Private property isn’t about selfishness so much as it’s about creative control. Someone might want to have their own business, not because they’re greedy, but because they have a vision of how they want things to go that won’t be realized if everyone else gets a say in it.
– Chris Freiman, Professor, John Chambers College of Business and Economics at WVU
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RIP, British Army 1415 – 2024
John Cleese and the Monty Python troop were seers in the 1970s.
I am fond of saying the British win all their military victories in spite of their best efforts.
The IED virus is destroying the institution. The British Army is reducing security checks in pursuit of increasing non-UK recruits and focusing on groin tackle and sexual orientation. The Army is also removing all Christian elements in the Day of Remembrance.
Expeditionary warfare will become impossible in less than five years and the British Army would be lucky to field ten thousand combat effectives right now (present end strength in the British Army is approx 78k).
Number of personnel in the armed forces of the United Kingdom from 1900 to 2023 [in thousands].
Men who are non-binary may wear make-up on parade and grow their hair to lengths matching women.
You ain’t seen nothing yet because the Conservative Party [left of left] has been in power there for thirteen years and when Labor Party [left of left of left] wins, man the fainting couches.
I really enjoy the Triggernometry crew and the podcast. They are doing yeoman’s work in exposing the nonsense of IED.
This episode with Steven Edginton is particularly both tragic and funny.
Republicans: Israel Not Just First, But Before the First Amendment
No matter how bad either side gets the other side can only try to outdo them. The Post:
On Wednesday, they passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which its advocates said would empower the federal government to crack down on anti-Israel protests on campuses by codifying a definition of antisemitism that encompasses not just threats against Jews, but also certain criticisms of Israel itself.
If it does become law, the federal definition of antisemitism, adopted from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, would include such speech as “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor”; “applying double standards” to Israel that are “not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation”; and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
The idea is that student-held signs, for example, like those displayed at Columbia University in New York this week, calling for “revolution” or “intifada” — which means “uprising” — would amount to antisemitism under the law. The Education Department, in turn, could then revoke federal research grants and other funding to a university that fails to take punitive action toward students who express such views, the bill’s proponents say.
Tom Woods on the Social Justice Warrior Narrative
[I]f this were truly a “white supremacist” society, being called a white supremacist would be a badge of honor, not a professional death sentence.
– Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
Military Aviation Joins the Emerging Competency Crisis in the West
Trend-lines on military aviation accidents are edging upwards to rival in the commercial aviation industry in mishaps. Not only is this a barometer for readiness and training but an indicator for the emerging competency crisis plaguing the West. Peacetime military aviation is dangerous.
As of 9 April 2024, the Marine Corps sustained a sharp increase in Class A mishaps for the first and second quarters of 2024 with a rate of 4.31 per 100,000 flight hours, compared to a 10-year average of 2.24.
There is a pretty good article that gives a fair overview of this brewing crisis here.
Let’s examine the Army: here’s what is alarming, we are a little over half way in this fiscal year (FY) and the accident rate for FY24 is edging toward three times the previous year and that trend will go up more as the year progresses. Class A involves a fatality and Class B and C includes injury but not fatality. This is the Army and doesn’t includes troubling upticks in aviation accidents in the other services.
Flightfax, the online newsletter of the Army Aviation Accident Prevention program, covers the ongoing accidents and mishaps of Army rotary wing aircraft (rare instances of fixed wing but the majority of Army aviation is rotary wing thanks to the Key West Agreement in 1948).
It appears, this crisis will simply deepen.
Classification of mishaps:
Here’s a snapshot of of comparisons between 2023 and 2024 for incidents per 100k flight hours:
Here’s a snapshot of one month from the April 2024 edition:
Horror Show: More Proof Troops Massacred Afghans After ISIS Attack at Kabul Airport
As we reported at the time, marines slaughtered innocent people after the bombing.
The perfect clusterfu*k of an ending to a perfect clusterfu*k of a war.
Watch US Marine’s GoPro footage that challenges Pentagon’s account of attack at Kabul airport
My Latest Interviews
Michael Liebowitz, the host of The Rational Egoist, interviewed me about my life in the libertarian movement. Enjoy!
Also have a look at my interview covering my libertarian experience and the Israel-Palestine conflict on the Bob Murphy Show.
Professors, W. Post Call Out NYT for Oct 7 Mass-Rape Hoax
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