The driver’s seat deserves sense and sensibility — It is a truth universally acknowledged, that whomsoever finds themselves to be behind the steering wheel of a motorized vehicle must be an above-average driver. Alas, gentle reader, it is my sorry duty to inform you that this conceit is simply false. Moreover, our reflexive belief in such a conceit…

The problem with being spineless is that you get crushed underfoot — When we look at the West from a geopolitical perspective, we see two large clubs that together ensured nearly eight decades of peace across Western Europe — something last seen during the days of the Roman Empire, and even then only over a far smaller expanse of European territory. The…

Why representative democracy reliably delivers what is very nearly the worst of all possible worlds — For those not of a literary persuasion it may be helpful to mention that Pangloss was a character created by the satirist François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume Voltaire. Pangloss was Voltaire’s way to mock the philosophical position promoted by the German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who…

Why ordinary people leap to embrace the chance to harm others — First of all, let’s do what very few people even think of doing when talking about abstract concepts: we will define our terms. What, therefore, do we mean when we use the word evil? As its etymology suggests, for much of human history ordinary people have ascribed acts beyond the…

A good example of the breed — For nearly three decades I owned four-wheel-drive vehicles that were genuinely capable of taking me into the wilderness with a week’s worth of supplies and then getting me back out again at the end of the trip. Of course, each one had to be modified a little: BF Goodrich AT…

Why the temporary survival of Britain’s incompetent lying Prime Minister is merely a symptom of a more fundamental dysfunction — Anyone vaguely interested in what can happen to a country after it willfully commits national suicide may have noted that on June 6th 2022 the UK’s governing Conservative Party held a vote on whether or not to retain as Prime Minister a certain Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson — a…

How the President of France is vying with Fat Boris to gain the title of World’s Most Stupid Leader — The French have a long and distinguished history of rapid surrender in the face of aggression. Thrice between 1870 and 1940 the French speedily hoisted the white flag in the face of German forces, leaving others to do the fighting and dying while they quaffed wine and enjoyed a wide…

All make grand claims, but underneath lies a rather squalid reality — Let’s begin with a simple question: what’s the point of the United Nations? Contrary to the name, there is neither unity nor — in several cases — more than the vague semblance of a nation. For decades, people argued that although the UN is totally ineffectual and exists merely to…

How both Left and Right embrace a highly toxic concept — Somehow, over the last couple of decades it has become not merely fashionable to be a victim but essential in order to further one’s agenda. Fat white male dullards tell the world they’re victims of hyper-aggressive feminism and of nefarious plots to replace them with people of other skin colors…