Posts

Quick links on hiatus, and holiday

 I was going to start a QL post this weekend, but have noticed that of the links I've collected over the past two weeks, about 80% were from the same 3 sites (Spectator, Unherd, and The Critic), and the rest were mainly culled from Guido and Instapundit. At this point, I have to wonder what value I'm adding collecting a handful of stories from these sites if I'm not going to do more than add pithy comments and quote a few lines. So for now I'm going to pause this series and try and resume posting more of my own thoughts, the trouble I've had lately is that spending all day at work staring at a screen really tires my eyes, and most evenings I don't feel like adding to my daily screen time.  This past 2 weeks I've been fairly active, going to a concert in Canterbury and spending a day at Kent's castles, while this yesterday I took my niece out for the day. Tomorrow I'm off on holiday to Croatia for 10 days, so there will be no posting until my return.

Quote of the day: Churchill on family size

Image
As I mentioned yesterday I wento to Chartwell on Saturday. I've been there once before many years ago, it was cool to see Churchill's paintings, awards, and other memorabilia. One thing that stood out was this quote on families::  'One should aim to have 4 children, one for mother, one for father, one for accidents and one for growth' A sentiment I could get behind!

Quick links 45

Image
Yesterday I went to Chartwell (Lottery open week again) and tonight I am going to the Barbican to see  Things to Come  with a live soundtrack performance by the LSO, so here is this week's links roundup a little earlier. Not so much tiny as dissolved in s sea of dementia:  Joe Biden, Milton Friedman, and the Tyranny of Tiny Minds More evidence that being left-wing is bad for your mental health:  An interesting review of the 'well-being gap' between liberals and conservatives Should be but isn't in the current climate:  It Should Be Safe to be Unpopular Equality of outcome is nonsense and its pursuit a big cause of our current ruination:  Equity of the Hundred Thousand Dollar Eg g (False) Prophet honored another sign of our lack of seriousness:  Yes, Leftism Is a Religion: University Gives Greta Thunberg an Honorary Doctorate in Theology . Related, your new icon: More crazy race baiting:  Whites Who Drink Coffee Are Racists Another country that screwed its young people: 

On South Korea's demographics and modernity

While I don't agree with the crux of the headline, this article has some interesting stat:  Why feminists should fear a declining birth rate . This paragraph, in particular, stands out: 'The existential threat to South Korea is more urgent than for most countries. With a total fertility rate of 0.78, South Korea’s current population of 51 million will likely decline to just 15 million by 2100.⁠ Meanwhile the North Korean population of 26 million is expected to drop only slightly to 23 million. In other words, South Korea’s much poorer, much more authoritarian neighbour is currently half its population size — but, within the lifetimes of babies being born in Korea today, that balance will be upturned.' Japan, Taiwan, and the other more developed East Asian nations seem to have the same problem. They don't have the same issues that I feel are a big reason for the West's declining birthrate (the world wars and decline of traditional values and religion), so I suspect a

On the ongoing impact of lockdowns

Today's must-read article:  Ghost children: the pupils who never came back after lockdown 'Lockdowns proved a disaster for young people at every stage of their development. With all the attention on the elderly, the young were left to cope on their own. It was assumed they’d be resilient. Far from it.' Working in schools I've seen this firsthand, teenage girls especially seem to be very fragile (though how much is due to other factors such as the encouragement of victimhood and lack of resilience is hard to tell) What is even more depressing is polling out from Unherd today showing the majority still don't think it was a mistake, as further examined here:  Why doesn't Britain regret lockdown? Very depressing

Quick links 44

Image
Mothers day consumed most of the weekend, along with a trip to Sudbury to visit Gainsborough's house (free enter this weekend with a lottery ticket, which won me £2!) Uncategorized links :  A collapsing tent The roots of school rage What would Roger Scruton make of 15-minute cities The thing that swallowed Britain Sexual politics is damaging young men Losing My Religion? Yes indeed:  It's time to break up the BBC and sell it off Childcare:  Britain should follow French lead   on childcare reform  and  Why more free hours won't solve our childcare headache Asia and Asians:  Michelle Yeoh and Britain’s invisible East Asians  and  How Britain can help keep the peace in Taiwan Excellent result:  Dutch farmer protest party: from nowhere to shared largest party in the Senate Yes:  The age-old debate continues: are science and religion compatible? An interview with Lionel Shriver . Quote: ' furthermore, the ideology, which began in the universities, is still being promoted in

On the AUSUK-SSN project

 A good overview of the new joint UK-Aus sub plan here:  Australia to join Royal Navy SSN(R) submarine programme A few quick thoughts: 1) The UK should speed up the Dreadnaught SSBN project, 2) Then focus these with a continuous building programme to deliver one every 3 years, 3) and aim for a fleet of at least 8 in service. 4) Names? How about the Admiral class, starting with Hood, Nelson, Rodney, and Howe? 5) Finally, really crank out the PW3 reactors for use in the subs and in Roll-Royces' Small Modular Reactor  project to ensure energy security

Quick links 43

Image
I had a great time in Barcelona last week. Since coming back work has been mad so didn't gather much last week. This weekend I was out with friends on Friday night, and yesterday was at the Royal Alber Hall for the Mountbatten festival of music. Therefore this week is a smaller collection of items I found before my trip, and since I got back    Hancock’s lockdown files show there was no Covid ‘plandemic’ “The big lie of the diversity, equity, and inclusion industry is that we are a systemically racist country” The Hard “Nope” Twitter Thread: The Collapse of South Africa . CapeXit is looking more and more viable Science:  Who really discovered DNA’s structure? Photo credit: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor Have we lost our minds? Get ready for opposition Tweet of the week: Missing the point on marriage Does the right need techno Trumpism National Conservatism has a future in Britain Why progress isn't feminist The myth of China's military might Finally, memes! 

On population collapse

 A good article at American Greatness:  The Population Crash 'At a replacement rate of 1.5 per woman, for every 1 million people of childbearing age living in a nation today, there will only be 420,000 great-grandchildren. This means that nation’s population will drop to 42 percent of what it is today in less than a century. And the numbers get worse very fast. South Korea’s current fertility per woman, for example, is a dismal 0.81, and those are extinction-level numbers. At that rate of reproduction, for every 1 million Koreans of childbearing age today, there will only be 66,000 great-grandchildren. South Korea is on track to disappear in less than a century.' and 'There are three choices: Either go extinct within the next century, buy some time by replacing your own citizens with foreigners from poverty-stricken nations, or figure out how to convince women in prosperous societies to have more children.' We desperately need to change to a more pronatalist society.

Quick links 43

Image
I've been preoccupied with personal matters for most of this week, and next week will be off to Barcelona so there will be no Quick links next Sunday.  Glenn Reynolds has  Thoughts on our ruling class monoculture . Also at Instapundit:  Whose Stuff is it anyway ? Back when we had CD players and VCRs, we could use them until they broke down, but our relationship with the company effectively ended on the day of the sale. Now that devices require an internet connection and software services, you are shackled to their makers, whether or not you pay for a monthly subscription. This is why I still buy physical copies of media Asking the important questions:  Why Can't Grocery Store Checkout Be Normal Anymore?  Another cause of declining birthrates:  Most young men are single. Most young women are not.  ' Women don’t need to be in long-term relationships. They don’t need to be married. They’d rather go to brunch with friends than have a horrible date'. Related,  The Loss of F