You can find a complete listing of all the articles on this site here. They are listed in reverse chronological order, and are all clickable links. Twenty-five articles are displayed per page, with the publication date included. To find older articles, click on the page numbers at the bottom.
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The Continued Progress Of The Plutocratic Insurgency (Podcast)
This podcast accompanies my most recent article. In it, we explore two additional dimensions of the “plutocratic insurgency”: (1) the techno-palaces of the global elite, and (2) the creeping confiscation of public lands by private actors. The end result of these two trends is to accelerate the already destabilizing wealth imbalances in societies across the…
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“Dark Globalization”: The New Dimensions And Continued Progress Of The Plutocratic Insurgency
We have previous discussed in these pages a new and largely ignored form of insurgency warfare: the globalized elite’s coordinated, targeted efforts to dispossess the general public. Dr. Robert Bunker (on the staff of the US Army War College) and Pamela Bunker coined the term “plutocratic insurgency” to describe this novel form of warfare. In…
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They Stood Fast: The Loss Of H.M.S. “Birkenhead”
A reader of Rudyard Kipling’s collected verse may find his 1893 poem “Soldier an’ Sailor Too.” It contains the following lines:
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Getting A Point Across With Tact And Authority
One feature of great men is that they generally know how to handle themselves in a variety of situations. They tend to be flexible and agile; they will know when to scold, when to chastise, when to use the velvet glove, and when to use the hammer. Only the experience of life can impart this…
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Knowledge Cannot Be Confined Within Official Limits
Information is like a living organism; it expands to fill the container in which it is kept. Put some life form (it does not matter which) in some environment, and it will instinctively probe the outer limits of its habitat. Knowledge is like this, too. It can be suppressed for some time, but in the…
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The Legal Merits Of The Michelle Carter “Texting Suicide” Appeal (Podcast)
In this podcast (a companion piece to my article posted here yesterday), we discuss the legal merits of Michelle Carter’s appeal of her involuntary manslaughter conviction in the notorious “texting suicide” trial. What were the relevant issues in the case? Was the conviction proper? What is the likelihood of the conviction surviving appellate review?
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Steven L. Myers’s “The New Tsar: The Rise And Reign Of Vladimir Putin” (Book Review)
For many years in the West there has been a lack of understanding of Vladimir Putin and his policies. His personality, motivations, and objectives have been clouded in obscurity by the Western press, which almost always reverts to its simplistic “black and white” view of the world. Not all of the fault for this lies…
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How To Deal With The “Dirtbag Shuffle” (Podcast)
Our society seems to be producing more dirtbags than ever before. They’re everywhere, and they love to seek out people to take advantage of. We discuss how to spot a dirtbag, and how to deal with the common games (the “dirtbag shuffle”) that dirtbags love to play. The only person who cares about you is…
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Some Wise Sayings Of The Philosopher Al-Turtushi
Abu Bakr Al Turtushi (ابو بكر محمد بن الوليد الطرطوشي) was a political philosopher and doctor of the Malikite sect. He was but one of that avalanche of philosophers, poets, writers, scientists, and theologians produced by the energy and brilliance of Andalusian Spain in the medieval period. Many–probably most–of these Andalusian writers are completely unknown…
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Observations On Some Myths About War
The Army Times recently published a post discussing some comments by Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley on current popular myths about war. I liked his comments very much, and I take them as my starting point in this article. More than anything else, we should see his remarks as a warning. The United States…
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We Should Seize The Present Hour For Action
At the beginning of this month I bought the special director’s cut of the Michael Mann film Collateral. I don’t usually buy movies, having learned from past experience that it makes more sense to rent them. But every rule should have exceptions; and it is a good thing to collect those movies that transport you…
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A Few Traditional Irish Recipes
I recently picked up an interesting cookbook at a used book sale: George L. Thomson’s Traditional Irish Recipes. Thomson apparently traveled all over the country to select the most traditional representations of the nation’s cuisine. Hearty and relatively straightforward in preparation, many of these recipes make great additions to your kitchen arsenal. I’ve decided to…
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Never Sleep On Your Rights (Podcast)
When you are faced with a serious problem or issue, you need to spring into action to deal with it. Anyone who “sleeps on his rights,” and thinks the problem will go away by ignoring it, is in for a rude awakening. The “dirtbag shuffle” never works in the real world. Legal rights, once constructively…
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Theodore Roosevelt Brings Big Business To Heel
A central tenet of Theodore Roosevelt’s leadership was the idea that no one should be above the law. He was deeply troubled by excessive concentrations of wealth in the hands of a few; such a situation was, he knew, inimical to the interests of a democratic republic. He did not begrudge a man his wealth…
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On The Remaking Of Character
One of the apparent corollaries of the maxim that “character determines fate” is that character is static and unchangeable. In the majority of cases this is undoubtedly true; but this truth should not be used as a license for us to lie supinely on our backs and let the swerve of the atoms in the…
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The Victory Of General Typhus: Napoleon’s Catastrophic Invasion Of Russia
By 1810 Napoleon was the master of continental Europe. He had been unable to force the British to accept an accommodation, but nevertheless remained confident that his “Continental System” would bring the recalcitrant islanders to heel. The system, in effect a massive blockade, forbade European merchants from having any economic intercourse with Britain. Prussia and…
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Revealing Anecdotes On The Character Of Abraham Lincoln
We have earlier stated that anecdotes often reveal more about a man’s thinking and character than might a long recounting of his deeds. About Abraham Lincoln many stories have been told, some no doubt apocryphal, others not. I will present here a few true anecdotes that most readers are not likely to be familiar with;…
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The Wisdom Of Fakhr Al-Din Al-Razi
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149–1210) was a Persian theologian and philosopher whose fecundity was only surpassed by his depth of understanding of various disciplines. He is credited with over one hundred works, although it is likely that this number was considerably higher. Learned in astronomy, philosophy, theology, chemistry, and a variety of other subjects, he was…
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Focus On Causes, Not On Pretexts
The great Irish statesman and political theorist Edmund Burke wrote a seminal essay of political theory in 1790 entitled Reflections on the Revolution in France. His purpose was to attack the intellectual underpinnings of the revolution and show, by reasoned argument, that the French revolutionaries were engaged in the height of folly by consciously turning…
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The Loss Of Memory And Attention (Podcast)
As individuals and as a society, we are steadily losing our long-term memories. Endless stimulation and “choices” have nearly turned us into the protagonist in the film Memento (2000), whose memory-loss condition puts him at the mercy of others’ manipulations. Rote memorization–unfairly maligned by modern educators–has its merits, and deserves a reconsideration.
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Scott Joplin: A Musical Visionary
Those who have seen the classic movie The Sting (1974) may be aware that the film’s ragtime score set off a revival of interest in the music of Scott Joplin. Despite the incongruity with the setting of the movie (The Sting is set in the Depression of the 1930s, while ragtime is music of the…
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Theodore Roosevelt Reforms The Coinage
Theodore Roosevelt was not just a president, he was a dynamo. He initiated anti-trust legislation to break up the plutocratic monopolies that threatened the nation’s economic life; he set aside vast tracts of western lands as national parks to protect the nation’s natural heritage against plunder by rapacious business interests; he advocated a muscular foreign…
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Some Humorous Epitaphs
Many forget that we should learn to be wise enough to laugh at the world and ourselves. Without laughter–the universal tonic for all melancholic maladies–it becomes ever easier to take ourselves too seriously, and to retreat into comfortable recesses of our own minds that promise nothing but stagnation and sterility. This may be the unconscious…
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The Dream Of Maxen: A Celtic Myth Of “The Mabinogion”
The Mabinogion is a name given to a collection of medieval Welsh tales drawn from the rich mythology of Celtic Britain. The earliest manuscripts date from around 1325, but it is certain that the tales on which they were based have roots that go back centuries before this time to an age in which Welsh…
Original copy of Cicero’s De Officiis (On Duties) published in Holland in 1642. From the collection of Fortress of the Mind.
Quintus Curtius 
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