Monthly Archives: February 2022

Reaping The Whirlwind

February 27, 2022 – 2:25 pm

Lee Smith has posted an essay at Tablet summarizing the decades-long runup to this war in Ukraine. It’s an excellent synopsis — brief, clear, and insightful — and I highly recommend it to you all. Greed, bluster, folly, and hubris — this story has it all. Read it here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs | Comments (16)

Off We Go

February 23, 2022 – 11:52 pm

That great rumbling sound you’re hearing is history resuming. Reports of its death, or that it has “sides”, were greatly exaggerated. We see tonight, as we have seen again and again and again, century after century, that imaginary “order” based on political and diplomatic abstractions — or on anything but a vector-sum of power, fear, […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (11)

We Sail For Parts Unknown To Man

February 23, 2022 – 10:49 pm

Sad news yesterday: Gary Brooker, the singer, composer, and pianist of the English band Procol Harum, has died of cancer at the age of 76. This was a particularly poignant passing for me; I’ve been haunted by his masterpiece A Salty Dog since the first time I heard it, more than half a century ago, […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Music and Recording | Comments (2)

Number Three

February 21, 2022 – 10:05 pm

It is with great joy that the lovely Nina and I welcome to the world little Cooper Joseph Wright, our third grandchild, born today in Hong Kong. Mother (our daughter) and son are happy and well.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (7)

Not To Worry!

February 17, 2022 – 1:37 pm

You may have had some concerns about gathering tensions on the Russian frontier. (There’s much I could say about what it all means, and about our decades of folly regarding Russia, but I’ll leave that for another time.) Well, I’m happy to say you can put your mind at ease, and get on with your […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs | Comments (6)

Gone, But Not Forgotten

February 17, 2022 – 12:00 pm

Rush Limbaugh died a year ago today. Over at American Greatness, Christopher Flannery has published a remembrance. Read it here.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (0)

Negative Feedback

February 16, 2022 – 11:48 pm

I’m 65, soon to be 66. My lovely wife Nina is about a year-and-a-half older. (She “robbed the cradle”!) We are already both eligible for Social Security. Neither of us had been planning to file for it yet, though, because for each year you wait (until you’re 70), the benefit rate that you lock in […]

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

Swan Song

February 15, 2022 – 12:30 am

Watching those truckers standing up for their liberties against Justin Castreau has me in a feisty temper tonight, and so here’s a post that fits my mood. I have a friend who, back in the heady days before everything became so grim and tedious, used to be a leading light, with a large following, of […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Reaction | Comments (4)

There’s No Crying In Baseball!

February 13, 2022 – 10:31 pm

Richard Hanania has just published an excellent piece at Substack on the enfeebling and corrosive effect of the feminization of public affairs. The problem, as he describes it, is that the natural asymmetry between men and women gives women a pass when they respond emotionally to the rough-and-tumble that is an inevitable part of every […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Darwin and Biology, Society and Culture, Reaction | Comments (2)

Duh!

February 7, 2022 – 3:10 pm

Yes, Justin “Trudeau” is Fidel Castro’s son. This is about as obvious as it could be, and if you are wondering why those in power keep lying about this, I advise you to look up “Point deer, make horse”. If this is actually news to you, read this. (And as current events amply confirm, the […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (2)

Bill Vallicella On Reason, Faith, And Doubt

February 6, 2022 – 12:12 am
This entry is part 6 of 8 in the series Pilgrim's Progress

Readers who have been coming around here for a while will know that in recent years I have felt the need to re-examine all that I once believed about scientism, philosophical materialism, and the existence of God. It began as a grudging acceptance, even as an unbeliever myself, that atheism and secularism might have a […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Religion | Comments (3)