Category Archives: Liberty

Iran Frozen in Time

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

I started reading “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi because now, right now, Iranians are again trying to be free. They rise up, every once in a while to attempt to throw off the oppressive reign of the Mullahs, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Liberty | Tagged | Leave a comment

Our Unbalanced World

Posted on December 4, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

I’m old enough now to have some life experience to look back upon. I’m disciplined enough to have not wasted the first ‘phase’ of my grown life (that is, the post-school period) on debt, drugs, alcohol, immoral living or other … Continue reading →

Posted in Liberty, philosophy | Tagged | 1 Comment

A Story of Yazidi Genocide

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

I don’t know if anyone else remembers that raw footage of ISIS clawing its way onto Sinjar Mountain, a twisted madness in their eyes. ISIS had taken over the plains where the Yazidis had lived for generations, and the Yazidis … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Liberty | Tagged | Leave a comment

Hotel Bolivia

Posted on September 5, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

There was likely no more dramatic place for Jews fleeing the holocaust to end up than Bolivia. But for a small group, that unlikely land is exactly where they found refuge from Hitler’s wickedness. The crevice in the high Andes … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Liberty | Tagged | Leave a comment

Afghanistan’s Republic Within the Republic

Posted on August 12, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Republics fail, and then they fall. To be sure, sometimes they just fail and then stay on life support. And then, by the time they have fallen nobody remembers that they had been a republic in the first place. Most … Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs, Liberty | Tagged | 2 Comments

In Venezuela the Church Still Endures

Posted on May 13, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Yesterday I had coffee with a new friend, who is himself Catholic, and in a wide-ranging conversation you have when you are surprised by stumbling upon a kindred spirit, I recalled this article I wrote about the Catholic Church in … Continue reading →

Posted in Liberty | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Levy, Intellectuals and Paris

Posted on April 20, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

This should have been marketed and sold as a booklet. Essay selections rarely work in book form, few writers can pull this off and Bernard Henri Levy is no exception. I would have been disappointed, except Levy began the book … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, International Affairs, Liberty | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Pandemic is Over

Posted on March 6, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Last night I attended a musical event hosted in Alexandria, VA by Common Sense Society, an organization dedicated to promoting the civilizational virtues of liberty, prosperity and beauty. Celtic music, love songs from times of war and hardship on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Liberty | Tagged , | Leave a comment

To Talk of Many Things… (Vol. #12 – Chile)

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

Latin America never misses a chance to miss an opportunity. How do you take the most prosperous nation in the region and ruin it? It’s a story that is told over and over until the telling is really not even … Continue reading →

Posted in Liberty | Tagged , | 1 Comment

On Vargas Llosa and Writing

Posted on December 17, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

What makes great writers great? I’ve often wondered that. I’ve stumbled across dusty stories once-translated and lost to time in the ancient bookstalls of Armenia that are breathtaking; then I try and re-read Hemingway every other year, realizing that life … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Liberty, Literature | Tagged , | 2 Comments