stoutfellow

It has been suggested that Cardinal Prevost, as he was, chose the name Leo to indicate admiration for Pope Leo XIII, who reigned in the late nineteenth century, and was, inter alia, responsible for the encyclical Rerum Novarum, “Of New Things.” Pope Leo XIII was against radically new things, but he did, for example, give conditional approval to labor unions, while opposing the nationalization of property. As I recall, the encyclical stated that fathers have the duty to leave profitable property to their children, which [it said] cannot be done without private property in land. Leo the Thirteenth did not explicitly condemn land value taxation, nor denounce Henry George by name, but George interpreted the encyclical as an attack on his views and his movement (as it probably was), and responded with An Open Letter to Pope Leo XIII. He was polite, but expressed his points of disagreement with the Pope.

There were and are Catholic Georgists, and there are questions about just what was intended by the encyclical, and how various statements in it are to be construed. Some more recent papal encyclicals have been implicitly more favorable to Georgist views — not that the Catholic Church has gone Georgist, or that the late Pope Francis was necessarily familiar with Georgism, but there are statements about social Justice and environmental preservation which seem compatible with a Georgist outlook.

So, anyway, God bless the new Pope Leo (whether there is a God or not), and I hope that his teachings will not drive any wedges between Catholics and Georgists, or pose problems to those who endeavor to be both.

Someone filed another amendment, so I’m now at two amendments on my Amended docket. Someone also filed a post-allowance amendment to correct minor informalities, which showed up on my Expedited docket; I dealt with that, so it’s no there, and my Expedited docket is clear.

I have also worked on an Office Action dealing with several issues in my oldest Regular New application. I’m hoping to finish it today, in time to get it counted for this biweek. (Some of my time has been eaten up by computer troubles.)

One of my friends, Alanna Hartzok, has been trying to organize a Georgist Speakers’ Bureau, and we held a Zoom meeting on Saturday to discuss it. There are people who are willing to go speak to groups that have any interest in hearing us; I mentioned that I may retire in a few years, and then have more time to devote to Georgist activism, although less money to donate to Georgist organizations. The discussion was interesting; for example, there is a Georgist subreddit, and there are Georgists out there who are not plugged into the movement, what there is of it; they’re not members of Georgist organizations, and they’re mostly not lobbying their mayors, city councilmen, and state legislators to enact Georgist tax reform.

Also, when Alanna asked who said that all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing, I chimed in, “Edmund Burke.”

A Patent Office employee named Len Tran joined USPTO Toastmasters a couple of years ago, and demonstrated excellence in public speaking. I competed against him in the club contest a few months ago, but he won. And did I mention that he’s an author? He went on to win the area level and division level speaking contests, and will compete at the District level. I will not be surprised if he wins again, and competes at the world championship level; he might even become World Champion of Public Speaking, either this year, or in a future year, and I will be able to say that I knew him when.