A Voice From the Hoi Polloi

On October 12, 2004 Lew Rockwell published my article Now and Then, my first on LRC. Over the intervening 20 years there have been upwards of 170 posts by me, with as few as one article in 2009 when my daughter was a year old and 23 articles in the COVID year 2020.

I am very fortunate to own a house in the countryside in Burgundy, France that I have called My Investment in Heaven (in another LRC post). There is a mezzanine in the house that serves no obvious purpose. I once asked the previous owner who had restored the house why he had constructed this mezzanine. His response was surprising, at least to me, “I don’t know. I just felt like doing it.” Perhaps like this gentleman and the mezzanine, I cannot say why I write. I am not a professional writer. I have never been paid by Lew Rockwell. I can say that writing is simply an urge, like scratching an itch. As I am just a voice from the hoi polloi, I can’t believe what I write has any impact on the world. But I do feel privileged to be an author listed among the important writers that Lew Rockwell assembles six times a week. For that I thank Lew profusely.

Lew has allowed me to post articles on a wide range of topics. There have been many posts on books, movies, travel, economics . . . (My author page at LRC: Ira Katz, Author at LewRockwell.)

That first article in 2004, comparing the Global War on Terror to the war on communism, still stands up, at least for me.

“I now realize, what I did not then, that virtually all wars begin with lies and only achieve mixed results at best. So now I know that the terrorists are wrong, but our government is a greater threat to the blood and treasure of this country.”

There are articles that have been more personal, in a sense written for my daughter to read one day, that I have listed below regarding my life, my family, life in France, and spirituality (now relatively common on LRC but what I thought might be taboo in 2004).

There is much more for me to thank Lew for than accepting my contributions to LRC. It is LRC that has been my daily view on the world, in turn shaping my worldview. It is because of LRC that I could spot the Covid fraud from the very beginning (see the list below). Already by March 24, 2020 I was writing about the idiocy of lockdowns.

As a non-writer writer, I am ambivalent if people read what I have written. I used to send select friends long letters to appease my urge to write out what I thought. I even wrote articles that never left my computer. But I must admit that receiving feedback from readers is gratifying. For that I thank you, LRC readers, as well.

Life

The Madeleine for a Chicagoan – LRC Blog (lewrockwell.com)
Dread the Future? Here’s What Helped Me – LewRockwell
0 for 16: Reflections on Corporate R&D – LewRockwell
Measuring Success – LewRockwell
Passions That Cool: Sports and Travel – LewRockwell
This Is Not a Conversion Story – LewRockwell

Family

My Mom – LewRockwell
What’s in a Name? – LewRockwell
Coming Out of a Dark Wood – LewRockwell
I Am Thirsty But I Cannot Drink – LewRockwell

France

Living in Paris – LewRockwell
Why I Moved to France – LewRockwell
Becoming an Ex-Pat – LewRockwell
A Libertarian in the Wilderness – LewRockwell
A French Summer Vacation – LewRockwell
A Story of Patrimony – LewRockwell
A French Cemetery – LewRockwell
Vendange – LewRockwell

Spiritual

Two Fantastic Stories – LewRockwell
This Is Not a Conversion Story – LewRockwell
Faith and Reason – LewRockwell
A Prayer for Our Time – LewRockwell
Catholicism in Meudon – LewRockwell

Covid

Signs of the Times – LewRockwell
A Profile in Courage: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – LewRockwell
Eugenics – LewRockwell
Vaccine Wars: Update from the French Front – LewRockwell
My Noose Is Tightening – LewRockwell
Ivermectin, Covid-19, and Why It Could Be Miraculous – LewRockwell
To the Barricades … And to Church – LewRockwell
Covid Odds and Ends – LewRockwell
The End of Modernity – LewRockwell
A Hopeful Message From the Past – LewRockwell
Notes From the French Confinement – LewRockwell
The Resistance in Versailles – LewRockwell