Quote of the Month

Writes Mr. Theodore Harvey:

Many Americans, perhaps especially Christians, are under the impression that they have a “Duty” to vote whether they like it or not. I am not sure where in the Bible (which does mention paying taxes, but not voting) this alleged “Duty” comes from. I would think Christians ought to be more concerned with whether the modern Western fixation with “Democracy” is in danger of becoming a sort of idolatrous religion of its own, with Voting its chief “sacrament.”

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Tyranny of the Majority

Over at LewRockwell.com, Bionic Mosquito deplores the tyranny of the majority.

Month of Monarchy and Democracy

This month marked the centennial of the birht of Archduke Otto, and the Austrian-based Schwarz-Gelbe Allianz has marked the occasion. So did a weblog named 100 Years Ago Today. Yours truly had a tribute run through the LRC Blog.

Royal World gives a review of A Royal Affair. Royal World also reviews a book; Christopher Ferrara's Liberty, the God That Failed.

The Mad Monarchist quotes King Harald V of Norway from 2005:

We have been given an assignment as a monarchy, and we do as well as we can…We try to be as little populistic as possible. We don’t do anything on the spur of the moment to win an opinion poll, or short-term popularity.

The same blog also quotes Pope Pius VI:

In fact, after having abolished the monarchy, the best of all governments, [the French Revolution] had transferred all the public power to the people - the people…ever easy to deceive and to lead into every excess…

The same Texas monarchist considers the recent American election and says amongst other things:

Most people said that government should be smaller and that raising taxes would not solve the debt problem yet these same people voted for the President who promised bigger government and raising taxes to deal with the debt problem. In other words, the public doesn't seem to have any sense at all. You can blame the politicians for plenty but the public that keeps voting for them cannot get off totally blameless either. Sure, the choices the public are given don't help. I was never a fan of Romney or Obama (and didn't vote for either of them).

Over at LewRockwell.com, writes Dr. Gary North:

The Constitution was established in order to strengthen the powers of the Federal government. It strengthened them vastly beyond what the British had attempted to impose on the colonies in the early 1770s.

Also over at LewRockwell.com, writes Mr. Justin Raimondo:

If President Obama goes down in history as the incarnation of one of his distinguished predecessors, it will likely turn out to be the 28th president of these United States, whose name has become a byword for preening self-righteous interventionism on a global scale. I refer, of course, to Thomas Woodrow Wilson, a towering icon of “progressive” liberalism who dragged us into a war that was the downfall of European civilization.

Writes Jacob Lyles:

Democracy is like a business that outsources its management decisions to its customers.

Over at Taki's Magazine, Taki Theodoracopulos himself gives some thoughts on democracy:

We seem to have regressed, as our political leaders promise us everything before and give us absolutely nothing afterward.

He concludes:

Most people say they want to be free. But one of the greatest Greek thinkers of all time asks: Free to do what? Freedom from state coercion and interference, or free to shape their future by participating in the governing process by writing the laws and deciding when and if to go to war?

Well, let’s face it. We are not free from the state’s coercion, and we have the surveillance by millions of cameras that watch us at all times to prove it. And we certainly do not have the power to participate in major decisions such as going to war or writing laws. We are sheep led by knaves and con men, and this is why the electoral process we call democracy is one big joke.

Over at Alternative Right, John Maelstrom ponders and then concludes with:

The desire to expose the seductive pull of the Left’s soulless egalitarianism is what calls us to the Right. Conquering that Hellish impulse within ourselves is what may ultimately unite us. None of this is possible without also listening to the voices of our dead.

The Counter-Revolutionary gives us Prof. Niall Ferguson on the Great War:

On What Side of History?

Over at Taki's Magazine, Jim Goad reflects on the sides of history. He starts off:

As the leftist juggernaut blithely steamrollers its way over what’s left of this country, its blinkered acolytes have smugly convinced themselves that they are on “the right side of history” and that any dissenters are troglodytic throwbacks to a less moral and less enlightened era. They freely smear, degrade, disgrace, tut-tut, pooh-pooh, pee-pee, and skeet-skeet anyone who questions whether their shallow tokens of “cultural progress” might be nothing more than cynical window dressing that obscures an increasingly “empowered” governmental behemoth.

He continues:

Despite the historical record, a peskily persistent fallacy is argumentum ad populum, the idea that the majority is right. The mob, no matter where it’s headed, whom it’s beheading, or what it’s burning down, has always deemed itself to be on the right side of history.

Further down:

Tell someone who’s just been diagnosed with cancer that all change is good.

The next time you wish to conflate “new” with “good,” consider that the proliferation of AIDS among humans is relatively new.

Is it wrong to try and “turn back the clock” on a ticking time bomb?

Mr. Goad concludes:

History seems headed in the wrong direction, so I’m happy to be on the wrong side of it.

Gender Blurring

Over at Taki's Magazine, Prof. Paul Gottfried demolishes gender egalitarianism.

Over at the LRC Blog, Laurence Vance has a couple of posts against women in combat.

Abuse and Misuse of Words

By Blimey Cow:

Worship of Dead Presidents

I returned last Sunday from an around weeklong trip to Taipei, where they apparently have no scruples against worshipping the traitor-in-chief to Imperial China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen:

When Dr. Sun Yat-sen demised less than a decade and a half after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, one of his closest, Chiang Kai-shek, remained in charge through various posts for around fifty years until his own demise.

They overthrew the Qing dynasty, to have a revolutionary general in charge for half a century, longer than most monarchs remain on the throne.

And they worship him as well:

Photos by yours truly.

Accession Oath

A century and seven years ago today, Haakon VII gave his constitutional oath before Parliament.

Two days, nine days, and 14-15 days prior respectively, His Majesty had arrived in Christiania, His Majesty had been declared King, and a referendum supported his accession.

Sidebar Links Reviewed

As noted here, I had received notice of troublesome content at some of the sites linked to in my sidebar. As promised I would do, I have now reviewed the sidebar links – of which there were and still are over a hundred.

Around a dozen links have been removed due to being dead. Four links have been removed because the content has changed too much in a troublesome direction since the decision was made to include them. I here even found one clearly turned Nazi-sympathizing blog.

Although I do not take responsibility for the content at the other end of the links, there are of course limits too to what I can link to. The disclaimer, however, still stands, and sites that remain linked to I still do not take responsibility for the content of. I may even have major philosophical differences with them.

The notice I received contained a claim that half my links were either to neo-Nazi or racist blogs. This is a preposterous claim. I challenge anyone to prove it.

Archduke Otto Centennial

I have an article at LewRockwell.com at this centennial of the birth of Archduke Otto.


Note: I have received notice that there is disturbing material at some of the blogs in my blogroll. Please refer to my disclaimer that I do not endorse everything at the other end. However, I will review the links in near future.

Rhodesia and Salisbury

Five years ago today, Ian Douglas Smith passed away.

Since this year also marks the 30^th anniversary of the renaming of Salisbury, a song of the town by John Edmond is brought to you:

Nine Decades of Vacancy

A decade short of century ago today, Mehmed VI was expelled and departed Constantinople.

Viva o Imperador!

123 years ago today, Emperor Pedro II was deposed.

123 years of Interregnum is more than enough!

Lords Expelled

A baker's dozen years ago today, the House of Lords Act 1999 received Royal Assent.

The documentary The Lords' Tale is brought to you:

The Still Hour

94 years ago today, the guns of the Great War fell silent.

On the same day, the Emperor of Austria renounced power and the Austro-Hungarian Imperial-Royal Family moved from Schönbrunn to internal exile at Eckartsau.

Two days prior, the German abdication had been announced.

Two days later, the Hungarian equivalent to the Austrian renunciation was signed at Eckartsau.

Over at The LRC Blog, Daniel McAdams says:

Civilization lost. Decency lost. And in many ways the world ended.

Mr. McAdams also directs our attentions to this video:

We also have a series at LewRockwell.com from the pen of Professor Ralph Raico run this fall:

• Prelude to World War I
• And the War Came
• Woodrow Wilson's 'Second Personality'
• America Goes to War
• World War I on the Home Front

American Peace with an Interregnum

91 years ago today, the peace treaty after the Great War between Austria and those United States came into force.

Bloody October

Five years short of a century ago today, the world was struck by Red October.

Landslide Perilous

A century ago today, the bête noire and the Persona Non Grata of this weblog was elected the 28^th POTUS in a landslide victory.

A King and Debasement

Ad Orientem tells the story of how King Henry I dealt with currency debasement.

Upcoming Electoral College Controversy?

Over at The Washington Post, Karen Tumulty ponders the possibility of a split between the popular and electoral vote (H/T: Ad Orientem):

A win in the electoral college that is not accompanied by one in the popular vote casts a shadow over the president and his ability to govern.

Over at The American Conservative, W. James Antle III also reflects:

Its abolition would just be the latest step away from the idea of a federal republic toward the notion that the narrowest plurality of Americans should get whatever it wants from government.

Whom to Vote For?

H/T: Ad Orientem

Turkish Republican Madness

90 years ago today, the Ottoman Sultanate was abolished.