QotD: In the future, wars will not be fought over water
You often hear from farmers, environmental Jeremiahs, and amateur economists that the wars of the future will be fought over water. This is almost certainly balderdash. Turn the pages of history, and...
View ArticleSmall Arms of WWI Primer 014: Canadian Ross Rifle Mark III
Published on 8 Dec 2015 Othais and Mae delve into the story of this WWI classic. Complete with history, function, and live fire demonstration. C&Rsenal presents its WWI Primer series; covering the...
View ArticleQotD: Aristocrats
“So Sybil’s ancestors used to come along and talk to the hermit whenever they were faced with a philosophical conundrum, yes?” Willikins looked puzzled. “Good heavens, no, sir, I can’t imagine that any...
View ArticleCam Newton’s 198.8% tax rate for his Super Bowl “winnings”
Dan Mitchell explains how Cam Newton is being taxed at nearly 200% on his California income for playing in the Super Bowl: When I give speeches in favor of tax reform, I argue for policies such as the...
View ArticleHow John Perry Barlow might have revised his 20-year-old Declaration
From a short interview in The Economist: I probably wouldn’t have imitated the grandiloquent style of a notorious former slave holder. And I would have been a bit more humble about the “Citizens of...
View ArticleZeppelins – Majestic and Deadly Airships of WW1 I THE GREAT WAR Special
Published on 8 Feb 2016 Zeppelins pioneered the skyways, could fly long distances and reached heights like none of the British fighter-interceptor aircraft before. Because of that, they were used for...
View ArticleQotD: “The Catholic Church is unique among institutions in the modern West,...
Parse [the headline] carefully and one will find less overstatement than one might have hoped for. I did not use “unique” to mean “exclusive”; and “modern” may be restricted to the last half-century or...
View ArticleJustinian & Theodora – VIII: Bad Faith – Extra History
Published on 30 Jan 2016 Mediolanum had fallen. Belisarius wrote a furious letter to Justinian explaining what happened, and the emperor immediately recalled Narses and reaffirmed Belisarius’s...
View ArticleAndrew Coyne re-phrases Justin Trudeau on our Iraq commitments
It’s all a bit confusing, so Mr. Coyne has thoughtfully straightened out and recast the Prime Minister’s statement: Still, in any mission, you need to make choices, even false ones. We can’t do...
View Article“It is as if the world had suddenly, mysteriously, begun to clamour for...
Colby Cosh suspects we’ve just hit “Peak Bernie”: You are reading this on what is the probable date of Peak Bernie. Although you never know. The 74-year-old Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has become...
View ArticleQotD: Dissing Wal-Mart as a cultural signalling device
There’s no sign of it here in Magnolia, Ark., but the boycott season is upon us, and graduates of Princeton and Bryn Mawr are demanding “justice” from Wal-Mart, which is not in the justice business but...
View ArticleQotD: Military developments from 1870 onwards
The period of Colonial expansion coincided with three major developments in weapon-power: the general adoption of the small-bore magazine rifle, firing smokeless powder; the perfection of the machine...
View ArticleThe Generalissimo Goes Forth I THE GREAT WAR – Week 81
Published on 11 Feb 2016 The situation for the Italian soldiers was dire during the winter battles, but even though Luigi “The Generalissimo” Cadorna maintained a tight grip on the strategy used, the...
View ArticleQotD: Education
I put the donkey ears on “teaching” to this purpose. I do own a tweed jacket, though as a priestly colleague has pointed out, it lacks the regulation elbow patches. That is about the extent of my...
View ArticleYou notice you only ever hear of the Baltic Dry Index when it’s way down?
Tim Worstall says that the Baltic Dry Index is way down … and there’s zero reason to panic over it: The Baltic Dry Index is now down to 293, near 50% down on a year ago and almost 40% down just so far...
View ArticleQotD: President Herbert Hoover’s lasting economic legacy
Until March 1933, these were the years of President Herbert Hoover — the man that anti-capitalists depict as a champion of non-interventionist, laissez-faire economics. Did Hoover really subscribe to a...
View ArticleWas Cocaine Widely Used During World War 1? I OUT OF THE TRENCHES
Published on 13 Feb 2016 Indy sits on the Chair of Wisdom again and answers two more surreal questions about cocaine and zombie attacks this week. Related posts: How Did Journalists Work In World War...
View ArticleQotD: Staying in touch with the everyday
Posted something at the work blog today about these apps that help you do things you previously did with low-tech means, like assembling grocery lists. One of the comments praised a grocery app that...
View ArticleRush | Red Barchetta (BONUS TRACK) – R40 LIVE
Published on 13 Feb 2016 Get R40 LIVE on 3CD/DVD/Blu-ray! Related posts: Rush | Roll The Bones – R40 Live in Toronto (OFFICIAL AUDIO) Rush | Closer to the Heart – R40 LIVE Rush | Subdivisions – R40 LIVE
View ArticleQotD: The Victimocracy
The Victimocracy is a lot like any other tyranny. In an aristocracy, power belongs to the nobles, in a theocracy, power belongs to the clergy, in a meritocracy, to anyone with skill and a work ethic....
View ArticleHow Sweden got rich
Johan Norberg talks about the economic state of Sweden 150 years ago: Once upon a time I got interested in theories of economic development because I had studied a low-income country, poorer than...
View ArticleTsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria I WHO DID WHAT IN WW1?
Published on 15 Feb 2016 Even the appointment of Ferdinand I to become ruler of Bulgaria was not without controversy. All across Europe, leaders didn’t see him fit to do the job. Controversy followed...
View ArticleQotD: “Hegel is really interesting”
I’m reading through Marx: A Very Short Introduction, and one of its best features is its focus on Marx’s influence from Hegel. Hegel is really interesting. I should rephrase that. Hegel is famously...
View Article“Weird” Al Yankovic – Amish Paradise
Uploaded on 2 Oct 2009 Music video by “Weird” Al Yankovic performing Amish Paradise. YouTube view counts pre-VEVO: 14,859 (C) 1999 Volcano Entertainment lll, LLC Related posts: Every Press Conference...
View ArticleThe “Great Cauliflower Crisis” of 2016
Colby Cosh writes the epitaph for that terrible month of January 2016, when the people were sorely oppressed by the Great Cauliflower Crisis: I must have been assured a dozen times that peak...
View ArticleQotD: FDR’s New Deal
Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the 1932 presidential election in a landslide, collecting 472 electoral votes to just 59 for the incumbent Herbert Hoover. The platform of the Democratic Party whose...
View ArticleJustinian & Theodora – IX: Justinian’s Comet – Extra History
Published on 6 Feb 2016 A comet flew over the empire for forty days, heralding bad news to come. Raiders struck from the west, coming within mere miles of Constantinople. But the biggest threat lay in...
View ArticleQotD: Art, taste, and judgment
All of us, if we are not merely children or possessed of childlike tastes, recall works that we had to work to learn to love, such as obtuse poems which has to be explained before they were beautiful,...
View ArticleThe Ghost Of The Lusitania – Russia Takes Erzurum I THE GREAT WAR – Week 82
Published on 18 Feb 2016 The sinking of the Lusitania is still causing diplomatic tensions between Germany and the USA. While the Germans insist they were forced by the British blockade to adopt...
View ArticleQotD: The “joys” of winter
The cold has returned — cruel, aching, deep-space cold. Not as bad as last year’s 20 below / 37 below with wind chill, but after you’re below zero it’s just numbers. There’s the cold you shrug off, the...
View ArticleThe Ezra and Rachel show
The Alberta government tried to expel journalists from a particular (and particularly irritating) right wing media organization and was utterly shocked to discover that the rest of the mainstream media...
View ArticleJOURNEYQUEST IS RENEWED!
Published on 19 Feb 2016 Thanks to over 5000 backers on Kickstarter, with mere hours to go, JourneyQuest has been renewed for a third season! Congratulations, thank you, and ONWAAAAAARD! Related...
View ArticleQotD: British diplomacy in the Napoleonic era
The other side of Napoleon’s strategic defeat was Britain’s ability to assemble the alliance and hold it together, notwithstanding all manner of hindrances, rivalries and tensions. An essential aspect...
View ArticleHMS Vanguard – Britain’s Last Battleship
Published on 20 Feb 2015 On 4 August 1960 HMS Vanguard was towed from Portsmouth Harbour to the Breakersyard at Faslane in the Gareloch,Scotland, just a few miles from where she first set sail in...
View ArticleQotD: “[R]unner-up in the 20th-century villain pageant: Kaiser Wilhelm II”
As a candidate for runner-up in the 20th-century villain pageant [after first-place winner Lenin], I would nominate Kaiser Wilhelm II, the monarch of Germany from 1888 to 1918. This comes from reading...
View ArticleTrench Raid Tactics – Into The Abyss I THE GREAT WAR – Special feat. InRangeTV
Published on 20 Feb 2016 Check out Ian and Karl’s video about WW1 melee weapons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIGIBJeRfnQ Check out Ian’s and Karl’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/inrangetvshow...
View ArticleQotD: How Bernie will pay for his campaign trail promises
Over on his campaign website Bernie Sanders has a page telling us all how his delightful bribes to the voters will get paid for. The usual populist politician’s trick of just shouting that it will be...
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First the move, then the unpacking
The boxes of books in my new office Related posts: Still nothing to see here, folks, just move along now… Why is the move to IPv6 so important? A solid reason I wouldn’t want to move to Edmonton
View ArticleQotD: A lesson from a wine-tasting
Then it was my turn. I was ready to rock the house with a little treasure I wanted to share with the group. I had kept it under wraps until nearly the very end and I was about to BLOW SOME MINDS (well,...
View ArticleBlogging will continue to light for a few days at least
As you may have noticed from a post the other day, we’ve just moved into our new-yet-quite-old house and are up to our armpits in packed boxes and not yet properly set-up furniture and “things”. It...
View ArticleQotD: Elements of dramatic storytelling
To be a satisfying drama, certain basic elements must be present, either in large or in small: A protagonist with a goal or dream or need or mission, who is facing… An obstacle (it can be a person, as...
View ArticleSoldier Salary, Flying Aces And WW1 Inventions I OUT OF THE TRENCHES
Published on 22 Feb 2016 It’s chair of wisdom time again. This time Indy is talking about the salary of a soldier, the flying aces of the other fronts next to the Western Front and important...
View ArticleQotD: The odd persistence of regional food
Philadelphians laugh at the pathetic imitations of “Philly steaks” offered elsewhere for the same reason Texans laugh at barbecue made north of the Mason-Dixon line. And both groups are right to laugh....
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Budd Rail Diesel Cars to return to Southern Ontario?
CBC News reports on a possible re-introduction of RDC service between London and Sarnia: Dozens of additional passenger train runs should be operating in southern Ontario later this year as Via Rail...
View ArticleThe Battle of Verdun – They Shall Not Pass I THE GREAT WAR – Week 83
Published on 25 Feb 2016 The Germans start the biggest battle in history with an artillery barrage of over 1000 guns on a 20 km front. The Battle of Verdun is the first major German offensive since...
View ArticleIn Scotland, singing a song can get you sent to jail
In Spiked, Kevin Rooney tells the tale of a young soccer fan who faces jail time for joining hundreds of other fans in singing a song: Imagine the scene: a young man is led away in handcuffs to begin a...
View ArticleQotD: Editing is the best thing that ever happened to writing
This will be scant, because it’s a column night and I have a big piece due Friday. The situation: 3,000 word piece due. The problem: I wrote 5,000 words. This is actually easier than only writing...
View ArticleBritish Child Soldiers of WW1 – Artillery Training I OUT OF THE TRENCHES
Published on 27 Feb 2016 In this edition of Out Of The Trenches Indy talks about the so called child soldiers who lied about their age to join the army, about the training of artillery soldiers and...
View ArticleQotD: Kerouac’s On the Road as an unintentionally feminist novel
There’s a story about a TV guide that summarized The Wizard of Oz as “Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first woman she meets, then teams up with three complete strangers to...
View Article“Left-wing People Care More Than Other People”
From the “The Unofficial Ladybird Guide To Left-Wing People“: In The Olden Days Left-wing people used to like working-class people. Lots of left-wing people used to be working class people. These...
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