January 25, 2013 – 9:30 am
I rather like monarchy. I like the pomp and ceremony. I like the sense of continuity. (The Papacy, the Japanese monarchy, the English monarchy and the Danish monarchy are the oldest political institutions on the planet; the English coronation ceremony has elements that date back to Anglo-Saxon times.) I like monarchy’s capacity to separate the [...]
By Lorenzo
|
Posted in History, Law, Middle east
|
Also tagged Adam Garfinkle, afghanistan, al Assad, al-Saud, Alfonso IX, Anglo-Saxon, Arab Spring, Arab-Israeli conflict, Austro-Prussian War, Axis powers, Baharain, Cuba, Danish monarchy, Diana Princess of Wales, Egypt, Elliot Abrams, English monarchy, Fatima Zahra Mansouri, Frederick the Great, Great War, Hapsburg, Hassan II, Hohenzollern, Iran, iraq, Islamists, Japanese monarchy, Juche, Kim Family Regime, King Ernest Augustus of Hanover, King George V of Hanover, Kingdom of Hanover, Kingdom of Italy, libya, Macaulay, Mali, Mancur Olson, Marrakesh, Michael Totten, Mohammad V, Mohammad VI, Morocco, Mubarak, Nadia Bernoussi, Nicholas II, Otto von Bismarck, Papacy, Qaddafi, Queen Victoria, Romanov, Saddam Hussein, Salic law, Saudi Arabia, Shia, Sufism, Sultan of Oman, Sunni, Syria, Syrian civil war, Taliban, Timbuktu, UN Security Council, War of the Austrian Succession, Yemen, Yemeni civil war
|
January 16, 2013 – 9:30 am
Conservative humourist P J O’Rourke once observed, after flying over West and East Germany, that one should probably try to avoid public policy mistakes you can see from 20,000 feet up. Then there are public policy mistakes one can see from orbit. The two Germanys and the two Koreas constituted natural public policy experiments. Take [...]
By Lorenzo
|
Posted in Economics, History, Politics, Public Policy, Sexuality, Society, Technology
|
Also tagged Botswana, Castro regime, Chiang Kai-shek, china, CPC, Cuba, cult of personality, DPP, East Germany, hyperinflation, Ian Smith, KMT, Latin America, legitimacy, Mao Zedong, Nelson Mandela, North America, P J O'Rourke, property rights, Rhodesia, Robert Mugabe, south korea, Taiwan, West Germany, Xavier Marquez, Zimbabwe
|
October 16, 2012 – 9:30 am
We think of the World Wars of the C20th as being unprecedented in their death tolls. That is not true in either total deaths or, still less, death rates. While the 1939-45 War did have the largest death toll of any war in history, the 1914-19 War does not come second. When one considers the huge [...]
By Lorenzo
|
Posted in History, Law, Philosophy, Public Policy, Religion, Technology
|
Also tagged chaos, china, Confucianism, Leninism, order, war
|
February 11, 2012 – 5:51 am
All the way from Pyongyang, where the hep cats of North Korea are at it again. According to Tom G. Palmer — who visited last year – they like accordion playing there, it seems. Everyone who visits gets to see a room full of girls playing the accordion, with a photo of the Maximum leader and [...]
December 29, 2011 – 9:48 am
… the little children died in the streets. It is generally a good idea to laugh at dictators. It helps that they are often funny, with their monstrous pretensions, awful taste in clothes and bad hair. Laughter is a way of puncturing their pomposity and self-regard: I have long thought that David Low’s hilarious send [...]
By skepticlawyer
|
Posted in Free Speech, History, Human/Civil rights, Media, Personal liberty, Politics
|
Also tagged brainwashing, jim hoare, kathleen taylor, Kim Jong-Il, Nando's, Robert Mugabe, The Dear Leader, theodore dalrymple, Tom G. Palmer, totalitarianism, W. H. Auden
|
December 28, 2011 – 10:36 pm
As a nation mourns (and the Internet boggles) we pause to offer our sincere condolences to the people of North Korea on the occasion of their Dear Leader’s funeral…. We also offer some fan service to our male readers – hotpants and swords, that’s all I’m going to say. Ain’t no party like a Pyongyang [...]
October 12, 2010 – 6:20 am
It seems the North Koreans are lining up another Dear Leader; in all the clips I’ve seen he looks like a rather pudgy bunny in the headlights, unsure of what he’s exactly to do as his countrymen and women march and dance in perfect unison, apparently for his benefit. Every clip — including this one, [...]
North Korea is to cut all relations with South Korea, Pyongyang’s official news agency reports. KCNA said the North was also expelling all South Korean workers from a jointly-run factory north of the border. The move comes after an international report blamed North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship. Pyongyang denies it torpedoed the [...]
