US citizen, male, caucasian, born 1944 Coral Gables, Florida, USA. Single (divorced). One child by first wife, two by second.

Public education in Miami, Florida, USA, bachelor's degree in business administration from Tulane University, master's degree in business administration, Wharton Division of the University of Pennsylvania, one year of PhD (Economics) work at University of Miami.

Three years' active duty as a supply officer in the US Navy. Twelve years' work (earned CPA in Maryland) as a company accountant/CFO of small companies. Then fourteen years' work as a technical writer (computer software). Retired at the present writing (August 2006).

My main interests are political economy. My persuasions in the area of political economy are Austrian and Public Choice. Since 2003, the Web site and list server of the Ludwig von Mises Institute have carried occasional articles of mine on socio-economic subjects.

In my retirement, I have two hobbies that are work to some other people: copyediting and translating. These activities are not just similar—they are actually connected to each other in such cases as where I'm editing an author whose native language is not English (the only language I edit in). As for translation, of course, I only "work" German-to-English. Since I only work for/with friends and/or on material that interests me, I usually don't get paid, which makes these hobbies.

I own, and love to drive and work on, my 1966 Corvair Corsa coupe with "factory" air conditioning that I added myself. My Corsa is of the non-turbocharged persuasion, for those familiar with Corsas and their predecessor Spyders. While this car has many updated features such as three-point retractable seat belts and a kick-aβ sound system, it's still very faithful to stock, right down to crank-up windows. I'm interested in cars (of all countries) made in the 1950s and '60s. I've owned a 1964 Studebaker Avanti and 1974 Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia (as old cars), but these turned out not to be keepers like the Corsa. With a "nod" to Ralph Nader, the plate on the front reads, "Unsafe at any age."

About Wikipedia, I'll cite an aphorism of my own making that applies to much more than just Wikipedia:

    All information is propaganda . . .
    But all propaganda is information.

And about my views of things, I'll quote William Blake:

    I argue the truth not to persuade those who do not know it, but to defend those who do.