Quote of the Month

Writes Mr. Peter Hitchens over at the Mail on Sunday:

As for ‘democracy’, plenty of people (me included) are not at all sure we have it, and wouldn’t be that keen on it if we did.

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Randoms of January

Writes Nyan Sandwich over at More Right:

The Median Voter Theorem is an interesting result in the theory of democracy that ought to form a prominent piece in the bedrock of any discussion of electoral politics. The result, in short, is that in certain conditions, two political parties will each take all voters on each side of the median voter, and they will both serve the desires of the median voter. The theorem could use some strengthening; its assumptions are rather ambitious, but it is likely that a slightly weaker version is true in many more circumstances.

Over at LewRockwell.com, says David Stockman:

My humble thesis tonight is that the entire 20^th Century was a giant mistake.

Over at The American Conservative, Justin Raimondo reflects on Russia.

Expresses Theodore Harvey over at his weblog Royal World:

Over the course of the next four decades the newly united Germany would become one of the most dynamic and exciting countries in the world, with more Nobel prizes than Britain, France, and the United States combined, a rapidly growing economy, and a glittering and vibrant culture.

Coulombe on American Ideology

Mr. Charles Coulombe on the Constitution, progress, etc.:

Mencken Passing at 59

A year short of six decades ago today, H.L. Mencken passed away.

Emperor Wilhelm at 156

156 years ago today, then future Kaiser Wilhelm II was born.

League of Nations Commission

96 years ago today, the Versailles Peace Conference approved the creation of the League of Nations.

More on the European Madness

Gerald Celente:

European Money Madness

Peter Schiff's take:

Unrest in St. Petersburg

110 years ago today, Bloody Sunday took place in St. Petersburg.

The King on the Scaffold

222 years ago today, King Louis XVI of France was brutally decapitated at Place de Louis XV.

More Schiff on the Money Madness

Robert E. Lee Day

Two centuries and eight years ago today, Robert Edward Lee was born.

Peace Conference Commences

Four years short of a century ago today, the Paris Peace Conference opened, four dozen years on the day after the proclamation of the German Empire in the halls of Versailles, in France.

Democracy, Aristocracy, State, and Work of Art

Over at The Imaginative Conservative, Marcia Christoff-Kurapovna wrote last year about why democracy needs aristocracy.

She also wrote on different forms of states and republics.


H/T: “Washington DC”

King George III and Taxes

H/T: The Daily Paul

More from December

Peter Hitchens has read the history of the Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes. Mr. Hitchen notes:

Pipes notes that , in return for ‘support of Ukrainian National aspirations' Lenin was paid a subsidy and given help with his efforts to overthrow the Russian Imperial Government. ‘The Union received funds from *both Vienna and Berlin* and operated under the supervision of the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs’. And the man who fixed Lenin up with this little job was that extraordinary figure of intrigue and mystery, Parvus Helphand, who also helped arrange the famous sealed train, by which the Bolshevik bacillus was inserted into Petrograd by Ludendorff (more German interference in Russian affairs).

Theodore Harvey celebrates the twin birth in Monaco.

So does the “Mad Monarchist.”

From Guillotine to Machine Guns

Certainly what happened in Paris last week was terrible and dreadful.

I passed by the French military attaché's office in Oslo last week. The revolutionary flag and the EU flag were flying on half staff.

Speaking of the French Revolution, it's flag flies on half staff when lethal force has been used against unallowable opinion?

Guillotine or machine guns? Quelle est la différence?

The Money Madness in 2015

Peter Schiff:

Jim Rogers, Andrew Schiff, and more:

"Big Four" Gathering

96 years ago today, the big leaders of the Entente met in Paris.

Archduke Karl at 54

Today is the birthday of the Archduke Karl, head of the House of Habsburg. 54 years ago today he was born to Archduke Otto and Archduchess Regina.

Happy Birthday, Your Imperial and Royal Highness!

Fourteen Points at 97

97 years ago today, the bête noire of this weblog issued his “Fourteen Points.”

Bolsheviks at Constantinople

A century ago today, a Bolshevik envoy approached the Imperial German representative in Constantinople.

Poll Results: What Is the Surveillance State?

The results for the poll, with the question “What is the surveillance state?,” ending at midnight between 2014 and 2015, are as follows:

Total votes: 23.

• a natural/logical consequence of the modern democratic state: 18 (78%)
• neither [of the alternatives]: 3 (13%)
• a corruption of the modern democratic state: 2 (8%)

A new poll will be up soon.

Prosit 2015

As we enter a new year, I wish all readers and occasional bypassers a happy new year.

Enjoy from Kaiserstadt Wien: