Sunday, November 30, 2014

Quote of the Month

Writes Mr. Theodore Dalrymple over at Taki's Magazine:

Modern politicians, having been given the mandate of heaven (vox populi vox Dei), do not accept limitations of their authority or their moral competence, even if, in practice, only a third or even a quarter of the eligible voters have voted for them. Procedural correctness is all that is necessary for such a man to feel justified in pursuing his own moral enthusiasms at other people’s expense.

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Friday, November 28, 2014

Stefan Zweig Born

133 years ago today, Stefan Zweig, author of Die Welt von Gestern, was born.


Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Democracy as Communism Light


Sunday, November 23, 2014

Johan Scharffenberg at 145

Johan Scharffenberg
In this Norwegian constitutional bicentennial year, 145 years ago today, Johan Scharffenberg was born.

Scharffenberg was active in 1905 for the republican cause in the Kingdom of Norway, but at the end of World War II he was behind a move to give more powers to the King.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Two Emperors and a Crown Prince

98 years ago today, Emperor-King Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary passed away – ending a reign eleven days short of 68 years.

Archduke Karl ascended the thrones of the Dual Monarchy as Emperor-King, with his eldest son, Archduke Otto as Crown Prince.


Thursday, November 20, 2014

New Jersey and the Bill of Rights

The Great Seal of the State of New Jersey225 years ago today, the State of New Jersey ratified the United States Bill of Rights.

Smith Passing at 7

Seven years ago today, Ian Douglas Smith passed away.


Happy Anniversary!

To Her Britannic Majesty and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.

They married three years short of seventy years ago today.


Uncrowned Emperor 102

Today marks the 102nd birthday of the late Archduke Otto of Austria – the fourth after his passing.


Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Happy National Day, Monaco!

The Principality of Monaco, one of two monarchies in Europe where the monarch can actually in any meaningful way be said to still be ruling, celebrates her National Day.

Congratulations! Especially to the Princely Family and the people and residents of Monaco! And good wishes for the expected heirs!


Monday, November 17, 2014

Mehmed VI Expelled

Eight years short of a century ago today, Mehmed VI was expelled and departed Constantinople.


Sunday, November 16, 2014

The King's Norwegian PM

In this constitutional bicentennial year, two years short of two centuries ago today, Christian August Selmer, Norwegian Prime Minister of King Oscar II, who fought with His Majesty against the usurping Parliament during the “constitutional crisis” of the 1880s, was born.

Prime Minister Selmer met with King Oscar at Sofiero Palace to discuss how to handle the “constitutional crisis.”


Saturday, November 15, 2014

Viva o Imperador!

Five quarters of a century ago today, Emperor Pedro II was deposed.



125 years of Interregnum is far more than enough!

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Landsdowne on the Great War

William James Topley: The Marquess of Lansdowne, Governor General of CanadaTwo years shot of a century ago today, Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, former Governor General of Canada and Viceroy of India, expressed disagreement with the Allied war effort. About a year later, he wrote (according to the History Channel):

[The] prolongation [of the war] will spell ruin for the civilized world, and an infinite addition to the load of human suffering which already weighs upon it[...]

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Rogers and Schiff

On what's up ahead:






Tuesday, November 11, 2014

All Quiet

Eight dozen years ago today, the guns of the Great War fell silent – the first anniversary of Armistice Day after the centennial of the beginning of that same dreadful war.

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

A world ended, it was the dawn of a new age, the era of Wilsonian mass democracy.

On the day 29 years later, on November 11, 1947, Winston Churchill delivered his famous dictum on democracy (also: on his supposed quote on a five minute conversation with an average voter). He did so in defense of the prerogatives of the House of Lords. The following year the first volume of Churchill's six-volume work on World War Two came out. In his assessment of World War One and its end, Churchill praised the achievements of the Habsburg monarchy and decried how World War One was a war of peoples who could not come to good terms with each other, as opposed to how the aristocrats managed affairs at the Congress of Vienna just over a hundred years earlier.

It is too the anniversary of the House of Lords Act 1999.

This seems to be a day for modern democracy. At least, the end of a dreadful war should indeed be celebrated, as a deed in itself.


Monday, November 10, 2014

Faber, Schiff, and Greenspan

On the money madness:






Sunday, November 9, 2014

Abdication Announcement

In this centennial year of the outbreak of the war to end civilization, four years short of a century ago today, Emperor Wilhelm II's abdication was announced.


Saturday, November 8, 2014

Austria and Uncle Sam

age old document for Austria
In this centennial year of the outbreak of World War One, seven years short of a century ago today, the peace treaty after the Great War between Austria and those United States came into force.

Friday, November 7, 2014

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Greenspan on Gold and Money

In the present money madness:


Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Woods Explains the Austrian Business Cycle Theory

In the present money madness, Dr. Tom Woods gives a simple but excellent explanation of the Austrian business cycle theory:


Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Swedish-Norwegian Union

Two centuries ago today, the Kingdoms og Sweden and Norway were joined in union through the Norwegian Parliament's constitutional revision of this day, resulting in what is known as the November Constitution.


Monday, November 3, 2014

Germanosphere Rebels

German revolutionary captured in BavariaIn this year of the centennial of the outbreak of World War I, four years short of a century ago today, revolutionaries were making their way in Austria-Hungary and Germany.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

The Ottoman Sultanate

92 years ago today, the Ottoman Sultanate was abolished.


Burke's Reflections on France

In this year of 225 years since the outbreak of the French Revolution, a year short of nine quarters of a century ago today, Edmund Burke had his Reflections on the Revolution in France appropriately published.