The Greatest Moment In The History Of British Conservatism

What could be more conservative than a bunch of millionaires urging everyone else to give their money away?

Some of the old aristocracy might have been tools, but at least we didn't have to put up with Dukes complaining that the kitchen maids were too tight-fisted.

Best Victimhood Wars Story Evah?

Heh.

Quote of the Day

I’m not such a sceptic that I think the severity of our current winter weather disproves the global warming hypothesis, but it doesn’t exactly add to the credibility of the warmist lobby. The standard response to this is to point out that colder winters are compatible with the theory (see George Monbiot’s article entitled “The snow outside it what global warming looks like”). But that suggests something else, namely, that the theory isn’t wrong, but meaningless. If I recall my Karl Popper correctly, one of the conditions that a meaningful scientific theory has to satisfy is that it should be falsifiable. If heavier-than-average snowfall doesn’t constitute disproof of the theory, then it’s hard to imagine what would – and that, in turn, suggests the theory is meaningless.

Indeed.

It's a point that's often missed. There's no need to get down in the weeds and start discussing the finer points of satellite data or statistical techniques. Simply from first principles, global warming fails the basic test of a scientific theory - it doesn't make any predictions.

Put it this way, if E = M x (C Squared) and C is a constant, then we can predict exactly how much energy will be produced by a given mass. If it was ever observed that a different amount of energy was produced, then the theory would be DOA. That's because it's real science. Meanwhile, global warming theory is more like claiming that E is kind of related to M, but who can tell, and give us your wallet anyway or the Earth will fall into the Sun.

It's That Time Again

Yes, indeed: here we are again at that time of year when a loveable guy in red and white comes into your house with his big sack and steals all your prezzies.

But enough about Scouser Claus, onto the real meaning of Christmas: yes, it's Sweary Elf Day.

Penguin Slashes Cop

Wait... no, my mistake, turns it was a 'man'. Must have used one of these long-range knives so no one got a good look at him, either that or..... it's another attack by the infamous Men of No Appearance gang.

(H/T to anonymous in the comments)

It's The 'Not Flying At All' Squad

Hmmmmm..... 'Asians' you say? Best start making door to door enquiries down Chinatown.

But check out the date of the attack versus the day details were released. Must have had a broken photocopier, right?

Quote of the Day

John Nolte sums up what's wrong with not just one film, but with modern Hollywood in general:

For those of you who haven’t seen “The English Patient,” just imagine what Satan would’ve done with “Casablanca.”

And Talking Of Our Useless Elite...

How useless is the MSM? Well, consider that they keep pushing the line that Ken Clarke is a loveable man of the people when you only have to listen to him for five minutes to realise he's a fascist dolt:

But you have to explain to the sensible public that you can’t give an absolute guarantee.

And there you have it: if you disagree with Fat Ken you're stoopid!

Hey, I don't think it's the right that uses simplistic arguments, and that's without considering the obvious: whether we're talking secure mental hospital or a prison, you really can guarantee a lot less reoffending than if you give them six months aromatherapy and set them loose with directions to the hardware store.

Our Elite Aren't

Now that the Cenotaph sleaze has been identified as Charlie 'Comfortably Scum' Gilmore, we can at least dispose of one myth about the university system. No, the problem is not just folks at Fulchester Uni doing degrees in surfing. In so far as Gilmore is an Oxbridge student, he's supposedly as good as it gets.

And yes, in so far as Oxbridge is apparently struggling with the difficult question of whether or not to even suspend him (from college, not from a tree), I think we can ditch the whole 'tiny minority' defence too. In fact, I'm about ready to start a sweepstake on who'll be the first member of the cult to claim that people only criticise Charlie because they're too stoopid to appreciate the subtle nuances of his position.

All of which is by way of saying that I'm starting to think the credit crunch isn't Britain's biggest problem.

Turns out Whiskey has been thinking along the same lines, albeit in a US context:

The Ivy League and "meritocratic" elites are resented because they've failed...

Outside of Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton, both of whom left festering problems of Islamic terror, to crop up with later Presidents, nearly every President since Eisenhower has been nothing but an abject failure. Amiable dunces, lecturing and preening moralizers, devious compilers of enemies lists, or all three in the case of Obama. Jeff Zucker, Harvard University, ran NBC into the ground. The Sulzberger family has made the NYT a national joke, destroying shareholder value not seen since the AOL-Time-Warner deal.

Ordinary people have given about fifty years to the elites, and have nothing to show for it but a ruined economy, cheap Chinese electronic junk, declining real wages since the 1970's, mass immigration turning them into sudden (and discriminated against) minorities in their own country, and the prospect of even more of the same. Meanwhile, the elites have put up a "No Ordinary Whites Allowed" sign in the means to entry into the elites: the Ivies and near Ivies.

A good comment by Novaseeker too:

This blind spot may be what causes the left to dig its grave, politically. They simply do not *understand* the real source of rightist populism (instead labeling it as being based on fear, which it isn't ... it's based on resentment at some Ivy-League jackass telling them what to do, as if he is better than they are -- because he *isn't*, he just has a degree

Actually, it cuts both ways. It isn't only that people don't respect a guy just because he has an Ivy League/Oxbridge degree, it's that these guys don't bring anything else to the table, and don't think they should even have to: they're super smart, what more do you need? Pay no attention to the wrecked nation behind the curtain.

That's the bottom line: from the Romans claiming no man is fit to command who cannot command himself, to the Victorian obsession with inculcating 'Officer-Like Qualities' into their schoolboys, to be elite was a matter of duty as much as privilege. Now? Not so much.

Consider Oxbridge's previous favourite baby seal. The most disturbing thing is these guys aren't asking for special treatment, so much as assuming it is the natural way of the world. Even the worst scumbag of a Victorian squire wouldn't go into print to defend his right to shoot at peasants without consequences.

The idea that privilege and rank is supposed to, at the least, confer a duty not to act out like a spoilt brat rather than a right to do so without consequences has apparently gone the way of the powdered wig.

Actually, I take it all back: Charlie is a hero after all. He's the giant turkey in the mine, telling us just how worthless is our alleged elite.

Riots, Then & Now

Two thoughts about Student Grant's little tantrums:

i/ It might be my memory, but back when it was footy fans wrecking town centres, I don't ever recall any of our piously egalitarian MSM lefties carefully explaining how the vast majority of footy fans were beautiful little flowers who just wanted to see a game. Meanwhile, right now the screens are full of people explaining that Julian Fortesque D'Tool was at the riot but not with the riot.

ii/ If the riots are a distraction from the Vast Majority of Peace-Loving Muslims Protestors, what is it that the protestors think we're being distracted from? What is their actual point?

Ah yes: they think everyone else should give them money. To the extent that the riots hide the sheer beggary of their position, it is surely to their advantage.

Hey, the union thugs may have used the same tactics to try and bring down the government in the Eighties, but at least those guys had actual jobs.

Miss Of No Appearance

Sounds like another Eskimo to me.

Ken Clarke Was Not Available For Comment

Rehab is science, dammit!

Man of No Affiliation

Guy who tortured cute puppy - really - turns out to have a name beginning with M that isn't Mike, Mark or Mikhail.

In related news, even the Mail can't bring itself to report what's really going on. All of which sums up why dogs are better than MSM journalists - at least dogs only lick their own genitals.

Zero Tolerance for.... Whatever!

It's not just libertarians who've been drawing heavily on the world's humbug reserves post-Wikileaks. Consider the position of the mainstream left: they're outraged that their new hero is being investigated for sexual assault on nothing more than the testimony of a couple of alleged victims?

And?

Hey, this is one more than PC Plod normally needs to start an investigation. Plenty of men have been bought to trial on less evidence and with far less tin-foil related reasons to suspect the credibility of the witnesses. Indeed, the left has spent years chipping away at the rights of the defence to raise issues like this in rape cases.

If the accussed in this case was an accountant from Leeds, the left would be busy right about now explaining how women don't lie about rape.

Knee-Jerk Scepticism Is Gullibility Standing On Its Head

Item number 1017 in why I don't take libertarians seriously: the way they claim the state is rubbish at everything, except when their goofy conspiracy theories requires the state to be a finely-oiled machine. Consider Exhibit A.

Hey, it's possible the little rat is being set up, but in so far as we're talking about a twisted loser terrorist groupie with delusions of granduar who's suddenly been propelled to global celebrity, I'm thinking a vast worldwide conspiracy might not be the only explanation for him getting named as a sexual predator (of course, the whole belching zillions of secrets thing also argues against the idea that the CIA are secretly controlling the world).

Still, in so far as libertarian's new pin-up is a guy who's aligned himself with some of the most virulently anti-freedom elements on the planet, at least we need hear no more about the compromised, and compromising, nature of democracy.