Happy Birthday, F.A. Hayek! (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992)

Happy Birthday, Friedrich August von Hayek! Here's a video profiling the great classical liberal political economist and philosopher.

Then there's this great one from EconStories:

And the follow-up:

And of course last, but not least, "I'm in Love with Friedrich Hayek," by Dorian Elektra:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek

The Ride - Paul Revere short educational film piece

From wikipedia:


Between 9 and 10 p.m. on the night of April 18, 1775, Joseph Warren told Revere and William Dawes that the king's troops were about to embark in boats from Boston bound for Cambridge and the road to Lexington and Concord. Warren's intelligence suggested that the most likely objectives of the regulars' movements later that night would be the capture of Adams and Hancock. They did not worry about the possibility of regulars marching to Concord, since the supplies at Concord were safe, but they did think their leaders in Lexington were unaware of the potential danger that night. Revere and Dawes were sent out to warn them and to alert colonial militias in nearby towns.
In the days before April 18, Revere had instructed Robert Newman, the sexton of the North Church, to send a signal by lantern to alert colonists in Charlestown as to the movements of the troops when the information became known. In what is well known today by the phrase "one if by land, two if by sea", one lantern in the steeple would signal the army's choice of the land route while two lanterns would signal the route "by water" across the Charles River. Revere first gave instructions to send the signal to Charlestown. He then crossed the Charles River by rowboat, slipping past the British warship HMS Somerset at anchor. Crossings were banned at that hour, but Revere safely landed in Charlestown and rode to Lexington, avoiding a British patrol and later warning almost every house along the route. The Charlestown colonists dispatched additional riders to the north.^[41][43]
Riding through present-day Somerville, Medford, and Arlington, Revere warned patriots along his route, many of whom set out on horseback to deliver warnings of their own. By the end of the night there were probably as many as 40 riders throughout Middlesex County carrying the news of the army's advance. Revere did not shout the phrase later attributed to him ("The British are coming!"): His mission depended on secrecy, the countryside was filled with British army patrols, and most of the Massachusetts colonists (who were predominantly English in ethnic origin) still considered themselves British. Revere's warning, according to eyewitness accounts of the ride and Revere's own descriptions, was "The Regulars are coming out.^" Revere arrived in Lexington around midnight, with Dawes arriving about a half hour later. They met with Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were spending the night with Hancock's relatives (in what is now called the Hancock-Clarke House), and they spent a great deal of time discussing plans of action upon receiving the news. They believed that the forces leaving the city were too large for the sole task of arresting two men and that Concord was the main target. The Lexington men dispatched riders to the surrounding towns, and Revere and Dawes continued along the road to Concord accompanied by Samuel Prescott, a doctor who happened to be in Lexington "returning from a lady friend's house at the awkward hour of 1 a.m."
Revere, Dawes, and Prescott were detained by a British Army patrol in Lincoln at a roadblock on the way to Concord. Prescott jumped his horse over a wall and escaped into the woods; he eventually reached Concord. Dawes also escaped, though he fell off his horse not long after and did not complete the ride.

Revere was captured and questioned by the British soldiers at gunpoint. He told them of the army's movement from Boston, and that British army troops would be in some danger if they approached Lexington, because of the large number of hostile militia gathered there. He and other captives taken by the patrol were still escorted east toward Lexington, until about a half mile from Lexington they heard a gunshot. The British major demanded Revere explain the gunfire, and Revere replied it was a signal to "alarm the country". As the group drew closer to Lexington, the town bell began to clang rapidly, upon which one of the captives proclaimed to the British soldiers "The bell's a'ringing! The town's alarmed, and you're all dead men!"^[51] The British soldiers gathered and decided not to press further towards Lexington but instead to free the prisoners and head back to warn their commanders. The British confiscated Revere's horse and rode off to warn the approaching army column. Revere walked to Rev. Jonas Clarke's house, where Hancock and Adams were staying. As the battle on Lexington Green unfolded, Revere assisted Hancock and his family in their escape from Lexington, helping to carry a trunk of Hancock's papers.

The ride of the three men triggered a flexible system of "alarm and muster" that had been carefully developed months before, in reaction to the colonists' impotent response to the Powder Alarm of September 1774. This system was an improved version of an old network of widespread notification and fast deployment of local militia forces in times of emergency. The colonists had periodically used this system all the way back to the early years of Indian wars in the colony, before it fell into disuse in the French and Indian War. In addition to other express riders delivering messages, bells, drums, alarm guns, bonfires, and a trumpet were used for rapid communication from town to town, notifying the rebels in dozens of eastern Massachusetts villages that they should muster their militias because the regulars in numbers greater than 500 were leaving Boston with possible hostile intentions. This system was so effective that people in towns 25 miles (40 km) from Boston were aware of the army's movements while they were still unloading boats in Cambridge.
Unlike in the Powder Alarm, the alarm raised by the three riders successfully allowed the militia to confront the British troops in Concord, and then harry them all the way back to Boston.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere#.22Midnight_Ride.22

This is a short visualization of Paul Revere's famous ride. It was shot at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA with an almost entirely volunteer cast and crew. It has been freely given to schools throughout the world to use in classrooms. The British dialogue was taken directly from Revere depositions. Revere's first warnings in the video were in Medford and Menotomy (now Arlington, MA) before he was able to reach Hancock and Adams in Lexington. Neither Revere nor Dawes made it to Concord that night. Fortunately, Dr. Samuel Prescott was successful in warning them.

Great Freemasons: James Mercer (February 26, 1736 – October 31, 1793)

James Mercer (February 26, 1736 – October 31, 1793), also known as William James Mercer, was an American soldier, jurist and political figure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mercer_%28jurist%29

(He not only served Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4 as Worshipful Master in 1777, but he went on to become the second Grand Master of Masons in Virginia from 1784 to 1786)

Great Freemasons: Jean Baptiste Marie Ragon (February 25, 1781 - 1862)

Jean Baptiste Marie Ragon (February 25, 1781 - 1862)
(Known as "The most learned ‪#‎Freemason‬ of the 19th century")

Great Freemasons: Frank Parks Briggs (February 25, 1894 – September 23, 1992)

Frank Parks Briggs (February 25, 1894 – September 23, 1992) was a United States Senator from Missouri. Born in Armstrong, Missouri, he attended Armstrong and Fayette schools and Central College at Fayette from 1911 to 1914. He graduated from the University of Missouri in Columbia in 1915, engaged in the newspaper business that year, and in the publishing business at Macon, Missouri in 1925. He was mayor of Macon from 1930 to 1932 and a member of the Missouri Senate from 1933 to 1944.

Briggs was appointed, on January 18, 1945, as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Harry S. Truman and served from January 18, 1945, to January 3, 1947; he was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the full term in 1946. He resumed the newspaper publishing business and was chairman of the Missouri State Conservation Commission in 1955-1956; from 1961 to 1965 he was Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife. He was a resident of Macon until his death in 1992; interment was in Walnut Ridge Cemetery, Fayette.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_P._Briggs

[Grand Master of Missouri (1957), Fayette Lodge 47]

Great Freemasons: Antonio López de Santa Anna (24 February 1794 – 21 June 1876)

 

 My actions at the Alamo are justified as is my participation in them!

Antonio López de Santa Anna

Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (Spanish pronunciation: [anˈtonjo ˈlopez ðe sant(a)ˈana]; 24 February 1794 – 21 June 1876), often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna and sometimes called "the Napoleon of the West", was a Mexican politician and Mr. Fermin's songeneral who greatly influenced early Mexican politics and government. Santa Anna first opposed the movement for Mexican independence from Spain, but then fought in support of it. Though not the first caudillo (military leader) of modern Mexico, he was among the earliest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wi…/Antonio_L%C3%B3pez_de_Santa_Anna

(While I can not determine his Lodge affiliation, it has been confirmed by Texas Scottish Right that he was a Scottish Right Freemason in Mexico. Mexico's rules in this are the same as the Southern and Northern Jurisdictions. Only Master Masons can become Scottish Rite Masons)
http://texashistoricalfoundation.org/santa-annas-masonic-m…/

Great Freemasons: Usher Lloyd Burdick (February 21, 1879 – August 19, 1960)

We Republicans in the west want to know if Wall Street, the utilities, and the international bankers control our party and can select our candidate? I believe I am serving the best interests of the Republican Party by protesting in advance and exposing the machinations and attempts of J.P. Morgan and the New York utility bankers in forcing Wendell Willkie on the Republican Party.…There is nothing to the Willkie boom for President except the artificial public opinion being created by newspapers, magazines, and the radio. The reason [in] back of all this is money. Money is being spent by someone, and lots of it.
Usher Lloyd Burdick (February 21, 1879 – August 19, 1960)

Usher Lloyd Burdick was a member of the United States House of Representatives from North Dakota. He was the father of Quentin N. Burdick.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usher_L._Burdick

(Mt. Moriah Lodge 51, ND)

Ayn Rand Valentines

Great Freemasons: Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 – February 12, 1942)

(Self-portrait, 1932)

All the good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
Grant Wood

Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 – February 12, 1942) was an American painter born four miles (6 km) east of Anamosa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Wood

(Grant Wood, American Gothic (1930), Art Institute of Chicago)

(Mount Hermon Lodge 363, IA)

Happy Lincoln's Birthday!

Yes...My Master...

BUT WHO WILL BUILD THE ROADS?

Ayn Rand (February 2, 1905 – March 6, 1982)

Theirs is the banner in my hand. And I wish I had the power to tell them that the despair of their hearts was not to be final, and their night was not without hope. For the battle they lost can never be lost. For that which they died to save can never perish. Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which men are capable, the spirit of man will remain alive on this earth. It may sleep, but it will awaken. It may wear chains, but it will break through. And man will go on. Man, not men.
Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Ayn Rand, "Anthem" pgs 103-104”


(Art by Jorge Molina)

Ayn Rand (February 2, 1905 – March 6, 1982)

Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions--and you'll learn that man's mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.
Francisco D'Anconia, "Atlas Shrugged," Ayn Rand


(Art by Francis Manapul; Colors by deffectx)

Penn Jillette on Democracy

Kurt Russell quote

Problem: Economy

Great Freemasons: Charles Williams Nash (January 28, 1864 — June 6, 1948)

Years of experience have taught me that there are three highly important factors entering into the success of any large manufacturing organization, and these factors are machinery, methods, and men. And the last is, perhaps, the most important of all.
Charles Williams Nash (January 28, 1864 — June 6, 1948)

Charles Williams Nash was a United States automobile entrepreneur and served as an executive in the automotive industry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Williams_Nash

(Flint Lodge 23, Flint, Michigan)

Han Solo - Libertarian

Great Freemasons: Samuel Gompers (January 27, 1850 – December 13, 1924)

What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures.
Samuel Gompers (January 27, 1850 – December 13, 1924)

Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a Georgist labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and served as the organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924. He promoted harmony among the different craft unions that comprised the AFL, trying to minimize jurisdictional battles. He promoted thorough organization and collective bargaining to secure shorter hours and higher wages, the first essential steps, he believed, to emancipating labor. He also encouraged the AFL to take political action to "elect their friends" and "defeat their enemies". During World War I, Gompers and the AFL openly supported the war effort, attempting to avoid strikes and boost morale while raising wage rates and expanding membership.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Gompers

(Dawson Lodge 16, Washington, DC)

If You've Been Called....

Keith Ward - Why There Almost Certainly Is A God

What If I Told You

Anarcho-Keynesianism

Computer Models Predict Climate Change!

If You Don't Like the Economy Controlled by the 1%...

Austrian Economics is Crazy