Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian readers and an early Happy Independence Day to all my American friends.
It’s been an interesting week. My most recent topic of the week, Lies… has been the most popular posting to date by far receiving about 7x the normal views and growing my subscriber base by about 25%. This is in no small way due to all of you who restacked it or passed it along some other way. My thanks to all of you, especially
who I suspect got the ball rolling. Thanks also to everyone who has responded. I’m slowly working through your responses, and I promise to respond to everyone but please have patience as I’m also working on my next article.Since about a quarter of you are new to my Substack, it couldn’t hurt to review the purpose of this monthly posting and what a typical month looks like. I start the month with “Ship’s Log” as it enables me to take stock of the blog, let you the reader know what my general plan is for the upcoming month, and throw out a few other items of interest (to me if no one else). The schedule after that is generally a topic of the week on Tuesdays and a weekly news review on Fridays. As I do have several paid subscribers (thanks to all of you for your support!), the first topic of the week each month is for paid subscribers only. I also have older posts move behind the paywall after 6 months. If you’re new to Substack, subscriptions are $5 per month.
One last item before we look at the plans for the month. It’s Canada Day/Independence Day week so I’m going to take tomorrow off. This means that the first weekly post will be next Tuesday. I do plan on posting a weekly news article this week though which you will see on Friday.
Coming “Soon”
If you’ve been subscribing for a while you’ll already know that this is more of a rough plan than something written in stone. Something always seems to come up which pushes some of the other articles back a week (sometimes a lot more than that). “On Deck” is what I plan for the month while the “Researching” list consists of ideas I haven’t thought about enough or which require more in-depth research.
On Deck
Expand on Slavery and Capitalism – I touched on this topic in Lies… and it drove a lot of views and comments, so I think its deserving of more depth.
Part II of “Lies…” – The plan is to address additional progressive economic myths including the New Deal, price controls, rent controls (which may just be a subcategory of price controls), and whether or not “the rich” are paying their “fair” share.
There are no feminists in foxholes – I did actually do some work on this one, but it always seems to be a victim of #4 below.
The surprise topic (or two) of the month – the world is a surprising place, and something always seems to come up that just demands an article.
Researching
Why are we so politically divided? Bring Back the Smoke-Filled Room – How to bring politics back to the center.
Bureaucratic “Bloat” and the rising cost of college
Immigration – Why we’re in this mess and how to get out of it.
Racism – Why the Left’s Narrative is Simplistic and Wrong
The Three Sides of the Climate Wars
Top 10 Postings
It was an exciting month, and the Top 10 list has seen more movement than ever before (last month’s rank):
Lies… (N/A)
Shibboleth (7)
Language Part II (5)
The Face of Hate (6)
Political Strategy (14)
You can find all my posts in my archive.
Comment of the Month
It is not often that I have so many insightful comments that I have trouble picking the best one but that was the case this month. I selected the comment by
as it delved into the topical subjects of inheritance and corporate taxes which are both very much in the news in both Canada and the US these days as parties on the left look for new ways to tax “the rich” and ensure that the system is “fair:”“It's worth noting that the Laffer curve varies wildly by country. A while back I had a discussion with a civil service friend. Unsurprisingly, he argued for a 'tax the rich' approach to raising government revenue. I looked at the issue and…continued”
Monthly Draw
As I mentioned earlier, most of what I write is free, but the first article posted every month is for paid subscribers and after 6 months my articles move behind a pay wall. Whether you are a paid or free subscriber I appreciate your support and so by way of thanks I raffle off a 3-month complimentary membership in the monthly “Ship’s Log.” This month’s winner is:
Congratulations Chris!
For those of you who weren’t lucky enough to win this month you can earn complimentary memberships by Refer friends to Hoist the Black Flag from here.
This month sees the first addition to the leaderboard. My thanks to @rightfulfreedom for the two referrals.
AYPWIP?
I have writing before about the difficult choice presented by the Israeli/Hamas war. On the one hand war is terrible. It seems trite having to writing that. On the other, what does one do when faced with an evil that cannot be bargained with? “Turn the other cheek” does not always work in the real world. I invite you to read my article on Just War if you wish to understand what some Christian philosophers thought of the topic. I also leave you with two quotes which I find particularly useful when considering the topic.
If I must choose between righteousness and peace, I choose righteousness.
-- Theodore Roosevelt
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintained their neutrality.
-- Dante Alighieri
Final Thoughts
That’s it for now. Once again, welcome aboard to all my new readers. Feedback and comments are always welcome.
Until next month,
Phil
Congratulations on the success or your Lies piece. IMHO the right needs to understand the most of what the leftists claim is wrong, and not mistakes. Lies.