12, 2010)

As Aquinas said, nature abhors a vacuum cleaner. (November 10, 2010)

Culture is to be elsewhere. (November 9, 2010)

Another deep reflection: the USB symbol looks like the Devil’s pitchfork. (November 9, 2010)

Yesterday, I was an airborne-again traveler. (November 5, 2010)

I would rather choose between Charybdis and Scylla than between a rock and a hard place (November 2, 2010)

There is no such thing as zero risk, and there is no such thing as zero opportunity either. (October 25, 2010)

Wonder why she did not come to deliver in Québec, under our social and collective state? – CBC Céline Dion has twin boys http://t.co/ZNvkGJ5 (October 23, 2010) CBC News – Music – Céline Dion has twin boys

Notwithstanding contemporary Newspeak, “stakeholders” are people who want other people’s steaks. (October 23, 2010)

What’s difficult in thinking out of the box is finding where the box is. (October 14, 2010)

Linux Ubuntu is really a great operating software. Too bad they don’t have software like the real Office and Quicken. (October 14, 2010)

Call for ideas: What are the greatest economic mistakes, that is, the worst mistakes people commonly make while thinking about the economy? (October 12, 2010)

Charlie, the smoking chimpanzee dies. He looked more human than most anti-smokers. Watch video. – http://www.cyberpresse.ca/_purl/01-4330135 (October 6, 2010)

We are making our soft police states more and more powerful, attractive and potentially rewarding for all sorts of barbarians to take over. (October 6, 2010)

We will soon need travel licenses. They will be easy to get on the web: “Your ID number and departure and return dates.” The state is nice. (October 6, 2010)

The magic potion: add “social” to something and whatever it qualifies becomes good against evil. What about a social stone? (October 6, 2010)

The main problem I see with entertainment is that it is seldom entertaining. (October 6, 2010)

If you’re generally late, your friends and business relations will always be. – Sick of This Text: ‘Sorry I’m Late’ http://on.wsj.com/crwQ7f (October 5, 2010)

Polygamy is the crime of saying that you are married with more than one of your concubines. (September 29, 2010)

Literary creation and the discovery of truth are the intellectual equivalent of an orgasm. (September 26, 2010)

Herbert Hoover (whose stimulus was as expansive as Roosevelt’s) believed that radio communications were to be regulated as a public utility. (September 25, 2010)

The worst administrative chores have to do with satisfying Leviathan’s diktats. (September 23, 2010)

Buying a new rifle is not the way to realize economies of scope. (September 22, 2010)

Blessed be the non-geek, for they will have a simple life. (September 19, 2010)

God is too intelligent to micromanage the universe. (September 18, 2010)

A Buridan asshole is worse than an ordinary asshole. (September 16, 2010)

Useless pun: see, man, a seaman’s semen. (September 15, 2010)

Save canaries in coal mines, support PETA! (September 15, 2010)

Without its liberticidal gun laws (will they be liberalized after Heller?), California would be worth moving to. (September 11, 2010)

A “public good” is a public good for the group of individuals for which it is a public good. For others, it is not a good, and may be a bad. (September 11, 2010)

At airport, epitome of the Surveillance State. Will the time ever come back when people were able to travel without interior passports? (September 9, 2010)

“Human smuggling” is to immigration what marriage agencies (call them “prostitution” in Newspeak?) are to mating. – http://tgam.ca/x3X (September 8, 2010)

Muhammad – piece be with him. (September 7, 2010)

There are always good reasons to limit individual liberty – that is, good reasons according to some people’s personal preferences. (September 3, 2010)

Reading a 19th-century conservative, James Fitzjames Stephen – close to today’s liberals. As I would have said 40 years ago, he’s a fascist! (August 31, 2010)

I have to get ammo. Without ammo, what’s the 2nd Amendment useful for? (August 25, 2010)

Is self-defense legitimate only once the bullet has left the crazy tyrant’s revolver and is traveling towards you? (August 22, 2010)

You can always find people who have good reasons to want a general prohibition of something. (August 22, 2010)

The state either prohibits discrimination or encourages/enforces it, depending against whom and at which epoch. Can’t we just be left alone? (August 22, 2010)

Once you have said you are a conservative, you must still say what you want to conserve. The Welfare-Regulatory-Surveillance State? (August 22, 2010)

Once you have said you are a “liberal” (in the American sense), you must still say what you want to liberalize. Only what you like? (August 22, 2010)

I wonder how many germs are left on grocery counters by reusable bags, and how many people get ill and become sacrificial lambs to Gaia. (August 21, 2010)

Life kills as many people as death does. (August 21, 2010)

I tweet, therefore I am. (August 16, 2010)

The anti-immigration craze is mainly a diversion to hide or scapegoat mounting tyranny fuelled by the locals at home. (August 16, 2010)

As papers are cited under the name of the first author alphabetically, an equal academic playing field requires the same surname for all. (August 15, 2010)

The typical statist hates all brands of statism, except his own. (August 15, 2010)

I don’t know how non-geeks survive in this world. I barely do as a half-geek. (August 13, 2010)

Decline of civilization: in Mt-Laurier, Québec, the Internet café has been replaced by a sex shop. (August 12, 2010)

My “biological” bread is turning green. Next time, I will buy mineral. (August 11, 2010)

Carrying a long gun in a forest is hard for the old. If the Canadian tyrant really loved them, he would not ban them from carrying pistols. (August 11, 2010)

Krugman loves the state… as it should be according to his own preferences. (August 9, 2010)

“Security breach” is Newspeak for “Leviathan protecting itself”. – http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/08/08/14959991.html (August 8, 2010)

The problem with the rest of the world is that it imports everything that’s bad in America and nothing of what’s good here. (August 8, 2010)

Should the frocks of Orthodox priests be banned too? From the back, they look strikingly similar to a burqa — a man’s burqa. (August 8, 2010)

The first problem in politics is the Left; the second one is the Right. Or perhaps it’s the other way around. (August 7, 2010)

The problem with “the real world” is that we first need to figure out what it is. (August 7, 2010)

When Leviathan runs loose, politicians and bureaucrats should pay damages out of their own pockets. (August 6, 2010)

Antitrust theory is based on the idea that prohibiting freedom of contract helps free exchange. Bad economics. (August 4, 2010)

Washing wine glasses in the dishwasher: when there is a will, there is a way. (August 4, 2010)

Vanum est vobis ante lucem surgere. (Ps. 126:2) (August 1, 2010)

Injunction to statocrats: In case of doubt, do not ban. If you have no doubt, think twice. (August 1, 2010)

There is always a good reason to ban something. National security is a nice excuse among others. (August 1, 2010)

I am more or less ahead of my non-comprehensive schedule. (August 1, 2010)

In fact, everybody boarding a plane should strip naked, so that they learn who is the master and who is the servant. (August 1, 2010)

In a free society, it’s everyone’s right to smoke, be a homosexual, carry a gun, and have a Mac. (August 1, 2020)

To realize a big, complex project, break it into small pieces, and take them one at a time. (August 1, 2010)

Beware of any quote without a book title and a page number – especially if it comforts your opinion. It is quite probably apocryphal. (July 31, 2010)

If you need an oil change, don’t have a change of mind. (July 30, 2010)

People who defend freedom only in sexual matters are due for a double dose of soma. (July 30, 2010)

Under Mussolini, economists were less biddable and statist than statisticians. Not today in Canada. – Globe and Mail at http://tgam.ca/kpD (July 30, 2010)

“Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.” (Epicurus ~ Letter to Menoceus) Excuse me, Epicurus, the problem is not death, but dying. (July 29, 2010)

A man must know when to obey and when to disobey his GPS. (July 29, 2010)

While building together the Police State, the left emphasizes the second word, the right the first. (July 28, 2010)

Creative destruction: in Mt-Laurier, Qc, the closed GM dealership now sells Kias — cars that people want instead of cars made by the state. (July 28, 2010)

There is an alternative to the right’s Surveillance State and the left’s Regulatory State. It’s called libertarianism. (July 28, 2010)

There is an alternative besides the right’s populist obscurantism and the left’s elitist ignorance. It’s called libertarianism. (July 28, 2010)

Despite practising my signature for decades, I never got a signing bonus. (FB, July 28, 2010)

The septic tank truck just came, and I am happy to report that it did not hit the fan. (FB, July 28, 2010)

It’s not only the alleged terrorists who were waterboarded; government interventions in housing market also put many homeowners under water. (July 27, 2020)

From my upcoming book: There can be no race to the bottom excerpt if the “bottom” is what the final customer wants. (July 27, 2010)

To provide real good data to Leviathan and its courtiers, gov’t statistical bureaus should put a 24/7 surveillance bracelet on everybody. (July 24, 2010)

Science is sometimes more difficult to believe than faith! (July 23, 2010) (on http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727703.000-every-black-hole-may-hold-a-hidden-universe.html)

Raimondo underestimates Islamic danger, but brings rationality in argument by arguing for property rights vs Peikoff. (July 23, 2010)

A good case of rent-seeking. The equalizers are always less equal than the equalized. – (July 21, 2010, about WSJ story: 153 ‘VIP’ Loans to Fannie Cited http://on.wsj.com/dCYqeA

Conrad Black’s travel problems within the U.S. show how ID cards are now as required for everybody as traveling papers were for slaves. (July 21, 2010)

Isn’t it an odd theory that would justify by anarchism a further increase in the power of indecently powerful states? If we don’t live in a libertarian society, we must welcome a tyrannical state, nay, increase its power. So, if the Muslims became the majority, anarcho-capitalists would accept sharia law on the basis of their own ideals. (July 20, 2010)

Tell the rulers intent to crushing businesses that “double dip” is not a sort of coffee maker. (July 19, 2010)

Why doesn’t a consumer protection agency prohibit smoke detectors that beep in the middle of the night when their batteries get low? (July 19, 2010)

One economic fact of life: not everybody who buys insurance can get out more than he paid in. (July 18, 2010)

I am ashamed to think of how many times in my life I must have used an indicative instead of a subjunctive. But I erred only in English. (July 18, 2010)

Prohibit chocolate and you will soon see chocolate-trafficking gangs shooting men and women at parties. And the state will prosper in the meantime. (July 18, 2010)

WSJ confuses decrease in rate of growth of prices with drop in prices! Calculus or arithmetic class urgently needed. (July 18, 2010) [See “Inflation pressures remain muted”, July 18, 2010]

If you took all liberticidal policies in different Western countries and applied them in a single country, you would have hell on earth. (July 17, 2010)

One big advantage of knowledge and culture is that you are never bored. (July 8, 2010)

Walter Lippman on Calvin Coolidge: “Mr. Coolidge’s genius for inactivity is developed to a very high point.” The ideal president! (July 8, 2010)

I discovered that there is a firmware update for my camera. I wish there were one for my toaster. (Twitter, July 8, 2010)

Social networks are lot of fun for the asocial. They are probably fun for the others too. (Twitter, July 7, 2010)

Humbling fact for large organizations: Firefox works better than Microsoft’s IE on Microsoft’s own 64-bit Windows 7. No danger of monopoly! (Twitter, July 7, 2010)

Life is a big administrative matter. (Twitter, July 6, 2010)

If something is clickable, it must be clicked. What’s important in life is to know when not to click. (July 5, 2010)

There are two problems in politics: the left and the right. (July 4, 2010)

Part of the pleasure of drinking Perrier is to noisily throw out the glass bottle.

Everything is a question of degree, including this very statement. (Twitter, July 4, 2010)

Do not ask what you can do against your country, but what your country can do against you. (Twitter, July 3, 2010)

To celebrate Canada Day, every Canadian must shoot once in the air today. If you don’t have a gun, borrow one from a politician’s bodyguard. (Twitter, July 1, 2010)

Instead of the proverbial “free for all”, statists prefer a free for some (usually themselves). (Twitter, June 30, 2010)

Until it was too late, Jesus thought that Caesar was a salad. (Twitter, June 29, 2010)

Politicians should not have armed bodyguards. They should simply have the same right and tools of self-defense as their electors. (Twitter, June 29, 2010)

A licensing system for the subjects is the tyrant’s best friend. (Twitter, June 29, 2010)

Toronto praetorians won’t apologize for treating peaceful individuals as their subjects and crushing the Canadian tradition of liberty. (Twitter, June 29, 2010)

The Soft Police State is not soft on everybody, even if its supporters think it will always be nice to them if they keep on smiling. (Twitter, June 29, 2010)

Both liberals and conservatives love the Soft Police State, provided it is for a good cause. (Twitter, June 29, 2010)

Social inequality is unavoidable, if only because the equalized are necessarily less “equal” than the equalizers. (Twitter, June 28, 2010)

One can always find extremes such that his opinion is a moderate compromise. All the art of rational thought amounts to determining which moderate compromise to espouse. (FB, June 19, 2010)