October 15, 2013 – 8:15 pm
From an item at SFGate: People whose 2014 income will be a little too high to get subsidized health insurance from Covered California next year should start thinking now about ways to lower it to increase their odds of getting the valuable tax subsidy. Slip-slidin’ away…
October 14, 2013 – 10:55 pm
— Steve Sailer comments on the tendency of women who are interested in science to go into the “life sciences” (medicine, biology) rather than fields like physics and chemistry. — Mark Steyn on King John and Barack Obama. — A “must-know” endgame from Susan Polgar. — Iron Man. — Walter Williams on guns, and the […]
September 29, 2013 – 11:17 pm
The lovely Nina and I met a very interesting gentleman today: Paul Sheehan, a columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald. (He has also served as that newspaper’s Washington correspondent, and its day editor.) Mr. Sheehan is an old friend of our friend Allen Kurzweil, and is in Wellfleet for a visit. This afternoon Allen, who […]
September 8, 2013 – 9:45 pm
Sorry — no time for a post today. Some links: — Natural selection in action. — A Chinese guide to the West, c. 250 A.D. — Sheep and bull. — Japan is just… different. — Steve Sailer on American exceptionalism. — Postcard from Mars. — BHO vs. BHO, from VDH. — Murder in America. — […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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.
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 […]