It's been hard to avoid sombering news the past few days, between the strange and brutal shooting in Aurora and weekend violence perpetrated upon protestors by police in Anaheim.   While one of these events will likely receive much more media coverage than the other, surely heated debate about gun control and violence in our society will be heated.  We'll discuss the issue of violence here later in the week, but it's important to keep perspective and remember this: nobody is going to win any friends or change anyone's minds without the ability to craft logical and persuasive arguments, no matter what the subject.The first step in honing this ability is to arm yourself with knowledge, and one of the most valuable resources for those interested in the ideas of liberty is the Mises Academy, which this week is holding it's yearly Mises University, a week long series of lectures and seminars for Austrian Economics.  And this year, access to this event is easier than ever with Virtual Mises University online.  For only $20 you have access to the entire week's events with some of the brightest minds in the Austrian school of thought, including such greats as Robert Murphy, Joe Salerno, Walter Block and many others.I know what you're thinking.  "But Marc, we haven't even finished our 30 Day Libertarian Reading List yet,  and now you want us to spend a week listening to economics lectures?"  Well that's the wonderful thing about Virtual Mises University.  All of the lectures will be recorded and available long after the actual event takes place.  And no, I don't secretly work for the Mises Institute.  The only kickback I hope to receive by pushing our readers towards resources such as the Mises Academy and Liberty Classroom  is to have better armed allies for the libertarian intellectual revolution.  And the allies are diverse; just browsing the discussion forums I see people attending from all over the world - El Salvador, India, Australia amongst others.With the Federal Reserve coming under scrutiny like never before and sound money becoming a serious topic of discussion, it's important to have an equally sound base of knowledge in Austrian economics.  Austrain economics provides the answers to the questions about how society could, and should, function much better without central banking and with more free markets.  The best part about Austrain economics? It's not boring! It is not about mathematical equations and lame theories about manipulating the money supply.   Austrian theory is more about the study of people and how they interact with each other.  In other words, the free market.  And believe me, it's far more interesting than formulas attempting to calculate M1, M2 and M3. Try turning off all the tragedy talk on the TV for a week, and tuning into Virtual Mises Academy online instead.  I promise you'll be better off for it.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!