I’ve been working like a dog all week, and between earning a crust and winnowing away the chaff in the comment threads, I’ve had no time to pile up a new post. So for tonight, just a few links: — Supermassive object begins to collapse. — The Butlerian jihad begins. — A blue planet where […]
In 1965, near the end of a long lifetime of scholarly study and reflection, the great historians Will and Ariel Durant brought forth a slim volume called The Lessons of History, a companion to their magnum opus, The Story of Civilization. The third chapter, Biology and History, deals with topics now associated with the dissident […]
Our recent post on differing views of the importance of tradition led to a disagreement, in the comment thread, on whether American culture was in decline. No, said our interlocutor “the One Eyed Man”, quite the contrary: While you fret about “our own rapidly vanishing culture,” the rest of the world frets that their cultures […]
I generally make some sort of post on Independence Day, but yesterday I neglected to. It was the usual “Main Street, USA” kind of Fourth here in Wellfleet: a slightly goofy, locally themed parade under a hot July sun. (Along Main Street.) One thing I might have mentioned yesterday was that John Adams, our second […]
In our recent discussion of the Supreme Court’s DOMA ruling, our reader Peter, “The One Eyed Man”, made the following response to the suggestion that marriage was a tradition so ancient, and so universal, that some care might be warranted in tampering with it: Tradition alone does not justify continuance in perpetuity. Well, I don’t […]
Here’s a weekend roundup of loosely related items. Mark Steyn’s been dipping his quill in aqua regia as usual this week, and from him we have a pair of items. First up is an NRO piece called The Simulacrum of Self-Government, in which Mr. Steyn describes: …just another day in the life of the republic: […]
Good Lord: is this for real? (Asking for a friend.)
If, like so many Americans, your summer plans include boating with friends & family, always remember: safety first! Be sure to stow away a few of these.
I wish Carl Sagan were alive to see this: a gigapixel panoramic view of the surface of Mars. Don’t forget to click the “full screen” button.
I seem to be linking to Bill Vallicella a lot lately, but that’s just because he says a lot of sensible things, and says them well. In a fine, short post from a couple of days ago, he asks: Why Not Stick To Philosophy? Why indeed? Having worked hard enough for long enough to have […]
As often happens to me mid-week, I’m working long hours. So for tonight, just some links that have been piling up: — Diplomad comments on the banning of Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller from the U.K. — From Walter Williams, some reminders from the Founding Fathers on why the right to bear arms is of […]
A reader writes: If memory serves – never a sure bet – some time ago on your blog, you quoted Winston Churchill saying that “”If you’re not a liberal when you’re twenty-five, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re thirty-five, you have no brain.” I learned today that he […]
If this is for real, it is a major innovation. Call your broker.
After a long couple of weeks spent preparing our little Wellfleet dacha for the first of the summer’s round of tenants (there’s always an awful lot to do after a year’s benign neglect), the lovely Nina and I got back to Gotham late tonight to find that the huge mulberry tree in our backyard had […]
Our friend Mangan has sent along a link to an online vocabulary test that I thought all of you, being of course among the upper echelons of the world’s cognitive elites, might like to have a go at. Here it is. Pro tip: check your answers twice before submitting; the test is hard on the […]
The New York Times‘s omphaloskeptic opinionator Charles Blow has outdone himself in his latest column, in which he presents a gallimaufry of depressing (and unsurprising) statistics about the accelerating disintegration of the American nation and culture, then stands blinking in the rubble, as if to say “what happened”? What has happened, Mr. Blow, is the […]
A little while ago I linked to a piece by Sam Harris entitled Islam and the Misuses of Ecstasy. In it, Mr. Harris wrote: I have long struggled to understand how smart, well-educated liberals can fail to perceive the unique dangers of Islam. In The End of Faith, I argued that such people don’t know […]
It was inevitable: given that surveillance cameras are everywhere these days, and that facial-recognition software is increasingly cheap and reliable, “privacy” freaks (who obviously have “something to hide”, or why make such a fuss?) are fighting back with a high-tech countermeasure, in the form of goggles that emit a cloaking glare of low-infrared radiation. There’s […]
From Scribd, a cheery riposte. Via @lachlan.
With a hat tip to our pal Mangan, here’s why yesterday’s SCOTUS ruling on the Arizona voter-ID law is actually good news for those of us who think that in accordance with the law, only citizens should be able to vote hate-filled, racist xenophobes.
Well, here’s a sensational assertion: were it not for the stifling effect of federal regulation, our 2011 GDP would have been $53.9 trillion, rather than the paltry $15.1 trillion we ended up with. So say economists John Dawson of Appalachian State University and John Seater of North Carolina State University, in a recently published paper, […]
I’ll wager that most of you don’t know the name. He was a guitar player from Washington, D.C. Like some other great players I can think of — Roy Buchanan and John Bushnell come to mind — Danny Gatton was revered by his peers (“revered” is almost an understatement) — but never achieved the renown […]
From today’s IRS hearings, we have Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) getting an informative update from FBI Director Robert Mueller on the status of the investigation. It’s good to see the IRS is really taking this seriously. Meanwhile, it seems the NSA’s anti-terrorism surveillance program hasn’t been as frighteningly far-reaching as all those “voices” warning us […]
Another busy day at work, after which the lovely Nina and I spent the evening celebrating our 31st wedding anniversary (!). So, for tonight, all I have for you is a pair of links. First, a striking video of giant plasma vortices on the Sun. Second, a good piece by Sam Harris about Islam, featuring […]
Here’s a paper worth reading carefully, from Frank Salter and Henry Harpending: J.P. Rushton’s theory of ethnic nepotism In brief, the paper argues that in ethnically diverse settings, the statistical advantage conferred by intra-ethnic altruistic cohesion is sufficient to create significant group-level selection pressure, even when the actual kin relations are fairly weak.
From the Washington Post: an article by law professor Jonathan Turley on what he calls the “fourth branch” of government — the largely autonomous horde of regulatory and administrative agencies, comprising millions of Federal employees, that run the nation from within the Executive branch. An excerpt: For much of our nation’s history, the federal government […]
I’ve been taking a little break from writing; despite all that’s going on, I’ve been distracted and unfocused, and have had nothing of any substance to say. So, speaking of distractions, here’s one that has cost me a couple of hours recently: a highly addictive game that uses Google’s street-view data. I found it quite […]
This from Mangan just now, regarding the NSA phone-surveillance revelation: As I’ve said, oh, about a hundred times already, the best way to prevent terrorism is to prevent the terrorists from entering the country. Had the Bombing Borat Brothers not been allowed refugee status, that whole episode would never have happened. Sure, we get a […]
In case you missed it: Verizon forced to hand over telephone data Long ago, Charles Dickens wrote this about the United States: I believe that the heaviest blow ever dealt at Liberty’s head will be dealt by this nation in the ultimate failure of its example to the earth.
Still swamped today, but had to pass this along. For all of you youngsters.
Another busy spell here. Back shortly.
This latest current-events biopsy further confirms the diagnosis.
This is an interesting item: even as Sunni-Shia violence is getting hotter by the day in Iraq, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s preeminent intellectual, has called on all Sunni Muslims to join the anti-Assad forces in Syria, now that Hezbollah has joined the coalition fighting for the preservation of the regime. The ancient hatreds are […]
And here it is: DOJ: Social Media Posts Trashing Muslims May Violate Civil Rights In its latest effort to protect followers of Islam in the U.S. the Obama Justice Department warns against using social media to spread information considered inflammatory against Muslims, threatening that it could constitute a violation of civil rights. The move comes […]
In an essay distributed today, Patrick Buchanan suggests abolishing the corporate tax. We read (long excerpt): In a press release, “Avoiding Their Fair Share of Taxes,” the AFL-CIO hails Levin [that’s Senator Carl Levin, D-MI, who summoned Apple to the presence and berated Tim Cook for taking advantage of legal tax-minimization strategies] and bewails the […]
This is very impressive indeed.
This just in: as of 2014, the U.S. armed forces are to begin phasing out their traditional physical-fitness programs in favor of a new, full-body conditioning system, which has already shown dramatic effects after being adopted by police forces in the U.K. and Sweden. You can see it here.
With a hat tip to our man Mangan, we have this, from the Telegraph: Death risk lottery of NHS surgery We read: Patients undergoing planned operations on the NHS are far more likely to die if they have their operations towards the end of the week, according to a landmark study published in the British […]
OK, maybe this should have been the Clip of the Day.
Amazing footage: storm chasers in a specially prepared vehicle end up inside the tornado they were following. Hope that thing has washable seats.
To the tune of 156,000 New York taxpayer dollars annually, plus lavish perks. Here.
You’ve heard the term lately, no doubt. If you’re wondering what it means, have a look here: Parking Tickets Issued on Wrecks while Stockholm Burns We read: [W]hile the Stockholm riots keep spreading and intensifying, Swedish police have adopted a tactic of non-interference. ’Our ambition is really to do as little as possible,’ Stockholm Chief […]
I think it’s time for a brief review of some simple, obvious facts about human nature and the character of human societies. 1) People generally prefer to live with others like themselves. Even in highly diverse places like great port cities, people generally associate homogeneously in their private lives. 2) In highly homogeneous societies, those […]
Sorry, readers, for my neglect of these pages over the past few days. I’ve hardly looked at a computer, or read the news, since Wednesday, and I will say that I’m a better man for it. Until I get caught up, and find myself actually having something to write about, here’s a little nugget from […]
Over the transom tonight comes a link to Victor Davis Hanson’s latest: a summary of just how dangerous the bloat and rot and corruption of our Executive Branch has become. We read: Government has become a sort of malignant metastasizing tumor, growing on its own, parasitical on healthy cells, always searching for new sources of […]
So: the rest of the press gets Baghdad Bob Carney in the briefing room, and the ones with the OFA kneepads get a private pow-wow. Duly noted.
Yesterday I wrote, with regard to the Richwine affair, that “in their ardor to eliminate, for all time, every form of discrimination ”” which righteous Quest, infinite and unbounded, is the holiest sacrament of our new secular religion ”” it seems that many on the multiculturalist Left are more than willing to bring Truth itself […]
In recent days we’ve linked to an assortment of comments on the public flaying and excommunication of Jason Richwine. (The linked items have all been supportive; had I found anything from the other side that I thought was intellectually respectable enough to offer our readers, I would have done so. If you readers have anything […]