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The King of Camelot was killed by a commie loser. The impossibility of processing that drove the left crazy, and they still can’t face it. – Glenn Reynolds, who clearly enjoys annoying conspiracy theorists, as I do. Meanwhile, Janet Daley reflects on what it was like to be a Kennedy supporter back in the early 1960s. November 22nd, 2013 | 40 comments - (Comments are closed)
 It’s no coincidence the MPs found guilty of fiddling are all Labour, writes Peter Oborne.
His argument that there is “only one chance in 64 that Labour’s score of 6/6 was a coincidence” should be saved as an Awful Example for the probability chapter in a GCSE mathematics textbook, with calculation of the precise odds that he has let the Tories off far too lightly left as an exercise for the student. This part of his explanation, however, is accurate:
Many Labour people cannot believe that anything done by the oppressed classes or their champions can ever really be wrong, not when there are Bullingdon-educated toffs who were in the Eton club out there for comparison. The jailed MPs and their supporters know in their hearts that their very sentences are part of the oppression. They take comfort as the prison gates clang behind them from the thought that when they hear that sound they join the company of heroes. Stanley Kurtz described a similar persecution envy burning in the breasts of greens and climate change activists in The Wannabe Oppressed:
And deeper yet, “Oppress me a little bit so that I can resist you with visible heroism safe in the knowledge that you will not actually hurt me.” November 21st, 2013 | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)
An entertaining story from the Guardian:
November 20th, 2013 | 22 comments - (Comments are closed)
“Almost half of the UK’s recent graduates are working in non-graduate jobs, demonstrating that pain continues to be felt in the labour market despite the start of economic recovery.” – The Financial Times, today (behind a paywall). I’d add that this also suggests that some of the degrees that people have acquired – at some cost – are not marketable, and unlikely ever to be so. The whole idea that at least 50 per cent of the school-leaving population should go straight into higher education needs to be re-thought. By coincidence, over at the Econlog blog, Bryan Caplan has this to say about the issue of “malemployment”. That is a term that deserves to be used more widely. November 19th, 2013 | 29 comments - (Comments are closed)
The governments of the world love to use crimes that produce an understandable emotional revulsion as justification for measure of vastly wider reach. Child abuse is perhaps the most common of these. The current moves to make unacceptable sites simply not show up on search engines is actually about getting the infrastructure in place to make whatever is deemed ‘unacceptable’ invisible with the flick of a switch. I do not believe for a moment that the people pushing for this do not have as their ultimate goal giving the state the ability to control everything you can see online. And if you think the state, any state, can be trusted with that kind of power, then you are either a fool or a totalitarian. November 18th, 2013 | 16 comments - (Comments are closed)
The setting is North End Road in Fulham, London, near a large street side food and fresh produce market. There is a stand with a whole roasting hog covered in fennel, described as ‘Italian Roast Pig’ by a large sign. It is in fact run by a couple Bulgarian guys who I know. The food tastes… exquisite. I eat there every Friday. A man walked up to them, obviously a Muslim. He peers at the roasting pig, sniffs and look at the man inside the stand. (Muslim bloke, pointing a large bowl of sauce. Good english with an East London accent) “Hmmm… what’s that?” (Bulgarian proprietor. Good english with a South London accent) “Apple sauce. We make it ourselves from English apples.” (Muslim bloke, pointing at the roasting pig) “Is that halal?” (Bulgarian proprietor, looking perplexed) “Er… not really.” (Muslim bloke, winking) “Oh, right. I’ll have mine with the apple sauce then.” November 17th, 2013 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
White Sun of the Desert writes on Obamacare. Parallels between the soft evils of the modern UK or US and the monstrous twentieth century dictatorships do not usually appeal to me for reasons I need not rehearse. However I think that in this post Tim Newman has made an acute psychological comparison.
November 17th, 2013 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)
I have just fixed to do one of Christian Michel’s 6/20 talks at his home in west London, on January 20th of next year. In the spirit, which Christian encourages, of lots of us being libertarians but not droning on all the time about libertarianism, I have chosen a subject that will, I hope, cut across and rearrange the usual ideological divisions at these evenings. Here’s the bit of the email I sent to Christian, explaining what I had in mind to talk about:
Christian’s reply included this:
I have already written here about the economic impact of digital photography, here, and here. But what of the second part of my intended talk, the part that Christian would prefer me to concentrate on? Does the Samizdata commentariat have any thoughts as to how I might set about answering the questions above about the difference that digital photography makes to how we live, and to how we feel about how we live? Any thoughts along these lines would be greatly appreciated. I think it was the experience of dashing off the commentary on these wedding photos that got me thinking about giving this talk. In that posting, I speculated about how the contrasting ways in which photography was done in the past (very clunkily and expensively and rarely) and now (with ridiculous ease) has affected our picture (literally) of the past. That’s the kind of not-quite-obvious effect I am looking to be told about. November 16th, 2013 | 23 comments - (Comments are closed)
This report (spotted by the ever alert Mick Hartley), describes a remarkable speech made by the President of Mongolia, at the end of a visit he made in October to North Korea.
Relative loyalists. Now there’s a choice phrase. I’m guessing it does not mean people who are literally blood relatives of the ruling dynasty. Under this report, Daily NK reproduces the full text of the President’s speech, and it is well worth a read. Quote (and it is very quotable):
See what I mean about quotable?
You surely do now.
As I say, remarkable. Pessimists may say: it’s just words. But words matter. Why would any of us bother with reading and writing the stuff here at Samizdata if words did not matter? I never used to like those Mongols much. Now, I find myself warming to them. November 16th, 2013 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
A couple weeks ago I had a several hour stop over in Las Vegas on the way from Chicago to LA. Las Vegas has never been one of my favorite places since I do all my gambling in real life and find little need for games of chance. However, this one sign may be enough to draw me back for a visit…  A very good reason to visit Las Vegas. (Copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved) November 16th, 2013 | 14 comments - (Comments are closed)
We need a free-market version of corporate social responsibility. We need to equip businessmen with an ethical code that tells them there’s a principled reason not to get in bed with the government. – Jonah Goldberg, in this week’s Goldberg File email, quoted (quotulated?), at much greater length, by Nicholas Russon. November 15th, 2013 | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)
Ivory is valuable and this leads to poaching (which is another way of saying ‘seeking more supplies of rare ivory’). So… The US government had decided to reduce the global supply of ivory by destroying six tonnes of the stuff.
And when supply is reduced, what happens to prices and therefore the motivation to secure new supplies? Anyone? Surely if they wanted to reduce the incentive to poach ivory, rather than crushing their stockpile, they should have flooded the market with it. But of course Dan Ashe and his ilk work for governments and thus know nothing of this ‘economics’ malarkey. November 15th, 2013 | 20 comments - (Comments are closed)
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