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 essay by Victor Davis Hanson on lying. Worth your time.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Another busy spell here. Back shortly.
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 […]
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.
Sorry for the lack of substantial content over the past few days. Lord knows there’s been a lot to comment on, but I’ve had no time for writing.
Here is a horrifying video of the tornado that just devastated Moore, Oklahoma.
Here‘s what hemotoxic snake venom does to blood.
One-stop shopping for all you HBD and Endarkenment sorts (you know who you are*). Here. * And the IRS probably does, too.
Fabulous surfing video, here.
Here’s a map showing changes to Wikipedia in real time.
Here’s a fantastic shot: lightning strikes the Grand Canyon.
Right. Well, godless heathen that I am, I won’t be going to Bangladesh anytime soon, I’ve decided. Venice is nice.
Writing at PJ Media, clacissist Victor Davis Hanson urges us to read old books. This alone should be enough, I think: Most classical literature, let us admit it, is anti-democratic, moralistic in a reactionary sense, and deeply pessimistic ”” and therefore if not a corrective, at least a balance to today’s trajectory. Read the whole […]
Not much time for writing today, so here are some links for you: By way of Dennis Mangan: Don’t eat tofu if you want a functioning brain. The Horsehead Nebula, revealed. Chimeras. Comment of the week. Yes, friends, it’s over. We had a good run. Germans want American beer! Wait, what? Near-death experience, frozen in […]
My, how beautiful it was in New York today! Not a cloud in the clear blue sky, a cool dry breeze, warm spring sunshine, and the trees and flowers all in bloom. Just absolutely perfect. As good as it ever gets. I hear that Occupy and sundry political groups clogged up the streets of Manhattan […]
Well, it looks like our little website is now officially part of the reactionary Dark Enlightenment biosphere. (See here and here.) I’m waiting for my membership card in the mail, and the list of participating-vendor discounts.
April 23, 2013 – 12:49 pm
Today at about 1:09 PM the stock market, which had been having a bullish, happy day, suddenly fell sharply. Why? Because the Associated Press had issued a Tweet saying that the White House had been bombed and the President injured. It immediately became obvious that the AP’s Twitter account had been hacked, and so the […]
April 19, 2013 – 10:12 am
Phew! I’ve been working so much the past couple of days that I haven’t had time for anything else. Did I miss anything?
Nothing for tonight. I had a couple of things I wanted to post, but in the wake of the news from Boston neither politics nor blithe general-interest material seems appropriate. I was working today, and watching Twitter out of the corner of my eye; one got the sense that a great many people were just […]
April 13, 2013 – 12:16 pm
Happy birthdays to Guy Fawkes, Thomas Jefferson, F.W. Woolworth, James Ensor, Butch Cassidy, Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris, Robert Watson-Watt, Samuel Beckett, Harold Stassen, Stanislaw Ulam, Eudora Welty, Howard Keel, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, Ken Nordine, Don Adams, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Seamus Heaney, Paul Sorvino, Jack Casady, Tony Dow, Lowell George, Al Green, Ron Perlman, Christopher Hitchens, […]
I’m very sad to report the death of comedic genius Jonathan Winters, quite possibly the funniest man who ever lived. Here he was in 1964, with a stick.
Investor’s Business Daily’s editorial board comments here on the mainstream media’s non-coverage of the trial of the monstrous Kermit Gosnell, who ran an “abortion” abattoir in Philadelphia in which living infants were routinely and gruesomely murdered. A search just now on the New York Times website turned up exactly one article, from page 17 of […]
Having just got back from our trip, I’m still getting caught up on work, current events, email, and so on. It does seem that rather a lot has happened here in the States and around the world while we were gone, none of it particularly encouraging. Meanwhile, here are three pictures from China (click on […]
We’ve made it home to New York, and are recovering. Things will get back to normal here again soon.
Having found a little free time and a stable Internet connection, I thought I’d give a little update: I’m sitting on the rooftop of an inn at the foot of the famous Moon Hill, a limestone arch just a few kilometers from the town of Yangshuo, in Guangxi province, China. Here’s the view from our […]
March 29, 2013 – 11:11 pm
Lawrence Auster has died. There are things I would like to say about him, his influence on my own thinking, and the grace with which he faced his final ordeal, but I must say them later. He was a brilliant and difficult man. For now, go and read Laura Wood’s entry at VFR. See also […]
March 27, 2013 – 11:46 am
Things will be quiet around here for the next two weeks or so: the lovely Nina and I are off to fabled Cathay, where our brilliant and beautiful daughter is teaching science at an international high school in Guangzhou. We’ll all be spending a few days in scenic Yangshuo, and the memsahib and I will […]
March 27, 2013 – 11:01 am
There’s grist for every ideological mill in this item, which came over the transom from a reader this morning. It lists the admissions this year, by race, to New York’s premier public high school, Stuyvesant. Admission to Stuy is a pure meritocracy; do well enough on the entrance exam, and you’re in. Here are the […]
March 18, 2013 – 11:32 pm
I was wondering when this was going to happen. One Twitterer remarked: If Silicon Valley is a meritocracy (or aspires to be) why not let everyone see company hiring stats for women and people of color. Here’s a guess: It’s because Silicon Valley (which is really just a proxy for companies that make their money […]
As usually happens, the middle of this week has meant long hours at work. So for the moment, just a few links: — A fine rant, from across the pond, on the new subjectivity of justice, and the culture of victimhood. — A necessary government expenditure that appears, so far, to have survived the sequester. […]