A Crisis of Faith While Netflix certainly produces programs of questionable artistic merit (although I do look forward to seeing The Two Popes), one series that from the standpoint of using historical events as an inspiration to create compelling theater—and frequently brilliant theater—is playwright Peter Morgan’s The Crown. While co-produced by Sony’s Columbia studios, the... Read More

In his unpublished Second Book on foreign policy, Adolf Hitler offers the following critique of Count Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi’s Pan-European Movement, which argued for the peaceful unification of Europe. Kalergi is very much a precursor to the post-1945 effort to integrate the Old Continent, culminating in the European Union. Hitler raises essentially two objections: The... Read More

So now I’ve been to the Plain of Jars. Among places, it has among the most evocative of names. It sounds so plain, yet so poetic, because we simply don’t associate any plain, or meadow, with jars, and we’re not talking about Mason ones here, but stone, and huge, with the largest ten feet tall... Read More

Le Monde has an interesting article on Parisian social housing policy which is quite indicative of how quaint official French thinking is on immigration-gentrification-segregation-inequality-cum-terrorism: Following the terrorist attacks of January 2015, the President of the Republic, François Hollande, gathered several interministerial committees, announced a series of measures in to promote social cohesion, and managed to... Read More

I barely noticed the first crash. Driving the new hire car from the airport, the rain was pouring down on the highway, spray everywhere, a high risk of aquaplaning, and we were still on the outskirts of town, with traffic lights, cross-roads, bus stops, shops and lots of local motorbikes and pedestrians moving along and... Read More

noble Black lawyer prosecutes an evil White sex-beast, who receives 33 life-sentences for his cowardly and despicable crimes against eleven innocent women and children. What a potent and effective way to smash the vile racist stereotype that Blacks are prone to violence and rape! And what a heart-warming symbol of Brave New Britain, where non-Whites... Read More

From 10AM to 11PM, Hoi An’s old town is choked with tourists, so just get there just after sunrise if you want to admire its architecture, and it is magnificent. How did this slice of old Vietnam survive? During the Vietnam War, Hoi An was the administrative center for the entire province, so it was... Read More

Lake Chapala at sunrise. It never looks the same twice. Though it is late in the season and should be chill, we do not seem to be having winter this year. The golondrinas, swallows, seem confused and have not migrated as early as they usually do. This year they sat in their thousands, three inches... Read More

Scientific fraud—falsifying scientific data or manipulating the scientific evaluation process—has become a serious problem. At best, it is a threat to public confidence in science. At worst, if the fraud is not revealed, then public policy could be shaped by bogus data. This problem is universal. But there are distinct national patterns. In particular, fraud... Read More

Increasingly, social science is dominated by Leftist ideologues who use the remaining respect that academia still has among the public to inculcate students and public alike with their equalitarian dogmas. But there are honorable exceptions. One of these: Peter Turchin, a Russian who is professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut. Turchin, who... Read More