In the begining the blog was without form and void

I don't expect to have a large following, but I'll treat this as a conversation with someone I don't know.

The first thing to do is establish a common universe of discourse.

In order to understand all the other things I may choose to talk about it's important that the reader understand my starting definitions and positions.

Much of what I believe comes from the non-aggression principle. This principle can be summed up with this definition: the initiation of physical force, the threat of such, or fraud upon persons or their property, is inherently illegitimate.

I'll address some of the possible criticisms of the non-aggression principle as a moral tool in later posts and I'll explain more about why I find the non-aggression principle to be so useful and fundamental when it comes to thinking about morality and politics and other issues.

Next, I'd like to introduce the reader to the idea of natural rights. I'll need to explain this a little more than some other ideas or definitions, as I don't hold that a creator endowed us all with certain rights, rather I think we can derive certain natural rights from reason alone, more like Kant tries to do (not that I'm saying Kant is authoritative or correct, just more along the lines of where I come from). Natural rights will almost certainly need a post or two on it's own in order to discuss.

Once we establish what I think these two concepts mean, then it will be easier to discuss nearly all things moral and political.

Other issues and ideas we'll need to define and discuss further include: peak oil and fiat money. It's only after we have some understanding of what these things are that we will be able to discuss why I think these two things are so very important to where we (the world) are now and where we will be in the not to distant future.

This set of concepts should keep me busy for a while. Stay tuned.