In March of 2015, our family and some friends took a 3½ week trip through Ethiopia, one of the most unusual of sub-Saharan African countries. Ethiopia is exceptional in two ways; It became a Christian culture in the 300s, whereas […]
British
If I Were Muslim: Why Do Muslims Hate Jews Nowadays?
Our friend Hillel Fradkin has sent out a fascinating article on the relationship between Islam and German nationalism. In two world wars both types of German nationalists, both the relatively mild sort of the Second Reich and the pathological ones […]
Art Epiphany, Part II: the Millennium Bridge
I write this, and the previous post, from London. One of the newer features of the city, finished in 2000 [opened for two days, shut down for repairs, and reopened in 2002], is a pedestrian bridge called Millennium Bridge. It […]
Why The Dream Declined
The best single post on the decline of affordable housing that I have seen on one of my favorite sites, newgeography.com, is this by Roger Selbert. He most succinctly explains the reasons why the American dream of subsidized home ownership [discussed […]
Thoughts on St. Patrick’s Day
In a few days comes one of the strangest holidays in our American calendar, in which we honor a saint who actually deserves honoring or remembering, and at the same time the first major non-Protestant ethnic group to come to […]
Minimum Wages: A Modest Proposal
Ron Unz, generally considered a conservative but quirky, came out for a radical increase in the minimum wage here last year, not something you generally expect of conservatives, but then Ron Unz and his magazine, The American Conservative, generally take […]
Spinning the War of 1812
Canadian Blitzkrieg captures Detroit and Chicago! Toronto and Buffalo left in ruins! British intervene on Canadian side and capture Washington D.C.! Sounds like some kind of a fantasy novel, doesn’t it! Well, it actually happened. It was the War of […]
The Place of Sharia Law in a Free Society
There has been some controversy recently, because the Archbishop of Canterbury, no less, suggested that sharia law could in some ways be incorporated into the British law code. This suggestion created a certain amount of outrage; and in the last […]
Rational consideration of “adaptation” for California…
Rational consideration of “adaptation” for California as well as merely quixotic attempts at “prevention.” A great book on this subject, about the British Isles, is Turned Out Nice by Marek Kohn. I don’t know of any equivalent volume of that […]
Maoist War Against India’s Criminalized Capitalism
Capitalism based on relationships with persons in the state who can dispense or withhold permissions or favors is crony capitalism. Capitalism with too weak a government or moral standards is gangster capitalism. Here’s an example of gangster capitalism justified by […]