On this day:
14
Tiberius is confirmed as Roman Emperor by the Roman Senate following the natural death of Augustus
324
Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine’s sole control over the Roman Empire.
1812
The 1812 Fire of Moscow dies down after destroying more than three-quarters of the city. Napoleon returns from the Petrovsky Palace to the Moscow Kremlin, spared from the fire.
1885
Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination.
1895
Daniel David Palmer gives the first chiropractic adjustment.
1944
World War II: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Junyō Maru, 5,600 killed.
1975
Patty Hearst is arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List.
2001
First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Tiberius is confirmed as Roman Emperor by the Roman Senate following the natural death of Augustus
324
Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine’s sole control over the Roman Empire.
1812
The 1812 Fire of Moscow dies down after destroying more than three-quarters of the city. Napoleon returns from the Petrovsky Palace to the Moscow Kremlin, spared from the fire.
1885
Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination.
1895
Daniel David Palmer gives the first chiropractic adjustment.
1944
World War II: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Junyō Maru, 5,600 killed.
1975
Patty Hearst is arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List.
2001
First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (18 Sep 1709-1784)
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Is there a difference between competition from across the border and competition from across the street? Is competition from Alaska more or less damaging than competition from Mexico?
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79% of Democrats believe it is reasonable to remove Trump from office by force.
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So-called "static pets" such as stones, mango pits, paper boxes, and even toothpaste have become very popular with Chinese youths looking for low-commitment companionship to compensate for their stressful daily lives and careers. However, one such static pet has been seeing massive popularity in the Asian country, “pet yeast”.
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The Lone Wolf
The Left is rooted in struggle. Conflict. Oppression does not need to be identified; it is assumed. And it must be overcome. A victory cannot be reached through discussion. It can be achieved only through winning. In essence, it views itself as being in the midst of a battle between good and evil, within an ongoing historical process. The battle is inevitable; their victory is inevitable. And, of course, there is no compromise with evil.
In such a struggle, what is allowed? What are the limits we impose upon ourselves in such a Manichean battle? The Marxists, through a poorly understood idea of Darwin and economics, believe the power held in our current, collapsing political entity can be finally defeated only by deracinating it. Those successful people are a subset in the culture, a predatory class or caste arising over centuries, and would spring up from the fertilizer of its predecessors unless they were all destroyed and their fields sown with salt. Killing the Tsar's children was not seen as a slaughter of the innocents; it was a necessary, unavoidable extermination of a genetic and social fault developed over the years.
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The Lone Wolf
The Left is rooted in struggle. Conflict. Oppression does not need to be identified; it is assumed. And it must be overcome. A victory cannot be reached through discussion. It can be achieved only through winning. In essence, it views itself as being in the midst of a battle between good and evil, within an ongoing historical process. The battle is inevitable; their victory is inevitable. And, of course, there is no compromise with evil.
In such a struggle, what is allowed? What are the limits we impose upon ourselves in such a Manichean battle? The Marxists, through a poorly understood idea of Darwin and economics, believe the power held in our current, collapsing political entity can be finally defeated only by deracinating it. Those successful people are a subset in the culture, a predatory class or caste arising over centuries, and would spring up from the fertilizer of its predecessors unless they were all destroyed and their fields sown with salt. Killing the Tsar's children was not seen as a slaughter of the innocents; it was a necessary, unavoidable extermination of a genetic and social fault developed over the years.
The Left will always bring these struggles. But something new is in the air. The new revolutionary doesn't have comrades or a creed; he has a personal beef.
Kirk's murder is much like Luigi Mangione's murder of Brian Thompson. Regardless of motive, Mangione's act was strange. He killed a man because he worked for a company that was in an industry Mangioni didn't like. An enemy once removed.
First, Kirk. Kirk was an unlikely assassination target in the traditional sense. He seemed more evangelical with strong political corollaries than political with religious overtones. He wasn't elected to anything, had never held an elected position, and, indeed, had diverted such suggestions toward his primary interest: teaching. A campus crusader.
He was certainly prominent, well known among the younger population, less so among the older. His encounters and speeches reveal an opinionated, well-spoken guy with a big mind and an accepting heart--not at all the hateful guy you would expect from his killer's statements and those of his other enemies. But hate is in the mind of the beholder; that's the reason we have laws.
Assassinations are usually attacks on political direction through public figures. They are rare in the U.S., where they are usually personal. Even Booth's murder occurred after the Civil War was decided and was a self-inflicted wound; its results were much more damaging to the South than the North.
With Kirk, as with Mangioni, we may be seeing the rise of the vigilante assassin.
Vigilantism has a pre-Hammurabi feel, the feel of The Feud. The vigilante acts within a justice tradition but outside a formal legal code. He usually acts in response to judicial inaction to a wrong that most people would agree with. It's like a Mafia code, or Sharia court: laws everyone agrees with are enforced by special interests outside the organized legal system. With a vigilante, the laws are more capricious, and the enforcing judge and executioner is often a very small group. Usually one.
Kirk's murder is much like Luigi Mangione's murder of Brian Thompson. Regardless of motive, Mangione's act was strange. He killed a man because he worked for a company that was in an industry Mangioni didn't like. An enemy once removed.
The Kirk murder is stranger still because Kirk's crimes are hard to glean. He seems like a nice, talented guy. He was opposed to transgender ideology, but how many are? Which of those guys should be killed? And, like Mangioni, the killer will have a limited impact. The movement Kirk created is sizable, robust, and, with his death, energized. And his widow, if her speech after his death is any indication, will be a powerful force in his absence. Personal hatred of a public figure is not what most people think of as a motive for assassination. And many people loved him; don't they get a voice?
Yes. They do get a voice. This murder has turned a page. The country's reverence for the individual has always caused problems, but one wonders about this new development. This was a capricious, stupid act by a random guy, said to be bright, but whose stupid act carries the day. And his supporters--there are supporters--leaped to the barricades to mute the impact. The killer was in love. He had a difficult childhood. The relationship with his roommate was "tender." Jimmy Kimmel attributed Kirk's assassination to MAGA influence. And 41% of Democrats think that Kirk was killed by a Republican.
Meanwhile, one of Mangioni's supporters has married "his AI."
There is a gulf developing in the country. Fortunately, the one malignant group looks like morons. They will certainly do some weird damage; the twisted individual mind is hard to manage. But maybe this will be self-limited.
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