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Steven Pinker is quoted by John Tierney at the start of his review of Pinker’s Enlightenment Now, saying this:
The mis- (I would say) -use of the word “progressive” to describe people who hate progress is a bit of a hobby horse of mine. I am delighted that intellectual mega-celeb Pinker seems to have found such excellent words to hit this point home. March 11th, 2018 | 44 comments - (Comments are closed)
 March 11th, 2018 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)
“Versed in issues of social justice”? Oh? What if students protested against abortion? What if they protested in favor of gun rights? Or what if their social activism included mission trips with their church? Would these things hurt their Yale applications? I am certain that any student who wanted to get into Yale, and thereby join the American elite, would do well not to mention any non-progressive activism. The gatekeepers know the kind of people they want, and do not want. The message they are sending is coming through loud and clear. Just two glimpses into how the culture and institutions of the elite Left make Trump voters… March 10th, 2018 | 34 comments - (Comments are closed)
It’s clear that the wet Tory establishment is not keen on Jacob Rees-Mogg. On the surface that appears to be because he holds robust views that are at odds with theirs: he’s an actual Conservative, and they are, of course, anything but. But I wonder if there’s a deeper fear there as well: do they worry that if Rees-Mogg becomes leader then the party will slip out of their grasp in the way that Labour was taken over by hard-left, Momentum commies? March 9th, 2018 | 49 comments - (Comments are closed)
In yesterday’s Guardian Jill Abramson asked,
The article optimistically discussed the Democrats’ chances in various upcoming US electoral contests, including the next presidential election:
My eyes had been glazing over at the mention of “strong women”. Then I read this:
Ms Abramson is “a political columnist for the Guardian. She is visiting lecturer in the English department at Harvard University and a journalist who spent the last 17 years in the most senior editorial positions at the New York Times, where she was the first woman to serve as Washington bureau chief, managing editor and executive editor.” Something of a prototypical strong woman herself, then. And if she wants to carry around a little plastic Obama doll to hug when she feels sad, far be it from me to deny her the right. Though I do not believe I ever went through the phase of needing to have a “blanky” or other “comfort object” constantly around me, many toddlers do. I am sure the right to keep and bear blankies is in the penumbra of the US Constitution somewhere. It just… somehow… is not what I expected of a former bureau chief, managing editor and executive editor. (Visiting Lecturer in the Harvard English department, maybe.) Is that what strong American women (who by definition are all Democrats) do these days? Maybe I’m just out of touch. Maybe it is accepted that among the accoutrements of the modern strong woman is a doll representing a male authority figure that she can clutch for comfort. Maybe New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren all have little plastic Obamas that help them cope with their fears, and that’s OK. March 8th, 2018 | 33 comments - (Comments are closed)
King George III’s troops and excise men outraged many of the colonialists (AIUI) with their searches and seizures, leading to the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution.
Back in old England, no such definitive right exists, so the Queen’s men may find you not so secure in your person, and may make ‘unreasonable searches and seizures’, you might conclude. I call my first ‘witness’:
Yes, the unfortunate Mr Lamarr Chambers was held as a prisoner for 45 days by Essex Police, hoping that he will drop himself in it, as it were, as he was suspected of having swallowed an item which would eventually emerge, and which might incriminate him on drugs charges (and I note, we don’t have a Fifth Amendment here either, but we do have some rules of evidence against self-incrimination). The story so far:
So a Court has authorised this epic buttock-clenching saga, under legislation dating from Mrs Thatcher’s period in office. However, the police, presumably feeling themselves up against a brick wall, relented.
I can’t help but be disgusted by a country in which a police force can comment on Twitter about a prisoner’s bowel movements, or lack thereof. Perhaps we need a change in the law? No holding people until evidence emerges, but charge on the evidence lawfully and properly gathered. Or perhaps Mrs May might suggest that the Crown will be able to seek a writ of habeus caco, ordering a prisoner to defecate? I suspect that there’s only one thing Mr Chambers needs now more badly than the Fourth Amendment. And what do the police say?
I find a police force watching a man 24-hours a day for 45 days to see him defecate (on these allegations) far more unpleasant a truth, a truth about the state of freedom in Britain today. March 7th, 2018 | 21 comments - (Comments are closed)
Bloomberg is the only TV news channel I can stomach watching in the UK; it is the only one that is not instinctively leftist. I suppose if you are trying to provide a service that people will pay for to help them make financial decisions, a better standard of truth is required. This morning they were very excited about Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs, especially now that (relative) voice-of-reason Gary Cohn has announced his resignation. They reported that the EU is threatening to respond to Trump by cutting off EU consumers’ noses to spite Donald Trump’s face. Perhaps if we are lucky post-Brexit Britain will be a refuge of sanity, free-trade, and economic growth amongst all this madness. Or perhaps, as one commenter on Bloomberg suggested, it is all bluster and this is just Trump negotiation tactics and it will come to nothing. March 7th, 2018 | 33 comments - (Comments are closed)
Ryanair’s Micheal O’Leary, as reported in today’s Mirror:
Or EasyJet’s Johan Lundgren?
March 6th, 2018 | 32 comments - (Comments are closed)
Who will rescue Polly this time? Who will answer her call? Will it be those apparently reformed criminals, the Ant Hill Mob?
Or will it be her trusted guardian Sylvester Sneekly and his business associates? Two desperate appeals in five days have gone unanswered. Oh, won’t somebody come? March 5th, 2018 | 18 comments - (Comments are closed)
Raskolnikov, the main character in “Crime and Punishment,” is not much of a role model. But not to worry, because nobody whines about how literature has led them into ax-murdering or body dysmorphia or about how poorly the page represents reality. They save those accusations for movies and TV. March 5th, 2018 | 24 comments - (Comments are closed)
The song seems to be an ode to those who just want to be left alone, and a critique of those who think they are owed something by others. The quote marks are on the lyrics sheet with my LP, and are important.
It is a good song. March 4th, 2018 | 27 comments - (Comments are closed)
Recent reports only help raising more questions, and eyebrows, as a staggering 87% of Venezuelans are reportedly now under the poverty stats. When it comes to food, 6 out of 10 lost an average of 11 pounds of body mass in 2017, not for fitness purposes (don’t go getting any ideas, NHS, Corbyn) and 9 out of 10 are unable to afford daily food. March 4th, 2018 | 22 comments - (Comments are closed)
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