Category Archives: Liberty

Memorial Day and Freedom

Posted on May 28, 2023 by Joel D. Hirst

Two weeks ago Felix Maradiaga received the Geneva Summit for Human Rights award for courage. This award was sort of personal, because I’ve known Felix for more than 10 years and for the last two I worked with his wife … Continue reading →

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Afghanistan National Institute of Music

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Joel D. Hirst

A year and a half ago I was caught up in a wild effort to spirit the Afghanistan National Institute of Music from Kabul. For days while HKIA (the airport) was protected by US Marines, and besieged by panicked mobs … Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs, Liberty | Tagged | 1 Comment

Our Fear Society

Posted on February 23, 2023 by Joel D. Hirst

Twenty years ago I marched into Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, copy of Natan Sharansky’s “The Case for Democracy” under my arm, determined to be part of that epic fight of democracy vs. tyranny. Bush called it the “Freedom Agenda”. Sharansky’s was … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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