Author: VD

A Portrait of Decline

The end of the landmark 7 UP documentary series chronicling a British generation from beginning to end.

They never sought to be stars. Indeed, many would regret ever agreeing to have their entire lives chronicled by what has often been described as the ‘greatest documentary’ ever made, one which has more than stood the test of time.

Back in 1964, television cameras revealed the lives and inner thoughts of a cross section of 14 British seven-year-olds for a series called 7 Up.

The cameras would come back every seven years, creating a genuine piece of broadcasting and social history, one which will come to an end this month.

We will finally bid farewell as those cheeky children in grainy black and white now sign off in colour as pensioners in the final series 70 Up.

Along the way, they have also charted the trajectory of post-war Britain. For it is not the original cast who have changed so much as the world around them.

The result is a powerful elegy to a generation who, at times, seem entirely removed from the entitled, ill-tempered, serially complaining 21st century society we have become…

The area was all-white when the girls first appeared aged seven. By the time Bruce is teaching there in 1984, many if not most of his pupils are Asian. Today, the borough is just 24 per cent white.

At least the people who replace the British will have some record of the culture they replaced, much like the 19th century British digging up the ruins of Roman villas.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Abuse of “Reasonable Doubt”

The defense lawyer in the Lindsay Clancy trial has successfully convinced most of the jury that “reasonable doubt” applies to whether she was temporarily insane or not, and not whether she committed the murders or not:

Tensions reached a boiling point in the Lindsay Clancy trial on Friday as jurors continued to deliberate, with one holdout refusing to agree with 11 others.

Clancy’s lawyer Kevin Reddington yesterday begged the judge to switch out the holdout juror who, the jury foreperson claims, is refusing to follow the law when it comes to reasonable doubt. The jury, who is made up of nine women and three men, have been deliberating for 36 hours.

It now appears that the juror is certain Clancy is guilty, and is voting that way. Reddington claimed on Thursday that they were doing so despite having ‘reasonable doubt’.

‘That juror told you that he would be able to apply the law to the facts as you asked him, and based on this note from this juror, it clearly and unequivocally indicates that they are basically 11 to one, and this person will not apply reasonable doubt to the evidence to return a not guilty verdict,’ Reddington said in court.

Earlier, the defense lawyer also accused the judge of ‘glossing over the issue’ and being ‘soft’ on the reasonable doubt instruction.

The actual standard laid down by the Supreme Court is as follows:

The Court held in In re Winship that the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protect the accused against conviction “except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which he is charged.”

And what are those facts necessary to constitute the crime of first-degree murder in Massachusetts?

To secure a murder conviction, prosecutors must demonstrate three primary elements:

  • Unlawful Killing: The victim’s death must directly result from the defendant’s actions, without legal justification such as self-defense.
  • Malice Aforethought: This concept encompasses intent to kill, intent to cause significant harm, or an act demonstrating extreme disregard for human life.
  • Causation: A clear causal link must exist between the defendant’s conduct and the death of the victim.

First-degree also requires “deliberate planning, exceptional cruelty, or a killing committed during another serious felony”.

Since there is no objective way to establish the facts of someone’s sanity or insanity at any given time, let alone a specific moment in the past, “reasonable doubt” cannot apply to someone’s mental state or no one could ever be convicted of murder. Indeed, the more heinous and savage the crime, the more easily “reasonable doubt” of their sanity must be applied.

Now, I understand the difference between the actual black-letter law and so-called “case law” and judicial precedent, but that doesn’t change the fact that “reasonable doubt” can never be applied to an individual’s mental state, because Die Gedanken sind frei.

UPDATE: The judge is also on very shaky ground. His instructions are observably false. The jury can nullify any law. It, and not the judge, are the legal authority.

He then reminded the jury that they must follow the law as he gave it to them. ‘I wanted to remind you, as I instructed you earlier, it is your duty as jurors to accept the law as I gave it to you,’ Sullivan said. ‘You must follow the law as I give it to you, whether you agree with it or not. ‘With that, you may now resume your deliberations.’

UPDATE: Judge Sullivan entered the courtroom and said the jury had sent a note stating they could not reach a verdict. The judge announced he intends to declare a mistrial.

DISCUSS ON SG

History and War

We’re a few days late in announcing the new Castalia History book for the Sep-Dec period, mostly because I was testing to see if our new translation system was up to translating a serious, highly technical beast like VOM KRIEGE by Carl von Clausewitz. As it turned out, it was, and we’re going to have the option of not only providing a beautiful two-volume set of ON WAR in English, but we will be able to provide it with our own original translation that has been independently determined to be more accurate to the original text than the mainstream modern one. We’re also going to be able to include some special material that may never have been seen before in English.

As part of this process, I’ve posted a sample chapter from it and two of the most celebrated translations for the purposes of comparison. If you’d like to see how far our system has advanced, have a look at all three of them and see if you can tell which is which. We’ve also set up a poll for subscribers, both free and paid, to indicate which is their preferred translation.

And speaking of Castalia History, I just got this picture from the bookbinders at the Bindery this morning. That is part of the production run of HISTORY OF FLORENCE by one Niccolo Machiavelli, a rather weightier tome than I’d been expecting that looks very impressive in black pigskin. We also managed to improve the hubs a little by modifying our approach with an experiment that proved successful.

So, as you see, this is how the diverse Castalia products are working in harmony, as the Alexandria project is producing higher-quality texts for Library, History, and even Cathedra.

DISCUSS ON SG

You Can’t Hate Boomers Enough

Seriously, it’s not possible. Outside of Carthage and Technochtitlan, it is hard to imagine that there has ever been a more detestable, more justifiably hateable collection of people on the planet:

Now I understand the grandma hate..

Hate is a strong Word.

l’ve heard my entire husband’s side of the family gripe about grandma for about a decade now. It always seemed like little things that just made me sad for her because ‘aww she’s just old.’

Well. Grandma came over with the fam for a quick visit. Just a pass through. Maybe 40 minutes.

In that time, grandma makes her way up to my tiny garden up the hill and starts plucking away at my peppers. Proudly shows me the load and tells me I wasn’t paying attention to my garden because I had all these peppers ready.

They were all green.

I told her they were red peppers and hadrït had the chance to turn red yet. Her response: “Well they worït turn red now.”

And just walked off.

If there had been SOME REMORSE OR APOLOGY, I could get past it but it was her “sucks for you” attitude…. Thank god my husband understands because the way I ranted and raved that afternoon.

It’s always somewhat amusing how the only people who defend the Boomers are those with absolutely zero direct experience of them. This is why you do not EVER call even the most grizzled member of GenX a Boomer, even in jest. We were hating them before the Millennials were even born.

It took this woman just 40 minutes to learn to hate Grandma. Now imagine what it must have been like for those unfortunate younger GenXers who were raised by people like that as children…

DISCUSS ON SG

Stupid Question Day

You know the drill. Post your Stupid Questions, or better yet, your insightful and intelligent questions, on SG.

Not a lot of posting today. I haven’t even read the news, because I’ve been finishing what can only be described as a massive and major translation from the German.

It’s Litricha

Castalia is now #1 Rising in Literature

I’m reliably informed that if you subscribe to the Castalia Library site, it’s +1 to your Social Standing. And if you become a subscriber to Library, History, or Cathedra, that’s another +1.

Libraria Castalia, of course, is do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to a natural 18.

And yes, I mixed a few analogies there. I’m a professional writer. Don’t try this at home.

DISCUSS ON SG

Alien Enemies

The law is nothing more than a rhetorical game about definitions:

BREAKING: Supreme Court just handed Trump the immigration equivalent of a nuclear button.

In a 5–4 ruling, they confirmed he can use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to treat Tren de Aragua as what it is: an invading foreign force.

That means:

  • No more endless appeals
  • No more activist judges blocking deportations
  • Venezuelan gang members can be rounded up and shipped straight to El Salvador’s mega-prison

This is a historic win for borders, sovereignty and law & order in the United States. The only people upset today are the open-borders globalists who never thought this day would come.

How many people does it take to make up “an invading foreign force”? It seems to me there are many invading foreign forces now in the United States, whose repatriation is obviously in the American national interest.

DISCUSS ON SG

How Does the Fed LOSE Money?

The answer is pretty simple. The cost of propping up the system is greater than the profit of printing money out of thin air. After all, even the ability to create money from nothing still has to go through a process, and that process is finite. So, even if you create $200 billion and use it to buy a distressed asset that turns out to have negative value of $50 billion, you just lost $50 billion with your free money.

What this chart suggests is that the Fed is having a hard time keeping everything propped up, a much harder time that it had during the 2008 financial crisis. The AI boom helped mitigate the crisis, but that’s rapidly coming to an end.

DISCUSS ON SG

The End of the Global Technocracy

The rest of the world is beginning to understand that it simply cannot use Clown World’s technology, no matter how alluring it might be.

France just banned Windows from 2.5 million government computers. The reason is terrifying. The US sanctioned the International Criminal Court. Microsoft locked the chief prosecutor out of his email overnight. One switch and an entire institution went dark. Europe realized any government running American software is one executive order away from losing access to its own data.

1/ What Happened

France ordered every ministry to ditch Windows, Teams, Zoom, and all American tech. 2.5 million computers moving to Linux. Denmark dumped Microsoft Office. Germany moved 30,000 PCs to Linux. All 27 EU members signed a digital sovereignty charter.

2/ Move Sensitive Email

Every email on Gmail or Outlook is subject to US law. Set up a free ProtonMail account. Based in Switzerland. Encrypted end to end. No US jurisdiction. Move medical, legal, and financial email there. Keep Gmail for newsletters.

3/ Move Sensitive Files

Google Drive and OneDrive are US companies. The CLOUD Act applies to everything stored on them. Move anything sensitive to a local drive, encrypted USB, or European cloud like Tresorit or Filen. Keep Google Drive for files you wouldn’t care if someone

4/ Encrypt Your Messages

iMessage and WhatsApp are US companies. Signal is end-to-end encrypted, open source, and stores nothing. Install Signal. Move sensitive conversations there. It only works when both sides use it.

5/ Replace Microsoft Office

Everything you type in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint passes through Microsoft’s servers. Download LibreOffice. Free. Open source. Works offline. Your documents stay on your machine. No cloud. No American servers.

6/ Lock Your Browser

Chrome is Google. Every search, every site, every tab reported back. Switch to Brave or Firefox. Both block trackers by default. Neither sends your browsing history to an American company.

The more you stay off the mainstream technology, the lower your level of risk. It’s one of the primary reasons we’re doing our own AI before it becomes completely corrupted.

DISCUSS ON SG