I recently acquired a new domain and host for the MadPhilosopher blog.  I'm trying to get it all set up and teach myself wordpress along the way.  So, for this week, I won't be posting daily resource suggestions.  I hope to still get a main post out at the end of this week, though, and I will likely be posting it on both this site, and the new site.

So, keep your eyes on www.madphilosopher.xyz/ for future posts and exciting news.

A perfect follow-up to yesterday's resource suggestion is a very short blog post concerning "limited government" and the impossibility of such a thing.

There are some Fundamental Flaws in the concept of limited government.  While this article doesn't fully explore these issues and their ramifications, It piggy-backs nicely on yesterday's post and begins a discussion which can only lead to one of two places: willful ignorance or anarchy.

I have a lot of notes pertaining to Utopianism.  As a disillusioned and reformed utpoian (of the communist persuasion), I find it important to make a compelling and expansive case against utopia and the evils committed in the pursuit of such.  I came across this gem a while back while looking for material related to the subject.

This article on "Libertopia" is a very good precursor to a post I hope to get in before December concerning utopiainism and all of the difficulties with such a pursuit.  Anyone who thinks anarchism is inherently utpoian does not understand utopia and does not understand anarchism.  This article does a good job of clearing up those issues.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I wound up spending my weekend fixing broken things instead of preparing this week's resource suggestions.  So, at least for Monday and Tuesday, I'll have to show you that, instead.

Without getting into how it happens, my only Jeep key got broken, and the tip was lodged in the back end of the ignition cylinder along with a lot of packaging tape (not my fault, I swear).

I was (understandably) upset, and I had to get the Jeep moved in a very short period of time, lest it get towed.  I may have overreacted when I had the panel halfway removed and encountered tamper-proof torx screws.

Whoever invented tamper-proof screws is undoubtedly burning in hell alongside every DRM and copyright proponent.  In all reality, Taper-proof consumer goods are the material equivalent to DRM.

Also tamper-proof.  A friend loaned me his set of tamper-proof screwdrivers.

After considerable effort, I got the ignition control apart, took out the cylinder and tried to get the tip of the key out.  Eventually I gave up and brought the cylinder to my mechanic (whom I go to only after I get as far as I possibly can).  It took him 20 minutes to get the thing apart and back together.

Then I just made a couple copies of the broken key and reassembled the Jeep.

Also, my microphone stand broke (same guilty party as the key), and I replaced the broken piece with some aluminum from work.  It's not the only audio engineering problem I had with this weekend's main post, but it was one of the bigger ones.

Yesterday's resource suggestion may have had you saying "wow, this paints a really Orwellian picture."  I wouldn't blame you, there is certainly a lot of similarities between the observations depicted in the video yesterday and the observations made in 1984.  This video is fresh, but it seems to have come out at just the right time to follow-up on yesterday's post.  I recommend you watch it, even if you are familiar with the term and it's origin.  It helps put into words the distinction between "Orwellian" and "authoritarian" as well as exploring a sparks-notes-style overview of Orwell's work.

Today's resource suggestion is a short and entertainingvideo with a very strong point that is made.  I think there may be some metaphysical commitments hiding in the video that I don't agree with, but those disagreements are immaterial to the case presented.

I found out about it from the School sucks Project.  There's a two-part interview about the video, which explores the ideas a lot further, and I recommend the podcast episodes, too.

​Part 1 and Part 2 are right here.

A short post on Forbes' website, this resource suggestion points out one of the fundamental flaws in Keynesianism.  I'm not sure there's much more that needs to be said.
I guess for those not familiar with economics, Keynesianism is the mainstream, government-funded, form of economics that most people hear when listening to financial news or reports from the FED.  This is opposed to the Chicago school which is semi-scientific or the Austrian school which is grounded in the scientific discipline of praxeology.
You'll have to forgive the landing page/popup ad at the start, I can't seem to find a way around it.

About once a month, someone who knows me (usually from the summer camp I used to work at) asks me, "how can a Catholic be an anarchist?"  I usually use this prompt as a pretense for reuniting with old friends, catching up, and seeking out a novel perspective on my beliefs.  It's interesting to see how much and how little my beliefs and the beliefs of my friends have changed over time.
Given the Church's history of manipulating politics, choosing and overthrowing kings, burning "heretics" at the stake, and attempting to dictate the very nature of the universe, it would make sense, at face value, that an anarchist would reject the Church as just another state.  I have a few blog posts waiting in the wings that address these issues but, for now, I will call upon the work of others to begin the discussion.
What's important is holding the Church to the moral standard set out by it's philosophy.  Where I can reject the government of Empire (the USA) based on the philosophy enumerated and expressed in the Constitution and the actions of the "Founding Fathers", that same opportunity is drastically diminished, if not impossible, with regards to the Church.
This article begins to explore this reality.

A friend of mine is trying her hand at being a DM for D&D 3.5.  She asked for tips on helping noobs roll and level characters.  I was happy to oblige, as I have a hard time, sometimes, with helping noobs roll their first characters and getting up-to-speed.  I wrote up a quick set of steps and tips, with page numbers and everything.

I tried to make it into an infographic, but it was a pretty shameful attempt.  as such, I uploaded the raw text as well, so you can actually read it.

Lots of fire and explosions, some cool engineering, chemistry, and physics.  Some decent ideas for someone trying to be secure in their information.  I'm not sure what more I need to say to introduce this resource.