Author: Tom Albrecht

  • Dishonest or Forgetful?

    When one finds oneself in a hole, one ought to stop digging. The esteemed Gary North has put in an order for more shovels. In his most recent article on bitcoins, he nearly pulls a muscle patting himself on the back for predicting the demise of bitcoin. With the recent disappearance of the folks at […]

  • A Biblical Defense of Open Carry

    I recently received my new Blackhawk Serpa holster, and have moved from an inside-the-waistband (IWB) to an outside-the-waistband (OWB) carry. Obviously, wearing heavy sweaters and winter jackets still allows me to conceal my handgun most of the time, I did get some raised eyebrows at church this past Sunday when the jacket came off and […]

  • I’ve Been a Changin’, As You Can Plainly See

    I’m sitting in my office smoking a fat bowl and watching Doug Wilson’s Q&A session on cannabis, posted soon after the news that Colorado and Washington passed their constitutional referendums allowing the recreational use of cannabis. Pastor Wilson’s position is not new… a few years ago (2008?), he wrote a position paper entitled “One Toke […]

  • Waking from a Dream

    I am finally home from this last trip, and getting myself acclimated to normal life. A few friends have commented to me that they cannot imagine what’s it like to travel like I do, so I thought I would try to give you a glimpse. Imagine falling asleep knowing that you will dream for two […]

  • Travel and the Absence of Intimacy

    I’m wrapping up a two week stint in The Hague, Netherlands, and I’ve been thinking through why this trip seems to be a lot more difficult for my psyche than most of my other trips. The coworkers that I’ve been traveling with have been fantastic, and there has been no shortage of funny discussions, mostly […]

  • A Defense of Bitcoin

    Gary North wrote up an article today titled Bitcoins: The Second Biggest Ponzi Scheme in History. Having bought into the bitcoin “craze” about a year ago, I feel obligated to write back a response to some of the misconceptions he propagates in his article. Those misconceptions are not unique to Mr. North; others have expressed […]

  • Open Source Ecology and the Increase of Knowledge

    I feel like I need to defend myself before I can even start writing. As a disclaimer, I do believe in capitalism and competition, but I also believe that there are bigger goals in life than maximum profit. This is one of them. First, go watch this video to see a quick overview of what […]

  • Atlas Shrugged – Chapter 1, Part 1

    After my (not-so-) recent post on Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged, I decided to start reading through the book again to write a real critique. I started writing this over two years ago, but got distracted by things that seemed important at the time, but now seem rather trivial. My plan is to go through […]

  • Check Out “Beyond My Front Door”

    Anwar is a good friend of mine, and probably my best travel partner. When my family was considering moving to Japan, he took time out of his schedule to trek all the way to northern Japan to meet up with my landlord. I’m sure he had an ulterior motive, since his addiction to world travel […]

  • Back on the Horse

    I haven’t posted in a while. It’s been a long time. I think Facebook might have done some permanent damage to my ability to be able to read and write for longer than 30 seconds, leading me to consider to suspend my Facebook activities and try focusing more on reading and writing more lengthy material. […]

  • Self Promotion is so annoying!

    The internet is great and all, but sadly, too many people can go load up WordPress, start a blog, and call himself a writer, or fire up their iMac, record their inane ramblings, and call herself a musician. There’s no gatekeepers to distribution anymore, and while that can be a good thing, it has horrible […]

  • Comments Activated

    Weird. For some reason, comments were turned off on my site. I turned them back on, and am now looking forward for the onslaught of spam.

  • States’ Rights and Cannibas

    It looks like California is ready to pass a law allowing local governments the authority to decriminalize and even tax marijuana distribution. Of course, the federal government has already begun huffing and puffing about how the law will not impact them at all, and they will continue to make arrests in the state. Their threats […]

  • Identifying a Problem Does Not Validate Your Solution

    So, I made an odd discovery and a big purchase a few months ago. While on vacation in the Poconos, I was digging through a collection of books at an antique store in Tunkhannock, PA, and I found a first edition, first print of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”. It wasn’t cheap, but I think it […]

  • What Have I Been Up To?

    Nothing much… Installing Zimbra. Messing with VirtualBox. Enjoying Sapporo. Preparing to travel to Colorado. Starting to invest using TradeKing and Kapitall. Watching the kids grow up. Enjoying Tab getting her yellow belt in karate. Waiting for summer.