With a hat-tip to our friend The Stiletto, we direct you to a pungent example of the machinery of justice at work. The case concerns an Iowa jailbird who, it was alleged, had thrown feces at one of the screws — a simple act of defiance that is fully conformant with traditional primate style, and […]
I’ve been reading Diarmaid MacCulloch’s outstanding history of Christianity (it’s enormously absorbing, and full of fascinating detail) and I’m currently immersed in the factional disputes of the fourth century A.D., when the biggest problem of the day was to work out a good account of the Trinity, and in particular the nature of Christ. It’s […]
With a hat-tip to commenter “Scott” over at Mangan’s, here’s a meaty interview, from King World News, with financial analyst Jim Rickards on the arcane topic of credit default swaps (and why they’re evil).
Well, here’s something I just found out the hard way: insects can get inside your laptop screen. I was sitting at the computer, saw a bug crawling across the screen, reached up to knock it away, and ended up squashing it. I went to wipe it off and realized it was behind the clear plastic […]
Four years ago I reported on a chicken-wing-eating competition I chanced upon at Grand Central Station. I had never seen professional gurgitators at work before; the best thing I can say about the experience was that it has helped me, in contemplating the great arc of civilization, to lower my expectations. Like other sports, though, […]
Sadly, the BULB Act, H.R. 2417 (see our earlier post here) died in the House the other day. Due to some procedural maneuvering the only way to bring it to the floor for a vote was in such a way as to require a two-thirds majority, and it fell slightly short. (This was in part […]
A week or so ago we posted a little poll, asking readers what they thought was the best album ever. Given the number of people who pass by here every day, I thought we’d see a lot more responses — it’s something that everyone has an opinion about, and unlike most topics, you won’t get […]
With a hat tip to a commenter at Mangan’s, here’s a story that needs to be told: America’s forgotten Negro astronauts.
A friend and former magazine editor contacted me recently to ask my help in finding a designer for a freelance project she’s doing: a new magazine for a branch of our armed services. The person she thought best qualified for the job, a former colleague, turned down the work because of the moral distastefulness of […]
I haven’t said much about the debt-limit squabble, for at least two reasons: First, what’s the point of having a debt limit anyway, if it just gets raised whenever we approach it? Second, in the real world, as Kevin Williamson points out here, the only meaningful debt limit isn’t one that you impose upon yourself; […]
… goes unpunished. Next time, just throw it back. Accountants say the man who caught the home run ball that Derek Jeter smashed for his 3,000th hit Saturday will have to pay as much as $14,000 in taxes, New York media report. Christian Lopez, 23, caught the ball and promptly handed it over to the […]
From the historian Diarmaid MacCulloch: Human societies are based on the human tendency to want things, and are geared to satisfying those wants: possessions or facilities to bring ease and personal satisfaction. The results are frequently disappointing, and always terminate in the embarrassing non sequitur of death. — Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, p. […]
If you’ve ever wondered what the Recording Industry looks like from the inside, you’re in luck. Have a peek here.
I’m happy to report that the BULB Act — a cheeky little bill that would have preserved for Americans the freedom to buy whatever kind of light bulbs they like for use in their own homes — now appears unlikely to pass. Well, good. It was a dumb move anyway. After all, our leaders have […]
We’ve just watched the 37-year-old Derek Jeter launch his 3000th career hit (that’s a pretty big deal in these parts, and Gotham has been on pins and needles for weeks). Jeter’s never worn any uniform other than the pin-stripes, so all of those hits were for the Yankees — and to add a spectacular touch, […]
As you probably know, President Obama hosted a Q&A session on Twitter yesterday. The acerbic blogger Iowahawk presented a list of questions, none of which were presented to POTUS, which is a shame, because some of them are awfully good. Go and read them here.
Here’s a striking image of that enormous storm on Saturn. (Al Gore was unavailable for comment.)
Boffins at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have made a nifty find: an animal that’s screwed together. (Just like we’re all going to be.) Have a look here.
Well, we’ve just got back to the city after a very long day’s drive, and things will be getting back to normal here shortly. For tonight, just a couple of links: First, as the debt-limit deadline looms, you might enjoy this series of essays by Arthur Laffer on taxation. And here’s an item from Dennis […]
OK, everybody, setting aside our usual topics, here’s a question for you all: What’s the greatest album of all time? (I originally wrote “rock album”, but let’s just make it “album”.) You only get to pick one. All readers, even the most casual visitors, and all of you who usually stay on the sidelines, are […]
We’re tuning out for the long weekend; I’m sure the world will manage to keep on going straight to hell without us for a couple of days. Thanks as always for visiting, and please feel free to browse our endlessly fascinating archives, or to give the View a Random Post link a whirl.
Who says immigrants can’t assimilate?
On January 28th, as the ground was shifting in Egypt, our crack strategic-analysis team here at waka waka waka saw a critical opportunity for the Muslim Brotherhood, and predicted that the Ikhwan would step smartly into the breach. We wrote: Nature abhors a vacuum, and although the newspapers have so far reported that religious groups […]
With a hat-tip to Bill Vallicella, here’s a heretical item from the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics at Princeton University, William Happer, on a topic we’ve taken up in these pages from time to time.
Well, here’s a shocker. Whoever could have imagined such a thing? Are the Wealthiest Countries the Smartest Countries? Actually, what’s shocking is not so much the rediscovery of the obvious truth that human capital matters — but that the story has actually been picked up by the press (it’s all over the place this morning). […]
I haven’t said much of anything about the passage of the gay-marriage bill; I haven’t really had a dog (or a God) in that particular fight. I have gay friends and I’m happy for them, but I also see it as a relatively benign symptom of a much larger process: an ever-expanding radical anti-discrimination in […]
Today brings another provocative essay by Victor Davis Hanson, this time on the hypocrisy of socialist elites. (I know I’ve been reposting a lot of VDH lately, but he’s been on rather a tear, I think.) Excerpts: This discussion is, of course, a belabored example of why and how socialists do not like socialism. Indeed, […]
Anthony Daniels, who writes as “Theodore Dalrymple”, gave a talk a few weeks ago at the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Property and Freedom Society, in Bodrum, Turkey. (The P.F.S. looks like an interesting outfit, by the way, if you have libertarian sympathies, and for this meeting they fielded an impressive lineup of speakers.) In […]
In case you’ve never seen it, here’s some of the best martial-arts choreography ever filmed: Jackie Chan and Ken Lo giving it hell in Drunken Master II.
There’s a good deal of disagreement out there about whether we should be getting out of Afghanistan. The prospects are bad either way. A while back, after I’d finally emerged from the herd-minded and thoughtless liberalism of my youth, I became sympathetic to neoconservative optimism about remaking the world in America’s image. I imagined right […]
Our friend The Stiletto has linked to a sad and instructive item, by the daughter of the feminist icon Alice Walker. The Stiletto excerpts the following passages: [M]y mum taught me that children enslave women. I grew up believing that children are millstones around your neck, and the idea that motherhood can make you blissfully […]
Here, for once, is a sensible piece of legislation. It has no chance of passing.
If you’re going to be in Gotham on Saturday, July 30th, you should get yourself over to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Bandshell (conveniently located just 250 yards from waka waka waka‘s New York command center) for what bids fair to be an outstanding evening’s entertainment. The headliner, Malcolm Rebennack Jr. (A.K.A “Dr. John“), is a national […]
Courtesy of Jonah Goldberg.
Good news. One cheer for Europe. Here.
Lawrence Auster has put up two links today that I think deserve reposting here. In the first, Mark Steyn addresses our nation’s modern, self-abnegating approach to war: Transnational do-gooding is political correctness on tour. It takes the relativist assumptions of the multiculti varsity and applies them geopolitically: The white man’s burden meets liberal guilt. No […]
As a follow-on to our breezy review of the Foreign Relations Committee’s report, here’s a serious assessment of what the endgame in Afghanistan might look like, from STRATFOR’s George Friedman. The gist: The United States was always aware of the limits of Pakistani assistance. The United States accepted this publicly because it made Pakistan appear […]
Here’s a sad item about central California — a lament, perhaps, or something approaching the final draft of an obituary — from Victor Davis Hanson.
Recently the Senate Foreign Relations Committee produced a report on how things are going in Afghanistan, and I’ve given it a careful going-over. Despite my natural optimism, I’ll confess it’s left me a little chopfallen. I’ve excerpted a few snippets below: Foreign aid, when misspent, can fuel corruption, distort labor and goods markets, undermine the […]
Here’s a pungent partisan punchline, from a president who could actually tell a joke.
If you’re curious about the “go meatless” movement, then get a load of this.
We note with sorrow the death of Clarence Clemons, soul of the E Street Band for forty years, who died Saturday after suffering a devastating stroke. His death will leave an awfully big hole in a great many hearts. I got to know Clarence more than thirty years ago, when the E Street Band moved […]
My friend and colleague, the extravagantly gifted software engineer, globe-trotting bon vivant, and intrepid adventurer Yaniv Sarig, has sent me a outrageously funny item that will, I’m afraid, only evoke incapacitating hilarity in those of you who know a thing or two about programming. But it’s too good not to share, so here it is. […]
Yesterday the Times‘s Nicholas Kristof posted a risibly bird-brained column entitled Our Lefty Military. In it he lauds the U.S. armed forces as a socialist paradigm, comparing them in glowing terms to the morally inferior “gimme” mentality of the private sector. We read: The United States armed forces knit together whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics […]
Here’s a salient item from John McCreary at NightWatch: Israel: On 19 June the Defense Forces will begin a nationwide civil defense exercise, called Turning Point 5, that will include the largest simulation of missile interceptions ever held by the air force, The Jerusalem Post reported. The exercise will involve all the air force’s missile […]
When even Jim Cramer is somber about the market, things can’t be good. In a post published today, Mr. Cramer outlines what he thinks “Armageddon” would look like, should it come to pass: Throw in the towel and buy lower and later if you think the worst is coming. Or stay the course. At this […]
If you haven’t already seen photographs, here is what happened in Vancouver when the Canucks lost the Stanley cup to Boston last night (after taking the first two games of the series). HT: Lawrence Auster.