Quote of the Month

Dr. Marc Faber has been interviewed by The Daily Bell. When asked to point at a functioning democracy, he says:

That I don't know but everybody thinks that every dictator is evil. In Asia, we've had very fast growth in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore under non-democratic regimes. Even today in Singapore you have some kind of democracy but not a true democracy. In Hong Kong we don't have democracy; it hasn't ever been there for the last 150 years.

I don't know. I'm just saying that to sit there and say democracy is the best system in the whole world is maybe not the correct view.

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Randoms of March

Over at LewRockwell.com, says Dr. Thomas Sowell:

[Lee Kuan Yew's] example was especially striking in view of many in the West who seem to think that democracy is something that can be exported to countries whose history and traditions are wholly different from those of Western nations that evolved democratic institutions over the centuries.

Also at LewRockwell.com, writes Prof. Walter E. Williams:

The Economist magazine recently published “What’s gone wrong with Democracy … and what can be done to revive it?” The suggestion is that democracy is some kind of ideal for organizing human conduct. That’s a popular misconception.

Over at Target Liberty expresses Mr. Robert Wenzel:

Oh yeah, this really improves the functioning of government. Argentina, the Congo and Greece are among the 22 countries that coerce people into voting.

Over at The American Conservative, Prof. Kevin R.C. Gutzman reviews F.H. Buckley's The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America and Eric Nelson's Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding.

Santelli Worried

H/T: The Daily Paul

Bronze Anniversary

Today is the octennial anniversary of this weblog. Eight years ago today, this blog was launched.

Jules Verne

Born in the same year as Henrik Ibsen, Jules Verne passed on 110 years ago today.

Amongst his works are The Eternal Adam.

Departure from the Homeland

Eight dozen years ago today, the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Family arrived at the Austro-Swiss border in an Imperial train and departed Austria – under the protection of the icon of this weblog, Lt.-Col. Edward Lisle Strutt.

At Feldkirch, the Emperor-King issued the Feldkirch Manifesto, declaring the November 11 power renunciation – so often referred to as an abdication, but erroneously so – null and void, and denouncing the authority of the republican government.

Sechsundneunzig Jahre Interregnum sind genug!

Departure from Eckartsau

Four years short of a century ago today, the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Family departed the hunting lodge at Eckartsau, where the Emperor-King and his family had been in internal exile since the end of the war, under various protection, the last three and a half weeks led by this weblog's icon, Lt.-Col. Edward Lisle Strutt.

The family left for external exile in the Helvetic Confederation in an Imperial train, also under the protection of Lt.-Col. Strutt, after the latter's clever defeat of Karl Renner's abdication demand.

The Emperor of Russia Abdicates

98 years ago today, the Emperor of Russia was forced to abdicate.

Sun Yat-sen Passing

90 years ago today, Sun Yat-sen, Father of the Chinese Republic, passed on.

"Liberation" in Russia

Two years short of a century ago today, the February Revolution broke out in the Russian Imperial capital.

Day for Redstockings

It's that day of year again.

Peter Hitchens has some thoughts.

His late brother:

Over at Taki's Magazine, says Matt Forney:

It’s a shock for those accustomed to youth revolting against their parents to see Millennials begging authority figures for approval. The Baby Boomer mantra of “Don’t trust anyone over 30” is deader than Jim Morrison, as is the cynicism of Generation X. Left-wing Twitter witch-hunts are powerful precisely because young women are desperate for a mommy figure to pat them on the head for being good little girls.

Previously: International Redstockings Day

More on the Academy Award

...to CitizenFour: