Category Archives: South-Africa

UPDATED: ‘Return to Reason’ One of the Most Popular Columns on WND …

Ethics, Ilana Mercer, IlanaMercer.com, Labor, Reason, South-Africa

My column, Return to Reason, was among the three most popular columns on WND for the month of April. Return to Reason is WND’s longest-standing, exclusive, libertarian weekly column.

I thank my readers for doing their part

Alexa US Ranking for WND: 423
Alexa World Ranking for WND: 1,832

UPDATE (May 26): A pleasant surprise awaits you, Myron, in the new, improved, softcover edition of The Cannibal,, wherein you are now mentioned.

Anyone who wishes to read this bonus material should petition The Cannibal’s Publisher to supply Amazon with Cannibal copies, via the Amazon-approved channels. This is the very basic commitment of publishing. Without Amazon a work has no life.

Amazon is the lifeblood of any worker-bee writer.

UPDATED: The Law of Rule In The New South Africa

Business, Ethics, Etiquette, Ilana Mercer, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Race, South-Africa

Eugene Girin reviews “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America From Post-Apartheid South Africa” at VDARE.COM: “…what rule of law can exist in a country ruled by a party of racially-motivated terrorists whose unofficial anthem is the song ‘Kill the Boer’ and whose current president’s favorite song is ‘Give me my machine gun,” he asks.

MORE.

MAÑANA. I’d like to be able to offer you the softcover copy of The Cannibal. It has been collated and features bonus material. I know I’ve promised courtesy copies to Dr. Victor Niederhoffer and other deserving parties.

The new, softcover issue should be available sometime soon—although do take into account that the Pacific Northwest is not Manhattan. After almost a decade in this region, I can safely say that, with a few treasured exceptions, people outside the Microsoft workforce (who, with Boeing, is the main employer here) have a hard time acting professionally and honorably.

So, all I can say is that the softcover of The Cannibal is coming “Mañana,” Pacific Time.

Or, Inshallah, as we say in the Middle East.

Keep a look out; it’s worth it.

As my tiny, treasured parrot (T. Cup) used to say, “It’s coming.”

UPDATE: The review says the word “whites” a lot. The book doesn’t. As I mentioned in “National Review Eunuchs”:

I cop to Western man’s individualist disdain—could it be his weakness?—for race as an organizing principle. For me, the road to freedom lies in beating back the state, so that individuals may regain freedom of association, dominion over property, the absolute right of self-defense; the right to hire, fire, and, generally, associate at will.

The Cannibal jibes with that sentiment.

UPDATE: This evening, Peter Brimelow emailed to tell me that, following the review on VDARE.COM, The Cannibal shot up to “Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,531 in Books .” Just looked. Many thanks.

UPDATED: The Kochtopus Convenes, Again

China, Free Markets, libertarianism, Liberty, Neoconservatism, Objectivism, Political Philosophy, South-Africa

Last year, RT interviewed me about “Libertarianism Lite,” in anticipation of what is supposed to be libertarian officialdom’s Event of the Year, Freedom Fest.

The Kochtopus is set to convene again. With the exceptions of Tom Woods and Peter Schiff, it’s the same old guard, bedecked with a bimbo version of Penn Jillette for hip value.

The Andrew Napolitano-Koch Connection has been established. (See LewRockwekll.com.) I was never a huge fan of Freedom Watch, which, in my opinion, had that distinct CATO/Beltway, left-libertarian bent.

By way of an example, take the “War Street Journal’s” Stephen Moore, a natural star of any Kochtopus Convention. Moore was forever appearing in furtherance of freedom on Judge Napolitano’s Freedom Watch.

No wonder Moore, like Neal Boortz, is Hannity’s in-house freedom fighter too. One of Moore’s books was “Bullish on Bush: How the Ownership Society Is Making America Richer.”

“Bush’s bailout society” was an instantiation of the principles upon which “Bush’s ownership society” was founded: credit for those who are not creditworthy. But not even a full-throated support of the Bush affirmative action in housing loans amounts to an indictment among America’s incestuous (oft-libertarian) teletwits.

If you’re after some dry-as-dust, dispassionate, desiccated disquisitions on conventional aspects of the free market about which we all agree—and which Mises and Rothbard already covered better—Freedom Fest is the “happening” place for you.

My guess is that a demonstration for George Zimmerman around the corner would draw a real crowd.

UPDATE: In Reply to a thread on Facebook, written by writers who can’t tell their Left from their Right. Both of the FF speakers lauded on the thread are open-border, left libertarians, and one belongs to an outfit that honored the decidedly anti-capitalism Desmund Tutu, with whom I once took afternoon tea, as he was a friend of my father’s, before “forgetting” father’s contribution to “The Struggle.” It’s in my book; a book about the reality in the New South Africa, as opposed to the parallel reality peddled by left libertarian think tanks.

The other chap is known for his anti-Israel irrationalism, exposed in “Libertarians Who Loathe Israel” & “FOAMING AT THE MOUTH OVER ISRAEL.” Being so “intellectually honest” (NOT), this one character has practically boycotted all my work from the shrinking forums he controls, even though it jibes with his, for the most (although mine is actually fun to read). Intellectual honesty, Yeah, right.

‘The Cannibal’ Has Another Convert

Ilana Mercer, Ilana On Radio & TV, libertarianism, Political Economy, Political Philosophy, Private Property, South-Africa

In attendance at the New York Junto gathering, where I was the month of May’s featured speaker, was Jay Taylor, a New-York based investor and broadcaster who invests and broadcasts in the Austrian tradition.

I was delighted to hear that the topic of the talk—“Natural Rights in ‘Into the Cannibal’s Pot’: Abstractions or Facts of Life?”—resonated with Jay.

Here’s what the New York money and media man has written:

“It is most important your insights are aired as widely as possible so I was going to have my producer at Voice America track you down if I didn’t hear back from you. [I reply to every single inquiry I get. It may take time—a week or two, or more—but I answer all civilized, normal, sane interlocutors. Few are the people who get struck off my list of interlocutors. I can count 2 individuals in total in the last 5 years. And that took years of displays of incorrigible, maladaptive and manipulative irrationality, the kind that verges on malevolence.]
I really loved your talk and the following discussion. It was very enlightening. What I would most like to achieve in our discussion is to help people see how the loss of property rights is dangerous to liberty and even our safety. And I would like people to realize that applies to America as well as anywhere else.
Then I would like to have that point hammered home to my many “liberal” friends who may have their hearts in the right place but just don’t understand human nature.
You opened up a huge number of philosophical questions that I am personally struggling with, having come from a very religious Mennonite background in Ohio. Where do Natural Rights come from? “We hold these truths to be self evident. That we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (I think it was originally property?)”
I think you are actually quite good at addressing topics and questions when they are raised. I thought you did a great job at NY Junto. … I think you did a great job of explaining the connection between private property and liberty. I will do everything I can to promote your book and the ideas contained therein…

I will be on The Jay Taylor Radio Program sometime in June.