Writes the host blogger of Once I Was A Clever Boy:
All of which, given the appalling mess that is much of the Middle East today, prompts me to make the point that maybe destroying the Ottoman Empire in the Great War and by the Treaties of Sevres and Lausanne was not such a good idea after all. Having the Sultan might be a good thing - having him as Caliph would restore a final arbiter in Islam that has been lacking since the early 1920s.
Writes Mr. Theodore Dalrymple over at Taki's Magazine:
It’s most likely that the 36 percent who did not vote were thoroughly disillusioned with the whole process and refrained from what they saw as wasting their time. The Romanian peasants had a proverb which I love to quote: “A change of rulers is the joy of fools; in other words the next lot will be as bad as the last.”Says Mr. Michael Anissimov over at his weblog More Right:
[...]
The average head of a modern democratic government is more absolute in many ways than a mere Sun King sitting in Versailles.
In this new land of political theory, we consider critiques of democracy at a deeper level than pithy Churchill quotes. This is unfamiliar territory, I know. The lowest grade of thinking about democracy and its critiques are the Churchill quotes. After we get rid of those and agree to never speak of them again, then we can have an adult conversation about democracy and its merits.Expressed at Once I Was A Clever Boy:
[T]here are complex issues which intersect around the [Dresden] raid, but I do wonder why, after seventy years, we as a country cannot be allowed to say that maybe, just maybe, we got something wrong on that terrifying February night.The Chief of Defence of New Zealand notes:
This remarkable 105 year old remembers sitting on her fathers shoulders watching troops go to WW1[.]My great aunt who would also have been 105 at this time had a recollection of something similar at least well into her 90s.
Expresses Dr. Gary North:
One critic has to decide what the central flaw of the original Keynesian system is, and then hammer on it for the rest of his career.Over at his David's Stockman's Contra Corner, Mr. Stockman reflects on the economic viability of Tesla – and on China and the global debt level. On Greece as well. Over at Taki's Magazine, Mr. Taki Theodoracopulos on Greece too.
A few years ago, as part of the preparations for my interview with Archduke Otto, I read The Decline and Fall of the Habsburg Empire, 1815–1918 by Professor Alan Sked. Dr. Sked in his book questioned – or debunked if you will – the thesis that World War I just finished off an empire that would fall apart shortly in any case.
Here's a lecture by another Habsburg historian, Dr. John Deak, Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame in the State of Indiana, taking on the “consensus”:
On the occasion of last week's annual address of the Governor of Norges Bank, yours truly addressed some issues (in Norwegian).
Today marks the 78th birthday of His Majesty King Harald V of Norway.
Happy Birthday, Your Majesty!
Interesting comments from Noam Chomsky:
Best wishes to Hans-Adam II, Sovereign Prince of Liechtenstein, on his 70th birthday!
Eight dozen years ago today, a draft covenant for the League of Nations was presented by the bête noire of this weblog.
A baker's dozen score years ago today, Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu passed from this world.
Nine years short of three halves of a century ago today, the icon and mascot of this weblog was born.
Please feel free to browse posts on the late officer.
Jon Stewart's take:
Half a century ago today, Johan Scharffenberg passed away.
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.
Posts
All Comments
