Quote of the Month

Comments "daninardmore" at The Monarchist:

If the idiot Wilson hadn't gotten America into WW I, the Allies and the Central Powers would have had to reach a negotiated settlement, with monarchy surviving all around, rather than just the British one in its present attenuated form (not taking into account the Scandinavian monarchies and the tiny ones round about Europe, which don't count). There would have been no Soviet Union, no Nazi Germany, and above all blessings, no WW II. As it was, WW I was the suicide of the West, with all subsequent history being an extended death rattle.

The award of Quote of the Month is hereby established.

Happy Birthdays, Your Majesties

This month saw the birthdays of two Scandinavian monarchs, the Queen of Denmark and the King of Sweden, the latter being the most emasculated monarch in Europe, and – were it not for some Nepalese events – possibly in the world.

Congratulations – indeed regrettably belated – to Her Majesty with April 16. Congratulations to His Majesty on today's birthday.

Tax Returns

Today most personal Norwegian tax returns are due. For a few years now, we’ve had pre-filled forms. The tax authorities expand their domain of knowledge for every year. They tell us that their knowing about our financial privacy without our reporting it makes it simpler for us.

Isn’t this new order wonderful? We have historically high tax levels. We have the database state, and we have our neighbors to report on us, because “we” are the government. Isn’t it wonderful?

Norwegian tax payers have now been promised an option – in the not so distant future – of not returning the tax returns if they do not have any amendments, while retaining the responsibility of errors – even in the tax payer’s favor. What a gorgeous concept?

The government knows so much about our personal economy – with the reporting duties of banks and other institutions – that it doesn’t need us to report. What a gorgeous world?

The government wants the tax man to do other things than process tax returns. What a gorgeous world? Didn’t Will Rogers say that we should be thankful that we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for – for a very good reason?

There have been some protests against the proposed arrangement of no return, but I have seen no serious public debate about the issues of the government knowing so much or the need for the tax man to do something more “useful.”

We are so free! We can elect our rulers. Oh yes! We are so free!

April Fools' Continues

King Gyanendra, who has been quite reduced, paid a visit to a temple this week. This created a “controversy”. Are we surprised at the April Fools' Government? According to the April Fools' Cabinet, can King Gyanendra even get out of bed without a written permit made out in seven copies from the April Fools' Day Cabinet?

If it is true that the Nepal Army played the old National Anthem, good for the Royal Nepalese Army!

The April Fools' process will end with the abolition of the monarchy – at least according to the April Fools' executive office. I thought there was going to be a referendum on this issue. Well, what can you expect from a Cabinet established on April 1?

Kundan Singh Khatri has a relatively sensible piece on the problems in Nepal.

The Kingdom of Bhutan Prepares for Democracy

As the Kingdom of Bhutan prepares for democracy, Bhutanese are skeptical. Given the history of modern democracy, I don't blame them. The New York Times reports, and Barbara Crossette at the Los Angeles Times comments.

Skeleton Being Resurrected

The skeleton – but not the flesh and soul – of the German Monarchy is being resurrected. Der Spiegel reports.

R.E. Lee Symposium Today

As the Washington Times reports, the Robert E. Lee Bicentennial Symposium takes place in Arlington, Virginia today. Other than preferring the Old European Order over the new, I prefer the pre-Lincoln American order over the Lincoln and post-Lincoln order, not to speak of over the Wilson and post-Wilson order.

I’ll let the Attarian perspective be at this point.

I would have loved to be at the symposium. Perhaps weekend trips across the Atlantic will be more doable in the future – with the promising prospects of transatlantic commercial airline traffic?

"Deogolwulf" Debunks Global Democracy

As if modern democracy isn't bad enough, some people have the nerve to urge for a one world democratic government. George Monbiot at the Guardian has a recent article in this spirit.

Over at his excellent blog The Joy of Curmudgeonry, "Deogolwulf" debunks Professor Monbiot's recent stunt. See also "Deogolwulf"'s monarchy post on the occasion of the 80^th birthday of Her Britannic Majesty.

Even More on the French Election

GalliaWatch's post on unsuccessful royalist candidate Adeline may also be of interest.

Thanks to Theodore Harvey, who runs an excellent website, which has been helpful to me at several occasions. See especially Mr. Harvey's article on paleo-, anglo-, and neomonarchism.

More on the French Election

In modern democracy, politicians all chase the same votes.

Gideon Rachman at the Financial Times writes:

[In London Mr. Sarkozy] portrayed his audience as exiles, driven overseas by France’s economic inertia. But in his speech on Sunday, his message was much less radical. There was some shaking of heads among his London supporters, as their man embraced much of the language of the left – promising to “protect” French workers from “unfair competition” from overseas.

Link via the Brussels Journal.

How Low Will It Go?

How low will modernity sink? Men are now being ordered to a breast feeding course in Lancashire, England.

French Election

I was reminded this afternoon about the French election. Until then I hadn't given it a thought. I actually do not care much about which wing of the Jacobin Party comes out as the victor.

Pro-Monarchy Parties Filed for Registration

Four pro-monarchy parties have applied for registration as political parties in Nepal. So NepalNews.com reports.

One is reminded of what the late Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn said of monarchist parties in monarchies. It is meaningless in a monarchy to have royalist or monarchist political parties. However, I guess it has come so far now that there is no other viable solution.

Moreover, one can wonder when the monarchy needs to be saved, why there are four parties for the task – and perhaps more coming.

Happy Birthday, Your Britannic Majesty

Photo courtesy of The Monarchist.

New Nepali National Anthem

The April Fools' Day Cabinet of Nepal has approved a new national anthem for the new Nepalese order. Google News informs us of the news.

Leap of Faith

Gil Guillory recommends Leap of Faith, autobiography by Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, after having listened to an audiobook version.

Another Anti-Wilsonian Blog on the Radar

Another anti-Wilsonian blog has appeared on the radar – or at least on my radar. We have Conservative Swede by someone who apparently is a fellow Scandinavian, namely "Conservative Swede". I've added this newly created blog to my blog roll.

Conservative Swede's first post, dated April 16, on the day 90 years after Woodrow Wilson's address after the declaration of war against Imperial Germany, is The power configuration of the Wilsonian West. The most recent blog post, dated today, is Is America the EU’s Enforcer?, a comment to a post at the Brussels Journal, to which I owe the discovery of this promising blog. "Conservative Swede" says:

He puts the focus on the "EU tyranny", as the blind man's description of the elephant, if I may say so. But the elephant is much bigger: it's the "Wilsonian world order".

Conservative Swede and "Conservative Swede" are very much welcome to the blogosphere. I especially appreciate the timing of the blog launch.

The Theory from Princeton As Well

The limbic system was essential for our professor from Princeton. Now also some related academic work comes from Princeton. Rationality did not bring those United States to war. So Bill Bonner writes.

King Still at Center

The King of Nepal is still at the center now a year after the uprisings. So says Sanjay Upadhya.

Persona Non Grata Addressed the Nation

On this day 90 years ago the Persona Non Grata of this blog addressed his fellow Americans. Two weeks earlier the 28^th President of those United States had asked COTUS for a declaration of war to "make the world safe for democracy." Never mind making the world safe from democracy!

COTUS gave POTUS what he wanted, and the declaration of war was signed on April 6, 1917.

That declaration of war – together with the previous "neutrality" – was a major contributor to bringing the Old European Order to a sad final end. Not to speak of how it helped the April Theses.

Opposition to the declaration came from, amongst others, United States Senators Norris and La Follette. According to Wikipedia, both were progressives. Considering when Norris and La Follette first came to the U.S. Senate, they must have been yet to stand for their first elections under Amendment XVII.

While the intervention certainly affected Europe, the effects weren't exactly absent on the other side of the big pond either. In Joseph R. Stromberg's Remembering With Astonishment Woodrow Wilson’s Reign of Terror in Defense of "Freedom" the late Robert Nisbet is quoted:

The blunt fact is that when [under Wilson] America was introduced to the War State in 1917, it was introduced also to what would later be known as the total, or totalitarian, state.

The Allied position, and what now – with Wilson – had become the war to make the world safe for ochlocracy, kleptocracy, and mobocracy, cemented the fall of the Russian monarchy, adding Communism, brought egalitarian democratic republicanism to even more of Europe, and wasted additional millions of human lives.

April Fools' Government

Scoop has recent, interesting, and quite sensible pieces on Nepal here, here, and here.

BTW, Scoop has a record for having run interesting and quite sensible articles on Nepal. A Google search may thus be worthwhile. The same goes for News Blaze, which today – as has also occurred in the past – has an appeal from Nepali residing in those United States. No guarantee against SPA, Maoist, or SPAM loving articles can be given though.

Nepali New Year 2064

King Gyanendra is still King. His Majesty spoke today to the nation. eKantipur and the Malaysia Sun report on the speech.

eKantipur also reports on the Nepali PM's speech. The Nepali PM reportedly said that Nepal has entered a "new, democratic age." With all those broken promises about the new democratic age since the French Revolution, is there reason to be an optimist?

Nepalese politicians should take the lessons of history and not make any promises they aren't able to keep. But I guess it is in vain to give such advice to politicians?

One of the already broken promises is the postponing of elections for the "Constituent Assembly" (The Hindu News Update Service). If it is correct that elections may be held May thru June or October thru November only – and politicians don't try to drag electors to the polls outside of those windows, which I wouldn't trust they wouldn't – we might not see elections before October. Any bets against further postponing?

It's now been about a year since the "April Revolution." My views on the case of Nepal have basically not changed since then. My views are expressed in an article published last July.

Back in February Nepalese in America welcomed the King's address, which was so fiercely attacked.

The work going on for making Nepal safe for democracy – or was it Maoist rule? – needs to be balanced. Nepal must be made safe from unchecked democracy, conning Maoists, and those politicos running the show.

Hawaiian Language on the Rise

The Hawaiian language is making a strong comeback. So the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Hawaiian culture is not dead five score and fourteen years after the overthrow of the monarchy, of which President Grover Cleveland was so ashamed. See also the initiative to create a "brick and mortar" Grover Cleveland Library and Museum in Buffalo, New York.

Fukuyama Still Believes

Professor Francis Fukuyama still believes in the end of history. He further explains his position. The end of history is more the European Union than those United States.

Link via the Brussels Journal.

Prince Wilhelm-Karl, RIP

The last grandson of German Emperor Wilhelm II has passed on. So the International Herald Tribune reports.

Lloyd George – Friend of Liberty?

Today is the 90^th anniversary of Lloyd George's address to the American Club in London following the entry into the Great War of those United States.

Lloyd George praised the tradition of "never having engaged in war except for liberty." He called it a war for liberty, democracy, and the end of war. He uttered some baloney – resembling the Whig Theory of History – about rise out of autocracy for America, France, and now Russia.

The British Prime Minister did have some truth:

I don't mind saying that I rejoice even more in the knowledge that America is going to win the right to be at the conference table when the terms of peace are being discussed. That conference will settle the destiny of nations – the course of human life – for God knows how many ages.

A single conference didn't settle it, although the Versailles Conference was important, but Woodrow Wilson got to have his say about the post-war order, oh yes. Stalin, Hitler, and modern democracy, with its soft totalitarianism, oh yes. Something to rejoice about, oh yes!

Who is this Lloyd George to lecture about liberty? He and his comrades had emasculated the House of Lords, so it wouldn't be in the way of their agenda of expanding government. Who is this Lloyd George to lecture about Prussian militarism? Germany had tried to engage in world trade peacefully, but had been bullied by the Royal Navy. Who is this Lloyd George to promise liberty?

Where is my liberty? Has anybody else seen it the last 9 decades? Is it because I've only been around about a third of that time I haven't seen it? Is it because I haven't lived in a country party to the Great War I haven't seen it? No that can't be it, for I have. Or is it because I haven't seen the light of democracy I haven't seen it?

Where is that time machine?!?

Fort Sumter Anniversary

7 score and 6 years ago today forces of the Confederate States of America fired upon Fort Sumter of the United States of America, from which the state of South Carolina, where the fort was placed, had seceded.

The War to Prevent Southern Independence had begun.

The Old World's views of that war are quite interesting. Some sources are:

• Europe and the American Civil War
• Thomas J. Dilorenzo: European Views of the War To Prevent Southern Independence
• The Acton-Lee Correspondence
• Jordan et al.: Europe and the American Civil War (differs from the source above, out of print)

The South was aristocratic. The pre-1861 order in those United States was a decentralized order. There was much European sympathy with the South.

Among all the "Civil War Reenactment" groups that exists there is actually one reenacting the European perspective, namely the Société d'Europe.

One could wonder whether the North's eventual use of the "slavery card" simply was a move to prevent European intervention. If so, it seems to have worked quite well. The Old World stayed out of the conflict. It stayed out at its own peril.

The New World did not stay out when there was a conflict in the new half a century later. Ironically, it was a Virginian, Woodrow Wilson, who was to be at the helm.

Intervention in the economy. Intervention by war at home. Intervention by war abroad.

Having created the intervention level of the Progressive Era, isn't it the most natural thing in the world to go tell other peoples how to be free?

Cheaply to the Old World

Travellers should rejoice this week over the latest low fare airline news.

American residents with an interest in visiting the Old World – or what's left of it – will now probably in a year or a few years' time be able to do transatlantic flights as cheaply as at about USD 12.

Thus, the Habsburg Castle, the Hohenzollern Castle, the Austria Imperial Concert, etc. are within low cost reach. So is participation in the annual celebration of the birth of the Emperor Franz Josef in Giassico, Bad Ischl, and Millstatt.

Moreover, family, friends, and acquaintances will more easily be able to get together.

The Airline Hub also reports on O'Leary's recent PR move.

Now, I don't think it will be easy to get a USD 12 ticket. I once flew between Sandefjord and Stansted for GBP 4 plus taxes. Up to 15 kilos of checked baggage was included, and at that time there were no special regulations specifically limiting the food you could bring through security checks.

Expect low fare flights across the Atlantic in a few years. Expect the tickets to be considerably cheaper than they are today. Expect competition to bring prices down. Don't expect much to be included in your low fare ticket. Don't expect it to be cheap if you need a ticket on short notice at a particular time. Don't expect it to be cheap if you miss your flight.

Over all, prices will go down.

Cameron and Gore

The Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition now seems to have bought a metaphor of Gore's, namely "your house will be burning down." He also believes in the "consensus."

Please note that global warming is just one of the issues Cameron comments.



Not even the IPCC believes the alarmism of Al Gore, but obviously "conservative" politicians do.

Al Gore tried to take credit for the Internet. He has claimed credit for initiative in creating the Internet while in Congress. Now, that's pretty impudent, considering that the Internet actually has a history from before Gore entered the U.S. Congress, notwithstanding claims that Gore has been misquoted. How can Gore be trusted?

Gore has been caught in a not so low energy personal life style. See articles on his mansion (thanks to Mike Tennant) and jet travelling.

I commented before Easter on a recent visit of Gore's in the Oil Kingdom of Norway. He had a car brought by truck from afar, just so he could drive around town in an environmentally fiendly way.

Again, how is this man to be trusted?

It is frightening to think of how far this may lead us into government control. George III and Louis XVI would probably have gazed at how far we thus far have come. How much would they be gazing up ahead?

Procrustes, Liberty, Equality, etc.

The late Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn was a great polymath and a heroic defender of the Old European Order.

The Ludwig von Mises Institute has quite recently made his The Menace of the Herd available as PDF and Print-On-Demand. So also Liberty or Equality. For quite some time Monarchy and War (PDF) has been available. The Mises Institute also has an audio recording of a lecture.

Operation Parracide is available at Culture Wars. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute also has an audio recording.

Democracy's Road to Tyranny seems to have gone with the libertyhaven.com site, but the Google cache version can be found here.

Woodrow Wilson's World

Article by Byron W. King 2 years ago today on the Persona Non Grata of this blog brought to you.

Blair and Cameron

This video basically shows us what choices the electorate has with the new order of modern democracy.

All hail modern democracy! What would we do without it?

The Electoral College

The 17^th amendment to the United States Constitution brought direct elections of U.S. Senators. The amendment was ratified about a month into the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson. The Electoral College – although only a remnant from a time when there typically weren't popular elections for the United States Presidency – was left intact in the Wilson Era.

The Electoral College was subject to much critique and subsequent defense – in the Old World as well as in North America – in connection with the presidential election in the year 2000.

Bob Unruh at WorldNetDaily now tells us that legislators are working at abolishing, or at least undermining, the Electoral College.

As if those United States don't have too much democracy already. Let's pour more fuel on the fire!

Current Threat to Liberty

The Czech President, Václav Klaus, recently warned that environmentalism is a threat to "freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity." So WorldNetDaily reports.

This statement is welcome. The Czech President would, however, be well advised to drop the term democracy and, thus, achieve compliance with the principle of three terms.

See also President Klaus's statement on "Europeanism" before the Mont Pelerin Society (2005, The Brussels Journal).

Al Gore's Diesel

In this day and age, we have all sorts of demagogues. They wish to do what's best for us. They have, in the words of C.S. Lewis, the approval of their own conscience. Al Gore is one of these. I had an article on him some two months ago.

It turns out he's been to Norway. Luckily, I didn't find out before he had left. He recently visited Kristiansand, where he, of course, drove an "environmentally friendly" car. The only problem was that the car was transported from Oslo and back by truck. The truck spent 0.35 liters of diesel per kilometer – totally 230 liters for the return trip. That's about 0.1488 gallons per mile – totally some 60.76 gallons. Gore thus burnt off more than 60 gallons of diesel in order to drive around a Norwegian town in an environmentally friendly way.

So Norwegian radio station P4 reports (in Norwegian).

Parliamentarism in Writing

I have an article today at LewRockwell.com on the recent amendments to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway.

Forum threads (in Norwegian) related to these amendments can be found here and here.

Nepalis to the Polls

According to India eNews, Nepalis will be going to the polls over the issue of monarchy or republic on June 20.

Update: Also reported by BBC.