I have a bit of a twitter problem–it keeps me up way past my bedtime and delays me from starting my day’s work. I’m not sure whether or not to feel guilty about this. Am I educating myself or amusing myself? Does this count as work or leisure? Is following twitter the future equivalent of reading the newspaper everyday, or is it merely a narcissistic distraction? Well, this morning decided the issue: I happened upon a tweet by @libertarianmike: “The chances of being harmed by terrorists are mathematically minute. The chance of being robbed by your own govt? That’s easy:100%–J.Sobran.” I recalled that my father (a Classical Liberal like Ron Paul) loved Joe Sobran, but I still pegged Sobran for a neo-con, so complete had I thought was that sect’s dominance of conservatism. I had to follow up, though, just to be sure. I searched for Sobran references in other tweets and each one was better than the last, so I looked for Sobran’s twitterfeed. I obviously didn’t know much about Joe, because apparently he died in September 2010, so no twitterfeed. Still intrigued, I started googling “Joe Sobran” and found a tribute, upon his death, by neo-con Ann Coulter*, and another one by one of my favorite libertarian anarchists, Professor Robert Higgs–this was getting interesting…Upon further googling, I quickly found an article by Mr. Sobran himself on LewRockwell.com explaining beautifully his conversion from conservative to philosophical anarchist, a conversion I myself had undergone. Now I will add Joe Sobran to my list of favorite anarchists, and will read everything by him I can get my hands on–if I can stop tweeting long enough!
All of this simply to share with you these illuminating articles by and about Joe Sobran, which I wouldn’t have found if I were not addicted to twitter….
The Reluctant Anarchist, by Joe Sobran
Joe Sobran, 1946-2010, by Robert Higgs
Not Your Average Joe, by Ann Coulter*
*To her credit and my great surprise, I just saw that Ann Coulter said she would prefer Ron Paul to Newt Gingrich as the Republican nominee. Who knows? Maybe an intriguing tweet set her on a new path!
UPDATE: Apparently, Joe and William F. Buckley had a public feud. For Joe’s side of the story, read How I Was Fired by Bill Buckley, by Joe Sobran
