Vigilantism is defined as “the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority” by the various dictionaries. I’d say that the critical part of that is the “…without legal authority” bit. If you act without being formally “legal … | Continue reading
You’re going to pay over $12 for a six-rack of an IPA that barely tastes like an IPA in a market already over-saturated with IPAs, especially as craft breweries go. The flavor is negligible, and no part of it is enjoyable, even if you’re the sort of masochist who loves having the … | Continue reading
Right, who laughed? I don’t know if it was the nameless Associated Press reporter who wrote this story, or the Guardian editor who decided to run it in the Graun of all places, but someone connected with the production of this piece was enjoying themselves: “New York changes gun … | Continue reading
“You couldn’t force lockdowns without laptops, Zoom, Amazon deliveries, cloud computing, Slack, QR codes or Netflix. Without them, lockdowns would have lasted two, maybe three weeks tops before the utter destruction of the economy forced everyone back to the workplace. Instead, w … | Continue reading
You say the third-best time to negotiate would be now. I can see why you would want that, but you’re not a party to the negotiations. Russia and Ukraine are. And why would Ukraine negotiate now? As I said from the outset, what Ukraine needs is long term security. Not words on a p … | Continue reading
The great strength of these [Iranian] protests – the sudden, overwhelming way in which they have spread, fuelled by social media – could also be their undoing. As we saw so tragically in the wake of the Arab Spring, this new generation of leaderless, internet-based movements can … | Continue reading
In New York Times, John Leland asks, Real-world ethics question: In a well-used city park, a man with a history of erratic behavior attacks a dog and its owner with a stick; five days later, the dog dies. The man is Black, the dog owner white; the adjoining neighborhood is famous … | Continue reading
Dr. Douglas Young, U. of North Georgia-Gainesville political science professor emeritus. There’s no shortage of temptations to ignore our First Amendment free expression rights and pervert the law into a billy club to banish disturbing speech. Indeed, ever more people demand we o … | Continue reading
For the past two weeks, a stock narrative has been that UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng’s “mini-budget” was reckless and rattled the markets, and he should have been more cautious, set out the debt and borrowing side first, not talked about reversing Rishi Sunak’s t … | Continue reading
Tory MPs didn’t even give Truss a chance. They cut her off at the knees before she could even begin. They don’t appear to want to be in power any more. – Philip Johnston | Continue reading
I don’t want to take anything away from the Ukrainians, who have basically been a banner case of military transformation, but it also helps that the Russians are really, really bad at the whole “war that involves more than bombing hospitals” thing. – Adot Crawley | Continue reading
“his attack on Western values including references to transitioning children and other hot-button topics in the West (including family values which may have included an indirect swipe at the new Italian PM) was IMO a touch of brilliance that reflects the old Vladimir rather than … | Continue reading
“The point is that Britain was in an economic mess before Ms. Truss took office, and there is no alternative universe in which policies that have failed for 12 years suddenly would start working on the cusp of a global downturn. The choice is the gamble of a major policy overhaul … | Continue reading
“Labour surges to 33-point lead over Tories”, reports the Times. Labour has surged to a 33-point poll lead over the Conservatives after a week of market turmoil triggered by Liz Truss’s tax-cutting budget. The YouGov poll for The Times finds Tory support has fallen by seven point … | Continue reading
We have about the highest level of taxation we have had in the UK since the 1970s. In the 2021-2022 tax year tax receipts were 30.3% of GDP. In 2009-2010 they were 25% of GDP which was the lowest level in the last 20 years and occurred under a Labour government. The recently prop … | Continue reading
“The unemployment rate was 3.5% in July, the same as in February 2020, but the U.S. has three million fewer workers. Where did everyone go? This in an economy with 11.2 million job openings. It’s mostly men 25 to 54 who haven’t come back to work. Now a McKinsey study suggests tha … | Continue reading
On February 7th, Joe Biden said, “If Russia invades…then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.” Today the Guardian reports: “Fears of sabotage as gas pours into Baltic from Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines” Was it sabotage? If so, who did it and was it … | Continue reading
The alternative to the cornering and humiliation of Russia would be for the United States and its allies to halt or reduce their aid to Ukraine and impose a stalemate. But that would mean delivering a victory to Russia, because it would still hold more Ukrainian territory than it … | Continue reading
My Grandmother used to have a word. It began with “F” but it’s not that “F” word or even the slightly less bad Irish “F” word as popularised by Father Ted. It’s another “F” word but you will search your dictionary in vain to find it. It’s not in mine. In fact, I am far from sure … | Continue reading
I know enough gay people – progs, conservatives, libertarians even – to know that most of them wanted to be accepted and unashamed and then ignored (as if they were just . . . normal!) and are now looking on in horror as “their” movement gets co-opted and taken over by people wit … | Continue reading
Here is a confession: I wrote most of this post on January 17th, the day I read the Times article that I quote. Then something distracted me and I put it aside to finish later. It is now “later”, as in “250 days later”, and, having been reminded of the onrushing apocalypse by the … | Continue reading
Heaven forbid trying increase gas supplies in a time of gas shortage. Amazing how many greens seem to have a convergence of interests with nice Mr. Putin. Funny that. – Perry de Havilland on the opposition to fracking in UK from the usual suspects. | Continue reading
Fair play to the Guardian for running (sorry) this article, which will have gone against the preconceptions of many of its readers: ‘We don’t have to feel like prey’: the female joggers running with guns Jamie, a 40-year-old runner who prefers to withhold her last name for privac … | Continue reading
“PayPal shut down the accounts of the Free Speech Union, its founder the journalist Toby Young and a news website he created after alleged Covid-19 vaccine misinformation”, the Times reports: Recent tweets by Young appear to question links between excess deaths and the Covid-19 j … | Continue reading
“He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount” – Chinese proverb. * China’s decision-makers face a quandary after maintaining an open-ended “zero Covid” policy with doomsday predictions of the alternative, said Huang. “What if they eased controls and nothing significant happened? T … | Continue reading
We live in a world where Ricky Gervais and JK Rowling are, to everyone’s surprise, not least their own, ‘right-wing’. The supposed rule breakers such as Frankie Boyle, Nish Kumar and Stewart Lee are crushingly orthodox. Roger Waters has a portfolio of crankery going back decades … | Continue reading
“Though God has raised me high yet this I count the glory of my reign, that I have reigned with your loves … For though you have had and may have many mightier and wiser princes yet you never have had nor ever shall have any that will love you better.” (said by Elizabeth I, late … | Continue reading
Here is an interesting thread about the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive by Mick Ryan. | Continue reading
“The kids here most definitely don’t think [it’s] normal…but realistically we can’t say anything,” said a person on Twitter who claims to be a student at Oakville Trafalgar. “Last year, the teacher was a man. I don’t think the school can fire him.” Canada’s Post Millennial report … | Continue reading
Yet another outstanding dissertation from Perun looking at the big picture. It is long but jam packed with good analysis. Recommended. | Continue reading
Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurdish woman, was arrested by the morality police for having an improperly adjusted hijab. Witnesses say that she was beaten in the police van. Her relatives published pictures of her lying in a coma in intensive care. They wanted the world to know w … | Continue reading
From the White House website: President Biden often summarizes his vision for America in one word: Possibilities. A “digital dollar” may seem far-fetched, but modern technology could make it a real possibility. A United States central bank digital currency (CBDC) would be a digit … | Continue reading
“German Galushchenko, the minister of energy, told the YES conference that Ukraine could potentially supply two gigawatts of power to the EU right now, but was being prevented from doing so by bureaucratic obstacles on the European side” – Niall Ferguson (not that one, the other … | Continue reading
I have written here about the #GamerGate phenomenon before, which was a series of rolling online flash mobs, events and activist commentary mostly doing its thing circa 2014-16. This was kicked off by something specific but quickly evolved into a far wider reaching grassroots pus … | Continue reading
Pollsters talk about “the lizardman constant”. It was given that name in this “Slate Star Codex” post by Scott Alexander: So first we get the people who think “Wait, was 1 the one for if I did believe in lizardmen, or if I didn’t? I’ll just press 1 and move on to the next questio … | Continue reading
Let no one say that the police response to anti-monarchist protests is without precedent: Nizhny Novgorod, 12 March 2022: Russian police arrest demonstrator for protesting with a BLANK SIGN London, 13 September 2022: Man threatened with arrest if he wrote ‘not my King’ on blank s … | Continue reading
Have you sung it yet? Here’s the second least worst known verse: Thy choicest gifts in store, On her him be pleased to pour, Long may she he reign! May she he defend our laws, And ever give us cause, To sing with heart and voice, God save the Queen! King! After Charles was procla … | Continue reading
Masks are like the Hindenburg line. You can retreat from all the rest, but if you ever give up the masks, the crisis is over for good. The longer the masks can be maintained, the longer they needn‘t admit defeat. – Burnley Beresford (£), commenting on an article about the persist … | Continue reading
All twelve of the firefighters who were working in my husband’s firehouse died on 9/11. The “riding list,” handwritten in chalk, listing all the men who were on duty that day, still hangs on the firehouse wall, forever preserved in glass. Engine 40 Ladder 35 #NeverForget – Janice … | Continue reading
There can be no more questions from Western partner nations about the long-term prospects for Ukrainian victory on the battlefield, which should help guarantee continued large-scale support throughout what promises to be a very economically and politically difficult winter. The U … | Continue reading
The next version of the Stugna software is going to have a “share to social media” button on the screen – ‘Disruptive Politics‘ | Continue reading
These maps become out of date by the time I post them (Izyum has actually fallen it seems). https://www.samizdata.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Ukr-breakthrough-10-sept-2022-sm.mp4 The general directly presiding over this astonishing display of operational art is General Oleksan … | Continue reading
The news from Ukraine is so remarkable, I have spent three days oscillating between exuberance and sceptical incredulity of the claims of a huge penetration of Russian lines. But now there are images of Ukrainian infantry on the edge of Kupyansk, a crucial strategic rail junction … | Continue reading
Our ancestors, wiser than we, were not shocked by the idea of praying for a good death for oneself or others. Queen Elizabeth II’s health is clearly failing. I pray that she will have a good death, whenever it comes. Nobody, least of all a libertarian, would invent the idea of mo … | Continue reading
Honestly, I kind of like The Rings of Power. It’s slow, and the evident fact that there must have been an episode of ethnic cleansing in the Shire at some point between the era of TROP and that of The Hobbit is sad to contemplate. But whether the mind-wiped stranger will turn out … | Continue reading
Mr. Biden forgives half-a-trillion dollars in student debt without the assent of Congress. White House aides collude with tech platforms to silence dissenting voices on Covid. His regulators stretch the law beyond previous understanding to impose more control over the private eco … | Continue reading
… in calmly ripping an interviewer a new orifice. Behold and enjoy. | Continue reading
Now a partial reverse-ferret is underway. As we struggle to scrape together adequate supplies of gas for the coming winter, as the price of energy rockets to unaffordable heights, suddenly energy security is at the top of the agenda. Today Boris Johnson is using his final speech … | Continue reading