Monthly Archives: March 2015

Freedom, Religious And Otherwise

March 31, 2015 – 9:49 pm

This ruction about Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act is deplorable for many reasons — not least of which is the fact that Indiana’s law is nothing unusual, and resembles very closely similar laws in other states (including, for example, Connecticut, whose governor has ostentatiously called for a state-spending boycott of Indiana, and Illinois, where young […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture | Comments (9)

Coming Around

March 30, 2015 – 5:41 pm

I’m much improved this week. I’m still full of powerful narcotics, but I’m getting around a lot better, and my “little grey cells” are starting to come back to life. It’s hard to know where to pick up the thread of current and recent events; an awful lot has been going on. There’s the Iran […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (12)

Update

March 25, 2015 – 12:09 pm

Sorry to have been down so long… this post-operative experience is everything they warned me it would be, and then some. The deep pain, and the meds one has to take to manage it, are so disorienting and exhausting that any sort of serious thinking, reading, or writing are just impossible. (Even typing is affected […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (12)

“Let The Healing Process Begin”

March 21, 2015 – 10:38 am

We hear this expression all the time lately. As a lover of language, I’ve done a little research, and it turns out that in archaic usage it could refer to actual injuries, too, and not just to somebody, somewhere, having said something uncomplimentary. Good to know! I’m home again, but too exhausted and doped up […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (7)

Update

March 16, 2015 – 7:41 pm

Knee replaced without incident. In hospital till later this week. Thanks again all. – MP

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (4)

Decline And Fall

March 15, 2015 – 7:10 pm

Thanks all for the well-wishes in comments and emails, folks. I’ll leave you all on this cheery note.

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Foreign Affairs | Comments (2)

Service Notice

March 15, 2015 – 12:39 am

Back in January of 1996, I had a little mishap down at the kwoon. We had a cocky student who needed taking down a peg, and in the course of doing so I smote him with a jumping double kick — showboating on my part, really, because such things are hardly necessary for effective Hung […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General, Martial Arts | Comments (10)

Sleeper Cell

March 13, 2015 – 11:02 pm

Jonah Goldberg wrote an amusing item today about the Hillary Clinton email flap. I’ve had too much on my mind this week to write anything substantial, so for tonight I’ll just pass along an excerpt of Mr. Goldberg’s commentary: As Bill Clinton said when the harem girls on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane finally announced they were […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (3)

Whoops!

March 12, 2015 – 10:53 pm

Here’s an interesting item from across the pond: We were wrong to try to ban racism out of existence, says former equality chief The modern order (there’s an oxymoron for you!) is all about careless destruction.

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

The Letter

March 9, 2015 – 1:34 pm

Republicans in the Senate have sent a letter to Iran’s leadership informing them of the Constitutional limitations of any deal the President may make without the approval of Congress. This is in response to Mr. Obama’s apparent intention to make such a deal as an ‘executive agreement’ that he can conclude without seeking Congress’s consent. […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics, Foreign Affairs | Comments (40)

Scuttlebutt

March 8, 2015 – 12:18 am

Rumors are going round that Ayatollah Khamenei’s cancer has now killed him. That would certainly complicate any pending deals, unless there’s a successor and an agreement that have just been waiting in the wings. Hard to see how things could coalesce that fast, or that reliably, though.

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

Bright Side

March 7, 2015 – 11:49 pm

Overheard in a checkout line yesterday: Shopper #1: “Tomorrow night’s Daylight Savings Time.” Shopper #2: “Yeah. ‘Spring Ahead’, right? So we lose an hour of sleep.” Shopper #1: “Yeah… but maybe the extra hour of sunlight will help melt all this snow!”

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (6)

Extremism

March 6, 2015 – 6:05 pm

People talk about the “second childhood” of old age. What relates the second childhood to the first is high “time preference”: that it cares more about the present than the future. The edges of our lives are unlike the middle. The child is unaware of its future; the old man has none.

By Malcolm | Posted in Apophthegmata | Comments (8)

I Love The Smell Of Napalm In The Morning

March 5, 2015 – 11:30 am

Well, it seems as if this story about Hillary Clinton’s emails has caused quite a commotion. (As it should.) From Jim Geraghty’s morning newsletter (my emphasis): The primary feature of Hillary’s “home-brewed’ system was that it could destroy e-mails completely and permanently — no backups or third-party records that you get with Yahoo or Gmail. […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (20)

Separation Of Powers

March 4, 2015 – 10:12 pm

Heard on the radio today: “There are three coequal branches of government in the United States: the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and Anthony Kennedy.”

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (2)

Netanyahu’s Speech

March 3, 2015 – 12:21 pm

Benjamin Netanyahu just gave a magnificent, and in my opinion historic, address to Congress on the dangers of the pending deal with Iran. He was interrupted 43 times by thunderous applause. The shade of Winston Churchill, who was the only other foreign leader to have addressed Congress three times, hovered approvingly over the proceedings. Mr. […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics, Foreign Affairs | Comments (18)

This And That

March 2, 2015 – 10:31 pm

I won’t comment on Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress tomorrow, other than to note that President Obama has nothing on his public schedule at 11 a.m., and that the boycott of the address by the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democrats is not something they ought to be particularly proud of. (My own representative, Yvette […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (4)