LocoFoco Netcast

A prominent socialist politician tweeted the usual FREE STUFF demand, this last week, and a libertarian responded. After that, the deluge. Dennis Pratt of the Free State Project explains.

The Quest for the Historical Jesus has been going on for two centuries — but with not all that much to show for it. Now we're at a place where many people do not believe that Jesus was a historical figure at all, but just sort of "made up." But according to Ralph Ellis, he's been hiding in plain sight: Jesus is in the pages of history and was a MAJOR FIGURE in the course of empires. In this discussion with host Timothy Virkkala, Mr. Ellis focuses in on the name of Jesus, as deal with in the three books he's written with Jesus in the title: Jesus, Last of the Pharaohs — where Ellis puts Judaism and Christianity into an Egyptican context King Jesus — where pointers in the work of Josephus and the Babylonian Talmud and Arthurian myth show that he was not a mere itinerant preacher and "carpenter's son" Jesus, King of Edessa — where Mr. Ellis finds the exact persons in actual history that became the major figures in the Gospels, down to specific dates and times.

When it comes to free speech, terrorism, religion, and neuroscience, Sam Harris cannot think logically. Says David Ramsay Steele, himself an author on books on atheism, Orwell, socialism, and much else.

"Machine learning" is a misnomer! Artificial General Intelligence is impossible — in the same way socialism is impossible! No physicist or mathematician or even AI specialist really believes that AI will become conscious and rule the world! So don't worry. But these aren't just assertions. Join host Timothy Virkkala and author David Ramsay Steele as we talk to Jobst Landegrabe and Barry Smith — experts who know something about the subject. A fascinating discussion, and a good occasion to revive the LocoFoco Netcast from its year of silence.

Paul Jacob is a political activist known for guiding the term limits movement in the 1990s. In this millennium, he has advanced and defended initiative rights. Paul is president of the Liberty Initiative Fund. The latest episode of his weekend podcast, This Week in Common Sense, is here echoed as an episode of the LocoFoco Netcast. The excuse for this? Well, Timothy Wirkman Virkkala, the perpetrator of LocoFoco.net, helps Paul out with his podcasts, and we'll just consider this a crossover episode. For further echoes and pre-echoes, go to locofoco.locals.com.

A few more minutes with the great Dennis Pratt! And an example of how host Timothy Virkkala answers questions on Quora.

Dennis Pratt returns to the podcast to talk about Quora, the New Hampshire Free State movement, and his latest idea: The Slave State Project! Timothy Virkkala can be found at wirkman.com, locofoco.us, and here at locofoco.net. See also @wirkman on Twitter, Facebook, and Gab.

Timothy Virkkala talks to Stephen Schumacher, activist against the current medical nemesis, about the nefarious and crazy-cult Covidian nightmare unleashed in a charming town on Puget Sound. This audio podcast is available from podcatchers as well as on video at YouTube. The audio host can always be found at LocoFoco.net. Virkkala's blog is at wirkman.com, and please join in the fun at locofoco.locals.com. The video version is available at https://youtu.be/7yBeY8HqKOs .

Emile explains to Timo the big ideas that led up to the creation of Bitcoin. See also: https://wirkman.com https://locofoco.locals.com https://locofoco.us https://locofoco.net

Philosopher and political economist James R. Otteson joins Lee C. Waaks and Timothy Wirkman Virkkala for a discussion of the besetting sins of economic policy. Professor Otteson's new book, 'The Seven Deadly Economic Sins,' will be out at the end of April, and is available for pre-order with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers. This podcast is available from a variety of podcatchers, on LocoFoco.net, and will soon appear in video form on YouTube and Bitchute. The LocoFoco team is reachable at locofoco.us and Virkkala is reachable at his website, wirkman.com. Also: check out LocoFoco.locals.com.

Matt Asher on epistemics, UFOs, and a fistful of dung. Mr. Asher is a statistician and the host of the terrific podcast The Filter. In this episode of the LocoFoco Netcast, he joins Timothy Virkkala to explore the problems of knowledge and trust and cultic behavior of our leaders and followers in this strange age of chaos.

Anthony Comegna returns to the LocoFoco — this podcast and the movement's history — to explain American liberty, past, present, if not future. Note that my explanation of LocoFocoism, upfront, is soon corrected with a more historically accurate account. Understandable, since Dr. Comegna is @DrLocoFoco . . . on Twitter. Anthony Comegna hosts the podcast Ideas in Progress. Timothy Wirkman Virkkala can be found on social media as “@wirkman” (on MeWe with a space) and on his website wirkman.com.

Ralph Ellis returns for nearly three hours of conversation about the origins of Christianity and Rabbinical Judaism, to boot! Mr. Ellis is the author of Jesus, Last of the Pharaohs; Cleopatra to Christ; King Jesus; and Jesus, King of Edessa. Your host, Timothy Virkkala, had read a bit more than half of King Jesus before interviewing Ellis for the second time. The first time, a month earlier, the subject centered on a peer-reviewed paper on Ice Age climate change that Ellis had co-authored, and on Ellis's book Tempest and Exodus. Mr. Ellis's books can be found at http://edfu-books.uk/; his video lecture series is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/ralphellis.

What are we supposed to make of "experts" who do not confront the most important data in front of them? That's a problem these days. And it has been a huge issue on the CO2 theory of "anthropogenic global warming." But one problem I've had with this well-funded "climate science" is that its pushers cannot explain the biggest climate change in our most-relevant geological past: the cycles of Ice Ages. So I invited Ralph Ellis, co-author of the paper "Modulation of ice ages via precession and dust-albedo feedbacks," to explain what others do not seem able or ... willing. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987116300305 It turns out, though, that Ralph Ellis is an inveterate challenger of accepted paradigms. So after the one-hour mark, our conversation moves to ancient Egypt and a curious possibility about the true identity of the ancient Israelites. http://edfu-books.uk/books/ And what is really curious: this possibility has been staring us in the face all along. It occurred to me, and if you knew who The Hyksos were, it probably occurred to you. But only Ralph Ellis has taken up the clue to see where the ancient path leads. The audio version of this podcast can be found on podcatchers and at LocoFoco.net, and the video version on YouTube (https://youtu.be/ulcOvP-y1VM) and BitChute (https://www.bitchute.com/video/MAZcFEnGfXiR/). Provide feedback at LocoFoco.locals.com. Thanks for stopping by. Timothy Virkkala

For this episode of the LocoFoco Netcast, Rocco Lucente joins Lee Waaks and Timo Virkkala for a discussion of weight loss and health in a free (and not so free) society. www.LocoFoco.Locals.com www.locofoco.us

In this episode of the LocoFoco Netcast, Lee Waaks interrogates anthropologist Philip Carl Salzman, Professor Emeritus at McGill University, about the nature of feminism in the present day. Host Timothy Virkkala joins in the discussion as we begin the second season of the podcast. See also LocoFoco.Locals.com

In this episode of the LocoFoco Netcast (#23) Paul Jacob joins host Timothy Virkkala to talk about how crazy America has gotten, how majorly insane it will get leading up to Election Day, and WHY. Oh, Why? Paul Jacob writes at ThisIsCommonSense.org. Timothy Virkkala writes at wirkman.com. You can interact with him at LocoFoco.us and LocoFoco.locals.com. The book referred to is Alvin Rabushka and Kenneth Shepsle, Politics in Plural Societies: A Theory of Democratic Instability.

In this episode we talk to a man who defended his community from drive-by arsonists who may or may not have been antifa or BLM, during the wildfires in Oregon early in September, 2020. Links: www.LocoFoco.locals.com www.LocoFoco.us www.wirkman.com

Stephan Kinsella on his people, the libertarians.

In this, the 20th episode of the LocoFoco Netcast, Lee Waaks talks with criminologist Brendan Dooley about the links between crime and poverty -- and much, much more. Contact the team at LocoFoco.us or LocoFoco.locals.com.

Let's call Robert Wicks our Facebook Sensei and listen to what he says about the world-shaking aspects of increased communications through social media and other modern technologies. Gutenberg, Bell, Marconi? Move over. The world is rushing towards peace. https://www.bitchute.com/video/YprML2PLPPfH/

For this episode of the LocoFoco Netcast, co-hosts Timo Virkkala and Lee Waaks query Rocco Lucente and Olof Af Yggdrasil about the nature of the pandemic and its panicky, political reactions. The podcast, as always, can be found on LocoFoco.net, and with podcatchers such as Apple's, Google's, Pocket Cast, and Spotify. The full video is available on independent platforms BitChute and Brighteon, at BitChute.com/locofoco and Brighteon.com/channels/wirkman/ as well as in pieces on YouTube (eventually). The community can be reached at LocoFoco.us and LocoFoco.locals.com. Social media representation is @wirkman on Gab and other platforms.

This is a look at a whole bunch of books Timothy Virkkala and James L. Gill are reading or have read. A wide-ranging discussion, really. Here are two pages referenced in the podcast: Epicurean Freedom? wirkman.com/2020/07/06/epicurean-freedom/ https://www.budsartbooks.com/screwball-the-cartoonist-who-made-the-funnies-funny.html More probably should be given, but it's late at night and some of us try to sleep when it is dark. James Little Gill: My Monster Problem — and Ours [and] Cognitive Bias Parade — find both on Amazon.com.

Anthony Comegna — THE “Dr. LocoFoco” — joins Timothy Virkkala, once again, for an expansive discussion of the history of libertarian ideas in and around the successful AND tragic Loco-Foco movement of the 19th century. Dr. Comegna is @DrLocoFoco on Twitter, and is Programs Manager for the Institute for Humane Studies: https://theihs.org/people/anthony-comegna/. Mr. Virkkala is @wirkman on Twitter, Facebook and Gab, and blogs at wirkman.com. LocoFoco Netcast can be found by typing in the URL LocoFoco.net, and the team can be reached at LocoFoco.us. On YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ibsy4t5Z7Oc

Remember the old tests of the "Emergency Broadcast System," that we used to hear on radio and see on TV? Here is an update. It's also a kind of plug for the podcast: LocoFoco.net/LocoFoco Netcast.

Admiral Aqbar knows the underlying cause. Timothy (@wirkman) Virkkala explains, and James Gill interrogates. This podcast is available in audio at LocoFoco.net and via podcatchers such as Apple, Google, and Spotify. https://youtu.be/VSOr0A7u49k

Michael Rectenwald, late of New York University, author of three recent books — Springtime for Snowflakes; The Google Archipelago; and his current book, Beyond Woke -- has made a transit from the far left to the . . . resolute and intelligent anti-left. In this, the 14th episode of the LocoFoco Netcast, co-hosts Lee Waaks and Timothy Virkkala interrogate the "Deplorable NYU Prof" on not only Professor Rectenwald's life and work, but, especially, on the nature of today's woke left craziness. And, at the end, the author reads from his work in progress, a novel entitled "The Virus." You will hear it here first, folks. The full-video version of this podcast will appear on YouTube within the day of publication on SoundCloud and via podcatchers such as Apple, Google, and Spotify: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnx8wnCLOiSRc5Vi5vrPXSA

Meet the IP Man himself: Stephan Kinsella. Stephan is a lawyer and a libertarian theorist who has done important work on the nature of rights and on intellectual property. Your host for the LocoFoco Netcast, Timothy Wirkman Virkkala, had this notion to chat with Stephan about legal positivism, a subject upon which both of these libertarians have had somewhat heretical views -- but one thing led to another and they never got around to talking about that. Instead, here we have a wide-ranging conversation about life, the universe, and libertarianism. This is the thirteenth episode of the LocoFoco Netcast, and it is a bit different from our usual fare. We let our hair down -- so to speak. Yes, the subject of hair comes up. As does motorcycles. And Ayn Rand as plagiarist. And the pyramids. And to what extent the State is inevitable and whether we came down out of the trees too soon. And intellectual property. And communism via 3d printers — well, you decide what to make of that! The team can be found at LocoFoco.us, and this podcast is available on Apple, Google, and Spotify. The video version is available on YouTube.

Philosopher Kenneth Minogue warned of the dangers of political idealism. In this 12th episode of the LocoFoco Netcast, Kevin Rollins joins Timothy Virkkala to discuss their first impressions of Minogue’s challenge to libertarians and, well, all moderns and postmoderns. Their discussion focuses on a short talk the late philosopher gave at University of Oxford in late 2009: https://youtu.be/8ypaEjLARCQ Virkkala gives a short explanation of the name of the podcast, which, in turn, can be listened to in audio format at LocoFoco.net, and downloaded via podcatchers such as Apple, Google, and Spotify. The video version is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/F4xPxIUojzU

Emile Phaneuf joins LocoFoco host Timothy Virkkala for another look at the coronavirus — this time the ECONOMICS of the lockdowns. There are other kinds of lethality than dreamt of in Dr. Fauci's philosophy. Mr. Phaneuf has written an article on FEE.org about the subject, and here the problems with lockdowns are explored in terms of the Seen and the Unseen, per Frederic Bastiat. See: https://fee.org/articles/economic-lockdowns-kill-people-yes-literally/ This podcast can be accessed on Apple and Google podcasts, as well as Spotify and other podcatchers. If can be seen in video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/i6YYCzbQZzM

With the rise of nationalist conservativism, what are we dealing with? Another revolt against Enlightenment political philosophy? In this episode of the LocoFoco Netcast, hosts Timo Virkkala and Lee Waaks interview Robert Tracinski, author of "Who Is John Galt, Anyway?" (just out), to make sense of anti-rationalist conservatism. Hint: it's mostly about religion.

Two Hundred years ago the greatest philosopher of liberty was born. But he is not well thought-of today, and there are reasons for that. Some are considered here. See locofoco.us for the group page, LocoFoco.net for the host page. This podcast is available via several podcatchers, including iTunes and Spotify. It is available as a video at https://youtu.be/Re5aeGg2dMc .

Timothy Virkkala interviews Thomas Christian Williams, the author of English Turn: Napoleon Invades Louisiana, about a secret he uncovered: the hand that the third president of the United States of America had in translating the most controversial book of the founding period. C.F. Volney's Ruins of Empires was a much-read, much-admired, and quite influential book in the 19th century -- but is mostly unheard-of today. More forgotten history from the vaults of LocoFoco.us. On iTunes, Spotify, and other podcatchers, and in video at https://youtu.be/mSVfotO7h1s . . . Blogged: https://wirkman.com/2020/04/23/the-lost-classic-of-classical-liberalism/

This week's episode of the LocoFoco Netcast is our seventh, and we return to Dennis Pratt, previously called "The Top Libertarian on Quora." The further adventures of Dennis Pratt are interesting in and of themselves, and our discussion runs far and wide, as Dennis and host Timothy Virkkala try to make sense of a world mad for statism, fearing freedom. The audio podcast finds its home at LocoFoco.net, and is available from iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other podcatchers. The team page is LocoFoco.us. The video version can be found at https://youtu.be/r8JIfmXXBiE

Anthony “Dr. LocoFoco” Comegna joins host Timothy Virkkala to explore the meaning of LocoFoco-ism. This is the history America’s historians shun as if it were the ... coronavirus. The issues from the 1830s and 1840s: anti-monopoly anti-central bank abolitionism anti-censorship pro-freedom Walt Whitman was a LocoFoco. They were a radical bunch, and they took the liberty idea to some logical and sweeping conclusions. Their transit through America’s ideological landscape was astounding, and they changed minds. Whose? William Lloyd Garrison’s, for one. His “no union with slaveholders” notion came from the LocoFocos! President Martin Van Buren — the true father of the Democratic Party — put a number of LocoFocos in his administration. But these LocoFocos came to learn something, and learn it hard: their love of democracy brought them face to face with an unlovely truth, that democracy corrupts its practitioners, and leads to slavery, war, and special privileges. As well as to themselves, the “equal rights” republicans. Libertarians still struggle with these issues. Maybe the way to really confront them is to do what most historians will not: learn from the history of actual libertarianism, in its first full flowering. This podcast can be retrieved from podcatchers such as iTunes and Spotify, and can be viewed in its video format on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0O3C0xlC-vM This information is mirrored on wirkman.com: https://wirkman.com/2020/04/05/the-forgotten-history-of-the-locofocos-or-why-i-dubbed-my-podcast-locofoco-netcast/

Can we fight the coronavirus without becoming mere peons to governments that "take charge" without even addressing their alleged constitutional limits, much less our rights? Yes. One way is by recourse to the principle that is being used to commandeer the whole of our society, and shut down capitalism. The Precautionary Principle doesn't just cut against us. But that means stop being weenies about "conspiracy theories." It also means becoming MORE sophisticated than ever about the Knowledge Problem — about epistemics. Being a "conspiracy theorist" has never been more intellectually respectable. If you do it right. The key? Well, there are several. But one is an old word: Epoché. This episode of the LocoFoco Netcast features Timothy Virkkala flying solo. The video of this presentation is available on YouTube, per usual. LocoFoco.us is where the LocoFoco team can be found and interacted with.

Emile Phaneuf joins Timothy Virkkala for this, the fourth episode of the LocoFoco Netcast. The conversation covers what we can make of the COVID-19 menace in the context of the totalitarian threat. Can we survive AND be free? This podcast is available on Google, Spotify and iTunes, and is hosted by SoundCloud at LocoFoco.net. It is available in video on YouTube on the LocoFoco channel: https://youtu.be/5o_gbgBHyZE To interact with the LocoFoco team, go to LocoFoco.us. Timothy Virkkala's handle on Twitter, Gab, Minds and Facebook is @wirkman; his blog is wirkman.com.

Dennis Pratt has answered thousands of questions on Quora.com, and has carved out an important niche as the most thorough, prolific, and persuasive libertarian on that platform. At least that is what LocoFoco host Timothy Virkkala says in this interview with the master Quoran. There's a lot here in this talk, but the focus is on how to effectively communicate the idea of freedom. It's an ethical idea, says Dennis, and he makes this case with every answer. Dennis runs Liberty at Large on Quora: https://www.quora.com/q/libertyatlarge Dennis's Quora overview: https://www.quora.com/q/qnbazomvprwtlimz/Overview-to-Dennis-eBook This audio podcast is hosted on SoundCloud, and can be reached at LocoFoco.net; visit LocoFoco.us to interact with the LocoFoco team. Virkkala can be found at wirkman.com and @wirkman on many social media platforms. The video version of this podcast can be found here: https://youtu.be/lgY3DJ7whqE It was previewed here: wirkman on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ddrp9S4wZKc Oh, and the idea of calling this a "netcast" and not a "podcast"? LocoFoco.net is the URL. "Netcast" is there to remind you of the domain name suffix. There's a logic here, no?

In this second episode of the LocoFoco Netcast, Lee C. Waaks joins Timothy Virkkala to interview David Ramsay Steele on the occasion of the publication of his new book, The Mystery of Fascism: David Ramsay Steele's Greatest Hits. The focus is on the title essay and the centrality of the strange place fascism has in 20th-century political history — and in the news today. You can find LocoFoco Netcast as LocoFoco.net and on social media at LocoFoco.us. Timothy Virkkala can be found on multiple social media platforms as @wirkman, and at his web page wirkman.com.

LocoFoco Netcast EPISODE ONE: Timothy Virkkala and James Gill try to make sense of economist Tyler Cowen's new form of "libertarianism," and Virkkala begins by explaining the logic of common sense in a math error on MSNBC. Special hat tip to Stefan Molyneux, who is also briefly discussed in this video, and whose work is quoted by fair use (https://youtu.be/Tt1LMftOCzI). See: LocoFoco.net for the podcast, and LocoFoco.us for the conversation. See also Wirkman Comment: https://wirkman.com/2020/01/12/a-sad-incapacity/