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 […]
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 […]