Wednesday, December 31, 2014

WRU Unplugger of the Year

The WRU Unplugger of the Year need not be a monarchist, nor regret the fall of the Old European Order. The WRU Unplugger of the Year is simply the one who is considered to have done most in bringing about the unplugging of the Wilson Revolution.

This year's awardee has done a most excellent job at opposing the interventionism of the federal government of those United States that is at the core of the Wilsonian world order. The awardee is the executive director of the Ron Paul Institute of Peace and Prosperity, an institute that saw its first full calendar year in 2014, and that is committed to opposing American foreign interventionism.

The 2014 WRU Unplugger of the Year is:

Daniel McAdams

Daniel McAdams

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Quote of the Month

Writes Mr. Michael Anissimov over at his weblog More Right:

Whether democracies inevitably collapse into dictatorships remains to be seen, but the first part, the association of democracy and big government, is historically obvious. No traditional state had a government the size of which even vaguely approaches that of today’s. In broad outlines, there are two major differences in the system of government between today’s and that prior to the French Revolution: 1) democracy instead of monarchy and 2) big government instead of small government. The other differences (such as the alleged moral superiority of democracy) are just commentary.

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Randoms of December

Over at his weblog More Right, Mr. Michael Anissimov responds to an attack from David Brin of last year, and Mr. Anissimov says:

Just because a mob can storm a palace and murder a king in cold blood does not mean that democracy is the end-of-history best government ever.
Over at Mises Canada, Ms. Lilly Wang writes on the situation in Hong Kong and concludes:
The major focus should be on the Rule of Law. The question to ask is how to make sure the government is bounded by the law, and how the Judiciary and Legislative Council will be well maintained. Hong Kong inherits British Common Law, which is more complete than the civil law in mainland China. It will be easier to make changes. These institutions are the keys to a free society, and they need much more time and effort to be improved. Changes may be minor, and less noticeable than a request to vote for a Chief Executive, but these institutions will be far more reliable.
Over at Taki's Magazine, writes Mr. Michael Warren Davis:
But the idea that Americans adore the Duchess of Cambridge because she happens to have magnificent taste is as patently silly as the idea that monarchy was the real wedge that drove England and America apart. In fact, a brilliant new book by Eric Nelson, called The Royalist Revolution (out this October on Harvard University Press), shows how the patriots overwhelmingly saw themselves as rebels against Parliament, but for the king. It wasn’t until George III removed the revolutionaries from royal protection that they struck out on their own republican path.
Says PolarWashington:
Thus when power is diffused, as in a democracy, one finds that nobody is responsible for the current state of affairs.
Utters Mr. P. D. Mangan:
Modern skeptics are only skeptical of what they've been told to be skeptical of. On everything else they're gullible as children.
Expresses AntiDem:
"We're on the right side of history" say people who both hate and are blankly ignorant of history.
Mr. Schuyler Dugle responds:
and also who have no clue how history works.
Exclaims Duck Enlightenment:
being pro-democracy is basically like saying you think trending hashtags are an appropriate way to run a government
Over at his blog Commonsense & Wonder, articulates Mr. Bruce Fein:
Democratically elected leaders can be every bit as tyrannical and aggressive towards the United States as unelected dictators. Hamas, listed as an international terrorist organization, decisively triumphed in Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. It has ruled in Gaza since 2007, routinely denies human rights, chronically attacks Israel, and execrates the United States.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Apostolic Coronation

Two years short of a century ago today, the latest Hungarian coronation took place.


Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a merry Christmas.

Enjoy from the Kaiserstadt:













Romanov Christmas memories:


The Christmas Truce

A hundred years ago, the first Christmas Truce of the Great War took place.






Kaiserin-Königin Elisabeth

177 years ago today, Elisabeth of Bavaria was born.


Tuesday, December 23, 2014

The Fed 101

In this centennial year of the outbreak of World War I, 101 years ago today, the bête noire of this weblog signed the Federal Reserve Act into law.


Monday, December 22, 2014

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Some Randoms

All over at LewRockwell.com:

Says Dr. Michael S. Rozeff:

Is it the policy of the U.S. government to assure freedom and democracy in every land on earth and for all of its peoples? This is a practical impossibility that results in continual war. If it ever succeeded, the result would be global tyranny. Have Americans appointed themselves the unilateral and universal crusaders and administrators of freedom and democracy? This role is impossible too. It runs up against the individual developments in one nation after another. It runs aground on the ambiguities of what freedom means, what democracy means, and the flaws of democracy. It runs aground on the self-interests and imperial interests of those who control the U.S. government. This too is why freedom and democracy are not sufficient arguments for interventions.
Asks Mr. Eric Margolis:
But on the Western Front, generals on all sides kept sending their men on suicidal bayonet charges across dense wire in the face of interlocking machine gun fire and shrapnel. How could they have been so foolish?
Says Dr. Hunt Tooley:
The stalemate “crisis” also justified related repression of all kinds: the internment of “enemy aliens,” new and commodious rights of confiscation of property, jail time for all kinds of nay-sayers, the command economy, the national security state (broadening and creation of state security police, patriot laws like the Defense of the Realm Act in Britain), the state assault on privacy, and much more.
Dr. Tooley also reviews WWI history.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Continent Design

Chateau de BrestFour years short of a century ago today, the bête noire of this blog arrived for the post-WWI Versailles conference.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Queen of Kenya

50 years ago today, Queen Elizabeth II was deposed as Queen of Kenya.






Previously: Independence of Kenya

Monday, December 8, 2014

Passing of King Oscar II

A century and seven years ago today, Oscar II, King of Sweden and formerly King of Norway, passed on – in his 79th year.


Sunday, December 7, 2014

Infamy Indeed

97 years ago today, the Persona Non Grata and bête noire of this weblog signed the declaration of war against Austria-Hungary, after having spoken three days earlier. The motion to declare war passed unopposed in the United States Senate. It was opposed by one honorable United States Representative. This war had become for the Allied Powers almost exclusively – if not entirely – a war to make the world safe for unfettered mass democracy, although the British Empire had to wait a while to have that unleashed upon it.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

A Voyage for King Demos

Cabin for 1st Class passengers of the George Washington luxury steamer, built by the Norddeutsche Lloyd in 1909
Four years short of a century ago today, the bête noire of this blog set sail aboard the USS George Washington to redraw the map of Europe and make the world safe for King Demos.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Bonaparte Coronation

21 decades ago today, General Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of the French.


Franz Josef's Accession Day

166 years ago today, the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria commenced.