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One of the biggest eye-openers you can have is seeing a story in the press which you have personal knowledge of… Of course, it could be that you just got unlucky and that all the other stories out there are 100% bang on, deadly accurate. But that seems rather unlikely, doesn’t it? – 6000 ruminates on false media prophesies of doom regarding the organisation of the soccer World Cup in his native South Africa. July 17th, 2010 | 13 comments - (Comments are closed)
 “A boundless, millennial promise made with boundless, prophet-like conviction to a number of rootless and desperate men in the midst of a society where traditional norms and relationships are disintegrating – here, it would seem, lay the source of that subterranean medieval fanaticism which has been studied in this book. It may be suggested here, too, lies the source of the giant fanaticisms which in our day have convulsed the world.” – Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millenium, page 288. This is a classic study of the revolutionary, religious groups and mystics of the Middle Ages. Cohn, famously – and much to the anger of the Left in the late 1960s – pointed out certain ominous parallels. I could even go so far as to suggest that the more extreme parts of the Green movement could be also viewed in a similar light. The desire for a purer, perfect world free of Sin, pollution or material wealth are themes that sound remarkably similar. July 16th, 2010 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
Subtracting time needed to get to the area, at 146,000 barrels per day that translates into 9 million barrels that could have been processed since the initial offer was made by the Dutch. – a commenter here called ‘Willab’ remarking on the belated US decision to accept Dutch assistance in dealing with the BP oil spill. July 15th, 2010 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)
To think that the new economy is over is like somebody in London in 1830 saying the entire industrial revolution is over because some textile manufacturers in Manchester went broke. – Alvin Toffler July 13th, 2010 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
Readers may find it odd that students are being encouraged to express solidarity with totalitarian terrorist movements that set booby traps in schools and boast of using children as human shields, and whose stated goals include the Islamic “conquest” of the free world, the “obliteration” of Israel and the annihilation of the Jewish people. However, such statements achieve a facsimile of sense if one understands that the object is to be both politically radical and morally unobvious. – David Thompson ruminates on the perverse intellectual incentives that face academics July 12th, 2010 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed)
“Those who justify the need for greenhouse gas reductions by exploiting the mounting human and economic toll of natural disasters worldwide are either ill informed or dishonest…Prescribing emission reductions to forestall the future effects of disasters is like telling someone who is sedentary, obese and alcoholic that the best way to improve his health is to wear a seatbelt.” – Sarawitz, D., & Pielke, R.A, (2005 January 17). “Rising tide, The New Republic, 10.” Quoted in Cool It, by Bjorn Lomborg, page 108. I guess after a harsh winter, the AGW alarmists must be breathing a sigh of relief now that we are having a nice summer. July 9th, 2010 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
Allow me to put it another way, instead of scientists, these people were hedge managers, and they were found by an inquiry, run by fund managers and bankers, of not being involved in insider trading, but being part of a fan club. Moreover, though the figures they published for investors were misleading, the investors could have obtained the raw data and worked out that they were being sold a lemon on their own. Would you be so forgiving? – A commenter challenges George Monbiot on the subject of the Russell “Inquiry”, which found evidence of a failure to by communicate, but which didn’t find anything wrong with “climate science” on account of it not trying to. Recycled by “James P” in his comment here. July 9th, 2010 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
“I was just watching part of a Congressional presentation on C-Span honouring the slaves who built the u.s. capitol – not by making restitution to their heirs, of course, but by setting up some sort of plaque. What especially bugged me was the speakers’ continual references to expressing “thanks” and “gratitude” for the slaves’ “sacrifices” and “contributions.” If I take your wallet at gunpoint, it would be rather a euphemism to call your handing it over a sacrifice, and what I owe you is not gratitude. (Of course the language of sacrifice and gratitude is also used in connection with conscript soldiers shipped off to die in lands they’ve never heard of.)” – Roderick Long, anarcho-capitalist blogger. I do not agree with Mr Long on all his views – he is far too keen on that seriously wrong-headed Kevin Carson chap for my liking – but the quote above is an absolute zinger. July 8th, 2010 | 40 comments - (Comments are closed)
The internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it. The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you. – The artist formerly known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, explaining why he isn’t getting down with the tubes. July 7th, 2010 | 68 comments - (Comments are closed)
It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it. – George Washington July 6th, 2010 | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.” Happy 4th of July to my American friends and relations. This is a good day for all Anglospherists to remember. July 4th, 2010 | 16 comments - (Comments are closed)
 The words are mainstream anarcho-lefty stuff, but the name being quoted is a bit of a departure for the place where I spotted this. I took this photo in March, in Leake Street, which is a tunnel under Waterloo Station where graffiti artists do their best and their worst, with results that constantly change. Thank my Photoshop clone for how clear those words are. I went through the Leake Street tunnel again today and wondered if this sign had survived, but of course there was no sign of it. Here is how Leake Street mostly looks. July 3rd, 2010 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed)
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