Disjecta

Back in the mid-90s, I was looking forward to our firm's annual Summer bash, to be held at Kensington Roof Gardens: Naturally, something blew up at work. As the clock ticked half past midnight, knee-deep in an urgent interlocutory, I gave up and, in a fit of first world self pity, walked home late toContinue reading "Billable eggs"

The Aspen Institute - cue jibes about liberal elites discussing Plato and Horace over gourmet food etc; but this is a superb discussion between Mona Charen and Inez Feltscher Stepman - it's an hour - check it out if you can: https://youtu.be/yG1jOZi-fWA

Post college, before I saw sense and headed over to London, I was wasting my hill-farming-background time among golfist lawyer snobs in Belfast. In job interviews with law firms in Belfast, the killer question was always delivered with a smile like Castlereagh: "And do you have any relatives in the profession?" "And fuck you too",Continue reading "The bias that nice people will never admit to"

On my first visit to the US in the last century, I was surprised at how unashamedly polarised the TV news was. If you were right-wing, you could nip down to your basement, pour yourself some Bourbon, and listen to a right-wing TV news channel, and sneer at the libs. Equally, if you were left-wingContinue reading "."

I’m far from ever being a hero, but I detest bullies and I come from a generation of blokes that was raised to be chivalrous: Click image to play video (it's silent - Buster Keaton). And it's a window on a lost male culture. I despise bullies of all flavours, but will often, in thatContinue reading "Howdy Ma’am!"

An old 911, plotting To be human is to be anthropomorphic. We naturally attribute human characteristics to things. Cars, for instance, used to justify a variety of human descriptors.  For me:- Any Citroen was quirky and a founding member of the EEC.- A 2CV was against nuclear weapons and had long hair.- An old air-cooled 911 was badass, like havingContinue reading "4-wheeled smartphones"

One of my favourite songs of all time is this one from 1927, by the very wonderful Blind Willie Johnson (he has a voice which on occasion sounds like he's spitting up barbed wire, but boy can he sing): https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y_o4omd8T5c Another of Willie's songs, "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" was one ofContinue reading "Brexiters now blame the French for Brexit"

Well, that's an easy one. The Daily Telegraph runs Boris. In the 1990s, I remember The Daily Telegraph as a serious right wing paper which I often disagreed with. However, in those days, there invariably was a kernel of well-reasoned right-wing content with which one could disagree. Invariably, you'd not be able to dismiss orContinue reading "Who runs Boris?"