war

Losing Ramadi

Obama is of course a Muslim, progressive, and anticolonialist who hates America and wishes to see America defeated, but allowing Ramadi, and indeed Iraq, to be lost was pretty sensible. The underlying Bush theory was that Iraq would become a well run democracy, like Switzerland, where the Shia majority elected nice moderate progressives, thereby counterbalancing the dangerous influence of the Shia religious crazies in Iran.   The middle east would become …

war

Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia capitulate and allow the boats.

Since Tony Abbot has been elected prime minister of Australia, no one is known to have successfully illegally immigrated to Australia. Their boat goes back, or if they are unusually stubborn and persistent, they wind up in a military run prison camp in a third world hell hole. From time to time progressives complain about the conditions in these camps. As far as is known, no one has yet wound …

economics

After white male america

Law enforcement against blacks is inherently racist. Gentrification proceeded under an unprincipled exception. Eric Holder is rolling back that unprincipled exception. Not only does every good progressive know that being black is no indicator of propensity to commit crimes, he also knows that a past history of criminal conduct is no indicator of propensity to commit crimes in future – see “Les Miserables” for the correct progressive position on crime …

science

The point of the dark enlightenment is to understand the world, not to change it.

Theory is understanding and understanding is theory. Seeing the world as a collection of bare unexplained facts is effectively the same as seeing the world as filled with magic. To suppose that somehow price controls on wages or medical treatment do not behave like price controls generally is in effect to believe in magic. Without theory the world is a collection of magical events, something that defies understanding. Experiments can …

culture

Evil League of Evil wins Hugo awards.

With assistance from Gamergate. Hugo awards controversy (Actually they dominated the short list, so it is not over yet, but the final outcome is pretty much baked in now)- Politically correct science fiction simply is not science fiction, none of it, not a single recent Hugo award winner until now, because it continually lectures us on the latest issue, even if those delivering the lecture are supposedly martian elves, thus …

culture

Chimp politics and Cromwell’s puritanism

Moldbug is a big fan of Carlyle. Carlyle is a big fan of Cromwell. Well I am a big fan of Cromwell also, but Carlyle takes Cromwell’s Christianity seriously. If Carlyle was around today, I would have the exact same quarrel with him as I have with B. Reading Carlyle on Cromwell, Carlyle takes it as simple fact that the Puritans were very sincere and strong believers in God, which …

culture

Anime and decadence

Japan is decadent and is committing suicide with impressive grace and style. This is intentional Cathedral and MacArthur policy. It does decadence very well, and decadence is attractive and entertaining. A little poison, every now and then, makes for an agreeable life, and a lot of poison, in the end, makes for an agreeable death. In the course of watching more anime that I should, I have observed that the …