Wrangler Dani

I love to rant about politics. (I also love to state the obvious. Obviously.) I recently got published in a pro-free-markets, individual liberty, Constitutional piece of wonder called Liberty Ink Journal. This is really more a piece for my other blog, but I had to share it here, too, because you all have been with me and cheered me on through this whole weird crazy journey of self-employment and calling myself a writer with conviction, so you deserve to know.

I wrote for this little magazine like it was going to kill me. I poured my heart and soul out, waxing eloquent about things that most people think are boring – like FDR’s speeches and the Washington Monument Ploy and the dream of utopia. It brought out my best and it showed me places where my logic had faltered and needed strengthening.

Today I learned that they’ve closed – for the moment. There’s hope that investors will revive it, but for the forseeable future, Liberty Ink Journal (in print, at least) is no more. I spoke to their publisher a few weeks back on the phone and as we swapped introductions, he told me, “well, I’m just out here in Colorado, trying to save the country”. He meant it as a joke, of course, a lighthearted take on a serious enterprise – one of everyday columnists and part-time philosophers returning political speak back to where it belongs, in the mouths, hands and hearts of We the People.

I’m mourning my outlet today – I never even told you all this big news, because it still seemed to precious and I wasn’t ready to broadcast it – but today I am crying because I finally made a tiny profit on something that I loved to write about more than anything in the world, and in a moment, it’s taken away. Here’s to you, LIJ, and to the countless start-ups like you. I hope you come back and remind us what entrepreneurship looks like, but in the meantime, thanks for the ride.

Click to read one of my pieces for LIJ.