September 4, 2013 – 7:47 pm
Meet our new comrades. See here (cannibalism) and here (shelling a hospital with some sort of gas) and here (attacking Christians) and here (beheadings). Hop in, boys! We’re off to teach that cad Assad to fight like a gentleman.
September 4, 2013 – 10:39 am
With a tip of the hat to a tweet by hbd* chick, here’s an idea from Israel: banning “remittances” by illegal aliens (or, as they call them in Zion, “infiltrators”): Interior Minister Gid’on Saar signed regulations, Monday, that make it illegal for someone who illegally infiltrated the country to send money out of the country. […]
September 3, 2013 – 7:28 pm
Industrial-grade unwisdom from the National Review: Any strike shouldn’t be a pinprick or necessarily a one-off but part of a broader, longer-term plan to topple Assad and defeats [sic] his allies. This means strengthening elements of the Syrian opposition we can trust, with arms and training; it means crafting and leading an international coalition committed […]
September 3, 2013 – 1:04 pm
— Spiffy map-making from the Smithsonian. — The New York Times on the “dismal science“. — Fence-building bugs. — Derb takes on “Uncle” Tim Wise on the mathematics of race and crime. — And while we are at it: here’s Ron Unz on the same subject. — That STEM crisis you’re always hearing about doesn’t […]
September 2, 2013 – 12:09 pm
Mark Steyn: The problem with the American way of war is that, technologically, it can’t lose, but, in every other sense, it can’t win. Here.
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.
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.
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.
August 29, 2013 – 12:38 pm
From the Washington Post. Hat tip: Edward Snowden.
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
August 18, 2013 – 10:48 am
My! Even Maureen Dowd has had enough of the Clintons. With luck, by 2016, we all will have.
August 15, 2013 – 9:57 pm
In case you missed it, there’s a new mammal, which doesn’t happen much these days.
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.
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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.
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 […]
We note with continuing satisfaction that Mayor Bloomberg’s big-soda ban has been nullified once again in the courts, this time on appeal. (Our reaction to the original ruling is here.) The issue here is personal responsibility. Implicit in this ban is the idea that it is the proper role of the State to intervene in […]
I’m back from Southern California (always a relief) and will be getting back to normal operation around here shortly. For tonight, here’s a longish excerpt from Jonah Goldbergs’ most recent ‘G-File’ newsletter, in which he looks at the differences between conservative and liberal sex scandals in light of what he considers to be essential differences […]
Here is a haunting, oddly beautiful video about Aokigahara, the “suicide forest” at the foot of Fuji-san. After watching this, I remembered a haiku I had written, years ago.
Out in Southern California for a few days, visiting my ancient and ailing dad. Posting if time permits.
Here’s an unfamiliar version of an all-too-familiar tune.
Here’s an essay by Victor Davis Hanson on lying. Worth your time.
I’m not one to wallow in salacious gossip, but when it comes to the detestable liberal jackass and odious sexual deviant Anthony Weiner, I’ll make an exception. New examples of his dark obsession have just come to light, in a series of prurient exchanges between the disgraced former Congressman and a 22-year-old woman. You can […]
In the days since the Zimmerman verdict, I’ve had a lot of conversations with liberal friends* in which they complain about the use of lethal force against the “unarmed” Trayvon Martin. Most of these people have no experience whatsoever with the use of hands, elbows, and forearms as weapons, and imagine that nothing really serious […]
Here’s an item that I missed when it was published in 2011: a study correlating the IQ of nations with per-capita GDP. The results are unsurprising.
Mark Steyn on Detroit, which is scrounging around for assets to liquidate: What else is left to sell? Windsor has already offered to buy Detroit’s half of the Detroit/Windsor tunnel, perhaps to wall it up. With bankruptcy temporarily struck down, we’re told that “innovation hubs” and “enterprise zones” are the answer. Seriously? In my book […]
From an article on today’s ruling by Ingham County Circuit judge Rosemary Aquilina, who has blocked Detroit’s bankruptcy filing: “It’s cheating, sir, and it’s cheating good people who work,’ the judge told assistant Attorney General Brian Devlin. “It’s also not honoring the (United States) president, who took (Detroit’s auto companies) out of bankruptcy.’ Aquilina said […]
Detroit, once a great American city, is filing for bankruptcy. Draw your own conclusions; I’m not going to spell this one out for you.
The NBA’s New Orleans Hornets are changing their name. They are going to become the Pelicans, and apparently many of their fans think the new moniker doesn’t sound fearsome enough. They ought to know better, says Deadpsin’s Barry Petchesky. He has written a lusty defense of the pelican’s ferocity, including the sentence “The pelican might […]
Snoop Dogg explains dialectical materialism. Courtesy of Gizoogle.
With the Zimmerman verdict still reverberating, the blogger known as Ace of Spades has written an excellent contribution to that “national conversation” we’re supposed to be having. Read it here. Also, in case you missed it, here’s George Zimmerman’s brother dismantling Piers Morgan shortly after the verdict.
Our reader and commenter The Big Henry has sent along an interesting item: the most contentious articles on Wikipedia. Some of them are what you’d expect: Global Warming’, ‘Race and Intelligence’. Others, not so much — in particular, number 4: ‘List of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. Employees’. Also, number 1 on the list is ‘George […]
The Department of Justice, frustrated by the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case, is determined to crucify George Zimmerman anyway, whatever it takes. (This is, apparently, necessary in order to fulfill the DOJ’s primary mission: to “alleviate tensions, address community concerns and promote healing’.) Despite the FBI having determined that there was no evidence that […]
Well, as you all know by now, George Zimmerman was cleared of all counts last night in the Trayvon Martin shooting. There’s little to cheer about here, beside the fact that the legal system worked as intended. An unarmed 17-year-old has been shot dead, and another young man will never know a day’s peace as […]