The New American Aristocracy
Perhaps as a result of the Italian and German experiences, dictatorships
have been the great fear of democracies for the last six decades.
Aristocracy sounds like something out of the 18th century; a legally
privileged class of people sounds positively medieval to the modern ear.
And yet, increasingly, that is exactly what we are seeing develop in
21st century America.
The Scientists Who Cried Wolf
It’s freezing outside. Hundreds of historic low temperatures have been
set in recent weeks around the country. Every single computer model
that predicted the globe would be warmer over the last decade has been
shown to be wrong. And now this.
“Antarctic sea ice has grown to a record large extent for a second
straight year, baffling scientists seeking to understand why this ice
is expanding rather than shrinking in a warming world. On Saturday, the
ice extent reached 19.51 million square kilometers, according to data
posted on the National Snow and Ice Data Center Web site. That number
bested record high levels set earlier this month and in 2012 (of 19.48
million square kilometers). Records date back to October 1978.”
At this rate, instead of mourning the drowning polar bears, we’re
going to find ourselves fleeing for our lives from rampaging packs of
them.
Lies, Damned Lies, and the Left
If you happen to notice a no-guns sticker at a place of business, be
sure to ask if it is actually the policy of the business or not before
assuming it is there legitimately. Because it is entirely possible that
the business’s owner didn’t put it there.
Racism in a Post-Racial Society
One of the interesting things about living in Europe is the vast gulf
between the way Europeans actually behave and the way most Americans
believe they do. As a general rule, Americans tend to think of Europe as a little more than a continental socialist camp, which either inspires their admiration or their
pity depending upon whether they are liberal or conservative. Liberals,
in particular, seem to regard Europe as some sort of New York City on
steroids where all the things for which they labor so passionately, like
gun control, abortion, racial equality and gay marriage, are embraced
as a matter of course.
These assumptions tend to be vastly amusing to anyone who has actually spent time living among Europeans.