Monthly Archives: April 2018

A Religious Test For Islam?

April 30, 2018 – 9:03 pm

There’s been an interesting discussion over at Bill Vallicella’s Maverick Philosopher website about the Constitution’s prohibition, in Article VI, of a “religious test” for public office. The discussion, with an anonymous Canadian philosopher (although, as was said once of Newton, “we recognize the lion by his claw”), spans several posts. In the first post in […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Reason and Philosophy, Politics, Religion | Comments (4)

Warmism

April 28, 2018 – 6:02 pm

Here’s a good piece, of unspecified age, describing the cult of climate change. (The author chooses to call it a “cult” because the belief-system isn’t old enough to qualify as a “religion”.)

By Malcolm | Posted in Global Warming | Comments (0)

Gohmert On Mueller

April 27, 2018 – 11:15 am

I’ll be driving all day today, but before I go I want to pass along this long report by Representative Louis Gohmert on the character and professional history of Robert Mueller. (A hat-tip to our e-pal Bill Keezer for this.) Caveat lector: I haven’t had time to read it all myself yet, or to vet […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (0)

A Bright Cold Day In April

April 26, 2018 – 12:37 pm

You’ve probably heard about the Alfie Evans affair in England, in which Her Majesty’s Government, having decided that a young boy in a persistent coma ought to be dead, has been trying to kill him, and has prevented his parents from taking him elsewhere for treatment. It’s a disgusting and horrifying story, and should remind […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Foreign Affairs | Tagged | Comments (7)

The Naturalistic Fallacy

April 26, 2018 – 12:05 pm

Over the transom today: It’s “ethically inappropriate’ for government and medical organizations to describe breastfeeding as “natural’ because the term enforces rigid notions about gender roles, claims a new study in Pediatrics. “Coupling nature with motherhood”¦ can inadvertently support biologically deterministic arguments about the roles of men and women in the family (for example, that […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Science, Rubbish, Reaction | Comments (9)

Truth And Consequences

April 25, 2018 – 9:11 pm

I’ve been busy catching up with work, and have no time for writing just yet. But I do have something good for you to read: a substantial essay by Toby Young on heredity and heresy, and the scientific denialism of the progressive Left. It’s so good that I won’t excerpt it: you must go and […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Science, HBD | Comments (0)

Notes From Abroad

April 24, 2018 – 10:00 pm

Several readers have written to ask me to report on our visit to Austria last week. Mostly we were visiting with my daughter, her husband, and our little grandson, but we did get out and about a bit. Here are some thoughts and recollections. First of all, Austria still retains, as far as I can […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs | Comments (9)

We’re Back

April 23, 2018 – 10:38 am

Did I miss anything? We had a splendid time overseas, but home is best. I have a busy couple of days ahead, picking up the threads of ordinary life. Things should get back to normal here shortly.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (3)

Service Notice

April 12, 2018 – 11:52 am

Things may be a little quiet here for a fortnight or so: the lovely Nina and I are off to Austria to visit our daughter, her husband, and our wee grandson Liam. I’m disinclined to keep too close an eye on the news while we’re traveling; frankly I could use a break. I may post […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (12)

One Of These Days These Boots Are Gonna Walk All Over You

April 11, 2018 – 4:17 pm

Here are three takes on the Michael Cohen raid, and the Mueller probe generally: by DiploMad, Alan Dershowitz, and Dymphna.

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (1)

Dead End

April 11, 2018 – 11:16 am

From Twitter today: Your great-grandmother: 12 kids Your grandmother: 6 kids Your mother: 2 kids You: pic.twitter.com/foxFyXJ17P — Tradical (@NoTrueScotist) April 11, 2018 Cosmologists wonder about a thing called the “Great Filter“. It may be as simple as this.

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Technology | Comments (0)

Rod Dreher On The Failure Of An Ideal

April 10, 2018 – 3:48 pm

The scales have fallen from Rod Dreher’s eyes. Commenting on Harvard’s decision to suspend and defund a campus religious organization, he says that his belief in “compatibilism” — the idea that it is possible for orthodox religion to coexist peaceably with the modern liberal state — is over. Regarding the new liberal order, he notes […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Religion, Reaction | Comments (12)

Fools Rush In

April 10, 2018 – 3:10 pm

Here’s a disturbing pattern: 1) We lean toward a stand-down in Syria. 2) Spooks and hawks object. 3) A chemical-weapons attack is reported. It is blamed, on scant evidence, or no evidence at all, on Assad and the Russians. 4) Women and other tender-hearted types throughout the West weep over looping news footage of suffering […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs | Comments (7)

The Rake’s Progress

April 10, 2018 – 11:05 am

Google honors the Egyptian roué and occasional actor Omar Sharif with one of its worshipful “doodles” today (because “diversity” or something, I guess). Here’s a recap of his life.

By Malcolm | Posted in Rubbish | Tagged | Comments (0)

Home And Away

April 9, 2018 – 10:07 pm

A habit of mine is to get outside to walk a few miles every day; it lifts the spirit, and clears the mind. Usually I am in one of Cape Cod’s remoter precincts, so I walk a favorite hilly trail in the pine-woods; but sometimes I am in New York, and I take my walk, […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Cape Cod, Ruminations | Comments (0)

Bloody Well Right

April 6, 2018 – 1:33 pm

This video is everywhere today, and I’ll do my part to make sure everyone sees it. The speaker’s name is Mark Robinson: Robinson nails the essence of anarcho-tyranny in a brief and powerful sentence: speaking of the law-abiding citizens of America (and I’ll note that his remark applies to all the decent, diligent, and docile […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Guns | Comments (2)

E Pluribus Multis

April 5, 2018 – 12:18 pm

Continuing the discussion of David Reich’s book on human genetics, here’s Steve Sailer with an essay on the populations of India and China. The gist: compared to India, which has maintained genetically distinct (and stratified) subgroups for millennia, China is highly homogeneous. Mr. Sailer is a man of broad erudition, penetrating intelligence, and roving curiosity. […]

By Malcolm | Posted in HBD | Comments (0)

Riddle, Mystery, Enigma

April 4, 2018 – 10:09 pm

I have a question about the Skripal poisonings, allegedly ordered by Vladimir Putin: Why aren’t the victims dead?

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs | Comments (8)

Nick Burchill’s Very Bad Day

April 4, 2018 – 3:03 pm

This is quite possibly the best thing I have ever read: the story of how a young man was banned from a hotel for 18 years. It involves a flock of seagulls and a suitcase full of pepperoni. Here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Tomfoolery | Comments (0)

Three Models Of Equality

April 2, 2018 – 10:10 pm

Last Saturday’s post was about the scuffle between Sam Harris and Ezra Klein over the role of genetics in the varying distribution of cognitive, behavioral, and personality traits in distinct human populations (and over Mr. Harris’s association with Charles Murray, whom people like Klein accuse of peddling racism and “pseudoscience”). I linked to Andrew Sullivan, […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Immigration, HBD | Comments (5)