Monthly Archives: August 2013

Falling Rock Zone

August 31, 2013 – 9:59 pm

Here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Shameless Filler | Comments (2)

The Rich Get Their Ice In The Summer

August 31, 2013 – 1:00 pm

Oh dear: it seems that there is so much more ice in the Arctic this summer (up by 60%!) that yachts are getting stuck. Story here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Global Warming | Comments (5)

Nerve Gas, Or Undetonated Thermobaric Ordnance?

August 30, 2013 – 1:05 pm

With a hat tip to commenter ‘ScaniaBoy’, here is a very interesting assessment of the alleged CW attack in Syria.

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs | Comments (1)

Then And Now

August 29, 2013 – 1:44 pm

Writing at Taki’s, John Derbyshire marks the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s greatest oration by contrasting a world of genuine obstacles with a modern-day retreat into magical thinking. Here.

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

The Black Budget

August 29, 2013 – 12:38 pm

From the Washington Post. Hat tip: Edward Snowden.

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (0)

The Road To Damascus

August 28, 2013 – 10:13 am

This Syria business certainly seems to have everyone’s attention, if not approval. NightWatch‘s John McCreary had this to say last night (I’ve highlighted some key passages): Syria: Update. The mainstream media headlines with slight variations predict that an attack against Syrian targets by US missiles could occur as early as Thursday. The UK and France […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs | Comments (30)

Go Git ‘Em, Cowboy!

August 27, 2013 – 7:03 pm

It’s strange how quiet the Left seems to be as we rush, without Congressional approval, toward military action against Syria. (Not everyone on the Left, mind: I find myself agreeing with, of all people, Dennis Kucinich on this one.) The Long War Journal‘s blog, Threat Matrix, asks some pertinent questions, here. Among them: 3. Is […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs | Comments (11)

Potpourri

August 26, 2013 – 11:51 am

We’re still a week or two away from resuming normal operations here at waka waka waka; all of our staff are on holiday, and our offices are shuttered, both here and abroad. We invite you to browse our archive, or to try the “View a Random Post” link at upper right. To boldly go. Well, […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General, Shameless Filler | Comments (2)

This And That

August 22, 2013 – 10:53 pm

— Delta Airlines says Obamacare will cost it $100,000,000 next year alone. — Daniel Pipes on the Obama administration’s gormless foreign policy. (Just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s not forget, in 2016, who was running State through all of this.) — A sensible item on Russia’s goals in Syria and the Mideast. — The […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (2)

Suppuration Of Powers

August 21, 2013 – 9:15 pm

I’m impressed by a young Oxonian by the name of Charles C. W. Cooke, who writes for National Review and other outlets. Although Mr. Cooke may even still be in his twenties, he is wise (and conservative, but I repeat myself) beyond his years. Here’s a piece that he published today over at NRO, on […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (17)

Bludgers

August 19, 2013 – 10:33 am

Here are some fascinating mug-shots from 1920’s Australia. The first thing I noticed was how well-dressed everyone was. They may have been thieves and grifters, but at least they looked like grown-ups.

By Malcolm | Posted in Shameless Filler | Comments (3)

Breathe The Free Air Again, My Friend

August 18, 2013 – 10:48 am

My! Even Maureen Dowd has had enough of the Clintons. With luck, by 2016, we all will have.

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (1)

Move Over, Colombian Weasel

August 15, 2013 – 9:57 pm

In case you missed it, there’s a new mammal, which doesn’t happen much these days.

By Malcolm | Posted in Darwin and Biology | Comments (1)

Dark Matter

August 15, 2013 – 9:51 am

If you wish to follow what’s being called the “Dark Enlightenment” — a reactionary center-of-gravity whose core ideas include skepticism of radical egalitarianism and of democracy itself — you should have this blog, and this one, on your reading list.

By Malcolm | Posted in Reaction | Comments (2)

On Self-Defense

August 14, 2013 – 9:12 pm

Here’s an interesting item from Sam Harris: a round-table discussion of self-defense and the law. One thing I learned: California is a really terrible place to have to defend yourself. It sounds as insane as Britain, almost.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (3)

Service Notice

August 12, 2013 – 11:45 pm

It’s August, the weather here in Wellfleet is warm and pleasant, and so it’s time to give the glowing screen a rest for a few weeks, and recharge the “little grey cells”. I’ve got a lot of reading to catch up on, and there are ponds* that need swimming in, oysters that must be gathered […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (1)

Ooops!

August 10, 2013 – 9:02 pm

My goodness, I’m getting sloppy lately. I gave the wrong link in the previous post (now fixed). Apologies to all. The link I meant to post is here. (Same bloody song.) P.S. See also the internal power of the late Xingyi master David Chan, here and here. This is the real deal, folks. (Thanks to […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Martial Arts | Comments (4)

Not Too Shabby

August 10, 2013 – 9:26 am

I’ve been too busy to post much of anything at the moment, so for now, just a quick martial-arts link: a little Hung-Gar jam from a capable-looking practitioner. What this fellow is doing here is a conglomeration of forms from what appears to be the Lam Sai Wing branch of our system. There’s some Fu […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Martial Arts | Comments (0)

Whom The Gods Would Destroy

August 8, 2013 – 12:22 pm

Sometimes, scientific research leads to conclusions that are starkly at odds with ordinary experience, with common sense, and with the received wisdom of the ages. Not so here, however: a new study from the UK finds a correlation between ethnic diversity (“lower own-group density”) and psychosis. From the abstract: Results For every ten percentage point […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Science, Immigration | Comments (1)

Steven Pinker On Scientism

August 7, 2013 – 10:51 pm

Steven Pinker has just published an article that seemed to be getting a lot of attention earlier today. His essay is a rejoinder to the claim, made by many in the humanities, that scientifically minded secular types are besotted by “scientism”, which is nothing more than a new form of faith masquerading as pure rationality. […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Reason and Philosophy, Science | Comments (1)

Just Another Day In The Dar al-Harb

August 6, 2013 – 6:50 pm

As you may recall, during the last election cycle a staple of the Obama campaign was the braggadocious assertion that “Osama is dead, and Detroit is alive.” Our mortal enemies of the past fourteen centuries were now, we were assured, “decimated”, and “on the run”. How things change! If we take “Osama” to be a […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Jihad | Comments (5)

Go Not Gently

August 4, 2013 – 10:57 pm

Perhaps the most spectacular self-delusion of the modern liberal mind — a mind that prides itself in being “reality-based”, and on “restoring science to its rightful place” — is the cognitive dissonance required to tune out the realities of human biodiversity. On the one hand, the science proceeds apace; on the other, the terrifying power […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Darwin and Biology, Immigration | Comments (5)

Update

August 3, 2013 – 8:58 pm

A reader pointed out to me that comments had apparently been closed on the previous post. This was not intentional. Comments are welcome, as always.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (0)

Small World

August 2, 2013 – 2:39 pm

Note: I’ve taken down this post for now, in order to rewrite it. Feel free to email me about it: malcolm [at] malcolmpollack.com.

By Malcolm | Posted in General, Society and Culture, Science | Comments (7)

Seek, And Ye Shall Be Found

August 1, 2013 – 2:24 pm

Details here.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (0)

Excluded Middle

August 1, 2013 – 12:39 pm

It seems the moderate center of just about everything is vanishing. A decades-long process of political electrophoresis has pulled us all, it seems, to one pole or the other; the mediating layers of civil association that were the heart of American life in Tocqueville’s day are withering, leaving the atomized and deracinated citizen standing alone […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Politics | Comments (1)