Monthly Archives: June 2014

The Exogenous State

June 29, 2014 – 11:33 pm

From Julius Evola, Men Among the Ruins, p 149-50: The main thing that emerges in ancient forms is that unity in them did not possess a merely political character, but rather a spiritual and quite often religious one, the political domain apparently being shaped and upheld by an idea or a general view that was […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture | Comments (10)

Phoning It In

June 26, 2014 – 10:30 pm

I’m still working long hours, and haven’t been able to keep up with the growing backlog of interesting things to comment on. In particular, there have been a slew of Supreme Court decisions I’d like to dissect a bit (today’s unanimous ruling rejecting the President’s egregious “recess” appointments was particularly gratifying, but I still want […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Shameless Filler | Comments (1)

Geodesy And Skullduggery

June 24, 2014 – 10:03 pm

I’m working late tonight, so here are two items to keep you from going away empty-handed: a little item about map projections (sent our way by the indefatigable JK), and, to keep you up wondering about things, some very interesting reading about Benghazi, Syria, and ISIL. (As for the second item, caveat lector: I make […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Shameless Filler, Foreign Affairs | Comments (1)

Read It And Weep

June 22, 2014 – 10:41 pm

The latest in Victor Davis Hanson’s chronicles of a moribund civilization. Here.

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

Determinism And Predictability

June 22, 2014 – 9:51 pm
This entry is part 15 of 15 in the series Free Will

My friends Kevin Kim and Bill Keezer have been discussing a recent post of Bill’s, in which he argues that the Universe is “undetermined and constrained”. Bill’s post is here, and Kevin’s response, which raises some important objections but stops short, I think, of fully “grasping the nettle”, is here. Bill’s essay begins: For over […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Science, Free Will | Comments (4)

K-L On Democracy

June 21, 2014 – 11:20 pm

A lot of people are complaining about how poorly governed we are these days, but even the self-identifying “conservatives” I speak to are taken aback when I suggest that the problem might not be the administration currently in power (as destructive as it may be), but the natural evolution of democracy itself. We are so […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Reaction | Comments (58)

Heretics Take Note

June 19, 2014 – 10:53 am

If you prefer reality to Cathedral orthodoxy, you’re evil, and will someday roast in Hell. Meanwhile, you should be reading the Unz Review.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (0)

Let It Burn

June 18, 2014 – 11:41 pm

From our reader Bill Keezer comes a link to a piquant item by Richard Fernandez on the crumbling Obama presidency. There’s so much blood in the water now that even some of Mr. Obama’s most stalwart allies are swimming away as fast as they can, lest they be devoured too. It’s even getting to the […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (3)

Hillary Lays It On

June 17, 2014 – 7:38 pm

Here’s a little clip from a public appearance by Hillary Clinton today. It’s only a couple of minutes long, but is, let’s just say, densely packed. As the clip begins, Ms. Clinton is asked by an androgynous, hoplophobic sycophant whether she thinks that banning “assault weapons” and “high-capacity magazines” would exert a downward pressure on […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Guns, Politics | Comments (29)

Links

June 16, 2014 – 11:35 pm

I’m a little woozy tonight after some periodontal surgery earlier today, so for now, just a few links that have been gathering dust in the bin: — On topic: Comfortably Numb. — On legacies and dynasties. — The wages of sin. — The Walter Duranty prize: to David Kirkpatrick, for his Benghazi whitewash in the […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (2)

Égalité!

June 14, 2014 – 5:41 pm

The weather being clement here in Brooklyn today (it won’t be for long; see here and here and here and here) I went out for a constitutional in Prospect Park. I found myself walking behind a police officer. I was so struck by her appearance that I snapped a photo (forgive the poor quality; it […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture | Comments (52)

Cloudy

June 13, 2014 – 5:23 pm

Here’s a shot of the sky above Brooklyn a few minutes ago, from my stoop.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (8)

Not A Smidgen Of Corruption!

June 13, 2014 – 3:59 pm

Well! It appears the IRS has “lost” two years’ worth of Lois Lerner’s emails. Golly, what an unlucky coincidence. Especially considering that the NSA has copies of every email every American citizen has ever written, backed up redundantly in hardened underground bunkers scattered across all fifty states. Allahpundit just remarked: This is the Platonic Form […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics, Rubbish | Comments (0)

Eek!

June 13, 2014 – 11:06 am

Here’s what Bryce LaLiberte just called “the lamest hit-piece on neoreaction yet (and that’s saying something)”. It really is pretty bad. There isn’t even any discussion of what NRx is; just a lot of huffing and puffing about fascism by a frightened socialist. See for yourself. My favorite parts: putting the word “culture” in scare-quotes, […]

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

A Columbine Survivor’s Open Letter On Gun Control

June 13, 2014 – 10:01 am

A young man named Evan Todd, who is a survivor and eyewitness of the Columbine massacre, has written an open letter to the President urging him to reconsider his support of Federal gun-rights infringements. You can read it here. One quibble: arguing against universal background checks, Mr. Todd asks “is a universal background check system […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics, Guns | Comments (0)

Forward!

June 13, 2014 – 12:18 am

In case you haven’t noticed, everything’s going to hell. I can’t say that I’m surprised: in a comment a while back, for example, I wrote that the administration of “this awful man — this grotesque incompetent, this subversive fraud, this preening and malevolent narcissist, this despiser of American tradition and implacable enemy of everything the […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Jihad, Foreign Affairs | Comments (23)

Awwww…

June 12, 2014 – 10:50 pm

There aren’t many public figures on the Left who irritate me the way the writer Chris Hedges always has. (Tim Wise is another.) Pallid, sneering, humorless, self-righteous, and full of that grotesque collectivist piety that has done more damage in the modern world than any other force of man or nature, the very sight of […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Marginalia | Comments (0)

Space Porn

June 12, 2014 – 12:39 pm

I have to say, this is pretty titillating. It’s also the first I’m hearing about this sort of thing as a realistic possibility, and I wonder how seriously to take it. (The article says this rig can get to Alpha Centauri and back in a month. I assume that’s ship’s time, and so we’d still […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Technology | Comments (1)

“On The Run”

June 11, 2014 – 10:24 am

Not content with Mosul, now it appears that ISIL has seized Tikrit, too. Iraq is disintegrating. Update: Not sure what to make of this…

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

Connection Restored

June 10, 2014 – 11:34 pm

Things are finally getting back to normal around here, and I apologize to all for the long absence. (I realize that my not writing anything here for a week doesn’t exactly deprive anyone of oxygen, but I do know that many people stop by here regularly — my thanks to all of you as always! […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (6)

The King In Yellow Replies

June 5, 2014 – 11:23 am

In this engaging post, science-fiction writer John C. Wright responds, with brio and in fine style, to accusations of political heterodoxy and tainted allegiances.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (0)

Service Notice

June 4, 2014 – 9:12 pm

There are a great many things I’d like to be commenting on just now, but I’m working very long hours this week and have no time for anything else. Thanks very much as always for checking in. Back soon I hope.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (12)

All In A Day’s Work

June 2, 2014 – 9:39 pm

Say what you will about Barack Obama, the man is consistent: everything he does seems reliably to act against the interests of the United States, its people, and its economic and social well-being; against the intention of the Framers that we shall live under a government of limited, enumerated powers, in which the three branches […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (7)