Monthly Archives: February 2015

Sufficient Unto The Day Is The Evil Thereof

February 27, 2015 – 2:45 pm

It’s getting hard to keep up with the engulfment of every aspect of our lives by the government, and of every aspect of government by the Executive branch. Most worrisome of all is the extent to which regulatory control of the nation’s affairs, and the disbursement of the nation’s wealth, have fallen under the supremacy […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (43)

Soup And Sandwich

February 27, 2015 – 11:25 am

An interesting item over the transom this morning from our reader and commenter The Big Henry: Data Mining Indian Recipes Reveals New Food Pairing Phenomenon I’d never even heard of this ‘food pairing’ business. It uses chemical analysis to determine which foods have shared ‘flavor components’, and should go well together.

By Malcolm | Posted in Science, Food | Comments (15)

Just A Sleepy Little Town

February 26, 2015 – 9:56 pm

Here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Curiosities | Comments (3)

Here’s Johnny!

February 26, 2015 – 4:08 pm

A little while ago we remarked on the government’s disingenuous account of the ‘root causes’ of ‘violent extremism’. Both President Obama and the State Department’s spokespigeon Marie Harf have painstakingly refused to identify Islamic jihad as Islamic jihad, and have tried to persuade us instead that the real problem is a lack of business opportunities. […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Jihad | Comments (10)

Acronym Of The Day

February 26, 2015 – 12:01 am

…is ‘TATO’. It stands for ‘TATO And TATO Only’. (hat-tip: D.R.H.)

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (4)

Q.E.D.

February 24, 2015 – 11:33 pm

A few weeks back I noted that global warmism was, in many cases, a secular repurposing of the religious impulse, and that its narrative is a near-perfect parallel of the Christian Fall-and-Redemption mythos: In the beginning, there was only God. From God arose Man. Before his Fall, Man lived simply, and in perfect harmony with […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Global Warming | Comments (21)

The Thrill Is Gone

February 23, 2015 – 10:07 pm

Those of us of a “certain age” will note with sorrow the loss of Sam Houston Andrew III, the guitarist and co-founder of the psychedelic-era band Big Brother and the Holding Company. He died last week at 73, of complications following a heart attack.

By Malcolm | Posted in Music and Recording | Comments (1)

Like It Is

February 22, 2015 – 1:50 pm

It’s nice to see Rudy Giuliani standing firm on his remarks about Barack Obama. Mr. Giuliani has obviously reached the point where he is answerable to nobody: he is independently wealthy, and has no voters to appease. The Cathedral’s levers therefore having (for now at least) no point of purchase on him, he is free […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Politics | Comments (31)

The Truth Will Set You Free

February 21, 2015 – 6:44 pm

I was out doing errands just now, and stopped in at the local Asian fruit-and-vegetable shop. I had grabbed several things that were three for a dollar, five for a dollar, etc., and the young woman behind the counter quickly summed up the total in her head. I complimented her on her calculating skill. She […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture | Comments (3)

Same As It Ever Was

February 21, 2015 – 2:23 pm

Our reader and commenter Whitewall has brought to our attention an excellent article, by the blogger and columnist Daniel Greenfield, on the modern West’s dreamy image of Islam. The gist is this: Islam never became enlightened. It never stopped being ”˜medieval’. Whatever enlightenment it received was imposed on it by European colonialism. It’s a second-hand […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Jihad | Comments (4)

The Great Game, 2015

February 21, 2015 – 1:02 am

From the indefatigable JK: video of a U.S. air-to-ground attack. Here. – Erratum: I had originally referred this as a “drone team”. Thanks to commenter El Gringo for the correction.

By Malcolm | Posted in Military | Comments (4)

Getting Hot In Here

February 20, 2015 – 12:11 am

I understand President Obama said some things today about ‘extremism’. I haven’t read what he said, so I won’t comment for now. I’m sure I’m going to love it. I did, however, get not one, but two nice little notes from Mr. Obama’s ministry of propaganda today, telling me that it was time to “beat […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Global Warming | Comments (4)

New From DARPA: Anti-Gravitas

February 17, 2015 – 4:35 pm

My God, we are ruled by children. If this weren’t bad enough (and it is), we have now put forward a feather-headed teenage girl by the name of Marie Harf as the public face of America’s foreign policy. Yesterday, as noted at Twitchy.com, she explained to Chris Matthews that the real answer to defeating ISIS […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Jihad, Foreign Affairs | Comments (43)

This Thing All Things Devours

February 16, 2015 – 11:33 pm

On February 26th, a five-member panel of FCC commissioners will vote on adopting a plan to apply government regulation to various aspects of the operation of the Internet. This will undoubtedly have far-reaching effects — and given the scale of the Federal government, of the Internet, and of the conflicting interests that will be affected, […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics, Technology | Comments (6)

Search Me!

February 15, 2015 – 11:37 pm

Every January or February (depending on when I remember to do it) I present a sampling of the search keyphrases that brought visitors to this site during the previous year. Here’s the 2014 selection. This year’s winner was the mysterious phrase “lwica lwica”, which occurred 318 times. You may also notice some perennial favorites. compelling […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Shameless Filler | Comments (9)

Let Me Count The Ways

February 14, 2015 – 9:56 pm

On an end-table next to where I do most of my reading there is a lamp with a ‘three-way’ bulb. Last night one of its filaments burned out, and I found that I had no more of these bulbs in the house. I’ll go looking for another tomorrow. I know that these ‘three-way’ bulbs were […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (5)

So Much For That

February 13, 2015 – 5:23 pm

“When you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.” – Lord Kelvin “Yes, and when you can express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.” – Jacob Viner

By Malcolm | Posted in Apophthegmata | Comments (13)

Commonality Of Atoms

February 11, 2015 – 1:24 pm

In a recent nerf-ball interview with Vox, President Obama gloated at the disintegration of the American nation into a dissociated congeries of human particles. In his remarks, Mr. Obama said the following thing: …I’m pretty optimistic, and the reason is because this country just becomes more and more of a hodgepodge of folks… So people […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture | Comments (35)

Never Mind!

February 10, 2015 – 5:18 pm

Well, whaddya know: after decades of scaremongering about dietary cholesterol, it looks like the U.S. government is about to tell us we don’t need to worry about it after all. This from the Washington Post: The nation’s top nutrition advisory panel has decided to drop its caution about eating cholesterol-laden food, a move that could […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (18)

Links

February 9, 2015 – 8:17 pm

Yet another round of painful periodontal surgery today. I’m too out-of-it to write much, or well. Some links, then: ‣   I’m going to have to get myself some of this, I think. ‣   42 hours of Buckminster Fuller lectures. ‣   The St. Augustine Monster. ‣   Medieval Metallica. ‣   Charles Cooke […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (12)

¡Hola!

February 8, 2015 – 12:03 am

Well, we’re back from our little trip to Banderas Bay. It’s bracing to be back home again in the frigid North. Balmy breezes in February are nice enough in small doses, I suppose, but frankly the whole tropical-paradise thing has a limited and transitory appeal to Ice People like me. If history hasn’t already made […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (28)